" You MUST be crazy!"
"Why would you move across the country?"
"What is there for you over there?"
Believe it or not, these were some of the questions we faced as we left our home far behind us, so far behind us, it took 5 days to reach our new destination, but reach it we did. Three kids, a van, and a trailer later we started our new life in Nashville. That was THREE years ago, and I swore up and down and all over the place I would never go back home.
Stockton.
Rated most miserable city in the USA the year we moved, 2010
3 years running was also top 5 most dangerous city in the USA
Number 1 in our US for downloaded porn, witchcraft and satanism.
We came to Nashville, with Stockton like a dirty word we dare not say, for fear it would make us have to go back. We felt grateful and relieved that we no longer lived there. Happy to be in a place that had our favorite thing as its national symbal. MUSIC!. oh, how we loved music, and how thankful we felt to God for delivering us from the darkness. We were in our promised land, (Or so I thought.)
Since that moment, 3 years have gone by. We have fell in love with Nashville and its people, but now God has put another passion on our hearts. CHURCH PLANTING. Not just any Ol' run of the mill plant a church, watch it grow, get some money, plant some more...
Nope.... we are talking REAL, IN YOUR FACE, HOUSE CHURCH PLANTING!
With Real people, and a real God, who does real things and communicates with us on such a intimate level, that he would actually tell us to take that new passion and go right back to Stockton.
WOAH!!! Say WHAT?? you want me to go where???
Nope.
I like it here, Im staying...
What did you say God? WE are the ones for the job? NOPE! I DONT WANNA!
I think Angel and I actually stomped our feet in indignation about going back.
Here we are though, two weeks later.
You know what I realized? Nashville (though i love it) is not our promised land.
STOCKTON is.
LUCKY US!!!
Not.
Remember when the Israelites' were led to their promised land? They wandered 40 years in the desert before they were allowed to go in. 40 years!!! Can you imagine!!??????? Then after entering, they had to trust that God would go before them, and defeat the giants and the people who were on the land, and they were some scary people!!!! But God did. He defeated them, and he gave the Israelites' the land he had promised them.
We have only been here in Nashville for 3 years, so that has to be a good sign, but that also tells me.... GOD goes before us. He will give us Stockton!! We will have to trust.... we will have to face some scary giants... and we may have to stand up, with our knees knocking, until we feel like we are going to pee... but the LORD is the deliverer, and I trust, and claim by faith.... that we are going to turn Stockton around and the GLORY of the LORD will penetrate and change the hardened hearts that are there as of right now!
" You MUST be crazy!"
"Why would you move across the country?"
"What is there for you over there?"
It's only been 3 years, and we are hearing these words all over again.
But as the song goes...
" I know who goes before me, I know who stands behind... the God of Angel armies, is always by my side."
No comments:
Post a Comment