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FOR THE SAKE OF THE CALL: GOD WANTS YOU!

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Jesus is calling us…issuing a special invitation. Will you accept?

 

GOD WANTS YOU!

“Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” 

Matthew 9:37-38, NLT

Yep. Look around. The spiritual fields are indeed ready for harvest. Multitudes are weary of living with no recognized purpose. They’re desperate for hope and are willing to listen to anyone who offers it. But few workers are willing to accept the call. Why? Because it’s hard work.

When I was a little girl, I remember seeing posters of Uncle Sam in his red, white, and blue uniform. Under the angry face, with finger pointing straight at me, the caption read, “Uncle Sam Wants You!” I just wanted to run away from him as fast as I could. His scornful face did not convey the purpose behind his call to service. God is calling out to us. “I WANT YOU to be my hands and feet in a lost world!”  Instead of asking in anger, He whispers to our hearts and pleads with us to see the needs of those around us.

He knows accepting the call is hard. He knows our fears, and doubts, yet He calls us – anyway. He knows our weaknesses and even incompetence, yet He promises to use us if we will step out in faith – anyway. He knows we don’t have what we need, yet promises to equip us for the job – anyway.

Several months ago, we were on a road trip. In the quietness of the car, I mentally planned our next trip to Nicaragua, and I was worried. “Lord”, I prayed, “I know you are telling us to go, but why haven’t you sent the finances? We just got back from three mission trips, and you know we don’t have the money to even finish the Youth Building in the village of Solidaridad, much less having funds for more books and plane tickets. Please send the finances we need for the next mission.”

This wasn’t the first time I’d reminded the Lord about our need. I guess He got tired of the whining, because I very distinctly heard in my heart, “The fields are white unto harvest. Pray for the Lord of the harvest to send workers for the harvest.”  That was quickly followed by, “I never told you to pray for money for the harvest; I told you to pray for the WORKERS for the harvest.”

Oh. OK.  “Lord, would you please send the workers for the harvest?”

We need workers who are prayer warriors to go before us in prayer, as our front line of defense. We need workers to travel to the foreign field with us. We need writers and proofreaders – computer and tech savvy workers to help us raise awareness about the mission to teach women to Take Back their Families. And we need workers with the gift of giving, to help support our missionaries on the ground in Central and South America. Because givers are workers too.

Pray. Go. Give. Three ways to go on mission with us in 2015 and fulfill the great commission. Won’t you join us? Visit our “Virtual Missions Page” to see how.

Until tomorrow

Your Traveling Partner

Brenda

The Desires of Our Heart: Do Good

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“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 37:3-4 seems a little short and simple to study for a full week, but the longer I sit with these two verses, the more I’m finding new troves of treasure in each of them. Truthfully, I find myself focusing on that last part – the Lord giving me the desires of my heart – with much more excitement and passion than I feel in the instructions before those words. I spend so much time chasing a calling or a desire of my heart, that I forget the instructions he has so beautifully laid out before me: Trust in Me. Do good. Dwell in the land. Befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in Me. 

I’d love to spend this week together turning our attention to those things and seeing how the Lord transforms and grants us the desires of our hearts when we put things in their right order.

 

Do Good

“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 

Psalm 37:3

TuesdayDoing good seems to be a pretty popular thing these days. People get behind causes and organizations they believe in, and everyone likes to know that what they’re investing in is doing more than simply bringing them pleasure.

We need to be constantly learning how to have the heart of Jesus when we are “doing good.” I’m a huge fan of the fair-trade movement. But my reasons for buying things that are fair-trade are more selfish than reflective of the heart of Jesus. It’s trendy; it makes me look like a good person to the rest of the world, and I get some really neat stuff.

In order to have the heart of Jesus we must first learn the heart of Jesus. In Scripture Jesus met needs, plain and simple. He healed people, he fed people, and he taught people. He sent them away with a message and an encounter with hope. He shared His life with others. He had water with the woman at the well and offered her life, and He reclined around tables with people that the religious world rejected and deemed unworthy.

Doing good with the heart of Jesus means that we may find ourselves in some uncomfortable situations, in the midst of someone’s uncomfortable story. Doing good with the heart of Jesus means that we show up – we show up with his love, his hope, and his open arms.

Jesus met needs and loved out of an endless well of supplies from the Father. All of us have the same access to this endless well of love and power. We can all meet needs and do good with who we are right now, what we have right now, and how we’re able to right now. So often we look to the future and talking about “our calling” and we forget that we are called to right now.

There are needs all around you, needs that Jesus sees and has chosen you to meet. There are refugees needing to learn English. There’s a church nursery that needs volunteers. There are people struggling through addiction recovery who need to hear your story. There are students who need someone to keep fighting for them. There’s a cashier who desperately needs to see a smile and hear a kind word.

All around you are opportunities to do good and share life and the heart of Jesus. Don’t lose sight of them!

Chelsey