Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Shouting the Gospel with my life




I'm am continually praising God for the way He is moving in my life. I have been completely emotional lately. The more I learn about God, the more contagious He becomes to me. As I lose myself in Him, I fall deeper in love. He reveals Himself to me- who He is, what He has done and is doing- and I can not help but be overwhelmed. He is indescribable.

This morning, I am missing Mathare like crazy. Thoughts of this summer keep replaying in my mind, and my heart longs to be back there. I felt it started with the theme of brokenness last year. God had to break me first, in order for me to relate to his brokenness. He broke my heart, I believe, for what broke His, and is still doing so.

This year, that theme continues to expand, with a new emphasis on the vision of His Kingdom. I look around and picture what God created the world to be, and see the perversion of what it has become. I get frustrated and discouraged. My heart aches for His Kingdom. And I cry out for forgiveness to my God. What a mess we have made of this world!

A couple of weekends ago, I was visiting some sistas of mine in the ATL. Jesus radiates in them. We all desire to be the hands and feet of Christ. We yearn for something more...something outside of ourselves; bigger and better than anything we could have ever imagined. We are passionately pursuing Christ. And when I am with them, I stop, thank my Father, and smile. My heart is filled with this consuming peace: thoughts of spending an eternity praising God in community. It's in these moments that I realize this is what it's all about. It's in these moments I catch a little glipse of heaven.



And while I am at times saddened, I stand strong behind the vision: The vision of dancing God's revolution; saying "yes" to His request; being swept off my feet in this divine romance. I am captured by His love; I am astonished by this aggressive forgiveness we call grace. I am captivated.




I have been reading further in Romans, and have fallen in love with this book. Romans 6:10-11 says, "From now on, think of it this way: sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God." And I have been hanging on every word, every whipser from God.




Romans 7:4- "When Christ died he took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to "marry" a resurrection life and bear "offspring" of faith for God."




Romans 8:1-2- "With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificiently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death."




After reading these passages, I was overwelmed by the thought of salvation. Do we really get it? If we truly understood our salvation, what Jesus saves us from, that "fated lifetime of brutal tyranny", would we not proclaim the life we have in His name? Would we not live as undignified, passionate people?




With that said, every moment of every day is another chance to walk in His footsteps, to get my hands dirty, to shout out the Gospel with my life.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

...the aggressive forgiveness we call grace.

That is absolutely beautiful.

Keep dancing in the revolution sister!