It has been so amazing here and I am falling in love with Indonesia, the people, and food. I have truly been blessed by each and every person that has opened their home to me and my team and allowed us to share what the Lord has put on our hearts, to worship with them, and eat with them. I love the Pastor’s heart, to reach everyone and if they don’t have a way to church then we will bring church to them. He was talking about the church the other day and he said it would be okay if the church building burned down, because the church is made by each and every person, not a building. It has been a real pleasure to go to each home church and see how the Lord has spoken though my team.
The first week we had home church we were praying about who should preach each day. I wanted to be the last person so I would have more time to prepare for my message. But God had other plans, He decided that I was going to speak the first day and I was going to speak on a topic that is really important to me, but I have never known how to talk about it.
During my time at CFNI, the Lord began to speak to me about His steadfast love and He took me though a process so I would know His love for me. When I read in Psalms, the words “Steadfast Love” stood out and I was captured by it. The word steadfast means unwavering, unchangeable, dependable, reliable, and constant. That is so powerful! It means that God’s love does not change or stop because we mess up. His love for us, that He had when He made us, is the same love He has for us today. It’s hard to understand this kind of love that never changes because we live in a world where it’s always, “I will love you if you do all these things for me” or “I have to love you out of obligation”. God chose to love us not because of what we do or because he has to. Instead, He chooses to love us, that choice is evident when He gave His one and only Son for us. Nothing will change the love God has for us, it’s steadfast and unwavering!
This revelation took me from this place of striving to be loved by God, into a place of accepting His love. It took me out of if I prayed enough, read the Bible enough, did enough good that God would love me. God’s Love is not dependent on what we do, instead it’s just being His daughter or son. The Father’s love is freely given to us as His sons and daughters, all we have to do is accept it.
While I was preparing the message, the Lord gave me a vision of a father the day a child is born and as the father holds the baby, he falls in love with it. When the child begins to walk the father is so excited and when the child falls down, the father is not mad, instead he picks up the child and helps them to walk more. This is an example of God’s love, the day He formed you He loved you and chose everything about you, from your hair color, eye color, the way you talk, and so on. He knew everything about you, the good and the bad, He chose that day to love you, all of you. When we fall and mess up it does not change God’s love for us. He is just like the father from the example, He just picks us up and helps us to walk. God’s love is not dependent on us being a perfect person who does everything right, but instead just being His child.
He took me to the verse in Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV)
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Never ceases means to never bring or come to an end. That love can never be brought to an end or taken away. Wherever we find ourselves, His love is unchanging and ever present. His mercies are new everyday. That means that no matter what happened yesterday, it’s a new day with the Lord. The failures of yesterday don’t define you.
My leader Shannon gave me a definition of Mercy that I love. Mercy is not about not punishing someone for something they deserve, but it’s about showing love in spite of that thing. Mercy is seeing there is a need and meeting that need with Love. I couldn’t think of a better example than God giving His only Son for us so we could have eternal life. God saw the separation of man from Himself and gave His only Son so we could have a relationship with Him. You are chosen by God and every day you get to step into that. You get to step into the newness of what God did for you and know that the failures of yesterday do not define you. There is new mercy for you today!
God loves you so much and nothing can change that.
Here are some pictures from two of our home groups. We have been to so many and I wished I had pictures from each one but there will be more pictures to come later.
