Believing God

Something I learned last year from a Beth Moore Bible study series is that there is a difference between believing in God and believing God. The first is no small feat to begin with. For some it is quite a stretch for them to even begin to believe in God, the creator of the universe, and further to accept that His Son Jesus Christ came to earth, lived and chose to die and become the perfect sacrificial lamb to pay for all of the sins of the world. All the imperfect things that I have done in the past and that I will do in the future deserve death. Yours, too. Someone has to pay that price. Jesus chose to pay it for us, and because he rose from the dead, it is finished. We can have a relationship with God. Believing in God, believing those truths...not a small feat.

Even more is believing god. This believing is present-active participle. This means continually believing. It means making a choice every minute to believe. This is a powerful kind of belief. To trust what God says in his Word. To believe that he is the same God that rose Jesus from the dead, that separated the Red Sea, that created the universe. The same God of the Old Testament. The same God of the miraculous healings in the New Testament. To believe that God for what he says. That's a feat.

I want to have that kind of faith. I want to do more than believe in God. I want to believe God. I want to trust him. I want to live my life knowing that he has a perfect plan for me. I know it's not always going to be easy. I know there will be hard times, hard decisions, even times when I doubt and feel as though I am completely alone. I want to have a foundational faith, though, that is able to hold me up during those times like nothing else can. I've learned that everything else will fail me. God will endure. He doesn't change. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

As I embark on a new phase of my life I feel like I'm leaving everything that I know. I have been a student for the past 16 years. (or so). I have been involved in campus ministry for the past 3 1/2 years. In 15 days or so I will begin the transition from being a student to being a teacher. I don't know how to be a teacher. I don't know what I'm supposed to bring to the first day of meetings, I don't know what I'm supposed to do in the classroom, I don't even know what the curriculum is! I'll be taking graduate level courses. Wow. I can't even believe that. I won't be involved in campus ministry. I'm looking for a church, and hoping to be involved to a certain degree, whatever my schedule will allow. One thing I do know is that my ministry is going to look very different. My ministry is my life. It's not my job. It's not my nights and weekends hobby or activity. It's not something I do. Who I am is derived greatly from who Jesus is. I want to be like Jesus to the kids that I teach, to my co-workers, to my classmates. I want to love them like God does, to serve them the way Jesus would, and to explain where my hope comes from. May I always have an answer for the hope that I have. May I see people the way God sees them. May I love because I was first loved by Him. My cup overflows, and out of that overflow, may I speak and serve. These are my prayer requests for the beginning of this new journey.

Since I'm starting a new journey, and since I'm "growing up," I thought I would put Xanga aside and move into Blogger (again and anew). So, here we go!