06272020 Too Hard

Dear Missionary Lady,

Greetings in the name of our unstoppable God. Nothing is too hard for Him. Which is quite a switch from us. Some days it seems like everything is too hard for us.

Perhaps you've seen humorous posts, expressing satisfaction in the day's "accomplishments." The list may look something like this: got out of bed, put on clothes, combed hair, brushed teeth. I certainly hope we can manage a bit more than that!

But in the challenges and restrictions and disappointments that we face, sometimes it seems that things that used to be fairly routine or reasonably expected are now difficult and beyond hope of accomplishing. Those difficult tasks may range from personal to family to practical life to ministry.

What is too hard for you today? What is it that seems like it can never be recovered or made right again? What outreach had you worked to start that has now faced seemingly irreversible setbacks? What doors seem like they have been closed? What projects put on hold? What travel restricted? Which contacts cut off?

In truth, all of those things might be too hard for you. If it were up to you to restart and reconnect and re-lay foundations, to again cut through red tape and break down barriers, you would just give up. But just because something is too hard for us does not mean that it is also too hard for God.

God can have the most outrageous, remarkable, and unbelievable plans. God can determine to do things that we would never even dream about. He can plan things that are absolutely unachievable. And then He can do them! God has the power and ability to do absolutely everything that He has determined to do.

"Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If it be marvellous [too great, too difficult] in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous in mine eyes? saith the LORD of hosts" (Zechariah 8:6).

Our evaluation, our helplessness, and even our declared surrender do not make things too hard for God. When we see failed plans or impossible plans, God sees great plans and achievable plans. Our lack of faith does nothing to diminish God's power.

So, be encouraged. Look at the ministries and possibilities and guidance that God has set before you. Courageously move forward. Confidently trust God's plan. Obediently take every step that you can take and trust God to continue to open the path. Believe that He will do what you cannot do.

"Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing,/ Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God's own choosing:/ Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;/ Lord Sabaoth, His name, from age to age the same,/ And He must win the battle."

"Nothing is impossible/ When you put your trust in God;/ Nothing is impossible/ When you're trusting in His Word./ Hearken to the voice of God to thee:/ "Is there anything too hard for Me?"/ Then put your trust in God alone/ And rest upon His Word/ For everything, oh everything,/ Yes, everything is possible with God!"

May God do great things for you this week. May He open up doors that you thought were closed. May He revive and renew what has been suppressed. May He bring to fruition plans that have been delayed. May He do what is "too hard" and enable you to walk His path.

Love in Christ,

Peggy Holt

member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA

www.pressingontohigherground.blogspot.com

06202020 Recovery and Moving On

Dear Missionary Lady,

Greetings in the name of our loving God. I'm so glad He loves us, because sometimes life is hard, and we just need love.

COVID-19 continues to have tremendous global impact. While some of you have the blessing of beginning to open back up and reconnect more personally with your people, others are still entrenched in tight restrictions and no positive news.

Pennsylvania has been one of the most restrictive states in the USA and among the slowest to reopen. Just yesterday, our governor announced that every other county will move to the final stage of reopening next Friday, but our county will remain restricted. I'll be honest. That is disappointing and discouraging and feels like a targeted and vindictive attack. It has given me things to think through and responses to evaluate. I'm okay. Realistically, it doesn't affect my life that much, but it is disappointing emotionally.

So as I prepare to write to you today, I feel a little "flat." As I perused my running list of ideas and verses that I will probably eventually share, none of them seemed right for today. So is it okay if I just share a little more of my life story?

Most of you are aware that I served one term in Mexico, where I taught in an MK school. I also helped in a local church, teaching children's classes, training other workers, and working informally with the young people in the church. For most of that time, I was the only American, serving under a national pastor. There were many good things that God did through those years. Overall, they were a blessing, but overall, they were also very difficult, particularly as a single lady without a strong support system.

When I returned to the States, I was absolutely crushed in my spirit. I barely felt like I could look anyone in the eye. I barely talked. I didn't feel like God could ever use me again. This lasted for a few years. The turning point was a ladies' conference at my church. God remarkably rearranged my work schedule so that I could attend the key sessions, and through them He brought me to a point of desperate need to get things right.

The basic outcome was that I spent a lot of time talking to God - at least most of a weekend non-stop. I had a lot of things to talk to God about as I reviewed those years in Mexico - my failures, my self-reliance, the hurt I had experienced, the disappointments. I also had to review the years since Mexico - years in which just like not talking to other people, I didn't do much talking to God either, and I hadn't let Him do much talking to me through His Word. I was spiritually starved.

The bottom line was that I had anger and resentment toward God because of what my Mexico experience was like. It had been too hard, He hadn't given me enough help to get through it, He had let me become a "mission field casualty," and I was upset with Him. Therefore I didn't read His Word or talk to Him much for a few years afterward. Can you see why I was struggling!?

I had to confess my failures. A big part of that was learning to say "OK." It is well with my soul. Acknowledging that God can do what He wants to do in my life, can bring whatever hardships He chooses, can allow pain, even allow what I perceive as failure. Over and over through those days with God, I had to acknowledge the reality of the difficult issue and then say, "OK, God, I yield to You on that. I accept it as part of Your plan, and I acknowledge Your right to make that decision."

Truly, God gives grace to the humble. The next day at church, several ladies easily recognized the change in me as soon as they saw me. Indeed, God had renewed and transformed me. Even though I had been training for the past several years to serve God in Christian education, it was only now, less than a year from receiving my degree, that I finally believed God could use me again.

That wasn't the end of my post-Mexico journey. As shocking as it may sound, it was still more than a decade later before I really "believed" in missions again. Probably the most concise summation is that I doubted missionaries were really doing much good in the world. I wouldn't have said so to anyone, and I even participated in missions activities during those years: preparing missionary prayer lists for my church and going on a short-term trip.

I'm not even going to try to explain why I felt that way about missions. I'm not sure I understand it myself. But I later took another short-term trip to the Tenek indigenous people in the mountains of southern Mexico. There, through observing the dedication of the native missionary, his passion, his tireless outreach, and the inroads he was making into unreached villages, I was re-inspired. I once again believed, at least more fully, that God is working around the world, and that He is doing so through faithful men and women.

You are one of those. Thank you for persevering through the difficulties, for continuing to serve through the lean times as well as the blessed times. God is using you. He is doing His work.

I'm not sure what my story means to you. By my own admission, I am not a very good or inspiring example of what a missionary ought to be. But I am human, as you are. I doubt that others share my level of struggle, but since everyone is human, I expect they can relate to some extent. And I think what I most want to say through this testimony is that human weaknesses don't disqualify us from God's service. They don't make us unusual. Others have struggled before you and will struggle after you, even other missionaries. The struggle itself is not the biggest issue; how we respond is. We must submit to God and accept His plan for us, whatever that looks like, no matter how many bumps on the road. I trust that you can take this particular epoch of life as part of God's plan and not as a source of discouragement, disillusionment, or resentment. Instead, I hope you will see what God sees - a divine orchestration intended to draw people to Himself, and I pray that you will see and are seeing the spiritual fruit that God is producing in these days. God bless you.

Love in Christ,

Peggy Holt

member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA

www.pressingontohigherground.blogspot.com

06132020 God Works His Plans

Dear Missionary Lady,

Greetings in the name of the responsive God. There is no other god in the history of the world who responds to people. The false gods can't hear and see, can't act, and don't care, because they don't exist.

The true God is vastly different. Men have never heard or seen any evidence of another god like God. God actually responds to and interacts with His people. God plans and prepares and provides on behalf of His people. God delivers. He blesses. He rescues. He loves.

"For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him" (Isaiah 64:4).

God has always responded in these ways, coming to the aid of His people, even shaking the very earth in order to do so (vs. 1-3). God always will respond in these ways, until the culmination when He snatches us out of this broken world and takes us to a blissful eternity with Him.

So what are some ways that God has moved heaven and earth to respond to His people who waited on Him? Ways that God has worked out the mighty provision and plans that He intended? Here are a few.

Abraham and Sarah waited decades for a promised son. God worked against the laws of nature to give them that son.

Joseph waited on God during long decades of slavery and imprisonment. God raised him up and used him to rescue a nation.

After hundreds of years in slavery, Moses and the people of Israel witnessed the phenomenal deliverance of God, accompanied by devastating plagues like the world had never seen.

Hannah waited on God for a son, and God responded by giving her several children, including one who would be a great prophet.

Elijah waited on God through years of drought, sustained in the most unusual and demeaning ways. But then God worked His plan, sending fire from heaven and causing many to recognize Him.

Simeon waited for the Messiah. God worked the miracle of the virgin birth in the midst of all the right political situations to fulfill prophecy. He then brought that Messiah to Simeon before he died.

There are many, many more stories. The point is that God works on behalf of those who wait on Him. God has plans, and God works out those plans. He moves heaven and earth if He has to. He overrides the laws of nature. He manipulates governments. He reverses situations that seem impossible. He blesses beyond what we can imagine.

God loves you. He sees your faith and dependence. He has a plan for you. He is working to accomplish that plan. Sometimes, probably always, the ways in which He works out His plans would make our heads spin if we actually knew all the details. So keep waiting. Keep looking to Him. Keep expecting His response in accordance with His good plans.

Love in Christ,

Peggy Holt

member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA

www.pressingontohigherground.blogspot.com

06062020 Two Helpful Verses

Dear Missionary Lady,

Greetings in the name of our gracious, patient, and supportive God. Aren't you glad He is with you, helping you, faithfully caring for you in spite of your weaknesses? I sure am.

I was reminded this week of how weak I am and of how much I need God, and I was greatly encouraged by two specific verses. For months now (due to the pressures of the pandemic) I have been choosing a verse each day to focus on throughout the day, to be my special thought and encouragement for that day. I have been sharing these on Facebook as an encouragement to others.

I can't really explain this, and when I say it, it doesn't make much sense, but I reached the point where I thought I was doing reasonably well. I stopped depending quite so much on those verses. I kept finding them and kept sharing them for the benefit of others, but I became a little less needy myself. Or so I thought.

This week I realized how needy I still am and how challenging life still is, probably in large part due to the new issues facing our nation with damaging protests and race riots, and in part due to a constant onslaught of news about death and serious illness among people closer to home. I really needed God's help, and He "came through for me." He gave me many helpful verses and truths from His Word, but two of them stood out as particularly helpful. I want to share those two verses with you.

The first was a great Monday morning verse, especially after being discouraged Sunday evening by feeling disconnected and like this crisis will prevent me from spending meaningful time with friends for a long time. "Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore" (Psalm 105:4).

This built on a thought I had entertained Sunday evening: since people aren't around much, why not just talk to God as if He's in the room with me? I tried it briefly Sunday night and immediately started crying. This verse encouraged me to continue pursuing that. I can't handle abnormal life on my own, which is what we've been having lately. I can't even handle normal life. But God can handle both just fine, and He welcomes me to come to Him for help. I need to seek Him, seek His strength, seek Him constantly.

This concept has carried with me through this week, as I have tried to incorporate this into life as much as possible. Whether mentally or out loud, talking to God who really is in the room with me. Telling Him anything and everything, from the mundane details of life to the deeper conflicts and turmoil of the heart. There's no reason in the world why God can't be my best listener.

Several days later, after multiplied reports of deaths and serious illness among people that I know first-hand or second-hand, and with the heavy news of the race riots spreading through our cities, God gave me another very appropriate encouragement. "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid" (Psalm 112:7-8a).

Evil tidings were abounding, to be sure. Their quantity and oppressiveness threatened me. Part of me wanted to shut off outside contact to avoid hearing any more. How much can the human spirit handle? But it is different when we trust in God. Trusting removes fear.

Trusting does two important things for the heart. It makes the heart fixed, steadfast, not wavering, not shaken. And it makes the heart established or upheld. This second one is a passive verb. That means someone or something else is doing the action of establishing or upholding my heart. We know who that Someone is, don't we? My heart would melt and be crushed, but when I trust God, He guards and supports my heart.

I have valued both of these truths beyond the day to which they specifically applied. I am grateful for the Bible and for its truth that is so timely and relevant, so sufficient for every need and situation. I am grateful to God for giving me the right truths at the right times. I am thankful that He is in control and that He never wavers or struggles. I'm thankful for His love and care for lowly me who does waver and struggle.

What a great God! What a great Bible! May these carry you through the days ahead of you.

Love in Christ,

Peggy Holt

member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA

www.pressingontohigherground.blogspot.com