Saturday, April 30, 2011

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord

Where does your joy come from?

I enjoy the fresh beauty of spring, with the promise of life all around me. The beautiful, the hopeful, the encouraging... these give joy. But what about the disappointments and distresses of life? What about when your best efforts fail and hope withers before your eyes?

Where can joy be found then?

I have learned that circumstances will change. People will disappoint me. Life's treasures don't endure. But the everlasting God, the Author and Finisher of my faith, remains true. Whatever I may face in this life, I can rejoice in Him.

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The rainy season for the Savannah is nearly over, and Lawrence reports:
We have not yet had rains around Makindu. The crops have now began withering away. But the Dear Lord has blessed the area with underground water from the nearby plains. Several people are growing food there ...which has found its way the market, if only one can afford to pay for it. Some people find jobs in the little farms easily though the food is so expensive! We can now get green maize, vegetables and some fruits-- watermelons are plenty. Praise the Lord for all His goodness.

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The cow peas are surviving. They tower above the green peas and are flowering in this drought. How wonderful the Dear Lord is!


Though rain is unheard of in May, the dear brother asks for a special mercy.
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See Lord's wisdom and beautiful handiwork. Who can design better than our God? Far beyond the dark ranges on our side of Kenya, we could see the outline of the great Kilimanjaro... Do you see the snow stripes covering its top? Our God is a wonderful Master planner. See the hope of rains in the dark clouds? God is wonderful and His promises are sure. Please pray that the Dear Lord will send us rain once more.


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Whether the crops dry out or not, the Lord is our shield. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea."
(Psalm 46:1-2)

We are very encouraged to see the Lord blessing souls in "the midst of the storm." I was healed miraculously of some very painful spasms in my neck that have lasted about a week. Then we have seen some newly saved people showing real marks of sanctification. It is wonderful.

Oh, and how much sweeter is the eternal spring of joy than any reflection down here! The beautiful and bright and hopeful are just the smallest glimpse of that glory above. Our Heavenly Father withholds the lesser blessings that we may discover the greater. But will we? Only in turning our eyes from the temporal can we know the unending delights of heaven.

Will you find your joy in Him today?

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Where are we looking?

It makes a big difference.

I'm thankful that there is more to living for God than mere optimism. After all, He is the LIVING GOD. But the choice of where we look is still up to us. It is very easy to filter everything through our physical needs, instead of having our hearts softened by the spiritual. "Have ye your hearts yet hardened?" Jesus asked his disciples when their lack of food took away their spiritual perception. "Having eyes, do you not see ... or remember?" (Mark 8:17-18) How often do we forget the abundance of God's care as we look at the needs around us? It is time to turn our vision heavenward. God is not limited. Let us open our eyes to see and remember!

In the midst of drought and famine, God knows how to provide. Brother Lawrence reported on great spiritual blessings in the services on Sunday: "The Lord's presence was so much with us, for which we praise and glorify His name. I have never see the Holy Spirit so powerfully as I saw today, with a good number... crying and rejoicing for deliverance. Thank you, dear ones, for your prayers."

We are thankful that many who have been caught by a false idea of spirituality are being awakened to the cleansing and keeping power of God. The burden for ministering to these people is very great, both spiritually and physically, and continuing prayer is desired.

They plan to begin working on the center again on Wednesday, Lord willing. "
Please pray that we now get a part of the building ready this time," he asks. "We look forward to using it for the glory of God."

The brother also related thanksgiving for the ability to go buy food, noting that "it is so scarce and expensive here at Makindu that we have to go far to get it. It is about finished in the stores. The rains seem to have gone again and the green young shoots that had sprouted from the few showers we got are now starting to wither... the famine is so heavy on people now."

It is time to look more to God.


Saturday, April 2, 2011

When God Limits

I wanted to write earlier, but when God limits us it is for our good. It qualifies us to share depths that far outreach our flights of fancy. And we need the deep well of living water in times like this.

After all, it is a time of crisis
. Perhaps our mind rivets on the big ones. Earthquakes and tsunamis that turn society upside down. Perpetual drought and famine that drain all resources and vitality. But we all face crisis situations. We feel the stretch of being at our limit. When the stresses of life wash over our head, or a difficult situation drags out unbearably long. Crises are the things that show us our need of God more than anything else. It is at times like these that we find out where we are building - the unshaken Rock or the shifting sands.

Some dangers are harder to recognize. It is easy to see the crisis of being deprived of our resources, our loved ones, our health, or our sanity. But what struck a cord with me recently was the reality of another type of crisis altogether. I was looking over a life summary of king Hezekiah described as four crises. The first was the choice to forsake his father's idols, where he emerges as righteous king. Later, in the crises of enemy invasion and sickness, his faith takes hold of God and mighty miracles are wrought. But it is in the crisis of prosperity that he fails.

Prosperity.
That's what we are all after, aren't we?
And surely that's why we need a God who limits us. We don't know when we have too much. We don't know when we getting "too big for our britches" and setting our hopes on air castles, instead of the mansions eternal. So, in faithful love, our heavenly Father crosses our wills and reproves our attitudes.
Do we then bawl and kick
like a rebellious child?
Give the cold shoulder to such cruel authority?
Let us not miss the heart of it all! He strips us "for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness." (Heb. 12:10) Breaks up our rough earth and wrenches out our vain desires that He might grow His fragrant lilies there.

How are we responding to being reduced?

It is time to catch a vision of the beauty He is after!


It also puts a heavenly perspective on the recent news from Makindu. As usual, progress is painstakingly slow.

Among other spiritual labors, Lawrence updates on the Bible Center:
We have been collecting the building stone for quite a long time. It is slow work as we cannot engage transport as we did at the beginning, so we transport it slowly using the bicycles. It will be some time till we will be able to collect enough at this rate. We also had to make bricks and burn them--just by ourselves as we are not able to engage paid labor. We will be sending some photographs as soon as we start the building work again.

And regarding the drought conditions: The rains came quite heavily on the night of 18th March and never came back again. It rained enough to get the vegetation sprouting again, but we could not sow until we had enough rains to get the seeds germinating. Now as I write, it is cloudy and we are expecting the rains to fall any time now. Praise the Lord.


Among the many blessings of being limited by God is our greater awareness of His mercies and goodness. It is a privilege to be small enough to fit in God's hand, and to witness Him working moment by moment. Let us not despise the day of small things
.