Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Living life to the full....

‘Buggy!’ we screamed as we drove the country roads of Lancaster County. It started as us thinking this is a rare sighting and we got excited each time…however as the week went on we realised that there are plenty of Buggy’s as we drive around ‘Amish Country’. In fact, our new Amish friend, Levi, let us know that there are 30,000 Amish people living in Lancaster county alone. We learnt about the roots of the Amish and the mennite church, plus the fact that each Bishop says what’s ok and what is not…so with there being so many rules even the Amish get confused.

The sceneries are beautiful with the greenery, hills and farm land. We got to see thousands of white geese come in for the ONE weekend that they stop by on their way to Canada. The sea of white was stunning and the many other tourists thought so too. It looked just like Narnia when they rowed their boat through the flowers to get to the ends of the earth to see Aslan’s country.

My birthday was full of fun adventures and good food. I got to see my friend Bonnie who used to be at We Will Go and meet many new friends at the church, who gave me thoughtful gifts and sang to me as they presented me with the largest chocolate cake I have ever seen!

I got to sit many times and reflect on my Lord’s beauty. He whispered to me many times His love for me, while I realise even more that I don’t deserve it. At best I am like a dirty rag…yet He calls me lovely.

Even though I knew I was to go to Pennsylvania, I still asked Him many times, why am I here? Why have you brought me on this trip? He said two things, to stretch me and to show me how much He loves me. 

That he did...

‘The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full’ John 10:10

Having life to the full looks like what? Some may say happiness, and that most people are in the pursuit of happiness. Some may say being successful, going for full education and getting a good job. Some may say knowing God and following His ways.

God showed me that having life to the full is this - 
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
Corinthians 13

Love….

Love is the key to full life…His love. He has a covenant with His children. His covenant makes us priests, His child, His bride, whole and perfected.

I pray that I never run dry, I stay full as I live this life on this earth. That as I work with the kids, visitors, our neighbours, minister in the clubs and barista in the coffee shop, I would flow out of His love for me. May I live life to the full.










1 comment: