My first day in Haiti in July of 2010 I was rushed off the plane, through customs, and on the back of a "tap tap" to get to church. We flew in on a Sunday at about 8:00am. So much hit me within that first day and it has all stuck with me, I remember it like yesterday. I was used to church services that had lights, a big band, humorous sermons, and sometimes a fog machine. When I went to church in Haiti we were inbetween to crumbled buildings with a blue tarp over our heads to give some shade. Everyone was sitting on benches and the only thing that was added to this service besides the people was a microphone for the Pastor. I have never felt so close to the Lord as I did when I was worshipping Him inbetween those two crumbled buildings. The way that the Haitians responded to the Gospel and to God's love was how He deserves to be responded to. They sang, rejoiced, wept, prayed, cried out, danced, and smiled. They worshipped God solely because He is God. He loved you so much that He sent His one and only Son to die for YOU! Just for YOU! I think sometimes we take the cross and what was done on it for granted... really think about it for a minute.
You are full of selfishness, sin, lies, anger, jealousy, and hatred. We fell. But God loves us, His creation so much that He couldn't let us live in slavery to the Law, to trying to live up to something, to try and do something to gain something. He came down from Heaven and dwelt among us. He put on our flesh nature and walked with us. He revealed Himself to us right in front of our eyes. He wanted us to know Him, to love Him, to see Him, to be with Him. And then He took the punishment for everything we have ever done, thought, or said on His body. He bore our sins, He paid our debt, He defeated death once and for all. Not just so we could be made righteous through His bloodshed (although that is amazing!) but also so we could walk in freedom and live in relation with Him. When we accept Christ as our Savior, when we admit we need saving... His Spirit comes inside of us and lives in us! How crazy is that?! The same Spirit that lives in God lives in you. He helps us know the Father more and helps us love Him more. The Spirit is such a beautiful gift.
Something I have been noticing about America in general, and more specifically Orange County in general is that we don't want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We want the blessings of the cross but aren't willing to pay the price. We want to love God but we aren't willing to let Him have full reign in our lives. In order to be filled with the Holy Spirt and walk as a Spirit filled Christian, we must want to be. We must want God more than anything in this world. We must have the same heart as Him for the least and the lost, we must want to obey His commandments, we must do all of this in Faith because we receive the Spirit by faith, not works of the Law. There is so much fear of man in Orange County, fear of what I'll look like, fear of what people will think of me, fear of not being liked, fear or this, fear of that...EVEN IN THE BODY OF CHRIST! Which blows my mind, that is where all fear should be cast out, that is where the things of this world should not exist. We are called to live set apart, holy lives. When we sing worship songs do we really mean those words? When we do worship and mean those words do we respond the way we really want to? Or are we afraid of what people will think? I am praying that we will look around at the 3rd world countries we think struggle so hard... I truly believe that they know what life is and how to live it abundantly. They know the God who saved them and they can't contain themselves. They always want more of Him and are always praising Him, because He is all they have. When a missionary goes to them and preaches the Gospel and does an altar call, people don't close their eyes and raise their hands like in America. People are unashamed and run forward and get on their knees out of pure adoration for a saving God who loves them.
What if God was all you had? What if you responded and loved God with no fear of what people or society will think? Spend some time revisiting the Gospel and what the Lord did for you and will always continue to do and then rejoice in His Mercy, that constantly forgives us when we live and walk in the fear He died on the cross to get rid of for all eternity.
Beautiful!
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