This one may be a long entry but it is because I'm excited. But trust me, it'll be worth the read. I have for a long time been convinced that God moves not in the ways of travel that man expects, not linearly, but through people, events, and His Spirit. He positions things, and puts them together like this intricate jigsaw puzzle. Let me paint for you one of the puzzles from my perspective (and as usual every puzzle, when finished, has several stories it can tell).
Some time ago, my wife and I held a movie night at our house for some friends. Those friends brought over 2 of their friends saying 'they could use some encouragement'. Of course we invited them, but as is our usual habit, if people need encouraging, and just to plain have fun, we try not to bring up the business of what has them down. That conversation can wait for another time.
Suffice it to say these friends (let's call them Jack and Lois since this is a public blog), were Bible translators and something had them down. They were neat people and it was the first time I really spent time with them, and I liked them.
Some months later I was at a Bible study when a close friend of Jack and Lois mentioned that their language project was seeing very discouraging results and it looked as if the people of their language area were not going to be having a Bible Dedication.
Now let me pause here to put that last sentence into perspective. A Bible Dedication is a celebration usually the scale of a large wedding, if not larger. There are feasts, dances, ceremonies, special dresses, original songs and even buildings constructed for it. But mostly it is evidence of how excited a people group is, to receive the Word of God in their heart language for the first time. Sometimes these dedications are huge and full of obvious joy for people to be receiving a Bible. Other times, the people aren't that excited and the dedication may not happen. Worse times, the final project is met with rejection, and worse even than that, the project is abandoned. All because of the hearts of the people and how hardened they become, or how joyous they become about the Word of God.
It is a terribly discouraging time for someone who has invested decades of work into a project, to have the final product be received with apathy or rejection. And yet, we continue on because we know God has called us to the work, and we hope future generations will be able to pick up their Bible, dust it off, and welcome Christ into their lives.
So, when my wife and I heard that there might not be a dedication, we knew exactly what that meant. It meant there was a large group of people who were deciding they didn't want to let the Word of God penetrate their hearts….. even though all the work had already been done!
So, not knowing Jack and Lois super well, but having a special place in my heart for them, that night I asked my wife 'I've decided a long time ago, that I'm going to hold on to a couple of long term prayers.' Our prayer lives consist of the normal daily prayers, but also, a short list of prayers we pray for the long term. This list can't be very long, the longer it gets, the longer you spend in prayer each day and it can only be so long before it becomes unmanageable. But a prayer of mine that I had been praying for 30 years had just been answered so I had a slot open. So I committed myself, and my wife with me, to pray this very simple prayer:
"God, please give Jack and Lois an awesome Bible Dedication."
That prayer was started over a year and a half ago.
A while after that Jack came along and wanted to do an Audio Bible version of his NT. I spoke to him briefly about it, and though the outlook for the reception of their printed New Testament looked grim, He was still committed to do everything he could for future generations to be able to engage with the Bible. I was more than glad to work with Jack and get him started, as were others on our Audio team. I didn't tell Jack what my prayer for him was, I didn't see a point for it. But what I did do, is ask other people to join with me in the prayer. I invited my entire Bible study to join me in that prayer.
I don't know why, but God put this little poking on my heart that I should be praying this.
Today our weekly newsletter came out. Over a year after we all began praying this quiet prayer:
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[Jack] went on a recent trip throughout the[ir] language area distributing Audibibles. For a long time the [Jack and Lois] have been assuming there would be no formal dedication of the recently completed […] NT because there seemed little interest in such a thing. However, Jack came away from his trip tremendously encouraged. Hearing God's Word in [this language] had a stimulating effect on many, many people, and for at least one a life-changing effect. After discussions with a large group of people just before leaving, a dedication date was set: 14 April 2015. Praise the Lord and pray for arrangements that will be honoring to God and culturally appropriate.
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I can not tell you how excited I am right now. My heart has that kind of hyper joy in it right now that only comes from your Spirit being excited!! First this is an awesome validation of the audio ministry, but even more than that, it is looking like God is answering our prayer with a big fat YES!!!!
Now, before you begin to say things like 'awesome prayer warrior' please know that I'm not a prayer warrior. I know this because I know some people who are. My point isn't that prayer works, or that I'm a great prayer…. my point is this:
Prayer is not some trick or method to get God to do what you want Him to. It's not a formula for finding happiness.
God is going to do what God is going to do.
There are but 2 results of my receiving and responding the urge to pray about this.
The 1st is that I get to be totally excited because I have SEEN God's hand move in this way. My Spirit is uplifted and I am encouraged and I feel blessed, simply from the perspective that I have on this story, because I prayed.
The 2nd is that God deserves to be glorified and lifted up. Time and time again, we ask God to do the impossible, and He does it. We ask for God to be glorified, to stamp out the resistance of the enemy, to not give ground over to the wicked one, to win souls and hearts, to push back the darkness… .and HE does it. And then we… those who have asked Him to do it, nagged Him to do it, begged Him to do it,… knowing all the while He'll do whatever He chooses to do….. we talk to Him and give Him our wishes because we want Him to know what's on our hearts… but He already knows…. He just loves having the conversation. And then…. and this is one of the things I most enjoy about God…. He fulfills our request in a way that blows our socks off!!!
And so for me, the 2nd point of this last year+ of prayer is that I want to tell you, first hand, that God is awesome. And we, together will celebrate that awesomeness when this dedication happens! But already we're seeing lives change!
Celebrate with me today with Jack and Lois…. to God, for answered prayer, for changed lives, for revival in this area (Jimi Valley, Papua New Guinea), and for whatever other exciting things God has in store from this!
The reason I put the image of the Dominoes up was two fold:
1-have you ever seen a complex domino layout where the path splits and breaks into sub-paths and then in the end they all come together again? That's how this is unfolding, the way my wife and I have woven in and out of this story, only really touching the fringes, not really going into the center of it, but floating around the edges just enough to be blessed by it…. reminds me of a domino layout like that.
2-because it only takes 1 changed life, to start a domino effect in a village setting….one key event, one changed life, to affect a myriad of others.
