It's So Simple

I have read Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret four or five times in my life. It is a book that is so good that it is worth diving into again and again just to remember what the Spirit of God will do in the life of a person surrendered to Him.

I am reading it again with a group of men at a time that I really need it.

This quote has arrested me many times, and this reading isn't any different:

"But Hudson Taylor did not start out to impact "millions." He started out to love God, to honor Him, and to share His love with individual sinners who needed so desperately to know Him. Jesus called Taylor (and us) to be "faithful," not "successful." And God added the increase. So shall it be with us, I pray." (page 12)

Father, please give us a deepening, passionate love for you. Please give us a real love for our neighbors and friends. Please give us freedom to share your heart and your character to other people. Please open up the door for all of those things.

Only you can do it. Please do it in such a way that you are known, and loved, and treasured.

Promises for Today

Faithful is he who calls you,
and he will also bring it to pass.
(1 Thessalonians 5: 24)

Do not fear,
for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you,
for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
surely I will help you,
surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
(Isaiah 41:10)

First Thessalonians Chapter Three

Therefore, when we could endure it no longer,
we thought it best to be left behind at Athens alone,
and we sent Timothy,
our brother and God's fellow worker in the gospel of Christ,
to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith,
so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions;
for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this.
For indeed when we were with you,
we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction;
and so it came to pass, as you know.
For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith,
for fear that the tempter might have tempted you,
and our labor would be in vain.

But now that Timothy has come to us from you,
and has brought us good news of your faith and love,
and that you always think kindly of us,
longing to see us just as we also long to see you,
for this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith;
for now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord.
For what thanks can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God on your account,
as we might and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see your face,
and may complete what is lacking in your faith?

Now may our God and Father himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you;
and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another,
and for all people,
just as we also do for you;
so that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus
with all His saints.

Mother's Tenderness and Father's Strength

For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain,
but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi,
as you know,
we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition.
For our exhortation does not come from error
or impurity
or by way of deceit;
but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel,
so we speak,
not as pleasing men,
but God who examines our hearts.
For we never came with flattering speech,
as you know,
nor with a pretext for greed- God is witness-
nor did we seek glory from men,
either from you or from others,
even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority.
But we proved to be gentle among you,
as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.
Having so fond an affection for you,
we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God,
but our own lives,
because you had become so very dear to us.

For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship,
how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you,
we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
You are witnesses,
and so is God,
how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers;
just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you
as a father would his own children,
so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

(1 Thessalonians 2:1-12)

Courage Passed On

Recently, I spoke with a man who was a former missionary to Brazil and is currently a equipper of missionaries in Texas.

He asked me how things were going for us and I told him the story about what we are doing and some of what we have seen the Father doing.

I cannot explain it now, but I was so encouraged by what he said. He not only affirmed what we are doing but he also told me stories about what they did in Brazil.

Here is some of the counsel that he gave me:

          “Make sure to bring unbelievers into your gatherings.”

          “Make sure to spend time praying for unbelievers by name when you gather.”

There was so much more but I cannot remember it now. All I know is that I was so excited that I could hardly contain myself. It was like wind in my sails. I could SEE with my imagination all of the things the Father could do…and I believed he would do them.

Father, please show your power and do your work through us. I want you to be our leader. Be our shepherd. Glorify your name in our lives and the lives of the people around us in our neighborhood and please let us have the joy of partnering with you.

Manna Mercies

"The LORD's loving kindnesses indeed never cease,

for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

Great is your faithfulness."

The downside of believing that everything I need comes from the Lord is that it means that I am dependent on him. Frustratingly dependent on him. I-can't-do-anything-to-get-him-to-do-things-my-way dependent on him. He won't be manipulated by my self-pity or my selfish pleading. He is completely free to give lavishly...or not to give until his time.

That creates anxiety in me. Or, better yet, it draws out the anxiety in me that comes from how I really believe who my Father is. For some reason, I feel like my Father will hold back or, worse yet, he is disinterested.

I know the right answers because I have read the books, but the right answers don't always overcome the real feelings.

So, sitting on the floor in my bedroom right now, I meditate on who I believe my Father to be in the hidden places of my soul and I chew on who he has revealed himself to be in His Son and in His Word.

To a hard hearted and complaining people he gave manna. Only good for one day. Rotten on the second. Everyday was a reminder that those people were completely dependent on their Giver for their food. They were anxious to hoard, but they were made to trust that the Father would come through. Day by day. They had to deal with the heart question: "Will he be faithful today?"

Fast forward to another time when God's people doubted him. Things were not going their way. In fact, everything that God had promised seemed to be coming untrue. They were losing everything they had put their hope in. Control of their life was being stripped out of their hands with violence.

In the midst of the lamenting and pain, the Lord reminded Jeremiah that his love and his compassion NEVER FAIL. In fact, like the manna, they are new every morning. New every morning.

On days like today when I wake up and believe that I have to beg my Father to be good today, he is faithfully and lovingly asking me to be still, cease striving, and trusting his great faithfulness.

He is simply reminding me that he is going to be good today in a new way. Yesterday's grace is spent. Tomorrow's grace isn't here yet. I raise my eyes up and look towards the manna mercies that he will give today. Those mercies will be lavished on us, but they will be today's mercies. Only for today.

He will be faithful for tomorrow.

Isaiah 35: 3-10

Encourage the exhausted
and strengthen the feeble.
Say to those with an anxious heart,
"Take courage, fear not.
Behold your God will come with vengeance;
The recompense of God will come,
But he will save you."

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then the lame will leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.

For waters will break forth in the wilderness
and streams in the Arabah.
The scorched land will become a pool
and the thirsty ground springs of water.
In the haunt of jackals its resting place
Grass becomes reeds and rushes.

A highway will be there, a roadway
And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean will not travel on it,
but it will be for him who walks that way.
And fools will not wander on it.
No lion will be there,
Nor will any vicious beast go up on it;
These will not be found there,
but the redeemed will walk there.

And the ransomed of the Lord will return
and come with joyful shouting to Zion
with everlasting joy upon their heads.
They will find gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.