Thursday, December 22, 2011

COUNTING THE COST

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,

That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

O come, Thou Dayspring from on high,
And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

Its hard not to read that without singing the song through and in doing that truly allowing it to penetrate your very being and marvel at what Jesus truly did in coming to this earth, not as a Wealthy, Tyrannical King overthrowing Roman Rule as the Jews hoped he would, but still a King none the less, but born to a young girl, a baby born in humble circumstances, the Saviour come to save the world, not from Roman rule, but from the sin that kept them from truly knowing God.... 

More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, Phillipians 3:8

Paul so eloquently counted the cost, and counted the only worthy thing in this life knowing His Saviour Jesus, and he was willing to suffer again and again and again…he suffered the loss of prestige, social status, material things, physical comfort, he was willing to be beaten, jailed, shipwrecked … yet through it all he still stood for what he knew to be the only worthy thing in this life – to know Jesus, knowing that that was the only thing that counted for the eternal, that this world and all its trappings were worthless rubbish – fit to be thrown on the garbage dump.

Am we willing to go to those measures for the sake of my Lord? the bible clearly tells us in this world we will have trouble – but Jesus will give us His peace.  Its been a very emotional and trying week for our family, and when I stop and take stock of the ‘perscution’ we have faced, which seems pitiful and nothing in light of whatJesus or even Paul endured on this earth.  Trials however are still trials and have to be endured, which for us lately has meant being misunderstood, being mocked for our faith, ridiculed for the choices we are making for our family, but we are so thankful to those who have supported us, who have lifted up our hands when we could not, we are eternally thankful to all our wonderful friends who have made this journey possible for us.

According to 2 Corinthians 4 our afflictions are momentary and light, are they hard to endure – absolutely, I am sure Jesus felt immense physical pain when He was whipped and beaten and nailed to the cross (and He had to power to stop it) but if you read on you see that those afflications produce for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond comparison!! How momentary and light are my afflications as an American living in a comfortable materialistic society compared to how Jesus chose to live on this earth and what He did for me.

Jesus asked His own father, the God of Creation to take this cup from Him, Paul asked three times for his 'thorn' to be taken from Him, we have a huge trial we have endured our whole 15 years together, but sometimes, the very thing that we ask the Lord to take from us, is the very thing He uses for good and to accomplish His purposes, momentary and light afflications vs eternal glory...
 
So as we come close to leaving on our trip, the enemy is throwing his darts fast and furiously, and we ask that you would lift our family up in prayer, so we can keep our eyes focused on what is truly of value in this life.  Obedience seems to come with a price in this modern world we live in,  standing up for what is right will cause you to be misunderstood, but take heart dear friends cause Jesus has overcome the world, He was probably the most misunderstood person to ever walk this earth, and He was perfect, sinless, unlike myself a sinner however I am by grace, how much more should I glory in the path He has set before us, so we may ultimately bring Him the glory in His good and perfect time.

Almost 8 years ago, David and I had a choice set before us, to be obedient and move to Chattanooga, that choice made in obedience to Christ and His will for our lives, has brought us to the place we are today, it has been a long hard road, trials have come and continue to come, and we have had to make some hard and sometimes seemingly unwise choices according to the ways of this world,  but oh the joy we have in knowing that if God is for us who can be against us.

So we ask this Christmas week that you consider the cost, are you willing to pay the price to be a true follower of Christ, to obediently walk in His ways, regardless of what it may cost you, yet knowing that nothing other than truly knowing the one who came to save us – Jesus – can compare.

Emmanuel – God is with us! How we wait till the son of God once again shall appear...

If you have considered making a donation towards our trip, we are close but still needing to fulfill a portion of our anticipated support and ministry costs, and if you would like to make it as a tax dedcutible donation before year end, it can be made online at http://www.shepsstaff.org/gray.aspx  before 31 December, thank you so much...

 Merry Christmas

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