So I did the inevitable yesterday...mistook one girl for another.
Remember D from a few blogs ago? Well, during that conversation, there as another girl who was making very rude comments and I was trying hard to focus on my conversation with D cause I knew it was more important than the interruptions I clearly saw were from the Devil. We'll call this apparently rude girl Joy cause she has certainly been a JOY for me.
So last night I went in and thought she was D. Now, there were, last week, about three or four girls that are very similar in physical features and personality characteristics so when they're all sitting together I can make them out but when only part of them are there, it takes me a while to realize who isn't there. Okay, D was missing...I found that out a little late. I started talking to who I thought was D and asking her questions about last week's conversation. D wasn't D, she was Joy. When I first realized this I thought that I may have turned her off to talking about Jesus but surprisingly I didn't.
Since she obviously knew nothing about what D and I were talking about the week before because she would just 'hear' (not understanding) and then blurt out a comment I asked her about Sunday's Service (Don did the Sunday service and it was almost the exact same thing as my conversation with D...see how God lines these things up?). She said she liked it...the box demonstration and the story about the seeds at least. She claimed she was the good soil and I was pleased to hear about that and so I went on to probe about what that meant to her.
She said she didn't believe in the Bible stuff cause she thought it was something someone just sat down and wrote and that was that. She did however believe that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. I proceeded to say to her, "So you believe that Jesus died for your sins and that's why you're going to heaven?"
"No, I believe I'm going to heaven because Jesus is the Messiah." Joy said.
"Do you know what Messiah means? Do you know where you're going to go when you die?"
"No, but I'm going to heaven because Jesus is the Messiah."
I showed her 2 Timothy 3:16 and said "the guy who 'sat down and wrote this' tells us how he came up with it...that it was God-breathed which means God inspired him to write it. Do you believe the Bible could be true now?"
"Yes."
I explained to her about the virgin birth, why that was important, how when Christ died, God died and when Christ rose, humans rose too and we have life, and about how we can only get to heaven because of Jesus. She took it all in and the stories about God she knew about seemed to make sense to her now. So I finished by asking her the same question... "Do you believe in Jesus?"
"Yes, because Jesus is the Messiah and I'm going to heaven."
I was a bit more confident in that answer.
Moral of the story: when you mistake one person for another, just go with it.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
A day in the life of...
Rape, abandonment, rejection, heroine, coke, cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, and various visits to detention. A story of many girls? No, this is all part of one girl’s story… and she’s only 15.
She said, in the middle of our conversation, “My therapist keeps telling me to let it go, get over it and I asked her if she had felt pain and hurt like this and she said no. How can she tell me to let it go, put it past me, and get over it?”
Inside, I wanted to go away and hide because I am no different than her therapist. I have nothing that qualifies me to tell her anything, nothing from my growing up that I would help me understand her any better. So you could imagine what I felt like when she asked me, “What was your life like when you were my age?”
She said I had the good life and that she wanted the good life. She questioned why God would give her pain and suffering if he was such a good God and hated sin.
We cried. We cried the same tears God cries over the sin in this world and as I put my arm around her, I said, “God’s family is like my family, where God and his people are united like a husband and a wife for many years, where siblings get along, where everything is provided. You have to trust that God is good and that he hates sin and it hurts him like it hurts you.”
Those were more words than I had and it took more strength than I could possibly possess to say. them.
She said, in the middle of our conversation, “My therapist keeps telling me to let it go, get over it and I asked her if she had felt pain and hurt like this and she said no. How can she tell me to let it go, put it past me, and get over it?”
Inside, I wanted to go away and hide because I am no different than her therapist. I have nothing that qualifies me to tell her anything, nothing from my growing up that I would help me understand her any better. So you could imagine what I felt like when she asked me, “What was your life like when you were my age?”
She said I had the good life and that she wanted the good life. She questioned why God would give her pain and suffering if he was such a good God and hated sin.
We cried. We cried the same tears God cries over the sin in this world and as I put my arm around her, I said, “God’s family is like my family, where God and his people are united like a husband and a wife for many years, where siblings get along, where everything is provided. You have to trust that God is good and that he hates sin and it hurts him like it hurts you.”
Those were more words than I had and it took more strength than I could possibly possess to say. them.
Jumbo or not so Jumbo?
Okay, you know who you are...you who make mistakes...and that would be all of us.
So what constitutes as a jumbo mistake? If one man's junk is another man's treasure and if God is in control of all things aren't mistakes just...a simple fact of life that can be worked with? And if that's the case, and we assume that God, who is in control of all things can turn bad things into good things and vice versa, then really...is a mistake indeed a mistake?
Now, lets talk about sin. Sin is sin and we all know that. Sin yes, can be constituted as a mistake and all and I suppose you could say that sin is indeed a mistake because if we go back to that original sin, then Adam and Eve did make a mistake. But sin is a sin..."big" or "little" it all has the same consequence. So can there really be one sin, one mistake, that is greater than another?
I agree that some sin has graver consequences (earthly ones that is) and that some sin affects more people than other sin but it all has the same lasting, eternal consequence and the same Grace from God covers all of it.
Take a deep breath. Its just a mistake.
So what constitutes as a jumbo mistake? If one man's junk is another man's treasure and if God is in control of all things aren't mistakes just...a simple fact of life that can be worked with? And if that's the case, and we assume that God, who is in control of all things can turn bad things into good things and vice versa, then really...is a mistake indeed a mistake?
Now, lets talk about sin. Sin is sin and we all know that. Sin yes, can be constituted as a mistake and all and I suppose you could say that sin is indeed a mistake because if we go back to that original sin, then Adam and Eve did make a mistake. But sin is a sin..."big" or "little" it all has the same consequence. So can there really be one sin, one mistake, that is greater than another?
I agree that some sin has graver consequences (earthly ones that is) and that some sin affects more people than other sin but it all has the same lasting, eternal consequence and the same Grace from God covers all of it.
Take a deep breath. Its just a mistake.
Monday, February 25, 2008
This One's for You!
This past December, Don's best friend from Fiji got married in Salt Lake City, Utah and we were graced with the opportunity to go. The reason I bring this up is because a week before the wedding I just decided to dye my hair a deep red. My good friend Nae wanted to see a picture of it so this one is for you Nae. Enjoy!!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Oh the Joy
God always says that if we follow him blessings will follow right? So I decided to follow him. Obvious statement if you know me. But this is the thing, we decide to follow then we slowly and mostly unintentionally slip away and then find things going wrong and decide to follow again. That is why I state that: I decided to follow him. Its like the other day, I got a swift kick in the pants, a very obvious sign from God...it honestly couldn't have been more obvious if my little red private phone line to God had rang.
So I went to detention and just like he said, the blessing followed. My intern and I sat down and talked to one 16 year old, five months pregnant girl. We'll call her D. D is worried about raising her son...disciplining him in particular. So we talked about the rod and the staff, 'time-outs', spanking, grounding, and what the Bible says about sparing the rod and spoiling the child. We had a nice seg-way and the conversation turned to a different sort. She, in so many fairly obvious words, told me that she believed but didn't have assurance of salvation. We then sat and talked about the act of salvation: what was it really that made us right with God. Why denominations are going to or not going to get you to heaven. Why her, not being a church go-er, still has a shot at heaven. Why me, as a great little born and breed Christian isn't necessarily going to go to heaven. Why Mary isn't the way to salvation. Why she gets frustrated reading the Bible when she starts at the beginning...Genesis...instead of at the real beginning...John or Matthew or one of the tales of Jesus' life and ministry. And so many other things: Romans 10:9-10, 1 Corinthians 10:13, Ephesians 2:8-9. And with all that you can recreate the conversation...the same conversation I have with MANY girls.
At the end of the night, exactly 10 minutes before my intern and I had to leave, D sighed a HUGE sigh and said the most beautiful thing, "I get it." She sighed, sat back in her chair and I saw a literal weight lifted off her shoulders! It was the most beautiful thing! For the entire 15 minute drive home, I was in awe, speechless, as I am every time I have that conversation with any girl. God is amazing! And other than Christ's death and resurrection, the most beautiful thing about salvation is when someone gets it. The mystery of how God works at that moment and in the lifetime of that person is simply the greatest miracle I have ever witnessed.
So I went to detention and just like he said, the blessing followed. My intern and I sat down and talked to one 16 year old, five months pregnant girl. We'll call her D. D is worried about raising her son...disciplining him in particular. So we talked about the rod and the staff, 'time-outs', spanking, grounding, and what the Bible says about sparing the rod and spoiling the child. We had a nice seg-way and the conversation turned to a different sort. She, in so many fairly obvious words, told me that she believed but didn't have assurance of salvation. We then sat and talked about the act of salvation: what was it really that made us right with God. Why denominations are going to or not going to get you to heaven. Why her, not being a church go-er, still has a shot at heaven. Why me, as a great little born and breed Christian isn't necessarily going to go to heaven. Why Mary isn't the way to salvation. Why she gets frustrated reading the Bible when she starts at the beginning...Genesis...instead of at the real beginning...John or Matthew or one of the tales of Jesus' life and ministry. And so many other things: Romans 10:9-10, 1 Corinthians 10:13, Ephesians 2:8-9. And with all that you can recreate the conversation...the same conversation I have with MANY girls.
At the end of the night, exactly 10 minutes before my intern and I had to leave, D sighed a HUGE sigh and said the most beautiful thing, "I get it." She sighed, sat back in her chair and I saw a literal weight lifted off her shoulders! It was the most beautiful thing! For the entire 15 minute drive home, I was in awe, speechless, as I am every time I have that conversation with any girl. God is amazing! And other than Christ's death and resurrection, the most beautiful thing about salvation is when someone gets it. The mystery of how God works at that moment and in the lifetime of that person is simply the greatest miracle I have ever witnessed.
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