At a gathering for Visio Dei church we were asked to speak for a few minutes. They are having monthly gatherings outside their church building to take the church to the city rather than make the city come to the church. First, thank you Pastor Zook for the opportunity to tell others about Saved By God’s Grace and meet some really neat people. During Pastor’s sermon (which is really not the right word since he spoke throughout the evening about God, what God was doing in the church and how the church is moving with the Holy Spirit amidst fantastic praise & worship music) he mentioned something that really hit home. He said (and I’m paraphrasing since I wasn’t recording him) that if we aren’t filling our life with God or looking for Him we will fill it with other things that lead to destruction.
He mentioned lifestyle – how do we live/what do we make important/what do we put priority in? I thought about our life before answering God’s call to become missionaries to Kenya. Our lifestyle was great according to the world’s perspective. We were able to go out to dinner whenever we wanted, I drove a fancy car, we could go on vacations wherever we wanted (all cash purchases-no debt), plus we were giving away thousands to different charities. I don’t tell you this to brag or say “look what we did”, but to let you know we thought we were doing the “Christian thing”, but we had the wrong motivation. When God asked us the question “how are you going to serve Me? Like you want to serve Me or how I want to be served?” it was only by the power of the Holy Spirit that we were able to answer – “like You want to be served.” We were ready to say “here am I”.
Again, our former lifestyle looked good to the outside world but was leading us to destruction – a life where God was not central to everything. WE were giving away money, WE were doing good things with OUR money, and God was thanked once in awhile for giving Chuck the ability to make the money, but it wasn’t all about HIM. Now our lifestyle is dramatically different but you know what, the last three years have been the best ever! Our trust in God grows everyday. He provides where we can’t, not only with the ministry but also personally. He has humbled us to ask the body of Christ for help to sustain our children in Kenya and He is always faithful to move people to assist…it is all about Him!
I’m so thankful God disciplined me and brought me back to Him!