2008 has come in like a bang! Bball, school, kids, beach, good times.
I must start off this blog by talking about the sermon that we heard yesterday. It is so interesting that he spoke on something that I have been thinking about lately, and actually talked to my parents on the phone about the other day. The whole concept that God is in control of everything and everything belongs to Him. The pastor talked about how this year we need to continue to go further in FAITH. Whatever happens this year God knows. He talked about giving over everything to Him again. Who do we want standing beside us? Someone who hesitates in battle or someone willing to fight the battle. We all want someone who is willing to die beside us in battle and we must battle against sin and evil like that. Would you rather die sitting around waiting to die or fighting for Christ?
Powerful stuff. The pastor told a story about how his eyesite is failing because of 20 years of malaria medicine. Basically his eyes have been damaged by the medicine. He got it checked and the doctors were amazed that he was still able to see. The specialist told him that he should lose both his eyes completly in the next little while. The pastor said he just sat there saying okay. The specialist repeated himself, you will lose your eyesite! Okay the pastor replied. Until the specialist was mad because of his reaction. The pastor then calmly explained how his body, his possesions, everything belonged to Christ and if Christ wanted to use him without his eyesite so be it. Powerful! He said if he could gauge out one eye to save Papua wouldn't that be a cheap price.
Thinking differently than the "world" thinks, what a concept. Why do we as Christians need constant reminding of this. If all of us were willing to die for Christ and lived each day of our lives with that mindset. All fear would be gone. Fear of meeting someone new, fear of speaking a different language, fear of evangelism, ... (My list goes on for a while). I know that when I step past that fear out here in Papua amazing things happen. Lord take the doubt away.
Wow that was a bit more of an intro than I expected to write in this blog. Christmas was great, we had a bunch of our Indonesian friends over and had a blast. Eating, jumping, playing games,... We continue to look for opportunities that God gives us to serve.
2008 how are we going live???
