Thursday, August 6, 2009

The Bema

Hello!

Happy Thursday! I love Thursdays because they're so close to Friday; the week is more than halfway over and rest is on its way! :)

Last night a man by the name of Michael Sewell came to Calvary to do a presentation called "The Bema." It was a one-man monologue, but so emotionally captivating and spiritually challenging. The Bema is a throne of judgement that we will all encounter after Christ raptures the church. It's a righteous judgement though - a judgement that determines how many treasures we've stored in heaven and not on earth. Michael painted such a beautiful picture of God's grace and the importance of living life with a heavenly mindset. He primarily summed it up with the line, "Everything is different at the Bema." It is so true! And we so often forget that life on earth is a microscopic dot on the timeline of eternity.

On Thursday night's I've been going through the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan (I HIGHLY recommend it!) and it too carries a similar message - life is short and God is a god of grace who is full of an intense love for us, His creation. One quote he shares towards the end of the book, from a woman named Annie Dillard is, "How we live our days is how we live our lives." Every day counts because it's one day closer to our last on earth." I don't know about you, but I want my life to count! If that means sacrificing earthly comforts and an acceptable "status," then so be it. I just don't want to be that girl in heaven regretting all the opportunities I passed up to impact this world because I was more concerned about me and what I "needed." That's what I've been chewing on lately. Hope it was somewhat encouraging and challenging. I've been doing some serious evaluating lately, with the move and having to clean out all my possessions and making some big decisions that will impact the rest of my life from here out - I want to rid my life of me and fill it with so much more of Jesus. It's a constant battle, but one worth fighting!

"Lead me to the cross
Where Your love poured out
Bring me to my knees
Lord I lay me down
Rid me of myself
I belong to You
Lead me
Lead me to the cross"
(Hillsong United)

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Lots of love!

d

3 comments:

AmberDenae said...

You're so encouraging, Danya! Thank you for sharing that. I'm going to be getting "Crazy Love" this weekend! Hope you're doing well. I didn't realize you were moving. I am starting to get very emotional at the thought of moving from my house. :(

Much love!

Danya said...

Oh Crazy Love is amazing! You're going to love it! So challenging! I know, moving is hard. How much longer do you have?? How was the wedding?

AmberDenae said...

I'm excited. I need a good challenge right now. As far as moving goes, it is completely dependant upon our house selling which is not looking too promising and I would be lying if I said I wasn't a tad bit happy about that. But alas, it is putting my family in a really tough situation with my dad having to drive back and forth every single week and weekend. He's exhausted. I'm just really not looking forward to them moving AT ALL. They all went over there on Tues morn and I stayed here all by myself this week because I had to work and it was rather depressing. Ugh.

The wedding was amazing! I posted some pictures of it on fb. It was so much fun! I didn't want to leave. I love being with all of my family and I hate that we're so spread out across the states. It's unfortunate. It definitely makes my precious time with them even more sweet though. You're blessed that all of your family lives so close. I kind of envy that ;) haha