Re-entry to "Normal"

After getting back from Nic and returning to "normal" activities, so many things seemed trivial. My daughters bickered over the smallest things. Grocery purchases seemed excessive even though nothing frivilous was bought. Honking traffic and gestures seemed so unnecessary. At work, people were getting twisted about such small things.

I feel like I don't belong in the "busy life." I feel out of place.

Thinking back to last week, we were all brought together first in our belief in Christ, the fact of his resurrection, and the hope we have in him. Our Team was brought together through the actions of the Holy Spirit, calling us to do his work. In fact, we just read Psalm 139, which states that God has our every day planned out, and had them planned out for us before time began. This is most reassuring!

We also know that Jesus prayed for each of us in John 17. The entire chapter is Jesus prayer for not only the disciples he had with him, but for all believers to be one with God just as Jesus and God are one! Again, we see that all believers have one-ness with God and Jesus. We've been called! Jesus also prays that the Holy Spirit be upon believers, who enters us from the moment we accept Christ.

Our Team, I believe, lived a model life for a week: prayed some ferocious, audacious prayers fighting with swords of the tongue; others were praying for us intently and regularly; our Team was together in purpose and in daily fellowship; we depended on each other; we served each other; we served and cared for orphans; we served and cared for the poor; we studied the Word several times a day, individually and together; we prayed together and individually; we witnessed others' great faith; we prayed intently for others; we met and established relationships with other Christian brothers and sisters, who were also called by the Holy Spirit to move; our lives intersected by the direction God gave us. We lived together. We witnessed some extreme environments and met many challenges.

Coming home, others ask, "How was it?" In my own experience, their "busy-life" glazed their eyes even after a few moments, like a deer in headlights.

John 3, The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”^[d]

My coworkers didn't know where I was coming from! And when I began talking about prayers prayed, they had know idea where I was going!

No wonder we feel like we don't belong here (that is, in our busy-life). We experienced what God intended for us when we were in Nic! We don't belong, because "this" is not "normal." God wants us to live as we did in Nic; as as church (there's the Acts theme again!). Serving others. One with God. Praying constantly. Fellowship. Care. Love. 

"All Yours" by Kutless

For those of you who've read my post, "How I Got Here," this video will make sense.  Essentially, it was my prayer shortly before being guided to go to Nicaragua.  It's also my daily prayer.  *Let me know if you think it sort of sounds like Tesla.
 http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=kutless+all+yours&mid=E8C2D344FD530C9DA6F7E8C2D344FD530C9DA6F7&view=detail&FORM=VIRE2

We're Home!

Friends,
Our plane landed at MSP at 10:30 p.m. Friday night.  THANK YOU to all who prayed for us during our times of need!  We had the opportunity to see God at work and how faithful to him the people of Nicaragua are. 

Please visit OrphaNetwork at the link on the righthand side of the page and consider sponsoring one of the orphans.  I can say that their efforts are effective and helping change lives.

More will be posted in the next few days!

Again, thank you!
Jon

1John 3:16-18

"We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us.  So we also ougth to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.  If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion -- how can God's love be in that person?  Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other; let us snow the truth by our actions."  (NLT)

Real love is action, not a feeling, and it produces selfless sacrificial giving.  The greatest act of love is giving oneself for others.

How can we "give up our lives?"  By serving others with no thought of receiving anything in return, which involves putting other's desires first.

Luke 9:23 also says that we take up our cross to follow Jesus by denying our own selfish desires to love others (paraphrase).  Serving others by sacrificial giving of our resources demonstrates our faith and love.

I am thankful for those of you who have offered prayer and/or financial support, and I promise to represent Christ's love and service to the best of my ability.

Acts and Nicaragua

Have you ever had one of those moments when something incredibly obvious wasn't so obvious, until WHAM! it hits you?  I was just reading a commentary on the book of Acts when something struck me as a topic to talk about in Nicaragua.

Luke (the author of Acts as a continuation of the Gospel of Luke as well as a very accurate, well-researched history of the beginnings of the Church) made two things obvious:

1) The undeniable fact that Christ rose from the dead, and
2) there's an undeniable presence of the Holy Spirit at work.

Without these two things, everything we believe, all the Gospels, the prophetic references to Jesus, and everything that came after Jesus' appearance and teaching of the twelve after he arose would be absolutely worthless.  In fact, it's these two things that are proof of hope and of the church at work, expanding, changing lives daily.

If we work this backwards,
lives are changed daily with the acceptance and belief in Jesus as the Son of God,
so the church is expanding,
which is the church at work,
and we have hope,
BECAUSE
the Holy Spirit is at work with us,
BECAUSE Christ rose from the dead
This is most encouraging!

How does this fit with Nicaragua?

The entire reason we're going to Nicaragua is because Christ rose from the dead and the Holy Spirit is at work within each of us.  Not just us, but within our brothers and sisters in Nicaragua.  These two facts bind us together; they are what we have in common despite living in a different lattitude, practice different customs, eat different foods, experience different climates (although today is preparing me for the heat and humidity!), and live under very different systems of government.

Our belief in Christ's sacrifice and love, being sent by God because He loves us so much.  The Holy Spirit has sent us.  And those who welcome us, welcome us by the Holy Spirit.

Amazing.  Amazing.  I can't wait.