What's the BIG Deal?

    The BIG Deal no matter where one lives and works, whether it's in your home country or half-way around the world, is to bring glory and honour to our risen Lord!  How do we do this?  In so many ways, such as staying in tune with His Spirit and worshipping Him on a daily basis -- staying in the Word, in fellowship with other believers, in prayer, in song, etc. --  by being always ready to share the faith with anybody we come into contact with, with "gentleness and respect." -- by confessing your sin and turning from it -- by loving and serving our neighbour, (or our family members) out of love for Christ -- by cleaning toilets, housing people, giving away food, adopting orphans into your home, caring for the elderly-- by loving Christ so much that it shows in the way you give respect to all people and do not slander them even if you disagree with their views; wives, by not disagreeing with your husband in front of your children, etc; By following Christ and being obedient to Him, if it ever comes to it, to the point of death: obedience and respect to the government God has established over you, unless they try and make you renounce your faith, or something dreadful like that, then being committed so wholeheartedly to Christ, that a jail or death sentence on this earth would be counted as joy.
    How HARD is it to live the Christian walk, to walk the walk and not just talk the talk?  Quite hard!  But that is why He has given us His Spirit to live in us, and teach us, and guide us, and convict us in the way to go.  That is why He has promised us that He shall never leave us, never forsake us!  What a blessed promise that is, and we know we can trust Him always!  We know that nothing on this earth can separate His children from His love: not trouble, sickness, nakedness, persecution, death, demons, nothing.  (Romans 8) Remember, that as a believer, if you come down with cancer or something horrible, and God does not choose to heal you completely, that does not take you out of His great love for you.  If your child dies, God loves you just the same as if your child was still living.  We don't know why certain circumstances will happen in this life, but we do know we have a loving God whom we can trust to carry us through, and strengthen our faith. If you do not heal from a disease, it does not mean your faith is weak.  It might just mean your faith is growing stronger by the day, for you are learning to rely more upon the Father.

    I don't know why I just wrote all that.  I was supposed to be writing about Ivan.  Recently, God gave me an opportunity to bring Him glory by helping one man in our community come to know Him personally.  It was such a blessing, I love doing that, and it's neat to know that God allowed me to be home (Jared was gone), and allowed me to talk and pray with him.  We had not met him before, and he came of his own accord to our house in order to pray and follow Christ.  It was the highlight of my day and brought such joy and happiness to my heart to know that I had a new brother in Christ.  That's the BIG deal.