"The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, 'I swear by Myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make you descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.'" -Genesis 22:15-18
"But Moses said to God, 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?' And God said, 'I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.' Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of you fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is His name?' Then what shall I tell them?' God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'" -Exodus 3:11-14
"Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have i not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." -Joshua 1:6-9
"The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a wine-press to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, He said, 'The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.' 'Pardon me, my Lord,' Gideon replied, 'but if the lord is with us, why all this happened to us? Where are all His wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, 'Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.' The Lord turned to him and said, 'Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?' 'Pardon me, my Lord,' Gideon replied, 'but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.' The Lord answered, 'I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.'" -Judges 6:11-16
"The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and He let none of Samuel's words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there He revealed Himself to Samuel through His word." -1 Samuel 3:19-21
"David took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built up the area around it, from the terraces inward. And he became more and more powerful, because the Lord God Almighty was with him." 2 Samuel 5:9-10
1 Kings 19:9-13, Jeremiah 1:4-12, Ezekiel 3:22-27, Ezekiel 34:11-16, Micah 6:6-8, Matthew 5:1-12, etc.
You get the point. God both promises His presence to be with you, and that you would rest (live) in His presence. What an amazing thing this is to know! God is absolutely showing me just how true this is. He constantly reminded His people that He is with them. His presence is shown in clouds, pillars of fire, quaking of the ground, a whisper, many things. Yet He yearns to live within us, and promises to do so, as we live within the calling He has put on our lives. His promise to be with His people, His prophets is so often accompanied with the word "go" in some way. It is an active faith that is at the heart of our calling. This calling is simple. I've realized how much I don't like the sentence "I just don't know what I'm called to do." or "I'm just really trying to see what God is calling me to do." As there is (or can be) certainly wisdom in these statements, the answer is simple. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all you strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. That's it. The rest just comes with going, moving for Him. We are the gospel's hands and feet, pushing forward by the Spirit to bring disciples of all nations before the cross' redemptive power and holiness! And the only reason I speak so passionately and blatant about this is because not so long ago I was the one who was living in the crippling fear of, "Well, I just don't know what God has for me..." and I am seeing the harvest of living out Luke 10:25-37. We remember so easily the story of the good Samaritan, yet we (I) so easily forget the context of this parable! The teacher of the law asks, 'What shall I do to inherit eternal life?' I mean, how big of a question is that?! Isn't that the question that we are placing our hope, our faith in?! And when Jesus asks him what is in the scriptures, he quotes Deut 6, Love the Lord your God, etc, and Jesus says, "You have answered correctly. DO THIS and you will live." It's right there! He isn't saying that we need to do anything to gain life (salvation) but He is saying that our faith life should be active, as an active faith life ALWAYS POINTS TO JESUS! It has to! It's kind of the point of living faithfully! And I cannot tell you all how much God is showing me this while living here in India. He is teaching what it means when He says, "Go, for I will be with you." What an incredible promise that we can take part in! Amen?!
Last night, I met a man named Isaac. Isaac is an evangelist in a very remote area in Andhra Pradesh (where I am haha). I was told that I needed to hear his testimony, so I listened as he began, and then waited to have it translated to me. Give me a break guys, I've been here three weeks. I can barely say thank you for the water at this point. That may sound random, but, come to SE India, you'd say it all the time too! haha Back to Isaac. He began telling his story, and I was immediately amazed. "He was in an accident, a bad car accident two months ago." The pastor who was translating began telling me. "I broke my back, near the top of my spine, and could not walk." The pastor then began to fill in a little bit of the back story for me as well. "Just a month and a half ago, we came to pray for him. He was stuck on a bed, laying down, having gone to the bathroom all over himself as he couldn't move. He had gone to the doctor, but they couldn't operate on him because one, he's a leper, and two he had no money. On top of it all, there was a small small chance that the operation would even help." Let me stop there. Yeah, don't forget that this guy is freaking telling me this story himself. At the church. Three blocks away from the house we first saw him at as we drove by. Continuing... "We went up to him, me and three of the other pastors, and began to pray for him. We prayed for healing, for a miracle, and for God to give him a testimony that cannot be silenced." Isaac jumped in again, as the pastor had then let me know that he left for America on a trip the next day, so he did not even know what happened. "God came to him in a vision," the pastor was telling me, "and awoke him from his sleep. He looked up, and saw me coming at him. I jumped up above him, standing on his bed, straddling him with legs on either side. I took a small wire, pulled him upright, and pushed it down through his neck. I then tied it off. I let him lay back down, looked at him and smiled. 'Do not worry.' I said to him. The next day he woke up, and stood right up!" Wait, what?! Are you freaking kidding me?!?! This guy freaking stood up! This leper! This man who doctors said surgery couldn't fix. They told him to essentially go home to be with your family, and die. "So he went to the doctor that had sent him away. The doctor was amazed, he could not believe his eyes. (No way? haha) 'How did this happen?' he asked Isaac. They took an X Ray, and yeah, you guessed it. Nothing. Wrong. With. His. Back. Let me repeat that. Isaac, who had been in a terrible accident not even a month before this, who was bedridden, laying in his own waste, who was told surgery was useless, and he just go die, was healed completely. 'Like a young man' the doctor told him!" Isaac then went on to tell the doctor (who is a doctor in a prominent, high class Hindu area, and a high class hindu himself) that it was all God. That Jesus had come to him in a vision as his pastor and healed him. The doctor could not deny this, as the testimony was being told to him firsthand by the man he'd told to die! How freaking awesome is that?! Now here's the really awesome part. This man was telling me all of this outside of the church in the dark. We went inside to take a picture together (I'll get it up as soon as possible), and then I saw him. He, having been born a leper, has only his big toe on his right foot, all of his toes are half on his left, his right hand is missing every fingertip, on his left hand his ring and pinky finger were grown only halfway, and he is blind in his left eye. Oh yeah, and he was paralyzed a month ago in a terrible car crash. This man exuded a joy that was blinding with the light of Jesus. Blinding I tell you. It was one of the most wonderful experiences I have ever known, and I am truly honored to have met a man of such great courage and faith. He was and is a true walking-out-his-faith believer, and God is certainly with him!
Today was a little different, but pretty great nonetheless! It started out with a wonderful devotion. I have the devotion book Jesus Calling, and have been in it everyday (as it's designed). It has been a great encouragement, and I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a devo right now. I then went to my pastor's house to work on a couple of projects with him. They are trying to build a recording studio here, so they can produce their own worship music to give out to evangelists as an outreach tool, which obviously I love. Today, I went to the building where the studio is going to be built and took measurements of everything, I mean EVERYTHING to send it to a man in America who is going to build it for them in late March, early April. That took quite a while, but it was so much fun. Two other pastors came with to help, and we had a really fun time, laughing the whole time through. It was nice to just laugh and make fools of ourselves. It has been a while since I've done this, and it felt as refreshing as a well timed song can feel. I then went back to my pastor's house to help him with some emails. Since I can type in English a little bit faster (okay, a lot faster. He's Indian...it's not a fair fight!) I send out many emails for him to teams and people in America who are planning trips to come here. Before doing this, however, I had lunch. And oh my, let me tell you about this. It was this lamb curry kind of stuff (it wasn't exactly curry, but yeah...curried lamb is all I can call it) but it was incredible. Melt in you mouth incredible. Over rice, my mouth watered the entire time I ate. Then we worked. Then my pastor made a phone call to have someone shop for vegetables for me. Side note, upon receiving the veggies tonight, it was very apparent to me that this man knows how to shop. Oh man did he get me a TON of veggies, far more than I had asked for. I am quite excited! I cook for myself most of the time, so this is a good thing! Back to the pastor's house lol. Right as we are about to leave, his wife asks if she can make me a treat, and asks me to wait a few minutes. I figure, yeah, of course I can wait for you to make me a tasty desserty treat! I mean, this was the woman who had made the lamb. Come on! Well, she made this stuff (again, pics will be up when I can!) that was made out of biscuits (cookies that look like giant Ritz crackers and have a hazelnut flavor) with some kind of cream sauce and espresso in it. It was like an Indian Tiramisu (a super tasty Italian dessert for those unfortunate souls who don't know what this is). Needless to say, it was incredible and I ate way too much of it. It was SO good though! Then, when I got back, I continued to write a short story that I'm writing here, which will get posted on here when it's finished...maybe...lol then I took a small nap, listened to a sermon, some good music, and had dinner. That's about it! Overall great day!
Well guys, I hope this has been a blessing for you! I love you all VERY much and think of you often! Please continue to pray for me. Pray that His words would overflow from my mouth, and that His Spirit and Presence are felt and seen in me in all that I do. Thank you! Love you!
"But Moses said to God, 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?' And God said, 'I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.' Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of you fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is His name?' Then what shall I tell them?' God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'" -Exodus 3:11-14
"Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have i not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." -Joshua 1:6-9
"The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a wine-press to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, He said, 'The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.' 'Pardon me, my Lord,' Gideon replied, 'but if the lord is with us, why all this happened to us? Where are all His wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, 'Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.' The Lord turned to him and said, 'Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?' 'Pardon me, my Lord,' Gideon replied, 'but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.' The Lord answered, 'I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.'" -Judges 6:11-16
"The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and He let none of Samuel's words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there He revealed Himself to Samuel through His word." -1 Samuel 3:19-21
"David took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built up the area around it, from the terraces inward. And he became more and more powerful, because the Lord God Almighty was with him." 2 Samuel 5:9-10
1 Kings 19:9-13, Jeremiah 1:4-12, Ezekiel 3:22-27, Ezekiel 34:11-16, Micah 6:6-8, Matthew 5:1-12, etc.
You get the point. God both promises His presence to be with you, and that you would rest (live) in His presence. What an amazing thing this is to know! God is absolutely showing me just how true this is. He constantly reminded His people that He is with them. His presence is shown in clouds, pillars of fire, quaking of the ground, a whisper, many things. Yet He yearns to live within us, and promises to do so, as we live within the calling He has put on our lives. His promise to be with His people, His prophets is so often accompanied with the word "go" in some way. It is an active faith that is at the heart of our calling. This calling is simple. I've realized how much I don't like the sentence "I just don't know what I'm called to do." or "I'm just really trying to see what God is calling me to do." As there is (or can be) certainly wisdom in these statements, the answer is simple. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all you strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. That's it. The rest just comes with going, moving for Him. We are the gospel's hands and feet, pushing forward by the Spirit to bring disciples of all nations before the cross' redemptive power and holiness! And the only reason I speak so passionately and blatant about this is because not so long ago I was the one who was living in the crippling fear of, "Well, I just don't know what God has for me..." and I am seeing the harvest of living out Luke 10:25-37. We remember so easily the story of the good Samaritan, yet we (I) so easily forget the context of this parable! The teacher of the law asks, 'What shall I do to inherit eternal life?' I mean, how big of a question is that?! Isn't that the question that we are placing our hope, our faith in?! And when Jesus asks him what is in the scriptures, he quotes Deut 6, Love the Lord your God, etc, and Jesus says, "You have answered correctly. DO THIS and you will live." It's right there! He isn't saying that we need to do anything to gain life (salvation) but He is saying that our faith life should be active, as an active faith life ALWAYS POINTS TO JESUS! It has to! It's kind of the point of living faithfully! And I cannot tell you all how much God is showing me this while living here in India. He is teaching what it means when He says, "Go, for I will be with you." What an incredible promise that we can take part in! Amen?!
Last night, I met a man named Isaac. Isaac is an evangelist in a very remote area in Andhra Pradesh (where I am haha). I was told that I needed to hear his testimony, so I listened as he began, and then waited to have it translated to me. Give me a break guys, I've been here three weeks. I can barely say thank you for the water at this point. That may sound random, but, come to SE India, you'd say it all the time too! haha Back to Isaac. He began telling his story, and I was immediately amazed. "He was in an accident, a bad car accident two months ago." The pastor who was translating began telling me. "I broke my back, near the top of my spine, and could not walk." The pastor then began to fill in a little bit of the back story for me as well. "Just a month and a half ago, we came to pray for him. He was stuck on a bed, laying down, having gone to the bathroom all over himself as he couldn't move. He had gone to the doctor, but they couldn't operate on him because one, he's a leper, and two he had no money. On top of it all, there was a small small chance that the operation would even help." Let me stop there. Yeah, don't forget that this guy is freaking telling me this story himself. At the church. Three blocks away from the house we first saw him at as we drove by. Continuing... "We went up to him, me and three of the other pastors, and began to pray for him. We prayed for healing, for a miracle, and for God to give him a testimony that cannot be silenced." Isaac jumped in again, as the pastor had then let me know that he left for America on a trip the next day, so he did not even know what happened. "God came to him in a vision," the pastor was telling me, "and awoke him from his sleep. He looked up, and saw me coming at him. I jumped up above him, standing on his bed, straddling him with legs on either side. I took a small wire, pulled him upright, and pushed it down through his neck. I then tied it off. I let him lay back down, looked at him and smiled. 'Do not worry.' I said to him. The next day he woke up, and stood right up!" Wait, what?! Are you freaking kidding me?!?! This guy freaking stood up! This leper! This man who doctors said surgery couldn't fix. They told him to essentially go home to be with your family, and die. "So he went to the doctor that had sent him away. The doctor was amazed, he could not believe his eyes. (No way? haha) 'How did this happen?' he asked Isaac. They took an X Ray, and yeah, you guessed it. Nothing. Wrong. With. His. Back. Let me repeat that. Isaac, who had been in a terrible accident not even a month before this, who was bedridden, laying in his own waste, who was told surgery was useless, and he just go die, was healed completely. 'Like a young man' the doctor told him!" Isaac then went on to tell the doctor (who is a doctor in a prominent, high class Hindu area, and a high class hindu himself) that it was all God. That Jesus had come to him in a vision as his pastor and healed him. The doctor could not deny this, as the testimony was being told to him firsthand by the man he'd told to die! How freaking awesome is that?! Now here's the really awesome part. This man was telling me all of this outside of the church in the dark. We went inside to take a picture together (I'll get it up as soon as possible), and then I saw him. He, having been born a leper, has only his big toe on his right foot, all of his toes are half on his left, his right hand is missing every fingertip, on his left hand his ring and pinky finger were grown only halfway, and he is blind in his left eye. Oh yeah, and he was paralyzed a month ago in a terrible car crash. This man exuded a joy that was blinding with the light of Jesus. Blinding I tell you. It was one of the most wonderful experiences I have ever known, and I am truly honored to have met a man of such great courage and faith. He was and is a true walking-out-his-faith believer, and God is certainly with him!
Today was a little different, but pretty great nonetheless! It started out with a wonderful devotion. I have the devotion book Jesus Calling, and have been in it everyday (as it's designed). It has been a great encouragement, and I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a devo right now. I then went to my pastor's house to work on a couple of projects with him. They are trying to build a recording studio here, so they can produce their own worship music to give out to evangelists as an outreach tool, which obviously I love. Today, I went to the building where the studio is going to be built and took measurements of everything, I mean EVERYTHING to send it to a man in America who is going to build it for them in late March, early April. That took quite a while, but it was so much fun. Two other pastors came with to help, and we had a really fun time, laughing the whole time through. It was nice to just laugh and make fools of ourselves. It has been a while since I've done this, and it felt as refreshing as a well timed song can feel. I then went back to my pastor's house to help him with some emails. Since I can type in English a little bit faster (okay, a lot faster. He's Indian...it's not a fair fight!) I send out many emails for him to teams and people in America who are planning trips to come here. Before doing this, however, I had lunch. And oh my, let me tell you about this. It was this lamb curry kind of stuff (it wasn't exactly curry, but yeah...curried lamb is all I can call it) but it was incredible. Melt in you mouth incredible. Over rice, my mouth watered the entire time I ate. Then we worked. Then my pastor made a phone call to have someone shop for vegetables for me. Side note, upon receiving the veggies tonight, it was very apparent to me that this man knows how to shop. Oh man did he get me a TON of veggies, far more than I had asked for. I am quite excited! I cook for myself most of the time, so this is a good thing! Back to the pastor's house lol. Right as we are about to leave, his wife asks if she can make me a treat, and asks me to wait a few minutes. I figure, yeah, of course I can wait for you to make me a tasty desserty treat! I mean, this was the woman who had made the lamb. Come on! Well, she made this stuff (again, pics will be up when I can!) that was made out of biscuits (cookies that look like giant Ritz crackers and have a hazelnut flavor) with some kind of cream sauce and espresso in it. It was like an Indian Tiramisu (a super tasty Italian dessert for those unfortunate souls who don't know what this is). Needless to say, it was incredible and I ate way too much of it. It was SO good though! Then, when I got back, I continued to write a short story that I'm writing here, which will get posted on here when it's finished...maybe...lol then I took a small nap, listened to a sermon, some good music, and had dinner. That's about it! Overall great day!
Well guys, I hope this has been a blessing for you! I love you all VERY much and think of you often! Please continue to pray for me. Pray that His words would overflow from my mouth, and that His Spirit and Presence are felt and seen in me in all that I do. Thank you! Love you!
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