Last Sunday's sermon was simple and edifying. I've always enjoyed listening to missionaries because I consider them those who are on the front line of sharing the good news. To me, they are the true theologians who put their theology into practice. Unlike armchair theologians who write pages and pages of thesis without taking one step out of their 'comfort zone'.
Those of us who do not 'go' usually have so much considerations back home. We 'count the cost' and decide that staying at home is the best for us. How much of our 'cost counting' involves God? Cost counting tells us the realities, the facts but God has never worked around our realities. He gives us a great alternative, partner with Him and walk in faith.
Christian Consumerism has crept into the Church i.e. "What can God do for me, What has God done for me and What will God do for me?" I cringe at times when I hear testimonies of "What God has done for me this and that". Not that it is no good BUT it is not an end by itself. God's providence upon our lives leads us to something "better and greater".
As I ponder over my devotion this morning from John 4:46 - 54, I was suddenly made to realize that God did more than just heal the official's son. Upon witnessing the healing of his son, the official and his whole household believed. This is the greater miracle. The gift of salvation and eternal life. The healing of the physical body was still temporal and in the words of Calvin Miller, "When anyone is born again, a genuine miracle occurs."; "For those who are healed of terminal afflictions must face death again, but those who know this miracle will never die."
I pray that my life with God is not just one that can boast about "what He has done for me in the physical" but through the physical miracle of abundant life in Christ, others will know God and believe in Him.
Those of us who do not 'go' usually have so much considerations back home. We 'count the cost' and decide that staying at home is the best for us. How much of our 'cost counting' involves God? Cost counting tells us the realities, the facts but God has never worked around our realities. He gives us a great alternative, partner with Him and walk in faith.
Christian Consumerism has crept into the Church i.e. "What can God do for me, What has God done for me and What will God do for me?" I cringe at times when I hear testimonies of "What God has done for me this and that". Not that it is no good BUT it is not an end by itself. God's providence upon our lives leads us to something "better and greater".
As I ponder over my devotion this morning from John 4:46 - 54, I was suddenly made to realize that God did more than just heal the official's son. Upon witnessing the healing of his son, the official and his whole household believed. This is the greater miracle. The gift of salvation and eternal life. The healing of the physical body was still temporal and in the words of Calvin Miller, "When anyone is born again, a genuine miracle occurs."; "For those who are healed of terminal afflictions must face death again, but those who know this miracle will never die."
I pray that my life with God is not just one that can boast about "what He has done for me in the physical" but through the physical miracle of abundant life in Christ, others will know God and believe in Him.
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