God Loves You Where You Are At

So I am here. Packed up my life in my car, took a leap of faith with courage & obeyed the Father's voice. It is something this last year I have been learning to do; obey the voice of God. To listen & hear him & then follow it. Oh, Bold obedience; yes with it does come opposition & there has been a lot of it. "Why would you go to Detroit? Have you seen the crime rates. Something Horrible will happen to you….Why Detroit?"I will tell you why. I am here because Jesus told me to come here. That is enough for me.

I am here because why wouldn't God call one of his people to a city that needs restoration, that needs hope in Urban America? A place where there is such devastation, loss of hope because of the economic downfall. Where depression and sadness lingers…a city where brokenness is awaiting hope.

 

Ya there is crime here. There is also crime in China where they still imprison Christians for their faith, but I went there….or what about Malaysia where the same would happen if I would have talked to the Malay people about Jesus….still went there, or what about Cambodia where 1.7 million out of 8 million were put to death during the Kmer Rouge regime from 1975-1979. Such strongholds of loss of hope in places like Cambodia but the children's smiles were unbelievable. It was unbelievable that they knew Jesus but they came from a Buddhist family & background. These kids are coming to church on Sunday without their parents. God cares about the next generation; in fact he has a unique and special calling for them. I believe there is a generation of youth rising up to minister to their parents; to share the love of Christ with them. To show them Jesus & it is just a beautiful thing. God uses brokenness for his beauty. He uses it to shed light. As grounds for restoring. As a platform. 

(Cambodia: Month 6 of the World Race) 

So why would it stop me from going to Detroit? God has spoken & given me a vision of what is to come while I am here. For now he is planting me, grounding me, discipling me & preparing me. I am in a preparation phase of being able to used for the Lord. It is exciting and overwhelming all at the same time; but the reason I know God wants me here is the peace I feel. The peace I felt while packing when really I thought I should probably feel maybe an ounce of stress, but didn't. Or maybe it was the peace I felt when I got phone call, after phone call of possible job interviews after sending out resumes. Or maybe it was the text I received from a world racer offering me food, lodging & fellowship. What I do know is God provides. He leads my path. The Father keeps reminding me that his word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path (Psalm 119:105) and even in a storm I am comforted by what his word says; the truth that I choose to firmly stand on. The freedom I walk in as his daughter. That is not to be taken lightly. It is a lifestyle.  

As you may or may not know God has laid Detroit on my heart since Kenya, Africa…here I was in this tiny village in Africa (Kitale) with bumpy crazy roads, stars the most beautiful you have ever imagined or seen in the night time sky, the happiest grinning orphans laughing in the field as we played with them and picked them up….and I was thinking about America. Funny thing is God had to take me out of where I was, to bring me to those places to break my heart for something. To give me a passion, desire, and love for something in his Kingdom. Something the world wouldn't understand. These youth girls…grabbed a hold of my heart and pulled at it, tug, tug, tug. Then it tugged even harder, and harder and harder….every country a new found reality, a new brokenness of God's voice crying out to a generation who desperately needs HIM. 

I am so incredibly blessed to be staying with a married couple that were K squad leaders. They are such a huge blessing to have come into my life. Finding world race community right now for a while was perfect & I it has been so good so far to be able to share stories with each other & just learn from someone who has come off of the field for almost 2 years now. The Lord has just a sweet time planned here. I am so thankful.

Tonight we had a bible study on the book "Gracenomics" by Mike Foster. It was just perfect for what I needed to hear. The reality hit me that I wasn't having enough grace for people at home…for people who didn't just go & see what I saw, or learn what I learned. I was trying to make them get something that maybe they will never get, until they go out & see it tangibly for themselves. I want to apologize to any friends, family, or just anyone that I have made too harsh of a judgment on. I think there have been a lot of times these past couple weeks where I have expected you to be that community that I had on the world race or something different.
Maybe you are someone that I have not been able to love you where you are at. I know God loves you where you are at so I do too. He has had grace for me & still does so I need to extend that grace better as one of his followers. Grace is not really something that we even get to choose because God chose it; his name is Jesus.

God's only son didn't die for nothing; he died for the cause of GRACE. Grace that he could lavish on us. We are bought with the blood of Christ; even if we don't know it yet. We have his blood covering our sins, our debts, our pains, our hurts, our losses, our shortfalls. Another person I don't have enough grace with is, Myself. I need to be able to forgive myself & love myself the way God loves me. I need to not be my own worst critic. Or to overanalyze every little thing I do as if I need to be perfect & always follow God 100% perfectly; hello that just is not going to happen in the world we live in! I am not perfect, but God's love is. It is enough for me. It's enough to restore me, to restore you, to renew you, to revive you, to make you more like him, holy in his sight, to make you more blameless, to allow you to have GRACE. When we reflect back in our lives, especially as Christians, we can see God's love for us in trails of trials. We can see how God loved us unconditionally. That is priceless grace. Let us BOLDY come to the throne & receive that grace.