Luke 12:48
"But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand that more."
Hello all!
Yet again it has been a while since I have written. Kevin and I have been pretty busy and with it being so hot, I have been too exhausted to write. But God has blessed us with some free time tonight so I will do my best to recount the past several days as well as share with you some things that have been on my heart.
I will begin with Sunday. In case you didn't know, in an Islamic community, Sunday is not a special day. Their holy day is Friday. So for Kevin and I, the day started with work, just like theirs would. We were able to help with two girls who will be staying here for two years to work with Billy and Dawn. The girls just bought a house a couple houses down from the community center and have already been shown lots of love from their new neighbors. As I heard their stories, I was inspired by their complete faith in God. Both found out they were to move to Kurdistan and live their for two years just a couple months before they were to leave. The willingness to drop everything and follow God's call is what we as Christians are called to do. Many times we don't even consider the idea that God just might call us to leave everything we know and go to a strange place with no friends, no money, and possibly no house. We must remember that Christians are not called to comfortable. Just look at scripture... Our calling is to go out to the nations and preach God. That in itself is probably the most uncomfortable thing we can do. But we are called to it and to do it boldly. That requires complete faith in Christ.
That Sunday night we gathered at our friend Jesse's parents house to have church. Many times we can get confused of what church really is. At least I did when I was a kid. I thought church is a building where people went to hear God's word, but this is far from the truth. Church is a not the building, but the people inside of the building. It is the community of believers that profess God who come together to praise God through prayer, worship and teaching. Such was Sunday night. We sang the verses of songs we knew, picked sections of the Bible to study, every person contributing with explaining the verses, and then we prayed over each other. What a wonderful time of community. Want to get to know a person better? Pray with them. You see others open their souls to the Lord. You see their pain, their worries, their faith, their love, and their fire for God. And I should not forget the encouragement that comes out of it!
The night ended very well. The next morning Kevin and I felt that we should give Billy and Dawn a little bit of time to themselves up in the prayer room while we played with the kids for a few hours. Afterwards we went with our friends Jesse and Bobby to hike through the gorge. It was a fun time and over and over again I was in awe with God's creation.
A couple hours and several Advil later that day I received a call from our friend Saman! Saman and his friend Fuad met us in the marketplace about a week ago and had invited us to their dorm. They are students of the English department in the university of Soran. Out of all Soran we "bump" into clear, English speaking Kurds... It was simply amazing how God placed them before us and allowed us to befriend them. What was even more spectacular was that we were able to share the gospel with them and briefly talk to them about Christianity. With these thoughts going through my head, I quickly jumped to the idea of seeing each other again and it "just so happened" they were free to see us that night. So having an hour before we were to leave, we thought what better thing to do than to pray!
I guess this is the best time to interrupt and talk about my thoughts on prayer. This past year, I have begun to see how powerful and useful prayer is and how we as Christians don't use it to its full potential. For example... We pray at church, before lunch and dinner(maybe), during devotions(maybe) and at small group. But giving everyone (including myself) the benefit of the doubt, I would say we pray 4-5 times a day. Okay... about the same as the Muslims do. This is not what Paul had in mind when He wrote to the Thessalonians to "Pray without ceasing." We have a Father who is all ears to what we have to say. Why on earth would we only speak to Him several times per day? Our God has power like none other, and what is so cool is that through prayer we begin to see Him less as "God" and more as Father.
Our Father, having unlimited amounts of love, grace, mercy, and just raw power, is waiting for us to tap into what He's got. In Matthew it says,"Ask and it will be given to you; Seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if his sons asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!" Now I am not preaching the "health and wealth" idea, but it is true that God is just waiting to give us gifts, blessings, and answers. But there is a catch. We must ask.
Oh, and we must ask with boldness and with faith. "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." We must stand before God, and know in our heart that God is listening and that He will answer. And when I say He will answer, I am not saying that God will get around to it later. I firmly believe that God can answer prayer instantly. It bugs me that people will pray with the mindset that it will take awhile for the prayer to be answered. Example: When people pray for others to be healed. (I have been guilty of this) People will pray and not even consider the idea that God could instantly heal that person. What kind of faith is that? If you don't think it will happen, then it won't. "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." We need to think and pray for the "impossible". Why pray that God will rid you from temptation later? It will probably be too late if you do that! When you are struggling, physically, mentally, or spiritually, cry out to the Lord! Present your issues before Him knowing God can do the "impossible" God can save you.
For me, realizing that has been life changing. So many times I have prayed before God thinking to myself that it will be forever till He would answer. I never even bothered to look instantly for God's answer. Last night I became very discouraged. Not to get into details, but I felt very alone. I went to God in prayer and I asked for comfort. I cried out to Him and instantly God spoke and said to go see my uncle. So I walked downstairs and got him. God used my uncle that night to talk to me and pray with me, casting my discouragement out.
As I talked about before, if you want to get to know someone, pray with them. I am afraid many churches do a really bad job of this. Prayer is a time to build up each other. It is a time to "confess your sins to each other", and to commune with each other. So if prayer is such an amazing tool to build the body, the church, why don't we use it? Why don't churches have a room designated to prayer? We could have a prayer room that is opened at least Sunday and have elders or anyone to go in and pray with anyone who would like to pray. Any one reading this needs to take this idea to their church pronto because a church that does not pray will never reach the potential of community which God desires them to have. Step out with boldness, love and compassion, encouraging others in seeing that God has so much to bless us with. I hope and pray that you do such a thing. If you feel uncomfortable then good! You are doing it right haha.
Wow... What a rabbit trail. But I guess it all builds up to our meeting with Saman, Fuad, and Fackeere. As I mentioned earlier(a while ago), Kevin and I went up to pray. We prayed that God would open their hearts, that He would direct the conversation so we could speak about Christianity, to allow these guys to get involved with Christian friends we knew here, and to begin a great transformation in the city with these men. Both of us knew that God would work. We had no doubt. So it was time we walked over.
No joke, not even five minutes into conversation and Fackeere was already asking questions about our faith. We were able to present to them again what we believed, the differences of the religions, and the love of Jesus Christ. Kevin especially was on fire that night. The Holy Spirit was using his mouth. The guys really seemed to soak in what we were saying and by the end of the night they kept asking us to hang out again! But the story doesn't end quite yet. Fackeere mentioned he actually had gone to our friend Jesse's house for their Easter service! He said he really like Jesse but hadn't talked to him much recently. Kevin and I smiled from ear to ear. God has answered our prayer. We got to talk to Jesse soon after and he was so excited and our hope is to see them very soon again. God is so good. Praise be to Him!
Since this letter is so long I will quickly wrap up the last two days. Yesterday Kevin and I prayer walked and played with the kids at the community center and today we helped my uncle around the house and celebrated a friends birthday! Afterwards Kevin and I went to play soccer with our new friend Hedesh. The field was super nice and the all guys were super good(I am pretty sure they went easy on Kevin and I). So now as my legs ache and my head hurts, I must go to bed... Thus ending this seemingly endless letter.
I hope everything is going well for you. I would always enjoy feedback or just a message to say hi since I miss you all. Keep in prayer that God will continue to work here, and that though sinners as we are, will be able to learn from our mistakes, and present a good message filled with love.
Till next time,
Jake
"But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand that more."
Hello all!
Yet again it has been a while since I have written. Kevin and I have been pretty busy and with it being so hot, I have been too exhausted to write. But God has blessed us with some free time tonight so I will do my best to recount the past several days as well as share with you some things that have been on my heart.
I will begin with Sunday. In case you didn't know, in an Islamic community, Sunday is not a special day. Their holy day is Friday. So for Kevin and I, the day started with work, just like theirs would. We were able to help with two girls who will be staying here for two years to work with Billy and Dawn. The girls just bought a house a couple houses down from the community center and have already been shown lots of love from their new neighbors. As I heard their stories, I was inspired by their complete faith in God. Both found out they were to move to Kurdistan and live their for two years just a couple months before they were to leave. The willingness to drop everything and follow God's call is what we as Christians are called to do. Many times we don't even consider the idea that God just might call us to leave everything we know and go to a strange place with no friends, no money, and possibly no house. We must remember that Christians are not called to comfortable. Just look at scripture... Our calling is to go out to the nations and preach God. That in itself is probably the most uncomfortable thing we can do. But we are called to it and to do it boldly. That requires complete faith in Christ.
That Sunday night we gathered at our friend Jesse's parents house to have church. Many times we can get confused of what church really is. At least I did when I was a kid. I thought church is a building where people went to hear God's word, but this is far from the truth. Church is a not the building, but the people inside of the building. It is the community of believers that profess God who come together to praise God through prayer, worship and teaching. Such was Sunday night. We sang the verses of songs we knew, picked sections of the Bible to study, every person contributing with explaining the verses, and then we prayed over each other. What a wonderful time of community. Want to get to know a person better? Pray with them. You see others open their souls to the Lord. You see their pain, their worries, their faith, their love, and their fire for God. And I should not forget the encouragement that comes out of it!
The night ended very well. The next morning Kevin and I felt that we should give Billy and Dawn a little bit of time to themselves up in the prayer room while we played with the kids for a few hours. Afterwards we went with our friends Jesse and Bobby to hike through the gorge. It was a fun time and over and over again I was in awe with God's creation.
A couple hours and several Advil later that day I received a call from our friend Saman! Saman and his friend Fuad met us in the marketplace about a week ago and had invited us to their dorm. They are students of the English department in the university of Soran. Out of all Soran we "bump" into clear, English speaking Kurds... It was simply amazing how God placed them before us and allowed us to befriend them. What was even more spectacular was that we were able to share the gospel with them and briefly talk to them about Christianity. With these thoughts going through my head, I quickly jumped to the idea of seeing each other again and it "just so happened" they were free to see us that night. So having an hour before we were to leave, we thought what better thing to do than to pray!
I guess this is the best time to interrupt and talk about my thoughts on prayer. This past year, I have begun to see how powerful and useful prayer is and how we as Christians don't use it to its full potential. For example... We pray at church, before lunch and dinner(maybe), during devotions(maybe) and at small group. But giving everyone (including myself) the benefit of the doubt, I would say we pray 4-5 times a day. Okay... about the same as the Muslims do. This is not what Paul had in mind when He wrote to the Thessalonians to "Pray without ceasing." We have a Father who is all ears to what we have to say. Why on earth would we only speak to Him several times per day? Our God has power like none other, and what is so cool is that through prayer we begin to see Him less as "God" and more as Father.
Our Father, having unlimited amounts of love, grace, mercy, and just raw power, is waiting for us to tap into what He's got. In Matthew it says,"Ask and it will be given to you; Seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if his sons asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!" Now I am not preaching the "health and wealth" idea, but it is true that God is just waiting to give us gifts, blessings, and answers. But there is a catch. We must ask.
Oh, and we must ask with boldness and with faith. "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." We must stand before God, and know in our heart that God is listening and that He will answer. And when I say He will answer, I am not saying that God will get around to it later. I firmly believe that God can answer prayer instantly. It bugs me that people will pray with the mindset that it will take awhile for the prayer to be answered. Example: When people pray for others to be healed. (I have been guilty of this) People will pray and not even consider the idea that God could instantly heal that person. What kind of faith is that? If you don't think it will happen, then it won't. "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." We need to think and pray for the "impossible". Why pray that God will rid you from temptation later? It will probably be too late if you do that! When you are struggling, physically, mentally, or spiritually, cry out to the Lord! Present your issues before Him knowing God can do the "impossible" God can save you.
For me, realizing that has been life changing. So many times I have prayed before God thinking to myself that it will be forever till He would answer. I never even bothered to look instantly for God's answer. Last night I became very discouraged. Not to get into details, but I felt very alone. I went to God in prayer and I asked for comfort. I cried out to Him and instantly God spoke and said to go see my uncle. So I walked downstairs and got him. God used my uncle that night to talk to me and pray with me, casting my discouragement out.
So you may say be thinking, "I pray and have waited on the Lord to answer but He never said anything." Well I must say, you might be doing it wrong. ha. Prayer isn't a "let God sort it all out and do all the work" deal. Prayer is supposed to be active on our side as well. You pray that God will bless you with a job, then you go out and look for a job! I can't tell you how many times I have heard in prayers, "Lord please transform the communities around us". That is great and all but there is a small problem... No one actually goes out to evangelize, meeting people where they are at, and loving them.
As I talked about before, if you want to get to know someone, pray with them. I am afraid many churches do a really bad job of this. Prayer is a time to build up each other. It is a time to "confess your sins to each other", and to commune with each other. So if prayer is such an amazing tool to build the body, the church, why don't we use it? Why don't churches have a room designated to prayer? We could have a prayer room that is opened at least Sunday and have elders or anyone to go in and pray with anyone who would like to pray. Any one reading this needs to take this idea to their church pronto because a church that does not pray will never reach the potential of community which God desires them to have. Step out with boldness, love and compassion, encouraging others in seeing that God has so much to bless us with. I hope and pray that you do such a thing. If you feel uncomfortable then good! You are doing it right haha.
Wow... What a rabbit trail. But I guess it all builds up to our meeting with Saman, Fuad, and Fackeere. As I mentioned earlier(a while ago), Kevin and I went up to pray. We prayed that God would open their hearts, that He would direct the conversation so we could speak about Christianity, to allow these guys to get involved with Christian friends we knew here, and to begin a great transformation in the city with these men. Both of us knew that God would work. We had no doubt. So it was time we walked over.
No joke, not even five minutes into conversation and Fackeere was already asking questions about our faith. We were able to present to them again what we believed, the differences of the religions, and the love of Jesus Christ. Kevin especially was on fire that night. The Holy Spirit was using his mouth. The guys really seemed to soak in what we were saying and by the end of the night they kept asking us to hang out again! But the story doesn't end quite yet. Fackeere mentioned he actually had gone to our friend Jesse's house for their Easter service! He said he really like Jesse but hadn't talked to him much recently. Kevin and I smiled from ear to ear. God has answered our prayer. We got to talk to Jesse soon after and he was so excited and our hope is to see them very soon again. God is so good. Praise be to Him!
Since this letter is so long I will quickly wrap up the last two days. Yesterday Kevin and I prayer walked and played with the kids at the community center and today we helped my uncle around the house and celebrated a friends birthday! Afterwards Kevin and I went to play soccer with our new friend Hedesh. The field was super nice and the all guys were super good(I am pretty sure they went easy on Kevin and I). So now as my legs ache and my head hurts, I must go to bed... Thus ending this seemingly endless letter.
I hope everything is going well for you. I would always enjoy feedback or just a message to say hi since I miss you all. Keep in prayer that God will continue to work here, and that though sinners as we are, will be able to learn from our mistakes, and present a good message filled with love.
Till next time,
Jake
Jake, I always love it when you write. You to a great job! I'm so glad you're having a fun time and learning so much. I miss you and love you.
ReplyDeleteyour sister,
Becca :)
You are so right about prayer - even in my short, short time with them, I learned so much from your aunt Dawn. So bold and confident in the prayer room that night. Miss you all, but so glad to keep up with you through the internet. Will be watching your blog like a hawk...and praying for you daily. :)
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