Thursday, January 12, 2012

God can use a lot of things in ways you don't realize

Got an email today from Dolly, (MC student ministry assistant/FBC Web Manager) and it was a prayer request that came in online through our online prayer request page on our website (here's the link)...  It was from Serbia.  We'll gladly be praying for them and for what God is doing, but it got me to thinking about the impact of just a small campus worldwide...just 100 people or so, could we make a difference?

The answer is yes, God can use anyone to make a difference if we are willing.  I'll share two brief things.

This last year, we sold the Bay West T-shirts and helped the village of Las Lajas get clean water for the first time ever.  The project has just recently finished...a project that should have taken 3 weeks, due to calamity and bad weather has taken over 3 months to complete.  Still, God used that time.  In having to spend the extra time with the people of Las Lajas, the workers were able to plug into the lives of the people of the village even deeper, spending more time with them.  In the process of doing that, 74 people came to know Christ and not just "say" they know him, but as our project manager said, to FOLLOW Him with their whole lives.  They will be planting a physical church, the first church, in Las Lajas and just through that, God has used us to transform a village.

Our Video Podcasts, since we started putting them up on Facebook 1.5 years ago, have been watched in over 56 countries.  People have allowed little Bay West into their lives through the Internet.  Here's a map...the blue are the countries that have watched our services online.


The lesson is this.  Obedience is what you do and the only success you will ever have to worry about.  After the "not a fan" movie last week, I imagine some of you may be re-evaluating your life situation and what reallly matters in a way that maybe you haven't before.  Sometimes, simple obedience doesn't seem to have the dramatic effect that we think should be present from the sacrifices in life, but we must remember, that true followers of Christ are focused on the following and trusting God for the results of obedience.  Consider this, as you look at your life and wonder how the results are working for you, think of this map and the shirts and wonder, "where is God using me in ways that I don't see?"  Just like an older chorus used to say "He works in ways we cannot see...", trust that.