Running the race... Forward

As a small group we have been going through a study called 'A Life worth watching' by Central Christian/Jud Wilhite. You can check it out here. (Which, by the way, those prices are for reals people!)

Anyway, this week's key verse was Philippians 3:14: 'I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.'

It talked about going towards something. But it also talked about leaving your past behind. Whenever I had heard about leaving your past behind I always whole heartedly agreed. Why wouldn't I want to leave all the crap behind... 

All the times I lied, cheated, offended? I would GLADLY leave them behind. 

But tonight this study challenged me to think further... 

'You can't move forward while looking backward. What's behind you is behind... ... Even the positive impact you have contributed is over. There is more work to be done, so hanging out in memory lane won't help you finish the course.'
In the video it said 'Yesterday ended last night' (or something like that! :) 

So in order to move forward I don't just have to let go of the stuff I LIKE letting go off. The crap stuff. 

But I also have to move on from the positive impact I've had. It's great that I've been part of the lives of many people; leading them to Christ, discipling them, teaching them or just telling them about Jesus. Some of those are amazing stories, but there is new work, new challenges, new things for me to do in order to finish this race. 

Still has me puzzled. In a good way. 

What do you think?

Discipleship is more than information (via ericgeiger.com)

I found this pretty cool blogpost here

Click on this link and read it! It's about the massive difference between teaching discipleship and teaching others to OBEY what Jesus said.
It's about the difference of calling Him Rabbi or calling Him Lord.
It helps me understand what I can do in my life to change.
It helps me understand what Jesus is really after.

Loved the post! Thanks Eric Geiger, And thanks twitter! Coz that's where I found these pearls of wisdom! :)

Conversations in Jail

I love my juvis. Love hanging out with them. Telling them about Jesus, having them ask questions and generally having a good time.

The other week these were some of the responses I got:

Me: There are people out there who totally want to hang out with you and help you.
Juvi: No offense Miss (that's me... So weird). But no one wants to hang out with ex felons.
Me: No really, I've talked to them. I am one of them
Juvi: Why would they want to do that? We are ex felons. They don't wanna hang out with us. 

Me: Tell me something or someone you're proud of.
Juvi: Oh that's easy. Nothing and Noone.
Me: *heart broken*

Me: I wanna learn your names. (goes around and has them tell me their names. I usually get their street names and never their real names which is fine with me.)
Juvis: Miss, do you know my real name?
Me: No, you never told me!
Juvis: *pause* Miss, my real name is Bradley (name changed for privacy reasons).
Me: *jumping up and down on the inside*

Me: Tell me the most important person in your life and why?
Juvi: My Mum, because she's always been there for me. Even though I am in here!
Me: What was the hardest thing you ever had to do aside from being in here?
Juvi: Tell my Mum what I'd done. 

Me: I want to give you a challenge this week. (we do challenges EVERY week. One that we had to revisit is the one about not swearing. Now it's not just not swearing. It's just not swearing at church. LOL.) This week I want you to replace negative thoughts about yourself with positive ones.
Juvi: (who has been a pain in the behind for the past 6 weeks, has never listened, always been disruptive and been on the verge of being kicked out more than once) I like that challenge! I'm totally gonna do that Miss!
Me: *jumping up and down on the inside!*

These are just some of the conversations that happen when I hang out with them. Actually all these happened in one night! It also should be noted that these are not your average Juvis. I might call them Juvis, but a lot of them will be tried as adults and are seen by the law as adults. It suggests that what they have done was bad. Really bad.
And yet I believe they deserve a chance. First of all a chance to hear about Jesus ('Miss, who's Hosanna??') secondly a chance to be the person that God wants them to be.

Please continue to pray with me for my Juvis. Every Saturday I get to talk to up to 20 of them. And yeah, I kinda like them!

Seriously??

The other day I had the following conversation:

Me: yeah, I'm from Germany
DB: really? Where from.
Me: About 2 hours west of Berlin
DB: What city?
Me: Hannover.
DB: Wow. Cool. I was in Germany last year.
Me: Really? Where at?
DB: At Frankfurt. At the airport for 2 hours
Me: ...

Seriously dude? After all that come up with something better than '2 hours of Frankfurt Airport'. And just for your information: It doesn't count as having been IN Germany if you didn't leave the airport.
So there you have it. Next time stop with these ridiculous questions.
Oh, and saying that 'you've been invited to a Christian conference to an undisclosed location in North Africa' might impress some people. But not me. So just shut up, will ya?

OK, done with my rant. But it really had to be said.

Thankful

Last night I had a bit of a crisis and tweeted 'Officially freaking out about the Germany trip'. After a bit of back and forth, where I explained a little as to why and what it boils down to (It's really a trust in God issue), I got this tweet back:

@jackie_doyle: Maybe time to remember how many times He's come through for you in times past. That's   what I do when faced with something big...

Sometimes I have the best friends ever, even though I haven't met them.
Since I am QUITE aware that I could be working on a list of ALL God has done and provided for me for months, I figured I would just limit myself to this year: 2012
In no particular order:

Had my car fixed in January ($400+)
Still very thankful for said car, which was a complete gift of God
Paid my taxes. On time.
Got my gas tank filled in April THREE times for free. (I have one supporter who fills it twice a month, which is SO awesome. But the third time was a HUGE blessing and bonus)
I got to go to kINdSOMNIA. Love that my church is able to offer going to those kind of events for free for leaders. It's really nice.
Finally used my Christmas Groupon bucks and booked a yoga experience I really liked. Not enough to become a member, but at least it wasn't scary.
Right now I love my Groupon place where I can swim and lounge at the pool. Although their sales technique sucked.
I finished my blanket. (I crocheted it and it took almost 6 months to finish and many, many skeins of yarn. An estimate in cost is about $75 for the blanket... It's REALLY big. And I couldn't tell you how many skeins I used, because I buy them one by one.)
My phone is completely 100% sponsored which is HUGE!!! (Not the phone - the blessing!)
More than a month ago I started going into the youth unit at the jail and I LOVE it.
LOVE my friends and all the crazy stuff we do together

Looking at this list definitely helps me see how much God is for me and not against me. And this is just a 5 minute brainstorm of what God has done in the last 4 months.

Thankful....