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Remembering the day of your salvation

MBBs, there are ways to diminish soul pain in the midst of persecution, and I’d like to tell you about one of them. I was told by a college classmate to remember my salvation during times of great pain. He said that there might be times when nothing was working, but remembering my salvation most likely would. He was right. It worked for me during very intense times, even when reading the Bible seemed to have no effect.

The word of God is always effective. I simply could not take it in by reading it in during that time. My mind was probably not able to focus properly. Yet, my soul needed to see God’s love, and the way that seemed to work every time was remembering God’s demonstrated love for me on the day that I was saved. Remembering the changes in my life, what He gave for me, that He chose me and that He would never leave made the pain more manageable. It always made me feel loved and reminded me that God was in control. It still does. Remembering makes me remember His character, which is always good.

Remembering the day of my salvation has been effective for me when dealing with intense soul pain from persecution. Please consider doing the same.

Keywords: MBB, discipleship, remembering salvation, dealing with pain, persecution

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 Posted on October 4, 2019 by

 Discipleship, MBB, Persecution

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Feeling rejected? Rub love in like a lotion.

That’s what I was told a few months after I had become a Christian. It was great advice, but took me a while to discover what it meant, even though my friend told me.

He said that though I was being loved a great deal by others, I still felt rejected because of the effects of being disowned and disinherited after becoming a Christian. He said that the love was rolling off of me like water off of a duck’s back because I did not have a way to receive it.

I knew he was right, but told him I did not know how to change it. He said that much of it was about focus. I told him that in my mind my focus would often go to the thing that screamed the loudest — in this case the pain from the rejection. Acceptance and love were not being received because their voices were being drowned in the noise from the storm of pain.

He paused for a while, looking down, brow furrowed. He took so long that his wife reached out to gently touch his shoulder, reminding him of the need to speak. I think He was praying, asking God to speak through him. I believe He did.

He continued to wait, then finally told me to rub love in like a lotion. He clarified that the kind of love I should focus on was love that agreed with the description of love in 1 Corinthians:4-8 and came from people that wanted the best for me. He said I should actively focus on that love, and continue to think about it until it went in (to my mind and soul). He said I should rub the thoughts in until all the love was absorbed into me, and that I should not stop doing so until I knew that I had been loved. I should note that I was being loved by people and by God.

He said that God was building in me the ability to receive love, and eventually I would be able to take it in fully. He said that receiving love would overcome the rejection, leaving me free to grow in Christ fully, with the ability to help others.

Receiving love in my life has brought healing, comfort and confidence. It takes time, but rubbing love in like a lotion has been helpful in receiving love and practicing Philippians 4:8-9. I recommend actively receiving love if you feel rejected or are being oppressed or persecuted — yes, even rubbing love in like a lotion. It works.

Keywords: Receiving love, lotion, rejection, persecution, oppression

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 Posted on September 27, 2019 by

 Discipleship, How God Sees Us, Love, Persecution

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You’re worth it

God gave Jesus for all of mankind. He had and has infinite worth to God. What does that say about the worth of each individual? About your worth to Him?

Infinite worth, divided by any number of people on Earth, results in every person always having infinite worth (though I believe that Christ’s life paid fully for each one of us). This means that to God each person on Earth has infinite worth.

John 3:16 speaks of God so loving us that He gave His Son for us. To Him, you’re worth it. He knows everything about you, knew what you’d do before you did it, and loves you. His opinion is more important than any, and He thinks you’re worth paying/giving the life of His Son, Jesus. That means you’re worth it.

Keywords: Love, God wants to relate, you’re worth it

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 Posted on September 18, 2019 by

 God Wants to Relate, How God Sees Us, Love

How much does God love you and me?

He loves you so much it’s difficult to properly describe. The Bible gives us great help in seeing that love. Psalm 22 contains a prophetic description of Jesus on the cross. In part of it, Jesus looks forward to telling his brothers and sisters about the salvation that they can have. Yes, He was looking forward to being with us and was talking to us while He was on the cross.

Hebrews 12:2 (WEB) says:

looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Please note the phrase, “for the joy that was set before him.“ That was not about taking up His eternal position again – He had already had that and would not have gone through everything He did to simply regain what He already had. He was wanting to gain, and that gain was you and me. His entire effort was to make a way for your salvation. His joy, then, must have been and must still be the people that He loves.

That is How much He loves you. You are so special to Him that even when He was on the cross He looked forward to being with you. You brought Him so much joy that He could endure the horror of the cross itself — the physical pain — and of becoming sin — the spiritual pain. He did all of that so that He could spend eternity with you and others. He loves each of us fully, as well as fully loving His entire church. The extent of that love for us is further shown in John 17, in which Jesus is intent upon asking that He could be in those that He loves. He, the perfect One, chose to give up everything and endure the most excruciating pain while thinking of you and me He chose to make his dwelling place inside those who believe and fully yield to Him (who follow Him as Lord and Savior). That is how close He wants to be to you and me. All of the things above show how special you are to Him and how much He loves you.

Keywords: God’s love for us, God in us, cross, crucifixion, God wants to relate

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 Posted on September 10, 2019 by

 God Wants to Relate, How God Sees Us, Love, Salvation

Seeing Christ in a friend or relative powerfully testifies to Muslims

The powerful simplicity of seeing Christ in her mother led a Muslim to follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Her story is in Discipling Muslim Background Believers. She is MBB5, and her salvation story, in her own words, is below.

The faith of my mother.  I saw the persecution that she endured and her faith.  My father had said to my mother to choose between her religion and her marriage.  And God gave my mother the word.  She was very afraid of leaving the house (we were seven children from my mother).  She had accepted to stay with him because if she left, she was afraid.  She said eventually that she preferred Jesus and he gave her a paper of divorce.  When my father left, we were in the house of a friend.  We needed to find a place to live because my mother didn’t have any money.  She had fifty dollars and that was going to be very difficult to make last.  For one year we lived with a friend, and after that we had to leave and live with the sister of my mother.  We had two rooms for the eight of us to stay in.  Some of us were outside, some in the living room.  My mother cried and prayed and then a friend of my mother proposed a house that cost sixty dollars.  God never left us with nothing. 
 
If my mother with all her persecution held onto Jesus there really was something there.  If she had stayed Muslim and it had all been good, that would have told me that it was okay, but she preferred Jesus and that really touched me.  Someone who would choose to suffer with her seven kids like that.  It really strengthened my faith.

Keywords: Muslim, salvation story, Muslim ministry, endurance, persecution

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 Posted on September 3, 2019 by

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