Treasuring Jesus

This morning, in our Friday Family Time at IGSL we listened to a video sermon by John Piper called "Don't Waste Your Life". I love John Piper -- we only had time to listen to part of the message, and I was disappointed when it ended. The part that we listened to was about Philippians 1:20, and he challenged us to make Christ look great by the way we live our lives, or by the way we die. I think "making Christ look great" is an excellent way to express "glorifying God". He pointed out that our choices, and the risks we are willing to take, will show how much we treasure Jesus above all else.

When Family Time was over, and I got back to my office, I received a phone call from one of our IGSL graduates who is a pastor in Nepal. The church in Nepal has gone through trying times in the past few months because of Hindu extremists who are trying to intimidate believers. Some believers have already been killed, and many church leaders have received letters and phone calls threatening that they will be next if they don't cancel their worship services. This dear brother told me, "We were targeted yesterday by the group. They are threatening us, but we've already made up our minds that we won't give in. So, please just pray for my family." We chatted for a few more minutes and hung up.

I sat there staring at the computer screen in front of me. "Dear Jesus," I thought, "my brother truly treasures You above all else." I did not expect the sermon I had just heard to be illustrated so profoundly within the hour.

Just Thinking . . .

I've been asking myself lately, what do I love to do? Many parts of my job include things I don't love. Meetings. Deadlines. Budgets. Yuk. Hate it.

The parts I love include listening to people, encouraging people, and sometimes even rebuking people. I realize I am particularly motivated if they are the type of people who are passionate about proclaiming God's name to the ends of the earth.

The first type of person: When I sense that someone is willing to pour out his/her life for the glory of God, for the spread of His kingdom, then I will do whatever I can to help that person succeed. I can be very patient, even in extremely trying circumstances.

For the past year or two, I have been very motivated as I have helped some students from unreached people groups to learn English so they can be equipped to reach their people. I have invested hundreds of hours, probably thousands of hours in this task. And I thought it was great fun, not work. They were diligently equipping themselves to be more effective for their King and I wanted to diligently help them.

For the past several years, I've also been discipling students and staff who want to invest their lives for God's glory. If I sense that someone is "all out" for God's glory, then I want to go "all out" to help them while they are with us at IGSL.

I also love to go to remote places to visit them after they graduate, stay online late at night to chat with them and encourage them, connect them with others who can help them and spend time in earnest prayer for them. I love, love, love doing that!

The second type of person: It's much harder for me to invest in people who seem to be more concerned with being comfortable in life. There are a lot of those people around! But I am learning that God can use me to motivate the second type to become the first type. I've seen it happen. And it's thrilling when it does! But it really takes eyes of faith for me to see the potential in those people.

It takes even greater eyes of faith to see that meetings, budgets and deadlines can also be part of the bigger task of helping more people to be "all out" for God's glory. I really need God's help to see things through His eyes.

Just thinking . . .

Sam and His Family

Last week I introduced you to a little guy named Benny. Here is another little guy from India, Benny's friend Sam. They are both two years old. Imagine, by the time their parents graduate, Benny and Sam will be in kindergarten, speaking English, reading and writing! But I digress.

Sam is shown here with his dad and mom, Ebenezer and Sarah, and me, and an x-ray in his mom's hand, and a cast on his leg. . . and that's what this story is about.

We always tell our students that aside from the IGSL curriculum, which we carefully prepare for them, there is "God's Curriculum," which is prepared even more carefully by our Father. For some reason, many new students go through crises in the first few weeks of their arrival. Either they get sick, or someone back home gets sick, or someone back home dies (yes, really) or they go through a financial crisis. I really can't explain it, but it happens every year. One thing I can say is that what Satan hopes to use for evil, God intends to use for good. (Genesis 50:20). Many times the new student's first response is "I should never have come here! Maybe I should forget about this training and go home immediately." But by the time they graduate, they always have a story of how God worked in their lives, and showed them His goodness in the midst of the trial.

So, Sam and his family arrived in the Philippines from India at the end of April. Three days later, Sam tripped and fell inside his home, and after that he wasn't able to walk. It just happened that our nurse was out that week, and I was in another city for a conference. My assistant called and asked for my advice. I told her to bring them to the Emergency Room and get an x-ray just to be sure. They did that, and the ER doctor said it was nothing serious, and sent them home with pain relievers. I was pleased that it was handled efficiently and I thought that was the end of the story.

I got back from my conference the next day, and Ebenezer and Sarah told me that Sam was still in pain. We observed him for another day, and then decided that something was still not right. So we went to our favorite pediatrician, Dr. Gigi, who has helped us through all kinds of crises through the years. She works in the same hospital where the x-ray was done. So, Dr. Gigi asked to see the x-ray. The ER doctor had not given it to the parents, but it was still in the hospital archives. So we filled out all the paperwork and got the x-ray, and brought it to Dr. Gigi.

When we looked at the x-ray -- there was a clear fracture of the tibia! I still do not understand how the ER missed this the first day. We have used this hospital for many years, and they have always served us well. All I can guess is that the doctor must have looked at a different x-ray. We were referred to a pediatric orthopedic specialist. He put a cast on Sam's leg, and Sam felt better right away, and he wore the cast for several weeks, and then it was removed, and then he was fine. End of story.

Or so I thought.

About two weeks later, Ebenezer told me, "Sam has fallen again, and he can't walk!" So back we went to Dr. Gigi, who ordered a new x-ray . . . and yes, it was broken again! Same leg, same place. Back we went to the specialist. Same story, chapter two. He put a cast on Sam's leg, and he felt better right away. Sam thinks that wearing a cast on his leg is a normal part of life.

I always say that the best discipleship happens in hospital waiting rooms. In the midst of the tears and the unanswered questions, we cut to the serious issues of life and faith. Ebenezer and Sarah and I have gotten to know each other much better through this saga. Sarah is in my Iron Sharpening Group, and I look forward to the next three years of walking through life together. Only God knows why He included this in His curriculum, but we are confident that He intends it for good.