Out Of The Wilderness

Who can say, “I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin”? Proverbs    20:9 No one. We can’t. It is not possible. We in and of ourselves cannot make ourselves clean. We need Him. Jesus. That was the point of the Cross. It was to cleanse us from our sins by the blood, so that we could come back into fellowship with the Father. Yet I seem to always try and make myself clean. I try to “ pretty “ my sin up and make it better. But I can’t. Still I want to be able to say “ it was me. “ When it can’t be. I see how that is my own pride, my desire to boast. But really all I am doing is like spraying some perfume on a pile of manure. It does nothing. But I know i have a faithful Savior who desires to make me clean. He desires to purify me from within. Because He sees my need to boast and He desires to set me free from it. It’s our nature to want to be self sufficient. But it is when we can see the great need we truly have, that we are able to truly be made clean. We must come to H

O LORD, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Yes, I have a good inheritance. Psalms 16:5-6   Since being here in Costa Rica the Lord has proven Himself so faithful. It hasn’t always been the easiest. Becoming acclimated to ones new surroundings can at times feel so difficult. The first four days in Costa Rica were the hardest. Thought life and doubt were constantly something that needed to be laid down. And God showed Himself faithful. He has been faithfully showing me that He really is my portion and my cup. The days can at times, no matter where we are, feel to be to much to deal with. And that’s something mentally that I found to be a struggle. Not so much my day to day life but my thoughts and the way that affected inwardly what outwardly was being done. My mind was on myself. Because I was not enough to get me though the day. And being focused on my discomforts and self desires just made the

Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, But he who hates correction is stupid. Proverbs 12:1 It is not easy learning from our failings. But to grow we must. Even when we fail and fall, we must seek to grow from wherever we’ve fallen short. The Lord takes all of our misguided attempts to sustain ourselves to show us that only He is enough. And to hate His correction is literally stupid. It is a beautiful thing to know that He desires to take our humanness and make it into something that will glorify Him. Us learning and growing in knowledge because of His redemption in our mistakes all completely points to Him. Because we could not do it on our own. We literally couldn’t. And so we must learn to see discipline and instruction and correction as love. Because it is. He loves us so much He doesn’t want us to continue in our sin and rebellion. So now being brought near by the Son, being washed by the blood, transformed by the word and filled with the Spirit He desires to make us

And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. II Timothy 2:2 This is discipleship. It’s taking what has been faithfully poured into us and now taking it and pouring it into others. It’s beautiful. I have had the privilege of seeing it so up close for 3 months now. Seeing the faithfulness and endurance in which leadership has poured into myself and my class. There were moments where tougher conversations were had, and it wasn’t always the easiest to receive but truth was spoken. Sin was brought into the light and we were being equipped everyday to go out into the world and be assets. We were able to see people who love the Lord be faithful to our out what had been poured in. Even when it wasn’t always what the world would say the “ easiest “ but still they were consistent in pouring into us. They were being used by the Lord to now equip us to go and do the same thing. We are now to go and mak

Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning. Proverbs 9:9 It is a wise thing to remain teachable and moldable and eager to learn. For a wise man to become wiser when he receives instruction means that he must apply what he has been instructed in. Because that is wisdom. Applying what you know. I want that. So many times I receive instruction and I tuck it in the back of my mind and keep it there. It never is used. I seem to think that just knowing it will get me somewhere. But I have to also live it out, which is at times the hardest thing to do. But God desires for us to also be doers of the word. It’s what really puts our faith and what we say we believe into action. It is wise. And we grow so much. As we are continually learning and being instructed, then we apply it and live it out and now we are becoming more like Him. It is beautiful to know He is continually working in us. And He desires for us to g

Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. Luke 2:46 We are in a constant state of learning. We never stop. Because we are human and lack understanding. And Jesus did the same, even though He was 100% man, He was also 100% God. He in a way put a veil over His Godlikeness and took on human form to be able to relate to us in all ways. He chose to learn as we did. He clung to His Father and learned from Him. He was continually seeking the Fathers face. In the same way we must. We can’t get by on our own. We must seek the Lord and be discipled by others. We lack understanding, wisdom, and knowledge. Yet we know that in Christ we can receive all those things. We must always be teachable because we will never stop learning. In His word there can always be something new. In life there will always be something else we need to be broken of, and His love for us is so big He wi