Some thoughts on different teachings over the past two months…
“For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said, ‘In repentance and rest you will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength.’ But you were not willing . . .” (Isaiah 30:15). “ . . . ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the LORD. For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant’” (Jeremiah 17:5-6).
Monday, Thursday, and Friday morning prayer, Tuesday night prayer, and Friday night prayer, and daily we work and pray to see the lost multitudes of Asia reached. But the trap in my life is to be doing the work of God, wholehearted, and yet I miss God Himself. I can easily pray for the Dalits of India in all their depravity and be strong and bold in my words, why I’ve done it 100 times the past month, yet not do it in His strength. We can lead a Bible study, or children’s lesson, and the kids behave and the lesson was composed and we spoke clearly. But in all that fine glorious business could have MISSED GOD HIMSELF!
Jesus did not look to lead the masses of crowds to Himself but looked for individuals. He would say turn away from your selfish and evil ways, take up your cross and follow me. Jesus all to well knew and saw those people who wanted some part of Him because His ministry was attractive and had a good reputation. As Keith Green put it, Americans are the people who always pray, “Bless me, bless me,” and let the culture dictate what is righteous and “how much” God you can have. Jesus said, “ . . . unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). Paul said he pressed on, leaving EVERYTHING behind, his successes and failures.
I must reject any notion that I have anything to offer God. God said if we repent and rest in Him we will be saved. It is so simple. He said our strength would be our quietness and trust in Him. I don’t want to be sacrificing my life for the lost but come to Heaven and find it was all fruitless work done in my own flesh. K.P. Yohannan challenged us the other night, “When was the last time you spent an hour on your face before God in quietness?” If we are just running around being busy outside the strength and rest of Christ then Satan is just waiting for the time he will yank the rug out on us (Daniel 7:25). “Self-centered Christians cannot and will not respond to Christ because they are not submitted to Him as their head” (Road to Reality, p30). I must let my self-centeredness die and realize that our strengths and weakness are not what decide what God can do in my life.
Application for me:
Stop running here and there for a solution that only requires quieting ourselves and waiting in prayer. SEEK GOD FIRST.
Stop feeding ourselves with unspiritual things (Things that may take my time away from the Lord). Isaiah 30:15.
Work to discipline the flesh. It isn’t by trying to be more spiritual to win over the flesh but by constantly praying and seeking God to change and convert the flesh.
So, right now I am raising my support so that I can come back to Gospel For Asia as a staff, and I would like to share with you the amazing day God blessed me with yesterday and from that you can see some of the reasons why I feel God is soooo amazing.
Yesterday I went with one of my friends from my church Calvary Chapel Chester Springs to go meet one of her pastor friends of Calvary Chapel Antioch in Philadelphia. When I got there, I felt like I was amongst family. Their love of Jesus was practically oozing from the walls of that small church. After the service, I was introduced to this homeless guy named Daniel (One of the guys from the Homeless ministry that I’ll share about later), the thing about Daniel is that his marriage is like that of Hosea from the Bible. He adores his wife, but she is being unfaithful. He prays for her daily, but because of this, he is out on the street. Please be praying for him, he is totally on fire for Christ though, and I praise God for that.
After talking with Daniel, I met the pastor of this Calvary chapel, Aaron Campbell. This brother is dedicated to spreading the Gospel of Christ. His message was practically dripping with how all of us are called to spread the Truth, even if we all aren’t called overseas, we are called to our families, our work place, and our community. It was neat talking to this brother and about Gospel for Asia. He wasn’t opposed to me sharing with him and the elders about the need for me to raise support.
After Church, Dana (my friend from church), Jonah (the leader of the homeless ministry) and I took Daniel out for lunch at a Chipotle. It was a great time of fellowship. After eating, we headed over to the park area where a whole bunch of the homeless people in Philly live. Before I share more about what we did there, let me say that this is an answer in prayer. I had been praying about getting involved in a ministry at my church here while I was support raising so that I can still be actively serving God, and evangelizing, while I’m not in the office. My mom then mentioned this Homeless ministry that had started a few years ago by a group of the 20’s-30’s in our congregation. I had always been interested in getting involved, but then God called me to Gospel For Asia and so I left. So when my mom presented to me this opportunity, I prayed about it and decided to try it out. And boy was it an answer to prayer! I was there and I was so blessed by these Homeless guys and God spoke through me, there was no fear because God placed this overwhelming love for these guys that could have only come from Him. And God’s perfect love casts out all fear, and boy is that a true statement!
So we are at this part talking to these guys, three of them Drew, Johnny, and Angel are believers, and mr. Black and Ali were not. So it was an interesting mix. After a few hours talking with them (they gave me the nickname “green-eyes”) we headed over to another church (Tenth Presbyterian Church) with Drew and Johnny (I think that’s his name… I’m really bad with names, but I’m trying to memorize them for the next time I see them). We met up with this guy named John. I got talking to him and then one of his friends Josh, came up and talked with us too. We somehow got on the topic of the south and I brought up that I live in Texas now, and they asked why, so I told them about Gospel For Asia. Well, John knows all about Gospel For Asia and pretty much freaked out he was so excited that I actually worked there! He has read the Revolution in World Missions and the The Road to Reality and loves Bro. KP tremendously! Then he asked about which church I go to down there and I mentioned the Village Church, and he knew about Matt Chandler! How crazy is that?! I’m in the middle of Philly, talking to these two college guys, and they know about Gospel For Asia, and the Village church! So John asked what I was doing up in PA, and I mentioned that I was in the School of Discipleship and that I’m now on staff and then he asked if I was support raising, I of course said yes, and I gave him and Josh my prayer cards.
We chatted for a bit longer, and then Jonah, Paul, Drew, Johnny, and I went out to dinner. During dinner, I was asked about art, and I mentioned that I was studying in Highschool to do something with graphic arts or video stuff, and then Paul and Jonah asked if I would work on illustrating Paul’s children’s book he was working on. I said I’d work on it if I have time before I get back to Gospel For Asia. But I was completely blown out of the water of how providing God is. Seriously.
After dinner, we walked back to the park where Drew and Johnny sleep. We talked for a bit more, and I got to share with Jonah about my trip to India, which was awesome. Then we headed home and got back to my house. But that whole entire time I was so comforted to know that in this season when I am support raising, I am where I need to be. And God’s got my back!
Thanks for bearing with me through this long post! Just wanted to share with you all how amazing God is, and how’s He’s moving all over the world! 😀
For graduation, our class was told to prepare something, whether it be a skit, a presentation, video, slide show, etc. Here is what my class and I put together. I hope you enjoy!
Have you ever wanted to be an animal at some point in your life?
Well, one Sunday the pastor at the church I was attending taught out of Proverbs 30, about four little animals that have great wisdom. There is the ant that plans for the future by storing up food in the summer, the rock badger that knows its limitations and puts its trust on something bigger than itself, the locust that lives in humility, not comparing itself to others but being content in each circumstance, and finally, the lizard that has a quiet boldness about it.
In the past I had always dreamed of being a bird. Free to fly wherever, whenever. Not to mention, I would have my own share of wonderful and delicious bugs! Slimy, yet satisfying. However, now I find myself wanting to be more like the lizard…
This past year in the School of Discipleship, The Lord gave me the verse Romans 8:28 to dwell on as my promise from Him. Which is really interesting to me because He had given me this verse before in my life, and that was in the midst of a major trial. But the words of the promise still rang true through this year. In each and every circumstance, the big and the small, God brought this to mind and I held fast to it.
After doing a bit of research, looking up some words in the Greek to find the real meaning of the verse, I came up with this:
We believe in our hearts that ALL THINGS, not just those that we choose, God will cause to be beneficial, spiritually profitable, and useful to those who love Him and are selected by Him to be used for Him.
Despite all that I’ve been through, I know from past experiences that God will hold me in His arms, and everything will be alright. As Proverbs 30:5 says “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him”. It took a while for me, but I have finally put my trust in God about 98% this year. I say 98% because I’m still a work in progress. However, without fail, when I think of Romans 8:28, it calms me down and I’m able to sit back, relax, and watch God work. After all, He knew this all was going to happen before the foundations of the earth were made! Who am I to question that?
Here are some practical things I’ve learned that have helped me this year, hopefully they can help you too.
Learn from your past, don’t just ignore it.
Ask God for His wisdom in everything
Memorize scripture. I’m really bad at memorizing things, but what I have memorized has proven helpful.
Learn from watching other people.
Get out of your comfort zone and allow God to grow you.
Take every thought captive and stand firm on what you know is truth.
Recognize when discouragement takes place and shut it down before it can take hold.
Meditate on what is good and live for eternity.
As I mentioned before, I want to be like the lizard. To have a quiet boldness to step out in faith to trust God’s got my back and has it under control. Are you ready? I know I’m excited to see where this takes me. 🙂
Danny shared tonight on Romans 8:29 which say’s; God uses all things for the good of those who love Him. Danny then closed with a saying that he got from his mother, “God does not waste any opportunity in our life.” Those are very true words.
A couple months ago I was spending some time with one of my friends who is not a believer, and he was telling me some things that he regretted; Things that he could have done better in his life. I listened and then after some time I told him that I do not regret a single thing in my life. He said, “You know most people would call you a liar if you said that.” It is probably what he thought too, but just wanted to say it in a nice way.
After Danny spoke it brought that back up to mind, and I began to ponder. Is it true that we can go through life without regrets? Biblically I am sure we can. So then my next question was, why is that?
I think it is because God loves us and He does not waste opportunities. Everything He does is used to mold and shape us into the image of His Son. For me, I now look back to all those years in which I was living for myself. I remember how hopeless and empty it was, so now that gives me a drive and a desire to seek God, and His best for me, no matter what it takes or where it takes me. God used those precious years in my life to make me into the man I am today. If it was not for those things that He led me through, then I would not be here today. It matters not how it happened, nor how long it takes, only that in the end of it all we come to know God and love God. If I lived the worst possible life imagined but yet at the end of it all came to a saving knowledge of Christ it all would have been worth it. Only those that don’t know Christ will have regrets on that faithful day when He calls us home.
So now, let us throw down every hindrance and run the race that is set before us with all diligence because the things in this life are meaningless compared to the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord.
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