What can I say other then this last week has been amazing! I spent last weekend in Nantou with the guys from Jiji and Ying Pan. I wish I could say we did something productive… and really it was in some small way but it was great to just get the chance to get together as guys and have fun. I was really sad when the weekend was over as I had an 8 hour journey back to Hualien but all boys fun with there toys must come to an end at some time.
One of the blessings this last weekend was being able to go to an English speaking church. It was an encouraging time of worship and praise to the Lord. After that we went to the mall for lunch and then parted our separate ways.
The rest of this week has been very tiring. A lot of us here in Hualien have been under the weather. In fact in two days from now Ben and I are supposed to run the Taroko Marathon… its only 5km but I’m out of shape and between the two of us not feeling well we haven’t gotten a chance to get out and fine tune these bodies of ours for the race.
A real blessing was found this morning… waking up to find that John Kerry admitted defeat to George W. Bush. I had spent most of the day yesterday after school to watch all the results coming in, seeing how close the race was I continued to pray. One thing that some of us committed to on Tuesday was fasting and praying for our President. I believe God answered our prayers and evidently we now have George W. Bush for another four years as our President.
As I traveled back from my school this evening in Si Paw (found in the middle of the Taroko Mountains)… I realized that after all the close encounters on a windy road its enough to make anyone pray. I’ve been blessed at my schools but I’m finding that I’m getting comfortable and relying on my strength. That has brought me to where I am tonight.
I was talking with one team member today about God working in our lives and asking the question is there still something that needs to be given surrendered to Him. Thinking everything is ok in my own life I find myself writing this update and realizing… I have something that’s been staring me dead in the face for the last 7 months. Is this something to let go of the answer of course is yes.
The verse the Lord gave me and a close friend from back home is for my time here in Taiwan and is new ventures in life is: “But Jesus said to him, No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." ~ Luke 9:62.
I am faced with the fact that I have looked back here in my first four months… I’ve looked back and instead of having my hands to the plow in my heart its back in the past. Taiwan is an amazing place and with that is also a challenge because all eyes are on us. Realizing that so many look to us, many are waiting to see how we will react brings me to the sobering thought I have things to change in my life.
With that said God once again has called me to a point of re focus. Once again turning from the world so to speak and putting my hand on the plow in this hidden area of my heart.
The amazing thing is that God is not finished with any of us here. God is one who is still in control. With that I find myself at his feet saying here Lord you take it… it’s yours every bit. You want my life… you don’t want me to look back well Lord here I am.
Please pray for each of us here. It’s not uncommon for many of us to be facing these things in our lives. I know it’s all of our desires to be fit for the master’s use. Pray that God would enables each of us to continue putting our hands to the plow and whatever selfishness maybe inside will be left behind to look ahead for the mark the high calling of Jesus Christ.
Reporting from Hualien
Joshua Smith
A quick note from Spurgeon that was a blessings to me today:
"For my strength is made perfect in weakness."
- 2 Corinthians 12:9
A primary qualification for serving God with any amount of success, and for doing God's work well and triumphantly, is a sense of our own weakness. When God's warrior marches forth to battle, strong in his own might, when he boasts, "I know that I shall conquer, my own right arm and my conquering sword shall get unto me the victory," defeat is not far distant. God will not go forth with that man who marches in his own strength. He who reckoneth on victory thus has reckoned wrongly, for "it is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."
They who go forth to fight, boasting of their prowess, shall return with their gay banners trailed in the dust, and their armour stained with disgrace. Those who serve God must serve him in his own way, and in his strength, or he will never accept their service. That which man doth, unaided by divine strength, God can never own. The mere fruits of the earth he casteth away; he will only reap that corn, the seed of which was sown from heaven, watered by grace, and ripened by the sun of divine love.
God will empty out all that thou hast before he will put his own into thee; he will first clean out thy granaries before he will fill them with the finest of the wheat. The river of God is full of water; but not one drop of it flows from earthly springs. God will have no strength used in his battles but the strength which he himself imparts.
Are you mourning over your own weakness? Take courage, for there must be a consciousness of weakness before the Lord will give thee victory.
Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled, and your casting down is but the making ready for your lifting up.
"When I am weak then am I strong,
Grace is my shield and Christ my song."
