Thought for the day....or life.

David and I are in the 9th week of Experiencing God.  It is a WONDERFUL Bible study that is very hard and challenging but very eye opening.  I think everyone should do this.

"Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that He exist and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Hebrews 11:6

The Crisis of Belief....not a fun concept.  "God's invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action."  We'll get to the action part later.  "When God tells you what He wants to do through you, you will go through a crisis of belief."  I don't know about you but I don't like those statements very much.....or this one..."The way you live your life is a testimony of what you believe about God."  Ouch.  Sometimes I wonder what people really see in us.  "A crisis of belief is not a calamity in your life but a turning point where you must make a decision."
"Faith is confidence that what God has promised or said will come to pass."  When God speaks your response REQUIRES faith.  And then there's the big one..."Obedience indicates faith in God."  How often do we say to ourselves, "Nah!  There's no way God is asking me to do this!" When in fact He is doing everything short of screaming it from a billboard.  "When you encounter God, it will bring a crisis of belief.  That crisis will require faith.  Without that faith you will not be able to please God."

"What you do reveals what you believe about God, REGARDLESS of what you say."  OUCH again!  Man he hit the nail on the head.  It's so true.  You can say one thing and really believe it but in the far reaches of you head you are thinking NO WAY HOSE!  What bothers me more than that is that the unbelief of Sari and Abraham was very costly.  Not only theirs but many others but they are a good example.  They believed that God would give him a son but they just couldn't wrap their human brains around the concept that God can actually take care of them and use THEM.  Why is it so hard for us to accept that?

"Any of you who does not give up EVERYTHING he has cannot be my disciple."

Luke 14:33

This is a very hard concept for me.  I don't like change.  Can I say it any louder?  I HATE CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I realize that if I had not changed churches I wouldn't have met David and wouldn't be getting married...but I still don't like the concept of change.  But yet here he (Henry Blackaby is the one that wrote a lot of the words along with his son Richard and friend Claude King) saying this, "You cannot stay where you are and go with God."  Stab me in the heart!  Man God used this week of study to speak to me.  "Your adjustments and obedience will be costly to you and to those around you."  This terrifies me!  I don't want what I do to have bad side effects on my loved ones...especially if I am in God's will.

"We tend to want to skip making adjustments and go directly from believing God to obedience.  If you want to follow Him, you don't have that choice.  His ways are so different from yours the only way you can follow Him requires an alignment of your life to His ways."

 "You cannot go on to obedience without first making the necessary adjustments."  I must tell you, when I read this I broke down and cried....day one was a killer.  I don't want to adjust my life, I like it the way it is.  "Any time you go from where you are to where God is working, from your way of thinking to God's way of thinking, from your ways to God's ways, or from your purposes to His purposes, a major adjustment will be required."

A quote from Jim Elliot, a missionary to an Indian tribe down in South America called the Auca Indians, that was killed by those very people he sacrificed everything for said this, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."  He and three other men died and some of their family went back and witnessed to them and the people changed their name and became Christians.  Now called the Waodani  Indians, everyone one in the group that murdered Jim Elliot and the other 4 missionaries became Christians and are spiritual leaders in their village.  If you have never heard of Jim Elliot you need to go read about him.  A movie was made about it but I have yet to see it.  God can use so little to be so great!  The 5 of them didn't have much contact with the Auca people but they didn't like outsiders so they killed them.  "You cannot go with God and stay where you are."

"You can trust God with your family."  I have a problem with this.  If I'm all the way over in Africa, I can't protect my family, I know God will but I won't be there personally to do it.  I realize I can't do anything but it's my mentality.  "Obedience requires total dependence on God to work through you."  I know we say we completely and totally have faith in God and depend on Him, but these last 2 weeks have made me question how much we really do trust Him.  Little things like, He will keep me safe through this storm or I trust his will with my job.  But my big one like going to Africa with the possibility of staying there more than here to be a missionary?  I just don't know how much I can trust Him with this.  This is so far out of my comfort zone and so far away from all of my family and SO far away from being an at home missionary.  I know God will take care of David and I over there because I know He has called us there but even though I say I know and I say I trust and I say I have faith, I'm going through my own crisis of belief.  I KNOW my God will take care of me but I have a hard time believing it in that situation.  Am I making any sense?  I just thought I would share what God has been saying to me the past 2 weeks.  I hope maybe God has used me to help you.  I pray that God helps me with my unbelief.

Jana