Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year !!!
Super excited for 2011 !!!

All Things New in the New Year

As the year comes to an end I am so thankful for all that the Lord has done this past year. All that He has blessed me with. I spent the first part of the year still living in Romania, and this second half in California. I have gone from working in a hospital with disabled children in a play therapy room, to working in offices and in a shelter and transitional home for women who are pregnant and all alone.

The year has been full of a lot of unknown things. A lot of waiting and patience. But most importantly it has been full of the Lord's grace and love and hope and peace. His guidance and His answers.

I love New Year's. I love when things come to an end and new things begin. The Bible has a lot to say about new things. Here are some great verses that were a blessing to me tonight. Thinking about the newness of life we have in Christ and the hope of things to come.

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another." John 13:34

"Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining." 1 John 2:8

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17

"and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all." Colossians 3:10-11

"This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness." Ephesians 4:17-24

"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me,“Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts." Revelation 21:4-6

As the minutes remaining in this old year quickly tick away, may we take time to thank the One who makes all things new, for all He has done, for all He is doing, and for all He is going to do.

grace and peace my friends!

Number Our Days...

So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
--Psalm 90:12

A few days after these words appear in print the old year of our Lord
will have gone to join the long procession of years and centuries
that move on into the shadows of a past that can come no more.

In the year just gone the world has been writing history, not with
ink only but with blood and tears; not in the quiet of the study but
in violence, terror and death in city streets and along the borders
of nations; and other and milder but more significant history has
been written by incredible feats of power in sending man-made objects
out to circle the moon and the sun....

To each one fortunate enough to live out [this year], God will have
given 365 days broken into 8,760 hours. Of these hours, 2,920 will
have been spent in sleep, and about the same number at work. An
equal number has been given us to spend in reverent preparation for
the moment when days and years shall cease and time shall be no
more. What prayer could be more spiritually appropriate than that of
Moses, the man of God: "Teach us to number our days aright, that we
may gain a heart of wisdom" (Psalm 90:12).

AW Tozer

Nothing to Fear

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You,
because he trusts in You.
--Isaiah 26:3

"The only fear I have is to fear to get out of the will of God.
Outside of the will of God, there's nothing I want, and in the
will of God there's nothing I fear"
--AW Tozer

Tozer Devo for Today

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the
world, the love of the Father is not in him.... And the world is
passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God
abides forever.
--1 John 2:15,17

Any appeal to the public in the name of Christ that rises no higher
than an invitation to tranquility must be recognized as mere
humanism with a few words of Jesus thrown in to make it appear
Christian....

Christ calls men to carry a cross; we call them to have fun in His
name. He calls them to forsake the world; we assure them that if
they but accept Jesus the world is their oyster. He calls them to
suffer; we call them to enjoy all the bourgeois comforts modern
civilization affords. He calls them to self-abnegation and death; we
call them to spread themselves like green bay trees or perchance
even to become stars in a pitiful fifth-rate religious zodiac. He
calls them to holiness; we call them to a cheap and tawdry happiness
that would have been rejected with scorn by the least of the Stoic
philosophers....

We can afford to suffer now; we'll have a long eternity to enjoy
ourselves. And our enjoyment will be valid and pure, for it will
come in the right way at the right time.
Born After Midnight, pp. 141-142

And If Our God Is For Us...

Just a thought that I have been meditating on the past month or so. The Chris Tomlin song "Our God" got me thinking about it first,

"And if Our God is for us, then who could ever stop us
And if our God is with us, then what can stand against?"

Then of course Romans 8:31-35, 37

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."

But upon meditation of these things....the idea began to broaden in my mind....if God is for me then that means that Jeremiah 29:11 is true.

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."

And that would mean that Romans 8:28 is true,

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."

Which lead me to think about not just the grand things in life, like our "futures" or "ALL things" but even the daily things, the little things, our daily needs, like a job and food and clothing....and if our God is for us in the big things then He must be in the detailed things as well, which makes Philippians 4:19 true.

"And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

And Matthew 6:31-33 must also be true.

"Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

Well all of these thoughts that have been spinning in my mind over and over, about how GREAT God is, how He loves us, how if He is for us nothing can be against, all came to a sudden stop one afternoon when I was worshiping to Chris Tomlin's "Our God". And when the words came up,

"And if our God is for us"

It was like everything else stopped in my mind.

Cause you see, it ALL comes down to this one thing. IF OUR GOD IS FOR US. *PERIOD*

There is no need to finish that sentence. Because the reality is that all things will be fulfilled if our God is for us. There is no need to be anxious, to worry, to have fear, to be afraid of people or circumstances.

So, how do we know if God is for us, more specifically, if God is for ME? It is as simple as believing. John 3:16-17 says,

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

God loves us enough that He sacrificed everything so that we have only to believe and have faith. Our "sacrifice" is so small in comparison to what He had to do. It does take a sacrifice on our parts to believe in Him, to have faith in Him, to not care about what everyone else thinks, and to lay down our opinions about 'what we want' before His feet.

But can that even be called a 'sacrifice' when we think about what HE did for us? And when we think about how little we have to do, in order for OUR GOD TO BE FOR US?

What could we ever do, that would ever make us deserving of having the God of the universe be FOR us.

Of having everything HE IS, there for us, to love and support us through the good times and the hard times.

I don't know if this has even made sense or not. This thought, just a few simple words in a sentence,

AND IF OUR GOD IS FOR US

seems so profound to me, that I feel the need to keep writing to try and explain it. But what more can I say?

And if our God is for us.....then we have no need of anything else.


grace and peace on your hearts
rachel

December 24 - Passion City Church Advent

The Night of Oranges

This essay appeared in The New York Times in 1995. It was written by an exchange student from Romania living in New York at the time. From the stories my friends have told me about the week of the Revolution in 1989 in Romania and the years under communism before then, this story, simple as it is, really touched my heart and I wanted to share it with you all.

The Night of Oranges

By Flavius Stan

It is Christmas Eve in 1989 in Timisoara and the ice is still dirty from the boots of the Romanian revolution. The dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had been deposed a few days before, and on Christmas Day he would be executed by firing squad. I am in the center of the city with my friends, empty now of the crowds that prayed outside the cathedral during the worst of the fighting. My friends and I still hear shots here and there. Our cold hands are gray like the sky above us, and we want to see a movie.

There is a rumor that there will be oranges for sale tonight. Hundreds of people are already waiting in line. We were used to such lines under the former Communist Government-lines for bread, lines for meat, lines for everything. Families would wait much of the day for rationed items. As children, we would take turns for an hour or more, holding our family’s place in line.

But this line is different. There are children in Romania who don’t know what an orange looks like. It is a special treat. Having the chance to eat a single orange will keep a child happy for a week. It will also make him a hero in the eyes of his friends. For the first time, someone is selling oranges by the kilo.

Suddenly I want to do something important: I want to give my brother a big surprise. He is only eight years old, and I want him to celebrate Christmas with lots of oranges at the table. I also want my parents to be proud of me.

So I call home and tell my parents that I’m going to be late. I forget about going to the movie, leave my friends, and join the line.

People aren’t silent, upset, frustrated, as they were before the revolution; they are talking to one another about life, politics, and the new situation in the country.

The oranges are sold out of the back doorway of a food shop. The clerk has gone from anonymity to unexpected importance. As he handles the oranges, he acts like a movie star in front of his fans.

He moves his arms in an exaggerated manner as he tells the other workers where to go and what to do. All I can do is stare at the stack of cardboard boxes, piled higher than me. I have never seen so many oranges in my life.

Finally, it is my turn. It is 8 o’clock, and I have been waiting for six hours. It doesn’t seem like a long time because my mind has been flying from the oranges in front of me to my brother and then back to the oranges. I hand over the money I was going to spend on the movie and watch each orange being thrown into my bag. I try to count them, but I lose their number.

I am drunk with the idea of oranges. I put the bag inside my coat as if I want to absorb their warmth. They aren’t heavy at all, and I feel that this is going to be the best Christmas of my life. I begin thinking of how I am going to present my gift.

I get home and my father opens the door. He is amazed when he sees the oranges, and we decide to hide them until dinner. At dessert that night, I give my brother the present. Everyone is silent. They can’t believe it.

My brother doesn’t touch them. He is afraid even to look at them. Maybe they aren’t real. Maybe they are an illusion, like everything else these days. We have to tell him he can eat them before he has the courage to touch one of the oranges.

I stare at my brother eating the oranges. They are my oranges. My parents are proud of me.

December 23 - Passion City Church Advent

December 22 - Passion City Church Advent