10.27.2006

Proverbs 27:17
As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Hebrews 10:25
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Hello everyone,

First, my apologies for not getting the Weekly Thing out to you all last week. Things have been very, very busy with getting prepared for doing college ministry, with support raising, and the days just kept flying by.

In the past two weeks, my heart has been full of praise to our God for the many things that he has been doing. And there are a few things that I would want to bring up, but my thoughts are instead turned to community and friendship.
I’ve written in the past, on a number of occasions, about the importance of community in the Christian realm, so for some of you this may be redundant. We could all use hearing these things again though – especially me.

What’s interesting about being a Christian is that it is rarely possible, if at all, to be fully stable without being a part of some kind of community. Actually, the very fact that we’re human makes that a difficult task. The way we are made is fundamentally relational, and as believers our faith is also fundamentally relational. Our love for God is fueled by the fact that God loved us first; apart from having a relationship like that with God, what is the point of faith exactly? Why believe in something like a god at all if the god doesn’t lovingly care about you? I think that this is a big reason why people do not believe in God—they miss the fact that He is a loving God. Fundamentally, God is relational. If He weren’t, being Three in One persons – Father, Son, and Holy Ghost – would be awfully difficult.
Because the Christian faith is fundamentally relational, and because we as human beings are fundamentally relational, it would make sense then that we are designed and purposed to be in a community. Adam needed a companion because it wasn’t good for man to be alone (Gen 3:18), and the same still rings true today. It is not good for you or me to be on our own. American culture especially preaches complete and total individual independence, but you know what? We’re designed to be dependent.
First and foremost, we are dependent on God for the very air that we breathe, life itself. Who keeps your heart beating in the dead of night while you sleep, none the wiser?
Secondly, we depend on each other for companionship, encouragement, rebuke, growth, and a number of other things. Fellowship is important to the life of a Christian, ever with the risk of putting Man above God. Although that risk exists, community is not to be totally forsaken. We can’t stand strong for long on our own… Brothers and Sisters in Christ, if we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing, keep each other strong by rebuking sin and encouraging praises to the Lord through Scriptural truths.

Let’s bring a little Animal Planet analogy into this:
A Zebra on its own is going to be taken down by a predator a LOT easier than if it remains with the herd of other Zebras.
A lioness on its own has a much harder time bringing down prey than she does when she works with other lionesses.

As heroic as it sounds, here’s another way of putting it:
Because we are a threat to satan, he wants to take us down, and he can do that a lot easier if we’re all by our lonesome. Because we fight against the forces of evil, being a part of an army whose goal is to stomp out the devil is a lot easier (emotionally) than trying to do it all alone.

Make sense?

So this is my encouragement and charge to all of us… Seek community with other believers. Live and work and breathe with brothers and sisters in Christ, while balancing that with time spent in the World, fighting the good fight. If you’re only looking out for Number One, it’s going to be awfully lonely battle that leaves you susceptible to all kinds of temptation.

I pray that all of us would seek community and really be an active part of a Christian community, primarily through a church. I pray that the Holy Spirit would put to rest our rebellious spirits that long to be totally independent, without help from anyone else. I also pray that we would really want to understand what community looks like, being a part of Christ’s body with HIM as the head of us all.

In love and in Him,
Your sister,
Yvonne

10.16.2006

Psalm 47:1,2
Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. How awesome is the LORD Most High, the great King over all the earth!

Romans 12:1,2
…I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.


Hey everyone-

How’s it going? I hope that this week went well for all of you, or if nothing else that you were able to see God’s goodness throughout the week.

This past week I’ve been reading Romans (yes, again; it’s my favorite), and also thinking a lot about the nature of our salvation. Think about it. Regardless of if you grew up in church or not, you and I are saved not by our own merit but by something far bigger than that. God’s grace, as the song goes, is amazing. It’s incomparable with any sense of grace that we have here on earth.
Yesterday, the 15th, was the day that God implemented that grace to save me six years ago. I for one did not grow up in a Christian household, and didn’t really grow up going to church either. Romans 5:10 mentions that we were God’s enemies before knowing Him, while Romans 8:7 mentions that the sinful mind is hostile to God. It’s interesting to think about because I was one of those kids that rarely would do anything “wrong” on the outside: I obeyed my parents, I did my homework, I didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, didn’t hurt people intentionally… All around good, right? And yet, Scripture says clearly that before I knew Christ, I was an enemy of God. I’d say that’s about right. If nothing else, it got to the point in my life that anything to do with Christianity was trite idiocy (or arrogance) and I hated it. I hated the Christian God and wanted nothing to do with Him. I didn’t have a problem with there being a “god” whatever it was, but Yahweh? Please, I wanted none of it. Not just that, but the garbage that went on inside could not be compared to any outward misdemeanors I may have done. So, yes, I was an enemy of the LORD.


Yet, here I am now, loving God and just floored at the fact that He reached down and extended His salvation to me six years ago. And it’s all to Him that I have faith and a desire to write these Weekly Things every week. It’s to Him that everything in my life has changed since I was in High School… it’s to Him that any one of us have the faith we have, and it’s to Him that we were saved at all. Praises be to God!
The verse that I pin-point as the one that finally broke the camel’s back was this:
Matthew 16:24-25, “If anyone would come after me [Jesus], he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”
So I ask you to ponder these questions with me… Do we recall the days before we knew Christ, and praise Him for what He’s done? Have I really shouldered my cross, denying myself for Him? Have I really lost my old life to have new life?

Praise the Lord for your salvation, not just today but every day.

I pray that each of us would be humbled by how amazing God’s grace really, truly is, and praise Him continually for salvation. I also pray that we extend that awe with others, sharing Christ with those who are enemies of God so that they can know God, and be saved in just the same way as we were. I ask that the Holy Spirit would continually be working in our hearts to protect us from temptation and sin, and that He would also work in us the likeness of Christ. I pray that our lives would not be our own, but His. May we all praise the Lord, always, for everything that He does.

In love and in Him,
Your sister,
Yvonne

P.S. I wanted to include this snippet… It’s from a local band called Kurios, and the name of the song is ‘Sing, Fall Down.’ I absolutely love it.

“One day You'll come again with open arms to hold me.
I'll see You face to face and bow before Your glory.
With all my strength, with all my heart,
with all I am my soul cries out.
With all of me I lift my voice to worship You.”

“We sing. We fall down. We worship You. We sing. We fall down.”

10.08.2006

Isaiah 52:7
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

2 Corinthians 5:19-21
…he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Hey everyone,

So, this past week was full of hustle and bustle, but this coming week is going to be just teeming with the same kind of activity you’d expect to find in a bacteria-loaded slide under a microscope. Okay, perhaps not quite that much, but it seems pretty packed.

As many of you already know, I will be doing college ministry in Philadelphia in the near future; you may also know that I haven’t moved quite yet. This has been frustrating, because every fiber of my body wants to be over there in The City, and not here in The Not-City. I want to start working with students and almost all of my thought and energy has been geared toward this single goal.
Then God goes and hits me with what some of us would call the proverbial two-by-four, reminding me of something I heard about two years ago: “bloom where you are planted.” I enjoyed that phrase quite a bit, but I don’t know if I’ve ever really really taken it to heart. For instance, right now I’m all geared up for my “tomorrow,” which is working in Philadelphia. But, Philadelphia is NOT where I am right now and I feel like I can’t do anything until I get there. Um, hello?

I would imagine that the Lord would have us geared up to do ministry no matter where we are or what we are doing… Essentially, to bloom where we are planted so that we may be a fragrance to those who don’t know Christ, regardless of where we are or where we want to be. Here’s the crazy thing that God did to point out to me rather blatantly that there are people HERE in my current sphere of influence that need to hear about Christ. Just the other day, a guy came in to fix our air conditioner, and I ended up having a choppy conversation about God with him for an hour. I wasn’t expecting it at all and although I don’t think I did so hot, I sure hope that God planted a seed and I pray that He nurtures it somehow. If I were in Philly, that wouldn’t have happened. That’s a big *SMACK* in the face!

See, regardless of what we’re doing or where we are, as Christians, it is our job to be representatives of Christ – or, more precisely, ambassadors. What’s an ambassador do? They are official messengers who stand in to represent a government or king to another government or king. Everything they say and do are marked as being representative of their homeland/king. We as Christ’s ambassadors ought to shine forth the light of Christ and the love of God regardless of where we are. Being a missionary (or doing ministry) is not about what you do, but who you are because of Christ. You could be working at Panera Bread, or a coffee shop, or even a huge office building and still administer the Gospel.
I can only pray that this is something I will constantly remember as I wrestle with wanting to be in a different city to “start” my ministry.

I pray that each of us would really take hold of our identities in Christ, knowing that we are not only His beloved children, but also His ambassadors… I also pray that, as we go through each day, we would have eyes to see the opportunities God puts before us to minister to others and share His love with them. I ask that the Holy Spirit gives us all strength and wisdom to do that, to be bold and unafraid. May we always be transformed more and more into the likeness of Christ.

In love and in Him,
Your sister,
Yvonne

10.02.2006

James 4:7-10
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Ephesians 5:1,2
Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Proverbs 3:5,6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.


Hello everyone-

Sorry that this week’s email is a bit later than most; it’s kind of been a busy week. But, in a lot of ways I’m glad that I didn’t write till now since I learned quite a bit over the past two days.

In church, we have a new song that we sing called Every Breath by Ben Haake, and the chorus goes like this: “For every breath Lord, for all that I am, I want my life to bring you glory. For every moment, for all that I have, I want my life to bring you glory.” We sang this at worship night on Saturday, and also on Sunday morning. The bridge is simply a repetition of, “Forever. I surrender.” As I was thinking about that while singing and afterward when I’d gone home, I got to thinking about the new phase in my life in which I’m going into college ministry and how the past week had looked. … Admittedly, this past week wasn’t entirely focused on our Creator. In fact there were three days where I was so busy focusing on the things I “needed to do” to be able to do work for God in another city that God was almost completely out of the picture. I hadn’t read my Bible, and my prayers were skimped short. I was too busy.

So in singing those words, there came the sting of those three days. Yet it is what I want, to bring God glory with every breath and every moment… ah, but the bridge reminds me: I need to surrender first.
In our wacky world, it’s way too easy to get caught up in “doing things for God,” regardless of what it is. It’s easy to get caught up in being busy doing anything at all because being busy is bred into us from the get-go. What I’m about to say is not at all putting down the internet (since if I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t even be writing this to you via email), but here’s a thought. Out there on the World Wide Web, there’s all kinds of things to keep you busy without even physically doing anything. MySpace, Xanga, Livejournal, Facebook, other forms of blogging, art websites, and so much more – all of these I’m guilty of messing around with for HOURS. Then of course there are things (even people) outside of ourselves that keep us milling about, demanding our attention, stomping their feet in a tantrum saying, “I NEED YOU RIGHT NOW.” Making phone calls, writing letters, making trips… All the while, God is quietly sitting by waiting, saying calmly, “You need me right now.” Because the other things are louder, God totally gets washed out. You know what? Most of those other things can wait ten minutes.

Well. That’s how it’s happened with me and there’s a long history of it coming and going. Sometimes, just a bit every day, I need to remember that I need God. I need to surrender the day to the One who made it, sit at His feet, and give Him all of my attention. And this isn’t just in the busy-ness of trying to jump start a college ministry… This is through every activity I do; every activity YOU do. Every breath, every moment, is meant for His glory.

I pray that, through all the things that we are responsible for in our lives, we would all submit to God first and foremost in those things… That our days would be saturated with moments of surrendering to God. I pray that the Spirit would work in us a desire to glorify the Lord with all that we have and remind us that we need to sit and listen to His word always. I also ask that He would teach us as we read Scripture and teach us not to neglect Scripture because it is our daily bread that nourishes us. May we always be transformed more and more into the likeness of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

In love and in Him,
Your sister,
Yvonne