Iona

Iona:
How do I describe the Island of Iona? Breathtaking. Awe inspiring. Deep. Truly a “Thin Place”. I especially experienced these moments when I was are gallivanting in the southern hills or exploring the cliff and caves of the western shores, or watching, on a rock, the sunrise from the northern beach, or star gazing while walking back to the house part of my team was staying at. The week on Iona is not soon to be forgotten in my mind or heart, and not just because of these moments that I mentioned above, but for how much Jesus walked me through and how much I grew in my walk with Him. I love getting to journey life with such a strong, faithful, just, loving, and tender Maker. What a blessing and honor! Oh, how I pray that everyone would know this! What a burden it is on my heart that everyone would come to know our Savior in such a deep and intimate way, and not just for the fact that He saves us from being separated from Him, and that we get to be with Him in Paradise, but it is that and then some! He desires and offers us an opportunity for an incredible and precious relationship with Him. A beautiful dance to such an intricate and heavenly song; an exciting and adventurous story written just for me and Him! And not only to tell people of the fact there is a Savior, but then also to tell people of this relationship who already believe and follow Him. There are too many Believers out there who have settled and grown stagnant and content to just get by, but NO!!! There is much, much more! Such greater depths and heights to explore and travel with Him, if only we press in and take hold of His Hand and accept the challenge of traveling this dangerous and wondrous road of Relationship.
My time on Iona, it was not necessarily a time of physical rest, nor even mental….come to think of it, not even emotional, and not really spiritual either. For I was stretched in all these areas last week while on the Island. Firstly, because of having that Sunday that we were there to explore the Island and I was out all day with some of the team explore and enjoying God’s amazing creation here in Scotland. My goodness, what incredible creativity He has.
Lectures were brilliant. They were on Spiritual Authority and we had the blessing of having Mariette Lowe teach. She is South African, but has made Scotland her home base for the last 15years. She is one scary woman, but absolutely fun! She prays at least 6-7 hours a day, she gets up early stays up late praying and reading the Bible. She has had some amazing experiences, she knows what she is talking about and allow the Holy Spirit to truly lead her what she needs to teach in each class and allows Him to direct her accordingly. She got to some pretty hard issues on all of us, which was good. Specifically, the Fear of Man versus the Fear of God; which one do you tend to live and operate in? Hmmm…..be honest. I know that I’ve operated out of the Fear of Man for as long as I can remember and this has held me back and caused me more pain then it is worth. It is so freeing to realize that I do not have to operate out of the Fear of Man anymore (granted this is a daily thing that I must surrender to and I often fall flat on my face, thank goodness for God’s grace!), but operating out of the Fear of God is so much more powerful! What a difference to know and walk in confidence that God approves me already, but that out of my fear for Him…..fear meaning reverent respect and hate for sin….yes it is okay to HATE sin….that I diligently pursue His truth, grow in His knowledge and wisdom, and work and live my life in this form. Amazingly, we have given such incredible tools that we barely, if ever, use. Think of all of Jesus’ teachings! Think of the Holy Spirit!
Speaking of Whom, He woke me up early, 5:45am, on Tuesday morning to spend some extra special time with Him while watching the sunrise. (Pictures of this incredible sunrise are on my Facebook profile in my Albums under Iona Adventures). I was conversing with Him back and forth and I started to ask about His Faithfulness, because I honestly didn’t know if I really understood it or rather struggled with this Characteristic of His. Then as I looked up into the sky, and to the left of the rising sun, I saw a small portion of a rainbow! I opened right away to my Bible in Genesis about Noah and the Covenant that God made with him…with us. Talk about WOW!! As I was staring at this rainbow that had formed in the sky I couldn’t help, but cry out, “What a great God!!” He does listen, He is present, He is attentive to our hearts’ cry, and He is Faithful! No matter what, good times or bad. I had a continued time of worship and praying and read scripture aloud (by the way I’ve been doing this more, reading the Word of God aloud and you know what? There is something incredibly powerful to it when it is spoken out, it truly makes it a declaration, and then especially if you pray it out! You should try to start incorporating it in your daily quiet time!)Anyways, as I finishing up my time on my rock, I felt the Holy Spirit press upon me that I would be really thankful for my extra special time this morning and the revelations that I had had, because that day I was going to need it. Sure thing. When I got to the cottage I got the hard, but good news that my Papa was in the arms of Jesus. Talk about wow. God is faithful, He knew that I really needed to understand this and truly know it as I faced that day, of having to know that I’m on the opposite side of the world and not able to be with my family during this time so of saying “see you later” and figuring out a new “normalcy” of not having Papa with us on earth. So, my heart hurts because of grieving though not the death of my Grandpa because he is no longer in pain and he is in heaven in a fully restored body, but rather my heart hurts with grieving the loss, knowing that it’s going to be awhile til I get to have a conversation with my Grandpa again. It has been such a blessed journey with the Holy Spirit to discover and experience His faithfulness in such greater depths. Thank goodness that He is a God of comfort and compassion.
This last week was on Cross-Cultural Missions and Communications. Great stuff. Necessary, and good. I think I have been made to travel into other cultures, for I love learning and discovering about other people groups and their traditions. For several reasons, but the main one being that it helps me to be aware of what my culture is and it takes me out of it and allows me to be a lot more holistic in my thinking and approach to life. Which is good and necessary. It helps me to make sure not to grow too comfortable, but to appreciate how I’ve lived, how I’ve grown up, but then to learn to appreciate others cultures as well! Even living here in Scotland for the last three months has been absolutely amazing for this! Thank goodness for modern day technology and easier ability for travel, because coming here has further embedded this in me!
Continue to pray for me and my team as we prepare to leave for Turkey in just two weeks! We are greatly needing it!