In the midst of 20,000 people in need of proper housing, better education, healthier sanitation etc. God revealed to me once again how He sees the individuals - not just the masses. Nxeda came up to me while we were "building a better shack" (see my website for more on that). I gave her part of a muffin I had made and we were fast friends! She stayed with us that day, playing games, but mostly just sitting in my lap or tapping my leg for attention. There was something about the sadness in her eyes that caught my attention. I did not even want to think about what the possible reasons were for that sadness. What I did want to do, was play with her and try desperately to communicate to her that she is valuable. The day before I left I returned to her neighborhood in search of her. She came running out of nowhere and grabbed my legs. I told her I was returning to America, and in my heart I was praying that she would know a bit of the tangible touch of a loving God. It is times like these when the words of Jesus ring in my heart, "Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also, and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father" - John 14:12. I pray that Nxeda felt in her spirit the love of God just as if Jesus hugged her and played with her.Thursday, August 9, 2007
Feeling the Father's Heart
In the midst of 20,000 people in need of proper housing, better education, healthier sanitation etc. God revealed to me once again how He sees the individuals - not just the masses. Nxeda came up to me while we were "building a better shack" (see my website for more on that). I gave her part of a muffin I had made and we were fast friends! She stayed with us that day, playing games, but mostly just sitting in my lap or tapping my leg for attention. There was something about the sadness in her eyes that caught my attention. I did not even want to think about what the possible reasons were for that sadness. What I did want to do, was play with her and try desperately to communicate to her that she is valuable. The day before I left I returned to her neighborhood in search of her. She came running out of nowhere and grabbed my legs. I told her I was returning to America, and in my heart I was praying that she would know a bit of the tangible touch of a loving God. It is times like these when the words of Jesus ring in my heart, "Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also, and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father" - John 14:12. I pray that Nxeda felt in her spirit the love of God just as if Jesus hugged her and played with her.
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There is something that the Lord has been trying to make real to me that I am only beginning to understand: If you go on to John chapter 15 we read Jesus say that in His laying down His life for us He calls us freinds. John 15:13 is a favorite verse of mine but it is because it reminds me that if Jesus could lay down His life for me then ought I not lay down my life for others (speaking more in figrative (sp?) terms then literal). I have actually begun to see farther into and past that though (these things can take me a while).
We are more then servents, we freinds, if we do what Jesus commands us to do and we are to "go" and bear fruit that remains. My "deeper" thought began after reading Luke 17:10 (So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.') and wondered what that meant! Does it mean, in light of verses like those in John 15, that we don't need a special revelation from God to "give a peice of muffin" or "play with a child" or, for me and closer to home, "give a stressed out out intercity guy a ride home" or "speak kindly to the 'guy everyone mocks' at work"?
Lisa, you are doing little things in far away places and I am sure you "go" to where you are lead. What a blessing to see the word given feet in what you do. I bring this up wondering if maybe many of us should feel a bit of conviction that we have a hard time showing kindness just where we are because "we haven't been called of God to that specific thing". You didn't have to "hear God" to give that muffin did you? You gave it because the love of God is in you and you are more then a servant that only follows specific commands but you knew what your "friend" would do and you did it.
Hope that isn't too deep for the blog. It is something that I have been "pondering" lately.
Blessings,
Joe <><
ps: could my use of the term "pondering" be a plug for Lisa's website www.lisawhitaker.org ? Mmmm, I wonder ...
Thanks for the comment Joe- definitely not too deep for the blog, I am happy for the blog to be as "deep" or as "frivolous" as life unfolds ! Actually for me sometimes what appears to be frivolous is actually VERY deep!
I agree with you that we have so "spiritualized" serving God that we miss living life everyday in such a way that ALL of life is lived "to the glory of God". Actually. did I tell you my workbook is published and there are several Bible studies relating to just that - the sacredness of ALL of life!
More on the workbook later -
Lisa
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