missions and my life

Disillusioned.....

2010-03-08T08:29:00.002+08:00

Yes, I realised now that I have been disillusioned by him.

Following his endeavours, I find that it might just be the case of someone who has no confirmed calling or vocation for his life and still pondering on the same and only "thing" that perhaps he can do best.

One thing he has that I never had - the time to "waste" and the affordability to do that.

Some people are so lucky not having to have to think about others but only for themselves.....

I am disillusioned !!

love from within

2009-11-02T21:33:00.002+08:00

"Love is this - that two solitudes border, protect, and salute one another." German poet Rainer Maria Rilke

Avoid being invasive, trying to get in there and fix each other up. Just be present to a person's solitude, a person's mystery, and let the inner being do the job......

Proverbs 3 : 5 & 6

2009-09-20T20:09:00.000+08:00

On this day, I am reminded of the painful experiences that have come my way.

In retrospect, these experiences have really taught me a lot and made me understand that discipline and honesty were and still are the two things that will get me through everything.

There is a price to pay for every careless mistake. Yes, the pain sometimes seems greater than I can bear. Until the comfort of the word rings out from Proverbs chapter 3:5&6 " Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path"

I now realise the foolishness of putting my trust in people and in things. The folly of following my heart and be misled by those with sweet lips.

Also the folly of being careless and trusting in my own intellect.
With much regret I wish that I could go back and undo what has already been done! Despair and depression had surrounded me constantly, and hope in all things seemed to have faded.

I wish to go on believing that every painful experience, every disappointment are going to be the tools to sharpen and refine me. To build up my resilience, to lengthen my perseverance, so that I can go on living my life. Not just any life, but one that would count.

I will no longer ask why I have been "chosen", to be the abandoned lonely one, the one nobody else would ever understand. I want to believe that these experiences will bring me to my place of destiny, wherever this might be. My prayer for myself now and always will be that my god will continue to be kind to impart to me endurance to hold on in all that I am to go through.

Billy Graham's Prayer For Our Nation - fiction?

2009-06-28T15:48:00.002+08:00

"Heavenly Father
we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and
to seek your direction and guidance.

We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,'
but that is exactly what we have done.
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today;
cleanse us from every sin and
Set us free.
Amen!"

What will await you now?

2009-06-25T20:41:00.002+08:00

What will you be doing once you have returned
unto your mother's house and childhood land?
You have left the mission field,
but I know you have not left His hand.

Can you tell me about your journeys, about your lessons learnt?
Those answered prayers, and also what still concerns you
The ways and works of God that you understand,
and what the Holy Spirit has yet planned for you?

I hope to be waiting for you
and watching for you to appear,
so that I can rejoice and celebrate with you,
comfort you and wipe away every tear you had shed.

Over here, I eagerly anticipate
and wait to hear and see
whatever God has planned for you.

Amazing hope

2009-05-03T21:11:00.003+08:00

If you can look at the sunset and smile,
then you still have hope.

If you can find beauty in the colours of a small flower,
then you still have hope.

If you can find pleasure in the movement of a butterfly,
then you still have hope.

If the smile of a child can still warm your heart,
then you still have hope.

If you can see the good in other people,
then you still have hope.

If the rain breaking on a roof top can still lull you to sleep,
then you still have hope.

If the sight of a rainbow still makes you stop and stare in wonder,
then you still have hope.

If the soft fur of a favoured pet still feels pleasant under your fingertips, then you still have hope.

If receiving an unexpected card or letter still brings a pleasant surprise, then you still have hope.

If the suffering of others still fills your with pain and frustration, then you still have hope.

If you refuse to let a friendship die, or accept that it must end,
then you still have hope.

If you look forward to a time or place of quiet and reflection,
then you still have hope.

If you can look to the past and smile,
then you still have hope.

If, when faced with the bad, when told everything is futile,
you can still look up and end the conversation with the phrase..."yeah...BUT.,"
then you still have hope.

Hope is such an amazing thing.
It bends, it twists, it sometimes hides, but rarely does it break.
It sustains us when nothing else can.
It gives us reason to continue and courage to move ahead,
when we tell ourselves we'd rather give in.

Hope puts a smile on our face when the heart cannot manage.

Hope puts our feet on the path when our eyes cannot see it.

Hope moves us to act when our souls are confused of the direction.

Hope is a wonderful thing,
something to be cherished and nurtured,
and something that will refresh us in return.
And it can be found in each of us,
and it can bring light into the darkest of places.

Never lose hope !!

Be Still and know that He is God.

2009-04-10T10:52:00.002+08:00

For the whole of last night I had been very busy - trying to piece together all the facts for the report that I had to submit before the day ends. I wanted everything to be perfect, and I was already working into the wee hours of the night.

Suddenly, it dawned on me that I was exhausted. I simply couldn't work as long as I wanted to. I wished I had all the energy and stamina to last forever but I realised this is not going to be, I am only human and this body of mine is going to wear out and one day I will collapse!

A scripture from Psalm 46 popped into my mind. "Be still, and know that I am God." I realised that I had not spent enough time in prayer lately. I guess I was too busy to even utter a simple word of thanks to God. Suddenly, the thought of being quiet came - I longed for a few minutes alone with God.

"Be still and know that I am God". As I walked towards my favourite and comfortable armchair, I repeated these words to myself.

I want to be still and let God take over my thoughts. I want to be quiet and let Him fill my mind.

"Where's the quiet time?" I asked God. This is impossible, I thought. There's no time to be still and to know that God is with me. There's too much going on in the world and entirely too much activity all around me.

Then it suddenly dawned on me. God was speaking to me the entire time I was attempting to be still. He caused me to think about Him when I tried to focus on Him. He helped me understand that I needed Him most in the midst of my busy-ness and hectic schedules.

Every word, every image used for God is a distortion more than a description.

Then how does one speak to God?

Through Silence.

How then, do we hear God when He speaks?

Listen to the Silence.

Tough times, basic needs

2009-02-24T21:25:00.003+08:00

We are all in a global economic crisis.
Everywhere you look, you see headlines, banners and tag words which would keep on telling you this.
I find life will get difficult, not just for the poor but also the rich. There was a news which reported how several tycoons lost billions because of the crisis. One of them had his wealth reduced to one billion, down from nine billion dollars.
Wow - that's a lot of money to lose. To begin with, he had a lot of money. Nine billion! How many people could that feed? I am amazed to think how one can amass so much wealth. How did he do it?
Most people I know had to work so hard every day to earn a few thousands. And some people I read about in the newspapers worked even harder just to earn a few hundreds a month.
I guess perhaps the value of money is decreasing? What is little to us now used to be a lot twenty years ago. And all because of the increase in the cost of everything. The cost of living had certainly gone up tremendously.
In last sunday's sermon, I heard a message about the value of man. Each of us is worth more than a sparrow, which did not go hungry because god had made it possible for it to find food. Hence we should trust that god would look into our needs even more since we are so precious in his sight. But then why is it we find that we have to continue to work so hard just to earn a living?
I started counting on how much I would really NEED. Yes, the key word is NEED, not want. I had to consider my needs - which basically, if I remember what Maslow said, include the physical and physiological. A shelter, clothing, food - these would be the true basic needs. Now these wouldn't cost a lot. However, tied with these would the "quality" we would be reckoning with. Like shelter - how big a house would one need? Clothing - what sort? Food - again we would be facing many choices to think about.
So, what's it like to go back to the very basic needs. If all of us can be contented to settle for the essential amount and "quality", then perhaps we could see how "little" money we need to earn.
Easier said than executed.
In this country where I live in, it's not easy for one to settle for just the essentials. Life is "good" here - so far...."good" government might also cause us to be complacent about facing tough times ahead. Of course this year might just get real tough for everyone. As a believer, whether or not we are already affected by the financial crisis, it would be good to begin serious reflections on our basic needs and to learn or train ourselves to live with just that. And to successfully do this, we need to return to the state we were in when we first accepted him - i.e. to rekindle the faith we had in him then and to start reaffirming his status in our lives again....

What is Sin?

2008-11-17T16:25:00.002+08:00

Sin, by definition in the Bible, is not wronging another person.

It is assaulting the glory of God, rebelling against God.

Sin, by definition, is a vertical phenomenon, a vertical dimension. It is disobeying God's law. It is an assault on God's authority and his right to tell you what to do.

What makes sin sin is its Godwardness. That's why the world doesn't understand how serious hell is, because they don't understand how serious sin is. And they don't understand how serious sin is because the only way the world thinks about sin is in terms of "You hurt me and I hurt you, and that shouldn't be."

It's true that we shouldn't hurt each other. But when we don't bring God into the picture when we are hurting each other, that's where we have committed a sin.

[John Piper]

The heart of God and the love of God.

2008-10-21T21:09:00.002+08:00

Who can truly understand the heart of God as to comprehend His love or His "hate"? "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?"

"Jacob I loved, but ESAU I hated."

Not all Israel is Israel.

Those who are saved should tremble with fear and wonder that they were chosen to believe and be saved.

Who was on God's mind when He was on the cross?

2008-10-21T13:35:00.002+08:00

The look of love was on His face, the crown of thorns was on His head
The blood was on His scarlet robe, and painted it crimson red
His eyes were on the crowd that day, but He looked ahead in time
When He was on the cross, I was on His mind

Yes, He knew me, yes, He loved me
He whose glory made the heavens shine
So unworthy, but such mercy
When He was on the cross, I was on His mind

Ronald Michael Payne

Love is what's left at the end of everything.

2008-10-17T21:36:00.007+08:00

Sometimes we want to be able to help someone whom we love very much but we find that we can do nothing. Circumstances will not allow us to approach them, or the person is so closed off to any gesture of support.
At these times, when we can really do nothing, perhaps we can still love....without expecting any reward or change or gratitude....

Love is what we are left with.

We can continue to love - and who knows? The energy of our love could begin to transform people around us and it could achieve many things.....

"Time does not transform man, will power does not transform man. Love transforms."

But sometimes love can destroy. It's when it becomes something we keep inside us that we struggle with. When it becomes something which starts demanding for its rights and overdoing it.

Love is a many splendoured thing
It's the April rose that only grows in the early spring
Love is nature's way of giving, a reason to be living
The golden crown that makes a man a king

Once on a high and windy hill, in the morning mist
Two lovers kissed and the world stood still
Then your fingers touched my silent heart
and taught it how to sing

Yes, true love's a many splendoured thing

A memory in eternity

2008-09-27T15:07:00.011+08:00

You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapour that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
[James 4:14 , NASB]

Life Is Short. Eternity Is Long.

We will exist forever. With our god, we can either stay as friends on his terms, or enemies on ours. This will be proven as we live our lives in this life. And the phrase tells us that our life is a vapour. A few seconds, and we will be gone. Surely when God says this, He wants to remind us to make our time on earth count for something significant.

Another thought : life is short and eternity is long - very very long. - too long a time for us to regret a wasted life.

Hence another thought : Is there regret in heaven?

But Revelation 21:4 tells us : “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be
mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

No mourning? No crying? The former things have passed away?

Which brings me to another question : Will we not remember what we did? Will we not remember and then as we face for God, will we then not feel utterly sorry for what we did? When we meet Him in person, will we not be able to remember our terrible deeds and then bow before Him to ask for His forgiveness? And then as we realise at that moment when we are in His presence, we cannot but be filled with joy and truly understand what He has done when He died on the cross. Like according to what is written in Revelation 5:9,the saints will sing “a new song, saying,‘Worthy are you to
take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and
by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.’”

I think I will be crying - my tears flowed out will be tears of joy - but how about tears of regrets? Regrets that my life had not been lived to sufficiently give my God the glory and honour He deserves for what He has prepared for me in Heaven.

I think I will have some memory of my sins and iniquities against God. I have to have this to be able to fully appreciate what Jesus died for. And then I will worship and sing praises to Him - with all my soul, all my mind and with all my heart.

I will feel regrets, when I remember my sins and the suffering of Christ - but I will also feel true joy. This joy will be intensified in grace by my memories of my unworthiness and His tremendous mercy.

There will be regrets in heaven but it will not destroy the beauty of that place.

I have only one life. And this one life is going to be a very short one. But I will have an eternity - a very very long one. An eternity to look back on my life and to remember everything.

I'd better make the most out of it.

Where is god?

2008-09-02T21:00:00.001+08:00

Where is god when it hurts and hurts so deeply?

Where is god in a place like Bangkok?

Where is god in the hearts of those who call themselves believers?

Where is god when there is so much injustice?

I can go on asking all these questions and more forever and ever and ever....

However I finally have to ask myself this question:-

Where is god in my own life?

Perhaps it's until I answer this question, then god will reveal to me the answers to all the other questions?

A call to re-consider

2008-08-25T05:52:00.009+08:00

Sometimes our minds play tricks on us and our hearts get so confused by what we see and how we feel.
With regards to missions, when I use my logic to think, I get messages which tell me that perhaps it is not something that I could do. Where I am now - the circumstances that I find myself in - seems to show me that there would be no possibility for me to venture into the missions field. It's becoming quite clear and the more I think, the more I see this going to become a reality.

On the other hand, if I use my heart to sense my inner self, I get another type of feeling. The desire and longing to reach out to the lost and to those who have yet to know the gospel are always inside me.

What is the matter here?

Perhaps there is a different call to me with regards to how I should be involved in missions? Perhaps it is not to go physically but rather to find another way to support the works of missions?

Where I am now, in church, I don't see any doors open to me to get involved. I think my church is quite stagnated in its own "mission". Recently I feel more and more like I am "rotting" away in church. I might have reached a "dead end" in my own spiritual life and I must find the door to get out of my situation before I get "suffocated".

It's really time to re-consider all my options....

Courage & Wisdom

2008-08-13T21:11:00.000+08:00

Looking for a comrade-in-missions

2007-09-15T00:39:00.000+08:00

I feel despondent - down and losing inspiration.....

What happened?

Well, I shared the short term mission exposure trip with my cell group but nobody is interested..... That somehow dampened my spirit....

Where are you? Where is the person who shares my passion in mission works? Where are you?

If only we find each other, then we would be "indulging" ourselves in our trips overseas to the mission fields. We would be spurring each other on and encouraging one another in a foreign land. Hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, we would be bearing each other's burdens and anxieties and discomforts - all for the sake of the gospel.....

But where are you?

Will we ever find each other?

Kamphaeng phet, Thailand

2007-08-04T20:29:00.000+08:00

Kamphaengphet - 358km from Bangkok.

I have got in touch with a person who has a ministry there - doing church planting, school ministry and teacher's training, mainly English teaching and running English camp. Possibility of a short trip there in June 2008 for about 2 weeks.

Pray that I can manage to get a small group of people also interested to go there to be exposed to the ministry there.

Reaching Indonesia for Christ

2007-07-29T21:33:00.000+08:00

Indonesia is a Nation of Islands. It is composed of 16,000 islands in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. Three thousand of these Islands are inhabited by a people who speak 700 different languages. The language barrier alone makes Indonesia a very difficult area of Evangelism.

To fulfill the great commission of Jesus we must evangelize Indonesia. Currently its population of 222,000,000 people are 30% Christian and 67% Muslim. Many of the Muslims are hard liners supporting the development of an Islam state in Indonesia and an Islamic World rule.

Recent disasters in Indonesia, including the Tsunami at the Northern tip of Sumatra and the earthquake in Bantul, just south of Jogakarta, have opened the nation to acceptance of at least aid from Christians and Christian nations, and perhaps an opportunity for the preaching of the Gospel of Christ.

In the late 1970’s there were 38 missionaries from the Independent, Restoration, Christian Churches living and working in Indonesia. Today that number has dwindled to 9. Yet the need remains. Today there are more than 200,000,000 people on the inhabited islands of Indonesia who are without Jesus. Many of these people are hard core believers in Islam who contribute to Jihad and terrorism throughout the world. The majority, however, are not. Many are moderate Muslims who really don’t understand Islam and are prime candidates to receive the Gospel of Jesus. In addition there are many in Indonesia who are Hindu, Buddhist. Most Indonesians who are not Christian are animists in addition to what religious affiliation they claim.

[source : www.indonesianchristianmission.org]

to pray with you

2007-07-21T22:21:00.000+08:00

I pray for you, but want to pray with you,
to close my eyes, and when they open, see
you sitting there in prayer across from me;
to lift up holy hands, but hold them, too;
to ask the Spirit for His touch, if two
as touching anything on earth agree,
for where the Spirit is, is liberty,
as I am free to love you, which I do.
I want to hold your hand with holiness,
to walk with you and pray with you today,
for though I pray for you, it seems so less
than when I pray with you. So I will pray.
Lord, bless my friend, my brother, while he is away.

Who was the Man?

2007-07-02T11:15:00.000+08:00

Can someone compose a song with the following lyrics?

Who was the man who preached the Word to you?
From which of women was the Gospel heard
when you were saved, believing on God's Word?
Old things are passed away, all things made new,
and I would thank the witnesses who knew
you needed saving grace,

and then conferred in prayer

until the Holy Spirit stirred your heart

till you accepted Jesus, too.
Salvation is the greatest miracle,
but have you not received the Father's grace?
I pray He use me as His oracle
if I should ever meet you in that place.
Forever love would seem less lyrical
if you did not see Jesus face to face.
Michael Rew

Prayer of One Wounded

2007-07-01T22:55:00.000+08:00

Is this Thy will? Has this become my lot?
I preach Thy precious promises, but preach
with brokenness and blemish, blot and breach.
Hast Thou forgotten me? If I forgot
Thy benefits and, touching this, see not,
reach out to me, Thy lost. Do I not reach
hem of Thy garment? Do I not beseech?
What glory hast Thou in a broken pot?
Behold, my skin is torn, my bottle burst,
and I have wept so much, my tears are bread,
yet watered with affliction, still I thirst
and seek Thy living waters like one dead
because I want to seek Thee, love Thee first,
and wash my blood with blood which Thou hast bled.

Michael Rew

David Livingstone

2007-05-17T06:32:00.000+08:00

Africa was once called the "dark continent" - this is exactly what it was to the outside world less than 150 years ago. It took the relentless efforts and commitment of David Livingstone to make Africa become a land open not only to civilization but to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In her book First To Cross Africa With The Gospel, Mrs. J.H. Worchester writes this about David Livingstone: "as a missionary explorer, he stood alone, traveling 29,000 miles in Africa, adding to the known portion of the globe about a million square miles, discovering lakes N'gami, Shirwa, Nyassa, Morero and Bangweolo, the upper Zambesi and many other rivers, and the wonderful Victoria Falls. He was also the first European to traverse the entire length of Lake Tanganyika, and to travel over the vast watershed near Lake Bangweolo, and through no fault of his own, he only just missed the information that would have set at rest his conjectures as to the Nile's sources."

Livingstone was born on March 13, 1813, in Blantyre, Scotland, where he spent the first twenty-three years of his life. His parents, devout Christians, played an important role in his life by introducing him to the subject of missions.

As a young man, he worked in a local mill, but refused any thought of this becoming his destiny. By the time he turned twenty-one, Livingstone had accepted Christ and made up his mind to become a medical missionary.

He heard of Robert Moffat, a missionary to South Africa, tell of the work going on in Kuruman. Within eighteen months, he saved enough money to continue his education. After completing medical school, he accepted a position with the London Missionary Society in South Africa. And on December 8, 1840, he set sail for Kuruman.

However, upon his arrival he was disappointed by the small population of Africans living in the region. He was determined to reach a larger population. A year later, he was granted permission to move 700 miles into the African interior to establish another missionary station. Livingstone wasted no time setting things up at Mabotsa.

In 1845, he returned to Kuruman where he met and married Robert Moffat's daughter, Mary. Their marriage lasted eighteen years and witnessed the birth of four children.

Livingstone often took his family with him while crossing the African wilderness. Still, there were many times when they could not be together. The longest period of separation was for three years between November of 1853 and May 1856. Livingstone completed one of the most amazing journeys ever undertaken—a coast to coast venture that covered four thousand miles of unexplored land, most of which was located along the Zambezi River.

After an extended visit to England, Livingstone and his wife began their last journey together. It was during this adventure that Livingstone faced the severest trial of his life; Mary died in 1862 from complications related to African fever.

Sorrow and discouragement plagued Livingstone: "It was the first heavy stroke I have suffered, and quite takes away my strength. I wept over her, who well deserved many tears. I loved her when I married her, and the longer I lived with her I loved her the more."

After several failed attempts to set up mission stations in the interior and along the coast, Livingstone concluded God was leading him in another direction. No European had ever ventured into North Africa. This would be his next goal and his greatest accomplishment for future missionary work. The charts and maps he left us changed the way we view Africa.

"I am a missionary, heart and soul," wrote Livingstone. "God had an only Son, and He was a missionary and a physician. A poor, poor imitation of Him I am, or wish to be." In this service I hope to live; in it I wish to die." No other person has done more to further mission efforts than David Livingstone.

Marching inland in 1866, Livingstone reached Lake Nyasson on August 8 and began journeying north toward Lake Tanganyika. He wrote: "O Jesus, grant me resignation to Thy will, and entire reliance on Thy powerful hand . . . The cause is Thine. What an impulse will be given to the idea that Africa is not open if I perish now! . . ."

Livingstone was often weakened by bouts of African fever. Months rolled by and then years without the outside world knowing where he was. This is when a New York reporter, Henry Morton Stanley, accepted the challenge to "find Livingstone."

On November 10, 1871, Stanley's caravan, loaded with supplies, reached Ujiji, Africa. A thin, frail Livingstone stepped out to meet him as Stanley bowed, took off his hat, and spoke the now famous words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume."

Livingstone was beloved and honoured by the world. Yet when Stanley found him, he was weak and undernourished. The two quickly began a friendship. After Livingstone's death, it was Stanley who diligently worked to see missionaries serving in the land his friend had opened.

Death came to David Livingstone on April 30, 1873, after a long illness. His African companions reported they found him kneeling beside his bed where he had said his last earthly prayer. His body, along with his belongings—papers and maps—was transported to Bagamoyo on the coast and then sent to England, where he is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Florence Nightingale said this upon hearing his death : "God has taken away the greatest man of his generation . . ."

Hudson Taylor

2007-05-14T21:24:00.000+08:00

James Hudson Taylor was born into a Christian home in England where zeal for Christ was the mainspring. Born in 1832, Taylor's parents had prayed: "Dear God, if You should give us a son, grant that he may work for You in China."

That prayer was answered in 1854. Taylor, having spent several years studying medicine and theology while learning invaluable lessons of dependence on God, travelled by ship to China to begin his work as Christ's ambassador.

He laboured for six years in Shanghai and Ningpo. He then returned to England where he worked on translating the New Testament into the Ningpo dialect and prayed for God to send missionaries into inland China. He formed the China Inland Mission in 1865 and returned to China where he laboured in Christ's vineyard for 40 years. At his death in 1905, there were 205 missionary stations with 849 missionaries and 125,000 Chinese Christians in the China Inland Mission.

After Taylor's return to China in 1865, he feverishly worked and preached, attempting to meet the many needs of the spiritually and physically impoverished residents.

However, his struggles were also spiritual. Taylor desperately desired to grow in holiness. But he also knew the frustration of aborted attempts of living the abundant life. He prayed. He fasted often. By the summer of 1869, his spiritual condition had reached the critical state.

"Every day, almost every hour, the consciousness of sin oppressed me. I knew that if only I could abide in Christ all would be well, but I could not. I began the day with prayer, determined not to take my mind off of Him for a moment; but pressure of duties, sometimes very trying, constant interruptions apt to be so wearing, often caused me to forget Him . . . Each day brought its register of sin and failure, of lack of power. To will was indeed present with me, but how to perform I found not."

But as Taylor sought the Lord, an answer came in the form of a letter from a friend, John McCarthy.

McCarthy wrote: "I seem to have got to the edge only, but of a sea which is boundless; to have sipped only but of that which fully satisfies. Christ literally all seems to me now the power, the only power for service; the only ground for unchanging joy . . . How then to have our faith increased? . . . Not a striving to have faith, or to increase our faith, but a looking off to the Faithful One seems all we need; a resting in the Loved One entirely, for time and for eternity."

As Taylor laid McCarthy's letter down, his spiritual eyes were opened and his heart was warmed by the reality of his oneness and identity with Christ. In a letter to his sister some days later, Taylor jubilantly declared his discovery of the "exchanged life."

"As I read [McCarthy's letter] I saw it all! 'If we believe not, he abideth faithful.' I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed!) that He had said, 'I will never leave you.' 'Ah, there is rest!' I thought. 'I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I'll strive no more. For has He not promised to abide with me—never to leave me, never to fail me? And, dearie, He never will! . . . .

The sweetest part . . . is the rest which full identification with Christ brings. I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize this: for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places me, or how. That is rather for Him to consider than for me; for in the easiest positions He must give me His grace, and in the most difficult His grace is sufficient . . .

So, if God places me in great perplexity, must He not give me much guidance; in positions of great difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trial, much strength? No fear that His resources will be unequal to the emergency! And His resources are mine, for He is mine, and is with me and dwells in me. All this springs from the believer's oneness with Christ."

Like Taylor, we need to understand our identity in Christ. We are "in Christ" and Christ is "in us." Once we received Christ as our Saviour, we also receive Him as our very life. (Colossians 3:4) The Christian life is Jesus living His life through us by His indwelling Holy Spirit. It is not something we achieve but receive by the same faith we had at salvation. We do not have to strive to be victorious. We already are victorious in Christ. We have everything we need in Christ. Our sin is exchanged for His righteousness, our weakness for His strength, our inadequacy for His adequacy.

This is not a call to passivity or license but of sweet submission to Christ. Obedience is necessary—but it is a delight, not a duty.

Paul wrote the Galatians: "I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" [Galatians 2:20]

God's vision

2007-05-13T19:58:00.000+08:00

"Once we lose sight of God, we begin to be reckless. We cast off certain restraints from activities we know are wrong. We set prayer aside as well and cease having God’s vision in the little things of life. We simply begin to act on our own initiative. If we are eating only out of our own hand, and doing things solely on our own initiative without expecting God to come in, we are on a downward path. We have lost the vision. Is our attitude today an attitude that flows from our vision of God? Are we expecting God to do greater things than He has ever done before? Is there a freshness and vitality in our spiritual outlook?"

[Oswald Chambers]

Charles Spurgeon

2007-05-10T21:06:00.000+08:00

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was born in 1834 in an area of Essex, England, with a long-standing heritage of Protestant resistance. Spurgeon's heroes were dauntless Protestants who were burned to death for their faith and daring Puritans, such as John Bunyan, who were jailed for their beliefs.

His conversion came in 1850 at age fifteen. On his way to a scheduled appointment, he was forced to take shelter from a snow storm in a small country church where God opened his heart to the salvation message.

Spurgeon explained:

"The preacher was reading from Isaiah 45:22. 'Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else.' There was nothing needed - by me, at any rate - except his text. Then, stopping, he pointed to where I was sitting under the gallery, and he said, 'That young man there looks very miserable'...and he shouted, 'Look! Look, young man! Look now!'

"I can never tell you how it was, but I no sooner saw whom I was to believe than I also understood what it was to believe...As the snow fell on my road home from the little house of prayer, I thought every snowflake talked with me and told of the pardon I had found, for I was white as the driven snow through the grace of God."

Spurgeon preached his first sermon in 1851. From the beginning of his ministry, his style and ability were noted far above average. His flamboyance in the pulpit earned him titles such as "the preaching boy wonder" and "the prince of preachers." He later established a pastor's college that is still in operation today in South Norwood, England.

As a compelling speaker, Spurgeon said he had but one solitary purpose: "I take my text and make a bee-line to the cross." A single burning desire filled his heart - to see people come to Jesus Christ by faith. "Saving faith is an immediate relation to Christ, accepting, receiving, resting upon Him alone, for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of God's grace," Spurgeon explained.

Devoted to the Scriptures, to disciplined prayer, and to godly living, Spurgeon exemplified Christian commitment when he stood in the pulpit. This itself gave power to his preaching.

However, there was a weaker side to Spurgeon - his health. One scholar wrote: "Perhaps it is correct to say that as a preacher, Spurgeon had everything - except good health. He suffered constantly from various ailments and fell into serious depression at times. He had rheumatic gout that eventually took his life at the age of fifty-seven."

Through deep physical trials, Charles Spurgeon learned a lesson concerning his Christian commitment that few dare to engage.

His sermon The Christian's Heaviness and Rejoicing was written as a result of his physical suffering. In it he says: "My spirits were sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child, and yet I knew not what I wept for." He was convinced that there were times in each of our lives when heaviness of heart was needed. "Despondency is not a virtue; I believe it is a vice. I am heartily ashamed of myself for falling into it, but I am sure there is no remedy for it like a holy faith in God."

Suffering equips us to be used by God. It burns away the selfish side of us that often demands attention and position. God calls each of us to a firm commitment to Jesus Christ through faith. When we do, the frustrations, the fears, the pain, the times of resentment, and feelings of isolation lose their power; and Christ can truly be Lord of all. We, like Spurgeon, enter a far deeper depth of spiritual maturity than we ever imagined possible.

Spurgeon said: "I would go to the deeps a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit. It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary."

In extreme pain and what turned out to be his last sermon on June 7, 1891, Charles Spurgeon told those gathered: "He [Jesus Christ] is the most magnanimous of captains. There never was His like among the choicest of princes. He is always to be found in the thickest part of the battle. When the wind blows cold He always takes the bleak side of the hill. The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on His shoulders.

"If He bids us carry a burden, He carries it also. If there is anything that is gracious, generous, kind, and tender, yea lavish and superabundant in love, you always find it in Him.

"These forty years and more have I served Him, blessed be His name! I have had nothing but love from Him. I would be glad to continue yet another forty years in the same dear service here below if so it pleased Him. His service is life, peace, joy. Oh, that you would enter on it at once! God help you to enlist under the banner of Jesus even this day! Amen."

C. S Lewis

2007-05-08T18:37:00.001+08:00

Born in Belfast, Ireland in 1898, Clive Staples Lewis was one of two sons of Albert and Flora Lewis. His mother died when he was ten. His father, feeling the weight of her death, placed Lewis in a boarding school where he joined his older brother, Warren. Both boys endured horrendous conditions at the school where the headmaster was prone to fits of rage. Lewis writes, "If the school had not died, and if I had been left there two years more, it would probably have sealed my fate as a scholar for good." Ironically, it was there he began to pray and read his Bible. After the school closed, Lewis entered Malvern Cherbourg School in England and later Malvern College. Once again the negative effects of Malvern were great. And after asking to be removed from the school, Lewis was placed under the instructional care of W. T. Kirkpatrick, whom Lewis called "a hard satirical atheist."

Kirkpatrick saw strong potential in Lewis and informed Albert Lewis that his son could be a writer or a scholar. Realizing Kirkpatrick's assessment was true, Lewis applied for and received a scholarship to University College, the oldest of the Oxford colleges.

Memories from Lewis's childhood reveal a deep desire for joy. As a child he imagined places where joy existed freely and eternally. As an adult he read the romantic poets, Plato, and Norse Germanic mythologies in hopes of finding a sense of lasting joy. "I doubt whether anyone who has tasted [joy] would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world," wrote Lewis.

In 1917 he enlisted in the service but was allowed to remain at Oxford until he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and assigned to frontline action. After being wounded and discharged, Lewis resumed his studies where he graduated at the top of his class. With no philosophy teaching posts available, Lewis entered a fourth year at Oxford College where he met a Christian student named Nevill Coghill, a man whose perspective helped to change the way Lewis viewed life.

Of Coghill, Lewis said, "[He was] clearly the most intelligent and best informed man in the class. . . . These disturbing factors (Christianity) in Coghill ranged themselves with a wider disturbance which was now threatening my whole earlier outlook. All the books were beginning to turn against me."

Lewis began reading the works of Christian authors. He particularly admired George Macdonald, a Scottish Christian writer. In his writings, Lewis found a quality of holiness he had not seen before. The works of John Milton, especially Paradise Lost, intrigued him as did the close friendship he shared with J. R. R. Tolkien who wrote The Lord Of The Rings.

In 1925, Lewis received an English fellowship at Magdalen College at Oxford. Lewis's classes were filled to capacity, so much so that a larger lecture hall had to be found. Meanwhile, his search for God accelerated. In a letter to a close friend, Lewis spoke of "a long satisfying talk" with two Christian friends in which he stated, "I learned a lot." He had moved from Idealism, no idea of a personal God, to Pantheism, an impersonal God in everything, and then to Theism, the existence of God.

"In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed . . . . The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation." Lewis's final step to Christianity came when he accepted the incarnation of Jesus Christ as fact. "I was now approaching the source from which those arrows of Joy had been shot at me ever since childhood. . . . No slightest hint was vouchsafed me that there ever had been or ever would be any connection between God and Joy. If anything, it was the reverse. I had hoped that the heart of reality might be of such a kind that we can best symbolize it as a place; instead, I found it to be a Person." Eternal joy was at last a reality for C. S. Lewis.

Catherine Marshall

2007-05-07T06:24:00.000+08:00

At the age of fifteen, Catherine Marshall felt God leading her to submit her life and human desires to Him. In Meeting God At Every Turn, she writes: "Two dreams were planted inside of me: to go to Agnes Scott College [in Atlanta] and to get ready for the wonderful man who would come from far away to marry me.

"Already I had been accepted at Agnes Scott. Even though I had saved some money...we were still hundreds of dollars short of what was needed." By graduation from high school, the Depression had devastated the economy and the effects were reflected in her father's salary as a pastor of a small church.

One evening her mother found her lying across her bed sobbing. "She sat down beside me [and said], 'You and I are going to deal with this right now . . . I know it's right for you to go to college. Every problem has a solution. Let's ask God to tell us how to bring this dream to reality.'

"A sob deep in my throat made me pause. I knew what I now had to do. 'And Lord [I prayed], I turn this dream over to You. I give it up. It's in Your hands. You decide.'"

This first moment of youthful honesty set the tone for her entire life. "I was learning that the price of a relationship with [God] is a dropping of all our masks and pretense. We must come to Him with stark honesty 'as we are'—or not at all. My honesty brought me relief; it washed away the guilt, it strengthened my faith."

Catherine went to Agnes Scott. And it was there she met and eventually married Peter Marshall, who later became chaplain for the U.S. Senate.

Though meetings between the two were brief in the beginning, Catherine sensed she was falling in love with the Scottish pastor. However, Peter's speaking schedule coupled with the duties of the pastorate left little time for dating.

Once again, God was pressing her to lay aside any personal desires. Only after giving the outcome of the relationship to Him in prayer did the love between them grow. And at the end of her senior year, Peter asked her to marry him.

She wrote, "For three years I had been hopelessly in love with Peter Marshall and now had come the biggest moment in my life - a proposal from the man of my dreams. And I hesitated. Why? At that moment I became aware in a new way of how God operates in human lives, and in that moment of awareness, I did a lot of growing up. Almost from our first meeting I had a strange sense of a God-given destiny about Peter. That made it of prime importance to be certain that I was meant to be a part of that destiny. I learned that because God loves us so much, He often guides us by planting His own lovely dream in the barren soil of a human heart. When the dream has matured, and the time for its fulfillment is ripe, to our astonishment and delight, we find that God's will has become our will, and our will, God's."

On November 4, 1936, Catherine and Peter were married.

She was only twenty-three when she and Peter moved to Washington D.C., where he became pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. In January 1940, Peter Jon, their only son, was born. By then her husband's reputation as a deeply committed man of God was growing. Congressmen, senators, and people from all walks of life attended the worship services.

At the peak of their ministry, Catherine was diagnosed with tuberculosis. The only treatment at the time was total rest. Doctors assured her she would be well in three or four months, but two years later her situation remained unchanged.

She fought feelings of depression as she watched her son and husband living a life separate from the one she was forced to maintain. Her journal became a spiritual solace where she recorded her talks with God and the hope He faithfully provided.

One night while staying at her parent's house, she was awakened with a sense of God's closeness. "I knew that Jesus was smiling at me tenderly, lovingly . . . His attitude seemed to say, 'Relax! There's not a thing wrong here that I can't take care of. The unforgettable truth of David's Psalm 23 came alive in my experience. This [was] a period of equipping—of spiritual preparation—for a tumultuous life of changes, of great, high moments to follow and plunging low points."

X-rays taken a short time later revealed a marked improvement. Within six months, the doctors pronounced her completely well.

"From the vantage point of the years, I can see now that my being forced to lie down in the green pastures beside very still waters indeed - the isolation of our bedroom - was a time of training. Day by day God was the teacher and I, the pupil. I would need Him every day for the rest of my life and more, throughout eternity."

A short time later when news of Peter's sudden death came, God provided the hope she needed. "'Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life,' was His personal pledge to me and to a son who would now sorely miss his father."

Realizing she now had a much greater responsibility and purpose, Catherine went on to become a noted Christian author and speaker. A Man Called Peter, her husband's biography, is one of her best known books. Until her death, Catherine Marshall remained a vibrant witness of God's unending grace.

Missions in Tibet

2007-05-04T19:02:00.000+08:00

There are probably many reasons why the history of missions in Tibet has been so unsuccessful.

One is because of the extreme climate and landscape of Tibet. For a long time there was no way to get into Tibet but by foot, through 17,000 foot mountain passes with snow, frigid weather, desolate landscape, and unwelcoming Tibetan guards. This is not climate that most people could survive in.

Another reason is that the Tibetans were so set against allowing foreigners into their country. If missionaries would get in, the Tibetans would drive them right back out.

Probably the strongest factor is the spiritual darkness that has such a stronghold on the land. "The Roof of the World" seems to be shrouded in a thick darkness that does not allow the light to shine. The Tibetan people are totally immersed in Tantric Buddhism that permeates all areas of life. If they are going on a trip, the Lama must visit and determine what dates are the safest to travel. If someone is sick, the Lama comes to chant over that person. Oracles are consulted to see what will come in the future.

This Buddhism is also mixed with the ancient animistic beliefs of the people. Tibetans have always been very spiritual, superstitious, and involved in spirit worship and magic.

An article of the OMF website says this about the Tibetans' resistance to the Gospel.
One key reason must be that the Tibetan world-view and pattern of thought is steeped in Lama Buddhism, which is opposed to the Biblical Gospel. Christian spiritual vocabulary is largely meaningless to the Tibetan. For instance, if you try to share with him the necessity of "being born again" he will automatically transpose the idea to mean re-incarnation. Tibetan religion revolves around the making of merit -- the antithesis of the Gospel of grace.

The tool for the future of missions in Tibet must be prayer. There is no way these people will turn from their spirit-strongholds and fully embrace Christ by any amount of human effort. It will only be by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit that God's light will break through the darkness and free Tibetans from their enslavement to the gods of Buddhism.

This is probably the reason for the more recent success of mission in Tibet. There are many people praying for this people group. God is also calling more missionaries to this place that is most literally "the ends of the earth". This growing group of missionaries is easier able to access Tibet as well.

Since Tibet has come under control of Communist China, it has also become more open to foreigners, although it is still tough to get in for a very long period of time.
Many tourists are travelling to Tibet now by a plane to Lhasa. The rest of the roads in Tibet are still pretty primitive.

As over half of Tibetans live outside of Tibet, missionaries are able to work with these people in safer environments. If these Tibetans receive Christ, they may be able to take the Gospel back into Tibet. And as the Chinese church is rapidly growing, Chinese Christians are also taking the Gospel west to Tibet.

Although there is a 700-year history of missions in Tibet and only a handful of believers, the harvest is ripe. The Tibetan church is growing and so is the missions force to reach them. There is a need of prayer for God to free the Tibetans from their darkness, to reveal himself to them, and to give understanding of something that is so radically different from their understanding of the spirit world and afterlife. The prayer would be for an outcome like what the prophet Isaiah talks about in chp 25, verses 6-8:

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.

Passion by Stan Schmidt

2007-05-03T06:28:00.000+08:00

Holy Spirit
continue to inspire so that my passion would not tire
The preaching of the cross
- the Gospel, the Word -
which in no way is absurd but is the power of God
Who came to seek and save the lost
My Lord I count the cost
to preach and to teach
the nations under satan's hold -
Those outside Your fold for whom Your blood flowed.....

Reconciliation, the plan of the Lord
Justification for the ungodly is what the Father has stored up
Through the Lamb who died and rose
How can we compose ourselves with such truth?
Oh the unsearchable riches
the reality of the cross
the remission of our dross....

Sometimes redemption and the freedom from sin
Makes me want to jump right out of my skin
Oh tie me down lest I float away....

A passion for the Lamb is what I pray
The blood, the favour
The Redeemer who bore the sin
At times makes my spirit soar....

May the Gospel be our passion
The Word our fuel
and the Spirit the power
in this harvest hour.....

Corrie Ten Boom

2007-05-02T06:24:00.001+08:00

"'Follow me,' a young girl in an officer's uniform said to me. I walked slowly through the gate, never looking back. Behind me I heard the hinges squeak as the gate swung shut. I was free, and flooding through my mind were the words of Jesus to the church at Philadelphia: 'Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it . . . '" (Revelation 3:8)

On December 28, 1944, after ten months of incarceration in concentration camps, Corrie Ten Boom was free. She had lost her father and beloved sister to the horrors of Nazi death camps. Gaunt, filthy, and weak, Corrie made her way to the railway station and boarded a train for a three-day journey home to Holland.

She later found out that an order had been given at the end of that very week to kill all women her age and older. An error in prison paperwork was the catalyst God used to release her.

The Ten Booms, all devout Christians, had provided a hiding place in their home for persecuted Jews during World War II. Corrie, who was fifty-nine at the time of her arrest, was placed in an isolation cell for the first few weeks of her imprisonment. Depression and the struggle to maintain a sense of hope consumed her.

"Only to those who have been in prison does freedom have such great meaning. When you are dying—when you stand at the gate of eternity—you see things from a different perspective than when you think you may live for a long time. I [stood] at the gate for many months, living in Barracks 28 in the shadow of the crematorium.

Every time I saw the smoke pouring from the hideous smokestacks I knew it was the last remains of some poor woman who had been with me in Ravensbruck. Often I asked myself, 'When will it be my time to be killed or die?' "

Corrie vowed if God allowed her to live, she would tell as many people as possible about the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. She also promised to go wherever He led. She miraculously obtained a small New Testament from a prison worker and smuggled it past guards.

"Before long we were holding clandestine Bible study groups for an evergrowing group of believers, and Barracks 28 became known throughout the camp as 'the crazy place, where they hope.'"

No one is exempt from the fiery trials of life. All of us face times of adversity and suffering. For Corrie, the concentration camp was the fieriest place of all, becoming her classroom where she lived and learned the faithfulness of God. It was there she learned the faithfulness of God. It was there she learned to hide her life under the shadow of His wings while He trained her for a much higher calling.

"The school of life offers some difficult courses, but it is in the difficult class that one learns the most—especially when your teacher is the Lord Jesus Christ. The hardest lessons for me" wrote Corrie, "were in a cell with four walls. The cell in the prison at Scheveningen was six paces in length, two paces in breadth, with a door that could be opened only from the outside . . . After that time in prison, the entire world became my classroom."

God gave her a promise, telling her that she would reach far more people than she could imagine with the gospel message. For the next four decades following her release from prison, Corrie traveled extensively, speaking in more than sixty countries, captivating audiences with her inspiring faith and love for God. She is the author of nine books, one of which is The Hiding Place, a personal account of her arrest and time spent in prison. She also produced five films.

"God has plans—not problems—for our lives. Before she died in the concentration camp in Ravensbruck, my sister Betsie said to me, 'Corrie, your whole life has been a training for the work you are doing here in prison—and for the work you will do afterward.'

The life of a Christian is an education for higher service. No athlete complains when the training is hard. He thinks of the game, or the race. (Romans 8:18-23)

Looking back across the years of my life, I can see the working of a divine pattern which is the way of God with His children. When I was in a prison camp in Holland during the war, I often prayed, 'Lord, never let the enemy put me in a German concentration camp.' God answered no to that prayer. Yet in the German camp, with all its horror, I found many prisoners who had never heard of Jesus Christ.

If God had not used my sister Betsie and me to bring them to Him, they would never have heard of Him. Many died, or were killed, but many died with the name of Jesus on their lips. They were well worth all our suffering. Faith is like radar which sees through the fog—the reality of things at a distance that the human eye cannot see."

Perhaps you have been struggling with a fiery trial in your life. The pressure seems unbearable and there appears to be no way out. You may even be trapped in your own emotional prison. For Corrie Ten Boom the only place of refuge, the only place of hope, was within the shadow of God's wings. That is where our hope lies also. No matter what has touched your life, nothing is too big for Jesus Christ to handle.

"Back to Jerusalem" movement

2007-05-01T18:25:00.000+08:00

The "Back To Jerusalem" movement started by a group of Chinese underground church leaders is a God-given vision to His church in China. It is part of the Great Commission and it is about the last fulfillment of the Great Commission, to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth.

When God started to communicate the Great Commission with His church in China in the 1940's, He also gave them a geographical direction. From the very beginning, it was very clear that from the Great Wall of China to the Eastern Gate of Jerusalem, on this ancient road known as the Silk Road, every nation and people group needed to hear that Jesus loves them and is their Saviour.

Starting from China and travelling west, the vision is to fill every village and every city, every town, every country with the gospel of Jesus Christ. To the group, God has called them to be ambassadors for the Kingdom of God. They are not expanding anything of their own; they just want to expand the Kingdom of God, as in the promise by God that the whole world will be filled with His glory and presence. (Habakkuk 2:14)

Most of the first generation of "Back to Jerusalem" missionaries with this vision died during imprisonment. Some survived, but many were sentenced to tens of years of prison as they were caught by authorities in the late 1940's. But the God-given vision is always greater to these missionaries than their lives. So the vision survived even when the carriers of the first generation passed away.

Wherever the missionaries were, they considered it their "Jerusalem". They start in the place where they are and they make sure that there is nobody living around them who has not yet heard and had the chance to receive Jesus Christ before moving on. The church in China is already marching towards the west. These missionaries are present in several countries already.

So the "Back to Jerusalem" vision is nothing more than the fulfillment of the Great Commission. It belongs not only to the church in China - it belongs to the church in America, Europe, and around the world. All should bring the gospel of Jesus Christ, with its power, to those who have not yet heard.

If we really discover our roots in the love of Jesus, He will be able to use us as messengers to communicate that love to the world.

Jim Elliot

2007-04-30T06:31:00.000+08:00

The life and death of Jim Elliot was a testimony of a man committed to the will of God. He sought God's will, pleaded for it, waited for it, and—most importantly—obeyed it.

He martyrdom at age twenty-eight and subsequent books on his life by his former wife, Elisabeth Elliot, have been the catalyst for sending thousands into the mission fields and stoking the fires of a heart for God. He was an intense Christian, bent on pleasing God alone and not man.

"[He makes] His ministers a flame of fire," Elliot wrote while a student at Wheaton College. "Am I ignitable? God deliver me from the dread asbestos of 'other things.' Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be aflame. But flame is transient, often short-lived. Canst thou bear this my soul—short life? In me there dwells the spirit of the Great Short-Lived, whose zeal for God's house consumed Him."

Elliot was a gifted writer, speaker, and teacher. He had a commanding presence while a student at Wheaton, even starring on the wrestling mat where he became a champion.

Many of his friends were convinced Elliot's spiritual giftedness should be concentrated on building up the church in America. Elliot, however, wanted God's will, not man's. After many protracted and solitary prayer sessions, Elliot sensed God's call to a foreign field, specifically South America. "Why should some hear twice," he said, "when others have not heard [the gospel] once?"

Correspondence with a former missionary to Ecuador and hearing of a tribe—the Aucas—that was never reached with the news of Christ's redemption set his course.

In the winter of 1952, Elliot and a friend who shared his vision set sail on a freighter, the Santa Juana, for the jungles of South America.

Elliot's focus on obedience to God's will led to a disciplined and slightly unorthodox courtship of Betty Howard, whom he met at Wheaton. They longed to be husband and wife, but Elliot would not agree to the marriage yoke until he was certain of God's plan.

Elisabeth and Jim both were called to Ecuador as missionaries. Almost one year after arriving, they were finally engaged. On October 8, 1953, they were married in a civil ceremony in Quito, Ecuador.

After their wedding, Elliot continued his work among the Quichua Indians and formulated plans to reach the Aucas.

In the Autumn of 1955, missionary pilot Nate Saint spotted an Auca village. During the ensuing months, Elliot and several fellow missionaries dropped gifts from a plane, attempting to befriend the hostile tribe.

In January of 1956, Elliot and four companions landed on a beach of the Curaray River in eastern Ecuador. They had several friendly contacts with the fierce tribe that had previously killed several Shell Oil company employees. Two days later, on January 8, 1956, all five men were speared and hacked to death by warriors from the Auca tribe.

Elliot wanted God's will. It ended in his death, but it was a death whose seed still brings forth fruit for the gospel's sake. Elliot said: "Our orders are: the Gospel to every creature."

Many Aucas eventually came to accept Christ as Savior when Elisabeth Elliot bravely returned to share Christ with those who killed her husband. Her books, Shadow of the Almighty and Through Gates of Splendor, speak passionately of the power, majesty, and sovereignty of God while chronicling the life of her husband.

You may or may not be called to the mission field, but each Christian is called to the delightful adventure of knowing and doing the will of God. This is the thrill of the Christian life - to experience God at the center of all you do, think, and say.

The process of seeking God's will for your life is not always easy, but God is willing to reveal His plan to those men and women who desire Him above all else and delight in Him. It means setting aside your agenda and asking God to "will and to work for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).

There is usually a season of sifting, of waiting on God for His timing. The Elliots waited five years before sensing God's time was ripe for a marital union.

Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God. You can live "to the hilt" as you seek and obey the good and acceptable will of God.

Amy Carmichael

2007-04-29T08:05:00.000+08:00

Amy Carmichael's life is a model of selfless dedication to God. She lived a life of discipleship and abandonment. She lived for one reason, and that was to make God's love known to those trapped in utter darkness.

Born in northern Ireland in 1867, she was the oldest of seven children. Her father's early death when she was eighteen had a profound effect on her, leading her to think seriously about her future and God's plan for her life.

Years before she became a missionary, God gave her a glimpse of the work she would one day do. His first prompting came on a wintry Sunday morning as the family returned home from church. Amy and her brothers spotted an old woman carrying a huge bundle. She writes that they felt an overwhelming urge to help but also a feeling of embarrassment. "This meant facing all the respectable people who were, like ourselves, on their way home. It was a horrid moment. We were only two boys and a girl, and not at all exalted Christians. We hated doing it. Crimson all over (at least we felt crimson, soul and body of us) we plodded on, a wet wind blows in about us, and blowing, too, the rags of that poor old woman, till she seemed like a bundle of feathers and we unhappily mixed up with them."

As they passed a beautiful Victorian fountain, she heard the words of 1 Corinthians 3:12-14 in her spirit: "Gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble—every man's work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it shall be declared by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide."

She turned to see who was there, but there was no one—just the sound of the fountain's water and the laughter of a few passers-by.

Before this time Carmichael admitted to a preoccupation with her social life. However, now it appeared that God was calling her to "settle some things with Him."

In September 1886, when the Carmichael family attended a conference in Keswick, in England's Lake District. It was there that Carmichael felt God's hand on her life. The purpose for the conference was the promotion of holiness or the "higher Christian life."

Carmichael writes: "The hall was full of a sort of gray mist, very dull and chilly. I came to that meeting half hoping, half fearing. Would there be anything for me? . . . The fog in the Hall seemed to soak into me. My soul was in a fog. Then the chairman rose for the last prayer . . . 'O Lord, we know Thou art able to keep us from falling.' Those words found me. It was as if they were alight. And they shone for me."

Amy Carmichael realized nothing could be more important than living her life for Jesus Christ who, with nothing of worldly possessions, had given His very life for her. She knew He was calling her to do the same and give all of herself to Him. This meant she must become "dead to the world and its applause, to all its customs, fashions, and laws."

In 1895, she was commissioned by the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society to go to Dohnavur, India, where she served fifty-six years as God's devoted servant without a furlough. A major part of her work there was devoted to rescuing children who had been dedicated by their families to be temple prostitutes.

Amy Carmichael often recalled the image of the old woman carrying her heavy bundle alone. She realized God had given her a love for those in the world deemed unlovely. The overflow of this love God used to start the Dohnavur Fellowship in India that became a place of safety and refuge for temple children.

More than a thousand children were rescued from neglect and abuse during Amy's lifetime. To them she was known as "Amma," which means mother in the Tamil language. The world often was dangerous and stressful. Yet she never forgot God's promise to "keep them in all things."

"There were days when the sky turned black for me because of what I heard and knew was true . . . Sometimes it was as if I saw the Lord Jesus Christ kneeling alone, as He knelt long ago under the olive trees . . . And the only thing that one who cared could do, was to go softly and kneel down beside Him, so that He would not be alone in His sorrow over the little children."

She was a prolific writer with thirty-five books published to her credit. Even as a young girl, Carmichael had showed talent as a writer. However, after a tragic accident in 1931, much of her time was spent in confinement in the Dohnavur Fellowship's compound.

Obedience, total commitment, and selflessness were the marks of Amy Carmichael's life. In a world where the thought of living one's life for Jesus Christ above all else is rapidly fading, she remains a bright and ever burning example of one whose sole existence was devoted to her beloved Lord and Savior.

God may or may not take you, as He did Amy Carmichael, to some far away land. However, He does have a plan for your life—to use you as His light of eternal hope and forgiveness to others. Ask Him to make His will perfectly clear. The rewards of God are not based on human achievements or financial success. They are given, instead, to those who "settle some things with Him" and commit themselves to Christ through a life of obedience and selfless devotion.

Karen Watson

2007-04-27T23:44:00.000+08:00

Karen Watson, a missionary, wrote the following :-

"When God calls there are no regrets. I tried to share my heart with you as much as possible, my heart for the nations. I wasn't called to a place; I was called to Him. To obey was my objective, to suffer was expected, His glory my reward, His glory my reward . .

The missionary heart :
Cares more than some think is wise
Risks more that some think is safe
Dreams more than some think is practical
Expects more than some think is possible

I was called not to comfort or to success but to obedience. . . .

There is no joy outside of knowing Jesus and serving Him"

Karen was a Southern Baptist missionary to Iraq and was killed by

unknown assailants March 15, 2004.

2007-04-26T20:30:00.000+08:00

God is glorified precisely when we are satisfied in him
when we delight in his presence,
when we like to be around him,
when we treasure his fellowship.

This is an utterly life-changing discovery.
It frees us to pursue our joy in God
and God to pursue his glory in us.
Because they are not two different pursuits.

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

[Let the Nations Be Glad]

"Go", my friend....

2007-04-20T19:39:00.001+08:00

We want the sadness of our absence healed,
but workers in the world are few,
and each the Master of the harvest may beseech
to go again into the mission field.

If this is what the Spirit has revealed,
that He wants you again to preach and teach
and reach lost peoples whom He wants to reach,
despite the sadness that our friendship has yielded.

If God has opened up a different door
that leads into another place than here,
then go into that nation, to that shore,
to preach the Gospel everyone must hear.

The time we cannot have,
God will restore eternally,
and wipe away each tear.

what's next?

2007-04-12T06:53:00.000+08:00

as the missions class come to an end in 3 weeks' time, i am still seeking for the answers to questions inside me. the same questions that surface everytime i drive home after attending a lesson.

where do i go from here? what should i do next?

one area of my life is yet resolved - my personal life. i have become a single parent and i have one person to care for, at least for the next 8 years or so. how can i commit myself to missions at this moment?

mind boggling.

there are several solutions that i can think of
1. shelf the idea for a few more years
2. go ahead (but what happens to my family?)
3. while waiting to fully make a commitment, get involved in some peripheral missions tasks together with my family

hmm....

2007-04-12T06:47:00.000+08:00

impassioned pilgrims,

walking hand in hand
along the way to whom their lives are bound,
shall reach a stretch of consecrated ground
which,

bordered narrowly with sinking sand,
they know they cannot travel hand in hand.
yet

to this narrow pathway are they bound.

the glory of god and missions

2007-03-05T20:52:00.000+08:00

"if you love the glory of god, you cannot be indifferent to missions" [john piper]

jesus came and became a servant....in order that the gentiles might glorify god for his mercy

missions and suffering

2007-02-26T19:55:00.000+08:00

i like to read or listen to stories by missionaries - it makes god become so real and life so precious to me. after every story, i become more inspired to make my own life count. i also become more aware of the way i am living my life and i would feel bad enough to wish to change it so that it is more worthy of what god has done for mankind, including me.

in most of the stories about missionaries, there is always the portrayal of courage - their ability to stay positive regardless of what situation they may be in or facing. it could be a case of feeling loneliness or homesick, but the missionary would still carry on with the work he has to do. it could be a case of fear - in a life threatening environment - but the missionary would not let it hinder him from working with the community.

all these "sufferings" that a missionary can go through slowly but gradually emerging victoriously, essentially will point to the greatness of god in his life. from the writings of the events one will see and understand the relationship between the missionary and his god that will surely lead to a sense of marvel at the extent of this relationship.

to arrive at this high level of conviction, there is usually a moment in the missionary's life that has become the time when something that has the greatest life changing effect takes place. so it is no wonder why christianity should be termed by some as a life changing religion. embracing this religion "in spirit and in truth" would really involve a total change in one's lifestyle.

we certainly need models of christian martyrs. i like the way john piper depicted martyrdom in the christian faith - a martyr dies in the hands of those he wanted to save, and a martyr does not die because he pursues death but love. hence the gospel of christ is advanced, and life is brought about by the sufferings of these martyrs.

i wish to think that a christian who truly lives his life worthy of the cross will face some kind of persecution and hence will go through some sort of suffering. john piper wants christian readers to be prepared all the time with the thought that they will be "called" to suffer with christ. he wrote : "afflictions are our (a christian's) vocation, whether.... missionaries or not."

the next question : does god deliberately "send" sufferings to a christian? to me god is sovereign and in control of all that happens in my life. just as i believe he blesses me, i must also accept the fact that he is also the one who can give me trials. both blessings and trials are meant to enrich my life, to strengthen my faith in him, to deepen the intimacy of our relationship and to prepare me for service to him. with this thought, i should not feel too good if my life is always smooth sailing. nor should i let complacency set in and make my faith in him become lukewarm.

after all the ideas of suffering, i am glad to read from john piper about the presence of true and great joy in all missionaries. the awesome power of god's love in the lives of all who have suffered had translated into experiences of joy in each and every one of them. when i read this, i am indeed motivated to want to have this same experience of abundant joy which would also mean tasting a very deep and intimate relationship with christ. what more can anyone ask for?

am i prepared to live a life truly worthy of god’s calling for me in the area of missions? am i ready to accept that suffering will be a part of this life if i choose to tread on it? or am i going to be satisfied with living a life just knowing about missions and what other missionaries did? i pray that god will confirm this calling in my life. only he can satisfy and help me complete the search that has begun inside me.

where is god?

2007-02-21T06:42:00.000+08:00

"....that they should seek god, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him."

not a search for a distant deity - he is very near for those who seek him.

"....yet he is not far from each one of us."

why missions?

2007-01-28T21:07:00.000+08:00

someone asked me why i signed up for the weekly missions evening class. i did not answer because i think the person will not be convinced.

i started to ask myself again the same question. i'd better be sure and always remember the motivation for the course.

i close my eyes and pray to god for a vision....and i "see" the following....

i see myself finishing my "education" on missions. i see myself with a group going into vietnam. i see myself surrounded by the children and the womenfolk there. i see myself feeling overwhelmed but nevertheless happy to be telling them where i come from or to learn from them about their lives. i see myself all sweaty, tanned, my hands worn out and my feet tired out. i see my days busy with menial chores around the village. i see the group of us sitting around together during the nights sharing what we did, praising god in worship and praying for each other. i see ourselves supporting each other, firing up each other at the end of each tiring day.

i see myself glad that god has given me an opportunity to be there...and he is there with me too.....

no more will i close my eyes and see anything else. i will not see things that will distract me or block my vision anymore. i will not see them because i have asked god to show me what he prefers me to see.

i will no longer wish to see him. unless god wishes me to, i will not want to see him anymore when i close my eyes....

my realities

2007-01-22T19:52:00.000+08:00

we are aliens and strangers in your sight, as were all our forefathers. our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope 1 chron 29:15

you have made my days a metre handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. each man's life is but a breath ps 39:5

why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. what is your life? you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes james 4:14

as for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more ps 103:15,16

therefore we do not lose heart. though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. so we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal 2 cor 4:16,17,18

the realities in our lives

the limitations

the hope beyond this life

all that we have to go through to reach the end - is it all worth it?

i believe it will be worth it.

to jesus and the cross

2007-01-22T19:42:00.001+08:00

the love of god fell to the ground and died
but from that brokenness, new love has grown
because that seed could not abide alone
and now so many in christ's life abide
that many more unreached can now decide
if we go where the gospel is unknown
and show them how our love is not our own
but is our saviour's, for we are his bride

our love shall fall into the ground and die
when we believe on jesus, count the cost
and be to every ear and every eye
a witness of the gospel to the lost
so when they see our love and ask us why
we can lead them to jesus and the cross

[michael rew]

missions and physical appearance

2007-01-22T19:39:00.001+08:00

today i met up with a friend whom i have not seen for a couple of years and immediately we exchanged our comments about the changes we saw in each other. i seemed to have changed a lot, according to her. yes, i think i have lost some weight (about 9 kg), my hair has grown longer, coloured too, etc.....

we talked next about what has been occupying us - the usual "stuff" - work, family, others. then about our future plans.

so i shared with her about my interest in mission work. straightaway i could see her eyes looking over my whole self again and she told me she did not expect me to have such plans. in her honesty, she told me she had never expected someone like me - who takes care of my physical appearances (hmm.......) - would even want to go and do this kind of work.

well, i did not really wished to spend time to try to continue the conversation explaining why - so i changed the subject and we happily chatted on other matters.

back home now i am thinking about the comment she made......

i have met several ladies who are serving in some mission fields. i have not asked them before but i think i would not be wrong to say that taking care of their physical appearance will be in their least priority list.

i know. it should be the last thing i would worry about if i am to take the work seriously.

however i have a few questions.

how should i take care of how i look? would i have to go around looking "sloppy"? overweight? dull? hair not combed properly? do i have to look old?

what would be "expected" of me? how should a lady serving in a mission field appear physically? i know i have to be "simply clad" for comfort to fit into the environment? for the purpose of the work?

funny thoughts came into my mind - maybe i would go for really short hair, and in time to come my skin colour would be very brown from the sun's effect - so it would be a completely different "me". wow, can you imagine me like this?

i think i can say i will not be afraid of hardship or what would become of me - i have gone through some struggles in my childhood and i have settled on my own in a new country - but i have to start to reduce and gradually stop "pampering" myself with the good things in life so that i am more prepared for a different kind of lifestyle in a mission field, wherever it is.

i know this is silly - can i ask god to be kind enough to let me serve in a "not-too-harsh" environment? ha ha ha!

pray - that these concerns will not steer me away from doing what i really want to do. these are just earthly concerns - looks is not everything (anyway i will not need to bother about you or any other guys anymore once i'm into the work) but god is and should always be my everything!

god in my living

there in my breathing

god in my waking, my sleeping, my resting

there in my working

god in my thinking, my speaking

be my everything

god in my hoping

there in my dreaming

god in my watching, my waiting, my laughing

there in my weeping

god in my hurting, my healing.....

christ in me

the hope of glory

....you are everything....

....be my everything....

i pray for the day to come - eventually.....

1 corinthians 13 - missionary version

2007-01-22T19:35:00.000+08:00

"i may be able to speak fluently the language of my chosen field
and even understand its culture
but if i have no love
the impact of my speech is no more for christ
than that of a businessman who comes to exploit the people

i may have the gift of contextualising god's word when i deliver it to my hearers
i may have all knowledge about their customs
i may have the faith needed to combat witchcraft
but if i have no love, i am nothing

i may give everything that i have to the poor, to the hungry in the favelas
i may even give my life for them
but if i have no love, this does no good

love is...
thinking in their thought patterns
caring enough to understand their world view
listening to their questions
feeling their burdens
respecting them
identifying with them in their need
belonging to them

love is eternal
cultures pass away
dynamic equivalents will change because cultures change
patterns of worship and church administration will need revision
languages will be altered over time
institutions will be replaced
.....because these are not reality

since i am finite, i can only study how to express the message cross-culturally
trying to free it from my cultural bias
i am able to do this only in a limited way
but i pray that the spirit will use my life to show christ
to those with whom i work

meanwhile these remain...
identification
contextualisation
and
love

but the greatest of these is love"

[jean mc cracken, sao paulo brazil]

personal reflections on missions

2007-01-22T19:34:00.002+08:00

do i have what it takes to do this work? what are all the "qualifications" - academic qualities and personal qualities - needed?

i have read stories about missionaries who did not "succeed" and had to return. some even suffered serious personal and family problems as a result of the "failure".

to study and understand about missions are simple feats. the difficulty will lie when taking the step to embark onto one such journey and stay "alive" in the whole journey. support is needed - financial and physical. for the physical part, it is always recommended for a person not to go alone - for married person, he or she should go with the spouse and children if they have any. for a single person, doing mission work alone is usually not easy. loneliness sets in very fast and there will be problems when the person falls in love while being "on the job" in the mission field.

sigh. it's not that i wish to withdraw from everything but it looks like i might fail in the assessment of being a mission worker. i seem to fall short of all the "qualifications" required. would any church then be willing to support me and send me?

prayer. i will continue to pray for a "door" to be opened - i don't know how, i trust that god will direct me somewhere somehow.

somewhere - maybe as a start where i am. start by reaching out to those i come in contact with everyday - the youths in my place of work? and their families? one by one, slowly but surely.

and regarding other issues in my life - this would be something i have to also ask god to give me wisdom to deal with them.

sigh - no, i am not giving up yet - i will continue my lessons and learn more about missions.

crossing cultures

2007-01-22T19:34:00.001+08:00

culture is god's idea.

1. from as early as the book of genesis, god scattered nations over all the earth. each comprised ethnic groups with their own families and tribes, occupied their own territories and spoke their own languages.
2. according to paul (acts 17), god did this in order that they would seek him.
3. christ's great commission is a command to make disciples of all nations.
4. in the book of revelation, we read about the redeemed from every tribe, language, people and nation coming before god in the holy city to live with him.

crossing cultures is hence very much of carrying out the great commission and cross-cultural workers have to go from one culture to another to "carry" and make known the gospel.

culture - definition : the integrated system of a people, their language, habits, customs, social organisation, things that give them an identity and distinction...

there are obvious and visible elements and some less obvious and not talked about elements too. it includes how people communicate, how they relate, their expectations of others, how close one may draw to the other, etc. communicating across culture would require an understanding of the formal and informal patterns of behaviour involved like how to greet each other, what is proper and improper behaviour.

the heart of a culture is its "world view" - the beliefs and values of its people. this determines their views of god, of themselves and of their meaning in life. a cross-cultural messenger would have to "learn" the world view of the people they hope to win, "adapt" their message to make it meaningful for them to relate to.

example of a great cross-cultural messenger : paul. at athens, a city full of idols, he began his message by alluding to the athenians' religious way of life and to their objects of worship, especially to their altar "to an unknown god". he then declared who god is by referring him as the creator, the lord of heaven and earth, the giver of life, who does not live in man-made temples. as he quoted and affirmed what some of the athenians' philosophers said, he brought in the gospel and offers them the truth.

paul's strategy showed he was sensitive to the athenians' culture. he realised that they were a people bound by culture and shaped by their backgrounds. he recognised that there is only one gospel, but it would have different manifestations or forms to gentile believers. he emphasized and shared on the truth of the gospel.

it is therefore necessary for a cross-cultural messenger to have a firm grasp of the scriptures and its essential truths. hence it would be good if the preparation of this person involves a period of study at a bible college or institution. and of course - sustained and fervent prayer - for god to confirm the "calling".

missions and the "lostness" of mankind

2007-01-22T19:33:00.001+08:00

state of man
.....fall short of the glory of god
.....children of wrath
.....death...
.....judgment...

man is......
dead to the trespasses and sin
separated from the life of god
ignorant of god
hostile to god
disobedient to god

jeremiah 17:9 "the heart is deceitful above all things, ....wicked...."

conclusion - humanity is lost

what does it matter?
is humanity of mankind eternally lost?

god has set eternity in man's heart - there is a sense of justice in man and a sense of immortality in man's consciousness

man has two destinies after death - either with god or with the devil

so there is a need for evangelism and missions to reach out to man

what is there for us (god's children) to tell?
1. jesus christ..."the way, the truth and the life"
2. mankind is lost...but there is a way for them to be found.

jesus, by dying on the cross, has completed a mission to open the way for mankind to find god and be found in god. after that, christians are given the great commission to "go and tell" this good news to all.

centripetal & centrifugal missions

2007-01-22T19:31:00.001+08:00

from lesson #1-
1. missions has biblical basis
2. strategy that god use : through his people
3. motive of missions : to give a chance to every man to accept/refuse salvation

from the beginning in the old testament, abraham was chosen and god made a nation through him - israel - is to be as a "lighthouse" to all. all nations would come into israel - centripetal mission - israelites went out and other nations were "drawn in".

although israel failed in their mission, god is sovereign and re-instituted a new mission.

in the new testament, the great commission is "to go" - centrifugal mission - moving outward from a center - a progressive revelation from god for world missions which is happening now.

two strategies of missions : centripetal & centrifugal

summary :-
1. we must guard against the same mistake that the israelites made
2. cross-cultural evangelism is needed to reach the whole world
3. jesus is an example we have as the greatest cross-cultural missionary - he went out from the father to the people.

a missionary god

2007-01-22T19:29:00.001+08:00

the living god is a missionary god.

the bible has a record of how god goes about re-establishing the rule of god in the hearts of man. jesus' supreme "obsession" is the proclaiming of the kingdom of god.

god is the creator of all mankind. his kingdom however was "usurped". mankind has lost their "manual of operation" (source of life)

why missions?
1. every man has the right to come to know their creator
2. not all nations know about their creator. so they need to be confronted, to know that they need to come back to their creator
3. every man should be given the chance to choose to accept or refuse god's gift of salvation