Living Spiritually

I went through some old notebooks and things and a notecard fell out that I had written the following quote on:

"To grow spiritually means to live increasingly as Jesus would in our unique place-- to perceive what Jesus would perceive if He looked through our eyes, to think what He would think, to feel what He would feel, and therefore to do what He would do."

So many times people think spiritual growth comes from getting more knowledge, and don't get me wrong, we do need to learn and study (trust me, I am a nerd when it comes to school, learning and studying), but our true spiritual growth is reflected when we are putting into practice what we have learned.

I am Christ's representative, therefore, no matter where I am, what I am doing, who I am with, I should be Jesus to the people around me. When I see people, I should see them with Christ's eyes, which are always full of love and compassion; the thoughts and meditations of my heart should be pleasing to Him. The feelings I experience should be those that He would feel.

That is my desire! Oh, I am fully aware that I have a LONG way to go, but as we seek Him with all our heart, as we get to know Him and what He truly thinks about us, then we can look at this world that is in need of His love, and see, think and feel what He would and in turn our actions will reflect the love that goes beyond anything that we could ever deserve and exceeds even the greatest imagination!

So here's to reaching the world with the amazing, unconditional, extravagant, overwhelming love of our wonderful Savior! May we love them well!

Pray.

Today I had the wonderful priviledge of teaching about missions at chapel for The Branch Christian Academy. I was very excited, as I love missions and I love kids, so teaching kids about missions was PERFECT! :-) Today's focus was on prayer, specifically praying for missionaries and other countries.

While everyone is not called to pick up and move to another country, I do believe that we are all called to be involved with missions and one way is to pray for others. Praying for missionaries is very important and needed. Ephesians 6:18-19 says, "Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. And pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God’s mysterious plan that the Good News is for Jews and Gentiles alike." It is important to pray for believers that are all over the world and to pray that God will give us all the right words to say, so that people can understand Jesus' amazing love!

Matthew 9:37-38 says, "He said to his disciples, 'The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask Him to send more workers into His fields.'" There are people all over the world, in every country, every city, town and village that need to know about Jesus, this verse is a reminder to pray for those who are going to share God's love and to also pray that more will go.

I shared an acronym of the word BLESS with the students as a way to remember things to pray about for missionaries, I find it to be quite helpful and would absolutely love it, if you would pray for these things for me.

B-body (health and safety)
L-labor (work and activities)
E-emotions (thoughts and feelings)
S-social (family and friends)
S-spiritual (time and growth in their personal walk with God).

The Bible says in James 5:16 that, "The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results." So I would feel very "blessed" if you would pray for me as I prepare to move to Guatemala and as I am there. I look forward to seeing the wonderful results!

Thank you!