The following story is a reminder of what the world thinks of Christianity. We rarely, in America, think of this happening. However, let us not forget that while we have comfortable and safe lives other Christians around the world are not as safe. Please pray for the Christians in Turkey and missionaries I know, who are there.
TURKEY--Muslims in Turkey murder three Christians.
One thing the Miller family,from the oldest to the youngest does well is eat. Not just any food, but the kind that gets you messy cause it is the best.
Hope you enjoyed the picture of my sister's little boy CT Howard.
Eat that corn boy!
This semester is about to close out and that means only one semester remains and I will be done with school. (at least until I start the Doctor of Ministry Program, but that is three years from now) The completion of school means that I can go anywhere I want. Literally, my wife and I are facing the possibility of going anywhere in the world.
I never anticipated the thrill, and weight, of knowing that I can live in any country in the world and still do ministry. Wwith that comes the pull of three priorities in my life, faith, family, and farm boy.
In faith I say in my heart, "Wherever He leads I'll go." So far in my marriage that has been the case and he has always led. When he said go, we went, when he said stay we have stayed. God has always been right on time and right on target. (As if we would expect anything else.) I have never had to look for a job in ministry, ever. All the positions I have had God brought to me without even a glimmer of expectancy in my mind. They were all out of the blue. I knew what I wanted to do but didn't have any idea where I would do it. Funny, I am in the same boat once again. And I can be assured that God will lead, once again. He has never failed in the past, so why will He fail now? He won't.
Then there is my family. When it was just Ann and me, the jungles of the Congo would have worked just fine, or New York, or Sweetwater Texas for that matter. It was just the two of us and anywhere would be perfect. But now there are four of us, and it is my responsibility as a father and husband to make sure, no matter what, they are taken care of. One, not so hard, four, a little more demanding. Where my family goes now entails the safety of my sons. The care for there well being and the provision for there rearing. The possibility of little time with Grandma and Grandpa, which I so enjoyed as a boy and became much of who I am today, is not a possible reality I am excited about. The sacrifice of self is one thing, the sacrifice of your children's possibilities that is totally another. I find myself, standing in the spiritual shoes of Abraham. How he ever had the faith to raise the knife, I must admit I do not know. Yet I long in my heart to trust my Lord with my sons the way Abraham trusted God with his. Faith now pushes its way back in the picture and strongly proclaims the Lord knows better than I the environment and place my children need in order to produce the men of God he desires.
Then comes farm boys. I must admit I turn to country music often to go back to the days riding the tractor in the summers singing as loud as I wanted, while pulling the disc, because no one else could hear me anyway. Or the rides with dad out in the pasture to count cows again. The past of the country life beckons my desires with every opportunity to venture into a ministry position. It is so much a part of who I am, I find it hard sometimes to think that that may not be a part of who my boys are. Maybe it is the father wanting to live his boyhood again through his sons, but I do not think that is the case. There is much to be learned from country life and the ways of the farm, a root that is embedded in the heart of every farm boy, a longing to return to the pond to fish one more time, or to squish your toes in the freshly plowed dirt, or the scent of diesel fuel, or to just go outside and smell the rain coming from an afternoon thunderstorm without having a neighbor looking at you through his window because he is 10 feet away. But such are days gone by. It is this pull from yester year that encroaches on decisions and choices. Can I have that again and still do the will of God or does He desire something different. Does the new creation for me include a foreign culture, or the opportunity to go back to what I have always known. Again faith beckons a response, a trust in the Father.
Who is my family and what is my past? It is clear they are who I am, but are they all I will ever be? Does God have something more? Does God not want to take who I am and pass it on to my boys and then build upon that to do far more through them than is possible through me? Again faith beckons and calls as God says, "Trust. Trust me. I have never failed you before."
God knows what is best. Engraved in my wife's wedding ring is Romans 8:28 to which we have committed, knowing that it is absolute truth. However, engravings in wedding bands mean nothing without action. So what are we to do?
Wait. Wait upon the Lord.
In the wilderness, I shall not grumble for what I had nor worry about what I have, I will believe the promise for a better home, a land flowing with milk and honey. Too much attachment to this life will render me helpless and useless in the kingdom of God. This life is fading, the real life is seated at the right hand of the Father. How can I, who 20 years ago, said yes Lord, now after growing say no. If my Savior can say "not my will but yours be done" in the face of the cross, I must say, "Lord this is what I desire, but not my will yours be done."
Awaiting marching orders, dave m.
I know that everyone knows that this Sunday is Easter and so you are making plans to be with families, to practice those songs for the choir, or remembering loved ones who are not with you during the holiday. But don't let those things get in the way. Remember why this holiday is the center of the Christian year.
Read and let your soul be anchored to the refreshing truth of his suffering and for your forgiveness. Let your sould be nourished by the truth of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ who took the very nature of a servant and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.
Jesus Delivered to Be Crucified
19:1 Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. 2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. 3 They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. 4 Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” 6 When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” 7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” 8 When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. 9 He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”
12 From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” 13 So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic [1] Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. [2] He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” 15 They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” 16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.
The Crucifixion
So they took Jesus, 17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. 19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”
23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. [3] But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says,
“They divided my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.”
So the soldiers did these things, 25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
The Death of Jesus
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Jesus' Side Is Pierced
31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. 35 He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. 36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 37 And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”
Jesus Is Buried
38 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. 39 Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus [4] by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds [5] in weight. 40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. 41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.
The Resurrection
20:1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' [1] head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went back to their homes.
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, [2] “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.
Jesus Appears to the Disciples
19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
Jesus and Thomas
24 Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, [3] was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
The Purpose of This Book
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Recently at Kriby Woods Baptist Church in Memphis 49 missionaries were commissioned to serve on the internationl field. A reminder to us all to remember our missionaries all over the world who are sharing the gospel to many for the very first time. Pray that we will continue to see God call out men, women, and families to serve and share the truth of Christ to unreached peoples of our world.
If you would like to keep up with stories from missionaries around the world this website is a great way to hear their stories. I will also leave this as a link on the right column for access.
SBC Missionary Moments
