Have you ever wanted to stand up for the beliefs in your heart, but the thought of isolation, ridicule, or failure stopped you? Maybe there was the feeling of being on a battlefield alone, with a massive oncoming enemy ready to crush any attempt you made to fight. Or maybe you’re standing up in court, with no defensive aid, and every by-stander eager to condemn and convict you.

I imagined a situation similar to this while reading Matthew 20:30-31:

Suddenly they came upon two blind men sitting alongside the road. When they heard it was Jesus passing, they cried out, “Master, have mercy on us! Mercy, Son of David!” The crowd tried to hush them up, but they got all the louder, crying, “Master, have mercy on us! Mercy, Son of David!”

Here two outcast blind men are alone, with a whole crowd opposing them. But overlooking the judgment of men and wholeheartedly pursing the mercy of the Lord, these two blind men give us an example of how we should be for the Master.

Jesus stopped and called over, “What do you want from me?” They said, “Master, we want our eyes opened. We want to see!” Deeply moved, Jesus touched their eyes. They had their sight back that very instant, and joined the procession. Matthew 20:32-34

I was moved by this act of boldness, faith, and hunger for God from people we may subconsciously label as having no influence. So I ask myself, and I ask you, are you willing to stand? Are you going to boldly declare and ask for what you believe? How will you make a difference in the world we live in?

Here is a song, “Savior” by Worth Dying For with the same proclamation of willingness to serve the Father. “We stand up, we rise up, to give our lives up for this. This burden, this passion, to burn our lifetime for You.”

1 John 4:7-8 explains that God loves, for GOD IS LOVE. To continue with verses 9-10, God, who is love, expresses love by acts of sacrifice. He is selfless, and gave his son out of love for people like you and me.

Enjoy the simple pleasures of the world. But try to remember to only love who and how the father loves. First love the one who loves you, then make people your priority, and as verse 12 says, God’s love can be completed through our love.

As the chapter continues, it says that loving like God fills our life with confidence. We don’t have to fear, for God is only good and loving, and he loved us first. Now we can go and love, too.

What do I mean by that? Well, this book is targeted toward people taking the reins from their predecessor to guide the next generation. The book includes five ways that these leaders will be effective, and I have used Mulan to show these principles in action.

     1) Competency – These leader focus on what they do best, though tendency is to “do it all”.    (Mulan knew she wasn’t meant to merely conform to society, but found her place was to be a warrior, and becomes a heroine.)

     2) Courage - When a leader sees a problem, they are bold and act. Opportunities come to ones who act in spite of fear.    (Mulan, though afraid, went courageously into war with the disadvantage of being a girl in the midst of strong, experienced men. She never let dangers stop her.)

     3) Clarity – The leader knows or is clear about their direction while the outcome is uncertain.     (Mulan is set on helping her father and finding herself, so she risks everything and goes into the unknown)

   4) Coaching – The leader has a trustful person that helps them see their potential and take them higher.     (Hey, Mulan had Mushu to help her.)

     5) Character – One must never let their behavior be outside of their beliefs, n0 matter the cost.    (Mulan does the right thing again and again despite the possibility of rejection, failure, or even death) 

This book expanded me as a leader, and now I can be like Mulan. I recommend this book (and the movie Mulan) to anyone God has called to lead. 

Philippians 2:7 says “Jesus made himself nothing (he laid aside his mighty power and glory); he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form.”

Many say Jesus was omniscient, or all knowing. But when he became human, the scripture tells us that the power was gone, and that includes the ability to know everything.

So how did Jesus know the things to do, places to go, and what to say? Well, Jesus knew because he found out. For example, John 4:1 starts out “When Jesus learned…” Mark 11:13 tells us that Jesus had “to find out” if the fig tree had fruit on it. Along with being lead by the Spirit, these verses show that Jesus knew by searching and learning the truth.

And because Jesus did ALL of his great works in human form, we too can search the Word and then go and follow Jesus’ actions!

First of all, my roomies and I were having a “girl talk”  on the first night, and one asked what our embarrassing stories were. When it was my turn to share, I had none, or at least no story that was significant enough to come to mind. But if they had asked me at the end of camp, I would definitely have an answer. I won’t state details, but to highlight the obvious, yes, it involved a boy (what else gets us teenage girls?)

Anyways, and more importantly, the topics of wisdom and truth were furthered in my heart at camp, which is what I needed. Drilled to me morning and night were lessons about your HEART. A verse that I can focus on for this is Proverbs 4:23, which in the NLT reads, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do (from it flows life).”

I could never understand the full gravity of this verse until camp, when this verse got connected to WISDOM. A pastor gave a definition of wisdom as “practically applying truth.” When one lives outside of the truth he/she knows and sins, one does not live wisely. This is how a heart is not guarded.

Another example of this is explained in Romans 1:20-23. People see the glorious things God has made but they don’t live upon the fact that He is Lord. This results in unwise, unguarded hearts; it’s a heart that flows a foolish life.

As the week’s guest speaker Josh Joines put it, “the internal effects the external.” So my motivation in these truths is not to put myself down for sinning, but to instead work to make sure that I get God’s Word inside of me. Then I will continually act upon the truth in my heart, knowing that I had my guard up and have wisdom that will positively affect my life. Another said that “walking wisely makes life the best possible.” So because the internal will be passionately guarded, the external is bound to become wonderful.

Now that’s an impeccable impact!

I was reading Isaiah, and in the first chapter it tells of the sinful people of Judah. As was explained during Impartation, sinning is going against what you know is right, or going outside of the light you have, which is in darkness. When this happens, the sins burdens upon us, (Isaiah 1:4), which slows any growth and stops God from aiding us.

To go further, it was taught at Impartation that 1 John 1:6 says when we walk outside of the truth we have heard and say we are with God, that means we are lying. The people in Judah would bring the Lord their sacrifices and celebrate Him while continuing in sin, and the Lord called them sinful and false. The lying motives cut off the actions of the people from God, He actually refused to look at them.(Isaiah 1:10-15)

But oh, our gracious God! He said He would no longer see the wrongs we humans make when we wash ourselves (Isaiah 1:16), a process made very simple through Jesus’ blood and our confession, as told in 1 John 1:7,9. Proverbs 28:13 states this as well, saying that when we do confess and be honest, we’ll receive mercy. And yet another scripture tells again that the humble get the grace of God (James 4:6). Humility takes honesty, and a form of being honest is admitting to your mistakes. So basically, this is a circle of truth that can be shown