Reading Up, Down & Side to Side

Happy and Blessed 2008 to all! It's hard to believe we're already at the beginning of a new year. I'm afraid this may turn into a particularly long, and rather backward post, but I have some fun things to share. Well, I think they're fun/interesting/exciting anyway. I'll start with the now and work my way back through DCC last week, hence the backward part.

I've started reading Shadow of the Almighty by Elisabeth Elliot, which you may or may not know is about the life of Jim Elliot who died sharing the gospel with Auca Indians in the jungle. There are about 250 pages in this story and I'm only about 60 pages in and just completely glued to the book. Elisabeth is writing her husbands story with hundreds of excerpts from his journals and letters to his family. It's really amazing. I've wanted to read the biographies and stories of Christian revolutionaries for a while now, but just haven't gotten around to it and now I'm stuck on it I think. I'll try to get through at least one every month until I leave for Serbia and then I'll probably have to find a new way of doing it besides a trip to Barnes and Noble seeing as Serbia doesn't particularly have one of those, and if they did I don't think these books would be overflowing on the shelves.

I'm quite inspired and maybe a touch convicted too. This man had so much passion, and he always did, from the time he was in high school he recognized the importance of the mission field. Right now I'm reading about his college life, and what he has to say is really awesome. The prayers he lifted up to God were amazing, just that he didn't care about his life and he was completely willing to die for the gospel. He lived entirely for the Lord and refused to live for himself. He denied himself material comforts and struggled with the desire to date/court because of the focus it could take off of God. Any time anything came up he immediately surrendered it to the Lord. He preached with passion and went out of his way to minister.

When he was twenty years old (this is on page 54 of my book) he wrote: "Our young men are going into the professional fields because they don't 'feel called' to the mission field. We don't need a call; we need a kick in the pants. We must begin thinking in terms of 'going out' and stop our weeping because 'they won't come in.' Who wants to step into and igloo? The tombs themselves are not colder than the churches. May God send us forth." And shortly after writing that he goes out to the railroads to share the gospel and meets with little success. Check this out, hear his pain as he writes this, it's beautiful: "No fruit yet... Why is it I'm so unproductive? I cannot recall leading more than one or two into the kingdom. Surely this is not the manifestation of the power of the Resurrection. I feel as Rachel, 'Give me children, or else I die.'"

I don't know about you but if I led one or two people into the kingdom I'd be pretty darn excited about it! But this man is groaning because he hasn't led more to Christ! And he's irritated about the lack of passion for missions, and the silly expectancy of the church for people just to waltz right into the pews. I have to admit that I feel much the same way, but his passion far exceeds my own. I want passion like this, and some of his prayers echo my own when I dream about Serbia, and going back, and the sacrifice it means for me and my family, and how small a sacrifice that is for the glory of God. I love this! I love that I'm not the only one who feels that way, that there is someone else who has felt it. I love that my passion is going to grow and maybe one day I'll have the same zeal for the gospel that this man had and the boldness, unrestrained boldness for the cross that he displays. It's incredible! And it shouldn't be! This is how it should be, that we would cry out to God when only a few people we meet are saved in a day. I'm ashamed that I don't get frustrated about that. That's so awesome! This man is worth being discipled by, let me tell you.

There's a lot more I could say about that, but for the sake of space and allowing you to get back to work, or life in general I'm going to move on to DCC (Denver Christmas Conference). It was a really good week. It was a challenge for me because I was very unwell most of the time, but God used it to His glory as I had asked Him too. The theme of the conference this year was "Masterpiece" and becoming God's masterpiece, and realizing that we are that, and using our gifts as His masterpiece, etc. Brian Loritts did the morning sessions again this year, which I'm very glad of or else I might not have been as inclined to attend. He's a passionate man who just has a lot of life in him, and he had a lot of really good things to say, not all of which I can recall presently. It's one of those things where I've learned a lot, but I couldn't put into words exactly what I've learned, if you know what I mean.

I was blessed to be able to have a lot of time with the people I needed to meet with the most. It was good that I was so ill through out the week because I got to spend more time with the girls I'm discipling that I wouldn't have otherwise if I hadn't been lying in bed most of the time. We talked a lot about relationships, guy-girl relationships that is. No big surprise there, that's one of those important things that girls in particular have a strong care about. It was good to discuss the importance of physical purity in a relationship, and how to maintain that, and how to stop yourself if you ever lose sight of that goal. And then there was also much talk about summer missionary projects and where to go, and what happens while you're there. Please pray for Chelsea, she feels God calling her to Serbia, but her family at this point won't support her going. I've been trying to encourage her, but it's really difficult to not have the support of your family. I told her that she was being revolutionary, which is something that Brian Loritts had been talking about just that morning. That seemed to lift her spirits a little bit, but not much since being revolutionary means absolutely facing opposition, even from the ones you love.

I also had a wonderful experience with the man I'm dating. I was extremely blessed by his willingness to sacrifice time with me so I could minister to the women and be ministered to by the women who were there. He was very unselfish with our time, which I really appreciated, and despite how much time I spent with my girl-friends I got to spend just as much time with him. We even got to go dancing finally, which was hard for me because I'm extremely self-conscious, and rather timid as well, but he performed wonderfully by just leading. We got to do some ministry together for a waitress who served us at a restaurant, who could also use your prayers. We didn't find out what was wrong, but it was clear that she was very unhappy, and had been for some time, but we got to tip her well, and write her note, and then pray for her as we went back to the hotel. That was a fun experience. And then we just got to be silly together. Oo, we also got to do some awesome worship time with a bunch of other random musicians who were there. There were eleven of us all together for a while, playing guitar, a make-shift drum from the guitar case, violin, mandolin, and then we vocalists. It was great! We worshiped with random people coming and going for one or two hours at least. It was a blast! Again difficult for me because I'm very timid, singing in front of people when they're just passing by, and not paying attention is ok, but when they start gathering around is different, but God is awesome!

I got to delve into the word some too which was interesting. I got to read about Enoch, which there isn't much written about sadly, not in the canonized Bible anyway, and Jephthah who has a remarkably sad story which I don't completely understand, and will read again in the near future, and more on Abraham who is truly fascinating, and of course some from the book of John for my Bible study with Russ. It's been a very fulfilling week all around. God is moving and I expect some awesome things to happen this year and especially here in the next semester... which I still am not entirely sure how I'm going to pay for.