faithful!!

PRAISE ALERT: GOD IS ON THE MOVE!!!

This quote is an excerpt of a spoken word piece that has really inspired me and transformed the way I think of my faith in Jesus Christ:

"If you are absolutely gripped by the coming realities that have been promised to you by God, then how you live your life in the present will be radically different than if you did not possess such certainty.

This is what faith is, my friends: positive certainty expressed in action. Authentic faith is not merely believing in God--it is believing God. Taking God at His Word, living in obedience to His revelation whatever the cost because you know, down deep in your bones, that God will always do as He says, that His speaking is His doing."

-- "Devotion," by Beautiful Eulogy

I read the lyrics of this whole song/piece as the start of my message at this morning's worship service, and goodness gracious, God was blessing me and showing me His faithfulness in the same moment that I was speaking about that very thing.

When I give a message for service, I always try to speak to what I have seen or am seeing God do in my own life. This was the case today; I've been stepping out in faith and seeing God come through on His promises every time. But not only have I seen His faithfulness to me recently, He was guiding me, leading me, building me up, answering prayers, and delivering on His promises as I stepped out in faith during the service itself. God is so faithful, He blows me away!

I was without my ministry partner today for service, which I was nervous about before the service. I plan to lead services on my own after she leaves in late August, but to hold this first service without her was daunting. I didn't have too much time to prepare for the service ahead of time either, as I worked an extra day this week and just had many things going on so it rushed up on me a bit. BUT! I knew I was supposed to have service, and I knew God was going to do amazing things. And so He did!!!

Even on Saturday night as I was putting out the signs we use to remind and direct people to the worship service, I was so blessed by people's kindness and was able to talk with and invite some people then and there. This morning, there were more people than ever before this season in attendance, and they were all so glad to be a part of the service. A large family and a bunch of couples came from the camp ground. And to my joyous surprise, three of my boat crew members were able to join the service for the first time because of tours being cancelled for the day due to smoke.

Before I really began the service (just after the intro), one of the service members asked to pray over me as I led everybody in worship. She spoke life and boldness into me, and through her God gave me courage to step out more and more over the course of the service. As I sort of stumbled through my message a little bit, all I could do was trust that the Lord was speaking into hearts, which I found out later He absolutely was. I wasn't thinking about it in the moment, but as I talked about trusting that God will always come through on His Word, He was doing just that by giving me the words to say and bringing the group of believers together and closer to Him.

After giving the message, I asked for prayer requests from the group. In this gathering of eighteen or so, people spoke up with faith and vulnerability that was truly beautiful to see. The faith, hope, strength, and love that God placed in us all as we worshipped together made it very clear that the Lord was with us in that space and time. I prayed over the requests that were lifted up in that moment in faith and confidence in God's goodness and guidance over everybody there.

And then, another truly wonderful thing happened: for the second time in the service, somebody asked if the group could pray over me. They encouraged attendees to join in laying hands on me, and once everybody had come up to the front, people prayed such beautiful things over me: ACMNP as a ministry and my role in it, my future and God's work in and through me, the light God is shining through me in Crater Lake... I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit powerfully as He filled me with extreme joy through the prayers of my fellow believers. I felt so humbled to be surrounded by the incredible cloud of witnesses that God had brought together this morning.

As always, there's more to share, but I had to get some of that out tonight before my work week kicks in again early tomorrow morning. The Lord is so faithful to us, and because of that and His everlasting love, I (try to) choose to walk in faithful pursuit of my Savior because I know that if I am seeking Him, He will never ever let me down. Again I come back to the words of Beautiful Eulogy: "God will always do as He says; His speaking is His doing."

God is so good!!!

Jumping for joy! The joy shown in these lake jumping pictures may be a fraction of that with which God filled me today :) Though the smoke was setting in, this was a highlight of my workday a couple of weeks ago. The captain (a friend of mine) and I went out early for our afternoon Wizard Island shuttle pick-up to give ourselves a few minutes to cool off and jump in the lake on the way over. What an incredible feeling it is to be swimming in the middle of this marvelous body of water with nobody else around. Such wonder!

These are a couple of photos of the worship service from when Mom was here :)