Monday, July 14, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Prayer... The Most Precious Thing
Dear Prayer Partners,
A number of you have made specific mention of the fact that you pray for us, in various ways, at different times of the day, etc. Thank you! It’s the most precious thing you can do. And be assured! Your prayers make a difference in our lives. A big difference!!
The other week Rachel and I were struggling through a major communication issue we had been working on for several days. All of a sudden, it seemed as though God just threw His blanket of peace over us and settled both of our hearts. It wasn’t like we suddenly struck on some great, strategic insight or that I decided to wear her pink hearing aids and she had decided to wear my blue ones—although we know that always works too. It was inexplicable. It came from a dimension outside ourselves… from something beyond us. It’s called grace… God’s grace. His divine enablement, making it possible for us to be what we can’t be of ourselves, and to function in ways we can’t achieve on our own.
Rachel said the other day, “I like the new ‘us’.” Me too.
It should have come as no surprise that I received this email from a dear brother who is in the process of hiking the Appalachian Trail with his boys. Here’s what he said:
“Yesterday (June 21), as I was praying, you came to my mind and I prayed long and hard for you. I prayed that God would give you strength for the journey, and grace to do the ministry He has called you to. I just wanted you to know that you are not forgotten. Your ministry is being prayed for as I hike the 2000 plus miles. We have 260 down and 1740 or so to go.”
Wow! I immediately knew where that extra boost of grace from the Lord had come from. This brother didn’t have a clue as to what our need was at that given juncture. But God did! And His grace was appropriated precisely in the way we needed it! So please, when God nudges you to pray for us, don’t hesitate. Just do it! We can’t survive without it!!
Speaking of surviving… Christopher, has turned into a real gardener down here. By typical LA standards, the house we ended up with here in Upland has a fairly nice-sized back yard with a strip of open soil along the one side for flowers (Kristi) and some vegetables and tea (Christopher). Today as he and I were spending some father/son time together, he was telling me about his strategy for watering the garden. He said, he likes to help his plants SURVIVE during the day (the direct ultraviolet rays down here are incredible), and REVIVE at night. I thought that was pretty good. Sounds like a good strategy for us as mortals too. In the hot, scorching sun of everyday spiritual labor, we need the water of faithful prayer to SURVIVE. And at night, in the quietness of our devotional time—drinking in the Word of God, we are REVIVED!
Soon after we first arrived here in southern California, our faith was tested in the area of my health. God was there for us! I had surgery, and I survived. Then, as I’ve just described above, our faith has been tested in the area of our marriage. Again, God is faithful, and we are thriving!
Yet another area God has allowed our faith to be tested in is in the area of our vehicles. About a month ago we were making plans to meet with Jaime, a former gang member from Hollywood who is now a born-again Christian. In an effort to understand the gang-culture mindset, this guy was going to show us how to read graffiti, interpret some of the inter-gang lingo, and hopefully meet some of the locals. But the day before we were to meet, the transmission went out on our minivan, a 2001 Ford WindStar. So we had to cancel the appointment. The next week we decided just to take Marcel’s little old 1981 Honda Accord. That day the boys and I got within six miles of our destination when the alternator went out and the car died in the middle of five lanes of traffic (thankfully, traffic was near a standstill at the time). Thanks to AAA and PepBoys, we were able to get it fixed yet that day, but again, we had to cancel our appointment with Jaime.
These incidents felt not only like a test of our faith, but perhaps as an attack upon our goal of contact with Jaime and evangelistic insight into gang activity. We wondered, “What can all this mean?” We were prepared to keep the minivan parked in our driveway until we had the finances to pay for it. But then, another brother heard about what had happened and called to encourage us to go ahead and get it fixed, trusting the Lord to provide for covering the cost of $2,500 for the local Ford Motor dealership to install a remanufactured one.
From a financial perspective, it obviously feels different being in VS work now as compared to having owned our own business in Minnesota. Back then we could simply take on some extra projects, work extra hours, or in other ways manage the ebb and flow of our finances. But now most of our expenses are being paid for by others and we live on an allowance. We feel very unworthy of the support others give us! We want to be faithful, first of all to the Lord, but also to you who have invested in His kingdom here. We know God “owns the cattle on a thousand hills,” and His resources are unlimited. We are trusting in Him!
Rachel and I have been involved in ministry for all of our adult lives. Over the years, we have often felt the opposition of particular circumstances, particular mindsets, and even particular people. We have often simply chalked this up as being “just life.” However, we are becoming more and more aware of the fact that when you are truly enlisted in the army of the Lord—as we all should be—you are immediately set in direct opposition to Satan. He is an enemy! And he will use whatever circumstances, mindsets, or people he can to oppose you. In hindsight, we now believe this has always been true for us too, but we have come to feel it here in some very tangible ways.
Keep praying for us!
Ernest
A number of you have made specific mention of the fact that you pray for us, in various ways, at different times of the day, etc. Thank you! It’s the most precious thing you can do. And be assured! Your prayers make a difference in our lives. A big difference!!
The other week Rachel and I were struggling through a major communication issue we had been working on for several days. All of a sudden, it seemed as though God just threw His blanket of peace over us and settled both of our hearts. It wasn’t like we suddenly struck on some great, strategic insight or that I decided to wear her pink hearing aids and she had decided to wear my blue ones—although we know that always works too. It was inexplicable. It came from a dimension outside ourselves… from something beyond us. It’s called grace… God’s grace. His divine enablement, making it possible for us to be what we can’t be of ourselves, and to function in ways we can’t achieve on our own.
Rachel said the other day, “I like the new ‘us’.” Me too.
It should have come as no surprise that I received this email from a dear brother who is in the process of hiking the Appalachian Trail with his boys. Here’s what he said:
“Yesterday (June 21), as I was praying, you came to my mind and I prayed long and hard for you. I prayed that God would give you strength for the journey, and grace to do the ministry He has called you to. I just wanted you to know that you are not forgotten. Your ministry is being prayed for as I hike the 2000 plus miles. We have 260 down and 1740 or so to go.”
Wow! I immediately knew where that extra boost of grace from the Lord had come from. This brother didn’t have a clue as to what our need was at that given juncture. But God did! And His grace was appropriated precisely in the way we needed it! So please, when God nudges you to pray for us, don’t hesitate. Just do it! We can’t survive without it!!
Speaking of surviving… Christopher, has turned into a real gardener down here. By typical LA standards, the house we ended up with here in Upland has a fairly nice-sized back yard with a strip of open soil along the one side for flowers (Kristi) and some vegetables and tea (Christopher). Today as he and I were spending some father/son time together, he was telling me about his strategy for watering the garden. He said, he likes to help his plants SURVIVE during the day (the direct ultraviolet rays down here are incredible), and REVIVE at night. I thought that was pretty good. Sounds like a good strategy for us as mortals too. In the hot, scorching sun of everyday spiritual labor, we need the water of faithful prayer to SURVIVE. And at night, in the quietness of our devotional time—drinking in the Word of God, we are REVIVED!
Soon after we first arrived here in southern California, our faith was tested in the area of my health. God was there for us! I had surgery, and I survived. Then, as I’ve just described above, our faith has been tested in the area of our marriage. Again, God is faithful, and we are thriving!
Yet another area God has allowed our faith to be tested in is in the area of our vehicles. About a month ago we were making plans to meet with Jaime, a former gang member from Hollywood who is now a born-again Christian. In an effort to understand the gang-culture mindset, this guy was going to show us how to read graffiti, interpret some of the inter-gang lingo, and hopefully meet some of the locals. But the day before we were to meet, the transmission went out on our minivan, a 2001 Ford WindStar. So we had to cancel the appointment. The next week we decided just to take Marcel’s little old 1981 Honda Accord. That day the boys and I got within six miles of our destination when the alternator went out and the car died in the middle of five lanes of traffic (thankfully, traffic was near a standstill at the time). Thanks to AAA and PepBoys, we were able to get it fixed yet that day, but again, we had to cancel our appointment with Jaime.
These incidents felt not only like a test of our faith, but perhaps as an attack upon our goal of contact with Jaime and evangelistic insight into gang activity. We wondered, “What can all this mean?” We were prepared to keep the minivan parked in our driveway until we had the finances to pay for it. But then, another brother heard about what had happened and called to encourage us to go ahead and get it fixed, trusting the Lord to provide for covering the cost of $2,500 for the local Ford Motor dealership to install a remanufactured one.
From a financial perspective, it obviously feels different being in VS work now as compared to having owned our own business in Minnesota. Back then we could simply take on some extra projects, work extra hours, or in other ways manage the ebb and flow of our finances. But now most of our expenses are being paid for by others and we live on an allowance. We feel very unworthy of the support others give us! We want to be faithful, first of all to the Lord, but also to you who have invested in His kingdom here. We know God “owns the cattle on a thousand hills,” and His resources are unlimited. We are trusting in Him!
Rachel and I have been involved in ministry for all of our adult lives. Over the years, we have often felt the opposition of particular circumstances, particular mindsets, and even particular people. We have often simply chalked this up as being “just life.” However, we are becoming more and more aware of the fact that when you are truly enlisted in the army of the Lord—as we all should be—you are immediately set in direct opposition to Satan. He is an enemy! And he will use whatever circumstances, mindsets, or people he can to oppose you. In hindsight, we now believe this has always been true for us too, but we have come to feel it here in some very tangible ways.
Keep praying for us!
Ernest
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