The Memorial

Today we visited the Genocide Memorial. It was indescribable to see what these people went through here.  There are mass graves there that hold 258,000 bodies and yet more are still being exhumed.  There are many graves still that have not even been discovered.  To see the bones, skulls, clothes, and weapons that are set up to be observed in the memorial in makes your stomach turn to realize how much evil is really in the world.  You see pictures of the dead when they were still alive and read stories about the babies and how they were killed.  Some by being smashed against a wall, others were macheted while in their mothers arms.   Still others were shot in the head.  The women were raped and tortured and the men were slashed and left to die, but alive enough that they suffer for days before they are then killed. 

 

All of this because of a socio-economic society falsely determined by the Belgium government many years before.   The Hutu people were told they were the superior race while the Tutsi people were looked upon as the lower class.  In an effort to wipe out the Tutsi, the Hutu made a 10 commandments for themselves stating things such as, if a Hutu marries a Tutsi then he is a traitor.  They used propaganda to create hate and build a silent killer.  When you think about it we have this in America.  The whites are the superior race while the blacks are not.  If you think about it we are all Americans.  Why are the whites Americans but the black are African Americans?  They are not from Africa.  Their ancestors are.  If they are from Africa then they are African.  But they are from America so they should be called Americans.  I do not walk around calling myself an Irish/German American.  I am an American.  Physical differences is what separated the Hutu and the Tutsi.  The Belgium government said the Hutu were better looking, had smaller noses, and heads, and were more intelligent.  This was not true though.  Do we not feel the same way about the blacks in America compared to the whites?  We are creating the same environment Rwanda had that lead to the genocide just 14 years ago.

 

After the memorial we went to Bourbon Coffee.  Rwanda’s version of Starbuck’s.  We had lunch, emailed, and I was able to spend a short time with Shawn.  We then went back to our church to visit two of the Church’s support groups.  I spilt my team in half, taking Jade, Cindy, and Robert with me and Caroline, Phil, and Darwin went with Augustine to the other group.  It was in this village that seemed pretty remote.  We had to drive down the dirt road that was not smooth at all.  It was surprising that we made it down and back.  The support group that we met meet together and make baskets and clothes to make money.  They are faced with such extreme poverty that it is their only way of brining in an income.  The women’s group makes the baskets and clothes and then men’s group grows and sells crops.  They use each other for emotional support working through their issues and learning to trust each other and depend upon each other.  They have a common fund of money that they have put together.  They use the money if one of their kids gets sick or if they have to help pay for one of the kids in the group to go to school. 

 

The problems that they have is that the women do not have a big enough market to make a great deal of money.  Sometimes they do not even make enough money to pay for the supplies to make their baskets.  The men do not have a building to store their crops.  Where other crop sellers charge more at first when the crops are ripe and then less as time passes by, they have to sell for less right away.  They said that they could build the building themselves, they just need money to buy the land and the roof.  When I asked them how much it would cost they said it is $2000 US.  Their issues is that they do not make enough money to save enough to buy the land and the roof.  So before we left them the four of us bought all their baskets and Cindy and I bought a skirt.  They were so excited! 

 

On the way back to the van we walked about a mile up the road and the kids were so excited to see us.  They kept asking me to take their picture and show them.  I had about 30 kids following me just cracking up and telling me to take pictures of everything!  For people that suffer from such extreme poverty and emotional hurts they are the most joyful people.  It sure puts us Americans and our fake happiness to shame. 

Friend's Church on Good Friday

Today we checked out of the Presbyterian guest house and went to the genocide memorial but it was closed because today is Good Friday.  We then proceeded to the PEACE offices which were also closed.  So we came to our apartment here in Kigali and checked in.  It has 7 bedrooms which is perfect since we have 7 people on our team.  After we got settled in we went back to the PEACE office and met the assistant pastor of our church here in Rwanda and had a an orientation meeting with “Little Erick”, the Rwandan man that works at the office.  After our meeting we went and had lunch at “New Cactus”, a beautiful restaurant on top of a hill.  The food was excellent!  From there we went with our assistant pastor Wilson and our translator Augustine to the church.  It is a beautiful church with a school.  We met the HIV/AIDS group there that makes baskets and linens to raise money to fund AIDS research.  The men and women there working were so grateful to have us come in.  Some of the people in the group did not come today to see us because they are still ashamed that they have AIDS and did not want us to see them.  I held this precious little girl for a while and hugged each one of them.  They are such loving people.  We then met a group of genocide orphans that work in the school learning English and how to sew pants.  They work there for one year and then they leave the school and go to work.  We then met a lady from the church that runs a small group.  We walked to a little house and met some people there that she reads to.  They wonderful as well, just so joyful and happy to be worshipping the Lord.  We left there and proceeded to drive to the next group.  This one was interesting because the drive there was very rough.  The van was all over the place.  Thanks to Jean Mary though we were able to get there safely.  We walked to the tiny house, with mud floors and pieces of fabric separating the other 2 rooms and no electricity or windows, and we were followed by lots of beautiful smiling children all of whom spoke French.  When we arrived at the house the people inside were singing and clapping their hands in joyful praise to the Lord.  We prayed together and sang together.  These people have so little but have so much joy in their hearts and love for the Lord.  Their faith is so rock solid despite everything that they have gone through.  The kids there are orphans and the woman was a widow.  But they say that God is the father to the children and that he is the husband to the widows.   Despite everything they have been through they still find happiness and joy in the Lord.  It was such a blessing to meet all of them and share our love for Christ with them in worship and prayer.

The Fever in the Back of the Plane (In Brussels)

We are here in Brussels and I have a fever and I am feeling terrible.  I need lots of prayer that this would go away.

 

Our flight left at 8:10 am from Los Angeles to Dulles on March 19, 2008.

I arrived at our gate an hour early and no one  from my team was there.  It made me nervous up until 5 minutes before we boarded and I finally saw them.  Apparently they were in the Red Carpet club relaxing before the flight, until they discovered that Darwin forgot his immunization record.  They had to call and make sure that Rwandan customs would allow a faxed copy and then they had Hazel, his wife fax it over.  While I was sitting there I met Catherine, she is on staff at Saddleback and she was flying over with us.  We ate lunch in Dulles and boarded our flight to Brussels.  My team was upgraded to business class while I sat in the economy (not economy plus) section of the plane.  My crappy seat was actually a blessing in disguise because I sat next to a man named Murick.  He is from Europe, living in Austin, TX but moving back to Germany to live by his parents.  He owns a construction business in Austin and has had a rough life to say the least.  We started talking about the books we were reading.  I was reading Purpose Driven Life and he was reading Put on your party pants…which is a book about learning to live life to the fullest.  I laughed and noted on how our books were completely different.  I started telling him what PDL was about and then handed him a little book called “What on earth am I here for”, the mini version of PDL.  He started reading it and told me how much he liked it.  He said as soon as he could find a PDL book he was going to buy it. 

 

Raised a Catholic by his parents, he joined the Soviet army and because of the communist country was not allowed to leave the country nor the army.  In an effort to regain his freedom, he and 2 other soldiers planned an 8 month escape.  To be caught crossing the soviet border meant death.  He turned his eyes away from God and started worshipping the devil.  He hated God and wanted whatever power the enemy could give him.  He told satan that if he would give him whatever he wanted then satan could take him at age 40.  Well he is 43 now and still living.  When he moved to Austin he snapped his Achilles tendon and was out for 8 months.  He was not able to do anything because of the crutches.  Because of this a friend from Austin asked him to join him for church.  The friend attends a non-denominational Christian church.  So he went and 4 years ago he asked for forgiveness from God.  He says he realizes what he has done and says the only explanation that he has for why he is still alive and not in prison is because of God.   He does not know why God kept him alive and safe all these years he was doing “very bad things”, as he says, but he says he wishes to find out one day.  In hearing his story I told him that he had an incredible testimony.  He could one day, when God had prepared him enough to do so share his story with other unbelievers and even satan worshippers.  I told him that people like that do not like to hear about God from people like me.  They think I don’t understand their background and history, which is probably true.  I then asked him if he prays a lot.  He told me no because he is afraid to ask God for things.  So instead he just thanks God for the many things He has given him thus far.  And he said that he was thankful to God for meeting me and hearing what I had to say.  So I proceeded to explain why prayer is so important for building a personal relationship with the Lord.  That God wants more than just us saying we believe in Him.  It is about a relationship, not a religion, as Pastor Rick always says.  Not having my Bible within reach I just so happened to open my PDL book to the chapter on prayer.  A “God thing” to say the least.  I shared with him what Pastor Rick had written about why we need to pray and then shared some Bible versus from the book with him.  At the end of the flight I realized that God had a plan bigger than my own.  He wanted me to be in the back irritated so that I could help encourage this man in his walk with the Lord.  In moving to Germany he is worried that he will stop going to church because he won’t find a church like his church back in Austin.  So in an effort to keep him in church I encouraged him to watch saddleback services on line and to scope out churches in Germany that fits his needs.  When I think that I know what is best for me, God always has a bigger plan.  He wanted me back there to speak to him and to encourage him in his walk with the Lord.  I opened myself up to be thoroughly used by the Lord and he is doing just that.  So please keep Murick in your prayers that he will continue to grow in his walk with the Lord and that he will find not only a church to attend in Germany that will challenge him, but that he will discover his purpose and allow God to use him for His work.

 

So I am fighting my fever but I will be in Kigali in about 9 hours.  So please keep me and my team in prayer and that God would heal my body!

Preparing for Rwanda: Warrior Princess style

I leave for Rwanda in 4 days and I am so excited to go.  I have never been but I could not be more ready to get there.  In preparation to lead my team over there I have been working on making sure we have everything that we need, that my team is prepared, airline tickets have been purchased, travel insurance was bought, we have our materials, make it to our meetings together, and so on.  Yet one that I have been lacking on is praying for my team and praying for this trip and the church in Rwanda we will be working with.  I have prayed about it, but not as diligently or deep as I want and need to and I will tell you why.

When preparing for an event where you are doing the work of the Lord, the enemy gets upset. He does not like us to preach the good news to others or do the work that God calls us to do no matter what it may be.  With me I have been under constant spiritual warfare.  There have been so many things to set me back and distract me from the undertakings of this trip.  It all started a few weeks ago with the pneumonia I came down with.  That illness held me back from having the energy and strength to pursue God's purpose in preparing myself and my team properly. After the pneumonia I had the flu for a couple days.  I have a job situation that has been putting stress on me and distracting me.  There is a family situation that has really been hurting me and hindering me.  And even a struggle to find the right clothes to wear over there has been an annoyance.  There are other things that have been going on but yet all of these things whether big or small have all been stumbling blocks on my road to Africa.  

The enemy has tried to make me feel insecure about my ability to lead, he has tried to distract me, stress me, scare me, make me sick, make me fail, and even make me cry.  And the worst part about it is that I have fallen into his traps.  I have allowed him to succeed in his plotting against me.  

I had a long tearful and prayerful discussion with Shawn about this last night.  And I have a choice.  I can choose to allow the enemy to win and make me stumble and break my focus or I can give it all up to God.  I can let God in and stand by my side as I battle through this war against the enemy.  

Ephesians 6:14-17 says

¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  NIV

I also like this take on the verse from the Message translation.

 ^{13 -18}Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You'll need them throughout your life. God's Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out. 

This is what I have to do.  I have to put on the armor of God and go to battle.  I have to wage war against the enemy in order to stay focused on the cross and focused on my mission.  If I allow satan to win this war, my trip will not be a success.  If I focus on the wrongs this about this trip, I will fail and I will not be a strong leader.  I have to continually ask God to prepare and strengthen my heart and my mind in an effort to become more Christ like and able to battle on.

As women we grow up with a desire to be a princess.  We want to look and feel like a princess when we are little girls with our fathers being our brave prince that slays the dragon and rescues us.  And then when we are older that same thought flows over into our desire to be that same princess on our wedding day and our husband-to-be has replaced our daddy as the brave and handsome prince.  I blame Disney for our Cinderella complex, however we all have it even if we choose to deny it, it still exists in us somewhere.  The fact of the matter is that while we all want to be a princess are we going to wait on our prince to slay the dragon or are we going to be Belle and Mulan and be brave and go to battle?  Choosing to put on God's armor that he has given us, and standing by our prince, Jesus and become the brave warriors that God has equipped us to be. 

If you know me you know I have a special love for Belle, so in this spiritual war that is going on, especially in my life right now, I will "warrior up" and stand by my prince and fight on like Mulan.  My prince will eventually slay the dragon and this war will be over, but until that day comes I need to be prepared to fight for the rest of my life.  Snow White said it best, "Someday my prince will come".  Well my prince has already come.  He came, he lived, he died, he rose, and he lives and reigns forever more.  I'm sure I will still want to look and feel like a princess on my wedding day and my earthly prince will come, but I don't want him to rescue me.  I am already rescued by my Savior.  I just want him to stand by me in my war as I will stand by him in his.  

So I will lead my team to Rwanda and enjoy everyday that I get to spend there doing the work of God and bring hope and peace to the people I get to meet and spend time with not as a defeated person, but as a warrior princess.  The kind only God can create, the Holy Spirit can train, and that Jesus can fight for.

Break free of the fear

I was reading my Bible and a couple verses really struck me.  Apparently it has hit home before because it was underlined from a previous read and through these verses God really spoke to me about an insecurity or fear that I have.  The verses are 2 Timothy 1: 8-10

 ⁸So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, ⁹who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, ¹⁰but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

These verses are important because one thing that I sometimes struggle with is sharing the things that God is doing in my life.  I know that I am not the only one that struggles with this, there are others.  However, in reading this I felt was as though God stepped right out of my Bible and said it right to my face.  Those words had such a powerful impact on me.  I know that in order to be a doer of the word I need to be able to step put of my comfort zone and express the things that the Lord is doing in my life and on my heart.  If I am to make an impact on other people in this world then I cannot fear sharing Him.  In order to lead by example I need to be comfortable speaking about things He has done and is doing.  

I struggle with this probably for fear of ridicule.  That people will not be receptive to what I have to say.  Although I know that I cannot and will not always reach people on a deeper level, or that they will want to hear anything that I have to say, I at least have to try.  There are so many incredible things that He has done for me and the things that He still continues to do in my life and on my heart are amazing.  We cannot allow the enemy to get inside our hearts and minds and tell lies to us and make us insecure about our faith and our Savior.  This is what Paul was trying to convey to Timothy while he was in prison and facing certain death.  

Despite everything that Paul had been through and how much he had been ridiculed for his faith, he still continued to preach and testify about the Lord.  He did not allow fears or insecurities to control his actions.  But rather, he pressed forward and reached out to Timothy, encouraging him to never be ashamed of what the Lord is doing.  Paul knew that his time was coming to an end and he needed to someone to take his place and continue to do the Lord's work.  This is why he wrote his letters to him.  To encourage him to fight through this battle and to never be afraid or ashamed.  

There is something greater than ourselves and our lives here on earth that we are fighting for. We are fighting a battle against an enemy that is prominent everywhere we turn.  He is all over the place, telling lies to us, hurting us, tempting us with superficial things that we believe will make us feel better about ourselves.  He is constantly working against us, all the while making us believe that we truly be better off.  He is a manipulator and evil liar.  This battle is one that can only be won with the help of Jesus.  Jesus saved us from our impending death and eternal suffering in hell.  So to be ashamed and to not speak His name in public and share His good news with others is sinful.  It is wrong to be scared.  And there are many times when I am scared.  I have never been ashamed, but I have been scared.  And I know that I need to let go of this.  

I need to not be so protective of the relationship I have with the Lord.  I need to share what He is doing in my life.  I need to tell others and encourage them by example.  We reach to people on a much deeper level when we can actually relate to them.  And even if we have never been in their particular situation, there is a reason as to why God had us cross paths and why we are being presented with the opportunity to speak to them.   Therefore we all need to let go and let God.  Most of us have heard that phrase one too many times.  But it is because it is true.  When we try and do things on our own, almost all of the time we fall short.  We worry too much and we stress ourselves out on things that are out of our hands or our capabilities.  That is when we need to give it to God and allow Him to handle our situation.  We need to remain faithful.  And if you have never done this before, I would encourage you to try it.  Talk to God.  Tell Him your problems, your worries, and your complaints.   Give it up to Him.  Ask Him to take control of your life and your situation because He will.  He will absolutely do that.  No matter how big or how small the situation is, God wants it.  He wants us to look to Him and be faithful.  Once you do that you will see Him work in your life and things will get better.  And when they do, go and tell someone!  Share what He has done with other people.  Be that example that He has called us to be.  

Paul tells Timothy in verse 8 to come and suffer with him over the gospel.  The deeper we go the deeper we will suffer.  The more we share God, the more people in this world will persecute us and ridicule us and call us names and try to make us feel inadequate and inferior.  But that is the beauty in being a Christ follower.  Jesus was crucified over the things He said and did.  Now we most likely will not be crucified, for in this new millennium we really don't do that type of execution anymore, however we may be crucified in the context of people yelling at us and refusing to listen to us.  That though is the enemy once again working against us through other people.  

Verse 9 tells us that we were called to a holy life.  We are sanctioned to testify about Christ and through grace we are saved.  Just because we lead good lives and are nice to people does not mean that we will gain admission into Heaven.  Despite all the good things we do on earth, if we do not ask Jesus into our hearts and follow Him then all that niceness will all go to waste.  We are saved by grace and grace alone.  Not by our good deeds.  God does not have a chart up in heaven with Him that He puts a gold star next to our name anytime we are nice to someone or do a good deed.  He looks upon that with favor, but that will NOT get us into Heaven.  And by believing that, we are once again listening to a lie from the enemy.  He wants us to believe that's all it takes not so that we can spend an eternity in Heaven, but rather so that we can spend an eternity in hell with him.  

Jesus loves us that's why He came to earth and died for us.  Because of His sacrifice and His pain and suffering, we too can spend an eternity with Him.  If someone on this earth sacrificed their life for you and saved you from death, would you not go and tell everyone you know?  You would be on the news and talk shows speaking about it, and you would probably even write a book about it.  Why?   Because someone gave themselves up for you and you feel blessed to be alive and appreciative that they would show so much love and compassion for little 'ole you.  Am I right?  Now, why in the world are we so afraid to do the same for Jesus?  Why are we afraid to talk about Him and what the Holy Spirit is doing in our hearts?  Because when a human saves us, we get a pat on the back and everyone wants to hear our story because we all need something good to believe in and frankly people will always let us down.  So it is rare when someone makes an incredible sacrifice for another person.  Yet Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for the ENTIRE world!  And yet we don't want to hear it and we are afraid and ashamed to talk about it.  We don't put people on the news because they came to know Christ or because the Lord has done an incredible thing with their life.  No, we just call them Bible thumpers and Jesus freaks and make fun of them and put them down.  So maybe if we stopped putting people down and just listened to them we could get over our fear and spread the good news like we were commissioned to do.  

I will fight through this battle and continue to get over my fears that have been instilled in me through the work of the enemy in other people's ridicule.  I will overcome and I will not be afraid.  Psalm 23, one of the most famous of the Psalms says this 

¹ The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

    ² He makes me lie down in green pastures, 
       he leads me beside quiet waters,

    ³ he restores my soul. 
       He guides me in paths of righteousness 
       for his name's sake.

    ⁴ Even though I walk 
       through the valley of the shadow of death, ^[a] 
       I will fear no evil, 
       for you are with me; 
       your rod and your staff, 
       they comfort me.

    ⁵ You prepare a table before me 
       in the presence of my enemies. 
       You anoint my head with oil; 
       my cup overflows.

    ⁶ Surely goodness and love will follow me 
       all the days of my life, 
       and I will dwell in the house of the LORD 
       forever.

And because of this I will not be afraid because I know that the Lord is with me all the days of my life.  He will comfort me and protect me and at the end of the day I will know that I am a Christ follower that is loved unconditionally.  I will break free of my chains.

The ultimate Valentine

Have you ever thought about how silly Valentine's Day really is?  It is a day for Card companies, flower shops, jewelry stores, and candy stores to guilt the innocent consumer into spending money on people.  When you buy gifts for those "special" people in your life you are doing it because you have been pressured into it by society.  It is not done because you truly love and care about the person, if it was then you would do it on any other day but February 14.  If you truly want to show someone that you care then buy them flowers or cards or take them to a nice dinner on any other day of the year.  On the days when it is least expected, then it becomes so much more exciting and personal.  

I like to call this day Valiumtine's Day because there is so much pressure surrounding it that most people need a valium to relax.  If you don't know, valium is used to treat anxiety disorders.  Have you ever felt anxiety over Valentine's Day?  There is so much pressure to buy the right gift and make this day "one she will never forget", as the jewelry commercial says. And for those that are single, they need it because they are being shunned and being made to feel anxious about finding "the one".  It is all just silly.

Valentine's Day excludes those people that are single, making them feel unloved and unappreciated.  It is a day that "celebrates" the couples and segregates the single person.  This is why so many people are depressed on Valentine's Day.  They are surrounded by all this talk of love and watch everyone else receive gifts on a day when they are forced to give them and therefore are looked upon with pity, thus making them feel insecure about their marital status. Is this truly the way we want to make people feel?  I know I don't.

If you are in a relationship and your special someone has made you feel loved and appreciated today, then I am truly happy for you.  Rejoice in the fact that you have people in your life that want to cherish you today.

If you are single and you are feeling left out of the loop, I want to encourage you to look around you and be grateful for every blessing that you have.  What we tend to forget is that especially on days like today, we do not need a man or a woman to make us feel loved and appreciated.  We have the ultimate Valentine.  Jesus is the only true Valentine that we will ever need.  While it may feel good to have someone bring us flowers or do something special for us now, that is the flesh talking and the enemy telling us that we are not cared for because we do not have someone there with us physically.  Those thoughts will only cripple us and make us feel emotionally insecure and vulnerable to hurt.  

Jesus loved us so much that He gave His life for us that we can live with Him for eternity.  Our lifetime is so short compared to the amount of time we will get to spend with Him if we are followers.  He will always love us, care for us, be with us.  The Bible says He will never leave us of forsake us.  So take comfort in the fact that you have the best Valentine anyone could ever ask for.  Because Jesus does not forget us.  He will not leave us wounded and hurting.  He will only love us and cherish us.  

So walk through this Valentine's Day with confidence that you have the greatest gift in the world, the love of Christ and the salvation that comes with knowing Him as our Lord and Savior.  Do not be a conformist and feel pressured to celebrate this day if you do not want to, instead celebrate the one's you love when they are least expecting it.  And to my single friends, take heart and know that you are truly loved by your family, friends, and most of all your Lord. 

Messy Sheep

God is in control little sheep.  Something I tend to forget.  Something many of us tend to forget. 

There are so many times when we go through life and make decisions and stress out and worry and fight what is happening.  Sometimes we need to be reminded that God is in control.  He is in control of our lives, our well-being, our future, everything.  There are too many things in life that are completely out of our control.  This is a hard concept for those of us that like everything to be controlled.  We tend to take charge and want to make things happen a certain way in order to ensure a certain outcome.  However, what happens when that outcome does not happen?  The opposite happens?  Chaos is what happens.  The sheep are lost.  We cannot control everything for we are not in the driver's seat.  Not always anyways.  Many times we think we are and we are not. 

Take Moses and the Israelites for example.  They travel to the promise land and Moses sends some men in to explore the land of Canaan.  When they return they men tell stories of how the people there are much bigger, stronger, and more powerful than they.  They discourage the tribe from entering into the land the Lord has promised because they fear they will die.  While Joshua and Caleb plead that the land is good and God will protect them, they do not listen and they rebel.  Because they did not trust that the Lord had a plan and was in control, they were forced to travel the desert for 40 years (a year for each day they explored the land) until each person had died.  Their lack of faith kept them from ever seeing the land the Lord had promised to them. (Numbers 13-14)

We face giants of many kinds in life.  We have to trust that God has a plan and He will be faithful to us.  He will never abandon us.  A shepherd never abandons his flock.  We have to choose to walk into the light and stay faithful to Him.  We have to make the commitment to follow Him.  There is always more than what we see.  There is always a lesson to be learned.  By turning away we tend to drift through life and do what feels good at the time.  What happens when we fall away?  We start partying, drinking, slacking off, making wrong decisions, filling our lives with regret.  We need to be patient and committed to Christ to see what His plan is.  To follow our shepherd.

We need God's grace on a day-to-day basis.  Satan works in our lives to make us feel that we are not worthy enough. We are not good enough to go to church, or to pray, or that we are not worthy of His forgiveness.  The truth is, we are worthy to ask God for things such as forgiveness.  There is no perfect Christian.  That is a facade.  The "perfect Christian" you see going to church on Sunday with their "perfect family" and their "perfect lifestyle" is a hypocrite.  That person does not exist.  Those hypocrites are discouraging to others.  Christians suffer and hurt just as much as the next person.  Sometimes even more.  Paul did.  He suffered and went through trials, but he always put God first and knew that God was in control.  We are all messy sheep and God is our shepherd that keeps us clean.  That's what makes us so special.

When things happen to us and/or other people, we need to pray and examine our hearts and see where we are at.  We need to get involved and be doers of the word and not just hearers.  We are living testaments and the only Jesus some people will ever see. 

God commands us in John 13:34, "A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so that you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." 

God loves us in many ways, UNCONDITIONALLY (no matter what we do He will never stop loving us), SACRIFICALLY (He laid down His life to save us from sin, death, and the power of the devil), as a SERVANT (Jesus loved his disciples so much He washed their feet...including Judas who would betray Him), FORGIVING (He always forgives, even when we don't deserve it). 

Christians should be known by their sincere love for one another, just as Christ sincerely loves us.

Pray hard and diligently.  Pray first for God's will.  Secondly, keep you're prayers Christ centered.  And finally, bring God glory.  For these are the kinds of prayers He will answer.

God has begun a work in all of us and we need to allow Him to complete it.  He is a master artist and we are a beautiful canvas.  Let him complete his master piece for all the world to see and rejoice in!

Be steadfast and proud to be a messy sheep!