One Hour and No More!!!

Each day I find my passion for Jesus growing.  I have by no means arrived.  But I know where I need to go and it points to Jesus.  I am awed by His creation!  I am moved by His generosity!  Most importantly I am eternally grateful that I am not going to Hell.  By the grace of God and His mercy on me I have been bought.  Oh how sweet this sounds as I write it.  To know that I will be spending eternity with Jesus.  Praise you God for all that you have done for me.  I could not in a million years give you enough thanks-but let me simply give you praise in this moment.  Is not our God worth every ounce of our energy?  I know He is and I know many of you know He is.  So with that said let me just vent for a moment.

I want to share certain words with you.  Yet I am not sure if these words would be considered vulgar and foul or just simply holy indignation.  Since I am not sure I will simply tell you the situation which dumbfounds me.

Several days ago I was asked to speak at a church to be their missionary speaker.  The woman who I spoke to wanted me to share about our Work in Liberia Africa but she wanted to make me aware of the time restrictions and other arrangements.  Now I am fully aware and respectful to time restrictions.  I think some people speak to long and bore us all.  Some people should not even be allowed to get up and speak(Sorry-just my unholy side).  Yet as she shared with me about these time restrictions, she did so to remind me that their were those in the church who would not come to church if they knew it was a missionary speaker.  Matter of fact they were going to cut the typical greeting time where someone reads something funny or heart warming they found on the Internet just so they could give me a little more time.  Well that is certainly generous of them.  Throughout our conversation this woman apologized to me that some in the church might be upset that the “preacher” was not preaching that day.  Of course they would be.  Many of those faithful saints have given  their two dollars each week(none towards missions of course) and by golly they deserve to hear the guy they hired.  Oh and the guy they hired  had better be done in 20 minutes and or less.

I wish I could describe the whole telephone conversation for you.  But in a nutshell the creator of the Universe had 1 hour and if I could cut it down to less that would help since their were some who don’t come to church to hear a missionary speaker.  Good thing they were not around 2,000 years ago, the apostle Paul would not be welcome.  Really though this is not the sad part to this who situation.  The sad part is that the leadership does not have the fortitude to simply stand up and call these non-believers to task.  Oh I am sorry let’s call them members.  I would not want them to be offended.

Well okay I got this of my chest and I am sure that you have room to be critical of my heart and thoughts.  Although we need not to look too far to find that we have many churches with people we are afraid to call to task because we may lose our job or reputation or who knows what.  By golly if Jesus needs 1 hour and 15 minutes than he probably will not be invited to this church.

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

I have just returned back from Liberia, Africa. It has been a wonderful trip to see how God is moving in other places around the World. Liberia is a country that has recently come through a 14 year civil war. It is true “war is hell”. This is the case for the country of Liberia. This country rich in natural resources has been knocked into the stone ages. 85% of the people are unemployed. The average salary for a year is $450 dollars. Not much for any place in the World. But Liberia’s true poverty goes a lot deeper. It is nation that is not only in desperate need of God but it is in desperate need of seeing God. It is hard to see God when you physically are starving. I guess this is where I come into the story.

I have been to Liberia on 3 previous trips. On two of these trips I had the opportunity to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I enjoy sharing Christ with people. I am a firm believer that there is no hope outside of Jesus Christ. Yet this last time to Liberia God seem to impress on me not a new message but a more complete message. On my airplane ride home(plenty of time to think on a long flight) God seem to overwhelm me with this key thought. Basically this thought evolved from some things I really enjoy. I enjoy clean drinking water. I also enjoy going to church and not getting rained on. I enjoy the opportunity of working hard and earning a income to take care of my family. And now this is where God comes in. I heard his voice. It was not audible. But it was certainly clear. “David” he said, “You enjoy these basics of life, don’t you think that others especially in Liberia would enjoy these as well?” That’s when it hit me. God said to love my neighbor as myself. I enjoy the basics of life. If I enjoy these things why would I not seek to do what I could to help those who did not have access to these things enjoy them as well. If I truly love my neighbor I would seek to take care of Him.

This may not be a huge revelation to you. It certainly is not new to anyone but God certainly reminded me that He put me on this earth to love others not only with words but to take care of them physically as well. And so here is my dilemma. I have come home and am back to drinking my filtered water and worshipping in my climate controlled church and eating foods that do not make me sick while thousands of miles away my brothers in Christ are struggling to find these things that I take for granted. And so I am burdened, maybe even passioned about seeking to find away to do something about this matter. Since I have come home I have shared with my church that I want us to go back next February and build a church building that does not have a leaky roof. I also want us to bring over a water system that will clean their contaminated water. I want to simply love them in the name of Jesus. The project is huge. It is of goliath proportions. The building itself may cost over $60,000 US dollars. The water system is several thousand. Some may say just do a little at a time. But why is it that we here in the states have to have our satisfaction taken care instantly while others wait. By the way this is not an indictment on our culture as much as it is a reason to be more passioned to somehow help the church in Liberia sooner than later.

I do not know where God is going to lead me or my team going to Africa next year. I do not know where resources will come from. But I do know that our Father has all the resources he needs to take care of his people. So I guess I am simply asking you to pray for the work in Liberia. Pray for me that I will know how to go about putting together a project such as the one i have mentioned. Pray that God will send people my way or resources my way so that we can love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves.

Thanks for hearing me. God is so good. If you want to know how you can be a part of what God is doing in Liberia please let me know there is so much work to be done. God is good!