Wear Green and Pray!

Would have had this up sooner, but computers confuse me šŸ™‚
Buried beneath the St. Patrickā€™s Day symbols of shamrocks and leprechauns lies the story of a man determined to share the message of salvation with the people who made him a slaveā€¦.

Patrick grew up the son of a church Bishop in Britain during the early 5th century. He was kidnapped and enslaved and spent 6 years of his early life in Ireland. He did miraculously escape back to His home country only to have God call him back to Ireland in a dream. At this time, Christ was not known in Ireland. Like so many remote villages that God is using Gospel For Asia supported missionaries to reach now. Patrick went willingly this second time to share the message of the gospel to those who were his enemies. (It is said that he used 3 leaf clovers to illustrate the trinity, but Iā€™m not sure if itā€™s true).

Against persecution and the intense paganism that plagued Ireland, Patrick served God by reaching people with the message of the gospel. He eventually died for his faith. By his death in 461, it was estimated that Patrick had founded 300 churches, hundreds of thousands had heard of true freedom from sin through Christā€™s gift of salvation, and over one hundred thousand had come to know Christ as their savior. His followers re-evangelized Europe as God called missionaries from the once Godless island. Patrick is one of the few figures in recorded history directly responsible for the completely non-violent religious conversion of an entire nation.

I love this story of true love for your enemies and a passion to reach the lost! Wear green and pray for all of those risking their lives for the cause of Christ.

Please be in prayer for all of the people God is calling to reach those who have never heard the gospel before. Pray for the families of those who have been imprisoned or martyred for their faith. Pray that God would call more to the field! Pray that those who are called would continue to lives worthy of their calling.

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The Sleeping Giant

I look around me today and I just canā€™t believe it. It seems the older I get and the more I understand about the world around the more I just canā€™t believe the things that human beings do to themselves and one another. Wicked, how deeply wicked are we that live in this current age where already the wheels are turning, and have been turning, to call good evil and evil good. We are so backward in all that we are and do and we are asleep, hypnotized, if you will, by the world around. Do we not care; do we not see where we are going? Could we even begin to turn the ship around even if we wanted too? All the more it seems that I see the signs for the end. I have no way of knowing when the Lord will return. A hundred years, ten years, a month, a week, a day, or a minute. I know that He is coming and I pray that He will come soon.

When will my soul awaken to Godā€™s calling? When will Americans and the church at large awake out of their sleep? I want to wake up, but I so love my sleep, I want to dream and have my own life, but that is not Godā€™s calling. I am to live for Him and His kingdom! When will you awake oh my soul within me? When will you give up your rights and serve God with a passion and zeal that would mirror that of the early church? When??? Why do you sleep? Awake and see the lost world around you and see the lost and hurting.

Oh that God would be my all, can I not lay down my rights for the One who created me.

 

 

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Joseph The Missionary Driver!

Unsure and unsatisfied with where they are at, Christians Iā€™ve talked to over the past two years have often made me think about how does God use our lives and how we can act on His calling. What are your expectations for how God is to work in your life? Are you like me in that my time and schedule gets filled with work and things so rapidly I feel at a loss? Comparing myself to others, am I just doing okay or poorly?

My heart has burned for different men, women, and couples Iā€™ve talked to that have a burden for the lost but at that time were not pursuing to answer that burden. I wish I had not responded in my natural gentleness but shouted, ā€œForget all these other things! You just follow Jesus!ā€ In my past I wish I had been so similarly challenged and listened more often. It took me a long time to give up my plans.

God works in similar ways so that we would see His kingdom and His righteousness first, but the timing and how it happens is another issue all together. Weā€™re all at different places in our walks and Christ working on us. We need to act boldly on faith and challenge each other. Iā€™m talking to myself too, because I, like others, was stubborn and it has taken some sludge hammers and lots of humbling experiences for God to get me in a place where Iā€™m willing to be molded by Him. Jesus said you follow me (Read John 21:21-23). We cannot compare or rank our walks with anyone. He just said you follow me, donā€™t worry about the others. Donā€™t worry about all these other things, He knows.

Iā€™ve had my share of taking my plans into my own hands with relationships, evangelism, and my calling; all of which tended to not go so well.

My last year of college I was praying for lots of people to get saved, and maybe it could have happened, but there were several problems with my plans. Three things that tend to be the problems for most American Christians: lack of self-sacrifice and discipline, and myself was a key part of the plan of people getting saved. In other words it was a good spiritual goal but at the heart it was about myself.

I did evangelism but it lacked Godā€™s real empowering and spirit because I lacked taking time to pray and read the scripture. I did it alone too, a lone ranger is no good. I didnā€™t sacrifice what I really needed to accomplish what was burdened on me so that I could sharpen myself spiritually and encourage others to join me.

Secondly it was to accomplish something big, a wonderful thing to catch the attentions of many. Now who wasnā€™t looking for the crowds? Jesus wasnā€™t looking for the crowds and even said some scary things that frightened followers away when the crowds got big. The American Christian culture has adopted its mindset of success from the world in many ways–it has to be big, lots of people, and bring in lots of media/interest/money, whatever. Jesus preached to everyone but He didnā€™t make any stay if they didnā€™t want to. Jesusā€™ ministry was successful because he wasnā€™t seeking to please people but only obey and please God the father.

A strategy in the US is to throw warm bodies, plans, and money at a problem and hope that it will work. Discipline, brokenness before God, righteous living, and practical training in spiritual ministers are typically lacking. The question has to be asked where is the fruit to all the labor, time, and money spent? People are definitely still called to teach, pastor, missions, or a myriad of ministries in America and abroad, but one must ask are they qualified, or will they instead just be a misleading burden, and where is the fruit after the years of work (Side note: of course even if they arenā€™t qualified God can still use them)? The opposite is totally true as well, becoming so educated as becoming self-reliant and hardened to the Spiritā€™s leading and instead choosing to follow our own human wisdom. Are the way things being done actually being affective? Is it Spirit led? Are the heathen masses being saved? Or is it just people and money being tossed around in the middle of a program? Am I continually praying and asking for His direction?

On the day the apostles received the Spirit, Peter preached and thousands gave themselves to Jesus. It was by the work of the Spirit, but make note the Spirit was drawing on what had already been taught to them by Jesus. Jesus had been teaching him and the other disciples over a period of 40 days about His resurrection, showing them many proofs of it, and concerning the kingdom of God, which Iā€™m sure was pretty amazing stuff (Act 1:1-3; Luke 24:45)! So after several years with Jesus and having some in-depth teaching time right before the Spirit filled them they were ready to explode and the Spirit could bring forth all that Jesus had taught them.

Sometimes the better question to ask than what is Godā€™s will for me is what is God doing and how can I be part of it? It isnā€™t so much about ourselves, despite how much me, myself, and I tell myself that it is all about me, which reminds me of the need for brokenness. In the overall picture of God working through us as individuals, it is that we are all called to something different to take part in the body of Christ. Being individuals in one body working toward bringing about the kingdom of God on earth.

While in Asia I met missionary drivers. That sounds crazy, you might think. Who ever reads in a magazine about missionary drivers? Exactly, you donā€™t. But these are brothers that went through missions and Bible training and did their field training just like the others but would drive people about to and from things and serve. At one of the Bible Colleges I visited there was one particular brother in his mid-twenties, named Joseph, who was the kindest young man. But he was trained and had served in the field too. But looking at his job you wouldn’t say that he was a front line missionary–cleaning, preparing rooms, and serving food. But what a servantā€™s heart he had. He served us and also many at the Bible College, and was also part of discipling and training the students. These guys served with gratitude just to play the part they had in reaching the lost. Thousands a day are coming to Christ just through the individuals serving where they are. Insignificant as the role may seem, God is doing amazing things through our humble brothers and sisters.

So I have no idea what God has called you too but I would encourage you to analyze your life and ask God how to take up your cross and live with a sense of sacrifice right along with our brothers and sisters in Christ so that the lost may be reached.

I had wanted to be a speaker and an evangelist on the streets. I wanted to be on the frontline. But the most important question to ask is why am I doing what I am? Is it just the common practical thing to do, was it how I was trained to, told I needed to by family, friends, and coworkers, or because that is the way it has been done before? Or is it something that God has directed you to and empowered you in the Spirit to accomplish?

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Vivid Dreams of Romans 8:28

A few nights ago, I got woken up by a horrible dream, or so I thought.Ā  here’s the journal entry I wrote with the intention of sharing it all with you sometime soon:

“It’s 3:08 AM right now, but as of now, I don’t care. God just spoke to me so vividly through a dream and His Word and I have to share it with you.

Here’s what I dreamed:

I was on vacation, where South Carolina, Pennsylvania and some other state were connected and there was a mini ‘war’ dispute going on between them. But I was on vacation, talking to God the entire time. I rode on my 4 wheeler with a bike strapped to the back and the bare minimum for survival. I had been documenting the whole things with my camera.

I was having a great time on my own, till I got to this spot where I forgot my camera, because I had left it on the 4 wheeler.Ā  So I biked as fast as I could back to the 4 wheeler, so I could take a picture of this simply breath taking sight of something I’m not sure how to describe. As I reached the 4 wheeler, I saw a car pull up. I didn’t think anyone knew where I was, so this kind of shocked me a bit, and as I saw who it was in the car, I got kinda happy to see Wendy taking the keys from the ignition. But then I saw the look on her face and immediately my heart dropped.

‘What was wrong? What happened?’ I thought

She walked towards me and from her face, I thought someone had died or something.

Once we were close enough for me to hear her, she said that my brother had been biking to reach some homeless guys when he was hit by a car. He was in the ER now with both kidneys failing, and broken bones all over his body, the doctors weren’t sure if he’d make it.

My heart fell and felt like it had stopped altogether. And then she said something that I didn’t catch at first. Although he was in immense pain and suffering, he was still smiling and saying God has it all under control.

Then I woke up. I wanted to text my mom right away to see if everything was okay. Instead, I prayed about it, meditated on it for about 10-15 minutes. After that, here’s a bit of what I texted to my mom:

‘Hey mommy, just woke up from a dream that really shocked me and made me cry. I woke up from this dream and was thinking about it, trying to get my heart back to a normal pace, I sat up and started wondering why had I dreamed it? Was something really wrong with him that God would place him so strongly on my heart? I don’t know.Ā  After praying a bit, I decied to text you to find out what’s up. Is he okay? Are you okay? Is there something more specific I can pray for? I love you both terribly and want nothing more than to hug you both right now and never let go. I’m actually crying a bit right now as I type this because I love you both so much… I’m wondering why God would let me dream so vividly like that. And I think it’s to show how comfortable things can get, and when things are comfy, we forget whats really important in life, things can pass by and we wouldn’t even know. Maybe He was preparing me for a mentality that I have to be okay with giving everything to Him, even the two people in this world I love and cherish the most. I don’t know but I do know that I think I’m ready to surrender all to Him. Not that I want to lose you both, my goodness no. but I have to have the mentality that you and Brandon are bought and paid for, specially made, hand crafted by God and His property. I have to be okay with Him doing His will for your lives, even if it is so hard I cannot bear it on my own. So…this text is really long, Love you guys, praying for you both!’

After that, I couldn’t sleep, so I went to the living room and decided to have quiet time with God. As I was crying to Him, He gave me some verses.

Deuteronomy 4:9 and then Psalm 9

Then I cried and sent my mom more texts.Ā  here’s the general message of them:

‘Was I really forgetting all that He has done for me? For you? For Brandon? I never thought I could, and it’s making me cry just thinking that I would forget. How could I forget? HE IS SO GOOD! I never thought it possible…seems I’ve been havig a lot of dreams of Brandon dying or getting so ill I couldn’t help him in my own power…but it took this last time to really open my eyes as to what God had been trying to teach me from it.

Romans 8:28 and that includes dreams'”

Sorry for how long this post is… just wanted to share with you what God’s teaching me right now, and how He’s doing it. šŸ™‚

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Long Time No See!

I am back in Texas,Ā Praise the Lord!Ā  A lot has happened these past few months, and to sum it all up into one post will be tough, but I do believe it is possible. Hold on tight!

After graduating from the School of Discipleship in July 2010, I stayed in Texas for about a month and a half to help out in trainingĀ someone elseĀ to take my place as Event Manager for the Central and Western regions of the USA; all the while living with a GFA staff family.Ā  Right after that, I was on a plane back to Pennsylvania, just in time for the beauty of Autumn on the East coast.

So began my journey in support raising to come back to Texas as staff at GFA. While I was there I didnā€™t feel like I fit there, because I knew I was called to serve at GFA, I felt like a fish out of water. I was asking God to please help me find some sort of ministry that I could fit into while away from GFA.Ā  Then, my mom started talking about a homeless ministry down in Philadelphia that some of the people from my church go to each Sunday.Ā  I had heard about this ministry before, but before I could start up with it, a lot of things happened in my life that stopped me from getting involved, and then I headed to GFA for a year.Ā  I prayed about it and felt tremendous peace about going, so I tagged along and was blessed tremendously.

Needless to say, God once again proved His faithfulness in providing me with a way to serve Him away from my home here at GFA.Ā  God sure is amazing isnā€™t He?!

Also, I got to help out for a little bit with the Youth Worship team for Youth Group, I love working with youth, so it was neat to see how the Youth Group I came from has grown, and to see the passion of the leaders as they live their lives as examples of godly men and women for the Youth. While I was there, I was given the opportunity to speak with the youth for about 45 minutes.Ā  I was planning on only taking up 30 mins max, but God laid so much on my heart to share with them that I just couldnā€™t stop talking!Ā  Which is so unlike meā€¦ therefore, I know it had to have been God speaking through me.

All throughout this entire time in PA, God continued to touch peopleā€™s hearts and they joined with me in reaching the lost in Asia through prayer and support.Ā  In faith, I was praying that God would have my support raised by the end of October so that I could drive down with Katie when she went back to Texas in November.

Slowly, the date was approaching, and I got the call saying that I could come back because I was at 95% of what I needed per month!Ā  Praise God!Ā  He answered that prayer, down to the exact day! So,Ā one of my friendsĀ came, experienced an east coast Autumn for the first time, and we started our trek down to Texas.

It was a rather long drive, but I was so excited, I hardly noticed the long days that went into the trip.Ā  I was also sick with something that resembled Bronchitis, but the Lord gave me strength to push through each day.Ā  God is good!Ā  On our way down, about half way through our first day,Ā my friendĀ and I noticed that the engine light was on in my car.Ā  So, we pulled into the nearest gas station/ food place and made a few phone calls and continued on our way trusting the Lord to let us get to Texas safely.Ā  We got back and one of the guys checked out my car, and it was only a fluke!Ā  Praise God!

The day after we got back, I started my first day back in theĀ GFA officially!Ā  Thanks for all that helped make getting me back possible!Ā  Praise God for the opportunity we have to make an eternal impact on the lost in Asia!

Wow, I’m surprised this all fit into one post! šŸ˜€

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