How Shall We Die?

It’s Wednesday, January 9, 2008 and Christine and I have just returned from the airport and a tearful good-bye with our dear friends from South Africa: Pastor Jacob Moses, his wife Rena and daughters Jarene and Janelle whom most of you have had a chance to meet. They have just spent over a month with us sharing their lives and their vision for the poor in Mozambique. It was a truly blessed time for all of us and they will be greatly missed. Someone commented that their leaving felt like a funeral. This seemed a strangely appropriate analogy to me.

Our reason for bringing them to America was to promote and, God-willing, to expand the work in Mozambique – the same work that our Mission Team witnessed this Summer.  And yet their return to Africa to further this life and joy-giving ministry brings with it a momentary sadness and a kind of death to us who will miss them. Of course, it can be no other way. Jesus Himself tells us in John 12:24-25:

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

And the Apostle Paul confirms this teaching in 2 Corinthians 4:10-12:

We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

What shall we conclude? That if we as a congregation are to bear much fruit for the Kingdom and bring true life and joy to many and glory to our Living Savior, we must first die. We, and all that we have, are like seeds that must be planted and perish in the soil before we can bear fruit that produces even more seeds. There is no other way.

There is a Puritan prayer called the Valley of Vision that says:

Let me learn by paradox

that the way down is the way up,

that to be low is to be high,

that the broken heart is the healed heart,

that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,

that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,

that to have nothing is to possess all,

that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,

that to give is to receive,

that the valley is the place of vision.

…let me find Your light in my darkness,

Your life in my death,

Your joy in my sorrow,

Your grace in my sin,

Your riches in my poverty,

Your glory in my valley.

What this means for 2008:

All this has clarified to me the one burning question we must continually ask ourselves as we go forward: How is God calling us to die in 2008? That is, as we pray Your Will be done, we would do well to also ask what part of my will needs to be undone? We want to receive Your blessing… Lord, what must we give? What personal desires and ambitions must we deny ourselves in order to see Your Kingdom come?

I don’t know the answer to these questions. I just know that we need to seriously ask them and trust that God will indeed answer in ways that are always for our good. Toward that end, the Elders and I have set aside 40-hours of prayer (See page 3 for more information). This will be done at the same time that Pastor Jacob and the Bethany Mission Church will be having their 40-hour vigil as well. In the meantime, may God bless and lead us into an even more fruitful year!

Your brother,

Michael