Aches and Praise Four Hundred & Sixteen

August 29, 2019
 
 
Dear friends,
 
“I can’t wait!” is an expression that adults generally associate more with children than with other adults. It might be in regards to a birthday, Christmas or some other special time where receiving gifts is anticipated. This week, the first Costco store in China opened and then was closed earlier than scheduled because of the huge crowd of people who clamoured for food and other goods.
 
After finishing my studies in commerce at Concordia University in Montreal in April 1977, I began preparing to attend an orientation conference of Operation Mobilization (O.M.) in Edina, Minnesota (a suburb of Minneapolis) in June. I listened to messages by George Verwer on discipleship, spiritual warfare and other subjects that helped me better understand God’s Word and His plan to build His church around the world. I was so excited to join a movement that was dedicated to training disciples of Christ and sharing the good news of salvation through Him.
 
More than 40 years later, I have many wonderful memories of people I met and places I visited in Europe, Mexico and Panama. This summer, Karen and I received an email from Jim and Lydia Munn, missionaries in France who are moving to the United States in September. Jim was the leader of the first O.M. team that I was a part of in Alsace, France in 1977. God used Jim’s father, Robert, in giving my mother-in-law, the late Pearl Shelly, a burden for France after hearing him speak in Ontario. We are very eager to see Jim and Lydia in a couple of weeks and hear some of the wonderful ways that the Lord has worked in and through them.
 
This week, I finished reading “Waiting on God” by Charles Stanley. He tells a story that Don Richardson wrote about in his book “Eternity in Their Hearts.” I was blessed by the messages that Don gave at the O.M. conference in Edina, MN in 1977, but didn’t remember the details of this story. In the late 1800s, the Lahu people of Burma (now Myanmar) wore ropes on their wrists symbolizing their “bondage to evil spirits.” Stanley writes: “…they knew someone would appear who would tell them about the One who could deliver them. And they understood that the messenger would bring them the Book of the One True God – whom they called Gui’Sha, which means ‘the Creator of all things.’ Their holy men taught that when the right time came, Gui’Sha would send a white brother with a white book containing the laws of Gui’Sha.”
 
The story continues: “One day, as they made the long journey from their mountain village to sell their goods at the market in Kengtung, they noticed an odd-looking man explaining the Ten Commandments … They stared incredulously at his white face, the white interior of the book in his hand, and listened to his description – in the Shan language – of the laws of God contained in that book. Instantly they knew this was the brother they had been expecting. They told the missionary, ‘We as a people have been waiting for you for centuries … We even have meeting houses built in some of our villages in readiness for your coming.’ Of course, William Marcus Young had no idea about how God would use him to reach the Lahu when he left America in 1892. He simply obeyed the Lord and preached the gospel.” You can read about the late Don Richardson at: https://www.missionfrontiers.org/issue/article/remembering-don-richardson
 
If you have never repented and asked God’s forgiveness for your sins, what are you waiting for? If you are a believer, but have not told others the good news, today would be a great time to start.
 
Scripture for the weekend: “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” Luke 24:45-48 (NASB)
 
Thought for the weekend: “We only make life more painful for others and ourselves when we resist His hand.” – David Roper (from his book “The God Who Walks Beside Us”)
 
 
By His grace,
 
 Steve

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