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Overloaded????
Welcome to my ministry website! Does the picture remind you of anything? Too much to carry, huh? Hebrews 12:1 says, "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us" (NIV). With the arrival of spring, shall we reorder our priorities so that we can solely focus on God's purpose for our lives? May the Lord work through you this spring!
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A new openness
John 4:20
In the days of Jesus, Israel’s religious leaders sent out missionaries (Matt. 23:15), but their message to outsiders was something like this: Only if you follow our way can you be saved; only then can we accept you. The Samaritan woman had sensed this attitude among the surrounding peoples, and therefore she was surprised by Jesus’ openness to her.
We need to be careful not to impose our cultural traditions on others as a condition for knowing God. When large numbers of Western Dani people in Irian Jaya came to faith in Jesus Christ during the 1960s, the Western missionaries did not require them to sing Western hymns or wear Western clothes. Dani men typically wore only a gourd over their genitals. Ironically, when the Danis began evangelizing the Sawi and Asmat peoples, whose men wore nothing at all, they wanted to clothe them with gourds. They also wanted them to sing their Dani hymns.
Jesus told the Samaritan woman that old restrictions on worship would soon be ended. He once described himself as the good shepherd who had to bring sheep from many different sheep pens (other cultures) into one (multicultural) flock (see John 10:14-16). Jesus wanted disciples who would approach the sheep through himčthe gatečand not in their own way.
When you share the gospel with outsiders, what message do they hear from your behavior?
More study: John 10:1-16; Acts 10:1ą11:19;
Gal. 2:11-14; 6:12-15.
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Faster than the fastest
A few years ago, I sensed the Lord say, "The Spirit of God is moving faster than the computer field." What does that mean to us, as God's people?
It means that we must be continually listening - and keeping up to the Holy Spirit who lives within us. But how?
-By not quenching Him with unbelief or disobedience. 1 Thes 5:19
-By not grieving Him by what we look at, listen to, or by the wrong attitude of our hearts. Eph 4:29-32
-By not resisting Him through pride or independence. Acts 7:51
Instead we should yield to Him...
-By keeping in step with Him. Gal 5:25
-By being led by Him. Rom 8:14
-By acknowledging Him in all our ways. Prov 3:5-7
The all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving God wants to lead us and give us revelation and creativity daily; but we must submit to Him by listening individually - and corporately - to find out what is on His heart.
We will see nations discipled through business, government, media, education, sciences, arts, family and the local church, if we will just stop and listen; and then walk in obedience to the voice of God through the Holy Spirit, and according to the written Word of God, the Bible.
Together we must seek Him in humility and dependence. But we need each other too.
I believe as we network with each other, as we live by Kingdom principles and as we listen to the King of Kings...
His Kingdom will come and His will will be done. Matt 6:9-10
by Donna Jordan. Reprinted from In Touch published by YWAM Associates, a ministry of Youth With A Mission. Go to www.ywamassociates.com for more information.
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