GRACE ALONE

Yesterday morning I woke up with a song that was playing over and over in my mind... I can't count the number of times this happens for me or the ways that the music blesses and ministers to my soul! I know it is a gift from the Lord, because every time it happens, the message of the song is just what I need at that particular moment, and that is definitely a work of God!

The song I was singing all day yesterday and today as well was "Grace Alone," written by Scott Wesley Brown and Jeff Nelson. This one has always been special to me and it was just what I needed yesterday. So I decided that I wanted to translate this song into Russian... and since I don't know all the rules and words yet, I'm using Google Translate to help me out. :)

But before I share with you my translation of this song, I want to tell again just how real God's grace has been for me this week...

I was feeling just a little discouraged earlier on because I was struggling with understanding the formation of certain phrases and words and I wasn't sure if I could make the transition to thinking differently. I also had a couple of late nights and so I was tired yesterday morning when I went into class.

I ask the Lord each day to help me with the tasks ahead of me and I know that He will but sometimes I feel unworthy of that, which is exactly the definition of grace - receiving something we don't deserve. So His gift to me was that yesterday I was able to grasp the concept we had been studying earlier on in the week and I made some progress. Today, I was able to communicate not only with my language teacher, but also with my landlady IN RUSSIAN and this is amazing, considering I have only had 4 weeks of language classes!

I started by translating the words of the chorus and that's what I want to share with you today. The words are not always a direct translation, but as accurate as possible to what the English words mean:

Grace alone, which God supplies.

Только благодатью, что Бог снабжает.

Strength unknown, He will provide.

Великая сила, Бог обеспечит.

Christ in us, our Cornerstone -

Христос в нас, наш фундамент.

We will go forth in grace alone.

Мы будем идти вперед в благодати только.

So remember, whatever you are facing today, you can go forth in God's grace alone -- it is sufficient for our every need!!

MESSAGES FROM GOD

This is an exciting post to write!
     I'm not surprised, since I know that God does this, but when you experience Him speaking to you and the reality of the message applies directly to where you're at in that moment, then it's time to pause and give thanks to the One who knows us so well and knows just exactly what we need.

* Sunday morning was one of those times.
     I have been here in Kiev, Ukraine now for 4 weeks - THAT'S really hard to believe - and I'm just barely scratching the surface of understanding the language. So as I went to church, I hoped but did not expect to feel a part of the service, especially the sermon (проповедь).
     However, with my Russian-English parallel Bible I was able to follow along somewhat with the Scripture reading (I still make a few mistakes with some of the letters in the alphabet, and he was reading quickly), so I at least knew what he was speaking about. My vocabulary is growing slowly, but there were times when he slowed down or emphasized certain points, and I was ACTUALLY able to understand a few of the words and phrases!
     The Scripture passage was Daniel 1:1-20, and he read and spoke on it in sections. I don't know what the main points of his message were, but here's the really awesome thing: God spoke a message from that Scripture passage to my heart during the sermon and it was EXACTLY what I needed to hear!!

What was the message?
     Well, you know that Daniel 1:1-20 recounts the beginning of the time that Daniel and his comrades, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah (otherwise known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) spent in Babylon as exiles. Under Daniel's leadership, they requested - and were granted - the privilege of abstaining from the king's chosen food and drink in order to stay true to the Lord God, and Daniel was confident that they would not be found wanting. After a 10-day trial, they were found to be better in appearance and health than the other young men and verse 17 also says that God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom.
     The message that God spoke to my heart was this: that putting Him and His desires for me in the place of primary importance is what will cause me to prosper. Now, I'm NOT saying that I am expecting God to instantly give me supernatural insight and skill with the language (even though that would be amazing), but I realized that if I want to have success in what I do and be pleasing to my Lord and King that I MUST make sure He has first place.

     I'm trying to get into a new routine here, and daily devotions have been a little irregular over the past couple of weeks, so I made a conscious choice that despite everything else, I would make sure that the first thing I do to prepare each morning is to take my quiet time with God. I pray and ask Him daily to help me with the language learning and whatever challenges will face me that day, but I also have a responsibility to walk in relationship with Him as He desires me to. And I know that when I put Him first, I will have the proper perspective and responses to the situations I face.

* The other message was one that I received today, so that is why I am writing it down now.
     I receive a daily email devotional from "Joni and Friends," the ministry of Joni Eareckson Tada, and it is always encouraging to my spirit. Today's message was exactly what I needed to hear and, God-incidentally, it was the first thing I saw when I opened up my email this afternoon.
     The title of it is called "Fruit Comes Through Struggle" and it talked about how a grapevine needs to struggle in order to produce excellent fruit, because if it has an easy time growing, all the nutrients will go into the leaves and it will only look good.

     The challenge, of course (kонечно), was to apply this to our lives: to see the struggles that we face as coming from the Lord's hand, and to realize that without them we will not produce the kind of spiritual fruit that He wants to see in our lives.
    Why was this particularly applicable today? Because I had a difficult language lesson today -- it felt like I was running into a roadblock to understanding the concepts I was being taught. I don't like to struggle - I want to feel competent, to see myself making progress and to understand. But as I read the devotional I realized that these language lessons are not merely for learning the language -- they are a potter's wheel for developing character and if I can learn to humble myself, accept my mistakes, be thankful for the teaching AND the struggles, and keep pressing on, then I will eventually produce fruit. I'm fairly certain that I won't be fluent, but God knows what I need in order to be involved in this ministry He has called me to and He is sovereign over ALL the circumstances of my life.

So bring on the challenges!
     With my Lord walking with me and my eyes on Him, I cannot fail and He will cause me to bring honour to His Name for the things being accomplished in and through my life!!

 

ALL FOR A PURPOSE

Romans 8:28 says this:

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."

Once this truth is firmly fixed in our hearts and we trust God to guide us in His wisdom, we will begin to see how the details of our lives are fitting into a specific plan that only a sovereign God could have designed. Even though we may not yet understand exactly what that plan is.

Yet along the way some circumstances don't make sense and we wonder, "Just how exactly does this fit into the big picture?" We don't always have the privilege of discovering the purpose of these events and we simply have to walk by faith, knowing that God will use them in some way. But sometimes a long while afterwards we can look back and see in reflection at least part of the reason why certain things happened in our lives.

Today I had two of those moments. The first came when I was reading email responses to my latest ministry update, and a special friend wrote these words to me:

"Remember once when you and I were talking,

and you said that you wished you had met the right man so that you could be married and have children because you love children so much? God always has a better plan,

better because He finds a way for Himself to be glorified and as a result we receive blessings too. 

Now you will have MANY children to love and care for, not just the one or two

that you could have naturally."

I still pray and believe that God has someone special for me someday, but what my friend shared is true. Had I been involved in a relationship, or perhaps married with a family, I probably would not be where I am today, preparing for full-time ministry to needy children in a country halfway around the world from where I was born. God knew that and He lovingly and carefully kept me for a special purpose that I could never have dreamed of and that now fills me with an inexplicable joy and hope!

The other moment came as I was doing my supper dishes. I have discovered that in Ukraine, things are done a little differently than what I'm used to -- here we use a sponge with a little bit of dish soap and some running water to wash the dishes. We don't fill up a sink with water, and there's no second sink to rinse in. And I have to wash up the dishes after each meal, because of the size of the kitchen and the relatively few dishes we have. Once the dishes are washed, they are put away in the cupboard - still wet - and left to air-dry. (I dry them sometimes anyway, because I prefer to do that.) Well, it occurred to me that God had prepared me for even this interesting change...

Back in 2005 when I moved to Cambridge, Ontario, I shared a 3-bedroom apartment with 2 other young women. I'm once again sharing an apartment with 2 other women, but that's not where the comparison stops. In that apartment in Cambridge, I quickly found out that my room-mates expected me to wash up my dishes and put them away after each time I used them, rather than letting them pile up on the counter or in the sink. At first that was a bone of contention with me because I was used to doing dishes only once a day. But it was her home, and I realized that I needed to accommodate her wishes.

I did not carry on that tradition over the past 5 years, but learning to do dishes in this way again has been a relatively easy adjustment -- in part because I had already developed the skill years ago. I used to think that was just for that time, but I realized today that even that living experience was preparation for what I would need to do 7 years down the road in another country! (Interestingly, back in 2005 I lived with a young woman named Tanya, and again, one of my apartment-mates is named Tanya!)

Psalm 139:16 says this:

"All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

None of these circumstances are a surprise to God, and let me tell you...it is a pure delight to be able to look back and realize how God has lovingly and carefully arranged the details of my life that most of the time I would deem inconsequential. Not only is nothing hidden from His sight, but He has planned it all before I was even born -- now that's amazing!

I hope this encourages you today that ALL that happens in your life is FOR A PURPOSE. Embrace it with faith and hope, looking to the Lord God, and you will be able to rejoice and give thanks "in everything."