Jun 5thLu
On Saturday, Rachael and I went over to Lu's house and almost had a conversation. There was lots of halting silence and looking through the word list, but we managed to exchange a few pieces of information. When we got back, Joyce asked me if I had invited her to church. I started to feel bad that I hadn't until I realized that I didn't know enough Portuguese to actually do that.
So after breakfast the next morning, I grabbed Lisa, and we went over to see if she would come. And she said yes. After the the service, I got Paul Sr. to help me explain a drawing I had told her earlier that I would show her. She had commented several times about how happy and content I was, and I had said that I wanted to show her a picture I had drawn when I was not so happy. As Paul and I explained the drawing and the story behind it, Paul began to share the Gospel with her, and she received Christ.
I know I'm at the end of a long line of people who have been planting seed and watering the ground, but it's such a priviledge to actually be there when that seed sprouts.
May 24thAre You Going To Waste Your Life?
Heard this on the way home from church tonight.
Listen to the radical way Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 12 . . . You remember the situation. He’s got a thorn in the flesh. We don’t know what it is, but it is causing him pain. He says, “Christ, please take it away.” Three times. And Christ says, “No.” And then Paul says, verse 9 . . .And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. . . .
There’s more of Christ. Do you see that? Do you want more of Christ? Christ’s grace. Christ’s power. Christ’s fellowship. Do you want more and more and more because he is your treasure? Paul did, and therefore he said . . . Most gladly . . . Don’t miss that amazing counter-intuitive word . . . Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
For the sake of Christ, then, I’m content . . . . I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
Magnifying Christ by being satisfied in him in pain, in calamity, in suffering, in insult, and weakness was the passion of Paul’s life. His passion was not the American Dream of escaping insult, calamity, pain, suffering. His passion was any life and any death that enables me to know you better, see you more, and magnify your greatness more. Bring it on, Jesus. All I want in my life and in my death is to make your worth more vivid for the world to see.
So, I ask you tonight. Are you going to throw away your life? Are you going to buy into the American Dream, minimize suffering, maximize comfort, maximize ease, maximize security, build bigger barns, work for the bread that perishes, lay up treasure on earth, covet the praise of man, and be happy for 80 years, and PERISH? Is that the way that you’re going to waste your life?
Or are you going to see Christ crucified and risen and reigning and bearing your sins as the infinite treasure in your life that he really is and then make life choices that display to the world his value?
Jul 20thQuote of the Day
I was expecting everyone to break out laughing at the fact that we had pretended that God had nothing to do with life and wasn’t that just the weirdest thing to pretend to do. And of course, there was no pretending going on. (Gregg)
I thought it was a fairly profound statement on most people’s blasé unawareness of the intimate involvement of God in every aspect of life. Quite a contrast with Paul’s statement that it is in God that we live and move and have our being.
May 14thWhat About The Women?
The question on my mind for several years now. The Mali proverb: “If you help a man, you have helped one person. If you help a woman, you help a whole family.” How to put flesh and bones and an answer on that question . . .
And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized, and her household . . .