Jun 3, 2010
6/3/10
Tonight we will be going evangelizing. This is a scary thing for me. Talking to people I don’t know and feeling like I am going to be rejected at any moment is not fun. However the Lord reminded me of a song a couple days ago. It is called ‘Our God is Greater’ by Chris Tomlin.
The bridge goes …
and if our God is for us
then who could ever stop us
and if our God is with us
then what could stand against…
It is from Romans 8:31 which says
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
They are merely men and He is God! What do I have to fear?
I am to live before an audience of one not many.
And the possibility of me getting rejected NOW is so much more worth the latter which is them being REJECTED in heaven b/c someone (me) wasn’t willing to share the Gospel with them.
So out I shall go with the Lord and His Spirit…in Boldness and love
if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us
and if our God is with us, then what could stand against… 🙂
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Jun 2, 2010
So, we have reached one of the busy seasons in the Volunteer Department. There are a lot of events coming up, which means a lot of orders need to be made, volunteers need to be organized, and details need to be finalized.
To be honest, if we weren’t depending on the Lord in each and every decision that has to be made, nothing would get done, things would fall between the cracks, and the events wouldn’t bear lasting fruit.
I know for me personally, if I don’t depend on the Lord in these situations, I end up freaking out. Thankfully, I have the Lord, His many promises, and all the other people in Gospel For Asia that are encouraging, a great help, and are willing to stop and listen. Praise God for providing!
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Jun 2, 2010
You know how some people say “you’ll either do it my way, or it’s the highway”. Well with God, it’s not quite that drastic for those who are believers, but there are certainly different things that seem similar to that.
In class, we just finished a booklet called “The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way” by K.P. Yohannan, and that certainly was a tad convicting.
A basic summary of the booklet is, through our relationship with God, and waiting on Him for wisdom and guidance in ministry, there will be lasting fruit that follows. Doesn’t that sound great?! I sure think so, but then I looked more into it, and tried applying it to my life, and boy is that hard!
Sometimes doing things in the Lord’s way means NOT doing what I think seems like the best plan of action, things that aren’t logical to me. God will take me out of my comfort zone, and direct me to do something that I never would have thought would be beneficial to anything.
However, this can also be taken in many ways. I could go to the extreme of waiting on the Lord, but not listening when He tells me to do something. I’m not saying it’s bad to wait on the Lord, but when He tells you to do something, do it! I can easily fall into the trap of waiting longer than needed because I’m afraid of what He’s telling me to do, using the excuse that I’m trying to make sure this really is what Gods wants.
There are also times when I start off right, waiting on the Lord, and doing what He tells me to do. But somewhere down the road, I start building habits. Habits are great to have, especially like reading your Bible and praying everyday. For me, I struggle with not making those habits into just going through the motions. Going through the motions of serving others, of the various tasks I have, of going through everyday life.
Just going through the motions is like being on autopilot. The things I accomplish are all in my own work, not the Lord’s. I end up not depending on the Lord for wisdom and guidance and just complete the tasks before me because I know how to. But that leads to fruit that doesn’t last.
That being said, I need to make sure I keep a balance. It’s good to build habits, and it’s good to wait on the Lord, just like it’s good to be involved with ministry. But the most important things are my motives, and getting to know the Lord more intimately and fully. Putting this first and foremost in my life will automatically overflow into ministry. But the difference is, the ministry I’m involved with will be fruitful, beneficial, and even draw me closer to the Lord.
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Jun 2, 2010
“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you , being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height– to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:14-19
This is my prayer for all of our brothers and sisters in India, in the Bridge of Hope centers, in my School of Discipleship class, in the people at Gospel For Asia, and for all of you reading this. That we all would learn to depend on God for everything, because He created us, and knows us and His purpose for us is more than we could ever imagine.
That we all would be rooted and grounded in love so that even if we don’t have any earthly things in common, even if we don’t speak the same language, we still have Christ’s love in us that makes us one body, we are unified in Christ.
And that we would all know the love of Christ that supersedes all knowledge, and to be filled with the fullness of God.
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Jun 2, 2010
“It’s never too late”
I’m not sure if I agree with that statement. As some of you know, I just recently got back from a trip to India with my class. I learned a lot, most of which I am still processing, but there is one thing that stood out to me more than the rest. There is such a thing as too late.
While we were in India, we visited some religious worship centers. We also heard multiple testimonies from the brothers and sisters that we met. Looking at the difference between the believers and the non-believers that we met, I was hit with the realization that there certainly is a “too late”.
One true story that we heard was about a mother who sacrificed her two young children because she was told it was the only way she would find peace. So, after she had sacrificed them, watching them yell to her for help as they floated away in a river, she was met by one of our brothers. That brother shared with her the hope and peace that is found in Jesus Christ, and she started to cry. She said “why didn’t you come just a half hour sooner? If you had, I wouldn’t have sacrificed my two children, and they would still be alive.”
That poses a question. Why, when we know and can see all the poverty, and hopelessness in the world, do we just sit back and think that someone else will take care of it? For this mother, there was a too late for her children. For many, today may be the day that they need to hear about Jesus, yet, sometimes I will hesitate to share it with them. Why? Is it because I am afraid of what they may think? Am I afraid of being rejected? What should that matter if a life is changed and I can spend eternity with that person?
The Bible says that “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) So, I pose to you the challenge. Will you step out in faith today to change the lives of millions, or will you sit back and have it be too late?
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Jun 2, 2010
During Christmas time I wrote something in my newsletter about how I was learning about depending on God for things that I wasn’t capable of doing on my own. This has been a constant lesson that I’m learning, so it’s great to go back and re-read all my old newsletters. : ) Here’s what I wrote:
Gospel For Asia is possibly the closest example of how the Body of Christ should be working together. We are like one gigantic family, which is what it should be like. I could go up to almost anybody here and ask them to pray for me for something, and they would do it. Or, in prayer meetings, I am comfortable praying with any one of the people here, simply because of the bond that is so evident between every believer here.
In the Volunteer Department it is spectacular, I feel so close to each of the people, here with me. Right now we are all busy with the Christmas Catalog campaign, where the managers are calling up different volunteers to send them our Christmas catalogs to pass out to others. Then, since there are not many events around Thanksgiving and Christmas, we are registering for events that we will go to next year.
God has been using registrations to get me to depend on Him more. How is He doing that? Well, I have to be more assertive, which I am not very good at, I have to call people to make sure we get the right details, I delegate and pass some work onto our volunteers that come in to the office so that I have more time to do the other jobs I have to do. All of those things combined are hard to do in a work day. So prayer and dependence on God is very much so needed. Without Him, I would be so stressed out that I would make myself sick, and soon, not be able to work at all.
So I am thankful that God is with me every step of the way, and He put amazing people in the department with me so that I can go to them with questions, and not be afraid to ask for help. We are one body, if one part is not working right, the rest will not work as well either, which is why we work together, not afraid to come to each other with our problems. God is good!!
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