A beautiful place...


Last evening a visitor from India was in our home. She happens to have been our in-country contact while Lauren and her team were there last summer.

We had a great time of fellowship and laughter. She is precious young woman, full of life, who says she likes the USA because she can be herself more here than in her country.

Her family started a seminary a few years ago. Many new pastors are being trained there. I have had the privilege of meeting her father as well, and his heart to share Christ and train others to do so, is immense.

There is a great deal of persecution in that country. Voice of the Martyrs on-line magazine is lit up every month with stories of beatings and violence imposed from radical Hindu's onto Christians.

Our guest shared a story that a friend of her father, who started a seminary in a different city was recently one of those persecuted. He pastors a church and trains young men to be pastors. The result of his work is impacting his country.

A radical band of men found him driving his car. They had been seeking him. They surrounded his car and broke out the windows of the car with large stones. They drug him out and beat him severely.

During the beating, his thoughts were of the young men who needed further training to be able to effectively minister. He had no idea who would carry on the work if he was gone. He felt such a sense of responsibility to continue Kingdom work. He made a decision. He would play dead.

This maneuver would save his life.

Because he lay as though dead during the imposed brutality, he would survive. After a time of medical attention and recovery, he is well, and is back teaching and preaching. He is aware that a similar fate may lie ahead for him. His decision? Serve the Lord!

Scenarios like this are playing out in that region and many like it every day.

If these brothers and sisters who suffer persecution routinely can forge ahead, then we have no excuses to fall back on.

In the book of Haggai is a story of how the Israelites were given permission to rebuild the temple, but for the next forty some years, used the materials intended for the temple to panel their own walls and live in their own comfort, saying as one, "it's not yet time to rebuild."

When we read this, I wonder if we ever understand how closely we resemble them. The tremendous resources we have, need to be used to care for those who are lost and in need, in every sense of what that means.

Yet, most of us would choose to focus on our own little plot of ground and build it up nicely while others bound for hell, get no relief.

What will it take for us to reach out? When will we begin to share our Lord and our resources with those who are without?

Let us not forget that it was the wealthy man in Luke 12:16-21 who tore down his barns and built new and better ones to hold all that he possessed that he might live in comfort for a long time to come. Yet his very life ended up being required of him. It is those who truly trust and follow hard after the Lord who are truly wealthy, not those who spend great sums of time planning and storing up for tomorrow.

We must share from the overflow that has been provided to us. The wealth we have was never intended to be hoarded.

Praise God for His provision! Let us also share it!

dad