Created

So many of us are marveled by His majestic power via His nature; the nature that He created and called “good”, but we so often fail to have that same sense of awe with each other…. He created all of us and called us “VERY GOOD”.  The best of all that He created!  Besides His Spirit that He gave us, WE, ALL HUMANS (no matter race, socioeconomic boundaries, culture, religion, or anything that we have done nor will do), are the closest thing we have to experiencing God Himself. That’s a priority changer huh?  Yes, it’s wonderful and perfectly rigtheous to glorify God by marveling at His nature, but there is so much beauty we are missing in our neighbors, people we pass by every day, and we even miss it in our spouses, family, and best friends.  Convicting huh?  I do it all the time, and if you’re honest with yourself, you do to.  We are made in the VERY LIKENESS OF GOD, let’s start treating each other that way (even if they aren’t perfect like He is).  Yes, I know a tree doesn’t talk back to you, drive slow on the freeway, or act selfishly, but a tree also doesn’t have the capability of deep meaningful conversations, loving you, building you up when you’re down, or making you cheesecake either. People are more AWEsome than we give each other credit for.  Be marveled at someone today because God has already said they are VERY GOOD, and afterall, we ARE made in His image.

– Taylor Bodin

 

The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

– Job 33:4 (NIV)

 

Then God said, “Let Us make human beings in Our image, to be like Us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”

So God created human beings in His own image.
In the image of God He created them;
male and female He created them.
Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

Genesis 1:26-28 (NLT)

 

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.

– Psalm 139:13-16 (NLT)

 

Photo taken by Susie Stewart

 

Alone

Loneliness.

Ever been there?

Everyone has.

Sometimes loneliness lasts for hours.

Sometimes days.

Sometimes years.

Loneliness cuts deep.  It is a place where thoughts can run wild.  It is a place where discouragement can settle in and make itself at home.  It can be a place of overwhelming self-focus.

Loneliness.

Even the word brings sad sighs.

Loneliness is real, right?  But is aloneness a reality?

Am I ever truly alone?

Webster says loneliness is a sadness because one has no friends or company; the quality of being unfrequented and remote, isolated…

Jesus knows alone.  On that cross.  Everyone had turned away, even the Father who loved Him perfectly.  He knows alone.

Amazing, isn’t it?  Jesus knew loneliness like no one has ever felt.

And yet.

He never leaves us in that state.

He never leaves us alone.

Aloneness is not a reality!  It is an illusion!

We are never alone.  Even when we are.

What a glorious fact to ponder!

Even in my isolation.  Even on my island.  Even in my seasons of being companionless, there He is.  And He knows.

He knows the feelings.

He knows.

And He is sitting there by me, and looking into my distant eyes, and loving me, and reminding me with blessing after blessing after blessing….

And yet sometimes…

Instead of noticing, instead of being there with Him, and listening to Him, and sharing my heart with Him…

I choose instead, the path of self-pity.  I’m worn-out and dwelling on the muck.

Why can’t I see with my spiritual eyes that He is RIGHT THERE.

It’s because loneliness dwelt upon shuts out.

It shuts out gratefulness.  It shuts out pursuing others.

It shuts out God.

The One who faithfully and lovingly pursues me, and is present always,

gets. shut. out.

He reminds me, even just this morning, that I am serving beautiful, forgotten, lonely children half a world away.  As I sit in a quiet house day after day by myself, clicking away at these keys, Jesus the Rescuer, is taking that time of island-dwelling to reach down with His loving hand outstretched and leading precious ones to a place of refuge.  A place of belonging.  A place of abundance.  A place of love.

Small and innocent, abused and forgotten, hungry and hurting…. what is my loneliness compared to theirs?  They are not forsaken.  And neither am I.

What we do with our aloneness matters.

Love God, love people.  The two greatest commandments.  How simple, right?

Keep me from eyes that study myself way too much, Lord.  Thank you for taking on ultimate loneliness so that I didn’t have to.

– Susie Stewart

 

Click here – “Alone Yet Not Alone” by Joni Eareckson Tada

 

Photo taken by Susie Stewart

Africa

The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position.  But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower.  For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant;  its blossom falls and withers the plant;  its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed.  In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.

– James 1:9-11

 

I read these words this morning.  While I am still seeking God’s wisdom in all the meaning here, I think I have a pretty good concept of what He is getting at.  My family, along with a team from different parts of the U.S., just returned from Uganda.  This was personally my 6th time going, as my husband and I lead a ministry that serves there.

We have witnessed unbelievable poverty and need.

We have witnessed unbelievable riches, too.

The riches have nothing to do with material wealth.  It is a wealth of the spirit.  It is deep-seated joy.  It is a depth of relationship with Jehovah Jireh, God our Provider, who provides our daily bread.  It is relational depth with family and friends where posessions don’t take first place.

“The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position…”  It’s interesting how God sees things upside down from the way we do.  All throughout scripture you can see His heart for the poor.  He says that it is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 19:24).  Riches weigh down.  Riches distract.  Riches pull us away from what is important.  Riches can make us complacent.  Riches can make us not depend on God.

It’s all a facade, though.  God has always been the One who provides it all.  Our spirits long to be dependent and find solace in Jehovah Jireh, but we are blinded.

“But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower…”

Will our legacies as “rich Americans” be as selfISH or selfLESS people?  Will we walk with God or walk with stuff?

I am positionally in a lowly position in God’s scheme of things.  Humility is required.

Thank you to so many of my brothers and sisters in Africa for modeling what riches are truly made of.

– Susie Stewart

 

2 Corinthians 8:9 “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”

http://www.trueimpactministries.com

Image

 

Photo taken by Susie Stewart