You never know when God will give the increase

I received a short email a few weeks back that was amazing. The person who emailed me, I have not heard from in over 20 years. We went to High School together. Here is the email:

Subject: Awesome God

You were right. Saved at age 31. Thought you'd like to know. Sorry for being belligerent to you in High School. Will you forgive me?


Wow! Amen!
Our responsibility is to plant the seed faithfully. You never know when God will give the increase! I have since emailed this person and he informed me that he was given the book, The Case for Christ and that shortly after reading that book he made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ.

We all need to stay faithful witnessing and living for the Lord. You never know who is watching and listening, but rest assured people are watching!!

The Face of Missions

The man, on the left, in this photo represents millions across the world. I first met him just a few weeks ago, on Sunday, February 22, 2009. I had just finished preaching two services in the village of Kabanut. Kabanut village was the only village on the island with an organized Baptist church, until 2007. It then was also the only one with an ordained national pastor, Pastor Wilson. The village sits on the west coast of our island, and the church has about 35 members. The village itself, I estimate, has around 400 in population. Pastor Wilson asked to me come and preach for them on February 22. We had a very good meeting with many visitors from the village. I did not count how many people were there, but it must have been close to 100, so 20% to 25% of the village. After the services, I was going around talking to different people. I noticed this man sitting off to the side and I went over and began talking with him. I am not sure if he even attended the service. I know his wife did, as he told me she did. During the course of our conversation, I asked him, “Wanem samting i pasim yu long putim bilip bilong yu long Jisas Kraist?” I basically asked him, what is hindering you from putting your faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour? He told, “mi no gat wanpela man i bin soim mi dispel rot . Mi no save wanem samting mi gat nid long mekim. “ He told me, No one has ever showed me what I need to do. I do not know what to do. This was a man who had never heard the gospel before. Yes, he had heard the name Jesus Christ, but he had never been shown God’s plan for man’s redemption from the Bible.

I then went into the gospel with this man. As I talked with him, he seemed to believe God could not help him. He believed his sin was too great. You see, this man killed his little sister. His sister at the time was around three years old. He said he was drunk, (Isn’t alcohol wonderful!) and he threw a bottle of beer. The bottle hit his sister’s head and she died from her injury. He spent four years and six months in a New Guinea prison for manslaughter. I explained to him how the death of Christ did, in fact, reach all of his sins. We talked for a while and when I was finished, he told me he now wanted to put his faith in Christ. He bowed his head, called on the Lord, and put his faith in Christ! The man looked up with a great smile. This was the first time during our conversation I had seen him smile!

Here was a man who was about 35 years old, and never heard the gospel. This was a man who, because of the magnitude of his sin, did not think God could even help him. There are millions just like him across this world, waiting for some one to come and tell them the truth of God’s redemption for mankind. It is true in New Guinea, in America, in China, in Korea, India, in Germany, in Poland, in Mexico, in France, etc…. This is the reason for missions!

What are you willing to pay?

In my reading a few days ago, I read this verse, (2 Samuel 24:24) “And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.”

Is not the opposite of David’s attitude true in so many of us today? We do not want our service to God to cost us anything. If we were in David’s position, I wonder how many of us would say, “Boy, did the Lord bless, I did not have to pay anything for the oxen for the sacrifice, I did not have to pay for the instruments, or the threshing floor! God is so good!” We do not want our service to cost us anything! We want the path of least resistance. Many today find it to much to attend church faithfully, and yet that is nothing more than a baby step. We want to be counted as servants of God, but not at any cost, or very little cost. After all, we need to be culturally relevant.
Too often when the Lord begins to change our life, we put the brakes on. We decide this is costing us too much. We fail to see how much it cost God to purchase us! How selfish we are today. If you do not want your service to cost you anything, there are many churches out there where you will fit right in. They cater to every need you have. They are “seeker friendly.” For them is not about God, it is about you. However, as I study the churches of the New Testament, I have failed to find a “seeker friendly” church. I see churches which heeded the teaching of Jesus concerning the high cost of discipleship, (Matthew 16:24, Luke 14:26, 27). A life where Christ is preeminent and not you! (Phil 3:1-8) Oh, how we need to get over ourselves and focus on God. Life is not about us it is about God!



(This is a double post on the blog. I am making changes and testing formats.)

What are you willing to pay?

In my reading a few days ago, I read this verse, (2 Samuel 24:24) “And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.”

Is not the opposite of David’s attitude true in so many of us today? We do not want our service to God to cost us anything. If we were in David’s position, I wonder how many of us would say, “Boy, did the Lord bless, I did not have to pay anything for the oxen for the sacrifice, I did not have to pay for the instruments, or the threshing floor! God is so good!” We do not want our service to cost us anything! We want the path of least resistance. Many today find it to much to attend church faithfully, and yet that is nothing more than a baby step. We want to be counted as servants of God, but not at any cost, or very little cost. After all, we need to be culturally relevant.
Too often when the Lord begins to change our life, we put the brakes on. We decide this is costing us too much. We fail to see how much it cost God to purchase us! How selfish we are today. If you do not want your service to cost you anything, there are many churches out there where you will fit right in. They cater to every need you have. They are “seeker friendly.” For them is not about God, it is about you. However, as I study the churches of the New Testament, I have failed to find a “seeker friendly” church. I see churches which heeded the teaching of Jesus concerning the high cost of discipleship, (Matthew 16:24, Luke 14:26, 27). A life where Christ is preeminent and not you! (Phil 3:1-8) Oh, how we need to get over ourselves and focus on God. Life is not about us it is about God!

Preaching at the Market

The market here is the center of commerce. The villagers come from their different locations to sell their garden food to earn some money. The average person earns around 7 dollars at the market. 2 dollars of which will be needed to pay for the transportation used to get to the market. The market does business six days a week. On Saturdays, the market is very busy and is the best time to purchase food. It is also a good time for evangelism. Open air preaching at the market can be effective leading to fruit. In America, the culture is very different and for the most part hard against the gospel. Open air preaching in PNG is culturally acceptable and draws a crowd. The people will come and gather around you to hear what you have to say.

A few weeks ago, the family and I went to the market where I would preach. I preached a message about a religious lost man named Nicodemous from John 3. The people here are very religious. A large crowd gathered and listened intently even though a slight rain began to fall. After I preached, the family and I handed out tracts and talked with the people. No one put their faith in Christ that day, but the Lord is still working on hearts from it. Today, some three weeks after I preached at the market, a man came to talk with me. He said people were still talking about the message and he wanted to talk. He said he personally had several discussions with others about the message. We did not talk for long, but he said he would come by my house so we could talk some more. This man is a religious man in need of Christ. I was thrilled to see the Lord still working on hearts. We never know who it is the Lord will put before us, but we must be ready and willing to preach, leaving the results to God. A farmer does not reap in the same season he plants. Keep in mind though, if the farmer does not sow, he will not reap. Do not stop sowing just because you have yet to reap. Nor should you stop sowing because others have sowed the seed with carelessness. Do not be ashamed of our Lord. We have been given a command of utmost importance: ”preach the Gospel to every creature.”

I thought I would post a few pics from this past month.

This picture is one of the boats Daniel and I used for a supply run. The boat was very weighted down. The Lord blessed and we made to New Ireland with no problems.

Volcano

Th volcano is about 36 miles from where we live. It is on the island south of us called New Britian

Volcano






One very large Cockroach!

This rat I shot and killed with a pellet gun in our house. We had a lot of clean up to do on our house becasue of damage to it from rats.

Good to be Back

We are back in country now, and it is good to be back. We have seen the Lord do many good things for us since we have arrived. Our house was a complete mess from the rats when we arrived. I could not believe all the damage the rats did. Daniel and I first came over to New Ireland while the rest of the family stayed back on the island of New Britain. Daniel and I worked to get the house in order. Many of the people from the village came and helped us. We managed to get it livable and then last Wednesday I brought the whole family over. I have all the walls back up and painted as well as the cabinets. My office still needs a lot of work. Basically I have to redo the entire office. We are still waiting for our container to arrive, but it should be here by the first week of November. Please pray to that end.

We had to replace many items when we arrived, such as the stove, refrigerator, generator, kitchen table and chairs and washer. None of these items are the things in the container. The items in the container are mainly furniture items that needed replaced, such as boys beds, couch, living room chairs etc. The rats actually ate through the gas lines going to the burners on our stove! I traveled back to New Britain to get these needed items. When I enquired about a 6 or 7kva generator, I was informed there was not one in the country unless I was willing to spend K43,000 or about $18,000. While I was discussing this with a salesman, another salesman walked up heard our conversation. He then said there was a6 kva generator in country, even on New Britain! He said he sold it to a trade store, but they did not pick it up and payment had not been made. He said it has been sitting in a warehouse for weeks wrapped up and ready to go. He then called to make sure it was still there and it was! The Lord knew we would need that generator and He had it set aside for my family and me! We serve a great God! Almost the exact same thing happened with the stove we needed to purchase. It too was in a warehouse and unaccounted for! The Lord had it ready for us.

The boat ride over with these supplies was pretty exciting. Keep in mind I purchased theses items on the island of New Britain. I still had to get them to New Ireland. The means of transportation is a banana boat! The picture shows one of the two boats I used. It took us around 2 ½ hours for the boat ride. We made pretty good time all things considered. The Lord blessed! When I brought the family over on the boat, we had a chance to see several whales. When we were coming close to New Ireland, Levi asked, “Is this the wild?” I told him yes and this was his home. His eyes then grew big and with an excited voice he exclaimed, “I live in the wild?!”

We do have an important prayer request. We are in a drought, and our island has been dry since June. My family and I have to go the river for washing the clothes and bathing. The lack of rain is also hurting the gardens the people survive on. Please pray the Lord will send the needed rain.

Also, I already have a tire story but I will save that for the next blog.