i've got to testify.

we love our church.
we look forward to going every week.
it's non-denom. love that.
yesterday's sermon was so good.  you can have a listen if you want to.

the text was john 11-12.
our pastor, Jim, asked some challenging questions that i've been mulling over and over and over.  

i have to share.

Are you making Jesus famous for the right reasons?
Are you a Jesus lover?
Are you madly in love with the lover of your soul?
Do you love extravagantly?
How do you express your love to Jesus?
Is your life so radically different that it represents strong evidence of the supernatural?
Are you spiritually attractive to other people?
Is your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness & self control evident to those who know you? (fruits of the spirit)
Are you a threat to the enemies of God - the spiritual forces of evil ?
Do you pour your time, talents, & resources into what matters?
Do you love so deeply and give so passionately that people can't explain it as normal human behavior?
On account of you, do many put their faith in Jesus?
What behaviors point strongly to Jesus?
What can I do to make Jesus more attractive to those around me?

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i have to say i come up lacking on most of those. 

instead of getting discouraged by how far i have to go, i am encouraged so much by these questions.

i so want the fruits of the spirit to be evident in me. 

i want to love people passionately and deeply. . . even those who are hard to love. 

it's so easy to love those who we like. who we get along with. who are like us. who are attractive. who are easy to love. who treat us well in return. 

it's something far different to chose to love, extravagantly love those who are not like us. those who do not treat us well. those who are difficult or messy or draining. 

i want to learn to love like Jesus loved and walk like He walked. 

part of the passage we read in church yesterday was John 12:1-7. 

in that passage mary pours a pound of expensive perfume on Jesus' feet and washed His feet with her hair. it was a lavish act of love and worship for her God.

10 months ago God told AJ & I that we were supposed to pour out our lives like a drink offering. 

here's an excerpt from my journal:

9-8-09

. . . yesterday You reminded me of the story of the woman who poured out expensive perfume on Your feet and washed your feet with her hair. She "wasted" such a valuable possession on You - in worship and adoration of You.  She was ridiculed for wasting such an expensive thing when she could have done "better" things with that money - provided for the poor.  Other people didn't understand. . .  You confirmed to me through that story that You are near. That other people might not understand but You are asking us to pour out our lives for You in worship.  Then I told my sweet AJ. . . and You, through a completely different Bible passage told him the same thing - to pour out our lives for you - no matter what other people think . . . There we were in two different rooms, but at the same time, You were telling us the same thing .

since then we have been seeking the Lord as to what that means.

how does He want us to pour our lives out?

part of that journey has been meliyah.    

she has been coming to our home a few days a week since october and currently she's been staying with us for a couple of weeks. 

a few months ago we started praying that God would show us what kind of ministry He wants to have.

we have been leaning towards taking a bigger role in potter's house.  

we believed God confirmed it, but we were still praying and just making sure because this would be a huge change in our lives.

then last monday night we met with the leaders of potter's house and just talked it over.

the next morning AJ was reading his Bible.

He was going through a reading plan, so he wasn't picking out what he was reading, he was just reading what was next on the list. 

and here is the passage. 

Jeremiah 18:3-6

³ So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. ⁴ But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

 ⁵ Then the word of the LORD came to me: ⁶ "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

that is not a coincidence. that is the Creator of the Universe being intimately involved in our lives. 

the more i seek Him, the more i learn to hear & recognize His voice. 

now that's the real stuff of life.

we know that what we're heading into is not going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination, so i am so thankful we have this confirmation and others to go back to and remind ourselves of, when the work gets tough and we have those thoughts of "why in the world are we doing this?" and "why don't we just stinkin' pick the easy road for once?!" 

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