Tonight I am overwhelmed by the love of God. And with that, I am saddened by how much we (me included) as Christians don't take advantage of this all surpassing love. Last night I went to the Spiritual Renewal service, and Colin Smith spoke. The theme is living a Gospel centered life. Since Paraguay God has been really speaking to my heart about the Gospel and what that really means in my life and in sharing it with unbelievers. We often take for granted truly how blessed we are are "sons of God." Colin shared what adoption in Christ really means which I thought was an awesome way of explaining this beautiful picture. He said that the legal part is the hard part and really expensive. Christ made our adoption legal by His death on the cross and shedding His precious blood for our sins. It was the most expensive price He could have paid. But...He thought that I was worth it...and you too! Then, the next part in adoption is the bonding experience. Christ does this by giving us the Holy Spirit and being able to communicate with Him. Wow....I left just thinking about how I don't thank God enough for His love. I think that I often am in such a schedule with God, so I forget to stop and think about who He truly is. Colin read a quote from John Owen, a puritian writer that explained the true heart of God so well. "The greatest sorrow and burdem you can lay on God the Father, the greatest unkindness to Him is not to believe that He loves you." WOW! This is the God that we serve! One that longs to be compassionate to us (Isaiah 30:18) and hear us cry out, "Abba, Father!"
This whole sermon about the love of God came at the perfect time for me. Yesterday and today I have been kind of frustrated with student-teaching overall. I think that there are several things that this stems from...mainly that I am still trying to get used to all of these changes. I am having a difficult time being at Taylor but not being a real student. I miss chapel so much! Last night reminded me of that; however, I am so thankful that I still have the opportunity to experience things like Spiritul Renewal. As far as student teaching, I am teaching about half of the day....less than I thought I would be teaching at week 5, so I have not been too overwhelmed yet. I think that living off campus is required for a reason! I know that I would never be able to complete student teaching in the dorm with all of the distractions (mainly fun ones!!!). Even though there are so many great things about living off campus and I know that it is what I need, I am stiill struggling. I hate that friendships have already changed due to different lives now. I hope that in the spring things go somewhat back to normal because I miss certain people so much.
Well, I think that I am going to go the other spiritual renewal service and then spend the rest of my evening planning for tomorrow and the rest of this week.
No comments:
Post a Comment