• Our hope-filled future is bound up in sharing the story of Jesus, in discipling others, in bringing those disciples together into communities of believers, and in developing and releasing those believers to create other communities... till Jesus the King comes again!

A must read for the heart

Posted on March 23, 2022 by wtdavid

We all have trusted friends who serve as references for good books to read.  Two of those friends for me recommended the same book within a week of each other.  The book is entitled: Gentle & Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners & Sufferers.  

Some of you have already read or are in the processing of reading this book.  However, with this blog post, I want to strongly encourage you to pick up a copy and join us in reading through this book.  If you need a copy, just contact me directly and we will figure out a way to get you a hard copy or a Kindle copy.

I happened to mention the book at one of the recent Ministry Support Centre board meetings, and a board member followed up with a call to ask me more about the book.  He asked this insightful question: How did the book actually impact your walk with Christ?  

Here is what I said: One of our guiding principles (perhaps THE guiding principle) within World Team is the Gospel.  We often talk about it, write on it and even preach on it.  However, this book will push each one of us to reflect on how that Gospel practically addresses and changes our own heart and actions.  We need this constant rehearsal of Gospel for ourselves.  The book will also cause each of us to stop and to reflect on truths that we know, but consider them from a different perspective or angle.  It’s like holding up a gem and turning it in a variety of directions to notice every aspect of the gem.

On my first read through the book, I came across this statement: “Christ died to confound our intuitive assumptions that divine love has an expiration date.  He died to prove that God’s love is, as Jonathan Edwards put it, “an ocean without shores or bottom.”  God’s love is as boundless as God himself.”  When I read that bolded phrase, I couldn’t help but pause to reflect on the “boundlessness” of His love. How often I have limited it and fallen back into a “I need to do more for God” approach in order to earn His favor and love.

I hope that I have whetted your appetite a bit for reading this book.  And here’s hoping you will join me!

Filed under: Gospel, Heart of Christ, Jesus Christ | 4 Comments »

Other graces

Posted on December 6, 2021 by wtdavid

Yesterday, one of our local church members, Jacques (prof at a seminary nearby), gave the message. We are currently in a series on Advent, thinking through several of the names attributed to the Son of God.  This past Sunday’s focus was on the name we know so well: Jesus (Matthew 1:18-25).

Jacques presented this text in Matthew in the larger context of God’s sovereignty over the history of His people. For example:

  • Though Jesus was a common name at the time, it is God the Father who chooses this name for the Savior He will send.
  • Citing a passage from Isaiah, Matthew shows how far into the past (and the future) God’s plan extends.
  • The main and only protagonist in this story is God. Man and woman are simply passive.

But then, Jacques made an interesting observation: what was good news for the world, was not good news at first for Joseph & Mary.  He asked us to think about what this “news” meant to Joseph.  The text is pretty clear that it placed Joseph & Mary in a very delicate situation.  How were they to explain to others the fact of Mary’s pregnancy, given that they were not living together? 

Sometimes, God demonstrates grace towards us by placing us in a difficult or hard situation. This grace, in the moment, may seem ambiguous or unclear because the real blessing of what God is allowing us to go through will not become evident till later. And often that difficulty will become a gift to others as we allow God’s grace to sustain and teach us in the midst of the situation in which we find ourselves.

I couldn’t help but think of numerous applications of Jacques’ insights to our lives as cross-cultural workers.  Life as a cross-cultural worker is exciting, adventurous, a “wild ride” as I sometimes describe it.  However, cross-cultural living is plain hard at times.  Trying to learn the language(s) of the people to whom you minister.  Navigating cultural differences which cause us frustrations and misunderstandings.  Giving and giving to others in another culture, only to see them turn away from Christ. 

Could it be that God’s demonstration of grace in these instances is often hidden from our eyes by our own complaining spirit?  Could it be that we forget later to see how God ‘graced’ us through those hard times to prepare us for the ministry to which He has called us?

Let us help one another to see His grace(s) to us, even in the hard moments of life and ministry as cross-cultural workers.

Filed under: Crossing cultures, Grace, Jesus Christ | 6 Comments »

All We Need

Posted on January 4, 2021 by wtdavid

In the last two days, I have both listened to a sermon and then later read an article in the McKinsey online magazine on the topic of: “surviving or thriving”.  I found it a creative way to describe the dilemma, difficulty or struggle in which we find ourselves as we move from 2020 to 2021.

I tried to envision where I would place myself on that spectrum of “surviving or thriving” over the past few months.  Where have I lived more out of a surviving attitude than from a thriving stance?

Now, our fight is not just with pandemics, but with the ongoing struggle of sin – within our hearts and in this world.  And I had to ask myself the same question, just in other words: where have I lived my life and ministry out of a surviving attitude the past few months, rather than out a thriving relationship with my Lord?  It’s the kind of question I know I should ask myself as I reflect on the past year and look to the year ahead.  

This is where John Newton (yes, the John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace), in one of his pastoral letters, was a great help in seeking an answer. 

“As to the remedy, neither our state nor his honour are affected by the workings of indwelling sin, in the hearts of those whom he has taught to wrestle, strive, and mourn, on account of what we feel.  Though sin wars, it shall not reign; and though it breaks our peace, it cannot separate from his love. Nor is it inconsistent with his holiness and perfection, to manifest his favour to such poor defiled creatures, or to admit them to communion with himself; for they are not considered in themselves, but as one with Jesus, with whom they have fled for refuge, and by whom they live a life of faith.

They are accepted in the Beloved, and have an Advocate with the Father, who once made an atonement for their sins, and ever lives to make intercession for their persons.  Though they cannot fulfil the law, he has fulfilled it for them; though the obedience of the members is defiled and imperfect, the obedience of the Head is spotless and complete; and though there is much evil in them, there is something good, the fruit of his own gracious Spirit. They act from a principle of love, they aim at no less than his glory, and their habitual desires are supremely fixed upon himself.”

If I were to summarize Newton’s words, I would simply write: all we need to thrive is Jesus!

As we start a “new year” together, with all the complexities and difficulties of life and ministry in the midst of a pandemic, could we build one another up each day by the reminder that “we are accepted in the Beloved, and have an Advocate with the Father”?  Could we live and minister by faith, believing He will do great things in our hearts and through our lives? May we “aim at no less than his glory” as we serve Him together as a global community of co-laborers in the Gospel.

Filed under: Jesus Christ, Reflection, Repentance & faith | 5 Comments »

Why the future is clear

Posted on May 28, 2020 by wtdavid

The question that seems to fuel most conversations these days is: when?

When will we be able to travel again (by plane, train or automobile)?  When will restaurants and cafes be open again?  When will life return to some semblance of normalcy?  When will we no longer have to wear a face mask?  When will we be able to hug loved ones again?

You get the idea.  “When?” is an important question and one with a multitude of possible applications to our daily lives.

However, the “when?” question can also be quite debilitating because it tends to leave us in a kind of limbo situation.  For example, not knowing when trains will start running again, we can’t make any plans to visit friends in the south of France or Italy.  All our plans are in an ‘up in the air’ phase.

The future simply seems unclear.

Then the disciple Peter reminds us that this is not the case:  “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials …” (1 Peter 3-6)

The limbo and the uncertainty can be faced by telling ourselves again of the hope (defined as that settled and sure confidence in God’s promise) we have in Christ.  Our hope is one that is alive, that has been reserved for us, and whose assurance grows day by day as we think on it. 

None of us know when we will be able to meet again for corporate worship, visit family living far away or gather with other World Team workers from around the world.  However, the when of the ‘new normal’ is not what should define us.

Rather, it is Jesus, the centre of all of life.  Focusing on Him (and the hope He gives and has reserved for us) will give us the patience, the joy, and the courage to face the constant when question without letting it ultimately define us and our hope.

Filed under: Hope, Jesus Christ, Perseverance | 6 Comments »

Our Shepherd

Posted on March 25, 2020 by wtdavid
Keep our eyes fixed on our Shepherd!

Filed under: Jesus Christ, Our Shepherd | 3 Comments »

Just pray

Posted on October 10, 2017 by wtdavid

just-prayThere are many good resources on prayer.  One was the focus of our WT Global community study a few years ago, A Praying Life, by Paul Miller.  However, in the end, all of these resources bring us back to the same conclusion: we just need to pray.

We would all agree that we can spend more time sharing prayer points than actually praying for those requests.

Preachers, pastors, theologians and writers of long ago remind us of the importance and necessity of prayer with words that could have been written in our day:

“No man or woman can progress in grace if he forsakes prayer.”

“If you may have everything by asking in His name, and nothing without asking,

I beg you to see how absolutely vital prayer is.”

“Prayer and praise are the oars by which a man may row his boat into

the deep waters of the knowledge of Christ.”

So, what should we do?

First, we should not hassle one another because of our common tendency to talk more than to pray.  We all fall into the same trap, particularly because a prayer point is a way to share our heartfelt need.  Second, we should lift up Christ before one another more and more.  What that simply means is we need to point one another to the Hearer of our prayers, rather than to the prayers in themselves.  It’s Christ we are ultimately after: to know Him more deeply.  Finally, we just should call one another to prayer by those simple words: “Let’s pray”.  Entering into conversation with our God & Father does not mean that our ‘sharing’ is over with.  We can share further needs and praises in prayer because, in the end, it is He. who listens to our heart groanings, to whom all our hopes are directed.

Filed under: Jesus Christ, One another, Prayer | Leave a comment »

Next Page »

  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 206 other subscribers

  • Categories

  • Recent Comments

  • Archives

  • Goodreads