what we're trying to say

Watch this video and consider it to be what we have been trying to say; they've said it here better than we could ever have. I hope you are changed forever.




Sometimes I feel guilty about what we're doing - like what we are doing is "wimpy missions". Like we should be going to Africa or the 10/40 window or something, where the real heroes are. And because we are not, we're not really doing anything that special or spectacular. I really, honestly feel that way.

I don't think what we are doing is that big of a deal - I really don't. I'm actually kind of embarassed. But, at least we are doing something, I tell myself. I'm thankful for that opportunity.

I hope God speaks to you as you watch this, as He has spoken to me. May we not waste the lives He has given us, redeemed. May we be busy building up treasure in Heaven.

one of my favorite quotes from an old dead guy

"In the long run, men hit only what they aim at." ~ Henry David Thoreau

Who Cares?

A message from William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army:

"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature... We are ambassadors for Christ... as workers together with him... and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again... for we walk by faith, not by sight... Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." - Mark 16:15; 2 Cor. 5:20, 6:1, 5:15, 5:7, 3:17; Matt 9:37 

Are you working in the field, or are you living for yourself?

Take a risk for Christ

I love this. Francis Chan illustrates risk vs. safety so. well.

Suffering, risk, and laying your life down

That is the way of Christ.

Where's the LOVE button for this? Another excellent sermon jam by John Piper... WATCH IT.

U2's Bono and his challenging message to the Church

I had heard that Bono from U2 was a Christian. This is the first clip I've seen where he talks about his faith (there are probably others, I just don't watch much TV). Wow, I think he really may be the real deal.

Watch this challenging video, posted yesterday on FB by some missionaries we know, who are on the frontlines doing this very thing. You may not agree with everything he says, you may even find it offensive - but I know I can't deny he's got some very Biblically valid points that challenge me. I just hope we (Tony and I) can be more than challenged by messages the rest of our lives and actually DO something about it all someday... soon.

Christ's Call

This speaks to me. I hope it speaks to you.

The Need for NA Missionaries

I have a link on my sidebar for a Free Book on missions. It's excellent. I highly recommend reading it, even if missions isn't your "thing" - the author's personal testimony is just amazing and is guaranteed to encourage your faith.

BUT, I would say that the only weakness of this book, which focuses on the Third World reaching their own for Christ, is something I could not quite articulate myself. The following video message from John Piper does an excellent job clarifying why the age of Western missions is NOT over - why it can not be...




...and another entitled "Keep the Missionaries Home in America?":





Good. Stuff.

:)

Are you a Sender or a Go-er?

Another goodie for the Body of Christ...

You Were Made for Global Missions

I've just discovered John Piper's YouTube channel. Can't stop listening.

I love the quote found there: "Only one life will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last."

Do Something Risky With Your Life

I Am Apprehended

from yesterday's My Utmost for His Highest...


"If that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended." Philippians 3:12

Never choose to be a worker; but when once God has put His call on you, woe be to you if you turn to the right hand or to the left. We are not here to work for God because we have chosen to do so, but because God has apprehended us. There is never any thought of - "Oh, well, I am not fitted for this."...

"I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do . . ."

Why I Love John Piper

To be quite honest, this video message makes me sick to my stomach. I don't know why, exactly. Maybe because it's true. Maybe because it's hard. Maybe because I'm afraid the message is for me, and I don't want it to be for me. I don't know. I just know it's true.

Go, Send, or Disobey

I just finished rereading Bruchko by Bruce Olson. I think it's one of my all-time favorite missionary stories.

An excerpt (pp.38-39):

The church was full. I had been reading about New Guinea and was looking forward to a firsthand report.

Mr. Rayburn showed movies that he had taken. In one scene, a man was eating a rat. You could see the tail hanging out of the man's mouth - then, phht, it was gone.

"That fellow eating the rat there. He's not a Christian," Mr. Rayburn said.

Poor fellow, I thought, remembering how miserable I had been before becoming a Christian.

There were other pictures: some of extreme poverty in the midst of modern cities, some of "natives" and their odd clothes, houses and eating habits. Then Mr. Rayburn made his appeal.

"These people are starving, dying of disease, living in ignorance, eating rats. But most of all they are starving for the knowledge of Jesus Christ. They are dying lost, without knowing how Jesus Christ can save them from their sins. Can you sit comfortably in your seats and accept that? They're dying, damned to eternal condemnation! And what do you do? Maybe if you're really virtuous you put a little money in the collection plate on Sunday morning. Maybe you put in a dollar to reach these people starving for the gospel.

"But Jesus wants more of you. He wants more than your lip service to the great cause of missions. It's your responsibility to take the gospel of Christ to these people. Otherwise their blood will be required of you."

That is exactly how I feel.

John Piper put it this way, "Go, send, or disobey."

And my heart resounds in agreement with Amanda Berry Smith: "To stay here and disobey God — I can't afford to take the consequence. I would rather go and obey God than to stay here and know that I disobeyed."

:)

The Most Glorious Reason You Exist

Spiritual Warfare and The Week from Hell

It has been the week from hell. I had forgotten how intense spiritual warfare can be. It just keeps coming, and coming, and coming.

That's when we need to go the the Manual. And Facebook (lol! just kidding). But it's funny how God finds those ways to encourage a weary soul with some good preachin'!

Saw this on FB today:




"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" - Eph. 6:12

If we press in, wanting more of God, we need to remember this. I've been reminded this week that I have an enemy who hates me, hates my prayers, hates the plan of God, who came to steal, kill, and destroy. He never tires making war, is subtle, astute, and pulls puches I never expect. But, as a friend reminded me this week, the battle is won. Jesus has won. Jesus always wins.

"For though we walk after the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;)
Casting down all imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;" - 2 Cor. 10:3-5

My Utmost for His Highest, May 7th

The other day I was giving the baby a bath, and since I keep my copy of My Utmost in the bathroom, I read ahead while the baby splashed around in the water. This REALLY hit home with me... really hit me hard. Who do I think I am that I have any right to myself? Who do I think I am that I can still choose what I'm supposed to do with my life? God has already given us our marching orders, He has already made Himself more than clear. I can open my Bible and read it. Do I read it? Will I do it?


BUILDING FOR ETERNITY

"For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?" Luke 14:28

Our Lord refers not to a cost we have to count, but to a cost which He has counted. The cost was those thirty years in Nazareth, those three years of popularity, scandal and hatred, the deep unfathomable agony in Gethsemane, and the onslaught at Calvary - the pivot upon which the whole of Time and Eternity turns. Jesus Christ has counted the cost. Men are not going to laugh at Him at last and say - "This man began to build, and was not able to finish."

The conditions of discipleship laid down by Our Lord in vv. 26, 27 and 33 mean that the men and women He is going to use in His mighty building enterprises are those in whom He has done everything. "If any man come to Me, and hate not . . . he cannot be My disciple." Our Lord implies that the only men and women He will use in His building enterprises are those who love Him personally, passionately and devotedly beyond any of the closest ties on earth. The conditions are stern, but they are glorious.

All that we build is going to be inspected by God. Is God going to detect in His searching fire that we have built on the foundation of Jesus some enterprise of our own? These are days of tremendous enterprises, days when we are trying to work for God, and therein is the snare. Profoundly speaking, we can never work for God. Jesus takes us over for His enterprises, His building schemes entirely, and no soul has any right to claim where he shall be put."

- taken from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, May 7th
:)

A Sense of Urgency

Tony and I feel a sense of urgency. We're not the only ones, I'm sure. This guy does, anyway (he preached an entire message called "The Gospel Demands a Sense of Urgency"... haven't listened to it yet, but the others I have listened to in this series are great). Even non-Christians sense something, as well. Recently my dad, who would not claim to be a religious man, even said, "I don't know, I feel like something bad is going to happen. Something is in the air, something really bad."

Most people sense it. There are so many apocalyptic movies these days. We just watched 2012 this week. It was the first movie I have watched in its entirety in I don't know how long. Although well done, it was scary, and I can't say I liked it. Too many people dying in a global end-of-the-world catastrophe was enough to make me pull out the Celestial Seasonings Tension Tamer Extra to calm my agitated and wildly beating heart. No more movies for me for a while.

Jesus answers the disciples in Matthew 24 when they ask what will be the sign of His coming, "...and there will be earthquakes in divers places...". There are other signs, of course, this is just one. We're no Bible scholars, but we can read, turn on the news, and put two and two together. The increase in wickedness the Bible also talk about is all around, and just increasing exponentially.

So, being the Geology geek I am, I just had to look up all of the (major) earthquakes that have ever occurred and been recorded in world. Here's the list if you are interested.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/historical.php

I guess there's really no safe place in the world if you can have big quakes in Louisiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Missouri, Iowa, and... Delaware??

Tony came home last night from work, we sat down to dinner, and he said, "Did you hear about the latest quake in Indonesia?".

"Yeah...", staring at him.

Then we do what we seem to do a lot of lately. We look at each other and one of us usually says something like, "And why wouldn't we go?"

Yes, we definately feel a sense of urgency. What are we waiting for, Jesus to come back before we make a move? It'll be too late then. I suppose we won't care when we see Him, we'll be too happy, but it'll definately be too late then to do all those things we sat around for years saying, "You know, we should..." and, "Why don't we...?".

:)

Radical

http://www.brookhills.org/media/series/radical/

I just listened to Part VI of this series entitled "Radical - What the Gospel Demands". I am so inspired by it and like it so much, that I put a permanent link to it on my sidebar. It's not revolutionary, it's just plain Bible.

:)