and I wanted to spend a summer
in Brazil to do mission work. We
spent the summer in Brazil and
decided that we
wanted to be mis-
sionaries. To do
that I located a
church in Miami,
Florida, to spon-
sor me. One of
the jobs was writ-
ing an article in
a church bulletin
each week. I really liked doing it.
Somebody said, "You ought to try
and get them published." I tried.
It happened.
happier God will be. As mission-
aries, we had to decide what our
unique message was in order to
have someone come and hear us
preach. We examined our own
lives, prayed and had some good
Bible studies. We felt we had to
lift up grace, God's radical forgive-
ness of people. The church began
to grow and we experienced it
ourselves.
good health when I began having
these heart problems. If you had
asked me if I were mortal, I would
have said yes. Sometimes you
have to experience that. It caused
me to lean on God a lot more, to
count my days, to plan and be
more appreciative. The happiest
season I've had were those days
I had surgery and when I realized
I was healed, I was so grateful.
Every so often I pray, "Lord, would
you restore that sense of grati-
tude?" I got another shot at life.
he or she has been through, every
single person matters to God. If
we can internalize that, it changes
our church who was a successful
accountant. He was caught with
child pornography and went to
prison. He has been out now for
two years and now has two jobs
working 16 hours per day. It was
a flip flop of life. He was a success-
ful accountant but now he makes
far less now than he did. But, he's
a dear friend and he's done well
trying to recover, repent and put
his life back together. He said the
himself. I keep telling people, just
believe you matter to God. He's not
finished with you.
needs to find
worth and signifi-
cance in who God
is and what God
says rather than
in what he accom-
plishes. We live in
a day where per-
look and how you can make your
body appear, what you can drive.
This is a battle for Christians.
Of all people who should never
struggle with self-image, shouldn't
it be those bought by the blood of
Christ?
exists for us, that the purpose of
the church is to do what Walmart
does for me, and that's to be a
source of service to me. That's the
challenge that we battle in our
church. On the one hand, we want
to serve everybody that comes in,
but we want those who come in to
be servants. It's hard to send both
messages. We want everybody who
walks into church to have an inspi-
rational event, moment, encounter,
find their gifts, but then we want
them to serve. When are we a hos-
pital that allows people to heal and
when are we physical therapy that
teaches people to run?