to live is Christ, to die is gain.

The apostle Paul wrote those words in Philippians 1:21...God did some miraculous work thru Paul didn't he!? After Paul saw the light (literally) he traveled to Judea, Syria, Cilicia, Galatia, Pamphylia, Asia, Macedonia, Achaia and Italy. WOW. I've shared God's word....via skype to my bestie Nicole and...uhhh..shoot. What am I doing?! Yikes, I'm so ready to go, to tell of God's glory, to "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching." (2 Tim. 4:2) Its convicting to know that I really haven't done as much as I could be doing, if I died, I have no doubt I would meet Jesus, my Lord and Savior would know my heart and how much I love Him and my willingness and readiness to share Him with the world..but I also know He will stand before me and say, Look at what you could have had, if only you had come to me sooner, done My work rather than yours. In one of my earlier posts I had written 2 Corinthians 5:10 "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." (NKJV) It came up again today in my devotional time. I pray that I can start doing more good for Christ, that my pile of good will be bigger than my pile of evil. That when I die, I will be able to say "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7)
August can't get here any sooner! I feel very unprepared to teach God's word, everyday when I read, I write down scripture after scripture, praying that they will stick, that I will be able to use them when I have conversations with friends, family...strangers. I can't wait to go to Bible college and study the entire Bible in depth, to become closer to God than I can even imagine right now and share with everyone the works and wonders of our God. A few days ago I went to a movie with my friend Robert, The Book of Eli. Okay, I'm about to ruin it guys so if you haven't seen it and you want to be surprised stop reading (sorry). I cried at the end..and Robert asked me if it was because we found out that he was ..... and I said yes, then at home, listening to the wind I realized that that was NOT the reason I cried, it was because this man who had followed God's instructions didn't need the book to share the word of God, because he had it all memorized. The entire Bible. *sigh, here I am teary eyed again. That is faith, what he had was true pure love for God, and more faith and trust than we can fathom. I realize it was just a movie, but I also realize that it is entirely possible, and I long for that closeness with our Father. So I will leave today's blog with this verse. 2 Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight."