In April of 2010, I posted on this blog page, a few words about why we came to NWA and as I look back seeing what I wrote, I am amazed with GOD and how HE works.
Since that time many things have happened and only now have I found the time to check back in on the blog. In reading a previous post I realized it was written just before God gave us the reality of a Marshallese church.
In May of 2010 we began meeting in a home for Bible Study, today we are meeting on the Springdale Campus of Cross Church with a weekly church service. Also our members are tasked with the privilege of translating and recording the first ever Marshallese version of The Jesus Film.
Soon our Jesus Film project will be complete and premiering here in Springdale followed by a premiere in the Marshall Islands. If God provides the resources, Patty and I hope that we both can be there in the Marshall Islands when the Marshallese people see this powerful evangelistic tool for the first time and hear the dialogue in their own language. God uses the Jesus Film all around the world and we know many will be saved here in Springdale and in the Marshall Islands.
We have seen people saved, baptized and even married in our short term as Cross Church Marshallese. We have developed new relationships and found many new friends who are our brothers and sisters in Christ. So what we only hoped to do in the previous post, God has now done and allowed us to take part in his work.
Truly there is not enough time to recount here all that God is doing in the Marshallese people in our church. I hope you will be a part of this effort too , simply by praying for us. We meet on Sundays at 1:30 p.m. CST.
Also you will see on the page that our family and some of the Cross Church family experienced our first Russian Christmas play. Also, in the previous post, I mentioned that we wanted to reach the 66 people groups that live in our area. Some of those groups are Russian speakers from various countries in the former Soviet Union. Some of them are already Christians, most of them are not. So please pray for our work there as well, which is also progressing.
We give Jesus Christ all the glory and ask that you praise Him, and pray for us.
In Christ,
Andy, Patty, Azlee, Avery, Adler and Anson Goode
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Monday, May 17, 2010
Does Jail Ministry Really Work?
Here is one example out of many that we have from WCLEJC. I am pasting Chaplain Earl Adam's God story of the month here on my blog so that you can read the whole thing and know that our ministry here bears fruit that remains.
"Five years ago I baptized a detainee named Joe. Three months later Joe went to prison. While in prison he continued to read and study his Bible. Many months later he was released from prison. He went home to his wife and children. They began to attend Inside Out Ministry Church. I preached at this church recently. As I entered the church, Joe recognized me. He ran toward me. He gave me a big bear hug as he shouted Praise the Lord! While I preached there were many Amens and Praise the Lord coming from Joe’s pew. After church Joe’s wife asked if she could speak to me. Of course, I said yes. She said, “Thank you for your Jail Ministry. Thank you for giving my husband back to me. Thank you giving my children’s Dad back to them.” Joe came over and put his arm around his wife. He said, “I’ve been praying. I think God wants me to be a Jail Minister.” I prayed with Joe and his family before I left the church. A few weeks ago Joe came to Sunday baptism at the jail. After baptizing several men, Joe said, “Chaplain, can I say something to these men?” He said, “Men, five years ago today, I was baptized in this room and in this baptism tub. God has changed my life. He will change your life too.”
Yesterday, Joe came to the jail and went to Work Release with one of our trained Jail Ministers. Yes, Joe is training to be a Jail Minister. AMAZING!"
Now, you see the fruit, it is time to bear fruit of your own. Be inspired today to invest the gospel of Jesus Christ into someone. Go and make a disciple today, but realize it takes more than sharing the gospel to make disciples. If you need our help call on us, that is why we are here.
Bear fruit by praying and bear fruit by giving. Our jail ministry needs more partners. We can expand the ministry but we need partners that want to bear fruit through this ministry by making this ministry possible. Can't partner with us financially right now? We will take your gift of time and talent, volunteer with us. What i God calling you to do? Do it!
"Five years ago I baptized a detainee named Joe. Three months later Joe went to prison. While in prison he continued to read and study his Bible. Many months later he was released from prison. He went home to his wife and children. They began to attend Inside Out Ministry Church. I preached at this church recently. As I entered the church, Joe recognized me. He ran toward me. He gave me a big bear hug as he shouted Praise the Lord! While I preached there were many Amens and Praise the Lord coming from Joe’s pew. After church Joe’s wife asked if she could speak to me. Of course, I said yes. She said, “Thank you for your Jail Ministry. Thank you for giving my husband back to me. Thank you giving my children’s Dad back to them.” Joe came over and put his arm around his wife. He said, “I’ve been praying. I think God wants me to be a Jail Minister.” I prayed with Joe and his family before I left the church. A few weeks ago Joe came to Sunday baptism at the jail. After baptizing several men, Joe said, “Chaplain, can I say something to these men?” He said, “Men, five years ago today, I was baptized in this room and in this baptism tub. God has changed my life. He will change your life too.”
Yesterday, Joe came to the jail and went to Work Release with one of our trained Jail Ministers. Yes, Joe is training to be a Jail Minister. AMAZING!"
Now, you see the fruit, it is time to bear fruit of your own. Be inspired today to invest the gospel of Jesus Christ into someone. Go and make a disciple today, but realize it takes more than sharing the gospel to make disciples. If you need our help call on us, that is why we are here.
Bear fruit by praying and bear fruit by giving. Our jail ministry needs more partners. We can expand the ministry but we need partners that want to bear fruit through this ministry by making this ministry possible. Can't partner with us financially right now? We will take your gift of time and talent, volunteer with us. What i God calling you to do? Do it!
Friday, April 23, 2010
Get This Idea in Your Heart First and Your Head Later
One thing I know, God is never late, never slack, and He is always faithful. God is speaking to someone who will either answer this or relay this message to another who will answer the call.
You have to get the idea in your heart before you get the idea in your head. The idea is this: God may move you in order to use you. Your heart tied to the heart of God will see the need and your head will make excuses as to why you cannot repsond with your heart.
Your heart wants to proclaim the Kingdom of God but the ideas in your head leave you silent and useless in your chair or on your sofa. The birth pangs are here, the time is imminent, spend the last days however many or few there are abandoned to proclaiming the Kingdom of God.
Find out where God wants you to be and go there. Find out what God wants you to do and do it. Someone reading this will either respond or tell someone to read it and thye will respond. Hear me, you have 168 hours a week. If you are working 50-60 hours you still have some time to serve.
We need bi-vocational ministry workers. Are you called? Is God tearing you up about stepping out in faith. Do you realize you are a missionary. Every Christian is called to be a witness, let us help you polish your skills as a missionary, as a way of life.
Someone will read this and realize they need to find a job in Arkansas, move here and help us reach the 65 people groups. they will step out of the boat, walk by faith and find God to be enough. Do you want your life to count for something besides a job and a flat screen?
See the pictures I posted todayon FB, there were 40 kids and 5 adults who gathered to hear me share the gospel....YES I SAID THE GOSPEL. They didn't reject me, they welcomed me. They didn't mock me, they thanked me. They didn't ask me to leave, they asked me when would I return.
Get this, I had to say: "I don't know". Why? I have to find volunteers who can go back every week. I can reach many more people if I get volunteers equipped and started than if I pick one spot and stay there. I am calling you to a vision. God is working, the time is short. If you are not called then ignore me, if you are called how dare you ignore God.
Pray, search, look, and when you know it's God and not some weird idea, step out of the boat. Maybe you don't want to find another job and relocate..ok start reaching people where you are. Don't just sit there. Proclaim the Kingdom of God fulfill the Great Commission.
Need a pep talk or a start, bring your mission team here, we will get you going. Looking for where to go and serve God but didn't know where, come on and see if God affirms you to come here.
Once you get the idea in your heart that you want to tell people about Jesus that want to hear about Jesus; that are not being told about Jesus, your head can't talk you out of what is in your heart.
There may be errors in this, I don't have time to sit around and blog, but for whomever this was intended, contact me today 479.236.6165 and let me get you started serving or preparing to serve. You can work a job and pay rent anywhere, but I need to you work a job, pay rent and volunteer with me here. Fulfill the missional calling in oyur life. Let's go!
I know God had me post this today, so I know it was for somebody. Have questions, need help coping with the call of God? Contact me, let's do this because the hour draws near when we cannot do these things any longer, time will be up.
Who will He send? Who will Go?
You have to get the idea in your heart before you get the idea in your head. The idea is this: God may move you in order to use you. Your heart tied to the heart of God will see the need and your head will make excuses as to why you cannot repsond with your heart.
Your heart wants to proclaim the Kingdom of God but the ideas in your head leave you silent and useless in your chair or on your sofa. The birth pangs are here, the time is imminent, spend the last days however many or few there are abandoned to proclaiming the Kingdom of God.
Find out where God wants you to be and go there. Find out what God wants you to do and do it. Someone reading this will either respond or tell someone to read it and thye will respond. Hear me, you have 168 hours a week. If you are working 50-60 hours you still have some time to serve.
We need bi-vocational ministry workers. Are you called? Is God tearing you up about stepping out in faith. Do you realize you are a missionary. Every Christian is called to be a witness, let us help you polish your skills as a missionary, as a way of life.
Someone will read this and realize they need to find a job in Arkansas, move here and help us reach the 65 people groups. they will step out of the boat, walk by faith and find God to be enough. Do you want your life to count for something besides a job and a flat screen?
See the pictures I posted todayon FB, there were 40 kids and 5 adults who gathered to hear me share the gospel....YES I SAID THE GOSPEL. They didn't reject me, they welcomed me. They didn't mock me, they thanked me. They didn't ask me to leave, they asked me when would I return.
Get this, I had to say: "I don't know". Why? I have to find volunteers who can go back every week. I can reach many more people if I get volunteers equipped and started than if I pick one spot and stay there. I am calling you to a vision. God is working, the time is short. If you are not called then ignore me, if you are called how dare you ignore God.
Pray, search, look, and when you know it's God and not some weird idea, step out of the boat. Maybe you don't want to find another job and relocate..ok start reaching people where you are. Don't just sit there. Proclaim the Kingdom of God fulfill the Great Commission.
Need a pep talk or a start, bring your mission team here, we will get you going. Looking for where to go and serve God but didn't know where, come on and see if God affirms you to come here.
Once you get the idea in your heart that you want to tell people about Jesus that want to hear about Jesus; that are not being told about Jesus, your head can't talk you out of what is in your heart.
There may be errors in this, I don't have time to sit around and blog, but for whomever this was intended, contact me today 479.236.6165 and let me get you started serving or preparing to serve. You can work a job and pay rent anywhere, but I need to you work a job, pay rent and volunteer with me here. Fulfill the missional calling in oyur life. Let's go!
I know God had me post this today, so I know it was for somebody. Have questions, need help coping with the call of God? Contact me, let's do this because the hour draws near when we cannot do these things any longer, time will be up.
Who will He send? Who will Go?
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Mission Northwest Arkansas
God blessed my family with a new adventure. For the first time my kids live outside the city limits of Albany, Georgia. We live in a beautiful place, God created some major artwork in Northwest Arkansas.
So what are we doing in NWA? I am so glad you asked. We are running Mission Northwest Arkansas for First BAptist Springdale and the Church at Pinnacle Hills.
How can you pray for us? Thanks for asking. First, think of us as missionaries to NWA and if you want to get technical think of me as a missional strategist. I am asking God for the wisdom, the human resources and the annoiting of God to reach the 66 people groups that live here.
We want to start a baptist church for the Marshalleese people who live here. Please pray for favor with the Marshaleese people and for the effort to be a success to the glory of God.
We want to start more Spanish churches and more Cowboy churches. These models are reaching people here but we need more. Pray for the human resources to make this happen and for favor with the people and the power of God.
Pray that God will give me favor with the pastors and people of struggling churches as we come alongside smaller churches to help them thrive and be Great Commission churches.
Pray that my language skills in Spanish will continue to increase, as I am fluent in conversation but have along way to go to be able to teach or preach completely in Spanish.
Iam asking that you not see me merely as an associate min. of missions for FBC Springdale and CPH but see our whole family as lead missionaries in Northwest Arkansas.
Pray for our churches and our church staff. Pray for Pastor Ronnie Floyd and the GCR taskforce.
Pray for Central Baptist Albany, GA.
Pray for Greenbriar Church, Albany, GA.
Pray for Covenant Life Church , Tampa FL.
Thanks for praying!
So what are we doing in NWA? I am so glad you asked. We are running Mission Northwest Arkansas for First BAptist Springdale and the Church at Pinnacle Hills.
How can you pray for us? Thanks for asking. First, think of us as missionaries to NWA and if you want to get technical think of me as a missional strategist. I am asking God for the wisdom, the human resources and the annoiting of God to reach the 66 people groups that live here.
We want to start a baptist church for the Marshalleese people who live here. Please pray for favor with the Marshaleese people and for the effort to be a success to the glory of God.
We want to start more Spanish churches and more Cowboy churches. These models are reaching people here but we need more. Pray for the human resources to make this happen and for favor with the people and the power of God.
Pray that God will give me favor with the pastors and people of struggling churches as we come alongside smaller churches to help them thrive and be Great Commission churches.
Pray that my language skills in Spanish will continue to increase, as I am fluent in conversation but have along way to go to be able to teach or preach completely in Spanish.
Iam asking that you not see me merely as an associate min. of missions for FBC Springdale and CPH but see our whole family as lead missionaries in Northwest Arkansas.
Pray for our churches and our church staff. Pray for Pastor Ronnie Floyd and the GCR taskforce.
Pray for Central Baptist Albany, GA.
Pray for Greenbriar Church, Albany, GA.
Pray for Covenant Life Church , Tampa FL.
Thanks for praying!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Maturity in the Christian Life
What does this mean:"Maturity in the Christian Life" it means many things all of which we must value and evaluate and I want to list here some points by which we consider what spiritual maturity means:
1. We accept the fact that we fail, or sin, but we are not threatened by this fact, nor do we make excuses because of this fact, lest we must try to justify our sin some how.
2. When we hear preaching that convicts we do not bow up at the preacher or shoot the messenger. We own what we should own and we repent, desiring to change.
3. We desire not to focus on ourselves but on pleasing God and our worldview reflects this truth and our actions reflect this worldview.
4. We develop a heart of compassion towards others, "Jesus wept", remember the shortest verse in the Bible.
5. We disdain man centered theology and man centered worship and ideas of worship.
6. We hide God's word in our heart and we meditate on His word , day and night.
7.We become concerned about our children and our grandchildren in their spiritual journey and we are passionate about helping them gain spiritual depth.
8.We try to live a life of purpose for the Kingdom and not one of self indulgence whereby we sacrifice rather than become gluttons of comfort and pleasure. The desire of our heart is to never be a stumbling block but to be a facilitator, an encourager and an example of living for Christ.
9. We don't use crutches or lame excuses for spiritual apathy and decline in our ouwn spiritual fervor, we repent and seek to be different.
10. We do not adpot principles, philosophies or ideas of this world and try to baptize them into a hybrid of something that the bride of Christ should ingest. There should be no half baked ideas, or unbiblical theologies but we should develop a biblical theology through being disciples ourselves in the power of the Holy Spirit.
11. We don't tolerate error in the church.
12. We don't tolerate sin in the church, the body of Christ.
13. We do not tolerate unbiblical leadership in the church.
14. We don't tolerate the few trying to control a church with their agenda.
15. We want to see people come out from hiding and desire to be changed by the power of God.
16. We desire to give and to worship God way beyond a tithe. The tithe yes! and we give above a tithe and we recognize that every good thing comes from God and belongs to God and we give of our time and our talents also.
17. We are not offended by messages on giving and we know God loves a cheerful giver.
18. We believe that Christianity is life and that we are alive in Christ with unspeakable JOY!
19. We love our spouse putting Christ first then our spouse and we understand stand to truly love your spouse in to serve them expecting nothing in return.
20.We desire to be with other believers and to share the testimonies of God's work in our lives.
1. We accept the fact that we fail, or sin, but we are not threatened by this fact, nor do we make excuses because of this fact, lest we must try to justify our sin some how.
2. When we hear preaching that convicts we do not bow up at the preacher or shoot the messenger. We own what we should own and we repent, desiring to change.
3. We desire not to focus on ourselves but on pleasing God and our worldview reflects this truth and our actions reflect this worldview.
4. We develop a heart of compassion towards others, "Jesus wept", remember the shortest verse in the Bible.
5. We disdain man centered theology and man centered worship and ideas of worship.
6. We hide God's word in our heart and we meditate on His word , day and night.
7.We become concerned about our children and our grandchildren in their spiritual journey and we are passionate about helping them gain spiritual depth.
8.We try to live a life of purpose for the Kingdom and not one of self indulgence whereby we sacrifice rather than become gluttons of comfort and pleasure. The desire of our heart is to never be a stumbling block but to be a facilitator, an encourager and an example of living for Christ.
9. We don't use crutches or lame excuses for spiritual apathy and decline in our ouwn spiritual fervor, we repent and seek to be different.
10. We do not adpot principles, philosophies or ideas of this world and try to baptize them into a hybrid of something that the bride of Christ should ingest. There should be no half baked ideas, or unbiblical theologies but we should develop a biblical theology through being disciples ourselves in the power of the Holy Spirit.
11. We don't tolerate error in the church.
12. We don't tolerate sin in the church, the body of Christ.
13. We do not tolerate unbiblical leadership in the church.
14. We don't tolerate the few trying to control a church with their agenda.
15. We want to see people come out from hiding and desire to be changed by the power of God.
16. We desire to give and to worship God way beyond a tithe. The tithe yes! and we give above a tithe and we recognize that every good thing comes from God and belongs to God and we give of our time and our talents also.
17. We are not offended by messages on giving and we know God loves a cheerful giver.
18. We believe that Christianity is life and that we are alive in Christ with unspeakable JOY!
19. We love our spouse putting Christ first then our spouse and we understand stand to truly love your spouse in to serve them expecting nothing in return.
20.We desire to be with other believers and to share the testimonies of God's work in our lives.
Monday, April 20, 2009
I Thank You For Your Support
Wow….what a Sunday! Central I commend you for receiving my friend Coach Rock Knapp and I commend you for treating him so well. Thanks for the response to the Curing Kids Cancer cause and I really appreciate that so many of you will be coming along to help at Rock’s Run. There are many things that I am grateful for that occurred this past Sunday.
I appreciate the men who showed up to pray before the service and I want to extend the invitation to any who want to join us. We will pray at 9:30 each Sunday morning in the sanctuary. No one is asked to pray aloud but to pray for our services, against distractions and for God’s power.
Speaking of prayer, we are over due to get the prayer ministry of this church going. We should have people praying during the services on a rotation basis. We should be building toward a strong intercessory prayer ministry. We will never have the power until we first become people of prayer.
Also, I want to thank so many of you for serving and being so gracious when a service goes longer than usual. My first thanks is to the people who serve in the nursery and in children’s church. I am thanking you each and every one because I am grateful.
I wish that we could all be grateful. I hope we can come to a place where we: “can scarce take it in…” how beautiful God’s love is to those who have seen His love through the eyes of a repentant sinner saved by grace.
What do I have to say for why a service goes longer than some would like? Well I guess we could have told the two adults and one child that were coming for baptism that they were not important and that would have saved 15 minutes. We could have cut out some songs that praised God and told God we didn’t have time to praise Him. That would have saved another 15 minutes depending on how many songs we cut.
Also, I could have spoken less than what God had given to me to speak and thereby told God we didn’t have time to listen to His message, for a 10 minute gain. I believe the response to the message validates that it came from Him. We could have told those who came forward in response to the message that they do not matter and their desire to honor God with their life is not important.
We could have told Coach Rock that curing kid’s cancer is not a worthy cause and we are not willing to help and saved 15 minutes. That would be telling my friend Coach Rock who may not be healed of two terminal cancers that we could care less and that his testimony of what God has shown him didn’t matter to us and we would also be saying to God once again that we only care about ourselves.
If we add up all the saved time that would be 15+15+10+15, we could have had a service 55 minutes shorter than we had yesterday. This means if we started at our normal time of 10:55 we would have finished at 11:35.
That would be a service only 40 minutes long and a church with no baptisms, little praise, a short message and no regard for God or anyone other than one’s own self. NO THANKS! I would rather God correct me for keeping people too long than have God rebuke me for shallow, self-centered and unwilling to worship Him.
To be fair, Justin, Daniel and I will always seek not to keep you any longer than God intends. However, when honoring God requires more, I will not be the one dismissing people before it is time. Allow me to say this because I have preached in many churches where they wanted 3 points and a poem in a 15 minute message after they sang one hymn standing and two sitting down, read off the birthday list, the gossip column and wasted as much time as possible to edge the preacher out from being able to deliver the Word of God; those churches are either dead or dying and we are neither one. We are a resurrected church serving the Resurrected Savior Jesus Christ.
I will gladly receive anyone wanting to complain about the length of yesterday’s service and I will not be offended. After you are finished with your compliant, I hope you will not be offended if I share with you the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how you can be saved and begin an abundant life walking in victory over sin and sorrow. Then you can lay down your idols and your bitterness. : )
I love you each and every one; I love Jesus more!
Andy Goode
Acts 20:24
I appreciate the men who showed up to pray before the service and I want to extend the invitation to any who want to join us. We will pray at 9:30 each Sunday morning in the sanctuary. No one is asked to pray aloud but to pray for our services, against distractions and for God’s power.
Speaking of prayer, we are over due to get the prayer ministry of this church going. We should have people praying during the services on a rotation basis. We should be building toward a strong intercessory prayer ministry. We will never have the power until we first become people of prayer.
Also, I want to thank so many of you for serving and being so gracious when a service goes longer than usual. My first thanks is to the people who serve in the nursery and in children’s church. I am thanking you each and every one because I am grateful.
I wish that we could all be grateful. I hope we can come to a place where we: “can scarce take it in…” how beautiful God’s love is to those who have seen His love through the eyes of a repentant sinner saved by grace.
What do I have to say for why a service goes longer than some would like? Well I guess we could have told the two adults and one child that were coming for baptism that they were not important and that would have saved 15 minutes. We could have cut out some songs that praised God and told God we didn’t have time to praise Him. That would have saved another 15 minutes depending on how many songs we cut.
Also, I could have spoken less than what God had given to me to speak and thereby told God we didn’t have time to listen to His message, for a 10 minute gain. I believe the response to the message validates that it came from Him. We could have told those who came forward in response to the message that they do not matter and their desire to honor God with their life is not important.
We could have told Coach Rock that curing kid’s cancer is not a worthy cause and we are not willing to help and saved 15 minutes. That would be telling my friend Coach Rock who may not be healed of two terminal cancers that we could care less and that his testimony of what God has shown him didn’t matter to us and we would also be saying to God once again that we only care about ourselves.
If we add up all the saved time that would be 15+15+10+15, we could have had a service 55 minutes shorter than we had yesterday. This means if we started at our normal time of 10:55 we would have finished at 11:35.
That would be a service only 40 minutes long and a church with no baptisms, little praise, a short message and no regard for God or anyone other than one’s own self. NO THANKS! I would rather God correct me for keeping people too long than have God rebuke me for shallow, self-centered and unwilling to worship Him.
To be fair, Justin, Daniel and I will always seek not to keep you any longer than God intends. However, when honoring God requires more, I will not be the one dismissing people before it is time. Allow me to say this because I have preached in many churches where they wanted 3 points and a poem in a 15 minute message after they sang one hymn standing and two sitting down, read off the birthday list, the gossip column and wasted as much time as possible to edge the preacher out from being able to deliver the Word of God; those churches are either dead or dying and we are neither one. We are a resurrected church serving the Resurrected Savior Jesus Christ.
I will gladly receive anyone wanting to complain about the length of yesterday’s service and I will not be offended. After you are finished with your compliant, I hope you will not be offended if I share with you the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how you can be saved and begin an abundant life walking in victory over sin and sorrow. Then you can lay down your idols and your bitterness. : )
I love you each and every one; I love Jesus more!
Andy Goode
Acts 20:24
Friday, February 13, 2009
Why Missions?
Understand that busyness is not a spiritual gift, yet I have been so busy with ministry that I have not been able to write the daily devotion for the mission team. So once again Iam borrowing today from Spurgeon's "Faith's Check Book. I trust God will use it to prepare you for the journey.
Why Missions? we have to step away from the daily and ordinary things of life and get focused on what really matters. It helps to go and worship in an unfamiliar place as a servant of Christ in a foreign land.
Feb. 13 BLESSED IN THE FIELD
"Blessed shalt thou be in the field" Deut. 28:3
So was Isaac blessed when he walked therein at eventide to meditate. How often has the Lord met us when we have been alone! The hedges and the trees can bear witness to our joy. We look for such blessedness again.
So was Boaz blessed when he reaped his harvest, and his workmen met him with benedictions. May the Lord prosper all who drive the plough! Every farmer may urge this promise with God, if indeed he obeys the voice of the Lord God.
We go to the field to labor as father Adam did; and since the curse fell on the soil through the sin of Adam the first, it is a great comfort to find a blessing through Adam the second.
We go to the field for exercise, and we are happy in the belief that the Lord will bless that exercise, and give us health, which we will use to His glory.
We go to the field to study nature, and there is nothing in a knowledge of the visible creation which may not be sanctified to the highest uses by the divine benediction.
We have at last to go to the field to bury our dead; yea, others will in their turn take us to God's acre in the field: but we are blessed, whether weeping at the tomb, or sleeping in it.
— Faith's Checkbook
Why Missions? we have to step away from the daily and ordinary things of life and get focused on what really matters. It helps to go and worship in an unfamiliar place as a servant of Christ in a foreign land.
Feb. 13 BLESSED IN THE FIELD
"Blessed shalt thou be in the field" Deut. 28:3
So was Isaac blessed when he walked therein at eventide to meditate. How often has the Lord met us when we have been alone! The hedges and the trees can bear witness to our joy. We look for such blessedness again.
So was Boaz blessed when he reaped his harvest, and his workmen met him with benedictions. May the Lord prosper all who drive the plough! Every farmer may urge this promise with God, if indeed he obeys the voice of the Lord God.
We go to the field to labor as father Adam did; and since the curse fell on the soil through the sin of Adam the first, it is a great comfort to find a blessing through Adam the second.
We go to the field for exercise, and we are happy in the belief that the Lord will bless that exercise, and give us health, which we will use to His glory.
We go to the field to study nature, and there is nothing in a knowledge of the visible creation which may not be sanctified to the highest uses by the divine benediction.
We have at last to go to the field to bury our dead; yea, others will in their turn take us to God's acre in the field: but we are blessed, whether weeping at the tomb, or sleeping in it.
— Faith's Checkbook
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