I was so genuinely touched yesterday. By my church family, by the sixth grade girls I am able to disciple, by the students I am surrounded with on Sunday nights, and by the Word that is alive!
I hate to bombard anyone with a big chunk of Scripture, but what encouragement I found in this.
Yet I am writing to you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.
1 John 2:8-11
How blessed are we to be able to walk in the light of our Savior? What grace is this that we are able to walk in the freedom of eternal and everlasting love?
In this confusing and frustrating and fulfilling walk, I am finding more and more the beauty of the sovereignty of the Lord. We are given a truth, and that is the Word that lives in us. For a while I would always think, "What on earth does it mean that God's Word is alive? That just doesn't click because it is simply words on paper." But how wondrous it is to find that when you speak truth over yourself daily, when you speak Jesus's words of love and of peace over your heart, you feel those words living in you and through you.
This sovereignty is overwhelming me with the fact that I can do whatever it is that I want. I can choose to do good for God, and I can choose to try my hardest to bring the love of God to others. I can put my whole heart into changing hearts and bringing salvation, but I am able to do NONE of this. This is all the doing of my Creator. It is only His power that works through my physical body. From Him through me. I love resonating in that.
The next part of this passage touched me so deeply because of the brokenness our world is experiencing after the terror in Paris this past weekend. It pains me to even read the news and it breaks my heart to see humanity so torn over ideology, so desperate for something unshakable to stand on. And I am simply torn in half, for those apart from ISIS seem to have no choice but to stand stagnant until another attack is thrown at us. But maybe it is in these situations, in these times of tragedy and confusion and pain, that we must choose to throw Truth at our world. It is these members of ISIS who are the deepest darkness. They don't know where they are going. They have nothing to keep them from stumbling because their eyes simply have not been opened to the light, and because of this they are so filled with hatred and drive to kill that they seek only destruction.
I want so badly to feel protected in my own country, and I would love the security of knowing that no attacks are coming to my city or my home. But there is no guarantee and, therefore, there is no time for us to sit on our couches and say "Go blow ISIS to shreds and be done with it." This is a time that we must bury our lives, bury our nations, bury our WORLD in unending prayer for light to finally be shed in every inch of the earth.
Our world is dark. Our world is broken. And what a beautiful opportunity I am given to be a vessel for those sitting in darkness in Nepal. For those who are desperate for a hope that cannot be touched. Whether it be the nations threatened by terror or those shaken by earthquakes, the church must. not. sit. stagnant. Followers of Christ, I am discovering, are called into those darkest places, for light does not shine except in those places. And lies of the enemy, the ones that say there is no hope and no solution and no light at the end of the tunnel, can only be buried with truth. THE truth.
We must stop shivering in fear and grasping for our safety net when there is so much of the world unreached. There is so much of the world untouched by their Only Hope.
I pray that you will stand with me. I pray that you will help me to stand. I will be spending two months in Nepal this summer, and if you wish to partner with me in this, click the link below to help me spread the name of the Only Hope our world has left.
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