(UPDATE 2/22/17) Also as of today I am FULLY FUNDED and going to Zambia ( at the end of MARCH) to finish this race the LORD Jesus has called me on!! Praise be to Jesus!! THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE for generously giving and always praying for me!!! Always remember that God is faithful all the time!! Love you all!!
This last week of ministry we’ve continued to visit churches, sharing our testimonies, songs and sermons. We’ve been building steps at the “Global Friendship Mission compound that we’re staying at. It’s been truly a blessing to be in this remote section of India. It’s really crazy, the village of Darchawi we’re in is completely evangelized to. It’s a small village with 5 different Christian Churches and a couple Christian schools. However just 2 minutes down the hill,the area is completely Hindu. And around the mountain, 10 minutes away is a community of Buddists. We leave the village to go to other villages about once or twice a week.
Everytime I see the Idols of these religions set up, it really makes me sick. People worshiping small statutes that they made with their own hands. They worship these false gods all night long, false gods who they sacrifice chickens, goats,pigs, and fruits to. Worshiping a god who never hears, never answers, and yet their lives are centered around pleasing all their millions of false gods. They will literally worship anything and everything they see.
Being in the small state of Tripura, India , surrounded by tens of thousands of Hindu temples and alters set up all around to their false gods; reminds me of the Old Testament times. Where everywhere they set up high places,carved images and altars, worshipping and sacrifices to anything they want, hoping to be blessed in all their difficulties. And in all reality, Ecclesiastes 1:9,says that “ What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there’s nothing new under the sun.” That since the fall of mankind, humanity has always done whatever they wanted. India is covered in Idolatry, but so are the rest of the world.
America may not have temples and altars set up at every street corner, but our culture is emersed in idolatry. The worship of sports, social media, materialism, beauty, mankind is the same everywhere you go, no matter when in time you’ve been born. Humanity has always been the same, looking for something outside of themselves to find what they’re missing. Anything that takes the place of God is idolatry. As the apostle John says, after writing his first letter, explaining the two greatest commandments of loving God and loving people, he says. “ dear children, keep yourselves from idols” ( 1 John 5:21)
Today we visited a small church in the village of Boitang and SB Para, a Debbarma Village, which is near the Bangladesh border. I gave a message on what God has shown me in the last two years. What is our life and what is our aim? Our lives are but a small moment in time. As scripture says, our lives are only a breath, one breath. A passing breeze, a handbreadth (which is 3 inches), a vapor of water, and evening shadow, a fading flower, and withering grass. All temporary, all are only for a short time then pass away. That in this time that we’ve been given here on earth, we question the purpose of why exactly are we even here to begin with?
Only a small sliver in time is our lot. Yet everything we say and everything we do, directly affects ourselves, others around us, and where we spend eternity. King Solomon had it made. Out of all the people in the world you could look to, King Solomon had it all. He had all the wealth you could ever imagine in your wildest dreams. He had all the women and relationships he could ever want( I mean this guy had 1,000 wives), he had power, authority, honor, respect, and a prosperous kingdom. Everything the people of the world want , what every human spends their lives trying to achieve, these are the three things people strive for. People want to be rich, we want lots of things, we want relationships, we want people to respect us and look up to us. That we ( and I mean every single person to ever walk the face of this earth) are looking, searching, we’re seeking for something more in our lives. That there is an UNDENIABLE emptiness inside each person, which we spend every moment of our lives to fill. So we look for anything and everything, no matter how long it lasts to give us a sense of satisfaction, a sense of wholeness. But the reality is, the more we look to the world and it’s fleeting pleasures to fill the emptiness inside, the more empty and broken we become.
This King Solomon had anything and everything you could ever want, you could ever ask for, all at the snap of his fingers. And this same King Solomon also wrote the book of Eccelsiastes and he says,” Meaningless! Meaningless! Says the teacher, utterly meaningless! Everything is Meaningless! ( 1:2) The NKJV says Vanity or Vanities instead of meaningless. Vanity by definition is, “ the futile emptiness of trying to be happy apart from God” .
Everything is meaningless apart from God. Within every human being, inside every single one of us,there’s an empty void, an emptiness inside all our hearts. We spent our entire lives trying to fill this emptiness in any way we possibly can.
Because of this emptiness we desire “love”, we desire to be loved by others and receive affirmation from another human being. But even the so called love of another person, can’t fill the emptiness. We work all the days of our lives to acquire wealth, materials, possessions, hoping that the more we have, the less empty we will feel.
We desire for people to like us, to give us attention. We desire that people will respect us, that if we have a job that is held in high honor, that we will feel complete inside. Look I may not know you personally if you’re reading this; however I know myself, and I know mankind. It’s always the same. People are always look, and wanting more.
That again, there’s an UNDENIABLE emptiness inside each person. And since we’re empty, how can we be filled? What are we missing? Why are we here? What’s the purpose of life?
That inside each of us is a giant God shaped hole which can’t be filled by anything but God. And not just any god, but the One True God, who loves us with an unconditional and sacrificial love. That He would willingly die on a cross by His own creation, to save the world from the sins, shame, and guilt they live in. That He would love us so much to set us free from the bondage we feel. Our God who we don’t have to shout and pray to, who is way up in the heavens somewhere; but a God who literally is next to us and lives inside of us.
Ecclesiastes 3:11, says, “… He[God] has set eternity in the human hearts” “ Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind” ( 12:13). God’s purpose and desire for our lives is for us all to have a relationship with Him. The God who created us, and loves us so much that He sent His only begotten Son Jesus into the world, that ANYONE and EVERYONE who believes in HIM [Jesus] would not perish but have eternal life.
The emptiness inside our hearts can’t be filled with money, it can’t be filled by the having a romantic and intimate relationship with another person, that emptiness can’t be filled with having a successful career and having a good position in a job. This void we have can’t be filled with things and people. That emptiness inside your soul can only be filled by Jesus Christ, who is the way [ the only way], the truth [the only voice of truth] and the life [the only one who can give you eternal life] (John 14:6). What our hearts long for is wholeness, love, and happiness. But happiness is only based on emotions, which are temporary, the love the world offers is for temporary pleasure. The wholeness, joy, and love which are pure, come only from knowing Jesus, and this will last forever. My heart has found what it has always longed for, and that has been only by knowing Jesus, my LORD, my Savior, my provider, my love. It can be yours too, if you invite Jesus into your heart, He will change your life and you too will find what your heart truly longs for.
Please continue to pray for me and my team. Most importantly pray that many people will give their lives to Jesus. God bless you all!
only 9 days until my last deadline and God is so faithful!! Thank you everyone for donating!! I’m almost fully funded! praise the LORD!
