The Weekly Thing
Ephesians 2:8,9
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast.
Philippians 1:6
...he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Psalm 139:23,24
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Hello everyone,
How are you all doing? I hope the Lord has been teaching you many things this past week, whatever those things may be.
And me? Well, in a bit over 24 hours, your little weekly-writer well be at TRAINING with the CCO for five weeks! When I woke up this morning, it struck me that this whole college ministry thing is actually happening, that I'm really heading out tomorrow morning. How crazy is that? ... Let me tell you.
It was about four and a half years ago that I became a Christian. Before that, I was this girl that hated Christianity and discouraged friends from being Christian if they were thinking about it. Where we presently stand, I love the Lord and I want to share the Gospel. There's a huge difference between now and then! And I cannot make any claim that it was all because I tried really hard to get here. This is and has been God's work in me. The same stands for every one of us because our faith isn't even our own - that is, it doesn't originate in us. We ask for it, much like a father asked Jesus to help him believe in Mark (9:14-25). It's given to us just like the air that we breathe.. Anything good in us is Christ's accomplishments: He's given us talents and abilities to do the things we do, and He's give us any success that came out of those talents and abilities. Of course, we get in the way of what God's doing... probably countless times, right?
One of the key things that I feel as though I learned while at college was that God doesn't give up on us. Sounds like a generic phrase, I know, but let me elaborate: God doesn't leave us incomplete. We come to Him as broken individuals, but we aren't left that way. Provided we are open to the way Christ changes us, we will indeed change and healed and "fixed." If we aren't open, it just means that the process is slowed down to the speed of a sloth (which could mean we'll grow some nasty mold in the midsts of our stubborness). If I may also point out, we're always going to be in the process of change... the point of completion is beyond this life and this world. Much like many websites on the internet, we're always going to be 'Under Construction.'
In light of that, there's one more thing I'd like to say. I think often times, we get this crazy notion that we can't approach the Almighty because we've got our threads pulled and our stuffing is coming out. We feel like we need to be 'everything-is-okay' in order to be standing with Christ, the perfect child that does everything right. I believe that our Father is pleased more when we go to Him knowing that we're screwed up and we need His help through life.
Mark 2:17 - "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
I pray that each of us, as children of God, would be challenged by His Holy Spirit... that He would continue working in us so that we would be open to change and willing to discard that which is ungodly. I ask that He would give us a desire to ask for change, to ask for an internal revolution. I pray that we will join together in praising the Lord for what He's done in each of us, and pour out gratitude in knowing that Christ will not leave us incomplete.
In love and in Him,
your sister,
Yvonne
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast.
Philippians 1:6
...he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Psalm 139:23,24
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Hello everyone,
How are you all doing? I hope the Lord has been teaching you many things this past week, whatever those things may be.
And me? Well, in a bit over 24 hours, your little weekly-writer well be at TRAINING with the CCO for five weeks! When I woke up this morning, it struck me that this whole college ministry thing is actually happening, that I'm really heading out tomorrow morning. How crazy is that? ... Let me tell you.
It was about four and a half years ago that I became a Christian. Before that, I was this girl that hated Christianity and discouraged friends from being Christian if they were thinking about it. Where we presently stand, I love the Lord and I want to share the Gospel. There's a huge difference between now and then! And I cannot make any claim that it was all because I tried really hard to get here. This is and has been God's work in me. The same stands for every one of us because our faith isn't even our own - that is, it doesn't originate in us. We ask for it, much like a father asked Jesus to help him believe in Mark (9:14-25). It's given to us just like the air that we breathe.. Anything good in us is Christ's accomplishments: He's given us talents and abilities to do the things we do, and He's give us any success that came out of those talents and abilities. Of course, we get in the way of what God's doing... probably countless times, right?
One of the key things that I feel as though I learned while at college was that God doesn't give up on us. Sounds like a generic phrase, I know, but let me elaborate: God doesn't leave us incomplete. We come to Him as broken individuals, but we aren't left that way. Provided we are open to the way Christ changes us, we will indeed change and healed and "fixed." If we aren't open, it just means that the process is slowed down to the speed of a sloth (which could mean we'll grow some nasty mold in the midsts of our stubborness). If I may also point out, we're always going to be in the process of change... the point of completion is beyond this life and this world. Much like many websites on the internet, we're always going to be 'Under Construction.'
In light of that, there's one more thing I'd like to say. I think often times, we get this crazy notion that we can't approach the Almighty because we've got our threads pulled and our stuffing is coming out. We feel like we need to be 'everything-is-okay' in order to be standing with Christ, the perfect child that does everything right. I believe that our Father is pleased more when we go to Him knowing that we're screwed up and we need His help through life.
Mark 2:17 - "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
I pray that each of us, as children of God, would be challenged by His Holy Spirit... that He would continue working in us so that we would be open to change and willing to discard that which is ungodly. I ask that He would give us a desire to ask for change, to ask for an internal revolution. I pray that we will join together in praising the Lord for what He's done in each of us, and pour out gratitude in knowing that Christ will not leave us incomplete.
In love and in Him,
your sister,
Yvonne