Here I am still in Okinawa. Still pining away at my work. Still trying not to think too much of home. Still trying to keep the pain of being seperated from my wife and children at bay. I have traveled far in this journey that God has taken me throughout my life. I was talking to a fellow officer the other day and I told him that I dream of a simple life. I dream of a day when I can have a house in the country and live happily ever after. Unfortunately, I am afraid God has another plan. Living for God is all about fear and overcoming it. Every step one takes in God's will must contain fear at some point or I would question whether it is truly God's will. So often Christians look for God in their comfort zone, they will even try to create some theatrical event and say that God is part of it. but in reality He was never there in the first place. If one truly wants to find where God is working they must go where people are hurting. We live in a world where people experience so much pain that they become numb to it. We can see the signs in our society. To name a few, divorce, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, wayward children, war, famine, and the list goes on and on. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ that not only reveals to people that they are seperated from God, but that they are in a constant state of misery without Christ. So many times I hear Christians say that it is not their gift to share the Gospel. In battle a soldier does not have the option of saying it is not my gift to fight. Remember the words of Paul to his young apprentice Timothy, "Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus." This is my banner and I will march toward victory because there is no defeating my God, my eternal King, my Salvation. How far have I come on this journey. I am at the beginning. I have been a Christian for nearly twenty years now. One might ask, "If you have been a Christian for twenty years then you must be pretty far in your journey." This life is only the beginning of the journey with God. We have an eternity yet to travel with Him. This life is only a grain of sand on the seashore. Oh my Lord, use me, mold me, grow me into a person that is forged into your perfect will. Oh God, mold my wife and children into servants of God that are part of your perfect will in the world and in eternity. Let our family behold Your Glory and Your Power and allow us to see Your extraordinary hand move upon this world and in the hearts of its many peoples.
Doing the will of God is so difficult. My family and I used to be missionaries in Zambia. We loved it. We still miss it terribly. We knew however, that the Lord was telling us clearly it was time to leave. We had been there several years and He wanted us elsewhere. Going to Zambia was a painful experiece. Probably one of the hardest things we ever had to do at the time. After all the hardships we experienced, we grew to love Zambia and the people we were ministering to. We saw starvation, death, misery, injustice, on a regular basis while we were there, but yet in the midst of all the suffering we experienced God's presence in a very real and profound way. Yes, we saw miracles happen. We saw supernatural acts by the hand of God. All this was wonderful, but these things were simply a part of being where God was at work. God loves His children and is more than happy to show us things if we are willing to take the chance by faith and seek Him out in those places. The main reason He took us to Zambia was to change us. He used us while we were there, but he also changed us forever because a part of Him was revealed to us that we would never have known if we had not went by faith to Zambia. Now, He has us in a new place and He has us here to show us something. How long we are at this place I do not know, but He will reveal that to us in time. In the mean time we have to trust Him and allow Him to use us as He sees fit. For the time being we are sad because we miss our last home. We feel as Moses did, "like strangers in a foreign land." We are not surrounded by Christians, but God never intended us to be in a bubble. He never wanted us to be seperated from the world. How will we ever win the world for Christ if we observe them from a distance. He wants us to be relevant in this world and standing for Christ in the darkness. Lord Jesus help us to stand when the way gets weary. Help us to keep fighting even when the battle seems lost. Amen.