surprise!

I have recently been doing a marvelous Bible study with a very dear friend. We do a daily study on our own and then try and meet up once a week to discuss the study and what God has been doing in our lives. It's a time I treasure very much. Yesterday we met during our lunch breaks. I am essentially broke and brought my lunch to work and ate it so I wouldn't have to spend any money. We settled on meeting at starbucks. Traffic was pretty heavy yesterday. (Throw a little precipitation around and people go nuts on the roads) I was just waiting on my friend to show up. In the mean time, I re-read part of my study just to refresh my mind about some of the quotes that stood out to me that week. The couple next to me got up to leave and the woman looked at me and said, "I really like that book you're reading. Here's five dollars, go buy yourself a cup of coffee." I tried to refuse the money but she insisted and so I accepted. How amazing is God! I pray God blesses that woman ten-fold for that tiny act of completely random kindness that she showed toward me. I wish there was a way to do the same for her. God takes care of His children.

early to rise...

So last night I was reading the book of Isaiah and felt impressed to read some in the morning. So I thought to myself, "good idea, I'll read when I get to work." Well, apparently that's not what God had in mind. I leaned over and set my alarm clock and proceeded to roll over on my other side to prepare for a good night's sleep. I suddenly almost heard an audible voice saying, "Um, no...not what I meant. Set your alarm for 5:45." 5:45!!! I said, "really...that's so early. I have to get up early enough as it is. Surely this is just my imagination. God wouldn't be telling ME things like this..." HA! never say such things...never even THINK such things. God said, "Melissa...roll back over and set your alarm or I'll wake you up." I said, "yes, Lord." So I did. 5:45 rolled around and my alarm went off. I woke up, sat up and prayed. Now, I'm not exactly used to getting up before the sun is, and even less used to functioning before the sun is up, but I tried. After I prayed I fell back asleep thinking my alarm would go back off at its original time of 6:45 (which is still super early for me) My alarm did not go off at 6:45. Apparently I forgot to set two alarms. I also didn't ask God to make sure I was up at 6:45...I just asked Him to please not let me be exhausted today (I'm not). I woke up at 7:24 and was late for work. No one said anything about me being late, I'm not tired and I obeyed. Sounds like the start of a good mornig. Moral of the story? When God says get up early...you better listen.

Praise Him with...a shout?

This blog may get me in trouble. I'm ok with that. I'm not sure anyone actually reads this, so perhaps I won't actually get into any trouble, but even if I do, I'm ok with it.

Last Sunday morning was fantastic. My wonderful pastor has been preaching a message on Psalm 23. I never ever knew there was so much information in Psalm 23. I think he should write a book on it. (hint hint) During this message a visitor, who happened to be sitting close to me, was very...vocal...about her opinions on the message. To be a little more clear, she shouted. Not just arbitrary loud noises, but encouraging affirmations of joy about God's word. I thought it was fantastic! Apparently not everyone shares my opinion. I understand that there are those who seem to think a church service should be somber, quiet and "sacred." Who am I to disagree with adults who must know more than I? So I won't just give my opinion, I'll do what makes people rreeeaaaalllly angry and give God's opinion. Let's start with Psalm 150.

Psalm 150

Let All Things Praise the LORD

 ¹ Praise the LORD!
        
         Praise God in His sanctuary;
         Praise Him in His mighty firmament!
        
 ² Praise Him for His mighty acts;
         Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!
        
 ³ Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;
         Praise Him with the lute and harp!
 ⁴ Praise Him with the timbrel and dance;
         Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
 ⁵ Praise Him with loud cymbals;
         Praise Him with clashing cymbals!
        
 ⁶ Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
        
         Praise the LORD!

Does that sound like a somber worship service to you? Yeah, me either. In 2 Chronicles the Bible speaks of the children of God praising Him with voices loud and high. (2 Chronicles 20:19 if you don't believe me) Psalm 98:4-6 says, "⁴ Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth; Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises.⁵ Sing to the LORD with the harp,With the harp and the sound of a psalm ⁶ With trumpets and the sound of a horn; Shout joyfully before the LORD, the King." Sounds like a lot of shouting going on.

The woman in church was not shouting to be disruptive, she was doing so to praise the God of her salvation! It didn't bother the pastor. In fact, it got him pretty fired up about what he was preaching.

So here's where I'm really going to get in trouble. Shame on you people who try and quench the Spirit of the most high God. Shame on you for supposedly praying for new visitors and then staring at the visitors when they display something you aren'y accustomed to. Shame for not making her feel most welcome. The church service isn't about your likes and dislikes, it should be about God. She was praising God and you want to stop her? She has a faith that she will unabashedly share! We could all learn something from that sort of "reckless abandon."

Let's praise Him with a SHOUT!

mi manchi bella italia

Italy is a country rich is scenery, culture and history. From the food to the Alps, there is no denying the breathtaking beauty this country has to offer. One of the famous hot spots in Milan, Italy is the Duomo. The Duomo is the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world. It’s Gothic and Baroque architecture can leave the viewer in awe. Many would say this is a testament to the religious influence in Italy. Italy is definitely not unreligious. The role of the priest was to originally be an intercessor, but has now, in many cases, only become a hindrance to the true spiritual intimacy God has intended for us.  Salvation is gained through good works, not grace and faith. Many Italians, however, completely do away with the idea of religion. One missionary described them as being not post-modernist, but post-christian. They’ve been there, done that and are not interested. Most are agnostics and atheists. Palm readers, psychics and other esoteric activities are active in much of the nightlife in Italy. Prostitution is also a large problem in Milan. Many of the parks that are filled with families and couple by day are swarmed with drug dealers and prostitutes by night. As spiritually dark as the city may seem, there is also a thirst and openness to the gospel. Our team did a lot of street singing and evangelism. One day, after singing the precious song Jesus Loves Me (Gesu Mi Ama) a woman approached us and started asking questions. She said she had never had hope, and we sang with hope. She accepted Christ that day on the side of the road at Moscova Plaza. She asked us to pray for her husband who was in prison in Iran. She now has hope. After singing in church Sunday morning, the pastor informed us that four people were saved, two requested baptism and a 5^th person was on the verge of understanding and accepting Christ. One day we went to work with Youth With a Mission about 30 minutes outside of Milan. We evangelized before the concert and two women accepted Christ. They said we sang with the songs of angels and wanted to know why we sang. After the concert that night two more women were saved.

Many think of the founders of the protestant faith when they think of Europe, but unfortunately the same is not true within Europe itself. Many governments label evangelical churches as cults and are creating laws to ban house groups and gatherings of “cults.” Most don’t even know who John Calvin was. In Italy, although 85% of the population claims Roman Catholicism as the religion as few as 15% of those actually attend church. There are proportionately fewer born-again Christians in Spain than in Japan. In more than 50 nations of highly secularized Europe, many people who are numbered as Christians have never heard the gospel.

Why should we pray for Europe specifically? First, Europe is a key to impacting the world. With the European Union, and its historical influence on the world, it is safe to assume the trend will continue. Impact Europe, Impact the world. Second, there are nearly 400 unreached people groups within Europe. One of these people groups are the gypsies. A missionary in Italy told me there is a growing church movement among the gypsies in Milan. Her church is currently working on reaching more gyspy groups. Lastly, God is on the move through Europe. As sad as the situation may appear, God has his hand on Europe. That was evident to the group as we sang through different cities within Italy. As one of the young men of a church in Brescia said to me, “We, the youth of today, are God’s instruments for change!” Milan is the second largest city in Italy with about two million people. For those two million people there are 100 Italian churches and about 30 foreign churches. There are almost 3 million in the whole state in Mississippi. For those 3 million people there are about 2500 southern baptist churches alone.

  

I could give you statistic after statistic and fact after fact. We could read every book on the market about missions. Missions for youth, for college aged, for baby boomers for senior adults. No book is going to “solve” anything. What is boils down to is this: are we going to surrender to the mission God has for our lives? Will we accept the Great Comission? God didn’t say if you want to, if it’s convenient for you then go into the world. He commanded us and said GO! He also said to go into all the world. That means Hattiesburg, Laurel, California, Italy, Peru, China, Japan and the rest of the world. We can make any excuse we want to...I don’t have the money, I’m too young, I’m too old, I’ve never flown. Do we not know that our God is bigger than our finances, our age and our fears? In our weakness his strength is made perfect! How shall they hear unless they have a preacher? God has called us...us. His church, His children. He wants to use US! How marvelous to be wanted by God. He wants to use us for his glory. He wants us to seek his face and His will and let ourselves be guided by Him like Moses was. Let’s stop making excuses and start responding to Him.