Be the Light

Be the Light

Posted by Candace

Lately, I have felt the weight that comes with the living in a broken world.  I find myself yearning to go back to Egypt where my eyes were shut tight and my small world, though without much point, was comfortable enough to keep me hidden.  God has done so much with me in the past couple of years.  I have changed...my heart has changed...my mind has changed...my life has changed...and just when I think "Surely, He must be done...He HAS to be done" He begins to work again.  I used to love to read about the Israelites and their quest for the Promised Land.  It always made me feel pretty good about myself (surely I would have never behaved that way!)...until God came for me.  Until He called me out of Egypt and set me on a path for the place He created me for.  I might have been content to stay safe and comfortable, but He is too faithful of a God to let me waste my life, all the while praying that I wouldn't.

It wouldn't be so bad if this were an easy road...the road that leads to your purpose...the road OF your purpose.  Jesus looked at His disciples on that road one day and said "Whoever does not eat my flesh and drink my blood has no part in me." and He watched the majority of them turn their backs and walk away.  After all, wasn't it enough that they had followed?  Wasn't it enough that they had listened?  Wasn't it enough that they believed in His work?  That they got excited when there was a miracle... that they sat under His teaching?  Now He was literally asking them to consume Him... to take Him inside themselves...to become like Him.  As His eyes lingered on those who were abandoning Him, He turned to the rest of His disciples, "Don't you want to go too?"  And Peter answers with a question that often resonates in my soul and brings me to my knees, "Where would we go, Lord? Only You have the Words of eternal life." I'm NOT going back to Egypt...there is nothing there for me.

I have to believe that at some point, every Christian comes to a bend in the road.  Before we reach this narrowing of the path, our walk with God has been relatively easy and uneventful.  We have watched Him do great things in our own lives and in the lives around us.  We have had some good ole' fashioned fellowship with Him.  We have been regular church attenders, kept our lives pretty clean, read our Bibles, and sang some great worship songs.  And suddenly we face a season in which we feel the stakes raise.  He wants more of us.  He is not content with our service from Egypt.  He is ready to take us further.  He is ready to take us into the purpose for which He created us.  And we look at that narrowing...we see the bumps... we see the giants... we see the battles that await us, and we have a decision to make.

My decision was made, because, like Peter, I knew that there wasn't another option.  He was it.  He IS it.  He is the only thing that keeps me from being a complete and total waste of oxygen.  I decided to follow and now my eyes are opening and I do not like what I see... I do not like it one bit.  I see a world full of corruption and greed.  I see babies being abandoned in streets like trash.  I see young people being enslaved to all kinds of demonic powers.  I see girls being sold as slaves for their bodies.  I see addiction is on the rise and mental illness (much of which is simply a lack of belief in truth) is completely out of control.  I see a world of darkness around me...almost everywhere I look.  And saddest of all, I see a church asleep...the light of the world dimmed almost to extinguishment...the city set on a hill that cannot be hidden, broken down and dilaphidated.  Its members content to love the world, live like the world, and defend the world, all while trying their best to have an appearance of Jesus.  The command to "go into all the world and preach..." nearly forgotten and left to a remnant of people usually labeled "uptight Jesus freaks"...as in "you are taking this Jesus thing entirely too seriously.  Lighten up. Have some fun. Joy. Grace. Fun. That's what Jesus is."

And this is hard.  It is hard to live every day with this knowledge...with eyes wide opened...and the heart of Jesus within you that longs to fix it. 

Yet in all this brokenness...all this hardness...all this emptiness... He gives hope.  We have hope because God used 2 out of 12 to eventually lead His people into the Promised Land.  We have hope because God used 11 out of hundreds to begin His Church that the gates of hell, no matter how hard they rage today, have NOT prevailed against.  We have hope because God is well able to use the remnant of His people...the ones who will follow Him past the bend in the road and into the difficulties and sufferings of bringing light into the darkness. We have hope that God has done and will do the impossible. 

Can I tell you that you ARE the hope?  Will you let Him open your eyes to a world that is crying out for you?  Will you do SOMETHING in a world where doing nothing is the norm?  Will you stop complaining and start asking Him where you fit into the solution?  What are you created for?  Don't waste your life away in Egypt...there is nothing for you there...YOU are the light of the world.  Be the Light.

From Rejection to Redemption: Not Just the Orphan's Story

From Rejection to Redemption: Not Just the Orphan's Story

Posted by Candace

When I was in 2nd grade, there was one other girl in my class at my small Christian school. Her name was Danielle. We became best friends that year and were inseparable. We played on the playground together, sat together at lunch, and probably had more than a few play dates (though it is hard to remember).  The next year, however, our third grade class was combined with the 4th and 5th grade (very small school) and the 5th grade was encompassed by a girl named Autumn.  Autumn decided that she wanted Danielle as HER best friend, and my best friend could not resist the status of this older woman.  Unfortunately Danielle did not just forget about me.  Instead, she and Autumn would spend the playground time that we used to have together whispering back and forth about me.  I could never hear what they said, but I have a good enough imagination to make up many things that they might have.  I clearly remember a good bit of my 3rd grade year spent in tears, at school and at home.  A root of rejection was born in me, as I was orphaned by my first best friend.

It didn't get much better as I grew up.  I strived for popularity, but never could attain it.  I was teased for my flaws...and they were many.  I was privy to many conversations about events in which I was not invited to. In the midst of all of this, my parents divorced and my beloved father moved away. The root of rejection had grown in me and was spreading its tenacles around my heart.  I was captive to it and the enemy laughed.

My daughter was born on December 2, 2009.  On that same day, that same root of rejection took hold of her as her parents left her at the gate of a Chinese government building, right next to a State family planning office.  She spent the first two and a half years of her life in a small metal crib with floor mats for a mattress.  The very people to who she was given as a gift had abandoned and forsaken her.  The root of rejection began to spread its tenacles, and the enemy was laughing.

"...BUT GOD, who is rich in mercy..."  Into every single one of us is born a need for acceptance... for love... for praise... for belonging.  None of us were created to be loners.  Even God Himself is God, the Father; God, the Son; and God, the Holy Spirit.  Our very being is created with a need for others.  In this broken world, we are often orphaned by others.  We are orphaned in a variety ways and by a variety of people.  Some of us lose parents through no fault of their own... some of us live with parents that abandon and reject us every day with their words and actions... some of us have been betrayed by a spouse or a best friend... some of us may not have experienced harsh rejection from other, but still feel rejected for some reason.  We are all in need of redemption.

"I will not leave you orphans, but I will come to you." John 14:18.  "For you have not received the spirit of bondage to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry 'Abba, Father'." Romans 8:15.  We are all orphans until that moment that He comes for us...until that moment that He, not only, adopts us, but we believe and trust fully in that adoption.  In that moment, friends, we are free from our captivity...from those roots that so easily entangle us.  We belong to Him.  The need has been met and we are redeemed. 

Once we are redeemed, we may find ourselves in captivity at times once again.  We may slide back into old ways...we may forget the things that He has said...we may ignore His voice and choose our own path, but this is what He calls to us "I see you in your captivity...you are MY children and I am coming for you."  We are not orphans.  WE. ARE. NOT. ORPHANS.  We have a Father and He is coming for us.

This is why Redeemer has become my favorite name for God.  This is why the word "redemption" brings chills up my spine.  This is why "redeemed" holds a special place in my heart.  See, in the eyes of my sweet daughter, Katherine Hope, I see myself.  I see how orphaned that I was, and I remember who came for me...who redeemed me. It wasn't a best friend...it wasn't a pastor...it wasn't a parent...it wasn't a counselor... It was HIM.  "Even though my father and my mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me." Psalm 27:10.  I may have had parents to raise me, but the need in me was still as strong as it is in Kate, and every day I see pictures of myself in her as she immerses herself in our love.

We have a FATHER, ya'll!!!  And as my pastor says, "His victories are His redemptions".  YOU are fully available to be one of His victories!  HIS PORTION!  A people reserved for Himself that He can take pleasure in.  That He can soak in, just as we soak in our Katherine.  He loves us that much, that He would forsake everything else...even give His only Son...so that we can leave rejection to the distant memories and live in redemption.

"In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace..." Ephesians 1:7

My heart is bursting, Jesus!  I wish I could put it on paper acceptably and accurately.  I hope that I have done right by Your great Name!  Redeemer, that's who You are to me.  Thank You.