Of Love and Grace

Thy Brother's Blood Crieth

2008-12-04T21:27:00.000-08:00

The tom-toms thumped straight on all night, and the darkness shuddered round me like a living, feeling thing. I could not go to sleep, so I lay awake and looked; and I saw, as it seemed, this:

That I stood on a grassy patch, and at my feet a ravine broke straight down into infinite space. I looked, but saw no bottom; only cloud shapes, black and furiously coiled, and great shadow-shrouded hollows, and unfathomable depths. Back I drew, dizzy at the depth.

Then I saw forms of people moving toward the edge. There was a woman with a baby in her arms and another little child holding on to her dress. She was on the very edge. She lifted her foot for the next step…Then, to my horror, I saw that she was blind. Before I could say anything she was over, and the children with her. Their cries pierced the air as they fell into the inky blackness of the ravine!

Then I saw more streams of people flowing from all quarters. All were blind, stone blind; all walked straight toward the edge. There were shrieks as they suddenly knew themselves falling, and a tossing up of helpless arms, catching, clutching at empty air. But some went over quietly, and fell without a sound.

Then I wondered, with a wonder that was sheer agony, why no one stopped them at the edge. I could not. I was glued to the ground, and I couldn't even yell; though I strained and tried, only a whisper would come out.

Then I saw that along the edge there were sentries set at intervals.

But the intervals were too large; there were wide, unguarded gaps between. And over these gaps the people fell in their blindness, unwarned; and the green grass seemed blood-red to me, and the ravine yawned like the mouth of hell.

Then I saw, like a little picture of peace, a group of people under some trees with their backs turned towards the ravine. They were making daisy chains. Sometimes when a piercing shriek cut the quiet air and reached them, it disturbed them and they thought it was a rather crude noise. And if one of their group started up and wanted to go down and do something to help, then all the others would pull that one down. "Why should you get so excited about it? You must wait for a definite call to go! You haven't finished your daisy chain yet. It would be really selfish," they said, "to leave us to finish the work alone."

There was another group. It was made up of people whose great desire was to get more sentries out; but they found that very few wanted to go, and sometimes there were no sentries for miles and miles along the edge.

Once a girl stood alone in her place, waving the people back, but her mother and other relations called, and reminded her that her furlough was due; she must not break the rules. And being tired and needing a change, she had to go and rest for awhile; but no one was sent to guard her gap, and over and over the people fell, like a waterfall of souls. Once a child grabbed at a tuft of grass that grew at the very edge of the ravine; it clung convulsively, and it called – but the child went over, its two little hands still holding tight to the torn-off bunch of grass. And the girl who longed to be back in her gap thought she heard the little one cry, and she sprang up and wanted to go; at which her friends reproved her, reminding her that no one is necessary anywhere; "The gap would be well taken care of!", they said. And then they sang a hymn.

Then through the hymn came another sound like the pain of a million broken hearts wrung out in one full drop, one sob. And a horror of great darkness was upon me, for I knew that it was "The Cry of the Blood."

Then a voice thundered. It was the voice of the Lord, and He said, "What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground."

The tom-toms still beat heavily, the darkness still shuddered and shivered about me; I heard the yells of the devil-dancers and weird, wild shrieks of the devil-possessed just outside the gate.

What does it matter, after all? It has gone on for years; it will go on for years. Why make such a fuss about it? God forgive us!

God arouse us! Shame us out of our callousness! Shame us out of our sin!

(Previous text is "Thy Brother's Blood Crieth" by Amy Carmichael)

When the days of this earth are past, and all things pass away, we Christians will be spending eternity in front of the throne, worshiping God and fellowshipping with the saints. This will be a perfect form of what we now practice in churches such as the one you sit in now. Anytime two or more believers gather together in the name of Jesus, fellowshipping before the cross, we practice worship which is a mere shadow of the things which are to come.

As believers, all of our hope rests in the fact that this world is not our home. Christ died so that we may be freed from the bonds of a sinful nature, the fleshly influences that separate us from God and force us into a contract of bondage to pay for our sins. As a result of the work done through the cross, this written contract has been destroyed, nailed to the cross to allow us renewed communion with the Father in heaven. We can now look forward to the glorious picture found in Revelation 7:9-17:

⁹After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." ¹¹All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹²saying: "Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!" ¹³Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes-who are they, and where did they come from?" ¹⁴I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵Therefore, "they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. ¹⁶Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. ¹⁷For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Unfortunately, there are people on this earth who will never know this joy. They will never receive the free gift of God, and Amy Carmichael illustrates the urgency of this situation. It is as if there are countless souls, walking blindly towards the point where life meets eternity, with far too few sentinels standing guard to turn them back and show them the Light that is the Word, the Son of God.

Church, why should you care about foreign missions? Because "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?" (Romans 10:14, NIV). As sad as it may seem, too many of you who listen to me today are sitting quietly, making daisy chains, and ignoring the cries of the small child who clutches desperately to the edge of eternity, begging someone to pull him back. You have been charged with the message of truth, the Gospel that is hope to all generations. Jesus said, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20, NIV).

William Jennings Bryan was speaking to a small congregation in WV and began by saying: "I have three points today. First, Millions are dying and going to hell. Second, you people don't give a damn. Third, some of you are more concerned that I said 'damn' than that millions are dying and going to hell." I am sure many of you feel the same way – you are so consumed with making the daisy chain that is your lovely church service with Sunday school for your children and brunches for your women and accountability circles for your men that you forget there is a whole world outside our country, broken, bleeding, and crying out for the salvation that is yours to reveal!

What if, instead of holding each other accountable to avoiding pornography and making sure we're remaining faithful to our wives, we go and free girls from sex slavery in Asia and work with our spouse to heal and empower the most broken young women on the face of the planet to find hope in the name of the Lord Jesus? What if instead of fellowshipping with our friends, gossiping over a cup of tea and planning the next VBS session, Beth Moore Bible Study, or Children's program, we used our passion and love to teach a group of Brazilian women how to pray in the Spirit with all kinds of prayers and requests and to care for their children's basic health needs? What if, instead of sending our children to Sunday school to learn stories of Moses and the Red Sea and loving our neighbor, we took them to live in the slums of Bangkok and sent them out every day to share Christ's love with the street children who have less than nothing? Are you willing to do that, Church? Are you willing to go? To study your scriptures, to become grounded in your faith, and to grab the hurting and the dying and the broken and love them with a love beyond anything this broken world can imagine?

Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." (Luke 9:23-26, NIV). In 2 Corinthians 4:18, Paul said that we MUST fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen! Church, can you not see that your building, your programs, your homes, your schools, and your jobs are but a fleeting breath?! How many have you turned back from the gates of hell this week? How many in the last month? What about the last year? Where is the one who had never heard the name of Jesus who will walk up to you in the New Jerusalem and thank you for your sacrifice so that they could hear the Word of God preached?! How many that have never heard will hear the name of Jesus from you and your family's lips?

Do NOT sit back and wonder if you are called: YOU ARE!!! Hell is a REAL place where people will be SEPARATED from the presence of God for eternity. Revelation 20:12-15 says,

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and the books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Geisler says "if there is not hell to shun, then the Cross is a sham. Christ's death is robbed of its eternal significance unless there is an eternal separation from God from which people need to be delivered."

"What does it matter, after all? It has gone on for years; it will go on for years. Why make such a fuss about it? God forgive us."

God forgive us all.

Conviction

2008-12-04T08:48:00.000-08:00

"Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from nothing to
Eternity"

Hillsong United's "Hosanna" lyrics have become my daily prayer over the last year. If any of you know me well - most of you probably do not - you know the last two years have been a time of complete life change for me. I went from living in the depths of sin, in rebellion against the life to which I have been called according to His purpose, to rejuvenation. I learned what forgiveness truly is, and experienced God's love and grace for the first time in all its fullness. Two years ago, I could care less what God wanted for my life: I was hurting badly and looking anywhere for answers. A little over a year ago, He broke me completely and started bringing me back to Himself. By January of this year, I wanted nothing more than to grow every day in Him, stretching out towards His power and pouring His love out on other people. As I embraced the above prayer, I had no idea where He might take me.

This summer, I was on Ozark Christian College's camp teams and had one goal for my prayer life: I wanted to seek God's will. My first year at OCC was incredible for spiritual growth and formation but I was ready for more. God was placing within my heart a desire to do something for His kingdom. I asked that He would open doors for a ministry, and give me a reason to learn
everything I'm studying here.

The summer was a whirlwind, starting with Bob and Corrine Talbot, community developers in Mozambique, who were responsible for drawing my heart towards missions and challenging me to think about this avenue of ministry. As the summer progressed, I couldn't shake the idea of investigating mission work for myself. Everything within me cried that it was irrational at this time in my life: I should do camp teams again next summer, because I won't be getting a pell grant next year do to a change in my parents' income. I should stay in Joplin and work next summer, so I can take summer classes and push my degree along further. I should stay with my family, because we're all growing up and won't be together that many more years.

No matter what I told myself, I couldn't shake the Spirit's prodding. He was at work in my heart. By the first of October, I was beginning to think of the idea of a short-term experience next summer as a possibility, not a crazy idea. It was in Dallas, TX, at a national Christian Counselors and Psychologists' convention, that the Spirit confirmed this in my heart. As WorldHelp organization presented the work they do with AIDs orphans in Africa, they brought a group of children onto the stage - young musical performers spreading news of the need their people have for help. I had tears running down my face that I could not control as I heard within my heart only these words: "Take care of my children." I never cry. I never show emotion. The Spirit had such a hold on my heart and would not let me look away as He solidified in my heart that I was to go to the broken, the fatherless, and the sick. Conviction is a difficult thing indeed to explain to an unbeliever.

This left me with a strong prayer focus and a very big problem: Africa is a huge place, and the missions to this continent are almost innumerable in focus, availability for interns, and location they take trips. I didn't want to go somewhere that I would be treated as a tourist, allowed to hold and care for the children as one might coddle small animals on a field trip to the zoo. I wanted to go where there was a need, and I knew this was within God's plans. About a week after Dallas, a week spent in constant prayer, I decided to approach Tresor Yenyi, a senior here at Ozark who is from the Democratic Republic of Congo. God was at work once again, and threw open a door to the work of Shining Light Ministries.

There are many details I cannot place within this post, but in summary I plan to spend next summer in the Democratic Republic of Congo, working in Kinshasa for Shining Light Ministries. I feel so underqualified and unprepared that I am almost hopeless! I am depending on the knowledge of missionaries much wiser than I and on God's protection to make sure I don't forget to do anything before I go...I started this mission with no idea where to even start preparing!

I ask for prayer in the following areas:
We should know in two weeks if this trip can become a reality, and what the potential time frame will be. Shining Light is facing some very exciting changes and partenerships that are keeping everything up in the air for the moment.
I need confidence and constant assurance that I am not just a crazy college student, jumping on a soap box for some world problem. It's so easy for Satan to distract me from the reasons I'm going.
My parents are terrified, at best, and while my dad is (and always has been) highly supportive of anything I know I need to do, my mom is subtly reminding me continuously that Canada needs missionaries too and that would be a very safe place for me to spend my summer.
Fundraising will need to begin as soon as the trip is confirmed and travel schedule more certain. I know Americans feel that we are in tough economic times, but pray that people will see what really matters, and that God will break their hearts for what breaks His.

Thank you all for your prayers and support so far! I'll write more soon on specifics about Shining Light Ministries and the work to be done in the DRC.

JP