I am a junior nursing major at Clemson, and I have 53 people in my class with me (all the other 1st semester junior nurses). The Lord has been continually showing me recently how much He loves my class and how much He is working in their hearts. So I had been praying for all my classmates for awhile, and eventually the Lord really laid it on my heart to speak to my classmates and tell them about His love. Specifically on a Wednesday night (at transition… yeah good stuff) the Lord told me to speak to my class the next morning. So my 8:15am class I went up to the front of the room and asked my professor if I could make an announcement. She said that it was fine with her so I faced my class and waited for them to be quiet. When everyone was facing me and listening I told them all that the Lord had told me to tell them that He loves them all so much, and that He is coming for them; that they are his daughters and his son (I only have one guy in my class) and that He wants to claim their hearts! I told them that they shouldn’t let anything come between them and the Lord; I told them to enjoy His love and be blessed by it. Then I sat down. Multiple conversations have occurred after this. The Lord is continuing to impress Himself upon their souls, and it is super fun to see how much He is chasing them down!
Later that same day, I was leaving FCA and had gotten in my car to drive back to my apt, and as I was driving by downtown, my heart was breaking for all the students crowded into bars just trying to find some satisfaction in life. I was so broken for how much they need the Lord, and I kept thinking about how good it would be if someone would go to them and speak the Gospel. So then the Lord told me to do that…. No lie; I was like, “say what now? Lord, girls like me don’t just walk into bars and start talking about You.” But the Lord just really laid it on my heart that I was a conqueror through Him and that He wanted these people to hear about his love. So after Jesus talked me through this, I ended up parking my car and walking up to the first bar I saw on the corner of downtown (Griffins? I think that’s the name) and there was a guy singing and playing guitar at the front of the bar, so I waited for him to finish his song and then completely by God’s grace, I walked up to him and asked if I could borrow his microphone. He asked me why and I told him that God had told me to make an announcement. He was a Christian and after asking if I would be brief, he just handed me the mike. I faced the bar and told everyone that the Lord told me to come and tell them how much He loves them. I told them that it didn’t matter how they felt about the Lord, even if they hated Him, that He was so in love with them and that He was coming to claim their hearts. Then I gave the mike back to the singer and walked out.
The Lord is good. He is a God of love, and He wants people to know it, so get ready. He’s gonna be using his children to spread the news. New boldness is coming down from heaven, and some "ordinary" Christians are about to get jacked up.
"Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.....
Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore, let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of the light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing or drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife or jealously, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts."
Romans 13:8 & 11-14
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
I've got to have it.
mmhhmmm....
Freaking JESUS
love it.
It's just the craziest best stuff ever.
None so High and Holy. King of Kings One and only.
i literally can't describe the way that i am seeing the Lord move, other than fire. Flames from the Lord consuming all. It's so good.... I don't even know what to say. Fullness of Joy... better than any pleasure on earth. Better.
Don't look for anything else. Don't search, don't test, don't try anything else. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Just taste it. It's that good. No convincing, no debates, no persuasion. Just taste it. It satisfies. Nothing else brings this satisfaction. Oh it's so good.
The harvest has come. Look up! Do you see it? Do you want it? Are you hungry, aching, broken, crying out for the Kingdom to come? Ask for it. Let's be hungry for it. Let's be HUNGRY for it. Ah, we're asking for it. It's coming.
Freaking JESUS
love it.
It's just the craziest best stuff ever.
None so High and Holy. King of Kings One and only.
i literally can't describe the way that i am seeing the Lord move, other than fire. Flames from the Lord consuming all. It's so good.... I don't even know what to say. Fullness of Joy... better than any pleasure on earth. Better.
Don't look for anything else. Don't search, don't test, don't try anything else. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Just taste it. It's that good. No convincing, no debates, no persuasion. Just taste it. It satisfies. Nothing else brings this satisfaction. Oh it's so good.
The harvest has come. Look up! Do you see it? Do you want it? Are you hungry, aching, broken, crying out for the Kingdom to come? Ask for it. Let's be hungry for it. Let's be HUNGRY for it. Ah, we're asking for it. It's coming.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
"the cross of Christ is such a burden as wings are to a bird or sails to a ship"
oh the love of Christ... it blows my mind everyday. I don't know what to do with it. But i know that i can't do anything without it, and that is cause for celebration. Oh how good it is to be dependent on God. How good it is to rely on Him for every need, every desire, every breath. There is nothing else like this, nothing so beautiful, nothing so holy.
For some very strange reason, we have been told in the past that dependence is somehow a burden. That it's hard, but we Christians just have to make that sacrifice. How many times have we heard that having a "quiet time" (gosh, i hate even that phrase. What if God wants to be loud? No lie: sometimes Jesus and I scream together.) is just a daily sacrifice that we need to find time for? But that's not the way it has to be, in fact, i am willing to claim that it is not even the way that God intended it. Ha. Boo on that satan, you will not convince me that spending time with the Lord is a chore.
Let's talk about what God intended, the Bible speaks of this wonderfully insane relationship of a bride and a bridegroom. This beautiful metaphor names Christ as a husband and the church as His wife, and just to clarify, by Church He means His body of believers, not a building or a steeple cuz we get that one confused sometimes too. For clarification see Ephesians 6, the book of Hosea, and Ezekiel 16(the latter two are written more specifically about Israel, but the comparison still holds true so don't let that stop you).
So God created and redeemed us in the beautiful image and desire of alluring us intimately. Mmmmhmm. That's good stuff. The Lord of all, dying on a cross, crying out, "I want to be your lover. Your husband. Your beloved." How utterly mind-blowing. The more i see it, the longer i stand around speechless. Oh the call of Christ is wild. Wild, and terrifying, and risky, and beautiful, and bold. And the scariest part is that we have made Him out to be mundane. In this slightly ridiculous power that we have to impact the world for good or for bad, we have spoken into generations of dying people that Christ is commonplace. We have preached that we go to church every week out of duty and that we open our Bibles twenty minutes a day because that's what God wants us to do, or even worst yet, because it makes us better people. Let's no longer live this lie. Forget what anyone has ever told you about what your time with the Lord is supposed to look or feel like. Jesus just wants to be with you. Dance with Him, Lay in His arms, Sing, Cry, Laugh out loud, Go running with Him, throw your arms in the air and scream about His love, paint, write, rap, take pictures of His creation, Go eat with Jesus, Go driving and roll your windows down and know that the Lord is good enough to create simple pleasures like the wind on your face. Let's all give up the idea that we have to sacrifice a certain amount of time everyday for God and that its a burden but He wants us to do it. Freaking no. Humanity is the burden. Christ is the liberation. We should be enjoying the freedom.
"I want to sit at your feet
Drink from the cup in your hands
Lay back against you and breathe
And feel your heartbeat
This love is so deep
It's more than I can stand
I drown in your peace
It's overwhelming."
For some very strange reason, we have been told in the past that dependence is somehow a burden. That it's hard, but we Christians just have to make that sacrifice. How many times have we heard that having a "quiet time" (gosh, i hate even that phrase. What if God wants to be loud? No lie: sometimes Jesus and I scream together.) is just a daily sacrifice that we need to find time for? But that's not the way it has to be, in fact, i am willing to claim that it is not even the way that God intended it. Ha. Boo on that satan, you will not convince me that spending time with the Lord is a chore.
Let's talk about what God intended, the Bible speaks of this wonderfully insane relationship of a bride and a bridegroom. This beautiful metaphor names Christ as a husband and the church as His wife, and just to clarify, by Church He means His body of believers, not a building or a steeple cuz we get that one confused sometimes too. For clarification see Ephesians 6, the book of Hosea, and Ezekiel 16(the latter two are written more specifically about Israel, but the comparison still holds true so don't let that stop you).
So God created and redeemed us in the beautiful image and desire of alluring us intimately. Mmmmhmm. That's good stuff. The Lord of all, dying on a cross, crying out, "I want to be your lover. Your husband. Your beloved." How utterly mind-blowing. The more i see it, the longer i stand around speechless. Oh the call of Christ is wild. Wild, and terrifying, and risky, and beautiful, and bold. And the scariest part is that we have made Him out to be mundane. In this slightly ridiculous power that we have to impact the world for good or for bad, we have spoken into generations of dying people that Christ is commonplace. We have preached that we go to church every week out of duty and that we open our Bibles twenty minutes a day because that's what God wants us to do, or even worst yet, because it makes us better people. Let's no longer live this lie. Forget what anyone has ever told you about what your time with the Lord is supposed to look or feel like. Jesus just wants to be with you. Dance with Him, Lay in His arms, Sing, Cry, Laugh out loud, Go running with Him, throw your arms in the air and scream about His love, paint, write, rap, take pictures of His creation, Go eat with Jesus, Go driving and roll your windows down and know that the Lord is good enough to create simple pleasures like the wind on your face. Let's all give up the idea that we have to sacrifice a certain amount of time everyday for God and that its a burden but He wants us to do it. Freaking no. Humanity is the burden. Christ is the liberation. We should be enjoying the freedom.
"I want to sit at your feet
Drink from the cup in your hands
Lay back against you and breathe
And feel your heartbeat
This love is so deep
It's more than I can stand
I drown in your peace
It's overwhelming."
Saturday, September 6, 2008
the stirring....
The irresistible revolution..... it's coming, it's even among us now. Christ is stirring up a new way of living against the backdrop of our own selfishness and consumerism. Oh, let it come. Let it change us all. Let's surrender to a different life, a different way a of thinking, a new way of celebrating, a different way of understanding community, a different way of following Christ. What if Christians walked as Christ walked when He was made love incarnate? What would happen? Who would change? Would we change the world or would we see ourselves changed from looking like it?
I'm so tired of Christians with narrow visions, small dreams, and inclusive communities. Really? Really though? How does that even happen? I'm so tired of seeing Christ's body pulled so far apart that it no longer remembers how to work together. What have we done when the church in the suburbs has all the resources and doesn't see the church twenty minutes downtown that is meeting in a condemned house and has all the needs? Shane Claiborne says that "The greatest tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor, but that rich Christians do not know the poor." I know lots of Christians who know the names of lots of charities that donate money to the poor, but they don't know any of the poor themselves, and I include myself because i willingly admit that I too have wandered far from the path that Christ walked. Christ went to the margins of society. He walked under the bridges, through the tent cities, and in the alleys behind the wealthy office buildings. He knew the dumpsters that people searched through to find food. He went to the red-light district of the city and found the woman selling themselves for a glimpse of "love". Christ dwelled in the places where we not only often refuse to walk, we condemn the people who do. We live as if we have the right to have anything we want and as if we have no responsibility for the state that the world is in. How many people have seen the needs of poor and maybe even done something to "minister" to them, but refuse to change to change their day to day lives in order to help? We claim that "we know that alot of people are in need, but that doesn't mean that we have to feel guilty for being blessed." That's not only a sorry excuse, it's a huge load of crap. Christ's love took Him to the cross but ours won't even take us out of the suburbs? "I'm just not called to inner-city ministry or world missions." I don't claim to know where Christ calls everyone to be specifically, but he calls ALL of us to sacrifice.
"but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has been truly perfected, by this we know that we are in Him; the one who says that he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked." 1 John 2:5-6.
I don't claim to be an expert of following Christ(i fall everyday), but I can promise this, if are really going to walk as Christ did, we are going to have to do away with our selfishness, our fear of getting hurt, our small love, and our enjoyment of comfort and normalcy. Christ lived out none of those things, instead we adopted and accepted them from our own humanity.
The time has been long past for surrender. Give in to the stirrings of a new way. They are coming, a long-lost rain after a dry season and a thunderstorm cracking the sky and disturbing the quiet. Breathe deep the beauty of Christ; exhale selfish humanity, and inhale this life-changing grace.Let's go to the world with love on our lips.
I'm so tired of Christians with narrow visions, small dreams, and inclusive communities. Really? Really though? How does that even happen? I'm so tired of seeing Christ's body pulled so far apart that it no longer remembers how to work together. What have we done when the church in the suburbs has all the resources and doesn't see the church twenty minutes downtown that is meeting in a condemned house and has all the needs? Shane Claiborne says that "The greatest tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor, but that rich Christians do not know the poor." I know lots of Christians who know the names of lots of charities that donate money to the poor, but they don't know any of the poor themselves, and I include myself because i willingly admit that I too have wandered far from the path that Christ walked. Christ went to the margins of society. He walked under the bridges, through the tent cities, and in the alleys behind the wealthy office buildings. He knew the dumpsters that people searched through to find food. He went to the red-light district of the city and found the woman selling themselves for a glimpse of "love". Christ dwelled in the places where we not only often refuse to walk, we condemn the people who do. We live as if we have the right to have anything we want and as if we have no responsibility for the state that the world is in. How many people have seen the needs of poor and maybe even done something to "minister" to them, but refuse to change to change their day to day lives in order to help? We claim that "we know that alot of people are in need, but that doesn't mean that we have to feel guilty for being blessed." That's not only a sorry excuse, it's a huge load of crap. Christ's love took Him to the cross but ours won't even take us out of the suburbs? "I'm just not called to inner-city ministry or world missions." I don't claim to know where Christ calls everyone to be specifically, but he calls ALL of us to sacrifice.
"but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has been truly perfected, by this we know that we are in Him; the one who says that he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked." 1 John 2:5-6.
I don't claim to be an expert of following Christ(i fall everyday), but I can promise this, if are really going to walk as Christ did, we are going to have to do away with our selfishness, our fear of getting hurt, our small love, and our enjoyment of comfort and normalcy. Christ lived out none of those things, instead we adopted and accepted them from our own humanity.
The time has been long past for surrender. Give in to the stirrings of a new way. They are coming, a long-lost rain after a dry season and a thunderstorm cracking the sky and disturbing the quiet. Breathe deep the beauty of Christ; exhale selfish humanity, and inhale this life-changing grace.Let's go to the world with love on our lips.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
love is strong & christ is freedom
...just for the record cause i know we all forget
Christ is our freedom from condemnation, sin, guilt, and shame. Beautiful release from the things that we no longer have to be burdened with, let's claim this peace and walk it in day by day, moment by moment. salvation is joy.
Agape love is strong. It never fails, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. This is love that we will forever need, love freely given from the Lord, and love that we should always pour back out. In a world as broken as this one, you might never know who is aching and in need of rescue. There are many broken hearts and love of Christ has the most remarkable healing powers. So embrace the full strength of Christ's love in your own life and then from that overflowing well let the Holy Spirit through you live out that love to others.
this is good stuff, in fact, its the best.
"To live on Christ's love is a King's life."
-Samuel Rutherford
Christ is our freedom from condemnation, sin, guilt, and shame. Beautiful release from the things that we no longer have to be burdened with, let's claim this peace and walk it in day by day, moment by moment. salvation is joy.
Agape love is strong. It never fails, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. This is love that we will forever need, love freely given from the Lord, and love that we should always pour back out. In a world as broken as this one, you might never know who is aching and in need of rescue. There are many broken hearts and love of Christ has the most remarkable healing powers. So embrace the full strength of Christ's love in your own life and then from that overflowing well let the Holy Spirit through you live out that love to others.
this is good stuff, in fact, its the best.
"To live on Christ's love is a King's life."
-Samuel Rutherford
Friday, August 22, 2008
continuing on.....
project is over,
vacation is over,
and i've been at clemson for a week now.
And as long as it has taken me to come to this conclusion, I am ready and excited for this semester. I am ready to learn what it takes to be a nurse. I KNOW that this is what i want to do. I want to be able to really help people, and I want to be able to offer them spiritual and physical healing. Just to think that school now is preparing me to be a medical missionary later makes me so glad for the opportunity to be here. This semester is not going to be easy though, but i guess most things that are worth this much value aren't. I know that the Lord will be my strength and my wisdom, and i'm ready to see what i will learn in and out of class.
I love/am excited about:
-my quad & my international roommates
-my pathophysiology class... so interesting
-DCF: LOVE it
-my girls cuz they're amazing and i can't wait to see how God bring us together
-reading The Irresistible Revolution by shane claiborne. i just ordered it.
-living in God's peace
-going overseas next summer
-being able to give shots
-living with Lyndsey
-going to the lake
vacation is over,
and i've been at clemson for a week now.
And as long as it has taken me to come to this conclusion, I am ready and excited for this semester. I am ready to learn what it takes to be a nurse. I KNOW that this is what i want to do. I want to be able to really help people, and I want to be able to offer them spiritual and physical healing. Just to think that school now is preparing me to be a medical missionary later makes me so glad for the opportunity to be here. This semester is not going to be easy though, but i guess most things that are worth this much value aren't. I know that the Lord will be my strength and my wisdom, and i'm ready to see what i will learn in and out of class.
I love/am excited about:
-my quad & my international roommates
-my pathophysiology class... so interesting
-DCF: LOVE it
-my girls cuz they're amazing and i can't wait to see how God bring us together
-reading The Irresistible Revolution by shane claiborne. i just ordered it.
-living in God's peace
-going overseas next summer
-being able to give shots
-living with Lyndsey
-going to the lake
Friday, June 27, 2008
project days
Been on project for almost two weeks now, and i have experienced so much, learned so much, and seen so much... I can't describe it all. I sincerely can't even process it right now. I will write about it sometime i am sure, but right now there is only one thing i know, one thing i'm learning:
Everyone needs Jesus. Everyone needs Jesus. The sex-offenders, the homeless, the parole officers, the working poor, the college students, the pastors, the recovering addicts, those in power, the prisoners, the abused, the children, the cheerleaders, You and Me. All of us need Christ. We need Him above anything and anyone else. We need Him now. We need Him oh so badly. I have seen the faces of those with no hope. I have heard the stories of lives without purpose. These people yearn for a salvation that they search for in the saddest ways. They continually try more of this world and more of themselves and the keep coming up dry. Aching for pure, clean, living water, they yearn for a break from the dirtiness of a world that has long lost its innocence.I have heard their voices. I have learned their names, and yet more than i understand, they are oh so familiar to their Father. He created them, loves them, longs for them, and patiently pursues them with His grace. He created His son in the image of love that those with no hope would learn of this anchor of His unchanging peace. These faces of the lost remind me of what it is to live apart from the salvation of Christ. It's a scary picture. I don't want to remember life without rescue.
How blessed i am though, that i can live and walk in a redemption that i did not earn and do not deserve. Recently, i have seen this same salvation in the lives of my project mates. I have heard some of their stories, and i know that they were lost. They will freely admit that without Christ, they were NOTHING. Lost, dying, and without purpose, without hope. The same empty faces that we see here on the streets, in the prisons, or in offices, could very well be from our own pasts. The stories are all different, no two people are the same, but the common thread is the truth that we have all known life apart from this transforming love. However, the beauty of grace is that now, we, who are as undeserving of forgiveness as anyone we could meet, have been sent out with the Gospel placed on our lips by our Daddy. He taught us this captivating tale of a Savior coming to earth to love those who hated Him, and then He brought us in and made this story our own. Now we go out to speak it to others. No one is above hearing it, certainly not us, whether for the first or the five hundreth time. And no one is too low or too lost. Forgiveness is for all, and needed by all... Jesus is vital. There is no life apart from Him.
Everyone needs Jesus. Everyone needs Jesus. The sex-offenders, the homeless, the parole officers, the working poor, the college students, the pastors, the recovering addicts, those in power, the prisoners, the abused, the children, the cheerleaders, You and Me. All of us need Christ. We need Him above anything and anyone else. We need Him now. We need Him oh so badly. I have seen the faces of those with no hope. I have heard the stories of lives without purpose. These people yearn for a salvation that they search for in the saddest ways. They continually try more of this world and more of themselves and the keep coming up dry. Aching for pure, clean, living water, they yearn for a break from the dirtiness of a world that has long lost its innocence.I have heard their voices. I have learned their names, and yet more than i understand, they are oh so familiar to their Father. He created them, loves them, longs for them, and patiently pursues them with His grace. He created His son in the image of love that those with no hope would learn of this anchor of His unchanging peace. These faces of the lost remind me of what it is to live apart from the salvation of Christ. It's a scary picture. I don't want to remember life without rescue.
How blessed i am though, that i can live and walk in a redemption that i did not earn and do not deserve. Recently, i have seen this same salvation in the lives of my project mates. I have heard some of their stories, and i know that they were lost. They will freely admit that without Christ, they were NOTHING. Lost, dying, and without purpose, without hope. The same empty faces that we see here on the streets, in the prisons, or in offices, could very well be from our own pasts. The stories are all different, no two people are the same, but the common thread is the truth that we have all known life apart from this transforming love. However, the beauty of grace is that now, we, who are as undeserving of forgiveness as anyone we could meet, have been sent out with the Gospel placed on our lips by our Daddy. He taught us this captivating tale of a Savior coming to earth to love those who hated Him, and then He brought us in and made this story our own. Now we go out to speak it to others. No one is above hearing it, certainly not us, whether for the first or the five hundreth time. And no one is too low or too lost. Forgiveness is for all, and needed by all... Jesus is vital. There is no life apart from Him.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)