New Blog!

Well friends, it's been great. If we are parting ways now, thank you for being there over the last few years; I appreciate every reader. If you think you'd enjoy another read-along adventure, then meet the new domain: http://toconsiderthelillies.blogspot.com

Thanks again. This blog is now closed. Peace. :)

Asia 2013: The Love Of God

The Love of God has No Boundaries

(this one will be short)

"Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." Romans 5:5

One of the sweetest parts of the trip was the time spent with the rescued girls.  Beautiful girls, beautiful hearts who were taken out of the worst that Satan could conjure up and brought to safety and ultimately to their Savior.  Sweet as our time together was, we didn't say much.  You see, we did not speak the same language verbally.  However, what we didn't say through our translator, we clearly heard through the love of God we shared in our hearts. From the moment we saw them, we loved them.  I may not have known all their names, but I loved them deeply.  When we had to say good-bye for the last time we all, the American team and the local girls, wept.  A lot.  For a long time. In our short time there we made bonds that went deeper than anything superficial.  The supernatural love of God that we share brought us to love these girls and for them to love us.  It didn't matter that we spoke in different languages.  We prayed to the same God, in different language.  We sang to the same God, in different languages.  It was Heaven.  

"After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying:

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,

Thanksgiving and honor and power and might,

Be to our God forever and ever.

Amen.”

Revelation 7:9-12

Asia 2013: Wait On The Lord

Wait on the Lord

"Wait on the Lord and keep His way, and He shall exalt you to inherit the land;When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it." Psalm 37:34

Nowadays we can't wait for a text message to send, let alone for God to reveal His will for our lives.  One of the greatest joys for me on this trip was being with other girls who feel the way I feel. We have been given hearts for missions in some capacity, some at home, some overseas; we are burdened and we so desire to just get going already; and still God is saying, "wait." "Wait, my child." I don't know exactly where God wants to use me.  I don't know if I'm supposed to sell everything and move to the other side of the world or if His plan for me is to be used to support and encourage someone else who is going to do that.  I don't know and I need to understand that that is okay.  I don't know because God hasn't told me yet.  What I do know though is that He is not withholding this information just to watch me squirm.  Just like we are to trust God with our provisions, we must learn, I must learn, to trust His timing.  I don't know why the time isn't now, but that is not for me to know at this moment.  One day I know I will look back and see how everything fit together just as it was supposed to.  I will see the obstacle that I would have met had I decided to go according to my time table and not the Lord's.  Even our good and pure desires can go wrong when we think our plan is better than anything God comes up with.  He sees the context, we see only what is right here, right now.  So, we wait.  If you're like me though, you wonder if God has already tried to tell you something and you just missed it.  On the trip, I don't even know how many times my sweet roommate and I said, "God, when you're ready you just need to hit me in the face with it." We don't want to miss it or be too preoccupied when God's timing is here, so we want it to be painfully obvious.  And you know what? It will be.  God isn't going to let His moment pass us by.  That is just another silly thing we find to worry about.  But who knows; maybe God will knock us over with His plan.  "Ask and you shall receive." :)

Even David, the man after God's own heart, the one with the faith to face a giant and the one who received complete forgiveness when he brought his sin out of the shadows, was told to wait and was even told that some of his heart's desires were not going to come to fruition.  He greatly desired to build a temple for the Lord; a dwelling place for the Arch of the covenant; and yet God told him no.  Instead God gave him the task of raising up Solomon who would build the temple (1 Chronicles 28).  So many of us will be called to go, to be His witnesses to the furthest parts of the world.  Some of us may be called to be godly parents, to instill in our children the desire to serve the Lord in whatever capacity He has planned perfectly for them.  I don't know what my place is yet, but I know that He is saying wait; and I know that He will reveal His plan to me when the time is right. If you too are feeling that you are to wait right now, then take heart.  Continue to seek God's will and find rest in Him.  You never know when the next chapter will start, and it could be pretty exhausting. 

Wait, but don't forget to listen.  We need to remember than even if seasons of waiting we must be in prayer.  Never stop asking God to tell you what to do.  Every day we are called to die to self.  Every day we called to carry our cross.  Every day we are to pray without ceasing. Not everything is a sign from God.  Maybe we are called to something despite a promotion, an acceptance letter or anything else our human minds would like to see as confirmation that our plan is working.  “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9) Pray for discernment and peace.  God isn't hiding. Pursue Him and he will never leave you.

Asia 2013: Much Is Required

Much is Required:

"For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more." Luke 12:48

Simply by living  in a country like ours, we fall into the "much has been given" category.  Compared to the majority of the world, we truly have an embarrassment of riches. Don't believe me; then go somewhere else (this is a digression from the topic at hand, so I won't stay here long, but we in America have an increasingly small world view and it can really only change by getting out of our bubbles and seeing what else is out there. Again, another topic, another day). We are blessed with so much more than what we need; more clothes, more money, more food, more stuff; and still our closed-hand Christianity causes us to struggle with letting go of even the 10% we say belongs to God.  Not only have we more than we need materially, but we have also been given so much wealth spiritually speaking.  We can worship publicly, openly, without fear of government persecution.  We have many universities dedicated to furthering biblical knowledge and understanding.  We have instant access to worship music, sermon podcasts, theological newsletters, books, commentaries.  Hundreds of times a year we can attend day to week long conferences designed to encourage and inform Christians and to grow our communities for further encouragement. My team and I were in a country that politically and socially threatens and ostracizes Christians and they still, risking persecution, meet together, sing praises together and pursue further biblical knowledge together.   They put into practice what it really means to be the church. Acts 2: 44-45 says of the early church, "all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need." This perfectly describes the way the Christians we stayed with lived.  Note that these verses do not speak of law or government or even of the established leaders of specific churches compelling or forcing its members into this activity. No, with joy and ease they saw that their blessings were not for hoarding or for self pleasure only, but they they were blessed so that they in turn could bless others (see those "good works" that were planned for us).  For some this meant money, for others hospitality, for others teaching and serving.  Our missionary friends use their home to shelter any who have need, they provide food even when they don't have enough themselves, and they show the love of God that is in their hearts to believer and non-believer alike (and if they are non-believers, they rarely are by the time they leave).  They also actively teach and practice the doctrine of firstfruits. "The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God"(Exodus 23:19).  When they give someone a goat, the first kid is given back to the church.  People aren't looking to be blessed only; so much more blessing comes from paying forward what has been given you.  We cannot know what joy we miss out on when we live in fear of losing what we have rather than being open to our lives being used for the blessing of others.  This isn't oppressing! This isn't suffering! It's a joy.  And we're missing it! Imagine with me for a minute.  Imagine that Christians didn't stop when they achieved 10% giving? What would it looked like if we really acted out our professed faith? If we can trust God with securing our eternal salvation, should we not all the more trust Him with providing for our needs so that we can live as the church should be living? What would happen if instead of the minimum, we trusted God enough to say, "I'm going to keep what I need to get by and everything else will go back to God"? Can you even imagine that? Can you imagine how this world would change.  I live in a city that is business-centered and is, compared to most cities, quite expensive to live in.  I am well acquainted with seeing a paycheck disappear in a few bills, a tank of gas and a night out.  I'm not saying that we should just give every cent away and expect God to right a check to the electric company.  But, guys, we have been given brains for a reason.  I'll never claim to be good at math, but I know how Starbucks adds up; I know how much cable costs (and how much time it takes from us).  What if we decided to stop being Christians in name only, Christians only when it is convenient and instead we were radical followers of Jesus Christ? I can tell you what would happen.  I may not know every area that this would affect; I don't know how many hungry people would have food, how many naked people would have clothes, how many girls wouldn't be sold for their bodies because their families had the money they needed; but I know what would happen in our own hearts.  Instead of relying on our jobs, our hours, our hard work to get by, we would understand that relying on Christ is so much better.  We would have the faith to move mountains when we saw God provide and continue to bless us; blessings upon blessings! My dad always says that we can't afford to stop giving.  When we use what we have been given for the Lord, He will not withhold future blessings.  He will give them all the more.  He is Faithful. Don't you want to know what the hymn writer felt when He penned these words:

“Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!

  Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—

    Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!"

I long to rely on the Lord and not myself for all that I need. Why would we forgo that blessing just to worry about our problems by ourselves? Let's put our faith into action.  I promise we won't forget it.  Remember to consider the lilies.

"Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith?" Luke 12:27

Asia 2013: Counting The Cost

Hello dear friends,

Most of you know that last week I had the opportunity to travel to SE Asia for a short missions trip.  As every trip before, this one was so incredibly touching and life changing.  Throughout the whole trip, God was speaking to my heart and revealing so much to me.  Many things that I had known before and needed to have reiterated; other things that were new and fresh and insightful.  I decided to share the things that were most on my heart with my few faithful readers.

Count the Cost:

“If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." Luke 9:23-27

Whether it was the Saturday sermon, our own private quiet times, daily devotionals, conversations within the team, our Bible studies or the testimonies of our hosts, the idea of counting the cost was consistently the theme of this trip.  You see, here in America, we very rarely get a real idea of what it means to take up our cross.  Our provisions and abundant blessings have caused us to become hardened towards the call of dying to self daily.  Instead we practice "closed-hand Christianity." Our hand was once open and Christ blessed us; through our jobs, our property, our opportunities; being born in this country is a blessing we none of us can deserve.  However, over time as we became accustomed to these comforts, our hands closed.  We don't see our jobs, our homes, or possessions as blessings from our good God, but instead they are OUR things that WE have earned and are subject to OUR decisions.  Our life is our own and we will cho0se where we go, what we do and when we will use our money and our things to help others.  Oh, how foolish we have become! Our clinched fists hurt us so much more than we realize.  We hold on so tightly to the things of this world and don't realize that when we have closed our hands, although we think it keeps God from taking these worthless treasures from us, in reality we have shut Him out from blessing us further.    Without being open to what God has in store for us, which is better than anything we could ever hope for or imagine, we cannot learn to rely on Him when He takes that which we do not need.  We cannot be used to further His kingdom and to bring others to faith in Christ Jesus.  We cannot receive the blessings the father wants to lavish on us because of His great love. What a waste a life is that is spent pursuing the things of this temporary world: our desires, our causes, our hopes and dreams, our ambitions, our fortune, our careers, our emotional desires, our pleasures.  Every day we are given the chance to do things that will have an ETERNAL difference; and yet we choose to focus on this life? "...But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."  Brothers and sisters do you understand that verse!? We have the power to save our life from being a waste.  We are able to draw a line in the sand today and say that no longer do my desires rule my life, but instead I will open my hand and allow my Redeemer and Savior to take my life and use it for His glory and for eternity's benefit.  

"It makes no sense to attempt to save our lives on earth only to lose everything when out lives quickly and inevitably pass away.  The wise course is to invest our earthly resources-- our TIME, TALENTS and WEALTH-- in what is eternal.  Even if we lose our lives for Jesus' sake, that investment will produce return for all eternity." (Nelson Study Bible editors)

I listened to a sermon recently that has been consistently resonating within my heart. We know that we are saved by no goodness of our own, but solely by the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus.  We have been saved for good works which our Lord planned for us before hand-- before He called us and revealed His goodness and compelled us to realize our hopeless state and receive the forgiveness offered by Jesus' finished work on the cross.  Before we were redeemed, He had good works prepared for us.  And those accomplished good works (which we chose to be used for or not) bring us rewards in heaven.  These rewards are for no glory of our own, but for us to turn around and offer to our king as an offering of thanksgiving; as a token of praise to our reigning King.  Woe to the wretch who has nothing to offer their King! Woe to the one who experienced forgiveness and redemption and then decided that their way was a better use of their short time on earth.  Woe to the forgiven who didn't fulfill the good works specially prepared for them because they were too busy with their own things.  Woe to the child of God who will have a stack of diplomas, a top ranking position, a cause conquered, an ideal, safe, controlled life; woe to them as they will watch all these things burn up and be left with nothing but ashes to present as a gift from their life.  When I see my Savior face to face I don't want to feel my heart sink to my belly as He says, "Well, you did what you thought was good-- but look what you missed." Oh, no. I want to feel my heart soar as the creator of my life and of my plans sees me, and I want him to say to those in heaven, "She has done what she could" (Mark 14:8). I don't think it is prideful for me to say these things.  After all, we are told "Delight yourself [i]n the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart."  This does not mean that He will give you whatever you want, but that he will take a heart that has put her own desires to death and He will fill her with the desires he has for her. My desire is to please my Savior and to live my life for Him alone.  Friends, it is never too late with Jesus.  Just as it is never too late to come to faith in our Lord while you are on earth, it is never too late to count the cost and find that He is better and He is worth any sacrifice that we could face.  This was clearly on display last week.  People who had been cast aside by their friends, cast out by their families and even the simplest decencies denied them could stand proudly in the church, tears of joy streaming down their face as they lifted high the name of Jesus.  The name of the one who made them alive although they were dead in their trespasses and sins. When you come to Christ with your hand open, willing for your earthly prizes to be taken and ready for blessings to come from heaven-- ready to be a disciple-- you will not find a Savior who will pile you with guilt and complain that you have waited too long.  No, friend, you will meet your Beloved who will say, "Welcome.  I've missed you.  Now let's get to work."

Long Awaited

Hello dear friends.  Thank you for those of you who care enough to still be here.  Here is the BRIEF update of what has happened in this long absence of writing.

In January, upon returning from my Christmas break in Texas, I started working part time for a building management company.  I was hired by the owner (and at that time, only employee) to help her get organized.  She was pretty well over her head and definitely needed someone to show her how to get things in order.  This was about 20-hours a week, in addition to my 40-hours at the nanny job.  I was hired with the knowledge that this would be temporary; however within about a week of being there my boss, Karolina, decided that she wanted to keep me on board long term.  I had a contract with the family I was working for though to work until May and the 60-hour weeks were really killing me.  Thankfully, agreements were made all around and I moved out of the live-in job (which couldn't happen soon enough) and in April I moved into my own apartment and began work full time for ZBD Management Services where I am currently.

Things at the new job have been pretty up and down.  It is a great opportunity and I'm certainly grateful to my bosses for all they've done (including negotiating a much lower rent for my apartment); but there are challenges as well.  Karolina is very well-intentioned but she is also pretty difficult to work with.  Her directions are often given at a break-neck speed and not very coherently (Polish is her first language).  Also, I think I forgot to mention that she is pregnant and hoping to retire very soon.  So things can very quickly get out of hand and confusing.  It's a good learning experience, but I'm definitely hoping things will settle down soon.  More staff members are coming on board as the company continues to grow (rather rapidly) and I'm praying that someone will be hired who will work well with me and make the rest of my time here more manageable.

Apart from work, life in Chicago has been full and pretty great.  It is so, so wonderful to have Blythe close by; in fact she definitely makes living here worth it.  I'm enjoying my time here and intend to continue enjoying it until my lease is up, at which time I think I'll be heading south again.  Or to Scotland.

I am so missing my Texas fam and friends.  My heart cannot contain it's excitement though because my darling Miranda will be here in under a month! I'll be getting to spend my birthday with her and I couldn't ask for a better gift! Julian will also be around and I'm holding out for visits from family members, Lauren, Janey and others.  The invitation is open so come on up!


For now though, I'm off to bed.  I hope this entry made up for the slack.  I'll try to be more diligent with the updates and to add some pictures soon.


Love to all.

To the Faithful Few

Hello Friends,

Well if you are still here then you have the gift of patience.  I have so often meant to write a quick update and have every time let it slip my mind and for that I apologize.  Now is not the time for a complete update as it is very much the middle of the night and I need to shower the smell of airport off of me.  I will be posting a full update very soon (and there is A LOT to update) so stay tuned. Until then, know you are so very loved.

Bekah