*plus rawks*
i love plus!! (for you non-viners, 'plus' is our church's cell/home groups) this is my last week of official full-time work, and last week i was beginning to freak out a bit and doubt whether what i'm doing is really sane. quitting a good full-time job for... nothing. but coming into this week, i've received 3 totally encouraging emails which tells me that i'm on the right path. and today, at plus we were studying 1 corinthians 8 & 9. amazing stuff... it's as though parts of chapter nine were written for exactly this time in my life. God has a funny way of doing that...
1 corinthians 9v19 sums it up quite nicely for me: even though i am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, i have VOLUNTARILY become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized--whoever. i didn't take on their way of life. i kept my bearings in christ--but i entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. i've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those i meet into a God-saved life. i did all this because of the message. i didn't just want to talk about it; i wanted to be in on it! (the message).
this completely reaffirms what God had spoken to me 3 years ago when i made the decision to stay in hong kong. i am not my own. yes there have been many moments along the way where i have failed to keep this in perspective, but the Lord is reminding, getting me back on track. who do i think i am? do i define myself by the clothes i wear, the music i listen to, the people i hang around with, the things i do in leisure? or do i let the Creator of heaven and earth, and my heart, define and mold me? i realized tuesday night that wherever i am, whoever i may have become at that moment in time, is NOT me. it is only what i need to be in order to affect the people around me by the spirit of God. and if God chooses to take me from this place tomorrow, next month, next year, i will gladly adapt and be what i need to be there. he transformed me from a winter-loving, treehugging, indecisive, hip hop-hating, spoilt brat to a chinese-loving, hip hop dancing, driven city slicker.
yes, i've changed. thank God.
i love plus!! (for you non-viners, 'plus' is our church's cell/home groups) this is my last week of official full-time work, and last week i was beginning to freak out a bit and doubt whether what i'm doing is really sane. quitting a good full-time job for... nothing. but coming into this week, i've received 3 totally encouraging emails which tells me that i'm on the right path. and today, at plus we were studying 1 corinthians 8 & 9. amazing stuff... it's as though parts of chapter nine were written for exactly this time in my life. God has a funny way of doing that...
1 corinthians 9v19 sums it up quite nicely for me: even though i am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, i have VOLUNTARILY become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized--whoever. i didn't take on their way of life. i kept my bearings in christ--but i entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. i've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those i meet into a God-saved life. i did all this because of the message. i didn't just want to talk about it; i wanted to be in on it! (the message).
this completely reaffirms what God had spoken to me 3 years ago when i made the decision to stay in hong kong. i am not my own. yes there have been many moments along the way where i have failed to keep this in perspective, but the Lord is reminding, getting me back on track. who do i think i am? do i define myself by the clothes i wear, the music i listen to, the people i hang around with, the things i do in leisure? or do i let the Creator of heaven and earth, and my heart, define and mold me? i realized tuesday night that wherever i am, whoever i may have become at that moment in time, is NOT me. it is only what i need to be in order to affect the people around me by the spirit of God. and if God chooses to take me from this place tomorrow, next month, next year, i will gladly adapt and be what i need to be there. he transformed me from a winter-loving, treehugging, indecisive, hip hop-hating, spoilt brat to a chinese-loving, hip hop dancing, driven city slicker.
yes, i've changed. thank God.
posted by jana* at 8:25 PM
