Intimacy with God

Sunday School Choir!! 

This week has been pretty similar to the last few we've had. We stayed in Kampala and visited our many projects here including two feeding programs, the babies' home, children's hospital, and a couple secondary schools as well. I enjoyed being able to teach the P3 class at Victory Primary School again. We also had some amazing team bonding moments and a wonderful worship night to close out the week.

Girls' Night!!! (we love when Cassie's family sends treats!)

I think what stood out to me most this week is the idea of being intimate with God. It's been amazing to realize that He desires a close relationship with me. I love the beginning of Psalm 139, "You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways." God knows me, and He has allowed me to enter His presence with confidence. "Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." -Hebrews 4:16. Through the blood of Christ and the Spirit He left here with me, I'm able to approach God and be in fellowship with Him. God wants me to come before Him just to be with Him. Psalm 27:4 has been the cry of my heart this week, "One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple." In the book, Romancing the King, the author writes about seeking the face of God rather than His hands. In other words, we should often come before God simply to be in communion with Him, to know Him better. It's fine to ask God for things, in fact, the Bible tells us to ask and it will be given to us. But rather than seeking the gift, we should seek the Giver. He will take care of all of our needs and desires, but He wants our heart, soul, and mind first.

Neighborhood Program (Owen jumped in front of the
camera just in time!) 

Another thing that goes along with that thought is the idea of true worship. So many times we (myself included) worship falsely, and I'm sure it just makes God sick. It reminds me of Isaiah 29:13, "These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught." I want to break that mold; I desire to worship in Spirit and in Truth. "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is true worship" (Romans 12:1). "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kinds of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in the Spirit and truth" (John 4:23-24). In worship we should seek to touch God's heart. God desires true worship. Fortunately, through building an intimate relationship with Him, we are able to touch His heart, to bless Him, to truly worship Him. What a privilege! To be able to come before the God of the universe and seek His face and touch His heart with our worship. Mukama Yebazibwe!! (Praise God!!)

Blessings!!