Wild Fires and Craziness that Ensues

The last blog post that I wrote, I had thought that the next place I was headed to was Haiti. That's been changed.
I heard the incredible story of Pastor Rob fleeing from the wild fire that broke out in Colorado and immediately my heart went out to him, his family and the people in Colorado Springs. I was able to write a communications piece for EFCA (check out www.efca.org and the TouchGlobal blog) on the Waldo Canyon Fire. I knew that Mark Lewis was headed there this weekend on a trip to assess damage and minister to those affected along with coming up with an action plan for response. I'm going to go with him and Ella to help and learn and listen. Yes, TouchGlobal is responding to this disaster.
Please, please pray for me, Mark and Ella as we visit Colorado. I leave tomorrow night (Friday) and return the following day. Right after, Challenge begins. It will be a busy week. I've had a lot of responsibilities with designing our booth and working with the Love Moves Haiti exhibit (to learn more, visit www.challengeconference.org), so I'm so thankful for the people who will be adopting my New Orleans duties while I'm in Colorado.
Thank you for your prayers and support!

Chelsea

Running Blind

Meet Simon Wheatcroft:

Simon was chosen to be a torchbearer in the 2012 Summer Olympic games. He'll be carrying the Flame through a small English village on June 26th, cheered on by friends and family. There is one thing that makes him pretty special: he's blind.

I thought about Wheatcroft as I was running today. I looked at my feet and watched them avoid every dip, step over sticks and roots and turn with the sidewalk. I couldn't imagine closing my eyes and running the rest of my route in the dark, even though I run it every day.

Sometimes, I feel like I'm running blind when it comes to my life, though. I really don't know what this next year will look like, exactly. Who does? I have plans...marriage, for example. A lot of things are unknown, though. I know what I want to do, I'm just not sure if it's what God wants me to do. But, I do have confidence. I know that Christ has gotten me this far, and I could not have done it myself. I depend on Him for strength and guidance. Proverbs 16:9 keeps coming into my head: "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."

One thing I feel like I'm running blindly into is Haiti. I've decided to go there with Ronnie and Katie in less than 3 weeks. It wasn't necessarily in my budget and it took almost my entire support for the month to buy the ticket, but I firmly believe that I'm called to go there this summer. I'll be there from July 8th - 12th. Please join me in prayer that, if it's His will, God will provide the funds to make up for the ticket I purchased.

There are various other decisions that I need to make that I feel in the dark about. Again, please pray for me, for wisdom and that I'll act on that wisdom, seeking the will of my Lord. I'm thinking that maybe we have to run blind in order to bring Christ glory. Because if we could do it all by ourselves, we wouldn't need Him.

Simon Wheatcroft is quoted, saying, "Belief in yourself gets you a long way. Don’t achieve what someone believes you are capable of, achieve what you believe you are capable of.” (ABC article about Simon Wheatcroft)

In my life, I want to say that belief in CHRIST gets you a long way. And that I don't achieve anything without His power and the passion for Him that burns inside me.

-Chelsea

Tearing Down Idols

"'Now then,' said Joshua, 'throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.'
And the people said to Joshua, 'We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.'" 

-Joshua 24:23-24

My theme this week is tearing down idols. This passage in Joshua really convicted me. Joshua asks the Israelites 3 times whom they will serve. Each time they answer with an emphatic "We will serve the Lord!"
Joshua even calls them out, challenges them saying that the Lord is holy and He is a jealous God and the Israelites are not able to fully serve Him if they will turn to foreign gods so easily. Again, their answer is the same.

How often do I tell God I'll serve Him and only Him? And how often do I say that and keep those little 'g' gods in the back of my head? Music, movies, friendships, worry, fear, pride....the list can go on forever. I don't care what it is, if it's taking the throne of God, it's an idol.

In the book of Judges, taking place directly after Joshua's death, we see the Israelites fall again and again and again. The vicious cycle continues for years and years. The Israelites replace the God of Jacob with idols, they are enslaved by another nation, they cry out to Jehovah, the Lord raises up a judge to  lead them, they are freed, and then they fall back into sin.

What happened to that commitment to serve the Lord and obey him? What happened to the fervor that gripped their hearts and the remembrance that kept them in awe of the God that rescued them from Egypt? What happened to my fervor? Where is my awe in remembering how Christ brought me up out of the miry clay and redeemed my soul?

I've had a couple goals in the past week to help me throw away my foreign gods and return to my First Love. One of these goals included cleaning out my media. I did it and it was surprisingly easy. As I looked at each song, it wasn't necessarily a question of whether or not it was 'bad' by any standards. The question was "What is distracting me from my walk with God?" What feelings or emotions does it evoke? What do I think about? When I considered what I was doing, I realized that of course my God is more important than any entertainment I own! How could I even compare the two? It made it so easy to listen with disgust to the songs that I ended up permanently deleting off of my computer.

So, now I want to ask you...What are your foreign gods and what will you do with them?

"But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve..." - Joshua 24:15a