Dear Friends,
We are ready to depart the Solomon Islands after 15 years. I would like to leave this message to the SI church but also to the broader church before we leave.
I want to share the three things that are crucial for effective ministry to take place. These items are essential. I was reminded of these again today as the Lord came to me in my devotional time.
First, it is essential that the Lord's blessing be upon you. Actually through mechanics, a leader with a charismatic personality, and the right programs and ingenuity can build quite an empire without the Lord. That said I am talking about building a strong spiritual ministry. I'm not interested in building a man-made empire but rather in building the Kingdom of God. For this to take place you have to have the anointing which comes from the Holy Spirit and following His will in your life. Prayer is quintessential to this process. Prayer alone if by prayer one means talking to God it is not enough. Prayer also involves a listening component and as a result of this listening it involves doing the will of God. I do not know God's specific will for each person, (e.g. what type of occupation God is calling you into, or who you should marry) but the Bible is full of God's general revelation that is for all those who trust in him. It is our job to read the Bible and follow HIS general revelation like "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself." Then He will from time to time reveal his specific revelations and will to us through our quiet time of listening prayer.
Second component to building a strong ministry is man-power. We need people. People are the harvest. Jesus said we are to pray for laborers into the harvest field. It is God who calls, but we have a part to play. For someone totally committed to the Lord, someone who loves the Lord with his/her total being and who loves others as oneself, for someone that much in love with God and others it makes sense that they would seek with all their heart to do the will of God. We are not lone individuals, but we are called out from the world and in community with others of like mind and passion so that together we can accomplish the impossible. We have many talents or parts but we are one body and together with God we can "move mountains". Where there is disunity there is trouble.
Third element needed is resources. Where do the resources come from? The harvest, or the people, for as people are committed to the Lord and they realize who the giver is and where everything they have comes from, it is all available to be used by the Lord. The tithe is just the minimum but when God says give, we obey and give. When God says go, we obey and go. With those focused on God and have the proper perspective on ownership and realize that we are stewards. Of course we have things that we claim and that have our name attached to it, but it can easily be taken away. Jesus preached in his sermon that we should store our treasures where moth, rust, and I might add mildew, can not destroy it. We should use whatever God has entrusted us with to build the Kingdom. We need to enlarge our vision. When a 5 year old child says, "Mine". We refer to that child as being stingy, but when an adult holds onto things and refuses to allow God to use these things, what do we call that person? Is he/her a mature Christian? Everything must come under the Lordship of Christ.
The challenge I want to make to the Solomon Islands Church is to stop looking to the outside {Field, Global Mission, etc} for the resources. Instead obey God and give what you have and pray the Lord of the harvest to call laborers. Pray for God's blessing and God will build His church in the Solomon Islands. If Jesus, God's only son, can take 5 loaves and 2 small reef fish and feed 5000 people, how can God multiply what we have? God only knows, but we have to obey. As pertaining to resources we have to use whatever God entrusts to us responsibly and utilize all resources with the upmost integrity. We must maintain trust, transparency, and accountability.
May God Bless you all
Uncle George Miller
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Solomon Islands? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Solomon Islands in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez
Dear George,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for the wonderful letter that you sent to me from Solomon Islands. If you wish, you can see their picture at my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com
I send you again my sincere wishes of health and happiness to you, your family and friends and at same time I hope you can make your work in Solomon Islands in a pleasant way.
A hug from Spain
Emilio Fernandez
Emilio, I don't often read my comments. That is why it took me so long to get the letter to you. Also your comment of May 6th I just read today. I trust you are doing well and your collection is progressing. As you see from our Blog we relocated to the Philippines at the end of May. It has been an excellent move for us. I am serving as Chaplain of our Bible College which also has an elementary and high school with it. God has been good to us. I trust you are following and serving the Lord. I know it is more challenging these days but year ago I developed a very intimate and personal relationship with God. HE has been may constant companion. I trust that you are also serving him. God Bless you and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
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