In Christ Alone

I wrote this verse to in Christ alone a few months ago:

To Christ alone, I turn my eyes

His glory fuels my faithfulness.

And in His name, I'm satisfied

In Him whose power I can't contend.

And as He sits at God's right hand

until the day He comes again.

Here I will wait and nations tell

of this great God and His great plan!

The Story (Rooted)

The link below is for an evangelistic tool that paints a beautiful picture of God's plan of salvation. Check it out!

The Story (Rooted)

Never A Disappointment

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

Romans 5:1-5

Several months back, I was going through a really hard time in my life. I was drained spiritually, physically, and emotionally. I remember one day in particular when I just could not stop crying. I didn't even really have any particular reason to be crying. Tears just kept welling up in my eyes and before I knew it, I was sobbing uncontrollably. That day, my dad just happened to be there visiting me. At one point, he heard me crying and asked me what was wrong. I didn't know how to explain it to him, as it wasn't something I really even understood myself. I will never forget what he took place in the moments that followed. He wrapped me in his arms while I cried. After I had calmed down, he looked me in the eyes and said "Lindsey, we will never be disappointed in you." He told me that I had been such a blessing to him and my mom as a daughter and that whether I decided to go to nursing school or not, that would not change their love for me. Nothing could change how much they love me.

Oh, what a beautiful reminder that was of how much God loves me. When my earthly daddy said those sweet, reassuring words to me, I could hear my Heavenly Father saying just that and more ("He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all"...Romans 8:32a). I was reminded of this occurrence recently after seeing a Francis Chan video based on his book, Forgotten God. The video was about how the Holy Spirit shows his love for all of his children in different ways, just like earthly fathers show each of their children love differently. For example, when I was growing up, my dad showed me love by always knowing how to cheer me up if I was sad or grumpy. He knew all he had to do was start making corny jokes or tickling me to death. With my brother, it was quite different. He could show my brother love by wrestling with him or taking him fishing. And he showed my older sister love by giving her attention, and by treating her like the princess that she was :)

The point is that God, who demonstrates His great love for us by coming and dwelling among us and dying for us, does not stop at that! He continues to show His love for His children by the Holy Spirit within us. ("So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him." Romans 8:12-17) The Spirit bears witness to God's love for us, but this does not look the same in all of us! Just as I would not look at my earthly father and say, "Why don't you show me you love me by taking me fishing?!", I should not say to my Heavenly Father, "You gave so and so all that money, so you must love them...what about me?". God's ways are much higher than mine, and He knows what I need even better than I know myself.

Thank you, Lord, for loving me and for whispering to me that I am never a disappointment to You because when You look at me, You see Jesus.

Urbana '09

So, I recently got back from a missions conference in St. Louis, which takes place every three years and brings in about 16,000 college students with a heart for global missions. Simply put, it was LIFE CHANGING! I could not even begin to explain all that God taught me in the five days that I was there, but I am going to try to just express some of it in words.

In the days leading up to Urbana, I was a little pessimistic about the whole thing. I had heard stories of the amazing things God had done in various people's lives at past Urbana conferences, but I guess I just didn't fully believe that God was going to do anything that awesome in my life. It was just a lot of spiritual warfare. Satan was trying to convince me that I really did not need to be at this conference at all, but boy was I wrong! The first full day was completely overwhelming. There were about 250 booths from different mission organizations set up in the center where the conference was held, and, upon my first visit to some of these booths, I found nothing that really captured my attention. Actually this first visit made me want to burst into tears haha. Looking back, I see that I was trying to force God to speak and failing to recognize that God's timing is better than mine. The second day was better and I definitely felt more peace about a lot of things, but I was a little discouraged when I saw how God was speaking to other people and not to me. Also, this was mixed with a bit of confusion about my calling to the DR. You see, all of the speakers at Urbana were touching my heart as they spoke of all the tribes and nations that need to hear the Truth of the Gospel, and I was questioning whether I should be focusing instead on some of the unreached people groups. Just for clarification, unreached people groups are those who have never heard of Christ or the Gospel message. The Dominican people are consider a reached people group because most of them have heard of Christ before to some degree. So, the third day was really when I began to see God moving, although I now see that He had been all along. In the morning Bible study session, I was able to bring something to the light that has held me back from serving Christ wholeheartedly in the past. After this, Satan was attacking me almost the whole day, but his attacks were not strong enough to overcome the work that the Spirit was doing in my heart. Honestly, that day it felt like I had come to know Christ all over again. God taught me more about His grace and forgiveness and my need for Him in that day than I can even explain. He reminded me of the fact that apart from Him I can do nothing and without Him I am nothing more than a sinful and powerless human. I was broken over my sins and ready for Him to put the pieces back together. I had finally become resigned to the fact that maybe I was not supposed to go to the DR as an intern during the summer like I had hoped, and I was truly ok with it. Then God surprised me yet again :) I went back to look at the booths again, and this time it was not nearly as overwhelming. Finally, when I was about to go meet my group for dinner, I went to one last booth. The bold text written on the booth's background said, "SUMMER INTERNSHIPS: DOMINCAN REPUBLIC". Wow! Really?! I was in shock for a second! Finally, I began speaking to a man at the booth and finding out more info about the group. It seems like a great opportunity! Even if it does not work out for me to go this summer, I know that my visiting that one last booth was not a coincidence. God has a purpose in that!

Ok so I could go on all day about all that God taught me and all that, but I don't think that's necessary and it would probably take me all night. I do, however, want to share one more thing. How we brought in the New Year...As midnight rolled around, the 16000 students present at Urbana '09 were singing the words, "Let the Redeemed of the Lord say so! Let the Redeemed of the Lord say so! Let the Redeemed of the Lord say so! say so! say so! I am Redeemed!" I will never forget this image. As we rung in the New Year we sang of being made new by our Mighty Saviour! Thank You Jesus for being our redeemer!

I didn't even mention the fact that the theme for the week was "He dwelled among us," but hopefully I will apply that to my own life and have stories later about dwelling among the people I know who don't have a relationship with Christ yet! Christ lives in me, so I must show my love for others by going outside of my world and comfort zone and into theirs, just as Jesus did! So I'm going to end on this note for now and encouragement in regards to the Incarnation: "..Together may we learn to wait. May we learn to hope. May we learn to turn to the God who did not remain distant or remote from our situation but stepped right into it, to bring healing from the inside out."

~Linds

Oh, I almost forgot one of the most exciting parts...In my time at Urbana, I committed to serving the Lord through global missions for at least two years of my life along with about 1500 other students! Hallelujah!

Scripture and Meditation

So I realize that it has been months since I have written anything on this blog, but for some reason, some sort of relief always seems to come when I start putting into written words stuff that I am learning and beginning to understand. So here it goes- just a bunch of Scripture and thoughts and venting.

I read Isaiah 62 just a little while ago, and there were a couple verses that stuck out to me immediately...

First of all, in verse 4, Scripture tells me that my new name is "My Delight is in Her"! ok wow! God delights in me? Even though sometimes I get angry and frustrated with Him and rebel against Him and doubt that He is working in my life, He still delights in me?

Not only that, but the next verse says "and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you." So not only is His delight in me, but he rejoices over me? And Scripture is descriptive...I mean, when a bridegroom has just taken a new bride, he is pretty much the happiest guy ever...and God feels that way about me all the time?! haha maybe I am overreacting a bit, but that just makes me smile a lot :)

Maybe this comparison of God to the bridegroom stood out so much because I had just read Song of Solomon, which, as you probably know, talks all about the bridegroom's feelings towards his bride and vice versa. Just one little verse that I read which exemplifies the mutual affection of the bride and her bridegroom is in chapter 7 verse 10..." I am my beloved's, and his desire is for me"...What a beautiful metaphor! I truly believe that the same goes for us in our relationship with God. He is our Beloved and his desire is for us!

Finally, from Isaiah 40:28-31:

"Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."

I love this passage, but this time upon reading it, the phrase that really jumped out at me on the page was "His understanding is unsearchable." I know this does not really relate to the passages I was talking about earlier, but I just can't read this line enough! I looked up the word unsearchable because I am a dork and I have this great little dictionary widget ;) and the definition was "unable to be clearly understood; inscrutable". So then I was like, well what the crap does inscrutable mean...so I looked that one up to and it was, "impossible to understand or interpret". And now it makes even more sense because that means the verse basically says "His understanding is impossible to understand or interpret" In my opinion, this is really cool because I think that our human understanding is pretty predictable. Let's just be honest, we are very limited in our understanding. We are not meant to know what God is up to! Imagine if we did know...How much would that swell up our pride? If we had all of the understanding that God has, we would not be dependent upon Him at all, ever! We would think, "Well, I know exactly what God knows so I should be able to make this decision for myself. I don't need his input." Talk about pressure. Personally, as much as I complain to God about not understanding what He is up to, I'm glad I don't know it all now that I think about it!

Trust In the Lord

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, 

and do not lean on your own understanding. 

In all your ways acknowledge Him, 

and He will make straight your paths."

Proverbs 3:5-6

"Casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you"

1 Peter 5:7

"Do not be anxious about anything,

but in everything,

by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving

let your requests be made known to God."

Philippians 4:6

These verses are all familiar ones.  They are verses that I have grown up hearing, and ones that I have committed to memory.  The common trend in these verses is giving our burdens to the Lord.  They are each reassuring, reminding us of God's deep love for us.  Recently however, I have begun to see these verses and others like them in a different light.  When we do not lay our burdens at the foot of the cross we are doing more than causing ourselves heartache, we are sinning!  We are, in essence, saying that we do not trust God with our problems and that we do not think Him great enough to fix them for us.  "For the very essence of anxious care reveals the idea that we think we are wiser than God and are putting ourselves in His place to do for Him what He has promised to do for us"(From Charles Spurgeon's Morning by Morning). Surrendering our worries is certainly not a simple act for us, and I wonder why that is.  Personally, when I am concerned about something, I must give it to God continually, each time I think upon it!  I have seen, countless times, that the Lord is faithful, yet I still find it so difficult to not be anxious!  We are quick to forget all the mighty things the Lord has done.  We, as selfish beings, think that we have better solutions to our problems than God does.  If we would just give these worries completely to the Lord, He would work out even the smallest details.  We don't need to fret!  "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock." Isaiah 26:3-4

This is My Desire

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

Ephesians 3:20-21

Isn't it funny how whenever we spend time in prayer a lot of that time is spent telling God what we want and asking Him to fulfill our desires.  There we are, reminding God Almighty, who knows EVERYTHING what it is that we think will make us happy.  These verses hit me hard when I read them because they reminded me that God knows what I want even better than I know.   In fact, there are many times in my life (right now is one of those times) when I am downright unsure of what I want.  Of course I have heard before that God knows exactly what we are going to ask of Him before we even ask, but sometimes we just need to be reminded of important truths like this one.  It is so comforting to me to know that no matter how good my plans are, God's plans are always so much better!  They are so great that I would never be able to imagine them for myself!  Another line in this passage that stood out to me was "according to the power at work within us".  I love that because it points out that these cool plans that God has can be carried out through anyone who has the Holy Spirit working within their hearts!  That God can use sinful me to accomplish His purposes is a truth that continues to amaze me each time I think upon it!  I want to be a part of these awesome plans!  I might not know what God is going to do, and I may not be able to comprehend His ways, but I must be willing to let Him use me in ways that surpass my greatest imagination!