[Ohio-Communities-of-Faith] FW: [CWWC] KEEPING FAITH SIMPLE

[Michael Moore]

From: committed-walk-with-Christ at groups.io
[mailto:committed-walk-with-Christ at groups.io] On Behalf Of Mr. Ed via
groups.io
Sent: Monday, December 13, 2021 11:12 AM
To: Mr. Ed
Subject: EXT: [CWWC] KEEPING FAITH SIMPLE

 


KEEPING FAITH SIMPLE


The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to
them.
<https://link.biblegateway.com/click/26021974.5069/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmlibGVnY
XRld2F5LmNvbS9wYXNzYWdlLz9zZWFyY2g9UHMuMjUuMTQ/5ef562bd10222374f46b6174B5429
3c16> Psalm 25:14

Our Open Doors colleague, Ron Boyd-MacMillan, shares the following insight
from his teaching, "Why I Need to Encounter the Persecuted Church."

On his first visit to America, I took a Chinese Bible teacher to a Christian
bookstore. I was not prepared for his reaction. I thought he would be
overwhelmed by the variety of Bibles, reading aids, books and multi-media
material on show. He was, but not in the way I expected. He stopped in the
middle of the store, turned to me and said, "It must be very hard to be a
Christian here."

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"How are you going to keep your faith simple with all this available?" We
walked around the store as he told me what he meant. He picked five books
off the shelf. All had similar titles like The Christian's secret of a happy
life. He leafed through them and said, "Each book seems to say there's a
secret to living a happy life in Jesus. But their secrets are all different.
They all say there is one secret, but each has a different secret? That's
confusing."

"Well, that's just marketing" I explained a little defensively. But he went
on. "Does that mean I have to buy all five books to really know Christ? That
makes me anxious. What other secrets might I not be aware of? I have to buy
more books. And soon, I would have more books than I could read, and I would
not be happy, but guilty that I had spent money on all these books that I
had no time to read."

He put the books down on the floor and said quietly, "In China, I prayed for
God to bring me books. He did, but only at the rate of about four per year.
So I read those books thoroughly. I copied out passages. I made summaries
for teachers. I learned whole chunks by heart. These books really formed me.
The point I'm trying to make is that if you have too many books, it's
difficult to read one properly. I'm not saying it's impossible, just hard.
And this variety actually makes faith more complicated than it really is."

He taught me a daily habit he learned in prison. "Every morning when you
wake up, don't get up; just stay in bed and for ten minutes thank God for
anything that comes into your mind. It might be the wallpaper, it might be
for friends, it might just be for life. Anything. Once you get going you
discover that the world is full of grace, God's grace. With that attitude
you are ready to live the day for God because you are overwhelmed at how
generous God is to you."

It's so simple, and yet isn't there something in us that finds the simplest
activities so hard to keep up? Maybe that is why we pack our lives with an
infinite variety of routines and habits. Anything but just continually doing
what is simple.

A Vietnamese evangelist said, "We are to stay in the first grade, grateful
to Jesus, repentant for our sins, expectant of his coming. Don't graduate or
you'll leave the basics behind."

RESPONSE: Today I will live my life simply - back to basics of praising,
praying, witnessing, awaiting.

PRAYER: Help me, Lord, to stay in first grade so that I will never leave
behind the basics.

Provided by Bible Gateway:

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