Love Earnestly

I had done the unthinkable. I was touching the untouchable. And she smiled.
In that moment there were no cultural differences. It did not matter who she was, or where she had come from, it only mattered that she was loved.

We had just ended our church service in a small brick room in India. I looked around and my team members were talking to and praying with the congregants. As my eyes swept across the room, they almost passed a tiny little old lady in a red Sari. I was compelled to go to her.
I sat down next to her on the hard floor without a translator. 
This small woman immediately started speaking in Tamil. As I listened, she touched her hands and her arms and her legs and her face.
She had tumors all over her body. I don't know if that qualified her as a leper, or if it just made the people not come near, but she was lonely and unloved.
As she spoke, she took my hand and placed it to her face. I whispered one of the few Indian words I knew, "Alagou." -- "You are beautiful." I continued to brush my fingers along her bumpy legs and arms. She pulled her Sari above her knees and showed me more. 
When I finally got a translator to come to me, I shared with her the story of the woman who touched Jesus' garment and was healed. I told her that Jesus saw her as valuable and important. She pulled me close for a hug and didn't let go. 



Recently, I haven't been able to get the memory out of my head. A prayer I don't understand has been swelling in my heart.
The world right now is in chaos. And by some beautiful act of God, the world is coming to our doorsteps. And maybe I'm just another voice to fall silent on the conversation of refugees and borders.
But I want the refugees to come. If I can't go to them, because of closed doors and life circumstance, maybe they will come to us. Maybe God has finally had enough of our excuses to not go to these unreached people groups and He brought them to us.
How beautiful is that? How wonderful is He?

When I was given the opportunity to love this women, it did not cross my mind that maybe she was alone for a reason, maybe she was a leper, maybe her disease was contagious. In the same way, we ought not to be afraid of the people fleeing terror. We need only love.
My hope and my prayer is that when I meet a refugee, I won't be fearful, instead I will give them all my love as Jesus did. I pray that as a Christian, I will faithfully live up to the call of Christ, to love the orphans, care for the widows, touch the untouchables.
Sure, they are different.
Sure, they see the world differently then me.
Sure, I do not understand the pain they have endured.
But I have Jesus.

And if he is going to bring these people to us, then let Him be Sovereign.
Who am I to question God and beg him not to bring His image to us? Who am I to tell God, this will put me in danger? Who am I when Jesus says, "pray for those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse."
I wonder, are we blessing?
or are we cursing?
We have been blessed, has it been enough for us to learn how to give it in return?

This is not a matter of politics, it is a matter of the heart. If you afraid, tell the Lord. If you are withholding due to selfishness, confess. Then thank the Lord for this beautiful opportunity to give the Gospel to the world in your own backyard.

1 Peter 4:7-13
"The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self controlled and sober minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies - in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belong glory and dominion forever. Amen.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed."

Be Holy, for I am Holy

"Be holy, for, I am holy."

There was no trespassing on holy ground with a call to remove my sandals. There was no loud thunder and bright lightning and clouds covering a mountaintop. There was no burning coal touched to my lips to purify me.

There was only God.

And he asked of me the simplest of tasks. Just one week for him. Who knew it could be so hard to give up social media and things that do not glorify Him?

The words within the passage that has brought such comfort, the words within the passage that says, "You have been called to be born again to a living hope... to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading...in this you rejoice, though you have been grieved by various trials...so that the tested genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold...though you do not see him you love him...you were ransomed...so that your faith and hope are in God. (1 Peter 1-- I encourage you to read the whole thing, this is only captions of the gem.)

It is within this passage that quotes the Book we all dread: Leviticus.

In this book of laws and stipulations and strange rules about discharges and what to do if your cow kills a person, there is a resounding theme, "I am holy." Why does it matter if I eat pig or grasshoppers? "Because I am holy." Why does it matter if I take 66 days instead of 54 days to cleanse myself after giving birth to a girl? "Because I am holy."

Obviously these laws are not in effect any longer, but the message is. God is still holy. The reason He called the Hebrews to such strange rules that we will never understand in this culture, was to call them to be different from their surroundings. He was calling them to be his nation, holy and royal. If they did not look different, how would they be a blessing to those around them??

"Be holy, for I am holy."
The words leaped off the page. All the things God showed me this week as I sacrificed something that has clearly become an idol began to make sense.
 Don't gossip. Why? Because it hurts his heart. Because He is holy.
Be vulnerable. Why? Because he has called me to be different, free. Because he is holy.
Love. Why? Because he is holy.

Maybe it has taken too long to understand, but Romans 12:1-2 says "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed but the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

I don't have to offer sacrifices of burnt offerings anymore, because Jesus covered my sin and because my life is my living sacrifice. Do not be conformed to this world, God says.

Why?
"Because I am holy."

let me see redemption win.

Let me see redemption win. 

My heart is an ocean and the waves ebb and flow, the salty water stings against wounds that I still haven't let the King heal. My heart still holds remnants of brokenness and hurts that resurface in the strangest of ways.

 One part of my ocean is calm and there is happiness on the shore. The sun is shining and there is joy and laughter and growth. There is newness and love and life-

 but on the other side the storm clouds still hold heavy, pulling the tides closer and closer to my sandcastle that I've built so high. There is pride in my sand castle, it is strong. It is my greatest accomplishment. I show the people, "See, look what I've built. Look what I've done. Look at who I am."
"We can rebuild," the King whispers in my ear. He is trustworthy, He always has been since I've given him the throne of my heart. And yet, it is so hard to believe that we could rebuild this. He reminds me of the other side of the ocean. We rebuilt that together. He reminds me how tragic that shore had once looked and now their was joy. 

"Give me this side too." The King says. 

If he is truly my King, I would let him have this part of my ocean too. 

I say okay.

As if on cue, the wave comes and crashes around my castle that I have carefully built. As I watch it crumble, I realize it's strength was a facade, a simple lie held together by beauty and words. I turn and hide my head in my King's chest. I grab a fistful of his shirt as I let the tears flow again, because surrender is so hard and so relieving at the same time. I lean on his strength, I rest in His arms. I let Him hold me.
He lifts me and carries me back to the other beach. "Rest here, trust me to rebuild." 

How can I trust him to do this?? How can I give him the thing that I have been waiting for so long? How do I trust him when all I can say is, "let me see redemption win!"
How do I trust him when all the things I thought were okay are not?

This is familiar territory, this place with secret hurts and walls that I still possess. This place that I find myself in is so familiar. That's how I can trust him. That's it.
I've seen this before, I've done this before. I've known this place.
He was faithful before, He will be faithful again. I look at the place where my sandcastle once stood, and I sigh. All I see now is the sand sparking in the sunset as if I hadn't slaved for so long to protect one last part of me.
I breathe out trust.

Let me see redemption win.
"I will show you, daughter, in a new, unexpected way. I will show you in the way you are not expecting. Let me be the redeemer. And you will see redemption win."

thoughts.

The world is in disarray. Chaos is all around. Phones keep beeping and eyes keep straying. Relationships are being shattered by a handheld thief. So much dispute over laws and how a country should be run. Abraham Lincoln said it two hundred years ago, "a house divided against itself cannot stand." We attack one another with words about our beliefs saying tolerance is the only way, all the while in-tolerating one another. We have extremities but not compromises and absolutely no love. If you do not believe what I believe we cannot be friends, we say. The words we hurl are like bullets.  Women and children are being raped and killed daily thousands of miles away. People are dying to their belief because a group holds knives to their necks and gives them a chance to turn. "Do you follow Jesus Christ?" They say.

The world is in chaos. We are falling apart. 

The temptation is to withdraw and pretend it doesn't exist. The temptation is to pick a side and tear others down if it's not your side. 

The temptation is crippling fear. 

None of these are the solution. 

While praying the other day, I felt the immensity of the Lord's broken heart. I could feel his tears as I imagined Him looking out over the earth and whispering, "you've missed the point, my children." 

As a Christian, my job is not to hunt down, steal, kill and destroy the ones who disagree with me. As a Christian, my job is not to force my Bible down anyone's throat. As a Christian, it is not my role to change anyone's heart. 

My part to play is to follow Jesus. 

Jesus came to give life and give it abundantly. He never forced his way upon others. He looked at them in the mess of their sin with deep love. And made them valuable. The woman at the well in midday, feeling overwrought with shame. He chose to value her and tell her of his immense love for her and the life he could give her. Addressing the sins when she knew who she was to him. 

He told Zacchaeus he was coming to his house. He dined and enjoyed life with a sinner. Out of that expression of love, Zacchaeus was convicted of his sins and gave everything back he stole from people and gave to the poor.
Jesus stopped condemners from throwing stones at an adulterous woman. He said, "Where are your condemners? Neither do I condemn you."
If Jesus made others drop the stones and being the only one who had a right to pick a stone, wrote her value in the sand and set the woman free then why are we hurling stones?

Who are you to hurl a stone?

Romans 1 has been speaking to my heart during this tumultuous time.
Please, I ask you to read the whole thing.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,[e] as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”[f]

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,[g] in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

God spoke to me about knowing my belief. But first He led me to this passage. Right in there with homosexuality He also talks about envy, gossip, deceit, pride, disobedient to parents.

Romans 3 says “None is righteous, no, not one;

11     no one understands;
    no one seeks for God.

As a Christian the only reason I am not condemned by these things is because I am drowning in grace.

Every. Single. Sin. Is Covered in Grace.

Not one sin is excluded from that standard. It is nothing that I have done, nothing that you have done. It is everything that God has done. Please, heart, stop condemning.

We must not approach other sins, as though we are righteous by our works and holier than thou. We must approach them as a sinner saved by grace and extend the only love we have ever been given. We are called to love deeply as Jesus loved. There are no exceptions. We are to walk out in the life that Jesus has offered, abundant and new. We are to be vulnerable and share our struggles and sins so others may see our lives as a testimony. 

We have to stop letting our testimonies be a story of perfection but a story of perfect redemption. 

Our churches must stop being a sanctuary for the holy, but a hospital for the broken.

Yes, sin is wrong and must be addressed, but condemnation from a Christian is worse, it turns the unbeliever far away. 

1 Peter 3:15 says "But in your hearts honor Christ as Lord, as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect."

First and foremost, we are to know what we believe.

Secondly, we are to love as immensely as Jesus did, not seeing sin, but seeing the value of the person.  God is in no rush. He values relationship so deeply, He will wait until that person is ready to see His Face. Condemnation from a Christian will turn that person even further away from the Gospel. 

When the relationship is established, and that person sees your deep relationship with God, they will begin to ask questions about how hopeful you are in a decrepit world. They will begin to wonder why you are different they every other Christian they see. They will notice that you are different then the churches, and maybe, the name Christian means something different then the standard it has lived up to. Soon, they will see Jesus, and once they see Jesus in you, then and only then will He speak through you as they see a life bigger than themselves. Then your words will be valid to them. 

Discipleship is not a one moment thing, it happens out of relationship.

I didn't want to write this blog, but it flows from me the way things do when God is speaking. I know I must. Facebook is filled with condemnations and convictions and beliefs. But it is definitely not filled with Jesus. I'm not saying my words are correct, and I'm not saying you need to believe me. What I'm saying is that you need to open your Bible and figure it out for yourself. Open the word, and honestly study these topics. Ask God to speak to you through the Bible. Be open to conviction. Be open to change. Know without a shadow of a doubt how God says this issue should be addressed. Stop condemning, stop accepting, and ask the One who knows how to deal with everything. 

Cats, Red Cups and Netflix

I don't know about you, but I have had enough of the red cups.

Tonight I was talking to my friend and she is quite the wise woman. I asked her if she liked country music and she told me the Lord convicted her of it. Personal choices. But the part that got to me was how willing she is to obey the Lord in anything and everything she does.
The Lord spoke to me tonight and convicted me through our conversation.

What would it look like for me to give it all? What would it be like if I actually surrendered all to the Lord?

Am I willing to sacrifice my language? My money? My music? My phone? Or even worse, Netflix??

Am I really willing to lay it all down for Jesus?
He challenged me. One Week.

Just one week of no netflix, no facebook, no instagram no pinterest, no things that steal my time.
Because I don't know about you, but I'm tired of reading about red cups and seeing videos of cats that are only stealing my time and attention away from the Lord. I'm tired of watching Netflix for hours upon end and still not having answers at the end. I'm tired of wasting my time and walking into a classroom and seeing heads turned down distracted by a tiny screen that shatters relationships. I'm so tired of that. And I miss Jesus much.

One week. Of Jesus and things that glorify him.
Am I willing to surrender all?

Are you with me?

called to be free.

If you hold to my teachings, you really are my disciples, then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Oh how we endlessly seek for the truth. So many people, so many religions, wondering, yearning, dying for the truth.
The people claim that there is no such thing as absolute truth, but they are willing to stand on that hill and die for the truth that there is no absolute truth.
This does not make sense.

Here I am though, claiming to know absolute truth, and yet sometimes I wonder, what is this great and glorious truth.

Christ said to us, "I am the truth."

That is revolutionary. Jesus is truth embodied. So it all makes sense in this verse that Jesus spoke to my heart. Then you will know the truth (ME!) and the truth (I!) will set you free. 

So when I try my hardest to be free of the hurts and fears and struggles and temptations, I'll never be free when I'm seeking some mystical truth.

Galatians 5:1 says It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then! Do not be burdened again by a yoke of slavery... You were called to be free.

Freedom comes from knowing Jesus.

We wrestle too much with what the truth is, when the truth is standing right in front of us, inviting us into a relationship with Him. But we miss it because we are too busy searching for something else.

They are the same, when we know Jesus, the truth becomes clear to us. And when we know the truth, freedom is clear, sinning is impossible. My goal, then, is not to stop sinning, my goal ultimately is to know Jesus.
That truth alone will compel me to lay down my sin and serve Christ in freedom.

I was called to be free.
It is for freedom that I have been set free.

When I know Jesus, he sets me free.