Reflections...

Hi!

Thank you for all of your Birthday wishes and calls to Jon and myself. We have had a good weekend celebrating what the Lord has done in our lives. If you add our ages together we would be 96 years old together!

We had a fun day today at church. We surprised Jon with a Birthday Breakfast fellowship. He didn’t even find out and that was good to get him! Then during the service one of our deacons and I took it over and we didn’t let him preach. We had a time of sharing how Jon had ministered to the individuals present. It was so encouraging to hear the men talk about how they so appreciate Jon giving his time in discipling them. I was brought to tears by what these men had to say. Others shared how Jon always had an encouraging word for them or a hug. One person shared how they appreciate his teaching of the word and that he doesn’t apologize for preaching the word. A special note was read and in it an individual thanked us for leading them to the Lord in July of 2004. Wow was all I could say as we see that the ministry here has made a difference in the Kingdom.

This week I started the book of Numbers in my daily Bible reading and I want to share the author’s thought in the book introduction with you.

In the Jewish collection of Scriptures, the book of Numbers is called “In the Desert,” taken from the Hebrew word for desert in the opening verse of the book. This is a more apt title than Numbers which one suspects has probably kept a lot of people from even beginning to read the book. “In the Desert” also captures the story told in the book and its relation to prayer.

St. Augustine writes, “For it is one thing to see the land of peace from a wooded ridge and another to tread the road that leads to it.”

God had promised to lead his rescued people to a land of freedom, flowing with milk and honey. What a wonderful concept to a group of slaves whose work week was 24/7. But there was just one problem: They had to cross a desert and to trust God to give them everything they needed as they traveled. They would have to become pilgrims. It is the struggle to be a pilgrim that forms the plot of the book of Numbers or “In the Desert”

The spiritual life is like a marathon, not a sprint; it is a long obedience in the same direction, not a weekend getaway. The gift of freedom and peace is just that: a gift, free, gratis. But it is not cheap. The saved still need to put one foot in front of the other, day in and day out. William Carey said his great virtue was that he could “plod.”
That’s more than a virtue’ it’s essential for this journey. Ninety percent of learning to pray is just showing up—faithfully.

The journey of the Christian life is full of surprises and challenges, and God has much to teach us along the way. But we won’t learn anything unless we come to the school of God’s desert. From this school the graduates will sing:

(Tune to Grace How Great a Debtor)

Hitherto Thy love has blest me;
Thou hast brought me to this place.
And I know Thy hand will bring me,
Safely home by Thy good grace.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Bought me with His precious blood.

My prayer for each of us is that we will begin to see this journey of being a Christian and the importance in showing up each morning and saying Yes to our Chief Shepherd. He will guide us and lead us as we plod along. Won’t Heaven be wonderful when we be in our Savior’s presence for the rest of Eternity.

Love You,

Debbie