The Last Day?

“Tonight is the night! This is it!.”, or so I thought… the final night, I would succumb to an unexpected, anaphylactic reaction.  Who knows what causes such things… too much perfume in an enclosed space… a drug reaction to a Motrin tablet, a nasty cold I picked up most likely in some airport, but my lungs began to fill with fluid and airway passages began to constrict.   As panic set in with that all too familiar feeling of slow suffocation, all I could think about was “I have not given enough… barely sacrificed… if I die tonight will God be pleased and say to me, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant’”.  Too, if I am to be perfectly honest, I was more than a little embarrassed to think I might die on a plane full of people I didn’t know.  I am a very private person so struggling to breath, spastically coughing, and choking, maybe to the point of dying while on display, was very awkward.

Now that the reaction has passed, I too can cry aloud with Scrooge, “There still is time!  It hasn’t happened yet”.  With more time, what will I do with it?  When faced with our own mortality, how will we spend the remaining time we will be given?

This week of ministry has been amazing. In fact, if I had died tonight, it would have been worth it.   I wonder if I had died would my death inspire someone to reach out to God or maybe take up the banner in Cainta.  Would there have been some glory for God in it?

Pastor Ding said something this week that I have been gnawing on… like an old bone, trying to savor all those sweet, tasty bits that I generally ignore for what is quick and easy… He told us that they are trying to buy a small plot of land across the street to expand the educational space for their school so that they could impact even more children.  He said, “Whatever land we are able to buy we want God to receive glory by changing the lives of these children. These children are the ones who matter.  God loves each of them. When we first started out, we were just having fun teaching them about Jesus and enjoying them as they explored and learned about indoor plumbing and having electricity.  But over time, we began to look back at the pictures of them when they first came. They had changed radically.  It was hard for us to believe how God had changed them.”

Pastor Ding told us story after story of his young people who lived in trees, dug through garbage dumps for food and walked from the village to the church only to fill their tummies, but now these same young people are in college or working as teachers, IT technicians, supervisors within the government, etc.  God has kept his promise to them.  God has placed them where they can now share His love and glory with others who need to hear. God has given them a future and a hope… not disaster but peace and success for the kingdom.

“By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love” (John 15: 8-9).

So, what will be your cry today? Scrooge was right, there still IS time! Why not ask the Father to point you in His direction, reveal His plan for you. Look and see Gods work for yourself and taste… to see that the Lord is good.

Take a moment to meet Pastor Ding’s children; check out this link… New Hope To Asia