Red X’s and Why I am Tired of Awareness

This is a beautifully written post voicing the truth about awareness movements, and the power of prayer

Stones Cry

Earlier this week, a sweet friend emailed and said that she noticed that a red X seemed to be the message of the day in the trafficking movement – said she didn’t know how I felt about it, but that she was praying.  Praying for me, and for those still bound, and those who are still trying to recover.

I knew the red X.  I mean, at least, I knew that it was part of another awareness campaign – one backed by big bucks.

But at the time, I was sitting on the beach.  And I didn’t care.

Later that evening I arrived home and saw the social media feeds and that it was “the” day for the red X.  A day when everyone could take a red sharpie and put a big red X on their hand to bring awareness to the fact that modern day slavery still exists.

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I Am A Ukrainian, This Needs To Go Viral

Humility

Humility does not mean “I’m so ugly,” “I am not good at anything,” “I hate myself.”  Humility is the ability to view yourself through God’s eyes, as His beloved son or daughter, and know that it is enough. To act with neither false humility nor pride because you do not seek approval from anybody except from Whom has already given it to you. That is the beauty of humility.

When pride comes, disgrace follows, but with humility comes wisdom. -Proverbs 11:2

Passion

To live without passion is to live against everything we were created to be. Our God is perfectly passionate about justice, and in his great love for us he gave his son in the greatest act of passionate mercy in history. He is passionate about how much He loves us, and passionate about portraying that love to us. If we live passionless, we are going against our identity as the image bearers of God and his infinite and perfect passion.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”

Genesis 1:26 (HCSB)

Response

When we acknowledge how truly broken we are, and how broken all of those around us are, the immediate response is to wonder where the justice is in all of the suffering that we see. The Holy Spirit allows us to react differently. With Him living in us, and working through us, we are able to see this brokenness surrounding us and at the same time see the immense beauty that God provides and shows us because of His goodness. Despite the suffering, we are able to move on; to forgive and love those who have wronged us. We are able to see glimpses of the coming Glory of Christ, which renders us unable to hold onto bitterness. Because we are in Christ, we are unable to cling to the bitterness that we feel towards the past or others because we are clinging so tightly to Him who is standing in front of us. It’s only when we are clinging to Christ that we are able to see the beauty that He sees in every single thing that He has created.

I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.

John 16:33 (HCSB)

Back to the Blog

My words are a bit rusty, but I am back to writing.  I love being able to record in a somewhat public sphere things that God shares with me, and things that He shows me in every day life. “This is all my hope and peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus” This hymn is easily one of the most powerful ever written.  Nothing but the blood of Jesus. NOTHING.  Jesus tells us that He is the way, the truth, and the life.  He is the source of all things that we have.  When we begin to truly live by this truth, we can experience life in a completely different way.  That girl doesn’t like my shirt? Oh, thats a bummer, but my value comes from the Lord.  Oh that person didn’t want to ask me out on a date?  That’s alright because my worth comes from Jesus’ work on the cross.

Sometimes, when things don’t go my way, I try  to feel sorry for myself, and I honestly try to cry, and be sad.  I feel the lies of the enemy that I am not good enough, unworthy of love, unworthy of affection.  But Jesus doesn’t let me believe the lies.  He doesn’t let me feel pathetic and unworthy.  He declares into my heart that I am loved by Him, and therefore worthy of being loved.

I am lovely because He loves me.  This is all my hope and peace, NOTHING but the blood of Jesus.  Such a simple truth that, when declared every single day, can change your life so radically. God is so faithful, friends.  Pursue Him.

Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’ -John 14:6

Lord, You are my portion

and my cup of blessing;

You hold my future. -Psalm 16:5

Therefore go

God has been pressing international missions on me so heavily lately.  I am aware that we are to be on mission at every point in life, in any setting that God has placed us in, but I feel so called to go out into the world.  I feel such a heaviness on my heart for the unreached people, and for their children.  God has chosen not to reveal to me where he desires for me to serve, but He is slowly preparing me to go.  I am feeling less and less need to be “comfortable,” and He is teaching me in every situation how to look at it from His perspective.  It is seriously so amazing to be in this new mindset of how the Holy Spirit can work through me every single day to further the Kingdom.  

This generation needs to start being more concerned with the furtherance of the Kingdom than how well a ministry is going, or how happy they will be, or how much money they will make.  If every single Christian out there lived every single day with the sole intention of bringing forth the kingdom, things would look so much different.  I am so excited to see how God changes hearts in this generation. 

Forever

We seem to overlook this word. Forever. It doesn’t really carry much weight in society today; “best friends forever,” or “we’ll be together forever, babe.” We use it to imply that we will have feelings towards one another for a long time. However, this rendition of the word is completely different than the biblical version of forever. The word forever appears 309 times in the HCSB translation of the Bible, and I can promise you that that word means something much different and more significant than what we make it out to mean in everyday use.  This is how google defines the word forever:

/fəˈrevər/

Adverb For all future time; for always. A very long time (used hyperbolically).

For all future time.  Even that doesn’t seem to capture the essence of the fact that God is with us FOREVER. Not until He is sick of you and moves on, not until we decide we get angry with Him, not until anything: FOREVER. It not something our linear minds can comprehend.  I mean we can’t even comprehend the way that time works, let alone what forever truly means.

Last night at Community group, someone prayed: Jesus thank you that we are FOREVER yours, and you are FOREVER ours.  I got chills down my spine at this small yet huge prayer.  Jesus, I am forever yours. Not, “Jesus, I am yours as long as you keep blessing me financially” or “Jesus, I am yours as long as you keep me healthy,” or “Jesus, I am yours as long as you keep this man or woman in my life.” No, we are His forever, through thick and thin, through trials and hardships, through times of prosperity and blessing.  And even past our lifetime here on earth! Once we die, we will be taken up to be with God, just simply dwelling in His presence rejoicing in His glory forever.

I don’t know about you guys, but this idea is rocking my mind right now. I am Yours FOREVER, Jesus, FOREVER.

Thought of the day

Seeing fellow believers argue and say things in anger at non-believers over the internet makes me so sad.  We are not called to sit there and spit arguments at those who do not believe in our Savior.  If you are in a situation with a questioning person who wants to find God, then letting them know Truth is totally okay.  But in a situation where the person has a completely hardened heart, nothing you say (especially over comments on the internet) will ever change their mind.  All it will do is make them even more bitter towards Christianity as a whole, and that helps nobody.  The best thing you can do is back up, LOVE, and pray.  What I mean by that is simple: no matter what that person says respond with love, not some comment about the bible that you think is so witty or clever.  Love though the grace of Jesus (along with tons and tons of prayer) is the only thing that can soften a hard heart.

“Now the end of all things is near; therefore, be serious and disciplined for prayer. Above all, maintain an intense love for each other, since love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Based on the gift each one has received, use it to serve others, as good managers of the varied grace of God. If anyone speaks, it should be as one who speaks God’s words; if anyone serves, it should be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To Him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.”

– 1 Peter 4:7-11

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment with any thoughts about this topic!

A lot of thoughts today

I understand a lot of people find it so hard to believe in the Bible, and in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.  I really do.  I’m in astronomy class right now, and even though we have a Christian professor, he is teaching us that the world was made billions and billions of years ago, and has evolved, basically teaching evolution. When he talks about the dates of rocks, and the theories behind the universe being created, it is so easy to slip up and say wow that Book I read this morning was way off, science is the way to go.  But the idea that the Bible is wrong doesn’t ever phase me.  I know that God inspired the writing of the Bible, and He intended it for a purpose.  He did not write it as a science book to explain how the world works.  He intended it to tell the redemptive story of His people, and His plans for the world.  Yes, science does “technically” conflict with Genesis, but I don’t believe that it really has to.  It has to be read in context, if you read it in the context of the culture for which it was written, it makes much more sense.  If God had laid out all of these physics terms, the people would have had no idea what was going on.  You need to remember that it was not written specifically for this time and culture.  

And on the mere existence of God: nothing science will ever tell me will ever disprove the fact that I believe in a loving God who plans to save His creation.  I have been through it all, and I have seen both sides of life, one without the belief in God and one with, and I can attest that the life with God, and his redemptive grace through Jesus Christ, is better than anything I could ever imagine.  Truly I tell you, His peace and grace are overwhelming.  Looking back at my life before I had Christ, I can see how much I have grown in all good things.  Its unbelievable, and I am so grateful that my Pappa has saved me from where I was headed.  

Finally friends, I challenge you to see what it is that you are trying to be saved by, whether its your schoolwork, your job, your family, whatever it is, and really look at it.  Is it eternal? Is it life-giving?  Jesus is both of those things and He desperately wants you.  Let Him embrace you.  You won’t regret it.