Break Forth

A land swollen with hidden seed,
A land hungry, with unspoken need.
They yearn to cry out,
But it is caught in their throats.
They desire to shout,
But have said that they don’t.

Oh God, hear a cry
Of a nation in pain,
So much shame held inside
That is keeping them lame.

Muted and silent,
Or so they have believed.
But a cry is growing
That must be relieved.

I see an earthquake
That is coming to shake
Every heart and mind
From this lying snake.

As a tongue is released by
The first obedient sounds,
Let the groaning break forth—
Let the seeds break through the ground.

The fields have been planted,
And the Lord sends the rain.
The heavens are being released,
And is washing the stains.

Daughters and sons,
It is time to untie.
Your chains are released;
You have been waiting to fly.

Righteousness spring forth.
The ground is not dead.
Sing out for joy
For Jesus is your head.

O Germany, arise.
O Germany, you will shine.
O Germany you shall release
What has been growing inside.

treasure hunting

Wow. Today was an amazing day. We took a team of staff, interns, and 2nd year students into Limassol for an outreach. We split up into small teams and we walked around on the water front looking for opportunities to pray for people and tell them about God's love. We prayed ahead of time that the Lord would give us specific words and pictures of people that we would meet so that when we saw them we would be ready to speak directly to their hearts what the Lord had shown us beforehand. There were so many testimonies from the day. There was one man with a cast on his hand that got prayed for by five different teams. He started out looking really hard, but was lightening up as more and more people came up to him to tell him about God's love. Later, we were all sitting together having lunch by the water and then this man came walking up to us with another man. He had gone and found a translator so he could find out what it was we were about! Both men were Muslims from Iran, but were so encouraged as the team just poured out on them the truth of God's love for them. We told them about God's healing power and prayed for them in Jesus', the Son of God, name. They were very touched and wanted to find out how they could learn more and where they could go in the future. We were able to invite them to an event in the city coming up, and one of our team members got their phone number so he could follow up. God is so amazing! He took a handful of people from a Messianic ministry to go and used them to touch these Iranian men. God is so good! The great thing is that it wasn't this big event that took lots of preparation. We just drove down to the city with the purpose in our heart to shine God's love around us. You can be used by God at any time and in any place! All you have to do is to make yourself available to Him. Most of the time the people we approached did not even speak English, but we were able to smile and tell them God loves them and pray for them. Well, I hope this encourages you. Step out in faith. You will never go wrong telling people God loves them. It will always be true.

Consecrated Ones

Every morning, here in Cyprus, we begin our day with worship. We believe that every moment should be lived in worship to our God; nevertheless, there is something special and powerful when we come together with the specific purpose of praising our King and seeking His face. The amazing part is that when we seek Him, He comes! Daily we are drawn into His presence and our lives are being changed. There are so many aspects of God and of His love that you can never have enough. His love is wider and deeper and stronger and purer and lovelier than we could ever fully know. The more we gaze at Him in worship, the more of Himself He pours out and we are daily growing more and more hungry for more of Him. Could I use the word “more” anymore? Yes! I want More! I have been in Cyprus now for over 3 weeks, and there is so much I could write about. Already, God has spoken so much to me and kissed me with His presence again and again. Since I cannot possibly tell everything, especially when I am still processing most of it, I will just write a little bit about some special revelation the Lord has been walking me through.
Before worship begins each day, all of the staff and the interns meet in the office for a time of communication and prayer. Most of the time before we even go down to worship we have already had an encounter with the Lord in our staff meeting. Last week, Mrs. Rudolph shared with the staff an exhortation reminding us that we are “consecrated ones.” She said that those of us who are not married do not need to think of our identity as “single” but rather as consecrated ones. As she was sharing, my heart was lit with an excitement deep within. It is not that we are taking any vow of singleness, but it is the fact that we realize what a special time this is that we are able to fully devote ourselves to the One we love—singleness of heart. And this does not apply only to the unmarried, but the married as well can be consecrated to the Lord as ones with singleness of heart towards the Lord. Since I am not married, however, I will write about what this means to me in my state. What a privilege I have to be able to put all of my focus and zeal towards the Lord. I have more time to be filled with His love and healed in His presence so that when the day does come if the Lord should bring to me a partner in this adventure of life, I will be a whole person whose identity is rooted and grounded in God’s love. I am going to give it my all to let my roots go down deep. It is so easy to allow ourselves to be unaware of the days in which we are living. But we must awake! This is not a time to sleep or a time to get comfortable and make our lives nice and cozy. If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then you are part of the Family of God. Your life cannot be lived in isolation from the rest of the Church and God’s plans in this earth. You may be satisfied to know that you are going to Heaven, but God gave us His Holy Spirit and the great commission so that we might play a greater role in this amazing redemption story. God has not made you to be an extra taking up space on the stage of life—He has created you to play an irreplaceable role with deeper significance than it may at first appear. It does not matter where you were born or what your background is, He is ready to fill your life with more meaning and purpose than you could ever hope for yourself. With this in mind, my excitement continues to grow as I begin to see myself as a consecrated one. We are so close to Yeshua’s (Jesus’) return. I am locking my gaze on Him and not looking around to try to find things to fill my life. My life is not my own. I lay it down gladly for the One who laid His life down for me. I am marching to the rhythm of His love wherever it leads. I am choosing to lay myself down on His table and ask Him to do surgery on my heart. He may cut away anything and everything that is not from Him. All of the hopes, dreams, and plans I have for my life, I present to Him as a gift. Because of His amazing love, I know I can FULLY trust Him with my all. I lay down all expectations and choose to follow Him. I pray that I would be found willing even unto death. I love Jesus. I love Abba, Father God. And I know that He loves me and His plans for me are good. I am part of the Jacob generation who will seek His face.