Some ramblings from an overwhelmed heart

The last couple weeks have been craziness for me...as can be seen by my recent abandonment of my blogging. But I'm still here! And I praise God that my blog-abandonment has come not from having nothing to write about, but because He has been teaching me and showing me so many different things that it's an overwhelming thought to even attempt to put it to words. His sovereign grace and mercy in drawing me to Him continues to be cause for MUCH rejoicing in my heart for I believe that it is "God alone who works in me to will and act according to His good purpose" (Philippians 2:13) and that I come to Him not out of any effort or striving of my own, but that this desire for Him "is not of ourselves- it is a gift of God, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8). I give glory to God that His merciful love for me continues to set my heart on loving and desiring Him alone, even as my disobedience and fickle heart should dictate that He give up on me and allow me to stray to other things.

As I look back on these past years of following Jesus, I clearly see that the only fitting response to them is praise and adoration for this God who saved me from death by His grace, delivers me from my slavery to sin, sanctifies me through the workings of the Holy Spirit, delivers me to righteousness through the blood of the Son, and lavishes joy and hope upon my heart for the present life of following Him and a future spent in eternity with Him. Wow. What could be greater? How could I do anything but humbly fall before Him in praise and worship? Maybe the more convicting question is WHY don't I fall before Him constantly, incessantly in praise and worship for these things that are far weightier than any worldly blessing that my heart gets hung up on?? I have ALL I NEED in the person of Jesus Christ who paid the debt for my sins on Calvary and delivered me to righteousness through His blood so that I may be blameless in the eyes of the Lord. Ahhh, even typing these truths is blowing me away right now, I'm kinda going crazy at the thought of how SWEET the reality of all of this is.... I pray that these truths would be so deeply set in the heart and soul of Christians today that our JOY is firmly rooted in CHRIST ALONE and that it is not contingent upon worldly circumstances.

Ok enough ramblings (sometimes I'm not sure that my thoughts are even coherent to others so sorry if they're hard to follow!)

Here's a good book I'm reading right now and its free online, yes I said FREE. Pretty much John Piper is the man and everything I've heard him say has blessed my life immensely...the stuff that my limited mind can retain, anyway.

Here are some excerpts that struck a chord in my heart.

Marriage, as we know it in this age, is not the final destiny of any human. In fact, there is some warrant for thinking that the kinds of self-denial involved in singleness could make one a candidate for greater capacities for love in the age to come.
No one has left anything for the sake of the kingdom, says the Lord Jesus, who will not receive back far more (Matthew 19:27-30). Many unmarried people have strengthened their hands with this truth. For example, Trevor Douglas, a single missionary with Regions Beyond Missionary Union, working in the Philippines among the Ifugao people, wrote in 1988:

'In the end, however, Christians know that Jesus will more than make up for every cost incurred by being a single male missionary. As I have applied his promises in Matthew 19:27-30 to myself, I see a tremendous exchange taking place in eternity. The social cost of not fitting in a couple’s world will be exchanged for socializing with Jesus around his throne. I’ll trade the emotional cost of loneliness and the family hurt for companionship with new fathers, mothers, and families. I’ll exchange the physical cost for spiritual children. And when I’m snubbed, I love to think of eternity and the privilege of going from the last of the gospel preachers to the head of the line. The rewards are worth everything.'

That you not assume that secular employment is a greater challenge or a better use of your life than the countless opportunities of service and witness in the home, the neighborhood, the community, the church, and the world; that you not only pose the question: career or full-time homemaker?, but that you ask just as seriously: full-time career or freedom for ministry? That you ask: Which would be greater for the Kingdom- to work for someone who tells you what to do to make his or her business prosper, or to be God’s free agent dreaming your own dream about how your time and your home and
your creativity could make God’s business prosper? And that in all this you make your choices not on the basis of secular trends or upward lifestyle expectations, but on the basis of what will strengthen the faith of the family and advance the cause of Christ.

That you develop a wartime mentality and lifestyle; that you never forget that life is short, that billions of people hang in the balance of heaven and hell every day, that the love of money is spiritual suicide, that the goals of upward mobility (nicer clothes, cars, houses, vacations, food, hobbies) are a poor and dangerous substitute for the goals of living for Christ with all your might and maximizing your joy in ministry to people’s needs.

With half the world’s population outside the reach of indigenous evangelism; with countless other lost people in those societies that have heard the gospel; with the stresses and miseries of sickness, malnutrition, homelessness, illiteracy, ignorance, aging, addiction, crime, incarceration, neuroses, and loneliness, no man or woman who feels a passion from God to make His grace known in word and deed need ever live without a fulfilling ministry for the glory of Christ and the good of this fallen world.

Piper's wisdom on singleness and male/female roles is awesome and very relevant for us as Christians. Hope these bits and pieces will serve to encourage you to read some of his stuff!

Ok, longest blog post ever...finished.