L'amour de Dieu

Bonjour everyone!

Today starts our last week here, which is, I think, pretty bittersweet for the both of us. This past week has flown by. We were able to have our last dance class with Anne yesterday. It was great! She's a very sweet woman, whom we are going to try and keep in contact with. She asked us if we could write her when we returned to the States. And we said, yes of course we could. Then she got excited about writing us back. So it's cool that we have been able to make this friendship here, and that we have the opportunity to continue it.

We had our last Bible study tonight. I think it has gone well. I started it hoping that students would kind of take off with it. I didn't want to be the one to talk the whole time. So we have been going through the book of Colossians, a chapter each week. I have learned so much from just being able to listen to the ideas and thoughts and questions of the students. I hope that they have also learned, and yet as I'm writing that, I don't think that it's necessary that we "learn" something each time. I think that the discussion itself can be sacred and holy.

I wanted to share one or two of the ideas/thoughts that we have discussed that have really touched me. Colossians 2:13b-15 says: "He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." This is such a powerful image of Christ's love for us. When we were talking about this, we were talking about the fact that God sees everything; our mean thoughts, our sinful desires and lusts, our hurtful actions, our hurtful ignorance, everything. He sees all of the things that we wish to hide from everyone, including those closest to us, because we're so afraid that they won't love us any longer or because we're afraid of what they will think of us. And yet, God sees all of it and still nailed them along with His son to the cross. God sees these things and loves us deeper and stronger.

As we were discussing this, I started thinking about the fact that, as far as I can tell, one of the deepest desires of a woman is for a man to know everything about her, good and bad, happy and sad, clean and unclean, and yet for him to love her deeper and stronger as He finds out all of these things. We desire to be fully known and yet fully loved. This is God's love for us. Our deepest desire is fulfilled in Him. This for me was a startling realization. I mean I've heard all my life that Gd loves me (and I've believed that all my life), but not until that discussion did the true force of it hit me. He knows everything, absolutely everything, and yet loves me more with each disappointment, with each unkind thought, with each unthoughtful act.

Something we discussed tonight in chapter 4 was part of verse 12, where Paul writes, "He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured." We were discussing the fact that how awesome would it be if that is how each of us were praying. If each time we spent time in prayer with God, we were wrestling in our prayer that our friends, our family, our brothers and sisters in Christ would stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. We discussed that a lot of times in today's culture, we pray for people's health, that so and so would be able to find a job, that so and so would be safe while traveling, etc. And don't get me wrong, those are definitely things that we should pray about it. But how much more awesome would it be, if we were, first of all "wrestling" in our prayers for each other, and second of all praying that first and foremost, we would stand firm in all the will of God. Mature. And fully assured. This verse just made us think about how we were praying for other people and how we were desiring to be prayed for.

So tonight, my prayer for you is that I hope that God will reveal to you the extent of His love, the deepness and strength of it. And I pray that you are all standing firm in the will of God, mature and fully assured.

That is our prayer request this week. Please pray for both Amber and I, for each of the full time staff here (Elvira, Pia, Danielle, and Steve), and for the students that are here or have been here. Pray that we would stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured, both here in France in our remaining time here, and also when we get home, and especially when we get back into whatever routine it is that we find ourselves getting wrapped up in.

We love you!

Katie