Faith and Love

The past few days have been super crazy. My mind cant comprehend everything the Lord is doing. I have had moments where Ive thought six weeks is too long for a project but now im so grateful because its taking me from emotions to really dealing with certain sin issues in my life. Lat post i discussed worry and fear. I feel like im only at the tip of the iceberg with this huge struggle in my life but sanctification is such a beautiful process. The Lord is revealing to me what a lack of faith I have. I pray these timid prayers such as God if you decide to do this, or if you did this it would be awesome. Jesus did not come for us to hope for big things. He came so we would see his power in EVERYTHING. I serve a huge God and his power is beyond my comprehension.

The Love that zambians have for others is so unusual and could only come from a supernatural place. They remind me of this verse:

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

It still blows my mind that we cannot even love without his help. Our world is so based on morals and good things. We produce nothing good. Everything that comes from us is sin. the only way we can produce good is guidance and empowerment from our Heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit is revealing to me how much i dont love people the way I should. Im going to post more on this later because God is teaching me so much so Im still trying to process through everything.

Ministry here is so unbelievably similar here to back home its crazy! I havent met one person who said they werent a Christian or didnt go to church. But as I discuss more with them I see there is no real change in their lives. I did this for many years. I was baptized as a child and went to church but my life didnt look any different than a non believer. Its not enough to "know" about God and do good things. If we are still breathing, its because God is allowing it and has a purpose for our lives. One of the outreaches we had was a movie showing of Disneys Tangled. We related the movie to the gospel by explaining how God has a plan for our lives and so does Satan. If youve seen the movie you know the evil mother has a plan for her daughter rapunzel. She was meant to be a princess and do great things. But when the mother took her away from her intended life things drastically changed. It is the same with our lives. God has planned many good works through us so he can be glorified. But satan also has another plan:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.-John 10:10

God is so gracious in his mercies. Every day they are new and alive. His word is the only place we can find truth and discern what are satans lies about our life. Being in zambia has made me realize what lies we believe in america.

1. we dont need God, we have every material thing we need
2. Good works get us to heaven
3. there are good and bad people
4. morals define our relationship with christ
5. we deserve good things

These are all huge schemes from the enemy to distract us. In romans it says No one is righteous;not even one. We believe we are good people because we read our bibles,pray, go to church, give some money left over if we have it, and we havent killed anyone so were not that bad. LIE. The truth is we are all sinful, desperately needed a Savior and dying each minute that we do not have him in our hearts. The first breath we took we entered into a life of sin. John piper describes it as this:
"Before u accepted christ everything you did was sin.If you were brushing your teeth you were sinning. If you helped a poor person in need you were sinning. If you did a kind act for another person you were sinning. When you were sleeping, you were still sinning. This changes everything we in america like to believe. We need to realize how sick and sinful we are or we will never see the Glory and graciousness of our savior. Once we have him all of our sin is gone. Praise the Lord for sending his Son to shed his blood for my sin. The sinless spotless Lamb is now seated on high. I pray our lives would represent this great gift weve been given. His love is unfathomable and unconditional.

He never sinned,
nor ever deceived anyone.
²³ He did not retaliate when he was insulted,
nor threaten revenge when he suffered.
He left his case in the hands of God,
who always judges fairly.
²⁴ He personally carried our sins
in his body on the cross
so that we can be dead to sin
and live for what is right.
By his wounds
you are healed.
²⁵ Once you were like sheep
who wandered away.
But now you have turned to your Shepherd,
the Guardian of your souls.