Moving on, and what we learn

This has been on my heart all week, but I had to wait until I was at the right place to share it. Our family has gone through a church-related transition recently. It has been God's leading for us, and we will continue to partner in our CEF ministry with the situation we left, while embracing the new place God has us. We have dear friends in both the old and new situations, and that won't change. Those in both the old and new situations love and serve the Lord. It has been hard, with troubling dreams some nights that come from a deep part of my heart. I experience great joy in what God has done and is doing, as well as loss and regret. I even feel guilt sometimes. What I'm about to share isn't 100% the reason for our changing situation, because, as I said, God led this way. Very few people in the previous situation contributed to what I'm going to share. However, I share because it has been part of my life story as long as I can remember. I wrote the following several days ago, but waited on God to release me to share it. I rewrote a few sentences here and there.

Our family, Easter 2025, shortly after the above-mentioned change.

As someone who cares deeply about evangelism, I am constantly disillusioned that so few churches have evangelism as any sort of priority in children's programming. They do an evangelism lesson for children the last day of VBS every summer, and just might make one other attempt all year, but otherwise, just tell cute little Bible stories with cute little crafts, and sing fun little songs with fun little hand motions. Without the Gospel, these things give no life change (But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. -First Corinthians 2:14). And yet when I include the Gospel in whatever curriculum I'm given, I am a radical, and must be stopped! If a leader is concerned that I'm not on the page they want me to be on, or that I don't know what I'm doing (I assure everyone I most certainly do), rather than forbidding me (I never obey that request anyway), these leaders should consider that maybe the Lord wants the Gospel to be part of the program, and then implement a training for all volunteers so that EVERYONE is on the same page. I am 100% willing to take trainings. I am 100% willing to adjust to different situations. For example, if I normally use the Romans Road and you want me to use the Three Circles method, or The Four Spiritual Laws, that's fine, and I will comply, as long as it is still the biblical Gospel. I am so sick of being forbidden to share the Gospel in so-called Christian situations (and as I said, I never, ever obey in those cases--ever--because I answer to a higher authority. We must obey God rather than men. Acts 5:29). This has happened multiple times in my life. This wouldn't be happening if these leaders were obeying the Great Commission to begin with. I'm not a radical. I'm an average person who will answer to God one day. I wish more leaders realized they would one day do the same.

     I remember one summer several years ago.  I was leading a group of junior high and high school summer missionaries in California.  We were doing open air evangelism and 5-day Bible Clubs around the city.  One girl on the team had a very deep burden to lead Mormons to the Lord.  One day, while we were driving between Bible Clubs, we saw some Mormon missionaries.  This girl begged me to stop the car and let her go witness to them.  At first, I kind of resisted, because I have been in discussions with Mormon missionaries before, and they were pretty fruitless, and I just didn't want to get us stuck in a situation, but the Holy Spirit immediately prompted my heart, Who are you to tell her who she should and shouldn't witness to?  I'm the one who calls her, not you!  Knowing I couldn't fight the Lord's calling on this girls' life, I pulled over and let her go witness to the Mormons.  It was a respectful discussion between them, and the Lord was in it.  But I learned such an important lesson about letting others follow their calling, and making my own calling about accommodating other Christians and their gifts as well as my own.

     If you tell any Christian not to use his or her spiritual gift, you are really telling that person they aren't a valid part of the Body, and that is the most painful thing that can happen to a Christian.  We expect rejection from the world, but we shouldn't face that in God's family.  I've spent so much of my teen and adult life distrusting other Christians because of these experiences.  It's not right.  

     I'm back to the present now, from what I had written earlier this past week.  It's hard moving on.  How can God lead us to something, then lead us away?  I'm reminded of Elijah in First Kings 17.  God led Him to the brook Cherith, with very specfic instructions about where to go and how he would be fed in verse 2-4.  This was God's will for Elijah for a while, and yet in verse 7, the brook dried up, and God redirected Elijah to the next place.  Sometimes, our brook dries up, and we have to move on.  It's hard.  It hurts.  It's not cut and dried like Elijah's story.  Sometimes we are still being blessed and fed, but we still have to move on, because God is leading us.  Maybe for others the brook hasn't dried up.  Yet in some way, He lets us know our brook has dried up, and He has a different place in store.  These are my thoughts today, and have been this week.  

Ripples

     My preschooler loves to throw rocks and other objects into any body of water he can find.  This includes the gutter, puddles, and especially the creek that runs behind our neighborhood.

     Sometimes, he'll pick up a huge rock and hurl it in.  I don't have to tell you what a big splash it makes when it hits the creek.  Water splashes all over, followed by ripples.  These ripples continue for a while, gradually getting smaller and smaller, subtler and subtler.  

     Other times, he'll throw in a smaller, more-medium-sized rock or a pinecone.  The splash is smaller by far, but I notice that the ripples are about the same.  They continue on for about the same amount of time as the ripples from a big splash.  

     Still other times, he will throw in tiny pebbles.  They barely make a noticeable splash at all, and yet little tiny ripples emanate from the contact made with the water, going on and on for just as long as the other ripples mentioned.  

     My point?  Well, our lives and acts of obedience make a splash in the world.  Some make big, obvious splashes.  The late Billy Graham made a very big splash in the Christian world.  He went down in history as a man who preached the Gospel and led evangelistic crusades.  And there are ripples effects of his ministry.  No doubt countless who were saved at one of his events went on to live victorious Christian lives, winning their own battles, making their own impacts for the kingdom.  Perhaps they led others to Christ would never have attended a Billy Graham crusade.  And then some of those people turned around and ran their race for the Lord.  They're all ripples for Billy Graham's big splash.  

     Most of us aren't big splashes.  Most of us won't go down in history.  When I was growing up, I used to wish I could travel forward in time 100 years and look myself up in the encyclopedia to see if I ever became famous (but I never did, as time machines don't exist, and now, encyclopedias don't either)!  I don't foresee fame for myself, and that's okay!  Fame does not necessarily denote meaningfulness.  Some of us are medium or small splashes.  And yet we still produce just as many ripples.  We have no idea, but by obeying God's leading in our lives, we set events in motion that God will use to bring people to Him that we might not even meet in this lifetime.  

     Not only do we all make some sort of splash, but we're also ripples of someone's else's splash.  Jesus made that first splash--a gigantic splash, of which every person who has ever received Him, or ever will receive Him, is a ripple.  

     There have been smaller but significant splashes in church history.  When the Apostle Paul was trying to get into Asia, but the Holy Spirit prevented him, and instead led him to Europe (Acts 16:6-10), that was a splash that has ripple effects all over the world.  The Gospel traveled through Europe, eventually making it to the British Isles.  From there, Christianity eventually spread to America, Australia, and practically to the ends of the earth as British Christians settled these nations, as well as eventual missionaries from all of these British-influenced countries have reached around the globe.  All of us in these nations are ripple effects from the splash in Acts 16, even though the Apostle Paul had no idea these countries would one day exist, or even that they existed as land masses in uncharted places in his day!  We really have no idea who will be blessed as a ripple effect of our obedience long after the fact!

     Paul wrote in Philippians 4:17 that those who supported his ministry would receive fruit that may abound to [their] account.  From this, I believe that those who are catalysts for a ministry, even if they themselves aren't the ones there actually doing it, receive rewards for their part.  

     Years ago, I had trained a summer missionary named Beth to do 5-day Bible clubs and share the Gospel as part of a team.  Beth led a little boy named Jason to the Lord in one of these clubs.  Jason went on to become a very powerful witness to other children, but every time he shared Christ, he would ask me, "Will I get a reward in Heaven for that, or will Beth, since she started it by telling me about Jesus first?"  I believe they both will.  These people Jason shared with are fruit that abounds to Beth's account.  But someone also once told Beth about Jesus, and someone told that person about Jesus, and so on and so forth.  Beth was both a ripple and a splash, as we all are.  

    

     Have you ever heard of Anna Bartlett Warner?   Probably not.  She was an American Christian who lived from 1827-1915.  In 1860, she wrote the beloved song Jesus Loves Me.  She originally wrote it in a novel she was writing with her sister.  Two years later, the song appeared in William Batchelder Bradbury's Sunday school hymnal.  

     Over 20 years after Anna Bartlett Warner's forgotten book was published, a teenager named Amy heard the song Jesus Loves Me, and was convicted of her need for salvation.  She received Christ as a result of this song.  Amy went on to become the famous missionary to India (you may know her by her full name, Amy Carmichael).  She saved over 1000 children from being temple slaves, and introduced them to Jesus.  She wrote 35 books.  She impacted generations of missionaries and those they won to Christ.  She enacted legal change that ended child prostitute in India.  And all of these are ripples for the largely-unknown Anna Bartlett Warner and her little song.  Some people are versions of Amy Carmichael, who make huge, obvious splashes, and others are more like Anna Bartlett Warner, and their small splashes are barely noticed at the time, and yet the ripples they produce are just as powerful!  

     Stories like this are inspiring, and I believe they happen more than we know.  But I also think that even if we don't see or know about any ripple, we can just rejoice that we have faithfully walked with Christ, influencing others for Him for one more generation.  I have seen people come to the Lord, and even if NOTHING else ever happens as a ripple, this person will be in Heaven for all eternity.  That alone is enough of a ripple to get me really excited!  And yet I believe there really are a lot more ripples than we can ever know, or ever will know until Heaven.  Keep obeying and doing what you're called to do.  Eternal difference are being made!