May 31 2009
Active Faith
Okay, I’ll admit it, I am an Elvis fan! What is there not to like about Elvis? One of his great songs is titled, “A Little Less Conversation.” Part of the song goes, “A little less conversation, a little more action please.”
Archive for May, 2009
May 30 2009
Righteousness Prevails
Have you discovered during these difficult times in which we live in that you are in need of a little more backbone? Let me tell you about my friends in Monkey Point, Nicaragua who recently displayed amazing courage. These folks stood up to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers who visited their village by first giving them solar powered digital Bibles in the soldiers’ native language of Farsi. Since the intent of these soldiers is to build a dry canal across Nicaragua near Monkey Point, the people of this town made it clear that they were not going anywhere and they promptly threw the soldiers out of their village! When I first heard this, I thought it was incredible until I learned what these brave folks did next.
May 27 2009
New Creation in Christ
Oh, can’t you just smell the fragrant trees, fresh cut grass and the sweet scent of the flowers blooming? It is springtime in Dixie and everything is brand new. Spring in the South not only means everything is new, it also means everything is covered in yellow pollen. That’s okay because it is still that season where creation is fresh, new and vibrant.
May 25 2009
Harvest Field
After being home for three weeks, it is now time to ask everyone to begin praying. By the time you read this, I will be in the Democratic Republic (DR) of the Congo. That means much excitement, challenges and the vast need for intercessory prayers.
May 21 2009
Steadfast Faith
The distance we travel in this life is sometimes measured by our difficulties rather than by physical miles. I was recently working in Monkey Point, Nicaragua, which is 35 miles south of Bluefields. I want you to envision traveling in an open boat in a driving rainstorm for 35 miles out on the open waters of the Caribbean Sea.
May 17 2009
Father to the Fatherless
I don’t know about you but I am pretty much a believer that when the Lord leads you down a long, dark valley it is for a reason and something is going to happen. When I was recently in Bluefields, Nicaragua my staff director, Willie Brown, took me down one of those long, narrow alleys where I met Dona Coco. She is an amazing woman who for the last 19 years has been caring for children who have no one else.
May 15 2009
Stand Firm
With piracy in the news these days I’ve often wondered if I would ever end up confronting pirates on my travels along rivers and ocean coastlines. During my recent trip to Nicaragua, we were traveling in a boat in the open ocean off the coast when a ship came charging at our boat and I thought, “Well, here we go!” You could see the people in the ship were agitated and I thought, “They’re pirates.”
May 14 2009
Strong in Weakness
Have you ever noticed that you can tell a lot about folks by the way they handle themselves in tough times? I have friends who are walking so close to the Lord that they can take the most difficult of circumstances and joyfully be a witness throughout the whole experience. It is just amazing and a real blessing to be around people like that.
May 12 2009
Pray With Confidence
One of the wonderful miracles of radio is that we are able to broadcast our message and our faithful listeners respond. A few weeks ago I asked folks to specifically pray for a meeting that was supposed to take place with the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Nicaragua. I invited him to meet me in the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel in Managua. I spent an hour pacing back and forth in the lobby and rearranging all my stuff while I waited on this commander.
May 10 2009
Highly Esteemed
Which do you think is better, old or new friends? I recently ran into an old friend, Dr. V. Birch Rambo, a famous Presbyterian medical missionary to the Congo. Birch and his wife, Peggy, served in the center of the Congo at the Good Shepherd Hospital in the village of Tshikaji. They served in medical missions from the mid-1960s until the early 1990s in the former Zaire, which is the present day Democratic Republic of the Congo.