Getting Your Feet Wet

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GETTING YOUR FEET WET!

“And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord- the Lord of all the earth- set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”
(Joshua 3:13)

A few years ago I spent about five weeks carrying Bibles into China from a base in Hong Kong. OK, smuggling Bibles. The communist government was controlling the “registered churches,” and so most of the Christians in China were functioning “underground.” In spite of, (maybe because of), decades of intense persecution, the Gospel, and the church, was spreading like wildfire. It still is. There is a real lack of Bibles though, and so people like me were bringing them in. Twelve times I crossed a border, travelled inland, made the drop, and returned to base. In the providence of God, I was never caught.

Not only did I feel like I was doing my part, but I can also say that I have never felt closer to God, or more alive. One day though, at the border, I felt a surge of worry. As I waited to have my passport examined, I could see a dozen customs officers hard at work. Loads of travellers were having their bags searched. That’s when I remembered the priests and the Jordan. That’s when the peace came. “I am a priest of the Lord of all the earth. I carry the ark of the covenant in my heart, and his holy word with my hands.” As I stepped into the customs area, every officer disappeared. Every one was busy searching someone else. I couldn’t even see one. The river parted, and I walked through on dry ground.

So, what is it that God has laid on your heart? I’m not saying that everyone should smuggle Bibles, or that we always see success. But I know that as His child, you are also His priest. In prayer, you stand in the presence of the One who is life and represent a dying world. And in that dying world, you stand before its people and represent the One who is Life. Surely God has something for you to do. How many times does He have to ask? Wouldn’t it be awful to find out later that you had missed out on the very thing that would have really made a difference? Remember, He is the Lord of all the earth. Go on, get your feet wet! Chris Thompson is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and serves as a church planter in England.

God's WORD for YOU: Proverbs 29; 1 Kings 6-7; Luke 20:27-47

Great Quote: "Even though we are now in faith, the heart is always ready to boast itself before God and say, 'After all, I have preached the law, lived so well and done so much that surely He will take this into account '. We even want to haggle with God to make Him regard our life, but it cannot be done. With men you may boast, I have done the best I could...If anything is lacking, I will still try to make recompense, but when you come before God, leave all that boasting at home. Remember to appeal from justice into grace. But let anybody try this and he will see and experience how exceedingly hard and bitter a thing it is for a man, who all his life, has been marred and has worked righteousness to pull himself out of it with all his heart would rise up through faith in the one mediator. I myself have been preaching and cultivating it through reading and writing for almost twenty years and still feel the old clinging dirt of wanting to deal so with God that I may contribute something so that He will give me His grace in exchange for my holiness. Still I cannot get it into my head that I should surrender myself completely to sheer grace, yet I know that this is what I should and must do." Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians