God

Hey all, this is Elliot. I'm sure most of you current servants know who I am as I served in Diakanos last year but I'm back again for this summer and beyond God willing. Then again, it's not who I am that's important but who we are in Christ.

Let us remember that we are, as GCC often says "tools", but at the same time we are a ton of other things for God as well. The Bible calls us something along the line of tools but also vessels, temples, slaves, sheep, dust, etc etc. Let that humble us and let that perspective never depart from the way we look at one another and ourselves because we are finite humans and sinners. And yet, let us not consider ourselves too useless as with an omnipotent God as our God we have infinite potential to be tools and vessels to impact significant improvements and additions for the Kingdom of God that is in creation and is to be made complete when the time is right.

For the past week, I think God gave me a conviction to become more convicted that all things are possible through Him when it's for Him. Sometimes we lack the faith and more critically the heart to believe that God can really do anything significant in these peoples lives.

I know that when I'm trying to share the love and gospel of Christ to atheist homeless people it's hard to continue when they so coldly and outrightly reject the love, let alone existence, of God. But it's wrong to be discouraged completely by that because we know that although we are powerless to move hearts, God is powerful to cause miracles. I even saw this miracle in my closest childhood friend completely addicted to drugs and alcohol and more critically completely agnostic and rebellious. When I saw him turn 180 degrees to become one of the most passionate and powerful missionaries I know I realized that God's miracles do happen even today.

Knowing that our God is capable of preforming those miracles, I think we have reason to believe that those we minister to can be completely changed in such a way as well. And in faith in what the Word teaches us, our powerful God is Willing to do just that and more through us if only we earnestly ask Him to do that through the vessels of Christ that we are.

But in order to be effective tools for God, I think we need to open our hearts to that. If we partially close our hearts, doubt enters, faith diminishes, and what's worse is that we partially don't allow God to use us to work those incredible miracles. If only we completely open up our hearts to God will our hearts be clear, transparent, open, and wide channels for God to pour out more of his power and miracles all the more. Let us open up our hearts, and if we can't, pray that we can.

To go along with that, I think what's all the more important to make that happen is simply our personal relationship with Christ. If we are lukewarm Christians, we will only have lukewarm fruits that aren't really efficacious in creating serious impact in those around us. Thus we need to be not lukewarm but zealous Christians. More accurately, we need to be children of God who constantly seek, adopt, and depend on His grace, mercy, love, and power daily. We need to be believers whose every motive and desire revolve around what He wants and values. Some people say that's impossible or takes a lifetime to get to that state of belief. But I want to tell you right now that that happened to those around me and it can happen to us because God is a loving God of miracles who wants to make the most of our lives to create the greatest impact for His Kingdom as much as possible. God does not want us to waste our time simply trying. He wants us to be like His Son right now to work for His Kingdom right now. If only we are completely open and willing to risk all of ourselves for His miraculous power to change our lives...to become all the more wholehearted and joyful servants for His Kingdom.

This is all to say that although our purpose as Diakanos servants is to spread the love of God and evangelize to them through our good works, the strength that will make us most effective and true to God will be our personal relationships with God and the relationship we have with God as a body of Christ. So let us not diminish the importance of our own spirituality and connection with Christ while trying to make disciples of all nations.

I think a practical way to apply this would be to hold longer prayer time before we go out to Diakanos. If we start on time on the dot at 6, and if we finish making the food shortly after, then we'll have more time to pray before we go out. Today we had a lot of time left over. If we use that time to pray instead before we go out, I think we would have better hearts to better serve through.

Some of the things we ought to pray for is simply to be more open to God's potential and to do that to pray that we lose the fear of losing idols that we still hold dear to our hearts that define our identities and give us security. Let's pray that we can sacrifice our bodies and our idols, that we can be willing to give them up everyday any day in order to become more Christlike and thereby more powerful agents, passionate and more joyful servants of God who can perform wonders for His Kingdom.

I don't want to make this about putting on a grand show. What I do want to make this about is the fact that there are too many lost people out there that needs to be taken into the arms of God, and that there aren't enough of us to do them, and that we can do so much more, saving so many more people out of His affection, if only we become more Christlike servants who are willing to deny themselves completely, pick up the Cross, and be willing to follow God wherever that may be despite our current treasures and circumstances.

I will pray about this more everyday and I hope that you guys can join me in this desperation.

Love, your brother under Christ,

Elliot

The Best In Me

Well, this is pretty neat. I mean blogging. Anyways, this blog will actually be somewhat similar to what I posted in facebook earlier this week. However, I really want to say that I had a very blessed time going out on Monday. Brother Elliot and I were talking to a woman in the park and she talk about wanting to go to college I immediately said that she should do it if that is what she wants to do. It's not too late to do it. But I also loved the fact that she was willing to share so much of her story with us. Tidbits of her family life, her wanting to go to college. In that instant, I thought "Wow!" She not that much different from us college kids. I sometimes wonder if we bother to even think that our brothers and sisters out in love park could really have dreams and aspirations to want better. Well, I know the answer to that question is Yes!! However, I think that we stay in our Christian bubbles so long that we fear stepping outside of those boundaries and really pouring out our love to others.

That is a struggle that I do face almost daily. To step outside boundaries in order to make a difference in the lives of others. This is something that I pray about because I know that my growth is being stagnated by my fears. I pray that I will be more like Jesus and to love the people that society and even, dare I say, the Christian Church has told me not to love. God is love and he sees the best in all of us. Think about it, why would God send his only son into this earth to die for our sins if he did not love us. And let's not forget, even those who persecuted Jesus were the same people that Jesus died for. So here's hoping that those in love park as well as those who are in poverty around the country and in the world will receive the message of God's love for us.

P.S. I still have doubts and jitters about going to diakonos every Monday but I really think that I am getting better at it with God's help.

McRefugee

hey diakonos! it's been a while!

i wanted to share a quick story from china (hong kong, to be specific). one night while we were in hong kong, sol and i got locked out of the place we were staying, and as a result, we had to find a place to spend the night. as a result, we found refuge at a mcdonald's in the center of the city. it was a humbling experience, sitting at a table alongside others who were "homeless," nervous that the employees would kick us out at any moment.

with that said, i learned a valuable lesson about what we own. the truth is that everything can be taken away from us, from our money to our shelter (in my case, temporarily). i can attest that during those times, we are forced to recognize what we rely on, whether it's our Heavenly Father or worldly possessions.

i thank God that he will never leave me or forsake me, He has prepared a room for me in His Kingdom.