Greetings to my friends and family back in America. It is time to update you on my happenings once again. And I am pleased to say that all is well. My health is quite good. Several weeks back I had a viral cold, but it
passed after one week. By God's grace it didn't overpower me to keep me from my work. This letter is a compilation of many things that have happened in the last four weeks or so. The whole letter is in
chronological order.
Television Ministry
I had a meeting with the Assistant general manager, Phillip Augustine, from the Miracle Net Satellite network. He reviewed my progress on the program, and made suggestions. It was a great help to me and encouraging hearing about some of the other gospel programs that are out there. During the meeting, Yesupadam even arranged for another man who runs a Bible College here in town to come and give some input. The meeting was very helpful to me and I was greatly assisted from what I learned.
According to Phillip, all the programs he airs use green screens and some make up their own backgrounds from stock scenery footage. He strongly suggested that we follow suite, and I was happy to comply. I
am still in the process of setting up a green screen. The cloth has proved to be somewhat difficult to obtain here. However I was able to get a blue screen two days back. Setting it up is proving challenging, and I will spare you the details there. I am hoping that today I will be able to go to town to get the final supplies to set it up properly.
If that works out I will do some test shooting tonight to make certain that it will work. And if it is suitable, I will start the recording again of Yesupadam's messages.
Free time
I have been spending more time reading and studying during the last three weeks or so. I have improved my Telugu Phonetics by quite a bit during that time. The language is somewhat easy to learn to read
and speak once the alphabet is memorized. The words can be sounded out phonetically without rules so once you know the alphabet it can be read properly.
Monsoon Flood Relief
Love n Care recently sent a team of their pastors on a trip to help with the flood relief. I was invited to go and I went along with Dr. Janardhan, and Pastor Prasad. It was a 200 km road trip south. We left at 5:00am sharp, and made a stop for breakfast (Tiffin) about 8:00am. We then drove on for a few more hours and came to a large city named Rajamundry where we purchased Sarees (Indian dresses) for the flood-affected pastor's wives. We also purchased blankets, steel plates, cups and other eating utensils for the villagers in some of
the flooded areas.
I made an attempt to document the trip with the video camera. Pastor Prasad was my cameraman. Some of the pastors and I narrated what was happening. I quickly reviewed the video a few days back and it looks like you can get a good feel for the trip. There is some video bobbing due to my cameraman. But if you have a strong stomach you should be okay.
The trip was very neat. I really enjoy riding with Pastor Prasad and Dr. Janardhan. They are more adventurous with me than most of the Indians. Because of that I was able to try out about a half dozen different types of food I hadn't tasted yet. I really appreciate their fellowship. They are amazing guys.
Sovereign Grace Medical Team '06
The medical team from Sovereign Grace ministries came yesterday. As soon as they arrived here they unpacked some of their medicines and organized them and headed off to a village where they set up a free
medical camp and treated several hundred villagers. After they came back from the mission around 7:30pm they finished organizing all the medicine they brought. They had a big day and I think they were quite
beat by the time they went to bed.
Well I suppose I will stop here. Those are the main items of note, I will send out an update email when I send the first television program to Miracle Net. I think that will be soon, the momentum is building up right now and things are happening quickly.
To God be the glory,
Joshua
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Friday, August 04, 2006
India Update #1
Hello from India to all my family and friends. I suppose some of you have been wondering exactly what I have been up to for the last month and a half.
I must say first of all that God has been very, very good to me. Why He has bestowed so much grace upon me, and why I would be the one here experiencing this and not some person more capable is beyond my
understanding. The opportunity to be used by God in so many people's lives is quite a privilege. To further illustrate what is going on, I will give you a rough sketch of my schedule.
Monday – Saturday
4:30am Getting up and get ready for prayer
5:00am – 6:00 Prayer with the DTC students.
6:00am – 7:30am Preparation for chapel by studying the scriptures, praying or rest if I need it.
7:30am – 8:30am Chapel. I have the privilege of teaching two to three times a week.
8:30am – 9:15am Breakfast. Mony the foreigner's floor cook makes us a different meal every day, It could be either eggs, Purri, Chipoti, French toast, Idly, Chetni, Oakma, Dossa, or some kind of rice noodle breakfast. All of which are quite delicious.
9:15am – 12:00am I use this time for work on the TV program almost every weekday. However, I do use some of this time for washing clothes, cleaning or assisting some of the pastors or staff with technical issues. I also use it to talk with some of the people here at the ministry. Sometimes they ask me if I can share something from the scriptures with them. However, often I volunteer, and sometimes we spend the whole morning in good fellowship. I don't really have time to do that. But when it happens I don't consider it time wasted.
12:00pm – 1:15pm Serving lunch to the children, both boys and girls from preschool through high school. I think there are around 250 total.
1:15pm – 2:00pm I eat my lunch at this time. I almost exclusively eat curry of some sort. The curry types I am familiar with consist of: Chicken, Beef, Potato, Egg, Carrot, Bean, Okra, Papoo, Benda Kaiya, Dossa Kaiya, Donda Kaiya, Soorya kaiya, Tree w/leaves, Plantain, and Mutton. There are some others but I can't recall them at this time. One neat thing is that we are not fed the same curry two times in a row. That makes it difficult to get tired of curry so often. Also, I eat large helpings of curd (pedigoo), rice and a light sprinkling of sugar after each meal that leaves my stomach feeling very happy. Although, despite all this food I have shed some weight. (Could be the humidity and heat)
2:00pm-3:00pm – I can use this time for anything that needs to be done. Usually more than I have time for. If I don't have a terribly busy schedule my preference is to spend it studying the bible. This is one of the hottest parts of the day so people are not very active at this time. And thus it isn't a great time to fellowship, and is more suited for study or rest.
3:00pm – 4:30pm Prayer and fellowship with the DTC students. I love to pray with them. At all prayer times we each pray aloud at the same time. With thirty-one students, a pastor and I, it is simply amazing.
4:30pm – 5:00pm A few times a week I use this block of time to be with the children. They have from 4:00 to 5:00 to play and that is their allotted free time. The young boys usually ask me to play Cricket with them. I am probably the worst cricket prayer out there, but we have fun together. And surprisingly I managed to 'out' one of
the best batters a few times.
5:00pm – 5:30pm A half hour time wedge that seems to disappear on me almost every day without much of anything getting accomplished. However I do squeeze in my efforts to learn Telugu in during this time. Although, usually not more than 15 minutes worth of effort.
5:30pm – 7:00pm I run study hour with 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. I think my biggest contribution has been in math and English. Most of the students are taught in English, but there are a few Telugu medium students who can be more challenging to communicate with, due to the slight language barrier. I can always find an English medium student to translate for me.
7:00pm – 8:00pm I enjoy my dinner at this time. It consists of one of the before mentioned curry dishes. And I almost always manage to save some curd from lunch so that I can have some for dinner as well.
8:00pm - ??:?? This is the end of the official work part of the day for me. During this time I talk and fellowship with people. And a few times a week I find a quiet place to pray for a while before going to bed. The prayer tower is a good place to go. But if it is taken the roof is an excellent alternative. As of late, I have been regularly
invited on pigeon hunts. They have taken up residence in the space between the two main buildings and have laid down several layers of their droppings. Each evening we go after them and catch a few alive. The DTC students cook them up over an open fire and then we eat them together. The flavor is excellent, but the meat comes out tough and it takes a long time to clean out the pieces that get stuck in my teeth.
Typically I go to sleep anywhere from 9:30pm to 11:00pm. It varies due to the activities I take up during this time. Quite often people choose this time to come to me with technical issues that need solving.
Sunday
5:00am – 8:30am Often I sleep till 8:30am or so. It is good to get the extra rest. Sunday is the only day of the week to get a chance at this. The DTC does not have 5:00 prayer this day of the week except once a month or so. If I feel rested or prompted to, I get up at 6:00 and study in preparation for the Sunday evening service.
8:30am – 10:00am I eat breakfast during this time and also finish getting ready for church.
10:00am – 12:00pm The Telugu worship and church service. Pastor John David preaches and Raja Bobu and his wife lead the worship. I enjoy the worship service; it is quite exciting to see all the Indian's worshipping God in their language. Also, I have learned several of the songs, and when they sing them it is really a blessing to sing along with them.
12:00pm – 1:00pm We eat our Sunday meal at this time. Consistently it has been chicken curry, my favorite.
1:00pm – 6:00pm I almost exclusively use this space of time for prayer and study in preparation for the evening service. I spend it in my room. One of the most private places I can go.
6:00pm – 7:00pm The evening service. It is divided into half and hour of worship and half an hour of preaching.
[Josh has been preaching almost every Sunday night]
7:00pm – 8:00pm Sunday evening dinner in the foreigners hall.
8:00pm – 10-ish I wrap up the day by typically reading or talking to people.
That is the general schedule. Since it is India, many days it changes as other things pop up. For example almost since the beginning I have been assisting with a database for the children's ministry. That means that almost any time of the day I could get called up with a question. Many small things come up during the day that I can take care of, such as computer advice, or certain things that need fixing.
I was presented with a neat opportunity recently. One of the children asked me if I could help him learn to translate messages better. He is in the ninth grade and gets picked for chapel quite often. I thought it was a great idea and said yes if it was okay with the warden. He asked if another possible student could join. Even
better I thought. So I went to the warden and asked if it would be okay if they spent some of their free time with me. He also thought it would be good, so we spent almost an hour together. It was good in many ways. It is good for me to become more experienced at preaching. And it is good for the students to hone their translating skills, and it is also good for them to hear the messages I am teaching. They received an extra dose of the first two verses of psalm 34. [Josh also told that the disabled students were stopped their studies to listen and several DTC students dropped in to listen.[
If I can, I would like to take some time at least once a week to assist in their translating. That may get added into my schedule somehow. By God's grace I have been able to spend much time (both free and work) talking and praying with people. I think it is possible that those times may be the most important of all.
Shortly after a few of the messages I delivered some have said their confidence in God was boosted or they seen some new truth that had not been revealed to them before. I don't consider myself a good
preacher, and I say that truthfully, not in mock humility. I do know with certainty that God's word is powerful. And that is what breaks through hearts of stone, or encourages a believer all through the Holy Spirit. And I ought to be responsible and proclaim the word boldly to the people, and pray and study earnestly. Then God's Spirit works through it, and give me the words to speak. And I have found that to be the case often.
Even though I trust and fervently pray each time I go up to preach. And I pray that the words spoken be God's not mine, I know that I am fully responsible for the words I say. So as I stand before God and man, it is quite a fearful responsibility to me. Although I am in the word constantly, a few times I have not had complete messages prepared for weekday chapel services. They called me up to share God's word and I had a handful of verses running through my mind and a general idea of what I thought God may have had for me to preach to
them. Then during those times I pray for the grace to deliver a message that is accurate, applicable, God glorifying, and certainly from God not me.
I hope to keep getting e-mails from you. And because I am giving you the short end of the email stick, I will try to get another email out before the end of the month. I don't think I am going to do any blogging on focusedonchrist.blogspot.com until September. However this e-mail may end up there sometime between now and then.
Thank you for your emails, they have been very encouraging. A very big thank you is due to my father, for consistently emailing me every week with quite large and thoroughly fitting emails that have been sustaining me by the spirit quite excellently.
Thank you to my church, Morningside Baptist. For giving me the deeper knowledge of God that changed my heart's attitude towards missions and caused me to desire them for God's glory. And then for giving me much fuel for missions by constantly engaging me in God centered conversations. And a huge thank you to my pastor, Dave Sowers, for the personal training he gave me for this mission and for all the encouragement and prayer that he has put behind me in this.
To the youth of Morningside: Keep those emails coming.
To C3: Remember me on movie night.
To my family: Thank you for being a true family and praying for me even though several thousand miles are between us.
To everyone: Make sure and visit The Long Home often in my place. This letter will be much more enjoyable to read if it is accompanied by a thick frothy Noah's espresso. (No marketing intended, they are that
good) Also, he has lots of untold India stories.
Parting thoughts
These words surge in my mind each time I am disappointed with contrary situations I find myself in. I reflect on them often whether I am grieved or not.
I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
(Psalms 34:1)
"I am here for the sake of the name of Jesus and His gospel."
" This is not a humanitarian mission, I am here to spread the gospel
which saves souls for the glory of God."
"If you go out of your care for the people, you will find they will
disappoint you and they won't be reason enough to sustain you."
"…how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach,
except they be sent?"
"Begin every day by acknowledging my dependence on God and my need for him."
"At the end of each day reflect on the activities of the day, then
transfer the glory to God."
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
(Philippians 3:8)
--
J.S. Andersen
Visit me at http://focusedonchrist.blogspot.com/
I must say first of all that God has been very, very good to me. Why He has bestowed so much grace upon me, and why I would be the one here experiencing this and not some person more capable is beyond my
understanding. The opportunity to be used by God in so many people's lives is quite a privilege. To further illustrate what is going on, I will give you a rough sketch of my schedule.
Monday – Saturday
4:30am Getting up and get ready for prayer
5:00am – 6:00 Prayer with the DTC students.
6:00am – 7:30am Preparation for chapel by studying the scriptures, praying or rest if I need it.
7:30am – 8:30am Chapel. I have the privilege of teaching two to three times a week.
8:30am – 9:15am Breakfast. Mony the foreigner's floor cook makes us a different meal every day, It could be either eggs, Purri, Chipoti, French toast, Idly, Chetni, Oakma, Dossa, or some kind of rice noodle breakfast. All of which are quite delicious.
9:15am – 12:00am I use this time for work on the TV program almost every weekday. However, I do use some of this time for washing clothes, cleaning or assisting some of the pastors or staff with technical issues. I also use it to talk with some of the people here at the ministry. Sometimes they ask me if I can share something from the scriptures with them. However, often I volunteer, and sometimes we spend the whole morning in good fellowship. I don't really have time to do that. But when it happens I don't consider it time wasted.
12:00pm – 1:15pm Serving lunch to the children, both boys and girls from preschool through high school. I think there are around 250 total.
1:15pm – 2:00pm I eat my lunch at this time. I almost exclusively eat curry of some sort. The curry types I am familiar with consist of: Chicken, Beef, Potato, Egg, Carrot, Bean, Okra, Papoo, Benda Kaiya, Dossa Kaiya, Donda Kaiya, Soorya kaiya, Tree w/leaves, Plantain, and Mutton. There are some others but I can't recall them at this time. One neat thing is that we are not fed the same curry two times in a row. That makes it difficult to get tired of curry so often. Also, I eat large helpings of curd (pedigoo), rice and a light sprinkling of sugar after each meal that leaves my stomach feeling very happy. Although, despite all this food I have shed some weight. (Could be the humidity and heat)
2:00pm-3:00pm – I can use this time for anything that needs to be done. Usually more than I have time for. If I don't have a terribly busy schedule my preference is to spend it studying the bible. This is one of the hottest parts of the day so people are not very active at this time. And thus it isn't a great time to fellowship, and is more suited for study or rest.
3:00pm – 4:30pm Prayer and fellowship with the DTC students. I love to pray with them. At all prayer times we each pray aloud at the same time. With thirty-one students, a pastor and I, it is simply amazing.
4:30pm – 5:00pm A few times a week I use this block of time to be with the children. They have from 4:00 to 5:00 to play and that is their allotted free time. The young boys usually ask me to play Cricket with them. I am probably the worst cricket prayer out there, but we have fun together. And surprisingly I managed to 'out' one of
the best batters a few times.
5:00pm – 5:30pm A half hour time wedge that seems to disappear on me almost every day without much of anything getting accomplished. However I do squeeze in my efforts to learn Telugu in during this time. Although, usually not more than 15 minutes worth of effort.
5:30pm – 7:00pm I run study hour with 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. I think my biggest contribution has been in math and English. Most of the students are taught in English, but there are a few Telugu medium students who can be more challenging to communicate with, due to the slight language barrier. I can always find an English medium student to translate for me.
7:00pm – 8:00pm I enjoy my dinner at this time. It consists of one of the before mentioned curry dishes. And I almost always manage to save some curd from lunch so that I can have some for dinner as well.
8:00pm - ??:?? This is the end of the official work part of the day for me. During this time I talk and fellowship with people. And a few times a week I find a quiet place to pray for a while before going to bed. The prayer tower is a good place to go. But if it is taken the roof is an excellent alternative. As of late, I have been regularly
invited on pigeon hunts. They have taken up residence in the space between the two main buildings and have laid down several layers of their droppings. Each evening we go after them and catch a few alive. The DTC students cook them up over an open fire and then we eat them together. The flavor is excellent, but the meat comes out tough and it takes a long time to clean out the pieces that get stuck in my teeth.
Typically I go to sleep anywhere from 9:30pm to 11:00pm. It varies due to the activities I take up during this time. Quite often people choose this time to come to me with technical issues that need solving.
Sunday
5:00am – 8:30am Often I sleep till 8:30am or so. It is good to get the extra rest. Sunday is the only day of the week to get a chance at this. The DTC does not have 5:00 prayer this day of the week except once a month or so. If I feel rested or prompted to, I get up at 6:00 and study in preparation for the Sunday evening service.
8:30am – 10:00am I eat breakfast during this time and also finish getting ready for church.
10:00am – 12:00pm The Telugu worship and church service. Pastor John David preaches and Raja Bobu and his wife lead the worship. I enjoy the worship service; it is quite exciting to see all the Indian's worshipping God in their language. Also, I have learned several of the songs, and when they sing them it is really a blessing to sing along with them.
12:00pm – 1:00pm We eat our Sunday meal at this time. Consistently it has been chicken curry, my favorite.
1:00pm – 6:00pm I almost exclusively use this space of time for prayer and study in preparation for the evening service. I spend it in my room. One of the most private places I can go.
6:00pm – 7:00pm The evening service. It is divided into half and hour of worship and half an hour of preaching.
[Josh has been preaching almost every Sunday night]
7:00pm – 8:00pm Sunday evening dinner in the foreigners hall.
8:00pm – 10-ish I wrap up the day by typically reading or talking to people.
That is the general schedule. Since it is India, many days it changes as other things pop up. For example almost since the beginning I have been assisting with a database for the children's ministry. That means that almost any time of the day I could get called up with a question. Many small things come up during the day that I can take care of, such as computer advice, or certain things that need fixing.
I was presented with a neat opportunity recently. One of the children asked me if I could help him learn to translate messages better. He is in the ninth grade and gets picked for chapel quite often. I thought it was a great idea and said yes if it was okay with the warden. He asked if another possible student could join. Even
better I thought. So I went to the warden and asked if it would be okay if they spent some of their free time with me. He also thought it would be good, so we spent almost an hour together. It was good in many ways. It is good for me to become more experienced at preaching. And it is good for the students to hone their translating skills, and it is also good for them to hear the messages I am teaching. They received an extra dose of the first two verses of psalm 34. [Josh also told that the disabled students were stopped their studies to listen and several DTC students dropped in to listen.[
If I can, I would like to take some time at least once a week to assist in their translating. That may get added into my schedule somehow. By God's grace I have been able to spend much time (both free and work) talking and praying with people. I think it is possible that those times may be the most important of all.
Shortly after a few of the messages I delivered some have said their confidence in God was boosted or they seen some new truth that had not been revealed to them before. I don't consider myself a good
preacher, and I say that truthfully, not in mock humility. I do know with certainty that God's word is powerful. And that is what breaks through hearts of stone, or encourages a believer all through the Holy Spirit. And I ought to be responsible and proclaim the word boldly to the people, and pray and study earnestly. Then God's Spirit works through it, and give me the words to speak. And I have found that to be the case often.
Even though I trust and fervently pray each time I go up to preach. And I pray that the words spoken be God's not mine, I know that I am fully responsible for the words I say. So as I stand before God and man, it is quite a fearful responsibility to me. Although I am in the word constantly, a few times I have not had complete messages prepared for weekday chapel services. They called me up to share God's word and I had a handful of verses running through my mind and a general idea of what I thought God may have had for me to preach to
them. Then during those times I pray for the grace to deliver a message that is accurate, applicable, God glorifying, and certainly from God not me.
I hope to keep getting e-mails from you. And because I am giving you the short end of the email stick, I will try to get another email out before the end of the month. I don't think I am going to do any blogging on focusedonchrist.blogspot.com until September. However this e-mail may end up there sometime between now and then.
Thank you for your emails, they have been very encouraging. A very big thank you is due to my father, for consistently emailing me every week with quite large and thoroughly fitting emails that have been sustaining me by the spirit quite excellently.
Thank you to my church, Morningside Baptist. For giving me the deeper knowledge of God that changed my heart's attitude towards missions and caused me to desire them for God's glory. And then for giving me much fuel for missions by constantly engaging me in God centered conversations. And a huge thank you to my pastor, Dave Sowers, for the personal training he gave me for this mission and for all the encouragement and prayer that he has put behind me in this.
To the youth of Morningside: Keep those emails coming.
To C3: Remember me on movie night.
To my family: Thank you for being a true family and praying for me even though several thousand miles are between us.
To everyone: Make sure and visit The Long Home often in my place. This letter will be much more enjoyable to read if it is accompanied by a thick frothy Noah's espresso. (No marketing intended, they are that
good) Also, he has lots of untold India stories.
Parting thoughts
These words surge in my mind each time I am disappointed with contrary situations I find myself in. I reflect on them often whether I am grieved or not.
I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
(Psalms 34:1)
"I am here for the sake of the name of Jesus and His gospel."
" This is not a humanitarian mission, I am here to spread the gospel
which saves souls for the glory of God."
"If you go out of your care for the people, you will find they will
disappoint you and they won't be reason enough to sustain you."
"…how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach,
except they be sent?"
"Begin every day by acknowledging my dependence on God and my need for him."
"At the end of each day reflect on the activities of the day, then
transfer the glory to God."
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
(Philippians 3:8)
--
J.S. Andersen
Visit me at http://focusedonchrist.blogspot.com/
Monday, May 15, 2006
True joy
In the month of February this year, the Lord gave me an opportunity to go to India for two months. I took the opportunity and went for His glory. This was absolutely extraordinary for me, because at the age of eight I had promised myself I would never go to another country for mission purposes. I convinced myself that America was the only mission field where I would be a witness of Christ. There were many reasons behind my sinful wish. I would like to focus on a particular one for now.
As I grew up, I grew in the Lord at a marginally slow pace. My vision of God was blurred by many distractions I had created. The most exciting things in my life were computers, hunting, and studying history. I found that I could easily engage someone in a conversation about those things. I worked hard to learn everything there was to know about certain events in history. I spent many hours of the day on my computer playing games or programming. I spend much effort excelling in these things. If you gave me a chance to lead a conversation I would have talked about one of them. By God’s grace, during those years of my life, I still loved talking about the things of God with other people. Even so, I did not find Christ precious enough to the degree that I would think first to discuss Him above my distractions.
God revealed that while these other interests in my life were good things, I had invested my devotion in them over God. I had made them into Idols, in that I served these things with more devotion than I had God. It was visible to anyone who took a look into my life. If you examined how I spent my money, time, and energy it was apparent that I cared most about these things. While I knew that true happiness was found only in God, I looked to earthly goods to satisfy my spiritual soul, and I was disappointed when every time they increasingly didn’t satisfy. Now I can look back after having tasted the sweet meats of God, and see that there was no way they could ever come close to the joy found in Him.
(Isaiah 55:2)
Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
This verse really lays it out. There is amazing truth and wisdom here. If I were starving why would I work hard and then purchase something that would not satisfy my hunger? Why labor hard to find joy in materialistic things that cannot bring true joy? In Jesus is true joy, and serving Him is truly a delight. Time spent in Him nourishes our soul with satisfying meat. I can glorify God in enjoying those things, but if I seek joy in them apart from God I am not giving God the glory He is due.
When God revealed this truth to me, my attitude towards missions changed. I delighted exceedingly more in God, my priorities and focus changed to Him. My heart began to seek to share this joy found in Him with others. He revealed wonderful truths concerning missions to me. He showed me that while He is sovereign in salvation, I am responsible to share the gospel with everyone I can. The awesomeness of missions is that they will succeed. God indeed has sheep that will recognize His voice, and they will come when He calls.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (John 10:27)
As I grew up, I grew in the Lord at a marginally slow pace. My vision of God was blurred by many distractions I had created. The most exciting things in my life were computers, hunting, and studying history. I found that I could easily engage someone in a conversation about those things. I worked hard to learn everything there was to know about certain events in history. I spent many hours of the day on my computer playing games or programming. I spend much effort excelling in these things. If you gave me a chance to lead a conversation I would have talked about one of them. By God’s grace, during those years of my life, I still loved talking about the things of God with other people. Even so, I did not find Christ precious enough to the degree that I would think first to discuss Him above my distractions.
God revealed that while these other interests in my life were good things, I had invested my devotion in them over God. I had made them into Idols, in that I served these things with more devotion than I had God. It was visible to anyone who took a look into my life. If you examined how I spent my money, time, and energy it was apparent that I cared most about these things. While I knew that true happiness was found only in God, I looked to earthly goods to satisfy my spiritual soul, and I was disappointed when every time they increasingly didn’t satisfy. Now I can look back after having tasted the sweet meats of God, and see that there was no way they could ever come close to the joy found in Him.
(Isaiah 55:2)
Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
This verse really lays it out. There is amazing truth and wisdom here. If I were starving why would I work hard and then purchase something that would not satisfy my hunger? Why labor hard to find joy in materialistic things that cannot bring true joy? In Jesus is true joy, and serving Him is truly a delight. Time spent in Him nourishes our soul with satisfying meat. I can glorify God in enjoying those things, but if I seek joy in them apart from God I am not giving God the glory He is due.
When God revealed this truth to me, my attitude towards missions changed. I delighted exceedingly more in God, my priorities and focus changed to Him. My heart began to seek to share this joy found in Him with others. He revealed wonderful truths concerning missions to me. He showed me that while He is sovereign in salvation, I am responsible to share the gospel with everyone I can. The awesomeness of missions is that they will succeed. God indeed has sheep that will recognize His voice, and they will come when He calls.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (John 10:27)
Thursday, April 20, 2006
An appropriate attitude towards God
This week’s subject is on having a right attitude towards God when things don’t quite go our way. Many times we have good plans that just do not work out like we want them to. They may be excellent and God honoring plans. However I pray that we will remember that our ideas are not always in God’s will. It is important to remind ourselves that His infinite wisdom greatly surpasses ours. And if we are His, then He has eternal plans for us far greater than our usually short ranged plans we create in our finite minds.
If our plans are changed to our displeasure, I pray that we will bring it before the Lord in thankful prayer. We shouldn’t be devastated and attempt to distance ourselves from God, in the similitude of Jonah. Instead I pray that each one of us will say in truth with a joyful heart, “It is well with my soul.” In fact, H. G. Spafford wrote that hymn as he passed near the place where his four beloved daughters drowned a several weeks earlier. That kind of attitude is not something we can bring about by our own strength. And it certainly will not come about if we place our joy in anything less than Christ. We are weak and pathetic beings who can do no good thing of our own strength (Ro 3:10-18.) Righteousness is from God alone and we must daily die to ourselves and seek His strength to have such an attitude.
I am reminded of Kind David who constantly sought God (Ps 63.) David had plans that God changed. He desired to glorify God by building God’s holy temple, (2Sam 7.) God told David he would instead have the temple built by one of David’s children. David’s response was most appropriate, it is shown in 2Samuel 7:18-29. As you read the passage you can see how he humbly begins his prayer by thanking God for His goodness and mercy towards him and his family. He then ascribes glory to God, “…thou art great, O LORD God: for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee…” You do not see King David angry with God because He rejected his plans, on the contrary, you see David overcome with joy. In God’s perfect plan He had chosen a son of David’s to build the holy temple.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Greetings!
My goal with this web log is to build up and encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ. I ascribe all good that may come from this blog to Him alone. I will endeavor by God’s grace to post a "meaty" Christ centered subject each week. I would also like to see some comments posted that are becoming of those who are the sons and daughters of God.
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