Gods Plan Is Best [Emily@RMIT]

I wanted to share with you a little bit of an awesome lesson that God was teaching me when I was on summerSALT Lorne. When I was there, I started to read John Pipers "Desiring God." It is so good. It took me all of the first week of project just to get through the Introduction and the First Chapter. A lot of what stuck out to me was Gods Plans, and how they are sovereign and perfect and WAY better than anything that we could think of.

Something that really just broke my heart when I have been in Lorne ['08 and '09] is just how girls are just SO mistreated by schoolie guys and toolies. When I was there, I was really struggling with the fact that God was allowing all this crap to happen to these girls, when we were praying SO HARD against it.

God was preparing me for those hard nights by reminding me in the mornings of His awesomeness and His handle on things. It also made me realise that God will do anything, if it brings His children to him and hell on earth is the only kind of hell they experience. Now, saying this does not by any stretch mean that it doesn't suck, and isn't painful for us to watch, and people to experience, but it does remind me that, who am I to think that I should WANT to stop something happening, and then possibly standing in the way of them finding God. It is such a hard thing for me to wrap my head around because there is just that fine line.

Anyway, I am not sure about how much sense this makes, I just wanted to remind you that God is in control, even though it may not [and lets face it generally doesn't] look the way that we would like it to.

Here are some words from John Piper, which have just spoken so much truth into my life in the last couple of weeks that will hopefully speak into yours also.

"If God reigns as sovereign over the world, then the evil of the world is not outside His design. 'Does evil befall a city, unless the Lord has done it?' [Amos 3:6] This is the reverent saying of God's servant Job when he was afflicted with boils: 'Shall we recieve good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?'[Job 2:10] He said this even though the text plainly says that 'Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, and afflicted Job with loathsome sores.'[Job 2:7] Was Job wrong to attribute to God what came from Satan? No, because the writer tells us immediately after Jobs words 'In all this Job did not sin with his lips.' [Job 2:10]...The clearest example that even moral evil fits into the designs of God is the crucifixion of Christ. Who would deny that they betrayal of Jesus by Judas was a morally evil act?

Yet in Acts 2:23, Peter says, 'This Jesus delivered up according to the definite place and foreknowledge of God, you cruxified and killed by the hands of lawless men.' The betrayal was sin, but it was part of Gods ordained plan. Sin did not thwart his plan or stay his hand...The hardened disobedience of men's hearts leads not to the frustration of God's plans, but to their fruition"

John Piper, Desiring God, 1986

The Power of Prayer [Gina@RMIT]

This summer I went on my first project to SummerSALT Lorne. It's funny to look back and see what my initial expectations were in comparison to how much God exceeded those expectations.

In quoting Josh the Spiff: 'When we prayed...we saw God move.' This happened on so many occasions. In particular our team was pretty disappointed on some nights when our Drop-In Centre was low on numbers. We retreated to the 'prayer stairs' and God was truly faithful in prayer. He was in every word we spoke, every move we made and every heart we encountered. It was amazing to watch first-hand how receptive the schoolies were especialy when we'd find out later that night or the next day that our brothers and sisters had been praying over the conversations the entire time.

I was hugely impacted by a couple of boys who just completely opened up their lives, their thoughts and their struggles. Throughout both conversations I was praying so hard that God would lead the conversations and guide truth into my words. Both times I asked God for help in the form of someone from our team. And both times he answered faithfully, pretty much straight away. It was perfect timing, but why does that surprise me?

Because before project, I didn't really know the reality of how powerful prayer is. God teaches you so much in two weeks. He uses the fellowship with other Christians, He uses the conversations with non-Christians and He uses you the way He wants you to be used. It's not that I'm learning something completely new, but He reinforces truths and reveals Himself in ways previously unseen.

This past 6 months has been an absolute blessing, joining Student Life in first year was the best decision I've ever made, and I have God to thank for that!

Titus 3:3-8. Check it out! And also the Mission Megumi Blog like Veronica said!

Love In Christ,
Gina.