Confessions of a Pittsburgh Missionary: The Living and Active Word of God
Week 3: May 24-May 31, 2014
Slowly but surely, I am getting the hang of this job and things are coming together. I was never really concerned that they wouldn’t, but I am glad to be getting more comfortable. This week I made lots and lots of phone calls to organizations around Pittsburgh to try and get 5-Day Clubs scheduled. I made prayer cards for myself and Chloe, one of my summer missionaries. And I got several other jobs finished up, ones that don’t necessarily come to mind right now. But I researched many different places in hopes of making lots of new contacts in the Pittsburgh area.
On Saturday, Chloe and I attended pre-training with Westmoreland County. I had never been through pre-training before and wasn’t sure what all to do. And Cathy Sloan, the director of Westmoreland County, has already done it before. The purpose of pre-training is to go over some policies of CEF and also learn how to use the wordless book evangelistic tool before going to training. The wordless book is CEF’s main evangelistic tool and CEF has a very good way of going about teaching it. But it does get a little complicated at times and it’s a lot to learn. So we want our missionaries to start learning it before they go to training school and have to learn everything else as well.
In order to prepare for pre-training, we had to complete a study packet with verses and focus questions that go along with the lesson curriculum for the summer. This summer’s curriculum is “The Wordless Book.” So each day of the week, we’ll teach a lesson that covers one page of the wordless book. It’s a great series that will really take children back to the basics of Christianity. So many of the passages of scripture I had to read to complete my pre-training packet were basic Bible stories or things that I had heard before. But even though I had read many of those passages, I was so blessed as I read through them, thought them over, and answered basic focus questions on them. I had to read the creation story and also the story of the fall of man. I also read some passages in Revelation and other parts of the New Testament.
Even though I have heard the creation/fall of man story hundreds of times, I really got a lot out of it as I read it this time. One part that really struck me was Genesis 3:8 “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” This struck me because I was reminded that God wants to be able to spend time with us. He wants us to be able to be in his presence and enjoy him. And before sin, mankind was able to go on walks with God, just hanging out with him. They were able to be in the direct presence of God. But then they willingly chose to sin, they decided to fulfill the desires of their flesh instead of choosing God, which we are guilty of. But I imagined how God must have felt walking through the garden that day, calling out for his children that were now hiding from the presence of God in shame because of sin. How heartbreaking that must have been for God. He could no longer spend time in that close and intimate relationship with his children anymore.
Then one of the other passages we had to read was Revelation 22:3-4 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And I thought how awesome it is, that even though our sin separated us from God, in heaven God dwells with us again. And not only can we be in the direct presence of God in Heaven, but he’s going to take away all the pains of life that are a result of sin. The former things have passed away, he is making all things new, he gives us a second chance to be with him as he originally planned just because he loves us. And that’s part of the reason why Heaven is going to be such a wonderful place to be, because we can be in the presence of God again and all sin is erased.
I was reminded by all of this that the word of God is truly living and active. I’ve heard these passages over and over again, but I still get something out of them. The word of God is truly alive and God can use the same passages to reveal something different to us every time. How cool is it to have a tool like that? I was also reminded of how important it is to share this message with others. Heaven is going to be awesome! We talk about it so casually, I think we sometimes forget just how awesome it really is. And it’s something everyone needs to know about when we tell them about Jesus, so everyone has a chance to go there.
I can’t believe how fast time is moving. We'll kick the summer off with an intense but awesome week of training camp in about two weeks. God has really laid it on my heart to be doing some fasting from various things over these next two weeks in order to really soak up this summer in prayer, to strengthen myself spiritually for evangelistic ministry, to draw near to him in order to be fully equipped for doing his work this summer, and to invite the Holy Spirit to be a part of my ministry this summer. I thought it would be cool to let all of my supporters in on this as well. So I would like you to pray and maybe fast with me at some point over the next two weeks to help me get this summer soaked in prayer.
I have picked a different topic to be prayed over every day. What I am asking is that you all pick a different day (or more if that's what God leads you to do) to pray for one of the topics I've listed on that day. If you don't want to or can't fast, then just commit to praying for CEF's ministry in that capacity on that day. What I really want is for people to pray, even if they can’t fast. Thanks for praying with me! The key to successful ministry is asking God to do big things with it early on.
Here is a list of what each day’s prayer topic is. Please let me know if you decide to take a day to pray with me. This is one of the best ways you can support me.
• June 1- That God would restore the joy of our salvation so we can excitedly share it with children this summer.
• June 2- That God would open more locations for 5-Day Clubs in Pittsburgh this summer.
• June 3- That more hosts would open their homes for 5-Day Clubs and that God would bless them and their homes.
• June 4- for CEF missions on the global scale
• June 5- For the homeless/needy in Pittsburgh
• June 6- For the people of Pittsburgh in general, that God would start opening their hearts and ears to hear the gospel.
• June 7- For Chloe and AJ, our summer missionaries, preparing in the next week for training and for an awesome summer experience.
• June 8- For more church/ministry contacts and church growth in Pittsburgh
• June 9- For the inner city and at risk children of Pittsburgh
• June 10- For more missions minded people to serve in Pittsburgh
• June 11- That God would open the door for many witnessing opportunities to both kids and parents this summer.
• June 12- For those that teach/lead training school- to be prepared to train all of the missionaries
• June 13- For me as I lead and guide our missionaries into a summer of missions in Pittsburgh
• June 14- For an awesome and safe week of training school and summer of missions in Pittsburgh as a whole
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