Living On The Edge Of Trust

There was a time that I thought God had abandoned me and my young family, leading me to question who He was and my desire to serve Him in missions. As I would later learn, though, God is often at work behind the scenes in order to accomplish something greater than we could ever imagine.

We packed everything we owned in one truck and were headed to coast of Georgia to serve in a health-care missions organization. It was a scary and an exciting time for my wife, Kathi, and I. We had two young children under the age of 3, our house had been on the market for several months without a single bite, and we had absolutely nothing in savings. Life was about to get very interesting.

My work was going great. I loved what I was doing: communicating with people, in Ecuador and Africa, on the frontlines of providing healthcare for the poorest among the poor, traveling to remote countries to set up computer networks, and helping to maintain and improve a technical infrastructure at the headquarters. I was doing God’s work. There was trouble at home, though, and I was questioning God’s sovereignty and provision.

We were not making much money at MAP. Everything we had went to paying the bills and caring for our two young children. We knew that money would be tight before moving to Georgia and were at peace with that sacrifice. However, our house in Mississippi had still not sold and we didn’t have the money to pay the apartment rent and pay a mortgage on a house that we didn’t live in. We had to stop making the mortgage payments and it wasn’t long before the foreclosure notices started to arrive.

During this time, the company began a series of cost-cutting measures and started a series of layoffs. I felt confident my job was safe, but I began questioning that confidence when the second series of lay-offs began.

Deep down, I wondered if God had abandoned our young family during this desert time. Our house was about to get foreclosed upon, we were dead broke, and the company I worked for was laying people off. At one point, my wife had gone to the drug store to get some medicine for our 7-month old girl, only to find out that our insurance had been canceled. Kathi and I stayed up late at night, often crying ourselves to sleep, worried about where things were headed. Where was this God that we were serving and giving everything up for? Was He real? Does He really provide for those He loves?

Late one night, a friend of ours called to see how things were going. Kathi unloaded everything on them. “We can’t sell the house, nor find a renter. We haven’t made a mortgage payment in months and they are about to foreclose on the house, and sue us for money we don’t have. If we don’t come up with the back payments by next week, the house is gone. In addition, Rob’s company is laying people off. Things are not good.” Our friends were stunned. They had no idea that things were that bad.

By the next morning, our friends called us to say that our home church had been working the phone lines all morning and had come up with the back mortgage payments, plus the next month’s mortgage payment. We were shocked. God used His church to provide in our critical time of need and just at the time we were about to lose everything and question God’s ability to provide. Within two weeks of catching up the mortgage payments, God, again, moved within our home church and found a renter who stayed in that house for the next two years.

God doesn’t always provide in a financial way like that. Often times, He allows the worst to happen in order for His glory to be ultimately fulfilled. During other trials in our life, God has allowed our worst nightmare to come true. In this case, however, God saved us at the brink of losing it all.

We had reached rock bottom in our trust of God and who He was. That was exactly what He wanted in order to teach us that in times of trial, we have to rely on what we know about God and His character, and not what we feel. Emotions can often distort reality and give the false impression that God is absent and not in total control. In addition, God also showed how He uses His body to minister and care for the church in times of need. Those were critical lessons God would use years later as we would begin a new chapter in God’s sovereignty and provision. But that is a story for another time.

I’ll never be the Jet-Man

Amazing stuff – you will never, ever see me doing this though.

Video: Jet-man

Pursuing Holiness

This is an article I just finished as part of my writing class with Christian Writers Guild.

Several years ago, I began reading Jerry Bridges “Pursuit of Holiness” in order to gain a better a understanding of what God requires of us as we walk with Him. Up until that study, the idea of “pursuing holiness” meant memorizing scripture, having a daily quiet time, and attending worship. While those are elements that naturally come out of wanting to pursue a Godly walk, I never realized the importance of addressing the physical aspects of my life and how they naturally impact the desire of wanting to spend more time with God, studying His Word, and enhancing the time I spend in worship of Him. As I have realized in my own life, and as Jerry put it so well in his book, “As we become soft and lazy in our bodies, we tend to become soft and lazy spiritually”. Let’s examine what God says about being holy, why addressing our physical bodies in that pursuit of holiness is so important, and some practical tips to help along the journey.

For even the casual reader of Scripture, there is no escaping the command God places upon those He has called. Among all the verses in the Bible, Leviticus 11:44 is the most clear when it comes to why we should live a life of holiness: “For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.” The command is clear: we are to be holy because God is holy. 1 Peter 1:15-16 expounds on that verse by saying, “so be holy in all you do.” Pursuing holiness means obeying God in every area of your life, oftentimes requiring costly sacrifice. It is important to know that striving to live a holy life before God requires more strength than what we have. However, as Phillipians 4:13 reminds us, we are to live out this command in sole dependence upon the Holy Spirit, “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.” Therefore, not only does God lay out the command of how we are to live, He also provides the strength and grace in order to do so. So, what does all this have to do with our physical bodies?

I like to explain pursuing holiness in our bodies as being the foundational element to pursuing holiness in other areas of our life. For example, if the foundation of a building is flawed, it will likely succumb to the slightest windstorm. Likewise, if we cannot control our physical indulgences, how much harder will it be to battle the heart and mind with its sexual temptations, struggles with contentment, and other sins buried deep within the heart? As Thomas Boston wrote, “They that would keep themselves pure must have their bodies in subjection, and that may require, in some cases, a holy violence.” Jerry Bridges, in “The Pursuit of Holiness” put it well when he said, “When the body is pampered and indulged, the instincts and passions of the body tend to get the upper hand and dominate our thoughts and actions. We tend to not do what we should do, but what we want to do, as we follow the craving of our sinful nature.” Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, also understood that he must bring his body under subjection, lest he find himself battling spiritual battles. “No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” ( 1 Corinthians 9:27 ) Pursuing holiness in your body is key to obeying God’s command to be holy because He is holy, as it serves as the foundational element to pursuing holiness in other parts of your life. What are some practical ways to go about that, though?

One of the more effective ways to discipline the body is to teach it not to overindulge and eat on a whim, which is one of the culprits to getting fat. For example,I have found it helpful to preplan my meals for the day. When I have all of my meals planned out and prepared, I’m not likely to hit Burger King for lunch and go for the Biggie size. In addition to pre-planning my meals, eating 4 to 6 small meals throughout the day teaches my stomach to be satisfied with less because it knows more is coming later. As the stomach gets used to smaller meals, it will shrink in size and become more content with what it is fed. In addition to food, short, intense daily workouts are very important. I have found that six 20 to 45 minute workouts throughout the week are much more effective than one 2 3-hour workouts because the body does not let go of fat as easily unless it is in a frequent mode of exercise.

This has immediate applications to spiritual areas of our life as well. Learning to be content is often best done when small purchases are made frequently over time, rather than going without for a long time, and then spending a lot on credit as a result of going without for so long. In addition to learning to be content, studying scripture is best accomplished through frequent, short studies of scripture, rather than long periods of drought followed by big bursts of study. When we begin to bring our bodies under subjection, we can immediately apply those lessons to other areas of our life.

As I have found in my own life, being soft and lazy physically has often been a reflection of being soft and lazy spiritually. When I’m not planning my meals and working out on a regular basis, my desire for God’s companionship has often gone by the wayside as well. I begin making poor decisions, and I become used to living a life based on what makes me feel good instead of what pleases God. I’ve found that to bring my life back in line with what God desires and commands, I always have to start with my body, and cease making it my master.