absolute disaster

God called Jesus Christ to what seemed absolute disaster.

And Jesus Christ called His disciples to see Him put to death,
leading everyone of them to the place where their hearts were broken.

His life was an absolute failure from every standpoint except God's.  But what seemed to be failure from man's standpoint was a triumph from God's standpoint, because God's purpose is never the same as man's purpose.

This bewildering call of God comes into our lives as well.  The call of God can never be understood absolutely or explained externally; it is a call that can only be perceived and understood internally by our true inner nature.

What God calls us to cannot be definitely stated, because His call is simply to be His friend to accomplish His own purposes.  Our real test is in truly believing that God knows what He desires.  

The things that happen do not happen by chance--they happen entirely by the decree of God.  God is sovereignly working out His own purposes.

A Christian is someone who trusts in the knowledge and the wisdom of God, not in his own abilities.  If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the calm, relaxed pace which should be characteristics of the children of God.

O. Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, August 5th 

my morning's beware

We should take a look at our current circumstances. Do crises which affect us or others in our home, business, country, or elsewhere, seem to be crushing in on us? 

Are we being pushed out of the presence of God and left with no time for worship? 

If so, we must put a stop to such distractions and get into such a living relationship with God that our relationship with others is maintained through the work of intercession, where God works His miracles.

Beware of getting ahead of God by your very desire to do His will. 

We run ahead of Him in a thousand and one activities, becoming so burdened with people and problems that we don’t worship God, and we fail to intercede. 

If a burden and its resulting pressure come upon us while we are not in an attitude of worship, it will only produce a hardness toward God and despair in our own souls. 

God continually introduces us to people in whom we have no interest, and unless we are worshiping God the natural tendency is to be heartless toward them. We give them a quick verse of Scripture, like jabbing them with a spear, or leave them with a hurried, uncaring word of counsel before we go. 

A heartless Christian must be a terrible grief to our Lord.

Are our lives in the proper place so that we may participate in the intercession of our Lord and the Holy Spirit?

-O. Chambers

real simple

Yesterday, almost 20 hopeful-new students took their entrance exams, lots of old students were back to register, the whole staff was in, and it was a busy but fun day!  I love catching up with everybody, and even the men were thrilled to see Sofie, though 100% of them commented, "Amen!  Look, God gave you a boy!" :)  We've got to get this girl some stick on earrings or a hairpiece.

Today and tomorrow EBS is hosting a large conference on the Inductive Bible Study Method, featuring Colleen Fitch, who just flew in yesterday.  Matt left the house at 6 this morning to get things ready and pick her up, and I haven't seen him since.  He was to be translating and had several meetings scheduled for this afternoon.  About 80 area pastors, evangelists and Haitian missionaries were to attend.

Good stuff!

More good stuff is just what He's speaking in the quietness of my mind and heart these past few days.  Matt and I stayed up half the night Sunday night, talking about the differences between what we're called to do vs. what we're wanting to do vs. what we feel like we should do vs. what others would like us to do.

I have this idea (maybe you do, too), not just as a missionary in a foreign and needy land, but as a Christian, that the answer is always DO MORE.

God wants us to DO more.  If we were living right, we'd be doing more.  Should I be teaching? YES.  Should I have friends and community members over for supper? YES.  Should I be doing community evangelism? YES.  Should I be teaching evangelical English? YES.  Should I be starting Bible studies?  YES.  Should I be tutoring?  YES.  The answer is always YES in my mind, which means that I either am going to die trying (and neglect the husband and children that God has inarguably given me) or I am going to feel guilty all the time.

But wait! O. Chambers reminds me from his collection of Devotions for a Deeper Life.

Jesus' great discourse on the fountain of water, springing up within us unto eternal life, was given to a lone woman at the well of Samaria.  He knew that the planting of that seed with one person would lead to a great harvest.


So many of us suppose that we have to plow the field, sow the seed, reap the grain, bind it into sheaves, put it through the threshing machine and make bread of it.  When we get back to the evangelistic method of the New Testament, we find that one may sow and another reap.

Let every Christian remain true to the calling God has given him, Chambers urged me.  Pray that He will enable you to remain faithful to YOUR calling.


Not only is this freeing, but it's convicting.  Do we KNOW what our personal true calling is?  Not that of others or all those things that call to us...  But do we know what God is asking each of us to do?  And then...are we faithful to it??

Matt and I are praying right now that He brings us back to simple.  Helps us shed all the "rocks in my cart" that we've been pulling uphill that HE never asked us to.  Helps us rediscover and rejoice again in His calling for each of us.  What that looks like.  What He wants from me.

Of course, there will always be things that need done that we don't feel necessarily called to.  Dishes :), filling in some gaps at the seminary, etc.  But I've been trying to make the whole thing happen, whereas I think God would like me to just do what He's made and called me to do, and let HIM make the rest happen.

O. Chambers continued today..."If we have presented the Word of God, it is not our business to apply it for people.  The Spirit will do that.  Our hearers may seem to subside to their old level of living and forget what has been said.  Bu they cannot forget all about it, because God says: "My word shall not return to me void but it shall accomplish that which I please."


That does not mean that the Word will produce what we want.  But it will produce what God wants.  We must sow the Word.  Then, God says, it shall accomplish what I please.


What a great way to get back to the basics of our calling!  We came to Haiti with one focus, task, and clear calling... to teach His Word.  That's why we joined up with Emmaus Biblical Seminary.  That's why we raised support, learned French, learned Creole, left our families, moved.

But when we preach His Word, and don't see It doing what we had thought It SHOULD do, or what we had wanted It to do, it's tempting to try to plow and reap and bind and thresh and bake.

In some cases, the Word of God will be the sent of life to life.  To others, death unto death.  But rest assured, no individual who believingly receives the Word of God can ever be the same again.  It profoundly alters life!  

Do we trust Him enough to have His way with His word in peoples lives?

Grateful Grateful that He is working on our minds and hearts as we begin our fifth year in Haiti and our umpteenth year as Christians, not allowing us to muddle by, but continuing to offer us an abundant life in Him.

We'll let you know as we're led!

Praying for every person reading this blog, today, that He would:
     -enable us each to discover/re-discover our calling and remain faithful to it
     -have HIS way, according to HIS will, in the lives of those with whom we share God's Word

-help us be profoundly altered, continually, because we have believingly received His Word.

an added crisis, English aches and proper placement

The Easley's made it back to the States safely, and our visiting professor who planned to come tomorrow cancelled yesterday.  This is the second visiting professor who has had to cancel for April, totaling 60 hours of teaching that suddenly needs covered!  Lucner and Matt "flipped for it" this morning and are each rather anxiously attacking 30 hours of classroom time...a HUGE amount of preparation!

Matt will be teaching Inductive Bible Study and Lucner, Civil Rights.  I'm very thankful for these guys and everyone's continual willingness to sacrificially help out when needed.  They are both also feeling the weight of their master's studies, administrative tasks, and the other courses that they are both teaching...please be praying for us!

Sofie is officially 30 weeks along (see the girls' blog here) , Lily and Dodo and I are all feeling better, Matt is on his way to town now to preach at an English chapel service that a friend is having, the heat keeps ramping up and life continues to be a busy joy.

Today's English class was especially fun.  We just began Unit 12, which talks about emotional, spiritual and physical health and problems.  It begins with learning the parts of the body, which had me bent over with laughter.

No one ever mastered the pronunciation of "thumb", which has lots of non-Creole sounds in it, and there were lots of good questions, like "Teacher, are mouth and belly synonyms?", "Can I add -ache to any body part if it hurts, like back-ache, elbow-ache and buttocks-ache?" followed by "What is a buttocks?" and "Why is your small finger called a pinkie?" and "What do you call a sixth finger if you have a sixth finger?"

It is also April's Fools Day in Haitian culture, as well, and I always get particularly nailed being rather gullible.  The favorite joke every year seems to be to tell someone that someone else was looking for them, and then laughing hysterically whenever the two people find each other and didn't need each other at all.  I fell for this at least 4 times this morning.  Junior got me particularly well, but then his dear conscious bothered him too much during prayer time in chapel and he left the service to find me and to apologize :)

This morning's "Utmost" reading nailed my days struggle again...

Look at our current circumstances.  Do crises which affect us or others in our home, business, country or elsewhere, seem to be crushing in on us?  Are we being pushed out of the presence of God and left with no time for worship?


If so, we must put a stop to such distractions and get into such a living relationship with God that our relationship with others is maintained through the work of intercession, where God works his miracles.  


Beware of getting ahead of God by your very desire to do His will.  We run ahead of Him in 1001 activities, becoming so burdened with people and problems that we don't worship God, and we fail to intercede.  If a burden and its resulting pressure come upon us while we are not in an attitude of worship, it will only produce a hardness towards God and despair in our own souls.    


God continually introduces us to people in whom we have no interest, and unless we are worshiping God the natural tendency is to be heartless towards them...giving them a quick verse of Scripture or leaving them with a hurried, uncaring word of counsel before we go.  A heartless Christian must be a terrible grief to our Lord.


Are our lives in the proper place?