Be Ready.

2 Timothy 4:2

" Preach the Word: be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

And the seasons change once again. I have not written a blog since the very beginning of my Senior Year...and I am approcahing the end of my first semester. What has the Lord shown me in the past few months? First, that He is so good: every aspect of his being is righteous. Second, that He wants us all to proclaim His greatness to the ends of the Earth. What does that look like for us? Let us begin to determine His mission field for us.

A quick update on what the Lord is doing in a local mission field. If any of you have seen G4C on my License Plate frame, you may have been wondering what this was. Over the summer the Lord put in on my heart to stop searching frantically for a place to serve. God wanted me to be at peace, have a heart ready to proclaim His name and lead people to the Lord from what I have seen of Him. I knew I had to start an outreach to girls my age struggling with the common pressures and temptations of this world: family dilemmas, friend conflicts, college and future worries, and overall anxieties. What can put a soul to rest? The Word. Each Wednesday morning it has been such a blessing to not only walk through the Word with these girls, but to also have constant fellowship inside and outside of our current meeting spot at Peet's Coffee. The Lord moves in that place too; we recieve looks of confusion from fellow students not clear on what we are reading, or why we would ever spend a collaboration morning in a book of all things. But regardless of the world, the group has been growing! What matters though, is that we are equipping ourselves through our fellowship, and through Him, to be His disciples. Let the Lord be praised!

How do we become disciples of integrity and holiness in a mission field that often is a battlefield? I have had the opportunity to spend time in the book of John, and it outlines what a life like this must be. In John 15, it shows the Lord as our vine, and we are His branches.

"Every Branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit."

Once we know Him; the Way, Truth and Life, we will begin to have the motivation and qualifications needed to prune fruit for the Lord. We cannot begin to grow our own form of ministry or evangelism without the vine as our support and source of nutrients. Our Father, the source of all of our joy and evangelistic motivation is glorified through us bearing fruit and proving to be His disciples. It is overwhelming to see people around me being equipped to lead and serve the Lord through the sheer knowledge of His holy nature. Let us attach ourselves even closer to the vine, and grasp ahold of the protection and wisdom it gives. You cannot help but desire to grow His kingdom after learning about our Lord and Savior. That is what this year has taught me.

This weather is keeping em indoors it seems. I don't have the desire to be outside as often interacting with people, and enjoying their company. But it is exactly that the Lord wants us to do! Get outside of our comfort zones of stillness and isolation, and begin to be immersed with His people. When we serve Him with our all, we become closer to the vine, and have the desire planted in our hearts through that vine to bear fruit. In and out of Season be ready for Him. Be ready for His people. Be ready to bear fruit.