Just sharing my week with you...

February 4

The exciting news around here is that Soroti has a fruit and veggie stand. You may be thinking big deal, but it is a big deal! Our smart Indian friends at the supermarket decided to have a lady sell Kampala and Kenya veggies and fruits we can’t get in Soroti. Twice a week she brings new stock in of lettuce, plums, cantalope, broccoli…it is such a blessing. We use to have to drive almost 7 hours to get these things and when we ate them they were gone and we had to wait till our next trip to the big city. But now our lives have changed! We can eat as much veggies and fruits and get more. Since God is the giver of all good gifts I give Him thanks for this blessing. The rumor is strawberries are arriving today!

Lydia was sick this week with strep throat I’m pretty sure. She was really hurting and you could see it with every swallow she took. It took a few days on antibiotic to get her feeling better. Thankfully she is healthy again expect for the headaches we are all suffering with because of the heat and dust.

School was ruff this week. Between the weather (you literally walk down the hall to the classroom and get blown with a 100 plus degree wind and it takes your breath away – who wants to sit in that for school?), not feeling great, and being off schedule we all had bad attitudes. There was a lot of complaining this week. Grace was yelling at everyone this week and I thought why is she doing that? Then I realized because her mother has been doing that. Ouch. I guess everything got to me like it did them. I needed to confess and make a change. So we will be taking more time in prayer next week before school and asking God to help us.

Our team had a meeting this week to follow-up our strategic planning retreat. It is an exciting time with a refined vision and mission and a focused goal. Josh and I will now be committed to the area of Obule praying for God to transform that village. We will be working with Guzzaldos, Jennifer, and a new couple the Rossers. The Rossers work with Water for All and will partner with us to bring hand dug wells and help with agriculture. We are very excited to know God has led us here and has a wonderful plan for Obule.

Along with the excitement of new strategy comes change and with that a little bit of sadness. Our one big Team Beyond is now two teams and will be more eventually. Tim and Angie will now be the leaders over the leaders of the smaller teams. We will all still see each other and work together but it will be different. We will be able to focus on and care for our smaller team. Josh is the leader of our Obule team which is a great new challenge for him. It is a new year with new plans. How thankful I am for a team that seeks God and goes where He leads.

Josh visited one of the church leaders, Dan, in Obule yesterday. Dan was sharing with Josh the joy he now has because of the Freedom in Christ training. He said he use to just sit and worry because he has no hope of reaching heaven. But now he knows God loves him and has assurance of his salvation. I love hearing what God is doing in peoples lives! The change is amazing. Simply sharing Biblical truth and the Spirit at work can transform a person. Dan and his wife Rose also said that they never had enough food but since the marriage and family course they now do. Now who would have thought a marriage course would help with a family’s food situation? They said it is because they used to go their own direction and had no communication or care for each other, but now they work together and care for each other. Praise God!

This week in my Beth Moore Bible study on the Psalms of assent I was grabbed by a reality she spoke about applying God’s Word. Too many Christians hear and know God’s Word but fail to apply it to their lives. Here is what she says:

(This is a section from my study on Psalm 126 and Matt. 13.) “Why do some people see the results of the Word and others don’t? Why do some study the Word of God yet remain in their captivity? Some just eat the seed and never sow it for a harvest. You want examples? Why have many of us heard hundreds of messages on freedom, done every line of Bible studies, wept over them, been blessed by them, and even memorized parts of them, yet remain in captivity? Because we ate the seed instead of sowing it. Why have many of us read books on forgiving people, known the teachings were true and right, cried over them, marked them up with our highlighters, yet remain in our bitterness? Because we ate the seed instead of sowing it. Why have we repeatedly heard how Christ has forgiven our sinful pasts and sobbed with gratitude over the grace of it, yet we remain in bondage to condemnation? Because we ate the seed instead of sowing it.”

“Sometimes we don’t even realize the difference. We’ll think we accepted the teaching because we were so moved by it. But you see, the seed of God’s Word can fill our stomachs and give us immediate satisfaction and still not produce a harvest – that’s when we eat it but don’t sow it. Many times we apply biblical truth to our theologies without applying it to the actual practicalities of life. I know because I practiced this approach for years and could not understand why I was still in bondage.”

“I can not say it loudly enough: God’s Word is meant to be applied to our reality. We can amen the pastor as he preaches sacrificial love. We can walk to the car and talk about the great sermon he gave, drive home, and march in as mean and cold as the person who pulled out of the driveway. We decide surely God did not mean us to apply His truth to our reality because He knows how difficult this or that person is to love. What just happened? We are the seed instead of sowing it.”

“I am desperate for you to live in the reality of your God-promised victory. I am concerned that many of us will eat the seed instead of sowing it. Then we charge God with unfaithfulness when we don’t get the harvest He promised. God repeatedly says that a harvest is sown, not eaten as seed. We have to get down on our knees in the hardship of our circumstances and apply God’s Word to the most difficult places, believing God will bring a harvest. Forgiving others, for instance is a beautiful theology but a difficult reality. Those who apply it have a harvest of the rest of their lives. We were meant to eat from the sheaves, not the seed.”

“If we don’t see an immediate result from our acts of obedience, we often decide to dig up the seed and either eat it or cast it in the nearest ditch. Hebrews 6:12 says, ‘imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.’ Some of the inheritance God has promised each of us can only be received through faith and patience.”

“Sowing the seed of God’s Word in a terribly difficult situation is not easy! But God promises you – let me say it again – absolutely promises you that if you do, you will receive a harvest of joy. Are you game? Then get down on those knees and start digging in the ground of your reality and sow some seed. He who promised is faithful.”

True? Are you, am I applying God’s Word to my realities? Are we reading God’s Word so we can apply it? Don’t sit in bondage anymore. Choose to sow God’s Word in your heart and trust Him to grow a new life of joy in your heart!