Mar 24, 2011
The Beatitudes
5:1 When he saw the crowds, he went up the mountain. After he sat down his disciples came to him. 5:2 Then he began to teach them by saying:
5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.
5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
5:7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.
5:10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.
5:11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things about you falsely on account of me. 5:12 Rejoice and be glad because your reward is great in heaven, for they persecuted the prophets before you in the same way.
(NET)
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Mar 23, 2011
Some of the School of Discipleship students had the chance to man a Gospel For Asia Table at a church in Wellsprings Texas. The students are awesome!
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Mar 22, 2011
Lately I’ve had this thought come racing through my mind at various occasions and I know for certain that it’s one of satan’s many lies that he throws at me. One thing I know about myself, is that I am a people pleaser. I try to make people laugh at any opportunity that I get. And I want to have their approval. And it hurts me when someone is upset or frustrated at me. I get the feeling that I’m not wanted, that no one cares, and that I should just stop trying to be a part of people’s lives because I end up ruining them in the long run. But that’s not true!
But often times I find it so hard to NOT think that way. I find it easy to say to myself “yeah, listen to what satan’s saying, you know it’s true, you’d be better off living alone and not hurt your friends worse than you already have” and that makes me want to cry. But then, in the back of my mind, I get little glimpses of truth. Praise the Lord, He’s been teaching me to recognize those little glimpses as His Holy Spirit, who lives inside my heart, trying to pull me back into His loving embrace. Thank you Lord!
Now when I have these thoughts I try to take that thought captive, give it to the Lord, and say “God, You are greater than this. I do NOT have to accept this feeling, because You led me here, to this exact moment, and You have a plan for me.” Romans 8:28. God uses ALL things for good. And that includes rotten feelings, depression, and the guilt we feel for letting someone down.
But then, there is also another way that satan will try to attack our minds. He will twist the truth ever so slightly to where you accept that as truth and simply move on. Like for example, suffering. Yes, I mean all kinds of suffering, anything from the loss of a loved one, to your own physical ailments. We are in a battle brothers and sisters, and through this battle we will have our crosses to bear, but we DO NOT have to accept those crosses as a forever cross to bear. Our God is greater than our suffering. If you pray to Him in faith and believe He can save you, then He will. Don’t just sit there in agony and say “well… this is my burden that I have to bear then, it hasn’t gotten better now, so I guess it never will…blah blah blah”
I used to believe that lie of the enemy. I have trouble sleeping, and I have some health issues as well. I used to count that as my suffering that I would just have to live with while serving the Lord. But while I was listening to a message the other day, God told me clear as a bell, that He is greater than that. I don’t have to just sit here accepting my lack of sleep and illness as something that’s going to stay with me for life. I fully believe God is capable of healing me. So I will pray and believe that He will. I’m not going to sit here letting satan tell me God can’t, when nothing, I repeat, NOTHING is impossible for God.
Brothers and sisters, let’s take up our crosses each day, yes, and pray that God will relieve us of our burdens in His own timing. It may not happen right away, but it will happen.
God is good, ALL the time.
as one of my leaders here says “Jesus loves you and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
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Mar 21, 2011
Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he left us with the command to “be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). That wasn’t just a suggestion for the 12 disciples to attempt, that proclamation was the mission statement for all adopted sons and daughters that would be brought into the Kingdom from that day forward to give their lives to.
Overwhelming when looked at from a logical standpoint, sure. But the first part of that verse states, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.” So we know that this isn’t to be done in our own strength; that would be impossible. God gave us the command to spread His name around the world, but He also said that He is going to be with us.
Therefore, my job is to be obedient in stepping out on this. The only reason I was even saved in the first place was because a camp counselor in Virginia was obedient to God in telling people about Him. How could I be okay with doing any less?
So how does my life fit into God’s plan for world evangelism? It’s my entire reason for being here on earth. However, what that looks like specifically will probably change throughout my life. In high school, it was to be a witness for him and to tell the people at my school about His love and salvation. I didn’t do a great job at fulfilling that, but I did help lead my best friend to the Lord. For right now, it means serving in the office of Gospel for Asia and doing anything I can to help bring the Gospel to the most unreached people in the world.
Beyond that though, there is a lot I can be doing. If it is true that I can only help fulfill the Great Commission with the help of the Holy Spirit, which I irrefutably believe is the case, then I must learn what it is like to be led by the Holy Spirit. God isn’t just going to take control of my body and do everything He wants done on earth, although I often think that would be a much easier way to go. No, He is going to always give us the option to follow Him or to follow the world.
Therefore it is absolutely crucial that I develop and maintain time every single day to spend with the Lord, seeking His face and learning His heart. I am naive to think I can even make it through a normal day at the office and be in anyway effective without total dependence on the Lord.
Paul was obedient to the Lord’s direction even when it meant he was walking to his own death. He had no care for himself or his own life, his only concern was to see the lost saved and to glorify the Lord.
I need to have that mindset that I am not my own; not my body, not my time, not even my thoughts or emotions. I have no rights; and this is a wonderful and merciful thing! Living for what I want in the past has ended in confusion and angst and dissatisfaction. Living with no thought to what I want has brought me only peace and contentment and joy because I am no longer looking at myself. I have no reason to be concerned about anything because my life is in God’s hands and if He wants it to be easy then it will be easy, and if he wants it to be hard then it will be hard. The peace comes from knowing that it’s no longer my concern or in my control.
But this is not easy. It’s not even close.
It’s completely unnatural to not try and plan out my future and stress and wonder how things are going to get done. It’s unnatural not to look at myself and see all these issues and wonder how I can fix things and get consumed in creating solutions. Yet that just brings us back again to how crucial it is that this life is not lived on our own strength, but rather through surrender to the Holy Spirit. I can’t even desire to follow the Holy Spirit without His help!
Prayer, fasting, meditation, studying scripture; these spiritual disciplines are now realized as more than something for my own personal benefit. While they do have significant impact on my life, personal improvement is not always enough motivation for me to dutifully practice each one. But it’s so much more than that. Doing each of the things above brings me into a deeper relationship with God which in turn allows me to be more sensitive the Holy Spirit and therefore more able to be used by God to fulfill the Great Commission.
It’s not just working at a computer at Gospel For Asia that helps to plant churches. If I neglect my relationship with the Lord, I won’t make it here. The way I spend my time and guard my thoughts are just as important so that I remain close to the Lord and able to be used by Him to save people from an eternity in Hell.
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Mar 20, 2011
Would have had this up sooner, but computers confuse me 🙂
Buried beneath the St. Patrick’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 slave….
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 I’m not sure if it’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 Christ’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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Mar 18, 2011
I look around me today and I just can’t believe it. It seems the older I get and the more I understand about the world around the more I just can’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 God’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 God’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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