wow quotes

The success of love is in the loving - it is not in the result of loving. Of course it is natural in love to want the best for the other person, but whether it turns out that way or not does not determine the value of what we have done.-Mother Teresa

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." - C.S. Lewis

"Cultural engagement is crucial, but we must remember that authentic engagement is never condescending. It's not 'top down.' It's shared knowing marked by equanimity. In the most intimate of dances, there is no leader and no follower. Instead there is a gracious mutuality, a learned sensitivity to the movement, personality, and mood of the other. If we are truly going to incarnate the gospel in this new world, we as Christ-followers would do well to learn the spiritual rhythms of non-Christians and dance a dance that is, first of all, fully human. As we seek humble engagement instead of power, we will earn the right to draw others into the subtle rhythms of grace." - Sally Morgenthaler

"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies." - Mother Teresa

Conversations

"Beautiful Forgiven"

Bubbling brook,

Peaceful air,

Nature’s sanctuary.

Breathing deep,

God, I know you are near,

Come meet with me.

My heart approaches heavy,

Lord, I’ve sinned.

I don’t deserve your presence.

But once again,

Your gentle voice in the wind,

Lifts my eyes to the heavens,

And calls me beautiful forgiven.

I’m hear with you now.

My Mercies are new.

Forgiven one,

My Spirit will guide your way,

Simply be still and obey.

Father, I’m watching theses leaves float down all around me,

And my mind wonders

“How many of your children,

Are eternally falling?”

Lord, I want to help bring your lost ones to found,

But God, I’m only one girl whose at a loss as to how.

God, you’ve given me a desire to help the hurting,

But am I too close to comfort for your Spirit to move me?

Its so easy to love it when all my needs are met,

But I fear that my fire,

Becomes spiritually wet.

Calm down my love, put your worries to rest.

Trust in me, for I know what is best.

I’ll tell you when to move,

I’ll guide you when to go,

Listen love, and you’ll reach my lost.

For I am God and I already know.

Discontentment is a sin

Below are excerpts from an excellent sermon delivered by Jeremy Clarke, teaching elder at Legacy Baptist Church in Northwest Arkansas.

"God does not suggest that we ought to be content in his care and provision; He commands it. Contentment is biblically described as freedom from external need due to confidence in God's adequate provision. There is an intrinsic relationship between being content and your faith. If you have Christ, you have all that you need. Conversely, if a man has everything and doesn't have Christ, he has nothing."

"And yet the church reflects so much of the world in this, I fear.....I'm convinced that the more people have the more discontent they become. The church in America is literally saturated with discontented people who've been incubated in this soil of American consumerism. They're just grumbling and complaining and covetous consumers.....it's really quite sad. Listen to me. Few sins are uglier to God than complaining. Few sins hinder our effectiveness for the gospel more than discontentedness. And because that's true, my children will tell you, that nothing is dealt with more severely in my own home than complaining and discontentedness. Complaining at the Clarke home will typically elicit a very swift response. I'm particularly sensitive to that issue as a parent and as a pastor, and I'm convinced that the greatest threat that faces our children is not drugs or promiscuity, the greatest threat that faces our children today is the seed of Christless discontent germinating in the soil of a home that presents a child with every temporal whim under the sun, and in doing so ignores or at least neutralizes the responsibility of pointing these young reprobates to Christ, and his sufficiency. And children do not come into the world, content, do they? Not by any stretch of the imagination. As we'll learn in the coming weeks, contentment must be learned. Paul said, "I've learned to be content." Discontent in the home must receive a swift, decisive sentence, or your child's heart will be given over fully to do evil."

"The American church today is rich in a way that is foreign to the rest of the world. And yet the church in America seems to find more to complain about, and the most minute issues to grumble about, and subsequently there seems to be very little humility in the church today, very little thankfulness, very little gratitude. Servanthood seems almost to have been replaced by expectation, which does nothing but further feed discontent. I'm standing here telling you that until we become servants and stop being some discontented customers, we will never attain to the deep intimate knowledge of the Son of God. Never ever."


"Every complaint that breaches your mouth, that breaches my mouth, is an expression of faithlessness. Further, it's an indictment against a sovereign God who ordained the circumstances under which you are complaining. All of your complaints and all of my complaints, one way or another, are complaints against the providential purpose and will of God. And they do nothing but hinder your spiritual growth and your advance in Christ. Discontent is devastating. It's a devastating sin. So let's not confuse contentment with just some nice, Christian virtue. That's not what contentment is. On the contrary, this is so serious, this issue of contentment, that it is nothing less than a divine precept. It is commanded by God. You're to be content with whatever you have, you're to be content with food and wages and clothing and your spouse. This isn't a request. It's not a suggestion, it is a command."

"To complain about something is to complain about the circumstances that God has ordained. You can put that in context of our lives today. Pull up to the gas station, and you see it's $3.50 - oh, for crying out loud, this is crazy, $3.50? These are circumstances that God has ordained, I don't have the right to complain about these things. I don't need to get fearful or concerned, because God promises to never leave me nor forsake me. You go to start your car one morning, it doesn't work, and you go, ah, great, this is crazy, this is just not gonna do. Does it not all belong to God? Has He abdicated? Is He not still on the throne? Is this not his car, are you not his child, does the road not belong to him, and the mechanic that you'll see, are these not all under the sovereignty of God? Don't I give the mechanic breath, and the skills that he has, don't they come from me? Oh, fearful, grumbling, complaining child of God. Relinquish your complaining. You are complaining against the circumstances that God has ordained."

"God's Word declares it, and you and I are to comply. We could end right there this morning, couldn't we? God offers much more than that, though. God doesn't just issue a command, He gives us the means by which we are to comply, the regenerative properties of his Spirit. So God motivates us toward obedience by changing the principles and features of our hearts and motives and inclinations, so that we not only can, but long, to comply. So we're to comply, but righteous duty is all but completely obscured in today's church by this matter of discontent. Duty is not a popular word in the church in America. I think every one of us would agree with that. Few Christians see their sojourn on earth as a duty, a divine enlistment. The church today knows a whole lot about freedom, a whole lot about fulfillment, all of that kind of stuff, but it is calloused to words like "commission," "obedience," "surrender," "charge," "duty," "sacrifice." We live in a self-absorbed, indulgent time, and we're insulated by all sorts of resources and comforts. We've fostered a culture of expectation, a culture of preoccupation with whatever meets our "felt needs." It ought not to be that way. And around and around the church goes in this Americana, feel-good kind of spiritual haze: spiritually uncommitted, spiritually immature, possessing little if any discernment, little if any Biblical conviction, little if any aptitude for service and devotion and sacrifice. Now listen to me: God's will, and the majesty of his infallible Word, is all that we need to motivate us toward compliance. That's it. It's all that we need to captivate us into obedience. You are to be content, and I am to be content, because the holiness of God demands it."

"You see until the church returns to a Godly fear of the Almighty, until we become laid low by his resplendent majesty, until the church becomes shaken to its very roots, so that we see ourselves in comparison to his Christ, we will never know the depth of our own sin, the depth of our own ingratitude, the depth of discontentedness, the depth of our covetousness, we'll never know the heinousness of our grumbling and complaining. The church today is not deeply pained by its sinful discontent, so much so that we don't have an inkling of the understanding of the holiness of God. Not an inkling."

"We are to be content because we understand that we serve an infinitely holy, inifinitely supernatural, omnipotent, majestic, resourceful God who says "I will never leave you nor forsake you." He's a God who is faithful to his promises. To be discontent is to trample that promise underfoot. In fact, it's to call God a liar."

"The operation of your life runs directly proportional to your view of God. It's a critical thing for Christians to understand. It's a simple formula that says this: to the extent that you understand God's holiness, to that extent you don't complain. And I truly believe that this is Ground Zero for the church today, coming back to a vivid hunger for understanding the holiness of God, the majesty of God. It's missing in the church today, and I think it has a lot to do with the saccharine teaching that has developed over the last 150 years. The church today is not the same as it was 150 years ago. We've lost our solemn appreciation for the holiness of God. Our radios are turned to Christian presets that have lots of nice songs, and we come to churches that foster lots of nice feelings and emotions, lots of nice thoughts, but there is little or no acknowledgment of the incomprehensible holiness of God Almighty."

"You scour your Bible, and you will see that any account of an encounter with God is accompanied by an overwhelming sense of sin and holy terror. That's what it means to be confronted by the holiness of God. And if at this very moment the Lord of glory would reveal to us here in this room just how detestable our discontent is before him, every breathing soul in this room would be prostrate on the floor, mourning in sorrow over that sin. We don't have an inkling."

"And don't miss this: discontent in the heart is revealed in the mouth. Those who complain most are those who are the most ignorant of the holiness of God. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. There is a critical relationship between a man's humility and his embrace of the holiness of God. That embrace is revealed at the point of his speech. I'm convinced that the greatest expression of ignorance of the character of God is expressed in complaining, in grumbling and in discontent. Lamentations 3:39 "Why should any living mortal, any man, offer complaint in view of his sin?" That Scripture is saying: you must have lost your mind, to offer complaint in view of the immense sin in your life. I'm speaking about myself as well. Why on earth would we offer complaint in light of our sin? You ought to underline that verse in your Bible, you ought to teach it diligently to your children, you ought to put it on the cornerposts of your home, you ought to wake up, and rise up, with that thought ever before you. If your children complain, if you complain, swiftly and decisively deal with that sin. Put it to bed."

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain"

I am writing this really for my own benefit. Wherever I go in this world I want to be able to look back on this and remember that whatever happens to me in this world I can consider it joy because this life is not about me - it is about bringing glory to God and preaching His gospel with my life.

"No matter how you look at it, nothing can steal a man's joy if he possesses the single mind! "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21) Maltbie Babcock, who wrote "This is my Fathers world," has said, "Life is what we are alive to." I absolutely dread memorizing math equations, or sitting in a science class in which I need to look up nearly every other word to understand what is being taught, but when know that it is time to go to Cultural Anthropology I come alive! The thing that excites us and "turns us on" is the thing that really is "life" to us. In Paul's case, Christ was his life. Christ excited him and made his life worth living.

Philippians 1:21 becomes a valuable test of our lives. "For to me to live is ________ and to die is ________" Fill in the blanks yourself.

"For me to live is money and to die is to leave it all behind."
"For me to live is fame and to die is to be forgotten."
"For me to live is power and to die is to lose it all."

No, we must echo Paul's conviction, if we are going to have joy in spite of circumstances, and if we are going to share in the furtherance of the Gospel. "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain!"

This is from Warren Wiersbe's commentary on Philippians.

Last week Flying Mission gave me permission to live at an orphanage in Botswana. And I got permission from the orphanage as well. It was quite the week man…unfortunately I was specifically told to not describe the going ons. But if you can remember in your prayers the orphans of Botswana…that would be good. It’s a dark place in more than one way…especially spiritually. It felt like fighting a forest fire with a squirt gun. You'll just have to get the details when you come visit me. I am in love with Botswana and the people and it is going to do my heart some serious damage when I rip it away. Ah! I don't want to think about it, but it is plaguing my head.

One of my friends here, who recently (like 3 weeks ago) committed her life to Christ, mom just passed away. Please please pray for her that this tragedy will send her running to God and not further away.

Thanks for all the love and prayers sent my way! You are an encouragement to me !

Camp Chaos

My apologies to those of you who are faithful followers of this blog and have been missing updates. It has been quite awhile! So let me dive into a fast and furious update on my life happenings - I finished my social work internship, via email I heard the news I graduated, and I am now a full time short termer with Flying Mission. My weekly schedule now looks like:

Monday: Playgroup at Baylor
Tuesday: Teaching income generating crafts to home based care clients in various villages surrounding Gaborone
Wednesday: Tumelong orphan feeding program
Thursday: Home based care work from 9-2 and SOS children's village from 3-6
Friday: Old Naledi orphan feeding program

OH! You have to hear about camp!!!!

The week after I finished my internship I was invited to be a counselor at a camp for OVC's (orphans and vulnerable children). I thought I was going to a camp kind of like the one I had been counseling at for the last 3 summers. WRONG totally wrong. Well I suppose there were a few similarities, such as the kids are all from disadvantaged homes, they come for free, there is food, I don’t shower much (in this case at all) and I am in the minority. God was hard at work and so was the devil this week. First of all the camp was not Christian, second of all it was not Christian - the counselors (not all of them but a majority) were out drinking every night - the girl counselors had different men in their beds (the same room as the girl campers and I) nearly every night. This was so painful for me to watch go down, but nothing I said (and if you know me, you know I said strongly) changed anything.

The purpose of the camp was to educate on issues of HIV, drug abuse, some other issues (it was all in Setswana so I didn't catch much) and also to do some psychosocial work with the orphans who had lost family. The differences in Western and African culture were highlighted when I arrived at camp and there really was no plan. The counselors were in a group talking and the kids were scattered around the camp just doing whatever. I thought maybe it was just the settling in day, but the camp continued this way the rest of the week. Everyone just hung out. It was so laid back and chill..whenever a counselor felt like playing a game, they got the kids together and played it, when the counselors thought maybe they should teach something - they rounded up the kids and taught. It was so so different than an American camp where every minute is planned out down to time for changing clothes and going to the next activity! There are positives and negatives to both, but this really took adjusting for me! The go-with-the-flow strategy of Botswana really worked to my advantage in the end giving me ample time to pump out Gospel to these kids who are malnutritioned in more than one way.

Night one I read a bible story to the kids around my bed at night. Night two the word got out about the bible study and there was about 15 kids, 14 girls and 1 boy that all sat quietly as I read and another counselor who had become my friend translated. That night I woke in the middle of the night to feeling the worst pain I've felt in a long time, plus I had diarrhea 1 minute and the next I was throwing up. I took that as a sign that doing something right and I was where I was supposed to be because obviously the devil did not want me there! They wanted to send me to the clinic in the morning then home and there was a part of me that really wanted the comforts and privacy of home, but all the reasons for staying were so much better than my self considering reasons for leaving. Also! One of my girls said "Erica don't go we are begging you" other than being shocked by her English sentence I was surprised that she cared so much "why " I asked and then came the biggest surprise "we want you to read the Bible to us." and that was it. No clinic, no home, I was not leaving that camp. Although I was useless all Wednesday being so weak from the sickness - God gave me energy at night when I needed it to read the Bible. Thursday was quite the day. I had a few really good conversations with the counselor that was translating my Bible stories at night, finding out about her life it was plain to see the pain. Anyways I was able to tell her about what a sweet friend I have in Jesus. She was interested but I did not want to force anything on her (sometimes people here just go along with whatever you say even if they don't understand or do not want to, in order that they do not offend you) I told her to just let me know and I could hook her up. She had grown up being forced to go to church by her grandma, but she hated it. So she knows a lot about Jesus but doesn't have a personal relationship with Him. She seemed to think that was probably enough, but a light bulb seemed to turn on in her head when I explained that just like a celebrity we can know all about them, but not have a friendship with them. Also on Thursday, the camp conducted a death and bereavement counseling session. Nearly 80 kids shared their stories of how they dealt with the death in their family - not one eye was dry leaving that circle including my own. There is nothing like death to get you thinking about eternity! I had talked with one girl after the session and told her a little bit about my friend Jesus who had promised to "never leave her or forsake her" and left it up to her to come and get me if she wanted to know more. A few hours later she did and she knew exactly what she wanted. God gave me the privilege of being right there while He drew his lost child to Himself! Although her prayer was in Setswana - there is no mistaking the smile she had on her face afterwards!!

God really just brought one kid after another to me to share the Gospel with. The kids were starving for spiritual food! I've never had an experience like this. At camp MT in Michigan, the Bible reading part of the day was like the boring part and if they could get out of it they would (for the most part - there are some exceptions, but those are rare.) Here they were literally begging me! I was in awe and still am.

The counselor who I mentioned is now a good friend of mine and attended church with me last Sunday - she still has not committed her life to Christ so be in prayer for her please!

God's latest lesson for Erica:

We are commanded to "think the same way that Christ Jesus thought."Phil 2:5 And something God is teaching me is that there are two parts to doing this. The first is to stop thinking immature thoughts, which are self-centered and self-seeking. The Bible says, "Stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults."1Cor 14:20 Babies by nature are completely selfish. They think only of themselves and their own needs. They are incapable of giving; they can only receive. That is immature thinking. The Bible says that selfish thinking is the source of sinful behavior Rom 8:5. And the second half of thinkin like Jesus is to start thinking maturely, which focuses on others, not yourself. In his great chapter on what real love is, Paul concluded that thinking of others is the mark of maturity; "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me." 1 Cor 13:11 The core of our Christian lifestyle is not so much having biblical information and doctrine packed in our head - while that is one measure of maturity its not the whole story - our core is found in thinking of others before ourselves like Jesus did. God has been revealing to me that I am still a toddler. I have so much to learn in this area, but lucky for me I have His Spirit helping me along..I just have to be walking in that Spirit every moment!

Two of the girls who shared my bed with me! Tendie and Morina

More of the group

How the boys got to camp...a 2 and half hour drive with over 20 of them packed in the back!! The girls and I were in a combi.

a divine appointment

April 25, 2009

So today was teens club in the morning into the afternoon. I helped lead a small group of younger teens on the topic of friends and peer pressure. It went really well.

Tonight was bible study with the Flying Mission short termers, but tonight was different than usual we had 2 new friends who attended. Mapula and K who are both from SOS children's orphanage. They are both in their teens now so they are allowed more freedom and can stay out late so they took advantage of this freedom to come to our bible study. Mapula is one of my good friends at SOS, but I had never met K before. During the study I noticed that K was extremely quiet, only speaking when spoken to and even then the response was as short as possible. At one point he did speak to ask what a specific verse meant, but you could hear the nervousness in his voice when asking. In attempt to figure this kid out my social work self accidently made a few awkward eye moments during the study. After the bible study part of bible study I sat by K and tried to lessen his nerves with conversation - I failed - he seemed to become even more nervous. So I started talking to the people around who would talk back until I got a tap on my shoulder. It was K. He said softly "Let me tell you my story." "OK" I replied and I tried to turn to help myself focus on only him as there were people conversing all around us. He slowly, quietly, a few words at a time, began unfolding his heart wrenching life story to this girl he had just met. His mother had died the day after giving birth to him. His dad did not want him. His dad's family and mom's family fought over him because they all wanted the assistance that would come from his being an orphan. He was taken from the aunt that had ended up with him when she was found drunk and K neglected. He was brought to SOS when he was only 4 months old. He was allowed to go home a few times during holiday when he was 13, but his mom's family would not allow him to sleep in the house unless he brought them money. He had no way of getting money so he went to his dad's family who sent him back to his mom's family, but he knew that he could not go in so he went back to the orphanage. That same year he asked his house mom at SOS if he could go to church. He wasn't sure why he wanted to, but he did. His house mom told him that if he went to church he would not be given meals for 3 days and he would have to stay in his room. He asked why but she was silent and just walked away. He went to church anyways. He didn't know where church was, but he just started walking. It was far, but he made it ok. He continued going after that day and got involved in the choir where they gave him his first Bible. He said "Jesus is always with me." He explained that some people call him a prophet and there has been a few times where he has known things that he didn't know why he knew them. Tears were rolling down both my cheeks as I listened to how God had scooped up this child of His and guided him so clearly to Himself.

He stopped and looked at me in the eyes and asked "Can you help me?" I asked "Help you with what?" "I do not like people. At my house when people are in one room I go to the bedroom and when people come to the bedroom I go outside." I told him that I couldn't help him, but God could and I asked if he had talked to God about it. God brought 2 Timothy 1:6 to mind "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but of power, of love and of self-discipline." We read the verse together. I knew that this was a divine appointment and could sense God's presence was heavy upon us. Our whole group prayed for him. By the end of the night he was singing and joking and really seeming to have a good time. Praise God! His story was really an encouragement to me and I know that he will be telling it to thousands at a time one day!