"Our Lord's teaching was always ANTI-SELF REALIZATION. His purpose is not the development of a person - His purpose is to make a person exactly like Himself, and the Son of God is characterized by SELF-EXPENDITURE. If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain but what He pours through us that really counts. God's purpose is not simply to make us beautiful, plump grapes, but to make us grapes that HE MAY SQUEEZE THE SWEETNESS OUT OF US.
Our spiritual life cannot be measured by success as the wold measures it, but only by what God pours through us. AND WE CANNOT MEASURE THAT AT ALL."
We have witnessed in the week that we have been here, ministries perpetuated not by finances but by passion; a family with 2 children giving up a home with space to move and a back yard, to minister to people in a community that has no evangelical church yet, where the homes are about 800 to 1000 square feet, sharing common walls, and no yard. The homes are soon tattooed with graffiti and just going to a neighborhood market is a risky adventure. We have witnessed a widow of 84, who has dedicated her life to seeing the people of Mexico deepen their walk with the Lord. She writes and publishes books, teaches classes to young and old alike, pastors and laypeople, as though she were a professor in his or her 30's. She walks up 2 sets of steep stairs to her apt. and her office. When you remind her that she is only 6 years from being 90, she just puffs and says, "Well, I used to do everything much faster".
We have witnessed a couple with 3 children that gave up a business in Chicago and live in an unbearably dirty neighborhood, where the husband takes a bus 2 hours each way, 5 days a week, to go to language school. Within the first 3 weeks of their arrival to the country, he was held up at gunpoint and robbed on the very bus he takes to school each day. With a gun pointed to his head and the knowledge that he very possibly could be murdered, he said God flooded his spirit with such a peace and he realized that he was ready to die if necessary.
This is only a sampling of what we have witnessed this week. It begs the question,
Am I prepared to pour out my life for Him? Personally I can say that the desire to do so is even greater today that it was a week ago.
