The Big Room

I have a friend who is always reminding me that believers need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day because it's not only has the power to save us but the power to transform our lives.

This got me thinking about the house I grew up in. It was a big old farm house with a wood burning stove in the basement and in the winter the heat only reached the main floor. The second floor where we slept was frigid cold so every evening the only place to be was in the warm “big room” on the main floor. I remember the rest of the house being dark in the evenings because everyone was in that big room. The room held enough chairs for everyone and since we didn’t have a TV, we were entertained by reading, games, music, listening to my mom read to us or wrestling around on the big rug in the center of the room. There was a sameness about each evening spent there but the warmth, fellowship and light played a part in shaping who I am. It was necessary for me to be in that big room each night but it was also very good for me.

I’m beginning to learn the necessity and goodness that comes from spending some time with the gospel every day. As I go through the practice of “preaching” it to myself each day I'm always surprised with what I come away with. No matter what it's wrapped in, the result is always more freedom! I need more of that and it's so good for me! As I walk up to that empty cross today I remember that it brought about my spiritual birth and it will continue to raise me up into the person God’s created me to be. So today I preach it to myself….

I need to remember that before Christ, I was on the throne of my life, serving myself and celebrating my freedom from God’s authority in my life but unaware that sin was my only choice.

I need to remember that I was unable to do anything about the ocean of sin, guilt and wrath that separated me from God.

I need to remember how God came to me in my rebellion and blindness with his unconditional, eternal love by sending his Son, Jesus Christ, to this world to live the sinless life I couldn’t live.

I need to remember that God asked Jesus to go to the cross and drink up that ocean of my sin, my guilt and eternal wrath and that Jesus responded and went willingly to the cross for me.

I need to remember that God accepted Jesus suffering and death in place of my own and he raised Jesus from that eternal death to his rightful place in heaven.

I need to remember that Jesus’ death and resurrection has made a way for me to be in fellowship with God as I believe in Jesus Christ and his work on the cross that ransoms me.

I need to remember that I am now free to worship God who is on the throne and glorify him, for I am his for all eternity, bought with the greatest price.

This is how I “preached” the gospel to myself today. It’s a little different every day as I meditate on it and ask God to help me understand and express it.

So, start preaching it to yourself! Just like the big room, go there every day and let the gospel transform your life!

Thank you!

Dear Friends,

As 2010 comes to a close I want to take a moment to thank all of you who have supported me this past year with your prayers and finances. I have been so blessed to share in this work with you all.

As I look back and see how faithfully God has cared for me each month, I am truly amazed at his provision. I am growing in my understanding of God’s desire to have us look to him to meet our simple needs each day and be content with what he provides. He wants to protect us from the powerful lie in this culture that says “our piles of wants are actually needs”. God calls us to live simple lives knowing that it will keep us from the abject poverty that comes as the enemy robs us of the life we were meant to live, convincing us to chase the elusive security that is promised if we have everything we “need”. The economy we’re called to live in as followers of Christ is upside down as it calls us to be servants to all and give our lives away. It’s a life that offers great wealth in the midst of our simple lives as we experience a growing, intimate and dependent relationship with the Creator of the Universe and find the lives of purpose and freedom as we were created to live.

O God, I beg two favors from you;
let me have them before I die.
First, help me never to tell a lie.
Second, give me neither poverty nor riches!
Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.
For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?”
And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.

Proverbs 30:7-9

I continue to experience God’s Spirit at work in the lives of the women I meet with as they are drawn into deeper fellowship with Him, allowing His truth to reveal an eternal perspective for their lives. I have the privilege of watching the Lord call many of these women into exciting and powerful ministry in their own lives as they spend their treasures of time and love caring for others. Clearly, God is at work in the lives of his people!

This year God has also blessed me with a new “daughter”. Yeseul is a 16 year old girl from South Korea who has come to the States for high school. She has filled my life with laughter and shares a deep spiritual wisdom that is rare in someone so young. I am praying that God will use us both to pour His love into the lives of those around us.

As I begin this new year I ask you to pray that God will continue to use me in the lives of women and that I will trust him fully for all that I need for this life. Pray too that God will continue to pour his Spirit into the hearts of all his people as he equips us to build up the body of Christ and share God’s amazing story of redemption with those who don’t know it yet.

Thank you all for your love and support.

Set free to serve,

Jill Van Gordon

jvangordon@thetable.com

Support for this ministry can be sent to:

The Table

23215 SW Newland Road

Wilsonville, OR 97070

Living Free

Sept 20, 2010

I was reading Matthew 6 today and really felt like the Lord was asking me to listen to verses 19-34. They’re familiar verses where Jesus is calling his followers to let go of their lives that are focused on comfort and earthly security. These verses call us to not be distracted from the “kingdom focus” we are supposed to have in this life. It’s a scary concept for many of us as we feel the need to desperately cling to the belief of self-preservation and our desire to feed our insatiable appetite for comfort. These verses have been hard for us to embrace because we are fearful to let go of our control and being “stuck” with God’s idea of what our needs are. While many of us cringe at these verses, they actually open a door to freedom and purpose for our lives that allow us to prepare a stage that will put God on display in our lives.

How different would our lives look if we truly didn’t worry about making sure our wants and needs were provided for? What would it look like to let go of our wants and trust God for all that we need? What would that look like in our lives? I’m not talking about not working but I’m talking about asking God to help us change “why” we work. For us to step into this new life we need to be able to answer yes to the basic question, “Do we believe God is good?”

Can we really trust God to really provide for our needs? Can we trust God’s goodness if he restricts our diet of the rich things of comfort that have made us obese and useless? What if God’s goodness provided us with lives that were lean, strong and responsive?

Who were we meant to be before the values and distractions of this world got a hold of us?

It’s never too late to make a change. Embracing a life that is “sold out” to trusting God for all that we need is possible as the Spirit of Christ empowers us to surrender to God’s goodness. His Spirit will empower us to live without fear and be content as God takes care of our basic needs of food, clothing and shelter. We can live lives so different from those around us and bear witness to a life that actually delivers the fulfillment and peace everyone is looking for. We can be empowered to live lives that are wholly focused on loving God and loving others. It’s an amazing offer of freedom and power that is for follower's of Christ and it will equip us to answer his call to make disciples. It’s time we showed the world what it looks like to be servants of our Father, the Good and Faithful King.

Servants in Uganda

I recently returned from a 5 week trip to Uganda and wanted to share some experiences and insights from my time there.
I was invited to Uganda by my friends, the Varga's, who are serving there as missionaries. Six months ago the Varga's left Oregon, their home, business and family behind and moved to Uganda to serve as directors for a ministry called Show Mercy. They oversee and care for 98 orphans who live in Hope Children's Home. Throughout my visit I was able to talk with the Varga's individually as they process this new life and the challenges it brings. I was also able to immerse myself in the life they are living there, spending my days with the staff and children at the Children's Home. I was able to see and experience the challenges the Varga's face each day as they care for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of 98 kids. The scope of need is overwhelming and the strength it takes to walk into that vast unmet need each day is truly hard to describe. Quickly one realizes that the only hope of making it through the day is by asking the Lord to provide His perspective and love so its possible to pour a drop into that ocean of need. It was also wonderful to see the way God blesses those who are willing to share his love and truth as they enjoy a life of amazing freedom and joy that can hardly be contained. Another added blessing the Varga's enjoy is that they get to soak in the love from 98 kids every day! Not a bad gig!!

Many of my days started with a 20 minute walk through the neighborhood to the Children's Home. Mornings were spent sitting in on the English class that is held for the "momma's" 3 times a week. It was so much fun getting to know these special women as we worked on their conversational English and shared stories about our lives. I also took on the challenge of tutoring 2 teenage boys who had fallen far behind in Math. While I'm not too sure I improved their math competency, all three of us enjoyed our time together. Each day took on a rhythm of it's own as different challenges and opportunities arose. It quickly became apparent that the greatest contribution I could make was to just hang out with the kids and love them. Life is pretty simple in Uganda and children are content with small pleasures like spending a couple hours drawing and showing off their artwork, playing "football" with some sad worn out ball, sitting down and looking at a book together or just sitting on the steps and talking. I found it so satisfying to embrace the slow pace of life there knowing all I had to do was show up each day and do what was in front of me.

I also had the opportunity to visit a friend, Barb Iman, who is serving in another ministry in Uganda. Barb is an American woman who has been called to work among the very poorest women of Uganda. She has started a small sewing business called Rivers of Hope International, that allows her to hire widows, women with AIDS and abandoned women, providing them with desperately needed jobs. These women face the struggle to feed, clothe, educate and care for their own children all on their own. Each day as they come to sew, Barb is able to minister to these women and their young children as she pours out Christ's love on them and attends to their physical, emotional and spiritual needs. Barb daily answers the call to "make disciples" as she walks alongside each of these women loving, teaching and encouraging them into wholeness in Christ. I watched Barb do the humblest of tasks with great joy and marveled at her heart that radically loved and lived in "today". I saw all the small acts of service that add up to a life that is deeply engage in the process of dying to self and living for others. I discovered her source of strength, joy and love comes from a life that engages in a deep, abiding relationship with God that is centered around worship. The witness of Barb's life has left an invitation ringing in my ears to join in the Lord's call to love God with all my heart and be a blessing to those desperate to experience the love of Christ in their lives. Clearly there is rich life awaiting us as we embrace the process of letting go of this world and living for the one that is to come.

Many visit Uganda and are overwhelmed by the poverty and suffering but God helped me discover a richness and abundance there in the midst of all the physical need. I witnessed the upside down economy that exists for those who abandon themselves to the transforming work of the Spirit of Christ in their lives and begin to live for others. As lives are empower to pour out this "reckless love" with abandon, the wonder of God's abundance and fullness is clearly seen. As I came home I couldn't help but notice our own deep poverty as we strive to fill our lives with things that bring comfort and make us "feel" secure. No matter how hard we try to fill our lives, our poverty remains. I am convicted that I can no longer ignore the poverty here and I must ask the Lord to empower me with his reckless love for those around me. How awesome that every follower of Christ has been empowered to share the "cure" for the poverty that has overtaken our culture. May His compassion and mercy guide us!

Jill Van Gordon
Women's Discipleship Ministry
503-705-8902

Support for this ministry can be sent to:
The Table
PO Box 17355
Portland, OR 97217-0355