• 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!

Gospel Growth — Take 2

Posted on July 8, 2024 by wtdavid

The Gospel speaks deeply to our hearts because it daily reminds us of the free grace, forgiveness and honour that is bestowed upon us.  However, the Gospel can often feel “distant” from our day to day existence. We need to see and learn its relevance to our lives and ministry.

The WT Ministry Framework puts it this way: “The Gospel is how any and all spiritual change happens in the lives of individuals, groups, and institutions of people. Therefore, it informs every ministry and is our most fundamental point of reference and principle in every action, plan, and strategy. This principle, before all others, guides us in the decisions we make, the solutions we embrace, the way we conduct our ministries and our relationships with others.”

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to let several WT workers share how the Gospel is changing them, transforming their hearts in different ways and in different contexts.  Here’s a another story from a WT worker’s journey:

“One special moment happened when I finally put my new understanding of God’s grace into a quote that I now often use, “The proportion to which you understand your depravity is the proportion to which you understand grace.” I had never deeply understood how only Jesus’ sacrifice was able to take away my sins and I could do nothing to please Him or have Him love me more.  It was already done. 

Another way to put it is: “Little depravity demands little grace.”  That was one of my most powerful discoveries: that I was totally depraved and without hope!  But the grace of Christ covers all my depravity/lacking/sin, etc.  I think I came to understand very clearly that without the blood of Christ to cover me I am hopelessly lost and condemned.  I think I felt I was okay most of the time because I was doing pretty good.  But I had to scrape every bit of my self-effort as having any value for God to accept me.  That was freedom.” 

A question to consider: What quote might best summarize your current understanding of grace and the Gospel?

Join us on the journey by sharing your story about the Gospel: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=E4rd-dxEeUymdtc3N8hETz_lXY4QRJ5ClTCIuVdURgFUQzFHUDI5U0w4SUFOQjY3QzQ3NUtXQjI0WS4u

Filed under: Gospel, Grace, Love of God | 6 Comments »

Surprising nature of God’s love

Posted on January 19, 2022 by wtdavid

I read this quote in the book, Deeper, and thought I would share it for our reflection and to “drive our hearts” deeper into His love:

“They that find Christ [discover that] though he be so glorious and excellent a person, yet they find him ready to receive such poor, worthless, hateful creatures as they are, which was unexpected to them. They are surprised with it.

They did not imagine that Christ was such a kind of person, a person of such grace. They heard he was a holy Savior and hated sin, and they did not imagine he would be so ready to receive such vile, wicked creatures as they. They thought he surely would never be willing to accept such provoking sinners, such guilty wretches, those that had such abominable hearts.

But behold, he is not a whit the more backward to receive them for that.  They unexpectedly find him with open arms to embrace them, ready forever to forget all their sins as though they had never been. They find that he as it were runs to meet them, and makes them most welcome, and admits them not only to be his servants but his friends.  He lifts them out of the dust and sets them on his throne; he makes them children of God; he speaks peace to them; he cheers and refreshes their hearts; he admits them unto strict union with himself, and gives the most joyful entertainment, and binds himself to them to be their friend forever.

So are they surprised with their entertainment. They never imagined to find Christ a person of such kind of love and grace as this.  ‘Tis beyond all imagination or conception.”

The quote is taken from a sermon by Jonathan Edwards: “Seeking after Christ”.

As the author of the book, Deeper, writes in response: “Let him love you all over again.  Pick yourself up off the ground, stop feeling sorry for yourself, and allow his heart to plunge you into his oceanic love more deeply than he ever has before.”

May that be our prayer and our active response to His heart for us!

Filed under: Love of God, Spiritual Life | Leave a comment »

He loves us

Posted on December 14, 2021 by wtdavid

Dane Ortlund in his book: Gentle & Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners & Sufferers, wrote the following:

“What was the purpose of this heavenly rescue mission?  “God shows his love for us …” (Romans 5:8). The Greek word for “shows” here means to commend demonstrably, to hold forth, to bring into clear view, to put beyond questioning. In Christ’s death, God is confronting our dark thoughts of him and our chronic insistence that divine love must have an endpoint, a limit, a point at which it finally runs dry. 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 Edward’s put it, “an ocean without shores or bottom.”  God’s love is as boundless as God himself.” (192)

It is that last statement that struck me and on which I encourage you to reflect: “God’s love is as boundless as God himself.”

What does that truth stir up in your heart?  How does it challenge you to respond?

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section of this blog post, and bless other members of the World Team community with the insights and thoughts God lays on your heart.

Filed under: Gospel, Love of God, Reflection | 2 Comments »

Lament & anchor

Posted on April 30, 2020 by wtdavid

It goes without saying that we live in a day where our hearts cry out like the psalmist: “How long, O Lord?  Will you forget me (us) forever?  How long will you hide your face from me (us)?”  (13:1)  Whether we are questioning how long this pandemic will create suffering among the populations of the world or how long we will remain under lockdown and be restricted in daily living and ministry, the ‘how long’ effect slowly erodes our patience and perseverance.

We lament the change from how life was just a few months ago to what it is now; the ‘new normal’ as some call it.  Our hearts yearn for a return to the ‘normal’; to be able to get back to or get on with ministry as we were experiencing it in December and January.

To lament means that we acknowledge the reality we now experience.  Yes, it would be nice to go back to life as it was before, but we know it is not the case at this point.  This transition to a new ‘normal’ reminds us of what we miss, of what we have lost, of what we long for again.

However, lamenting must be tied to anchoring.  Anchoring means that we secure our lives in what is true, rock-solid, and can hold us from being tossed about in the winds of difficulty and change. As we acknowledge the current reality, we anchor our hearts in what we know is true by reminding ourselves of what God has done (past blessings) and what He will do (future hope). 

This is where the psalmist went: “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.” (13:5-6) Notice the active nature of his ‘anchoring’: he put his trust in someone other than himself; he found ways to rejoice in the spiritual blessings given to him; and he sang with his voice the praises of His God.

If you are like me, you are feeling pretty weary these days.  Share that openly, but then look around for glimmers of that ‘steadfast love which endures forever’ in which you can anchor our souls.  Those glimmers can be found all around us.

“When I am afraid of evils to come, comfort me by showing me that in myself I am a dying, condemned wretch, but in Christ I am reconciled and live; that in myself I find insufficiency and no rest, but in Christ there is satisfaction and peace; that in myself I am feeble and unable to do good, but in Christ I have ability to do all things … Amen.”

Filed under: Love of God, Remembrance | 2 Comments »

Driven to other-centredness

Posted on August 21, 2017 by wtdavid

It’s a book with which many of us are familiar.  Its storyline points us  to the redemption carried out for us in Christ; our being ‘bought back’ by His work on our behalf just as Naomi and Ruth were by the work of Boaz.

However, ‘behind the scenes’, we can also discern how a deepening appreciation and experience of God’s lovingkindness and steadfast love (‘hesed’ in Hebrew) drives God’s people to become more and more other-centred.kid-heart

In Ruth chapter 3 (3:10), we read this insightful statement on the part of Boaz in regards to Ruth’s actions: “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter.  You have made this last kindness greater than the first …” In referring to the ‘kindness’ expressed, Boaz uses the same word (‘hesed’) that is applied to the lovingkindness of God.  How was this ‘kindness’ expressed by Ruth?  Simply put, she placed the needs of her mother-in-law ahead of her own. When she went down to the threshing floor that night to meet up with Boaz, she called on him to fulfill his responsibilities as a kinsman redeemer (3:9). In other words, she called on him to provide a future for Naomi, not just for herself.  Boaz immediately understood the import of her request and knew that the one who would be the ‘beneficiary’ first and foremost of his actions would be: Naomi.

Becoming other-centred is not a matter of working harder at considering the needs of others.  Other-centredness is the natural outgrowth of a heart where God’s lovingkindness is sending its roots deeper and deeper.

Other-centredness applies not just to our passion to see others come to know and experience God’s forgiveness and steadfast love. Other-centredness also applies to our relationships with one another as cross cultural workers.

When I notice, or when another helps me to notice, a spiritual dashboard indicator of low other-centredness, then it’s time to ‘add’ more energy to understand and experience His steadfast love displayed to me: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”  (Psalm 136:1)

Filed under: Love of God, Other centeredness | Leave a comment »

What do you want to do with your life?

Posted on January 9, 2017 by wtdavid

“Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”

I remember a pastor once saying that repentance and faith were linked together in the minds of the biblical writers.  You could not talk about repentance without following up and talking about faith.  Likewise you could not talk about faith without turning to consider repentance.

My prayer, for this New Year, is that the Holy Spirit would search my heart (Psalm 139), put His light of truth on those places where my motivations are not pure, and drive me back to the Cross.  This is a prayer of repentance. As I consider what I want to do with my life, how I want to invest my energies in 2017, I begin by opening my heart to His ‘searchlight’ and work in teaching me to lay aside the sins that encumber me on my journey with Him.

Repentance though is regularly linked to faith. Faith is expressed in one way thdailyrough the words of this short verse from Psalm 90.  Daily, I must find my joy in the love that God has for me.  Daily.  This is an expression of my faith.  The Psalmist’s words are meant to convey that the day is ‘defined’ or structured by the context in which I place it.  I can express my faith by finding my joy daily in the unending, unconditional love of God for me.

There are times when I easily forget to find my joy in God’s love.  The result is often complaining and dissatisfaction.  What I want to do with my life becomes just that: a question of ‘my’ and how I can find satisfaction apart from God. Daily I should drive the roots of faith deeper into that love displayed in Jesus Christ.  Then what I will want to do with my life and how I will want to invest my energies will be an expression of thanks to the God of all grace.

Daily.

Filed under: Gospel, Love of God, Repentance & faith | Leave a comment »

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