courage

This Isn’t What I Pictured.

All of my security strips away: I am torn from my community and discomfortably displaced from the routine I expected.  I have a passion for people and an irritation at the Christian’s lack of care.  My heart broke last summer when I realized the amount of people all around me that the church neglects, particularly my base.  I have influence there and I do shine a light for Christ; obviously He wants me to continue the work He began there.  I am His humble vessel.  I will wait on the Lord and I will rejoice in the things He has provided for me.  I am safe, I am happy, I am comfortable, and I am poor.  I am separated from my community at large, but I am united with God.  I must be more intentional now if I want encouragement from the Church.  I must ground myself in Christ, independent of theocentric organizations.  For the time being, I cannot serve the Church, but I can serve the lost.  I cannot pour myself into a ministry, but I can minister to the neglected.

I am committed to Christ, to the Gospel, and to the Church.  While my schedule may separate me from the Church, it does not disunify us.  My purpose is to spread the Gospel through demonstrating the love of Christ.  My assignment is Yorktown Naval Weapons Station.  I have been commanded to serve Christ through all I do, that He may be glorified through all my works.  He knows my work and He sees my struggle.  I hope in Him and my hope will not be put to shame.  He will fight for me, I need only be still.  I trust in Him as my provider and I believe He will deliver me in His time.

Serving Christ does not mean everything will immediately fall into place, but it does mean I am following a plan based on someone else’s knowledge and authority.  I need not fear, for the Lord my God is with me.  I will do everything in my power to love and to serve those around me.  I will use my influence at the Naval Weapons Station to fulfill God’s purpose.  I am here at this time for this reason.

I will rejoice in my humility.  I will accept help.  I will learn to let others love and serve me.  I will remember the importance of life and I will extend grace until my soul aches and groans.  I will learn to love: deeply, faithfully, and earnestly as God loves the world and Christ loves the Church.  I am ready for the unknown and I will embrace this season with thankfulness.  I will not wait for my hope: I will abide in hope and actively respond to God’s commandments.  I am not called to understand—I am called to obey amidst suffering.

You’re Making Revival

“Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what He has done for my soul.” Psalm 66:16

Every so often, I venture out to grab a cup of coffee and read God’s word in a different setting.  The past few times I’ve gone, though I have chosen a different location each time, I have sat across from fellow believers who likewise are studying the word!  This morning, I heard a young man, assumedly in high school or college, discipling a younger boy (about junior high aged), and was filled with joy!

Over the last few weeks, I have seen young people seeking out and studying who God is all over!  This generation is eager to know Him and He is moving everywhere.  This might be a dark time in our nation and in this world, but He is still working all around us.  I’ve seen so many people of my generation professing the gospel and teaching it to those around them!  Like the verse in this Psalm, we should be telling those around us what the Lord has done!  Believing, showing, proclaiming that Christ is enough.

We may feel far from persecution, but our brothers and sisters—our church—is strongly being persecuted.  Some of my favorite verses are found in John 16; in this chapter, Jesus explains the Holy Spirit to His disciples and tells them that He will soon leave them.  Knowing their hearts, He said “You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy” (John 16:20).  Later, verse 22, He mentions that they will see Him again and they will have joy that “no one will take.”  Jesus affirms that He will return to the Father soon and the disciples react saying “Now we know that You know all things and do not need anyone to question You; this is why we believe You came from God” (John 16:30).  Jesus informs the disciples that they will be scattered and assures them that the Father is with Him (John 16:32).  The chapter concludes with Jesus saying “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world, you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).  Time has passed on, and not all suffer as the disciples did, but persecution still exists and new persecutors, namely ISIS, have come to invoke fear from believers as they terrorize our body of Christ.  But they cannot stop our God.  Job declared “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2).

In Acts 4, Peter and John defend that they “cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).  After that, they prayed for boldness to speak of the Lord (Acts 4:29), and so they did.  Their faith, and others of the time, gave us the 27 books of the New Testament, and now faith has spread around the globe!  Today and these past few weeks I have been able to watch Christians fall in love with God in coffee shops across America!  As I learn more about Him I continue to grow in my love for Him, as do those studying with me!

Our generation is eager and searching for God, and our lips utter His glory, we should exclaim “Come and see what God has done: He is awesome in His deeds toward the children of man,” (Psalm 66:5) as the generations before us did.

I am encouraged by this revival awakening in my generation.  No matter what, “When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat” (I Corinthians 4:12-13).  God is moving, and we can choose to follow and serve Him, or we can choose to “shrink back” out of fear.  Either way, God’s will shall endure, and Christ will be victorious.

 

For Further Reading:

II Corinthians 4:8-12

Hebrews 10:39

Romans 8:19-27

Isaiah 48:10-11

I Thessalonians 5:18

Micah 6:8