A Great Read…

No new number…YET. Maybe our day is tomorrow. I don’t expect much movement though…but the Lord’s timing is ALWAYS perfect and I rest in the God of all comfort—who I am trusting to comfort my baby where ever he is! A couple of random things to share today…

First, I am SO humbled and thankful to be honored today to have my blog chosen as one of the top 100 Christian Women Blogs To my sweet readers who have become friends and who nominated me for this—THANK YOU. I am so honored! They had 10 blogs for 10 different categories—and my blog was chosen for “Learn-a-Latte Blog”. Visit the entire list at the Internet Cafe and have fun browsing some really fun and inspiring blogs! I am humbled to be nominated for this category as I have a “latte-to-learn”…but you know my heart and life are open books—so maybe there’s something in a post here or there that does bless your heart as a reader and encourage you along your journey. Thank you sweet readers for this encouragement to continue learning and sharing what the Lord is teaching me. I am humbled and thankful!!!

Second, you HAVE to read Tom Davis’s book “Fields of the Fatherless”!Buy it RIGHT now here. After I’m done, I am going to read his “Red Letters: Living a Faith that Bleeds”. He is a great writer with a heart for the poor…specifically the orphan. Here is an excerpt from my reading today:

Luke 12:48 says “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” This is another one of those verses that chafes a bit. Of course it does so in a good way, challenging our modus operandi. How I do life may not always be the way I’m supposed to be doing life. If I’m living in comfort and blessing, more is required of me as a follower of Christ. Ouch. Here’s the bottom line of this truth: My “blessings” are opportunities for me to reveal the reality of the faith I proclaim to possess. It’s the proof in the pudding of my beliefs.

Good stuff. Can’t put this down. You’ll read it in a day if you don’t have kids…and 2 or 3 days if you have kids. OK…so my house was a complete MESS today because I couldn’t put it down. So good. SPEAKING OF FOLLOWING CHRIST…many of you read my post earlier this week on the widow “What About Me?” And some of you responded. Wow. I got several emails from people asking to know more about Wiphan and how they could help the widow. The widow is mentioned almost EVERY time the orphan is in scripture–yet she is the one we often forget about. And she is the one that is actually often times CARING FOR the orphan. SO—back to Tom Davis’s bottom line—how can we use our resources…our blessings…to bless the widow?

I got several emails saying “I’m in.”

Remember what the Lord said to Moses? He wasn’t going to carry the burden alone. The Lord is going to raise up people to hold hands together, serve together and impact these women that HE LOVES together. Is the Lord calling you to ACT on behalf of the widow? Is He calling you to be a voice for her?

Next week, the women on Wiphan’s board are going to get together and we are going to create a seperate facet of the ministry where YOU can specifically ministry to the widow. We are praying the God will raise up other women to join us. I want to start in Zambia where the Lord already has us—and MY DREAM would be to take what we have learned from there to Ethiopia…Uganda…where ever He chooses to take us! We are going to hash out the details of what it would look like next week—but we are hoping to have a montly sponsorship program where women from around the world could sponsor our widows program—and they could invest as MUCH as they wanted to in it…writing letters of encouragement, contributing ideas and resources that can be used toward teaching programs for life-training, maybe helping sell things some of the widows create in your community and for some–even going across the world to pour into them on a trip one day. I’ll be posting details next Thursday or Friday. Until then, if you are reading this—I want to ask you to pray for the widow and how the Lord might want to use YOU in her life.

Tom Davis said “the sure way to deprive the poor of justice is to do nothing.” I don’t know what is ahead—but one thing for me that it CAN NOT be—is to do nothing.

One Year Bible Study: Numbers 16-18:32

Numbers 16 – I am absolutely blown away by Moses’s heart. The people are complaining about his leadership. God wants to distroy them when He hears them complaining (again!)…and what does Moses do? What do you think your FIRST reaction would be??? “Okay, God—do what you have to do.” But nope. Not Moses. What does he do…AGAIN? Intercedes. Prays. BEGS on their behalf. (Numbers 16:22) And again…God doesn’t distroy them—yet. They were against him. They insulted him. They discouraged him and drug him down. BUT Moses intereceded—he prayed…and he must have loved them.

Help me Lord love others no matter what like Moses.

But still…they wouldn’t follow Moses and submit to his leadership. They rebelled. And the Lord took the lives of the men rebelling—literally the earth swallowed them up.

And instead of fearing the Lord. The rest of the community complained more. And again–the Lord told Moses to step away so He could distroy them too. AND AGAIN–what does Moses do. Fall to the ground and intercedes again…and the plaque the Lord sent on the people stopped. But 14,700 died. AND THIS REALLY HAPPENED. Wow.

Moses longed for them to know the truth—to trust the Lord—to follow his leadership because the Lord had set him apart to lead.

Two things.

One. Help me Lord love no matter what. Help me Lord to not give up on others who I think there is just no hope for. Help me to fight the good fight—and to literally fight for lives.

And two. Help me Lord to submit. To trust the leadership YOU put in place. And trust withOUT complaining. You have ordained the leadership of the church I am. You have ordained the husband I am married to lead me. You have ordained those over my children’s schools to lead. Help me to submit to those you have put in roles to lead me and my family. I pray I can do it with trust and not complain.

Sidenote confession: I wish I could say I submit without complaining. I confess cleverly complaining—and a complaint is a complaint. By no means am I perfect. But I really want to grow in this area. No one likes to hear complaining—so I don’t even want to cleverly complain to those closest to me. And I really don’t want my Creator to hear me complain. I want to trust the Lord without complaint. THIS WEEKS CHALLENGE—for ONE week–I am going to try to not complain about anything. EEK. Did I just say that? Will you join me? And please hold me accountable! If you decided to do this with me, please let me know so I can send you a note of encouragement and practice the art of accountability. The more you do something it becomes a habit—how I would love to foster the habit of being without complaint!