I still remember the day that the direction of my life changed. I was majoring in education and well into my senior year of college. It was missions month at church and our pastor had challenged us to read Romans 10 every day for a week. I was sitting on my bed doing just that and it just made sense in a way that nothing had ever made sense to me before.
“‘For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” (Rom. 10: 13-15)
How could someone know this Jesus if there’s no one to tell them about Him? So that’s what I do. I tell people about Jesus. I don’t stand on street corners and tell people to turn from their wicked ways (though I’ve seen God mercifully use that to change lives.) I don’t live in Africa or in the jungle somewhere searching for people who have never had the opportunity to hear about Jesus (though I am so thankful that people do and I would love the privilege to be one of those people someday.) I’ve discovered that most people right here in America haven’t really heard about Jesus. Many have heard about this God who punishes sinners. Or they’ve heard about this forgiving God who loves them no matter what they do. Few really understand what a God looks like who can be the perfect balance of both. One who is so holy and righteous that He can’t bare to look on sin, but is so loving and good that He provided a Way for reconciliation. Most people view Christianity as one of two things: a list of rules that you better be good at following or a way to get around having to follow the rules. Jesus isn’t about self righteousness or cheap grace. He saw how incapable we were of following the rules and, at great cost to Himself, brought grace into the picture.
This is the Jesus that I love and love to tell people about. I’m not good at following the rules. I’m not good at this whole Christian thing and blow it all the time. I think that’s why He would see fit to have me as an ambassador. I’m so wholly undeserving of His love, but so fully assured that I have it.
Casey,
I just read this post, and all I can say is your story makes me wanr to be more like Jesus! God’s timing is so perfect!
hey, i dont know you, but i stumbled across this blog somehow and i wanted to say that i totally agree with what you’re saying. isn’t it mindblowing sometimes? its so hard to keep from feeling like a complete and total failure all the time and just accept God’s unconditional love. God is definately using you, and keep pursuing your dreams!
This has been one of those weeks, you know…the kind of week where you just need a random stranger to give you a sweet, sweet bit of encouragement completely out of nowhere.
I so appreciate you and your encouragement. And, yes! You are so right! I’m especially bad at being ok with the face that I AM a failure AND fiercely loved.
Greetings,
I really appreciate just reading “what your about” it just really effected me, although my intentions of going to that page were to find your contact information, just wanted to let you know that. Well hello, my name is Stephen Clark, I’m founder of a non-profit charity called Project Ultrasound. We’re raising money to purchase ultrasound machines for crisis pregnancy centers in response to what has been found to be the incredible effectiveness of ultrasounds in deterring abortions. 70-90% of women who were strongly considering abortion and see an ultrasound at a crisis pregnancy center end up choosing life. The problem is less then half of crisis centers have ultrasounds due to their extremely high cost. We’re looking to make a huge impact for life by spreading the word about this mission through the power of the internet and bringing in donations so that we can purchase these machines and place them in centers. I’m mobilizing a large network of websites, blogs, and social networking pages to make this happen and I wanted to ask if you’d be interested in supporting us in this effort.
There are several very simple ways you can team up with us in this effort:
1. by posting a banner ad that links to our site on your website, blog or social networking page (see some of our banners at http://www.projectultrasound.org/webbanners.html)
2. posting a text link to our site on your website blog or social networking page
3. joining our Facebook Causes page and inviting as many people to the Cause as you know that may be sensitive to this mission
( http://apps.facebook.com/causes/316831 )
4. Helping us with ideas on unique ways we can spread the word about this charity either online or offline. I am a firm believer that God has given everyone a very specific set of talents and creativity and I believe a team of people tapping into their talents jointly can be dangerous (in a good way).
You can see more information on our organization at our website, http://www.projectultrasound.org .
If you have any questions about who we are or what we do please don’t hesitate to ask. I appreciate your time.
Pretty insightful post. Never thought that it was this simple after all. I had spent a good deal of my time looking for someone to explain this subject clearly and you’re the only one that ever did that. Kudos to you! Keep it up
Drive by hugs.
Hope all’s well with you!