Living In Between

What must it have been like for the followers of Jesus to live in between. Between the cross and the resurrection?

This was the Messiah, the one who they thought had come to save them. They had seen, believed and followed Him. They had traveled with, laughed with, prayed with and been personally taught by Jesus for three years.What must they have felt when His lifeless body was taken down from the cross, when it was placed in a borrowed tomb.The end of all hope, shattered dreams, profound grief, disillusionment, perhaps even anger, and for those who denied and abandoned Him, guilt and shame?

If you are a follower of Christ, no doubt you have experienced living in-between. You stepped out in faith, you followed, you believed, but along the way, storms came, they grew fierce and violent, and all you held dear and knew to be true seems to have faded. Darkness appears to have overshadowed the light. If you are living in between right now, hold on, please hold on, Jesus isn't finished yet. Though you may not see a way. Hold on.

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Matthew 28:5-10

Hold on and keeping looking for Jesus, He is writing His story in your life. He may be giving you a message to share with others.Hold on! "Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song." Pope John Paul II

 

PS. Very cool that Jesus came to the ladies first (Just saying)

Risk

Have you been holding back from a risky, costly course to which you know in your heart God has called you? Hold back no longer. Your God is faithful to you, and adequate for you. You will never need more than He can supply, and what He supplies, both materially and spiritually, will always be enough for the present. Author: J.I. Packer

Faith and Risk seem to go hand in hand don't they? The bible is filled with stories of ordinary people who took great risks, people who stepped out in faith into the unknown. The book of Hebrews is filled with accounts of those who believed God and took great risks.

Can you imagine fleeing across the desert with Moses, hearing the pounding hoof beats of the Pharaoh's horses coming towards you, and then looking forward, only to see a vast body of water blocking your escape? The future must have appeared pretty bleak to them, but still they ran forward in hope, a hope that lived in tension with their fear. A hope and faith that the God who called them, could do the impossible.

Hebrews 11:29  By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

Begining a New Season

I'm just returning from two weeks of travel and meetings. I love to fly around, visiting new places, meeting new people. It's a blast! But, It was also really great to come home and sleep in my own bed. Its comfortable being in a familiar place, you know what to expect, you can relax and rest.

The last few days I have been thinking and praying about my own spiritual journey... Remembering where the Lord has taken me, what He has taught me, how He has shaped me, disciplined me, loved and rescued me this past year. Looking back helps remind me remind myself of God's amazing faithfulness, His mercy, grace and love.

This week I will be heading out of the comfortable and familiar, and will begin taking on several new ministry roles, traveling to a new office, developing a new schedule. Right now I don't really know what that will look or feel like. Stepping out into new territory is scary and exciting! It is comforting to know that I am not alone, and that God is always faithful. Home and rest are never far away, they are found in His arms. 

Retreat

"Solitude begins with a time and a place for God, and God alone. If we really believe not only that God exists but also that God is actively present in our lives-- healing, teaching and guiding-- we need to set aside a time and space to give God our undivided attention. "
Henri J.M. Nouwen (Making All Things New and Other Classics)

"The real "work" of prayer is to become silent and listen to the voice that says good things about me. To gently push aside and silence the many voices that question my goodness and to trust that I will hear the voice of blessing-- that demands real effort. "
Henri J.M. Nouwen (Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World)

I am headed to a weekend retreat in Maine today and I am so excited about spending time away from the distractions and busyness of my life, to just BE still with the Lord.
 

To keep going we need to keep retreating.

Mark 1:35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

 Mark 6:31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

Royal Employment

1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Can you remember being called out of darkness and into His light? I can remember it very clearly... getting snatched out of darkness, being rescued by my king. 

But God doesn't stop by just rescuing us, He calls us special possessions, He calls us royal. Then He asks us to GO and tell others about His incredible love.

Charles Spurgeon calls evangelism:

“ that most royal employment” and

“ The chief business of a Christian” 

Who Cares

Last year I was on retreat with our Alpha National Team in sunny Sarasota Florida. As a rookie missionary I soon learned that the word retreat in ministry, does not necessarily mean hanging out together with God, quiet time, or solitude. This was a working retreat and we were pretty busy working together in teams from the time we arrived, till the time we left.

One very profound moment for me was on Sunday morning, when I heard a sermon that contained the story of the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth. William received a vision from God. It was a vision of Christians going about their business resting, relaxing and enjoying life safely on the shore, while 1000's who did not yet know Christ, were sometimes only an arms length away drowning in a stormy sea. The Christians ignored them, and many met their peril. This God given vision drove the man in His calling and mission for the rest of his life. This picture is sort of a modern rendition of his dream.

This story had a profound impact on me. I began to ask myself, do you notice people? Do you make time to notice those the Lord has placed around you every day? Are you willing to make time, to turn aside, to reach out, to pull someone who is drowning to shore? Or are you to busy doing Christian things to see those who are still in the water? Do you pray for them, make time for them, invite them? Or do you let them drown?
I saved this picture so that I could look at it often to remind myself of what our mission is while we are here on earth. Its an urgent mission and I pray that I never get too busy doing Christian things, to hear, to see, to notice, to love, to go. Who cares?

 ⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
   And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”Isaiah 6:8

Letting His light shine through the cracks...

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 2 Corinthians 4:6-7

We are all cracked pots. We all fall short of the glory of God, and yet we are God's plan for bringing His Good News to all the world. This is totally amazing news to me. We are entrusted with His message and yet we are broken people. This is no surprise to God. He knows each crack, each weakness, every single flaw. Yet if we allow Him access to our brokenness, our cracks if you will, these are the very places in which others will encounter Jesus. His light shines through our cracks. Has the Lord ever redeemed your own brokenness and used it to point someone far away closer to Jesus? Did they see His redemption at work in your life? Did they find a hope as you let His light shine into their darkness?