Meymaneh update.

Forgive me on the length of time it took me to update you all an Meymaneh. Let me start by saying that God is good. I take joy in knowing that we are not called to pursuade anyone into recieveing the gift of Jesus. We are called to obedience through the preaching of the gospel. God will draw unto himself his people. He does not need us. However, He choses to use you and I for this task. What an honor we have. I went back to the Mall with a New Testament Bible and a book written by a Muslim man who had found Christ. I showed Him in his Quran where it spoke of Jesus being the Word of God. He said, "Yes, that is correct. Jesus is the Word of God." I then showed him that the Gospel of John starts with this same statement and that this Gospel will describe what being the Word of God means. He said he, "looked forward to reading both the Bible and the book." And then he said something that shocked me and once again revealed to me all that we are missing around us everday. He said, "I will read them and then would like to get together with you in a week to discuss what I have read." I didn't have to ask him. It was his desire. I am amazed at how God reaches out to His people and honored that I get to be a part of it. I can't help but to think of Keith Green's song, Asleep in the light, where he says, "Bless me Lord, Bless me Lord, you know it's all I ever hear. No one hurts, no one aches, no one even sheds one tear. But He cries, He weeps, He pleads and He cares for your needs. And you just lay back and keep soaking it in." We must get out of this self-centered mindset. May we never be comfortable with where we are at. Let God use you and you will see love like you've never seen. Keep praying for Meymaneh. That the Holy Spirit will speak to him and that God would continue to draw him to Himself. By the way, the song is one listed below. I encourage you to listen to it.

What I could've missed!

Had an interesting day today. My wife and I took some of our kids and friends to the Mall so they could spend their Christmas money. While there we meet a man named Meymaneh from Turkey. My wife, Andrea, always ready, thought wisely to ask where he was from. Interestingly, that's really all it took. With a little question, Meymaneh opened up. He told us how he, his wife and brother came to America to study and earn a degree. Within in a couple more months, they would be finished with school here and head back to their home country. In the process of our conversation, I asked him if he was a follower of Isa-Mesih, (Jesus). He said yes, but that he didn't fulling understand it all. Yet, he is very interested and is searching for truth. He desires to know more.

This truley amazes me. We could live our lives in the comfortability of our own thought-made kiosks and miss all that is around us. We could of throughly enjoyed our day at the Mall lounging around without one ounce of effort to make our Lord a part of it, and for the most part, that would be the norm. We can have our morning devotions, pray over every meal, listen to Christian Radio wherever we go and enjoy our many bible studies and still miss out on all that we could be doing to bring glory to God. We could have, (and usually are) missed out on Meymaneh.

What is it all for anyway? What are our morning devotions for? What is all our bible studies for, all this knowledge gaining for? Is it just for us? So that we can be comfortable knowing?
No, no, no. May it not be so! May it be for Him! The One and Only True God! May it be to bring Him glory. That others may know. We must open our eyes and break down our thought-made kiosks. We have an Eternity Past and more God and we continue to try and put him in a box made up of our selfish culture and lazy personal habits. We must see Him as He is and live our lives as if He is Lord over it. We must begin to realize what's at stake. We must begin to care.
The story ends with Drea and I encouraging Meymaneh to read the Gosepel of John. He told us both he would, so tommorrow I will be driving back in hopes to give him a bible. Please pray for Meymaneh and his family.

"These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.