excuse #9

ok, brace yourself for this one.... it's hitting closer to home now.

excuse #9 from keith green's "why you should go to the mission field" article.

"i'd go to the mission field, but..."

"But the mission field is dangerous. God would not have me put myself or my family in danger of disease or native hostilities, would he?"

"Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?" (Numbers 14:3)

here's what keith had to say about it:

It is all a matter of our priorities - do we look at the temporary or the eternal in making our choices? It's true that you will probably be in more physical danger on the mission field than you would be in the suburbs of America, but that is part of the cost that we need to count when it comes to serving God.

The question should not be, "Will I be kept safe wherever I go?" but rather, "What is on the Lord's heart for me to do?"

If Jesus decided to go the way of least pain, He would have never gone to the cross.

There is no place of greater blessing for you than in the center of God's will.

You must stop to count the cost, but remember one thing - the privilege of serving God always outweighs the price! "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel's shall save it." (Mark 8:34-35)

my thoughts:

this life is not about me. it's about what He wants. i'll "get mine" when i get to heaven. until then, this is all about Him. and even then, i suppose heaven will be such a liberation from self-centeredness that i won't even want "mine" anymore except to cast a crown at His feet.

it is so much easier to say it than to do it. i believe it - for sure. but to believe it so totally that it becomes automatic, that's still a few steps away for me. i still make God have to nudge me or push me - sometimes shove me - the direction he wants me to go. help me, Lord, to just obey - plain old "andrew murray" type of absolute surrender.