Haiti is in my prayers

Tonight God has really placed a burden in my heart for Haiti. As my friends who were just there (or have been before) have said Haiti already had practically nothing, they were already suffering, they were at zero before and now they're below that. Quoting Norman's note, which he read tonight, "If there was a place where the devil vacationed I would say it was Haiti." Haiti is the devil's play place. I think about all the people who just died not knowing the Lord. All the thousands who were lost and now it's too late. Just take a moment to think about that and what it means. When I thought about this and it sunk in I wanted to start crying. I mean when you really grasp that it breaks my heart. I've never been to Haiti but I still hurt for the people there, the people who are lost, whose lives were bad before and now it's unimaginable (even more so than before) to me how they are living, surviving. And I think how worthless our money is if there is no one to go. No one to share Christ with them. Yes our money can help get them supplies they need, shelter, food, water, medical attention, but our money won't get them Christ. Our money might help save their physical life but it won't save their soul. I'm not advocating not giving because I certainly feel if we are able to give something, anything, we should but there's so much more that they need. Haiti is heavily in my prayers tonight.

just some thoughts

So, when I first started this blog I was just going to post about songs and those aha! moments when I hear them. When I really get the meaning of them or I take something from it. But I've got more to say then just talking about songs. Also, songs aren't the Scripture. Yes, some of them, many of them, are inspired by Scripture but I can't take them for the actual word.

So tonight in church an elderly man asked the usual, "How are you?" during the 'say hey to someone around you' time. I responded with the normal expected answer, "I'm good. How are you?" To which he replied, "I'm good. No, actually I'm not good."... Oh.... Um. What do you say to that? In the couple of seconds I'm processing thinking how to respond he continues (and I don't remember his exact words but they were right along these lines). "I'm not good because the Bible says, 'No one is good, no not one'." I was relieved he said that and is indeed doing alright but he gave me something new to think about.

How He Loves

I can't let December end with no blog entry.

How He Loves

He is jealous for me,

Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves.


We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And Heaven meets earth like an unforseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

"I don't have time to maintain these regrets." Short and simple. December ending and the new year about to begin. Time to let go of theses regrets, these sins, for good. Give them all to the Lord. No matter what I've done or not done He loves me.

Jealousy

When I was preparing for the summer I had to read a book Spiritual Warfare by Timothy M. Warner. Today I found some notes I made while reading it. Simple notes. The book was talking about Satan's jealousy. I wrote "Satan is jealous of me." It made me think of the song "How He Loves." Part of the song goes, "He is jealous for me," 'He' being God. So I got to thinking, Satan and God, both jealous. How can that be? Both jealous of me? Really? Stop. Right there. That's my problem, and it can make a world of difference. Satan is jealous OF me. God if jealous FOR me.

God is jealous for me. Jealous for me, my attention, my dreams, my life, my everything. . Exodus 20:4-5a "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God." Why shouldn't he be? He made me. He made everything. He deserves my attention, my praise to Him, my everything. It all belongs to Him so He has every right to be jealous when we don't give Him what is His.

Satan on the other hand is jealous of me. Genesis 1:27 "So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." We are made in the likeness of God and Satan is jealous of that. Not only are we made in the image of God but we are also heirs. Heirs to salvation. Romans 8:17 "Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory." We are meant to give God glory and Satan is jealous of the glory we give to God. Here is a passage (2 1/2 paragraphs, please bear with me) from Spiritual Warfare that says it better than I can:

...Satan knows that while we humans have been created in the image of God for this high purpose, we need an ongoing relationship with God to accomplish that purpose. Further, he now sees us as the avenue through which he can carry on his war against God. If he can lure us with his offers of information and power or intimidate us with his shows of strength, he can, he believes, frustrate the plan of God.

Thus Satan's jealousy of God provides powerful motivation for him in this war. Jealousy is one of those stronger emotions as far as moving to action. Allowed to develop unchecked, jealousy passes through three stages. First, we see what someone else has and we want it. At the second stage, we realize that the object of our jealousy can never be ours; so we hate the other person for having what we can't have. And finally, that hate leads us to try and deprive the other person of what he or she has, whether that be something physical or something like one's reputation. Lucifer quickly reached the third stage, and his one ambition today is to deprive God of His glory and to keep us from participating in it.

The Devil cannot deprive God of glory in Heaven, but he can keep God from having His rightful glory ascribed to him by people on earth. He does this by keeping them blind to God's true character and to His purpose in creating and re-creating them and by keeping them ignorant of the power which is available to them to achieve that purpose. And when some of the people on the earth do seek the Lord and try to walk in His ways, Satan can at least keep them from living in a manner that is "for the praise of his glory." The key in either case is to get them to live self-centered rather than God- centered lives, to buy into his lies about life, and to substitute Satan's kind of power for God's power.

Give God the glory He deserves. The glory that is His. Don't let Satan try to interfere. Do not let Satan win. God is jealous for your (my) me. Give yourself (myself) to Him.

Hosanna

There are, like other songs, many things I could say about this one. I'll limit myself to two, which tie together pretty well.

I see the king of glory
Coming on the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes
The whole earth shakes

I see his love and mercy
Washing over all our sin
The people sing
The people sing

[Chorus]
Hosanna
Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest [x2]

I see a generation
Rising up to take their place
With selfless faith
With selfless faith

I see a near revival
Stirring as we pray and seek
We're on our knees
We're on our knees

[Chorus]

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from earth into
Eternity

[Chorus x2]

Hosanna in the highest

"Show me how to love like you have loved me...Break my heart for what breaks Yours, Everything I am for Your kingdom's cause. " This summer that was the cry of my heart. There were times that I felt so disconnected I would just dwell on the words, make them my prayer. I wanted to give my all to the children but felt like I was constantly holding myself back. I didn't know how to just let go and give my all. Several times in Trans when we were at the beach with the kids I would think about this. And there were times when I knew God was breaking my heart for these children and it hurts sometimes. I thought about it and how many times do we sing that, "Break my heart for what breaks Yours," and actually mean it because I mean be honest it's not fun to feel brokenhearted. To feel like you want to help but there is only so much you can do. To get just a glimpse of what these people go through everyday, their entire life, and realize I am only here doing this temporarily. I am going home soon. I won't have to deal with this again. It's heart breaking, truly heart breaking. And all you can do is cry. Cry and pray. As heartbreaking as it may be it is also in a way a welcoming feeling. It's like when a light bulb goes off in your head but instead it is a fire lit in your heart. You feel just a piece of what God feels for His children. You feel just a minute bit of what His heart feels.

Trans. A village with a couple hundred people. All the kids in that village and I only recall seeing one toy. One. And it was homemade. It was an empty gas or oil can turned sideways and made into a car. It had windows and doors cut out and old flip flops cut up into wheels. How many toys did I grow up with? Barbies alone I'd probably have enough to give each girl in the village one. Ok, maybe not each girl but close enough. This is what sparked me to put together a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child this year. I've never before put one together. It was so fun and such a fulfilling thing to do. I enjoyed so much picking stuff out and got excited about everything I'd be sending to a child that I'll never meet, never know. As a community ministry the BCM was collecting boxes. I admit I was expecting less than 10 boxes.. We haven't had much support with the community ministries. We had close to 30 boxes! You just don't know how thrilled that makes me! Every box is one more child who gets a Christmas gift and gets the Gospel shared with them. Praise the Lord!

Kids (Nona, Afebi, ?) with the toy car

the toy car