REFLECTIONS

Communion with God Strengthens and Enlivens

"O Christian men and women, be thorough in what you do, and know, and teach! Hold truth as with an iron grip; let your families be trained in the fear of God, and be yourselves 'holiness unto the Lord'; so shall you stand like rocks amid the surging waves of error and ungodliness which rage about you.

We want, also, more and more, a revival of vigorous consecrated strength. I have pleaded for true piety; I now beg for one of the highest results of it. We need saints, it may be that not all cannot attain unto 'the first three'; but we cannot do without champions. We need gracious minds trained to a high form of spiritual life by much converse with God in solitude. These are the standard-bearers of the army: each one is a king's son. There is an air about them, humble as they are, as men who breathe a purer atmosphere. Such was Abraham, who, by his communion with God, acquired a more than royal bearing. The king of Sodom shrinks into insignificance in the presence of the high-minded sheik who will not take of his lawful spoils from a thread to a shoe-latchet, lest the heathen king should say, 'I have made Abraham rich.' Saints acquire nobility from their constant resort to the place where the Lord meets with them. There, also, they acquire that power in prayer which we so greatly need. Oh, that we had more men like John Knox, whose prayers were more terrible to Queen Mary than ten thousand men! Oh, that we had more Elijah's, by whose faith the windows of heaven should be shut or opened! This power comes not by a sudden effort; it is the outcome of a life devoted to the God of Israel. If our life is all in public, it will be frothy, vapory, ineffectual existence; but if we hold high converse with God in secret, we shall be mighty for good. The Puritans were abundant in meditation and prayer; and there were giants on earth in those days. He that is a prince with God will take high rank with men, after the true measure of nobility."

-C.H. Spurgeon from Only A Prayer Meeting Published by Christian Focus Scotland 2006.

Johnny

Johnny

“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26 NKJV.

My brother Johnny was born about sixteen months after I was and we spent most of our time together as boys. He was more like our grandfather, Pop, than I was. He was quieter and spent most of his time alone; he enjoyed the outdoors and fishing, insects and examining nature. As a teenager he enjoyed snow skiing and developed a talent and interest in cooking. He tended to step on the rebel side of things. 

We both started drinking early in life and had our first drinks while boys of about six years old as Mom and Dad laughed and had us taste their alcoholic drinks. We both began drinking heavily on our own as pre-teens. And we both sensed and knew that something was terribly wrong in our family and home and that something important and essential was missing in our lives. We couldn’t then identify what that missing ‘something’ was but keenly felt its lack and damaging absence. So, as teenagers, we both decided that we needed religion. It was lacking in our family. Thinking maybe it would fill the void, we went together to talk to a Catholic priest about joining the Catholic Church. Our step-Dad, Bill, was Catholic. We started catechism classes and didn’t complete them there in Arizona because, as was usual, the family underwent collapse and crisis and moved away to another place. We both did fully join the Catholic Church later in life.

After I turned twenty-five I saw Johnny about five times. I learned that he had died of cancer at the age of 56. As I had seen in our boyhood, he turned his back on our crazed family and decided to ‘go it alone’. He once said that the family had hurt him too much. I’m sure this is true; he always seemed to be especially faulted and denied by the family. His drinking continued and worsened as mine did. He went through a divorce and a serious illness and then things really fell apart for him. I met him and he seemed delusional, not really all there, and he told strange tales of his having become a mercenary and killer. I later learned that he had lied to me about many things and that this was his habit. His life disintegrated as mine did but in God’s grace I was broken and saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. My numbing sinful habits brought me into utmost confusion, futility and pain but the good Lord in His gracious plan used my sin to break my proud heart and then He manifested Himself to my heart as my Lord and God. Christ put me together as new man. I prayed often that Jesus would do this for my baby brother, Johnny. I dearly loved him.

In very late December I got an email from a woman that had been involved with Johnny for many years stating that he had passed on as a Catholic. This was very difficult for me as I had prayed for his salvation earnestly, sometimes in fasting, for about twenty-five years. At one point in that long span of time I felt that God would certainly save him. He had heard the gospel—that was clear. When the news of his death came so suddenly I was shaken. I sought the Lord about this and came to an assurance that God may have saved him, His power or ability is not limited and I know that God led me in crying out for Johnny’s salvation and welfare. I still have a hope that I will see Johnny in the Lord’s presence with Mom, my father, Kenneth, perhaps with my step-Dad, and with Cindy, my sister. All had heard the gospel clearly and Mom, Kenneth and Cindy had professed faith in the Lord before their passing. My hope for Johnny is founded only on Christ’s ability and desire to save sinners. There is no evidence that he received a new heart before he died but my hope is in God who saves. Perhaps the Lord regenerated Johnny’s heart before his demise. The Lord is a specialist at saving the broken-hearted and my brother was a broken man. My trust in the all-sufficiency of Christ has been strengthened and I am content to wait, love God, finish the work he has for me and my wife Kappy, with a hope that in God’s presence part of my eternal joy will be had in finding that my dear, broken, needy brother, Johnny, has been rescued from his sins and powerlessness and death through the saving love of the Savior who bled and died to save sinners and bring them to saving faith and into His Kingdom of life. And yet I know that I must and will, in love, surrender to Christ in all things, especially in His glorious Presence, if my hope for Johnny proves groundless.

If your loved one has died without Christ…let me encourage you in the face of this very painful reality to draw close to the Lord who has infinite compassion and is able to comfort His people. Surrender to God’s will knowing that God can do no evil and that all that He does is right.

If your loved one has died and you’re not sure about his standing in Christ…look to the Lord who alone knows the secret things and trust Him knowing that He only does right and will never do evil.

If your loved one has died in Christ…rely on Christ’s grace to help, comfort and ease your pain at your loved one’s passing. Look to Him and rejoice for your loved one’s glorification and beautification with Jesus.

God's Faithfulness

God’s Faithfulness

The Lord brought much encouragement to us recently through His work in our ministry components.  In the span of two days we saw the Lord arrange for four street boys to be reunited with their families. Street Kid Outreach leader, Pastor Sunday Kafeero, took the boys home to their district, Pallisa, and shared Christ’s gospel with the parents of one of the boys. They were touched that Sunday brought their boy home from Kampala’s streets, listened to the gospel and then professed faith in Christ. The boys had professed faith in Christ at the Day Shelter where they are served in Nsambya prior to their return home.

 

In the same two days we learned that God had started 17 churches with 413 people attending in the Ruhehgeri, Rwanda area as a result of our Sustainable Church Planting Conference there in April.

God also abundantly blessed our ACTION Pastor Training Fellowship (APTF) which met during that time as we enjoyed the teaching in Systematic Theology and learned that He had led a team of five of the pastors to evangelize together and five people professed faith in Christ as a result of their ministry. God’s grace enabled these pastors of different churches and ministries to work together at the suggestion of one pastor. 

Further encouragement came as a pastor who leads ACTION's work in Bible Clubs in public schools shared about God’s blessings in his work in teaching an evangelistic Bible study in that the lessons are received with great interest on the school’s and student’s parts. He shared that there have been professions of faith made and that in the next two weeks he plans to teach four-hundred students in two large schools about Jesus and salvation. The students who complete the study are awarded a New Testament and certificate of completion.

We’re also encouraged that our new website which communicates the gospel is being viewed by an increasing number of people.

How good the Lord is to bless us and to encourage us so! We see that our labor is not in vain and that some of the good fruit that He is producing through has been made visible in the ministry! We thank the Lord and bless His name! May He encourage you today by His faithfulness, grace and ability, friend! He is working to achieve His glorious purposes in grace and He cannot fail to do all that He intends to do in the lives of His people.

Judith's Courage

Judith’s Courage

“Wait on the Lord;

Be of good courage,

And He shall strengthen your heart;

Wait, I say, on the Lord!” Psalm 27:14 NKJV

Judith and Mum are pictured at right.

We recently visited a very poor church pastored by a friend of ours who in his own right has shown much courage in that he is now leading a new church because his previous church disbanded. He had to start over after years with the first church. Through a series of hard circumstances there are a few members from the first church now attending the new church but most attendees are new because it was very recently planted. My friend, the pastor, shared with me that the ending of the previous church was a great and painful trial for him and that starting the new church hasn’t been easy at all.  I agreed with him that it mustn’t be an easy thing for him, his family or the church.

The Sunday that we visited I preached and two people professed faith in Christ. This was received with great joy as about twenty people at the most, including children, attended the service. We noticed Judith as she hobbled up to join the young people sing God’s praises early in the service. She is a pretty teenager and she sang well and with spirit and she danced as best she could, balancing on her crutches in God’s house. We saw that one leg was visibly deformed. She had to push her body around on the crutches but showed strength and agility and yes, even poise and grace, as she moved. Our hearts went out to her; you could sense her strong determination to overcome her great disability and join her age-mates in singing. She smiled beautifully and fully.

After the service we talked to the pastor. He arranged for Judith and her Mum to go with him and me to visit Katalemwa Center, a treatment center that has helped many Ugandan children and youth with orthopedic disabilities. Judith again showed much resolve, persistence and heart as we went to the center. There we discovered that Judith has cerebral palsy and that she is indeed a courageous young woman. Her Mum thought that she had suffered nerve damage as a result of a massive overdose of quinine when she was treated for malaria as an infant. But the skilled staff told us that she has cerebral palsy and that it’s only by her own resolve that she is as mobile as she is and that it’s really quite remarkable and highly unusual that she is walking as well as she is. We were told that Judith is very gutsy and her refusal to be held down is the only thing that lets her move at all. Most people with her level of disability cannot walk. We helped her to receive braces, therapy and aids.

We count it a blessing that we were able to meet Judith and see her courage firsthand. Her heart touches our hearts; we are helped to continue with and for the Lord in our day to day struggles in Uganda. We see that Judith faces each painful day with its challenge and temptation to quit and just stop trying to move. So far she has chosen to continue to live out her life as freely as she can with much effort in great difficulty and in the face of others’ rejection and misunderstanding. Judith’s trial makes ours seem very insignificant and small. Pray for Judith as part of her difficulty lies in the spasms and impulses that constantly jerk her leg. Please pray for Judith and her Mum today that God will bless them in His great salvation and that both will continue to strive against discouragements and failure in their lives which are filled with so many hardships. Pray that they will look to the Good Shepherd who has gone before them in the path of struggle, hardship and rejection in His striving against sin for us and that they will joyfully and courageously follow Him all their days. Pray that Judith will keep hobbling, smile beautifully, and sing Christ’s honor with joy.  

REFLECTIONS

“Hail, Thou Once-Despised Jesus”

Hail, Thou one-despised Jesus! Hail, Thou Galilean King!

Thou didst suffer to release us; Thou didst free salvation bring,

Hail, thou agonizing Savior, Bearer of our sin and shame!

By Thy merits we find favor, Life is given through Thy name.

Paschal Lamb, By God appointed, All our sins on Thee were laid;

By almighty love anointed, Thou has a full atonement made.

All Thy people are forgiven Thru the virtue of Thy blood;

Opened is the gate of heaven, Peace is made betwixt man and God.

Jesus, hail! Enthroned in glory, There forever to abide;

All the heavenly hosts adore Thee, Seated at Thy Father’s side:

There for sinners Thou art pleading, Thou didst our place prepare,

Ever for us interceding, Till in glory we appear.

Worship, honor, pow’r and blessing Thou art worthy to receive;

Loudest praises, without ceasing, Meet it is for us to give.

Help, ye bright angelic spirits, Bring you sweetest, noblest lays;

Help to sing our Savior’s merits, Help to chant Immanuel’s praise!

A Hymn by John Blackwell, 1721-1819