Their joy is my passion... and why I do what I do...
Written the day I returned from my home in Zambia my second summer:
June 25, 2007
It's true. I left most of my heart in Zambia BUT I brought plenty of it back home with me... and I fully intend to share.
I've been traveling non stop for over 50 hours and I'm finally in my 'lavish' American apartment, wondering and praying and constantly thinking about my precious little angels back in Zambia. Honestly, I'm more than exhausted from the last three weeks and sleepless hours on planes but can still say that if someone handed me a ticket to go back to Africa right now I'd go!
I have fully realized the truth of Nehemiah 8:10 "The JOY of the Lord is my strength". Truthfully, I am emotionally, physically, and spiritually spent for the Lord... and He continues to renew and refill me so that I am spilling over. The love and joy you see is merely an overflow... and that truth makes me smile a million times.
I almost feel like I came alive last year when I first went to Africa. I entered a battlefield of spiritual warfare and faced challenges, tears, joy, anger, love, pain, death...inspiration... and joyfully returned to do it all over again. In Africa I feel free I feel like me... I can be me here too.
So many words swarm my mind and still I have neglected to paint a picture for you. Forgive me. I wish you could have been there with me. My prayer now, I pray with expectancy, is for you to fully realize the power and majesty of a Mighty God... the same God who was with me in Zambia... the same God who is with you now. The more I see God work, the easier it is to recognize Him. I confess I still cannot pin down a picture to describe for you... perhaps it will come easier in a later message.
Our theme for camp this year is FREEDOM IN CHRIST. So many people and situations fan the flame of lies that convince us we are insignificant, insecure, worthless, hated... why, even for those of us who are guarded and protected by the Holy Spirit, is it so easy to hear and actually believe such nonsense!??!? NO. In Christ I am Victorious... in Christ I am FREE. All those feelings of worthlessness, all those thoughts that I'm not enough, that I'm incapable... they cannot and will not bind me.
"You did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you." John 15:16
To lay out the complete truth... I think God sent me to Africa to release me from my own chains. When I returned home last year the enemy began to work against me. I faced more challenges...love, anger, joy, a friendship gained, a friendship lost, pain, tears, worthlessness, insignificance, prayer, hope ... victory...
As a child of God (John 1:12) the enemy CANNOT hold me. The only weapon Satan has against me is bluff... lies. And he's good..oh heee's good at convincing me of so many untruths.
So what is the truth I speak of?
IN CHRIST:
I AM LOVED John 3:16- for God so LOVED [me] that He sent his only Son, so that [if I]believe in Him [I] will have eternal life.
I AM ACCEPTED John 1:12- But as [I]as received Him, He gave [me] the right to become a child of God, to [me] who believes in His name.
I AM SECURE (Romans 8:38-39- I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present or things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (did you hear that friends?...as a child of God...who believes in His name...NOTHING can separate you from the Love of God
I AM SIGNIFICANT John 15:16- You did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that would remain so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name you shall receive
I AM VICTORIOUS (1 Corinthians 15:57- Thanks be to God who gives [me] the VICTORY through Jesus Christ [my] Lord)
I AM FREE!
As a child of God, I am protected....from anything... and most certainly from the lies of the enemy. I will not be derailed. I have a purpose and every day that purpose becomes clearer. Yours will too. You, my beloved, exist for a purpose...God's purpose. He plans to use you... Are you willing? You're always ready; I'm convinced of that... for in our weakness, the glory of God is made strong. My purpose is to praise His name rain or shine. Blessed be the name of the Lord. When the sun is shining down on me and the world is all as it should be...AND when the road is marked with suffering... Blessed be the Name of the Lord!
With purest joy,
jen
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