By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept.
We weep here while we wait for the glory of God to unravel around us and return, but never look to see that Babylon may hold more of our hearts than we could have ever imagined. Constantly, I pray to the Father time and again, “Please Lord change my wicked heart. Create new desires inside of me. Create newness that will reveal in me the purpose, the freedom of the life that only You, my God, can bring.” Yet…
I love my idols.
I love my Babylon.
and
Freedom seems like a lie, and Zion is forgotten.
Perhaps you can relate to this.
American culture has cultivated, constructed, and perfected an ignominious edifice-like image of desire to shut out any glimpse of truth that may have stirred in the heart. Satisfaction is always something to chase, as our pavlovian masters ring the bell to watch us salivate. Then, when we do put our lips to the bottle, instead of refreshment we taste the bitter saltiness that empties us further.
Monuments stand erected all throughout our buildings, in our shopping districts, on the sides of our roads, in our homes, and they beckon every part of the human desire to take and drink from their streams. Every part of our culture raises up glorified images of desire plastered behind fitted glass, backlit, swept, as brilliant as the eye could behold, shining in ultra high-definition, and tempting every passer by to invest in the flesh of humanity, yet no satisfaction comes.
We want to live more than ever before. We want to experience, to taste, to feel, to own to dominate, to take, to have more than we’ve ever had before. We want to Live!
We want to build, to see, to know, to listen, to find. We want to Live!
So we set out for the far country to find life, but we weep for we realize that we are prisoners here in a foreign land that does not understand us. We weep, because we know the glory of God, and we are far from that beautiful spectacle. We weep, for we wish our desires were holy, and set apart like Christ.
Here lies the ultimate decision- Quite literally life and death held in the same hand. Now that I’ve found Christ, will I follow Him? Even though I was raised in the church, even though I’ve read my Bible profusely, even though I pray on the daily I can still follow the spirit of the age on the road that leads to destruction. Even though I may have been born in sin, even though I may have destroyed my life, even though I may have been a slave to desire I can still choose to follow the Prince of Glory, and it goes like this:
A man sold everything he had to buy a field for the treasure of a precious pearl that lay within it, and Jesus beckoned us saying that unless we take up our cross and follow Him we cannot be His Disciples. The death of ourselves is incredibly vital for the new life to come. We have to put it all on the line. We have to sell all we have for the precious treasure that is Christ. We have to put to death the flesh.
Today I leave America, and it couldn’t feel more like a baptism.
I take one more deep breath here in the airport, and when I get on that plane my head will be plunged underneath the water.
I will come up on the other side in a new country and begin this journey.
My body has lived its entirety in Babylon, but my spirit longs for Zion, for freedom, for satisfaction, for the Kingdom of God, for home, for the presence of my Lord.
Thank You for reading this far along, and if you have been blessed by this post please consider supporting me financially as I set out to share the Gospel with nations all around the world. It is a costly endeavor and I will need all the help I can get. A monthly gift of $50 or $100 dollars would go far, but any amount helps. Starting from zero if 340 people gave $50 each I would reach my goal. It’s possible, and any support financially or through prayers is readily accepted. I am thankful for all of your support.
My next deadline is October 31st. I need to have $13,000 raised by then to continue this journey.
I am close to my final goal of $16,256.
God Bless.
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