theexpandingshrink

Recently I shared the Gospel with a young man who was struggling with unbelief. He said to me, “How can you say that Jesus suffered more than anyone? I’m sure there were people and groups of people who suffered a lot more than Jesus. Jesus was not unique in the degree of his suffering.”

I know there may have been a number of responses I could have given, but I offered up a quick prayer, “Oh Lord, how shall I respond?”

Last night I dreamed that I was a psychiatrist for the Queen of England. Every day I would post, with her permission and approval, something about her mental, emotional and spiritual state. The people were very eager to see my posts. At the end of my dream, I was posting that “when the Queen heard all that you, the people, were going through, a tear formed and slowly rolled down her cheek. She does care for you and she loves you so much.” Then I fully awoke.

I recalled the scripture. “He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.” Revelation 1:6.

From my hotel window at 5 am

Wow! It has been an intense week so far. Vaughn flew in from Belgium to Harrisburg on Sunday night at 10 pm to spend several weeks working here before going to Paraguay to start the new missionary training school there in March.

Yesterday I said a “for now” goodbye to a dear friend of 40 years. As I listened to friends and family reflect on the life of Richard Showalter at his funeral at Mechanicsburg Christian Fellowship Church, Mechanicsburg Ohio, I understood anew how Jesus had walked among us in the person of Richard Showalter.

Richard knew three things:
1. He knew he was loved by the Heavenly Father
2. He knew he had daily communion with the Lord Jesus
3. He knew he could continually depend on the Holy Spirit to guide him

Because Richard knew he was loved by the Father he didn’t have to seek affirmation or approval from any person. He did not position himself for praise and affirmation. He did not try to impress you with what he had done, was doing or was about to do. (He could’ve drawn attention to all he had accomplished. He graduated from some of the best schools in the country; he was acclaimed for his speaking and writing and leadership in colleges and missions; he was an effective church planter and effective in leadership development and in the promotions of missions all over the world.)

No, he did not draw attention to these things. He always pointed to Jesus. He moved humbly and freely, because he wasn’t trying to use others for his purposes. He already had all he needed in the love of the Father.

Because Richard had daily communion with Jesus, as friend talking with friend, he could be present to his fellow humans. He could weep on the backseat of his car with his own weeping 13-year-old son who wanted to return to the States, rather than stay in Turkey. He could minister to prisoners and to the homeless, to church and business executives. And all were enriched by his presence because he had received something from Jesus each day that simply flowed through him to all those with whom he connected.

And because he had met with Jesus he could bring life into diverse settings. He could articulate a position very clearly and strongly and yet honor those who sharply disagreed with him. He could serve an institution and bring new life. He could honor institutional norms without being defined by them.

Although he served the world and brought Jesus to the world, he always had a home base, a specific faith community, from which he moved. That home base was his family, his local church and the network of churches with which his fathers before him had been associated. He honored his family and community even in his death. The 31-year-old pastor of his home church was in charge of the funeral service and gave a meditation. A former pastor also gave a meditation. The hymns which the congregation sang at the funeral were ones that his parents and likely his grandparents would have sung, “I Owe the Lord a Morning Song”, “Great Is thy Faithfulness” and “My Jesus I Love Thee”. The congregation, at some level, knowing that even as they had gathered to honor Richard, were being honored by him even in the selection of the songs, sang joyfully and enthusiastically through their tears.

Because Richard knew and trusted the Holy Spirit he was always at peace . My wife and I visited with Richard and Jewel shortly after he received his cancer diagnosis. They both testified to the peace which the Holy Spirit had given them in the face of immanent death. Someone asked Richard if he were ready to die. He said, “Yes, I’m ready to die now, today; but I have been ready to die at any time, He would have desired, over the past 30 years ago.”

Because he knew he was loved, because he had daily communion with Jesus and because he trusted totally in the Holy Spirit’s leading, Richard was able to “live until he died.”

For Richard, no matter how complicated life’s demands might seem, each day could be reduced to the simple reality of meeting with and and saying “Yes” to Jesus each day, of trusting implicitly in the Holy Spirit’s guidance and of knowing at the deepest level that he was a beloved son of the Heavenly Father.

Everything else was of lesser importance to Richard.

As I reflected on the life of Richard the words of this song came to me:

Jesus Christ is made to me,
All I need, all I need;
He alone is all my plea,
He is all I need.
Chorus:
Wisdom, righteousness and pow’r,
Holiness forevermore,
My redemption full and sure,
He is all I need.

I pray that all of us will follow Jesus the way that Richard followed Jesus, and discover that Jesus is truly all that we need.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 2 Corinthians 13:14.

Enos Daniel Martin

Jesus walked with me on the Conewago Trail just as he did the disciples on the road to Emmaus. And as they did not recognize him, neither did I, till later.

On Saturday morning, right before Easter, I was walking/jogging on the Conewago Trail reflecting on all the work I needed to do in Kenya, Paraguay, India and here in the States. I was fighting a sense of being overwhelmed.

As I ended my walk, arriving at my car, a young woman jogger, whom I did not recognize, came up to me.

She stated that as she had earlier passed me on the trail, she had the strong sense from God that she was to give me the paper she was carrying.

She said she had initially resisted the impulse but then came back to find me and to give me the paper. On the paper was her handwritten copy of Deuteronomy 11:10-12, which states that the land God’s people were about to enter is different than Egypt where they had just been. God would have his eye on them and provide for them in this new land.

I felt this was helpful in a general kind away and I thanked her for her courage in giving me the word. We carried on a conversation about what this passage might mean in my life and then parted ways.

The next morning as I was praying in preparation for the Easter service I recalled the experience and thought that I should study the passage more carefully. But I could not recall the reference and I had misplaced the paper. I did recall two or three key words so I googled it and found it immediately.

As I reflected on the passage, the message became clear: in Egypt you worked to irrigate your land but in the Promised Land you will not work to water the land. God will send rain at the right season to make you prosperous. All you need do is stay in relationship with Him so you can hear and obey His voice.

Holy Spirit immediately made me aware of my doubt and unbelief, as He did the disciples on the road to Emmaus. I was thinking I had to work harder or smarter to accomplish all that I needed to do in this season.

But the Spirit showed me it’s not about how hard I work, it’s about hearing His voice and simply doing what He asks. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He wants me to operate from a place of intimacy and rest and not perspiration and burdensome work.

I immediately repented of my doubt and unbelief. And I was overjoyed with the presence of the resurrected Lord. And he did not disappear, but He remained with me!

As I reflected further, I was overwhelmed by God’s grace. He had been walking with me on the trail all along. He knew my anxious and unbelieving thoughts. He longed for me to focus on worshipping Him, not on ruminating on what I could or could not do. He longed for me to celebrate His resurrection life and power. He longed for me to pray in faith, believing.

But I was not focused on the resurrected Lord.

So He engaged a stranger to share a passage of scripture with me. The young woman was faithful in sharing the word, although she had no idea what the significance or impact of the word would be.

The Lord is risen indeed!!! And He appeared to E. Daniel on the Conewago Trail!!!

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

The richness of an experience involves three distinct aspects: the joy of anticipating that experience; the pleasure of having the experience and then the satisfaction and inspiration of reflecting on the experience.

Early last week I returned home from a rewarding two week trip to Paraguay. Immediately upon returning, several days of work awaited me at the Prison and then a half day of work at the Naaman Center; followed by a PTL India Partners banquet and time with my good friend P.C. Alexander who is visiting from India. On Saturday evening we attended a play in Litiz performed to raise money for the crisis in Venezuela.

Tereré is a Paraguayan herbal tea, hot or cold, shared in a group with a common cup and straw (bombilla).

Tereré is a very low-calorie, non-alcoholic beverage which is believed to refresh the body. Additionally, drinking Tereré together is an important ritual signifying trust and communion.

Yesterday Vaughn and I met with a Spanish-speaking pastor, Ruben Pereira, here in Asuncion to discuss our plans to start a missionary training school at Escobar.

Neither Vaughn nor I are yet fluent in Spanish and Pastor Ruben is not yet fluent in English and we did not have an interpreter.

However we had a very satisfactory conversation using an app which allows us to speak directly into the phone and immediately receive the audio translation. We would pass the app back-and-forth much as one would pass back and forth the Tereré.

So sharing the app built on a common cultural
tradition.

He allowed the Ark of his might to be captured; he surrendered his glory into enemy hands. Psalm 78:61, NLT
(And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hand. Psalm 78:61, KJV)

My first day here in India has provided me the opportunity to be refreshed and to enjoy the love of friends. PC Alexander and his wife Alice of PTL-India and their son Ashish and his wife Sonia and son Ayaan are hosting me. It has been three years since I have been here. I will be traveling with Alex throughout India ministering to leaders and churches.

The joy of our fellowship together was overshadowed with reflections on the intense persecution which Christians are facing here.

I had felt before leaving the States that God was calling me to be a messenger of joy on this trip to India. But my soul was in anguish as to how to be joyful in such circumstances. I retired early, wondering what God would have me say.

I awoke from a dream in the middle of the night. In the dream Jesus was singing over me “JESUS PROTECTS OUR LOVE and LOVE PROTECTS OUR VIEW.”

Upon awakening I immediately wrote down the words of the dream fearing that they would slip away or be altered in my recall of them.

As I pondered the meaning of these words I recalled that Mary in Luke 10: 38-42, had sat at Jesus feet and in John 12: 1-8, she washed his feet with perfume. She was criticized in both cases.

The first time she was criticized by her own sister, a good person, for being impractical. The second time she was criticized by Judas, a major hypocrite who said the perfume should’ve been sold and the money given to the poor. But Scripture adds that he didn’t care a bit about the poor but was actually a thief.

In both cases Jesus defended Mary. He said that loving him and hearing from Him is the one thing that’s important and in the second case he said that when you love Jesus you learn that there is a cosmic meaning in your actions which impacts heaven and earth. And you see things from a totally different perspective.

Mary was simply expressing her love by lavishing perfume on Jesus feet but she and everyone else there were given the new perspective that her act of love was anointing Jesus for his death and burial.

So Jesus protected Mary’s love and he brought new vision out of it to bless the world.

I thought of the major polarization even in the Christian community between those who speak in favor of the poor and the immigrant and those who speak in favor of the unborn infant. Both sides make their points strongly.

But Jesus is saying in the midst of this turmoil and conflict: “Remember that the most important thing is your love for me. I will protect your investment of love and from it you will receive a vision of how to proceed and a vision of how your love is blessing the world.

If Jesus can do this in the States for his disciples, he can do it for his disciples in India.

So as impractical or wasteful as it may seem to even good people, much less the unbeliever, the most important thing in the world is to spend time daily listening to Jesus speak and loving him and lavishing praise and worship upon Him.

And He did promise that he will protect our investment of love and from it we will gain a new perspective on how our love is impacting and can impact the world.

Thank you, Lord, for your words; they give me strength and joy.

Enos Daniel Martin