Church Growth

For a month we've been talking about missions.  We've been asking for your support for George and the Flowers family .  People like you at 10, 15 or 25 dollars at a time have the power to keep them in the field and become their coworkers in truth without even leaving home (3 John).

In His Own Words: A Missionary Vlog

The inspiration for this month started with some friends who had come over to visit us while we were still abroad.  They told me a tale of another young missionary, (we'll call him George for safety sake) in a nearby part of Asia.  The story went that although he was working hard, preaching the gospel steadily, although people were listening and responding, the money just wasn't there for him to come back for a second year.  At the time it was looking like he would have to go home. 

Hell is for Real

Startling:

People are going to Hell. Literally.  Look around.  That guy who sits down the table from you at lunch, the lady behind you in the line at Walmart, that cute family who visited at your church last week, your Aunt Susie, they could all be headed for Hell.

Do I have your attention? 

Living By Faith

The word promises, "that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28).  When life sends trials and tribulations our way, many of us forget this powerful promise and grow bitter toward God.  All the Flowers are holding tight to this promise and have seen the truth of it played out with power over the last year.

A Joyful Slave

"If you want to be a slave of Christ,  you have to BE a slave of Christ."  One of our elders used this seemingly repetitive phrase in a recent lesson.  I knew what he meant.  It's one thing to say we are his slaves, another to live like it.  A slave owns nothing.  Not her time, not her possessions, not her family.  Even her actions are proscribed by her master. A slave does her master's will, period.

Contact, Contact, Contact

I was all set to write another post: "7 things your missionary wishes you would do."  And then I realized there were two problems.  First, when I started doing some research among the missionaries I knew, there weren't 7 things; there was 1 thing with variations.  The second was I'm not sure you actually have a missionary of your own.

Do you have a missionary? 

To Die is Gain

"Are you still going to Nigeria?" I asked incredulously.  It was a few weeks after the schoolgirls had been kidnapped by Boko Haram, and tensions between the United States and the African country, not to mention between Muslims and Christians, were mounting.  I was sure my father-in-law's yearly missionary trip to the Jos School of Biblical Studies in the central part of Nigeria would be canceled or at least postponed.  When he replied that the trip was still scheduled as planned I was surprised.  Didn't they how dangerous it would be?  He didn't seem worried, so I let it drop.  We continued to pray for him, but his easy manner gave me a sense of security.  In the middle of his trip, that security was shattered.