Acts 20:24

I've been praying for God to gradually open opportunities to share my faith.  Today was one of those days...

One guy, Jae, was talking about how his parents are missionaries...Korean missionaries (he says that makes a difference, apparently).  That was yesterday, but today I busted out the ukulele, and he was more than intrigued.  He asked to learn some songs, and the only ones that he knew chords to were praise and worship (old school, by the way).  He said something to the extent of "I don't remember some of the songs because it's been about three years since I've played...I guess it's been three years since I've been with God."  Brokenness comes in many different forms.  He didn't want to talk much more, but also referred to the sheep who continually ran away and how their legs were broken.  He believes that God will soon do that to him, except his neck instead of his legs.  God is slowly tearing down those walls.   

Then two girls sat down, Joey and Anna, one asked if we were Christian because Jill had on a Young Life shirt, and I had something that said "Baptist" on mine, and she pointed that out.  I began to explain that I wasn't Baptist and not in to organized religion or denomination.  Her reply: "So you're a real Christian!?"  We laughed it off, but I'm glad that she said it because it reiterated what God has revealed to me about what people think of "Christians" and "the Church." 

God has placed that on my heart recently.  It has been a growing conviction and is beginning to get heavier.  I've been reading through the book of Acts and studying the early church with "The Seven" and how much they rely on the Spirit to move and work instead of their words with a set of rules.  They were called "The Way" because He  is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  He claims the church as His own.  When He reveals Himself to Saul on the road to Damascus, He asks, "Why do you persecute Me?"  We are a part of who Jesus is.  It is our job to show that.  I've also been studying Jesus' teachings in the Gospels:  turn the other cheek, not to pray with many words, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength and to love others as yourselves.  We learn that He did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.  He came to love, show mercy and grace, and to save.  He hung around the prostitutes and the thieves because it is not the healthy that need a doctor, it is the sick.  I could go on and on, but God has revealed Himself to me immensely in the past few months.  I believe in His commission that in His name we will speak new languages, drive out demons, and lay hands on people and heal the sick.  I believe that the Spirit is as powerful today as He was then.  Nothing has changed.  He is still powerful.  The power that rose Lazarus and Tabitha (aka Dorkus) from the dead lives within each and every person who has accepted His love.  We of little faith.

This didn't have much to do with Haiti per Se, but the topic sparked after my conversations.  That's all.