IBS

IBS week 18

Ephesians 3:21a               

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think,

I have quoted this verse several times and heard it quoted hundreds of times but, this verse came to live during this past week as I was on Namgombi. I was there  washing the small johnboat that I use to cross over the lake and I noticed that the bottom needed to be washed so I lifted the boat and kept it raised by setting it on top of a tire. As I went to lift the back of the boat it was significantly heavier and I could not simultaneously lift the boat and slide the tire under. So I saw a teenage boy who had been sitting there watching me and was now doing something with the trash that was there on the beach I motioned for him to come over then in my broken Luganda I asked him to push the tire under the boat as I lifted it. The boy didn’t understand but he walked back to the spot he had been toying with the trash and he brought it over. What he was doing was making an abrasive cloth that I scrub the bottom of the boat with; the boy didn’t stop there though he began scrubbing the boat himself. Eventually I was able to put another tire under the boat with his help. This boy helped me for nearly an hour.

                This boy reminded me of Ephesians 3:21a how we serve a God who is able to do more than we can ever ask or imagine. The way this boy did way more than I ever would have asked but then I think about the God I serve and how he is the same way that he can and does do so much more than we ask. The amount of amazing opportunities I have had has really shown me that as I have been here in Uganda. Just with all of the people I have gotten to meet work with and befriend I can surely see that he has done way more than I could have imagined.

I pray that as I return to the U.S. that I will continue to recognize the amount of love and grace the Lord shows me.

Acts 17:6

Acts 17:6

And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also,

In this verse Paul is in Thessalonica and he had spent the past few Sabbaths reasoning with the Pharisees about the scriptures and how Jesus is the Christ. Paul debated that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise again. And the verses prior say that some were persuaded and some were jealous. So the jealous men went and gathered a mob of people that put the city in an uproar and then they attacked Jason’s house but they couldn’t find Paul and Silas.

And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also,

“The men who have turned the world upside down” that is quite a title. I find it interesting that the mob was saying that those men had turned the WORLD upside down not just the city of Thessalonica but the whole world. It is possible that the men in the mob didn’t know what they were saying but it is very true that the message of the Gospel can turn someone’s world upside down.

As a person who is to be bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ I want to be known as one of the men who turned the whole world upside down!

IBS Judges 7:20-21

Judges 7:20-21

²⁰Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, "A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!"  ²¹Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled.

This tale that is shared with us in Judges is an incredible example of how the Lords power is beyond any of our comprehension. The Lord took 300 men that weren’t the most physically fit or strongest warriors to defeat an army of 145,000. One of the most interesting parts is the people the Lord chose to use. They were probably the last people that would have been picked to be a part of an army. Yet the lord saw fit to use them.

I can see myself in both of these categories of men that the Lord would chose and also in the group that was turned away because the Lord wanted all of the glory to go to Him. The things that the world will look at and see are so different from what the Lord is looking for in a missionary and really anyone who wants to serve Him.

I need to be willing to serve the Lord in any and every capacity that He would chose.