God Opens Doors

Tomorrow

We begin heading back down south.  Please pray again for our traveling safety through air and land travel.  We'll post something soon as we can after we arrive.

An Excerpt

A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards

"What does this world need:  gifted men and women, outwardly empowered?  Or individuals who are broken, inwardly transformed?" 

"Keep in mind that some who have been given the very power of God raised armies, defeated the enemy, brought forth mighty works for God, preached and prophesied with unparrelleled power and eloquence..."

• And thrown spears,
• And hated other people,
• And attacked others,
• And plotted to kill,
• And prophesied naked,
• And even consulted witches.

Quotes

"Don't express a need until it has been met."  Amy Carmichael

"The smallest act of obedience is better than the best of intentions.  There are no victories at bargain prices."  Wayne Myers

"We need to keep it simple and love the one in front of us."  Heidi Baker

"Feed your faith and your doubts will die of starvation."  Wayne Myers

Himself

Once it was a blessing, now it is the Lord; Once it was the feeling, now it is His Word; Once His gifts I wanted, now the Giver own; Once I sought for healing, now Himself alone.

Once 'twas painful trying, now 'tis perfect trust; Once a half salvation, now the uttermost; Once 'twas ceaseless holding, now He holds me fast; Once 'twas constant drifting, now my anchor's cast.

Once 'twas busy planning, now 'tis trustful prayer; Once 'twas anxious caring, now He has the care; Once 'twas what I wanted, now what Jesus says; Once 'twas constant asking, now 'tis ceaseless praise.

Once it was my working, His it hence shall be; Once I tried to use Him, now He uses me; Once the power I wanted, now the Mighty One; Once for self I labored, now for Him alone.

Dr. A.B. Simpson

Shoving Off

I guess my title is literal. We'll be shoving off of the island early tomorrow. You can pray for our bus travel, flights, and luggage arrival. We have a tight schedule tomorrow leaving at 6:35 a.m. in the morning. We always plan for four hours to arrive in the port city. Please remember us as we'll be teaching, preaching, and sharing Jesus with those around us. Our flight should arrive in Arica, Chile at 7:45 p.m.

While we are gone, check back often because I am scheduling posts to hit while we are gone. If you asked Randy what I would like more than anything, he'd tell you books. I love books. We don't watch a lot of television, but we read a lot. As a matter of fact, the one thing I didn't part with when we scaled down and moved was my books. I have boxes of books in a shed at my moms. (I did ship a few of our books!) We were so blessed to have both a Goodwill and Gateway Rescue Mission which sold books for under a $1.00 when we lived in Pearl. Needless to say, I racked up. The Lord has deeply blessed my passion for books. Not long ago, Ellie cleaned out her books and she had a stack of books that were duplicate. I loaded up! Old classics written by folks whom most people would not recognize. I have also had sweet friends send me books from the States. And yes, I have Spanish books also which I read, it just takes longer.

Lest you think my passion for my books is greater than THE BOOK. No other book has changed my life like the Bible. We, as a family, have been focusing more and more on His Word. It's our duty to know it, live it, and breathe it.

I decided to post some favorite quotes and poems which have changed our thinking. We hope you are blessed today and pray God would touch you today.

Visa

We are now applying for permanent residency in Chile.  Our one-year tourist visa will expire in December.  Permanent residency allows us to move freely without the worry of renewing our visa yearly or every nintey days.  It also helps when desiring to buy or sell.

This process is estimated to take around eight months.  A lot of information is required and we appreciate your prayers as we begin this process.  One is not guaranteed residency and it is not uncommon to be denied the first time you apply.

We are preparing our teaching and preaching notes for the trip this Thursday. Our desire is to speak words in season to sustain those who are weary. (Isaiah 50:4) We want to pray for many people and see Jesus deliver the captives. A countless number of people are suffering and need hope. They are here in Chiloé too. Like a guy who came to our house several weeks ago. His son had been over in the past to play with Garrett. He was drunk and suicidal. Or the lady who came to our house this week and asked for 500 pesos (about $1) and a plastic bag to hold something she found in the street which she could sell. We know hurting people are where you live also. They have different stories, but the same needs. Jesus. We have to share the good news. They are waiting.

Random Thoughts

I am known for changing my thoughts quickly. So, I think I will let them flow and hope you can follow me! That plus the cold medicine I am on might make for an interesting blog post.

I thought I would post something on the light side of life…

I have been sick for 8 straight days now, no voice and coughing a lot – please pray for me and the health of the guys in my house as we leave next Thursday for Arica, Chile! I did consider going to the doctor. But, I had a flashback to when we arrived here in March of 2007. We were all tuckered out (Mississippi slang) from transitioning from Costa Rica to the U.S. to Chile. I just could not get rid of the sore glands in my throat. Against my better judgment, I went to the doctor. It is not that they have bad doctors, sometimes their methods are just really different. After practically disrobing (for my neck) and having a sonogram which showed nothing, I decided if I didn’t have to - I would forego any further medical treatment. I will not even tell you about the experience Randy had with a doctor in Costa Rica.

Changing tracks…The trees are blooming here so we know summer will be here in two more months! Last year it was warm - like we were able to take the extra goose down blanket off the bed - in late January. Our bed has a fitted sheet, a fleece blanket, two wool blankets, a regular sheet, and two goose down comforters! Plus, we both sleep in fleece, if you can imagine that. Praise the Lord, we are warm!

Changing tracks…Our time changed Saturday evening so we fell forward an hour. When Mississippi falls back that will make a 3 hour difference between us and our home state. The sunrises between 5:30 – 6:00 a.m. and sets around 9:30 p.m.

Changing tracks…I wanted to say something comforting to you if you are worried about the financial woes of the U.S. Randy, for many years, always fretted about money. Part of that is how God made him; he is the provider for our family. The problem was he would forget to look at our Heavenly Provider as promised in Matthew 6:25-33. Sometimes we forget the verses in Matthew 6:16-21 which happen to come RIGHT before our instructions about not worrying. Sometimes things have to happen in our lives because we are building treasure on earth and what He wants is our treasure building to be in heaven. Proverbs 3:9-10 is another great example, it shows a man who has the priorities of the Lord first, his barns down on the earth are full. Let me quickly tie the three together; the Lord is never in a recession. (The Lord gave Randy this word when it all started ‘looking’ bad.) Feast on His Word, not on the headlines about what the Stock Market says from day to day. We can’t get distracted from our calling over money. Jesus is merciful with us. He is trying to get our attention, let’s give it to Him.

Changing tracks…The Chaitén Volcano is still acting up and we can see it on a clear day. We have not felt any tremors in some time.

I guess this is enough rambling for one day. Thanks for tuning in and thank you, thank you for your prayers.

Praying for the Nations

Psalm 75:6-7, "No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt a man. But it is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another."

The previous blog was posted out of what the Lord has been teaching us about prayer. Just as the United States is looking at a new president, Chile will be electing a new president next year. The communist party here has already announced their selection for candidacy. It is necessary that we pray for the leaders in ALL nations. It can become a habit to only pray for those leaders which affect our lives. Sadly, Christians in general focus their prayers around what affects them. The Lord is changing our view because frankly, whether it is an Africa president or an Algerian official, we are to pray for them because prayer reaches the nations. And in the end, we will all be affected no matter how sheltered we think we are.

We wanted to share an excerpt from Shaping History through Prayer and Fasting, by Derek Prince.

The power of prayer to shape history is no mere theological formula. (A Testimony by Derek Prince about The War in North Africa)

From 1941 to 1943 I served as a hospital attendant with the British Forces in North Africa. I was part of a small medical unit that worked with two British armored divisions-the First Armored Division and the Seventh Armored Division. In was the latter division that became celebrated as the "desert rats," with the emblem of the white jerboa*.

At that time the morale of the British forces in the desert was very low. The basic problem was that the men did not have confidence in their officers. I myself am the son of an army officer, and many of the friends with whom I grew up were from the same background. As a group, the officers in the desert at that time were selfish, irresponsible and undisciplined. Their main concern was not the well-being of the men, or the effective prosecution of the war, but their own physical comfort.

At one period our greatest hardship was the shortage of water. Supplies were very strictly rationed. Our military water bottles were filled every other day. This was all the water that we were allowed for every purpose-washing, shaving, drinking, cooking, etc. Yet the officers in their mess each evening regularly consumed more water with whiskey than was allotted to the other ranks for all purposes combined.

The result of all this was the longest retreat in the history of the British Army-about seven hundred miles in all-from a place in Tripoli called El Aghelia to El Alamein, about fifty miles west of Cairo. Here the British forces dug in for one final stand. If El Alamein should fall, the way would be open for the Axis Powers to gain control of Egypt, to cut the Suez Canal, and to move in to Palestine. The Jewish community there would be subjected to the same treatment that was already being meted out to the Jews in every area of Europe that had come under Nazi control.

About eighteen months previously, in a military barrack room in Britian, I had received a very dramatic and powerful revelation of Christ. I thus knew in my own experience the reality of God's power. In the desert, I had no church or minister to offer me counsel. I was obliged to depend upon the two basic provisions of God for every Christian: the Bible and the Holy Spirit. I early came to see, that by New Testament standards, fasting was a normal part of Christian discipline. During the whole period that I was in the desert, I regularly set aside Wednesday of each week for as a special day of fasting and prayer.

During the long and demoralizing retreat to the gates of Cairo, God laid on my heart a burden of prayer, both for the British forces in the desert and for the whole situation in the Middle East. Yet I could not see how God could bless leadership that was so unworthy and inefficient. I searched in my heart for some form of prayer that I could pray with genuine faith and that would cover the needs of the situation. After a while it seemed that the Holy Spirit gave me this prayer: "Lord, give us leaders such that it will be for your glory to give us victory through them."

I continued praying this prayer regularly everyday. In due course the British government decided to relieve the commander of their forces in the desert and to replace him by another man. The man whom they chose was a general named W.H.E. "Strafer" Gott. He was flown in to Cairo to take over command, but his plane was shot down, and he was killed. Thus at this critical juncture the British forces in this major theater of the war were left without a commander. Winston Churchill, at that time Prime Minister to Britian, proceeded to act largely on his own initiative. He appointed a more-or-less unknown officer, named B.L. Montgomery, who was hastily flown out of Great Britian.

Montgomery was the son of an evangelical Anglican bishop. He was a man who very definitely fulfilled God's two requirements in a leader of men. He was just and God-fearing. He was also a man of tremendous discipline. Within two months he had instilled a totally new sense of discipline into his officers, and had thus restored the confidence of the men in their leaders.

Then the main battle of El Alamein was fought. It was the first major allied victory in the entire war up to this point. The threat to Egypt, to the Suez Canal, and to Palestine was finally thrown back, and the whole course of the war changed in favor of the Allies. It is no exaggeration to say that the battle of El Alamein was the turning point of the war in North Africa.

Two or three days after the battle I found myself in the desert a few miles behind the advancing Allied forces. On the tailboard of a military truck beside me a portable radio was relaying a news commentator's description of the scene at Montgomery's headquarters as he witnessed it on the eve of the battle. He recalled how Montgomery publically called his officers and men to prayer, "Let us ask the Lord, mighty in battle, to give us the victory." As those words came through the portable radio, God spoke very clearly to my spirit and said, "That is the answer to your prayer."

How well this incident confirms the truth about promotion that is stated in Psalm 75:6-7. The British government chose Gott for their commander, but God set him aside and raised up Montgomery, the man of his own choosing. God did this to bring glory to his own name, and to answer a prayer, which, by the Holy Spirit, He himself had first inspired me to pray. By this intervention God also preserved the Jews in Palestine from coming under the control of the Axis powers.

I believe that the prayer which God gave me a that time could well be applied to other situations, both military and political, "Lord give us leaders such that is will be for your glory to give us victory though them."

The battle is the Lord's. As followers of Jesus Christ, we must take to battle on our knees. No matter what we 'see', God has the last Word because when all else has passed away, His Word remains forever. Let's go to war for the Nations.

A Challege from a former President

Library of Congress Appendix No. 19 in Volume 12 U.S. Statutes At Large Signed by President Abraham Lincoln, March 30, 1863 National Day of Fasting and Prayer Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and Just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National Prayer and Fasting. And whereas, it is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord: And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nations has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. Now therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion. All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Diving teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be hard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and restoration of our now divided and suffering country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.