Radical People

What is the ultimate evidence of love in a persons life?
What is sacrificing your self for something you believe in?
What is giving up what you want most for the benefit of someone else?

I recently read in my bible the story of Hannah, her greatest desire was to have a child. When God blessed her with a son she gave him away to serve God in the temple (he like worked with the priests and that was acceptable during that time). In this she sacrificed getting to raise her precious son, whom she loved, because she wanted to give back to God what he had given her. She was living her life with complete and radical faith in God.

What about others like her?
Can you think of those people who are just always sacrificing what they desire, showing their dependence on Christ?
Who will be radical for God?

Take Amy Carmichael for example, she was a missionary (1900ish) one of those people who was constantly connected with God. She was always looking for what she could give up next for Him just knowing that everything on this earth is means nothing in comparison to what follows it.

“And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever”- 1 John 2:17.

There are so many other great people that I know of today who are living this radical sacrificial life style. Like the people who are helping build our new church building, or a dear friend of mine who is devoted to helping her unwell mother by caring for her family, or those people in my life who are intense prayers… I always know that if I needed some encouragement they‘d stop everything to pray with me.

This kind of life style is not depressing or dull because these kind of people are people of contentment and joy! Hannah rejoices (1 Sam 2) even before she knew of the baby in her womb about Gods unfailing strength and deliverance. She knew that her greatest pain wasn’t going on without Gods good reason, and He rewarded her four times what she asked for because of that.

I think that in my own life I all to often doubt how God is going to use the uncomfortable situations for something greater. I want to be lazy and not work toward His greater plan. But there is not one thing ever given up for Christ’s cause that has gone unaccounted for!

“Knowing that the testing of faith produces endurance… And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” - James 1:3-4.

Everything I can do now to give to that cause, I want to do it. I waste to much time, I am not as patient as I should be, I don’t love as deep and as real as I should… I’m missing out on the freedom of living in thicker radical faith. If I could give each moment of my life as it comes to Christ as a sacrifice for my own will. Think of what a legacy that leaves!

To have that closeness with God. To be so connected that you just automactly DO what is the least of you and the most of Him... is what i want to work toward. Its beautiful!

“Many things happened which should not have happened, because I had not learned to set to, and do things that seemed to me, dull and not useful” is what Amy said about times of her youth.
I feel the exact same way!
But she overcame that and learned to do so much (including eating cold slugs and brown goo at many meals lol). She speaks over and over what great happieness serving God brought her.

In essence living a sacrificial life doesn’t really mean you have to give your children to the church or move to India but rather just “setting to, and doing those dull and seemingly not useful things”…. this is like my main point here.

Right now in my life I am where I am. I can’t change that. But I can change how I handle where I am. I want to be one of those,

radical people…

Brimming with faith!

Joy!

Loving in every way!

I want to give my every second to God and be like “it’s yours, what would you have me be doing right now?”….

I’m sick of wasting my time. I don’t want to miss out on anything God has for me because I was to caught up in myself. Ha, this is no easy feat and I have no doubt that I will mess up tons….

“But the Lord is good, a strength in times of trouble; He knows those who trust in him”- Nahum 1:7.

So I will continue on challenging what do know a living in His perfect peace…..

Let’s live together in this radical, sacrificial, life style.

“If they hear and serve Him, they will end their days in prosperity and their years in pleasures”- Job 36:11.

Sincerely yours, Meg

p.s. about Amy Carmichael
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Carmichael

Bumper Stickers and Blessings

“I keep seeing this bumper sticker that’s popular where I live it says, ‘God Bless America’. Every time I see it I just think to my self, ‘God has blessed America’ …. The point isn’t ‘how can God bless America more?’, but how can America bless others.” -Rob Bell

We are all familiar with the idea if blessing others. You know doing something for someone else that’s a sacrifice to you; whether its giving of your time, money , or energy for the benefit of someone else. When we try and bless others or give to others we often get something in return, right? I have come to realize that even when we are trying to do something for a good reason, we often have our own motives. Someone told me the other day that she had been doing and buying things for a lady she knows for months and months but not once has the lady returned the favor. This person was kind of disappointed about it just wondering if the lady was even thankful. Really why do something for someone who doesn’t appreciate it? That’s logical isn’t it? Think about it? We have this mentality about lots of things, we may not really expect a reward but at least an awareness or our good deed. We have this “If they don’t care, why should I?” attitude.

God has blessed America, that’s you and me… we are America. We could feed the world with the 20billion we spend on ice-cream in a single year; it’s a fact, it’s a statistic, WE ARE BLESSED.

So my question is WHY? We don’t appreciate it, we aren’t thankful for it, we take advantage of it, most of the time we don’t even notice what we have been given. Why would God give us this place, and give us this freedom when we don’t appreciate it? It’s like totally backwards to our way of doing things. He blesses us for no reason other than that He loves us.

This throws off completely our “Why do it if they don’t appreciate” way of thinking. As followers of Christ we are supposed to act like Christ. He gave and blessed to people who didn’t even care! AND STILL DON’T! We are called to serve and bless those people who don’t deserve it, those who don’t want it, and those who may never want it. Let me tell you I’m sure glad Jesus didn’t say, “Well these people don’t appreciate it, why should I go through all this pain for them?”. His act of serving will last for eternity. Our acts of serving and blessing others, purely out of the Love we have been blessed with… will also last for eternity!

God blesses because He loves…

We apart of that love…

We are blessed…

We should bless because we are loved...

So maybe it’s time we make some new bumper stickers eh?

“God blessed…” Gen 1:28

Comfortably Beautiful

I have a body... acouple times a week I use this body, that God has given me, to do yoga . I have been taking yoga lessons for a while, last night while I was there something felt different. I was studying the other women who where stretching along with me, some of them were three times my age. I just watched them for a moment considering how much easier it was for me to do it, how our bodies just change over the years. Then I wondered how those women felt about being older. No really, they were once young too. Could I handle wrinkles, grays, and age spots on my hands? How are they comfortable with that? I AM comfortable with the way I am now, does that mean I’ll be comfortable when I’m +50?
As I watched these women I found that is wasn’t the grays coming through their hair that I noticed rather the way they were working on what they were doing, concentrating, using their bodies all for a purpose: doing yoga. We all are capable of doing so much with ourselves. Maybe it really isn’t about trying to be comfortable with our aging bodies but rather how we choose to use them that makes us comfortable. If I choose to use my body for nothing more than fulfilling all my crazy desires, how much would my idea of beauty and self worth change in 30 years? If I choose to use my body to share the Joy that God has given me, how much then would my idea of beauty and self worth change 30 years? Where is my purpose for my body going to get me?
The people I really truly see as beautiful are the people who are really truly comfortable with who they are. The people who have found their purpose in the One who made them. Beauty to me is a spirit, it is love when pure, joy when circumstances are depressing, a smile when in doubt, compassion when hate reigns, forgiveness when it is not deserved, strength when fear is overpowering, peace when it’s storming, a hug when there is no reason, giving when we ourselves are in need. What do you see beauty as? Who do you consider to be beautiful?
So maybe being comfortable with our bodies is really just knowing what they were meant for.
The women in my yoga lesson may or may not know what there life purpose is. But I do think that in their momentary success of overcoming the next pose, doing what they set out to do, concentrating, trying their best… In this they looked comfortable with their bodies, they- looked- beautiful.