Happy Birthday Jesus!

This is from an email I sent out a couple of years ago...

Those of you who know me pretty well know I have been fascinated with the story of Jim Elliot and the missionaries that were martyred on Jan. 8, 1956 while trying to bring the Gospel to the Auca Indians. There have been several books written by Elisabeth Elliot about this, and I highly recommend that you read them (Through the Gates of Splendor, The Shadow of the Almighty, The Journals of Jim Elliot, The Savage My Kinsman).

I just finished reading "The Shadow of the Almighty" again, and it was amazing how fresh my heart was to the message...especially here at Christmas. And it makes me even more burdened for the lost...a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how comfortable we are, and if we really know what it means to sacrifice. Think about this for a minute:

"We cuddle around the Lord's table as though it were the last coal of God's altar, and warm our hands, thinking that it will appease the wrath of the indignant Christ when He charges us with the unmet , unchallenged, untaught generation of heathen now doing their Christmas shopping. It makes me boil when I think of the power we profess and the utter impotency of our action. Believers who know one-tenth as much as we do are doing one hundred times more for God, with His blessing and our criticism. Oh, if I could write it, preach it, say it, paint it, anything at all, if only God's power would become known among us!" Jim Elliot

How comfortable are we in our world? Are we challenged to go out and minister to the lost? Or do we think someone else will do it? If we don't, we will surely answer to Christ, who we claim to love, for those souls lost because we did not speak. We're afraid to speak, to witness, for fear of offending someone, when lives are laid down every day for the Gospel...

The following quote is framed in my office, and it is one to meditate on:

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot

We cannot keep our lives...we must give them so that we can bring others to know the Father that we know.

Jim Elliot followed his Savior all the way...and in witnessing to those lost, he lost his life. And in sacrificing his life, he opened a path for others to win the Aucas to Christ. And he gained Heaven and He saw the One he loved more than life face to face! I'm challenged, folks...do I want to stay stagnant and complacent, or do I want to follow my Savior all the way?

Remember the lost this Christmas...what are they really celebrating? What are you celebrating?

How I See Things...

I'm seeing things a little differently this Thanksgiving morning....

I went to the eye doctor yesterday and yes, it's time for bifocals...I was hoping that wouldn't happen until after the 40th birthday, but I handed over the debit card and paid for the new glasses I need...and I thought...be thankful...it's not that bad...at least you can still see, and so many people can't...at least you have eyes...and at least you have a job and an income and can pay for the things you need.

It's funny how we see things...especially this time of year. And my eyes have been opened more to what is going on around me, more than ever before. And I'm not talking about the eyes that wear the glasses...I'm talking about the eyes of my heart.

We see in so many different ways...on Monday night, I was driving home from the hospital with my friend whose dad had been taken to the ER - she was guiding me through the back streets of Charlottesville (I know very little about Charlottesville) and we came to a place in the road where we had two choices - straight ahead or turn. Now, this is where it gets interesting...because what I saw as "straight ahead or bear to the left (the road curved to the left)", she saw as "straight ahead or bear to the right". I asked "Which way do I go?" She said, "Keep straight". I almost went the wrong way. That's called perspective - we each have a different way of looking at a situation, and we laughed about it, and I said, "We'll be driving around all night at this rate - people will wonder where we are," and she said, "And we'll tell them it was because you don't know your right from your left".

PERSPECTIVE!

God opens the eyes of our hearts and allows us to see things His Way, when we spend time in His Word and know Him. And what's great about the people he puts in our lives is that when we aren't looking to Him for our vision, then they can point us in the right direction. And it's important to listen to each other and see where we're coming from so we know where we're going.

I am directionally challenged in many ways, but I know that I serve a God who has given me a roadmap for life, called The Bible. My earthly vision is blurred - physically, I can't see like I used to, and I can wear glasses to correct that. My spiritual vision gets blurred, too, and I have to go to my Heavenly Father for clarity. It's not about rules - it's about a relationship with a living Saviour. And I am humbled by His gift to me.

Love those around you today - love those that aren't around you today. And no matter how bad your circumstances seem, know you are not alone. God is there with you, and he hurts with you. When you weep, he is the one that holds you to His heart and weeps with you. Embrace that...embrace the Father. Be thankful that no matter what happens in this sin-filled world, that the God of the universe loves you and wants you to be His. And if you don't know Him through a relationship with His Son Jesus Christ, get to know Him. Find a Bible believing church to attend, find someone you know who is a Christian and ask them about this man named Jesus. Email me and I will tell you what He has done for my soul! (Psalm 66:16)

"For now we see through a glass, darkly: but then face to face: know I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." 1 Corinthians 13:12

The Shadow of the Almighty

I know, two posts in one day…have had a lot on my heart.

Psalm 91 has been very special to me in recent months as I have tried to allow God to move everything out of my life that comes between me and Him - so that I am only dependent on Him for everything in my life. No more idols…

Last week, I had to get up early one morning to be at work for an in-service, so I got up at 5 a.m. (yes…five o’clock does come twice a day…) and went to read my Bible and pray. It was still completely dark outside…the stars were amazingly bright…everything was asleep…the silence was very heavy but a good heavy. I read my devotionals and then proceeded to pray, and I had an experience I don’t think I have ever had before.

As I prayed in the silence blanketed by darkness, I felt the Lord in a way I never had before. I felt like He was right there over my right shoulder, and I could feel Him breathe on my attempt to be in His presence. I was afraid to move for fear that He would go away, but I also had a fear of Him being that close…not a bad fear, but one that reminded me that He knows my heart all of the time. It was such an experience that as I sit here and write about it and as I told my friend Dana last night, words cheapen it because there are no words to adequately describe it. It was like His Shadow covered me completely.

Last night at the concert, Bart Millard, lead singer of Mercy Me, said something that brought me right back to this experience. He said that in moments like that, you are afraid to move and afraid to breathe because He is so close…my heart went back to that moment and I could feel it again.

My prayer life suffers…I don’t pray enough and I don’t spend enough time with Him. I do things with the ministry and I do things with my church, but I don’t spend enough one on one time with Him. Keith Green once said, “Don’t get so caught up in the work of the Lord that you forget the Lord of the work”.

I need to remember that.

“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” Psalm 91:1