Once you understand God's call on your life, you cannot turn back.

A few days ago someone said to me ... "Well you have another week to change your mind on China and back out." I won't lie. Sometimes in the middle of the night I think about what would happen if we did change our minds. There is so much uncertainty in this whole process that it seems that it would be easier to just stay in place where we are and serve right here in Lakeland. This weekend God spoke to my heart, and I realized once we understand God's calling on our life we cannot turn back. Once we wrap our minds around living a life sold out for Christ we cannot look back. Last night I thought about when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. God delivered them from slavery and bondage. Their lives as free people weren't everything they expected it to be so they began to turn back to Egypt. I know that life in China is not going to be everything we expect it to be, and won't be everything we would like it to be. I do know that we have to press on through this season and not look back to the lukewarm lifestyle we used to have. We are going to lack most of the comforts and conveniences that we are used to here in America. I pray that we will not be discouraged by the lack of worldly things, and that we would find freedom from the bondage that comes with all of these things.

Being sold out for Christ is like falling in love and getting married. Then you start running a household and raising kids and maybe it sucks some of the romance out of your marriage. Maybe you start looking around and maybe other people start looking better than your spouse. You are in danger of losing your first love. Your first love is to be that one person on earth that you are “one” with. That is your first love in an earthly sense.

I am learning that in a spiritual sense, the Lord is our first love. He is our all-in-all, our everything, but when we start to look back to the material things of this world, we are in danger of losing our first love.

As the days come closer to us leaving God is reminding me that he wants us to live a life sold out for him no matter where he places us. I believe the next couple of months our family will be living out an up to date on fire testimony for God.

For anyone out there wrestling with the idea of stepping over that line and living a life sold out for Jesus; serving the least of these ... Don’t turn back to Egypt. It was a place of slavery, not a place of joy.

Jessica