Going Deeper

At the start of this year, our church began a series called "Going Deeper".  Actually, it is more of a structure of basing lessons on instead of a sermon series.  In Sunday School, we've been going through the book Radical by David Platt.  We are also planning on going through the book Forgotten God by Francis Chan.

God has been drawing my heart ever closer.  In doing so, the battle has heated up, both in our church and in our home.  In church, there seems to have been a lot of offense going around.  People have been sick.  Satan is working overtime to cause strife and confusion.  Two weeks ago our parsonage, where my sister and brother-in-law were living, burned to the ground.  They lost everything.

As a church we should be defeated.  Instead, we've had two weeks of amazing worship.  God is working through the circumstances.  The Holy Spirit is moving in a powerful way, and I can only praise Him.  I've watched God work in my sister and brother-in-law like I've never seen.  They lost everything of any material value.  They've lost pictures and memories.  They worked hard, as a young couple, to build their lives.  In a matter of minutes, it was all gone or ruined.  While they are sad about it, they have continued to praise God through the trying circumstances.

We've watched a church and a community rally around them.  Donations of money, furniture, and kitchen stuff has come in to help them.  Yes, there was insurance on their things, but insurance takes time.  The day of the fire, people drove for miles to bring food and clothes to my family.  Some went and bought brand new clothes for my two year old nephew.  The generosity has been overwhelming.

What is even more powerful is watching how my sister and brother-in-law have been able to witness for Christ through this tragedy.  They nearly lost their lives.  The fire marshal stated that they had only a couple minutes before they would have been overtaken by the smoke.   The fire was so severe that it made the front page of two newspapers.  Churches all the way down to Arkansas have taken up love offerings for this family.

I say all this to testify to the goodness of God.  You see, things are just things.  They are temporary on this earth and will burn.  Souls are more precious than gold.  We live our lives as if souls don't matter, struggling for things.  God sees things differently.  His ways are not our ways.  When catastrophe strikes, it would be so easy to want to give up, to feel that God wasn't there.  It is much harder to trust that He has a plan, even if we don't understand that plan, and to rely on Him.

Going deeper with God is not easy.  Yet, growth usually doesn't occur in the easy times.  Growth occurs in the struggles, in the laying down of our lives for His Cross.  It crushes our spirits sometimes to trust Him when all seems lost.  Yet, trust we must if we are to keep moving forward into the will of God in our lives.  

I long for Him.  I feel desperate for Christ in my life.  I know that my personal battles have heated up as I try to go deeper in Christ.  I keep pressing, trying to fill that deep desire within me to know Christ more and more.  Christ changes things.  He changes the way you live.  He changes your values.  He changes the way you raise and teach your children.  Going deeper, while difficult in the battles and struggles, is also amazingly wonderful.