Exactly 1 month ago I posted my last blog…oops. A lot has happened and while you may think that that would require a more vast array of blog posts, I really just had no idea how to present anything. An entire country between and almost halfway through another. I'll sum up so I can get to what's most important…right now.
Cambodia
Beautiful Desolation…It reminded me of my home in the Las Vegas desert. Everything seemed dead and brown. The dry season. But something about the place was just beautiful. We did not have the perks that we have now in Malaysia. No warm showers, actually we just had buckets. No beds, mosquitoes everywhere, 14 people crammed into one room, always blistering hot providing us with a sweaty mess to clean up anywhere we went, no air conditioning, nothing anywhere but buddhist temples. It was one of my favorite countries so far on the race. I love the Cambodian people. The genocides during the Khmer Rouge has seemed to bring the people together and community is not the right word to describe the closeness that everyone feels toward each other. Even in trajedy, when a little girl drowned in front of my very eyes, a story that I have been trying to write for you but I truly have no idea where to begin, everyone from miles around shows up to honor the family. One day I hope to share with you that wild day. I love Cambodia dearly and will speak of it for years to come.
Malaysia
Now I am living the Mystery in Malaysia. I am now an English teacher, dying to my speech in order to be all things to all men. Certain words that I commonly use in everyday conversation such as missionary, Christian, amen, God, Jesus, etc. I must be very careful about speaking here. Only in private may I speak openly and even then, softly. In order to protect my host and the ministry that they do in this very Muslim and closed off area of the nation we are very careful not to endanger their work. Word travels quickly and here, that is a dangerous thing. God bless the believers here for their faith. Sometimes they do not even get any time for fellowship in months. Their faith is astounding.
So here I am. This morning I began reading John. While the other gospels speak of Jesus the messiah, the teacher, or the healer, John speaks of the DIvine Christ. In the very first chapter God began to scream out to me, and his breath was so warm. He spoke to me through John 1:12.
"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."
The RIGHT to become children of God…We speak of his grace in our lives and how without him, we are unworthy. True, but here is exactly the part that we miss. We have chosen to receive him. He gave us the RIGHT to become children of God. He did not just give us the option, he did not just give us the permission. He gave us a RIGHT! A divine anointing! We have been given a claim to the Kingdom of God. It is our divine RIGHT as children born of GOD, the KING of EVERYTHING. God was screaming through his word today, "Take hold of it Brandon!" He was telling me to step up to the throne that was prepared for me.
"But you are a CHOSEN people, a ROYAL priesthood, a HOLY nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wolderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." -1 Peter 2:9-10
Read that first chapter of John and this passage will seem very familiar. It's all about this blinding and wonderful light that casts out the darkness. I have been learning all about this idea of stepping into my identity, anointing, and the royalty that God has created me to be. I am his son. You are his sons and daughters, meant for a royal place beside his Son Jesus. Get excited people. You are only catching a glimpse of your divine inheritance on this earth. You are meant for so much more than you think you can accomplish and that makes your worth greater than anything you can imagine.
The Man With Unclean Lips,
Brandon Barnum
