“Then little children were brought to him for him to lay his hands on them and pray. But the disciples scolded those who brought them. But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not try to stop them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” And he placed his hands on them and went on his way.”
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Jan 2011 School of Discipleship Students getting a tour of the history of Gospel For Asia’s Small beginnings. Gospel For Asia started in a small two room office (the right half of the salon shop)
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For there is more to life than food, and more to the body than clothing. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than the birds! And which of you by worrying can add an hour to his life? So if you cannot do such a very little thing as this, why do you worry about the rest? Consider how the flowers grow; they do not work or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these! And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, how much more will he clothe you, you people of little faith! So do not be overly concerned about what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not worry about such things. For all the nations of the world pursue these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, pursue his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
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In prayer meetings we are always hearing about our brothers and sisters over in Asia that are laying down their lives because they refuse to deny God when persecuted. We hear this over and over and over again, and instead of becoming numb to it, it’s making me think. What are we, here in the western world, doing to take up our cross and follow Christ. Sure we aren’t public-ally humiliated and beaten for not denying Christ, but there are so many other ways that we daily choose to deny Him.
I don’t think denying Christ is simply stating that you don’t believe in Him, but I think it happens when we choose something else over Him, when we take His name in vain, when we choose sin over serving Him with our whole hearts. Denying Christ is like we are in love with two things, but we can’t serve two masters. It’s either the world, or God.
I’m not saying I’m perfect, I’m far from it, and it’s so easy to find myself being drawn to what the world has to offer, rather than falling at the feet of God. I think the only way to overcome this, is to simply say no, and put our trust in the Lord. Our brothers and sisters in Asia are doing this daily. They lay down their very lives to NOT deny Christ. Why shouldn’t we? Why not put down the video game, or turn off the music, the TV, and spend more time with God?
This doesn’t mean we can’t do all those things, and it doesn’t mean become legalistic about it. Ask God what it means for you to do this. But I think that if each of us put God first, and ourselves last, we have a much better chance of reaching the lost world for Christ, and serving Him with our whole hearts.
A few nights ago, I got woken up by a horrible dream, or so I thought. 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. 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. 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. 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. 🙂
“Oh no!” Was the cry that came from my lips when I fumbled with my phone. I finally realized that it was in my pocket and frantically tried to answer the call. Sadly, I was too late. My gloved hands had not opened the slippery phone quickly enough.
To make the matter worse it was my sister. Having her live so far away is a challenge. I can’t call her – she can only call me – which makes me feel awful every time I don’t get to my phone. But why tonight of all nights? I’ve been hoping for a call before I leave for Asia next Saturday. One more pep talk and encouragement before flying across the ocean.This leads to the question… “why?”
“Why, Lord, did I not make it fast enough? Why had I just put my gloves on? Why had I just changed the ringtone? Why, why why?” I find that I become very self-centered very quickly. It is not my intent to be always thinking of myself – but I do it so naturally.
When asking ‘why’, He basically gave me the answer “why not?” After all, He is in control. He leads and directs our lives. It is not that He wants to punish me for something by letting me miss my sister’s phone call, just that He will allow it to build character. At the moment I am learning to be joyful in everything. Giving thanks evermore. After all, that is the will of Christ Jesus for you and for me. He just wants us to trust Him. He wants our wills to bend towards His. I am learning that. It’s not always easy and it’s not always fun but the one thing I’ve always found it to be is freeing. When you let Christ be the Master of your mind, life, and soul, you will only seek to see His heart in whatever it is that you are going through. The principals of giving thanks and of surrendering our questions and wonderings to His sovereignty are things that can be used wherever and whenever. If you really rely on Him and trust that His plan is better than yours, life is one adventure after another. You no longer have to worry about what, when, how, who… just listen to the Father and do nothing but what He tells you to do.
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