We were so blessed by the faithful service of our missionaries in some difficult places, such as:

1. A couple teaching in a seminary in northern Cameroon. In a fairly remote region, with very few modern conveniences, they faithfully train pastors to start and strengthen churches. Learning the culture, dealing with the challenges of the differing leadership motif, and experiencing loss at the complete life-change they’ve endured, they continue to effectively multiply themselves by trainining and sending leaders to grow the Kingdom in Cameroon. I am humbled by their sacrifice and perseverance.
   

   A team of missionaries in remote Cameroon.

2. One couple has been ministering among a very hard to reach Muslim people group — about .01% Christian. With few conversions to speak of, they continue to help the herders in that region be successful in their farming endeavors. They simply love on the people in the name of Jesus as they meet some very real and urgent needs for survival. I am amazed at their unrelenting spirit to press on no matter what.
3. A surgeon and his wife are helping to train surgeons for the Cameroon people — there are so few. While addressing the daunting needs of health care in this African nation, they are multiplying themselves to meet a pressing need among these people — all in the name of Jesus. Their lives are quite simple compared to what a doctor could have in the US, inconvenienced for the sake of Christ. They are the presence of Jesus in a region where Christ desperately needs to be experienced. I’m thankful for their sacrifice and excited about the difference they are making in Cameroon.
4. You don’t often think of a contractor being a missionary, but this one is making a profound impact in Cameroon. His leadership, creativity, hard work, vision and ingenuity have been major ingredients in seeing a small hospital become a national center of health care. His wife is constantly teaching, building relationships with the lost, and loving on people in very practical ways. They remind me of how God’s unique giftings can be used to make a profound impact for God’s glory.
5. 

   On a hike with three doctors in beautiful Cameroon!

   And then there is the hardship post, inhabited by a doctor and his wife who arrived on the scene 13 years ago intending to stay just two years. They’ve taken a small clinic and turned it into a full-fledged hospital in a very needy region of remote Cameroon. They partner with a church planting team there, as well as a Christian radio station that daily spreads the gospel to people who have never heard the Truth before. They are now 75 years old. When asked how long they intend to keep doing this, Doc replied, “If our health holds, 10 to 12 more years.” Is that amazing or what?! I am inspired by their sacrifice, Christ-like love for lost people, and godly leadership which is transforming a region of the world for Christ.

So when we say we came with our agenda, we also left with God’s. Susan and I are humbled, grateful, inspired, challenged, and energized to be in the unique role of leading these amazing servants of Christ. To God be the glory.

It was all so stupid. The obstinate Israelites had exercised their unbelief by choosing to not enter Canaan. When the people heard of God’s judgement (Numbers 14:26-35) — that they would all die in the wilderness over a 40-year period — they decided they would then enter Canaan no matter what.

• “Obedience” that looks good is not necessarily obedience.
• Sorrow for sin does not necessarily make us right with God.
• Our actions will not make us right with God — only our submission and worship will.

As we can see by the above verses, their hearts were still far from God. They went forward with their plan of making things right, but they left God behind. He had already told this nation to go into the wilderness, but now they were heading into Canaan– without God!

We see that the Amalekites and Canaanites “defeated them and pursued them, even to Hormah.” Hormah is inside of Canaan some 60 miles south of where they crossed the Jordan River. It’s amazing, really. The wayward Israelites are so desperate to get what they want (or not get what they deserve) that they take THE risk they convinced everyone not to take only days before. And risk they did. This was a bold, daring, audacious and stupid risk. God was not with them in it. They were chased down and destroyed within the Promised Land. In this, they greatly dishonored God–again.

The Promised Land only holds blessing when we take God with us.

Only brokenness, submission, and authentic worship lived by costly obedience will ever enable us to honor God with our lives.

• FALLACY #1 — People want to hear what I have to say.
• FALLACY #2 — Longer is better.

Consider fallacy #1.

If a speaker assumes people want to hear what they have to say, there is no drive to be captivating, relevant, or creative. This assumption leads a presenter to simply present material without much attention given to capturing and holding the listener’s attention throughout the presentation.

God gave me a gift–and it wasn’t public speaking. The gift God gave me was the gripping assumption that people don’t really want to hear what I have to say. Right or wrong, this has shaped my public speaking for 35 years. I am always amazed that people will give me their attention for 25 or 30 minutes (at least most people). What my “people-don’t-want-to-listen” assumption does for me, however, is that it drives me to continually capture the interest of the audience, constantly connect my teaching to real life, and make sure everyone has a little enjoyment in the process (because a little pleasure with teaching has been proven by psychologists to be the one ingredient that will make it stick).

When a preacher/teacher assumes people want to hear what I have to say, the message becomes more about me than them–or the important topic at hand. The person at the podium becomes the reason people are sitting there. “They want to hear me!” Wrong. Fallacy #1 can makes us boring–really boring and terribly ineffective.

Consider fallacy #2.

Longer may be better on very rare occasions–like if you have so much profound content that it absolutely cannot be presented in the current attention span we are allotted. Trust me, this is rarely the case. Almost never. Instead, 95% of the time, a longer presentation means that the message is less potent and not fully prepared. [And don't assume you're in the 5% that can preach long.] We are rarely as good as we think we are.

In my years as a pastor, as I prepared week after week to teach the Word, I always forced myself to take a 45 minute message and widdle it down to less than 30 minutes. It was a rare Sunday that I went over that time limit. The discipline of forcing myself to be brief did several things to my sermons:

• It forced me to be sure I stay after the big idea
• It was necessary for me to cut out “the fat”
• It kept the message clearly moving somewhere all the time
• It eliminated my natural tendency to “camp out” on my favorite element for too long
• It shortened my stories and illustrations down to be really effective instead of letting me be a wordy storyteller
• It kept my audience engaged
• It made me prepare really well (an unprepared message is a long message)

Fallacy #2 — longer is better — is just not true. We can falsely assume that we get deeper. This is rarely the case. Instead, we are usually less effective. Regularly engaging in this false assumption will hamper people’s enthusiasm for the teaching time and may even drive people away.

So if you’re a pastor, preacher, teacher, or public speaker, take note and act accordingly. Rarely will your audience tell you the truth about these things…and usually, we preachers don’t like to hear it anyway.

This is not the warm fuzzy verse to start your day. It’s an important one, however.

Of the 12 spies sent into Canaan, ten returned with a very negative, overly emotional report that turned the entire nation againt God. The statement above gives us a quick synopsis of what happed to those ten. First, however, understand what they did:

• They “made all the congregation to grumble” against the Lord. The word “grumble” in Hebrew means to stop, stay permanently, to be obstinate. The verbal expression of that condition is to complain. This is important to know because the people were not just afraid or lacking some faith. They had an agressive position of stubborness. Their sinful state had positioned them to never enter Canaan. They had no intention at all of ever following hard after God.
• They brought a “bad report about the land.” The Hebrew used here literally means to slander. It reveals that what was spoken by the spies was not a logical assessment of what they had found. This was an emotional, determined negative report trying to make the land look really bad. In fact, the idea is that, as they were giving this report, they were undermining God’s plan for their nation. “Slander” is an agressive sinful assault on a person’s character. This was an intentional report meant to bring dishonor to God.

As I consider this, I can’t help but think that the Israelites failed to care for their souls. Could it be that bitterness, anger, and rage had captured them so deeply that they were incapable of following God no matter how obvious He proved His love for them? Could it be that their distrust of God had grown so deep over the years and through the generations that they were unwilling to change their view of God?

What a powerful reminder that no matter what it takes, we must do the deep honest cleansing work that God wants and needs to work in us. We can never go where God is leading if we are not healthy in our soul.

Let me conclude with a few thoughts from this sobering passage:

1. The stakes are high for leaders. The plague that wiped out the 10 negative spies came quickly and decisively.
2. Negativity is more than just a view, but rather, a dangerous sin often rooted in unresolved issues that have infected the soul.
3. Leading others away from God’s best plan is a dangerous exercise.

Infecting others with disbelief is a losing proposition.

I just finished a brief study to answer this question. It’s a fair one, by the way. If the answer is “no”, then we can go about our business without much personal concern for the “remotest parts of the earth.” As a Christian or a church, it’s reasonable to query whether or not God expects me (us) to ALL be engaged with global concerns. We know that God “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son”, but how does that affect us as individuals? How does that affect my church?

I’m unable to give you the nitty gritty details of the full Bible study, so here are a few highlights:

• God is committed that every people group hear the gospel and respond to it (Matthew 24:14)
• Jesus’ final imperative statement accentuates our responsibility to “disciple the ethne’” (the nations). This, by the way, was not only for those standing there when Jesus spoke these words. He knew these few would never reach the remotest parts in their lifetimes. He was thinking of us… (Matthew 28:19)
• John’s future vision reveals that ALL nations will worship the LORD. Want to get in on what He’s doing? (Revelation 15:4)
• God set apart the great apostle Paul to be the catalyst to reaching the Gentiles — all non-Jews. (Romans 11:3; Galatians 2:8) This is a God-priority.

So let me conclude with three brief, but important challenges:

1. Love who God loves.
2. Pursue what God pursues.
3. Receive God’s FULL favor through FULL obedience.

Yes–I’m convinced that intends every believer and every church to be engaged in reaching the world for Jesus.

Now what?

In reading my Bible this morning, I came across these intriguing verses from Leviticus 25:20, “But you might ask, ‘What will we eat during the seventh year, since we are not allowed to plant or harvest crops that year?’ 21 Be assured that I will send my blessing for you in the sixth year, so the land will produce a crop large enough for three years.”

Of course, the context here is the admonition to plant crops for six years, but the seventh is a year of rest for the land. It was absolutely required and, when observed, guaranteed God’s blessing in large enough measure to more than make up the difference. How cool is that?!

Let’s move to some New Testament teaching on this. Jesus said that “the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.” In other words, this “day off” is not for God’s benefit, not just another rule to obey, but is actually provided for OUR BENEFIT! We get to take a day of rest out of every seven! Guilt free! In fact, the more we observe it, the more obedient and “spiritual” we are! I love this gift from God.

Now–don’t you think that if God makes up the difference for that sabbath in the dirt that He will certainly make up the difference in our lives and work? Absolutely! Obeying the sabbath rest is actually a matter of faith. Will God come through to make up the difference for the day I rest? Without a doubt.

Here’s what I’ve personally observed in my life. When I take a day of rest every week, I get more done at a much higher level of excellence. When I miss my day of rest, I become stressed, ineffective, and produce things of much lower quality.God has a great plan! Why not trust Him in it?

The Psalmist states, “To you I call, O LORD my Rock; do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down to the pit,” Psalm 28:1.

David declares the critical difference that a listening God makes in our lives–it puts us on a totally different tragectory than those who do not follow after God. As stated here, if God doesn’t respond to our “call”, we will be like all the others that “have gone down to the pit.”

There are three parts to the above statement:

1. We call.
2. God listens.
3. God communicates.

This, of course, is not news to us. We know these things! However, what we may have overlooked in the “equation” is how desperately we need to hear God’s voice. If we fail to hear from God, we default to a pathway on which godless people tread. We will “be like those who have gone down to the pit.” So call out to Him, know that He hears you (especially when you feel like He’s absent), and listen closely to how He responds.

God speaks in many ways…

• His Word
• Circumstances
• Whispers–those easily overlooked directives and thoughts He places in your mind
• Through godly people
• Divine appointments
• Unscripted opportunities
• Health or non-health (our bodies tell us things on God’s behalf…)
• An infinite number of other ways, too

So, call to Him, know He hears, and listen very closely to what He speaks in return. It makes ALL the difference.

• Spent two days in Palm Springs, CA reviewing annual ministry plans by all of our missionaries. Overall, I’m thrilled at the initiatives I saw and the impact they will make.
• Experienced a little “team-building” by golfing the nicest course I’ve ever been on. Great memories and loads of fun!
• Spent the weekend at Whittier Area Community Church. Preached three times on Sunday and then spent “fun time” with two great Estonial leaders, Helari Puu and Toivo Pilii, at the home of Bill and Arlie Ankerberg. Sweet fellowship…
• Engaged in a networking forum with 30 Converge mission leaders pretty much all last week. There were many take-aways. The most encouraging for me?–the drastic change in attitude of the group from last January to this one. There was a total sense of unity, comradery, and positivity.
• Spent time with top-notch leaders shaping a pathway for all Converge churches to more effectively and collaboratively engage in Haiti ministry. This could make a BIG difference in outcomes there and also provide a template for future initiatives in other places around the world. Thanks, team!
• Spent a good part of Saturday at the US Center for World Missions meeting with their Executive Director, Christopher Lucey and our own diaspora expert, John Baxter. We are working on some really exciting diaspora initiatives both in the US and around the world. As we follow through on these initial plans, tens of thousands of global south Christians could be catalyzed for evangelism to reach millions of people in the 10-40 Window with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• I had a Super Bowl party with my wife in our hotel…and that was really fun!

Upon quick reflection of the past two weeks of ministry, I am humbled to be in this place, honored to serve Jesus, and grateful for the opportunities to impact the world as I walk in faithfulness to Christ.

What I find unique about this statement is that:

• The teachers of law and the Pharisees knew Jesus could heal
• They were intent on finding error even in the good things Jesus did

Fortunately for us, the New Testament gives us a magnified look at what hypocritical religion looks like. The leaders of religious life in Israel were simply religious. They were not righteous.

• Religious people are intent on the details of life but often miss the big and important things. Of these people, Jesus stated, “You tithe mint, dill and cummin, but overlook the weighter things like justice, mercy and faithfulness.”
• Religious people are determined to make themselves look good or feel spiritual, even if it means pulling someone else down.
• Religious people are bound to legalism — a system that measures spirituality by deeds done, laws obeyed, and a right standing with God being earned.

Righteous people know that who they are, what they become, and however they influence their world is all through the grace and power of God alone. They live with a contagious enthusiasm for life, a passion to be the presence of God in their world, and a gratitude that compels them to do what’s right.

• Righteous people live for God’s pleasure and affirmation.
• Righteous people demonstrate unrestrained compassion for people…even on the sabbath.
• Righteous people overlook the judgmental assaults of religious people.

The religious can only become righteous through the miraculous intervention of God. Self must be crucified, the old way of legalism is recognized as filthy (Paul described it as “waste and garbage”), and in humility, they must fall before God seeking His gracious intervention. Only then can the religious become righteous.

I had something quite unique happen yesterday. I shared with a “person of great influence” what I believed to be a God-arranged opportunity for global impact in another region of the world. I explained what I saw and exprienced, what I believed to be blatant opportunities to bring unreached people groups to Jesus, and how we might strategically see that take place. It wasn’t that there was resistance to my assessment, but neither was there hearty support. In the afternoon, in an all-staff meeting, I gave a report of my trip, what I had seen and experienced, the needs and opportunities I saw, and shared pictures of the wonderful and lost people. And God’s Spirit came down. He just gripped me and impacted pretty much all of us in the room. And had quite an effect on my “person of great influence.” In fact, after the presentation, he said, “I think we’ve all fallen in love with these people today and that God seems to be arranging a divine opportunity.”

The information was the same as earlier. In the second setting, however, the Holy Spirit clearly did a work among us.

• He opened our hearts.
• He helped us to feel what Jesus feels.
• He engaged us to the opportunity at hand.
• He did what no person can do.

The Spirit intercedes. Indeed.