Wordsower International
The Word of God in loving action
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Tuesday, May 15, 2012 11:37 PM
Waiting Room
As we live our daily lives in Christ we are commanded of God to leave room for Him.
'Well', you say, 'God can have as much room as He wants. I mean He is God after all.' True enough, but we tend to get anxious and run on ahead of God and try fix situations our way instead of giving God room to work. This is especially true in the matter of vengeance or response to being wronged. We want to act 'now' and we don't account for, wait for, or leave room for God. This response is so 'natural' that God addresses the matter in the Book of Romans, chapter twelve, verse nineteen; "Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge, I will repay,' says the Lord." God reminds us through Paul that He has reserved vengeance to Himself. The Lord established, in the writings of Moses, (Of course Paul is here quoting Moses from Deuteronomy 32:35.) that He will defend His friends, and only He knows the heart of the wrongdoer, so that the proper vengeance can be meted out in the end. No matter what happens to us, no matter what someone does to us, we must leave room for God. As a matter of fact, our proper response to being wronged is not to 'get back at' but to bless and to do good to those who wronged us (Romans 12:20), and then let God meet out the justice or the vengeance as He determines.
Now this response, this giving God room, is not easy. We don't like to wait when someone cuts us off in traffic or somehow violates our perceived 'rights'. We want things to be righted now and we want some kind of retribution meted out now! Our flesh and our egos and our souls find it very hard to leave room for God. But we can trust Him. He counts us as friends and He sees everything that's going on and He will act on our behalf. Not only in the little day to day violations of our space, or our zones of comfort & convenience, but also in much larger violations such as persecution for our faith or unjust imprisonment etc. God will always act. Always. You may never see His vengeance or His retribution, but you can trust Him. He will not leave you or forsake you.
One must grow in the learning of how to 'wait' for God, in the learning of this discipline of 'giving God room'.
Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision and Samaritan's Purse, applied this 'giving God room' to the matter of faith, or rather the matter of acting on your faith. We tend to believe God to act in ways that we can understand. We tend to limit God by only believing that God can work within our abilities and our fears. If there are forty orphans, for example, we believe God can provide for them because forty is not too many. It kind of looks like a lot and when the reality of the daily needs of forty children hits, it's kind of stretching to our faith, but we might undertake this task because we think it's doable. We think we are acting on and in faith, but we are still acting within our perceived abilities and not beyond what we think we can undertake in our own abilities, gifts and strengths. Although taking on forty orphans is a big and praise worthy undertaking, its still within our perceived abilities to do. We can do this with some effort and some networking and some organizational skills. Not an easy undertaking, but we can do this. We praise God for all those who act at this level of faith.
But God wants us to undertake that which is beyond us, beyond our perceived abilities. He desires that we leave room for Him. To really exercise faith is to go beyond what we can see. To go beyond what you think you can do, and to leave room for God. For example, He may give you, not forty orphans, but four hundred orphans! Then what? (There are over a hundred and seventy million orphan children in the world today.) We find in this situation that we cannot do it. We don't have the abilities or the networking skills or the money or the strength to provide food, housing, shoes, medical care, schooling or discipleship instruction to four hundred orphan children, let alone meet the needs of all the orphan children. We find that we are now in 'God's room' because only God can provide for all these children. We don't see where the next meal is coming from, but the God of the ravens knows. We don't know, and cannot even begin to guess, how we are going to clothe all these children, but the God who clothes the plants knows.
We are waiting in God's room for Him to act on behalf of His children. God has entrusted Wordsower with almost eight hundred orphan children, and we can only trust God to provide for them. There are some ministries with many more children to care for. Wow! We are learning what others in the faith have learned, how to wait on God, how to give God room.
Since last we communicated God has done some amazing things that He let us see:
Each day, the children God has entrusted to our care, have had their needs for food, covering, shoes, education, medical care and spiritual instruction met. Praise God! In addition, Wordsower received a generous gift from a dear couple in the Lord, toward the orphanage construction projects in Haiti and India. We received an additional gift, (From a whole church!) that has enabled us to buy land in India for the construction of an orphan and widow's home. We were given an extension of our lease, on the orphan facility in Tandur, India, so the children have a place to stay while we build. These gifts have enabled us to begin. We are building in Haiti now. We will be building in India soon, Lord willing. Please pray for these two projects, that God will be glorified in them, and that His children will be blessed at their completion. God has provided the start, we trust He will bring both projects to completion, and that all the daily needs of the children will be met as we try to establish homes for them and their future.
God's room has room for you. Won't you join us?
Please pray and communicate with us at: wrdswr@me.com We'd love to hear from you.
In Christ with you
For the Church
For the lost
And for the least.....jason
Sunday, Mar 11, 2012 10:29 PM
What Matters and Who do you Trust?
As the needs of the world become increasingly more evident and pressing, we are confronted with the need for real Christianity. There are over seven billion people on the planet and an increasing number do not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. We Christians are not keeping up with population growth. For the first time in a long time, I believe, we are losing ground.
There are Church Growth Movements spreading in many places. More people are hearing the Gospel in more places than ever before. What had formerly been mission fields are now sending church fields. We rejoice at those who are going and those who are growing in Christ as they have shifted the center of the Christian world from the United States and Europe, to Africa. Although the US sends more missionaries than any other nation, the average age of our missionaries is increasing, many retire without replacement and most of those we send are for short term trips. For all these things we praise God except....
The reason the US and Europe no longer are the center of Christianity is not just because other nations are coming to know Christ, its mostly because so many in the Western Nations are falling away. Of the billion people in North America, Europe and Australia/New Zealand the percentage of actual church going Christians is dropping... precipitously. More alarming to me is the number of people who claim to be 'Christian', in these nations, but who do nothing Christian. There are notable exceptions, praise God, but the following generalizations hold true: Not only are we in the US/Europe/Australia/new Zealand communities not attending regular church services, in droves, but we also don't vote as Christians (in support of those who will appose the continue slaughter of the unborn.) or work as Christians (to have something to give to the needy, provide for their families and to gain the respect of those outside our number.) or conduct their marriages as Christians (absolute commitment to their marriage vows and conducting their relationships without violence or pornography and in holiness.) or relate to their children as Christians (modeling Christ and raising them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.) or trust God as Christians. The majority of those who claim to be Christians live as if Christ and Christianity were for this life only. We don't live for eternity, we live for retirement. Far too many consider salvation as the frosting on the cake of their lives. Lives they continue to live for themselves and not for Jesus. We bear the names and the marks of our respective faith traditions but we don't give ourselves to imitating Christ which, of course, is what the word Christian truly assumes: 'little christs'. None of us will perfectly achieve this imitation but all who bear the name of Christian must give themselves to His imitation (Eph 5:1 & 2).
Marks and names of religion, wether in your flesh or in your clothes, or on your buildings or in your physical prosperity don't matter. The only thing that matters is your faith expressing itself in through loving action. (Please look at Galatians 5:6)
Faith that doesn't show itself in loving action isn't real faith and cannot save you. (James 2:14)
Love that only talks is not real love.
Love that is real love must show itself in action, and that action measured by the Christ going to the cross in love. (1 John 3:16 & 17) Far too many consider salvation as the frosting on the cake of their lives. Lives they continue to live for themselves and not for Jesus. We bear the names and the marks of our respective faith traditions but we don't give ourselves to imitating Christ which, of course, is what the word Christian truly assumes: 'little christs'. None of us will perfectly achieve this imitation but all who bear the name of Christian must give themselves to His imitation (Eph 5:1 & 2).
Marks and names of religion, wether in your flesh or in your clothes, or on your buildings or in your physical prosperity don't matter. The only thing that matters is your faith expressing itself in through loving action. (Please look at Galatians 5:6)
Faith that doesn't show itself in loving action isn't real faith and cannot save you. (James 2:14)
Love that only talks is not real love.
Love that is real love must show itself in action, and that action measured by the Christ going to the cross in love. (1 John 3:16 & 17)
Real love will affect the world.
Real love lets us know we are in Christ.
Real love is how we glorify God.
Real love is how we grow up in Christ.
God's purpose for us is that we become conformed to the image of Jesus, so that He would become the firstborn among many brethren. (of course Romans 8:29)
God has adopted you in Christ and He is at work to make you more like Jesus. Will you trust God to do this work in you?
It takes an abandonment of your plans. He calls us to ABANDONED TRUST.
It takes a seemingly reckless trust. Although in God what is recklessness is perfectly reasonable. You can trust God and you cannot trust anything else. He calls us to RECKLESS TRUST.
There is an urgency to trusting Him now, today, for neither you nor the world around you has any promise of tomorrow. He calls us to URGENT TRUST.
Obedience is the measure of our love for Him and our trust in Him. He calls us to OBEDIENT TRUST. We can cast ourselves upon Him as a child jumps into his loving father's arms. He will never fail us. He calls us to HEADLONG TRUST.
We are to trust in the midst of trial and persevere even unto death for our hope is not in this life but in the life to come. He calls us to TRUST UNTIL IT HURTS TRUST.
A man was walking in a wood that he he knew he was not to walk in. It was a beautiful wood with a level floor but he had been warned not to walk there, for that the wood often suddenly and quickly flooded. If he was caught there he would drown in the flood. He would not be able to get himself out of the flood. But he went anyway for he loved woods. As he walked in the large stand of woods he found he was surrounded by trees. As far as he could see in any direction he could only see trees. It was beautiful but he knew he shouldn't be there. He was alone in the woods. Suddenly and without any warning water started to flood the whole floor of the forest. There was nowhere to get away from the rising waters. The old tree trunks were smooth and impossible to climb. The water was rising fast with no place to run for escape. The man knows he is going to drown and he knows he was warned and he knows he put himself in this predicament. He would have called for help but there was no one to hear. He was alone and he was going to die. There was only God and he did not know if God was real or if God would hear. He had never believed in or called upon God... For the first time in his life the man called out to God: "God. Help me God!" And he hears a voice, but not in his ears, that says, "look up". He looked up and right above him hangs a limb that he had not seen or noticed before. It is easily within reach but it looks too thin and insubstantial to hold him. On the limb was written the name 'Jesus' but the man did not understand. The voice spoke again and it said, "Take hold of the branch. It will save you. Only it can save you. There is no other branch". The branch looked so thin but it was the only way out of the flood. But it looked so weak. As the man dithered in fear and indecision the water rose and once again the voice spoke. And it said, "You can trust the branch. It will never break. I will never allow it to break. You can trust Me." The man reached up and grasped the branch and suddenly found himself resting upon the branch and out of the water. Safe and secure upon the branch called 'Jesus'. Once upon the branch it didn't seem thin or weak at all. It seemed solid and everlasting. It was even comfortable. One could walk upon it. One could see where the branch joined the trunk of a great tree. Larger than any tree in the forest. One could walk a long way out towards its unseen end but the branch never bent or sagged. The man truly began to trust in the branch even as saw the water come up very far and flow very swiftly. He would die were in he in the water again.
But God, for the great love he bore toward the man, had provided the Branch.
But God loves obedience and for the great love He bore for the man He now called the man to obey again, for in obeying the man would grow and become like the branch.
And so God came to the man as he sat on the Branch and handed him a saw. A hand saw. Upon the blade of the saw was written the word 'LOVE'. As the man took the saw in hand he knew the saw was not just to look at or to appreciate, though it was a very nice saw... it was to be used. It must be used. But where?
God instructed him. He said," Saw upon the limb between where you stand and the trunk of the tree. Trust me."
But the man said, "Excuse me God, but you created the laws of the world and you know that if I saw on the limb, between where I stand and the trunk of the tree, the limb and I will fall into the waters and then I will drown."
But God said, "Who do you trust? The branch will never fall. The trunk would more likely fall than the branch. Trust me, not your eyes or your wisdom. Trust me. I will never let you fall. My only desire is that you become like my branch. You can only become like my branch if you trust me enough to saw.
Trust me and saw with the saw of love and my branch will only get stronger, you will never saw through it, but you must keep on sawing and, as you keep on sawing, you will become more and more like my branch. I will graft you into the trunk and you will become a brother to the branch Jesus. Trust Me.
jason
Monday, Jan 30, 2012 8:31 PM
Movin' On
Movin’ On
IT IS SAID; 'If one is going to write about anything, then one should write about what one knows something about'. Now I don't know if that's the exact quote or even the right quote or who said it, but it seems to be true enough. Well... we know about moving.
Sharon and I have been married for over thirty-seven years and we have officially, moved thirty-eight times. This does not count the many months spent living in and out of vans, cars, old buses and broken down motor homes, staying in countless motels, hotels, camps, churches and other peoples homes. At one time we lived a seven year stretch in a motor home, completely without brick & mortar home or apartment, staying in Wal Mart and restaurant parking lots, rest areas, turn outs and wide spots, truck stops and a few camp grounds. (Most camp grounds cost money, so we only used as last resort.) During our time in the motor home we lived all across North America; Alaska to Florida, New York to California and slept across much of Canada. We have traversed hundreds of thousands of miles, in the Lord's service, hardly spending more than a few days in any one place.
Moving is something we know something about.
RECENTLY WE MOVED... AGAIN. You would think that with as much moving as we have done, moving would get easier. Wrong. Moving has gotten harder and we have come to dread it as one dreads contracting a cold. But in our life and ministry moving is as inevitable as the yearly virus and something, similarly, to be endured looking forward to its conclusion. Although all the boxes are not as yet unpacked and the paperwork, demanded by various insurance companies and Government agencies still incomplete, we have moved and now reside in an apartment we hope to live in for a while.
THE GOOD THING ABOUT MOVING, this time for us, is being close to some of our children and GRANDCHILDREN. Did I say GRANDCHILDREN? Due to ministry demands, we have not been been able to live near our family for some years. Three of our GRANDCHILDREN and their parents have congregated in the Salem area of Oregon and another son in the Portland area. That's three sons, two wonderful daughter-in-laws and three GRANDCHILDREN all in one area. Pretty cool and worth moving for. So we moved again.
MOVING, THOUGH AT TIMES DIFFICULT, HAS BEEN USED BY GOD IN OUR LIVES.
This latest move has put us near our family, and we are truly blessed. Through the years of moving we have been allowed to declare the Word of God in thousands of churches and to hundreds of thousands of His people. We have friends all over the world, for which we are truly grateful. We have seen and experienced the working of God in many and astounding ways. God has certainly blessed us in giving us such experience in the act of moving.
CONSIDER HOW GOD HAS USED MOVING IN THE PAST: When God was preparing to move Israel out of Egypt, He demonstrated His glory through the plagues of Moses. Then He demonstrated His glory again by moving Israel though the Red Sea as on dry land. Then He demonstrated His discipline by moving Israel to take laps around Mt.Sinai for forty years. Then it was His glory again as He moved Israel across the Jordan and into the Promised Land, conquering the mighty fortress city of Jericho, fighting on behalf of His people, even causing the sun to stop in the sky. All this while moving.
OF COURSE ALL THIS moving was pointing toward the GREAT MOVING DAY when Jesus moved out of Heaven and to His mother's womb. He moved from there and into the light of the world, as humans do, and after a life of moving around the land of Israel, teaching uncomfortable truth and doing really good, He was finally rejected and killed and moved into a tomb. We thought He would remain there in decay and out of our faces, but He wouldn't stay in that tomb and MOVED OUT on the third day. Then He moved back to heaven to make a place for His friends to live.
THOSE WHO WITNESSED ALL THIS MOVING, the ones Jesus chose to tell the world
about His move out of the tomb sat in Jerusalem. They had been told to wait a while for their baptism in the Spirit. They received their baptism and Him Who came to dwell in them. Many who were there, the Day the Spirit moved to Earth returned to their homes believing, but the witnesses of the Resurrection Move would not go out. They had been commanded to go out to all the Earth and to every creature with the Good News, but they stayed in Jerusalem.The Keys to the Kingdom where turned and Gentiles believed too, but still they would not move. Jerusalem was religiously comfortable.
SO GOD RAISED UP SOME WHO WOULD GO, and so they started moving out. Not without argument and grumbling and fear and foreboding. It is hard to move. One then another... finally they were going out.Then God made Jerusalem so uncomfortable, nigh uninhabitable, that they all moved out. They went out to all the world to tell the world about the move of Jesus Christ out of that old tomb and out of this world to Heaven. About the forgiveness of our sins and justification before God by His Grace alone through Faith alone. THIS IS REALLY REALLY GOOD NEWS!
They told all who would listen about how God so loved the world that He moved His Only Begotten Son from Heaven to Earth, that whoever would believe on him would be moved from the power of darkness into the kingdom of the son of His love, Jesus Christ.
And they told of the one final move; when Jesus will come back to earth to move us into the place He has prepared, in The Father's House, there to live with Him forever.
SO NOW WE WAIT. We who have grown weary of moving from house to house and place to place. Even we long for that GREAT MOVING DAY and the BLESSED HOPE, THE GLORIOUS APPEARING OF OUR GREAT GOD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST. THE ONE FINAL MOVE WHEN HE COMES BACK TO GET US AND MOVES US TO HEAVEN, FOREVER.
"And everyone who has this hope before him, purifies himself as Christ is pure."
1 John 3:3
PEOPLE GET READY
FOR THE DAY OF MOVING
YOU DON'T NEED NO U HAUL
YOU'LL TAKE NOTHING BUT YOUR LIFE
AND DEEDS DONE IN THE SPIRIT
TESTED BY THE FIRE
YOU'LL NEED NOTHING THERE
SAVE WORDS OF PRAISE
THEY'LL BURST FROM YOUR NEW LIPS
ASCRIBING GLORY TO THE ONE WHO MOVED YOU HOME
THE NEW CHORUS OF THANKSGIVING
SPAWNED NOW NOT BY FAITH
BY SIGHT OF THE GLORIOUS ONE
j.jason
Thursday, Jan 5, 2012 12:22 AM
UPDATE
We would like to thank each of you for your prayerful and financial support throughout 2011. As we are into the new year, we need to provide you with an updated address for any and all communication for Wordsower. We are now located in Salem, Oregon and our mailing address is as follows: