Oh the places you'll go...

We have learned quite a bit in such a short amount of time that we have been here. Since mid project we have seen a few more people start a relationship with Christ and we have now shared with people from over 30 different countries! Please pray for those who are starting to walk with the Lord, both new believers and those who are rededicating their efforts to make God the Lord of every area of their lives. In the coming week we will be leaving [which is crazy to think] and flying out and leaving them here, but our goal is that each student who desires it would have the opportunity to get plugged into a church, a Bible study, discipleship and the ministry of Student Life at Victoria University. I will be sure to let you know names so you can be praying specifically just before we leave along with the full list of countries that we have shared with.

God has been using this time not only to move in the lives of people we talk to, but also to speak heaps of things to our team. One of the girls on our team shared something with us during one of our times together that I thought would be great to share with you. It is a journal entry that is addressed to herself so she could look back later to remember the weight of what she learned. It is a bit longer than our average post, but worth the read. Here it is:

I used to pride myself in having the ability to talk to people and communicate with them. I used to think that if I didn’t say something right or use the right words that the person I was speaking to wouldn’t respond well to what I was saying, if at all. I thought that if I made the topic I wanted to speak about appealing enough that the person would become enlightened and would agree with what I have to say. I especially thought this about sharing the Gospel. There was just never a very appealing way to get people to listen in my opinion. I mean if you go up to someone point blank and ask them if they want to hear the gospel there is a slim chance that they are going to say yes to you - and I only wanted to hear the yes answer. I never wanted to hear no because that would have meant that people didn’t like my presentation. It had nothing to do with whether or not the topic of what they were hearing was what they wanted to hear or not, it was all about the presentation. Because, after all, first impressions are everything and if I didn’t make a good first impression then no one I talked to about God was ever going to accept Christ. With this attitude I didn’t really share the gospel or anything else. What I did was put on a show. I wanted being a Christian to look really good to someone who didn’t know what it was about. Let me say that again…I wanted being a Christian to look really good. Reading this are you freaking out on the inside because I know I am just writing it! I have spent most of my walk with God if not all of it trying to make it look good. It’s not about me its about God!! I just want to scream it so the whole world can hear what I have learned about God. I have been shown that no matter how well I present the gospel to someone - if their heart is not ready then I am going to hear a no. It has nothing to do with whether or not I make this look good. Being a Christian is not about looking good or appealing to someone’s better nature. It is about speaking life directly to another person’s heart. That is what the word of God is. THE WORD OF GOD IS LIFE! There is nothing I can do or say as a human to make a hard heart open up to God. Just like there is no way that in my own strength I can take a rock and turn it into a beam of light. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 Paul talks to the people of Corinth delivering the gospel. And when he talks to them he tells them that he didn’t come to talk to them with eloquence and superior wisdom but that he came to give the testimony of God. The only thing he knew was Jesus Christ and his crucifixion. By knowing that truth about Jesus he come to his brothers in weakness and trembling. He was afraid to speak to the people about Jesus. Paul said, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the spirits power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” God is so much bigger then any one in the world. His wisdom is infinite. I do not want the world’s faith to rest on my wisdom, because if that was the case man would surely die. I am nothing compared to God. I am small and insignificant. 1 Corinthians 1:25 says that God’s foolishness is wiser then men’s wisdom and His weakness is stronger then man’s strength. I used to think that God’s weakness and man’s strength were millimeters apart from each other. Now I see that there is an infinite gap between the two. Never in any of my strengths can I ever even attempt to climb the ladder and even catch a glimpse of God’s strength and wisdom. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Jesus said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” To me weakness was not being able to make the gospel or even Christianity look good. I had to be strong and make sure that I was carrying that heavy mask around with me wherever I went. I had to especially to wear it when I was sharing the gospel. I have been shown that there is nothing I can do or say to anyone to make them accept the free gift that God wants to give them. I am not a sales man I am a messenger or delivery man if you will. I am weak because there is nothing I can do to get people to let Jesus in. In Revelation 3:20 Jesus says that he is standing at the door knocking. Did you read that? JESUS is at the door knocking! Not you, not me, Jesus is the one who can enter the heart of another person. You cannot. I delight in my weakness knowing that that is the will of God and he will use my all of my insufficiencies for his glory. He is the creator of heaven and earth and can use all things together for good. No matter how bad I mess things up God is always stronger and can use me in that broken state and mold me into what He wants me to become.
- Johanna C.

It is a great reminder to all of us as we step out in faith to share Christ with those around us to realize it's not about us. Just as Psalm 115:1 says, "Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness." Amen to that.

Dave

PS - pictures and stories to come in the next 48 hours...