Go to swimming

Oh i wish i was in Bulgaria! I was there this time last year and it was great, if very hard (check out the picks through the link on the right). I'm sure the passage of time has hidden from me the things i didn't so much like about it, but right now, reading what Kath has been writing about it, it makes my heart long to be there. I don't think there is anything more exciting than cross-cultural mission...maybe than any type of mission. But me, a kid from the home counties going to places like Lyaskovets, Veliko Turnovo and the year before that Panaji in Goa to spread the Gospel, to do the best job in the world by telling people the Good News. It's pretty cool.

This is the first summer since 03 that i haven't been away (yeh i know thats only actually two years, but when you've only been a Christian four four and a bit, thats a lot), but the great thing to know is that a) i can do mission right here, in my house is my mission field. I don't even have to use a translator/learn Bulgarian or Konkani to speak to my family because they speak English. Although, give me a room full of angry strangers any day. The worrying thing is that i'm sure the more i say that the more likely it is the Lord will give me that and i'll be like 'where's the door...i'm off'. And b) IT'S NOT ABOUT WORKS. Hooray. Hooray that God loves me in Christ the same about this summer as He did last summer or the one before that. Thank God that He is opening my eyes and my heart to things this summer that i've tried to hide from and run from for four years. Thank God for His grace, the only thing that made me wake up this morning, and the only thing that will keep me believing untill the end of the sentance...and hopefully beyond!

It struck me again today how little about works it is. Psalm 119:43 makes this clear i think. Only by grace can we have true words in our mouth. Only by grace. We can read and study all we want, but only God's grace keeps us in the wonderful truth. And the great news is, as we persevere God's grace is inexhaustable. God is far more concerned with the integrity of His people than we are, far more committed to the proclamation of the truth than i will ever be. Not, of course, that God needs to keep me in the truth or the wheels will fall off, but that He will keep me in the truth. He will do it because God is not vindictive. God is not mean. Holy, pure, wrathful and just of course, but not mean. He loves us and He loves His truth. So He will keep us in His truth. He will not let the words of truth slip from the mouth of people who are saved. Not because He needs us, but because He loves us, as the start of this stanza makes clear is His motivation. What an awesome God!