Being Fishers of Men – It’s More than Just Fishing!

04. October 2014 · Comments Off on Being Fishers of Men – It’s More than Just Fishing! · Categories: 2014, Lessons

“Oh yeah, you got one alright.” The father said as he took the pole and started reeling in the line. I was sitting on the bench on the wooden dock standing over the water of the bay. A man was fishing behind me on the shore with his daughter of perhaps 8 years old. She had her own little pole and had hooked a fish.

The father reeled and reeled and soon the fished popped out of the water. He unhooked it and kept it.

This got me to thinking… There’s a saying that goes like this: Give a man a fish, and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.

There is a spiritual lesson to this. We can fish all our life and gain many souls for Jesus. But if we teach them how to fish, then they will be able to go out and gain many more souls for Christ.

Jesus has called us to be fishers of men. He needs us not only to fish, but also to teach others how to fish. The more people we train to fish for souls, the sooner He can come back to this earth.

Are you really a Christian? – An experience canvassing

04. October 2014 · Comments Off on Are you really a Christian? – An experience canvassing · Categories: 2014, Canvassing Testimonies

“I’m not interested. Thank you!” A sweet asian lady said at the door. She wasn’t interested in my books. She didn’t want anything that had anything to do with Christianity. I guessed that she was probably a Buddist, or perhaps another eastern religion.

“Ok. That’s fine. Would you be interested in helping us with a donation to help us through school?”

“Ok. Let me see what I have.” She replied, closing the door and disappearing into the house. She returned with $10.

The wires in my head started connecting the dots. This was my first canvassing trip, yet I had just discovered a strange dicotomy. Most of the people I visited weren’t interested in buying books, and most of them simply weren’t interested in even listening to what I had to say or helping with anything. Some would help and get books, and some were really interested and wanted one or more books as soon as they saw them. But the majority of people I met just weren’t interested at all.

America is a Christian nation… At least we think of ourselves as a Christian nation. But what were Christ’s values? Jesus was generous, considerate, kind, tender hearted, loving everyone he met. The people I met at the door were so much different! Most of them wouldn’t even give me time to finish my canvass. Being a Christian means being like Christ.

If I were to say that the Buddist lady was more like Jesus than most of the Christians I met, I might take some flak from the Christian world. But isn’t it true? It is what I experienced. And it’s not just one Asian lady that I met. I met several, and the experience was nearly always the same. But this is because helping and doing good to others is part of what these Asian religions believe in. What about Christianity? Isn’t this what we believe? Is it what we do?

Will you join me in taking the name of Christian seriously? Will you join me in making it a point to be Christlike even when you don’t have time? even when you don’t feel like it? even when every part of you screams no? Will you do it not because you will earn your way to heaven, but because its what Jesus did? Will you join me?

Spending my all for Him – Reflecting back

27. September 2014 · Comments Off on Spending my all for Him – Reflecting back · Categories: 2014

It’s been 6 years since I first became involved in overseas missions. I have no regrets for doing so. I’ve found many blessings and I’ve grown in many ways.

These years I’ve spent differently than most young people do. From age 20 to 25  is when most young people are in college or university studying hard and trying to figure out what they want to do with their life. But for me, I decided to spend those years, the spryest of my youth, differently. I spent them in gaining experience overseas, in learning by practical experience, growing by doing. I spent those years in the foreign mission field, doing whatever God set before me. I learned as much as I could, and did as much as I could. I felt the call to missions, and not only that, but to involve others in mission. The work is more than I could do, so I worked and still work, to spread the word of the need among the people of God. I didn’t spend every one of those years overseas, but I spent every one of those years involved in overseas missions in some way, mostly recruiting missionaries and working to spread awareness.

As the years have gone by, I have realized that my youthful vigor is being spent. I have at times stretched myself beyond what I thought I could do. I have seen God use me, such an impure vessel as I am, in His work in wonderous ways. As the years have gone by I realize that in some ways, my youth is going by as well. Don’t get me wrong, I know that I still have many years that I can serve for God. It’s just that I have to be more careful not to push myself too much.

I have largely taken the position that I don’t need a college education to be useful in God’s work, and to find opportunities to be used. I have found this to be  true in my experience. I have found so much work to be done that I can’t do it all; I can’t even do a little of it. What I can do is less than a drop in the bucket. The opportunities out there are far more plenteous in comparison to the workers available. However I realized recently in my own experience that considering what I was doing, namely management, that I could be much more effective if I knew more about what I was doing. I’ve never thought it was bad to go to college, but it has been a little shift for me to decide to go to college.

I have no regrets in spending my spryest young years in the mission field instead of college. One of the main reasons I did so is because that is the way that God led. He clearly led me to the mission field, and led me to be involved in missions when I wasn’t actually there. Now He has clearly led me to college. And I know that wherever He calls me, He will always give me the strength to do whatever He calls me to do. I have no regrets in spending my all for Him.

“So close!” – An Object Lesson

06. September 2014 · Comments Off on “So close!” – An Object Lesson · Categories: 2014, Devotional, Lessons

“So close!” My house mate cried out as he fell.  Just mastering the unicycle, his words could have been easily misunderstood.

Again he was off on the wheel, taking off across the grass. “So close!” he shouted again as he fell.

But it was a bit of a joke. He was falling on purpose. Some of the others had tried to ride the unicycle, but they couldn’t ride as well and fell right away. Then the joke started when my housemate tried to fall just like the others… It was so close. He almost got it right! Again he tried, he almost fell right, it was so close again.

If this sounds pretty light hearted, it is. But how many of us, God’s professing people, go after the ways of the world, trying to fall just like them? How many of us are obsessed with trying to fall just like those in the world? Why do we think it’s cool? Do we take seriously God’s call to follow him? Or are we light heartedly making fun and following the worldlings as they go in circles?

I believe God has a higher plan for us. A much higher plan! He has an infinite plan. He desires us to follow him implicitly, doing everything just as Jesus did, for He is our Example. If we would do this, what a representation of Him that would be!

Missionary Work: An Exploration of Motives.

08. August 2014 · Comments Off on Missionary Work: An Exploration of Motives. · Categories: 2014, Lessons

It was six years ago… I was excited! I was about to fly overseas for the first time. And not only that, I was going alone… Going alone didn’t excite me much, but I was excited because I was going to be a missionary. I was traveling for the first time to a place I’d never been, going to meet someone at the airport that I’d never met before. Given my level of experience it seems almost foolish now… Earlier that year rebels had taken over a large part of the neighboring country. And there had even been riots in the city where I was going… But despite this, I knew that God was by my side, and that He was sending me here, and I had no reason to fear.

I was reeling for about 4 weeks! I’d never been to a third world country. It was all so different! Cars drove wherever they felt like it, even if it was the opposite side of the road. Horns tooted everywhere. There was no concept of lanes, everyone drove where they wanted. So many opportunists walked along the side of the roads selling peanuts, or setup shop on the side of the road to sell anything drivers and travelers would buy… There was no such thing in my country! At times when a driver got cut off, he stuck his hand out the window and shouted, “Where are you going to?” as if he was going to somewhere more important than the other driver!  I remember walking maybe about 1km out to the main road where there was an internet cafe, just to check my email and get news from home. There was no 3G, no smartphones. The taxi cars operated like public transport taking as many passengers as possible, two people in the passenger seat was normal.

All this sounds like a crazy experience, but these things are commonplace in third world countries. For me, it was more than a crazy experience, because I knew why I was there… I was there to be a missionary. Throughout my term there, I began to understand more of what being a missionary really means. It’s not about adventure… It’s not about traveling to places you’ve never been, or about experiences cultures you’ve never experienced. There’s nothing inherently wrong with these things, but they aren’t good motives for being a missionary.

What are good motives for being a missionary? Why should someone desire and then become a missionary? What does it really mean to be a missionary? These are good questions, and they require more than a casual answer. First we should answer the last question. What does it mean to be a missionary? This is a big concept, yet simultaneously so simple. Let’s look at the only perfect Missionary who ever walked this earth. Jesus left His glory in heaven, his perfect home… Why? Why did He leave heaven? Why did He come all the way down to dingy dirty earth? He cared about humanity, you and me and everyone else who has ever walked this globe. He loved us so much that He left his perfect home in heaven where there was no sin or suffering or pain. He left all of that to come to planet earth, claimed by Satan, He came to humanity, fallen and depraved in sin. His compassion and love were so great that He left His perfect home in heaven to come and save humanity. I believe this is the best illustration of what it means to be a missionary.

I think there are many good motives for being a missionary, so I won’t list them all. Given the illustration that we’ve just looked at of Jesus leaving heaven to come and save humanity… Let’s think about what Jesus’ motives were… Well of course we know that He came because he wanted to save humanity. But let’s look a little deeper, what does that really mean? Jesus forsook everything he had to come and save the lost. What motivated Him to do that? It was His love for the lost. God’s love was so great that He gave His Son… His Son’s love was so great that He gave His life. This is in essence the best motive in it’s entirety for being a missionary. His motive was love. Infinite Love. Incomprehensible Love. Love so big we can’t even imagine it.

This is the love that God wants to give us for the unreached, for the lost of humanity. Do we love the lost? Do we even care whether they suffer in darkness? Do we care about them enough to share with them a better way? The Way of Life? I have to admit I more than pale in comparison with God’s love for the lost. I pale in comparison to other missionaries I know… But God wants to give us His heart, His heart of love for the lost and unreached. Will you accept His heart? His love? Will you ask Him for it?

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