Skip to main content

This world has nothing for me

I received notice this morning that a friend who serves with the IMB is entering into a closed country today for two weeks along with two other men. The prayer request came from his wife.

It is an incredible privilege to pray on behalf of others as they follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Knowing that my friend’s wife and children are praying for him as he serves brings me a deep since of awe about the power of God in a broken world.

As these three men enter this country today, they do so at great risk and cost. They had to say goodbye to everyone and everything.

Knowing Jesus is worth more than anything. Nothing compares to Him. Having Him makes everything and everyone else fade to the background. He is the One who speaks and the whole earth trembles. He has been raised. He is sovereign. He is Lord. He is worthy.

Following Him is the highest honor. Only God knows how many people will enter the kingdom because these three are willing to risk it all.

I enjoy what God has given to me. But, I am reminded that my stuff is still just stuff. I will leave it all behind - someday. It is much easier to follow God if I hold my stuff loosely now. I may not be called to give everything away today, but I must be willing to do so at a moment’s notice. When we can truly let go, we find real freedom.

"So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." 2 Corinthians 4:18 (NLT)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Life Worth Living

We all have an idea of how we hope that our life would go. We all have dreams. We have dreams for our own lives and the lives of people who are close to us. We have goals that we would like to accomplish during our lifetime. We have a measure of what would constitute a complete life for us. When reality does not match our idealized life, we are disappointed and sad. We grieve the loss of a life that we had imagined both for ourselves and those who are close to us. We wonder where God is in all of these situations. The Bible tells us about a man with whom we can identify. Jacob’s life had taken several unexpected twists, yet he came to the end of his life content with God’s will. Jacob was ready to die, when his end was approaching. He was at peace with his life and all that God had done through him even though life had not turned out the way that he had planned. Finally, Jacob said to Joseph, “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen your face again and know you are still al
Post a Comment
Read more

Technical Difficulty

This blog has been inactive for a while due to some technical issues. It is good to be back and I have learned that my technical ability has declined in the last few years. It is amazing how quickly things change. I have been around computers for almost 30 years. My dad bought a commodore 64 in the early 80’s and bought an IMB clone pc later that decade. I spent part of my childhood playing Impossible Mission and Pac Man while typing the occasional paper. For those of you who did not grow up in the 80’s, yes, typing a paper was a big deal. I’m surprised that I didn’t get beat up more as a kid. I learned how to use pc’s before Windows 3.1 and remember when Word Perfect was better than Word – the WYSIWYG was way better on Word Perfect when printing to a dot matrix. While I was in college in the early 90’s I took computer programming and worked in the computer lab. During graduate studies I continued working in computer labs and began doing contract work for computer vendors
Post a Comment
Read more

A pat on the back

I really just wanted a pat on the back. Several years ago I attended an appreciation luncheon for pastors. I had been to a similar event hosted by the same group the previous year, and I really enjoyed it. The previous year they gave away some nice prizes, and we all left the event feeling encouraged and valued. I knew the main speaker before the event and I had been looking forward to his encouraging words. As soon as he started his address, I knew that it was going to be a difficult lunch. He began asking us probing questions about our prayer life and our personal relationship with God. He continued pressing us to evaluate sin in our life and called us to turn from our sin. I could not believe it. How could this guy do this to us? I came here to be encouraged not attacked. His assignment was simple. All he had to do was talk about how tough ministry is and let us know that he has been there. He could throw in a few funny stories and everyone would leave happy. The longer he s
Post a Comment
Read more