Missionary Maintenance Plan

Being a "missionary" is one of the most rewarding things and one of the hardest things I have ever done.  Now, I am not complaining because I would not trade what I am doing for anything; I know that what I am doing is part of God's plan for my life and I have been involved in so many great things as a missionary.  What I have discovered, as I am sure many other missionaries have, is that to be a successful long-term missionary you need to have a missionary maintenance plan.  For me there are three parts to this plan.

First, we need to have a strong relationship with God; we must make sure that we are regularly spending time with God through His Word and in prayer.  It is easy to get so busy working for God that we start to ignore our relationship with God.  As a missionary it can also be easy to focus on the aspect of raising support.  The Bible says that God will supply what I need, not based on all my efforts, but through Christ.  Matthew 6:33 says that if we seek God's Kingdom first then all of the other things we need will be added to us.

Second, we need to stay focused on the call of God in our life.  There will always be hard times as a minister and as a missionary there can be the added stress of living in a different nation than where you are born.  While I can happily say that I enjoy living and ministering in Germany and Europe there are things here that are different from where I grew up.  That is not to say that one is right and the other is wrong, it is just different.  When we are frequently faced with things that are different than what we are used to it can be a problem, this is where culture shock comes in.  For me the solution is to focus on what God has called me to do.  If God has called me to be in a certain place then He will give me the grace to live, work, and succeed there.

Third, we need to develop strong personal relationships.  Thankfully this is an easy one for me; I work with an awesome group of people here in Germany.  It is important to have good personal relationships with people who can help to encourage us and support us in what God has called us to do.  We were not designed to work and live alone so we must have some good friends to help us along the way.  These three things have been a help to me as a missionary and I plan on continuing to use this missionary maintenance plan.

Who Do You Compare To?

"Not that we [have the audacity to] venture to class or [even to] compare ourselves with some who exalt and furnish testimonials for themselves!  However, when they measure themselves with themselves and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding and behave unwisely."
2 Corinthians 10:12 (Amplified)

One of the problems Paul faced in his life was people who did not respect him or his ministry; this is one of the issues Paul writes about in the second letter to the Corinthians.  Some people said that Paul's physical appearance and how he talked was not impressive (2 Corinthians 10:10).  Paul's response is that while some people measure and compare themselves with others he was not interested in doing that.  As we read in 2 Corinthians 10:12 Paul said people who compare themselves with others and measure themselves by others are not wise.

In Philippians 3 Paul talked about his natural heritage but said all he wanted was to be "found in Christ".  Paul knew that the only important thing in life is how we measure up to and compare with what God wants for us.  It is easy to start measuring our life and our success by other people but this is a trap the enemy wants us to fall into.  God has a plan for our life and how successful we may or may not look compared to other people does not matter as long as we are doing what God wants us to do.

If we try to build our confidence and self worth on how we compare to other people we will get into trouble.  God does not want us comparing ourselves to others but He wants us to take a look into His Word and compare ourselves with the standard that we see there.  We will get off track with God's plan if we don't follow God's standard but instead look for approval from others and compare ourselves with others.  We need to be interested in being approved by God, not people.  So, who do you compare to?  Let's make it our goal to measure up to the godly standards we see in the Bible and not compare ourselves to other people.

Watching For Wisdom

"Does not wisdom cry out, and understanding lift up her voice?
Blessed is the man who listens to me (wisdom), watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors."
Proverbs 8:1, 34 (NKJV)

In Proverbs chapter 8 wisdom is personified and shown talking to people about the advantages of wisdom, understanding and instruction.  In Proverbs 8 we learn that kings reign through wisdom (8:15), that God had wisdom before creation (8:22) and wisdom is like a master craftsman (8:30).  Most people would agree that wisdom is a good thing but strangely enough wisdom is something that many people don't seem to have enough of.

Since wisdom is so good what can we do to get more wisdom?  Proverbs 9:10 tells us that the fear (reverence) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  If we do not put God and His ways in first place in our life we will not even be able to start on the path of wisdom.  Proverbs 11:2 says that with humility comes wisdom but that with pride comes shame.  This lets us know that a right attitude is also important if we want to get wisdom.  A third thing about getting wisdom is that we need to watch for wisdom.

How can we "watch for wisdom"?  The Bible tells us that God gives wisdom and He stores up wisdom for the righteous (Proverbs 2:6, 7).  We can get wisdom by following God and making sure we spend time with His Word.  Another good way to get wisdom is to make sure we spend time with the right people.  Wisdom is with those who have understanding (Proverbs 10:13, 23; 14:33) and wisdom comes from the mouth of the righteous (Proverbs 10:31).  The people we listen to should first of all be godly people and secondly people who have some understanding.  There are a lot of people who want you to listen to them but they don't have any wisdom to give.  Be choosy about who you listen to and watch for wisdom coming through God's Word and godly people.  Take the time to watch for wisdom and you will reap the benefits!

The Whole Is No Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts

"And if one member suffers, all the parts [share] the suffering; if one member is honored all the members [share in] the enjoyment of it."
1 Corinthians 12:26 (Amplified Bible)

There is a saying that goes something like, "The whole is greater (or more) than the sum of its parts".  The idea is that things working together produce or become something greater than what they are individually.  This saying expresses an important truth that we also see in the Bible, but there is something else we can see here if we look at this phrase a little bit differently. The whole is no greater than the sum of its parts when every part of that whole is not functioning properly.

Usually the whole cannot rise above the sum of the parts involved.  In other words, you can have a very healthy and strong group that is restricted from its fullest potential by one or more weak member. There may be a company that is excelling in most of what it does but the parts that are not excelling are hindering the whole from moving forward.  A church may have several areas that are working well but if there are some areas that are weak and struggling it will have an effect on the whole church.  As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:26 when one part of the body is suffering the whole body is affected.  The Body of Christ and organizations are made up of many parts; just think, what could happen if every part was doing well in their particular area?

Every Christian will either be contributing to the heath and stability of their local church, and the overall Body of Christ, or they will be hindering it.  Ephesians 4:16 says that every part of the body has something to give.  But what if some parts of the body or an organization did not fully give what they could, would that body, church, or organization do everything that it could or should do?  We need to take an honest look at ourselves and ask if we are being a weak or a strong part of whatever we might be involved in.  This applies especially to the Body of Christ and our local church but also in our families, where we work and whatever else we might be involved in.  Let's all function at our full capacity and make the whole strong rather than be the weak part that holds the body back from achieving its fullest potential.

Tracing Your Spiritual Genealogy

"For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
Galatians 3:26-28 (NKJV)

There are some people who spend time researching their family history, their genealogy.  These people can go back quite a few years and tell you many stories about this or that ancestor.  Other people may not know a lot about their personal family history but they are very proud of their country of origin or their ethnic background.  Still others put a lot of confidence in their education, social standing, financial status, or their job.  While it can be interesting to learn about our family history and who our ancestors were, it is far better to trace our spiritual genealogy and get to know it better.

In Galatians 3:26-28 we are told that through faith in Jesus Christ we have become sons of God, God is now our heavenly Father.  Today we are God's children and that is the main aspect of who we and what we need to focus on.  No matter what earthly family we came from, good or bad, we can now easily trace our spiritual genealogy; the spiritual family that we are in is what really matters.  Paul says in Galatians 3:28 that for those in Christ, people who have received salvation through Jesus, there is no nationality, social standing, or gender that takes precedence over our spiritual position in Christ.

No one is able to choose the natural family that they were born into, but once we choose to receive salvation we are a part of God's family and we have become a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).  Because we are a new creation in Christ all of the old and former things that identified us are gone.  We need to find out who we are as a child of God and live our life based on that, not on who our natural relatives are but who are spiritual Father is.  Get to know who you are through God's Word and don't allow your natural past or present, good or bad, to be the thing you base your life on.

You Are What You Eat, Spiritually

"For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God."
Acts 20:27 (NKJV)

There is a saying about how the food you eat has an effect on your overall well-being, you are what you eat.  If you eat healthy foods you will be healthy and if you eat a lot of junk food you will not be so healthy.  Concerning natural food, we need to have a diet that is balanced with foods from all of the proper food groups.  Spiritually speaking we need to get to know all of what God's Word has to say and not just our favorite parts of the Bible or whatever happens to be the latest emphasis in Christian circles.

Our main source of spiritual food is from the Bible, but we need a proper balance.  For example, some people have so much of their focus on judgment and sin.  They have a steady spiritual diet of teaching in this area so that is how they view everything.  Any little sin they see is magnified in their eyes and worthy of condemnation.  Other Christians have a spiritual diet of nothing but the mercy and grace of God and this is all they seem to see.  It is almost as though sin does not exist for them and they end up living undisciplined and irresponsible lives.  These are just a couple of examples.

If we don't have a well-balanced natural diet we will get into trouble and the same goes for our spiritual diet.  Paul talked about the whole council of God (Acts 20:27) and this needs to be our focus as well.  Spiritually it works about the same way, we have to realize that there are many important truths in the Bible and we need to have a well-rounded understanding of God's Word and what it means for our lives.  You are what you eat, spiritually; what does your diet consist of and do you need to make some adjustments?

What Do You Have, What Can You Do?

"Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat. But He answered and said to them, You give them something to eat. And they said to Him, Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat? But He said to them, How many loaves do you have? Go and see. And when they found out they said, Five, and two fish."
Mark 6:36-38 (NKJV)

Many people know the story from Mark 6 about the feeding of the 5,000.  The disciples were concerned about the crowd of people having something to eat and Jesus told the disciples that they should provide the crowd with some food.  Immediately the disciples started talking about the problem and asking if they were supposed to go and buy food for all the people; they were more focused on what they didn't have than what they did have.  Jesus replied by asking the disciples what they did have and the end of the story is that Jesus used what was available to meet the need.

We can see this principle repeated over and over again in the Bible, that God wants us to make use of what we have and start with what we can do.  God will take what we have and use what we can do to meet the need and bring a solution to the problem.  Two other good Bible stories about this can be found in 1 Kings 17 and in 2 Kings 4.  Both situations show someone in need who followed God's direction and took what they had and did what they could and found a solution.  It may be true that there are some things we don't have yet or can't do at the moment but what is available to us right now?

So often we find ourselves in situations where we feel inadequate and don't think we can do what needs to be done.  We focus on what we don't have instead of what we do have.  God will meet all of our needs and help us with whatever problem we face, but sometimes we need to take the first step.  If we use the principle we see from the feeding of the five thousand we will first find out what we do have and what we can do.  Then we can give those things to God and allow Him to help us meet the need and to do what needs to be done.

Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk

"Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,"
Philippians 3:13 (NKJV)

Recently I thought of the phrase, "Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk".  My problem was not spilled milk but there was a fly in my coffee.  I had made myself some coffee and I went out onto the balcony of my apartment with my computer to do some work outside.  But, when I went to take the first drink of coffee a fly had landed in my drink.  So, rather than just sit there with a sense of disappointment and thirst I removed the fly and got something else to drink.  In the same way, when we deal with difficulties in our life, we need to do what is necessary to take care of the situation and just move on.

When we have a problem it makes no sense to sit there and cry about it, that won't change anything; this is where the idea for the saying about the milk came from.  In Philippians 3:13 Paul talked about forgetting what happened in the past and moving forward.  Paul admitted to not having had a perfect past but he didn't allow the problems of the past to cloud his future.  We can see similar things with other people in the Bible who continued to move forward with God's plan in their life despite the problems and disappointments they faced.

Everyone will deal with difficulties in life but it is what we do when we experience the difficulties that matters.  If we just stop and feel badly or if we don't do anything about the problem nothing will get better.  In the letters to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation Jesus talks about the rewards overcomers will receive, but there are no rewards for those who just give up and cry about the problems they have faced.  Hebrews 13:6 tells us that we can boldly say the Lord is our Helper; with God's help we can clean up any mess we encounter in life, move forward, and fulfill the will of God!

Christian First, Missionary Second

One thing that has helped me over the years is having the right perspective about who I am.  My identity first and foremost is who I am in Christ, I am a Christian.  After my identity as a child of God comes the plan God has for my life; because I am His child I go to Him to see what it is He wants me to do.  However, if I get these two things mixed up I might have some problems.

As someone who lives and works for God in a country that is not their country of origin I am usually referred to as a missionary.  As I wrote about in a previous blog, the word missionary is used to identify people who actually do many different things but generally a missionary is someone who lives in a country they do not originate from.  No matter what work a missionary may do, or what anyone might do for that matter, our work does not define us.  And no matter where we live, our location does not define us; it is our relationship to God that matters.

One problem that missionaries have had in the past is that rather than go to evangelize and teach others, missionaries have gone to countries and worked more to change customs and culture than they have to promote God and His Word.  When living in another country where things may be different than what we are used to it can be tempting to only focus on trying to make others like us and not to make them disciples like Jesus talked about in Matthew 28:18-20.  This focusing on changing customs and culture without changing people normally ends in failure and frustration.

Many missionaries, spiritual leaders, and other people working for God get "burned out" because they are focusing on the wrong things.  Too often people are missionaries first and Christians second or even, Americans first and Christians second.  While I am very thankful for the work God has called me to and I certainly do appreciate my country of origin, my plan is to focus first of all on being a Christian and to let everything else come into line after that.  In my view that is the way to be successful as a missionary or in anything else we might do for God.

Were The "Good Old Days" Really That Good?

"Do not say, Why were the old days better than these? For it is not wise or because of wisdom that you ask this."
Ecclesiastics 7:10 (Amplified)

In the Old Testament we read about God delivering Israel from bondage in Egypt.  The people of Israel were in "oppression" in Egypt (Exodus 3:7), they were "mistreated and afflicted" by the Egyptians (Deuteronomy 26:6), and there was even a time when the Pharaoh commanded the people of Israel to kill all of their baby boys (Exodus 1:16).  If you continue reading the story about Israel being delivered and their journey towards the land God promised them you see something very strange happening, the people of Israel started saying that they wished they were back in Egypt!  Over and over again when Israel ran into a problem in their present situation they said they would have been better off in Egypt.

What happened with Israel in the Old Testament sounds a bit crazy, people talking about going back into slavery just because things get difficult.  But what the Israelites did is the same thing that happens today when people talk about "The Good Old Days" and how wonderful things were in the past.   When we face a problem in life and things are difficult it is easy to look back to the past and think that everything was better back then.  If we are looking back to some time or situation in the past and believing that it was so much better than what we have now we are falling prey to deception. 

In Philippians 3:13, 14 Paul talked about forgetting the past and moving forward to the goal God has for us.  If you really take an objective look back, the "Good Old Days" were really not always as good as we remember.  If we stop or slow down to take a look behind us we will delay our process of moving forward and even create more problems for ourselves.  We need to stop being deceived by romantic views of the past and move forward in our life. God has a plan and a purpose for us and it is not found in the past but in our future!

Walking In Love - Specks And Planks

"And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye?
Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."
Matthew 7:3-5 (NKJV)

In these verses we see a situation that too often repeats itself, someone pointing out the problems of another person without taking note of their own problem areas.  It is quite sad to me how frequently I have seen or heard stories of someone who is quick to point out something negative about someone else.  It is easy to spend time looking for the problems that other people have but it is better to look for areas in our own life that need development.  Besides that, the New Testament says more about building up and encouraging others than about judging one another.

If we read 1 Corinthians 13, and specifically verses four through seven, we get a very good view of what love is; my favorite Bible version of these verses is the Amplified version.  In 1 Corinthians 13 we see that love is patient, kind, not touchy, it bears up under anything and everything, and love believes the best about other people.  Try to point fingers at others and judge them with all of that in mind!

How much time do we spend looking for ways to build people up, encourage them and help them go the right direction?  If we focused more on helping people go the right direction then we would not have to be so concerned about people going the wrong direction.   Let's spend more time dealing with our own "planks" and not be so concerned about the "specks" we see in the lives of others.  Remember that God is love and He does not just spend all of His time telling you about your problems but instead He is trying to help you grow and develop spiritually so that you can be an effective part of the Body of Christ.  That is a good example to follow!

Untaught And Unstable

"As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures."
2 Peter 3:16 (NKJV)

In 2 Peter 3:16 there is an interesting combination of words, "untaught" and "unstable".  The word "untaught" comes from a Greek word meaning ignorant or uninformed, describing a person who does not know something.  The word "unstable" means "unfixed", giving us the picture of someone who is not settled in one place, someone who lacks a firm foundation.  Peter did not say untaught and stable, or taught and unstable and I think that is an important point to notice, Peter connects being unstable with being untaught.  You may be a nice person but if you are untaught you will probably be unstable.

Peter is saying that some untaught and unstable people had taken things that Paul had written and "twisted" them, resulting in their own destruction.  It would seem that if those same people had been taught correctly that they would have been more stable and they would have been less likely to have misunderstood or misinterpreted what Paul wrote.  Usually we don't have problems with the things we know about, it is the things we don't know about that we have problems with.  Many Christians are very wonderful people who love God but they are uniformed about what the Bible has to say.

It is sad to say but many Christians have not been taught well and they tend to be unstable.  Too often people are like what Paul described in Ephesians 4:14 where he said "that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine"; that is a picture of an unstable person.  God needs stable, mature people to carry our His plans and purposes in the earth today.  God's Word gives us a firm foundation to live a successful life.  We need to regularly spend time with God's Word so that we are not untaught or unstable and we don't destroy ourselves or others.

Christian Cruise Control

"As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures."
2 Peter 3:16 (NKJV)

On a recent trip I took through several states in the USA, I rented a car that had cruise control, as most cars do today.  As I drove along, I would get up to the speed limit and then set the cruise control.  What I noticed was that some cars passed me but I later caught up to them and passed them.  Other cars were going much slower than I was but when I got close to them they would then increase their speed.  For me this was all very odd but it made me think of a spiritual comparison and how so many people are not stable in life, they are always up and down.  It seems like what they need is some Christian cruise control.

If we base our Christian life on circumstances, our feelings, what other people say, the current economic or political situation and so on, we will not have a steady, stable life.  If we choose instead to live our Christian life based on what God has said in His Word, then no matter what we face in life we will continue on the right path unhindered by the different things that could possibly get us off our course.  The only way to have a steady stable life based on God's Word is to know God's Word and put it into action in our life.

So many Christians don't seem to know a lot about the Bible, and this is definitely a problem.  Often people just rely on what they hear in church for their spiritual nourishment.  While I am certainly not against good churches that teach the truth of God's Word, every Christian needs to take some time each day to read and study the Bible.  There is no substitute for our learning God's Word and making it the basis for what we do, think, and say every day.  By doing this we are setting our Christian cruise control for success and we will live the kind of life that God has planned for us.

Abraham Was Fully Convinced

He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,
and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.
Romans 4:20-21 (NKJV)

Have you ever had someone tell you something that you did not think was really true?  Maybe they told you about something that happened and you found it hard to believe that it could have happened as they said it did.  But what if they had several friends with them who also said that this thing took place, would you believe it then?  What if that person then showed you a picture or a video of what they were talking about, would you be convinced then?  While you may not have believed what they said to start with and you had your doubts, eventually you were convinced that what was said was true.

When God promised that Abraham would have a son, Abraham was not convinced.  In fact, he laughed and even tried to suggest to God how something else would work just as well.  Abraham did not believe what God said but Romans 4 tells us that Abraham was fully convinced that God could do what He said.  So how did Abraham go from not being convinced to being fully convinced?  In Genesis 17 God changed Abram's name to Abraham.  The name Abraham means, "father of a multitude", but this was not the natural reality in Abraham's life. Then in Romans 4:17 it quotes what is said in Genesis 17 and adds "God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did".

Abraham made the decision to talk about himself in the same way that God did and that is the key.  As Abraham continued to act and speak in faith, by simply saying what God had said, he grew stronger in his faith and became fully convinced that what God had said was true.  Many people are weak in faith and unconvinced about what God says in His Word, first of all because they don't really know God's Word, and secondly because they are not talking like God talks or seeing themselves as God sees them. No matter what is happening in our life we need to go back to God's Word and see what God has to say about it and then speak and act accordingly.

New Things In The New Year

As the New Year is about to begin there is a lot of talk about people doing new things and making changes to their lives. Many people make New Year's resolutions in an effort to make positive changes in their lives and in turn make the New Year better than the last year. Although it should be obvious that nothing special takes place between December 31st and January 1st, many people use the changing of the calendar as the point to make a change in their lives.

No one is perfect and we can all find areas in our life where we can grow and develop, but we don't have to wait until the end of a calendar year to do so. There is something about the change of the year that gives people new hope and the belief that things can change and be better. For anyone who is a Christian we know that God has promised to help us and God has given us the Holy Spirit to assist us in our daily lives. Positive changes can be made at any time and with God's help the change can be a permanent one.

Permanent change is another aspect of having new things in the New Year. Many people start the New Year wanting to change and trying to change, but by February some have already made a mess of things and they give up. Or they get sidetracked with things in their life and they lose their focus on the intended change only to remember it later and then feel remorse at the fact that no real change has taken place. The good news is that even if you get off course you don't have to wait until the next New Year to start over again and pick up where you left off.

For any real change to take place in a person's life there has to be a willingness to change; the hard part is to keep going after the initial change is made. Recently I heard about an App for Smart Phones that will remind a person about their New Year's resolution. When I heard that I thought about how God has given us the Holy Spirit to remind us about the changes we need to make and to help us make the desired change. So make this coming year a year of positive change and development with new things in the New Year.