Everything is Urgent...

    On Tuesday, there was a 7.0 earthquake in Haiti.  To learn more about what happened and the magnitude of this earthquake read this link http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122545946
    I don't want to be too repetitive in my writings but I feel like I need to address this topic of urgency.  When reading that article I was broken.  Have you ever been so broken or so sad that you just have to sit in silence for a while?  Well that is what I had to do after reading that article.
   "Everything is urgent," that is what the author wrote at the bottom of the article.  Saving the people from the rubble, getting medicine to those who are injured, providing food and shelter for the homeless, and the list goes on.  "Everything is urgent".  Do you really believe that?  If so, what are you doing right now to make a difference?  Of course caring for the people in Haiti is urgent but do you feel that it should concern you?  Of course it should! We are called to love others and love the Lord, our God with all our being.
    Loving people and God does not mean that only at Christmas or during a tragedy I am going to give a little extra money or give an hour out of my week to help people in need.  No, that is not the point.  True love means that we put ourselves aside and put others first.  If we really believe that everything is urgent then in our lives there should an urgency to help others and follow God to where ever He leads.  However, this sense of urgency out love needs to be show through our actions.  Take for example the blog from the other day with the two sons, one son did what he was suppose to do after some hesitation but the other son, said, "I will go" and then never did.  Just think about that and I will end this blog on this note for meditation, "In the same way, faith by itself, if it s not accompanied by action, is dead" (James 2:17). Faith with out works, is no faith at all.

The Two Sons

    Today, I was reading the parable of the two sons in Matthew 21:28-32.  In this story, there is a man who has two sons.  He ask the first son, "Go and work today in the vineyard."  The son replied, "I will not," and then later on changed his mind and went.  The same man asked his second son, "Go and work today in the vineyard."  The second son replied, "I will," but then he did not go.  As we know from Scripture, the first one did want his father wanted, but I want to know what took him so long?  

    Was the son just lazy?  Was he afraid to go work in the vineyard?  What kept him from doing what his father asked of him?  What did he have to sacrifice to go work in the vineyard?  I will be the first to admit I don't always do what I'm told, but I have this inner voice that usually kicks me inside and says, "Go, just do it".  Do you ever have that inner voice that you feel is telling you to do something when don't really want to do it?  Well, most of the time if you are really listening that voice is right and you are wrong, so what keep us from doing what we know we are suppose to do?  Pride. Fear. Rejection. Confrontation. You name it.

    Through my experience, I have found that when I do what I am suppose to do and what I feel God wants me to do, I am happier and I have peace.  I am deeply sadden inside when I see people who have these great God given gifts and talents, but are too afraid to go out and use them or refuse to acknowledge God.  Being in a relationship with God and saying, " I will go out into the vineyard" is a lot easier said then done.  This commitment to God and to what is right is not so that we can have someone control our every step, but it is instead to give us life to the fullest.  Life that can be and should be lived out loud.  So what is holding you back in life?  What is holding you back from doing the things you feel and know that you should be doing?  

    

Blessings...

     I was talking to a couple of people today about blessings.  We talked about the blessings that God has given us and how with what God blesses us we can bless others.  Even in hard financial times, we can still bless others. Everything has a season, we all have our ups and downs, but if we, as Christians, are able to help those around us we should.  There would be no reason for anyone to be in need if, as community, we acted like the people in Acts and shared everything we had to offer (Acts 4:32).
    "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." (Matthew7:7).  Although at the same time, we have to be willing to ask for help.  No one is perfect and we all struggle in life, but how many of us are willing to share our struggles with others and ask for help?  I use to have a hard time asking others for help but you know what?  Once I opened up to others and shared my feelings and my need, people responded!  You would be amazed to see how many people are willing to help if you just ask.  Be humble. Be honest. And see how God works through others.

24 Hours

    Will it matter 24 hours from now?  I want you to think about that question for a moment.  I remember the first time I was asked that question, I was on a weekend field trip to Chicago.  I was sitting in a Sunday School room and the teacher passed around index cards and a marker and asked us to write, "Will it matter 24 hours from now?" on the cards.
    Well, that was 2 years ago and I still have that card and think about that question all time.  Will it matter 24 hours from now?  Is what I'm doing right now going to matter tomorrow?  Is this situation worth getting upset about?  Is what I am doing right now glorifying God?  Those are the questions that I think about when I am doing something.
    You know there are some days when I go to bed at night and think, "Where did the time go? Did anything I do today matter?"  It is easy to let time get away from us by letting Satan distract us from fully living our lives for God.  There is a saying that goes, if Satan can't make you bad, then he will make you busy.  Don't get so busy today that you miss out on the important things in life.  Think to yourself, will it matter 24 hours from now?  If the answer is no then I believe that there is something better you can be doing with the time the Lord has given to you.
    This doesn't mean spending every minute of every day reading the Bible, although reading God's Word for a while wouldn't hurt.  It just means making the time we have here on earth count for something more, make what your doing bring glory to God.  One way that I love to glorify God is through loving and caring for my family and friends.  I also love working with children and helping them come to know the Lord.  I love travelling to different parts of the world and sharing God's Word with others.  It is in those moments that I know I am right where God wants me to be, and it is those moments that will matter in eternity.  So ask yourself today, "will it matter 24 hours from now?"
  

Let's Be Honest

    This week has been wonderful, I love being back at school and back in the dorm. As it turns out my intensive class, Principles of the Bible II, has turned out to be not so intensive. Since, I have come back to school and I have had more free time than planned, I have been thinking more about God and life.  Since, my grandpa has been in the hospital I have been focusing on how precious life is and how certain death is.

    I will be honest, death scares me.  When I think about my loved ones passing away I am filled with sadness.  I have tried over the years to escape the realities of death by avoiding the pain and hiding the pain that I feel when someone I know gets sick and eventually passes on.  However, I have learned that there is no escaping death or the pain that preludes and follows after experiencing the death of a loved one.  In response, I have prayed to God and turned to Scripture for answers.  

    "A good name is better than perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth.  It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart.  Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart."  Ecclesiastes 7: 1-3

    When I think about death I get scared but then I remember God's promises to us and the gift of eternal life that He offers us through His Son.  The uncertainty of our time of death and death itself should not push us into hiding.  I have learned over the years that it is okay to cry and mourn, but we have to be willing to be vulnerable not only with ourselves but also with God.  Being vulnerable does not mean that you are weak but rather that you are human, just like the rest of us.  

The crossroad where public and private meet...

    I first started blogging this past summer when I went on my internship to Spain. As a result from the positive feedback from others, I would like to continue blogging. This blog is designed to reach out to my supporters (friends and family) and to let them know what God is doing in my life. At the same time, this blog is going to serve as my own personal journal that I can share with others.  Let me share these two blog ideas on a deeper level...
    As I was lying in bed the other night reading my Bible and Crazy Love, by Francis Chan, I started to think about my life and these past couple of years.  God has given me a wonderful life and as I reflected on His grace and power,  I was awestruck.  God is truly amazing.  In addition, I started to reflect on my reading from Crazy Love in chapter two in which the author talks about the reality of our lives and how God has given us this brief scene in a movie, which we call life.  When I am faced with the reality of disease and suffering, such as my grandpa being in the hospital, I am reminded at how short life is.  Death also gives the living a sense of urgency that normally in the hustle and bustle of every day life we seem to forget about.  This urgency and my reflection on God reminds me how important it is for me to share my life and my love for God with others as much as possible.
    I love the quote, "my worth to God in public is what I am in private" (Oswald Chambers).  This quote along with my reading from Crazy Love made me think that when I die, which could be at any moment, then what I am I leaving behind. I thought about the journals that I have had since I was in junior high and I thought, "who would I want to read those?".  These journals reveal my life behind closed doors, who I am in private. During my reflection, I thought about about my life: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful.  If I am not willing to share those journals with others in public then what do they say about who I am in private? Grant it some of the journals were written before I became a Christian, but what do my journals after I came to know the Lord say about my relationship with God?  Living Out Loud to me is about showing others Christ through my life with no limitations, my public life meets my private life.