Malaysia!
This place is disciplining me in just “being ministry” and not “doing ministry.” We are children of the light according to the Gospel of John, so let us just be light, we don’t have to seek out places to let our light shine. It should grow brighter with every breath we take regardless of where we are.
You must understand, while in Malaysia I am not allowed to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with any Malays, it is against the law and can get my ministry contacts in some serious trouble.
But I love it so much! I get to witness the power of prayer as I build relationships with the Malays. 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 makes it so clear that our mere presence shifts the atmosphere where ever we go. We are the fragrance of life among those who are perishing and those who are being saved. To the one we are the smell of death and the other the fragrance of life.
For we show that we are letter from Christ written with the Spirit of the living God upon our heart (2 Corinthians 3:3). I am witnessing chains fall off Malays every day, I am experiencing the freedom Christ brings on an entirely new level. All this has reassured one thing in me…
This is my life
I want to live such a life
This is the desire of my heart
This isn’t some little thing that I am doing because I am 22, single, and a male seeking adventure! I don’t really plan on getting a normal job so that I can then work 30 plus years, retire around the age of 65, and then do my “ministry stuff.”
Now, just because you have a 9-5 job doesn’t mean you can’t do ministry or that you aren’t a “real” Christian. No, that’s not what I am saying. We are called to be ministry everywhere we go. But the truth of “being ministry” would require an entirely new blog. So let us not go there.
However, the Lord listens to the desires of our hearts if they are aligned with His heart, and my desire is that my life is fully expended for the advancement of His kingdom. I am so ridiculously in love with Him that all I want to do is say “Yes” to Him, to obey Him, to follow Him, to sit at his feet and fall even more head over heels in love with Him. I have this burning passion to go where nobody knows of Jesus. Such a life I believe is guaranteed to be filled with risk.
Let me explain.
If our single, all embracing passion is to make much of Christ in life and death, and if the life that magnifies him most is the life of costly love, then life is risk, and risk is right. To run from it is to waste your life. What a tragic waste when people turn away from the narrow road of love, suffering, and trust in Him. All the riches of the glory of God in Christ are on that road. The sweetest fellowship with Jesus is there. All the treasures of assurance. All the ecstasies of joy. All the clearest sightings of eternity. All the humblest affections. All the deepest discoveries of God’s Word. All the earnest prayers.
They are all on the narrow road where Jesus walks with his people. Take up your cross and follow Jesus. On this road, and this road alone, life is Christ and death is gain. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insult, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” In the darkest of hours is when the light is most appreciated and glorified!
I don’t mean to die anytime soon, nor do I have a desire to die at all! I’m young! Rather, my gaze is upon eternity and not this world. I refuse to invest my life into something that will one day wither away in time. I refuse to find my identity in earthly accomplishments so to receive the approval of man.
Why yes, yes I am a fool. I have released the wisdom of the world and in return I have embraced the foolishness of the Cross. I only do what I see my Father in heaven doing. I’m not the first to embrace such a life style nor will I be the last. I’m simply His. Where this will take me….only He knows. I’m so at peace.
