While reading the description (pg. 183-84) of the biennial International AIDS Conference Kay Warren attended in Bangkok in 2004, I remembered a time when Paul had a similar experience. Acts 17:16 - While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. In a place where God was numbered among many gods, Paul fulfilled his calling in that place by exalting the one true God and making Him known to those who had not know Him. I have a sentence underlined in my Bible that is in the middle of Paul’s teaching that day. He said, “For in him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) Kay Warren mentioned another teaching by Paul that led her to understand her God given call to be His hands and feet in the world of HIV/AIDS. This is her passion because this is her call by God.
God established His church to be His body – His hands and feet, but as Scripture teaches, each one is gifted to do that in a unique way. This would be a good time to read 1 Corinthians 12.
So many times we struggle with our purpose or our calling. We wrestle with we aren’t that gifted; we aren’t that special; we aren’t that able, and the truth is, we aren’t. Jesus said, “Without me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) But as Paul said in Acts 17:28, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” I wondered if you had discovered how He has gifted you to be His hands and feet because He has gifted you to do that. It won’t look just like Kay Warren’s or Paul’s or Pat’s or your best friend’s or your spouse’s but in some magnificent way we are gifted to be His hands and feet, a light in the darkness.
Many times we can discover our calling seeking God and merging our answers of questions like:
· What are you passionate about?
· What burdens your heart?
· What charges your battery and gives you energy?
· What are you most motivated by?
Friday, February 3, 2012
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
An Unexpected Bond - Pat
Dear Ladies,
I have always been told that you never begin a letter with an apology. I wonder if the same rules apply with a blog… If so, sorry to break the rules and I am sorry that I fell behind in blogging. Life took a turn for the overwhelming this past 2 weeks and I am hanging on with the hope that this too shall pass.
However, I did read chapter 9 last week and was struck by the perspective that Kay Warren gave me about the prostitutes. I never really thought about them from the perspective of what was behind their occupation may have been suffering and even no choice in the matter. It always was just a bad girl occupation not an evil forced on a young girl or woman to kill, steal, and destroy her life. The good news is that Jesus came to give abundant life. He also said in Mark 9:42, “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.” Evil may be free to do evil today but there will come a day when evil has to pay!
The other half of the chapter focused on taking “communion” or the “Lord’s Supper.” I could not help but wonder how we have missed the true purpose and intent of remembering the great gift of His broken body and His precious blood which gave us a new and living way to enter into His presence, both now and forever, and with boldness.
I have always been told that you never begin a letter with an apology. I wonder if the same rules apply with a blog… If so, sorry to break the rules and I am sorry that I fell behind in blogging. Life took a turn for the overwhelming this past 2 weeks and I am hanging on with the hope that this too shall pass.
However, I did read chapter 9 last week and was struck by the perspective that Kay Warren gave me about the prostitutes. I never really thought about them from the perspective of what was behind their occupation may have been suffering and even no choice in the matter. It always was just a bad girl occupation not an evil forced on a young girl or woman to kill, steal, and destroy her life. The good news is that Jesus came to give abundant life. He also said in Mark 9:42, “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.” Evil may be free to do evil today but there will come a day when evil has to pay!
The other half of the chapter focused on taking “communion” or the “Lord’s Supper.” I could not help but wonder how we have missed the true purpose and intent of remembering the great gift of His broken body and His precious blood which gave us a new and living way to enter into His presence, both now and forever, and with boldness.
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