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1st Timothy 1:5 “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” NASB
I have the privilege of working with the School of the Bible here at YWAM. It is an 11 month long bible school, where the students not only learn to study the bible, they also learn to apply it practically in their own lives, and how to teach it to others. We have just started prepping for the next school, which starts at the end of the month.
(In interest of full disclosure, I got this recipe from my friend Jessica. Having eaten it many times, I can assure you that it is, indeed, delicious.)
Eating healthy. Mom always said you should, and Mom knows best, right? But with the large amount of preservatives found in the simplest of foods these days, many think that it is a lost cause. Don’t be so quick to give up. Bread is one of the staples of the American diet, and here is a simple way to bake your own healthy alternative to the preservative-loaded white bread you’re eating now. It’s easier (and tastier) than you think.
Romans 5:1-5 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” NASB
Thinking about hope tonight. I guess it is an unstated yet underlying theme in some of my other posts, when talking about the challenges of life. But I wanted to focus on the positive side of things here. The passage above talks about tribulations, but it also talks about positive things being born from those tribulations. Perseverance. Proven character. And hope. “And hope does not disappoint…”
We have peace with God. His love is in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. We have a rich hope indeed.
So there it is. I don’t have any long-winded commentary to offer you tonight here. But whatever is going on in your life, know that there is hope. Be encouraged.
p.s. This post was partially inspired by a song by for King & Country called “Crave”. Have a listen, and I hope you enjoy it.
My friend Dustin Tavella was on the t.v. show Sweet Home Alabama, as one of the “city guys”. While there, he made friends with several of the “country guys”, including one really cool cowboy named Bubba. Dustin is an extremely talented musician, and this video was the result of that friendship. Enjoy. 😉
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Psalm 116:1-8 “I love the LORD, because He hears My voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, Therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live. The cords of death encompassed me And the terrors of Sheol came upon me; I found distress and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the LORD: “O LORD, I beseech You, save my life!” Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; Yes, our God is compassionate. The LORD preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul, For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. For You have rescued my soul from death, My eyes from tears, My feet from stumbling.” NASB
This is probably one of my favorite scriptures, just a small snippet of my favorite psalm. I know many people have their own personal favorites, and we could each give a reason why, but I thought I’d just share mine today. I hope my thoughts on it will encourage you.
(Tyler Hess blogs about practical and spiritual applications of faith at undistractedchristian and you can follow him on twitter! If you want to write a guest post for missionsmusings, here’s how.)
Two years ago my wife and I went on what might be the riskiest adventure of our lives.
We gave up a fairly comfortable, boring life, in southern California to go minister at a church in the semi-foreign island of Kauia, Hawaii.
I know, I know, it is one of the United States, but it’s a different culture than what we were used to and for the first time in my life I was a minority.
We both grew up in church and we went to Bible college together, so we have heard all kinds of stories about different pastors, missionaries and evangelists doing crazy awesome things from town to town and nation to nation.
What we hadn’t heard until right before we left is the one thing that we needed to hear, which was that we didn’t have to be what other people expected us to be, that we didn’t need to pretend that we were something else entirely.
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ…
Eph 4: 11-12
My wife and I aren’t exactly what you would call “extroverts”.
We’re just quiet people, who like to listen before speaking and who care about getting to know people.
When people think about being a successful missionary, they think about how many people you lead to Christ, about great stories of evangelism and miracles along the way.
They don’t think about getting to know people and encouraging believers in the faith. They don’t think about getting a job and witnessing to co-workers while earning a normal paycheck, just like at home.
The greatest bit of wisdom that I can pass along to any hopeful or present missionaries is that whoever you are at home, that is who you should be when you go out from there, whatever that may be.
Do you know who you are in Christ?
Happy Friday afternoon! I’m going to keep this post short, on account of the fact that I’m currently suffering from a migraine, and hence in no condition to write anything truly worth reading.
That said, you can check out this guest post I wrote for Donya Dunlap’s blog. It talks a bit about an experience I had while on a missions trip to Nepal. I hope you enjoy it. 🙂
Acts 6:1-5a, 8 “Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. “Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” The statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit,…And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the
people.” NASB
I guess you could say this is in some regards a follow up to some of my thoughts on how missions work can take on many forms. (see previous post)
Do you ever hate your job? Ever feel like you’re wasting your time, and you’d almost rather die than spend one more hour at work? Does it seem like you’re doing “grunt work”, rather than “real ministry”? Yep…I sometimes feel like that too. I think we all do.
Just a quick “public service announcement” to let you know that today I posted my very first guest post, over on Lindsay Morelli’s blog. It is on the subject of journaling, and if you feel like having a look, you can see it here.
Regular blogging will resume later this evening.
This concludes my public service announcement. 😉
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