A day rich in blessings and lessons!

I'm going to present another collage of my thoughts for the day.
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We have an amazing guest speaker this week named Rick Johnson. He and his wife are missionaries in Tijuana, Mexico. He spoke today on motivation and attitude on the mission field. Here are a few things from my notes:

~Missionary work is not accomplishing the task, it's giving yourself.

~If our happiness is determined by the results of our efforts, we're on a short term missions trip.

~We may have a fabulous plan of action in our mind of how our ministry will work out perfectly, but the plan will always fall apart. The only thing that will carry us through is gratitude to Christ for what He's done and the blessings He bestows upon us.

~In Luke 17 we find the story of the 10 lepers. Ten guys come to Jesus asking for mercy, healing, and grace--all ten are completely healed and yet only ONE turns back to praise God and thank Him. How does this apply on the mission field? Talking to all of the missionaries in this school and those that come through, they will all tell you that it is easy to be an ungrateful missionary. Even when God blesses and blesses, it's easy to focus on the small bad points. We want to be the ones who remember to forever thank Jesus for what He's done for us. This applies to all of us personally as well. So often we receive phenomenal blessings from God, and yet, looking at the ten lepers, we represent one of the nine backs turned away from God. Oh that we would take the time to run back to the Father and say thank you!!!!!

~More important than the blessing is the Blesser.

~Don't give yourself to missions....give yourself back to One who gives you the blessings. If you give yourself completely to Him and live a life of gratitude to Him, then you can be a part of missions with complete joy and focus.

~I have to say it one more time. What is our ultimate motivation in missions? What should be our ultimate motivation in life? Gratitude.

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Aside from today's chapel, here are some more things that have been going through my mind.

~We are told to come boldly before the throne of God, but that doesn't mean that we can leave our reverential awe at the door.



~ ----------------- /\----------------------------
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----------------/....... \_x <--------- us
--------------/........... \------------------------
------------/............... \----------------------
----------/..... GOD..... \---------------------
--------/...................... \--------------------
------/.......................... \-------------------
----/............................. \------------------
--/................................. ****** <----- The world
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So as you see in the picture, the mountain is God. The "x" is us (Christians). At the bottom of the mountain are jagged rocks that represent the world. In so many parts of our life, why is it that we like to walk to the extreme edge of our ledge on the mountain and peek down at the world? We see how close we can get without falling off. In reality, we should be hugging the mountain, God, hanging on for dear life.
p.s. I'm extremely proud of my picture there....looks just like my notes!

~When there is a lamb in a flock that tends to wander off a lot, the Shepherd breaks it's leg. This may sound cruel and unfair, but we have to realize that when the Shepherd does this, he is committing to carry that lamb until it has completely healed. Sometimes God has to break us through some trial or anything that we might deem unbearable....but we must know that He will carry us the entire time until it is over. And this time of being carried in the arms of the Father is when our relationship with Him is the strongest.


I wish you all could see the colors of the trees all over Michigan! It's breathtaking! Isn't it lovely to know that God wanted to make us smile so He decided to splash colors all across nature every year? I'm loving every moment of it!