Turning point

I snagged the Quora app for my phone because of the interesting topics and blogs set up as a Q&A model of blogging site. It is simple way to interact with people with less overkill media like on most social sites.  I posted my first response there to this question below. It reminded me of my old WordPress site that has been laying dormant for so long, that I figured I might as well wake it back up and get back to blogging here on occasion.  The reason I left was to utilize the Squarespace blog on our AFM website, but never found it as useful since there is much more connectivity here and on sites like Quora. So needless to say, I’m back!

What was the turning point of your life that changed you completely?

Here is my response to the question above on my first Turning Point:

I have two turning points. My first starting when I was about 8 or 9 years old.

I was a typical American boy back in the early 70’s living in what I considered a typical American family. My mom divorced and remarried to an air-force pilot who adopted me and my sister, and living in military base housing at various places where my Dad was stationed. My Dad just passed away last month at 89 years of living.

I grew up mostly in coastal Atlantic beach areas so we spent much time playing and living among the ocean surfs. I wasn’t much different than anyone else..very typical boy in most ways. But like all boys and girls, ultimately all my life and focus was about me…and me having fun doing what I wanted. I wouldn’t say I was a particular bad boy. My parents loved me and I obeyed them for the most part (mostly out of fear of my dad’s belt across my butt ) But I did do bad things as a boy and did have a sense of my own depravity. Oh nothing earth shattering bad; stuff like sneaking around in disobedience to my parents trying out cigarettes…playing with fire in our kids club house we made of tall grass along the overgrown railroad tracks and catching the whole place on fire; sneaking through the woods with my playmates up the hill to peek at the naked people in the “adult” drive in movie theater..and just general kid mischief, and using naughty words that little boys typically do when they don’t have direct adult supervision. I was a sinner and I knew it. But compared to others, I was pretty typical so it seemed.

My family was a typical southern family that lived a what I sensed was a typical American life. Nothing spectacular, just normal 2 parent 2 child family. We’d go to church chapel every so often as my dad was raised a typical East Texas Methodist, and my Mom raised up attending Church as a girl from Gulfport Mississippi. Neither of them were particularly religious. They lived their lives as they saw fit, drinking and smoking and trying to do the best they knew how living the American dream. My dad also was a decorated war hero from Vietnam war where he flew into life-risking landings to save many marines from death or capture. But he was just my Dad to me. Even so I had a deep seated sense of darkness in my life where I felt I had no real purpose or meaning to my existence. Living along the beaches I used to let sand sift through my fingers thinking my own life was like just one grain of that sand among the many billions of trillions of grains of sand. During those years I had many nightmares of the ocean surf pulling and tugging on my legs and body trying to suck me out to sea. I often woke up at night terrified as my dreams went from playing on sand bars by the surf to crashing waves all around with my sandbar being engulfed with no way to escape. These were vivid enough for me to remember now at 56 years old!

I didn’t know at that point if others had those types of dreams or thoughts, so in many ways I felt alone in them and totally lost. These things began when I was like 8 or 9 and lasted until I was like 11 years old.

Looking back now, I see it all as the grace of God waking up my dead soul. Oh yes, I firmly believe like most humanity that we have eternity within us. The wise king Solomon of the ancient Jews once wrote as recorded in the Bible, “Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)  There is something God seems to have put into all humans, unique among creation, that cries out we were designed for much more than what most of us experience or know in this life. We have been created with eternal spirits within us, we call this the soul, that is the essence of who we are. Something more lasting than these physical bodies alone can demonstrate. Thus the rise of millions of religions and people seeking spiritual significance.

I was no theologian back then, and had nearly zero training in any details of God’s truth, but somehow I knew He existed but I just didn’t know Him. My soul was somehow dark and disconnected from God because it was broken in ways I didn’t understand. Later on I learned it was what Jesus described as dead, separated from the life-giving Spirit of God that it was created to be infused with. Without knowing God, I searched for meaning and purpose vainly in my own ways, seeking self gratification and trying out what others thought was right, but nothing worked. My dreams continued; my sin and guilt for all the ways I dishonored and disobeyed my parents grew before my own eyes. Even though from the outside compared to others I was pretty typical kid, yet my awareness of my own depravity grew inside of me.

Indeed this was God at work in me, even though I did not know at the time. You see the sick need to know they are sick before they seek the cure. Many die for lack of seeking. God was helping me see the sickness of life without Him. God had chosen me and was doing something in me to awaken my dead spirit by bringing me to awareness of my need for Him and inability to fix my own darkness. Over the next couple years this struggle with self continued on. Then my father was transferred to Charleston, South Carolina AFB and we lived there for about 2 years. During this time my mother started attending the base chapel on Sundays and a Baptist preacher there spoke of God in truth and clearly as the Bible speaks. The pure good news of the Gospel messages rang true to my mother’s heart and soul and she dedicated her soul and life to follow Jesus. She was a new woman, and new mother, a joyful transformation that was so evident to all around her. She became the light of God to help illuminate the darkness of my own soul. She then began daily leading my sister, Cindy and I, in morning Bible studies and devotionals. Finally for the first time at age 11, I was hearing and seeing the truths of Jesus Christ speaking into my mind and heart like never before and it was quenching my thirst for God like nothing else, light was coming in and helping me make more sense of my depravity and my need for the Savior to redeem me and give me new life.

I soon realized I needed Christ and I wanted Jesus! I wanted that what my Mom found. I wanted hope! So I told my mom I was going to walk down that aisle at chapel and tell the preacher I wanted to be like her and to follow Jesus too! And I did that the next Sunday! That was 1974, and my life has never been the same! ♥️

God came in, washed away all my filth and flooded my soul with his goodness and light! It was all Jesus, the Living God filling me by His wonderful Spirit. The Bible calls it being born -again; born into God’s family by the sin debt payment of Jesus spilling his pure blood on the cross to buy my pardon. Jesus promised in his Word that he would separate my sins from me as far as the east was from the west, if only I would trust, put my faith, in Him, and when I did, I truly was set free! It was amazing!

Finally my dead soul had life and meaning and purpose and most of all, LOVE from the Father of heavenly lights.

While I still struggled with my old sinful self-loving nature, and I have messed up often since then, God in his atoning sacrifice came to make me pure before him in Christ and made his dwelling also with me to help guide me, encourage me, grow me, and make me more into His character and less into my old self. I am forever His, never the same by His mercy and generous undeserved favor!

I still have a long way to go, and perfection won’t be happening this side of Jesus coming again and the Resurrection of the dead. “But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.” (2 Timothy 1:12)

How do I know you might ask? Because God has called me his son and put his Spirit within me that cries out “Daddy, Father!”. His Spirit testifies to my spirit this is true. (Romans 8:15–16)

The Bible makes this clear.

“Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.'” -Galatians 4:6

That was my first major turning point in my life. Next message I’ll tell the story about the equally important second one. For anyone who may want to hear, let them hear. May God bless you with hearing Him through me.

 

Difficult work of ministry

I have a new blog post up on our ministry site  at the link below..or click on the image to take you to it.

https://afm.ngo/presidents-blog/2017/7/11/the-difficult-work-of-ministry

Daisy’s Story- a story of Grace

Daisy was a young 25 year old woman who loved life and was raised in a loving Christian family. She loved Jesus and being a part of the family of God. She and her family regularly attended church. She was a beautiful young woman both inside and out, with the joy of the Lord filling her life. She was devoted to family and country and lived a quiet, humble and respectful life to all people. She loved sharing the love of Christ with people through showing kindness and compassion by serving them. She loved talking about Jesus and worshiping him in spirit and in truth as God’s Son who died for us.

Like most women, she dreamed of getting married to a God-fearing man and of having children and raising a family.  She dreamed of a nice wedding, romance and happily-ever-after life like most all young girls and women desire. Her natural beauty captivated the eye and affections of a handsome young man, named Abram. He courted her and asked her parents for her hand in marriage. They loved each other and soon were married. Life seemed to be so blessed and happy even though Daisy had always lived in relative poverty by all worldly standards. But she had great wealth in a loving family with father, mother, sister and aunt and cousins. She had a good family and now a husband to begin her next chapter of her hopeful life story.

Although things seemed well and God provided all the joy she needed, Abram could not find a good job and felt unable to properly provide for his new family. His pride was hurt and he was driven, at all costs, to make something of his life and provide for his wife and make way for children in their new family. Yet his love for God was based on tradition and there was no real passion for Jesus Christ in his life. He really did not know God, nor was he truly saved. But he lived the religious Christian life as was expected since he was born and raised in a Christian home.

His inability to find good work was due to cultural discrimination held against his poor family and traditions. 95% of the people around him were Muslim. They actually held great disdain for the ways Christians lived, and the way they worshiped Jesus Christ, as though he were God!   The Muslim culture around Daisy and Abram was toxic and growing increasingly violent and uncomfortable. They had to take menial day labor jobs and live at starvation level wages, and be treated with contempt by many of the Muslim masters who they had to work under. Yet most of their family had learned to be humble and quietly live their lives among their fellow man; meeting with Christian friends and making a simple form of life of loving God in Christ as they were led.

Abrams’ lust for stuff, status and pride in life drove him to think of ways to break free from this bondage of being held back in society. One day one of his Muslim friends told him there was a way for him to become respected and popular in his community and to make good money right away. He told him that at the local Mosque, the Imam would pay him $1000 and help him find great work and status in their populous community if only he will forsake Christian teaching and follow Allah and the Prophet Mohammed. Abram’s lack of love for Christ and his greed to be something in life, convinced him that this would be the best path for both he and his wife Daisy. So he accepted the offer and converted to Islam.

He came home with his new found “wealth” and told Daisy that their family will now follow Allah and Mohammed and would forsake all the teachings of Christ; that they will both now convert and gain a great life among their neighbors! Daisy was horrified!  She loved Christ and would have nothing to do with this type of treason to our Lord and God! She tried to convince Abram to reconsider his choice and told him what a great mistake and dishonor this was before her, both their families and before God himself! But Abram would not budge!  He was insistent that his new Muslim friends and their ways were superior and ordered Daisy to submit and convert along with him!  Daisy refused and would not turn her back on her Lord.  So with the help of the Imam and Abrams new Muslim friends, they rented a new home far away in another city and forcibly took Daisy away to Abrams new home. There they chained the doors to a room in the house and imprisoned her, until she would recant Christ and turn to Islam. They assumed she would give up her foolishness and come around. After weeks and months of her being unwilling to turn from Christ, they began regular beatings of her and screaming at her and keeping her imprisoned, rarely allowing her a bath and never a change of clothes. She remained imprisoned for her faith in Christ for over a year!  She never denied Christ; she would rather die a martyr’s death than turn on her Jesus.

Daisy’s once blessed life seemed now so dark and difficult. While imprisoned her family searched for her but could not find where Abram had moved. She was losing all hope and life seemed to be total despair; during which her family had begun to assume the worst, and that she was dead. Daisy prayed daily to Jesus to help her escape and find freedom and life so she could live and serve him. Then one day her husband and friends all left the home and she managed to break out and fled!  She ran from the home with nothing but a tattered year-old dress, barefoot and dirty until she found a public road and fell down weeping. A kind and generous man found her in her distress and asked her how he could help. This “angel” lovingly drove her for several hours to her home town and deposited her at her parents’ home!  It was over!  She was free from her terrible ordeal! Or so she thought.

Her family and she all wept and hugged and welcomed her back into the home!  Yet her troubles were not over, but about to get worse. Her father told her she could not stay because her evil husband Abram would come back looking for her and force her home, as was the Muslim tradition since women are considered as property to most Muslim men. Daisy’s joy was short lived as her family arraigned for her to quickly be carried to one of her lesser known aunt’s home who Abram did not know. There they hoped for a while she could recover and find some better place to live and hide. The next day, as expected, Abram and a group of Muslim men from his mosque arrived at Daisy’s family home. They forced themselves into her parents’ home and when they did not find Daisy they roughed up Daisy’s family and interrogated them and tortured them for her whereabouts.  Her father, mother and sister were beat and tortured for information which they refused to produce until the band of thugs finally murdered them all!!  Yes this Christian family all died protecting their eldest daughter and her faith in Christ. They died for Jesus! Would you?  This terrible evil came about and was born in lack of faith, pride and greed. Be careful because sin is crouching at your door in these forms and it seeks to pounce on you and destroy you too, just like it destroyed Abram and now the bodies of his wife’s family!  Yet only Abram is really destroyed in this story, even though his body lives, his soul is standing in horrible judgment of hell fire! Daisy’s family is in paradise, they are the truly blessed ones.

Daisy’s horrors are not yet over. Her hell is now her life on this earth. Once she knew hope and happiness and peace and joy; now she lives in utter fear, panic, discouragement and disbelief of what God has allowed to happen to her and her family!  Yet she is clinging on to Jesus and praying and asking him to save! Yes, amid her darkness God’s rod and his staff are comforting her as she finds some solace in the words of the Bible and times in prayer. Her widowed aunt fears for Daisy’s life and that Abram will find her someday, so they seek advice from other Christians in their community and decide her only way to stay safe would be to leave the country and quickly. Thailand is the only country that would simply grant them an immediate VISA for a fee and that was reasonably low cost place to live, so Daisy’s aunt pulled all her life savings, purchased her a ticket and gave Daisy all the money she had. It was enough to get to Thailand and pay for rent and food for about 6 to 8 months if she could live sparse for under $200 a month. So with her one suitcase in hand  with her few belongings, Daisy made her first trip out of country to Thailand with about $1,200 to live on. She arrived tired, shocked, scared and alone, yet by the grace of God guiding her, she found a low rent furnished apartment with all bills paid including internet and PC for about $130 a month where she settled in.

Daisy ate little, due to the stress and fear and so she managed to stretch her food and supplies to last about 8 months. She rarely left her room in fear of the unknown, and after overstaying her VISA for fear of being arrested by Thailand’s military run government and police (They do random VISA checks on all foreigners). A couple months into living in her apartment, she lost contact with her aunt and does not know if she went into hiding also or was murdered like her parents and sister. She mostly read and slept and was growing more and more worried and fearful thinking that somehow God may have abandoned her. Her money is now run out. She has only a few days of rice and clean water to drink. She has been on Facebook and trying to tell people of her condition and need for help, but no one seems to care or if they say they do, they do nothing to help. In this condition she cries out daily to Jesus Christ to save her and come to her rescue. She tells him of her great love for him and how she did not turn on him and kept the faith! Now what?

“God are you just going to let me sit here and slowly starve to death? What am I to do”, she prays.

Thailand’s strict military police are cracking down on foreigners overstaying their VISA and putting them in Jail until they come up with the fines and money to buy tickets back home. So many illegals there are rotting away in the Thai jails. Christians from the western countries all seem to have good lives and they have means to help. Daisy sees the wealth of many of the Christians from her distant positon as she scours the internet looking for some form of help. People either ignore her when she mentions she is in life threatening financial distress, or they simply are not sure to believe her, and they then go about their lives not even seeking a way to help.  But she does not give up. She visits various Christian ministry websites and Facebook pages and comes upon About-Face Missions public page. She sees the stories of hope and grace in which this small group of Believers are doing to proclaim the Gospel and share the love of Jesus with others. She sees how they are helping poor pastors, their orphan children and the needy all over the world, even in her home country of Pakistan. She wonders if these people would take the time to listen to her story and pray over her need. She is desperate.  She will literally die soon if she cannot find some help from someone. Surely God has heard all her cries and will connect her with someone who likewise is seeking God and open to his voice and has means to do something! Surely God is for her and not against her she believes!  She believes and still will not give up on Christ and counts all her sufferings and losses nothing, for the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ in all his glory some day! Yet her frail humanity is taking a beating and her mind is in turmoil and her hope is fading for any rescue this side of heaven.  What about you?  How would you fare at this point? Would you still be clinging to the cross of Christ for all it’s worth? The fires of God are purging her soul. Daisy keeps praying and not giving up…but eating less and less… as she has rationed her remaining rice and clean water to make a half-serving of food a day for another five or six days.

Daisy sends a message to the About-Face Missions Facebook page and she prays God moves someone.

But God….But God!  He does something.
Psalm 118:23 “This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.”
God has chosen to hear his suffering daughter’s cries for mercy and ending to her tribulation; to put her on a path to healing and restoration; to show her his plans for her; plans for welfare and not for calamity to give her a future and a hope! (Jer 29:11)  The martyrdom of the saints that has been ordained for some to walk has passed her over. God opened the heart of one of his own at AFM Ministry as he read Daisy’s story. It rang of truth and great sacrifice and suffering for Christ and that for such a time as this God has ordained for her that we be here (Esther 4:14); to be the arms, hands and feet of Christ to bring the hope of his love in provision of her needs!  God provided About-Face Missions with a close friend who happened to also be in Thailand. We enlisted her to meet with Daisy in person to help us vet out her story.  God ordained all to come to pass, and all we his servants needed, was to listen and obey the Spirit leading us. We did. So did Daisy.

You see Daisy was terrified of going out of her home with so many police patrolling; fearful of going to prison for being now illegal. She was also fearful of meeting this person who About-Face Missions wanted her to meet to see her face to face, and help verify her identity and story. She already felt so apprehensive about the many questions the AFM rep asked her as if it were a lawyer from Pakistan drilling her as if she were giving legal testimony in a trial ( it was a Pakistani Lawyer, our AFM staff member).  She was alone, hungry and frightened, but she and I chatted, and I assured her that without Faith it is impossible to please God and to see his full glory of what He wants to do in our lives. We must put to death the fears in the flesh and really trust Christ to lead us as we make wise steps toward his will. Yes Daisy was afraid in the flesh and it showed somewhat when she was met and interviewed with our woman representative in Thailand, but she allowed her faith to move her, and she went and met and told her story. You see true godly faith has feet. It moves us to take steps into the unknown fully resting in God to have our lives in his hands. Daisy demonstrated real faith. God has smiled upon her and opened up the door for us to give her some cash that day. And now for the past few months He made way to have AFM Ministry cover her monthly need for food, basic supplies and rent!  Glory to God!

Today Daisy is working for AFM as our representative for us to help us reach out and meet and vet out other people and their needs. She even gives freely of her own meager foods to help those in worse condition than she. She is not bold and fully of joy and hope and carrying the hope of Jesus Christ and his care for fellow persecuted Believers stranded there in Thailand. This is a true story of God’s grace in action today.

In part, this is how God has made way for About-Face Missions to come to see the great need of His Children stranded in Thailand who have suffered great harm at the hands of cruel men in countries like Pakistan, and now today are out of means to live and seeking asylum through the United Nations Human Rights Commission. But due to government delays, they are stuck fending for themselves for a year or more until inducted into the government refugee programs. Many arrive with little, then exhaust their resources, and have resorted to begging for their needs, praying for God to open doors to make a way to survive. For those willing to work with AFM in honestly and faith, we want to do our part by raising awareness and financial support to bless them with financial aid, for a time; until they can get moved into the government programs, plus assist in expediting that process also where able.

Do you hear the voice of the Christ whispering to you, ‘these are my people..These are my Sheep’?  “What you have done for the least of these my brethren, you have done unto me. “

Clearly for those who have heard Daisy’s story, you now know this crisis is real and brewing, and many more are in great need. AFM has taken in 5 families so far.  We have our AFM Pakistan lawyer and new staff member, they too are a refugee couple living in AFM care here in Dallas (whom Muslims have tried murdering). They are helping us in this undertaking we have begun. We have Daisy (her name was changed to protect her identity). We have a family of 5 who Daisy came to know whose daughter is her friend now, whom we have taken under care for their rent. Then we have taken in another man who ran a Christian orphanage and his wife and their newborn child who were tortured and left for dead and who escaped also to Thailand. Now most recently we have taken in another young woman and her 1 yr. old baby who had her husband and entire family brutally murdered and forcibly injected with deadly poisons until foaming at the mouth dead. This was done by a gang of Muslim thugs for her and her husband leading a young Muslim woman to faith in Christ as Lord. (The brother and family of that new Believer tortured and murdered her, and came and killed this woman’s family, but since she was away on a doctor visit for her newborn, she escaped and likewise fled to Thailand.)

These terrible crimes against God and against humanity are quietly going on time and time again, and in greater intensity all around the Muslim dominated countries like Pakistan where the radicalization of Islam is growing worse. As Islam moves back to its fundamental roots, we shall see more of this increase world-wide. While the local governments corrupted by this evil theology look the other way, we can do something. It begins with us praying and getting real by setting aside some money and effort to first help rescue these fellow Christians suffering and in crisis. Christians are the by far most persecuted faith group of people in the world today and in history. Prophecies are being fulfilled. Yet God has given us a task to do for many in need. We can do this. Together we can make a huge impact for Christ.

Come and see our Jesus. Go and be “their” Jesus.  …If Jesus lives in you.

Jesus said.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”  – Matt 25:34-40

“For such a time as this” God has raised you up and given you means to help.  Help by first committing to give to AFM Ministry to help us fund these first 5 couples monthly and for us to take this ministry beyond and to meet all who truly are persecuted for their faith and love of Jesus! We need donors to grow this to meet more of the vast and growing need. As the Lord enables, this Thailand Pakistani rescue is just the beginning. As we build this out we hope to help expedite asylum cases for those in need and to render aid to all persecuted Believers all over the world! Come join us and begin today!
Make a donation or a pledge to our AFM Persecution Aid fund.

Here is the link for ways to give or online donation. http://www.aboutfacemissions.com/donate

If you have an ability to help us on a professional level who can help us develop this work even further through partnerships, donation of labor or advice, or simply to get the word out, please contact me us email. david@aboutfacemissions.com or imran@aboutfacemissions.com. We are looking for viable strategic ministry partnerships.

*Image above is blurred for security, but it our first photo of ‘Daisy’ in our meeting with our representative along with her new found freind whose family also is awaiting asylum help from the UN for similar reasons.

Dilemmas of loving my neighbors

But if you fulfill the royal law as expressed in this scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. –
James 2:8

This sums up the commands of God for us toward our fellow man. This is easy to do to those who love us, or when it doesn’t demand any real sacrifice on our part. But real life doesn’t always go that way. Sometimes your life is busy or demanding, or financially stressed with more needs than resources. Then someone you love dearly has a crisis, and you have immediate ability to meet that need, but it will put your wisely planned out resources and budget to get blown up and leave you in need, or unable to stay in a secure place. What do you do? Worse yet, someone you are not emotionally or lovingly close to has a need and you see it and can meet all or part of the immediate need, what do you do? Do we pass them by, because it may put us in debt and force us to work harder and longer to recover than we desire or planned? Do we pass over the need because it may impact our ability to fund our immediate or long term plans or retirement “properly”? Do we walk on by like the Jews of the good Samaritan story not helping the person in need because we don’t want to be inconvenienced; or  we want a nicer car and can’t afford a new car payment and sending an extra 10, 50, 100 or 300 dollars a month to help fund an orphanage or feed hungry and hurting Pastors,  or feed the poor people who need to see the love of Jesus in action before they can see his offer of Salvation? What do we do?   Needs abound, so do we just pass them by, or do we dig deeper, cut back more on self, and invest more in others and less in personal pursuits? What does loving you neighbor as yourself look like for you? Is it a life of giving mercy to others that takes from your own resource pool of mercy and provision?

Jesus told us to “Go and Do likewise” in the parable of the Good Samaritan found in Luke 10:25-37

We can choose to avoid seeing or acknowledging needs, turn a blind eye like those who passed the beaten and robbed man on the road way to Jerusalem, or we can stop and render what aid we can. We can all do something. It’s better to do all you can to save a few, than nothing, and keep on walking. God has blessed you. What will you do?

God has blessed me more than I deserve. I really believe this, so I choose to prove it by giving more and more back to those in need, even when it hurts to do so. Not just talking about it, but doing it. This is why I invest much of my time and money in the poor and for the Gospel message of Christ, and have partnered with Jim Ball to make it easier for others to join us in doing exactly this. Loving our neighbors who are in the greatest of need around the world. Join me at http://www.aboutfacemissions.com or on our Facebook page and help us help more and reach more for Jesus.   https://www.facebook.com/AboutFaceMissions .
Even as hard as the road may be at times dealing with the troubles and problems of others as well as your own, the resulting rewards and new life friendships and bonds of love that form from your efforts will last forever. Joy unspeakable will come though Christ to you, and have you saying, “why did I ever even hesitate?”.   I know this, I struggle daily with these questions and find stepping out in faith for Jesus always has immense rewards beyond my human reason.

Little green men and God.

Now this may sound odd or random, but it’s how things work in my mind at times. Due to things going on in a persons life, God uses scripture to teach us what may seem like random truths, but truth nonetheless, because it somehow applies to the world around you.

In my meditation and study on James 1 today, I see an application of truth I’ve never really noticed or thought about in this way.

James 1:17-18 says this.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.”
It’s the last sentence that strikes me with this truth. You see God is informing us as he has before in many ways that we are the pinnacle of his creation. The most important. The center of the universe as it were,  not as in physically the center, but as in everything in the vast cosmos is all aligned  the way it is for a reason, for one most glorious creation of God; Mankind. We are created to bring God great pleasure and glory unlike any other of his creation. We are as this verse says the first fruits of his creation, not the first thing he created, but the reason he created everything that is. As you read through scripture, and the law of Moses, you see how God used the term first fruits to mean the very best and most choice and highly prized of something. It is the most important and most celebrated. Jewish first fruit celebrations as well as in many other cultures, are times of celebration and joy over long expected choice harvests that bring us pleasure. With God, we who are people redeemed by faith in Christ, are the choice first fruits among humanity the children of promise, offspring of Abraham. But even in greater context we come from among humanity to whom all are offered this sweet call of fellowship with our Creator to be united in loving oneness with him as a beautiful adorned Bride of God. The implications of this truth are great. This means there is no greater more highly created beings in the universe. We are the “it” of all creation. Could God have created life on other planets and created other advanced life forms and human-like civilizations? Sure. But did he? Scripture seems to say no, even right here. Everything created in this cosmos was all designed for a purpose.  To support and provide for the creation and development of God’s first fruit. You.   That’s how important you are to God. You have eternal worth.

The Horsehead Nebula as seen through the Hubble telescope

So are there intelligent aliens out there that humanity will discover some day. Scripture seems to say no. The pursuit of them leads to demonic driven idolatry in a desire not be satisfied with God. Every super nova, every black hole, or quasar and every planet, moon, star or galaxy, is all where it is to maintain for a time the fine tuning of the universe to support life on earth; and most importantly Gods greatest creation, you and me. This should encourage you as you study the vastness and complexities and size of the cosmos, and see God made it all for you.

For more on this topic, I highly suggest reading some of the more advanced discussions between science and faith and how all truth is God’s truth at http://www.reasons.org or visiting this link for more on extraterrestrial life.  http://www.reasons.org/Search?q=extraterestial+life

About-Face Missions

Jim Ball and I started About-Face missions as a way to help us better organize our passions to follow Christ in our lives. He and I met while both recently having a fire put in our bones by God to change our lives and start doing more to see the Gospel proclaimed and people saved all over the world. Being small budgeted middle class Americans, with very limited means, we asked God to use us and send us where ever he wanted us to go. He showed us through some short term mission trips that we can affect much in poor undeveloped countries even with very little financial resources compared to what we Americans had come to expect.  Even a single person like me or Jim can do much for the kingdom of God around the world, if only we are willing to sacrifice some of our “American” lifestyle and go and give. We saw so many needs in Africa, India, Pakistan, Philippines and all around the 10/40 window being unmet, that we could not simply do nothing any longer. God clearly called us  to go and be his ambassadors of Christ and to help encourage and inspire others to partner with us and take average every-day people who love Christ, and organize them into a connected and involved support system to those  indigenous followers of Christ, whom God is using to do his ministry work of helping others find Christ and meeting many of their human needs along the way.  Our goal is to be obedient to Christ in making disciples of all people groups, teaching them to obey all he has commanded as we know this is our job as the Church, God’s collective saved in Christ people.  God choose to task us with reaching all people groups and as Christ said, then the end will come. The Church age will end and Christ will return in his full glory as Judge and Ruler of righteousness!  Our desire to see this happen is burning strong in us as we don’t want to be people who just say we believe, but live as we really do believe. So this is why both Jim and I press on hard to focus on what more we can do to reach the unreached peoples as much as possible, while not forsaking the obvious places where the Holy Spirit is greatly working and calling us to go even outside unreached groups. All people need Jesus so our mission is to reach all to become fully devoted followers of Christ.
For now, God has provided me a great career that provides me plenty of income and up to 6 weeks of vacation, so it works well for me to fulfill my job as Missionary for Christ and Co-leader of About-Face Missions.  While I would love to go work with our partner ministers more than 3 trips a year, for now this is what God has me doing.  Yet for Jim, it seemed clear to both Jim and I that his job was really limiting his ability to server God effectively as Missionary and Co-leader of AFM and so we both agreed God was calling him to step out from his corporate career and move full time into missionary support and work.  As of this month of Septermber 2013,  Jim Ball has done just that. By the provision and grace of God we have acquired enough support for him to make the move. Yet his monthly pledge base is still needs a significant more percentage, God has provided enough of a cushion of one time donations to fund him for a while.  Yet moving into the less familiar ways of relying on God to provide more directly ones income is always a step of greater faith.  So pray with me for great blessings on our President of AFM Jim Ball as God works among our ministry and our strategic partnerships with our supported ministries overseas and our supporting foundations and ministries here to help us!  Pray for  the last of Jim’s support base to commit to being his and About-Face Missions partner.
We all are the universal family of Christ working all together for the common goal of living for Jesus and bringing as many to faith especially giving those who never really had opportunity to have it.  God loves all peoples, and so do we.   When I see that we have Churches, supporting ministries like MLE Ministries, and Showers of Blessings Foundation and so many individuals coming alongside us to help us carry out the missions of Christ it brings such great joy to my heart!  In turn we are able to share these blessing to our supported pastors and evangelists who are leading thousands upon thousands to faith each and every year and  feed the hungry, help the sick and care for the hopeless and hurting.  God is good indeed.

To learn more about About-Face missions visit our website  http://www.aboutfacemissions.com/ or help support our work with your loving offerings to God.  Our donation page and sign up form is here also.  http://www.aboutfacemissions.com/Donate

Always your prayers and interaction with us and our pastors is welcome live or via messaging on Facebook, among our pages and groups.  Start by visiting our Facebook public page and there you will see links to our private AFM group for those who are serious about being a prayer or financial partner and want to see more of what God is doing.  Here is that link. https://www.facebook.com/AboutFaceMissions
Lastly, if you want to do more towards helping with the great commission to reach the unreached and to support Missionary Jim Ball in the process, even if all you can sacrifice is about $10.40 a month, we highly encourage you to commit to do just that.   Be a part at least at this level and help us really get the message out to those who never had real opportunity to receive the life saving message of the Gospel.  Our partner ministry has set up a $10.40 monthly online donation auto charge option for you to join us called the 10.40 priority.  We call it this because the 10/40 window of the world is where most these unreached people groups exist.  Visit the 10/40 site here.  http://www.mleministries.org/1040Priority

Left to right, Randy Ryel- MLE Ministries, David Shelton- VP About-Face Missions and Jim Ball- President About-Face Missions at MUP offices in Plano Texas.

God be glorified in all we do as we make much of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior!  Amen