For Those Who Wait

One of the many things in life that I enjoy is discovering new music. New bands, genres, languages, types of instruments… you know all things musical.

Yesterday morning I stumbled across the band Fireflight. They are pretty awesome. I listened to a few of their songs on iTunes and uh… $9.99 later I had their entire album. I have been listening to the album, For Those Who Wait and I must say.. I love it.

The song that I love is of course… For Those Who Wait.

Take a listen. They are Christian Rock…not typical Christian music, which I love.

My favorite part of the song are these few sentences:

I want to open my eyes
I know that I am in need this time
I’m growing stronger every single day
God, I’m gonna lead them to You now
Letting go of all of my fear and doubt
I can’t do this on my own so I’ll give You control
I know I’m not the only one

 

What are your thoughts on this song?

 

 

I need patience

As I dig into the word of God more and more, I am learning that I have less patience for the things of this world. Especially people who live double standard lives. People who are wanting to live for Christ but who are also gripped by the things of this world. I can see that they want to give their all to Christ but they are also not wanting to let go of the things that are comfortable.

The Bible talks about how this is very dangerous.

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot not cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.” Revelation 3:15-16

Christ wants us to be all in or all out. He doesn’t want us to be half hearted about loving Him. He wants us to devote our lives, ALL of our lives, in every aspect to Him.

As my friend Robb said on Twitter today: There are days in ministry when you want to slap somebody in Jesus name – Chuck Lawless

That is exactly how I feel right now. I am trying to learn when to say things and when to have patience.

Is anyone else feeling this way?

letters

While I was in America at my parents house, I found some very important documents.

My letters to my future husband.

I have been writing him letters since August 19, 2002. I was 15 years old and a sophomore in high school.

In these letters I tell him how much I love him, that I am praying for him and how I cannot wait to meet him.

I tell him about the ups and downs of being a teenager. To having my heart-broken… many times. To how I have grown in Christ.

The other day I was sitting here reading some of those letters. I was thinking, hmm…. what will I do when I meet him and give them to him on our wedding day? I feel like I cannot just stop writing letters. Will I write letters to my children one day?

To me, I feel like writing letters is such a great way to express your love to someone.

I mean.. God used people to write the Bible for us. That is one of the greatest love letters ever written. How his son would die for us because he LOVED us.

What is a way that you show someone  you love them?

Hanging On

Lately I have been hanging on to the words the Lord has been giving me.

Waiting. Listening. Praying. Hoping.

This song describes it perfectly…

Selfishness

Today as I was walking to the subway station to see what was going on there, I was listening to my new Hillsong Aftermath CD.

It was a lovely walk to the station. The temperature was almost near perfect. The wind was blowing. People were out and about.

Lots of people were riding bikes and there were more cars than there have been in the past 2.5 weeks.

As I walked past people and had the music blaring in my ears, I felt selfish.

Selfish that I have this music about how Christ loves me. How He died on a cross for me. How I have freedom in His name.

Part of me wanted to turn the music off.

Part of me wanted to cry.

Part of me wanted to listen.

I kept on listening while I had tears running down my face. My heart hurts for the Japanese. I wish I knew Japanese so I could tell everyone that walked past me that Christ loves them.

Over the past 2.5 weeks my world has been rocked. I am just now letting my heart soak up the tragic events that have happened around me.

I praise the Lord every day that I am safe, have food and that I have security only in Him.

 

Mary

I often think about what was like for Mary to see the face of God in baby form?

Jesus was Mary’s first-born child. He was also God.

I am not yet a mother but I get tears in my eyes thinking about seeing my child for the first time. There is so much emotion and you are so overwhelmed that you have this baby in your arms that has been so carefully formed in your womb.

I wonder how Mary felt….

Did she get caught up in the moment like all mothers do when they meet their child for the first time? Was she scared? Did she praise the baby for coming? She she pray to the Lord that Jesus was here on Earth?

I wonder how Mary felt….

Was she scared to raise Jesus here on Earth? I mean I would be TERRIFIED to raise God’s child here on Earth. To protect him from all of the evil things that are in this world.

I wonder how Mary felt…

Do you wonder how she felt on that day in Bethlehem?

Savior, Please

Tonight I was pretty bored and I decided that I would head over to itunes to browse.

I ended up stumbling across the 69 cents Christian and Gospel section and I purchased a few songs.

One of the songs that I bought was Savior, Please.

Please take a listen.

This is my heart right now….

Homeless

Every time I see a homeless person, I always think: are they Jesus?

When I was in Tokyo coming back from my vacation to Australia, my friend and I were approached by two homeless men.

They were speaking Japanese and we of course were speaking English.

The first man who approached us knew what he was doing. We were the only foreigners all around.

The smell that was coming off of this man was unbearable. I could not believe that smell was coming from a human being.

We didn’t know what to do. We were trying to talk to him but he kept talking in Japanese. Finally he went away.

After he left, I turned to Jessica and I looked at her and asked her if we did the right thing? Should we have offered him our drinks? Was that our opportunity to show the love of Christ? We didn’t know what to do.

About 30 minutes later another man sat down next to me. I could feel him looking at me and staring at me. Finally after sitting down for 10 or so minutes he came to talk to us. He was asking us if we were Italian and I said no and that we speak English. (I said it in Japanese.) Then he asked if we were English, Swedish and so on. This time I offered him my tea that I was drinking. He didn’t want it. Jessica and I stopped talking to him so he would go away.

As we were getting on our bullet train the first man found us again and was following my friend Jessica around.

We quickly headed through the gates.

This moment in my life, I will always remember. I don’t know if it is because I have never felt more like a jerk or more out-of-place in my life.

What would you have done?

Ouch.

Here lately, God has been kicking me in the pants and well… it hurts.

On Sunday morning I sat in my “assigned” pew and listened to my pastor talk about Different Values. How we as Christians are set apart from God and how we should be different from the world. You know, all of that stuff that I have heard before.

He got me when he said, “People get confused about Jesus Christ. All other religions are about DO. Our religion is about DONE.”

It got me thinking, this is so true. Everyone who is not “practicing” Christianity are trying to be the best that they can be so that they will please their god or have enough of whatever. But Christianity is about Christ. Christ was the sacrifice that we needed. He did that for us, for all of eternity. DONE.

When I accepted Christ to be my Lord and Savior, I traded in my old life for this new one in Christ. So this means that Jesus is living in and through me. But is He really? Do I act like Christ would? Do I say things that glorify Christ? Do I proclaim Jesus’ name to other people?

My pastor said that in order to be dead to sin and alive in Christ he thinks of it as being dead like a corpse but having a new life.

So when I am tempted to gossip, I need to remember that I should be dead to that because that is of my old life without Christ and then think about what Christ would do. Would He stand there and not say anything and continue listening to the gossip? Or would He say that that is not bringing glory and honor to His name?

I know this is cliche but WWJD?

This week I challenge you to: Speak a word of blessing instead of a curse.

O Come, All Ye Faithful

This is one of my favorite Christmas songs of all time.

My pastor is going through some of the favorite Christmas songs that we sing every year. He is going through them and having us see the deeper meaning of things.

He was talking about how if you adore something, you are full of joy and you love that thing. But those who we adore, they will bring pain into our lives. For example, children. People adore their children but their child will break their heart at some point in their life.

Did you know that adoration is the first step towards worship? Did you know that the shepherds adored Christ when he was a small child?

They wanted to see the Christ child and see him for everything that he was worth. They wanted to see for themselves, everything that they had heard about.

What is something that you adore? Do you adore an actress? Actor? A sports player? Money? Weight loss?

This got me thinking, what is something that I adore so much, that could possibly turn into an idol?

Are there any idols in your life?

For He alone is worthy
For He alone is worthy
For He alone is worthy
Christ the Lord.

Come let us adore Him.
Come let us adore Him.
Come let us adore Him
Christ the Lord.