Friday, March 4, 2022
My first memory is telling my Dad that I wanted to ask Jesus into my heart. This was one month after my third birthday. Hebrews 13:5b was the first verse my parents taught me shortly afterward, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”
It was not until high school, when a pastor tried to convince me that my salvation depended partly upon my worthiness after being saved that I doubted my salvation for the first time. But I soon realized God’s faithfulness is not dependent upon my worthiness, it never was and never would be. No matter how I may have doubted God or chosen my own paths in life, God never left nor forsook me, and I know from personal experience that God can save even the youngest of us, when we simply put our trust in Christ as Savior from sin. I know my hope rests, not in my own worthiness, but in what Jesus did on the cross, when He paid for my sin, and His resurrection which offers me the hope that I trust and rest in. No matter the doubts that may have crossed my mind down through the years, I cannot doubt God’s faithfulness and ability to bring me safely across death’s door one day and into His presence.
Do you ever have doubts that your standing with God is based on your value or have relied solely on Christ alone for your salvation?
Salvation is not the end of the story for any of us however. While I knew I was saved, God has more plans for us than just to “rescue” us – He wants complete ownership of us. When I was 11 years old I sang in a children’s choir run by Child Evangelism Fellowship or “CEF”. At one local church where we sang, the pastor challenged us to dedicate our lives to God’s purposes. In my heart, I knew God was asking this of me. While I did not know what this would involve, I now realize this was when God called me into full time missionary service.
My first taste of this service was at 14 years of age in a program “CEF” has for teens called “Christian Youth in Action”. While I had grown up in CEF’s weekly discipleship program for children, the Good News Club®, I was now the teacher, and I STUNK! – my first summer serving as a teacher I was not even allowed to teach the Bible after my initial demonstration. But in that first demonstration I led an 11-year-old boy to Christ. God had used my nervous, shaking, tenuous and very brief words to bring someone into His kingdom and I was hooked! The next summer I returned and at the end I had a little conversation with God where I asked Him, “Is there any chance I could keep doing this?”
For the past 37 years God has continued to answer “yes” to that simple question of mine when I was 15 years old. I am so pleased to be called to the most fruitful mission field in the world with CEF – the field of children.
That “yes” from God has led to innumerable opportunities my teenage self could not have imagined. Now, serving with Mari as travelling missionaries we are discovering the adventure of living life in light of our motto “Pursuing God’s delicious unknown”. God has taken us to fields of ministry I had no experience with.
In late 2015 we moved to Washington and got involved in Fair ministry – it was an unknown, but what joy and adventure it has brought. When we began making plans to move into an RV 2 years ago, we knew there would be many unknowns in our future. As long as God is control (always!) we have no need to fear tomorrow, because it is a gift from His hand for us to embrace and rejoice in. Tomorrow’s unknowns are opportunities to trust God today, to see God at work in tomorrow and remember the goodness of the Lord displayed through those opportunities in the days yet to come. We are still learning to rejoice in some of them, like having our RV in a repair shop for 14 weeks (and counting) – that was not part of our plan, but I firmly believe it was part of God’s.
The emphasis of “pursuing God’s delicious unknown” lies in the first part – “Pursuing God”. We may, in days yet to come, learn why His plan included living out of a suitcase for these past few months, or we may never learn why. But if we have been able to draw closer to Him as a result, it can be counted as a time of blessing and worthy of rejoicing in. Between the record in Scripture, and looking back on our own lives, there is more than enough evidence of Psalm 27:13 “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.” We truly have seen His goodness on display in so many ways that we dare not do otherwise, then to assume His goodness will be, where our tomorrows come from, no matter if we can see it immediately or not.
Are there aspects of your “tomorrow’s” that have been causing you fear? Is it time to entrust them into God’s hands, and give Him the opportunity to prove, in your life, His goodness?
Hold fast to the times when you clearly see God at work, then transfer that understanding to the times His hand is hidden from your view, realizing that our perspective is very narrow, our vision is very short-sighted and our understanding is incomplete, in light of eternity.
This was Tim’s story. So, what’s your story?
Blessings, Mari
