So Proud

and excited for Shannon.  The girls home she's spent months working on and praying for, opened yesterday.  Take a look at Puerta de Esperanza (Door of Hope):

Partial v. Perfection

I read 1 Corinthians 13 today.  So much of it took me back to my first email to Todd where I asked if love can exist apart from God.

Speaking in beautiful languages, being the most gifted prophet or most knowledgeable, having a great amount of faith, giving away all that you have, even sacrificing your body...these are all good gifts or good things to glorify the Lord...under one condition: that love is in their midst.  Without love, these things are mere rubbish.  They only have meaning when they are done in and out of and through love.  That love comes from God as God is love.  

Love is patient and kind and all of the things you hear at weddings and wonder if you could ever live up to those attributes.  We can only exude those attributes through the Lord, who is love.  Which is helpful and encouraging considering I can't be any of those things on my own.

We live in the tension of the already and the not yet.  But there will be a day when the Lord will come back and it will be perfect.  What we live now, the partial, will be nothing in comparison to what is in store, the perfect.  I've no idea if this description is or will be correct at all, but I envision a second flood of sorts...where anything not of God is purged and all that is left standing is the Lord and His people.  There will be no more need for prophesy because we will be living in full revelation.  With the entire heaven and earth worshiping the Lord, rejoicing together, and living in the midst of perfection. 

And I think that is what the glimpses of perfection are today on earth...when you are rejoicing and worshiping the Lord, focused on Him, knowing love.

You've probably already seen it

but I love this; reminds me of what the Lord is teaching me:

Prayer, Part 3

Follow up to my friend:


We're not promised to be spared from suffering.  The opposite, in fact.  So our prayers won't always be answered in ways that alleviate our pain.
...

thought about you last night.  have i told you about this guy simon?  he's been living in burundi, africa for a decade but has been in mt. pleasant for the past year.  i heard him speak last night -- telling stories of what's going on, what he's seen, and how he was called to the mission field -- incredible.  he's doing a bike across america to raise money for burundi for 35 days starting in march with a few other guys.  goal is to raise 1/2 to $1M!  will be speaking places along the way.  but his knees have been so messed up he can't train, as in hasn't ridden a bike in months.

after he talked, we prayed for his knees to be healed for at least 30 minutes i'd say.  it was a sweet time of worship and asking the lord to heal him.  so far, he hasn't.  

made me think about our conversation yesterday...not sure why god hasn't healed him yet.  but believing he will.  

Prayer, Part 2

My response to my friend:


1. yes!  if you've got an hour and a half or so, i think this is amazing to watch.  i could recommend books, and gladly will, but i think this will be shorter time and require less of you but will give you an amazing glimpse at what the lord is doing.  i was BLOWN away by what goes on!  some things seem silly to me, but obviously aren't to the lord!  you can watch for free on you tube in 10 sections.  totally worth your time.  here's the link to the first part: 

2. yes, i think this is the hard thing.  i would toss a few things out there to chew on.  we know that god is in control and is capable of doing whatever he wants and sees as best.  we know that god loves to heal people and is certainly capable of it.

(assuming we're talking about medical miracles...though i think western thought/culture hinders us from any miracle)  what i think is harder is that we, in the west, tend to put more faith in science and medicine and doctors than the lord.  this may not be the case always, but i think often times we "ask for a miracle" but here's the thing: do we REALLY believe god will do it?  believe it or not, but god is raising people from the dead.  today.  i have seen him heal someone's back problems -- totally take them away.  my friend rennie, he grew her leg longer so they would match up.  i had an AWFUL headache one day like meds didn't help and was about to help; i asked beth to pray for me and it was gone in an instant.  again, for me, these things can be hard to swallow/believe, but HE IS doing them!  

so i say, let's look at scripture...

matthew 7:^7 (H)“Ask, ^(I)and it will be given to you; ^(J)seek, and you will find; ^(K)knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ⁹ Or which one of you, if his son asks him for ^(L)bread, will give him ^(M)a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? ¹¹ If you then, ^(N)who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will ^(O)your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

luke 11: ⁹And I tell you, ^(L)ask, and ^(M)it will be given to you; ^(N)seek, and you will find; ^(O)knock, and it will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ¹¹ What father among you, if his son asks for^[d] a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; ¹² or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?¹³ If you then, ^(P)who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father ^(Q)give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

those are things that easily come to mind i think.  here we see that the Father, our Father wants to give good things to his children -- like our earthly parents but even more so!  we also see that we have to actually ask for them.

matthew 21: ²⁰ When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” ²¹ And Jesus answered them,^(AF)“Truly, I say to you, ^(AG)if you have faith and ^(AH)do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ^(AI)‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. ²² And ^(AJ)whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, ^(AK)if you have faith.”

mark 11: Therefore I tell you,^(AJ)whatever you ask in prayer, ^(AK)believe that you ^(AL)have received^[c] it, and it will be yours.

these two passages show us that not only do we need to ask in prayer, but we have to BELIEVE that god will do what we ask.  personally, i think this is the hardest part. 

john 16:^23(AR)In that day you will ^(AS)ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, ^(AT)whatever you ask of the Father in my name, ^(AU)he will give it to you. ²⁴ Until now you have asked nothing in my name. ^(AV)Ask, and you will receive, ^(AW)that your joy may be full.

ok, here we see that we have to ask in jesus' name.  

we easily see three things: we have to (1) ask (2) in the name of jesus and (3) believe jesus can and will heal.  i'm slowly reading a book right now (here) about bringing heaven to earth and he touches on this a lot, too.  

personally, i know intellectually that god can do anything.  i know god wants his children to be healed and restored.  but too often i lack faith.  but there are moments (and want there to me so many more!) when the intellect and faith collide and god does amazing things.  i think this is how we were created to live.  

also reminded of the missionary i heard that said: you won't see jesus heal if you have an abundance of doctors.

Prayer, part 1

I got this email from a friend yesterday:

remember when we were talking about dr. F praying for his friend who was about to die and how he said "may you do according to your good pleasure" and i was talking to you about how sweet it was? and you didnt disagree with him but then noted the point about asking for and expecting miracles and praying towards those ends?

 

ok so here's a question...

 

1. i totally get what you're saying and i do believe we should have more faith in the power of prayer and in the work of the holy spirit than we actually do...

2. that being said, when the rubber meets the road, after you have prayed fervently and expectantly for a miracle to happen and "it doesn't happen" then what? OBVIOUSLY the answer is...God chose not to do "so and so" although he's capable, but how do you process that time and time again if "prayers dont get answered the way you'd like them or have asked them to"

Not a matter of rules.

I started thinking about rules and freedom today.  Lately, I've been feeling a freedom with and in the Lord that I'm not sure I've ever known before.  It feels like the Lord is showing me things for the first time...or it is the first time that they are actually making sense.  Thinking about freedom had me ponder bondage of rules.  And how, when I was placed under a bunch of rules, I loathed them and wanted to fight against them.  

As I'm thinking through these things today, I happened to read Romans 14 and was struck by verse 17:

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Let's go back to when I first met Jesus.  I was in high school and those years were filled with amazing mentors and learning about God and what it meant to be a believer.  Then I went to college; as I look back on my college years in regard to the Lord, the thing that stands out to me most is RULES.

1. I, by nature, like rules.  (Even when I choose to break them.)
2. The majority of Christians I was around in college loved rules.

This meant that often times God felt like a rule book.  You are good and holy if you abide by our rules...you are the best kind of Christian if you attend church, attend our weekly meeting, our discipled by our people, disciple our people yourself, spend time with and share the gospel with non-believers, study the Bible for an hour a day, spend as much time in prayer as you can, hang out with us over Christmas break and the summers, etc.  Other people knew the knew the Lord, but the people abiding by these rules...they were ones that really, REALLY knew the Lord and loved God.

Before I continue, I'd like to say a few things:

1. This may only be my perception of college and the ministry I was involved with.  I don't think that's (fully) the case, but it is a possibility.
2. The issue isn't whether or not these things are good because all of those things are good.  

BUT those things are food and drink.  They are rules.  And God cares about much more than the rules...He cares about righteousness, peace, and joy...in the Holy Spirit.

For me, post college time has been about sorting through the rules -- which ones are legit and which ones cause more harm in me than good because I am more wrapped up in the rule than the glorifying the Lord?  This past year or so, I've met the Holy Spirit and the thing I've most learned from Him is that there are no rules.  He does anything but fit into a box.  He blows me away with His ways and abilities!

When we pursue righteousness, peace, and joy.  And when we pursue those things through the Holy Spirit, we get to know the Lord on such a deep and intimate level.  Personally, I find when I'm seeking the Lord, rather than obeying rules, I am much more likely to serve others, to tell others about Jesus, to pray for people, to praise the Lord, etc.  There is a joy that can only come from God, a true peace that surpasses all understanding, and before you even have time to think about it, you are more righteous than you once were.  

It shouldn't surprise me, but it still does: that the Lord already has all of this figured out!  And His ways are always best!