As I look back on my month in South Sudan with the men…I’m thinking to myself…how can I blog about this month, include all the stories, make sure God gets the glory, and explain what God did in my life.
I could include the story about doing deliverance on a demon possessed woman…
Or:
…the time we spoke at a tiny church in the bush and how the Spirit fell in a powerful way
…trying to show the Jesus film in a village and practically everything going wrong
…spraining my ankle and having it swell to softball size
…the toilet that smelled so bad and had maggots crawling all over the floor
…the way God taught me about rest after I sprained my ankle
…nutella cakes for my birthday
…the worms that danced in our water bottles
…coming down with Typhoid fever the day we left, and then traveling over 40 hours on busses and roads that were to be desired
…sketchy clinic visits
…walking 4 miles for internet on muddy roads
…changing money with the black market
Also, I could include multiple stories of miraculous healings and deliverance from other teams on our squad. But I won’t.
That may disappoint you.
But be encouraged.
I have something so much greater to blog about!
I want us to dwell on, think about, and be fascinated by the indescribable God that we serve. I want it to be all about Him. I want my life story to be all about Him. I want your life to be all about Him. I want these last three months of the race to be all about Him!
Because really, it is all about the one who was, is, and is to come…the great I AM. Demons tremble, nations bow, the earth shakes, and we are humbled at the mention of His Holy Name!
I want us to talk about this amazing God. There is none like Him. He transcends time. He is currently just as present in past events as He is in the future…that blows my mind!
Think about it, God who wanted a relationship with his people, but couldn’t compromise his justice and righteousness to overlook their sin and imperfections. He wanted a relationship so bad with His people that he gave up His Son-Jesus Christ to bridge the gap between us and God. Now we come boldly into God’s presence only because of what Jesus did for all humanity on the cross. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around that!
Yet we sit around and waste time talking about trivial things that have nothing to do with this amazing God! We talk about us! We talk about the things that we do.
We tell stories about our experiences on the race mostly because we want our name to be associated with those experiences. We want to be known for how much faith we have, and how many miracles we(God) has performed. We want a “good looking” kingdom resume!
We align ourselves with the popular speakers and missionaries of today(Bill Johnson, Mike Bickle, Francis Chan, Louie Giglio, Heidi Baker…etc) because we want to be known as being associated with their teaching or ministries, but totally miss the point of their teaching and what God is saying through them. Wow, really!
My co-squad leader Leah, really challenged me last week in this area. I realized I cared way to much about who my name is associated with, and not enough about making sure the NAME above all names is being exalted.
Goodness! Who cares about my name! It doesn’t need to be known. And that’s easier to say than to believe! All I ever want to care about is making His name know. I still want to believe that He is worthy of everything even if He never shows me another miracle. Even if I never feel His love again…He is still worth my life. He is still worth my praise!
Yes, this month was amazing. Yes there were worms that danced in our water bottles and we learned how to do the worm check every time we filled them. Yes God delivered a woman from the hand of the enemy. Yes God gave me some awesome new revelations of His love for me. Yes our men did have a great month together.
But so many of those stories have my name connected to them. I wouldn’t mind if people don’t know about them. But it does matter to me that God’s name is connected to those stories. It’s because of Him and his grace that I even get to be a part of them! And it does matter to me that His greatness is made know through them. It does matter to me that people see Him in those stories!
He is such a good Daddy. Don’t believe me? Get to know Him more. Get to know His character more. Become more intimate with Him and you’ll believe me!
You think God is boring? You don't know Him good enough! There's always new things to discover about Him! He blows our imaginations! He is INDESCRIBABLE!
