JOURNEY... DAY 19

Hey Everyone, It is another day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad! Do you ever wonder why He tells us to rejoice and be glad? Every day is not filled will joy and happiness. If we were to be honest with ourselves; we would see that most of our days are filled with stress, worries, fears, anxieties, mixed emotions, confusion, disappointment, sadness, disillusions, heartache, sorrow… but not much joy. In retrospect I guess He’s not really telling us to rejoice but to choose to rejoice in-spite of our current circumstances, whether it is, permanent or temporary. Life is hard… and it’s difficult, things change in a moment’s time… just like that our lives are altered by some event.

Young girl riding her bike.

Last night I was watching a documentary “Half the sky” by Sheryl WuDunn and Nicholas Kristof. It’s about young girls throughout the world who are restricted from the most basic common things that we take for granted… such as education and women’s rights. There whole life they have been taught that they are worthless, that they have no value, yet these young girls grow to become women who birth a nation, a nation of men who say, “you’re worthless.” That’s why it angers me when I see people, especially girls and women demeaning themselves, calling one another B****** like it’s a term of endearment, it’s stupidity at its highest form.

Our women are watching what I call RATCHED TV  and they find this entertaining… its degradation. You know I can understand the world partaking in stuff like this, but not Christians… not when Christ has called us to be like Him… not when He has paid such a high price for our freedom. We are to warn others of these pitfalls in life, these “little snares” that cause people to stumble. They (the world) are watching us, they are watching our behaviors as Christians, we’re supposed to stand out, because He’s called us out of the world (live in the world, but do not be a part of the world). There's this quotation by Mahatma Ghandi, he said "I would have become a Christian if I hadn't met one." I hope he changed his mind.

It was not my intent to go there, my point was; one of these girls lived in poverty, she looked to be about 14 or 15, her father would beat her, she was out on the streets selling lottery tickets to make money for the family and if she didn’t sell enough; he would sometimes beat her and if she sold enough… maybe just maybe he would give her some of the money and she would use it for her education, so that she could go to school. She was living in conditions that we wouldn’t choose for ourselves or anyone else… but this girl had the most beautiful smile; she chose to smile even though her eyes were sad, she chose to be happy; with the hope that things will not always be this way.

What choices are you making today? Are they the kinds of choices that reflect Christ? Are they the kinds of choices that put others above yourself? Have you encouraged someone along the way? Are you having a pity party for yourself? Are you using your difficulties in life to strengthen someone else? Are you being Light in dark places? Are you being Salt that brings healing?

Sometimes we get so caught up in what we want to do, we never take the time to ask Christ, what it is He wants us to do. After all He’s the one with the Plan, right. He’s the one who holds our Purpose. He’s got all the answers for our lives. Yet, we don’t always acknowledge Him in our day to day existence. Make a choice to rejoice (the joy of the Lord is our strength), it’s in our rejoicing that He reveals Himself more and more.

During this journey, I find myself becoming even more tender-hearted and I don’t want this feeling to end… well, I know it doesn’t have to end. His presence has become clear so me and I want more of Him, I want to be His hands and feet, I want my touch to bring healing to someone’s soul, I want to be like Christ. Do you want to be like Christ?

Love & Blessings xo

*Mahatma Gandhi once said, “I would have been a Christian if I hadn’t met one.” Before leading the revolution in India, he was exiled in Africa. There, he was seeking the Lord, reading the New Testament. He had become convinced that Christianity was the true religion and that Jesus was the Christ. He decided to attend a Presbyterian church service for the purpose of confessing Jesus as his Lord. But, because of the color of his skin, they wouldn’t let him in. Those people who were so determined to evangelize did not have enough of the nature of God on the inside to look past his color. He then led 750 million people into a pagan religion. On a trip to India some years ago, I learned there were 12,000 Methodists in the city of Ahmedabad, the result of a great revival in the 1890s. When I asked the head of the church in that city how many were truly born again, he responded by saying it was only two or three families. The rest were still worshiping other gods. All they had done was add Jesus to their list of gods to make sure they didn’t miss one. They were obviously not disciples. To those in India, Jesus was just another of the thousands of gods. That is not God’s idea of evangelism.

You can read entire article here: Discipleship vs. Evangelism

Find out more about "Half the sky" and Half the sky movement