I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God: first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.

– James Hudson Taylor

This is an amazing quote and gives me great hope for some very difficult situations that are going on right now.

Please pray for a little girl named Teagan who is very very sick, currently in critical condition at the hospital in a medical comma. She’s had seizures all her life and last week a 2.5hr seizure prompted her parents, good friends of ours, to bring her to the hospital where a CT scan revealed a swollen brain; she also has pneumonia. She is the most beautiful little girl, and she is not even five and she desperately needs our prayers. Please pray for the doctors to have wisdom to figure out what is causing the seizures (they’ve never figured it out), pray for strength for the family, and pray for complete healing in Jesus’ Name for little Teagan. Right now it is impossible, but we’re praying for done, that Teagan can be used by God as a testimony of His grace, kindness, and mercy.

A great example is the man who was blind from birth. When asked who had sinned to cause that blindness, Jesus said that no one had sinned, but that he had been born this way to demonstrate the power of God (John 9:1-11). I hope and pray and believe that it is the same for little Teagan, that her long life would be a testimony of the power of God.

I’ve talked about obedience on here in the past, and I think that is the biggest issue, and one that I struggle with as well. Are we going to conform ourselves to the Jesus of the Bible, or try to conform our idea of Jesus to suit ourselves? Sadly, I think for most Christians it’s the latter. But it shouldn’t be this way. As Christians, particularly in North America, we’re always looking for the finances, the life of ease, a God who gives us stuff when He asks us to give it all to Him instead. God never promised us an easy life… what He promised was that He would never abandon us, never forsake us. He promised that if we were obedient to Him, He would put our feet on a sure foundation so that when the storms of life hit us (not if, not that if we were obedient that they wouldn’t), we wouldn’t be blown away, that we would stand firm in His embrace. He promised to walk with us, not to give us “stuff”.

This is a challenging article and well worth the read. I highly encourage you to take some time to read it and then examine your own heart, and challenge yourself about what it really means to follow Jesus, to be a servant of our King, to really love and worship Jesus, and make of ourselves living sacrifices that honour and glorify His Name.

After 25 years of ministry as missionaries in Japan, my wife and are heading home. We have had 25 great years in Japan, and it has been a fulfilling ministry. 25 years is not as long as some missionaries stay on the field, but I was 39 when I arrived. It is HARD learning a difficult language like Japanese at middle age!

My wife and I had some ups and downs in the ministry here, but the downs were teaching experiences, as most people will say. Only for us, God took us in a way that our organization was headed before our organization headed in this direction. We learned beforehand how powerful the Holy Spirit is at teaching new believers, without the constant oversight of missionaries or pastors at the beginning. And lots of people (churches) did not like things that involved change from the ordinary, but we persevered with joy in our hearts.

Japan is listed in some circles as being basically “unresponsive” to the gospel – with approximately 1/2 of 1% as being believers. Evangelical missionaries and organizations have been in this country over 150 years.

We have not used conventional means, and going back 15 years, we found that the Japanese were, and are, capable of expanding the gospel among themselves. We have seen three different groups that we started expand into four and five generations of Christians, as in the 2 Timothy 2:2 principle. And one of the groups were among homeless — led by one that we were blessed to train. Part of our vision was that of viewing God’s greatest resources — not the missionary, or church support monies, or pastors, but the individual believers that God led to us. (A church’s greatest resource is not the pastor, not the money, not the building but the people in the pew. Use them, equip them, give them vision, send them out!)

We are leaving behind both nationals and GCCs who have found that they can witness, they can equip, they can train and they can have and lead bible studies and messages, as well as baptize. It doesn’t have to depend on the missionary or pastor to expand the Kingdom. We also have worked with a few missionaries who don’t mind stepping out of the box and trying something different. The one key that we find is that a person must have vision, passion and focus to expand the Kingdom. If you have those, people will want what you have.

I visited and talked with a young missionary two weeks ago who lives about two hours from me. He was disappointed in most missionaries and pastors who come to accept slow response in Japan as a matter of fact. I left him (and also my fellow workers) with these words: Don’t let the unresponsiveness determine your joy, passion or vision. Let your passion, vision and joy come from Jesus. When you do this, others will notice! The vast majority of the work that we have done, and the people that we have worked with and partnered with — came from people seeking us out by email, phone calls, coming to our house or where we happened to be going. When the joy of the Lord is your strength, people will notice. When your passion and vision are determined by Who you know, and not the circumstances you are in, people will notice . . . as was with Paul!

We have had a great time; we have seen many baptized, and we have seen many nationals equipped and prepared to advance the Kingdom. While we have been VERY joyful of those that we led to the Lord, the greatest joy has come from seeing them witness, train and equip those that they led to the Lord, and then they did the same, and so on. I once heard a sermon that had this in the message: The greatest success a parent can have is to raise their children to love someone else more than they (the children) love the parents. When your child loves his/her spouse as the most important person (over the parents) then the parents have been successful. My wife and I are not expecting new believers to look back at us, but out into the harvest and advance the Kingdom. That is the reward for us! That is what we are seeing. It is not a huge force yet, but is quite significant.

It also really illustrates that God does indeed mean it when He says “come as you are”. If we had to be perfect to come to God, we wouldn’t need God because we would be perfect. But since we are not perfect, it is through His boundless grace that He takes us in, regardless of what we’ve done in the past or what we’re doing now. The first step is simply to acknowledge the fact that we need God and to make that first step… to come to Him with all our problems and baggage and pain intact. He will work with us and in us after we take that first step; we don’t have to do any more than simply admit that we need Him more than anything.

Please pray for the work the Dream Centre and other similar ministries are doing. It is of vital importance to the people that go through those doors every day.

I just saw my wife already shared this, but I have to share it too because, although it hasn’t impacted me as much as it has her, it has still had a profound impact on our life and family.

Back in July, my wife was diagnosed with an auto-immune connective tissue disease. This could have been one of a half-dozen things, rheumatoid arthritis among others I can’t pronounce, much less spell. She had a painful lump on her wrist, and blood work from the doctor indicated it was most definitely a connective tissue disease and that the specialist would tell us which one, and what we needed to do. Of course, this was shocking and terrible news… health is a vital concern, and it hit all of us quite hard.

The specialist appointment was made for October 4th, so we had a long time to wait. That time could either be spent in dread of the news to come, or in proactive prayer and proclamation of the goodness of God. We chose the latter, and the first Tuesday we could after we found out, we were at the church prayer service to have her prayed over. Within two days, the painful lump on her wrist was gone. Over the next few months, she was prayed over at the ladies group, and responded to an altar call for healing at the church evening service this last Sunday. We were digging in as deep as we could!

Yesterday we went to the specialist. She was in the office for 20 minutes. When she came out, I had no idea if we were coming back for more tests or whatnot, but she came out glowing! She said the doctor looked at her like she was crazy as he poked and prodded at her finger joints and her wrist. He then told her that her wrist was perfect, that she most definitely did not have a connective tissue disease, and that he would likely never see her again.

Praise God, He did a wonderful thing for our family! I don’t know if her disease was healed after that first Tuesday prayer, if it was sometime in between, or if it was last Sunday. And it doesn’t even matter when it was, all that matters is she is healed, God is faithful, and His tender mercies have touched us.

You know, other answers to prayer can sometimes lead to doubt. If you pray for a job and then get one, is it because you prayed or because you put out a few hundred resumes and applications? Sometimes we rationalize away the great thing God has given to us. But with healing, especially for a disease, you can’t rationalize it away. It is a miracle. There is no science involved. God got involved because we asked Him to, and He was faithful to hear, and merciful to heal. Thank You Jesus, so very much, for this beautiful gift you have given to us. I pray that we never forget it, never belittle it, and use it to share Your love with others that need it and to be drawn even closer to You. We owed you EVERYTHING before this, and now You have beggared us yet again by giving us even more. Thank You!

I was diagnosed in July with Connective Tissue Disease because of a large bump on my wrist. It scared me, but I could not get into the specialist for 2 and 1/2 months. So my family was praying, my church was praying, I had everyone I could think of put me on their prayer list. When I went into see the specialist yesterday, the doctor said not only did I not have Connective Tissue Disease but that my wrist was perfect! That was the word he used! Praise God, thank you Lord that you are bigger then everything!!

“Behold, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who by night stand in the house of the Lord! Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord. The Lord who made heaven and earth bless you from Zion!” (Psalm 134, NKJV)

There is a command and a promise here, and we can examine it using the “Five W’s” of standard journalism. The who is the servants of the Lord, people who serve and love God. The what is to bless the Lord, to worship and lift Him up. The when is at night. The where is in the sanctuary, in the house of the Lord (the church). The why is also to bless the Lord (this is both the what and the why — we bless the Lord and worship Him as an act and also as a reason). The how is by lifting up your hands.

And the reward? That the Lord who made Heaven and Earth would bless you (you, who keep His commandments to bless God, at night, in His house, by lifting holy hands and standing in the sanctuary). Think about it! For those who love God, this is not a hard command to keep. It really isn’t. And the benefit, the blessing of God for those who are faithful? Priceless!

If we honor the God who sent His Son to save and redeem us, and we honor the sacrifice Jesus made for us, then going to church at night is no chore. We should be more than eager to spend time with our brothers and sisters in Christ, raising our voices and our hands in one accord, pouring out blessing and honor and glory to Jesus Christ, who loved us enough to die for our sins and paved the way for right relationship with Father God.

It is not our duty to go to church twice on Sunday. It is our privilege! When do we start to realize this and live our lives according to that truth? It isn’t a chore, it’s an honor!

This song is called “From the Inside Out” by Hillsong United and can be found on the United We Stand album (I have it from the iWorship 24/7 album, which is a compilation of some really great worship songs).

If you were like me and fed the mood, try breaking through with worship. Guaranteed it works. Lose yourself in worshipping God. You might as well get used to it now… if you are a Christian, this is what we’ll be doing for eternity. Get some practice in!

From the Inside Out – Hillsong United

A thousand times I’ve failed
Still your mercy remains
And should I stumble again
Still I’m caught in your grace

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame

My heart and my soul, I give You control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise, become my embrace
To love You from the inside out

Your will above all else, my purpose remains
The art of losing myself in bringing you praise

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame

My heart, my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
And the cry of my heart is to bring You praise
From the inside out, O my soul cries out

My Soul cries out to You
My Soul cries out to You
to You, to You

My heart, my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
And the cry of my heart is to bring You praise
From the inside out, O my soul cries out

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
And the cry of my heart is to bring You praise
From the inside out, O my soul cries out
From the inside out, O my soul cries out
From the inside out, O my soul cries out.

Here we can see God’s direction played out, and Joash’s obedience to the Word of God:

“And Elisha said to him, ‘Take a bow and some arrows.’ So he took himself a bow and some arrows. Then he said to the king of Israel, ‘Put your hand on the bow.’ So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. And he said, ‘Open the east window’; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, ‘Shoot’; and he shot. And he said, ‘The arrow of the Lord’s deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them.’” (2 Kings 13:15-17, NKJV)

Joash obeyed everything that Elisha said, and Elisha gave him detailed instructions. This clearly shows obedience. Yet the following verses, while showing obedience, also show a lack of passion, zeal, and enthusiasm — which are things that God wants from us as well:

“Then he said, ‘Take the arrows’; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, ‘Strike the ground’; so he struck three times, and stopped. And the man of God was angry with him, and said, ‘You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times.’” (2 Kings 13:18-19, NKJV)

Obedience is important, absolutely! If Joash had not obeyed the Word of God through Elisha, he would not have struck Syria at all, and God’s deliverance would not be evident whatsoever. Yet, even though he was obedient, he was not zealous about what God had said. He was not given the specifics of what striking the ground would produce, yet his lack of response ultimately meant that God did not respond as fully as He wanted to. God wanted to give Joash complete victory, but the king’s response limited God. And as a result of that limitation, complete victory was not attained.

We can, and do, limit what God can do in our lives. The above illustrates this clearly. It is also spelled out quite plainly in the Psalms:

“How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert! Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.” (Psalms 78:40-41, NKJV)

If you want to release the full victory and blessing of God in your life, do not limit Him. Do not hold back in your worship, in your prayers, in your intercession before the Holy One of Israel! Be obedient, yes, but do not hold back! Let the outward be an expression of the inward, abandon yourself and be passionate for God, be zealous and enthusiastic. Paying lip service to God, doing the prescribed works without love, loyalty, passion will get you somewhere, but it will not get you what you want, or what God wants to give you.

Abandon yourself, lose yourself, in worship. Let holiness and righteousness consume you, set a fire in your heart, to strive for and hunger after the Presence of the Almighty God. Prayer, worship, studying and consuming the Word, losing yourself in love and adoration to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ — show Him that He is the first and foremost in your life! Couple that with obedience to His Word, to His commands and direction, then you have a potent mix, a formula for victory and success in whatever it is you are crying out to the Lord for!