Aunt Jo

My Aunt Jo passed away on Friday.  She was 89 years old and I only knew here through the birthdays cards she would send to me every year.  She did not miss one birthday of mine and she would always speak of God.  This past birthday she sent me a card and I had it on my heart to call her.  Well some days had passed and I saw the card sitting on the table I opened it and read it.  I looked at the time and saw that it was rather late to try and call and so I decided to write her a letter.  It was a very bitter sweet emotion to find out that only 2 days later she had passed away.  It was a lesson learned that when God places someone on your heart, call them and talk to them.  I know that she is in Heaven and not suffering anymore, but it was the busyness of my everyday life that caused me to miss my opportunity to speak with her.  She was an incredible woman of faith and I am glad that I did get a chance to speak with her a few years ago when my mom passed.  I also had a chance to write her a letter and share my love and thoughts with her during that time.  It was good knowing she had lived a full life and she loved to play golf and was very active.  It was hard to swallow that I did not call and did not really feel the emotion of that loss until right now, when I walked into the house and saw the card laying on the table on top of the envelope that has her number written on it.  My heart is torn, but I am at peace in knowing she is truly free and in Jesus’ embrace.  I want to slow down in my life and be deliberate about God being first in my life and allowing that to guide my discernment in all of my relationships.  I want to be strong and not afraid or be “too busy” to call someone and hear their voice and let them hear mine.  It is a very good and convicting lesson learned.  I pray that my faith and obedience to God will be a fraction of what Aunt Jo’s was.

Good Friday

I have never stopped to really meditate on why we call it Good Friday.  I have been sitting on my balcony for the past couple of hours just praying and reading and spending time with God.  Listening to worship music and letting Him love on me.  Then as I pause and look at the sky and let God love on me, He says this is always a “Good Friday.”  This is the day that I had the courage to take on the death of the world physically and spiritually.  The horrific events that occurred on our Savior where indeed intense and more than we will ever know.  That our God chose to lose His life for all of us, not only to save us from our own sins, but because He loved us.  This day is a day of rejoicing and humility.  We have the freedom to choose how we want to live and many of our family and friends have not chosen to follow Him.  They simply choose to believe or not believe there is a God.  Our Papa, knowing this still followed through with His assignment.  I can only think of the amount of times I have denied Christ like Peter when I have ran away from standing up for him.  Simply because I didn’t feel confident enough to stand before a crowd and speak.  There was our Savior on His knees praying for His Father to lift the burden He was about to carry because of the infinite hell He was about to pay.  For that single moment in History, Jesus becomes the most evil man to ever live.  He was nailed upon a cross and spiritually received ALL of our sins into Him and then Had God, His Father, reject Him.  It is in that sacrifice that we can walk freely and have the opportunity, even on our death bed, to receive His gift to us.  Good Friday is a day to simply stay in silence and let God resonate in your very being.  It is because on this day, death was defeated forever.  There is no doubt there is a one true God and He is also a mighty God, mighty enough to humble himself into human form and take on all the temptations, sins, pains and brokenness of our World.  Everyone will one day experience that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of All.  I pray that Jesus will place His burdens on you to pray for those who do not know him.  Make your life about Urgency and I plan on doing the same.  Growing up I lived in fear of many things because Satan had his hand on my life, but now I choose to release everything into Jesus’ more than willing scarred hands and will not be afraid.  I want to leave you on this Good Friday with this verse Romans 1:16: ” I will not be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: First for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” Amen and Amen

Day 5 Nicaragua

This was our last day and we went to spend it with the children from La Chureca.  At least this is where we spent the morning.  It was a lot of fun, but also so much pain. God is amazing in how He decides to mold us.  We fight and claw for what we want almost all the time, but rarely do we think of others and their pain.  Today we did, we said goodbye to those children and you could feel and see the sadness because we were leaving.  We made an impact because Christ wanted it to happen.  In the afternoon, we went to swim in the pacific ocean with some middle school and high school kids from La Chureca. We had a great time. Gods beauty reigns so deeply here.  We finished the night off with a bonfire and some worship and reflection. It was awesome, these kids are so amazing.  God spoke through all of us this week.  Whether we choose to listen or not God will chase us without rest.  He is called the hound of Heaven and He desires for us to feel His peace. Selah!

P.S.
I went to La Chureca at night to drop some kids off after the beach.. I will write about that as my day 6 in Nicaragua since we are leaving tomorrow.  Unmerciful, unrelenting and totally evil place.