This morning's blog post is from yesterday's reading and this mornings. It might be a little long but I hope you keep reading through the whole thing. Yesterday's was titled When the Spirit Leads. It mainly talked about how its not easy following the Spirit... "Often, walking with the Spirit is an uphill trudge through all sorts of distractions and difficulties. But while the path is winding and difficult, you are constantly moving in a particular direction, and that direction is set by the leading of the Spirit."
Not sure about you but that statement is so comforting to me... through being a Christian for majority of my life I have gone through long periods of time of being distracted and neglecting the Holy Spirit... and even in the times when Im striving I swear Im the most distracted person- I read these amazing books that the Spirit speaks so loudly to me about and Scripture that rings in my heart and then at the end of the day... I probably couldn't remember exactly what it was I learned that morning.
Later on in this section Francis Chan starts talking about Paul's letter in 1 Corinthians 13 (the Love chapter)
"In addition to becoming like Christ in His holiness, being led by the Spirit will result in becoming like Christ in His love."
"The Holy Spirit is the one who fills believers with God's love and the one who enables us to love one another"
Ephesians 3:16-19
"May we know this love hat surpasses knowledge-the mystery of this great love-by the strengthening power of the Spirit"
"and like our Savior, who poured out His life and blood so we have reason to rejoice, we were made to lay down our lives and give until it hurt. We are most alive when we are loving and actively giving of ourselves because we were made to do these things. It is when we live like this that the Spirit of God moves and acts in and through us in ways that on our own we are not capable of. This is our purpose for living. This is our hope" 'And hope does not put us to shame, because God;s live has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:5
It seems through most chapters at the very end Francis Chan will use a specific person in history who lived out through the Holy Spirit. At the end of Chapter 4 he talked about Esther Ahn Kim who was imprisoned during WWII for not bowing down at shrines all over Korea and Japan. She ate rotten food in preparation for being in prison and memorized hundreds of chapters of the Bible since she wouldn't be able to read in prison.
"Her obedience to Christ only increased her ability to hear the voice of the Spirit, and consequently filled her with overwhelming love for the people she came in contact with."
"When she was eventually taken to prison, God used her in countless ways. One night a young Chinese woman convicted of killing her husband was brought in...It was this woman that God called Esther to love and reach out to. Esther held the woman's feet at night to warm them, even though the woman was covered in her own excrement. Though food rations were small, Esther gave up her portions for three days to this woman. Over time the Chinese woman began to respond, carrying on conversation and eventually accepting the good news of the gospel. The woman was later executed for her crime, but she went to her death alive in Christ."
"She was ready every day and every moment, asking God, "Who do You want me to love for You today?"
I teared up as I read the story of Esther this morning and I just kept asking God to help me ask that question daily, throughout the day, every moment. Since I do get distracted so easily with the silly day to day activities I need to hang the words off my head and in front of my face all day. To be honest- those words scare me as well... who will He have me love, how will He ask me to do so... But I pray as He shows me who that I will be joyfully obedient and rely on His love that He has filled me with because in and of myself I lack the love and concern for others...
Ill leave you with the quote again (if you have made it this far in reading this =)
"Who do You want me to love for You today?"
SO good, Meegan. I can really relate to how you feel. We all get so busy with our day to day lives that we forget really what we are put here for....to be fruitful...to love. Maybe we should write this question on sticky notes all over the place (bathroom mirror, fridge door, in our car) so we will have a constant reminder for a while...then maybe it will stick in our heads. :)
ReplyDeleteI have the bad habit of buying books and not reading them but I really want to go get this one. I read Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado a couple of years ago and loved reading it and making notes and underlining good points.
Do you have any other recommendations of books you have read? I like what you said about reading books to help you with your walk with God instead of reading just the Bible. I start reading the Bible and end up just staring at words. ugh! I wish I could do better.