January 27- Yesterday, Sarah, Eddy and I ran some errands for Pastor Phil. We walked to a small grocery to buy some food for a family in need. So we grabbed the groceries and set off to find this house. We probably only walked a total of 2 miles, but it was extremely hot (even Rebecca mentioned that that day was particularly hot), I only had my thin, falling apart flip flops, and the whole time we were on a rocky dirt road. We were all sweating and getting dusty and dirty plus carrying large heavy bags of food. As we wandered around trying to find this small house in the heat and Eddy reenacted how the howler monkeys would pee on us if we got too close to them, my mind started drifting…
The most uncomfortable things that happen to me really are nothing. I started thinking about the hot, dusty road that Jesus walked on, ripped apart and beaten, carrying a burden much greater then my little grocery sacks to be crushed by the wrath of his Father.
So often I take for granted how so very blessed I am. Never in my life have I had the right to complain. Even if I sell everything I have to live in Africa I still won’t have made a sacrifice. Everything that I have done is nothing compared to Christ. So in him I will boast alone! Paul Washer said in one of his sermons once that when a person is drowning, you aren’t suppose to try and save them without a flotation device or something because that person can drag down 3 people with them in their desperation. In the same way, we are to cling with everything to CHRIST because without HIM there is NOTHING!
It amazes me that despite my ungratefulness, pride, selfishness, shortcomings, my whatever, it doesn’t matter, that God loves me exactly as He says He does. Because I am his beloved… The past probably 6 months I’ve been struggling with when exactly I was saved. I am secure in my faith and I know that I am saved, but I struggled with whether I was saved when I was a little kid, or if it were more recently because of all of the trouble and stupid things that I have done in the past 5 years. The exact date or even year doesn’t matter!
I have always been His <3
About Me
- Michaela
- "Now I live my life as not my own, but as an empty vessel to be used as God see's fit for His glory! "But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." Acts 20:24
Salvation is a mystery – it is not something we did or achieved at some point in time. Eph 1:4 "For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In Love He predestined us to be adopted as His son through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of His glorious grace." As you said, “I have always been His.”
ReplyDeleteThe more we understand the tremendous gift we have been given in Christ the more our lives are radically changed. Sometimes, it is the stupid things we do that help us to grow in our appreciation for what God is doing in our lives. When follow the flesh we do stupid things – when we follow Christ we walk miles down hot dusty roads in foreign countries to deliver groceries in the name of Christ. It not the lack of stupid things in our past that give evidence of our salvation - it is our faithfulness to His call upon our life that is the evidence of salvation.
I remember when you were in Kindergarten in Seattle and you said you wanted to be a missionary and it amazes me that your heart has always been set on that calling upon your life. When you had to wait for two years to go be a missionary for CEF, you couldn’t wait until you were old enough to do this. I remember a time when you came home from the Montana Fair after being there for over 12 hours and you said, “I shared Christ with over 80 kids today …” and you were exhausted – you were living in your calling.
All good preachers will tell you they are often embarrassed by the sermons they preached many years ago – it is not because they were less “saved” back then or their heart was less devoted to truth or to the things of God. It is that they, continue to grow in the knowledge and wisdom of God. It is not that you were not saved as a kid; it is that you have experienced much spiritual growth since you were a kid that you question your own heart.
A better way to think about it is to say, “Look what God has done with such a person as me!” Years from now, you may be thinking the same way about your time in Costa Rica.
I love that you said without Christ you are nothing because in the message at Fresh Life we were told with Christ we have Everything. Basic Christian Math. Anything+God=Everything.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be doing great and reflecting on all the things the Lord is teaching you. Blessings to you my friend. Looking forward to hearing more.
Kelly
Amen Frank! Wow that seriously was such a blessing to read and an encouragement!
ReplyDelete