Good Sunday morning! The outside weather and my weather (which I was under this past few days) are both clearing up. However, as the cold outside will tell you, we ain't all the way there yet. The news isn't all bad though, the temperature is better already this morning than it has been for a couple of days; perhaps we'll even make it up to freezing today! Yay!
What to write about this morning? Christmas has passed, the New Year stuff isn't quite ready yet this morning, so what is the subject for today? I asked God what to write and was told that I was stuck because I worried too much about what to write. The saying was something like "worry less, write more." This morning I have also enjoyed some good stories about salvation.
What struck me about these stories is that none of them included the oft feared "mission to the Congo." You might say that in every story the person was called to a far country, right here. When we face our sins and look to the cross, one of the lies the devil likes to run up the mast is that all of us will have to sign up for a mission to the Congo. For one thing, the Congo probably isn't as bad as our fears would have it, and for another, the growth of Christ's church in many areas of Africa is both dramatic and full of the miraculous. As one minister over this-a-way once said, "maybe they will be so kind as to start sending some missionaries over here!" For another, God doesn't have to wait for our salvation to start putting us in the place that he wants us to be.
You may have thought that you had your hand on the wheel when you got that transfer to the town you now live in. You may have felt in control when graduating from college and accepting that great job in the city you live in. However, you might also want to consider the possibility that God had already sent the missionary to the place he wanted the mission performed even before the missionary (that's you!) knew that God had called him or her to the mission! Whoo, let that sentence sink in for a bit...
When we accept the salvation of Christ, we enter a far country even when our physical location remains the same. The world looks different as the Holy Spirit begins his great work within us. For some of us the work is quick and we notice huge changes in a short time, for others of us the work goes more slowly and only by looking back over time do we see the dramatic changes wrought upon our mind and spirit. We become more of a foreigner to the world even though our bodies stand upon the same ground we have walked on for years.
Your far country might look much like the same ol' back yard, but God has called you to spread the Good News right where you are. The light of Christ shines in you; let it shine out for all to see!
Bucky
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