JOURNAL ENTRY

The dawn is breaking. Can you see the light shedding the darkness? Life being stirred by a wind from the east, gentle but more disturbing; jump starting life from silence. Do our hearts stir at his approaching? Does not life surge through our veins at his entrance?
Flee you Demons, you oppressors of His beloved! Run and turn not around for your demise is at hand. Who can stand against his word; the sword of his mouth? Who can endure his voice of many waters or look into his furnacing eyes?
The Dawn approaches. The kingdom is here, the wind has changed and darkness retreats. Pain withers, death cowers, suffering wanes…come in victory my King! Fully revealed, no more parables, uncovered and revealed for the world to adore.
The Dawn approaches. Silence is no more. The light comes. The curtain is torn. God is among men and lights for them a path. The Dawn approaches. Peace to men.

PREACHING

I preached yesterday. What a surreal experience to be back in front of a crowd, speaking about God. Over the years I’ve become so familiar with the excitement of preparation, the subtleties of reading a crowd, the spiritual atmosphere when you feel people turning their hearts over to God, but in the past three months I’ve done no teaching. Weird. I feel like God wants to fill me up till I burst here and I have no way to express what he is doing. I fear forgetting or losing what he’s doing. Or maybe he’s refining what’s in me so when I’m done what comes out is only my heart. I hope so.
Maybe there’s something to that, God refining us so the words that escape our mouths reflect him, because he has shaped our hearts so. In preaching there can be a confidence in the material or an excitement about the performance but rarely is there a peace about the whole event. I think God wants to give us peace when we speak about him. A peace that’s not rooted in preparation or cleverness of delivery but one that transcends the event itself speaking to the speaker, “you are my child.” I hope so.

BEING AVAILABLE

Our weekly adventure of traveling to church together included an unlooked for surprise. While riding on the FX (a kind of group taxi) towards our house, Vangie struck up a conversasion with Jessica. Turns out she used to work for missionaries who put her through school and she guessed we also were missionaries. She is a believer but has been sad lately and just recently prayed for God to remind her why she should live for him. We became a part of that answer. She came to our house for dinner and met our whole team, talking late into the night about God and life. The single women were a great encouragment to her as she also struggles within a culture that looks down on singleness. How amazing is it that merely “being available” God can use us for answering prayers and doing ministry. Praise God!