antbib.com

Posted By Andrew on February 3, 2009

Original posting February 2

It’s an awesome feeling to be here. Only a short while ago we were brand new parents, full of visions and ideas of how to make those dreams a reality in our home. We were cuddling a baby and then babies, and found ourselves very busy. Parenting ends up being a lot more practical than you ever think it will be while dreaming, but there is much joy to be found in the daily duties as well. We prayed, taught God’s Word, and tried to live out the joyful Christianity every heart craves, all the while wondering how this is all going to happen. Almost overnight, here we are making disciples. What a sobering responsibility!  I’ve enjoyed reading books about missionary endeavors and have marveled at the way a new people group often grasp deep spiritual truths even before they are taught. They often have a way of putting their teacher to shame by their simple acceptance of truth and prove how very simple it all is. We have been experiencing this in a real way with our new followers of Jesus, and it is very convicting.
I know how real and personal Jesus is to me, how ever present the Holy Spirit is to guide me into all truth, and yet didn’t grasp how faithful He would be and how easily He would connect with a childlike faith. Most of the time their hearts more accurately line up with what God has promised to bless and touch than most mature Christians. After Jenny had prayed her prayer of repentance, she sat in silence for a few minutes, then shared this profound testimony, “ I feel like Jesus is just taking a knife and cutting out all of the sin in my heart.” Andrew and I were amazed to see how perfectly she had explained circumcision of the heart without having ever heard it explained. A few days later she shared with me how she had spend a long time praying in her bed the night before telling God she would do anything He wants her to and giving Him all of herself. I told her that we often call that surrendering to Jesus, and was stunned to realize how many who know the term don’t know the reality. Melody was sitting with Andrew one evening and started telling him how she has decided the most important thing she can ask God for is wisdom. Without any prompting she starts asking God for wisdom, and a few minutes later, she tells us, “ I just hear this splat, splat, splat and I feel wisdom coming into me.” We chuckled inwardly at her description, but were sobered by her simple faith that just asks and believes, so of course receives.
These are the kinds of conversations we are having around here. They are keeping us on our toes and providing us with great motivation to grow to be what God has called us to be. One of our greatest desires for our children has been that they would experience God in a very tangible way that affects all of life, that walking with Him would be as natural as breathing and sharing what He’s teaching us would be as common as any other conversation we have together. I’m still learning how to live this way, but it’s thrilling to see the children make great strides toward these goals. There are still a lot of dreams that have not yet become reality. There are many stages ahead that we know will stretch us and make us press into God in new ways. Seeing God’s faithfulness to our children individually has been a great faith-booster though; we can trust Him to lead them as He’s leading us. He has promised to do for them what we cannot, and we believe that the very best thing we can do for their future spiritual success is to have Jesus always busy working in our hearts.

Category: Uncategorized
Tags: