We are given a choice daily.
To choose Jesus.
To be strong in Him.
To radiate the new creations that [we are].
To live out of victory.
...to live out of victory.
A choice to grow.
To draw closer to Jesus.
A choice to be made more into His image.
To conquer sin.
We are victorious in Him.
Victorious, victorious victorious.
And we need to choose it again tomorrow.
And the next day.
We can't live on yesterday's manna.
We are given a daily choice.
Until one day we look back and realize how transformed we've been,
from saying "yes" every morning.
Choosing strength and joy and peace and relationship.
Choosing victory.
Choosing Him.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Friday, February 15, 2013
movement
Spiritual movement.
What does it look like?
I think that I only ever picture it as clear steps forward. Sometimes gaining momentum, sometimes a steady pace. But always forward.
Maybe movement isn't always so clear.
Maybe sometimes it's below the surface.
Masked and hidden.
Maybe movement is actually disguised by more sin because maybe movement is when we recognize our sin more. When we realize our desperate need for a Savior.
Maybe movement might even appear as steps backward. Like the recognition of a snippy tone or noticing there's an unwillingness to pray over a specific sin. Maybe movement is that burning in your heart to get you to step into the new that you keep ignoring because you're scared.
Maybe movement is the force needed to break the inertia of that object at rest.
The force that causes you to even become aware that your heart is at rest.
Maybe that burning in your heart is that force telling you that it's time to let go.
That it's time to enter into a new layer of healing.
Maybe movement forward is actually becoming more sickened by self as we are overcome by our innately sinful hearts.
So maybe progress in God's backward economy looks different.
Because it causes us to cling more to Jesus as we acknowledge our own sin problem.
Because it draws us closer to our Savior.
And maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe that's not movement at all.
But I sure do enter [kicking and screaming] into these new levels far too frequently for it to not be.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
The Holy Land
As most of you know, I spent the past two weeks in Israel with 39 people (mostly from my church). It was the most life-changing trip I've ever been on. Not only did I have a wonderful time there, but I could feel the impact when we returned home and went to church because I could picture the places that were referenced in Sunday's sermon.
People keep asking me to post a blog about the trip, and I'm not really sure what to say. How can I sum up an experience where I saw so many biblical sites, learned about Israel's history, felt Jesus working on my heart personally in so many ways, and developed new friendships? I can't. Not concisely anyway. If you were to open my journal it wouldn't make any sense to you because my thoughts are scattered and out of order as I'm trying to piece together what I experienced. All I know is that this trip completely changed the way I read Scripture and that Jesus brought me to new levels of healing as I engaged Him on this two-week retreat.
[I might post a few entries from specific days and specific ways Jesus spoke to me, other than that, I apologize because there's absolutely no way I can sum up my trip in words. My advice? Make it a priority to go to Israel. My church is going again in Summer 2015.]
But one thing I know, it really did completely change me as a disciple of Jesus. There's no way a person can visit all of these sites and have all of these experiences and not read the Bible in a completely new light.
I sailed on the Sea of Galilee. I stood on the mountain where Satan temped Jesus. I heard a real rooster crow while standing in the place where Peter denied Jesus three times. I heard a fragment of the Beatitudes while sitting in the same place Jesus taught. I prayed at the pool of Bethesda. I cried in the prison where Jesus was kept before He was crucified. I took communion at the empty garden tomb. I stood on the place where the temple used to be and looked out at where Jesus will return on the Mount of Olives. I saw the soon-to-be Armageddon battlefields from the top of Megiddo. I ate food like people in the Old Testament would have during a dress-up lunch at Abraham's Tent. I walked the streets of Nazareth and Bethlehem. I touched the Western (Wailing) Wall. I worshipped in the Garden of Gethsemane and in Caphernaum. I stood on the hill where Saul committed suicide and saw the area of caves that David hid in. I (along with 14 others) read the Psalms of Ascent aloud while standing on the steps leading up to the Temple. I watched as my friends were baptized in the Jordan River.
And I did other (more cultural and less biblical) things too. I floated in the Dead Sea. I bartered a price for a scarf in the Jerusalem markets. I climbed down Masada. I got my first ever massage. I ate a bunch of foreign foods that I paid for in shekels. I gained a new appreciation for the beauty of nature and for God as Creator. I visited a holocaust museum. I drank a ton of expresso and laughed hysterically with good friends.
These photos don't do it justice. They don't capture the vastness of the beautiful mountains and waters. But here's a little taste of my trip.
People keep asking me to post a blog about the trip, and I'm not really sure what to say. How can I sum up an experience where I saw so many biblical sites, learned about Israel's history, felt Jesus working on my heart personally in so many ways, and developed new friendships? I can't. Not concisely anyway. If you were to open my journal it wouldn't make any sense to you because my thoughts are scattered and out of order as I'm trying to piece together what I experienced. All I know is that this trip completely changed the way I read Scripture and that Jesus brought me to new levels of healing as I engaged Him on this two-week retreat.
[I might post a few entries from specific days and specific ways Jesus spoke to me, other than that, I apologize because there's absolutely no way I can sum up my trip in words. My advice? Make it a priority to go to Israel. My church is going again in Summer 2015.]
But one thing I know, it really did completely change me as a disciple of Jesus. There's no way a person can visit all of these sites and have all of these experiences and not read the Bible in a completely new light.
I sailed on the Sea of Galilee. I stood on the mountain where Satan temped Jesus. I heard a real rooster crow while standing in the place where Peter denied Jesus three times. I heard a fragment of the Beatitudes while sitting in the same place Jesus taught. I prayed at the pool of Bethesda. I cried in the prison where Jesus was kept before He was crucified. I took communion at the empty garden tomb. I stood on the place where the temple used to be and looked out at where Jesus will return on the Mount of Olives. I saw the soon-to-be Armageddon battlefields from the top of Megiddo. I ate food like people in the Old Testament would have during a dress-up lunch at Abraham's Tent. I walked the streets of Nazareth and Bethlehem. I touched the Western (Wailing) Wall. I worshipped in the Garden of Gethsemane and in Caphernaum. I stood on the hill where Saul committed suicide and saw the area of caves that David hid in. I (along with 14 others) read the Psalms of Ascent aloud while standing on the steps leading up to the Temple. I watched as my friends were baptized in the Jordan River.
And I did other (more cultural and less biblical) things too. I floated in the Dead Sea. I bartered a price for a scarf in the Jerusalem markets. I climbed down Masada. I got my first ever massage. I ate a bunch of foreign foods that I paid for in shekels. I gained a new appreciation for the beauty of nature and for God as Creator. I visited a holocaust museum. I drank a ton of expresso and laughed hysterically with good friends.
These photos don't do it justice. They don't capture the vastness of the beautiful mountains and waters. But here's a little taste of my trip.
 |
| Pool of Bethesda |
 |
| Jerusalem Marketplace |
 |
| Empty Tomb |
 |
| Swimming [Floating] in the Dead Sea |
 |
| View of the Mt. of Olives from the Temple Mount |
 |
| Boat Ride on the Sea of Galilee |
 |
| Reading the Psalms of Ascent on the Temple Steps |
 |
| Abraham's Tent Dress-Up Lunch |
 |
| Baptism in the Jordan River |
 |
| Camels at Abraham's Tent |
 |
| Caesarea--where Paul was on Trial |
 |
| View from the top of Masada |
 |
| Western Wall |
 |
| Golan Heights |
 |
| Roomies! |
 |
| All the Mountains Around Abraham's Tent |
 |
| Garden of Gethsemane |
 |
| Probable Location of the Temple [on the Temple Mount] |
 |
| Caiaphas' House-- Prison where Jesus was held |
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Palm Trees in Israel
About a year ago, Gregg and Robin convinced me to go on a trip to Israel with our church. I signed up beacause their eagerness persuaded me and because I had never really been out of the country. (And hey, you don't have to tell an ENFJ twice to go on a trip with 39 other people.) But I didn't really have any expectations and wasn't sure what to expect.
In the weeks leading up to the trip, friends that had been to Israel jumped in excitement when I told them I was going. They talked of the spiritual high. Of the feeling you get when you step into the home of Jesus when He lived on earth and how that resonates with the fact that He has now made His home in our hearts.
But when the plane landed and we waddled (very sleepily) to the tour bus, I didn't feel holiness radiate out of my body. I didn't hear angels singing and I didn't see any supernatural things happen. Actually, it was raining and felt like a normal day--for the exception of the fact that I was overly exhausted and wondering how I was going to get through an entire day of touring (it was 9:30am in Israel, but 2:30am NJ time). I didn't experience anything out of the ordinary.
But as we drove down the highway of this major city of Tel Aviv, I could not get over what I was seeing outside of the windows.
Palm trees.
There are palm trees in Israel?
Isn't it supposed to be one big desert?
"Robin, there are palm trees."
"Yeah, Lyss. We're on the same latitude as Florida."
Palm trees...
We spent the day touring some amazing sites (maybe when I get home I'll post a more detailed account of where we went... maybe...) and when we reached the waterfront spot on the Sea of Galilee where our hotel was located, I couldn't believe my eyes. Everywhere I looked there were green rolling mountains. I felt like I was on the set of The Sound of Music. And there were palm trees. Lots and lots of palm trees.
And for our first four days of this trip, as we traveled in the region of Galilee, that was my consistent experience. We visited many, many locations where Jesus stayed and taught and performed miracles and the scenery was nothing like I had pictured it. For one, EVERY part clustered around the Sea of Galilee--definitely never pictured Peter's house on the waterfront, I could tell you that much.
My mind needed to be stripped of all it's preconceived imaginations of the set of biblical events and replaced with the reality of the beauty that was before me.
I suddenly realized that I will now read Scripture very differently and that it will greatly enhance my own relationship with Jesus because I understand more about His ministry and His culture. Then I realized something even more striking to me.
This trip will greatly impact my ministry because I will now be able to teach the Bible so radically different to my students.
Friends, if you are Christian, you must make it a priority to visit Israel. And even more so if you are in ministry because it will then trickle down into all of the people that you teach. Pastors, InterVarsity Staff, YoungLife Staff, and the various other ministries that I know some of you are in that read this blog... visit the Holy Land. Seriously. Don't put it off. Not because you'll have some super spiritual experience or come back on a Jesus high, but because it will make you a better disciple and better able to read and understand Scripture.
I plan to post a few more stories about some cool experiences that happened here in the next few days. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to post about all of the amazing places we visited and teachings we heard because there was just far too many on the itinerary.
But signing off I will say this...
I had little to no expectations of what I would experience here, but I think I've found my theme to this trip: Jesus is reforming my previous thoughts and images of what these Bible stories were like (from everything like the town of Nazareth to the fish that was multiplied in the feeding of the 5,000).
Start saving my ministry friends. It is so very important that we can accurately understand and teach what we read in Scripture.
[Oh and honestly... being on this trip is honestly just really FUN! And Israel has some of the best coffee I've ever tasted.]
In the weeks leading up to the trip, friends that had been to Israel jumped in excitement when I told them I was going. They talked of the spiritual high. Of the feeling you get when you step into the home of Jesus when He lived on earth and how that resonates with the fact that He has now made His home in our hearts.
But when the plane landed and we waddled (very sleepily) to the tour bus, I didn't feel holiness radiate out of my body. I didn't hear angels singing and I didn't see any supernatural things happen. Actually, it was raining and felt like a normal day--for the exception of the fact that I was overly exhausted and wondering how I was going to get through an entire day of touring (it was 9:30am in Israel, but 2:30am NJ time). I didn't experience anything out of the ordinary.
But as we drove down the highway of this major city of Tel Aviv, I could not get over what I was seeing outside of the windows.
Palm trees.
There are palm trees in Israel?
Isn't it supposed to be one big desert?
"Robin, there are palm trees."
"Yeah, Lyss. We're on the same latitude as Florida."
Palm trees...
We spent the day touring some amazing sites (maybe when I get home I'll post a more detailed account of where we went... maybe...) and when we reached the waterfront spot on the Sea of Galilee where our hotel was located, I couldn't believe my eyes. Everywhere I looked there were green rolling mountains. I felt like I was on the set of The Sound of Music. And there were palm trees. Lots and lots of palm trees.
And for our first four days of this trip, as we traveled in the region of Galilee, that was my consistent experience. We visited many, many locations where Jesus stayed and taught and performed miracles and the scenery was nothing like I had pictured it. For one, EVERY part clustered around the Sea of Galilee--definitely never pictured Peter's house on the waterfront, I could tell you that much.
My mind needed to be stripped of all it's preconceived imaginations of the set of biblical events and replaced with the reality of the beauty that was before me.
I suddenly realized that I will now read Scripture very differently and that it will greatly enhance my own relationship with Jesus because I understand more about His ministry and His culture. Then I realized something even more striking to me.
This trip will greatly impact my ministry because I will now be able to teach the Bible so radically different to my students.
Friends, if you are Christian, you must make it a priority to visit Israel. And even more so if you are in ministry because it will then trickle down into all of the people that you teach. Pastors, InterVarsity Staff, YoungLife Staff, and the various other ministries that I know some of you are in that read this blog... visit the Holy Land. Seriously. Don't put it off. Not because you'll have some super spiritual experience or come back on a Jesus high, but because it will make you a better disciple and better able to read and understand Scripture.
I plan to post a few more stories about some cool experiences that happened here in the next few days. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to post about all of the amazing places we visited and teachings we heard because there was just far too many on the itinerary.
But signing off I will say this...
I had little to no expectations of what I would experience here, but I think I've found my theme to this trip: Jesus is reforming my previous thoughts and images of what these Bible stories were like (from everything like the town of Nazareth to the fish that was multiplied in the feeding of the 5,000).
Start saving my ministry friends. It is so very important that we can accurately understand and teach what we read in Scripture.
[Oh and honestly... being on this trip is honestly just really FUN! And Israel has some of the best coffee I've ever tasted.]
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