We introduce ourselves and tell people that we are in Africa and are going to be going around the world for the next 11 months because of the difference Jesus has made in our lives. This is almost always followed by one of my favorite questions: which church do you belong to? We then get to explain that we are all from different kinds of churches in the states and we aren’t here to recruit them to any denomination. Instead we are united because of one greater purpose and that is the fact that Jesus wants their hearts.
This man fairly asked, “How can you make me believe” and I answered that I can’t. I was there because of the difference Jesus has made in my life. I don’t believe because someone told me to. I don’t believe because I took someone’s word for it. I believe because of the incredible ways I have experienced God in my life. Not because any religion told me I would gain something from believing but because God, the Creator of life itself, pursued my heart and loved me unconditionally. Because He was there for me through it all and desires a real and personal relationship with me even though He owns life, literally.
The beauty of the gospel and what we are going around telling people about is that it never changes and is unconditional. It fits to all but is so personal at the same time. God is real to me. I have experienced Him in ways that are so personal and so meaningful that I no longer believe in coincidences. The cool thing is that your experiences will be different from mine because God isn’t a cookie cutter god. He didn’t create robots but He made his children unique and knows my desires are different from yours and so He caters to that.
I can’t make you believe anything because even God Himself won’t. He loved you and me enough to give us free will, to give us the option of choosing Him back. He chose us even before the foundation of the world. No matter how many times we reject Him, He will always love us and always want us, but He will never make us choose Him back.
How He differs from other gods and churches this man had previously heard about is that God chose us first, we don’t have to earn His love or approval. We never could even if we wanted to, so He already took care of it all.
I believe because I did search and guess what, I really found. He promises if you search you will find, and once you do your life will never be the same. If you think you’ve experienced some incredible things in life, just wait. I believe because God is real to me. He isn’t just a concept or an unattainable supreme being. Yes I was surrounded by people who loved me and so they shared with me the best thing they had ever found, but I didn’t just believe at their word. I trusted the idea but it was just an idea until I searched and asked, and oh how God answered. He was there for me through cancer and through the hardest time of my life. He was also present in the happiest and most meaningful days of my life like my brother and sister in laws’ wedding and the first time I saw my role as a nurse change a life. I’m not going around the world to tell anyone what to do. I’m not sitting here writing to convince you what to do. But if I claim to love you how can I not share with you the best thing in life I have ever found? I have no hidden intent. I’m not looking to increase a church count or collect a tithe. I found the secret to contentment, the One source of satisfaction and fullness of life and really can’t help but share with you.
The purpose of this trip and really my life isn’t to convince you of anything, your life isn’t up to me. However I can’t know what I know and claim to love you without sharing what I have found. God is loving and compassionate and unlike anything you have ever experienced before. So go ahead and ask Him to reveal a little bit of Himself to you. What do you have to lose? I dare you to.
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love. Ephesians 1:4
We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19
Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Isaiah 49:15-16
‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ Jeremiah 33:3
” For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD. Jeremiah 29:11-14
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:13-16
However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” 2 Corinthians 2:9
I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:11-13
The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Deuteronomy 31:8
The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17
