Two things I’ve been pondering the last few weeks. First, while we were at Avon Park, I heard a story about a new missionary couple who had spent the time and expense to visit 20 churches in the Eastern US to explain their call to missionary service and invite the churches and people to partner with them. They spent the time and expenses in these 20 churches and no one responded, no one... This just grieved my Spirit so deeply and I have 10’s of questions I wish I could ask; but I find it simply incredible that this could happen. There is a tendency to want to blame the missionary for not doing something right, but on the other hand, if you speak with conviction about the love God has placed in your heart for that field He has called you to, how can this be even possible? My heart just grieves for we know the needs overseas are so great and the workers so very few and the urgency so.....well.....URGENT. Eternity hangs in the balance. So I just ponder this and give such incredible thanksgiving for all the dear people who make it possible for us to serve Christ in Mozambique. It is humbling.
This then brings me to the next thing as we get so incredibly distracted in our hedonistic society. While we were in Avon Park, we heard about a book called “Radical” by a fellow named David Platt. It was one of those books that was guaranteed to ‘rock our world’. I downloaded it on my Kindel and have almost finished it; and indeed it is one of those books that has the potential to ‘rock your world’.
It is written by a Pastor of a church in Birmingham who pretty much ‘calls it like it is’. He is strong on the mission of the church as assigned by Jesus in Matthew 28: Go and make disciples. If we really are transformed by the power of Christ and really believe, then why don’t our lives reflect it? The author challenges us to do the following things for one year, guaranteeing it will change your life. Those things are:
- Pray - truly, diligently, faithfully
- Read through the Bible in one year (we’ve been be proponents of this for years!)
- Commit your life to a specific community of believers (i.e. a local church)
- Sacrifice your money for a specific purpose
- Spend your time in another context
You will have to read the book to get the details and although the first item is not specifically called out, it is included and I believe it has to start there. We should certainly be more about doing and a lot less about the talking....
But, then again, the most radical book that I know will rock your world, is to read God’s word from cover to cover (we recommend reading it chronologically over the course of a year), allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to you as you fill your life with the wisdom and beauty of the Bible; by far the truly radical book that so many know about, but don’t really know...It will change you - guaranteed.
And then tonight, in the house where we are staying, they have this small little book called “The Greatest Thing in the Whole World” by Henry Drummond. There is no copy right but this little pocket book is clearly worn, tattered, and very old yet so profound. I would like to memorize this little book and its wisdom. The greatest thing is Love - but the explanation is so wonderful. Jesus said he would show us a simpler way, that if we do one thing (love), then we will fulfill the law without even thinking. For example, if you take any of the 10 commandments, at its base is Love. For example, the commandment “thou shalt have no other gods before me”....if we truly love God, we wouldn’t even consider such a thing. Or, if we truly loved our neighbor, why would we covet whatever he might have, and so on.
Then it takes the gifts of the spirit (Patience, kindness, generosity, humility, etc.) and compares them to what the Bible says about love (love suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not) using those beautiful words from Corinthians so often read at weddings. It calls these spiritual gifts the “Spectrum of Love”. So beautiful.....Every couple should read this little book together!
As we watch the hate playing across the world’s stages today - why are we surprised? It is what we get when there is not love.
And then the little book, ends with: “And who are Christ’s? Everyone that loveth is born of God.”
May it be so. May we reflect the love of our Creator to the world around us. May we examine our lives daily to see if we are loving as we should if we truly believe what we say we believe.... Our love most flow outwardly as it is received inwardly from on high!
As a prayer request this night; we have learned that our Mozambican friends Carlos Jango and his wife Tina, have lost their first baby. We counseled this couple before they got married and they actually spent their wedding night in our house in Mozambique. The baby apparently had jaundice from what we understand and this is something that pulls hard at Ann,...had we just been there.... She worked in labor and delivery for many years. They are a dear couple and we love them dearly - May God give them peace in this time of tragedy. Infant mortality is so high in Mozambique and this makes our hearts so heavy. But we can trust God with everything, the good and the terribly bad. He will sustain us. Sustain Carlos and Tina dear Lord. (Photo is from their wedding).Dave and Ann
“On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand....”
“And in the end, the love we take [receive] is equal to the love we make [give to others].” Beatles song
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