Just a matter of a few days left, lots of laundry being folded at my house; pantry, fridge and freezer stocked with individual homemade meals that can be easily heated up; carry-on and backpack partially packed; visa, passport and etickets printed and ready; weighing my check-in bag as I go due to the number of books I'm taking; calendar is coded with exa
ct directions to each child's destination; lots done and lots more to do, especially to leave the house in order. Today I noticed a few windows that needed washing, too, but wonder if time will allow that! All these preparations are for my family and I, but what am I doing to get my soul in order to serve those I will meet? What am I doing to clean and organize my heart, what preparations am I making to share the gospel through a cultural and language barrier? Which is the most important preparation? Yep, you know it as well as I do. And to prepare my heart, to be a cleansed vessel fully filled with the Holy Spirit, I have to stop all this "doing" and "Be still" and know the Lord God personally, as my best friend, my redeemer, my creator, my comforter, my strength, my wisdom, my
everything. And to listen, really, really listen, to Him I have to clean out my own barriers, the "dirty windows" of my soul. It's not a cultural or language barrier but the sin barrier that I keep muddying back up onto my heart. Miss Bertha Smith used to ask "Have you got all your sins confessed up to date?" I can still hear those words in her powerful Southern accent, straight to your heart (at almost 90 she said she didn't have enough time left to tiptoe around things and nothing was as important as having your sins confessed and laid on the cross). She was right and I know it. She had a tremendous impact not only on the Chinese people she served, taught and loved for over 40 years but on the Americans she came home to teach.
And the reason she did? She understood the importance of
one thing - laying those sins on the promise of Christ's death so that He could use any of us at any time, anywhere for anything that He willed; dying to our own sinful self so that HE could live through us. May I prepare diligently this week in the one thing that matters. May the windows of my soul be clean, even if I don't have time for those in my house.
ct directions to each child's destination; lots done and lots more to do, especially to leave the house in order. Today I noticed a few windows that needed washing, too, but wonder if time will allow that! All these preparations are for my family and I, but what am I doing to get my soul in order to serve those I will meet? What am I doing to clean and organize my heart, what preparations am I making to share the gospel through a cultural and language barrier? Which is the most important preparation? Yep, you know it as well as I do. And to prepare my heart, to be a cleansed vessel fully filled with the Holy Spirit, I have to stop all this "doing" and "Be still" and know the Lord God personally, as my best friend, my redeemer, my creator, my comforter, my strength, my wisdom, my everything. And to listen, really, really listen, to Him I have to clean out my own barriers, the "dirty windows" of my soul. It's not a cultural or language barrier but the sin barrier that I keep muddying back up onto my heart. Miss Bertha Smith used to ask "Have you got all your sins confessed up to date?" I can still hear those words in her powerful Southern accent, straight to your heart (at almost 90 she said she didn't have enough time left to tiptoe around things and nothing was as important as having your sins confessed and laid on the cross). She was right and I know it. She had a tremendous impact not only on the Chinese people she served, taught and loved for over 40 years but on the Americans she came home to teach. 
And the reason she did? She understood the importance of one thing - laying those sins on the promise of Christ's death so that He could use any of us at any time, anywhere for anything that He willed; dying to our own sinful self so that HE could live through us. May I prepare diligently this week in the one thing that matters. May the windows of my soul be clean, even if I don't have time for those in my house.
1 comment:
I'm appreciate your writing skill.Please keep on working hard.^^
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