The Mission

This is an interesting time of life. For most of my walk I have found myself thinking and reasoning as to what was next in the journey of life. This seems to be coming to an end. I see God monopolizing more and more the focus of my thoughts and my desires. As this takes place, the pursuits that have been entangling me seem to be dissipating. I remember distinctively how happiness in my life was taking the next trip or acquiring the next thing only to find emptiness when it was a part of my bundle. In recent years I have been discovering that God is ultimately worthy of my every thought and action and that I want nothing more now than to find my satisfaction in Him. I believe this is happening and will happen increasingly more as I invest more energy in listening and discovering who He is as He chooses to reveal Himself to me through His word, His ways, other believers, and circumstances of life. I know that I am only scratching the surface compared to many of the saints who have gone before. I think for most of us affluence is the ultimate stealer of God’s best and only He can reveal to us sufficient glory that pales the effect of that in our lives. His calling is beyond words and is not even worthy to be compared to the false fulfillment of accumulating things. Listen to the words that I read recently in my Perspectives notebook related to passion:
“Passion is the heart set free to pursue that which is truly worthy. Those who set their hearts on that which is most worthy – the glory of god – live with joy-filled abandon. Their hearts are both seized and satisfied with the ambition for Jesus to be ardently worshiped. That love comes to dominate and integrate all other desires so as to live in freedom of single-minded purpose.” May that passion become more and more my life.

What a day this was. First of all I am struggling to get the victory over a cold bug that hangs in their tight. Not being one who surrenders easily, I was up early and after a brief encounter with the Lord, headed off for a breakfast meeting. After breakfast I moved to the office and spent the morning thinking of last minute details related to our team going to Namibia and praying for God’s work in each of their lives.

Knowing that God is in charge, finances are in order and Amy is on top of things I feel the beauty of God’s work in process. Then the phone rings and I am off for a lunch meeting to discuss, of all things, the future destiny of a couple I have grown to love very much and to witness anew God doing His marvelous work in conforming his children to Himself. I hurry back for a long meeting this afternoon and have the opportunity to witness the incredible consequences of not doing things God’s way and the garbage heap that remains. I often am so amazed at how incredibly naive we are when it comes to the things of God. Why is it we cannot believe totally in a God who makes it so simple to follow after Him? I didn’t say that it is easy. In fact, I have probably been one of the greatest to continual turn back to my own nature and do it in my strength. Why can’t I just love and trust God and seek His will instead of lollygagging back to my own strength and logic? Maybe it is plain old pride.

John Piper put it this way: “The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasure of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable.”

I know that I want for Him to be the passionate appetite that I pursue so that He gets the glory in all things.

Everyday I wake up early and begin the day. Getting up is never easy but laying in bed, unable to sleep is a real drag. The first thing I do is take our Yorkie, Benji, outside to do his jobs. Afterward, I head up the stairs to my office to check my email, to do my reading and to allow the Living God to interact with my heart and mind. It is in the inner times with the Lord that He often provides for me the food that I need to do the day. God always is faithful with a word to sustain the weary.

Yesterday I talk briefly with a team from my Church, Apex, who are going to Okahandja, Namibia to work with Christ’s Hope International in fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic. I shared with them two thoughts that God had given me that day which I am trying to make a part of my life.
1. “Let me build for the years I shall not see” – Charles Cowman
It will take generations, if the Lord does not return, for the people on the continent of Africa to go sufficiently deep enough with the Lord to change the sexual promiscuous culture that is destroying the continent. They must see that they are special and that God has created them to save themselves for His best.
2. “The beginning of greatness is LITTLE, the increase of greatness is to be LESS, and the peerfection of greatness is to be NOTHING”. – D.L. Moody
I must decrease, He must increase.