Hello everyone!
This blog is about what Jesus is doing in me. So to start it off, I am in Chiang Mai! I have been here for a week and I am in love. The culture, the food, the people… it’s all so amazing. Our ministry this month is helping to finish building an international college which looks like a lot of sanding walls, painting and being very very dusty. It’s so easy to get into the mindset that manual labor is pointless, that we aren’t doing enough but I refuse to think those things! I know that Jesus has placed us in this ministry for a reason. This month is about resting and receiving from the father so that he can equip us for battles in the future. The words I have received for the last three months of the race are Brave, Bold, and Courageous. It points me to 2 corinthians 3: 11-12 “ So if the old way, which has been replaced was glorious, how much more glorious is the new, which remains forever since the new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold”. I wish I could make the words “glorious” “new” and “bold” highlighted with gold and sparkles because thats what I see in my brain. It is so beautiful because the word glorious means “having, worthy of, or bringing fame or admiration” and if the new covenant is more glorious than the old, we can walk in boldness and confidence because 1.) just resting in the father, within our salvation brings glory to him & 2.) knowing it brings glory to him, we can boldly proclaim the gospel.
So I was thinking about this all morning and I was reading in Genesis 1:5ish and it says “For the Lord had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil”. So we have to cultivate the soil when rain comes. To cultivate is to prepare and use the land for crops and gardening. What this says to me is that I need to be ready to receive the rain so I can tend to the garden; this month while I am sanding and painting and being dusty, I need to intentionally receive from God so that when the rain comes and the garden needs tending, I will be there to cultivate the land. In other words, when I see an opportunity to share the gospel and share the love of Christ, I will be capable because I have allowed the father to equip me in my time of resting and receiving. What a beautiful picture that paints. I want Jesus to water the soil so that flowers and plants grow in places that were once dry and cracked. It says in Isaiah 61: 11 “The sovereign Lord will show his justice to the nations of the world. Everyone will praise him! His righteousness will be like a garden in early spring, with plants springing up everywhere”. My prayer and hope is that Christ followers will be an avenue for the father’s righteousness; in him we are made righteous and when we let him come in and allow him to prune us and replace the old dried up soil for new fertile soil, the growth and fruit that comes from it is glorious and it will remain! When our soil is fertile and ready to receive rain, we will be able to help others cultivate their gardens.
I would love to hear about the seeds that are being planted and are growing in your life, I also want to hear about the dry soil that needs watering!! So feel free to text me! email me! snap me! Fax me (lol kidding)!
Anyways thats all 🙂
