Reflexiones de Karen

Orientation for our semester students! Kenny and I attended this but God is holding the reins back, clearly causing us to focus on Spanish! But the students are awesome and I'd really love to be serving right now! :-)

I found an older book in the house we are staying at and of course, as Kenny says, I am all about "more input" so I've been reading it! I found these paragraphs that really express what God has been doing in me these past few months - okay truthfully this is something He has been working on with me for my entire life! It is so hard for me to just be, to not be working and to not be tangibly serving but yet because I am abiding in Him daily, moment by moment, He says it is "all good"!

Much love to all of you,
Karen

From the book "Grace Walk"

Any effort to do something for God which comes from our own resources, ability, knowledge, etc. is flesh. Flesh can only counterfeit the real thing. The way to enjoy and express Christ is to allow Him to live His life through us. As we rest in Him, He will express His character and His ministry though us. When we struggle to live the Christian life, we stop the flow of Christ's Life and begin to live after the resources of our own flesh. As we abide in Him, we rest and work at the same time! We rest inwardly while He works outwardly through us. This is God's designed method of Christian service. Anything else is empty religious ritual, regardless of how successful or spiritual it may appear.

Living in grace means that we express his life as a natural and normal part of our daily experience. We live trusting in Him to express Himself through us every day. Life isn't a test it's a rest. The test has already been given and we received a perfect score because Jesus took the test for us. It's time now to celebrate! We don't need to live under a list of things we believe we ought to do. As we abide in Him, His desire will be our desire.

We took a break from studying and attended a surprise gathering to celebrate 

Rachel's birthday with some of our new SI family!