Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Jump In With Both Feet (11/28/19)
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TITLE: No More Excuses | Previous Challenge Entry
By Anne Warden
12/04/19 -
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In that book, we learn that Andrew grew up in a church-going family but consistently skipped church himself. He joined the Dutch army to fight in the West Indies and was an uncouth, rowdy, drunken soldier. After being shot through the ankle, he was sent home to Holland, limping painfully on his war-torn foot. Then, God got a hold of him and Andrew committed his life to serve his Savior.
Eventually, he felt called to the mission field. But he kept giving God excuses. Yes, but he wasn’t educated. Yes, but he couldn’t walk without pain. One excuse after another.
The afternoon he wholeheartedly committed to becoming a missionary, he’d painfully limped to a spot near his hometown. For hours he wrestled with God in prayer. Before the evening was over, God won the tussle. Andrew rid his thinking of all his “buts”.
Standing up, he took his first faltering yet determined ‘Step of Yes.’ Within a few strides, he felt a wrenching sensation in his injured ankle. Soon it became evident his ankle was healing. This unexpected miracle meant he had two good feet with which to follow his Lord’s leading.
No more excuses. (2)
During his first trip to Poland, in 1955, God gave him the mission of taking the gospel behind the Iron Curtain. God also gave the verse that would become his driving impetus: “Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead.” (Revelation 3:2a) (3)
The fragile churches in the Communist bloc countries were discouraged and dying. ‘Brother Andrew’ (4) made it his life’s mission to encourage them, assure them their brothers and sisters in other places were praying for them, bring them needed bibles and give them hope.
When taking a cargo of bibles across the Communist borders, he developed a faith prayer. “When You were on earth, You made blind eyes see. Now, I pray, make seeing eyes blind. Do not let the guards see those things You do not want them to see.” (5)
Faith was the big lesson Andrew had learned at the campus of World Evangelistic Crusade in Glasgow, Scotland. HAVE FAITH IN GOD! (6) God gave the command, then He faithfully went before and provided everything needed for the journey. All things – monetary funds, bibles and tracts, clothing for refugees, satisfactory border crossings, names of contacts among His children behind the Iron Curtain, willing interpreters, citizens hungry to read the Bible for themselves, and even his VW Beetle running well when, by all rules of mechanics, it shouldn’t. (7)
Once, Andrew and his wife were expelled from Yugoslavia and told to never return. But, when he needed to get to Bulgaria and Romania, the quickest way there was through Yugoslavia. So he took the risk, knowing getting caught could have landed him in prison. Or shot. But it was clear he was on the lifelong mission God had hand-picked for him. No matter the danger, he would continue doing it with all his heart, soul and might.
Why? Because God’s love for both the converted and unconverted people of the Communist countries had become his own heart’s love.
Unlike ‘Brother Andrew’, most of us are not called to be missionaries abroad or sneak forbidden bibles into other countries.
But all who profess Christianity are called to obey Jesus’s commission to “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.” (Mark 16:15) “Therefore, go and make disciples. . . .” (Matthew 28:19a) (8)
I pray Andrew’s story will drive all who sit contentedly in our comfort zones, expecting others to “be Jesus” for us. Today I challenge us to jump immediately into a habit of strengthening the discouraged and weak, and of telling the Good News of Jesus to others in our world around us.
We cannot all smuggle bibles. But, as God’s ambassadors, these things we can do. And must do. With all our hearts, souls and might. With God’s love for the converted and the unconverted.
Move out with a ‘Step of Yes!’ Have faith in God!
No more excuses.
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1 eBook edition published 2015, by Chosen Books, Bloomington, Minnesota
2 Chapter 5
3 Chapter 7, page 88
4 Chapter 16, page 179
5 Chapter 10, page 107
6 Chapter 6
7 Pages 114, 180
8 All scriptures from NLT
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