Living the Dream

"And all we need do now is throw ourselves into the arms of this God, offering ourselves as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1-2). Amazing love, how can it be, that thou my God, shouldst die for me? Who could have ever dreamed up such a God?" (It Is Finished, 24) 

 Colossians 1:27 - To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

The words written and spoken among gospel centered teams (like this one at Jim Elliot) provide a real-time, vivid revelation of this life-long question "who could have ever dreamed up such a God?"

Well, the rhetorical answer is "God dreamed it." But what stops me in my tracks is that your life (Colossians 1:27) in this community reveals God's dream. You are the unique revelation of Christ's person in this world. You are His body. "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's spirit lives in you?" I Corinthians 3:16

 Working shoulder by shoulder in a team effort (1 - Jim Elliot Team) while prying beneath the facades of fashion and etiquette through mentoring (2 - Jim Elliot Mentoring) is an amazing one-two combination punch into hearing and seeing God's person.

For in teamwork and mentoring God's extraordinary testimony is expressed in the perfectly unique form of each team member, mentor, and mentoree.

Ultimately God's dreams are not fake dreams, they are the very heart of everything that's genuine and true. And when you commune with Jesus and ingest His presence, His word, you are the living expression of all things true and real. You are the living expression of Christ.

So cheers to the left-brained-right brained, male-female, introverted-extroverted, logical-emotional, conservative-liberal, law-prophets witnesses that make up the team at Jim Elliot.

I listed these 1-2 combinations because all these 1-2 combinations highlight the unique witness that God has made each one of you to be. The 1-2 combinations remind me that each and every moment of our time serving together is packed with potential to see God's incredible, too good to be true (thus dreamy) heart in the countenances and words that we share in our work together.

The way that God's word reveals itself with such diversity among His people blows my mind. His creative capacity is beyond (for me at least) imagination and thus dream like -- but its real.

His creative capacity expressed through you is truth for Jesus is the truth and He is speaking and living truth before us right now as we serve each other and the students at Jim Elliot.

 In short, can I dream up such a God? Of course not, but your unique witness establishes in me the reality of that dream. Your unique witness reveals Christ in you the Hope of Glory and it is stunningly beautiful.