Trusting

(This post is more for myself than it is for anyone else to read. I need an outlet to adjust back to life in Texas, and this seems to be the best fit)

Being back home in San Antonio is a very strange feeling. I think I got a case of reverse culture shock big time when I returned to the states. I've never experienced it before. I love seeing everyone, and visiting, and remembering what my life was like prior to going to Chile. Coming home to my beautiful roommates having movie nights or working out. Or my best friend that always listens and loves. My family eager for my next visit. But the truth remains, I want to be in Chile so bad.

I've been thinking about when I first started trusting Jesus about 3 years ago. I would always pray with the attitude of "if it's your will God, I know it will happen." But before I left Chile, I found myself pleading "please God, send me back here. Don't let this be the only time, the last time." I have faith and trust that God will use me as a tool for His kingdom no matter where I am. And this stems from the idea that my mission field is where my feet are. If I'm in San Antonio, I have to trust that this is where God wants me right now. This is where I will minister and witness and serve until God sends me somewhere else (which I am anxiously awaiting). I know the more I think about Chile and the beautiful friends we made and the community, sometimes it makes me upset to realize that isn't home anymore. But other times it brings me comfort to know that Jesus is still ALIVE and working. Not only there in Chile, but in the entire world. It is by faith that we receive grace, and it is through grace that we may serve. I have to keep reminding myself of this.

My prayers are that God continues to work in the country of Chile, and that even here in the states we be affected by their workers and their ministries.

Thoughts from Santiago, Chile

Thank God that He was benevolent enough to give us a second covenant. The first became faulted as time moved on and humans chose a life separated from God. But Jesus came as the High Priest, the only one allowed in the part of the tabernacle known as the Holiest of All, to give a sacrifice. Prior to this, the priests offered goats and calves as the sacrifices for the sins committed in ignorance. And these animals had to be the best of the best, without fault or blemish.  But when people continued to stray from God, this had to be done repeatedly. So Jesus came and gave one sacrifice. His perfect self. Jesus couldn't have been anything other than perfect. This must be true because He wouldn't command His followers to be perfect as said in Matthew 5:48 if it was impossible. And since He was perfect and still is perfect, He was the perfect sacrifice, which means we no longer need them. If animals can be used as offerings to purify the flesh, we should be obligated to recognize HIS offering. Animals can't love you and chose for your highest good as another human can. The animal sacrifices were done out of convenience. But Jesus' sacrifice was done out of love. This offering was powerful enough for Jesus to do away with the "dead works" from our life and allow us to serve God afterward. Christ is literally the go-between that gives us redemption from sins. 

As I spend more and more time here in Chile, I think of reasons explaining why I am here. What brought me here? Why do I enjoy living here? Why don't I want to leave? And every time I come back to understanding that Jesus is worth it. If He thought I was worth it, to die, then how much more is He worth it? I could never imagine anything that wasn't inferior to how much I value Jesus. 

Every single person we know, or love, or pass on the street is someone that Jesus died for. Whether their life reflects His love and mercy or not, He presented Himself as a sacrifice to die that they may live a redeemed life. May we as followers of Jesus never forget this. 

11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance." -Hebrews 9:11-15