Philippians 1:20 It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.
From Philippians 1:20 we Bereans discussed what it would look like if we all were to have the Apostle Paul’s attitude toward suffering and death. Our response to suffering and death is a blazing banner that shows that we cherish Christ above all earthly treasures. We cherish Christ more than our own health and comfort and even more than life itself. Paul said: “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account” (Phil. 1:23-24). We determined that if God who wants to be together with us (Psalm 116:15 – “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints”) has chosen to leave us here on earth, we must have a job to do before we can fulfill our highest desire—that of being together with Christ for eternity.
Ephesians 4:15-16 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
According to Ephesians 4:11-16, the job we have been left here on earth to accomplish is to “speak the truth in love” and to “make the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” But this can only be accomplished if we are providing the ministry God has equipped us for (“when each part is working properly”).
With those things in mind, I encourage you (and admonish myself) to follow the directives given in 1 Peter 3:8-9: All of you, be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.
It was quite a week. Angie saw her first cockroach and even swept up a mummified rat in the house! Steve had dry wall fall on his head and pull a nail out of his shoe. Bob Tucker lost a little hair off the top of his head, eyebrows, and eye lashes when he was burning some wood and a gust of wind had the fire lick up his body once. I had a broken soul…. that is my shoe broke and we tried many venues to “heal this soul” of mine.
We had many laughs together as we worked side by side with a team from Canada. Oh how it blessed us to bind with them in God’s work. There are so many praises, lessons, and struggles that I don’t think I can blog an initial trial momentarily for I am overwhelmed by the work the Lord is doing through His body of believers. This same Spirit that is at work in me is also at work in these Canadians, in Mississippi believers, and in you, my brothers and sisters, and Old Forest Road Baptist Church.
“In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” Ephesians 2: 21-22
How huge is He? He binds us to become be a sanctified place for the Lord to dwell! His Shikinah glory! Thank you for partnering with us with your treasures and time in prayer. We return to you this weekend but it will take weeks to reflect upon such refining lessons we have attained in such a short time. Pray that we are pliable to His continued work in our lives.
“Humble yourself, and cease to care what men think.” ~ A.W. Tozer
“It will do us good to be very empty, to be very weak, and so to go about our Master’s work.” ~ Charles Spurgeon
These quotes seem to sum up the experience that I have had this week in Gulfport. Simply, it is all about Christ. The moment that my “self” was put ahead of the Lord, I became discouraged. But once I put Christ ahead of everything and purposed to serve Him and Him alone, then I was satisfied inChrist. It didn’t matter if I heard the word “thanks”, or was given a grateful smile (although this did happen!). My joy comes from the Lord and Him only! This has been the biggest lesson I have learned this week: putting into practice what I already knew to be true…to serve others ”as unto the Lord”!
Don’t take it too seriously—it’s intended to be tongue-in-cheek. The following video was inspired by the delightfully satirical postmodern Emergent motivational posters posted regularly by the folks at Pyromaniacs blog.
First and foremost, I speak for the entire Mississippi missions team when I express how thankful we are that the church came together and financially provided our trip here. Thank you for sending us – Glory be to God!
Anyway, when I first arrived in Gulfport, I was startled at how much has remained unfinished – this long after the disaster. But I soon realized after watching a brief introductory video from 2005, filmed directly following the storm, that there has been much improvement! The initial catastrophe will always remain pictures to me – but it’s still real life to these folks. This trip has been an incredible blessing to me. Our team has meshed very well and the Lord has blessed us with wonderful unity, plenty of comedic relief and an adundance of spiritual fervor and encouragement to and from one another. We have also been joined by some incredible brothers and sisters in Christ from Alberta and Ontario, Canada. Nothing like some more hardworking hands, “eh”? We enjoy visiting with these wonderful people at every meal and they have been leading the way for us and giving direction at the work site. It’s also been a blessing to get to know these three couples personally during our days here. We love Canada!
Our task is focused on one house that has been divided by a set of sisters into two ‘houses’. We are completely remodeling the inside of one of the ‘houses’ as well as scraping and repainting the entire outside. The Lord has blessed us with three days of remarkable weather for the work. Monday and Tuesday were sunny and warm and today we experienced some cool clouds and just a spot of rain during the lunch hour. Tomorrow, those of us working on the outside, plan to finish the painting. The hardworkers indoors have run into all kinds of crazy and unplanned things so we will join the team inside and most likely begin the dry wall thing. Also, tomorrow is Thanksgiving! (We’d almost forgotten.) We will begin the day as usual and work until lunch and then return to Camp Hope. Churches in the area will be joining us here at camp at around 2pm and we will begin our holiday festivities. I am really excited and blessed to be spending Thanksgiving with these amazing people, God has been really, really good!
Please pray for us: That the weather remains this beautiful so that we may finish the tasks before us. Thanks for such wonderful spirits, great meshing of our whole team and that this has been a lot of fun. The two people living in the house that we are working on – that the Lord gives us the words to say to them and that they would join us for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. Safety on the worksite and safe trips for everyone returning home.
With Love from Angie on behalf of the Mississippi missions team
From C.H. Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening devotional:
Titus 3:9 But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.
Our days are few, and are far better spent in doing good, than in disputing over matters which are, at best, of minor importance. The old schoolmen did a world of mischief by their incessant discussion of subjects of no practical importance; and our Churches suffer much from petty wars over abstruse points and unimportant questions. After everything has been said that can be said, neither party is any the wiser, and therefore the discussion no more promotes knowledge than love, and it is foolish to sow in so barren a field. Questions upon points wherein Scripture is silent; upon mysteries which belong to God alone; upon prophecies of doubtful interpretation; and upon mere modes of observing human ceremonials, are all foolish, and wise men avoid them. Our business is neither to ask nor answer foolish questions, but to avoid them altogether; and if we observe the apostle’s precept (Titus 3:8–8 The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.) to be careful to main-tain good works, we shall find ourselves far too much occupied with profitable business to take much interest in unworthy, contentious, and needless strivings.
There are, however, some questions which are the reverse of foolish, which we must not avoid, but fairly and honestly meet, such as these: Do I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Am I renewed in the spirit of my mind? Am I walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit? Am I growing in grace? Does my conversation adorn the doctrine of God my Sav-ior? Am I looking for the coming of the Lord, and watching as a servant should do who expects his master? What more can I do for Jesus? Such enquiries as these urgently de-mand our attention; and if we have been at all given to caviling, let us now turn our criti-cal abilities to a service so much more profitable. Let us be peace-makers, and endeavor to lead others both by our precept and example, to “avoid foolish questions.”