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Big happenings on Tuesday - my birthday! I'll be a spritely 48 years old! Come and join my party at the Cove, just outside of Farragut, TN.
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I think one of the wondrous things about our God is that He’s a God of miracles. He does things that we cannot even begin to comprehend.
One of my friends Lauren Phillips is a missionary to Eastern Asia. She’s about 24 years old and is energetic in wanting to see the Lord work in and among the people of Eastern Asia. Earlier this year she read aloud a letter given to her from one of her fellow missionaries. They are called the Dao people and the letter from her friends is enough to shock anyone.
The new missionary couples came into a totally new area, the letter said, and yet when they arrived, the men of the village greeted them warmly and let them sit by the fire. While one of the men fiddled with his nose bone and smoked a cigarette, he mentioned casually that his father, now dead for almost two decades, said that the missionaries would come.
"Long ago, when I was a little boy, my father was waiting for you to come, He told me you would come," said the man. The man, in his late thirties, said that there would be people with white skin who would come and tell them about the truth about God and the way to get to see Him. "We had never seen a white person, so he told us all, don’t be afraid of their white skin! They look very different but they will become like our own brothers and sisters. They will be one family with us. They will bring a talk about God."
When the young couple added up the years, they realized that the father had told the message to his village the very year the missionaries were born!
As the missionary heard these amazing things, he thought about the passage in Ephesians 2:10 which said "God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing." This is the God that we read about in the Scripture and we talk to in prayer. He’s not a far-away God. In Isa. 43: 1-4 we read of a compassionate God whom nobody could have ever imagined. A God who openly pursues us with His love and His care. Listen to this passage:
"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you...you are precious in My sight...you are honored and I love you."
