Love

I do not want to fall away from you, Lord. I look neither to the left nor to the right. I look to You, Lord. Who can walk this path alone? Thank God gravity pulls me towards your nail scarred hands.

Do you have the faith to believe? Remember the stories of the Bible and place your faith in them…in God. In the strength the Lord gave Sampson to destroy the Philistines. As Sampson looked to heaven crying out in repentance, saying, “God grant me this one last time! Forgive me! Use me to do your final work in my life!” Sampson leaned forward; sweat pouring from his forehead as he pushed with every fiber of his God given strength, the pillars creaked and groaned collapsing into dust and rubble. 

Do you believe in the faith God gave Ruth? Her very obedience to follow YHWEH into a foreign land was the action of simple faith. A widow of the accursed Moabite peoples, she followed her mother-in-law to embrace the very land and people who rejected her heritage. Ruth became a woman known throughout this new land because of her character and was woven into the bloodline of our Savior Jesus. Her destiny unfolded in God’s perfect time, best of all in God’s perfect way.

Salvation from a life of bondage was given to Rahab, a harlot. Whose very own household became the sole survivors of the city of Jericho. Do you put your faith in this freedom? 

I read of how it is written, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” The same God who promised to Abraham his very seed would outnumber the stars in the sky is the same God I put my trust in. Do you? 

I remember the promises He gave to Esther, Paul, Jeremiah, and Abraham. These are the promises of salvation from destruction, promises of a calling to preach the Gospel to the ends of the world, a promise of a hope and future. I remember the stories, these words of the Bible, this love poured out in blood for me…for you. 

Love’s own hand writes your future. Your very days are ordained, each moment known before one even passed. Remember the promises of the past; they are the keys to your future. It is never too late to follow in the footsteps of our Savior. Never too late to choose life, it is never too late to believe. 

Psalms 139: 15 – 16 “You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”(NLT)

Travels

Spring brings about rain, flowers, and the hope of long summer days. Summer's laden with promises of fun in the sun but to me the need to travel is once again rising up within me. In my mind's eye I picture the lush, green vegetation that surrounds the valleys in central Sri Lanka to the big bold city lights with the sounds of car horns, people shouting and police sirens wailing. Then the canvas changes to the muddy yellow colors of the sands of the African deserts’ intensity draining you of energy as the sun joins in the promotion of the suffocating heat. 

There is beauty in the rain pouring down from the heavens in the cool of an African night. Our eyes appear wider as the variety of huge colorful lizards lay in silent wait for the ceasing of the rains. The architectural highlights of each country beckon the aimless wanderers. Malaysia’s own twin towers, Japan’s sophisticated streets, or England’s familiar Big Ben. 

The masses of humanity throng dangerously close to each other as the smells tear through ones mind. The images, sounds, and scents forever embedded into one’s memory. Who can forget the first time they walked through the white sands to the blue oceans of Hawaii’s magnificent beaches, gingerly stepped down the stairs to India’s slums, ran through the streams in South Korea’s prayer mountains, or climbed to the most breathtaking view from the height of Sigiriya’s leveled peak? 

If one looks closely, they find uniqueness in faces of the masses that pass by. In a small village on the outskirts of a city in Nigeria, men, women, and children live, work, and survive. They go about their daily activities of school and work in the fields, never venturing outside the perimeter of their village. In the open Chapel area on a breezy afternoon, they sing and praise the Lord with faith and passion. Here they reside, shunned by society. Outcasts. Their decomposing bodies a shocking sight to others around. They are a community of lepers, worshipping the Lord amid their poverty and lack of a dignified place in society. 

Contentment that is what I saw in the lives of the leper community. It stems from knowing who you are in Christ Jesus. There is nothing else, how can there be when everyday, your very life is decaying, literally before your eyes? Yet there is this contentment. 

Do you let yourself identify with your circumstances, your ideals, your status symbols? Are you letting culture dominate your life or is it your religion? Let your relationship with Christ deepen so that you learn to identify with Him. Then no matter what cross you have to bear that day, you have the confidence to face it, knowing who you are in Christ.

There is something about us humans that draws us to higher heights, constantly trying to outdo our last success. Never satisfied with what we have, always striving for what is thought to be better. Why else would this constant need for travel, change, and better things be driving our lives? People travel aimlessly everyday, consuming the latest and the greatest, living for nothing. Go, travel, live, give, love, and learn, but know that there is always a greater impact in other’s lives when you live for Christ. To live is Christ, to die is gain. To truly live with passion for life, with satisfaction in our every single action, is to live in Christ. 

There is one question that I have to ask myself at the end of the day, am I content in Christ? What are my motives? I know I will never be satisfied no matter how many countries I set foot in, or how many frames I hang on my walls, or whether I get the right career, and life, unless I first allow myself to be content in the arms of Christ.