Mercy So Great....

For all of the seeking

Through valleys and hills

Shepherds and wise men

For glory revealed

Seems like the greatest 

Journey of all

Was heaven now searching

For the hearts of the lost

Gloria

Our Savior found us

Gloria

Oh love divine

Through the darkness

He won’t relent

Mercy so great

Will find a way

Gloria*

These are the lyrics to a song we sang at Christmas. It touched my heart in a particularly piercing way because I have a family member who is lost. So many times I lose hope. Because this precious loved one is not seeking God in any way. They aren't interested in a God who loves them. They don't want to have anything to do with Him. And yet, God has come to their rescue time and time and time again.

The part of this song that first caught my attention  was "Heaven now searching for the hearts of the lost."

Wow!  Heaven is searching for those hearts that are lost.

God is seeking those who are lost.
He hasn't given up.
He isn't blind to their location.
He isn't deaf to our prayers.
His light pierces through the darkness in which they are surrounded.

But the next part of the song gave me hope again.
It was a promise.
Through the darkness....He won't relent!

God is relentless in His love for us.
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son! (John 3:16).

If you, like me, are
waiting...
hoping...
praying...
Don't give up! Remember hope!

Mercy so great...
WILL find a way!!
Gloria!

*Gloria (Our Savior Found Us)

Written by Krissy Nordhoff, Michael Farren, Travis Ryan

A Thousand Generations...

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

Deuteronomy 7:9

I have often told people that I have no imagination. I'm not good at "visualizing"; I need to actually see the picture to "get" the picture. Usually when the Lord speaks to me I get what I call a word picture; in other words, I get a description of a picture, not an actual vision or picture. And if I try to imagine something, I have to use objects that I have actually seen before. For instance if someone were to say to me, "Imagine a red couch along this wall" I would have to imagine MY red couch because I have that as a form of reference. Make sense? (Can you imagine that?)

This past Sunday morning our church choir sang what was to me, a new song. It's a song by Bethel music called Be Enthroned and it is powerful!

Be enthroned upon the praises
Of a thousand generations
You are worthy. Lord of all

Unto You, the slain and risen King
We lift our voices with heaven singing
Worthy, Lord of all

 As the choir sang, and then as we joined in, I began to try to imagine... 

A thousand generations

The King of Kings enthroned

 All of heaven singing

"Worthy, Lord of all!"

First of all, what does the throne look like? Now, remember, I have to go by what I have seen and I have never seen a royal throne. The closest thing I could come up with was the Lincoln Memorial (go with me here).


I was raised in Washington, DC and remember going to the Lincoln Memorial, standing at the base of his seat and looking up. It was huge, and it represented power and authority. And when you stand at the base and look up all you have in your vision are his feet and fingertips. But from out across the Washington Mall it is lit up and bright and can be seen from most anywhere in DC.



Then I tried to imagine a thousand generations; what does a thousand generations look like? Can you imagine it? All the generations before us, for thousands of years; all of the generations to come after us for however much longer the people of God remain on earth.....millions upon millions of people surrounding the Throne.

There is a scene in The Lord of the Rings that shows thousands upon thousands of people, warriors really (but aren't we warriors?). However, the picture depicts what I expect a thousand generations could look like ... people as far as the eye can see.

Now, we add all of the Hosts of Heaven: the angels, cherubim, seraphim. This one I cannot even begin to imagine. I have no form of reference. Isaiah wrote,

"I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; 

and the train of his robe filled the temple. 

Above him stood the seraphim.

  And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; 

the whole earth is full of his glory!^"

So I'm envisioning this huge marble seat, thousands upon thousands upon tens of thousands of people surrounding it, with all of the host of heaven intertwined among them, singing,

"You are worthy, Lord of all!"

By this point in my imagination I am overwhelmed....undone. Even in my limited imagination, I am lost in the awesomeness of the God we serve. The wonder of who He is, how He loves me and the unfathomable knowledge that in that crowd of a thousand generations, He looks out among them and

He sees.......me. 
He sees ...you.

And all I've been able to sing for two days is:

Be enthroned upon the praises
Of a thousand generations
You are worthy. Lord of all

Unto You, the slain and risen King
We lift our voices with heaven singing
Worthy, Lord of all

Highest praises
Lord of all

Here is the link to the song:Be Enthroned
Prepare to be undone..... 

'Lena
©2016

"I Want to Change the World"

"Go into all the world 

and preach the Good News to all creation." 

(Mark 16:15)

That is what Jesus told his disciples and it is known in Church circles as the Great Commission. And if you have grown up in the Church, as I have, then you have seen countless people follow that Commission and travel the world to preach the Good News. We, as the Church, have encouraged our young people to listen for the call of Jesus, follow the call of their heart, and step out in both courage and faith to spread the Good News throughout all the world.

We spend hours and hours teaching them and training them. Making sure they are informed about the dangers, the things for which they should be aware of, how different cultures behave and perceive actions and words. We anoint them with oil and pray blessings over then and we send them out.

Unfortunately, we tend to forget one thing.....it costs a lot of money to travel the world and preach the Gospel.

I had a gentlemen ask me the other day, "You know, we hire pastors to come and work at our church, but why do we make our missionaries raise their own money?" I didn't have an answer for him.

Jesus also said in Mark, to "take nothing with you, no bread, no bag, no money" (Mark 6:8). But we do live in a different world now; a much larger world than the disciples even knew existed. And while our missionaries usually take very little with them, it does cost money to actually get to the place they are going.

Why am I telling you all of this? I know five young people between the ages of 20 and 24 who are leaving in a few weeks for missions trips. Two young ladies are going to a Youth With a Mission (YWAM) base in Hawaii for training before going out on an outreach trip and three young men are leaving in ten days for a YWAM base in Germany, then on to an outreach in the 10/40 Window for three months before spending three months with our missionaries in Uruguay. Between them all, they have had to raise close to $35,000 to "go into all the world."

Unfortunately, all of them are still needing a great deal of money to make this happen. They have sent out sponsor letters, worked all summer and saved every penny, created GoFundMe accounts, and still the means to reach the "world" are not there.

We, as the Church of Jesus Christ, have encouraged these young people to find their passion, their purpose, their calling, and go. But we aren't giving them the means to do so.

Ultimately, God is our provider; He is THEIR provider. But God uses people; He uses the Church.

So, I'm asking that you consider how you can support these young people as they follow the call of Jesus and go into a dark and hurting world to spread the Gospel.

And I'm asking that you pray for each one of them by name:

Teigan Barlow

Emily Horner

Bracken Hibbard, Sam DeVos, Mitchell Ehlert

As you can see, my son is one of them; He's the one that said, "I want to change the world." Maybe that makes me somewhat prejudice and this post somewhat self-serving, but he, like these other young people, has finally found his passion and his purpose. And I want to see him and these other students follow Jesus and “go into all the world.”

There is a new generation of missionaries being raised up by the call of the Holy Spirit. Will you help them follow the call? Each one of them has a GoFundMe account. Or you can send donations directly to them. If you are interested in giving, send me a message and I will give you their information.

Let us be the Church that makes a way to reach out and "change the world."

Blessings,

'Lena

bestillandknow.lena@gmail.com

Say Something....

"That He may grant you to be strengthened with power 

through His Spirit in your inner being so that Christ 

may dwell in your hearts through faith."

Ephesians 3:16-17

I was sitting here this morning running through my Facebook before I begin my day. I don't spend a lot of time there any more, because the political posts annoy me. But this morning, several posts caught my eye.

I have a classmate from high school who is in surgery as we speak having tumors removed. She and her family have kept us updated via Facebook, so I was looking to hear from them. Debbie's daughter had posted that she was in surgery and they had been given an update from the doctor...things were going well, but it would take longer than they had expected.

I scrolled on down and found a post my sister had shared. It was a quote from Christine Caine that said, 

"In the midst of what may seem like the toughest storm, if we will simply trust Him and listen for His instruction, we'll undoubtedly hear Him whisper to our heart: "Yes, right now it all seems impossible. But just stick with Me because when you have Me in you - surrounding you, ahead of you, and behind you - nothing is impossible."

She included Psalm 91:2

"He is my refuge and my fortress; my God in whom I trust."

I shared that with Debbie's daughter hoping to bring encouragement to her and the family.

Then I continued to scroll down the page. Another friend had posted a song; it was a Christian version of the song, Say Something. I was concerned as I first began to listen, because the words are:

Say something, I'm giving up on You.

I'm sorry that I couldn't get to You.

Anywhere I would have followed You.

Say something, I'm giving up on You.

It disturbed me a bit because it was as if they were saying, "God, You're not doing anything, so I'm outta here." (And, yes, I know there are those who feel that way...). But as I listened, it changed...in the middle of the song, they began reading Scriptures - promises from the Father.

Be strong and courageous...

Come to Me if you are weary and heavy burdened - I will give you rest.

You are not slaves, but My children!

And I am your Father!

Then they began to read the portion of Scripture where the prodigal son returns home (Luke 15:22-24 Message); and the Father, who has never given up on His son, embraces him and throws a massive celebration....and I wept!

You see, I have a son who is not walking with the Lord. In fact, he has given up on God...believing God has given up on him. And it breaks my heart. If only...if only...he could hear, truly hear these Promises of God.

God hasn't given up on him!!

We've all been there at some time in our lives. Wondering if God is there, is He listening... does He even care. But His Word is FULL of promises and all He asks of us is to believe Him; take Him at His Word. Rest in Him.

You're probably wondering what these two stories have to do with each other. Well, the same theme ran through both stories.....

We need to Say Something...

We all know someone who is battling something....sometimes it's ourselves. Health issues, finances, relationship issues, employment issues, or spiritual issues. None of us are exempt from the battles. 

We need to encourage one another with the Promises God has given us. "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of HIS might" (Ephesians 6:10). We don't have to do anything in our own strength.  As Christine Caine reminded us, God says, "right now it all seems impossible. But...when you have Me in you - nothing is impossible!"

And, if you are feeling abandoned or bereft, and feel like giving up, remember...Your Father is saying something to you. He's not giving up on you! "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion..." (Philippians 1:6).

This morning, not only was I encouraged by others, I was reminded to pray for those who are in need. And may I encourage you, as you read posts from your friends if someone says, "Please pray for me..." truly pray. It's so easy to type "praying"; I know, because I've done it myself. But after doing so, stop for a moment and lift that person up in prayer. It really only takes a moment. And they are asking because the need the love and support, encouragement and strength that we can give each other. 

Finally, I know many of us use Facebook way too much; it's easy to get lost as we scroll down the page and through the posts. But, it really is a great tool to stay in touch with one another, share one another's burdens, and bring encouragement to one another. Sometimes, that verse you read this morning, or that song you heard is exactly what someone else needs to hear. I have been challenged by God lately to make the things I post on Facebook....matter.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father

from whom every family in heaven and on earth is names,

that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you

to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your

inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through 

faith - that you, being rooted and grounded in love,may have 

strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth

and length and height and depth, and to know the love of

Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled

with all the fullness of God."

Ephesians 3:14-19

 'Lena

© 2016