This summer has turned itself into a time of self-examination and reflection. It's a phase I believe we should all at some point in our lives be interested in having. Where is God leading me? What is he saying to me? Where does He want me to go from here? Those are possibly questions we've asked ourselves for many years now...and interestly enough the puzzle is beginning to reveal itself... quite awesome-esque if I might add.
In Orange we had a really interesting message (well at least the parts i caught cuz I spent most of the time helping Cassie, who is unbelievably cute, change her pull ups). I listened to the part of the message that Jerry (the speaker) was talking about compassion...and although I did not get a chance to receive that part of the message... compassion is for sure something the Orange team gained as a whole. The first point I recall were all the questions he asked....(cant remember the specific question but they were something to this extent)
- Do I love Him?
- Are you for real?
- Is it true?
- Can I be trusted?
I suppose those questions pertain to the faith that we have. When we share about the great love of Jesus...what is our answer to those questions? Honesty is essential to being an effective witness. Not just speaking the truth about what God's word says about believing in him, but also being honest with yourself about what your faith is and how that's reflected in your thoughts, speech, and actions.
Another thing that I thought interesting was what Jerry mentioned about spiritual gossip. You might think... wow... dude what's that? Lemme give you an example that he gave us. Let's say Berdy has this friend who is going through a rough time ...going through something he entrusted only Berdy to know. However, Berdy felt like he should tell others about what his friend was going through...the excuse being that they should pray for him...the more ppl praying the merrier right? *raises red flag* What Berdy's friend spoke of was for Berdy's ears only. If Berdy had a problem with how his friend was handling the situation...he should have gone directly to the source (his friend) and not involved an entire company of people. For sure... prayer is awesome...and powerful...but use wise judgement when asking others to pray about something. That lead to Jerry's next point (quote on my profile):
"The devil will get you to do the right thing at the wrong time if he cant get you to do the wrong things all the time."
How true is that... I think it's so easy for us to be impulsive. We as humans have such a strong desire to follow our own "good instincts" that sometimes our judgement can stray a bit. For example... I remember one time I was having issues with someone and I had prayed and prayed and thought that maybe what God wanted was for me to talk to this person. I mean heck it seemed like the right thing to do. We learn time and time again that we should confront the problems when conflicts arise right? Well, in my case God sort of blocked the opportunity to talk to this person and as it turned out, that was best. The lesson for me was that some things are better left unsaid; although sometimes the hardest thing to do is to do nothing at all. I believe that God has his perfect timing for every good thing...I mean.. He IS the the one who holds to future...and plus He's walked the paths before us....who better to place are trust in? Satan can have many strong holds in our lives...we just need to remember to leap from Satan by being one who is F.R.O.G.....fully relying on God.
Those are just a few of the things I brought back with me from Orange...and as a caring person I like to share. Like they always say... sharing is caring.
Acts 11:23 "When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts."
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