I read this blog a while back and wanted to share it with you guys...
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Missionary Scripture #1 from The View From Here (Ukraine)This missionary Scripture is Exodus 4:31. Cara has been blogging since October 2005. She now has a new blog here, but this is from the blog she wrote when she was in Ukraine. Here's what she has to say about her missionary Scripture choice...
"And when they realized that the Lord had seen their misery and was deeply concerned for them, they all bowed their heads and worshipped".
Exodus 4: 31 NLT
I always tested high on all those personalities test as a sanguine or choleric. I don't think I once came out as a melancholy. But now I feel like I get up on the melancholy philosophical side of bed more and more these days. Not depressed, not unhappy, just aware of the hurt in the world.
I don't know if it was moving to Ukraine - a country who has faced so much pain and suffering, or just getting older and starting to face more and more of my own weaknesses and failings, or simply just long cold winters that give you too much time to think...in the dark!
NOTE:[The sun goes down usually around 4:30 in the afternoon. Today was a BEAUTIFUL day, it was 5:15 and still not dark!] BUT Spring is coming! Ok, MONTHS away, but still...its coming!
So this is a very melancholy glance at an actually very optmimstic truth: SPRING is coming!
And I don't just mean on the calendar. There is coming a time when
this winter that holds the world in frozen stillness will end.
The cold hardness of hearts that calls evil good and good evil, the harsh winds of suffering that blow throughout the world, and the cold rain of sickness and disease that truly falls on the just and the unjust....someday it will all be over.
Lots of people believe there is a God. Or Something or Someone bigger. Maybe they even have a list of things they know about Him. Things He likes. Things He doesn't like. But pain and suffering...well, pull up your bootstraps and face it on your own.
Even religious people (being one I can speak with some authority! Ha!) have their own ecclisiastical "bootstraps"...."need to pray more, serve more, give more, do more...." the list goes on. Even worship more.
But what does this verse at the top say? It was realizing that God sees. That He in fact saw. And saw it all. Saw not just "the misery in the world" but THEIR misery. Saw the unrighteousness done to them. Saw the unrighteousness they did to others....and...what? Judged? Condemned? No, "was deeply concerned for them".
Lest I get a million emails from my wonderfully "Berean" brethren (you know who you are!)...yes, there is a time for God's judgement. And sin was condemned and paid for once and for all with Christ's death on the cross. All who wish to hold to that crucified reality,to the side of death and not the side of resurrection, hold to sin and all that means, yes - they will experience condemnation and judgement....but that's not the only option. "God is willing that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance".
So, ok, back to our regularly scheduled programming..
Jim, from http://Missionary-Blogs.com asked some of us to write about "A Passage I Love". A passage from the Bible...and first of all, I love that wording...a passage..because it really is a journey with the Bible. The book is alive, I'm tellin' ya! It moves, it speaks, it has something new to show me everytime I open it. It is a "passage", and it takes me to the heart of God.
But just ONE passage I love? You that are happily married...ONE thing you love about your spouse? I hope their are millions! About your children? About your parents? I can list right now lots of things about my family that I love without even trying (my apologies that I don't tell you all often enough...but I do love so much about all of you)...so...ok...ONE passage that I love?
Well, here it is again, folks. "And when they realized that the Lord had seen their misery and was deeply concerned for them, they all bowed their heads and worshipped".Exodus 4: 31 NLT
Whatever is your misery right now...God sees it. If you feel like no one sees it, God does. But He doesn't just see it, He cares. And He doesn't just care, He is DEEPLY CONCERNED.
More than your friends. More than your family. More than even your church, priest or pastor. His heart breaks on behalf of those He loves. He died for you. He loves you. These aren't just words, they are truth and they are life.
If you open your heart to them you will be amazed. True worship is this, it is a response. How can worship that which we do not know or that which we do not recognize as being worthy of worship. That's what is called religion. Going through the motion. WORSHIP is an outflowing of the heart in response to a realization that God IS and that He desires relationship with you.
He really loves you so much. He has drawn near to you at the Cross and through His Word, draw near to Him. Poke your head through the snow and turn to the Son. Spring IS coming!
GREAT is His name and GREATLY to be PRAISED!
**************************************************************************************************************************************************
Missionary Scripture #1 from The View From Here (Ukraine)This missionary Scripture is Exodus 4:31. Cara has been blogging since October 2005. She now has a new blog here, but this is from the blog she wrote when she was in Ukraine. Here's what she has to say about her missionary Scripture choice...
"And when they realized that the Lord had seen their misery and was deeply concerned for them, they all bowed their heads and worshipped".
Exodus 4: 31 NLT
I always tested high on all those personalities test as a sanguine or choleric. I don't think I once came out as a melancholy. But now I feel like I get up on the melancholy philosophical side of bed more and more these days. Not depressed, not unhappy, just aware of the hurt in the world.
I don't know if it was moving to Ukraine - a country who has faced so much pain and suffering, or just getting older and starting to face more and more of my own weaknesses and failings, or simply just long cold winters that give you too much time to think...in the dark!
NOTE:[The sun goes down usually around 4:30 in the afternoon. Today was a BEAUTIFUL day, it was 5:15 and still not dark!] BUT Spring is coming! Ok, MONTHS away, but still...its coming!
So this is a very melancholy glance at an actually very optmimstic truth: SPRING is coming!
And I don't just mean on the calendar. There is coming a time when
this winter that holds the world in frozen stillness will end.The cold hardness of hearts that calls evil good and good evil, the harsh winds of suffering that blow throughout the world, and the cold rain of sickness and disease that truly falls on the just and the unjust....someday it will all be over.
Lots of people believe there is a God. Or Something or Someone bigger. Maybe they even have a list of things they know about Him. Things He likes. Things He doesn't like. But pain and suffering...well, pull up your bootstraps and face it on your own.
Even religious people (being one I can speak with some authority! Ha!) have their own ecclisiastical "bootstraps"...."need to pray more, serve more, give more, do more...." the list goes on. Even worship more.
But what does this verse at the top say? It was realizing that God sees. That He in fact saw. And saw it all. Saw not just "the misery in the world" but THEIR misery. Saw the unrighteousness done to them. Saw the unrighteousness they did to others....and...what? Judged? Condemned? No, "was deeply concerned for them".
Lest I get a million emails from my wonderfully "Berean" brethren (you know who you are!)...yes, there is a time for God's judgement. And sin was condemned and paid for once and for all with Christ's death on the cross. All who wish to hold to that crucified reality,to the side of death and not the side of resurrection, hold to sin and all that means, yes - they will experience condemnation and judgement....but that's not the only option. "God is willing that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance".
So, ok, back to our regularly scheduled programming..
Jim, from http://Missionary-Blogs.com asked some of us to write about "A Passage I Love". A passage from the Bible...and first of all, I love that wording...a passage..because it really is a journey with the Bible. The book is alive, I'm tellin' ya!
It moves, it speaks, it has something new to show me everytime I open it. It is a "passage", and it takes me to the heart of God.But just ONE passage I love? You that are happily married...ONE thing you love about your spouse? I hope their are millions! About your children? About your parents? I can list right now lots of things about my family that I love without even trying (my apologies that I don't tell you all often enough...but I do love so much about all of you)...so...ok...ONE passage that I love?
Well, here it is again, folks. "And when they realized that the Lord had seen their misery and was deeply concerned for them, they all bowed their heads and worshipped".Exodus 4: 31 NLT
Whatever is your misery right now...God sees it. If you feel like no one sees it, God does. But He doesn't just see it, He cares. And He doesn't just care, He is DEEPLY CONCERNED.
More than your friends. More than your family. More than even your church, priest or pastor. His heart breaks on behalf of those He loves. He died for you. He loves you. These aren't just words, they are truth and they are life.
If you open your heart to them you will be amazed. True worship is this, it is a response. How can worship that which we do not know or that which we do not recognize as being worthy of worship. That's what is called religion. Going through the motion. WORSHIP is an outflowing of the heart in response to a realization that God IS and that He desires relationship with you.
He really loves you so much. He has drawn near to you at the Cross and through His Word, draw near to Him. Poke your head through the snow and turn to the Son. Spring IS coming!
GREAT is His name and GREATLY to be PRAISED!
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