"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world; that we would be holy and blameless before him. In love, He predestined us to adoption us sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His glorious grace which He lavished on us." Ephesians 1:3-7
First day of classes at UNT today, and it is so cool to see the diversity on campus. If globalization has done one good thing for us, it is the shrinking of the world, allowing a university in a mid-size Texas town to host college kids from all over the world. Almost makes me wish I was going to school internationally.. I kept trying to read my professors and my classmates, which in the end probably was not a great idea since it was only the first day, just kinda how I am.. I saw the depths of the brokenness of mankind in my second class. The professor was a sweet, tiny little Chinese lady who in all honesty spoke very rough english and was teaching a sociological mathematics class.. Apparently, athletes are encouraged to take sociology classes because they are easy or something because there was about ten or so athletes from UNT in that class. These guys were so disrespective and cruel, laughing hysterically at the poor professor's attempts to speak clearly to us. The worst part was that I didn't escape sin either, because I wanted to kick every one of them in the side of the head. Oh, Jesus won't You come.
Needless to say, I was a sociology major for 2 hours. I have been wrestling in my heart as to whether it would be wiser to get my degree in Anthropology rather than Sociology. I have come to grips with the fact that I don't think I'm escaping ministry in my life, even though I have wrestled with God with so many times. He always wins. So, in the end, I think it will be more practical and effective to use in missions ministry or pastoral ministry to understand culture and how the gospel can be applied to different cultures. Nevertheless, I am now an Anthropology major. Now, the only thing that sucks is that I have to take two semesters of a foreign language. I have intentionally avoided major plans with foreign language requirements since I have been in college, and here we are.. I know that I should probably take Arabic but in all honesty I'm kind of scared of it. It will be extremely difficult. But that is the language of the area of focus I feel led to internationally. Dang!
Number One Realization of the Day: Stop Being Ruled By Fear.
I guess it doesn't limit itself to relationships or to fear of man issues, but it is a root of fear in all things. I guess it's a good thing I now have my own personal Arabic tutor.. Gosh, I cannot stop thinking about Fahad and the amazing conversation/time we spent together last night. I was going to journal about this last night, but I was simply exhausted and too excited to even formulate my ideas enough to write them down. So, I met this guy at my work a couple of months ago and through conversation we began to talk to him about him being from Saudi Arabia and me wanting to live in Sudan. He proceeded to tell me that I would need to learn Arabic, to which I responded that I didn't know anyone who spoke Arabic. He said, I know Arabic, I could teach you. Wow! So, we exchanged numbers and I immediately praised the Lord for such an opportunity to pour into this man's life and to herald the gospel. AND I would get to learn Arabic from an Arab! Well, I contacted him numerous times over the holidays with no response, so I thought it was kind of a lost cause. But last night I was sitting in my room and my phone started ringing, and it was him! I was freaking out, so dang excited! He asked about my holidays and then I asked him if he would like to grab some coffee. He said, Yes, this is good. haha
So, coffee date with the first real muslim I have ever met, outside of Kenya this summer. Let's just say that I was a little freaked out, but I knew that God had big plans with this, and that He wanted me to build a relationship with him and nurture it. So, I began to pray, honestly all over the place for thousands of different things and thousands of different ways. But then, mid-prayer I just began to laugh hysterically (maybe in the Spirit) as I started to think of all the tiny details that God had to ordain and make sure all of it happened so that I would meet Fahad and that we would end up in this coffee shop in Denton, Tx. It just revealed to me the beauty of God's creativity in His sovereignty, He is a God of tiny details. and in those tiny details, I sat like an ant in the footprint of a giant trying to comprehend the cosmos. And so overwhelmed with worship in my heart towards the greatness of God, I was reminded that He is the Author and Perfector, and my place is a servant. So, right there, I prayed a very simple prayer and rested:
"Father, let me be found faithful with Your Word and to love Fahad as You love him, and the rest is up to you. You save Him, Lord. Holy Spirit come."
...and He did.
The night went so well, even through the discussion I could see the Lord leading us and guiding us to the gospel. I guess I should stop here to say that my new friend Fahad is a devout muslim, and not in a violent way, nor in an ignorant way. He is a kind, gentle, educated man who knows what he believes and is faithful to it. So, through conversation, we talked about his family and that led to how he met his wife, which led to Eli talking about how we were taught to pursue women. I could tell this was the opportunity to ask a very pointed, intentional questiom because Eli kept saying "Christ" in his description. So, I asked Fahad what he thought about Jesus, not really church or christian religion or even christians as a body, but just Jesus Himself. I am not going to write all that was said and talked about because my journal is not big enough. But let me just say that he was very interested in what we believe, and why, and how it all works. At the end of the night, he asked me privately if he could come with us to church soon. I seriously almost fell out of my chair and almost started weeping right there in JuHo. This was a very devout muslim asking to come to a christian church with christian people, unbelievable really. And if that wasn't enough, he then told me that he wanted to get together each week to talk about this stuff and hang out. All I could say when I walked out of JuHo was, "God, You are so cool." It's still really all I can think to say. I know that He is going to make much of Himself through all of this. I am so humbled and blown away that God would choose me to play a part in the hallowing of His name, and the coming of His Kingdom, and His will being done on earth.
Ephesians 1:3-7 truly blows my mind tonight as I write, even setting aside the sovereignty issue within it. But with a focus on verse 6: "to the praise of His glorious grace" and verse 7: "the forgiveness of sins, according to the glorious riches of His grace." That this entire thing is ALL about God making known the riches of His glorious grace, TO THE PRAISE of His glorious grace..
God answered me praying the Lord's prayer...
and that's cool.
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