Are you ready to get wetter?

When I helped start Watershed years ago, I was completely captivated by Ezekiel 47:1-12 (still am, in fact!).  In the passage, Ezekiel walks through a river 4 times.  Each time he slogs through through the waters, the river gets deeper.  The 4th time the river is so deep he gets in over his head. If you have ever tried to walk in a river, you know that the deeper you get in a river, the more control the river has upon you.

I won't take the time and space here to go deep into the passage, but in summary, the river in Ezekiel 47 is a prophecy of Jesus.   It is my prayer that followers of Jesus would give more and more of their lives to Christ, until they are "in over their heads" in His river.  Then the river/Jesus can take them wherever it/He wants.

I got to see this "vision" become reality once again this week.  On Tuesday, I said good-bye at the airport to Preston who is allowing the river of Jesus to flow him into a nominally Muslim country to help build the country's first Christian camp up in the mountains.  What's so cool about it is that it took a river to bring Preston into my life and the life of our church.

The 2008 flooded river of Cedar Rapids brought Eight Days of Hope to help with flood recovery. With Eight Days of Hope came Preston.  This servant-hearted young adult decided to stay in our beloved city to volunteer with flood recovery longer-term.  He became a part of the New Covenant church family, even helping us start a new ABF for twentysomethings.  Then he attended the Perspectives course, which lead to him in the fall of 2009 co-leading a construction team to Kosovo, where he felt the Lord wanted him to return for a 6-month stint to really help this camp get going.

Even though it is sad to have Preston's wonderful (or should I say "unique"?) personality gone from among us, it is inspiring to see him giving his life to the cause of Christ, going wherever the river leads him.  It is spiritually moving to see someone truly give up his own life to serve Christ through serving others.  I have personally benefitted from Preston's serving attitude, and now the wonderful people of Kosovo will be blessed to have this "river rat" living and working with them.

I want to see more people give control of their lives to the river of Jesus.  If you consider yourself a Christian, are you willing to get wetter, giving more control to the river's flow upon your life?

Posted via email from erin bird's web nest