Steward of Mysteries: May 2010

Macedonia Update

Originally, my plan was to come home for about two weeks between training and leaving for Macedonia. Unofficially, my plans have changed. My partner and I have been invited to leave straight from training. Our team will be ready for us then, and we feel that it would make our transition easier. This was a hard decision to come to, both for us and our families. However, we trust that the Lord has his guiding hand on us. Please be praying for us! I am not counting or anything, but training starts in 2 months and 1 day. I am so excited about what lies ahead! I will do my best to start coordinating my update list soon! Stay tuned.

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Radical Salvation

"[The gospel] ...demands and enables us to turn from our sin, to take up our cross, to die to ourselves, and to follow Jesus. These are the terms and phrases we see in the Bible. And salvation now consists of a deep wrestling in our souls with the sinfulness of our hearts, the depth of our depravity, and the desperation of our need for his grace. Jesus is no longer one to be accepted or invited in but one who is infinitely worthy of our immediate and total surrender... We are saved from our sins by a free gift of grace, something that only God can do in us and that we cannot manufacture ourselves. But that gift of grace involves the gift of a new heart. New desires. New longings. For the first time, we want God. We see our need for him, and we love him. We seek after him, and we find him, and we discover that he is indeed the great reward of our salvation. We realize that we are saved not just to be forgiven of our sins, but we are saved to know God. So we yearn for him. We want him so much that we abandon everything else to experience him. This is the only proper response to the revelation of God in the gospel." -Radical, David Platt

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Cancer of the Soul

I have heard it said that sin is cancer of the soul.

I never fully understood what that meant until I moved in with Keith, Teresa, and Katelynn. For the past ten years, Teresa has been fighting cancer. She's had breast cancer twice, and last year discovered she had brain cancer. In response to her cancer, she has been through several rounds of chemo, full brain radiation, steriotactic radiation, two brain surgeries, and who knows how many other surgeries. The cancer has taken a toll on her body. The hard truth is, unless the Lord intervenes and takes away the cancer, the cancer will take her life.

The most precious thing to me, is the way Keith cares for Teresa. I can't imagine the heartache he must feel for his wife. He knows her better than anyone. He knew her before she walked with the Lord and he knew her before she had cancer. He watched her change from someone who was dead in her sin into someone who was given new life in Christ. He watched her change from someone with a perfectly healthy body into someone who was weakend and disabled by cancer. Her life in Christ and her battle with cancer seem to be oppostites -one a picture of renewal and one a picture of wasting away. The only difference though, is the realm in which they occur. Cancer is a physical picture of a spiritual battle. This spiritual battle occurs within the heart of every human being. It's our battle with sin. Sin truly is cancer of the soul.

For the husband is the

head of the wife as Christ

is the head of the church,

his body, of which he is the Savior.

-Ephesians 5:23

If cancer and sin are the same -one physcial, and one spiritual, I imagine Jesus must feel the same way for his Church as Keith feels for his wife. The Church is Christ's bride like Teresa is Keith's bride. The cancer that is invading Teresa's body is like the sin that is invading Christ's Church, both cause sickness and destruction to the body. The physical body and the body of believers.

Sin is destruction.

As Keith is broken over his wife's sickness, so Christ is broken over our sickness. As Keith, out of his deep love, exhausts himself to protect and care for Teresa, so Christ, out of his deep love, exhausts himself to protect and care for us. The difference there is, Christ exhausted himself to the point of death. The hard truth is, unless you believe that God has intervened and sent Christ to die for your sin, sin will take your life.

Only Christ can bring life.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though

outwardly we are wasting away, yet

inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

-2 Corinthians 4:16

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Basking in His Mercy

I had the priviledge of spending the day with a sweet, new friend. The journeyman going to Macedonia with me came to Birmingham. Hannah is her name. She has such a sweet and gentle countenance. I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for us. I think we will be good friends and I am very thankful for that. Hannah met with a former journeyman to Macedonia a few weeks ago. She gave Hannah a cd of the songs she listened to while she was there. The first song was written by one of her friends after visiting Macedonia. I think the words are beautiful and paint such a great picture of what it will be like:

She sits across the table. Stares in my eyes.

Her whole life, her uncertainty, she's trying to disguise.

How could You move over coffee and words from a sinner's lips and an unknown tongue?

I beg You to move passed my unworthiness, for this could be her only chance.

Only You. Yes, only You can move in me.

As Hannah and I were talking today, we came to the conclusion that our lives are about to change drastically. I think reality has set in a little bit for both of us. We are going to be the outsiders, looked at like we are strange, and undoubtedly struggle understanding what's being said around us. It will not be something we can come home from when it gets tough. That's our life for the next 2 years. It will be a great challenge, but I can't even begin to imagine how amazing the Lord will prove to be. Neither of us planned on going to Macedonia, but it is undeniably from Him. I can't help but bask in His precious mercy today. Oh what joy there is to be found in the presence of the Lord!

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