God-sized Moment

I had the opportunity to experience God this evening. It wasn't through some pious action of my own doing, nor was it in a great praise and worship event, rather it was in the fellowship of God's people seeking to participate in something much greater than anyone of them could accomplish on their own. Something none of us could accomplish on our own, even if we were working together. A God-sized task had revealed itself to some members of the church and I was privy to the revelation. We believe that we have been called to help with the disaster relief in Haiti.

At this point many of you may sound skeptical. You might be saying to yourself, why all kinds of people are doing this. To which I reply you are correct. But just because a number of folks are already doing it doesn't mean that God hasn't asked us to join in too. As our group discussed, and planned, a sense of purpose and clarity emerged. But also a sense of how large the task at hand truly was. If this activity is going to work, then God will have to be in it. It was as if God laid the challenge out there and said, take up the challenge and then watch me go to work. The vast sway of ideas progressing forward only served to build my confidence in the One who I had just experienced.

Now comes the hard part. The transition. God has been seen at work in Haiti and has invited us to join Him there. We have taken the step in faith to begin the process, I like others in my team must continue stepping toward where God is in order to be successful in accomplishing HIS purpose for Haiti and for us.

Prayers for Haiti

Recently I had a friend ask me what she could do to help with the crisis currently going on in Haiti. Of the responses that I offered one was incredibly underrated. I told her to pray. Too often in the course of missions and ministry we simply let these words roll off our lips as if they were another thing to be checked off our "to do" list for the day. We fail the grasp the significance of this tremendous access to God's unlimited power. You see in prayer, real prayer - where we listen to what God has to say, we come into direct contact with the Divine Will. These encounters cannot help but leave us changed for the better. Prayer encourages us, it empowers us to do what we thought we coudn't, and finally it helps us to understand the Father better. When we are able to understand the Father, we are able to respond in obedience to his commands because we know fully what they are and we hear them directly given. We listen and obey, much is accomplished because God is glorified. So please don't discount the value of prayer, especially in this time of international crisis. Remember, its not when all else fails, but rather before all else, pray, pray, and pray some more.

Grace and Peace

Just Like Dad

Recently, as I was recovering from the Christmas blitz and trying to put our house back in order, it was brought to my attention that I needed to hang some pictures on the wall. This is not a particularly exciting event, but an incredibly poignant event sparked my attention. As I had my hammer out ready to hit the nail, I turned around and noticed that my 4-year old son had found his toy hammer and was mimicking my every move. He wanted to be just like his daddy.

What a perfect picture, pardon the play on words, of what it means to be a follower of God. We should strive to be more like our heavenly DADDY each and every day. A part of that effort must come in the form of missions. You see God left his place of comfort. The scriptures tell us He became both God and man in the form of Jesus Christ here on this earth. HIS purpose, simple, to seek and save the lost.

Let us ponder this and try to be just like DAD.