Well we’re now in the latter part of October and my time in Guatemala is just over a month from over. This also means I have less than 7 months left on this trip. Yes, time does fly by pretty quick. This has been such a great experience so far and I only expect it to get better. It’s been a little while since my last blog post, so here’s a bit of my life in Guatemala for you.
Often God uses other people to confirm in you or teach you new things. For me a lot of the time these are things I didn’t know I needed to hear until after it’s been said. It’s actually pretty cool. This past week has been one of learning, among other things and so here is some of what God taught me and has shown me recently. But first I have an activity for you to do, so just keep reading and obey the words on the screen.
I want you to take a moment and clear your mind. Get rid of all of your thoughts, worries and distractions. Commit the next little bit of time to this blog and the thoughts God will place in your mind through this blog. So go ahead now and clear your mind, make it a fresh new board on which to write. Here we go.
I want you to imagine yourself in a brand new and different world. This is a world without hope; a world without peace; a world without love. A world which no matter what you do it makes no difference. A world where your past has every control over your future and who you will become. This is a world where you are punished for your crimes. Where hatred is like murder and lust like adultery. In this world you can never break free of what little you have, that you can never rise above who you truly are when nobody is looking. You don’t have Christ in this world. He never came to save you. You don’t have a God to pray to, to talk with and look to for anything and everything. You have no escape of your sin. You are doomed to suffer for your humanity and sinful nature. Pause and think. Truly think what this world would be like. Think of everything you’d be guilty of. Think of everything God is for you now but wouldn’t be in that world. Just pause and think.
How do you feel? How is life different without Christ? What is good in that world?
Now go think of how Christ has entered your life and given you the hope you so desperately needed in that other world.
I realized tonight just how important Christ was and ergo, how much we are loved by Him. Never have I been so impacted by the idea of how my life and eternity was changed by that very moment on the Cross. That moment, I was forgiven of EVERYTHING I have done and ever will do. I went from hopeless to having more hope than any person without Christ could ever have. I do not have to face God and plead my case against perfection. No, instead I plead Jesus and that’s more than enough. Worthy is The Lamb! I am simply in awe of the King. No other way to put it.
So here’s what’s next. Being in awe of the King is great and important but it’s not everything. We, as believers, need to go out and live a life as an offering to this Jesus guy. We don’t do this as an obligation, rather as an act of submission and honor r to our King – a pleasing offering to the Savior of our souls. I so badly want to see Children of Christ living like THAT is their identity – a saved child of the Most High. Your identity is not your past, what you do or how you look. No, those are characteristics that humans use to represent you. But that’s not how God sees you.
God has been working on me this past week or so. He has been confirming me and reminding me who I am. For the past while, since we’ve gotten here, I have been struggling with my closeness to Christ and (whether or not) I’m important or valuable to Him.
You know some would think it would be very easy to live with 21 other believers passionate for Christ. You would think that growth just takes place because it’s an environment cultivated for that. Well in some cases that may be true and at times I would agree. However, something I didn’t expect was to feel distant from God when serving Him daily and being in Christian community literally 24/7. The Truth is, Satan is a tricky fellow. You see in this place, during worship, during devotions, during Bible study I have felt distant from God, unable to attain Him no matter what I did. It just so happened a week ago tonight that changed for me.
Here I was, once again surrounded by a mass of fellow God-chasers. We sat, stood and listened to everything our host, Luis, was saying. That night he happened to be speaking on the topic of hearing God. (No, nobody heard God call out audibly or anything, so don’t get ahead of yourself.) We had a time where we were to pray and cry out to God and ask what we wanted of Him and listen for Him to speak to us as well. Once more, I cried out to God asking for His presence in my life, for closeness to Him and wisdom of Him.
A while after praying for these things I was also prayed for by a few different people. One of these people was Luis. He grabbed my out stretched hands and after asking me what I wanted from God, he prayed for me quickly moving over what I asked of him and then onto what God had placed on his heart for me. He talked with God like a man with his friend, declaring what was true. Shortly into this time he confirmed to me what I had been asking of God… well sort of. I asked for me to be close to God , but Luis said God is close to me. The full weight of this thought is still hitting me.
I tried so hard to get to God and be close and feel Him there with me, but it wasn’t anything I could do. I’m not Jesus, I’m not perfect. I have no ability to be close to God… but He instead chose to come meet me where I was. He chose to draw close to me and have relationship with me. “You are so close to this one…” said Luis. Dang! God and I are tight yo!
With this newly given knowledge I am able to feel more like a best friend of Christ’s rather than just someone He knows of. I don’t feel like He’s some abstract idea floating around out there but that He is actually with me and wants to be close to me. I feel like we are close and I can feel His joy when I seek Him more. It’s so awesome!
My identity is not a Christian that is failing at connecting with God but rather a Christian that has Christ as his best friend. That has Christ with him at all times. I walk with Christ daily, and I can say that with conviction. He is right there with me through everything. I am so happy to please God. His joy has become my joy, His desires become mine and we’re just like two peas in a pod.
Yea, you could say it’s been a good week. Thanks God.
Prayer Request:
On a separate note please be praying for one of the ministries I am involved in here. We are running a soccer tournament with an outreach aspect to it and we have a bunch of teams signed up and the place that had agreed to let us use their field for the tournament has backed out as we began the tournament. We are mostly day to day with finding a field currently. Please pray for God’s provision of a field that is usable and big enough for the games. Thanks y’all. Expecting big things.
