Jars of clay: His Glory displayed in our vulnerabilities

Jars of clay: written by Dale Coad

Although we are not comfortable with our human fragility, God's Glory often radiates the brightest against the very backdrop of our vulnerabilities.   In January 2017 God's Majestic Splendor shown brightly through some very perplexing and painful situations.  

Two of our colleagues died.   Three more experienced critical hospitalizations.   Through it all God radiated His sustaining Peace and Glory.   Our hearts were moved as our colleagues fixed their eyes on Jesus in their own pain and declared, "Our God is Good!"   As the scripture says:

2 Corinthians 4:7, 16-18 NIV (portions):    "....we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that  this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us...though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.   

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.   So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

Floyd Woodworth Missionary Educator

Missionary Floyd Woodworth is a living example of this counter-play between the transitory and the eternal.   He is a personal hero of mine.    His daughter Sandy Kazim posted this on Facebook:

• He was imprisoned in Cuba as a young man.
• His mind is now imprisoned as an old man.
• He does not know who we are or our names.

...But he has not forgotten to ask God that His Kingdom come, His Will be done

www.facebook.com/sandy.kazim.1/videos/684027965110775

Floyd built his life on the Word of God.   The ravishes of time threaten the very memories of the ones he loves and his own identity.   His jar of clay is showing its vulnerability but the eternal Word of God lives on forever in and through Floyd.

In our vulnerabilities, let's let God's Glory shine through our earthen vessels, our jars of clay!  His Kingdom is forever and nothing can shake that Kingdom.

"This can be your best year ever!"

by David Speer

"This can be your best year ever.   Really.   It can be,"  the email teaser read.   Because it was from a pastor friend that I respect and trust, I clicked on the link in the email to open his blog and began to read.   It was focused around a verse that I grew up singing about (over and over and over again) but rarely focused on like I do now.

Psalms 118:24 NLT This is the day the Lord made made.   We will rejoice and be glad in it.

I find that when I personalize verses like this, it really drives home the depth of wisdom they contain. The idea that God made this day for me isn't that far fetched.    Think about it.   If He saw me before I was born and every moment was laid out before a single day had passed (Ps. 139:16) and if He had planned good things for me to do long ago (Eph. 2:10), then surely today is a day for rejoicing and resting in His Sovereign plan for my life, no matter what situation I find myself in.

Rejoicing and being glad in the day that the Lord has created for us in one of those small things that we can do every day that will fuel the hope we hold in our heart for the best year we've ever had.   It doesn't cost much to do; it's really more of a decision to have an outlook of confident expectation of seeing the goodness of the Lord in day-to-day life.   So how do you have the best year ever?   By having 365 great days in a row!

David and Kristen Speer

Kristen and I hope this is your best year ever!

Choosing to be victorious in an age of victims

by Dale Coad December 2016

You have a choice to make....everyday!    Will you be a victim or victorious?    Our world is filled with people crippled with a victim mentality.   If anyone had a justifiable reason to feel like a victim, it was Sergeant Bryan Anderson.   Near the end of his second tour in Iraq his Humvee ran over an IED and left Bryan unconscious without his two legs and his left hand.  Seven days later, he woke up in Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.    He was stunned to see his mother at his bedside, thinking he was still in Iraq.

As the shocking reality of his lost hit him he thought, "I'm half a person."   But then his mother spoke some powerful words that helped determine the course of his life, "You know you have basically two options here, right?'   He nodded and said, "Yup.   Move on--or roll over and die."   She probed, "And you're going to....?"   Resolutely he said, "Move on!"   After a challenging regiment of rehabilitation, Bryan learned to live independently and is optimistic about life.   (Taken from Guideposts July 2016, "A Will to Live" pg. 31).    Everyday he is making the right choice.

As you face the ever-growing challenge of living out your Call with integrity and passion, what do you choose: to be a victim or to be victorious?   Your choice impacts the effectiveness of your life and ministry.   There is a new buzzword that is akin to our concept of "the Call of God" on our lives, namely "Grit."

Grit defined by Angela Lee Duckworth is "passion with perseverance to obtain a long-term goal."

https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance?language=en#t-37110. 

As men and women of God, we're not promised a life without conflicts.   We are however promised a life empowered by God to fulfill His Call on our lives without shame or remorse, a victorious life even in conflict.

Romans 8:36-26 (TLB) helps prepare us for the conflict, "...the Scriptures tell us that for his sake we must be ready to face death at every moment of the day...but despite all this, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us enough to die for us."   As believers, what is the key to our victory? "If God is on our side, who can ever be against us?" Romans 8:31 (TLB)

So let's choose to live our lives in victory, "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising that shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."  Hebrews 12:2 (KJV)

Indescribable JOY despite a terrible disaster: by David Speer

I was in Baracoa Cuba last week assessing the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew.  Of all the natural disasters that I have responded to over the years, I still wasn't prepared to see and experience the loss and devastation that had become reality of 158,000 Cuban people overnight on October 4th and 5th.

Not only was I surprised by the degree of devastation, I witnessed something I had never seen before immediately following a disaster--indescribable joy that bubbled to the surface in face after face of the believers who were in the middle of total material loss and devastation.

Last Thursday I was with a pastor, his wife and his two girls.   You'd never know that this presbyter and his family lost their home and had their earthly possessions blown away only a few weeks ago!  The joy that I discovered in my new Cuban friends can never be erased by a hurricane or any other temporary earthly condition, because it is not based on circumstances.

Their outlook reminds me of a passage that I read yesterday in Habakkuk 3:3:17-19, "Though the cherry trees don't blossom and the strawberries don't ripen, though the apples are worm-eaten and the wheat fields stunted, though the sheep pens are sheepless and the cattle barns empty, I'm singing joyful praise to God.

I'm turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God.   Counting on God's Rules to prevail, I take heart and gain strength.  I run like a deer.   I feel like I'm king of the mountains!" Message version.

The joy that my pastor friend and family had only comes from their deep trust that God has everything under control and is working things out for good.   It's this trust that caused the joy that I witnessed in their faces.

Kristen and I pray that this same source will keep you singing joyful praises to God even when you find yourselves in extremely difficult circumstances.   May there be joy in your journey.

David and Kristen Speer, Caribbean_US based Assistant Area Directors