What I Have Been Learning

As I continue to prepare for my trip to Africa, naturally I am spending more time in the Word of God. My Heavenly Father has been showing me so much, and I cannot wait for His dreams to be fulfilled in me while I am away. He has spoken great things to me and conveyed to me a calling that I hope to never lose or give up on. In our times together, He has shown me things about faith, trust, obedience, love, and His promise to never forsake me. One of my absolutely favorite verses in Scripture is Isaiah 43: 1 and 2,

 “But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed, O Israel; ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you.”

That gives me so much peace! My God will not leave me! Do you really understand that? Think just for a moment… the Creator of the galaxies, the author and finisher of all that exists, the One who breathed you to life, the God that is above all other gods, will never ever leave you!!! Not even when the flames are surrounding us or when the waters are rising and billowing all around us. But, better than just not leaving us, He says that the flames will not scorch us or burn us, and that the waters will not overtake us!! What an awesome God that we serve!

The other important thing that keeps showing up in so many passages of Scripture that I read is, love. As you remember from my first post, I am on a journey and a quest to experience Gods love in a radical way and to share His love with all that I meet. I feel like we hear so much about how important love is and how we should love our neighbor as ourselves, but often we cease to obey this commandment. Many of you are familiar with the 13^th chapter of 1 Corinthians. It is a very powerful selection, and Paul writes to show just how great love is and the power that it holds. Let us read:

“Though I speak with tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.”

Those first three verses can be hard to swallow. Paul hits the nail right on the head. Love is not a show or an act. If we speak, so eloquently and brilliantly but, have not love… it becomes an annoyance, a clanging cymbal in the ears of God. We may be able to understand complicated concepts and may have the faith in God to move mountains, but without love, it is pointless. Paul says that even if we give all away and offer our life to the point of death, but do not sacrifice out of love…. What does it matter?  Each of us know when someone is pretending to be our friend or is just saying something nice for show, and doesn’t it just drive you crazy? I would rather they be hateful towards me than watching them have a fake love.

Paul then describes to the Corinthians what love is:

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth, bears all things, believes all things hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…… And now abide faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Wow. Imagine if we genuinely acted that out? How would you feel the next time someone said I love you? We should read this every day as a reminder of how to love. This is why we are on earth: to bring glory to God by loving Him and serving Him and a result of that would be loving everyone else. A genuine love makes you stand out. Christ does not tell us to simply love our friends and family and those we care about, He takes it a step further. He commands us to love our enemies and those who hate us. He did as He was dying on the cross. He not only gave His life for those that would accept and believe in Him he also died for the ones that were crucifying Him; He loved all with a genuine love, the love described in  1 Corinthians. Let us follow in His example!

Masaai Village

Here are some pictures of the Masaai Village.

 

 

These pictures are to help give you a visual for what I may be seeing while I am at the Masaai Village. I cannot wait to show you pictures of what I actually am seeing while I am there! I hope this helps!

My Day

What excites you? What gets your heart pounding? What would you consider to be the best day ever? Maybe you would answer watching live the championship of a rivalry sports game. Perhaps you would say spending the day with a famous person you admire. Would you say a relaxing getaway vacation with your family? Or maybe for you it would be seeing a place you have always wanted to visit. Would you like to know my answer to this question? I will describe my day.

                I wake up early to watch the sun rise on the African soil. The sunlight covers the land and awakens all sleeping things. I walk down the streets to find beautiful children playing with tires, rolling them down the street and laughing as they chase each other. I look on the other side as I walk the dusty road and see a market full of merchants selling all sorts of things. I have been studying the word in depth for 3 months and have learned so much. God has challenged me and stretched me beyond my limits. Today is the day I get to visit the Maasai village. These people still wear their tribal clothes and live as they have for hundreds of years. I will get to witness to these amazing people. We will work in their schools and show them the love of God through our humility to serve them. As they see me help their children with schoolwork, they will see love. A love that is far greater than mine and exceeds anything they have ever seen before. The love in me of Jesus Christ! They will see the glow that I have on my face as I minister to them. Perhaps they will hear the wonderful message I will get to share as I evangelize to them. Or maybe while I am there that day and I work in one of their churches, I will remind one of the believers of the faithfulness of God. Whatever the outcome, my visit there will be a blessing! Perhaps that night for supper I will eat goat meat on a stick with rice, bananas, and mangos. That night, after a long day’s work, I will fall asleep outside under the stars, gazing at the moon. The stars are endless in number; impossible to count. These stars may have been some of the ones Abraham was gazing at when he remembered the promise the Lord gave him, “… I will bless you, and multiplying, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore…”  This was not the first time Abraham had had a divine intervention with the Lord. Genesis chapter 12 gives us the words God spoke, “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.” As Abraham obediently answered God, so have I, as I leave my family and friends to venture with God to the Land that He is showing me... Africa.

That day I chased the dream God placed before me. Because of that day, there is a little less darkness in Africa. And because maybe, just maybe, that day the angels rejoiced as one of God’s precious children returned to Him. A lost soul being made new! There is no greater calling, than to proclaim the love of God. That day, I recklessly followed Jesus. Despite the dusty roads of Tanzania, the layers of mosquitos, the interesting food, the nights spent sleeping outside with who knows what other creatures, despite the sickness that will come, the sorrow I will encounter and times of loneliness, if those are the things I must go through and endure for the reward of the day I described to you above, I gladly accept. I willingly take the risk! Because, if I do not who will? I am not going to let the Lord pass me by because I am afraid of a little heartache. No. I will not let the chance of bringing glory to my King be given to someone else because I do not want to step out of my comfort zone. Here I am LORD! Send Me! I am ready to follow you.

That is what my day looks like…the day that takes my breath away. That is the day I could repeat an endless amount of times.

Beautiful Africa

I think every time I watch this, my heart stops briefly. Beautiful Africa :) This is the watoto childrens choir. I cannot wait until I am able to go to Uganda, but for now God is calling me to Tanzania. Please watch and enjoy!

Website

http://www.ywamafrica.org/East/Tanzania/Arusha/index.html

Here is a link to the YWAM Arusha website. This is the place I will be staying at in Africa for the first 5 months.

Purpose Behind My Blog Title

An unknown author once said, “Words have meaning and names have power.”  The words we choose to write or speak have a far greater power then we realize. Words can inspire others to do great things. They can motivate a dream that may have died long ago. Every name has a purpose and a meaning. Titles and names given to objects represent who they are. With this being said, I would like to share with you the purpose behind the title of my blog.

The wondrous song, “The Love of God” written by Fredrick L. Lehman, was my source of inspiration; particularly the third stanza, which was adapted by a separate, unknown author. The interesting thing about this stanza is where the words were first located. These words, which contain so much beauty and paint an amazing description of the love of God, were found etched on the walls of a cell in an insane asylum. This man who was delirious and demented wrote these profound words:

"Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky."

What a glorious thought! This analogy gives us a taste of how vast the love of God is. As it is written in Romans 8:38 and 39 (NIV), “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We will never be able to escape God’s abounding love for us.

The other thought that comes to mind, is just how important love is. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13: 2b and 3, “and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” In short, Paul says without love we are nothing. Do you see how important love is? Love crosses cultures and captivates all. Love breaks the barriers of different languages and speaks universally in a way all seem to understand. Christ’s greatest commandments He gave us were to love Him with all of our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Imagine how the world would be radically changed if we followed those commands to our best ability!

So, this is my quest, for the next 6 months in Africa, and then for the rest of my life, “To Write the Love of God”. In my everyday life to make the glory of God known. I pray that the love of God would fill me to the uttermost that I may show it to the world. To be contagious with His joy is my desire. I want to beam with His light and goodness in the darkest parts of Africa and in the lives of other around me. As I write the love of God in my blog I will share stories of my encounters of while I am away. Each story proclaiming the goodness of His love.

I hope that through my blog and personal testimonies I can inspire you and motivate you to join me in sharing the love of God with all!