God LOVES You

I received such a precious encouragement today that wasn't even meant for me by it's author. Evidently it was meant for me by *my* Author however. :) I just have to share. Maybe in so doing, I can pass the encouragement along.

This encouragement came to me in the form of a text message and brought tears to my eyes. Part of the reason for the tears was because of the young woman who sent this message. A brand new Christian, this young woman has known severe hardships over the course of her life. But she has chosen over the past couple of years to turn and follow hard after Christ. Her sincerity in her faith inspires and challenges my own.

This young woman sent me a message because she has a friend who is going through hardships of her own. She wanted to encourage her, but wasn't sure if this would be the right thing to say and valued my opinion... I responded quickly to let her know that not only was it the right thing to say to encourage her friend, but that I was also deeply encouraged by her words. She gave me permission to share with you.

"I'm sorry how you feel... i know it's hard... But you MUST remember the most important thing is that GOD loves you SO MUCH! What you're going through is called 'hardship' in the Bible. Things about hardship, it's hard and sometimes painful. The Bible teaches no matter how hard life gets, you must never give up or stop doing good because you're hurting or upset. Talk to God and tell Him how you feel, what's on your mind, how you're hurting, that you need His love and his strength, tell Him anything and everything if you want. God LOVES you, even though we can't understand the things He does or why He would, but His reasons are good no matter how we choose to look at it. Don't let this hardship push you away from the one that loves you the most and that is God. I know right now it may not feel like He loves you but He does and you have to remember you're also hurting which makes it harder to believe it. As a friend and as a Christian I also love and care about you and don't want you to give up or stop doing what's good. I will pray for you and I will continue to help you in any way I can."

Simple and Sincere. GOD loves you. God LOVES you. God loves YOU. Anyway you look at it, He's 110% for you. One thing that I have learned over the years is pictured in the song my sisters & I sing when we serve at churches, "The Broken Ones". See, people often cry out to God in hardships and ask where He is in times of their deepest hurts. But I heard a Bible Teacher once say and I whole heartedly agree; God so many times wants to reply back, "Where is My Church? Where are My people? - I Am where My people are.”

Maggie came home one day with a raggedy Raggedy Ann. She said "Momma look what I found in the neighbor's garbage can!" It had a missing left arm and a right button eye - hanging by a thread. She carried it gently up to her room and laid it on her bed... with her other dolls

Twenty years later in a shelter on 18th avenue. A seventeen year old girl shows up all black and blue. With needle tracts in her left arm, almost too weak to stand; She says I lost and I need help, as Maggie takes her hand... and says "Come on in!"

She loves the broken ones, the ones that need a little patching up.
She sees the diamond in the rough, and makes it shine like new
It really doesn't take that much,

a willing heart and a tender touch
If everybody loved like she loves

- there'd be a lot less broken ones.

And if you called her an angel, she’d be quick to say to you,
She's just doing what the One who died for her would do...

HE loves the broken ones, the ones that need a little patching up
HE sees the diamond in the rough, and makes it shine like new
It really doesn't take that much,

a willing heart and a tender touch
If everybody loved like HE LOVES,

- there'd be a lot less broken ones.

Excuse me as I step on my bandwagon for just one moment. Church, it's time we "be the Church". Act as His Body... Serving, Reaching, Loving, Healing. It's not enough to have Bible Studies, talking about what Scripture means and even memorizing it. We have to LIVE it out! That's when we are the Church! When Jesus was here on the earth, serving and ministering with His disciples, they didn't just sit around in the synagogues and discuss the Law and the Prophets. It's definite that Jesus had the knowledge of exactly what Old Testament Law and Prophecies meant and I'm sure He had every word memorized. He definitely taught while on earth as well. But what I love is the few verses preceeding the famous Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. First was the calling of the first disciples, then the following verses... "News about Him spread all over Syria, and people brought to Him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possesed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and He healed them..." (Matthew 4:24) This was the disciples introduction to ministry. Jesus asks them to follow Him and the next thing we see is the sea of hurt, the deep need surrounding them. I believe that Jesus wanted to show them that people are in real pain out there. There is real hurt. Real need. Jesus first met their physical needs and then their spiritual needs. James 2:14-17 says, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." And yet sometimes there are people with hurts we can't fix. Sometimes just the blessing of a few simple words is all we can do. "I'm so sorry. I don't know why. But I do know, God loves you."

My friend, a brand new believer, hasn't lost her passion for her God, a God who LOVES. A God who HEALS. She doesn't have answers. She doesn't need them. All she knows is God LOVES. And that is enough.

Hannah

hannahseale.blogspot.com

and the thoughts continue

*written Saturday, 10/9/10; posted Tuesday, 10/12/10... so goes my life*

I have a “free” Saturday… okay, well a couple free hours. We have a church youth group from Austin out riding horses and throwing tomahawks right now. Deborah and I spent the morning cleaning over in the guest house and we’re gonna be leaving in a few hours to sing at a Music Festival in Fischer. But right now, I’m going to blog my thoughts. Cause they’ve been many and need sorting.

It all is still coming from the verses in James and in Isaiah that I listed in my previous post: Caring for Widows and Orphans. Sharing your food with the hungry. Providing the poor with Shelter. Clothing the naked…

We sang a song the other night at a Concert that we sing all the time. “The Broken Ones”. I love the message of the song. I always take the opportunity in introducing it to share what the Church should be all about. About people. About serving, caring, sharing… as in the Isaiah and James verses. And so at this particular concert, I said a few things in introducing, same as always. But after we had finished, I felt compelled to say something different. Because every single time we sing that song, people nod their heads in agreement, some raise their hands, some close their eyes, some cry… but does anyone really do anything with it after the music fades? I told the audience that “The Broken Ones” is a great song… we really love it. But that’s all it is. Just a song. Just good lyrics and harmonies. Until we decide to act and do something with it. Are we just going to let Jesus’ words penetrate our ears? – or our hearts? Are we going to just pray and wish the world could be changed, or are we going to try to do something about it? I mentioned in my last post, “to give till it hurts…” Not just our money, but ourselves. Are we merely trying to survive, or are we ever trying to revive those we come in contact with?

The other day, I was browsing some of the blogs I follow. One in particular that I love is www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com and is titled “The Journey”. Katie is a girl younger than I who has left everything she knew and loved to follow the Lord’s call. Going to Uganda to serve and has adopted at least 12 Ugandan children as her own. A single mom in a foreign place among different people, in a different culture. But never am I so encouraged than when I read her postings. And yet I am so pained by the hurt that is so real.

While I was browsing “The Journey”, I found a blog titled “Be the hands and feet” www.servinghischildreninuganda.blogspot.com. As I read the stories and saw the pictures, tears welled up in my eyes. Pain and poverty… starvation… is so real. How many of us understand? I know I don’t. I can’t. I am so blessed. As I read these stories (and I so encourage you to do so as well) I was not only humbled by how much I have, but ashamed at how little I let myself be satisfied by it. I am rich and yet how often do I see it?! And it’s not just in money… but in food, clothes, shoes. We have multiple computers, cell phones, cars… If these people in Uganda… and other places around the world… had only a fraction of what I have, they would feel blessed and exceeding grateful. If they had only half of one of our meals every day, they wouldn’t be starving. The pain they face every single day is not fair! But it’s real. They are real people with real needs. Real pain. Real hunger. I want to be the eyes, seeing needs. The heart, loving and caring for those. I want to be the hands… reaching out to show hope. Or the feet, carrying the news of the gospel. Christ told us what to do. He said “Go into all the world.” He said to clothe the naked, feed the hungry. He told us when we do something for the least of these, we’re doing it unto Him. Maybe we can’t all sponsor. Maybe we can’t all go. But we can all pray. And we can encourage and support others who do go. Who do sponsor.

The other part of this is goes back to what I started on; because it’s not only the lost, the broken in poverty, the fatherless and homeless that need Christ and that need hope. It may be someone who visits your church regularly. Who sits beside you in class. Maybe who is teaching you, for crying out loud! You may be the heart of Christ used to make a difference, to encourage and offer hope to someone who’s lost theirs. Pray about ways you can share Christ’s love and hope to anyone around you. There’s nothing important on this earth than His people. Show them you care.

Hannah
http://www.hannahseale.blogspot.com/

I apologize, I got a little carried away...

So I have this burden and I'm trying to figure out what to do with it. I went to sleep last night trying to think of ways I can give more. I heard someone say a couple of days ago, to "give til it hurts". Do I do that? No. What does that look like exactly? I don't know, at least not for me...

I can't claim to know much about God and what He wants from me, but I believe He means what He says. And what He says in Scripture is what is important to Him and what should be important to us for life. God isn't interested in nice cliches and sweet words with no action. He isn't interested in what we look to others like we're giving or doing if we're not actually giving or doing it; and He's not interested in what we say we believe if we don't actually act on it. (James 2:14-26) (James 1:22) What is Religion? What is Christianity? Is it merely sitting around in our little circles talking about what would happen if someone one day would decide to act on Jesus' words? Is it only breaking down word structures and meanings in ancient text? Is it about going to Church Sunday morning, saying the prayers, singing the songs, listening to words and leaving it all behind in a stainglassed windowed building while you drive back home and back to work to face life again alone? No. I'll tell you what Religion is as Jesus intended...

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

"Shout it aloud, do not hold back.

Raise your voice like a trupet.

Declare to my people their rebellion

and to the house of Jacob their sings.

For day after day they seek me out;

they seem eager to know my ways,

as if theyr were a nation that does what is right

and has not forsaken the commands of its God.

They ask me for just decisions

and seem eager for God to come near them.

Why have we fasted, they say,

and you have not seen it?

Why have we humbled ourselves,

and you have not noticed?

Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please

and exploit all your workers

Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,

and in striking each other with wicked fists.

You cannot fast as you do today

and expect your voice to be heard on high.

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,

only a day for a man to humble himself?

and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?

Is that what you call a fast,

a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen;

to loose the chains of injustice

and untie the cords of the yoke

to set the oppressed free

and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-

when you see the naked, to clothe him,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

and your healing will quickly appear;

then your righteousness will go before you

and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;

you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

"If you do away with the yoke of opporession,

with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

and if you spend yoursleves in behalf of the hungy,

and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

then your light will rise in the darkness,

and your night will become like the noonday."...

Isaiah 58:1-10

How can we read theses verses... and others... and still go around thinking the best we can do is go to Church on Sunday and Wednesday nights? ...Go to Bible Study for 9 weeks on Tuesday nights and finish completely unaffected and unchanged? No! It's not meant to be this way! His Word is life!

Church is a place for several things. 1) A place of Christian fellowship. A place where we can come together and encourage one another... to spur one another on to love and good deeds. 2) A place of building and growth. Where you are held accountable and where you can study Scripture and be taught Scripture by other wise persons who have been there and learned through it. 3) A place of worship, praise and prayer. 4) A place of acceptance. 5) A place of supporting send-off for believers to "go into the world and preach the good news to all creation..."

So let me ask, what good is working out and building muscles and strength if you never lift anything weightier than a pen? What good is studying and training to be a doctor if you're never planning on actually seeing any patients? When we accept Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit who gives us power. And we will be His witnesses. (Acts 1:8) What good is the power of the Holy Spirit if we're only going to sit in our Bible Study classrooms only discussing the lexical meaning of the word "hungry" instead of actually going out and doing something about it?

Ouch.

And so that's what I'm struggling with. That's what I don't get. I want to *do* something more. Am I giving of myself, of my monies, of my time, until it hurts? And then, am I giving for the right reasons? Am I giving because that's what He's asked me to do? Or because I know that's what a good little Christian girl should do? Am I trusting in myself? - in my own capabilities? Or in His power. His strength? What are your thoughts?

Hannah

hannahseale.blogspot.com