New Testament Church

Class this week has been wonderful. I’ve been evolving more into the person I know God wants me to be – full of faults, yet yielding to His will - disciplining my flesh to prepare the way for the Lord. The verse that God gave me as an affirmation to come to Peru, Malachi 3:1 has a double meaning for me. Not only is it a verse of affirmation for the way that God will show up in the midst of the work we’re doing here, but he will also show up in my body as his temple if I continue to prepare the way for the Lord within my own inner life.

Ruminating in my mind is the thought that I can only offer to others, that which I have to give or in other words I can only lead others into as much healing as I have found in Christ. I think we can be fully healed from our emotional hurts and live in freedom from the internal abuses that result from whatever form of external abuse existed in our past. However, God, desiring to walk with us through our sufferings doesn’t force His way in to take over and make everything disappear. He wants us to process how much he loves us as we are, how beautiful he finds the very core of His creation, and to trust Him with every little hurt that surfaces along the way. But we have to be ready, and by ready I mean that we have to be willing to let him in, in such an invasive way. In these days prior to the beginning of our fulltime work in our designated communities God has answered my prayers for healing for my issues with low self-esteem tied to some past hurts. He has made it known to me that my prayers have been heard and in faith I claim that God is setting me completely free as a continuation to what he started with the sending of His son to die for our sins, for my sins.

I’ve also noticed His spirit within me, yearning for more intimacy and I recognize that the work that lies ahead can only be completed by the power of the Holy Spirit actively leading me and working through me in the days ahead. I’ve been humbled by the restoration that God has been accomplishing within me and so expectantly looking toward each new day in anticipation of the goodness that awaits. All of this is in the midst of a death in my family, the threat of cancer in another family member, a purple & swollen ankle that is attempting to return to normalcy, a head and chest cold – these being my burdens, not including what is happening in the lives of my teammates and the burdens that they carry. Our faith and hope in God is not determined by our circumstances or feelings (the feelings part tripped me up for a long time). My God is a good God and a loving God – that has a plan of redemption that is out of this world.

So nonetheless, I’m looking forward to class again tomorrow as we examine the Scriptures and our lives trying to close the dissonance between the New Testament Church in Acts and the manner in which we live, do and be the Church today. I encourage you to do the same.