For the Kingdom | Lena Marlowe

Hi, this is Bernie Dake. You're listening to the Salvation Army's Words of Life.

Welcome back to Words of Life. I'm Cheryl Gillum. And I'm Bernie Dake.

Hey, Bernie. It's good to be with you this morning. It's great to be back. And we're very excited about this opportunity for this new series, For the Kingdom.

For the Kingdom, with E.B. introducing us to some wonderful people that have impacted his life. And so over the next four weeks, we'll be hearing interviews and how God is doing incredible things in their lives and in their communities. This week, we hear from Lena Marlowe.

She's a student at Asbury University. And if you're familiar with the school, you may be aware of the revival that's been taking place this year. In this conversation, we get to hear an insider's perspective on what God is doing through believers on their campus and beyond. I think that's why it's so important, like, just in my generation to not only listen to podcasts and ceremonies online, but to actually dive deep in your word and take it apart and let it reach you.

So, yeah. I would just say take the risk and try God. It is always great to just have conversations with people who you know loves God and loves others supremely. Today, I have the privilege of speaking to, I would say, one of my favorite people and her name is Lena. But before, I don't really want to tell you about Lena because I can probably go on for days. And it's probably some stuff that she won't mention about herself.

So I will throw that in after she does a little introduction of herself. So, Lena, would you like to share with the listeners a little bit about yourself? My name's Lena Marlowe and I'm a senior at Asbury University, major in sociology. And then I'm doing a social work track, which is human and social services. I currently serve in the intercultural office as an office intern in the Black Student Alliance representative. I also am an academic coach, so I help with academic success and just helping with like time management, study tips. I have been in gospel choir all four years.

I've also served in resident life as an RA for two years. So I love taking walks in nature. I love making playlists for different seasons of my life. I love to worship. I love a life of worship.

And yeah, that's just a few things about me. Lena, how would you define your calling in life? I'm definitely called to just disciple others, but also learn about just like how my generation has been impacted from previous generations. I'm an analyst in some ways. Like I just love looking at systems and how they affect the church, but also outside of the church. And you know, I think our generation just needs to be bold for Christ.

So it's weird because I'm like a senior. I know what I want to do, but then also God never, he never really tells us what path we're going to like fully take. He either shows us like the mountain or he shows us like the valley.

And right now I'm just in the valley looking around. I don't really know what, what else we've got to be doing in the next couple of months, but just like trusting him. Yeah. So when you say people need to be a little more bold in a sense in their walk or in their faith, could you dive into that just a little bit? I think with our generation, we have so much in our face. We like just with social media and how we connect with others. It's, it's very important that we value the connections that we build with people, but also steward them well. And so I feel like in my own life, I've been a mentor and a mentee to a couple of people. And I really appreciate how important it is for us to be in community with people that honor God and value what God wants in community. And so I just see in my own life, how God has really given me favor with people with communication skills and leadership skills, but also like really hard relationship issues in college. Like I, I just went through a lot of conflict, like on a institutional level, but also friendship level.

And then also like just work level. And I think I was able to learn how God gives us like grace and mercy in those situations, but he also is preparing us for ways that we're going to need to lead others in the future. And so that's why I have a big passion for discipleship because I mean, that's one of his last commands to us before he left the earth was like, you know, to make disciples of all nations, you know? So yeah, I think that's probably why I feel passionate about it. As you were talking, there was something that literally came to me as something that I sense from your words and from your spirit, the highs and lows, knowing that God was still faithful through all of that. What would you say was one of those things or what is something that you say helped you stand firm in your faith as you were going through some of those tough moments?

Okay. So I recently have really valued like how big obedience is. It seems like when you're going through temptation or you're really trying to figure out like what option you should take, you have two big things in front of you to try to choose the right one. Like you're like, well, of course I have to be obedient, but like that's just second nature, but it's not second nature for our flesh. Like our flesh wants to do the complete opposite of our spirit. And so I learned really recently that like all of the decisions that I make since I'm in community, it affects everyone around me, whether it's like my attitudes towards it, how I treat others on a bad day, what advice I give people who are looking up to me, how I treat my leaders and honor them. Obedience just goes so beyond like you.

It impacts everybody around you. It's so easy to like do what you want because it feels good. But after you make that decision, it's a little too late. Like you've already put your actions out there. You've already said things.

It literally impacts every aspect of your life. And then the second thing is just that God's track record is clean. Like it's clear. He may disappoint you in the ways that you expect him to move, but he'll never disappoint you based on his character. And so like I just had to really reevaluate like what I thought God's characteristics were. You know, he's actually my friend.

He's actually my comforter. Like he's someone that I can just go to and explain like why I don't understand something. And I don't think he ever expects us to fully understand why we're in a season or why we met somebody or why we aren't doing well in a class. But I think it's important for us to evaluate what the truth is. And you know, the truth is the word of God. So I think that's why it's so important, like just in my generation to not only listen to podcasts and sermons online, but to actually dive deep in your word and pick it apart and let it reach you.

If there was one life verse, what would that life verse be for you? It would probably be Luke 1 45, which says, blessed is she who believes that the Lord will fulfill his promises to her. And that's just based off the context of, you know, Mary having faith to what God promised her, like that she would give birth to a son. And she probably was freaking out, like, I'm going to birth the Messiah? Like what? Like, there's so many probably questions and she, I mean, she had faith, but she probably was like, how is this even going to happen? There's so many scriptures in the Bible that like say blessed is this person or blessed is the person that does this.

And if you really operate in that way, like you are blessed. So yeah, that's been like my verse. Now this is something that has really been very interesting to me. And at the time of this podcast that we're recording, we are about maybe a week and a half, two weeks in to what has been just spurring on Asbury's campus. And it has literally been like from Wilmore to the ends of the earth, so to speak, been a shining light of what's been going on there. And you being a senior there, you being a student on campus, you being a leader who has played a role in this and have been able to experience all of what's going on.

Would you be able to just share with us just a little bit about what's happening on campus from your experience? God's just meeting us in a new way. It happened last Wednesday. The gospel choir was asked to lead worship. Like usually there's a schedule and we were on the schedule for that day. They usually tell us to do one song in the beginning and then a song at the end. But we actually did both songs in the beginning and then they asked us to come back on stage. A couple of us to sing Goodness of God after his message, just as a response song. We were singing Greg Hasselhoff, I believe, Dismissed, and we sung Goodness of God and we just kept singing different songs just about the character of God and who he is. We eventually just went off stage when we felt led to just stop. And then we went down kind of towards the front and just prayed and it just kept going.

It wasn't even like, oh guys, let's sing this song or somebody get on the piano and play this. It was literally like we were being led to just go deeper. I remember maybe like an hour in looking around.

It felt like five minutes but an hour in looking around and seeing like 20 people come and then like 25. It just kept multiplying over the past couple of days. It's been draining, but draining in a good way because we know that like we're human, we're flesh. So like we get tired, but God's been literally providing rest in this encounter. And I've been shifting from using the word revival to encounter because it's not really a revival anymore. It's encounter for all people, even when there isn't singing going on, there's usually music or prayer or intercession.

Yeah, basically that's what's been going on. From your experience and what you're seeing on campus, what your experience and what you've had the opportunity to lead and be fed by this encounter that you're having with Jesus, what would you say to maybe an individual who see themselves currently distant from the church? What would be your word of encouragement to them?

Yeah, I feel like a word of encouragement. I would just say take a risk. Just like sometimes we go outside and we know there's ice on the ground and we know we probably gonna fall and bust our behind. Like take a risk just like that. Like even though it might be uncomfortable, it may hurt. You may feel some feelings that are new and you can't really get out of them.

I would just say take the risk and try God. He is not gonna be shook if you question who he is or if you don't know who he is fully. Like that's why he is a God who seeks us and chases after us.

People probably think that this revival was just like, oh, it's a bunch of college students just worshiping and singing all the time. Like, no, we are in a battle. We don't fight against flesh and blood.

We fight against principalities. It's really important for us to just think past what's going on in the natural. I would just encourage people to just seek God and question what's going on and come and see. Yeah, I can't promise anybody anything, but one thing that I know for sure is that God is here and he's meeting people where they're at and it just takes that one step. It doesn't take you to be qualified or have all the credentials or even know one scripture of the Bible to meet God.

Like he'll meet you if you just take that one step. As we wrap up, are there any closing thoughts or remarks that you would like to share with our listeners? Just that I love you, but Jesus loves you more. Just praying for everyone and loving and just interceding for the whole world, not just for people who are here in Kentucky. Thank you for that.

I want to say thank you, Lena, for taking time out of your busy work and school schedule to just share words of wisdom and to give your love to our listeners. The Salvation Army's mission, Doing the Most Good, means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army. Visit salvationarmyusa.org to offer your support, and we'd love to hear from you. Call 1-800-229-9965 or visit salvationarmyradio.org to connect.

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