Just came back from jogging/walking on the USC track field under the warm, shining rays of the sun beating down on my skin. Jogged a total of 2 miles with a 1 mile walk in between, all while listening to a sermon by David Platt entitled: Marriage & Missions: How Singleness and Marriage Connect to the Great Commission, sent to me by a special friend.
In this sermon, David Platt talks about a vast array of things... man's creation as a demonstration of God's glory, marriage, singleness, missions, sex, justice/injustice, sex trafficking, poverty, pornography, homosexuality, complementarianism, submission, love, pleasing God vs. pleasing the flesh, Adoniram Judson, etc etc... All of these things tug at my heart strings because they are things that I too care about. Not nearly as much as God does, I know, but still. I have cared about these things in the past and still do today.
I was just talking to the same person who sent me this sermon on Sunday night about how I wish my heart would break more for the lost (in that conversation, we were talking specifically about Muslims/those who practice Islam). That I would be more focused on the unsaved souls and lostness of those who don't know Christ than my own selfish wants, desires, "lackings" (which technically is not true since Psalm 23:1 tells me that "I lack no good thing" if the Lord is my Shepherd, which He is!). Basically, I want my heart to have a greater focus on OTHERs than on SELF, which I'm such an expert at doing.
Lord-willing if I ever get married, I want a marriage for the sake of missions. Like that of Adoniram and Ann Judson's. I want to be all about God's glory, about pleasing Him, making Him known, proclaiming Him to all the slaves and captives in the world, telling every body that there is a Great God in Heaven who sees and LOVES them for Whom they were created... even if they are poor and have literally nothing, even if they are addicted and enslaved to pornography, even if they have a shameful past, even if they are sick and dying... that the One who condescended so low, swooped down to care for worms of the dust such as I and Abraham and Moses and David wants to and can forgive us of allllll our sins and impurities! He sets us free from bondage and enslavement! He gives us New Life, a reason to live, hope for tomorrow! He offers fulfillment, joy, peace, hope, purpose, the BEST of things! He loves with a Love that is not of this world -- a love so rich, pure, vast, unconditional, everlasting, unparalleled that sometimes it can be hard to understand and even accept because of our limited, fallen state but nonetheless is REAL and TRUE. This God wants an intimate love relationship with you and me and beckons us to draw near to Him day by day.
I'm still contemplating all this, ever praying for my own heart. It was also quite distracting, I confess, to not keep thinking about the person who sent me the sermon while jogging and listening, or after every time I receive a text message from him. Trying hard to take my swarming thoughts captive and making them obedient to Christ (2 Cor 10:5), to think on things that are true (Phil 4:8), to not read in between the lines even though it's tempting to at times, and to only place my hope and trust in God - the One whose been my confidence since my youth (Psalm 71:5).
