You are the sign of authority that we may live,
the greatest testament of life! You have the punctures in your hands and side, flesh torn to the quick of the bone. All You ask of me, a dead soul in a human body, hear the Voice that calls me boldly. The Samaritans reply, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
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I am not much of a hammocker. I do not carry my eno around with me very often, and when I do, I am not skilled enough to flip inside like a banana going into its peel. I would much rather sit in a coffee shop with a few friends than be cocooned in a red hammock. I live in the outdoors, just preferably out of a hammock.
Today was different. Today I would use my hammock. Bailey and I went to Gabbard Park with our enos on this beautiful Saturday afternoon and found a spot under a few shade trees. We were content after chatting for a few hours and retreated into our little nests. During our talk, a squirrel with a ratty tail got precariously close to climbing inside my eno, a blue jay and squirrel fought, a woodpecker pecked, mourning doves cooed, Bailey got pooped on, and 2 little kids burst into tears. It was lovely. It was the sights and sounds of His world. A reward I could find nowhere else but in His grace. I had high hopes that I could read my new book, but I couldn't prop it up without losing feeling in my hand. So we both took naps. When I woke up, a little girl with blue glasses and a gray shirt wheeled past me on a scooter. I knew her! She was a delightful new edition to my Youth Impact age group, and we had instantly bonded over being twins. After she was out of sight, I awkwardly cried to Bailey and Thomas. I am still overwhelmed with love and the gift of seeing her childhood in action. What a delight to live here, to see a familiar little face, and to spend time with friends. I love calling this place my home. May you find a home where ever you are. Be outside on glorious days like this, where time stops and the desire to be a kid wells up until you're fit to burst. Go! Run and jump and sing and dance! Sunday is coming—our Savior came in our likeness and fully covered us in grace by the cross. Find salvation in the Prince of Peace, who asks only that we believe in Him and seek His face. And a little firefly drifts lazily on the wind. Jesus, You alone have earned the right to be seated next to the Father. We may be dust to dust, but You are eternal—You give us life eternal! Sent to pay the price I could never afford, I owe You all my love and my life and my obedience. You are all I really have.
Rejoice! He may have been buried for three days, but He is risen and will be for eternity! I live as a fish in this vessel of water,
given only enough space in order to survive. Yet You have provided this tank as a means of my limitation and humanity. Even when I came to know You, my fresh spring of Life is polluted by my own filth. The atonement of my wrongs made continually clean by a filter that never wears. My home still is yet Heaven, where the crests of Your grace is an incomparable ocean. I shall dwell blubbering in my newly formed estate: "Hallelujah, our God reigns!" Emmanuel: God is with us!
Have you ever experienced something called joyous laughter? I can attest, I have experienced joyous laughter before. I cannot pin the exact cause for laughter, but rather my immediate response of joyous amusement. It spreads through your soul and your entire body in such a captivating way that you heave over in laughter. It blissfully warms you like sun beaming through a shade tree, or hot soup swirling down the gullet, or a slow smile on a friend's familiar face. All of those precious little details of our life requires joyous laughter. It is simply not laughing, it is an overflow of rejoicing. I love listening to Christmas music during all seasons. No, not Jingle Bells. I am talking Joy to the World! (BOOM) I love rejoicing that God is with us! He had set Himself as our redeemer, our fighter, our Savior! Who would have thought, that a powerful God, rich in love, responded to our aching by sending Himself? He had set eternity in all of our hearts, if we only come to know His Son! Joyously laugh with me! God is with us! He is in the form of His servant, Jesus. I am full of love. Remember His purpose, that for the joy set before Him endured the cross. In due payment for His sacrifice, He was glorified in the heavens and on earth. His purpose was to release us from the kingdom of darkness, a warrior in the form of a meek carpenter. Do not be troubled. Dream in anticipation of His coming. Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born! Celebrate that He has overcome! What a fortunate fall of man, that we would be saved by the One who created us! It is a heavy day. But I am so full of hope. Bear with me here, as I will be touching on a rough topic many of us are unfamiliar with.
The Rwandan genocide began today, 23 years ago. Over the next 100 days, 800,000 Tutsi would be murdered, accounting for 70 - 80% of the entire people group. Decimated. Finished. Mourn for the nation that was torn asunder, the families that were broken by death and hate, and mankind's inherent evil. This event, rarely discussed in Western culture, pervades all of the Rwandans. Even so, Philip Gourevitch asserts that "Rwandan culture is a culture of fear." It is a disturbing statement because it is terrifyingly true. One such massacre happened inside a sanctuary: "When Tutsis asked the Hutu Power mayor how they might be spared, he suggested that they seek sanctuary at the church. They did, and a few days later the mayor came to kill them." My stomach rolls. Read about this travesty--know about your world and the suffering that encapsulates it. We may experience suffering on a lesser extent than the Tutsis (and Rwanda as a nation), but we experience it. Life may be a beautiful thing, but suffering inevitably follows. Richard Wurmbrand lamented about how Westerners often have good intentions to help yet do not enact on conviction. Wurmbrand was in a Communist prison camp for 14 years before finally being released. During captivity, he was so mentally and physically exhausted that he could not recite the Lord's Prayer, and could only repeat, "Jesus, I love You." His suffering was so great he had 18 lacerated scars, his feet had been burned to the bone and beaten, and had been stabbed—all the while enduring psychological hell. I shudder to think of the torture. Are we willing to say that we love Him in the midst of evil--evil like the Rwandan genocide or the Syrian refugee crisis or political imprisonment? Are we willing to aid those who are hurting, to set the captives free? Wurmbrand said, "But God puts every one of us in His place and we must stand firm where God has put us." There is so much I could write, so much I could say. Our response to suffering is what refines us and shapes us! Wurmbrand, a man that experienced suffering like the Tutsis, responds so beautifully: "I am very glad that the Lord loves me so much and gives me the joy to endure for His name." Read up! Read about what is happening in our Middle East, in North Africa, in Southeast Asia. Be in petition and prayer for nations who need our help. Go and help! Enact on those convictions we so willingly ignore. Suffering bends sympathy into empathy, apathy to response, grief to action. We all have small stories of suffering. Use it for His magnitude and fame. We find hope and refuge in Christ. We have experiences that in the Body, victory, courage, hope, and perseverance know no borders, no skin color, no nationality, but are given equally without measure by the Holy Spirit. "The New Testament martyr not only personally testified to the truth and power of Jesus Christ, but was instructed to take that witness to others, regardless of the cost." - Richard Wurmbrand "Beware of those who speak of the spiral of history; they are preparing a boomerang. Keep a steel helmet ready." - Ralph Ellison |
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