the heart of the city

I'm moved by people, by big groups of people, by the city life. My team is headed this next week to a camp in Illinois, so we've spent the weekend hanging out in Chicago. The guys suprised the girls tonight with a nice note and fun night out on the town as a team. It was a blast! But as we walked among the swarms of people I couldn't help but ache a little. There are so many people out there begging for somebody to care a little, to share a little. The streets of Chicago and every other town in America and around the globe are bursting at the seams with people who desperately need Christ. That's so humbling... and disturbing.

I was thinking as I was walking, "God, send me to the city." I want to bring hope to hopeless people; I want to bring the good news of salvation to the lost. I don't know where God will lead me in days and years to come, but I pray that maybe He'll lead me to the heart of the city. I believe that the heart of the city is broken, and it's broken in ways that only God can mend with His love and His grace that was demonstrated in perfect victory on the cross. I recently read a book that contained a simple quote "God-sized wounds require God-sized answers." They've got real big problems out there "in the world"- but there ain't nothing God can't handle. There ain't nothing He can't sovereignly mend or restore.

I'm quite sure my thoughts probably resemble very little clarity or sense... but it's 1:30 in the AM so not a lot is clear for myself either :)

in the beginning God...

Gen. 1:1 says "In the beginning God created..." - that is such an incredible statement! It blows my mind. The complexity of that sentence is really quite mind-boggling if you think about it. In the beginning of measured time as we know it, God was already there... and He had always been there. But it's that word "created" that is so particularly crazy to me. Out of nothing and for no apparent reason, GOD CREATED all things with intimate care and intricate detail. Everything with precision, He created a universe that is far beyond our understanding and comprehension.

The theme at Camp Lamoka this past week was Creation and it was such a sweet reminder of just precisely how small and insignificant I am in the scheme of things. Our God, MY GOD... is emmense, enormous, unfathomable, unthinkable, incomprehensible, and incredible. To think that the God who uttered words and light came forth... and the God who made the galaxies and has the power to roll them up like a scroll... and the God who made all creatures with crazy awesome detail... is the God who breathed LIFE into ME! That God wants an intimate relationship with ME! Why? I will likely never know or understand. "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me!" -David. I took a little extra time this past week to look at the creation around me and stand in awe of the Creator God who fashioned all things. There is such beauty and divine detail in each and every one of God's works of art! It's breath-taking. (Literally, if you're on the top of a mountain...)

Isaiah 40:12-15 - "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with his span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains scales and the hills in a ballance? Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold he takes up the coastlands like fine dust." Then it picks up at the end of the chapter with the often quoted section (vs. 28-31), "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." That passage got me thinking. (Shocker, I know.) Most would probably agree that God's big and He's in control and on and on... but how many of us really believe those things. "THE LORD (my Lord) IS THE EVERLASTING GOD & CREATOR OF THE ENDS OF THE EARTH...." And that is the God who supernaturally strengthens the weary and enables the weak. Eph. 1 tells us that the power that raised Christ from the grave IS IN YOU & ME! Why do I so often forget His goodness? Why do I so often cage His power? Why do I so often think that my ways are higher than His? Someone, please tell me where the logic in that lies.

Oh God, help me to trust your heart and lean wholly on your strength, fully on your wisdom. Help my life to be an Hallelujah- a chorus of praise always. "You are beautiful beyond description- Majesty enthroned on high. And I stand in awe of you... Holy God to whom all praise is due, I stand in awe of you."