Joyful Dependence

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Rosalie

As you know, my word for the year is depend. Throughout my walk with him, God has given me opportunities to depend on him. In college, I learned to depend on God for wisdom when speaking to agnostics, hostile atheists, and seekers. As a new career woman, I learned to depend on God for victory over anxiety. As a plain-ole-disciple of Jesus, I am learning to depend on Him by memorizing more scripture this year than I ever have before. But never have the opportunities to practice dependence on the Lord been more abundant than in this season of my life: new to motherhood and preparing for the mission field.

Although I often fight it or whine through it, I see now that God is fostering a heart of joyful dependence in me as we wait for God to build our partnership team. I know that one of the lessons of this season is that what is accomplished is not my own doing. We might make phone calls, write prayer letters, give church presentations, but God is building the team. As I wait for Him to do it, I pray. I pray for the people I know are meant to be on our team, and I pray for the ones I don’t yet know. Then, when we meet them, God has already answered my prayers. One of our partners had supported a missionary to Italy previously, and had been praying about where to put that support once it became available again. Others have been job searching, and I pray for them often. I pray they might experience the same joyful dependence the Lord has given me.

Our field is going to be much, much more discouraging, challenging, and even pressure-filled than prefield. We go to our home church often, we speak the language, we live in the same home we made before God called us. When I battle the enemy on the field, he’ll use those things against me. But I will remember the Lord’s faithfulness to me while we waited, and I will depend on the Lord (hopefully with joy) for deliverance, answers to our prayers, and courage.

I’m linking up with Christine over at Grace Covers Me today as she releases her book, The Church Planting Wife: Help and Hope for Her Heart, and collects heart stories from church planting and ministry wives. Join us? Also, stay tuned for a giveaway!

Poor, Rich and Everyone In Between {Day 26}

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Rosalie

What does it look like to love justice and mercy? Certainly it means being generous with the poor, caring for widows and orphans. The prophets and Jesus both make that abundantly clear.

Isaiah 58 is a chapter of correction and defining true worship. God says that he is not impressed with the fasting of “religious” people, who are doing it just to be seen (‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. vs 3)

“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
(Isaiah 58:6-8 ESV)

A fast that pleases the Lord is one of sacrificial giving. Sharing with the hungry, being relational with people. This is the kind of fasting I want to do.

Serving and caring for people less fortunate than ourselves is not a spiritual gift. I am not exempt from these commands because my calling to the mission field is oh-so-spiritual. On the contrary, I must study these scriptures, pray for wisdom for how to minister this way in my field, and be obedient. This is the (earthly) work that frees people (the heavenly work having already been done on the cross).

When rich people meet Jesus, they see how poor they are without Him. And when poor people meet Jesus, they realize they are rich. Hungry or full, physically, is meaningless without the perfectly satisfying salvation of Jesus Christ. My burden is to see this cross-section of physically blessed people acknowledge their spiritual poverty and accept the true riches of Jesus Christ. As I endeavor to share God’s love with them, I must also show his love to the poor, the destitute. I must give feet to my faith. Sharing the Gospel and making disciples is so important. The church is God’s plan for meeting the needs of people, and I believe the church is failing in this area. Our priorities look no different than the rest of the world’s and they should stand out as a beacon on a hill. The number one need people have is for grace. God’s grace. If we can spread it by fasting the way Isaiah describes, then true freedom will follow quickly when we share that ultimate gift.

This is not just a prayer for a missionary, though I desire to remind you we struggle with the same selfishness that plagues us all this time of year. This is a prayer for the church. This is my prayer for myself. I plan to spend the next few months looking at different areas of my life and culling. I will be asking God to show me where I can cut back and fast in a way that benefits another. Then I’ll share my experience here.

This post is inspired by 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess.

On Being a Sending Church {Day 12}

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Rosalie

This month our sending church is emphasizing Spain as a mission field every week. We are so blessed to have a committed, invested sending church behind us who considers the church plant in Alcalá to be an extension of themselves. Chris shared his testimony last week, and I shared mine this week.

Sending missionaries is no small matter. Paul addresses his supporting churches often in his letters, telling them that because of their support and prayers, the Gospel spread. This is still true today. Our sending church’s love and enthusiasm is indispensable to us.

In the first bulletin this month, we included the following excerpt.

Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.
3 John 1:5-8 ESV

“It is not of secondary importance to be engaged in this ministry of sending. It is a very high calling. It is walking in the truth. It is the manifestation of a healthy and prospering soul. Senders are fellow workers with the truth. To send in a manner worthy of God is a call to excellence in the support of missionaries. It is direct participation in God’s purpose. The cruciality of sending cannot be overemphasized. Therefore, it must not be done in a shoddy manner but in “a manner worthy of God.” There is a world of difference between a church “having” a missionary and a church “sending” a missionary. When we send missionaries in a manner worthy of God, God is glorified, our souls prosper, and we are fellow workers with the truth. We are in sync with God’s heartbeat and his purpose to be glorified among all the peoples.”

-Tom Steller (the afterword, Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper

Strength

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Rosalie

Source: etsy.com via Rosalie on Pinterest

We believe that missionaries should be focused on evangelism and church planting. While meeting physical and social needs is extremely important and saves lives, it isn’t what matters at an eternal level. Making disciples saves lives for eternity.

Here’s why I think this philosophy of missions is Biblical and it works: it can’t be done authentically by a person working without the Holy Spirit. Feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, caring for widows and orphans, curing the sick, educating the oppressed, even freeing a slave, can all be done alone. Anyone can do it (and many do) successfully. But one cannot make disciples without Christ. He is the main event, and He does the hard work.

We just carry the message.

We will not be successful in Spain because we have a lot of experience with youth ministry. We won’t be successful because we love high school students and want to see them come to know the Lord. We won’t contribute to the growth of our church, the calling of a Spanish pastor, or the salvation of our friends and neighbors because of anything we bring to the table. It’s all because of Christ. Anything good that we do is because His love flows out of us.

Please pray for us. Pray that we would spend more time in His Word, more time cultivating our friendship with the Lord so that more of Him would pour out of us.

Momentous Moments

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Rosalie

One of my students has a sweet, kind personality that seems to attract difficult-to-love people. I say difficult-to-love because I am trying to give grace to people who, in reality, are users. Selfish people who want to take advantage.

My student, who has spent the last year growing in her new-ish faith by leaps and bounds, endures these “friends” and tries to help them because it’s her nature. She supports them in their occasional efforts to improve (quit smoking, get better grades), but she also sets boundaries for her own sake. I am so proud of her, and I pray for her all the time. I pray that she would flee temptation, and instead have boldness to proclaim Christ to these people. They know there’s something different about her, and they think it’s weakness. I pray that God would show her how to put His strength in her on display for them.

Recently, she got some awful texts from one of these friends. Turns out they were meant for someone else. You should have seen me. I was so mad! I said, “you need to tell her off! Tell her if she’s going to write things like that she needs to be darn sure who she’s texting!” My friend was hurt, but she seems to brush it off. Later, though, she was telling me about how this girl talks.

I hate it when she says, ‘oh, God,’ or ‘Jesus,’ It’s not like she’s asking God for help or praying. It’s like she’s blaming God. That’s what she’s doing! She fails a class and she says ‘Jesus!’ like it’s his fault or something. She’s blaming God for something that is her fault!”

This was one of those moments. My friend gave sin a name not because she’d heard me say it but because the Spirit within her was offended. She is exactly right; taking the Lord’s name in vain is blaming God for something He didn’t do. It’s blasphemy! I don’t think she remembers the commandment. I don’t think she could define blasphemy in a test. But her heart was broken because the name of her savior was defamed, and that is worth so much more to God (and to me!) than obedience to His commands or knowledge of His ways.