The Hands and Feet of Christ in Hungary

 

40,000 Haitians Accept Christ

 

The blood of Christian martyers always becomes the seed of the church.

The incredible story of Dr. Wong growing up in communist China, his struggles to survive, his faith and his victory in Christ.

 

A Life Compelled by Love

My Mom’s life was so filled with love.

She loved Christ, the heavenly love of her life.  She loved and adored Dad, her earthly one.  She loved her 5 “semi-normal” (Dad’s terminology) children and her 7 grandchildren.  She loved missions.  She loved the First Methodist Church in Haskell, Texas.  Her brothers, cousins, nephews and nieces.  The Lane family.  She loved and adopted so many families and every one of their children.

An Enlarged Heart

On October 26, Mom went home to be with Jesus after suffering a fatal heart attack early that afternoon.  The doctors told Dad that the attack was brought on by an enlarged heart.  My sister Emily said a few days later that Mom loved so much for so long, and in doing so, gave so much of her heart away, that it finally gave out on her.  She had an enlarged heart indeed.

Mom lived her earthly life for 76 years with an enlarged heart because she and her heart were controlled and compelled by the love of Christ.  In 2 Corinthians 5:14 (The Message translation) Paul writes, Christ’s love has moved me to extremes.  His love for me has the first and last word in everything I do. That was Mom to a tee. 

She loved us to extremes with her notes, clippings, gifts and emails.  I’ll miss her extreme hugs when we return for visits to Haskell.  I’ll miss her extreme encouragement of my journey towards cross-cultural missions.  I’ll miss her extreme champion-ing of our lives, families and careers.

She loved Dad to extremes.  Her oft-repeated chorus, “I just love your Father.” still rings in my head.  Someone once asked Mom why she never got angry or yelled at him.  It was told that Mom replied, “I never wanted to hurt your Dad.”  That was our Mom for 51 years of marriage.

Earlier in chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians, Paul writes, it’s no light thing to know that we’ll all one day stand in that place of judgment.  That’s why we work urgently with everyone we meet to get them ready to face God.  I just hope you know how deeply I care.

Those verses were Mom to a tee.  She didn’t care whether you were short or tall.  Young or old.  Cheery or grumpy.  African-American, White, Hispanic or Asian.  Church goer or non-church goer.  She loved you with a sense of urgency that compelled her to keep pushing you with love until she saw you Heavenward.  She brought you clothes, expressed a kind word, wrote you a note of encouragement, championed your careers and basketball games all to let you know in her unique way that Christ was the love of her life and one who gave His life for yours.

Adoption

For a half century Mom lived in a town she cherished and adopted even though she didn’t grow up there.   She was a huge Texan even though she was born in Illinois.  She adopted the Texas Aggies even though she never atended the school.   She adopted just about every child she saw even though they weren’t her own.  Her life was always about adopting.  How fitting it is that she now enjoys the first fruits of her heavenly adoption with its full privileges and inheritances.  Romans 8:23.

Mom, you had this wonderful way of loving something and someone as if you were always meant to be from that place. And now we cry with hope because we know that you´re in the place where you were created to be all along.  We love you. 

This video contains the song “Going Home” which was played at Mom’s memorial’s service last week.  Ìt was one of her favorite songs.   

 

The Spiritual Formation of Haitians

I want to challenge you to prayerfully consider how God might use you in the spiritual formation of a nation.  The nation of Haiti.

The OMS missionary team needs skilled and non-skilled people in Haiti to help finish the new Seminary Project before the January 11 dedication ceremony and the opening for students.  And to that end, they’re praying that God would send short-term teams during the months of November and first part of December to help out.

Please view this video and share it with anyone you think might be able to serve there.  And if you’d like to know more contact Paul Cox at pcox@omsinternational.org or at 281 907 3656.

 

I am Second-Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford

“I have stayed focused and disciplined in my approach to life,” said Sam Bradford, 2008′s Heisman Trophy winner as the best player in college football. “The minute I start to think that I am first…

 

The Burning Question

Are you in the process of unpacking your call to missions?

Ever feel like you’re alone in your struggle to discover what God has for you?  Be encouraged because you’re not alone.

Recently, we hosted an event where friend and co-worker Patrick Whipple invited all of us to write down our “burning question”. The one question that was on our minds and hearts.

The responses below tell me that we’re all in this together and that we all have burning questions that we need answers to.

And that’s okay.

• Should we enter the mission field if we aren’t sure of our specific abilities in ministry?
• What if I don’t feel like my spouse is on the same page as me for the call to missions?
• If college puts me into debt, why should I finish and build up more debt before becoming a missionary?
• How can I prepare for ministry?
• What is God’s plan for me as it relates to missions?
• Will we ever fully know what God’s will for our lives is?
• Does God desire for my family to move?
• How do I get started in overseas ministry?
• What I can do to help fight human trafficking?
• How do I know what ministries I’m best suited for?
• How do you know if you should go on a specific mission trip?  Which one is right for you?
• How do I know if I’m right for ministry?
• Am I called to work in Ireland?
• What should you do if you don’t know what God wants you to do?
• Why can’t I distinguish my own thoughts from God speaking to or through me?

What’s your burning question?  How can we pray for you?

 

God, I want my life to count!

Today, I had the privilege of gathering around Christ with a community of amazing Boilermakers at Purdue University Christian Campus House. What an amazing experience to connect with students and student leaders whom are passionate about Christ and passionate about being His church on campus and around the world.

Minister of Teaching Rob Schrumpf shared this video during an incredible teaching time. Enjoy.

 

Feel the Call to be His Church Overseas? First, Learn to be a Couch Potato.

If you’re feeling a call to be the church overseas, you must first learn how to be a couch potato.  Only when you spend time with Christ on the “Couch of Contemplation” , as friend and amazing blogger David D. Flowers calls it, can you come to understand your true identity and purpose.

Take my advice and print David’s blog out.  Savor and chew on it when you have some real downtime.  I promise you that you’ll be blessed.

“For a season the Lord calls us to sit with Him in the living room of spiritual fellowship.  It is there we come to know the peace and tranquility of the stillness… of the being.

He whispers to us and shows us his way of day-to-day fellowship; the simplicity of being aware of his presence and walking in freedom.  It’s a freedom that comes as the Lord severs our ties to the work-centered faith.  It’s a time of undoing that places us firmly on the Couch of Completion.

It is there that the Lord reveals to us all that has been accomplished in His finished work.  It is in this fellowship that the Lord reveals the Father’s heart toward us:           LOVE SO AMAZING… SO DIVINE!

It is on the Couch of Completion that we learn of the Lord’s eternal purpose (Eph. 3:10-21).  We learn that the Lord desires a spiritual house that begins with Him finding His home within you.  It is here that we have come to know that in Christ is hidden all wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:2-3).  Our searching is over.

It’s in this place that we first know Christ is enough.  We have come to realize that our identity and purpose is only found in knowing Him.

Knowing Christ from the couch is evident in several ways.

For starters, you no longer feel that the weight of the world’s salvation is dependent upon you.  You also have recognized that you are not called to correct everyone’s doctrine and “fix” the ills of the church.

The way of man is power-over control through human authority.  The way of Christ is long-suffering and enduring love.  It’s a spiritual authority earned through sacrifice and a life of altruism.

You know you are touching the Lord on the Couch of Completion because you no longer move before having first received a revelation from the Lord.  You are learning how to be sensitive to the Spirit instead of being driven by your own desires to serve and force the Lord’s hand in ministry.

We have not been given a work… we have been given a Person.  We have not been called to further a movement, propagate a teaching, or even save souls.  We have first and foremost been invited to sit and recline with the Lord on the Couch of Completion.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Jesus (Matt. 11:28)

Until we have sat and learned what it means to “sit”… we labor in vain.  We can’t walk with Christ… and we most certainly will not be able to stand… if we fail to recognize the cross of Christ leads us to the couch.  New creation comes after a period of rest.

Couch to Couch

In His time, our Lord will go with us from the Couch of Completion into the field to work.  Yet this work isn’t like anything we have known before.  For we have reclined on the couch of His love and have known the fellowship that brings freedom.

In the past, we believed the Lord was telling us to leave the living room in order to go out and work for Him.  We heard him say, “Get out there and build me a house!”  Our relationship with the Lord was not known as friendship, but as lowly servant (Jn. 15:15).

We must learn that the Lord calls to us work with Him.  He has gone out into the field with us.  To be more precise, we are going out to join Him and His work.  And His work is always done free of religious obligation and duty.

There is no burden involved in the Lord’s work.  We do not “burn-out” in the Lord’s ministry.  When ministry is born out of intimacy with Christ… we sing in jail and rejoice in our sufferings (Acts 16:25).

His work is done in response to His love.  It becomes a matter of fellowship among friends.  That’s where He is… and that’s where we want to be.  If we are called to work… it is because He is already working where He is calling.  There is freedom in this sort of laboring.

We do not go out to work on the house because we believe it to be a good idea or even because it is something expected of us.  No, we do it out of response to His fellowship.

We must understand this.  We may be presently working tirelessly for the Lord, building a house in our own strength and using our own blueprint, only to discover that the Lord is waiting in the living room… calling us to the Couch of Completion.

We can rush into building for the Lord before we have received the proper spiritual knowledge and the experience that only comes from reclining with the Lord for a season.

Furthermore, it is right to acknowledge that this preparation does not come from principles and formulas learned in a book, it is the Lord’s knowledge and wisdom born out of trial and error.  It is born out of time and experience with the Lord and His people.

The work of ministry ought to be an overflow of the relationship that began in the living room with the Lord.  Indeed, we never leave the living room of our faith.  As the seasons change, we are continually brought back to recline with the Lord.  It is there we are reminded of His goodness and that we are to place no confidence in the flesh.

Our journey is one that moves from couch to couch.  It is because of us having rested upon the Couch of Completion with Christ that we can know the yoke that is “easy” and the burden that is “light.”

In this rest, we can truly know the experience of Christ being in all and through all.” – David D. Flowers

 

Dwelling Places and The Primary Goal of Missions

If you’re considering God’s call to be His church in places like Haiti, Brazil, Ecuador, or the 10-40 window, please don’t make the same mistake that I made eight years ago.  When I started my missionary journey, I had one goal:  to be busy about the work of saving the lost of Madrid.

I’ve since realized that missions is not about the work nor is it about saving the lost (though those things are important.)  Now, before you hit the url button and log off in disgust, let me explain.  Better yet, let author, speaker and noted church planter Frank Viola do that.

Take a look at the greatest missionary who probably ever lived – Paul the Apostle.

“Paul’s mission had two objectives: convert lost souls and form local communities that bore corporate testimony to the kingdom of God.  We had sadly reversed this order today.  We have made the saving of lost souls the goal of the church when the opposite is true.  The goal of saving souls was to build the ekklesia so that God may have a bride, a house, a family, a body, and a dwelling place.  This is God’s ultimate purpose.”

So, Paul’s missional impulse was not the saving of lost souls.  Nor was it to relieve human suffering or poverty.  Rather, it was to create Christian communities that fulfilled God’s ageless purpose.  Out of the life of such communities everything else would flow.  Winning converts is merely a first step.  Enriching, equipping and empowering them to get on with God and with their fellow brethren make up the rest of the trip.” -  Frank Viola

During our eight years in the wonderful but post-modern and nominally Catholic Spain, we led one person to Christ (Spain is one of the toughest places in the world for the spread of the Gospel, but that’s for another blog post).  Just one.  And when we turned out the lights in our apartment for the last time on our way to The States, I wept over that lone number.  I wept because I felt that I had failed in my work as a missionary.  Unfortunately, I made my eight years in Madrid all about me.

What I should have wept over was the fact that God had no dwelling place in the row of apartments where we lived.  That fact, more than the statistic of one, will break my heart forever.