The Hopeful Blues of God’s Patience…

I’ve been reflecting, again, on the enduring patience of God. Extraordinary… enduring… patience. Cebu is a wicked place on par with the voodoo-plagued Caribbean. It is not only a place where every year a garishly dressed, antique, burned babydoll idol is lifted up and given homage and reverence, but it’s one of the world’s main source and transit points for human trafficking and “sex tourism.” Yet, Cebu is still here… and it’s growing in size. God’s anger burns against it, yet His enduring patience continues. Of course, it doesn’t last forever, and one day enough will be enough and His wrath will be made manifest. And because He exhibits patience, people view it as if He doesn’t exist, yet His patience is giving them not only time to repent, but reveals His great love.

And, of course, we are here, ministering to the Deaf in Cebu and Mactan and Cagayan and Manila and Baguio while His patience endures. If He ended that longsuffering this moment, we would, like Jeremiah in Egypt, face His anger towards the wickedness of this place… yet covered by His Precious Blood, thankfully.

I’ve been weeping and interceding to a heightened degree again for this place called Cebu. The Lord needs me to do that and, although not pleasant to do, I give Him my heart to do what He wills. I do not want to see His wrath visited upon these spiritually dead, poor and sad people. Oh, how I would hope that all would come to repentance and seek Christ alone!

Recently, I became aware of a young woman named Katie Spotz who is twenty-two and currently rowing a boat solo across the Atlantic to raise awareness and money for water purification for Africa (www.rowforwater.com). She is blogging as she goes via a satellite linkup on her boat and I thought it would be interesting for our kids to watch her progress and hear from her as she makes the long and dangerous journey.

Today, Ms. Spotz gave a post about her entertainment on-board. And I was once again brought face-to-face with the enduring patience of God. She has stated, in previous blogs, that she finds looking up at the magnificent stars and at the humility of being a speck on the ocean in a universe that’s so huge… yet gives no glory to The One who created it all and gives her breath and ability to do such a feat. She is listening to audiobooks about Zen-Buddhism and giving it laud for helping her through the difficulties of the trip. Yet God continues to endure it and has given her good weather on her trip at least up to this point. She gives a list of movies she has on hand, “All Harry Potter movies, Twilight, Borat, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Two Towers, and Sex and the City.” One would imagine movies of overcoming obstacles (e.g. Chariots of Fire) or at least The Blue Planet would be somewhere on the list. Sadly, no, only movies that glorify the purient and the base are on the menu.

She is certainly given leave to do whatever she wants, as God has given that ability to her… at least for a time. My comment here is not Ms. Spotz particularly, but on God’s Grace to all who live on this planet. His unmerited gift to allow us to choose evil over good, for so long, is something that boggles the mind. I can only opine that a true, amazing gift has been given Ms. Spotz… she will see things that most of us never see… have an adventure most of us will never have… have an extended time alone with her own thoughts that many of us will never be granted… and my prayer and my great hope is that if these gifts are not understood now as being from God Almighty, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, and piques an interest in her, then later she will seek to find the God who made all this wonder and find His Son who died that she might live forever. It took me 33 years… I hope with such a gift, it will be sooner for her.

And I am always reminded that if He had decided to remove His hand from underneath me and let me fall one second before I repented and accepted Christ, then I would be eternally dead. What enduring patience You have Lord God and all of us who know you say, “THANK YOU!”

A Vacuum Conundrum…

Our kids have been asking questions about storms and wind. I’ve explained to them in simple terms that ‘more always goes to less’ and it’s that transfer of dense, cold air into hot, less dense air that creates wind and can produce rain and storms.
“Nature abhors a vacuum” is the common adage. [...]

Crossings…

We all have dreams of what we wanted to be when we grew up. One of mine was to be a bush pilot, flying fishermen and supplies to remote lakes in Alaska in my Cessna Caravan rigged, obviously, for amphibious. That didn’t pan out, so I tried for Air Traffic Control [...]