I would also ask you to remember me today. I'll be a part of the team going to share an evangelistic message at a High School today at 11:00 AM. Then I'm teaching a session at the conference this afternoon, and I finish the night speaking at another Church in Huancayo for their Wednesday night services. I actually had the privilege to speak at this Church last year on Wednesday night as well. The Lord used the leadership and people of this fellowship to bless, encourage, and challenge me in powerful ways. The is the Church where Missionary Rolando serves. However, as he and I talked last night over dinner, he shared with me that he is not paid by the Church. So I asked, "How do you make your living?"
He simply replied, "I trust the Lord. We're told in Scripture to trust God for our needs. I try to apply that to my life. This is why my favorite verse in the Bible is Psalm 23:1: 'The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.' The Bible doesn't say that the Lord, my Shepherd, will give me everything. It says I won't need anything."I must say I sat speechless before this dear missionary. He gives his life to spreading the Gospel among the nations. I realized I was looking at a living example of Acts 20:24 right before my eyes.
I don't know about you, but many times I "hear" God's Word and don't "apply" it. May God help me and all of us who confess Christ as Lord to take His Word seriously, to heart, to life. I think Missionary Rolando is boldly living out Matthew 6:31-34, "So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (NIV).
Of course, the "all these things" Jesus mentions refers back to the context of what He was just teaching about. In other words, He's talking about our daily needs not wants. God will meet our needs as we make His Kingdom our priority in life. But perhaps this is the very reason why many of us aren't seeking His Kingdom "first" because we aren't content to live with just our "needs" met - we want our "wants" met, too. And because of this, we live hectic, complicated, and confused lives trying to follow and fulfill all our desires instead of simply forsaking everything to follow our Shepherd, the Lord Christ, who is faithful to met our needs.
So now that we've heard Christ's Word, let's ask Him for the grace and strength through the power of His indwelling Spirit to enable us to apply them to our lives today!
Once again, THANK YOU for these posts. And especially thanks for sharing Rolando's comments about trusting the Lord, the pic of the sheep and shepherd and the video of the men singing praises to God. I could feel like I was a part of it all without actually being there. Lori D.
ReplyDeletePraying that God will empower you to speak His Word boldly today among the people of Peru and praying that we will all live out the Word. Thank you for your enouraging posts and we will see you soon Pastor.
ReplyDeleteMatt
Thank you, Lori and Matt, for your encouraging comments! It means a lot to us to know that so many people are keeping up with us on the blog and interceding for us as well. God is blessing, and we´re being encouraged and challenged in so many ways. So often, we think too highly of our ´sacrifices´ until we come face to face with others who´ve abandoned so much for the Gospel. As I heard it said before and preached again last night - When we stand before Jesus, He will not say, ´Well SAID, good and faithful servant,´ but ´Well DONE, good and faithful servant.´ May our walk always match our talk because again I´ve heard it said: Your walk talks and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks! Blessings...
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