Hope in A Stranger’s Eyes

 

She smiles as she dances to and fro 

Around her do her dresses flow

Her Amma and Pitaa surrounded her with love

Yet in her future was pain undreamed of

In one instance it was all gone

Her parents from this world were withdrawn 

Alone and afraid 

There soon came a promise to be paid

Her grandfather consented

But little did he know the girl’s body would be rented

A promise of work 

Turned into years of hurt

More alone then before

Hope was left at the door

As she was abused time and time again 

She was bound in her mind by chains

Soon all her innocence was taken 

All of what she knew as right was shaken

The light left her once alive eyes

She was now a zombie with no left life inside

The years past in silence and abuse

There was nothing more to lose

No reason to go on 

No sign of a dawn 

Then one day she saw a glimpse of hope

In the eyes of a stranger she found strength to cope

There was something different and something magnificent

About the joy that was seen in the strangers’ existence 

Something about this stranger gave her hope to go on

A hope for a dawn

Soon was coming a way of escape 

In the long day that the brothel was raid 

In the midst of chaos she knew there was hope

Finally released from the surrounding darkness

Finally released from her chains

Yet something deep inside still remained. 

The hurt and guilt and pain

She thought they would never go away

The scars that she had on her young heart

She feared deeply would never part

She was soon brought away

To a place she knew would be safe

Again she saw the stranger and was surprise

And this time she had a chance to ask about that joy inside

In passionate tones the woman explained

About freedom in Christ and the sacrifice He made

About the blood He shed so she could have life

And how for her soul He paid the costliest price 

Wonder struck the girl as she realized the truth in those words

Eagerly she embraced

This God full of mercy

This God full of grace

She let go on her hate and her guilt that clung

To her soul and let it fall 

Unto the shoulders of her risen God 

She became a follower of her Savior body and soul

She finally found a way to be whole

Now many years later she’s back on the street

Sharing her Jesus will all that she meets

Because of one stranger that showed her God’s love

Now she’s become that stranger and is a servant of the Lord above

She smiles as she dances to and fro 

Around her do her dresses flow

Her Amma and Pitaa surrounded her with love

Yet in her future was pain undreamed of

In one instance it was all gone

Her parents from this world were withdrawn 

Alone and afraid 

There soon came a promise to be paid

Her grandfather consented

But little did he know the girl’s body would be rented

A promise of work 

Turned into years of hurt

More alone then before

Hope was left at the door

As she was abused time and time again 

She was bound in her mind by chains

Soon all her innocence was taken 

All of what she knew as right was shaken

The light left her once alive eyes

She was now a zombie with no left life inside

The years past in silence and abuse

There was nothing more to lose

No reason to go on 

No sign of a dawn 

Then one day she saw a glimpse of hope

In the eyes of a stranger she found strength to cope

There was something different and something magnificent

About the joy that was seen in the strangers’ existence 

Something about this stranger gave her hope to go on

A hope for a dawn

Soon was coming a way of escape 

In the long day that the brothel was raid 

In the midst of chaos she knew there was hope

Finally released from the surrounding darkness

Finally released from her chains

Yet something deep inside still remained. 

The hurt and guilt and pain

She thought they would never go away

The scars that she had on her young heart

She feared deeply would never part

She was soon brought away

To a place she knew would be safe

Again she saw the stranger and was surprise

And this time she had a chance to ask about that joy inside

In passionate tones the woman explained

About freedom in Christ and the sacrifice He made

About the blood He shed so she could have life

And how for her soul He paid the costliest price 

Wonder struck the girl as she realized the truth in those words

Eagerly she embraced

This God full of mercy

This God full of grace

She let go on her hate and her guilt that clung

To her soul and let it fall 

Unto the shoulders of her risen God 

She became a follower of her Savior body and soul

She finally found a way to be whole

Now many years later she’s back on the street

Sharing her Jesus will all that she meets

Because of one stranger that showed her God’s love

Now she’s become that stranger and is a servant of the Lord above

(Note: there has been quite of WordPress buginess while writing this post so if something is screwed up I appologize. Currently I can not get the paragraphs to work right so again I appologize and I will try to get it working as soon as I can.) 

The Greatest Power For Change

 I live in a tough area of the country. Drugs and alcohol abuse run strong and there are as many bars as churches, if not more. It’s the most unchurched county in the state. Teen alcoholism, STDs, and pregnancies run high. There are children as young as four roaming the streets in the town. A few years ago a girl like that was kidnapped and hasn’t been found. It’s a hard place here.

 Yet God has been changing my heart towards it… while I used to have a bitterness and an attitude of scoffing towards the depraved culture, now God has been showing me that this is a place in desperate need of the gospel. No amount of abstinence speakers, police enforcement, parental guidance, or anything else can change this group of small towns that makes up the area I live in. Only the power that can bring about change is the gospel. It’s Jesus’ blood and redemption through His grace.

 We are Christ’s ambassadors. We have the light of the world inside of us and it’s our job to let that light shine. In James is says that whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, he is sinning. We keep the good news of the gospel locked up inside of our hearts, letting it out a little at church or on a missions trip. But if that’s so, do we really value the gospel? The gospel is the power of God, our salvation, hope, water for the thirsty, strength. Do we truly value the gospel if we don’t share it?

 One of my favorite stories about a man who truly valued the gospel was pastor John Harper. He was so in love with the gospel that he jumped into that ice cold water from the ship Titanic so that he would share the gospel to the dying souls drowning in the water. He cherished and prized the gospel enough to tell everyone he could instead of only worrying about his own life and wellbeing. That is how we should be.

 We should be madly in love, infatuated, captivated, enraptured, obsessed, and head over heals for the gospel that we should have a passion to see others find that love too. I know full well how hard it is to break down our pride, to be willing to make things socially awkward, risk friendships, or our reputations to share the good news of forgiveness and life in Christ. I’m still learning how to do it and do not do a good job of sharing the gospel yet. But I pray that God will work in my heart to make His truth so treasured in my heart that I can’t not share it.

 It’s so easy to just hate the sinful culture instead of changing it. Though we are to hate sin, we are to love sinners with a pure heart, one that desires to see sinners lead to repentance and regeneration and ultimately to God. We can’t do the saving on our own, we aren’t even the one that does any of the saving. We are simply the preachers of the good news, the rest is God’s job, not ours.

“Wake Up” Leeland

The nation lost and dying
Searching for You
Creation waits
Children with the word of God
Written on their hearts
Show love to the world

We need to wake up, wake up
Live like God
Pour out love
We need to wake up, wake up
Live like God
Pour out love

I know it’s sad
That the gift we have
We keep it for ourselves
Most of the time
The world is looking
For a love that’s locked up
Inside these four walls
Break the door down and shine

Our face is set
Our goal is heaven
Jesus, You are the well of love
We’ll pour You out
We’ll pour You out

(Note: My dad has some excellent posts on evangelism and the gospel on his new blog Gospel2Live. Go check it out!)

Where to Set Our Eyes

So many things are constantly vying for my precious time and attention. So many things that, even if they themselves are good, are pulling me away from Christ. So many sins that love to cling to me and temptations that are strong. We live in a world where it is not easy to live lives of true devotion to Jesus, but has it ever truly been?

Last week God convicted me or something in my life that I had not been doing a good job of doing and needed to change. I felt horrible for ever letting things get that way and I felt like I had failed. Then a verse I had memorized came to mind and hit me stronger then ever before. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

I realized that it was setting my eyes on Christ that I needed to do. Not just become determined to not do it again or try to change on my own accord, but to focus on Christ. To rest in His arms and to be given the strength that I so desperately need from Him. Only through pouring myself out for Him and remembering the blood that He shed on my behalf, only then can there be any progress and holiness.

We can’t be setting our eyes on the sin that clings or to the temptations that surround us. We need to acknowledge them, yes. But we can’t be dwelling on them and we can’t be fixated on them. As my mom tells me, “We can’t always dwell on our problems, because when we do that we just keep spiraling down into a pit and we stay in that pit. What we have to do is deal with it and move on.”

Jesus Christ and the wonderful cross, which is our life and salvation, is what we need to be fixated with. We need to totally be caught up in Him, and that should overflow into every area of our life. As we seek the Lord with all of our hearts, our entire lives will be effected by that. The key to everything is the gospel. It is the answer to all our problems. I think that is just wonderful. That God gave us the blood of Christ and through Him we have not only salvation, but He has also given us the power to face anything through the cross! It’s such a wonderful reality!