I get emails and Facebook emails about God challenging other
people at RPC and how they are really taking a look at their lives and walk
with Christ. I love hearing
it. I sit in my chair reading
them, tears fill my eyes, and I praise our Big Papa for what He is doing!! I know it is so darn difficult to stop
and look at your life and what it means to be a Christ Follower. To stop and say what is most important
to me? If it really is Christ and
people knowing Christ, then what do I really do about that? What do I do to follow Him? Or am I going and saying, “Jesus, come
along, I got plans here.”
Those were the questions that smacked me in the face one day, months
ago. When I thought it through, I
freaked. How much of my day, week,
month is really spent doing what God asks me to do? When do I ask Him where He wants me to work? Where He wants me to live. I
didn’t. Then I started asking Him,
and things went crazyyyyyyyy.
So, as I watch them grow, it brings me to my last point of
the night about the people around us.
I know that a lot of people are taking a serious look at what Luke 9:23
means, and maybe that doesn’t look like Africa to you :) But, it does mean something for where
you are in life and what you need to surrender. I wasn’t surrendered in all these walks of life a year ago
today. If Papa Dios said, “Go!” I would have said, “What the heck are
you saying, Father? Pick someone
else. I am not willing to do that. I am not going anywhere!” Okay, so He and I had that convo a few
times. Uh, He won :)
Ya know what I
noticed between Christians, and this FIRES ME UP? We become intimidated when people surrender to Christ. As absurd as it is, I see it all the
time. I see it here and I see it there. For goodness sake, I had to take a day
off of work in February because the Christians around me were driving me so
insane about moving to the DR that I felt like I was going to have a massive
breakdown trying to follow God WHILE LISTENING TO THEIR negative remarks about
doing it. I literally couldn’t
breathe one day. Christians. I am talking about Christians. Since when do we pull each other down
when we are just trying to follow Whom we say we follow? If I tell you God told me to do
something, why would you ever tell me that “maybe it isn’t Him? Maybe this is extreme. Maybe you need a better plan, this
isn’t thought through enough.
Maybe it is a huge mistake.
Maybe it is the wrong decision.”
I think maybe we shouldn’t give our advice on something if we haven’t
gone into prayer first.
On the flip side, I know why you did it/do it to my girls
now. God gas let me in on a little bit of what is going on. We do it because we see someone handing
her life over to the Lord to do as He wills and IT freaks us out that we do not
want to do that ourselves, so instead we are negative to the person that is
surrendering. I don’t think other
Christians mean to quench the Spirit in us; it is just a defense mechanism
because they are scared of leaping themselves. They have been set in their
Christian ways and now you are rocking their comfortable boat with this
surrender madness. I know that God is working in them, too. Those of you that
are feeling the weight from them now, take heart in knowing that as they watch
you leap in faith, they grow, too, watching. So just keep looking to Him to
guide and provide. He will.
So the next time you are around one of these people that are
doing radical, and maybe crazy things to follow our Lord and to get to know Him
better, listen to your words. Are
they encouraging or negative?
Then, think about your motives.
Are you doing it to pull them down to make yourself feel better? If God didn’t tell you to say it, don’t
say it. If you don’t know what God
sounds like, then it isn’t Him, so don’t.
I never had that negative outlook on other Christians, so
when I feel this, I just don’t understand. My hunger for Christ pulled me to
them. I will chalk it up and give
other Christians the benefit of the doubt bc I was unchurched and I didn’t know
any better about what a Christian was/suppose to be like or do. I wasn’t
intimidated by their life. So,
when I saw a Christian that had self-control and was being obedient to the
Lord, I was intrigued. How the
heck do they do that!? I watched
what he/she did and how they spoke about Him b/c I wanted to know this Jesus
the way they did. I drew myself
closer to those friends to find out who Jesus was. I wanted to know the power behind what they were capable of
doing that wasn’t normal. I may
have thought they were extreme, but it was evident that there was something or
One behind what they did and Whom they followed. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do all of it HA, but I wanted to
know to make that decision.
I don’t have the answers. I don’t know anything unless He
reveals it. I don’t know why I get
to live where I do. I don’t know
why I hear Him so clearly. I don’t
know why or how I have come to a place where I pray hundreds of times a day
(pray as in talk with God about decisions/people) I am asking a lot of Y’s lately!! I don’t try to know
everything. If you think that, I
am not your issue and nor are these people that are trying to surrender pieces
of their lives. I can assure you,
there is an issue as to why you get bothered/defensive by Followers of Christ
when you are a Christian yourself.
Ask Him, He will reveal it to you.
I am just trying to tell about what I have experienced
following the greatest thing that has ever happened to me, Jesus Christ
<3 And, my girls are trying to
get closer and know Jesus, too.
Corinithians says people will think we are crazy. We are. And, I am so head over heals for my Savior that I feel like
2 glasses of wine in a lot of the time-- smiling and just feeling like life is
sooooo gooood and you just love yourself every day! Yup.
(Uh, when I used to drink, I don’t think I ever just had 2 glasses b/c
it felt too good. That is
Jesus. I can’t get enough of what
He supplies!! Thank goodness His
euphoric feelings don’t have the same properties and consequences of the wine
;) Honestly, I am so lost with
this, too. I find this new life
incredible. I’ve been a Christ
follower for years now, but the more I follow, the more my life morphs into
something brand new. I can’t wait
to see how I know Him next month, next year, etc. I don’t understand anything at all most of the time. I can’t even tell you why the heck I
don’t have a flight next week to fly home other than He is pulling the wait
thing. It could simply be
for me to listen to Him and I think it is that. He did this when Nay and I were
talking about flights for the 28th to Santiago and it was His way of
teaching us that we will need to be on the same prayer page for decisions. When we all talked about doing it and
if we had the “go-ahead” with God, we would proceed as 1 on it. Seems very small, but very pivotal for
our future prayers in working together and speaking up when God tells us to wait. We could have jumped His wait and just
purchased the tickets, yet we wanted to learn the lesson He prepared, so we
waited. We grew from it as He
showed us why He said “wait.”
Most of the time, I have no freaking clue what God is up to
in life, but I know He is all knowing and powerful. I want Him in control and not me.
Just as I scream to the heavens asking why I don’t have a
husband to kill these massive spiders, I pray the Lord to keep me safe from
them. Utt umm, I keep finding spiders in the house. Dead. I will be just fine without one, He says.
That’s the Man that leads me. Sweeeeeet. Kill
‘em all, Papa!! :)
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