Hi guys, these last couple months have been a wild ride for raising support. I am glad to report that by the grace of God I am fully funded to go on mission to Mexico! It is a big relief to be able to focus more on things other than reaching the financial requirement. God is faithful!
Here are some places in scripture God has been teaching me out of over the past two months or so:
In the story of Jesus healing the synagogue ruler Jairus’ daughter, it stood out to me how gracious the Lord was in handling the situation with the ruler. He was distressed and he knew Jesus was the man to bring hope back to the situation. As they walked on their way to the house to go heal her the messengers came and told Jairus, “Your daughter has died. Why bother the Teacher any longer?” This is a crucial part of the story for the ruler because he has just been confronted with the news he was dreading. He could have slumped into despair. I love the next verse, “Jesus paid no attention to what they said, but told him, ‘Don’t be afraid, only believe’ .“ This kept hope alive for Jairus and the rest is history. It’s a great story of how to keep fixed on the Lord and what he alone is saying because his view of things is always correct.
Another story that God has recently been teaching me out of is Numbers 24 with the story of Balak and Balaam. When people think of the story of Balaam they think of the donkey speaking but actually there is a lot more to it. Balak was king of Moab at the time and Israel was encamped near Moab in the plains. The Israelites were preparing to conquer Moab so Balak summoned Balaam to bring a curse on Israel so that they wouldn't conquer their land. Balak said to Balaam, “I know that whoever you bless is blessed and whoever you curse is cursed.” The amazing part of this story is when he got up to curse the Israelites, all three of his messages were blessings to Israel not curses. In his first oracle he said, “How can I curse those whom God has not cursed?” In the second he says, “He has blessed and I cannot change it.” After this second message Balak should have seen that Balaam was not in the cursing mood but he gave him a third try to get him to curse Israel but Balaam continued to speak from the Spirit. “God brought them out of Egypt, they have the strength of a wild ox.” I learned that God alone has the power to bless and to curse and he will use anyone he chooses to do that. And what God has blessed, who truly will be able to curse? Of course the enemy wants to curse us but he has no power except through accusation and deception that we choose to believe. Old testament stories can really bring a lot of revelation if we take the time to search out the scripture.
I look forward to bringing you all more updates!