Extra Baggage, Won't Fly
Read: Hebrews 12:1
Meditation: Where we live in Sioux Lookout, Ontario, float
planes are constantly buzzing down the lake in their attempt to get
airborne. In fact our house is located right next to where float planes
load up and then push off out into the lake in their attempt to take
every thing from fishing poles, to food, to well just about anything,
further north and to outlying isolated places. Sometimes pilots, flying
the classic old "Otter", will even strap small fishing boats
to the sides of the plane just above the flats and then attempt to take
off. This is a rather strange sight. The first time I saw this I really
was not sure the plane would actually pull out of the water and fly. But
it did!
This, however, is not always the case. Sometimes we watch planes race
down the lake and make every attempt to get airborne but to no avail. I
have seen planes come back and make as many as three or four attempts to
get airborne before giving up. They simply are forced to return to the
dock and get rid of some weight. Of course most pilots are very careful
and know how much they are carrying. They make sure they are not
over-weight before they leave for their trip. But every now and then
someone tries to leave with too much baggage but in the end they simply
can't fly.
This reminds me of my own journey following Jesus. So often I want to
hang on to unnecessary "stuff" and things that keep me from
flying freely and soaring above spiritually. Sometimes I too, will make
every attempt to hang on to "extra baggage" but then in the
process I am not able to serve Christ in the way I long to and in the
way He wants me to. The writer of Hebrews encourages us to
"...throw off everything that hinders..." (NIV Heb 12:1) or as
the King James puts it "...let us lay aside every weight..." (KJV
12:1).
What is it that keeps you from "flying"? Or if you are
"flying" what is it that you are tempted to load up your life
with that pulls you down and keeps you from really flying freely. Ask
the Lord today to continue to guide and direct you so that you would
truly be able to, as Hebrews encourages, run the race marked out for us
(you)?
Prayer: Dear Lord, I know You long for us to be free from
those things that weigh us down. We ask that You would give us wisdom to
know what those things are and then to give us the courage to let them
go. Thank You for the way You will answer our prayer in our desire to
run this race in freedom for You glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Rick Martin
Ministry Staff
Sioux Lookout,
Ontario
After You Close the Bible
Read: Luke 10:27
Meditation: "Welcome aboard, Bob. The coffee is on and we
have ice cream."
Bob is a caretaker for a home on an island in an isolated and
beautiful spot in SE Alaska. He and his dog, Spud, are by themselves for
days or weeks at a time. Bob is always eager to talk to someone other
than Spud or the sea otters, so after helping us tie the CHRISTIAN to
the rickety float, he comes aboard. And, for a man who has no freezer,
ice cream is a treat.
So we talk. Bob always welcomes new reading material so we bring him
our old magazines and an occasional book. Where is God When It Hurts? By
Philip Yancey was the latest book he read.
For some time Bob has been listening to radio preachers and talk
shows, and reading the Bible and other books. In his time alone, he has
had an opportunity to mull it over. He is an intelligent man and he has
apparently been "separating the wheat from the chaff."
"Yes," Bob concludes, "God wants our praise and
adoration, but I think He's more interested in our obedience."
And he also opined, "It's what you do after you close the Bible
that's important, how you treat your fellow beings, what you do on
Mondays..."
Bob has been doing some serious thinking.
Prayer: Help us too, Lord, to do some serious thinking about
what You would have us to do and to desire Your power that accomplishes
it through us. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Alice Borg
First Mate, M/V CHRISTIAN
Wrangell,
Alaska
Speed Not Required!
Read: 2 Peter 3:9b
Meditation: Ann was there in the gymnasium that day. We were
meeting with people of one of the Native communities around us. Bev and I
were there to talk with them about creating a more effective Christian
ministry presence on the reserve. The Stoney and Cree people brought
together in the formation of this small reserve have struggled for many
years to have a vibrant, active Christian witness.
Several missions have made efforts. Unfortunately, the outcome has been
small fractured groups - sometimes only one family - meeting occasionally
for prayer, fellowship and sacrament. Consistent worship and witness has
been all but absent. Aided by the many interpersonal conflicts that
frequently plague the human community, things seldom really got off the
ground.
Yet here we were on a warm summer day talking about a new effort of
ministry to make a difference in the lives of these people, bringing
together for the first time, individual Christians from across the reserve.
They were eager - I was eager. How quickly, we all wondered, might we see
some results? "Time and patience will tell," said Ann. Ann, an
elder woman and two years a Christian, was optimistic, unwearied by the
prospect of time. After all, Jesus had changed her life! It had taken many
years she said, but God was patient with her and God had done it.
I have wondered at Ann's words many times since. She shared a lesson that
day about patience - God's patience. Her words confirmed Peter's: "God
is not slow concerning His promises, but is patient..." God had been
working among these people for many years, and has not lost hope for them,
so who am I to expect the work to be completed on my schedule? His work is
done in His time.
Ann is a living example.
Prayer: Father, You are always patient, allowing each of us to be
won by Your Spirit in the right time. So, I pray, help me be Your patient
witness to all people so that Your Spirit may work the work of salvation and
transformation in Your people in Your time. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Rev Terry LeBlanc
Director of Cross Cultural Partnerships
Evansburg,
Alberta
Knowing the Truth brings Freedom
Read: Proverbs 29:18
Meditation: I am one of these people who are computer illiterate.
I only know the basics of running a computer. I can turn the button switch
on and find the Word icon on the screen and away I go. But ask me to do a
layout with pictures and borders on my paper and I am lost. Yet our computer
has all these programs that can do many neat and wonderful things but are
useless to me because I have no idea how to do them and have no idea what is
all available to me.
Many times our life can be like that. We can let experiences of our lives
keep us in a stupor and in the miry pit because we do not fully understand
what all Jesus has to offer to us in our struggles. We as people of God
have, within our reach, spiritual blessings that can enable us to experience
life fully in the midst of hard things.
A Tribal Band Council leader at a recent two-day conference, in which I
was one of the two teachers, stated, "More leaders need to hear this so
that they can understand and be able to help our young people." Our
ministry is to bring the Gospel to the Aboriginal people in the most
northern places as well as teaching on social topics that my people group
struggle with. Often the struggle that my people go through leads to such
despair that many of our young people will opt for suicide. Part of the
problem in our situation is that many of my people lack the proper
understanding of the social issues that plague them. Many times then
despair, discouragement and depression overwhelm them. We then, as a
mission, provide teaching on many of the social issues that plague my
people. It is in being aware and understanding these issues that one can
begin to have hope and began to experience personal healing. Individual by
individual, conference by conference, we go against the complexity of the
social situation of my people, bringing truth, hope and healing. It is sort
of like helping people find the right icon in their life to begin the road
to healing through Jesus.
What is it that is preventing you from experiencing the life that is in
Jesus? Is it discouragement? Is it anxiety? Whatever it is ... you are not
alone. Reach out to others who can help you better understand your
struggles. Especially reach out to Jesus to walk with you. He stands always
ready to welcome us into His love.
Prayer: Dear God, I pray that today I would seek to understand
more of who You are and what You have to offer me. I pray that I might be
able to live today in the knowledge of my spiritual blessings. In Jesus'
name. Amen.
Linda Martin
Ministry Staff
Sioux Lookout, Ontario
The Messenger Comes
Read: Malachi 3:1
Meditation: The name of this book in the Bible means "my
messenger". As the people of God were given the prophet hundreds of
years before Christ, calling them to be faithful to the Lord, so today we
are able to share in that message. I enjoy the summer trips to villages on
the Arctic Coast to spend time sharing Jesus with Youth in those
communities. Because of coastal fog during summer, I try to plan to stay
with the teams during the weeks there. Old friends come and greet our
arrival no matter what time we show up on the flight. It is great to visit
with the community leaders and village elders again. The kids always get
excited to come together for time in games, song and story telling. The
energy level must be somehow linked to solar energy because those kids keep
going almost 24 hours. It is hard to rest when the sun is still up at 3am.
But the morning is usually a quiet time, a good time for reflection on God's
Word with group study in our teaching team. After the Bible School programs
we gather in the evening for adult study and conversation. Several adults
might play guitar and share worship music together with us. I think our time
worshipping together is similar to those early faith followers of the Way.
We are called to live responsibly to our life in Christ. To live and share
the Gospel in such a way as to help prepare the way for the Gospel we share.
We live in a time when God's message of deliverance and salvation is easy to
miss in the daily noise of the world we live in. What a blessing to have the
quiet time to share Jesus in the village community. We get as refreshed and
renewed in Jesus as our partner village. May God touch your lives with His
message of renewal.
Prayer: Lord, help us to come to You for rest. Make us Your
instrument to share the message of hope and eternal life through Christ with
our world. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Dan Treakle
Lay Minister/Pilot
Fairbanks,
Alaska
Follow Your Call
Read: Genesis 12
Meditation: I have spent almost 1/3 of my time away from home
seeking to do what God has called me to do. That means in the last nine
years, if you added all those days together, I have been away from my home
for three of those years. I was thinking about this as I was traveling with
Rick and Linda Martin, Terry LeBlanc, and Tim Stime. Each one has committed
to be involved with taking the Good News to the Aboriginal people of Canada
and the USA. Sometimes you wonder if it is worth it all. But, then I think
about God's call to Abraham, "Leave your country and your father's
house, ...go to a land that I will show you." (Gen 12:1ff) So, Abraham
left following God's call because of the promise, "I will bless all the
families of the world, through you." It seems God is always calling us
from the familiar to that which is unfamiliar to accomplish what He desires.
I also think about Jesus, Phil 2:5-8 "Let the same mind be in you
that was in Christ Jesus, 2:6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not
regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 2:7 but emptied
himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness, And being
found in human form, 2:8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point
of death - even death on a cross." God did not even spare His own Son
in this regard. I think of the words from an old hymn, "from out of the
ivory palaces into a world of sin," God called His Son.
When I get discouraged I think about the call of God. We are not Abraham
and Sarah, but we also have heard God's call to go, make disciples of all
nations. To be like Jesus in reaching out to others. This may require us to
cross the street to show God's love to our neighbors, or to cross the land
to share the Gospel with those who still need to hear it. We are all in this
together. In a sense we are all called to the unknown - we never know how
people will respond. There is risk involved in talking to others about Jesus
to be sure. Nevertheless I am encouraged as we are enable through the
Lutheran Association of Missionaries and Pilots U.S. and My People
International to respond to the call of God.
Prayer: Dear Father, help us to be obedient to You whenever You
call us to leave the familiar to go somewhere new to share the Gospel with
others. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Ray Aldred
Ministry Staff
Winnipeg,
Manitoba
Healing for the Generations
Read: Isaiah 53:5
Meditation: I retain mostly happy memories of childhood days
fishing with my father. He had been a marvelous commercial salmon
fisherman for over 70 years. He died due to natural causes a few years
ago. A flood of memories of good times spent fishing with him were
triggered recently when I received a picture from a family member
showing him holding up two very large salmon he had caught. How much he
enjoyed the thrill of the catch. How much I enjoyed the time spent with
him learning to enjoy it with him.
Much of his life however was not so happy. My father was given to
occasional bouts of binge drinking - especially in the early years. It
cost him his first marriage, untold loss of money and wasted years. It
affected all of us children in ways we haven't even begun to fully
comprehend. At the end of his life he shared with me how sorry he was
that he had lived so long without God. I am so thankful to share that
when he died, he died confessing Jesus as his Savior. In the latter
years of his life we spent many hours talking about God and Heaven.
As I have had occasion to uncover my father's early life and its
subsequent impact on me. I have discovered an all too familiar pattern
of lost dreams and brokenness that led him to turn to alcohol to dull
the inner sense of loss. Early wounding, unresolved grief, lost
opportunity - all eroded who God intended him to be. And sin led him to
turn to false alternatives.
I have also discovered that it is important to face the truth about
my generational history. I too am a sinner and fall well short of God's
expectations. I am just like my father. At the same time, I have found
great comfort and courage in knowing that while God knows this about me,
He has done everything necessary to bring healing and forgiveness to
break the cycle. The long history of disappointments, hurts, grief and
sins that make up the generational history of my family and everyone
else's finds healing in the person and work of Jesus. His sacrificial
death paid for our sins. "But he was pierced for our transgressions
... and by His wounds we are healed." By grace through faith in the
person and works of Jesus, we are grafted into the family of God.
Furthermore, in Jesus, we become part of a new generational history
based not on a long time of failure and disappointments but on hope and
righteousness. And this because of Jesus who gave Himself over to death
for us.
Prayer: Dear Father God, we acknowledge that we cannot make
ourselves good or change the past. We therefore thank You for sending
Your Son to be our Savior so that we can be cleaned and forgiven. Grant
that we might daily walk in ways that honor Him. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Rev Dr Don Johnson
Executive Director
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