Let the Nations be Glad!

It’s that time again.  Time to read my favorite missions book—Let the Nations be Glad!—by John Piper.  I try to read this relevant, exciting book at least once a year.  Years ago, Dr. Steve Bateman suggested this book to our church congregation to read in order to increase our passion for missions.  I took his suggestion and I believe this book changed my life!  There are not many books I can say that about.  The timing of my reading this book for the first time was just a few years before God called our family to the mission field.  I think God used this book to help expand my vision of what He was and is doing in the world.  John Piper packs this 250 page book with the reasons we are to “make God supreme in missions”.   If you are passionate about missions, then this book will encourage you to keep on keeping on for the glory of God and to further His kingdom here in the states and to the ends of the earth.  If you are questioning the reasons why missions is important to the body of Christ and to the health of a church, then this is a book that is worth the time to read.  You could probably find it on Amazon for a great price.  It has been out for a while. (1993, 2003) 

There is so much I could quote from.  But I’ll just quote this one part in the book that never fails to move me to tears and  it spurs me on to do what LITTLE I can to bring glory to His name.  My efforts are so puny and small but His name deserves to be honored and He deserves to be worshipped.

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Missions exists because worship doesn’t.  The ultimate issue addressed by missions is that God’s glory is dishonored among the peoples of the world.  When Paul brought his indictment of his own people to a climax in Romans 2:24, he said, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” That is the ultimate problem in that world.  That is the ultimate outrage.

The glory of God is not honored.

The holiness of God is not reverenced.

The greatness of God is not admired.

The power of God is not praised.

The truth of God is not sought.

The wisdom of God is not esteemed.

The beauty of God is not treasured.

The goodness of God is not savored.

The faithfulness of God is not trusted.

The commandments of God are not obeyed.

The justice of God is not respected.

The wrath of God is not feared.

The grace of God is not cherished.

The presence of God is not prized.

The person of God is not loved.

The infinite, all-glorious Creator of the universe, by whom and for whom all things exist–who holds every person’s life in being at every moment (Acts 17:25)–is disregarded, disbelieved, disobeyed, and dishonored among the peoples of the world.  That is the ultimate reason for missions.  (taken from page 206)

Power Struggle Coming?

The winter season has already come to Hungary and this article about a struggle over energy/heat bothers me.  Right now, the highs are in the 40s with the lows in the 30s there.  That’s cold in my book!  And it’s only going to get colder.  It was quite an adjustment for this Alabama girl to live in a place with such cold winters and snow.   I can remember our first winter in Budapest and how I feared that I would not do well in such a cold climate.  Some of my prayer requests to my closest friends were for them to pray that I would be able to handle the snow and wintertime!  Imagine praying about such a thing.  But it was important to me and they graciously prayed for me and God graciously got me through.  Please skim this article and pray for the protection of the energy source for that region of the world.  Many people will suffer and die if the heat is turned off. 

 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33287693/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times

By The Numbers: Iran

   *66,429,284   Number of people that live in Iran

   *27     Median Age in Iran

   *.88%   Percent Growth Rate in Iran

   *98   Percent of Muslims in Iran

   *0   Number of missions agencies allowed in Iran

   *10,000,000  Estimates of number of Bibles that would be gladly received if available

 

 

Information taken from:

The CIA World Factbook    https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

Operation World    www.operationworld.org

My Verse for the Week

So many spiritual applications to draw from this verse.  I read it in conjunction with my BSF lesson on John 4–the Samaritan woman at the well.   Maybe you can draw a spiritual truth from this verse for your life today:

“Swarms of LIVING creatures will LIVE wherever the river flows.  There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water FRESH; so where the river flows, everything will LIVE.” (Ezekiel 47:9, emphasis mine)

*Are you drinking from stagnant waters?

*Do streams of living water flow through you to others?

*Are you a fisher of people for His kingdom?

*Jesus is the continually fresh source of living water for our lives.

Christmas Missions Project

One of our favorite missions projects to do at Christmas is Operation Christmas Child through Samaritan’s Purse.  Many of you are already familiar with this shoebox ministry and  plan to participate this year.  Our church, First Bible Church of Decatur, has a goal of 500 boxes to fill and send to Operation Christmas Child.   Our family plans to participate again this year and will probably do a box for a boy and a box for a girl.  When the girls were young, it was really fun to buy for the boy since we didn’t have little boys around our house!  Buying small cars and socks for boys was a new thing for us.

Operation Christmas Child is already in full swing and you don’t want to miss the cut-off for filling your shoeboxes.  If your church is not planning to do this project this year, you can go directly to the website of Samaritan’s Purse to get the information and to print off the tags for each box.  Merry Christmas a few weeks early!

www.samaritanspurse.org

October 23, 1956

Today is such an important day in the history of Hungary.  October 23, 1956, is the day that Hungary rose up against the Stalin government and the Soviet-imposed policies.   This country-wide revolt lasted until November 10, 1956, when the State Security Police and the Soviet troops fired upon demonstrators and crushed the rebellion.  After this defeat, even greater oppression from the Soviet government occurred against the Hungarian people.  Not much of the world knew about this revolt and oppression when it happened and this revolution was suppressed for about 30 years until the Berlin Wall fell.   October 23, 1956, was declared a Hungarian national holiday in 1989.  During our time in Hungary, October 23 was a day to fly the Hungarian colors and to place flowers and wreaths at commerative places.

Our family loves the country of Hungary.  We love the Hungarian people and their culture.  Although our language skills were pretty lousy (maybe I should say MY language skills were pretty lousy!), we felt the pull into the lives and concerns of the Hungarian people.  That place draws our hearts and minds and we can’t seem to shake it.  So, when the Hungarian people are joyful, we are joyful.  And when they are sad, we feel sad.  Hungary has experienced so much sorrow in their history.  Hungary, like all of us, needs a hope for the future.  As a Christian, I know the eternal hope that never changes is the Lord Jesus.  My heart is for the Hungarian to turn to God and worship Him.

I Love Fall

For as long as I can remember, I have loved this time of year called Fall–or Autumn, whatever your preference!  I think it might a “woman thing”, too.  So many of my friends feel the same way and just long for this time of year to appear on the calendar.  There’s just nothing that beats fall decorations, picking apples or pumpkins, or enjoying a pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks.  Maybe it brings back comforting memories from our childhood or maybe we have our own special memories from raising our children.  When we lived in Meridianville, I remember taking my girls to Tate Farms to pick apples and to taste the Apple Cider.  Yum!  We always went on a crisp, sunny day and since we were homeschooling at the time, that was a fun field trip.  Then we would come home and make apple muffins or talk about fractions by cutting the apple into slices.  What could be more fun than that??  Although the fall time is usually packed with activities and places we need to be, this time of year somehow signals warmth and comfort and family dinner soup nights.  By the way, if you have a great soup that your family loves, send me the recipe!  I could use a few new ones to add to my rotation.  Crock pot time, here I come!

Missions and Racism/Slavery

During a recent sermon by Dr. Steve Bateman at First Bible Church, he masterfully linked missions and racism/slavery.  Until I heard this sermon from Colossians on how the Bible views slavery, I had never realized how important missions was to stamping out the very real horror of those that are still in chains around the world.  These chains may be cultural, sexual slavery, or persecution for religious views.  Steve said that wherever the gospel of Christ is boldly proclaimed and people receive this gift of good news, slavery and racism is reduced.  But those countries where people are oppressed and the gospel is not allowed to be proclaimed, then slavery and racism is alive and well.  Another of the many reasons that MISSIONS IS RELEVANT FOR TODAY’S WORLD!  I definitely can’t do this subject justice like Steve did.  So, maybe it’s better that I just point you to the First Bible website and you can listen to the sermon yourself.  It’s from the morning services on October 11th.  Hmmm….food for thought.

www.fbc.org

Autumn at the Budapest GuestHouse

Praising the Lord for new reservations for the Budapest GuestHouse this autumn!   Notice I said autuman and not fall.  We found out after we lived in Budapest that autumn is the preferred term there.  We’re still working out the logistics of things like key drop-offs, clean-up before and after guests arrive, and food purchases. (we provide breakfast for the first couple of mornings.)  But those things will be worked out and hopefully it will be a well-oiled process in the not-too-distant future.  Thank you for your interest and thank you for your prayers!

Teacher Daughters

Please don’t be offended if I rejoice publicly a little bit!  But it truly has been a blessing to see Olivia take on her role at First Bible Church as an intern in the Children’s Department.  Under the tutelage of the Children’s Director, Joni Clark, Olivia has been allowed to be involved in many new things in church ministry.  She works about 15-20 hours each week and helps Joni with the preparation for Sunday services.  Olivia also leads a small group on Sunday mornings for first-graders and is available to serve in the first hour and the second hours ministries.  Crazy things can happen on Sunday morning as many of you in Christian service know!  Teachers can get sick at the last minute, children can decide that today is the day to swing from the rafters, and parents can be late picking up their children after church.  So the hardworking staff in the children’s area (which includes Telete Chappel and Kelli Martin) has to be flexible!  Since Olivia has been in the children’s area, all of us have had opportunity to help in smaller ways.  Meredith has been willing to jump in and help Olivia on Sunday morning when needed.  She’s helped in small group time and in large group worship.  Just this past Sunday, I got to be “Professor Knowsalot” in the storytelling portion of the morning.  I had a blast telling the story of Epaphroditus from Philippians 2.  I don’t plan to post any pictures of me doing that!  Hopefully, they won’t show up on Facebook either.     It seems that Olivia and Meredith have a natural bent to serving and to work with children.  Working with children is always a needed thing!  Time spent passing the torch of faith to the next generation is never wasted.

John 2

I’ve been in John 2 all week because that’s the BSF assignment this week.  Soooo glad that God had me parked here.  I’ve been moved to tears as I thought about the compassion and the passion of Jesus.  The first miracle at Cana of turning the water into wine spoke to my heart and made me feel I knew Christ’s heart more.  There He was at a wedding that He had been invited to and He came!  He entered the “normal” lives of the people around Him and participated fully.  And His mom was there, too, and He listened to her.  She knew Him.  She knew His heart.  She knew His character.  She knew He would respond with compassion and with power.  So she told Him about the wine running out.  She told the servants to obey Him and do what He said.  And He took the bland water and turned it into rich, vibrant wine that even the master of the banquet knew was exquisite.  But isn’t that just the way of our Lord?  He wants to take the “blandness” of the things/events in our life and turn them into rich wine or another way to put it—abundant life filled with the joy of Christ. 

It was an amazing miracle that was then followed by His passion for worship and for His Father’s house.  When God changes us and changes our hearts in a personal, powerful way, then our level of worship needs to change, too.  As He calls us closer to Him to know Him more, our worship is taken to a new level.  And Jesus was interested in proper worship when He drove the moneychangers out of the temple.  His zeal for His Father’s house and His concern for the honor due His Father showed power and passion.  How shallow I view worship sometimes!  Where is my zeal for the honor of God’s name?  When He changes me and I know when He does that, then I need to examine my passion for worship.  It’s time for change in that area, too.

Brannon Family Happenings

Meredith-Bob Jones High School Homecoming 09

“How Did You Know God Was Calling You?”

Curt and I feel like a “part” of Ministry Development is mentoring, praying for, and providing information to young people that are interested in missions.  We are so impressed with the passion of the young men and women that God brings across our path that are seeking God on whether or not He is calling them and preparing them for a call to missions.  In my thinking, there really isn’t too young of an age to begin introducing a life of missions.  We can train up our children to love missions very soon in life.  Obviously, God calls people of all ages to proclaim His gospel.  But I do believe He puts on some hearts at an early age to commit his or her life to His service and to His Great Commission.

Just recently, Curt had the opportunity to talk to a young man about missions.  They met for breakfast and had a great conversation about our time overseas and how Curt has used his business experience in missions.  This young guy is just a Junior in high school and is passionate about his faith in Christ.  Josh wants to begin thinking and planning now about how a full-time ministry for the Lord could be effective.  Although Curt and I don’t even have a tenth of the answers for all his questions, Josh asked some very mature questions and really showed that he wants to seek the Lord’s will for his life.  We are praying for him.

Some of the practical things that Curt suggested to Josh were things like:  Go on a mission trip.  Raise the money for the trip and go and experience it yourself.  Stay in school and get a degree that you could use in a “tent-making” situation overseas.  Look into Business as Missions.  Read all you can about missions.  Talk to missionaries from different continents.  Support missionaries financially and prayerfully. 

John the Baptist was sent by God to testify and proclaim Christ as the Lamb of God.  “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”  John 1:29  All of us, as believers, have a call on our lives to point others to Christ.  We are to testify to the light that we have and proclaim His name to the nation of America and to the rest of the world.  So we know God is calling us.  Now where does He want us to go?