It is the
25th of August. We are just 4 months away from Christmas Day, 2016.
WOW! The temperature outside is reading in the higfh
80s. Praise be to our God and King, the Lord of the Universe and our
eternal Home. As the summer is coming to screeching halt, it is still
warm and hazy. We have been blessed beyond measure by the wonders of His
love and grace. Alice and I celebrated our 41st Wedding anniversary on
the 23rd of August. We are the recipients of His countless blessings
and innumerable mercies over these years. We praise the Lord for the way
the Lord of our lives and our homes covers us with His mysteries and mercies,
forgiveness, healing, forgiveness, and restorations. He navigates our
lives as the Pioneer and the finisher of our faith. We spent a few
days with our dear friends and fellow servants of our Lord, Warren and Linda,
in Burlington, Vermont. They always minister
to us with special care and love. We had a wonderful time
sharing laughing, eating, and praying. We returned home to New York,
blessed and refreshed. Today we spent some time with our nephews and
nieces sharing a very special dinner before they all return back to school
and college.
A
few years ago I met Elizabeth Elliott in person near Boston during a worship
service. She wrote many books including, "Through Gates of
Splendor". This book is the account about the martyrdom
of her husband and his fellow missionaries, including Nate Saint.
Every time I read this I am brought to tears and am provoked to love the Lord
and serve Him with great abandonment.
Most of us recognize the names of Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming, and Jim Elliot. In 1955 these five young men (all under the age of 35) gathered in Ecuador with a vision of reaching a tribe of Indians called the Aucas (the word means “savage,” a name given to them by other tribes) who lived deep in the rain forest. No one had ever presented the gospel to them. These five missionaries—all highly trained and deeply devoted to God—began praying about ways to make contact. In September they began flying over an Auca village, lowering a pot containing gifts for the Indians. Eventually the Aucas took the gifts and replaced them with simple gifts of their own.
In January 1956, the five men decided the time had come to make contact in person. After much prayer they established a base camp on a sandy beach of the Curaray River. On January 8, 1956—at about 3:30 PM, they were speared to death by the Indians who mistakenly thought they had come to hurt them. The news shocked the world. Many people wondered how young men with so much promise could waste their lives that way. When the journals of Jim Elliot were published several years later, they were found to contain this sentence: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
The Apostle Paul would agree. Once we decide that our lives won’t last forever, we are free to invest it in a cause greater than ourselves. We give up what we can’t keep so that in the end we gain what we can never lose. This is what Paul meant when he said, “Whether by life or death.” We live in Christ, for Christ, by Christ, through Christ, and from Christ. He is the beginning, the middle and the end of life. He is truly the Alpha and Omega, the A and Z, and every letter in between.
In Christ,
Brown
https://youtu.be/4WYK6TxWX7s
No comments:
Post a Comment