November 22, 2011
I'm listening to Christmas music at the library and I realize that it's been almost a month since my last update. I almost dread writing because there is so much to say and words do not suffice to describe all that is happening with me.
I'm going to miss spending Thanksgiving on Thursday with my family and with my friends on our traditional Friday Thanksgiving potluck. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Each student had to present about a name of God for 5 minutes. The goal is to practice for outreach and condense all we want to say. It's been really fun doing this & trying to come up with something deep & profound in just a couple of minutes. The last presentation this past Friday was very impactful to me; the Lion of the tribe of Judah. I wasted lots of time late Thursday night just getting lost on the subject of Jesus as the lion researching facts about lions and listening to their roar on The National Geographic website.
Something happened towards the end of my little speech that I can only define as the Spirit of the Lord touching me. As some of you may or may not know, I am a pretty emotional person, but it is kind of hard to cry in front of people. Oh, I'll cry at a movie in the dark but I try to avoid it in public.
But I was moved to tears by the thought that God used the tribe of Judah, the 5th born of the least favored wife of Jacob and the one who was the intercessor of his little brother. Jesus the humble king, who chose to come to us as a baby; weak, subtle, quiet, unexpected. This is Judah. I heard somewhere that Jesus did not come through the Levites as one would expect but through the tribe of Judah, good ol' Judah who is a lot like me; unnoticed, weak, a train wreck.
I was moved by Jesus humble ways, and the foreshadow of Jesus in Genesis 44 when Judah was willing to take his brother's place to be a slave, to take the blame, to carry all the weight of the consequence because He knew how much the Father loved his brother. And he loved his brother. He did it for his brother & for his Father.
I am very excited & nervous, in about ten days we will leave for our outreach to Malaysia & Thailand. Woot! Crazy! We will be working with kids mostly so it should be lots of fun but super busy. Please send out a prayer for us.
I've changed a lot since I came here. My views on a lot of things are different like the Holy Spirit & Reformed theology etc. I'd be happy to share but I think that is enough information for now.
