Tando

I am not sure if I can put what I saw and felt today into words.

I went with my missions team from Victory/3D to Tando, Philippines. We went ot the slums, which are abandoned warehousees that many people live in. They have constructed small compartments in the warehouse out of every piece of material imaginable. They pick through the trash and gather half eaten food and recook it and eat it.

They have no running water or electricity. They pea on th estreet. They get high on glue so that they won't have to think about how hungry they are.

Today made me angry. The people living in the dump sites were cleaner than the slums. It was awful. Everything smelled. Kids ran around naked, people bathe in the same water that they pee in and play in.

In one building everyone was getting high on glue. They do this for several reasons...
1) If they are high, they won't be hungry
2) Beacause they are bored
3) To forget their life
4) One lady we saw was sniffing glue because she was pregnant and she wanted to kill the baby. She was recently impregnated and she doesn't know who the father is.

The sight today was overwhelming. I didn't really talk to anyone about it yet. I need to debrief but there is no one on this trip who I feel like I can do that with.

People shouldn't have to live like that.

Constant, Holy

Another Attribute of God's character:  Constant.

He is so faithful.  Always there, love unfailing.

He is as faithful as the sun is to rise every morning... and He is the one who causes it to rise.  He speaks to the day each morning and commands it into existence.

He is constant in his love for us, he never fails to show us love or to stop loving us.  He is so unlike me.  I am amazed at his love.  Wonderful.  Lord, thank you for your constant love...  

Love. unfailing.  

The best part is that you are not just constant in your love, but in your justice, grace, mercy, your ways, they are unchanging.  You haven't changed for years.  You are the same yesterday, today and forever!

Well, this was a character trait that I have been thinking about a lot lately, but I hadn't blogged yet.

Another Attribute: Holy

I was reading in Ezekiel yesterday about his vision of the Son of Man and I was speechless.  How could this be the same God that I claim to follow each day.  He is so holy and full of reverence, yet I do not treat him as such.  Ezekiel describes the son of man as a fire so bright that he could not see.  The glory surrounding the Son was unimaginable and Ezekiel fell down on his face and worshipped him.

Okay this made me think...  When was the last time I fell on my face to worship God because I had caught a glimpse of his glory.  He described the radiance as that of the glow from a rainbow after it rains.

As facebook would say "What is on your mind?"

I am.... FED UP WITH OUR PREVERSE CULTURE!

Why is it okay to glorify sex outside marriage or even talk about marriage outside the bedroom... its not! And its not okay for Christians to make sexual crude jokes. When did that become funny? What happened to the innocence of youth, and the desire to keep our hearts and minds focused on the God. I don't believe God laughs at our sexually crude jokes, nor does he think its funny.

Look at who we have become! Young girls starve themselves because they want to look like the "pretty girls." We have projected so much the image of beauty from our standpoint that we hate ourselves.

Why is it funny to make fun of someone who isn't as pretty as we are?

Mysterious

I took a walk early this morning while it was still a little dark and there was mist rising from a few ponds on the golf course. It was mysterious looking and cold... so I wasn't quite sure that I wanted to venture out from the house, but I knew I needed to.

While on my walk I stopped long enough to stare at the moon and thought about Gideon who stared at this very same moon and battled while it stood still because he prayed for daylight to complete the battle.

Then I thought about George Washington when I looked at the North Star. He saw the same star that I did. I am no different than these amazing men of God who lived their lives entirely for the purpose of the Kingdom. I challenged myself, what is stopping me? What am I to do next?

Sometimes I ask the wrong questions when I am looking for an answer, and I think today is an example of that. More than exploring my next assignment, I need to explore the character of God. I stood there in the middle of the early morning longing to know God... the creator of all that I see, He designed everything to work together perfectly... including me. I know that He has a specific purpose and call on my life. He is the answer to everything.

So, I felt God say to me that He is going to reveal himself to me through one aspect of his character at a time and I am to study that attribute until he reveals the next.

God is mysterious. This is an attribute of his character that I have not studied before, but I am excited to learn.

"And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ" - Ephesians 1:9

^"Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed" - 1 Corinthians 15:51

The Kingdom

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

I had a conversation with a friend last night where we discussed whether we were reaching our goals in life.  She is a wife and a mother of two small children and I am incredibly blessed and encouraged by her.  She carries a heavier load than I actually realize.  She is an amazing friend to our neighbor's, she has allowed me and another to live with her family, and I am so grateful.

Coming back to the point, I am so glad we talked about this last night.  It's a great question, what are my goals?  As a Christian, my first priority is the Kingdom of God.  So, I started asking myself these questions...

Am I focused on the Kingdom all the time?  Do the decisions I make stem from my belief that I am merely a stranger here on this earth and I am headed to a better place where I will live with my Creator?  Do I care enough about people to tell them the knowledge that I have about who God is and the truth of where we are all headed?  

This is challenging to me even as I write this.  I know that there are areas in my beliefs that are not fully committed to God, because if they were I would be sharing the gospel with everyone I saw.  

"Lord, my prayer today is that you would overwhelm me with the knowledge of who you are so that I walk in the reality of the life that I profess to be living.  You are truly my all and my goal in this life."

"Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Grace

"Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved..." - Amazing Grace

When I have been extended grace from God, it is so much easier to extend grace to others. Right now, I am so grateful for forgiveness. I heard this verse this evening... "but love covers a multitude of sins."

I do not deserve grace and mercy tonight, but I am so thankful to receive it.

You know I am not looking forward to judgement day when I must give an account for every bad thought I've had, for being selfish, and for so much more....

I need help on that part.

Fog

Mmmm... So, I woke up this morning in a stupor half dreaming that I was racing to the shower before I ever left the bed. ha. Well, I made it to the shower and was pleasantly awake when I left the bathroom after realizing that I had made it in and out of the shower with plenty of time left to sit and soak up some quality time with God.

That's when I ventured into the kitchen only to look outside and see that it was totally white-washed. I couldn't even see the tree ten feet out from the backdoor. It looked like it had snowed. I put my glasses on to see that it was just a very foggy morning... "eeee!" I love exciting days, and I could feel one coming on!

Fog... what an adventure. On my drive into work I pondered if the fog was God's glory how awesome it would truly be. And today seems to be a fitting day for our world to be engulfed in the fog, because today is the National Day of Prayer and that is precisely what we are planning to do... to pray that God's glory would fill this country.

"Father, I pray that you would fill this nation with your glory right now. Lord we come to you with repentent hearts for there is great wickedness that dwells within us and among us. We have trampled you and your people. Lord, forgive us for defiling you. We ask that you would rend the Heavens and come down. We seek to honor you. From the top down, please change the hearts of this nation. Thank you for hearing us."

I am excited to gather with fellow believers in Jesus today to pray for this nation which was founded on God. I will think of that fog from this morning as I pray!