"For whoever would save his life,

would lose it.

But whoever loses his life for my sake,

will save it.

For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world,

& loses or forfeits himself?"

Luke 9:24-25

How beautiful the day,
you only even begin to understand,
why God had to let it happen this way.

(Isaiah 55:8-9 came to mind after I

thought this, but to avoid taking

it out of context, I included

the whole passage)

Isaiah 55

The Compassion of the LORD

“Come, everyone who thirsts,

    come to the waters;and he who has no money,     come, buy and eat!Come, buy wine and milk    without money and without price.² Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,    and your labor for that which does not satisfy?Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,    and delight yourselves in rich food.Incline your ear, and come to me;     hear, that your soul may live;and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,     my steadfast, sure love for David.Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,     a leader and commander for the peoples.Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,    and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,     for he has glorified you.

“Seek the Lord while he may be found;   call upon him while he is near;let the wicked forsake his way,    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.For my thoughts are not your thoughts,    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.For as the heavens are higher than the earth,    so are my ways higher than your ways    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth,making it bring forth and sprout,     giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;    it shall not return to me empty,but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

“For you shall go out in joy    and be led forth in peace;the mountains and the hills before you    shall break forth into singing,    and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.  Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;  instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;and it shall make a name for the Lord,    an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

Perfected in Love.

I was totally thinking about this verse today,

and then it was the verse of the day:

“There is no fear in love,

but perfect love casts out fear. 

For fear has to do with punishment, 

and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” 

1 John 4:18 ESV

SO GREAT.

Also, This was totally the prayer of my heart today,

so I'm just going to paste all of it

rather than running my mouth about it

=)

Pslam 27
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
     whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold^[a] of my life;
    of whom shall I be afraid?

² When evildoers assail me
    to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
    it is they who stumble and fall.

³ Though an army encamp against me,
    my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
    yet^[b] I will be confident.

⁴ One thing have I asked of the Lord,
    that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
    and to inquire^[c] in his temple.

⁵ For he will hide me in his shelter
    in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
    he will lift me high upon a rock.

⁶ And now my head shall be lifted up
    above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
    sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

⁷ Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
    be gracious to me and answer me!
⁸ You have said, “Seek^[d] my face.”
My heart says to you,    “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”^[e]
9      Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
    O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
     O God of my salvation!
¹⁰ For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
    but the Lord will take me in.

¹¹ Teach me your way, O Lord,
    and lead me on a level path
    because of my enemies.
¹² Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;
    for false witnesses have risen against me,
    and they breathe out violence.

¹³ I believe^[f] that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living!
¹⁴ Wait for the Lord;
     be strong, and let your heart take courage;
    wait for the Lord!

“For the commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder,

You shall not steal, You shall not covet,' and any other commandment,

are summed up in this word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 

¹⁰ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

Romans 13: 9-10

It's really hard to love someone like Christ when you're fighting bitterness.

Today, I as I was fighting my own bitterness,

I was stopped dead in my tracks by that still small voice…
of God's spirit.

I had previously been thinking,

"How could they?!?

If I were God, I would have run out of patience by now!"

It was in the moment right after that thought,

that I realized how ridiculous that sounds.

Because you see,

the problem with that statement of mine

is that the grace that has been freely extended to me,

is equally as undeserved

as the grace that has been extended to this individual who hurt me.

...

Jesus, please,

help me to let Your love in.

& live it out.

Everyday.

Even when it feels impossible.

Philippians 4:13

My broken heart.

"Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. ² And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. ³ But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun."

Ecclesiastes 4:1-3

We could all use a wake up call.
Jesus is the remedy.

The Call.

It started out as a feeling

which then grew into a hope

which then grew into a quiet thought

which then grew into a quiet word

& then that word grew louder and louder

till it was a battle cry

I'll come back

When you call me

No need to say goodbye

This describes exactly how I feel today.

God's heart for the world

I have always struggled with making decisions.

& answering the question,

"How do I know what is God's will,

versus my own?"

It is a complicated question.

But at DCC this year,

I think God might have brought me my answer

through Scott Nickel, who said it best.

Essentially, he told us,

That when our heart is aligned with the heart of God,

which God so incredibly and willingly reveals to us through His Word when we ask for it,

We can actually trust the desire of our heart,

to be aligned with His will for our lives.

Now, lets rewind a minute:

This does NOT mean that we can trust EVERY desire of our hearts.

We are still sinful & we still succumb to the desires of our flesh ALL the time.

BUT, when we study God's Word,

& compare what we know

to what is true of God himself,

we can then, 

through the power of God's Spirit in us,

trust that the desire of our heart is aligned with His will.

I think he gave a couple of great examples for this.

I'll do my best to share them...

He shared that before he moved to CO,

he had two incredible ministry opportunities laid out before him

both decisions, he believed,

would have blessed their family,

and been aligned with God's will.

The options were:

stay put and do ministry where they were

or move to Denver, CO.

Scott shared that because of what he knew to be true of God,

he was able to confidently trust the desire of his heart,

& choose where he 'wanted' to go,

so they went to Denver, CO.

The second example:

(would be what NOT to do)

A guy in Scott's church came up to him after service,

and was telling Scott about this wonderful Christ loving lady,

he met at the office & wanted to pursue.

Scott didn't see a problem,

& asked the guy why he was sharing all of this,

if she was really a wonderful Christ loving lady.

The guy replied,

"well is it a problem that she's married?"

….

Allow me to summarize:

YES. that is a problem.

If you don't believe me,

look it up.

So having said all of this...

I have a strong desire to serve the Lord this summer in East Asia.

& I am SO STINKIN' EXCITED about it

So far, the Lord has really been opening doors,

& pushing me towards this awesome opportunity.

& while it has definitely required

and will continue to require,

a LOT of Faith

I really believe that He is going to continue to do so!

Listed below is what I have found in His Word that is driving my heart!

Please pray for me, & for this amazing opportunity,

that the Lord would continue to have His way in my life,

to reveal His will for my life to me,

& that I would continue to step aside & let Him lead.

Most importantly,

Please pray for the people of East Asia.

God is already doing really big things there,

& will faithfully continue to do so!

Here are some of the verses I found this week!

I underlined what stood out to me most from each,

& italicized how they make me think about Jesus.

Send me, I'll go:

Luke 10: 2 - He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

The path of life is to follow Christ wherever He may lead; I desire so much to have a heart after God's own heart; You are my joy and my portion forever:

Psalm 16:11 - "You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy, at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

ALL nations:

Matthew 24:14 - "And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come!"

It begins and ends with Jesus:

Ephesians 1: 7-9 - "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ."

In my opinion, this one doesn't really seem like an option:

Mark 16:15 - "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."

The Great Commission:

Matthew 28: 18-20 - And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Revelation 21:4 - "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”