Lies and Truths: Psalm 31

Hello again from Ocean City!

I profusely apologize for how little I’ve been updating this blog. There really is so much to share that I think I get overwhelmed with how much I have to say and end up saying nothing. So instead of trying to sum up everything that’s happened in the past 22 days I will just share some snippets of project life and of what the Lord has been working in my heart since I’ve been here.

First of all, the staff is gone. About half way through project the staff leaves, leaving the project in the hands of the students. We all received project roles that were once filled by staff. Roles include project directors, action group leaders, house managers, women’s conference planners, etc. I was put on the weekly meeting team that plans the meetings we have every Monday and Thursday. So far it’s going very well. We have 3 meeting under our belt and I’ve already learned a lot about how a meeting should run that I’m excited to take back to my campus in just 4 short weeks.

Another aspect of staff leaving that has been really exciting is that things started to change socially. I’m not going to lie and say that this summer has been easy for me socially. I think I often ride the line of introversion and extroversion, but being here has really forced me to put my introverted tendencies aside for the sake of making friends, and that has not been easy. I’ve been feeling exhausted by constantly putting myself out there and trying to make people see that I’m worth getting to know. Lately, this constant denial of time for myself and even quiet time with the Lord has really caught up with me. I found myself getting easily agitated by silly things, feeling sad that no one wanted to know me and upset with myself that I wasn’t cool enough, loud enough, funny enough or pretty enough for people to want to know.

I quickly realized that not only are none of these things true, but that they are lies straight from the enemy himself. In fact, these are lies that I’ve been believing about myself for a long time and lies that cross over into all aspects of my life. They especially hinder me from sharing my faith effectively because I believe that no one would accept the Gospel if they heard it from me.

After a few days of being grouchy about these things, and after some encouraging words from some friends here on project, I finally did what I should have done as soon as I recognized these lies in my life: I turned to Scripture. And boy did God provide. Among many others, here is a passage that has been immensely encouraging reminders of God’s promises that He loves me, He wants good things for me and if I commit my spirit into His hand, He is where I will find my ultimate comfort.

Psalm 31: 1-10, 19-24

 In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me! Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily!
Be a rock of refuge for me,
a strong fortress to save me! For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me; you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit;
you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God. I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord. I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul, and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing;
my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.

Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you
and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind! In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men;
you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues. Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me
when I was in a besieged city. I had said in my alarm, “I am cut off from your sight.”
But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy
when I cried to you for help. Love the Lord, all you his saints! The Lord preserves the faithful
but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride. Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!

Every time I read this Psalm I glean new truths from it. I’ve been realizing how much I put other’s acceptance and approval over that of my Lord and Savior. Until I look to the Lord first for comfort, I will never be satisfied with the comfort and acceptance I find from friends, even if those friends are awesome godly people. I’m still struggling with making this new head knowledge into heart knowledge though. Please pray that I would keep recognizing these lies in my life as lies, that through the power of the Holy Spirit I could cut out my self-deprecating tendencies, and that I would turn to the one source of true comfort and acceptance before anything else.

Thank you for your continued support! I’m excited to see what the Lord does these last 3 weeks of project!

Giants, Laundromats and Softball with 100 People: OCSP Weeks 2 & 3

Hello again from Ocean City! It’s been 2 weeks since my last post and there is much to catch you up on! Hopefully these posts will become more frequent now as I am falling into a fairly regular work schedule.

Last week was labeled “Killing the Giants Week.” It was all about trusting God to help us through our “faith-sharing giants,” or things that we are maybe too afraid to do in regard to sharing our faith. My personal giants were to transition from the Quest survey to the Knowing God Personally (KGP) booklet and going through the whole booklet by myself, which I had never done before.

For those of you who are not familiar, the Quest survey and the KGP are resources that Cru has available to use when sharing with people. The Quest survey includes 5 questions:

1) What are three words you would use to describe your life?

2) What is want thing you want to make absolutely sure you do during your lifetime if at all possible?

3) What happens after death?

4) You best friend comes to you and says, “I want to become a Christian and I don’t know how.” What would you tell your friend?

5) On a scale of 1 to 10, rate your desire to know God.

These questions are meant to get a spiritual conversation started, to hear where people are at in regard to spiritual things, and to get their opinion on Christianity. We are not sharing just to force our faith on others, but to really go out in the power of the Holy Spirit, having spiritual conversations with others and leaving the results to God. Through this survey alone I have had some great conversations with people from all types of spiritual background—from Jewish to Muslim to Atheist to Catholic.

After the survey ends there are often opportunities to transition to the KGP which is a presentation of the Gospel in 4 main points. At the end of the KGP there is an opportunity for someone to pray to receive Christ as the Lord of their life if that is what their heart desires. Although I sometimes think that these booklet things are a little cheesy, I have really come to love the KGP. It holds a powerful message and is so effective. The four main points are as follows:

1) God’s Love. God loves you and created you to know him personally. He has a wonderful plan for your life.

2) Our Condition. People are sinful and separated from God, so we cannot know Him personally or experience His love and plan.

3) God’s Response. Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for our sin. Through Him alone we can know God personally and experience God’s love and plan.

4) Our Response. We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know God personally and experience His love and plan.

And those are just the headliners. For each point there are examples, Scripture back-up and questions to ask and answer. It’s great just to get people’s opinions and it also carries a life-changing message. I feel like after going through the KGP multiple times I have a fuller understanding of the power that the Gospel has in people’s lives. If you are interested, here is a link to the content of the booklet online:

http://www.cru.org/how-to-know-god/would-you-like-to-know-god-personally/index.htm

If you have any questions or opinions you would like to share I would love to hear them!

So that was just a taste of what we did everyday on the boardwalk last week. To my surprise, I transitioned and went through the entire KGP with 2 girls on the very first day of the week! Through these resources we as a group were able to have over 5,000 spiritual conversations and just under 100 people indicated that they want to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior. So exciting! It was definitely the hardest week for me so far, as talking to people I don’t know is not my most favorite thing to do, but the results were great and God was definitely faithful in helping us kill our giants.

After Killing the Giants week, we transitioned into “All for One Week” which was all about building community. Trying to even succinctly summarize all the information that I’ve heard this week would be impossible, but I will give the highlights of some things that I particularly enjoyed.

-At our Monday meeting there was a talk about what the Bible says about community. They used a passage from Ephesians 4 that highlighted humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love and an eagerness to maintain unity as characteristics of a Christ-centered community. I’m really excited to take this talk back to campus, because I think it could be really beneficial to our Cru movement there, but I am specifically excited to share what I learned with my future roommates for next year. Can’t wait to go deep into a Christ-centered community of women!

-Tuesday I had the day off work and did laundry at a laundromat for the first time. Hooray for clean sheets!

-Wednesday evening we had Action Group on the beach and it was really fun. We started out the night by splitting into partners and finding 5 passages from the Bible that illustrate how the Gospel effects our lives as believers. Although the exercise was short and simple, it just made me really excited about getting into the Word more often and made me realize how much God really has done in and through my life. Thinking about how the gospel applies to my life specifically was rejuvenating. I realized in a new and fresh way that because I have put my faith in Christ I am now blameless before God because Jesus’ sacrifice took away all my penalties that I had for all my sin. And when God looks at me, he does not see my brokenness and sinful nature, but he sees Christ. That is so cool. 

-Thursday was another exciting night: Women’s Conference! All the ladies on project got dressed up and we headed to the church where there was a beautifully decorated room waiting for us and a meal prepared from scratch by the staff women. It was such a fun time to get all fancy and learn what it mean to be a woman of God. After 4 talks on different topics and a delicious dessert we all stood up and had a dance party! It was so fun to just let loose and sing silly songs at the top of our lungs. So fun.

-This whole week of community-building activities culminated into a Staff vs. Student softball game on Saturday night. All 100+ students had to bat, so you can imagine how long the game took! Students ended up losing by 7 runs, but it was still so fun and I actually hit the ball and made it to second base! I had a lot of fun encouraging people and just enjoying a nice summer night of softball.

In other news, work is going well at the South Seas Shop. I’m getting more of a feel for the prices for everything and how to work the cash register. I’m also having great conversations with my coworkers (including two girls from Russia!) and it’s been really fun getting to know them better and learning a few useful Russian phrases.  

Basically, I am having a great time here in Ocean City! I am learning so much and have met some amazing people. Can’t wait to learn even more and go deeper in community here. Thank you for you continual support through prayer and encouragement. I’m so excited to keep pressing on and seeing more of what God has in store for me! Some exciting things happening here in Ocean City! Keep following for more updates!