Monday, April 1, 2013

A Ripple Effect

Bonjour, tout le monde!!!! Hello, all!!!!

Hope you all are doing well. I apologize for not posting in so long. Life seems to have been racing by the past few weeks. I hope to get back on track with things within the month, though, but (whether that happens or not) you should be hearing a little more from me soon.

Happy Belated Easter, everyone!!!

Well, yesterday was quite an interesting day for me. My family is between churches right now, so we visited Christ Fellowship Church at their 2 pm service, quite a change from the service times that my family is used to.
Being used to mostly smaller churches, usually with a maximum of 400 people, it was amazing to me to even worship in a building of that size! It was so fun to get to sing praises to the Lord with so many people, the cameras streaming live to ABC News (10:00 am every Sunday), the music, the big screens, the clapping and cheering, and all to the glory of the Lord!
The theme for their Easter service this year was "Coming Home," which they had printed on signs every where within the building. They said that the reason for it was because they wanted everyone who entered the building to know, without a doubt, that as they await their eternal home in Heaven with the Lord, sojourning here on this earth, they can always find, while temporal, a loving home in that family which is both made up of His children and that is His Bride: His church.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about my life the past year or so, and yet more the past while. As I'm getting on in years now, I've been trying to put my focus on things above, rather than things here on earth. I've been working at and praying that my life would be one that was directed, point blank, on the reason I am here, and that everything that I do is, without exception, a thing that will last.
For, when the risen Christ ascended into heaven, He set a ticking time bomb. He is coming back.

In truth, everything that we do lasts forever, in a way, either for better or for worse. We all only have so much time, and the seconds are ticking by, the way we spent our time being set in stone which is hardening even you are reading this. This moment will never come again, nor will the next. And indeed are we not just as guilty for the things that we do, than the things that we do not?
Yes, these thoughts may seem gloomy, but, when you think of it in light of the word of the Lord, though "the days are evil", the future is filled with light. Every moment, every passing second, is a bright new opportunity for you to make a difference, even if it is just giving a smile to that person on the subway, or holding the door for that old woman behind you.
Maybe the way you will change the world is simply by saying thank you to that person at the grocery store to brighten their day. Even a moment or simple word of kindness can change a persons life.
Or maybe if you are a parent, the way you will change eternity is through those little footsteps going down the hallway right now.
Either way, the choice that you make, whether to do or not to do, will change the world forever.

I remember the first year I did the Shelby Kennedy Foundation Bible Bee (2013, fourth year!! Go seniors!!) I watched a video on their website that spoke about the young woman that the foundation was started in memory of. In the video, many of her friends and family members talked about who she was and about her heart for the Lord.
The thing that stuck with me, though, was when one of her friends brought the camera man to a lake that she and Shelby used to spend time at, having fun and studying the word of God. She said that she and Shelby used to skip stones on the water.
She said that one day Shelby threw a stone into the center or the lake, letting in go straight into the water, rather than simply skipping across, creating a ripple effect, the small waves that it created reaching even to the very edge of the lake.
Shelby explained that that was what she wanted her life to be like; to have ripple effect, to reach and touch everyone that God has put her in contact with, to reach people that she didn't even know, and to touch the hearts of people that she had never met: to leave a legacy.

I, too, pray that my life will be a legacy that touches many, that my smiles to people on the subway, my holding doors for people at the grocery store, my saying thank you and for people to have a good day, will make a difference. I pray that I would show others that temporal home that we have here on earth, God's church, and love them with the Love that can only come from Him. I pray that I would impact lives of people that I won't meet until that throne, and that every second, maybe even this one, would impact someone else's eternity. And I pray that my life would be one lived in the light and life that was given me by the Man who died upon that tree.
Because that Man who came among us and lived, and died, and rose again, and is now at the right hand of the Father will be coming again.

And I pray that each and every one of us would be able to give a good report, and that each and every one of us would be able to look back at our life and see a life in which every moment was used to the full, a life that was lived with the spirit of the life that Christ granted us with His blood. I pray that we might each we able to look back on our lives and see more than just small circles like those made by skipping stones, but a ripple effect: an earthly life that's effects will last for ever, for better and not for worse, and glorifying the Name of the One above.

Will yours?

For Christ is Risen!
He risen indeed!  

God bless you all!!! You are always in my prayers.

Until He returns,

Julia      

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