As In a Mirror

I just wanted to share some stuff with y’all! Today, an Mission Aviation Fellowship giving catalog showed up in my mail!

It’s so cool; through gifts of money, you can help spread the gospel and help God’s people WORLDWIDE!

MAF helps missionaries show the JESUS film project.

Hey, I know this guy!

That’s Kimo! Don’t remember? He’s one of the Huaorani who speared Jim Elliot and his partners, but is now an elder in the church that exists in his tribe! In fact, He’s one of the guys that baptized Steve and Kathy Saint, Nate Saint’s children!

Also in my mail today came “Give Me This Mountain” by Dr. Helen Roseveare, a British missionary to the Congo in the 1950′s and 60′s. I have wanted this book for a while, and my Mom recently found out and got it for me! Isn’t that so SWELL?! I am sure you will be hearing more from me about this book soon! Hey, don’t laugh… I’ll keep my promise and tell you about The Widow’s Might, too… sometime. Ehem.

Whew! And that’s not all that happened today! I discovered another Hillsong song! It’s I’m Not Ashamed from their Saviour King CD. WOW! I have listened to it 4 times today! This is the rare stuff that I like to turn up ALL the way! That CD is definitely on my wishlist! Maybe even the DVD… big bucks tho. The only reason I wouldn’t post it here for you to listen to is because it plays automatically, and even though it’s a good song, “autoplay” can get quite annoying… So please click the link and tell me if you can’t stop playing it! I’ve got that cool guitar stuck in my head!
I especially love these lyrics: “I live in the risen Son!”

So I am a happy turkey. Where did that phrase come from? Dunno. I’ll look it up later. Hope your day went well!

Filed under : Books, Missions, Music, Uncategorized

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This week’s inspiring story–my utmost sincere apologies for the unprecedented delay– once again focuses on Amy Carmichael, Irish Presbyterian missionary to India. Only, this time, the story focuses on when she was seventeen years old, still living in Belfast, Ireland with her family. It was just her, her mother, four brothers and two sisters; her father had recently died. Here is an excerpt from the book A Chance to Die, by Elisabeth Elliot.

The preocupations of seventeen-year-old girls–their looks, their clothes, their social life–do not change very much from generation to generation. But in every generation there seem to be a few who make other choices. Amy was one of the few.

The decisive moment which determined the direction of her life came on a dull Sunday morning in Belfast as the family was returning from church. They saw what they had never seen before in Presbyterian Belfast–an old woman lugging a heavy bundle. Amy and her brothers turned around, took the bundle, and helped her along by the arms. “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 blowing us about, and blowing, too, the rags of the poor old woman, till she seemed like a bundle of feathers and we unhappily mixed up in them.”

In the middle of the street was a beautiful Victorian fountain. As Amy and her brothers trudged passed it with the old woman and her bundle, Amy distinctly heard a strong voice coming from the waters of that fountain. It said, “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…” (1 Corinthians 3:12-14)

Amy turned to see who had spoken. There was nothing but the fountain, the muddy street, the people with their politely surprised faces. The children plodded on with the bundle of feathers, but something had happened to the girl which changed forever life’s values. That afternoon she shut herself in her room. It was time to settle some immensely important things, and things of that sort Amy Carmichael settled alone with God.”

Young Amy Carmichael began to organize meetings with the poor city children in the labor force. She worked at the YWCA, held classes for poor girls, and helped anyone she could. But she still felt it not enough. The Lord showed Amy that He was able to keep her from falling. (Jude 1:24) Would she trust Him with her life? Would she do what was right and leave the results in His hands, not fearing the people? More important, would she trust that He alone made her holy?

The Lord would eventually lead Amy to India, where she would stay for the rest of her life, rescuing His precious gems. But I won’t give it all away; I’ll let you find out for yourself!

Not every one of us can go to foreign lands and preach the gospel to the pagans. But every one of us has been given his part in laying “the foundation.” Will it last?

Certainly some of us have been blessed with the tool of blogs! This meme especially, hosted by Miss Symanski, is a great tool.

Filed under : Books, Discipleship, Inspiring Story, Missions

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Even in our modern information age, with all its gadgets, mp3 players, ipods, X-boxes, gameboys, cellphones, and MacDonalds, the old principle still stands that nothing beats a good book. But let us qualify, here; how exactly shall we define a “good book”? Action-packed? Vivid description of plot, character, and setting? Happy ending? Support of moral values? How about correct grammar? We might go a little deeper and say, “This book really made me think about the relevency of my own life,” or “Such values or practices will make us better people.”
Have you ever heard people say of a person, “He’s so heavenly minded that he’s no earthly good!” Recently, I mean. Well, just to clarify, that phrase contradicts itself. The heavenly minded are the ones who “make this world a better place,” because they understand the truth that our actions here on earth have eternal relevency. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10)
In light of this, I believe that the best books are those that challenge us to live more heavenly minded, more sacrificially; those books are the best which bring us to a broader understanding of God or stimulate our desire to seek Him. No other book does this as well as the written Word of God, of course. There are many books which have done this for me, among them Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot, A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael, Through the Gates of Splendor, all by Elisabeth Elliot, Jungle Pilot by Russell T. Hitt, The Hiding Place by Corrie tenBoom, Brother Andrew and Gladys Aylward by Geoff and Janet Benge.
I want you to know that to describe these books as “inspirational” or “interesting” would be an understatement. They have greatly fortified me and encouraged me; I know that the same battles I fight with the devil have been and are being fought by others. Most of all, I see that in everything, God ALWAYS wins. We just need to completely entrust ourselves to Him so that we can win and reign with Him. (Revelation 5:10) The Lord says that He will divide the spoils with the strong, those who endure to the end. (Isaiah 53:12)
All the above books are biographies of people who put their faith in God. We need to remember that faith is not an emotion or a discipline; it is an assurance deep inside, just as our love for family members is. We didn’t work it up, it is just there, it is real. We did, however, have to nurture it with some things that were painful for us to sacrifice. If we nurtured it, it grows, and if we neglect it, it withers. Our faith is the exact same way, and one of the ways we nurture faith is by confession, then also by action. Faith requires a humbling of ourselves that the believed might be exalted; it requires an emptying of ourselves that we might be filled with confidence in another. “Faith is the realization of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
So, I ask you, where is your faith? Is it growing? If your faith is in Jesus Christ and you are nurturing it by confessing it, sharing it, and studying it in the lives of others, great is your reward if you persevere. As in the lives of the people examined in the above biographies, you must carry your cross down the road, but you have that assurance that the One who carried the sin of the world has conquered the enemy and given you the victory. Yes indeed, a life surrendered entirely to Jesus is a worthy pursuit.

Filed under : Books, Discipleship, Missions

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