The phrase God put on my heart to explain training camp is “Christ loved us first”. Training camp was a week of intense discussion on spiritual instincts, prophesy, the nature of the Holy Spirit and much more so in order for the processing to begin I had to find a starting point. My experience with the Bible is that I find myself primarily turning to it as a means to come to grips with what I am called to do while here on Earth. Some phrases that come to mind are
“God will never put more on us than we can bear”
“If we are tempted, God will provide a way out”
“Love the Lord your God and love one another”
This last phrase seems simple enough but I believe myself as well as most Christians fail to live up to this the supreme of God’s commands. Often times we find ourselves trying to clean ourselves up before we present ourselves to God, or trying to “live the Christian life” (going to church, being nice to people, tithing etc). Being a good person is not bad and I encourage this behavior but our Godly nature will only be at its fullest when the Spirit lives within us.
James 2: 14-19 states:
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
Loving God is enough of a guiding principle as doing so will ensure good deeds and sufficient faith. Christ loved us first by his sacrifice at Calvary and therefore getting to know him is the ultimate way to honor that sacrifice.
A story I heard this week to illustrate our relationship with God uses the example of a daughter pursuing her father’s attention while he is changing the cars oil. The daughter approaches her father asking for his company in a game of dress the barbies and the father invites the daughter under the car, showing him what he was up to. God is represented by the father and mankind as the daughter. We are to humbly and with a sense of curiosity pursue a relationship with God as a child pursues her father. Christ loved us first so that we may pursue this relationship with our eternal father. I challenge all of you to quit competing over Gods love and approval as just spend time with him. Whatever that means for you whether it's bible study, admiring his creation, prayer, worship just spend time with your eternal father.
I challenge you all to quit competing for God’s love and attention and just spend some time with him. Admire his creations, tell him what you are thankful for, read his word, do whatever you feel will draw you closer to him.
My Squad mates understand that we are unworthy of God’s love but we are ordained to love one another and those he puts in our path. By loving one another first as a unified community God is taking us into the nations to spread Gods call for a relationship with him.
We come from different denominations, family lives, struggles and ministry experience but for the next year and hopefully my life this is my family. We travel to Guatemala in September to begin our journey. In order for that to be possible I must reach my $6,500 deadline by August 1st. I currently have $4,800 in my support account. If you feel called to contribute to my journey you can by clicking the “support me” link of the left.
