Conversion

So I'm taking a class on John Wesley's theology this semester.Today I was reading about his thoughts on conversion.Wesley believed that conversion is very rarely an individualistic thing.I've never really thought about this, but it's so true.There are a handful of people that have impacted my life and pushed me towards becoming a Christian.One person is my mom.She raised me in the church and held me responsible to biblical standards, even before I was saved.Her godly life has truly been a blessing and an inspiration to me. Another person is my pastor, who has been at my church almost 9 years.He brought a new life into the church and for the first time,I actually heard the gospel being preached in my church.Then there's Alec Sprinkle.He's one of those poeple that comes into your life for only a brief time,but has a deep impact.We met on a mission trip the summer before my junior year of high school.He was the first person my own age who actually lived the Christian life and truly believed in the message of the cross.This alone was amazing to me.

It was at a Good Friday servie with a guest preacher at my church that brought me to my knees.I was 17 and I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior that night.I honestly believe that that would not have happened had it not been for the Christian community that had poured into me before I made that decision. So no, conversion cannot be an individualistic thing. Evangelism and discipleship go hand-in-hand.It is of vital importance to be connected to the Body of Christ.This life cannot be lived by ourselves! Yes,we can be independent, but there also needs to be a level of Christian interdependence in order to be truly fed and to grow in Christian maturity!

In His Mercy....

Speaking Truth

I don't have too much to say.Just a quick insight.I was thinking last night how the most beautiful thing that you could speak into another person's life is the gospel of Jesus Christ.What a beautiful thing it is! It seems that we always want to encourage people with external things.I think there is a time and a place for that, but ultimately we need to be directing people towards the cross.Because truly, we are nothing without Jesus Christ.We have nothing.We are worth nothing.We can do nothing apart from His strength in our lives.

So yeah,for today all I have to say is Jesus Christ is the most beautiful truth, in fact the ONLY truth, that there is=)

Blessed are the Poor

Church was amazing today. Lots of things to mull over.I guess when I got up to sing with the praise team, it was one of those days where I just didn't "feel like" singing.But something that Aaron said in the sermon reminded me that I was looking at in the completely wrong way. Today we talked about the poor and the need to minister with the poor, and not to the poor.What jumped out at me was this statement: "don't assume that you have anything else to offer but Jesus Christ." Wow.Think about that.If we aren't primarily offering Jesus to the people we minister with, then anything we are trying to offer to them means nothing.We are nothing without Jesus; we have nothing to give that hasn't been given to us straight from Jesus' hand.

It's so easy in ministry to think along these lines: "I'm good with kids and I can sing.This is what I can offer the church ministry-wise." Note that these have been my thoughts.But I have it all wrong.It's not the singing or the delivered children's message that I'm offering.If it is,then I've missed out on something.It's Jesus that I have to offer.Singing and children's messages are merely the vehicles. It was a very convicting sermon.It seems like such an obvious thing; its simplicity is exactly what makes it so profound.

We sang this hymn to close the service. I sat in prayer, drinking in these words and the hope of Jesus Christ:

Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,pilgrim though this barren land;
I am weak, but thou art mighty;hold me with thy powerful hand;
Bread of heaven, Bread of heaven,feed me till I want no more,feed me till I want no more.

Open now the crystal fountain,whence the healing stream doth flow;
let the fire and cloudy pillar lead me all my journey through;
strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer.be thou still my Strength and Shield,be thou still my Strength and Shield.

When I tread the verge of Jordan,bid my anxious fears subside;
bear me through the swelling current,land me safe on Canaan's side;
songs of praises, songs of praises,I will ever give to thee,I will ever give to thee.

I Have Overcome this World

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."- John 16:33

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." - 2 Corinthians 4:17

These verses came to mind yesterday when I was sitting in my pastoral crisis intervention class.The prof showed us some pictures of people in crisis and then a painting of Jesus on the cross, all the while playing a song about Jesus having been where we are.He asked us how we felt.I realized I felt a mixture of sadness,hurt, and hope.One of the amazing things about being a Christian is that if you truly believe in the "foolishness of the cross," then there is always hope.No matter how dark the situation is, there is hope and that is an amazing truth to grasp onto.

I've always loved the above verse from JOhn. In a sense, it is a promise that life is going to be hard (which some people don't want to believe is true when you're a Christian), but it is also a promise that Jesus has already conquered all of our hard times.We will not be crushed or defeated, but we have the hope of Jesus on our side.

I also love love love the verse from 2 Corinthians.In the midst of difficult sitautions, we can rest assured that all these things are just temporary and pale in comparison to the glory that awaits us.Does that not fill you with hope and excitement? Does that not provide you with a comfort that is almost unimaginable?

So here I am.I am facing a semester that I can only describe as overcommitted.It's my own fault.I just want to do what I love and practicality flew out the window a while back.The Lord is giving me a chance to either choose to trust Him that I can do this, or to stress and make this even harder for myself.I'm going to trust.It's going to be hard.I'm going to mess up.I'm going to cry and vent a lot.But,I have hope.It lies in the cross.It was brought by Jesus' blood and broken body.It was sealed when Jesus rose from the dead.He is ALIVE!!!! So live life like that's true....

Blessed be your Name

This past Sunday was the one year anniversary of Jane Dube's death, a devoted wife and mother of two. November 23rd was the two year anniversary of Shannon's death, devoted wife and mother of four kids, all under 12. Both died from cancer and both were amazing women of God.I remember in vivid detail finding out about Shannon.She was the wife of one of Gordon's professors, a professor who was a favorite among students.He and his wife, less than one year before Shannon's death, were members of my mission team for Spring Break.We were in our doctrine class when the dean of chapel/prof of the class anounced Shannon's passing that morning.We sat in silence, absolutely stunned.Tears were shed and the dean read through some Psalms and dismissed us from class.It was a friday morning, and I cried my way through the weekend.I cried through her memorial service.And I cried as her precious 2-yr-old daughter, Lindsay, ran up and down the aisles of the chapel, not understanding what was happening. Is that kind of innocence a blessing or a curse?

Death is not something that always makes sense. In a perfect world, everyone would die peacefully from old age.But unfortunately that's not how it is.It seems that amazing people get taken from us too soon.It is in these situations that we are faced with a choice.We can either use it as an excuse to turn away from God or a reason to praise Him. I see it as an opportunity to continue praising God and an opportunity for deeper trust.Job praised God because He gives and takes away.At some point in our walk with God we find ourselves for the first time in a sitaution that we can't make sense of, and that's ok.It is at those points that we have to trust that God's ways and thoughts are indeed higher than ours.It's ok to not understand everything that goes on.If we did, how could faith ever fit into things???

In His mercy,
Sarah

Dreaming God's Dreams

After some discussions with Starr yesterday during lunch, I started thinking about what it means to let God dream in us.It's not that God needs our permission to be God, but I mean this more in the sense that we put up walls around our hearts by dreaming our own dreams for ourselves.In comparison, the dreams we dream for ourselves are so small.They pale in comparison to what God wants to do in us.I have all these visions of what I want my life to look like, what I want to accomplish. The problem here is the word, "I." Is this what God has dreamed for me or is this my own selfish desire to make life what I want it to be? God needs to be dreaming in me. His dreams are bigger and better and more wonderful than my own. What would my life look like if I "let" God unleash His power in me? What could be accomplished?

Isaiah 55:9 says, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." The thing is, I may think I know what's best for me, but really it's God who knows best, just by the simple fact that He's God, and I'm not.If I don't let God dream in me,I'm going to get frustrated and I'm going to go into ministry on my own strength, which is the biggest mistake I could make.So this is my challenge to myself and to my brothers and sisters in Christ: let God dream in you! There's no telling what wondrous things He's waiting to do in us...

In His Mercy,
Sarah

Taking a Break

So I'm here in the library desperately trying to focus on my interpretive assignment due tommorow.Being the procrastinator that I am, I didn't go to the library on Saturday like I should have. It's funny because I love being a student, but motivating myself to do my work is a whole other story.I guess what it comes down to is that I think actual life experience is primary to the classroom- what I'm learning in class should be supplimenting my experiences in ministry.I think that there is only so much that you can learn from a textbook or sitting in a classroom.I want to be out doing what I'm learning about.I know that there's a balance between these two things.Either I have no clue what is or the professors have no clue what it is-or both=)

Anyhow, I ahd an awesome day yesterday.Church was powerful.I've been praying about my mentored ministry a lot lately.I knew I wanted to do something different that would challenge me.I have an idea in my head right now, but it's still being kept in prayer.Yesterday's sermon was confirmation that my idea would be beneficial to the church and to God's Kingdom.Pretty much I would like to launch an outreach ministry to the families of the kids in our children's ministry.The sermon preached was about the parable of the wedding banquet. Aaron talked about a first banquet, which is fellowship at a superficial level, but is still neccesary in order to get to the second mystical banquet where people will encounter Jesus Christ. His focus was on the need to invite the poor,crippled, blind, etc. It was convicting.When you live in Wilmore, it's easy to stay in a little Christian bubble.It' s easy to make excuses of why you don't know many non-Christians.So,I think that my mentored ministry holds potential of getting me out of the Asbury bubble and doing what God has asked of me.

But life is just good right now,really.Sara reminded me the other day (courtesy of her blog) that life isn't about killing time until the "next big thing" happens to us.Things are happening now.God is doing good things now.Are my eyes open to this?Is my heart?My ears? My whole being? I think I'm at a point where I know that life isn't something that's awaiting me somewhere "out there," but it's here and it's now and whether I like it or not,I'm living it now.Big things are happening and God has blessed me beyond measure and for that I'm eternally grateful.

In his mercy...