The joy of fruit
When I consider mission work there are two things that drive me. The glory of god and the proclamation of truth to the world. What I have enjoyed so much about India and our ministry is that We proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ day in and day out. We went from door to door, person to person sharing about Christ and his glory and his love for people while praying for them and praying that their hearts would be opened to understand the light of the gospel. I loved it but I must say there is a burden that comes along with this preaching.
Some days I felt defeated, others like I had victory. Some days I felt weary others joyful. Some days I felt weak, others like I was unmovable. In all of this I realized again my neediness for Christ.
Psalm 102:2 "Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call!"
I believe what I was battling with more than anything was a sense that there was no power in this gospel, his spirit wasn't empowering me, and my labor was in vain. I wrestled with is and I laid it before god and pleaded. Lord what is it, where is the fruit, where is the power! He reminded me as he always does to preach the gospel to my heart and to stop letting my hearts preach to me. What happened is that my faith was shaken and I was overtaken by the rejection. The message of this Christ was going out and I expected souls to repent and believe but I forgot the reality that the path is narrow and that men hate the light because they love darkness. I didn't let that stop me though and as a wise man once said " when we preach we go out as an Ezekiel standing before dry bones but we continue to preach in faith and hope that someone will come out saved." I myself know that scripture also says the word of God does not return void.
What I love most about is month is that a few dry bones did come to life and made outward declarations of an inward work Christ was doing in their hearts. My team and I were able to baptize 7 souls two of which after being baptized wanted to get rid of their hindu names and change them to Christian names. I do know that the reality is that their will be fruit displayed and manifested if this inward work is genuine, but I thank god that these hearts were compelled to make a outward declaration in a country where they could be slaughtered for such a thing. Pray for these souls that God would reveal himself in greater depths to them and that they'd grow a hunger for righteousness and hatred for sin, and a unwavering love for Christ.
