City on a hill

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:14-16 

Now I want you to notice something very specific about this passage. It says, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill  cannot be hidden." If there's a city on a mountain, there's no way you're gonna be able to hide it. What are you gonna do? Cover it with a blanket? You can't hide it. There's either a city on the hill or there's not. Period. 

Can you imagine how crazy you would sound if you said, "Oh there's this city on that mountain over there. Yeah, see it? Well, I mean, sometimes it's there. Sometimes you can't really see it. How? Oh, I don't know. It's just not there sometimes."

Yeah. Right. Next stop: insane asylum. But you know, I think Jesus put that bit about the city on a hill in there because sometimes we're like that in our walk with God. We think that we can only shine the light of the salvation of the Gospel when we choose to. Like we can turn it on and off. Mission field? On. Workplace? Off. Church? On. School? Off. 

And so Jesus says, "A city on a hill cannot be hidden." If you are saved, you can't just hide it. If you are truly experiencing the power of The Gospel of God's grace, it will show. If people can't see it, (stepping on toes here...,,,) you need to step back and look at how you're living your life. 

We're the light of the world. We are the only hope for a world that is dying eternally and spiritually, and we cannot sit down, shut up, and act like everything is okay.

Not Unexpected

I don't know about you, but I'm a huge bookworm (as previously stated), and so I've read quite a bit of books. But most people have read at least one fiction book in their lifetime. 

I've actually taken a fiction writing class, and I know that any author that has any kind of sense at all plans out their story. Some plan out every little detail about how every single chapter is gonna go, and some just have a general outline for the story. But every good author at least has a plan for where they want their story to end up. 

And I also know (as does anyone who reads fiction) that most good stories have a twist. It doesn't even have to be a thriller to have unexpected twists. Someone dies, gets caught in adultery, gets pregnant, falls in love with someone unexpected, their life gets ruined, etc. There's always some kind of unexpected turn that keeps you guessing. 

Here's the thing about twists in books: the author knew it was going to happen. When they sat down to write the book, it was in their plan, and it wasn't straying from the path they wanted their novel to take when it happened. When they wrote the chapter in which it happens they didn't get suddenly shocked and exclaim: "That's not how I thought it would happen!" Of course they knew. They're the author. And they know how everything that happens builds the character of their characters, and ultimately builds toward the ending.

And isn't that a perfect metaphor for God's sovereign hand and plan in our lives? When a situation occurs, and it seems like its the very end for us; when a house burns down, a relative dies, the economy plunges and you lose your job; for us it's unexpected. We never saw it coming. But God isn't surprised. He doesn't get shocked and suddenly exclaim: "This is not how I thought it would happen!" Of course He knew. He's God. He knows how everything builds up and grows us, and ultimately achieves His great purpose.

No, the crazy happenings and twists and turns in our life are not surprising to Him, all held in the complete control of God, and nothing happens to us that doesn't first pass through His sovereign hand. When we come across a situation that seems like the end, He saw it coming, and He knows exactly how to handle it. After all, He's the one writing the story.

Neither do I condemn you

"But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts where all the people gathered around Him, and He sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, 'Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?' They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing Him.

 But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with His finger. When they kept on questioning Him, He straightened up and said to them, 'If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.' Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. 

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?'

 'No one, sir,' she said.

 'Then neither do I condemn you,' Jesus declared. 'Go now and leave your life of sin.'

John 8:1-11

Last time I heard this scripture, I heard more than usual. You know how sometimes you hear a scripture a ton of times and never really get a whole lot out of it, but then you read it again later and it's like BAM! Revelation! That's how it was the other day.

I think the most common use for this scripture is to teach people not to judge. And why not, after all, when that's what it's about? But last time I read it, I got something else.

Jesus says here, "If any one of you is without sin, let Him be the first to throw a stone at her." And after that, everyone, one by one, leaves, even if they weren't accusing her. Everyone except One. And the thing with the One who stayed is that He had no sin. He had every single right to stone that woman.

This is the part that deserves attention:

He didn't stone her. He had every right to judge and condemn this woman and He forgave her.

And that's what He does every day with every one of us.

As Strong as Death

In the song You Won't Relent by Misty Edwards, the verse says, 

"I'll set you as a seal upon my heart

As a seal upon my arm

For there is love that is as strong as death

Jealousy demanding as the grave

Many waters cannot quench this love."

 

The reference for this is Song of Solomon 8:6-7 which states:

"Place me like a seal over your heart, 

like a seal upon your arm; 

For love is as strong as death,

Its jealousy unyielding as the grave. 

It burns like blazing fire,

Like a mighty flame.

Many waters cannot quench love;

Rivers cannot wash it away.

If one were to give

All the wealth of his house for love, 

It would be utterly scorned."

Now the part I want to focus on is where it says, "For there is love that is as strong as death." 

No one wants to die. I mean think about it. People will do ANYTHING to get out of death. They will run and run and run in every way they can; exercising like crazy and counting calories and taking pills and doctor visits and gynocologists and checks for cancer and everything you can possibly imagine to try and avoid death, we do it. But in the end, everyone dies. Everyone will die eventually. You can put it off in every way available but you will still die.

And if you take the time to think about it, God's love is kind of the same way. People run from God's love all the time. They will run and run; they'll shun Him and avoid church and lock the doors when Christians come around and throw away the church flyers they get in the mail and block any Christian friends they have on Facebook and twitter and Instagram and they'll do drugs and lie and cheat and steal and do anything possible to separate themselves from the love of God, but in the end, He still loves them. 

His love is as strong as death. You can run and run and run all you want but you can't escape it. It will always be there.

Here's the link to You Wont Relent by Misty Edwards if you want to listen: 

http://youtu.be/QFdeOT3lzqc

Expecting More

Summer 2012 was the best summer of my life thus far. Or to be more specific, my trip to Australia made summer 2012 the best summer of my life thus far. And it's been really hard to even convince myself to think that I may at some point have a better summer/trip/time than that. 

Like when I was preparing to go to Mexico this past December, God really had to work in me; had to teach me that I need to be expecting more. I honestly thought that my trip to Mexico would in no way compare to my Australia trip. But God told me I have to expect and ask for more, or that's what would happen: it would in no way compare to my the Australia trip. 

Of course the trips were completely and totally different, and I learned completely different things while there. But I had to expect more. And because I did, the trip was way better than I had imagined it would be. 

Now I'm facing a summer in which I won't be going on an overseas mission trip. I'll be at camp for most of summer, serving and being a bunk leader (counselor). And I'm also facing the same dilemma: I'm not expecting this summer to me anywhere as good as last summer. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to be a bunk leader. I've been waiting a long time to be old enough to be one; I just am not expecting it to be just as good or better than last year. And I need to be. 

Abba, help me expect more from you. I don't wanna put a box around the rings You can do and say that You can only go  this far. Exceed my expectations. Help my unbelief.

"Now all Glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might as or imagine." -Ephesians 3:20 NLT

Cliffs

Okay, you're going to have to excuse me for a minute, because I'm a huge book nerd and I'm gonna use an example from one of my favorite books of all time. 

In The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis (if you haven't read any of his books, fiction or non, you need to. They've changed my life.), the two main characters, Eustace and Jill, find themselves at the top of a very, very high cliff; imagine the highest cliff you've ever seen before. It's at least ten times higher than that. Jill is being a show-off and decides she's going to stand really close to the edge of the cliff. Eustace tries to stop her, and wrenching herself away from him, accidentally knocks Eustace off the cliff.

In bounds a lion, The Lion, Aslan, who is the representation of Christ in The Chronicles of Narnia, and He immediately starts blowing. What happens, (not to spoil it for you, but...) is Aslan's breath carries Eustace to safety. 

I think what happens a lot in life, is that we get knocked off a cliff, and we get so upset that we got knocked off in the first place that we often don't notice that Jesus has saved us from an even nastier ending at the bottom of the cliff. We sometimes blame God for what happened, when He's not even the one that caused it. He's the one so graciously saving us from certain destruction.

Plans

I babysit every week, and the little boy I babysit, Brennan, likes to eat. A lot. I'll be babysitting him from 3:30 to 5:30/6ish, and he'll ask for a snack about 5 times in that period. At least 5 times. And it's funny, cause he'll try to tell me what he's gonna do instead of asking. He'll be like, "I'm just gonna eat this apple now." Or, "I'll eat this later while you're here." I laugh because he doesn't have the say in that! I do.

I wonder how often we look like that to God with all our plans. Instead of actually asking we try to tell Him how it's all gonna go. We tell Him that we're gonna do this and that, and He's laughing cause we don't have the say in that! Only He does.

"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you don't even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this and that.'
James 4:13-15