Our blood still runs ORANGE!

We miss UT, especially game days. Thanks CBS for streaming the game today against Florida online! In celebration of fall in the south, we made chili, ate orange cookies, and watched the game while screaming against florida. We wear orange proudly here in Denver, though no one seems to care ;)

"their life didn't begin when I walked in the picture..."

With all the people we spend time with in conversation on campus, most of them being through initiating randomly, it can be easy to believe that their thoughts of God began when I entered their life. You might think this may seem really selfish (it is) and silly to fall to. Yet, we often hear "I have never heard that before" or "wow, I grew up in church but no one has ever told me what the Bible actually says". This is both disheartening and common. It may be true that we have the opportunity to introduce students to the real Jesus for the first time, but God has not been absent from their story. 

God is still the main character in this life.

Sure, unless they know Jesus, they do not know God personally- and that is what we talk about all day long. But God has been working in their life long before we showed up. He is sovereign. He knows them better than they know themselves. And has written their story from start to....eternity. I would love to share 2 stories about 2 different stories, both with God as the author.

A sweet girl, Lina, has had a story filled with disappointment, pain, lack, beauty, art, and longing. When we met, she quickly shared with me her story. She is special. God has created a beautiful soul in Lina. Lina longs for a daddy. Though, she did not know that Jesus came to freely & graciously redeem her relationship with the Father. Last week, Lina shared with me a beautiful letter she had written from the perspective of God to her as a father. The Spirit, who has been long knocking on the door of her heart, opened her eyes to see Jesus as the One who walks her to a Dad who takes her into his arms, holds her, and will never leave. She trusted Him for everything. God is the Main Character and Author.

Another sweet girl, Ary, has had a similar story of pain, abandonment, lack, beauty, striving, hoping. We met today and talked through the Gospel. Again, she responded with "I have never heard this before, as you described it in the Bible." At the end of our discussion, she rejected Jesus verbally. It broke my heart. In reality, we are all like this- rejecting Jesus in our hearts, until He comes in and gives us a new one. I was no different than her before Jesus. Yet, was I to think that this was the first time God has stepped in to her story? No. God is yet again the Main Character and the Author. 

Whether they believe or reject, God is sovereign. He is the Author. He is good. This is difficult for me as we have hard conversations daily, but I am compelled (and delighted) to trust Him. I also have the hope that God desires all to know Him. I will step back into His story, looking to Him as the Author, and the Main Character- and trust Him for another day.

a story already written

          Tomorrow is a new beginning, at least for us. When God invited us into a life in Denver, serving latino college students in the city, it was no news to Him. He has written for this place, these students, our lives...a story long before we were even thought of. This is all beyond my understanding, of course, but I must believe that He has seen it long worth pursuing to redeem a people He calls his own, and to do so in this season of time and in this city.
          We have been studying the Pentateuch, the first five books of the bible written by Moses, at church. I have been struck by the language God uses when describing his affection & raw pursuit of His people. It was His plan, His story, all along to dwell with the people He created and loved. Of course, we wanted to be God & know the way to do life like He did, so we chose to turn from him and do our own thing. He even gave us ways to live that would be the best for us. We wouldn't have to loathe working, we wouldn't have to fear pain in relationships. Yet, we walked away, or rather gave told God His directions weren't good enough for us. Yikes. How many times have I heard that come from within me?
          The books that follow Genesis 1-3, that described above, unfold a redemptive story of God then doing the work to bring back His people. He called them His own, even yet when they abandoned Him. And he wrote a beautiful, unmistakably 'higher than our ways' plot for them to be released into freedom. THEN he gave them the law- a way to abide in Him and to live in the new found freedom. It's so amazing. I always got it backwards. The Israelites were not to keep the law to earn God's favor and thus stick around. No, God was already dwelling among them. He decided long before that this was His people- and He wanted them to live in freedom. And so, he gave them a way to live in that freedom. Thus, the law. God's story. All of life is God's story. He is reality. What a creative, great, sovereign, just, and kind God we know. And it's by His grace we know Him at all. Because He wrote the story, and God does what He wants.

Back to tomorrow. We begin on campus, along with the other 2 staff members that have joined us in trusting God for Destino here in the city. We jump headfirst into the story already written. I pray we have eyes to see God's story unfold.

I will leave us with this. John 21:25.

  'Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.'

I hope for this in the years to come, as Latino students (and thus, the city of denver) experience and extend the gospel of Christ.


K