Disclaimer: I'm NOT God's gift to missions!

Hi guys,

I don't know exactly how to communicate this, so I will just clumsily muddle through it, but I just wanted to go on record on this blog stating that I know I am not God's gift to missions in any way shape or form. I know I've been a big loud mouth telling everyone about what God's called me to do - you know fundraising, BLOGGING, and generally having a hard time shutting up about it. I've been singing His praises, so shoot me. :-) Seriously though, my prayer is that I don't often (or ever) yield to the temptation to sing my own praises, or to be prideful, or forget who it really is that makes the fruit grow.

Yes I feel called go on these mission trips, but no, I don't reeeeally have the slightest idea yet of why God called me specifically when he did or how he reeeeally plans to use me while I'm gone or when I get back home. Sure I can speculate, and have, but I know my place in this universe enough to know that there is some quote about mice and men that would be perfect to say right now.

I also fully aware of the fact that I am unworthy of this call and this work, and that without God the Father I can do nothing of lasting value. This week I began a 12-week study workbook called Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God. I'm sure many of you have heard of it or done it yourselves. I can already tell that it's going to deepen my walk with God immensely. I wanted something interactive to anchor my daily devotions while I'm overseas and had heard great things about this workbook. So anyway, yesterday's lesson really hit home on this topic of me being worthless on the mission field, or anywhere for that matter, if I am not connected to God's Spirit day-by-day and moment-by-moment. John 15:5 says "I am the vine and you are the branches. If a man remains in me, and me in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing." He is the singular source of life, here on earth and eternally! Everything else is dust.

Also, I realize that culturally I will be a fish out of water in a big way, and if anything I will represent a culture that most God-fearing Muslims find abhorrent. I am not trying to bring American culture or ways of thinking to them. I am only trying to be obedient to a call to be a vessel of Christ's love and truth, which are universal across all cultures, be it American or Egyptian, rich or poor, Christian or Muslim.

Many who call themselves "Christians" are just as trapped in the bondage of a dead "religion" of rote, meaningless, law-keeping as Muslims are. Christ's heart for the nations is for each individual be redeemed by the personal profession of faith in Him and subsequent eternal personal relationship. God promises in Phillipians 2: 8-10 "that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." This is a promise that Christ died for and is Lord of all nations, regardless of race, religion, or creed, whatever creed means. My point? --- that this is personal, not cultural. This is heart-to-heart humanity connecting together to the divine. As I "go" over there with a circumcised heart, I go with strength given by the Father, for I am in no way capable of doing anything of value on my own.

Speaking of value, on Monday morning God led me in scripture to I Corinthians 13. Yes, it's the passage on love that you've heard read at nearly every wedding you've ever been to. Here's what struck me as "new" upon reading it on Monday. Verse 13 says, "Three things will last forever - faith, hope and love - and the greatest of these is love." Some translations says these things "will remain". What struck me is that God never minces words... in fact he chooses his words very precisely to communicate perfectly as he intends. He didn't say "Three OF THE THINGS that will last forever", he said "Three things WILL last forever." That means those are the only things that are of eternal value! Everything else is perishable and finite and subject to death. I want my life to be about faith, hope, and love.

God is working all around us at all times, and is asking us to take part in his eternal work. For me, while I'm in Oman, Yemen, Ethiopia, Egypt, and India, the descriptions of the actual tasks I will do are ultimately irrelevant. "Work" by human definition is not what God's after -- he's after the human heart. The important questions for me to ask myself in each moment will be more like this:
--Is what I'm doing/saying right now of eternal value?
--Am I investing in the people I encounter in eternal ways, connecting with them in the areas of faith, hope, and love, whether in big or small, direct or indirect ways?
--How is God at work here, and how can I plug in to that to glorify Him, not myself?

PLEASE PRAY that throughout my time away I would learn to be supernaturally sensitive to the Spirit's voice and that my heart would be connected to God's heart through the power of Christ Jesus. Pray that I would be trained to remain in the Spirit as my second nature, closer than my own skin, and that upon my return I would continue to walk in that light.