Well… I left Bulgaria a week ago and I’m finally getting around to writing about it – So sorry for the lateness (is that a word??) of this post but praying you enjoy and that you can be encouraged by God’s faithfulness here on The Race just as much as His faithfulness is back in the States….
The month of October (Also the month I turned the BIG 22 – *Tswift playing in the background as I type that*) was spent in this Eastern Europe country at a beautiful time…
Leaves were changing colors,
Chilly fall weather,
Trees were quite literally the color orange,
And I secretly (and kinda embarrassingly) pretended a PSL from Starbucks was in my hand as I walked the streets of the little town we lived in on the border of Romania… A little town called Svishtov.
Like most places in Eastern Europe, Bulgaria has a main religion called Orthodox – where, majority of the time is more based on “good works” than a grace and faith based religion. Many people believe that God can only speak to them if I candle is lit, or through talking to a “higher person” within the church – and more than likely, if they deem themselves to have been doing enough “good deeds”, can they then speak to God…
My story from this month is short and sweet, but has not only taught me many truths about Bulgaria and my past three months in Eastern Europe… But has taught me some truths in my own walk with The Lord and how my relationship with God can start to look a lot like an works-based, Orthodox religion if I’m not reminding myself of truth.
On Tuesday nights, the husband and wife of our host family for the month (Josh and Lydia), have a Bible study in their apartment building for anyone who is looking to know more about God. For the month, Josh and Lydia asked if a couple of us could babysit their four children while the Bible study went on so that they would not be interrupted – and we were happy to do so.
After one Tuesday night babysitting for our host family, as I was about to leave to go back to the Church to get ready for bed, I asked Lydia how the Bible study went that night. She instantly lit up with a smile and said they had read through a passage of Scripture where a woman in the Bible study was taught, for the first time, that she was saved by grace, not by works. Lydia said the woman was in awe hearing that – saying that this changed everything for her; that she had always taught it was about being a good person and works based. And hearing this simple statement about this woman’s realization, my heart filled with joy that overflowed as I walked out of their apartment building that night…
For the first time…
This woman was able to hear (and read in Scripture), the truth that The Lord so desperately wants every person on this earth to believe.
For the first time…
This woman in Svishtov, Bulgaria on a regular Tuesday night…. was able to hear The Gospel…
HOLY MOLY THIS IS THE BEST NEWS PEOPLE!!!! And my heart is jumping a hundred miles a second writing this because I’m seeing this woman in my mind right now leaving that Bible study that night, letting it sink into her heart that she is saved by faith. I’m picturing her filled with joy and amazement of knowing that one truth… I’m picturing her walking out of there a different person than the one who first walked into the Bible study.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” –Ephesians 2:8
I know many of you reading this have heard that verse above (or maybe you haven’t) – but I’m praying we don’t let that become numb/cliché to us as we read it – and if that did happen as you read, or maybe you even just skimmed over it because you already knew it (I have done this one too many times with this verse)… I would encourage you to go read it again, read it even five times straight and let it sink in as if you’re hearing it for the first time…
Because now every time I read that, I pray that I won’t lose the wonder of a God who has freely given me the gift of freedom… Who has freely given me salvation with Him… Because so often I forgot that and can easily make it all works based.
We don’t have to earn it people,
We don’t have to be a better version of ourselves to earn salvation,
Or hope, that someday, we’ve earned a place with Jesus.
“How could He loves me when…”
He has never stopped loving you
“I don’t feel worthy enough…”
His love for you makes you worthy.
“But what about that sin six years ago…”
You’re saved by grace
I think about that woman that night as those truths filled her heart and her mind – that there were lies that have been engraved in her beliefs about our Heavenly Father… and that night truth overcame that.
After that night, I have thought differently about people I walk by on the streets, the workers I meet at the grocery store, the little Roma girl I played games with in Romania, the new friend I made on a train in Bulgaria… I’ve thought differently, in a good way.
I’ve thought about how many people I have talked to, played with, met, or walked by or how many people I might meet in the future… That have/are believing the same thing that the woman at the Bible Study had been believing for who knows how long… And it has set a deeper fire in my heart for people to know the beauty and truth of being saved by grace by a gracious and loving God who gave it all up for us to dance in freedom with Him.
Because everything outside of Jesus, everything in this world, tells us we have to “work harder”, or climb “the ladder of success”, or “be better”, in order to gain anything…
But the beauty of Jesus is that it is finished (praises),
That this world is saved by His grace, and His grace alone.
And now that woman gets to dance in that freedom.
And we also get to dance in that freedom of truth (because who doesn’t like dancing am I right or am I right!?)
“I was an orphan, lost at the fall; Running away when I’d hear you call, But Father, you worked your will.
I had no righteousness of my own I had no right to draw near your throne, But Father, you loved me still.
I worked my fingers down to the bone; But nothing I did could ever atone, But Jesus, you paid my debt.
I’m a child of God by grace, and grace alone”
