A New Liver He Shall Have

I'm writing this post as Sarah and Micah, along with our two youngest boys (Malachi and Titus) and Sarah's parents, travel from Virginia back to North Carolina for us to meet up at Duke Hospital.

Today at around 6:30 PM we received that long awaited call from Duke saying they believe they have a liver for Micah. The liver will arrive later this evening and the surgery will likely not take place until midnight or later (probably later).

There is a possibility that the surgery would not take place if there was something with the anatomy of the new liver or with Micah, though we are not anticipating this will be the case.

So while in the coming hours and days there may be other needs to share, our greatest request is that you would pause now and as often as it comes to mind and ask the Father for favor upon Micah and the doctors and medical team.

1. Pray for God's peace to fall on Micah.
2. Pray for God's strength and grace for Micah's mom, dad, brothers, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, family.
3. Pray for God's power to strengthen Micah's body.
4. Pray for God's direction in guiding the doctors, nurses, and medical team.
5. Pray for God's healing to allow Micah's body to receive the new liver (now and in the future) well without significant complications.
6. Pray for God's comfort for the family who today mourns the death of their loved one as we give thanks for God's provision and timing for Micah.

We will seek to update as we are able. For more immediate updates, you can follow me on Twitter or read the Twitter feeds to the right.

Thank you for praying for us and Micah.

Stay on the Wall

God has entrusted to His followers the good work of His kingdom. I often share at Refuge Church that our mission is to display and declare the good news of Christ's kingdom to individuals near and far.

What greater work is there in the world?

This work is both our joy and honor to be participants with God in fulfilling.

Like Nehemiah, who passionately pursued the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the restoration of Israel as a city of light to the nations, the church is to be a people allowing God to make us a city of light, set on a hill, shining the light of God's glory and gospel to the world.

This work, however, is not easy for this work takes place in a work of brokenness, fatigue, and opposition. Nehemiah and the men who worked to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem faced it all.

Threatened with invasion and death by enemy armies, the men worked for weeks moving rubble and rebuilding the walls. In the midst of this, they were taunted and derided for their work by their opponents, while their family and loved ones begged them to leave the work and come home. Amazingly, though, none left. They all remained on the wall!

There are in life a few works in life that are so precious as to never abandon for any reason. Following Jesus in the pursuit of Him and the advance of His kingdom ranks first.

Of course there will be moments when you are opposed in the work of the kingdom. You will be belittled for following Jesus and perhaps persecuted or put to death. Sharing the gospel may not receive and warm reception. Serving the needs of the city may come under suspicion or lead to our being pushed away. The response of others changes not the importance or urgency of the work.

Throughout the Bible we are encouraged to stay on the wall. Paul said, "Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vein" (1 Corinthians 15:58). At another time, Paul reminded us that reaping comes to the faithful who do not give up or grow weary in the good work of God's kingdom.

Are you still on the wall?

Take a Daniel moment:
1.  Give thanks to the wonderful gift of Christ to be part of His salvation.
2.  Celebrate God's calling us into the work of His kingdom.
3.  Pray for strength amidst adversity and opposition, fatigue and personal struggle.
4.  Ask God to make clear where your place on the wall is and ask His help to see it through.

God Can Use What You Have

God can use what you have! I confess my own guilt of looking at how God has gifted or resourced others and thinking that if I had what they had then God could use me or do a great or greater work.

The major issue with this that God has brought me to is that I have become the focus every time this occurs. What I have to give is viewed greater than what God possesses in Himself. My power to make things happen and do His work supersede in my heart and mind the power of God that is unlimited.

But even more that all this, when I compare myself against another with the silent hope and dream of having what God has given to them, I despise the unique way God crafted me and the ways He has chosen to gift and resource me. I do not trust that God, in His great wisdom and according to His perfect will, has placed me in His mission to accomplish what He has planned for me rather than someone else.

He can use what I have. He can use what you have.

A young shepherd on the hills of Bethlehem learned that God could use what he possessed rather than what others had or tried to give him. David came into Israel's base camp and was immediately offended by a giant named Goliath who mocked God and the people of God. So he offered to go and fight.

He didn't have a sword. He possessed no coat of arms or shield. No spear stocked his arsenal. David could have looked at the giant and said, "God cannot use me to do that work because I don't have what the soldiers possess." They had training, experience, and weaponry.

What's interesting to note is that David perceptively saw that God too had given him training, experience, and weapons, though very different from the soldiers.

David had been trained while watching sheep. His greatest training included how God shaped David's heart to follow Him and live for God's glory.

He had experience that came when a lion and bear both came to kill one of his sheep. He fought both not with a sword or spear, but with his own hands and won.

David had weaponry very different from the soldiers. He had a slingshot and 5 smooth stones. It is doubtful any of us, especially me, would even dare take on a giant and the army backing him with such a weapon. Even the soldiers and king Saul thought it was crazy so they tried to give David armor and a sword.

It just wouldn't work.

But isn't that why this story is so fascinating for us? Isn't this why the story impresses us so deeply? A young man allowed God to use what He had. In doing so, as ridiculous as it seemed, it meant David was completely unable to take credit for what God did by His power through David.

I don't have a slingshot and stones. I don't have a sword or spear. I don't have Moses' staff or Paul's intellectual acumen. But I do have what God has given me. I do have the place God has entrusted to me. And God can use what I have right where I am. What about you?

Take a Daniel moment:
1.  Thank God for His power, wisdom, and perfect will.
2.  Ask God to show you what He has specifically given to you that He can and wants to use.
3.  Pray for Christ to make Himself known through you.
4.  Trust Christ to use you to fulfill His purpose where you are and with what you have.

This Sounds Crazy

Have you ever believed God wanted you to do something that didn't make sense or seemed like an odd approach? It's as if He says, "This is God and I know this sounds crazy, but I want you to do ____________ or I want you to do ______________ this way."

I think these times are for two reasons: One is to lead us to exercise faith in God and the other to leave us with no room to take the credit.

The people of Israel crossed the Jordan River to enter the Promised Land. The first battle to be waged was against the mighty city and well-fortified city of Jericho. From the beginning, God promised He would give them the land by delivering enemy after enemy into the Israelites' hands. God tells Joshua that He had already delivered Jericho into his hands with the king and fighting men.

Do we trust what God has already promised? Do we ask for things believing and giving thanks that it is already done?

It was true that God had already given the city into the hands of Joshua and Israel. What came next was merely the proof and demonstration of this. But it would require complete trust and faith. God said, "March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days….On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in."

Would you do this? This was not and is not the way battles take place. This is not the way we plan to conquer cities and defeat our enemies.

Without faith in God, this seems absurd. Who would do this? How can this work? I've never done it like this before! 

With faith in God, there's no debate. God's wisdom exceeds my own by far. God's is greater than my plans and power. When He gives a direction, there's no other way to go. To go another way is disobedience and will not accomplish His will.

Would you do it? Would you tell a million people thirsting for water to gather around for the water that is going to come as you speak to the rock? Would you lead a whole nation to walk around a city promising them its walls would fall after the seventh time on the seventh day? Would you walk to the sea and catch a fish because you would find the coin to pay taxes in its mouth?

Obedience to Jesus may look crazy. But have the faith to obey places us in the position to see His work of power. What would you do? What will you do?

Take a Daniel moment:

1. Give thanks that God doesn't work within the power and confines of humanity's limitations.
2. Ask God to enlarge your faith to do what He asks in the way He leads you.
3. Pray that God will allow you to see His mighty work of power and the beauty of His glory as you follow His leading (whenever, wherever, and however He leads).

So Close

Moses came close…real close. God told Moses to go upon the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo. From this lofty perch Moses was able to see the land of Canaan. 

Moses would see it but not touch it. He would come so close but he would not enter in and receive what God had promised. He lacked the faith to trust God and obey God's word in a difficult situation.

The people of Israel had been led out of Egypt by the mighty deeds of God. Yet they never seemed to be content and grateful. Instead, they grumbled about not have water to drink. They complained that they didn't have meat to eat. On more than one occasion they accused Moses of leading them out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. And at least once they planned to select a leader to take them back to Egypt.

Leading people is a difficult task and Moses faced every difficulty in leading a people one could imagine. We can imagine how day after day and month by month how this just weighed upon him. So we can also imagine how, when the people once again griped about not having water and God said He would provide if Moses and Aaron would speak to the rock, Moses took his staff and hit the rock instead.

He was frustrated.

He was angry.

He was weary with the people's complaints.

But most of all, he was a man who in that moment acted on his own rather than by faith. Faith in God in every situation and circumstance of life will lead to obeying God. After Moses struck the rock, God said, "Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them."

Moses did not believe God. He did not trust God. He had not faith to follow God's way. So he chose his own way. Yet God still brought water from the rock in spite of Moses and Aaron's lack of faith and direct disobedience.

As I read this passage (familiar to me) once again today, I sought to ask whether or not I am exercising faith and obedience to God in every situation and circumstance. What I do not want to be true in my life is that I forfeit the promises of God and getting to be part of God's mission and work because I fail to trust HIm wholly and obey Him fully. My heart was so overwhelmed and encouraged, though, that even when I fail to have faith and obey, God graciously gives what we need (as He gave the people the water they needed for drink).

Take a Daniel Moment:

1.  What areas in your life are you not exercising faith and obedience?

2.  In what ways are you missing out on God's work and promises as a result?

3.  Pray that God would expose these areas and help your unbelief?

4.  Ask God to allow you to exercise radical belief that leads to crazy obedience so you don't come close but never take part in what He is doing and desires for us.