A dream full of lessons

I normally, if I remember any part of my dreams at all, remember the last part of my dream, right before I wake up. Right before I woke up I had a dream that a friend and I were sitting on a couch with some other friends. Then one of our other friends asked if we had seen a video of one of our mutual friends, his brother, and their time on the mission field. We said we hadn't so they put the video in. As we were watching, our mutual friend was being interviewed about his time on the mission field. They were showing clips of him there while his voice was playing on the screen. His voice was saying how the violence was high, how there was extreme poverty, it was very crowded and dirty, and pretty much how much he hated it. There were clips of him wearing his designer clothes, walking around, seeming out of place. Then it showed how he was in this dirt area with some kids but he was talking about how there was no place to sit. As I was watching it, I couldn't help but think, "Sit in the dirt! You have to get dirty with the kids. You should have left your fancy clothes at home."

Then they showed his brother on the mission field. He, on the other hand, was diving right into it. He was loving on the kids, getting dirty, having fun, and touching their lives. His voice was talking about how the kids were impacting his life, how he loved being with them and getting th chance to touch them.

It just caused me to wake up thinking about the line that I wrote about a couple blogs back about how "we drive with our lattes, in our nice cars, to our thousand dollar built church's." The only reason that this can be harmful is because of your heart. If your heart clutches so tightly to these comforts, these things, then are you even going to be able to hear God if he asked you to give it up? This life is really not our own. And He may not be calling you to the mission field but He is calling you to give up your worldly possessions for His glory eternal.

Last night I read in Luke 17 about the unworthy servants:

17:7-10 "Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and recline at table'? Will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, and dress properly. and serve me while I eat and drink and afterward you will eat and drink'? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'"

Now, I don't think Jesus is trying to encourage rudeness, but I do think He was trying to make a point. Because our life is not our own, and we were given it, it is our duty to give it back to Him. He came to give us life eternal so that we would die to our old self and live new and all for Him. He says to take up our cross and follow Him. This means that we live for Him where ever we go, whatever we are called to do.

We are called to give to the poor and needy, love the orphans and widows, make disciples of all nations, hate our mother, father, sister, brother, even our own life more than Him. We are called to do so much for Him. But the joy that comes even when we deny ourselves is such a reward! That is God truly blessing us! When we realize that this life is not ours, but it's all for Him we begin to go even deeper with Him, see His heart, see how He see's things. We even begin to have a different outlook on everything - from TV to shopping to Facebook! I only know because He has been convicting me on these things.

I really am glad that He disciplines those that He loves because I have been feeling that conviction! A lot of conviction about priorities and getting them straight. And also conviction about stepping up more and taking initiative. So thanks to some accountability from a brother, I got SO much done yesterday. I am extremely close to having all my paperwork in for Thailand. And I'm currently working out some fundraisers to have if this job thing doesn't work out. :/ I booked Addison Prophet for a benefit concert on November 20! Now I just have to figure out where we are going to have it and what it's going to look like.

So I'm learning a lot about how this life is not my own as well as lining that knowledge up with my life. Let me know if you have any fundraising ideas!! :)