Meditations

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. John 15:9

“Our journey toward abundant living is like walk a spiritual labyrinth repeatedly, from an ever-deepening inner space. We walk toward the center to be transformed by God’s love, then we walk outward to transform our small space in the world by reflecting God’s love. There is no intention to trick us or get us lost along the journey. But there is mystery. Always mystery. And awe. And amazing grace.”

Marilyn Brown Oden in Abundance (Upper Room, 2002).

In a labryinth we walk an unexpected set of twists and turns to get to the center. It is a picture of growing closer to God and abiding in His love.

Then the journey of dispensing His love becomes also a winding pathway of spreading love and blessing, and each step of the way we grow deeper.

This trip to Malawi has stretched me and produced fruits I never dreamed. I will work on my trip report whilst riding from Lilongwe, Malawi to Tete, Mozambique.

Stay tuned for that. I plan to just do one report that journals and recounts the Malawi, Mozambique, Eswatini, and South Africa trek.

It will be a long journey with time for reflection. Along the way, I also need to be fllled with more love from God to minister in Mozambique. Do the same where you are.

Spend time with Jesus to be filled with abundance so that you can make the grace-filled journey of growing in generosity and spreading God’s love wherever you go.

Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives. Titus 3:14

“For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.”

David Livingstone (1813-1873), Scottish physician and pioneer Christian missionary to Malawi, where I am serving this week. His name is honored across Malawi. May we all see sacrifice as a privilege, and in so doing, make an impact that has a ripple effect for generations!

Yesterday I had some very strategic meetings with John Msowoya, Levton Nyirenda, and Chris Maphosa by Lake Malawi. It went better than expected. We got a vision for next steps for how to spread generosity in Malawi and Southern Africa. I can’t share the details now, but I will in the coming weeks.

When this Daily Meditation posts I’ll be with a tent full of people talking about “Strengthening Churches and Ministries for Sustainability.” Tomorrow, Chris and I will travel by car to Mozambique. Please pray for safe passage from Lilongwe, Malawi by road to Tete, Mozambique, and then by air to Maputo.

In the meantime read this quote again. Think about what God may be asking you to sacrifice, which really when you think about it, is just a privilege when you think in terms of all God has done for you. Resolve what changes you will make, and what giving you can do as a result.

Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Luke 16:1-2

“I’ve squandered more money and time on toys and diversions that I would like to tell. We are allotted only a few years to labor in this vineyard. Are we squandering or investing the precious resources of time, talent, and treasure which have been entrusted to us by our heavenly Master?

Ken Boa in That I May Know God: The Pathways of Spiritual Formation (Multnomah, 1998).

As Christmas season is a gift giving season, rather than squander God’s money on toys and diversions, invest it on mission somewhere. To support the work of GTP in Africa, click here.

Good news today from Malawi. We had to move from a hotel to a big tent to accommodate the group they anticipate. It’s exciting that 150+ pastors and ministry workers plan to attend.

Chris Maphosa and I will do a seminar on Saturday from 8am-2pm on “Strengthening Churches and Ministries for Sustainability” as many cry out for help and counsel. Please pray for us.

Malawi is a very poor country. We are helping pastors from remote areas by aiding them with their bus fares of $3 to return home. That shows how gifts of even small sizes make a big difference.

Perhaps I will stay with you for a while, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. 1 Corinthians 17:6-7

“Perhaps our most hidden sin is that we have so little time for one another. We need so much more than television [and other forms of technology] have to offer. We need to relearn how to relate eye to eye, hand to hand, heart to heart. We have to encourage one another to keep walking toward Jesus, toward joy, toward truth.”

Edward Farrell in Free to Be Nothing (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1991).

When I started traveling internationally, each of my trips looked like a “missions” of a special forces group: in and out. Over time, I have come to realize that my role needed to move beyond dispensing information to giving myself to God and others. That requires an investment of time.

Now my trips appear as “deployments” because I have learned that time together, face to face, fosters discipleship. It happens outside the program activities. Jesus taught the masses and then spent unstructured time with a small group. How does this relate to generosity?

It’s the “how” of giving ourselves to God and others freely and fully. We block the greatest gift we can give others: time. This Advent season, as you celebrate Immanuel, who is “God with us,” go give someone your time. And you do not need to do anything big or costly in doing this.

For example, I shot this header photo from Tambalale area 23, a mountain outside Lilongwe, Malawi, on which people go to pray. Chris Maphosa, GTP regional facilitator, and I invited others to join us. Four brothers did. It was a rich time together. Better than a tourist attraction!

We prayed for God’s blessing on our training on 11 December with workers from across the country, worshiped in song, read Psalm 2:8, and asked God for Malawi in the name of Jesus.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever. Psalm 136:1

“So conscious was Jesus of the steadfast love of God enduring throughout the meandering course of human history that He could give Himself freely and fully the current events surrounding Him. Far from being swept along by time’s rush and tumble, Jesus lived life purposefully and therefore patiently.”

John Mogabgab in The Blue Book: A Devotional Guide for Every Season of Your Life, edited and compiled by Jim Branch (Middletown, Delaware, 2020) 262.

Mogabgab reveals a secret I needed to know for my journey to Africa and through all of life. The way to give myself freely and fully—quite possibly my greatest act of generosity—is to focus on the steadfast love of God. I am confident that this is how God desires to grow us.

This text, Psalm 136, will be my centering prayer for this trip. No matter what happens, I want to remind myself repeatedly that “His love endures forever.” This will help me stay on purpose and patient when I face uncertain situations or spiritual opposition.

In focusing on His unfailing love, it makes us into people of faith in the face of fear. He transforms us into conduits of generosity, not because we possess riches, but because we tap into His abundant supply. He causes us to live purposefully and unflappably when most wander lost and flapped.

This happens when we focus on His love. I don’t know where you are at today. What challenges rage around you? What “rush and tumble” circumstances exist in your context? But I know this. You can give yourself fully and freely because nothing is greater than God’s love for you.

I needed to read this upon my arrival in Malawi. It positions me to be fully present and aware of all that is going on around me. We can all do this: focus on the unfailing love of God and remain undistracted on our mission of service with spiritual discernment, purpose, and patience.

This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 9:23-24

“The man [or woman] who knows God hears His step in the tramp of daily events, discerns Him near at hand to help, and hears His answer to the appeal of prayer in a hundred happenings outwardly small and insignificant, where another man [or woman] can talk only of remarkable coincidence, amazing accident, or peculiar turn of events. That is why periods when the life of faith is strong and men [and women] have enthusiastically surrendered themselves to God, have also been times rich in miracles.”

Walter Eichrodt in The Blue Book: A Devotional Guide for Every Season of Your Life, edited and compiled by Jim Branch (Middletown, Delaware, 2020) 258.

On my long flight across the ocean from Newark to Johannesburg, I felt the Lord make something abundantly clear to me about my trip.

I am to ask questions about the challenges the local people face, listen to their answers, and then I am to ask more questions to help them see how God is at work, how He cares for them, and how He supplies what they need for enjoyment and sharing.

What does this have to do with generosity?

I believe that what hinders people from living, giving, serving, and loving generously is not a lack of resources but having the wrong perspective about God and about all they possess.

This insight applies in Africa and everywhere else. If you sense generosity lacking, ask questions, listen, and ask more questions to help those you serve find God in the “tramp of daily events.”

Once we find Him there, we realize He is everywhere. Helping people grow in generosity comes into view as helping them know and hear God. This gives us all courage to play our role which positions us for “times rich in miracles.”

I am typing this from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Around the time it posts, I will arrive in Lilongwe, Malawi, where I will serve for six days.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5

“The work is God’s work, the poor are God’s poor. Put yourself completely under the influence of Jesus, so that He may think His thoughts in your mind, do His work through your hands, for you will be all-powerful with Him to strengthen you… Make sure that you let God’s grace work in your souls by accepting whatever He gives you, and giving Him whatever He takes from you. True holiness consists in doing God’s will with a smile.”

Mother Teresa in A Gift for God (New York: Harper Collins, 1996) 37. When this posts I will be somewhere over the Atlantic between Newark, New Jersey and Johannesburg, South Africa.

There may be no better person to approach for inspiration to serve the poor than Mother Teresa. I confess, in reading excerpts from her today, I was so humbled by her wisdom, learned from the poor.

As I venture to poor countries (Malawi, Mozambique, and Eswatini) serving two-by-two with Chris Maphosa from Zimbabwe, I am asking Jesus to give me His mind and pour out His grace to work in my life to learn.

I want to be “under the influence of Jesus.” Everyone sees me as the teacher, so I want Him to strengthen me to do my part. But I pray for grace to accept whatever He gives or takes from me and to do it with a smile.

God help me do this with grace and generosity in Africa over the next two weeks, and God help you do it wherever He has placed you for the good of those around you I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2

“Accept with gratitude the brothers God gives you to go with you on the way.
Your task is to serve and upbuild one another as members of one body.

To the extent that you are filled with His Spirit
and ready to die that others may live,
to that extent will you grow in unity
and reflect the face of Christ more and more clearly.

And to the extent that you are ready to die together that others may live
will your community bear fruit for the coming of the Kingdom.

Then put aside all ambition,
and no longer concentrate on yourself.
Be constantly converted to your brothers
and place yourself in God’s hands.

Give instead of demanding,
trust others instead of compelling their trust,
serve instead of being served,
bless instead of cursing.
And be sure that when you have done all things well
you will still be an unprofitable servant.

So be attentive to the others,
not in order to dominate or exploit them
but to work for their happiness discreetly and effectively
and to build them up in all the riches of faith and love.

And you, accept from your brother the help you need.”

H van der Looy in Rule for a New Brother, 3.

I am flying from Denver (USA) to Newark (USA) to Johannesburg (South Africa) to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) to Lilongwe (Malawi) over the next two days. Thanks for your prayers for safe travel.

In Lilongwe, I will meet up with my brother, Chris Maphosa (GTP Regional Facilitator for EPSA) who travels there from Mutare (Zimbabwe). Both of us will travel for two days.

Chris is an answer to our prayers at GTP. We pray for God to raise up workers to work in underserved parts of the world. I have gotten to know Chris through the COVID season.

He attended many GTP trainings online and has become a dear friend and now our EPSA (English, Portuguese, and Spanish speaking Africa). I am grateful to God for our growing friendship.

From 7-21 December we will minister and have many meetings with influencers on the topic of “Strengthening Churches and Ministries for Sustainability in the capital cities of Malawi, Mozambique, and Eswatini.

We have dedicated the first three days to prayer and discernment, asking God for these three countries (Psalm 2:8) and for wisdom for this trip and for the way He wants us to go over the next year.

We give our lives as living sacrifices to meet the needs of people in some of the poorest countries of the world so that they might become rich in faith and love. Make it so, Lord Jesus.

If you want to support this three-country effort in prayer, reply and I will share our detailed schedule for prayer. If you want to help cover the costs of this trip, make a gift at GTP.org. Thank you.

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. Luke 2:10-11

“Do not look for rest in any pleasure, because you were not created for pleasure: you were created for spiritual joy. And if you do not know the difference between pleasure and spiritual joy you have not yet begun to live.

Life in this world is full of pain. But pain, which is the contrary of pleasure, is not necessarily the contrary of happiness or of joy. Because spiritual joy flowers in the full expansion of freedom that reaches out without obstacle to its supreme object, fulfilling itself in the perfect activity of disinterested love for which it was created.

Pleasure, which is selfish, suffers from everything that deprives us of some good we want to savor for our own sakes. But unselfish joy suffers from nothing but selfishness. Pleasure is restrained and killed by pain and suffering. Spiritual joy ignores suffering or laughs at it or even exploits it to purify itself of its greatest obstacle, selfishness.”

Thomas Merton in New Seeds of Contemplation (New York: New Directions, 1961) 259.

There’s a common Christmas song that touches our hearts: Joy to the World. This got me thinking about what brings joy. It’s not pleasure or purchases, though that’s what the marketers will tell you.

It’s found in Jesus. Read again the proclamation of the angel. The first part is not to fear. As Merton notes, life in this world is full of pain. It’s real and it is everywhere. But don’t fear it.

You see most people use what they have to run from pain to pleasure. It only leaves them empty. Instead, we must instead pursue joy. To do this we must do one thing: steer clear of selfishness.

Where am I going with this line of thinking? The good news was that a Savior was born for all people, who would save us from ourselves, because selfishness will destroy us and steal our joy.

Let’s do something else instead. Let’s use what we have to make Jesus know, as He offers joy to a world gripped with fear. And be aware of his killjoy tactic, namely, selfishness.

If the evil forces, like Wormwood in Screwtape Letters, can get you to be fearful on one hand or selfish on the other, you will get off track and not relay the message the angel’s proclaimed.

Alternatively, when we renounce our selfish desires we actually find what we have been looking for all along. It transcends pain and troubles and surpasses all pleasures. It’s joy!

Generosity is using all you are and all you have to grasp this and help others take hold of this joy. It’s what Christ modeled in coming to us in the first place.

Jenni and I observe Christmas today with Sammy, Emily, Sophie, and Peter, as I head to Africa tomorrow. I have one ultimate aim on this journey: to spread joy in some of the poorest places in the world.

Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations He has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; He burns the shields with fire. He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Psalm 46:8-11

“In times of upheaval, a voice from heaven says, “Be still and know that I am God.” It doesn’t say, “Be still and know why.” In a distant day the gradual sacrament of understanding may be offered to us. Today what is offered to us in the body and blood of Christ who suffered, as George MacDonald once said, not that we might not suffer, but that our suffering might be like his.”

Ken Gire in The Weathering Grace of God: The Beauty God Brings from Life’s Upheavals (Vine Books, 2001).

Many are going through hard times. There are two things we must remind them to do (and this comes into view as the greatest gift we can give them).

Firstly, be still. Relax and reflect on what God has done in the past and rest assured He will be exalted in the future. So in the meantime, we have nothing to fear (in a world filled with fear).

Secondly, know that the God we serve is greater than any opponent. So, as I travel to Africa, I am asking God to be with me, be my fortress, and go before me to conquer any opposition.

What about you? Are you going through hard times? Sit quietly and yet confidently in this statement: “Be still and know that I am God.”