by Adebola | Feb 22, 2019 | President's Desk |
You probably have tasted a sweet and sour sauce before just asI have many times. The sweetness comes from ingredients like fruit, syrup, or sugar, while the sourness comes from acidic ingredients like lemon, vinegar, lemon, or other souring agents. Experience in Christian Missions can be likened to the type of sensation or feeling that comes from tasting this type of sauce, which I would describe as “sweetness tinged with sourness.”
The reality of the state of Jerusalem at the time when Nehemiah was in a foreign land and serving as King Artaxerxes’ cupbearer could also be said to give a sweet and sour feeling. Nehemiah’s position was amiable, enviable and influential as it gave him access to the king, though with caution and a lot of risk. Little did he know that God was preparing him for a mission of confronting the reality of the sorry and embarrassing state of Jerusalem and its broken wall.His assignment would be the execution of a project that would entail reconstruction, restoration, renewal and revival in the land of Judah.
Prior to the visit of his brother (Hanani) to Susa, Nehemiah had fond (sweet) memory of Jerusalem, but this became tinged with pain on hearing that the Jewish remnants that had survived the exile and were back in the province were in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem was also broken down, and its gates had been burned with fire. (Neh. 1:2-3)
Dearly Beloved, the account of Nehemiah about the miserable state of Jerusalem, its wall (and by inference its security and pride) and its people is analogous to the present reality of Christian Mission, which lies in ruins and its wall continually breaking down. And its important the Body of Christ comes to terms with this reality. It does not take rocket science to accept this fact. It is evident everywhere and across all nations and cultures. How do we explain the alarming rate of missionary attrition, with missionaries quitting both on local and international scenes? How do we explain the ironic situation of the expansion of mega-churches while missionaries are giving up due to lack of support in all its ramifications and the resultant vacuum being taken over by other faiths that do not have the Gospel? This ought not to be so.
I am convinced that God has placed the Nehemiahs of our time in various places and positions of influence and has been sending His Hananis to them through various means, to communicate the message of confronting this reality and do something concrete.
The three prongs of missions, namely GOING, GROANING and GIVING are inextricably symbiotic and indispensable. It is not possible to sincerely engage in any of them without first having the burden to see a change. The burden of seeking a solution moved Nehemiah to first groan about this new experience of sweet memory that is being tinged with sadness.He spent the period of four months seeking the face of God in prayer, fasting and thinking about different ways he could return Jerusalem to its place of safety and glory.He understood the secret of winning in the public square by first fighting in his private corner. Consequently, the time that he spent seeking the face of God must have been harrowing but the future reward obliterated that temporal pain.
When we sow in tear, like Nehemiah did, we shall also reap the harvest with joy, no matter the negative views of those that hate to see the result of our resolve. (Psalm 126:6). This is the thrust of GROANING for missions and missionaries. Are you ready to play your part?
by Adebola | Nov 5, 2015 | President's Desk |
I congratulate you and your loved ones for making it into 2015 in style to the glory of God. There is no doubt that we all started the year with great expectations, irrespective of the various dimensions and shades of individual experiences in 2014. I have confidence in the Lord that He will help you to end this year well and testify to His faithfulness. His zeal will accomplish it in Jesus name. The Lord has various blessings in stock for His children as we continue to respond in obedience to His prompting and leading. Therefore, it is not a surprise that He is determined to make 2015 a year of “More Gladness, and Less Anxiety” for everyone that identifies with His heartbeat – “Missions” – either through GOING for Him, GROANING for those that have gone (or will go) and / or GIVING to alleviate the challenges confronting them. There is room for every one of us to play a part. The importance of gladness cannot be quantified. It is invaluable to the extent that it can be said to be indispensable to the achievement of sustainable results. One of its many synonyms is “cheerfulness”. Proverbs 17:22 says, “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones”. Without a doubt, the Lord used many people to bring gladness to the hearts of His servants on mission fields in 2014 which greatly contributed to the level of breakthroughs achieved by them.
Praise the Lord! I believe that He also used others and / or events to make them glad in return. No wonder Galatians 6:7 clear implies that when you sow gladness, you will also reap gladness. I declare that God will make all grace abound to you in 2015 to enable you sow gladness more than ever before, and cause others (and occasions) to bring gladness to your life and home in Jesus name. Anxiety leads to crushing of the spirit and makes us take our eyes ‘off the ball’. This in turn leads to discouragement and loss of confidence in the ability of God, and ultimately sidetracks us from doing what is expected of us. This ultimately culminates in little or no result at all. However, the more the measure of gladness, the less the available space for anxiety. I therefore encourage you to do whatever it takes to sow gladness this year in the lives of others, especially God’s servants, more than ever before and see how the Lord will blow your mind with the abundance of gladness that runs over. (Luke 6:38)
by Adebola | Nov 5, 2015 | President's Desk |
God is the giver of gladness and uses the instrumentality of men or angels to deliver it to its recipients at various times and under various circumstances. His will is that we serve Him with gladness, either through ministration in worship, giving, or meeting the needs of those in spiritual, physical, material or nancial needs and doing so in His
name. The absence of gladness in these acts portends grave danger for the body of Christ.
It is painful to hear of missionaries quitting the mission elds or their missionary call completely. We have to ask ourselves, why is this so. Many who responded to the call to GO to the elds as foot soldiers are not after material gain, otherwise they would not have left their lucrative careers and the comfort of the cities to go and dwell in the rural environs lacking in even the basic of infrastructure.
We should know that they responded to the call to service because the Lord assured them that their needs would be met because He already prepared other vessels who would provide the necessary support that they require, including prayer (GROANING) and nance and encouragement (GIVING) just to name a few. Whether the appointed vessels are ful lling God’s purpose and plan in these roles or not, or if they do it faithfully, is another matter all together. Of course, failure to do so means starving the missionaries of the requisite support that is vital for keeping them going. Coupled with inadequate, or even lack of, support is the discourage- ment that spins off from lack of result after toiling tirelessly in the eld. Many of them are confronted with spiritual and physical attacks while serving in challenging and unfamiliar terrains, which makes it dif – cult to achieve any tangible result; we really need to be in their shoes to feel the pinch. A missionary friend who once came close to call- ing it quits from a mission eld once shared this experience with me:
One morning, I woke up frustrated and told my wife that we were just wasting our time on the Field. She tried to encourage me but it appeared I had made up my mind. After breakfast, I went to the Post Of ce to collect our mails. On getting home and opening the only letter, I got annoyed and screamed. My wife rushed down to see what the problem was. It was a letter from a young Lydia sister from Lagos Conference, appreciating us for our sacri ces and rounding up by quoting from Jesus’ words in Luke 9:62 [No one who puts his hands to the plow and looks back is t for service in the Kingdom of God]. I was annoyed at the lady and threw the letter away. BUT the message haunted me. It was used of God to make me change my mind. It was a letter from God through this lady. God made us to stay. Results started coming after about 3 years of arriving in Gombe State and God even helped us to start a Fulani Fellowship.
Praise the Lord for the life of that young lady who responded to the nudg- ing of the Holy Spirit to write that letter and at the right time too; it served as the game changer for that missionary couple. They were renewed with gladness after the Holy Spirit used the letter to challenge and encourage them. They have since remained as missionaries among the targeted Fulani people group that God called them to reach.
When the Lord comes knocking, will He nd us faithful in the discharge of our call to be His disbursers of acts of gladness to His wounded soldiers on
mission elds?
“If God wills the evangelisation of the world, and you refuse to support mis- sions,then you are opposed to the will of God”- Oswald J. Smith
