by Trevor McDowell | Mar 29, 2022 | Articles
“Your way was in the sea and Your paths in the mighty waters, and Your footprints may not be known.” Psalm 77:19 The way God works is a mystery most of the time. Jesus promises that He will build His church (Matthew 16:18). He does not need us, but He gives us the opportunity to participate with Him in what He is doing in the lives of people. My mom was a tough nut to crack. When my father came to the Lord she was not interested, and neither was I. Then ten years later I came to faith and a few years after that my two brothers came to know the Lord as well. My mom continued in her unbelief for many years until she was stricken with lung cancer. Prior to her cancer, our family had shared the gospel with my mom through the years with no response. When she was informed she had cancer, my brothers and I planned on taking her to lunch to share the Gospel with her again, hoping she would be more open to it. A few days after our lunch was scheduled, my mother sent an email to my brothers and I that she was trusting Jesus with her cancer. We were amazed with this email. When our scheduled lunch happened a few days after her email, she was open to talking about Jesus. God beat us to our prayerful plan of bringing our mom to faith. My mother battled cancer for just over a year and then passed away. She has now been gone for over three years. Sometimes as...
by Chris Martin | Mar 7, 2022 | Articles
One of the early teachings that I was exposed to as a young man who was beginning to take his faith seriously was the benefit, and the need, for the man of God to “strive for obscurity.” After hearing this a few times, I felt compelled to dig into what I was being challenged to do. What does “obscurity” mean? How do I Strive for it? When can I know that I am successful or have failed in this endeavor? First, I needed to get my arms around what it means to be “obscure.” A summary research of definitions yielded the following: “the state of being unknown, inconspicuous, unimportant,” another definition reads “relatively unknown,” and yet another reads “the state in which somebody/something is not well known or has been forgotten.” These definitions certainly were a help to me in my understanding; however, this was not something that I was certain I wanted to pursue, let alone “strive” to be. To strive for something does not simply mean to focus on it or work towards it. It means “to struggle or fight vigorously.” This means that one must expend a great amount of effort, determination, and diligence toward the goal of striving to be being unimportant, in the background, unseen, unknown, etc. In reality, I am ashamed to confess that this goes against every fiber of my flesh that screams “here I am!” or “Look at and notice me!” or “Tell me how great of a man I am!” Jesus addresses this topic in Matthew 6:1-18 that we should give, pray, and fast in secret. At the heart of...
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