Skip to main content

There is Much Life Saving That Needs to Be Done: Reflections on January's Book


January is coming to an end already, today is the last day.  How remarkable.  And thus ends the first month of the book challenge.  How has it gone, friends?  Have you finished?  Have you started?  Have you been captured by the beauty of God and His plan for you?  What has been your favorite part of this month’s chapter?  What ministered to your heart the most?  Please, feel free to share with me what God has been doing on the inside of you as you have journeyed with us this month. 

As for me, the quote from Captivating that stood out the most to me appeared in the middle of page 105.  John and Stasi Eldredge write there:

“There is much life saving that needs to be done yet, and someone needs to do it. Not in a pressure-filled You’d better get to it kind of a way.  Rather, an invitation.  Your feminine heart is an invitation by your Creator.  To what?  To play an irreplaceable role in His Story.  Isn’t that what your Lover wrote there? Some dream, some desire, something so core to who you are it almost hurts to think of it.  The very longing itself is such a part of your being it’s scary even to give it a voice.  You may not know the dream itself yet.  But you know the longing to play an irreplaceable part.  That is a good beginning.  Ezer is woven into the fabric of your feminine heart.  You must live this out.  What lives, what destinies are hanging on your “Yes” to God?”

Go back through that paragraph and read only what I have emphasized in bold.  As I read through this book, these words jumped out at me.  These are the words that, even now, are ringing in my heart as a Biblical mandate, a call to live with purpose and ferocious faith, a challenge to accept the full responsibility God has given me as a child and warrior of the King, to recognize that my obedience or disobedience affects the lives and eternities of all those around me – not just mine.  We must live out the call of God on our lives.  Others are depending on.  As Erwin Raphael McManus writes:

“There are things that must be done today, things that you and you alone are created to accomplish.  Some of us are wasting our time burning daylight when what we need to be doing is seizing the power of every moment.”[1]

What will that look like?  What will it look like for us to radically decide to serve God, to hold ourselves accountable to give everyone we meet an opportunity to live and know God?  I don’t know what it will look like for you.  I don’t even know what it will fully look like for me.  But I do know that God does, that He has good plans for us, that He has called us to go into all the world ministering His message of hope, to seek out the “least of these” and love them tenderly in the name of our Savior … As you pray about the “life saving” you have yet to do, I encourage you to join me in praying about the following opportunities to minister and save lives for the Kingdom of God:

-          http://www.gfa.org/sponsor/
-          http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/default.htm
-          https://secure3.convio.net/mmoa/site/Donation2?idb=1591502721&df_id=1780&1780.donation=form1
-          http://www.biblesunbound.com/qry/mc_home.taf

[1]P. 8, Chasing Daylight: Seize the Power of Every Moment, 2002.
Labels:

Comments

  1. AmandaJanuary 31, 2011 at 11:54 AM

    Oh, Abs! That's the quote that really got me as well! :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rising from the Ashes: Prayers for Restoration, Healing, and the Word of God to Penetrate War-Weary Kosovo

“The region, though largely peaceful, is still recovering from the war of 1999 which saw over 10,000 civilians killed, a million ethnic Albanians fled as refugees to surrounding countries, and extensive damage to property throughout the region …” [1] Devastation, destruction and loss, scars and atrocities that have not been forgotten … even if the people in this small country largely have been.   Kosovo, being such a relatively “new” politically recognized country, seems on the backburners of everyone’s minds.   When we speak of missions, most people think of Africa.   When we think of gross poverty, most people think of Africa.   When we think of ethnic cleansing and genocide, we think of Africa and the problems in Darfur.   But we have forgotten; we have overlooked. How could we?   http://www.paulmoran.org/assignments/kossovo/index.html Kosovo is a small nation, slightly larger than the state of Delaware; a new nation, only declaring its indepe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Our Refuge: Knowing God through the Psalms

“I have confidence in your strength; you are my refuge , O God … I will praise you, my defender.   My refuge is God, the God who loves me …” – Psalm 59:9, 17, Good News Bible The Psalms are filled with verses about God our refuge: -           Psalm 9:9 says that the Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a place of safety in times of trouble. -           In Psalm 31:3, the Psalmist reminds God that He is our refuge and defense and asks for guidance. -           Psalm 59:16 is filled with the songs of celebration of the strength and constant love of our Refuge God. -           Psalm 62:8 encourages us to tell all our problems to God, to trust Him at all times, for He is our refuge.   And there are so many more references along this line.   But have you ever stopped to wonder what that means? ...
4 comments
Read more

Blunt, outspokenness: Learning to Pray

I have to admit that prayer has been a struggle for me in recent months, more like a year really.   As I’ve studied the Word and worked to really believe more of what I am, I’ve been challenged not to doubt when I pray, to quit asking for things that God has already said are mine (how annoying is that, to have someone ask you for something six times when you’ve already given it to them?); I’ve learned that prayer is supposed to be filled with longing and desire (for Mark 11:24 says, “Whatsoever things you desire when you pray …”), and that after I pray, it is my responsibility to believe that I have received and to celebrate – even if I can’t see the answer yet.   That’s what faith is.   Throughout this journey of painful reevaluation, I’ve found myself so convicted of all the unscriptural ways I’ve prayed in my life that my routine devotional prayer times have kind of fallen by the wayside.   Despite this discouragement, God continues to teach me.   This ...
Post a Comment
Read more