What has Jesus done for you?

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This past month I had the privilege to be part of the VOICE conference. As most of you know, sports activities at VOICE can be quite competitive at times. One afternoon at the Northwoods, I joined in a game of capture the flag. The game was going along rather well until I discovered I am not as fast or as coordinated as I previously imagined. This discovery was introduced to me through a full speed, literal head-on collision with a student. After crashing to the ground and rolling a few times, I eventually began to regain my senses enough to ensure I was in fact, still alive. As I lay on the ground watching the last few scenes of my life flash before my eyes, I prayed that the pain in my leg did not indicate a broken leg, and that my face was not bleeding too much. Thankfully, all that was required was a bandage and a few painkillers.

The next day or so, we had a church service in the tower. Going up that many stairs was a bit difficult as I tried to disguise the pain and act normal. As I sat in my chair, I was thinking about how much my body hurt, and frustrated at myself for not being able to avoid the collision. About that time, David L. began our worship service by reading Isa. 53:5 “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” When I heard that verse, the insignificance of my minor pains almost caused me to laugh at myself. At the same time, I had a tiny realization of the incredible physical and spiritual pain Jesus went through on the cross to pay the penalty required for my sins. The significance of Christ’s willing sacrifice out of love for me nearly brought me to tears. I had previously watched movies depicting the crucifixion of Jesus, read the Biblical account, and even heard testimony from medical professionals describing the intense physical pain Jesus went through on the cross, but at that moment the physical suffering of Jesus became real to me.

In living my life in a relationship with a real God, do my actions match my words? As imitators of Christ, we should be willing to love others the same way Jesus loved us. He was willing to suffer incomprehensible pain on my behalf, and yet I am often not willing to suffer embarrassment or rejection from others to stand for what I believe. This experience helped me to realize that nothing should hinder me from the responsibility I have of sharing the love of God with others that they too may know Jesus Christ personally.

Be bold to tell others what God has done in your life!

A Meaningful Summer

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Hi Everyone! This week’s post comes from my sister Rebecca, a 2007 V2 student, and recently graduated from university in England. Here are her thoughts…

At the beginning of this summer, I tried to have a perfect schedule lined up. It had to be productive and contain at least one exciting event of considerable length. And as happens every year, about half my plans fell through. So rather than tour Chile for a month or work for an English opera company, I’ve been spending my time back in Asia doing familiar things.

To an unbiased outside viewer, I’ve still been able to take some great trips and meet some amazing people. But because it wasn’t what I hoped, I found it hard to be completely invested in what I was doing. I was a transitory visitor, and I passed through each week without fully being present.

As I was internally whining over my empty ten day slot in August, God asked me, “Why don’t you care about the days I HAVE filled for you?” Even as I went on two mission trips to China and helped host multiple guests with my family, I carried out every task without giving of my emotions. Though physically there, I was always mentally in the future. 

Like the beginning of First Corinthians 13 says, if we perform all these great things, but have no love, it means nothing. It’s easy to be busy with tasks, but harder to care about those you are serving. So for me, showing love means living in my present, investing in wherever I am, whatever I’m doing. What does it mean for you to have love? 

 

Security is a Wonderful Thing

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Stained Glass Cross

What makes you feel secure?

I’ve been thinking a lot about stability and security lately. The truth is, I’ve been feeling a lack of both of them! My wife and I have been traveling a lot, we own our own business, and we’ve been trying to buy a house for months. All of that tends to remove the normal things that we look to for stability and security. As a woman, not knowing where we’re going to live is pretty hard on my wife. As a man, running my own business on a very tight budget is pretty stressful for me. As a couple, it can be a challenge to maintain our relationship with each other when we’re spending a lot of time taking care of our staff and students at photography workshops. All told, our lives have felt a little bit like an earthquake recently!

The conclusion that I have come to is that I am really grateful for things that are secure. Even though life has been stressful, never once have I doubted the Goodness of God, or the salvation that He has freely given me. A lot of other things depend on me doing something, or filling out the right form, or booking a ticket at the right time. Salvation is out of my hands… I have been adopted into God’s family, and it is now His job to ensure my eternal security. And that gives me Hope!

Extraordinary LOVE

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Love is [patient]
Love is [kind]
Love is [not jealous]
Love is [not proud, and does not boast]
Love [does not demand it’s own way]
Love [is not irritable & keeps no record of being wronged]
Love [does not rejoice about injustice]
Love [rejoices whenever truth wins out]
Love [never gives up]
Love [never loses faith]
Love [is always hopeful]
Love [endures through every circumstance]

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT

I’ve really been thinking about these verses lately, and their current presence in my life. I want more & others need more, so I proposed a challenge to myself. The “1 Corinthians 13, Love Challenge.” Yes. After thinking about it some more – I’m sure someone else has already taken my idea and has probably written a book about it, but really, I didn’t steal the idea! 🙂 Regardless of it’s originality, it’s still a tough challenge for me. I’ve committed to specifically focus on an aspect of love every week and integrate it more into my thinking, the way I live life, and more importantly- the way I approach God. It’s more of a challenge than you’d originally think too. Wow. Sometimes it’s reaaaallly hard. To be patient with myself, others & God. Not just in my actions, or my words – but my attitude. A patient person is someone who isn’t as much concerned about their agenda & time frame, but towards others. Someone who is patient won’t become irritated when stuck behind some really slow person on the freeway.

I need patience in approaching God. Not coming to Him with my “10 minutes before I have to leave for work” mentality, squeezing Him into my schedule and expecting Him to refresh, teach, and give guidance; but, it is necessary to give Him time to speak, and move in my life. Time for me to be still, and not be thinking about where I need to be, or when I need to be there. God’s timing is often way different from ours. I know because I’ve seen this & experienced it firsthand. But you know what? His timing is ALWAYS better than the timeline I’ve set for Him or myself.

While attending a car race last week at the nearby Route 66 Raceway, I learned a little bit about patience that day just by watching it all! Those race cars are ready. They’re filled with fuel, and the driver is at the start line waiting for the light to turn from Red, to Yellow, and finally to Green. If they move too soon, they’re disqualified from the race. [Which did happen to a couple cars that night! 🙁 ] I’m so grateful that God hasn’t disqualified me because I’ve moved ahead of His perfect time. Each day is a new day – and another chance to be at the starting line – waiting for His hand to display the green light.

A patient love needs to be such a bigger part of me, along with the other 11 on the list. So here it goes to 12 weeks of learning more of Christ’s love & passing it on to others!

 

Carbon Monoxide of Sin

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So, I had the privilege of meeting a moderately influential individual a couple of months ago. However, what impressed me more than who he knew was the attitude he displayed in connecting God’s people with some of his influential/prominent friends. If you happened to share with him your vision to, let’s say, head to Africa to be involved in missions trips, or even look for a new area of the country to hold the VOICE Conference, he would immediately begin thinking of ways to link you with one of his other friends who would be able to help you with your vision.

Why was this so noticeable to me? Mainly because his example of humility to bless God’s people helped reveal some of the pride that was hidden in my own heart. You see, this man lived life with the perspective that what is good for the Kingdom is good for him. Meaning, his personal agenda was not going to get in the way of advancing God’s Kingdom. Can I say that about myself? How often have I wanted to hold onto my friends, so that I could keep my cool connections to myself? How many times do I live life with the outlook to advance my own selfish “spiritual” ambitions?

A pastor I listened to the other day stated that it isn’t very difficult to uncover the majority of sins that lie deep in our heart…except for pride. Pride is the carbon monoxide of sin – it virtually is impossible to discover on our own – we need the Holy Spirit’s help! It’s a silent killer and it works its way into every area of our life – especially in our spiritual interaction. Can you honestly say that what is good for the Kingdom is good enough for you?

Mission Possible: Musical Deadline

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At each post VOICE staff discussion time, I can count on someone giving me the same criticism that I receive every year. Each time, I nod my head wearily in agreement, and try to keep from rolling my eyes in frustration.

“Next year, you need to finish the musical BEFORE VOICE starts.”

Writing last year’s musical while on an outing

Yes, I could imagine the great advantages of finishing the musical before VOICE started, and no one knew better than me how brutal the process of scrambling to finish the musical is on my mind and body. During VOICE last year, I only slept an average of 2 to 4 hours in order to get everything finished in time for rehearsal each day.

At the same time, no one understood how impossible it is to write a scene when the ideas aren’t clear in your head. I can’t write blindly, hoping something good will come out. I need to know where the scene takes place, what people are in the scene, who they really are, what needs to happen in the scene, how it fits in with the rest of the musical…

I became resigned to my fate, rationalizing that it was just the way I worked. Besides, wasn’t it always exciting to see how God would work it out so that we would still be able to practice and learn everything on time?

However, after barely managing to survive the pressure cooker of the musical last year, I finally took time to really think through my writing process, and I suddenly had an epiphany: I had never seriously prayed for God to help me finish writing the musical before VOICE started. Why? For some reason, I felt like the task of finishing the musical on time was ultimately my responsibility. If I failed, it wasn’t God’s fault, it was my own. In that case, why should I bother God by praying for something that was my own responsibility?

My writing workspace for this year’s musical

By identifying this underlying attitude, I realized how arrogant I was. Did I really think that the LORD God who created heaven and earth in six days wasn’t able to help me create a musical before VOICE started?

Right now, I’m in the middle of trying to get Act I finished. I currently have about 2.5 scenes out of ten left to write, but since I’m currently stuck on a point, I decided my time could be better spent writing this blog post instead. Even though I don’t know how to write the scene I’m working on, I know that my great Creator knows, and that He is able to work through me to actually finish the musical on time this year.

Pray for me!

 

Into All Truth

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But when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. 
John 16:13

I’ve been thinking about how it is that we find the truth. And maybe the answer is that we don’t find the truth: the Truth finds us.

Some people look to science for truth. After all, science is just looking at the world and describing what we see. The famous scientist Stephen Hawking wrote a book last year about how he thinks science can now explain where the universe came from – and explain it without God. So is that true? Well, Hawking thinks that if more than one explanation works, we should use whatever explanation is most convenient – both are equally true. I think that this is what happens when we trust science too much: our idea of truth becomes confused. What we think we see when we look at the world today is different from what people thought they saw 100 years ago. It’s even different from what they thought they saw 15 years ago (that was when many scientists began to believe that most of the stuff in the universe is a strange stuff called “Dark Energy.” No one had suggested that before). When the things that are considered scientific “fact” change so fast, who can blame Hawking for thinking that there is no stable truth about the world? No, science is good for doing work, building technology, and such things; but it’s not very good at finding out truth.

But if we can’t find the truth by looking at the world, what hope is there of finding the truth? Well, none. This might be part of what the Bible means when it says we are “lost,” “blind,” and “in darkness.” There is no hope of finding the truth about God, of knowing God. We don’t have the ability to do that. Well, a clarification: we don’t have the ability to do that unless we already know God. So how do we go from not knowing God to knowing God? This is the whole story of Christ: we don’t become God, instead he becomes human. We don’t seek him: he seeks us (Rom. 3:11). We don’t find him: he finds us (Lk. 19:10). This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit: to guide us to the truth that we would never find on our own (Jn. 16:13, above).

What good news! Even the scientists should realize that’s the only way we could ever know the truth.

Revisiting the Lily Field

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Most of you know me the way I am now—you’ve watched me teach songs in the Children’s Institutes, you’ve spent a month (or more) with me at VOICE…

But none of that was part of my plan. I had life all figured out—until my parents decided to start home education my junior year of high school. When the rest of my friends went off to college, I found myself going to Taiwan for a “short-term missions trip” with my family. No one ever told me it would last 13 years.

For this post, I want to share something I wrote a couple years after high school. I didn’t know what the future held, but I can tell you now that knowing the One who holds your future makes all the difference.

We huddled together on the curb, sheltered from the drizzle by a few umbrellas. I looked back and forth between the long graceful calla lilies just peeking over the edge of plastic buckets and the wire-fenced field six to twelve inches deep with water where I could pick my own. I pulled on rubber boots and overalls, then sloshed down the aisles, choosing the tall ones, just beginning to show their white petals, but not yet in bloom. My fingers followed the stem to its base beneath the water and carefully tugged upward until the prize came free into my hands. Three elegant hand-picked lilies now bloom in plastic juice bottles in our dining room. They remind me of something I recently read in My Utmost For His Highest:

“‘Consider the lilies of the field’—they grow where they are put. Many of us refuse to grow where we are put, consequently we take root nowhere. Jesus says that if we obey the life God has given us, He will look after all the other things.”(Oswald Chambers) 

For the past couple years, I have been praying that God would reveal His purpose for my life. Why did He take me out of school? Why aren’t I in college? Why did He move me to Taiwan? Will people look down on me, because I don’t have a “proper education”? Will I ever get a “real job”? What in the world am I doing here?

As I looked at my lilies, I realized my faithlessness. If centuries of lilies have blossomed under the kind hand of our Creator, how much more my Father cares for me! Through the years, He has given me the same answer to my questions, “Seek ye first My kingdom…and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33) So I am the Lord’s lily, and He wants me to grow and blossom for His glory no matter where He chooses to place me.

 

The Desert: A Place to Grow?

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Wadi Rum Desert, Jordan ©2010-2012 David Sant, used by permission.

The sun beats down until the rocks are so hot you could literally fry an egg on them.  Finally the sun drops below the horizon and the temperature plummets to near freezing.  Winds whip across the parched landscape, blowing sand into your eyes, nose, and mouth.  There is little to no water and only the sturdiest, most efficient plants and animals survive here.

The desert is a wasteland.

Or is it?

Often Christians describe bad times in their spiritual lives as “desert times”: times of dryness, apathy, and seeming distance from God.  I believe there are actually two types of spiritual deserts: those God leads us into and those that we make for ourselves by losing fellowship with God.

Throughout the Bible, God led individuals into the desert and used that time to grow their faith.

Moses spent at least eighty years of his life in the desert.  During the first forty years, God was preparing him to lead the Israelites across a desert into the Promised Land.

John the Baptist grew up in the desert. (Lk. 1:80) Then God used him to prepare the way for Jesus.

Jesus fasted for forty days in a desert in preparation for His ministry.  The Bible tells us that He was led there by the Holy Spirit. (Lk. 4:1)

However my favorite Bible story about a desert concerns Philip.  Philip was a leader of the church in Jerusalem.  He had just participated in an amazing spiritual awakening in Samaria, preaching the Gospel and baptizing new believers.  He was seeing God work and getting to be a part of it.  It must have been like working at VOICE multiplied by about a thousand (and watching God work at VOICE is incredible!).

The next thing Philip knows, he’s sitting in Jerusalem and God is telling him to go to the Gaza desert.  There are no people in the desert.  If I had been in Philip’s shoes I would have been thinking, “Um, we are on a roll here, God.  Why on earth do you want me to go to this desert?  You aren’t making any sense!”

The next sentence simply says, “And he arose and went.”  Wow.  That’s faith.  That’s living like God is real and truly all-knowing.

Philip followed God to a seemingly barren place, but he was able to share the Gospel with a man from the court of the Queen of Ethiopia.  We can’t ever know how many Ethiopians believed on Christ just because Philip “arose and went” to the desert!  (Read Philip’s story for yourself in Acts 8:5-40 in Chinese or English.)

God can make good things happen even in the desert.  My question for all of us is, do we try to flee the spiritual desert too soon?  Of course it’s uncomfortable.  Of course it’s lonely.  However, maybe we seek escape when we should be seeking God.

Each of us will probably spend time in a spiritual desert.  Let’s be careful we are there because of God’s direction and not as a result of our own sin!  The Israelites disobeyed God and because of their sin they were forced to wander in a desert for 40 years.  If you take yourself into a desert by disobeying God and losing fellowship with Him – repent!  Don’t waste your life wandering in a spiritual desert of unbelief.

If God leads you into a desert, seek Him.  At the very least He wants to draw you closer and perhaps prepare you for something in the future.

 

Your Daily Cross

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“It is finished.” This short phrase signified the completion of the work of Jesus on earth to provide the opportunity for all of mankind to be reconciled to God. It was a simple declaration of a Son to His Father, indicating Christ’s obedience to the will of God the Father. Christians across the world celebrate Easter this weekend, a holiday during which we remember the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf and the salvation made possible through this act of obedience.

As we remember the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus upon the cross, we are often confused by the behavior of people who one day welcomed Jesus as King, then screamed for His death. How could they be so blind to the love of Jesus? How much more confusing is it that we Christians who have read the story from the Bible and, to a limited extent, know something of the plan God had for us, so often take God’s gift of salvation for granted.

To follow Christ means to live as Christ lived. During this Easter season, we see the extent of the willingness of Christ to obey the Father, even unto death. How is that reflected as we live out our daily lives for God? Are we willing, like Jesus was, to obey God and trust Him to direct in our lives? What might we be unwilling to surrender to God’s care? How easy it is for us to hold on to our own plans and ideas. This Easter season, I encourage you to challenge yourselves to understand and obey God’s loving command to take up your cross daily and follow Jesus.

He Is Risen!