Finding Meat in a Milkshake

"But if it pleases my father to do you evil, then I will report it to you and send you away, that you may go in safety. And the Lord be with you as he has been with my father." - 1 Samuel 20:13

"Now Jonathan again caused David to vow because he loved him; for he loved him as as he loved his own soul" - 1 Samuel 20:17

Don't let the title fool you. This will not be a disgusting story of eating traditions in Romania, we'll save that for a later post. This is merely the tale of how I found a word in season for my life while attempting to take away from God what is rightfully His, glory and praise. The way it started was from me being ill-prepared to teach a morning Chapel class at the school. I was in one of the classrooms before school opened just praying that God would give me something. Doctrinal and complex, but also simple and edifying, I mean, I preaching to 10 year olds! I saw Kim reading a devotional on his computer, and I just decide to take the verses I saw at the top of the page and run with it. As I was reading the verses to the kids I thought, "man, this is actually an incredible story, this is like really, really good." Then I started explaining it, the irony of the story. Two friends, a shepherd and a prince, where they pretty much just switch places (I wonder where "The Prince and the Pauper" came from???). It was more than that. This is more then just a story of how to be a good friend. The devil loves it when I don't give the credit that is due to the only One worthy of receiving any credit. In this simple story there is enough doctrine for me to eat for years. Why would I think that a simple Chapel class for children shouldn't move me from the puddle that I'm in into a river of sound Bible doctrine. It's these kind of thoughts that allow me to thank God for people who decide to support the work here, but to blame Him for the trial of having to need that support.
I was reading Wurmbrand recently and he said something that hit me. He said something along these lines, "As death is the name given to an experience by people who don't know how to ressurect, so may trials be the name given to a glorious experience by those who don't know how to turn tears into pearls and wear them in the glorious crown of Christ." Now, I may have changed a few words, but I think you get the idea. Why didn't God remove the thorn from Paul's side? The thorn brought him to a place where his heart was after God. No one wants to go through a trial, but do I want to get to know God? If the answer is yes, shouldn't this be my pursuit? Shouldn't I give up everything, go through anything, and accept nothing less? There has to be a goal for us. Whether it is to get to know God or something else is my own choice, but, if it's the former, there can be nothing else that distracts me. Not my fear of pain, death, or trials. My eyes are fixed on the eternal, and I won't sacrifice the eternal on the altar of the immediate. This is what I see from Jonathan and David. Yes, maybe the story could teach me to be a better friend; yes, it could teach me character, or any one of a dozen moral ideas. I'm not interested in being a moral person, or even being a moral Christian. Morality is just the world's imitation of eternal life. They can never have it without Christ, so they make this, being a good person. What good is trying to be a good person if I have everything working against me? I was born a bad person, I have lived my life as a bad person, and I will die a bad person. If you want to know the difference just add 'trying to be good,' to the end of each phrase. On the other hand I can now say this, "I was born a bad person, He died, I live." That's it, I love it. I will end this the way that Richard Wurmbrand ends each chapter in his book "My Correspondance with Jesus." So until the next time we speak, I have a lot to ponder.
Oh, and just in case anybody is wondering what I am looking at in this picture, here it is:

Mission Trip to Moldova

That's us. In the picture there. Team Romania. This picture was taken in February in Chisinau Moldova. Since then we've had one new member to our team, Donna Perry. For anyone who doesn't know, Moldova is the country to the east of Romania. Just to give you an idea of the place, they were given their freedom in the early 90's and followed that up with having the first free elections the country had ever seen. They elected a Communist President. The tallest guy in the picture, that's Igor. He lives in the Moldovan countryside. Every weekend he hops on a bus with a small bag, some food his wife makes him, and all the other people, chickens, and whatever else they fit on the bus and heads to Chisinau, the capital. He only lives around 300 kilometers away, but it takes around 6 hours for him to get there. For those of us who can't translate this into miles, it's maybe 180 miles. That means the bus is going an average of 30 m.p.h the entire time! The entire church there is filled with people like this. Just imagine a country where a police officer makes $250 a month!!! Imagine one of these people getting saved, and the glory God gets from this. It's amazing!!! Well, that trip was almost a month ago. We are now back to working in the Greater Grace International School. Keep us in prayer, many students are leaving for many different reasons. We know God has a plan, but we are sad to see them go. Now we look ahead to EuroCon '09 and for the first time ever, RomaniaCon '09. We missionaries coming from everywhere preaching for the week after EuroCon. Keep that in prayer as we have many other Christians not in our church who will be attending and of course many unsaved people. Also keep in prayer the Youth night every Friday which we just started a couple weeks ago. Last Friday we had 16 people there! This Friday, Mike Brown will be preaching, even though I don't think he knows it yet. Keep Mike and Pastor Shibley in prayer as they get here the Friday before EuroCon (this Friday!) and spend a few days with us. Keep Pastor Stan Collins, Pastor David Stambovsky, Istvan Pirger, and Mat Laflamme (just to name a few) in prayer as they are all planning to come to Romania after the conference and will be just a few of our speakers for RomaniaCon '09. I ask everyone to keep the team here in prayer, our health, spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental, our finances especially, and our new oppurtunities in ministry. Many exciting things happening here, we're so glad we get to be the vessel God uses. Until next time...