Trust and Obey

It's interesting to look back on some memories from my life and see how God was leading me on a path to where I am now.

I remember...

I remember one occasion when I was in "the pantry" of my childhood house. I remember climbing up onto the dryer and looking at a couple of books my mother had on the shelf. They were books about American Sign Language (ASL). They were intriguing.

I remember learning the ASL alphabet as a kid.

I remember a deaf congregation meeting upstairs at the church where I attended.

I remember being about nine years old when some missionaries came to our church to share about their project of translating the Bible into the language of a people group in Papua New Guinea. I remember thinking how cool it would be to do something like that.

I remember realizing that I had a love and fascination for languages, always trying to learn phrases in various languages from friends who spoke them.

I remember meeting a breathtakingly beautiful girl from Philly when I was a junior in college. I remember finding out that her parents were deaf pastors in New Jersey. I remember discovering that this girl shared a call to serve overseas in missions some day.

I remember while we were serving as missionary associates in Costa Rica that our area directors encouraged us to consider ministry to the deaf in Latin America. I remember visiting a missionary couple working with the deaf in Nicaragua and hearing the need.

I remember seeing our approval to serve as missionaries to Bolivia and how ministry to the deaf was listed as one of our focuses even though we had not requested that it be listed.

I remember attending a missions event for college students in the U.S. and being challenged by the need for ministry to the deaf in Latin America.

I remember meeting a woman here in Bolivia who grew up in a missionary family working with the deaf here in Bolivia and hearing more specifically about the need here in this country. I remember hearing about a project a team is working on to make a video Bible translation for the deaf using Bolivian Sign Language.

Hindsight is 20/20

At the time that each of these moments happened, I didn't realized they were individual parts of a greater story. I didn't make the connections.

When I was a kid, or even when I was in college, I didn't realize that I would one day be working with the deaf.

As I look back on those memories now, however, I can see that God has led me on a particular path. Now, it seems so very obvious. 

God set these seemingly small moments along the way that led me to where I am now.

I am where I am, because God has led me here.

God's Foresight is 20/20

We don't know what the future holds. But we can have confidence in knowing that God does!

For me, hindsight is 20/20. I'm glad that for God, foresight is 20/20 as well.

God is sovereign and faithful and so very good to us. We don't know what the final destination might be with regard to a specific path of ministry/work in our life. But God does.

What is our job then? We must seek God and faithfully follow each step along the way. We don't realize how the steps fit together in the end, but if we are most concerned with obeying God we can trust that He will work all that out.  So really, our job can be simply summarized as obedience to God based in our trust in Him. Our job then is to trust and obey!

As you look back and your life, do you see the steps He has laid out before you along the way? Where has God led you? Do you trust Him? Are you willing to obey?

Count Your Blessings

“Count your blessings.”

Have you ever heard that phrase? It’s not a verse from the Bible, but it is a theme we can certainly find in the Bible. Many of the psalms involve the psalmnist looking back and recounting God’s blessings in his life. The whole idea of memorial stones in the Bible seems to be a method of memorializing blessings from God. Really, we could find and discuss a lot of references in the Bible which speak to this idea.

My concern in this blog during this Thanksgiving week, however, is not that people in the Bible “counted” their blessings but why I believe there’s value in doing it. Why count our blessings?

I could use many of the psalms to make the following point, but since I was reading Psalm 61 when I felt God put this word in my heart, that’s the one I’ll use here. Specifically I want to focus on Psalm 61:1-3 (ESV):

1 Hear my cry, O God,
    listen to my prayer;
2 from the end of the earth I call to you
    when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock
    that is higher than I,
3 for you have been my refuge,
    a strong tower against the enemy.

David prays to God with confidence and faith believing that the Lord is going to answer him. Why? I think the key to that answer is found in verse 3. It's because God has already proven Himself faithful in the past as a refuge and strong tower to David. And here is the truth that I felt like God put in my heart as I was reading this:

God's past faithfulness fuels our present faith.

Our faith is not a blind faith. Our faith is a result of looking back and seeing God's hand on our lives. When we see how faithful He has been to us, it motivates and encourages us to have faith in our present circumstances!

So why count our blessings? Why take time to think about all the things for which we have to be thankful? Why take time to thank God for all He has done? So that we can remember His past faithfulness to give us the faith we need now. He has done it before and He can do it again!

This is the reason David points out God's faithfulness to him in the past. This is the reason Joshua set up the memorial of 12 stones in Joshua 4. And this is the reason we too should count our blessings and express our thankfulness for all God has done and accomplished in our lives this year: to have the faith to believe for Him to answer us again in the year to come.

So I encourage you to take some time to set up your own memorial stones. Count your blessings. Write them down. Remember all the good things God has done for you. Give Him thanks. Then when you're standing in front of an obstacle that seems so challenging, you can have the faith to know that God is faithful and that you can trust Him!

**UPDATE** I want to share an example of this that came yesterday morning before I wrote this post but after I had decided to write it. We were blessed to receive a generous personal cash gift from the Southern New England Ministry Network's Women's Ministry this year. We wanted to be able to use the whole thing for Christmas but needed to put 2/3 of the gift toward our credit card. Yesterday morning when we opened our statement of donations, we noticed that a friend had made a personal cash donation to us (totally unexpected) for the exact same amount of the other donation we needed to put toward our credit card. We were once again reminded that God is faithful, even in "simple" things like this.

** Want to read more? I wrote a blog a couple of years ago about how a hen came to symbolize God's faithfulness in our family. Check it out! **

God is Faithful

Two movie titles. One chapter in the Bible. One central theme.

Dr. Wave Nunnally, my professor for the History portion of the Old Testament History and Literature class at Central Bible College in Springfield, MO referred to it as "Back to the Future." Matt Travnik, a friend of mine from CBC referred to it as "School of Rock." They each used a different movie title to refer to the events of Joshua 4, but the central theme of their message was the same: God is Faithful!

For whatever reason, having heard thousands of sermons and lessons over the years, these two have always stuck with me. In fact, I've preached a sermon on the chapter on a number of occasions myself. With Matt's permission, I also title my sermon "School of Rock." But clever titles isn't what caused me to hold on to these two teachings over the years; the truth of the message is. Because through my life, God has made something abundantly clear to me over and over again: He is and will always be faithful.

Contrary to what I thought I was going to speak about on both occasions, this is the sermon I've taught from each of my last two services. And while it's a great truth that I think people need to hear, I also think that it's a truth that God has been wanting me to hear again too.

Joshua 4 happens at a time when the Israelites are miraculously crossing through the Jordan River as they are about to finally entire into the Promise Land after 400 years of slavery in Egypt and 40 years of wandering in the desert. God commands Joshua, the new leader of the people after Moses' death, to take 12 stones from the middle of the Jordan and set up a memorial at the place where they would be camping. They do exactly as the Lord commands and set up the memorial. In fact, it seems that they set up two: one in the middle of the Jordan and one at the place where they were camping. I think there are three valuable things we can learn from these piles of rocks:

1. The rocks were a sign of obedience

They obeyed everything the Lord instructed them to do surrounding the event of crossing through the Jordan and the event of setting up the stones. The act of setting up the memorial was a sign of obedience. I believe that the Bible is quite clear that God expects obedience from us. We must know God's voice, listen when He speaks and be quick to obey. What does God's voice sound like? I can't answer that for you. But what I can say is that if you spend time talking to God and reading His Word, He will speak to you. It may not be an audible voice (I've never heard one) but it will just make sense in your heart. It's one of those things that you'll know when it happens. And we must listen. Prayer is not simply us talking TO God, but it's us talking WITH God. It's a conversation. God may be giving you the answer to your prayers but you're not listening to hear what it is. And we must obey. Knowing what God says to us is not enough. We have to act on it. Why are Polly, Genevieve and I leaving our families and moving to Costa Rica? Because we feel so certain in our hearts that God is calling us to. And we know from experience that we're always better off when we listen to God AND do what He says! We would rather be no other place than in the center of His will for our lives.

2. The rocks were an evidence of the supernatural

They didn't have SCUBA equipment back in the days of Joshua. Have large stones from the middle of the Jordan would have provided solid evidence that a supernatural event took place. We all have testimonies of God's faithfulness, whether we realize it or not (if you're alive, you are a miracle). We can't hide those things. We need to display them as evidence for others. I've had more than one friend attempt to challenge the existence of God. And I've even known of some Christians that would deny His ability to perform miracles. But if you have never seen or experienced a miracle, I believe you're just ignoring the evidence. Miracles have made incredible believers out of even the most staunch of atheists. God is faithful!

3. The rocks were a reminder of God's faithfulness

The rocks served as a reminder of God's faithfulness to those who weren't able to participate in the event itself. But they were also a reminder for those who did. Why do I trust that God will provide for my family? Because He always has before. I can rattle off stories and stories of times where God has provided for my family. I have shared those stories before and I'm sure I'll share them again. Sometimes they were simple; other times they were much more intense. Regardless which they were, they serve as a reminder to me that He is able and that He is faithful. I'm not going to tell you that God will give you a sports car if you pray for one. And I'm not going to tell you that if you pray enough and live the right way, you will become rich. But I will tell you that God will supply all of your NEEDS! We become so focused on our own plans that we forget to ask God what His plans are. And His plans are always better! Let me share one example of God's faithfulness in my life. When we stepped down from the church last July to focus on itineration, we lost income; income that we had become dependent on. It's not like we were sitting there rolling in the dough and blowing tons of money. We were already living paycheck to paycheck. Yet through this time that we've made less money, we have paid every bill, been able to pick up new missionaries to support (yes, missionaries support other missionaries too!), and even had times of extra. Mathematically it doesn't make sense. Find the financial advisor out there that will tell you the best way to have more money is to reduce your income. You will not find it! I wouldn't recommend it myself. But that's what has happened to us. Why? Because God is faithful!

Polly and I are currently at 36% of our monthly budget officially (we're at 45% if you add in the amounts that churches and individuals have pledged which haven't been submitted or gone through yet). Our goal is to be at 50% of our budget by the end of March. That is a lot of extra commitments that we will need over the course of the next week (as well as movement in some of the pledges that haven't been submitted or gone through yet).  Our goal is to leave for Costa Rica in August. And even though it may not seem possible in the natural, we don't live by the natural. Are we being naive? Absolutely not! You see, we have a memorial that is made up of a pile of rocks representing God's faithfulness to us throughout the years. We we look back at what He's done for us in the past, we have hope for the future. That's what Dr. Nunnally meant when he called it "Back to the Future."

We are confident that God will once again show His faithfulness and that God will provide. We will not do it alone though. We need people praying for us and with us. Please pray that God will provide favor in this. Also please pray if you might be a part of the solution. This brings us to the second thing we need: we need people who are able and willing to partner with us through a monthly contribution (it can be $5/mo or $50/mo or $500/mo or $5000/mo or anything in between). We don't seek to manipulate or guilt anyone into giving. We're simply putting the opportunity before you and asking you to consider if you might be a part of the solution. God is faithful! And the cool thing about God's provision is that it doesn't always have to come out of nowhere; sometimes, in fact often time, He chooses to use people...ordinary people. How cool is that?!

Will you consider partnering with us? You can read more about partnering by clicking the "About Partnering" link at the top right or set up that commitment by clicking on the "Make a One-time or Monthly Donation" link or by clicking here.

Regardless of whether or not you will be joining our Sending Team today, I hope that this blog post may have encouraged you for your own life.

In Christ,

Mike