There is a song about giving to the Lord. It is a very simple concept once you figure out that the 'giving' does not have to be something big, fantastic, and really mind boggling. It can be something very simple; something that the Kingdom needs an 'obedient' believer to do. I think that the hardest thing for believers to do is to act on their believing. We are not asked to be successful, but, only obedient.
A few months ago, I went with some volunteers to Joplin, Mo., to help with the volunteer efforts to clean up after the devastating tornado. It was quite an experience when you see that much destruction...a path 2 miles wide and 6 miles long, I think. The group that I was with was there for a week and did a plethora of jobs, from yard cleanup to covering windows/roofs with plastic; from securing services for folks to scheduling repairs. All week long, the main thing that I did was to pray with them individually about their needs and trying to encourage them with the word of God, and how we need to give Him thanks in all things.
About half way through the week, as I became tired and tireder,,,if that is a word, I had to pray each night that the Lord would bless me with an abundant rest for the chores of the next day. Forget the idea that you need to double, or triple your rest. I needed way more than that, I needed an ample amount,,,,exactly what I would need to face the needs of the next day. So, there you have it, I am praying like a Big Dog, that I will be able to continue with the stress, heat, humidity, all of the things that go along with this type of endeavor. So, what happens? God wakes me up in the middle of this perfect rest that I had prayed for....a mere 2 hours at that time, and showed me a ministry that He needed--a cross ministry. He even provided the name--Buy In Now 2 Salvation. Kinda catchy phrasing of the need to accept/provide for eternity now, instead of later. To delay no longer to accept God's grace.
Now, understand, that I had been making these little wooden crosses for 20 years as agape for Walk to Emmaus weekends. I had even made bigger ones for lay leaders, and for tables during the weekend. In those 20 years, I had made, according to my mathematical computations and calculations, 20,150. In the past 10 years, or so, I had begun to give them to mission groups that were taking them on trips around the globe. For instance, on a plane trip a few years back, there were 2 young ladies going to some locations in Africa, and I asked if I could mail them some crosses to take with them? Of course, they said yes.
But God had somewhat bigger ideas than this lackadaisical approach to distribution of these crosses. In this vision, He told me that I needed to advertise, if you will, with something like a website.....www.BIN2Salvation.com was born,,,,with the expert help of my technical staff,,,my daughter, a Christian song writer from Nashville, Tn. The other big stipulation that God insisted on was the number of crosses to distribute--100,000+!!!! Good grief, it took me 20 years to get to 20,000. Does God have plans for me to live 80 more years in order to accomplish this? I don't think so, I just need to get to work.
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