Wow! How can we sit in our little circle of Christian friends and be so content? Last weekend was the annual women's Christian Retreat Weekend. Dan and I look forward to CRWs more than any holiday because it is when we get to see God do life transformation right in front of our very eyes. I cannot describe to you the overwhelming feeling of awe, joy, celebration, tears and laughter that we experience.
Why would you EVER want to stay in your Christian bubble of Christian friends with supposedly perfect lives where no radical life change ever takes place? That is a stale, lukewarm lifestyle. No wonder the Bible says God would like to spit us out when we are complacent. Food that is bland, boring, without salt reminds me of diet food. Disgusting!!!
God wants to dine on worship from people who participate in making people thirsty for Him by how they love others! My worship is genuine, deep and from the heart when I watch him use me and all of my broken, imperfect friends to share the message of his love with other broken, lost, hurting people. I weep over the fact that He desires to use us to point others to Jesus. How unworthy I am. And how wonderful He is!
This is my challenge to anyone reading this. When my life and worship start to get stale I ask Him specifically to show me someone that is broken and lost that I can show love to and befriend and eventually tell about Jesus. He has never failed to answer this prayer, and the wonderful part is that many of these people have decided to follow Jesus!
Nothing in my life compares to the satisfaction this brings. God fills my heart to overflowing with a joy that I cannot even begin to describe. You must experience it for yourself. To know that a life has been rescued, to know that I will spend eternity with these dear friends because they now know and love Jesus as well is absolutely breath-taking!
So take the challenge. Start praying for just one and then act on the first opportunity He gives you and don't give up! Remember, the devil doesn't intend on giving in easily. It is going to take lots of prayer, sweat and tears on your part. The Bible says God will give you the desires of your heart, that means when your desires line up with His. I can guarantee that this is one desire that will line up with His and that He will fulfill. If you choose to take this challenge, I would love to hear the stories of what God is doing and how I can pray for you.
To partially steal a quote, "To eternity and beyond!"
That is one of the things that I ran across my mind about BOTH you and Dan this past weekend. You want genuine worship? Those two have genuine worship. I absolutely loved seeing you on your knees before God praying and interceding in chapel Saturday night when it was just a handful of us left. I want to have that kind of passion! God is working with me...but sometimes I'm slow to learn. :) Then, at closing, as we stood in the cirlce and lifted our hands to God, telling Him that we were there and wanted to go for Him...I heard a voice that I remembered from last year. The voice wasn't quite on tune the whole time, it was a little flat...and I thought, hey...I remember I stood close to Dan last year too. I absolutely LOVE to hear his voice, and any voice that isn't on tune lifting their voices to the Lord because, to me, that is true worship...not caring what anyone else thinks of how you sound, only caring that it is a joyful noise unto the Lord! Thank you for letting God use your broken vessel this past weekend to let Him pour out!
ReplyDeleteAMEN Sarah!!! Seriously, good job just laying it all out, glad to know that I there are others out there laying down the line in the blogs :) hehe! And, thanks for teaching me lots and spuring me on.
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