Today we did a local outreach. We went to a government-run community center to help distribute food to needy families. Most of the people coming to the center were Moroccan immigrants.
I was disappointed that we did not get much time to actually talk with the people we were handing food too, but the workers at the center were very grateful for our help, and it was a wonderful experience.
While we were waiting for the food truck to arrive, one of the ladies at the center taught us all how to write our names in Arabic. Mine looks like this: كيمبيرلي
What she taught us about the language was rather fascinating. They use different characters, with slight alterations, for sounds, rather than letters combined to make sounds.
Anyhow.. The teaching time today also went very well. We continued talking about the Heart of God. The range of this topic went all over today, but I will try and focus in on just a couple key points.
Unconditional Love.
What does that phrase mean to you? Can you even comprehend it? Unconditional love. Love without limits, expectations, or preconditions. Love that is whole and consistent, even when you are not. Unconditional means that the love God gives us, has nothing to do with us. It makes no difference what we do, how we live, what we say. It has everything to do with who GOD is. Unconditional love is entirely dependent on the character and nature of the giver, and it has nothing to do with the receiver.
How cool is that?! That means no matter what we do or how we act, we cannot make God love us any more or any less than he already does. That means we cannot earn his love! It is a free gift, and there is nothing we can do to change that fact! And Praise God for it, because there is no possible way we could earn God's love and approval, because it is not possible for us to meet his standards.
Something Wim said today really struck me. "Religion is the story of a desperate man reaching to a god he cannot quite get to; the Gospel is the story of a broken-hearted father, reaching down to pick up kids who could not even lift up their arms to him."
I was disappointed that we did not get much time to actually talk with the people we were handing food too, but the workers at the center were very grateful for our help, and it was a wonderful experience.
While we were waiting for the food truck to arrive, one of the ladies at the center taught us all how to write our names in Arabic. Mine looks like this: كيمبيرلي
What she taught us about the language was rather fascinating. They use different characters, with slight alterations, for sounds, rather than letters combined to make sounds.
Anyhow.. The teaching time today also went very well. We continued talking about the Heart of God. The range of this topic went all over today, but I will try and focus in on just a couple key points.
Unconditional Love.
What does that phrase mean to you? Can you even comprehend it? Unconditional love. Love without limits, expectations, or preconditions. Love that is whole and consistent, even when you are not. Unconditional means that the love God gives us, has nothing to do with us. It makes no difference what we do, how we live, what we say. It has everything to do with who GOD is. Unconditional love is entirely dependent on the character and nature of the giver, and it has nothing to do with the receiver.
How cool is that?! That means no matter what we do or how we act, we cannot make God love us any more or any less than he already does. That means we cannot earn his love! It is a free gift, and there is nothing we can do to change that fact! And Praise God for it, because there is no possible way we could earn God's love and approval, because it is not possible for us to meet his standards.
Something Wim said today really struck me. "Religion is the story of a desperate man reaching to a god he cannot quite get to; the Gospel is the story of a broken-hearted father, reaching down to pick up kids who could not even lift up their arms to him."
God loves us for the fact that we are alive – not for what we can or will become or do. Just as a parent loves a handicapped child that will never be self-sufficient, God loves us, though we will never be able to meet His standards alone.
Isn't that amazing? God is so good.
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