A New Christian Life

I'm not going to lie: I've become increasingly bored with the brand of Christianity I've been practicing. It seems that I joined- no, was born into- some sort of club and the rules involve trying not to cuss, not drinking (or at least not drinking excessively), dressing up on Sundays and carrying my Bible to church. No matter what sort of week I've been having, there's an unspoken obligation to be perky at church. We should be happy at church, but because we're free and forgiven not because it's the thing to do. I've noticed that my life bears very little difference to the lives of my unsaved neighbors and friends. We're all after the same thing: security, money, a healthy retirement account, the American Dream.

Last year I read Max Lucado's book It's Not About Me. (My blog post here.) That was the beginning of seeing my life the way it should be rather than what I've allowed it to become. It was the first time I had consciously considered that Christianity wasn't a side thing to do along with the rest of my life, but the main purpose of the life God gave me. Then I read Tom Davis's book Red Letters (my post here) and started visiting his blog. Until then I had always thought of anti-hunger organizations as the non-Christian's way of feeling like they were making a difference without God. I thought it was making up for not having Jesus. What an eye-opening experience to realize that the saved are those that should be at the forefront of these efforts for the hungry, orphaned and widowed!

God began to speak to me about making a difference where I am- to bloom where he plants me. I can show his love to my neighbors, believing that He put me where I am for a divine purpose. I heard Lee Strobel's Focus on the Family- aired recordings "If Jesus Lived At My House" and suddenly a whole new world of opportunity opened up.

And now I've been reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I've been impressed with so much of the book, but these particular points have stood out so far:

• Christians were first called "Christians". They didn't name themselves. The unsaved looked at them, at the way they lived, and said, "Those people are like the one they call the Christ. They are followers of his teachings. They are Christians." How many of those around you would voluntarily call you a Christian, or is that a label you've given yourself? What makes it true?
• God is HUGE and doesn't need me. He wants me. He created everything through Himself and for Himself.
• It's time to step out of our Western Christian mindsets and live radically for Christ in whatever way He calls each of us to do that.
  

I'm still not sure what all the practical applications of that will look like in my life. But here are my first, elementary thoughts: I don't have a job and I am raising kids. I want to raise them with an awareness of what true Christianity looks like. I want to be an example of that. In the following days and weeks I will be praying for God's directing in my life on how to do that. I will pray for the lost and abandoned and hungry and pray that the change I see in myself will be lasting and not a passing personal fad. I will start this year to get an education that will lead to money and skills to help the lost and hurting. Currently, I'm planning to pursue a nursing degree, unless God tells me otherwise. Until then, I will begin selling many of the possessions I have that weigh me down. I'm tired of feeling bloated and sluggish in regards to my material possessions. I don't need most of what I own, and it would be much better put to use for the kingdom of Heaven. I will be using my eBay account to sell my things, with a majority percentage of the profits going to charities that I will be choosing.

With the Spirit of Christ in us, we can change the world.

A New Definition of Ministry

I used to want to be "in ministry". As a kid I thought it would be nice to be a pastor's wife; my grandpa was a Southern Baptist minister and liked the idea of carrying that on, even if I wasn't Baptist! Early in our relationship, Tim and I thought we'd be youth pastors. Time and circumstances eventually changed our minds.

Now my idea of being in ministry has changed. What used to be a title and a job description has become everyday life, reaching out to those around me with the love of Christ. Pastors and those in "official" ministry positions have important and valued places, but sometimes the tough work is best accomplished at the kitchen table- whether you're a pastor, a pastor's wife or a homemaker. As a minister in the field, I have fewer meetings to take up my true ministry time and less planning to do. I'm not concerned with budgets or memberships, sermon preparation or appropriate Sunday attire. What does concern me is the young single mother that God put on my heart at Ian's school. I've started chatting with her, giving her rides when I can and praying for her.

My time in Germany was my personal wilderness experience and now I find myself in a new world and with new ideas of what I'm here for. In the short months since I've begun to see my whole life as fully God's and my daily breath to be used for His glory, it amazes me who I've come in contact with. Lonely new immigrants, single moms, women in difficult marriages, women with emotional issues, women who have lost a mom/dad in the time I've known them. These are all opportunities to share Christ, to be the hands of Jesus in a real way.

We all tend to say we want to do whatever He asks-- but do we mean it? Do you really believe that God has engineered your circumstances to allow you to love someone in a unique way? Look again at your neighbors, your coworkers, the people you go to church with, the cashier at the grocery store; are they your ministry? Does the love of Christ shine through you in a way that blesses them? Have you delved into their lives and seen their needs, how they hurt? Isn't our God big enough for them? Doesn't He live in you? Do you believe God, that he is all they need?

The circumstances of a saint’s life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you can’t understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God brings you to places, among people, and into certain conditions to accomplish a definite purpose through the intercession of the Spirit in you. Never put yourself in front of your circumstances and say, "I’m going to be my own providence here; I will watch this closely, or protect myself from that." All your circumstances are in the hand of God, and therefore you don’t ever have to think they are unnatural or unique. Your part in intercessory prayer is not to agonize over how to intercede, but to use the everyday circumstances and people God puts around you by His providence to bring them before His throne, and to allow the Spirit in you the opportunity to intercede for them. In this way God is going to touch the whole world with His saints.

Am I making the Holy Spirit’s work difficult by being vague and unsure, or by trying to do His work for Him? I must do the human side of intercession— utilizing the circumstances in which I find myself and the people who surround me. I must keep my conscious life as a sacred place for the Holy Spirit. Then as I lift different ones to God through prayer, the Holy Spirit intercedes for them.

Your intercessions can never be mine, and my intercessions can never be yours, ". . . but the Spirit Himself makes intercession" in each of our lives (Romans 8:26). And without that intercession, the lives of others would be left in poverty and in ruin.

~Oswald Chambers

After sanctification, it is difficult to state what your purpose in life is, because God has moved you into His purpose through the Holy Spirit. He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself, thinking, "God has called me for this and for that," you barricade God from using you. As long as you maintain your own personal interests and ambitions, you cannot be completely aligned or identified with God’s interests. This can only be accomplished by giving up all of your personal plans once and for all, and by allowing God to take you directly into His purpose for the world. Your understanding of your ways must also be surrendered, because they are now the ways of the Lord.

I must learn that the purpose of my life belongs to God, not me. God is using me from His great personal perspective, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him. I should never say, "Lord, this causes me such heartache." To talk that way makes me a stumbling block. When I stop telling God what I want, He can freely work His will in me without any hindrance. He can crush me, exalt me, or do anything else He chooses. He simply asks me to have absolute faith in Him and His goodness. Self-pity is of the devil, and if I wallow in it I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. Doing this creates for me my own cozy "world within the world," and God will not be allowed to move me from it because of my fear of being "frost-bitten."

~Oswald Chambers

Cheers!

Safely Home and Shunning Apathy

I'm sitting here at my desk tapping my fingertips against my chin as I try to think where to start. When a gal encounters something that changes her life, it's hard to summarize that in a short post.

First, I read Red Letters by Tom Davis. Step one of an unknown number away from the life I've known.

Second, I read It's Not About Me by Max Lucado. Step 2.

Third, reading through blogs and websites about orphaned children, African and Russian AIDS victims, I sensed a sad shame coming to me over the Western Church's mostly apathetic response.

Fourth, Lora suggested the book Safely Home by Randy Alcorn. I read about it on the internet and then bought it on eBay. I spent approximately a quarter of the book crying. It opened my eyes to the suffering of the Christians in China and how the Church is flourishing under heavy persecution. As for the writing, I was relieved to find it's not dry and flat like too many Christian authors' books. I've only ever completed a handful of Christian novels because I usually put them down in frustration after little more than a chapter. Alcorn kept my attention with ease.

I know the enemy of my soul would rather I not think about anything beyond my own trivial problems. He must spend loads of energy on keeping Christians apathetic and I think that the only reason my eyes have been opened is by a direct moving of the Holy Spirit in my life. He doesn't move in vain and I'm interested in what the future holds. What might an American homemaker living in England do to change the world and challenge the church? Only The Lord can say.

If you don't feel a tugging in your spirit to look into the suffering of the Church and the millions of poor and dying around the world, I challenge you to pray for God to reveal it to you. Read Red Letters and Safely Home, spend some time on websites such as Eternal Perspective Ministries, Children's HopeChest, 5 for 50, Prisoner Alert, Tom Davis' blog, Randy Alcorn's blog, Compassion International, the Bags for Darfur blog, Voice of the Martyrs (and their volumes of resources) and Bibles Unbound (I'm very excited to check that one out!). I'm sure there are many, many more resources available as well. While you educate yourself, pray that God lights a fire in your heart for the suffering.

Certainly, the most effective and obvious thing anyone of us can do is pray.

Bless you.

It's Not About Me

"It is not service that matters, but intense spiritual reality, expecting Jesus Christ at every turn."

"I am not here to realize myself, but to know Jesus"

~Oswald Chambers