As I spend time in the company of "true" Saints I am thrust deeper into what it means to believe, to have faith.
Faith is not simply believing in the unseen. While that is quite the anecdotal answer I believe that faith is much more.
Faith is believing in what one cannot see, but it is also acting upon movement that one cannot see. A movement that comes from an unseen place, but that is clearly real. Acting with vigor--knowing (different than thinking) that what has been said will be done.
On Friday I listened to a woman tell me that she prayed to God for direction. God gave her a list of ten initiatives for the group that she is leading--and all in the same leading told her to quit. Now as she is on her way out she watches as this list of ten is slowly but surely completed. In the world of faith-based non-profit a list of ten items flowing smoothly has to be the work of the LORD.
As I reflect on where I am in life and as I attempt to follow the modeling of "true" Saints around me I feel pushed to pray. This woman prayed and God lead. God told her exactly what to do next. Now God did not give her the plan in its entirety, but God gave her the next step.
As she talked about her career change she said to me, "God will give me my next job. I am know that God will lead me to it."
What more would it be for me to believe that God will lead me to the next place that I should go? To believe that God will give me the plan for my current position?
Nothing more.
I must pray.
I fear though that I do not know how to pray. In that instance though, I can remember what a wise woman said to me. She said, "You have a beautiful voice. A gift from God. Pray to God. Sing to God. Pray in song. As you read the Word sing melodies using the Word of the LORD. That too is prayer."
I will pray and know by faith in God.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Arise with Hope and Vision!
This summer has felt as if someone is punching me in the face over and over again. I feel unrecognizable. This veil of frustration covers my face so thickly even I cannot see. I ask God for wisdom and receive more strife. I ask God for patience and find more resistance. I ask God for grace and find more unforgiveness.
Youth work is a thankless job. I don't mind that at all though. What bothers me is that I feel so discouraged. How can I be discouraged when God reigns supreme and victorious?
This summer the high school students lack hope and vision. They cannot see their own potential. They are unwilling to accept the love of Christ. They fear their own greatness. They see any attempt at boundaries and accountability as some sort of ploy to hold them down. Every standard is a conspiracy to dismember their youthful freedom. Why can't they see that they are allowing themselves to be chained to stones and cast into the ocean? Their disregard for standards will most likely be the demise of their actual freedom.
It is clear to me that God redeems, but even so He still allows us to feel consequence. We cannot avoid the truth of our choices.
In the evening when I get home I am drained. I am exhausted because I feel so much. I am so sad, so angry, so frustrated, and so passionate... I cannot bear to see them act so callously with their lives, but they cannot see the gifts they possess. I want them to instantaneously see in a moment of revelation and grow up, but that is not how it works.
I lay awake thinking and asking God for the next thing to say--for the next prayer to pray--in hopes that they might wake up and together we might rise up.
As a generation they hold so much power, but they suffer from the same youthful complacency that we have all encountered. We can have so much power and yet never touch it, and never see it come to fruition.
We are creating a generation that can talk using internet intelligence about issues, but that cannot act with historically grounded intelligence on issues.
Oh that God would wake this generation from their slumber. Oh that they would cry out in lamentation and mourn the lost. Oh that they would stand up out of their lament to by God's power act in Christ-like victory.
Oh that we could encourage them and not see them filled with anger when faced with accountability. Oh that we could be one in mind and purpose in the Lord. That we could cry out as one to the God of Israel and in the power of the LORD step forward in a spirit of truth. That we would as one people rise up as Children of the Light--together.
They are our Oaks of Righteousness. They will rebuild the city. Together we will rise up out of the ash heap--they needy, the poor, the disenfranchised, the overworked, the discouraged, the wayward youth, the lost soul, the thirsty, the hungry, the prostitute, the embezeller, the tired, the searching, the happy but not joyful--unmasked and revealed--together we will rebuild the city.
Oh God will set us free from complacency. Give us a hope and a vision.
Let your servants not weep and suffer the singe of discouragement in vain. Let your servants rejoice for the joy of the LORD is our strength. We know this momentary discomfort is nothing in light of the cross and what Christ has done.
Youth work is a thankless job. I don't mind that at all though. What bothers me is that I feel so discouraged. How can I be discouraged when God reigns supreme and victorious?
This summer the high school students lack hope and vision. They cannot see their own potential. They are unwilling to accept the love of Christ. They fear their own greatness. They see any attempt at boundaries and accountability as some sort of ploy to hold them down. Every standard is a conspiracy to dismember their youthful freedom. Why can't they see that they are allowing themselves to be chained to stones and cast into the ocean? Their disregard for standards will most likely be the demise of their actual freedom.
It is clear to me that God redeems, but even so He still allows us to feel consequence. We cannot avoid the truth of our choices.
In the evening when I get home I am drained. I am exhausted because I feel so much. I am so sad, so angry, so frustrated, and so passionate... I cannot bear to see them act so callously with their lives, but they cannot see the gifts they possess. I want them to instantaneously see in a moment of revelation and grow up, but that is not how it works.
I lay awake thinking and asking God for the next thing to say--for the next prayer to pray--in hopes that they might wake up and together we might rise up.
As a generation they hold so much power, but they suffer from the same youthful complacency that we have all encountered. We can have so much power and yet never touch it, and never see it come to fruition.
We are creating a generation that can talk using internet intelligence about issues, but that cannot act with historically grounded intelligence on issues.
Oh that God would wake this generation from their slumber. Oh that they would cry out in lamentation and mourn the lost. Oh that they would stand up out of their lament to by God's power act in Christ-like victory.
Oh that we could encourage them and not see them filled with anger when faced with accountability. Oh that we could be one in mind and purpose in the Lord. That we could cry out as one to the God of Israel and in the power of the LORD step forward in a spirit of truth. That we would as one people rise up as Children of the Light--together.
They are our Oaks of Righteousness. They will rebuild the city. Together we will rise up out of the ash heap--they needy, the poor, the disenfranchised, the overworked, the discouraged, the wayward youth, the lost soul, the thirsty, the hungry, the prostitute, the embezeller, the tired, the searching, the happy but not joyful--unmasked and revealed--together we will rebuild the city.
Oh God will set us free from complacency. Give us a hope and a vision.
Let your servants not weep and suffer the singe of discouragement in vain. Let your servants rejoice for the joy of the LORD is our strength. We know this momentary discomfort is nothing in light of the cross and what Christ has done.
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