About two weeks ago, a thought was planted in my head (no doubt by God), about how I need to be more active in the community of Athens, especially this summer as I have a little more free time. Well, every Saturday morning during the month of May, my dad and some other men from our church have been going to the local prison to do Bible studies with the inmates there. Last week my dad mentioned that they didn't have a woman for this week to go speak to the women inmates.
So immediately, the Lord starting convicting me that this is what I have been thinking about, and that I need to do this. My flesh wanted to say no: "I'm so young" "What if they ask question I don't know the answer to" "I don't feel that knowledgeable spiritually" and "I'm not a very good orator, what if I can't explain the gospel very clearly". Funny how the very next day, during my quiet time, I read this verse...
"For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power...For consider your calling brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God...Therefore, as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord'."
-1 Corinthians 1:17, 26-29,31
The Lord told me simply, "You have all the 'excuses', but really, you're just too scared." So I decided for once in my life, to not argue any more with the Lord, and do what he told me to do. I prayed and the Lord laid on my heart to go through the story of Jonah, and not just the part of the big fish eating him, but the ENTIRE book, complete with the gospel presentation.
Now, I would post my notes on the book, the 7 pages of notes that I took with me to the jail, but if wouldn't be complete accurate as to all I discussed. The Holy Spirit completely took over my words. I used some of my notes, sure, after all, I did plan some of what I wanted to say. But I covered the morning in prayer and was desirous for the Spirit to guide my words, and he did...it was incredible. I don't think I've ever given a more clear explanation as to the gospel, what Jesus did for us on the cross, and how to have salvation...why? Because it seriously wasn't me talking...it was all God. And I'm so thankful for that. Ephesians 6:19 became real to me. God gave me words to fearlessly open my mouth and proclaim the mystery of the gospel.
When I was done, one of the ladies said to me..."I've never heard Jonah that way before. All I've ever heard about was the big fish." How sad, but how true that is of most people. They never get past a big fish swallowing Jonah, or even worse, they try and try to figure out what the big fish was and they never dig deeper into the fact that Jesus says he's like Jonah in the fact that he will spend three days and three nights in the belly of the earth, and that Jesus is the one that is "greater than Jonah" (Matthew 12:40-41).
Right now, I can only count myself priviledged that God would count me worthy by giving me the honor of revealing the great news that is the gospel to those lovely ladies in the prison.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
I don't like Valentine's Day
No matter where I was in life, no matter if I was "with" someone or not, I've NEVER liked Valentine's Day (and I'm not just being a downer because I don't have someone special to spend it with, I've just never liked the holiday in general). And I've never really been able to put my finger on why, until I heard this sermon excerpt from Matt Chandler. This describes perfectly why I've never been a big fan of this particular holiday. So here's what he says, and this is found before his third sermon in the Colossians series, if you wanted to listen to it... (http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/sermons)
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To be real honest with you, I’m not a big fan of Valentine’s Day. It’s not because I don’t
love love. I very much love love. But I think our culture has no idea what it’s
celebrating. It has no real clear definition of “love.” If you’ll pay attention to our
culture, our definition of love can’t be defined outside of self-seeking or “what makes me
happy. . .how does it work for me. . .” So that’s a really lame, weird thing to celebrate.
If the idea is that love is this kind of emotional, stirring, mysterious thing that can attack
you from out of nowhere, that is so powerful that you can’t control it, that’s a dangerous,
terrifying idea. It’s not to be celebrated, honestly. So for those of you romantics who
think it should, let me just say this. Right now, I’m very much in love with Lauren. But
let’s say I go to the store tonight to buy a bag of chips and the baby angel in the diaper
with a weapon pops me in the back, and now all of a sudden I see this other lady and now
she’s the beautiful one, she’s the one that I love. That’s a terrifying idea and not one that
I think should be celebrated.
So I’d like to read a passage out of Song of Solomon 8, starting in verse 6. “Set me as a
seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love [ahava] is strong as death,
jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD.
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love
all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.”
I have been with Lauren for 12 years, and we’ve been married for 10 years. There have
been these moments in our marriage and in our relationship where I thought, “This is a
really cool moment.” And few of those have anything to do with some hyper-emotional,
romantic, violins in the background, good glass of wine, beautiful scenery. Few of them
revolve around that. Honestly, they tend to be a lot more painful than that. I’ll give you
an example from this morning. Our seven-month-old is extremely selfish. I don’t know
if you’ve ever had one of these things, but she’s decided to cut all four of her top teeth
last night. So there was not a lot of sleep happening at the Chandler household last night.
But when they do radiation, specifically in your brain, you only lose hair where they
shoot the radiation. So I’ve got this real weird head thing where this is bald but then this
still grows hair. And I can grow hair like a Chia Pet. I could strain right now and make it
grow. I didn’t shave before I went to bed last night, so I had to get up this morning and
shave. And there are part of my head that I can’t see or reach. So at about 6:45 this
morning, despite the fact that we didn’t sleep much last night, I’m waking up Lauren.
I’m like, “Hey Boo, I need you to shave the back of my head.” To which her response
was, “They can’t see the back of your head.” So I was like, “I know they can’t see the
back of my head, but this can’t happen. You’re going to have to get up.” So Lauren
comes into the bathroom exhausted and shaves the back of my head so I could be pretty
for you. Now, that’s ahava. That’s a love of the will. That’s not, “Oh isn’t this
romantic? I get to get up with my sick husband at 6:45 in the morning after only getting
a couple hours of sleep and shave his radiated head.” But that’s ahava. That’s love.
That is a foundational, deep, full of guts, “I’m not going anywhere” love. That’s to be
celebrated. If we could celebrate that, then I’d be all about Valentine’s Day. But that’s
not what our culture is celebrating. It’s so much more emotive, so much more silly, so
much more hollow, so much more “I like you today. Let’s celebrate that.” So I’m not a
fan. That’s the mini sermon. Now let’s get to Colossians.
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P.S. As long as we're celebrating Valentine's Day the right way, I'm ALL for it!
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