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March 2009
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With Campus Cross Walk
Written by: CampUs4 12/16/2009 8:47 PM
He Is Not Removed From Us By Lisandra Bergey He came to live, live a perfect life He came to be the loving word our light He came to die so we’d be reconciled He came to rise to show His power and might And that’s why we praise Him, That’s why we sing That’s why we offer Him our everything That’s why we bow down and worship this King Cause He gave His everything Cause He gave His everything He came to live, live again in us He came to be our conquering King and friend He came to heal and show the lost ones His love He came to go prepare a place for us Halle Hallelujah Halle Hallelujah The song above by Tommy Walker has been on my heart a lot lately, even though I should probably be thinking about Christmas carols this time of year. The air is colder, the tree is up, and the decorations are out. I love this season! I love everything from A Christmas Carol to A Charlie Brown Christmas. I love the way the house smells when our fresh tree is up and my grandmother makes her traditional goodies, but this song has made me think of Christmas in a different way, actually. It reminds me of my Savior, who had dreams and plans. Is it hard to imagine God that way? God, a living, breathing being, a person with dreams and plans? As a child, God seemed so removed from me. He was this huge, supernatural being who seemed more concerned with the planets and the cosmos than with my personal business. I also knew that God had a Son named Jesus, but it would take a while to really understand how Jesus fit into the theological picture. At fifteen, I began to wonder more about this God, because there just had to be more to Him than that. One night, I poured my heart out to God. I cannot remember everything I said to him, but I remember something the Holy Spirit said very clearly to me: “Tell your Father that you love Him.” In that moment, God was not so large and removed from me. He was my Heavenly Father, a God who loved me, a God who cared about every aspect of my life, and my life has not been the same since. At seventeen, I finally understood who Jesus was and what He did for me on the cross, and I was baptized. When I stepped onto the University of Oklahoma campus two years later, I had dreams and plans about what I would do for God, and what I wanted to be when I grew up. Jesus stepped into this world with a plan, too. His plan was to love us and bring us to God through himself. It’s a plan that reminds us that he is not removed from us, from our campus, from our lives. God cares about what is happening to us, he cares about what we experience in and out of the classroom every day. He cares about the choices we have to make and about the fact that the classroom can’t prepare us for everything in life. He cares about our dreams and passions, and He has amazing dreams for us. I love knowing that. I love believing that. I love that He took on our condition to save us. I love that He walks with us everyday. Because God cared, my life is radically different from what it could have been. Between the end-of-semester stress and the craziness that has become commercialized Christmas, it is easy to forget the power of God’s love and faithfulness, as well as the power of Christ. Too easily, these concepts become head knowledge. But let it be heart knowledge. Take time to praise and worship Christ this season, remembering the impact that His life made on yours. “God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27). Lisandra Bergey has been blessed beyond measure to be a part of the Sooners for Christ campus ministry on the University of Oklahoma campus. She is currently working on her master’s degree in Bible and ministry through Lubbock Christian University.
He Is Not Removed From Us By Lisandra Bergey
He came to live, live a perfect life He came to be the loving word our light He came to die so we’d be reconciled He came to rise to show His power and might And that’s why we praise Him, That’s why we sing That’s why we offer Him our everything That’s why we bow down and worship this King Cause He gave His everything Cause He gave His everything He came to live, live again in us He came to be our conquering King and friend He came to heal and show the lost ones His love He came to go prepare a place for us Halle Hallelujah Halle Hallelujah
The song above by Tommy Walker has been on my heart a lot lately, even though I should probably be thinking about Christmas carols this time of year. The air is colder, the tree is up, and the decorations are out. I love this season! I love everything from A Christmas Carol to A Charlie Brown Christmas. I love the way the house smells when our fresh tree is up and my grandmother makes her traditional goodies, but this song has made me think of Christmas in a different way, actually. It reminds me of my Savior, who had dreams and plans. Is it hard to imagine God that way? God, a living, breathing being, a person with dreams and plans? As a child, God seemed so removed from me. He was this huge, supernatural being who seemed more concerned with the planets and the cosmos than with my personal business. I also knew that God had a Son named Jesus, but it would take a while to really understand how Jesus fit into the theological picture. At fifteen, I began to wonder more about this God, because there just had to be more to Him than that. One night, I poured my heart out to God. I cannot remember everything I said to him, but I remember something the Holy Spirit said very clearly to me: “Tell your Father that you love Him.” In that moment, God was not so large and removed from me. He was my Heavenly Father, a God who loved me, a God who cared about every aspect of my life, and my life has not been the same since. At seventeen, I finally understood who Jesus was and what He did for me on the cross, and I was baptized. When I stepped onto the University of Oklahoma campus two years later, I had dreams and plans about what I would do for God, and what I wanted to be when I grew up. Jesus stepped into this world with a plan, too. His plan was to love us and bring us to God through himself. It’s a plan that reminds us that he is not removed from us, from our campus, from our lives. God cares about what is happening to us, he cares about what we experience in and out of the classroom every day. He cares about the choices we have to make and about the fact that the classroom can’t prepare us for everything in life. He cares about our dreams and passions, and He has amazing dreams for us. I love knowing that. I love believing that. I love that He took on our condition to save us. I love that He walks with us everyday. Because God cared, my life is radically different from what it could have been.
Between the end-of-semester stress and the craziness that has become commercialized Christmas, it is easy to forget the power of God’s love and faithfulness, as well as the power of Christ. Too easily, these concepts become head knowledge. But let it be heart knowledge. Take time to praise and worship Christ this season, remembering the impact that His life made on yours. “God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27).
Lisandra Bergey has been blessed beyond measure to be a part of the Sooners for Christ campus ministry on the University of Oklahoma campus. She is currently working on her master’s degree in Bible and ministry through Lubbock Christian University.
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