AND there is so much to share. God has done SO much in my life and the lives of the people around me. So much has happened since the Nov 24th post, i should have been updating more but i have SO much to share i never found ENOUGH time to write it all out!! i may start doing shorter posts,and some may be incomplete because i may get called away from the computer at any moment. Since november, we finished our classes on Dec 22, i'll share a lot about what i learned in the last month of the theoretical phase. I celebrated Christmas here with an awesome family on the base. Then on Christmas night 9 of us started a long treck to argentina to renew our tourist visas. We stayed for 2 days in San Rafael hanging out in the great outdoors, walked for miles looking for some water to swim in and finally found a beautiful river flowing down from the Andes. And a girl named Becca from England and I rented cruiser bikes and biked all over one morning and found ourselved picnicking in a cute park with big fountains. Then I came back and we all started planning the 1st Annual Pura Vida Surf Competition that was last saturday. This was the kickoff, as we call it, of our 2 months of outreach and evangelism that we'll be doing here in Pichilemu. We are the first in 17 years to stay here for the summer. This week I spend countless hours in the freezing pool teaching kids to swim, and I even get to coach my own part of a swim team. (In spanish!! yikes!!!!) I will also be helping with volleyball classes, English classes, and a few other things. But we basically are starting what people in the US would easily and typically find in every recreation center. But sports programs, and non-corrupt ones at that are VERY hard to come by in Chile, especially in small town Pichilemu. SO you can all get a perspective of this town...it wouldn't even have a Wal-mart. It's not tiny, but it's not even Wal-Mart worthy, so it needs a lot of work. and as a bonus, most of the classes are free or very cheap. VERY. And that doesn't really matter much to us because it's all about the relationships we build with the people walking through those doors, living in integrity before them, and making sure that they know that everyone is special in God's eyes. Schedules are still a struggle, initiative is still lacking in our leadership, so i'm growing in patience and just going with the flow. And we're all having a blast, which is good. We're tired, and the girls are blessed with a cute little pink house (beach house on the outside, log cabin on the inside) while the boys are sleeping in the classroom we used and it's infested with mosquitos. Poor guys. But they're working it out. And four days of quiet times got stuck on the same 4 chapters at the end of Roman's and God lead me through those verses very intentionally in accordance with what i was struggling with, learning, and needing to hear to be encouraged. My focus should always be on Him. Filled with marvelous thoughts of Him. Not focused on what I need to be doing to solve the problems that I feel I have, but on Him and His destiny for me, that He's already put inside of me.
Speaking of Destiny.....I have wanted to share this with you since I had the class at the end of November. I guy named Joseph came from Tennessee. He doesn't have a home there, but that's where he calls home. He spends more time speaking all over the world than he does at home. And before I begin I have to note that my notes from him are 9 pages, front and back, so this no way will equal what he taught us the week he was here. But he was a man sprinting straight into the arms of God. Our destiny is the preplan that God has made in our lives. It's already in you, you just have to take it, believe that God is truly big enough to make it ALL happen. You don't have to go anywhere to find it, it's already there with you. You have to stir it out of yourself, and stir up other people's destiny's that are within them. God has put all of His glory in your clay jar, but God wants that jar to break. And until it's broken, God's glory won't come out. And when you need encouragement, the best thing to do is to be an encourager yourself. PLUS, when you're so focused on encouraging other people you don't have time to get distracted with yourself, to get bitter, to be tempted by sin. Satan has a mold he wants to fit you in, and he gets you in that box by lying. He first lies about who God is, and if you believe that, then he lies to you about yourself. Cuz if you believe a lie about GOD, who never changes and is verywonderful, you will easily believe a lie about yourself, which in turn separates you from God. The lies are lies that prevent you from walking in who you are in God. Stirring you up creates dreams and taps into your destiny. God WILL change you. He will rip your heart out, show you your lies, take the liesout, puts it in with truth, and then puts your heart back. Your identity is WHO GOD thinks you are. He lifts our heads from our paths to His face. We seek Him, and our destiny unfolds before us. Some boxes that satan puts us in: Intelligence, Appearance, Money, and what you do. The last box is the biggest box. Our world tells us that it's what you do that makes you who you are....that is a LIE!! Your destiny is never ever ever ever ever ever what you do!! It's who you are becoming!!!
It's important to remember that we are predestined to looking like Jesus. The bible says, away from me you evildoers, for I never knew you. He wants to know you, to know what you bring. He created you, but do you share with Him? have loud times with him? He wants you to open your heart and tell Him who you are. Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered. He didn't come to earth knowing everything. He had to wrestle with God, with who he was. Remember, Satan challenged him and his identity too. Romans 12:2...THEN. Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. THEN you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good, pleasing, perfect will. Your life is broad, His holiness is narrow; not the other way around. He sees us like a baby, we can't do anything without his help. The baby isn't thinking about what next. The baby isn't worried about anything! it is a SIN to worry about your life or anything. Worry is an external manifestation of an internal fear. Fear comes from not having something that you need or won't get, or something that I have will be taken away. Faith and Fear CANNOT coexist. it shows that we don't have faith. it's puts us in boxes. Daniel 11:32b: Satan is lying to us, blocking us from seeing who we really are, because if we even get a glimpse of that he knows we will change the world! When you get an accurate picture of who you are IN GOD you can change the world. YOU + GOD= The Majority. And like what is happening with the boys...Anyone who believes that one life cannot change a life has never spent the night with a mosquito. And when your identity lines up with who you are in God, you begin to do the works that God has for you. If you keep getting your identity from the world, you'll always be lacking and you won't get to go onall those adventure's God has for you.
It's also important to remember that we are God's KIDS, not servants. Servants don't inherit the house, the children do. Children have rights that servants don't. God wants children who are willing to serve, not to be servants.
There are 5 gospels...Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and YOU. What God do people see on your pages? You cannot hate yourself and love your neighbor. You can't be self-conscious and turn around and be Mother Theresa. I am beautifully and wonderfully made...David believed that was his identity in God and so God made him a KING!! God has so many thoughts of us, of who He knows we are. God IS love, he doesn't DO love. And the more that your self-concept looks like the self-concept of God's, the mroe of the world you will change.
How often do we ask for God's help? as daughters and sons? Begging God to provide for your needs is the prayer of the orphan. But we are His children. Even Christ had to ask for help carrying his cross. He wants to give us everything we ask for! that's why we can't just simply ask Him to provide for us, cuz clearly he already is or we wouldn't be breathing and eating. God wants so badly to give us everything we ask for! and He CAN provide and HE loves us so much He will provide it if our faith lines up with it. The size of our faith is how big we think God is. Orphans look for survival, they are not thinking about their father who provides everything!
Have you ever asked God what he thinks of you? Ask Him, you'll be surprised.
Remember, your value is not in what you do, it's in who you are in God.
And as you walk as a child, you don't worry about a thing. God has a picture of you on His fridge! How are you going to show the world that your God is trustable if you go around worrying , just like they worry. Their worry wouldn't change in coming to know your God. We have to walk in faith FOR THE WORLD TO SEE, that is our gospel that the world sees. Let God love you, that is all He wants, and in that kind of love you can conquer the world. You have to LET God love you. When you find yourself worrying, you need to ask God for a fresh revelation of His love for you. I did this, and He showed me. It was incredible. And I believed it was from God.
So I want to ask all my readers, are you dreaming? Sons and Daughters dream. Workers just look for survival. God doesn't want you to do that, He wants you to let him in and love you, to fulfill your dreams. If God were in a board meeting and you knocked on the door, have no doubt that He would adjourn the meeting because you are there and YOU ARE WHAT HE LIVES FOR! God will answer your dream and then ask you...WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT!!! IT"S YOURS!!! When you start dreaming you wake up God. He gets so excited taht you are dreaming. you can't slow Him down once you start dreaming. So DREAM...it will ignite you walk with God so you can start dreaming WITH God. He loves it!
A lie that satan tells us is that our sins are the deepest part of us. But they are not!! You have to go through them to get to your dreams. God wants to heal you of all that so He can bring out what is strongest in you...your destiny. Staying away from your wounds is safe, you can get religious without having to get real with God. So how big are your dreams? How big is your God?
Joseph pointed out that it's sad that we're trying to get people into churches instead of trying to get God's kingdom into the people. Show people you have something deeper than all your junk, you have the power of God working with you to fulfill your destiny. He related the light of God to the facets of a diamond. This reminded me much of my grandfather who used to facet stones. when we listen to the lies of Satan, it's like we are diamonds covered with mud. God's light can't shine out (or in!) to reflect His holiness.
There is so much about me that I can't change...and God made me that way on purpose, with a deep purpose i'll never fully understand. My family, nationality, birth order, gender, race, age, body, etc. And all of these things have specifics of why we are that way, and GOD USES THAT! The enemy wants us to compare ourselves to others instead of glorying in His creativity and power, something unique in every culture that only they have, that is very descriptive of WHO GOD IS! That's why EVERYONE is so different because God is so many things, He expresses who He is in His people so we may know Him better and to be assured that He exists. Everything about your destiny is about Him, your place in Him.
The biggest insult to God is comparing yourself to other people because you are telling God that He messed up when He made you. That He made someone else better than you. And He DOES NOT see you that way! Walk up to a nation, look past their junk, stir them up and ask for what they ahve that ou can get only from them. When Christ sends us to the nations, it is to share your Jesus with them. To spread your gifts around the nations AND collect what they have.
Satan somehow knows your calling since your birth. He tries to make you regret decisions you made in Christ. When you try to rationalize sin, it brings out the idea that we get to decide what is and isn't sin, once again making what we do define who we are. When we do good things God loves us, when we don't, He doesn't....is a lie. God ALWAYS loves us. We are to worship God in everything...it's not something we do, it's who we are that worships Him. We have been put into various boxes by satan. There are 8 to be specific: Linguistic, Math-logical, Spatial, Musical, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, and Naturalistic. In our school systems, we use 2 of these, and only 30% of the worlds population best learns in these 2 styles...so Satan has made it look like 70% of the world's population is stupid! SO they can't dream because they are stupid according to the world's standard. Universities are full of math and language people who raise up more math and language people so they can look down on the 70% of the world that is not math and language. So don't be put in a box by the world!
There are many types of Spiritual Gifts that people have. Everyone has all, but some are more prominent than others. Motivational: Perceiver, server, teacher, encourager, giver, administrator, mercy/compassion. Ministry: Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers. Manifestational: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophesy, discernment of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. And Joseph goes on for about 6 pages describing all of those...too much for this space and time.
So he asks....Why am I here?
What do you do? what jesus did. What are my hours? 24/7. What's my pay? Eternity in heaven. It is your destiny to look like Jesus, so what you do is what he did. The more you do what he does the more you'll llook like him. Make your own testimony! your own gospel! don't rely on others! Show others God in you, what they don't have and what they need. Luke 12:49 says we are called to bring a raging fire to the earth, burning with the love of Jesus. So where ever we go we catch people on fire. A nation is discipled when you can see the lordship of Christ in every area of society that influences the world view of the people living there. Those areas are: Arts/entertainment, Business, Church, Distribution of information/communications, Education, Families, Government, Healthcare/medicine. And anywhere you can do the work that Christ did is spiritual.
With tears in his eyes, Joseph finished his week here with a story of Greta in the 1984 Olympics. Miles ahead in the marathon, it took her an hour to go the last mile. She said, if you don't want to have pain, then don't enter the race. She was supposed to win. And She was hurting BADLY. But she kept going. Why? Because of her Coach at the finish line, standing there with his arms wide open, ready to say good job. Satan is counting how many times we fall down, but God is counting how many times we get up. Your race is your own race, and you have to allow God to finish what He started in us.
Christ did not come to enprison you, but to SET YOU FREE! Let the whole earth flood with His kingdom by finding His fill for you here. Keep your eyes on your coach and Keep. Moving. Forward.
Don't let your past keep you form running into the future.
And remember... You are God's child and your picture is on His fridge.
