The Youngers Global DOT COM

I have been super busy around here for the past couple of weeks. It was like all of a sudden a "productivity bomb" dropped on me and there wasn't anything I could do about it. We reopened the outpatient clinic at HHGlobal, so that meant early mornings and visiting patients again. I have been doing tons of computer work trying to get a hold of our growing inventory of medicines, supplies and donations for the school kids. We are also trying to revamp the website, catch up on blogs for the ministry, and of course, shuffle things around in storage (our favorite rainy season activity).

On top of those projects, I am now a wife. 

Hey, no laughing!

So about 6 months ago, I could come home from work -dead tired at 9pm- and eat a bowl of cereal for dinner, shower and be in bed by 10pm...that wouldn't be much of a home life for our new family. Learning how to manage time is always on the top of the list. I am a planner...married to a non-planner. 

Learning how to live together is a lot more than figuring out where you are going to keep all of the socks, or not fainting at the grocery bill when you can't just by cereal and milk anymore. Marriage is about sacrifice. It is about dying to self all of the time...it is about being like Christ. I hope I get better at that.

As we combine our material things, we are combining our internet things as well. We are launching - drum roll please - theyoungersglobal.com. Our new internet home. I will still be here at hlstewart.blogspot.com, but now at one location you can link to both of our blogs, see updates that affect us as a couple, see pictures, donate, get prayer requests, and much more. 

So here's to getting married and starting life with someone else...together...even on the internet. 

No Weapons

I have been getting a lot of prayer requests lately. Most of them have been to health related problems, and I find that kind of interesting since I work at a hospital where our mission is to bring health, hope and healing.

It would be easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of suffering that happens in this fallen world...
It would be hard to read all of those requests...
There would be too many needs...

IF....there were not a God.

I am so grateful to know that my God is bigger than all of these prayer requests. On top of that...He knows each person individually, and can minister to them in a completely personal way. He has promised to hear our prayers, He has promised never to turn His back on believers, and He has promised that He WILL be there when we are united in prayer.

When you look at God through the clouds of your problems it may be easy to lose sight of Him. BUT if you look at your problems through the love of God Almighty you realize that no weapons formed against you will prosper.

The John 10:10 Equation

The Day after I posted the "Should I Stay..." blog, Mark and I were talking about the gospel John and some things he was reading in Hebrews, Heb 10:19-23 to be specific. With the story of the disciples trial fresh on my mind, and the last thought of the blog still on my heart, I listened to him read out of Hebrews...and things started to fall into place for me. I wanted to share what I wrote in my journal with you.

The idea of God always being with us, is so big to me. But more than that...maybe we should realize that we are always with Him. That was like a light bulb turning on in a dark corner. Showing me that I was walking in the right direction, but now that I can see where I am going...my path is brought into greater focus.

See...this circles back to humility. I was, in my own prideful way, saying that God was with me. He is, yes, and He will never leave me nor forsake me...but the revelation that I am also with Him...put things into better perspective for me.  John 15 talks about the concept of us abiding in Jesus and Jesus abiding in us. That if we are going to be truly fruitful in this world, we have to abide.

Jesus being with us is only part of the equation. The other half, is that we are with Him!!!!

Ok, not there yet? Hang with me.

Here are the notes from my journal:

• He is not only with me, I am with HIM...in HIS throne room.
• We must be in the right place of humility all the time to live in His will....to abide in Him. 
• Saying, "He is in my heart" makes Him seem small...in reality I am in His hands. I don't carry Him around, any more than He carries me through life. 
• I am not His keeper...I am His vessel. 
• Mother Teresa said, "I am only a pencil in the hand of a writing God."
• "He must increase, I must decrease." John 10:10
• TRUE Humility is the key...identifying your right position under the all powerful creator God. 

OK...so after reading those notes again, I went for reinforcements. I blogged about my love for Andrew Murray and his book Humility, a while ago, so I went back there for a reference. His definition of humility is this:

Humility is the place of entire dependence upon God...It is not something we bring to God, or that He bestows; it is simply the sense of entire nothingness that comes when we see how truly God is everything. When the creature realizes that this is a place of honor, and consents to be - with his will, his mind, and his affections - the vessel in which the life and glory of God are to work and manifest themselves, he sees that humility is simply acknowledging the truth of his position as a creature and yielding to God his place. 

It is the last line of that paragraph that is so powerful to me! If we are to really understand that the glory of God lives in us and manifests through us, we must find our right place of humility before Him. So in true abiding - God is in my heart, but I am also in His hands. It is a 2 part equation, that uses the entire power of the Trinity.

Check it out:

Submission to God, in surrendering everything, to be His hands and feet through the power of the Holy Spirit working in us, is only made possible through the sacrifice and blood of Jesus. HA!   Hallelujah!

That, for me, is huge, and I wanted to share it with you guys too. So beautiful is the plan of God; it is such a tapestry, rich with the colors and patterns only known to the artist. Oh to be a thread in His hand! Lord, may the color of my life bring you pleasure, and may it be long enough to make the connections you seek.