Well folks only a few weeks separate me from my return to the the beautiful state of Iowa. It’s beyond my understanding how fast these nine month have gone by. My pride wants to tell you guys about what I did these past nine months, but if I did that I’d be lying.
In Exodus chapter 3, the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire within a bush aka “the burning bush.” Moses probably didn’t expect to encounter the living God when he woke up that morning and lead his sheep around the land of Midian. The Lord calls out to Moses from the bush and says, “Moses, Moses!” God commands Moses to take off his sandals because the very ground he was standing on was holy due to the presence of Lord Almighty.
If the presence of the Lord wasn’t enough, God gives him the responsibility of leading the oppressed people of Israel out of Egypt. Moses’ reaction to God’s request was, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” See Moses didn’t exactly have too much confidence in himself after leaving his old life in Pharaoh’s family and fleeing into a foreign land after his murder of an Egyptian guard. God never answers Moses’s question, but instead says, “I will certainly be with you.” Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them: The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what should I tell them? The answer the Lord gives to Moses is extremely important. God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”
Names in this culture mean so much more than just a title. Your name was an indicator of who you were. From Abraham to Paul, whenever God changes the nature or purposes of a person, He changes their name. When God tells Moses His name He’s telling Him about His nature. He is I AM, in other words He’s the God who is. God is completely what everything else is partially. Your family might be loving, but God is love. A friend may be with you in hard times, but God is ever present and always with you. An experience may be fun, thrilling, and exciting, but God is all-satisfying. He’s the God who is! All we can do is partially express who God is completely.
If you read farther into Exodus you see that it’s not Moses who brings the plagues to Egypt, and it’s not Moses who splits the sea. Moses finds his purpose and confidence in who the Lord is. God never answered Moses’s first question of who he was. The Lord instead told Moses who He was. We don’t use I AM; I AM uses us. Our God is not a God of clay; He is a God of fire. We can’t take God and mold Him to what we want Him to be in our lives. Try to mold fire, and you’ll burn your hands. He said, “I AM WHO I AM,” not, “I AM WHO YOU WANT ME TO BE.” We cannot mold God into our own image, but He molds us into His image. It’s not about who you are or what you bring to the table, it’s about who He is.
Why does God ask us to do anything when He can do everything? When God uses insufficient people to accomplish His purposes He receives the most glory. God doesn’t use us to accomplish His will because of what we can do for Him, but because of what He can do through us. I AM, uses I am nots. God has been using insufficient people like Moses to write His grand story. I certainly am not worthy of any praise or honor of what the Lord has done over the past nine months. So I would rather tell you in this blog what the Lord has done through insufficient people like my teammates and myself to accomplish His beautiful purposes.
-In a Lesotho prison, 16 inmates accepted Christ after hearing about the love and forgiveness that was purchased through the shedding of his blood and death on the cross.
-After hearing the gospel preached, 8 community members gave their lives to Jesus in a Lesotho church and found new hope and new life in Him.
-In a tiny remote village in the mountains of Lesotho several peoples relationships with the Lord were rekindled, and others accepted the grace and mercy of Christ bought by His blood.
-A selfish visit to wifi in Lesotho led to a conversation with a man who twenty minutes later accepted Jesus into his life.
-In South Africa a woman’s eyesight and a man’s ability to walk were restored by the power of our mighty God.
-In Guatemala a crazy sequence of events led to the salvation of a homeless man whose family left him, the first experience with praising God for two young homeless men, the chance to give homeless friends warm clothes, and the encouragement of a young man of God to stay of fire for the gospel in the city of Antigua Guatemala especially to the homeless and those struggling with alcohol abuse.
-In Cambodia the cold cut gospel of Jesus Christ was preached to over 70 recovering drug addicts who have only know buddhism their entire lives. One of them accepted Christ just a few weeks ago.
-God has transformed and molded the faith of the 10 guys on Gap G. Shaping us into the image of His son Jesus. Seeing the obedience in baptism of two of my buds in a river in the middle of nowhere was beautiful beyond explaination.
I praise Jesus for using my teammates and myself in ways utterly disproportionate to who we are. All glory be to Christ Jesus. Thank you so much to all who supported my teammates and I financially and in prayer. This trip has not only been transformative for the kingdom of God, but also in my personal pursuit of Christ. Love you all!
“For You have made me rejoice, Lord, by what You have done; I will shout for joy because of the works of Your hand. How magnificent are Your works, Lord, how profound Your thoughts!” Psalm 92:4-5
