Daily Devotions: The Road to Africa

My youngest daughter Lauren has just set up her own blog at www.theroadtoafrica.blogspot.com
She is planning to go on a special mission trip this summer to Tanzania in Africa. She’ll spend thirteen weeks working with children who have been orphaned through the AIDS epidemic that has swept through that region. It will be hard work and physically demanding. It will cost a lot of money, but Lauren believes that God is asking her to go, so she doesn’t want to disappoint or disobey Him.
Podcast version here

As a parent, I am both concerned and proud. It’s a major task and one that will almost certainly change her life. As a pastor, I am pleased that she is listening to God and I pray that He will both guide and protect her.

Psalm 22:27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him.

Her willingness to do missionary work like this reminds me that Christ’s Church reaches all over the world. People in other places, nations, and continents have come to know the Lord and, as the psalmist wrote so long ago, “all the families of the earth bow down before Him.” I would love to be with Lauren as she worships with the Tanzanian people. I would love to experience their joy for the Lord in the midst of such trying and hard circumstances. I think if I did, it would also change my life forever. But this is Lauren’s calling, not mine.

One day in eternity, we are going to gather in heaven and we will see countless numbers of people of different races and cultures cheerfully and joyfully worshipping the Lord. I don’t know what I’ll feel at that point, but I expect that my heart will be bursting with a joy that can only be experienced in heaven. I guess John Newton best summed up the feeling:

“When we’ve been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise, Than when we’d first begun!”

Prayer: Lord Jesus, all around the world billions of people are praying to You today. They are expressing their concerns and joys, their hopes and fears, their dreams and problems. It is amazing to think that You hear each one and You love them all individually. Help us this day to meet and greet people everywhere as children of God and servants of Your Kingdom. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Erin Church Devotions: Thankfulness

How an email from a missionary in South India has given me a greater appreciation of the Lord's servants throughout the world.

Audio version here

2 Corinthians 4:15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

I received an email the other day from a Christian in India, who reads our devotionals. Both Tharian Matthew and his wife are working hard teaching Christ’s message in his own community. He writes:

I attended the Scots Kirk in Chennai, India as a kid and was also married in the same church 24 years ago.I live in Tiruchy, in South India with my wife and daughter and edit an English Christian monthly, "Vision of the Christ." My wife and I preach, conduct prayer cells, women’s fellowship and intercessory prayers on different days of the week. We attend the Revival Christian worship centre pastored by Rev. Dr. K. Jacob on Sundays.God bless you and the work you are doing.

It’s amazing how God connects Christ’s Church throughout the world. We are thousands of miles apart, but we are involved in the same work: - that of bringing Christ’s message to the people in our communities. I pray that God blesses Tharian and his family in the ministry and mission that they have accepted for Christ.

Tomorrow, we all celebrate Thanksgiving. As we gather around the table, thanking God for our families and friends, perhaps we should also be thankful for Jesus in our lives, and for all the ministers and missionaries who go out into the world to spread the Gospel, teach God’s people, and praise His Holy Name.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we are truly thankful for Your grace that has touched our hearts and transformed our lives. We thank You for the people that You placed in our lives, who were the messengers of Your Word that caused us to accept You in our hearts. Be with Tharian and his wife, their church and community. Bless the work that they do and help us, like them, to bring others to church this Sunday. Make us all ministers and missionaries of Your Gospel. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.