In church today we were admonished by our pastor to live life as passionately as we would if we only had 30 days left to live. How would that change things for us? What would we do differently? I know for me I parent every day. Every day I try and drop something into my children lives that will encourage them to live a life for God. I know for me it not about what truths or pearls I hold in but what it is I can share. I am an introvert by nature. It is hard for me to pour my life out to strangers. I have to do it in my profession and I have learned to train myself to give. I do well 1:1, and I do care for those that I treat. I also have better days than others, but where my heart truly lies, where I feel truly called is across the ocean...with forgotten thrown away children...What I would do if I had 30 days is say good by to my family and take my children and Michael and hop a plane to Belarus and find a special child and minister in that orphanage for the remander of my days...
Belarus and many Eastern Eurapean countries are littered with orphanages of forgotten children. They are given up because of poverty, alcoholism, drug addiction and birth defects. They are the forgotten children of these societies who languish without proper food, clothes or medical care. They don't get enough attention, love or even the basics. Russia has now decided to go to war I believe with some of the independent countries surrounding it that use to be part of the USSR, it could be just a matter of time before Belarus, the Ukraine and many other tiny countries along with Georgia are in the grips of war, what will happen to these already forgotten children? As you watch this video please remember these children, who know nothing of Christ or even the love of a parent, go to their aid by at least with your prayers...In Him...Lori
Thanks guys...this one is truly from my heart...I can not watch that video without crying espically seeing those children on the streets and the stats...it just hurts my heart, and to know there are no churches in Belarus except the underground ones...you are pursecuted for preaching the gospel there, and there are no social programs there either...Chernobyl has ravaged that country so much of it is inhabitable as well...the future is very grim for those children....
Michael...your going with me to Belarus...so your question is already answered...LOL...did you miss that? OH right that was my 30 days...OK, so your 30 days....I hate these thoughts...but yeah you get back to me...& Thanks Michael...this is about the shortest blog I'll ever write, the video does it all don't you think? Honestly, I can't wait to go...
I truly believe Lori that you (we?) will indeed see this come to pass. This isn't a desire that comes from the carnal part of you. This is a God-given desire. God would not put such a desire in your heat and then not pave the road and open the doors, or make any other provisions necessary for this to come to fruition.
2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Miss Lori...have you considered contacting my friend over there or do you already have contacts?
I have to dash to work now, but will try to come back to this when I get home tonight. What about the baby girls in China too??? And the "throw aways" with birth defects in Bulgaria?
Unfortunately, I'm on dial-up in these rural parts, so I can't watch the videos.
How about if you only had "zero" minutes to live? ...I've been there...now that's a conversation with God...that words can't really convey, it's outside of time and space too...and it's really powerful.
Actually I do have contacts Sandy...for a while just as a ministry I had missionaries stay in my home for respite in the basement, it is really a home down there and so I have many friends across the seas. Because I have been in the adoption community for so many years I also have contacts there. Our church is so large and has so many ministry opportunities I could get lost there as well. This is really a matter of Gods timing in my life not my own...
As I have been pondering on the thought of only having 30 days left to live, I was reminded of something I heard quoted from Billy Graham one time.
He said that if he were to find out that he only six months to live, he would spend 5 months in prayer and the sixth month ministering to people, or something very similar to that.
At first that statement threw me off a little bit. You would think that a man that has been seeking and serving God for as long as he has, would already have all the instruction he needed from the Father. But the more I think about it, the more wisdom I see in what he is saying. Way too often were are operating out of our own flesh and then asking God's blessing upon it.
Jesus himself said time and time again that He could only do what he had seen the Father do. Or what the Father had told Him to do. He spent much, much time in prayer.
While I realize that this doesn't answer your question, or even mine, I did find it somewhat relative and wanted to throw it out there for what it's worth.
You are really onto something...when I had to answered this question I was thinking of the one thing in my life that feels undone (there are actually two)...my life is one of redemption and you know that...and my dearest friends know that.
There is a LOT of prep time that goes into ministry. If you come from a family that has never ministered than you have to REALLY prepare the ground from what I have seen. Ministers who come from a family of ministers get to start earlier but for those of us who are called to missions or a life of sacrifice...there is MUCH preparation...God has prepared my heart for YEARS and he has prepared me in ways of skills as well, but I have some more learning to do as far as the Word goes...there are some key things I know I'm missing for me to be actually sent out...
But the question was if we had 30 days...and if that were the case...I would go to Andrei's orphanage and I would minister to him and other children there the best way I could with Allie and Hunter in tow...I would finish the best way I could on this earth what I set out to do and that was to touch the lives of forgotten children....and I would pray that gift would continue once I was gone...then I would feel like I had completed what I was sent on this earth to do and I could die with some sense of peace... because the question is not what are you being prepared for but what are you ultimately being commissioned for...
Billy Graham is above all very wise in knowing that the prep takes the longest....look at Jesus life how long was the prep and how long was the ministry? 30 days doesn't give you much prep time though...I'd just have to pray as I traveled...and during...I'd figure up to now had been prep time..
Good points indeed Lori. And you're right, 30 days does not give one much prep time.
I just love how you make me think! I heard a phrase just a couple days ago that sparked something within me. Here's what it said:
"God won't help you do nothing"
At first this sounds a little bit like it is saying "God will not help you do anything". But that is not at all what it says. It says that as long as we are doing nothing, then we really don't need God's help. Isn't that the truth. Or, God is not going to help you as long as you are not doing anything.
This reminds me of a passage in James.
3:3 Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. 3:4Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are] driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.
Now James is teaching us about how to bridle our tongues and how are lives are often blessed or cursed depending on the words we speak. But when I think about his analogy of the ship I am reminded that even the hugest of ships can be guided by a very tiny rudder.
Now if that ship is sitting still and has absolutely zero motion, you can turn that rudder back and forth all day long and the net effect on the direction of the ship will also be zero. The rudder can not even begin to turn the ship when the ship itself has no motion.
However, if the ship has even the smallest amount of momentum, then even the slightest twist or turn of the rudder has a tremendous effect on the direction the ship travels. The entire course of the journey is directed by the rudder provided that the vessel maintains constant movement.
So then, how to apply that to this 30 day concept? Good question, eh? Right now I know that as for myself, I am sitting on dry-dock. But my vessel now has a fresh coat of paint. All the leaks have been sealed, My sails have been mended. And the time has come for me to set sail. Praise God!
2:21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vesselunto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.
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