followed by,
MUST.GO.BUY.JACKETS.AND.MITTENS.NOW. And randomly hand them out to people on the streets.
eh, it was cold out. It made sense. Kind of.
At the same time I suspected I was going about this all wrong. I was saved by faith. Not by works. I knew this.
Still, I could not help that frantic feeling that I needed somehow to prove to God that I was much MUCH more serious about caring for the needy. By buying jackets and mittens of course. I had not purchased anything yet, but I was strongly considering it.
While all these thoughts were swirling through my head, John asked me to listen to a radio intervew on Focus on the Family. There were interviewing Dan Wooley about his new book, "unshaken".
Dan Wooley. Remember him?
He was our old college friend working with Compassion International last year in Haiti when the devastating earthquake hit. And Hotel Montana collapsed on him and his friend David Hames. Dan was stuck in the elevator shaft for 3 days while David went to be with Jesus.
So I sat there folding laundry, listening with great interest as Dan told about the secret part of his story that we did not hear about last year.
[As Dan lay injured in the elevator shaft, he realized that his injuries were substantial enough that he might die and meet his Maker...soon.
And this scared him. You see, even though he was doing missions work in Haiti, he realized that his zest for the Lord had grown cold the last 3 years.
He had grown...lukewarm.
And now, here he was, faced with death.
What could he do?
Not much. He cried out to God for forgiveness.
And there he lay.
There was nothing he could do. Nothing he could do to make up for the last 3 years.
There was no amount of jackets and mittens that could make up for this one.
Dan said that in his helpless state, God miraculously came down and reached out to him in that elevator shaft and said "I had to hunt you down in the bottom of an elevator shaft in Haiti to get you back. You are mine."
And he just felt God's immediate presence envelop him in a way he never felt before.
Dan encouraged others to reach out to God if their love for him had grown cold.]
After the interview ended I just sat there in amazement at God's clear voice of reassurance to me that night--
"you are mine"
You see, there is nothing I can do to make up for my past failures. No amount of jackets and mittens can be purchased to secure my salvation. God first {and foremost} wants my heart. And he will do anything to get it. You can do wonderful things, like even be a missionary in Haiti, but if your heart is far from God, then what good is it?
I truly believe that if God has grabbed your heart, then all of those other things will soon follow...the jackets, the mittens and more...[more than I could even imagine in the days to come].
to be cont.
