ZAMBIA Praise: The Lord is with me and our farm is doing well. This month we will harvest the corn. Praise the Lord for opening doors for the ministry in places close to our home and for ministry to the swamps and Congo. My wife and l will be travelling this month to the Copperbelt to do the ministry. We also thank God for the arrival of the tools l ordered from UK which have finally arrived. We shall be able to train our youth with some skills they need. PRAYER:
LIBERIA PRAISE: We praise God for pastors and evangelists that we trained and are teaching "God's Plan for His Church" in their Churches and fellowships in rural villages and towns in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast. We thank God that Liberia has reduced the state of emergency and lockdown. PRAYER:
Thank you for standing firm in prayer for these areas of the world where we cannot go at the moment.
0 Comments
“The Lord has been doing great things in our lives and ministry! We just finished our first and second (8/20/20) training since Covid-19 began, and we trained 63 key leaders and missionaries with God’s Plan for His Church. God has protected us from the Fulani jihadists. By the grace of God, we were able to visit to pray, provide trauma healing and food to 4 IDP (internally displaced people) and provide food and the gospel to many needy widows, orphans and vulnerable children and the aged. Praise God for giving me the opportunity to be the guest speaker for this year’s ECWA international week of prayers.” PRAYER:
“God is looking for broken men, for men who have judged themselves in the light of the Cross of Christ. When He wants anything done, He takes up men who have come to an end of themselves, and whose trust and confidence is not in themselves but in God. There were those who were calling in to question the apostleship of Paul himself, for he did not seem to them to be what an apostle, according to their estimation of the office, ought to be. There was not the pomp nor the dignity they would expect; he did not come to them with great swelling words, there was no making anything of what he was after the flesh, no drawing attention to his natural ability or education; and in this the method of the apostle Paul was in very vivid contrast to the method pursued by many today who pose as servants of our Lord Jesus Christ. This man went through the world a broken man, a lowly man, a man seeking only the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and the blessing of souls, a man who might have occupied a very high place among the great and distinguished of earth. But he was a man who for Jesus’ sake had turned his back upon all that and could say: “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Galatians 6:14). That Cross spoke of the deepest shame and ignominy, and Paul gloried in it because through the work that took place on it, his soul had been saved, and he had learned that the preaching of the Cross, while it is “to them that perish foolishness,” is “unto us which are saved…the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). And so, he went forth, content to be broken in order that the light of the grace of God might shine out. You will notice in verse 6 that “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:6,7).” (Harry Ironside, Broken Vessels for Christ). I am challenged by Paul’s attitude toward preaching the gospel. There are two sides to his commitment; 1) his absolute dedication to preach the gospel anywhere and under any conditions, and 2) his admission to weakness and frailty. Both are necessary! In 2 Corinthians 4:1-6, Paul speaks of being pure in motive as he proclaimed the gospel so he “commended [himself] to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God” (4:2). That was his approach whether persons received the gospel or not. We must realize that persons who refuse the gospel have been blinded by “the god of this world…to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (4:4). Paul always elevates the gospel to its glory, irrespective of how it is received! The other side of Paul was that he knew how weak he was. “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (4:7). He refuses to boast of himself in any way. This verse is followed by what he experienced through “affliction, perplexed, persecuted, struck down” and then he adds, “always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” (4:8-10). I seriously doubt we can experience the power of God in presenting the gospel unless we realize our own weakness and frailty. “For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (4:11). This is we can glory in our sufferings and weakness so that Jesus and the gospel can be seen by others. Even though Zambia has been hit with COVID-19 like other African countries, and the restrictions are much the same, medical assistance is scarce. Yet, God is working. Our brother Henry is letting the Lord direct him to where people need help and where there is a hunger for God’s Word. Here is a brief report on part of his work. “The water of Lake Bangweulu was over its usual level. Houses are flooded and all cassava crops have been submerged. This is where you find hungry mosquitos and water-borne diseases. Adults and children are dying with malaria. They have little food and no medicine at the clinic. Three lives were lost while we were there due to hunger and malaria. The people paddle their boats to Samfya town looking for food which is so expensive. Please pray for this people. As to their spiritual conditions, Itala has more believers than other places, but few leaders have Bibles. There is a need for Bibles even for many church members. At Bwalya Mponda (southeast of the lake), there are many youths can read, but they have no Bibles.” With the help of some, NFI has been able to provide Bibles that will come from Lusaka, the capital, and brought to these people soon. Please be in prayer for Henry and these who want God’s Word. Read Hosea and ask the Holy Spirit to embed God’s love into your heart. You know the story; God used Hosea to show Israel His love for them. God asked him to marry a prostitute. Can you imagine marrying, loving and treasuring a prostitute who had slept with many, many men? On top of that, Hosea had children with Gomer. Again, she committed adultery and is loved by another man.
But God tells Hosea to love her again, so he brought her back. I could go on, but you know the story. This morning when I was reading about Hosea, the Lord really got my attention and broke my heart with this demonstration of such love, grace, and forgiveness. This is obviously the reason God said in verse 6:6; “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” I pray this story will find a place in our hearts and always challenge us to “return and dwell beneath His shadow” (14:7). This is the key to falling short and to start living a pure and a victorious life in the Spirit. One of my highly respected missionaries, Helen Roseveare, MD said at a chapel service at CIU years ago (1985), “Sixteen years ago, I talked about the desperate needs in other parts of the world. Now I tell Christians, wherever they are, that they must “re-fall” in love with Jesus. Christianity in the West today says we must have a bigger church and a bigger car and a better suit. Once Christians fall out of love with that and in love with Jesus, I won’t need to talk missions; they will become missionaries because they love him." Written by Tim I had a grandmother who prayed for me, along with other women that cared about my future. They may not have prayed specifically how my life would turn out, but they prayed – that is the point. You should stop right now to remember and thank the Lord for such women in your life.
It is good for us to be reminded of those in previous generations who were praying for us. Paul reminded Timothy of where his “sincere faith” started. It “dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well” (2 Timothy 1:5). It is obvious that Paul had asked about his history and discovered what influenced him. Now that Timothy is with Paul, Silas and Luke, he is going to learn how to appreciate godly women. They entered Philippi and “went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer” (Acts 16:13). In seeking this place, they found “women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia…who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul” (16:14). Imagine their influence in prayer! If we had time and space here, we could trace how Lydia and other women played a significant role in spreading the gospel to Rome and elsewhere. Read Romans 16 where Paul mentions Phoebe, Aquila, Mary, and the sister of Nereus. We are very conscious that there are sisters in the Lord (one in her nineties) who pray for us and this ministry on a daily basis. We are indebted to God for their faithfulness. Are you thankful for such women in your life and ministry? As I look back over many years, working and teaching in different churches all around the world, the one thing that grieves me the most is the lack of prayer. The greatest revivals started through believers expressing their deep burden for the lost and for revival in the Church in prayer.
Leonard Ravenhill said, “The Church has many praying men, but few men of prayer. How often have we given prayer the leftovers of our time, or waited until there was no other way out? “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours…he prayed fervently…then he prayed again” (James 5:17-18)” Paul shows clearly the place and purpose of prayer in the Church; “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Timothy 2:1–2). He wanted Timothy to teach this to the Church so that prayer would have a high place on its life and agenda. E. M. Bounds says of this verse, “First of all,” before all things, the Church of Jesus Christ was to be a praying church…to pray for all men” (Complete Work of E. M. Bounds on Prayer, page 544). Is prayer your “First of all” and do you “urge” others to make prayer a habit? When our plans are changed, as they were with Paul, Silas and Timothy, we usually have reactions unlike those that Paul had. We often get upset or try to find some way to work around the changes so we still get our way. Not with Paul. He accepted the intervention by the Holy Spirit without any complaint or attempt to change the outcome. With this attitude, God is free to redirect this ministry team to Macedonia. Notice Paul’s reaction to the vision; “when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them” (Acts 16:10). There is no doubt that God was up to something big which Paul and Silas would have missed if they had resisted the Holy Spirit’s direct interference in their plans. They had no idea what was ahead of them and it was good that they didn’t. It is my firm conviction that we miss the greatest opportunities God has planned for us because we resist His will. God is under no obligation to tell ahead of time what He is going to do. What He needs though, is willing servants who are ready to follow His leading “immediately”! The questions we may have will be answered as we obey. Are you yielding to the Holy Spirit as a habit in your life and ministry? We may think that every plan of Paul in ministry was perfect or that every decision had a divine signature on it. This is where we can learn so much from this beloved servant.
After selecting Timothy based on his local reputation, “they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia” (Acts 16:6). We can imagine that there may have been a little bit of ‘shock’ in Paul’s mind at such a strong sense from the Holy Spirit about their plans. Up to this point, all their ministry had been under His guidance and God worked in mighty power and blessing. If that weren’t shocking enough, “they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them” (16:7). There isn’t one word of resistance from Paul. We are not given the slightest indication of disappointment from him or those who traveled with Paul. “So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas” (16:8). If you know this section of Scripture, you are already thinking about verse 9 and 10. We will look at these tomorrow. But let’s ask ourselves if we have the same submissive spirit as Paul did? Do we really hold our plans in ministry with an open hand to allow God to change them as HE SEE’S FIT? Remember, any ministry that wants to glorify God must allow God to direct it ALL THE TIME! |
Archives
December 2023
Link To Our Old Blog:
|