I can see it!

I can see it!

Now what shall I do with it?

Do I leave it here… or do I take it with me?

These are all questions I have been struggling with. I can go home and to college and watch how the world is broken and corrupt of Life or I can create an image of what I have seen here. This community of Church Hill and the love and hope that surrounds the people who trust in Him. I have learned that it’s not about where you are, but about the people who are with you. Church on Sunday was about a call to respond! A response that Jesus discussed in the Sermon on the Mount. Percy Strickland described it as, “making a real, tangible, life altering decision.” These decisions I make will be the deciding factor in the way I live outside of CHAT and Church Hill. We discussed the verse, Matthew 7:13-14, and how God’s road is narrow and full of different trials and tribulations. This road is hard, but leads to life! And life abundantly! But the easy and wide road will lead to destruction.

Obviously! Right?

Sometimes sermons can feel boring because you have heard that same sermon before, but the Lord’s Word does not return void! It’s a promise! “Making a REAL, TANGIBLE, LIFE-ALTERING DECSION.” That is real! Every decision you make has to go through the filter of the Lord and I want my decisions to hurt. Aches and pain makes you fall to your knees in humility over the Lord’s power and grace. I want that!

Do I do that? Not always… but my goal is to strive more and more to live a life that dies to myself and glorifies the Lord’s supremacy in me. That makes no sense to some people… but I know that is what the Lord calls us to do and truthfully… it makes no sense for us. It only makes sense for Christ… but He saved me from death and I want to serve Him with no regard for my own desires.

Sounds pretty crappy of a life, but in the few moments that I have truly done this, I have never felt more at peace with the decisions I have made. True SHALOM – completeness, wholeness, welfare that can only be found by the touch and presence of God.

Now what shall I do with it? That was the question I asked at the beginning and I know that the answer is to serve the Lord with all my heart in any place He puts me. Will I always do it? Probably less than I even want to admit, but that is why His GRACE IS MINDBLOWING!

It’s like this web that I am so happy to be tangled in. A web that takes me through life and marks each decision I make and with the good and the bad… I cannot escape His love.

I’m loving my time in Church Hill. I’m loving my time with CHAT! I’m loving my time with the interns! I’m loving my time at Nehemiah’s Workshop! But most of all I am loving my time with my Father!

Had a great week at Nehemiah’s Workshop. My relationship with the boys (AJ and JaQuan) is growing in a way that only the Lord can direct. I pray everyday for a closer relationship with them so that I can glorify His name and be an example for them to follow. Nehemiah’s has now turned into a discipling class for me. We have devotions with everyone in the morning (that is an intern giving there testimony) and then me, AJ and JaQuan have our own time with the Lord. Each devotion time gets better! We talk about real life and how times are hard, but then we take biblical principles and relate them to each story and trial we face. Today story was about a man named Kirby, a drunkard. Should we drive by him or should we pick Him up? What do you think Jesus would do in a scenario like that? Is that hard or easy to do? Questions like these get spectacular answers from AJ or JaQuan! I am so impressed with their honesty because it allows us to examine our weaknesses and how those can be mended and healed through God.

My dude, AJ… he asked me one of the most profound questions I have ever heard. I don’t even think he knows how profound it was, but it was a great lesson for me to teach them. He said, “OK, so Jesus died for us, but why do we worship Him just because of that?” (As I am writing this, I am shedding tears of joy) I explained to AJ, the resurrection of Christ and how He not only died for us, but He conquered death as proof so that we can also do the same with trust and faith in this amazing act! WOW! WOW! WOW! This is why blogs suck… because words are a waste in moments like this. There is nothing like SEEING a person understand the power of Christ! He paused after my answer and just simply said, “yeah.” As if to say, that is the only way it makes sense. And it is so true. Our Savior didn’t just die like everyone else. HE ROSE AGAIN! That is POWER that only He possesses and He grants me that gift if I put faith and trust in that atonement for my sins.

These are moments that I cherish and that will be forever imprinted in my soul. So sorry for not coming home for my birthday, but the Kingdom just was advanced by one and that was so worth it! God has placed me in a place that I should have never been and He is making a real transformative change in me and in student’s lives.

Peace and Love,

Dirty Hands