Rescue

Man, the word Freedom has been on my mind a lot lately. Apart from patriotism, the first time that I actually thought about this word was probably February. It came up in a conversation with a friend of mine. He was describing his discipleship group's reaction to the story of the sick woman who touched the hem of Jesus' robe and was healed. Basically, two words came to the mind of one of his students - revival and freedom. I had never connected those two before. Anyways, the word freedom has continued to penetrate my thoughts for the last two months.

Here is where I have been able to connect it. And it has to do with Jeremiah 31:3-6.

"God told them, "I've never quit loving you and never will. Expect love, love, and more love!And so now I'll start over with you and build you up again, dear virgin Israel. You'll resume your singing, grabbing tambourines and joining the dance.You'll go back to your old work of planting vineyards on the Samaritan hillsides, And sit back and enjoy the fruit— oh, how you'll enjoy those harvests! The time's coming when watchmen will call out from the hilltops of Ephraim:'On your feet! Let's go to Zion, go to meet our God!'"

Here's the thing, Israel was a nation after God's own heart, however, a continuing cycle of sin held them captive both literally and figuratively. I'm sure it was difficult for faithful Israelites to believe that God loved them through that. Yet He did. Like Israel, we are people after God's heart, yet, without Him, we live in a cycle of death and disappointment. But He has freed us from that by sending His son to die for us. He never quits loving us, and never has! He builds us up, just like He did Israel. His love frees us from captivity. He has rescued us and, because of that, we can enjoy the fruit of abundant lives, dance in gratitude, and come to meet our God. The harvest is plentiful, for He is good!

This all really hit me last night during an event called The Rescue. The purpose of this event was to create momentum and inspiration for those with worldly power and influence to get the ball rolling and literally rescue Joseph Kony's child soldiers. During some impromptu, possibly contraband worship (this was a non christian event), the truth of this verse dawned on me. I realized that, just as God's love frees us from darkness, His love is capable of reforming the hearts of the LRA soldiers and literally rescuing the child soldiers of Uganda. The freedom of His love rescues and empowers us to live our lives to the fullest. The power of His love will free those child soldiers.

Faithful

I'm at a major crossroads when it comes to a couple of events in my life.

First, as you well know, I REALLY want to move out next year. God hasn't really given me a clear answer on this yet, and its so frustrating! Well, He kind of has. I just have the words "Be faithful, for I am faithful" floating around my head like a broken record. All. Day. Long. Sometimes, I don't even know what that means. I'm so impatient, I know.

The second thing is that I signed up to attend Project Timothy, which is basically a mission trip attended by kids in RCA churches. Up until last week, I had no intention of doing it, then I was asked to apply. I prayed about, and I started the application proccess on faith. Well, the devil is in the details because the cost of paying for the trip and the missed income from working those two weeks is more than enough to make me doubt, especially when it comes to the plans in the above paragraph. The name of this trip is, ironically enough, "Faith Factor." God likes to laugh. Anyways, I'm still not completely sure that I'm supposed to go through with it, but I'm trying to be faithful to God. and He has only ever told me to be faithful in regards to this.

I love the fact that God is faithful, but I want some answers already.

Possibly off topic, I was redirected to this verse, and have found it increasingly meaningful to me:

"God told them, "I've never quit loving you and never will. Expect love, love, and more love!And so now I'll start over with you and build you up again, dear virgin Israel.You'll resume your singing, grabbing tambourines and joining the dance.You'll go back to your old work of planting vineyards on the Samaritan hillsides,And sit back and enjoy the fruit— oh, how you'll enjoy those harvests!The time's coming when watchmen will call out from the hilltops of Ephraim:'On your feet! Let's go to Zion, go to meet our God!'"-Jeremiah 31:3-6

Hmmmmmm