God is my Life.

"I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." -Phil. 3:12


I'm here in Alaska, and I have been here for about a week. Tomorrow we get our assignments, our teams, and what villages we will be going. I can seriously not wait to get out on the field, and get going. Just pouring my life and my heart out for the One who died for me! God is so amazing, I can't explain all the things I have learned in just a week, and how in love I have fallen with Alaska, the people. and my team members. I am learning more and more that God is asking me to give up things, because He wants to give me better things. I have been praying and seeking God's face out a lot. And He is showing me where I will be heading next summer and maybe for the rest of my life. Where I will be going, where I will be leaving. It's just an adventure, and I am ready to give up, let go, and just let God.

Sometimes I have to ask, Why is He asking me to give up my rights, my things, my family, my friends, my life?

Because He wants to give me greater things. This is truly the rule of God's Kingdom: Give up something good and receive something greater. Give up your rights and you;ll recieve greater privileges with God. Jesus gave us the supreme example of giving up everything for a greater goal. Philippians chapter two says He didn't count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the for of a bond-servant- a slave. Slaves have no rights, and Jesus became a slave for our sakes:
-He gave up the right to be with His Father.
-He gave up the right to a home, saying that while the brids have nests and the foxes have dens, He didn't have a place to lay His head.
-He gave up the right to money. He had to borrow a coin from someone for a sermon illustration.
-He gave up the right to marriage and His reputation. As far as most people were comcerned, He was an illegitimate baby, raised in a town that was scorned. The ultimate strike to His reputation came when He, the Son of God, was called a devil by the religious experts of His time. But Jesus went further.
-He gave up the right to life itself, becoming obedient to death on a cross. For what purpose? So that God might exalt Him, give Him a name above every name, that at His name every knee should bow. But there's another reason: Jesus was showing us how to live our lives. He was howing us how to beat the devil, which is the greatest job ever given to us- taking the earth from Satan and winning it back for God. Jesus was showing us that the only way to win is to lose; the only way to conquer is to submit.
Jesus wants us to follow Him, losing our rights and gaining the world. Only by taking Jesus' example into every part of our lives will we be able to win in life.
He spelled it out for us in Mark 8:34-35: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himseld and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever want to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it."
The choice is ours. We can hold onto our rights, remian in mediocrity and miss out on God's greater purposes for us. Or we can give them freely back to Him for the greatest privilege of all-winning this world for the Kingdom of God.

It's what I have been taught by God, to give up everything to Him, because if I even hold on to one little thing, I will miss our on everything He has planned for me. And what He has planned for me is AMAZING! And I can't wait to see all that it is and all that He does in my life. I can't wait to be with my Father in Heaven, but for now I will spend my life serving Him and His people here and on earth.

In everything I do I hope you see Christ in me.

May the gravce of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.


His and yours

Cami