Starving: It's A Good Thing.

Years ago my pastor's wife did a Bible Study with the single girls using the book Lies Women Believe and I remember walking away from that study thinking how easy it is for me to be duped into believing a lie. Profound I know, but so true!

I still think about that study, especially when I blunder and make a wrong choice. I want to kick myself as I wonder, "Now why did I respond to that situation like that? I know better and I thought I got the victory over it the last time." Giving in to the flesh is temporarily satisfying, but never brings true contentment. I have to make a conscious choice to listen to truth, rather than believing lies.

I'm in a rather contemplative mood as I think about a Bible study Nat and I did for marriage counseling. As a quick aside, I strongly recommend marriage counseling before the wedding bells toll! Nat and I have tremendously enjoyed it and have learned so much from our sessions with Pastor Roland. Ok, commercial over.... back to our study:). This one is on communication and many of the questions have really made us think! Standard Sunday School answers don't cut it and I've been forced out of my comfort zone of logically and methodically working my way through easy-to-answer questions. In truth, I have to think of scenarios and situations in our future that have yet to happen. Tough stuff. My personality is the type to sit there and say, "Well I don't know what's going to happen or how I'm going to respond so how am I supposed to answer this question!"

This is where it's so foundational to know what God's Word says and to combat the lies of the devil with the truth of God's Word. My marriage depends upon it. Obviously communication plays such a huge role in relationships and if I'm not careful, I'm going to feed a lie instead of starving it to death. I choose life - for truth, that is!

Just some late night musings from a girl who is looking forward to becoming the wife of a wonderful, godly man in 87.1 days... of course the .1 represents the rest of this day:).

This And That.

I was routinely looking at Sitemeter this morning when I noticed someone came here by way of Sarah!!! Sarah has been such a dear, dear friend to me and between Sarah, Emily, and I, we've had some pretty fantastic times together, including coming up with a new holiday:).

Not only that, Sarah has been the most faithful person in writing to me while I've been in Thailand. I hang up each and every card I receive (by the way Jackie, thanks for your card last week!) and everywhere I look is the familiar signature of "Sarah Jean" :). So go check out Sarah's blog!

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And in completely unrelated news, I started reading this book last night and just could not put it down. So far it's been a challenge to me, and reminds me a lot of a course my pastor taught in Bible Institute.

Well, it's time to go to prayer meeting before we start a brand-new week in the office!

Victory In Christ.

This afternoon I was reading "To Die is Gain" - a story about John and Betty Stam and was stopped by these two paragraphs. They are rather lengthy, but well worth the read.

Shall we beat a retreat, and turn back from our high calling in Christ Jesus; or dare we advance at God's command, in face of the impossible? .... Let us remind ourselves that the Great Commission was never qualified by clauses calling for advance only if funds were plentiful and no hardship or self-denial involved. On the contrary, we are told to expect tribulation and even persecution, but with it victory in Christ.

Friends, the task with all its attendant difficulties is enough to fill our hearts with dismay, if we look only to ourselves and our weakness. But the authority in our Master's command to go forward should fill us with joy and the expectation of victory. He knows our weakness and our lack of supplies. He knows the roughness of the way. And His command carries with it the assurance of all we need. Of course we want to be assured of our support! Who cares to go forward in any enterprise, secular or religious, unless he can be reasonably sure that it will not be dropped for lack of funds? Incomes are failing, men are losing employment and bank accounts are being wiped out. Do we, as Christian workers, want to be sure of support? Then let us not put our trust in men, or in any God-dishonoring methods of raising funds for the work. These are not certain enough. We have it on the highest authority that the promise is of faith, that it might be sure. The faithfulness of God is the only certain thing in the world today. We need not fear
the result of trusting Him...

John Stam, martyred missionary to China

What John Newton Remembered.

I've just finished reading a great book called, "Incredible Journey in the Steps of Greatness" by James Ray. This book documents the lives of several Christians down through the centuries. I came to the story of John Newton - the author of the hymn Amazing Grace - and stopped when I read some of his last words:

"My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things; that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour."

The truth of those words hold much weight. I am a great sinner, but praise the Lord HE is a great Saviour! I don't always know why Christ reached down in His great love and took me out of the miry clay, but I am so, so thankful that He did.

Me? A great sinner.

Christ? My great Saviour!

Doing Our Part.

Within the space of one week, two friends - one in PA and one here in Thailand - mentioned to me the book, "Mountain Rain", which is a biography of James Fraiser who was a missionary to China. On Monday night my friend lent it to me and I've been trying to read a chapter or so each night before bed. Since the book is not my own (and I like to make comments on the side of the page or highlight quotes!), I've been writing down quotes as I'm going through the book. I'm not very far into the book, but it has already challenged me!

• "If our Master returned today to find millions of people unevangelized, and looked, as of course He would look, to us for an explanation, I cannot imagine what explanation we should have to give. Of one thing I am certain - that most of the excuses we are accustomed to make with such good conscience now, we shall be wholly ashamed of then." ~ Page 4
• "One has sometimes to prune a tree in one direction, that it may develop better in another." ~ Page 8
• "God means just what He says, and He will do all that He has promised" - Hudson Taylor ~ Page 10
• "And if God has chosen it for us, hadn't we better go straight ahead and do it, without waiting for anything greater, better, or 'nobler'?" ~ Page 19
• "Besides, as so often with the call of God, it was not an apparently logical step to take." ~ Page 22
• "It does seem a terrible thing that so few are offering for the mission field... I can't help feeling that there is something wrong somewhere." ~ Page 25
• "The matter is in the Lord's hands. If He wants me to go He will send me. It would be very unwise to attempt to rush things or force a door which He has closed." ~ Page 27
• "But I am finding out that it is a mistake to plan to get through a certain amount of work in a certain time." ~ Page 32 (This one is especially true on the mission field!!!! It never pays to plan anything out to a great extent, because it will change 3 times before it is accomplished!)
• "I am feeling more and more that it is, after all, just the prayers of God's people that call down blessing upon the work, whether they are directly engaged in it or not." ~ Page 35 (VERY, very true!)
• "We are, as it were, God's agents - used by Him to do His work, not ours. We do our part, and then can only look to Him, with others, for His blessing. If this is so, then Christians at home can do as much for foreign missions as those actually on the field." ~ Page 35
• "Solid, lasting missionary work is done on our knees." ~ Page 36

Just some thoughts and musings on my end as I'm challenged by a missionary who travelled this path oh so long ago...

One Day At A Time.

As April was making dinner this evening, I slipped into one of our cream colored chairs to start reading a book. My choice for the evening was a familiar author, but an unfamiliar book: "Let Me Be A Woman" by Elisabeth Elliot. This book was originally written as a wedding gift for Elisabeth's only child ~ her daughter Valerie. Containing numerous letters written before Valerie's wedding day, I was captivated by story after story, truth after truth. One story in particular sticks out to me. Bear with me as it is a little lengthy!

"The truth is that none of us knows the will of God for his life. I say for his life - for the promise is "as thou goest step by step I will open up the way before thee." He gives us enough light for today, enough strength for one day at a time, enough manna, our "daily" bread. And the life of faith is a journey from Point A to Point B, from Point B to Point C, as the people of Israel "set out and encamped in Oboth. And they set out from Oboth and encamped at Iyeabarim, in the wilderness... From there they set out and encamped on the other side of the Arnon... and from there they continued to Beer... and from the wilderness they went on to Mattannah, and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth, and from Bamoth to the valley lying in the region of Moab."

So far as we know, nothing happened happened in these places. Oboth, Iyeabraim, Arnon, Beer, Mattanah, Nahaliel, Bamoth mean nothing to us. That immense crowd just kept moving. They traveled and they stopped and they made camp and packed up again and traveled some more and made another camp. They complained. There were so many complaints that even Moses, who was a very meek man, could hardly stand the sight of these whom God had called him to lead. But all the time God was with them, leading them, protecting them, hearing their cries, goading and guiding them, knowing where they were going and what His purposes were for them and He never left them.

It is not difficult when you read the whole story of God's deliverance of Israel to see how each separate incident fits into a pattern for good. We have perspective that those miserable wanderers didn't have. But it should help us to trust their God. The stages of their journey, dull and eventless as most of them were, were each a necessary part of the movement toward the fulfillment of the promise. Single life may be only a stage of a life's journey, but even a stage is a gift. God may replace it with another gift, but the receiver accepts His gifts with thanksgiving. This gift for this day. The life of faith is lived one day at a time, and it has to be lived - not always looked forward to as though the "real" living were around the next corner. It is today for which we are responsible. God still owns tomorrow."

Just some thoughts from my quiet corner of Thailand...