02252023 Strength in Weakness

Dear Missionary Lady,

Greetings in the name of the Master Orchestrator. God takes every circumstance, good or bad, and uses it within His great plan, which is too big for us to see.

I have to be a little personal today in order to share the truth God is teaching me. Some of you are aware that I am eighteen months post-COVID, improving but still limited. I am thankful for what God has taught through past health issues to help in my current struggle and also for what He continues to teach me. The thoughts below are a mixture – past truth finessed by current instruction.

The summary is expressed in two familiar verses about God’s orchestration even through adverse circumstances. “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive” (Genesis 50:20). “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). What is God’s intended good work?

First and most obvious, some of what God is orchestrating is personal maturity. Through everything God does in my life, He is working to develop my character and to make me more like His Son (James 1:2-4). This certainly includes godly character, but it also includes growth in understanding the Bible. Being in the midst of, or having gone through trials, clarifies or heightens scriptural perception of certain passages, because our experience gives us a better context for comprehension. “Oh, now I understand what that verse really means,” or, “Oh, now I see how that plays out (or how to put that into practice) in real life.”

Second, trials enhance our ability to minister to others. When we suffer, we understand both the perspective and the needs of other sufferers. We become more willing to reach out and more skillful in doing so. Through my current situation, I continue to gain insights about what is desired and effective for those in need. Many years ago, after my experience with Lyme disease, I wrote a devotional book for those with chronic illnesses. My brother, who has been in varied positions of pastoral care, has shared his copy with people around him. After one of these loans, the older couple came back to him and remarked, “She speaks our language.” My brother said he didn’t even realize there was a special language; this reveals how God’s personal path for us might prepare us to minister to certain people even more effectively than a pastor can. The bond of shared experience is strong. “Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God” (II Corinthians 1:4). While primarily on a practical rather than spiritual level, Joseph’s experience had far greater impact on others than on himself; his sufferings prepared him to deliver many.

Third, trials can allow us to reach others with the gospel. Paul told the Galatians, “Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first” (4:13). The Philippian jailer is another example of how God used a trial to put Paul in contact with needy people. I continue to pray for my doctor, and it would be a great comfort to know that she came to God as a result of my suffering. I still pray for the rapture, but now I often add, “If You want to wait for Andrea to be saved, that’s okay.” Many people at my work are Christians, at least nominally, but others are not. I want to be a testimony through this time, and sometimes I feel very deficient in that, but we never know what’s going on in people’s heads. We might fall short of our high expectations, while unbelievers (or carnal believers) might be watching amazed until someday they “ask … a reason of the hope” that is in us.

Fourth, trials prompt other Christians to grow. I remember telling a parent how my illness limited me as a teacher, and she responded, “I’m glad my children have you, because I want them to learn compassion.” The Bible is filled with “one another” passages, instructions to love fervently, and admonitions to use our spiritual gifts. Those require that someone be in need to serve as the recipient. I think all of us are deficient in fulfilling those commands as we should, so sometimes God lets someone be the needed recipient for an extended time so that others get extended prompting. I have seen this in some people in my own church in my current situation – specific actions or layers of growth in service and compassion.

Fifth, trials, like all of life, are to glorify God. In essence, all of the first four considerations ultimately lead to this one. If the first four are happening, God is being glorified and will be glorified. “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (I Peter 1:6-7).

Only the first of these five is really personal; the others are others-focused and God-focused. Yes, my personal trials are about me, but they are much more than that. God is not limited to working in one isolated life; He is wonderfully able to use the events of one person’s life as His tools to have a much wider impact. For me, the challenge of all this is to be willing. Am I willing to suffer so that I can grow? Am I willing to suffer so that I can better minister to others? Am I willing to suffer so that others can be saved? Am I willing to suffer so that other Christians can grow? Am I willing to suffer so that God can be glorified? Am I willing to be a small cog in God’s grand plan that extends far outside the scope of my little world?

This ended up longer and more academic than I intended, but I hope it will encourage someone to remember that a trial is never without divine purpose and design, and it is never intended to be without vast profit and benefit. God bless.

Love in Christ,

Peggy Holt

member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA

02182023 How Many Talents?

Dear Missionary Lady,

Greetings in the name of our discerning God. God understands what is best for each person, and He interacts appropriately in each individual’s life. Part of that is in bestowing gifts that are suitable both in number and in type.

Whether it is true or not, missionaries are often viewed as having numerous gifts and abilities – a jack-of-all-trades. Often God does bless these men and women in extraordinary ways, so that they can administrate, preach, teach, discern, and exhort. They can build houses, run clinics, start camps, translate materials, print resources, master technology, and minister to the needy. They can home school, play the piano, sing, offer hospitality, plan events, decorate, and any other number of diverse tasks. Thank God for such multi-talented people who choose to use their gifts for God.

Not always is this the case. God calls those who are most willing, and those are not always the most talented. Many times missionaries do all the things listed above, not because they are particularly suited for the tasks, but because the tasks must be done, and there is no one else. So God gives grace and wisdom to do what seems beyond the scope of one’s talents and abilities.

Personally, I have never seen myself among the most talented. Whether on the mission field or in teaching school or as a church member, others have been able to do more. As a teacher, for example, my specialty was Spanish, which involved only two or three classes in my area of expertise, as opposed to teachers in core subjects, who taught four to six classes in their strong subject. I had no athletic background, so I wasn’t a coach, and so on. In summary, I often felt like other teachers (missionaries, or church members) were doing more than I was.

My limitations have been exaggerated through long-standing health issues. I suppose it is somewhat natural that I have been thinking lately about how little I am able to do. Then this week I read Matthew 25:14-30. Before he went on a journey, the master entrusted talents to some of his servants. One received five, another two, and another one. Each was expected to use what he was given. When the master returned, the men gave reports of their work. Those who had received five talents and two talents had doubled their investment.

The lord responded to both of these men the same way: “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” The master was pleased with both men for using what they had been given. The approval was not for the amount of return, but for the faithfulness of the effort. They did what they were capable of.

Those of us with one or two talents are not going to see the same return as those with five talents, (outside an extraordinary work of God). That’s okay. God doesn’t expect us to do what we can’t do. In fact, God knows exactly what we are equipped and designed for. The lord distributed the talents “to every man according to his several ability.” God knows exactly how much to expect of each one of us, because God knows exactly how much He has entrusted to each of us, and He has entrusted it based on His knowledge of us from our very beginnings. Our talents, abilities, and gifts come from God and are determined by God.

Likewise, God knows the circumstances of our lives, because, after all, He controls those, too. So He knows our limitations in utilizing the gifts He has given. We may still have the same gifts we have always had, but we might not always be able to use them in the same capacity. We might be limited by health, age, number of children, an ailing parent, language barriers, home schooling, or other factors. At this stage of our lives, our “investments” might not seem to be doing very well. But God’s expectations and approval are not based on the amount of return, but on the faithfulness of the effort. He wants us to do what we are capable of.

I hope you will be encouraged as I was in realizing that God doesn’t expect you to be anyone else. He doesn’t expect you to have someone else’s results. He also doesn’t expect you to produce the same way in every circumstance or stage of life. He just wants you to faithfully use whatever He has given you, within the constraints of the situation where He has placed you. If that is five talents, praise the Lord, and use those five talents faithfully. If it is one talent, praise the Lord, and use that one as faithfully as you can. Thank God that He uses amazing people who are willing and faithful! And thank God that He also uses ordinary people who are willing and faithful! Either way, to God be the glory.

Love in Christ,

Peggy Holt

member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA

02112023 Not the Only Me

Dear Missionary Lady,

Greetings in the name of the Master Potter. He is the one who takes us as we are and molds us into what He wants us to be.

I recently read the story of Martin and Gracia Burnham, New Tribes missionaries in the Philippines who were captured by terrorists and held captive for just over a year in 2001-2002. That year was one of constant hiding and trekking through jungles, with little food and few supplies, few comforts and frequent illness, all under the treatment of men who didn’t think they were doing anything wrong. In the process of the eventual rescue by the Philippine army, Martin was killed and Gracia was wounded.

As Gracia reflected on the experience, she said that the terrorists were “forcing me to see a side of myself I didn’t like. There was a Gracia I barely knew existed: fearful Gracia, selfish Gracia, bitter Gracia, angry-at-God Gracia. That wasn’t the only me, but it was a bigger part of me than I wanted to accept” (In the Presence of my Enemies, by Gracia Burnham, Tyndale, 2003).

That final sentence really captured my attention. “That wasn’t the only me, but it was a bigger part of me than I wanted to accept.” Isn’t that how all of us are? It is especially true when a trial turns up the heat. We see ugly parts of ourselves that sometimes surprise us, and that sadly are a bigger part of ourselves than we would like to admit. Sometimes I “handle” the trials okay, but sometimes there is a discouraged me, a hopeless me, a self-pitying me, a resentful me, an apathetic me. Those aren’t the only me, but they are a bigger part of me than I want to accept.

As I thought about this reality, I adapted Gracia’s statement in several ways. “That wasn’t the only me.” I think the immediate truth is that, vile and flawed as we are, that is no longer our identity. It is not exclusive. Before our salvation, we were as Romans 3:10-18 describe: none righteous, none that understandeth, none that seeketh, gone out of the way, unprofitable, open sepulchre, deceit, poison of asps, cursing, bitterness, destruction and misery, etc. Thank God for I Corinthians 6:11: “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Corinthians 5:17). There would be an unhealthy level of discouragement and despair if we allow our failures to represent our entirety.

“That isn’t the desired me.” The wicked are content in their sin, comfortable in their “freedom.” The Christian recognizes his shortcomings, but the recognition does not please him. Paul talks about “what I would [do],” “to will is present with me,” the desire to “perform that which is good,” and “the good that I would” (Romans 7:15-19). David failed in some pretty big ways, but God saw his heart. God saw that David, although not perfect, had a heart to follow God. God saw that David rejected, despised, and repented of those failures. What David wanted was a clean heart and a right spirit (Psalm 51:10). Thank God that even when we fail, He sees our heart that desires to do the right thing, and He looks on us with eyes of love, appreciating the heart desire of the flawed human, and still giving us His favor and grace.

“That isn’t the developing me.” Even after salvation, we have serious flaws, as Paul described in Romans 7, but we are now in the position that God is doing His transforming work in us. Day by day, month by month, year by year, decade by decade, we are gradually being made more into the image of Christ. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Corinthians 3:18). God helps us to “put off the old man with his deeds; and … put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Colossians 3:9-10). Thank God for His gradual, transforming work of maturing us.

“That isn’t the ultimate me.” The greatest hope comes in realizing that some day this earthly, fleshly struggle will be put off. All remaining vestiges of fear, selfishness, bitterness, anger, or whatever we struggle with individually, will be taken away. “He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). One day we will stand “glorious, … not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing … holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27). “We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (I John 3:2). “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:24-25). Thank God that some day all battles with sin will be over! There will be only glory and perfection, purity and praise to our God. In that day we will be able to say, “That isn’t me at all!”

I think that in the scheme of deities and religions, our God is unique. Humanly-invented gods and religions place on man a burden he cannot bear. Man’s weaknesses and failures leave him at the capricious anger of the rigid and demanding gods. The result is disfavor, demands, curses, death, sacrifice, penance, purgatory. Our God makes a way of salvation for us flawed creatures. He redeems us, molds us, and transforms us. Through Jesus, all the demands are satisfied, and we can have peace and a wonderful and permanent relationship with the God of heaven – in spite of ourselves and all because of Him!

May God give you grace and guidance as you continue on the path of becoming a new me and of seeing others do the same.

Love in Christ,

Peggy Holt

member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA

02042023 Proof of Leading

Dear Missionary Lady,

Greetings in the name of our great Shepherd who guides us over mountains and through valleys, through both sunshiny and stormy days.

I know I have shared in the past from Psalm 23. It has been a special psalm to me over the past year-and-a-half, and I have not yet plumbed its depths or exhausted its comfort. I’m pretty sure that I have previously shared the idea of the Shepherd’s guiding being constant, but different. He sometimes leads in green pastures and beside still waters, but at other times we find ourselves in the valley of the shadow of death or in the presence of our enemies. How did we get there? The Shepherd guided us there also.

My new thought for today is about how we know that. Are those just nice-sounding words that people say to encourage us? Is it really possible that our Shepherd guided us in such a way that we ended up in these dark and difficult places?

When we ask such questions, they are usually more practical than theological in nature (our current lives vs. our understood truth). The Bible has many verses that talk about the believer’s path purposefully leading into trials. The Bible also recalls many true-life examples of when this actually happened. Today I want to look just at a few thoughts from Psalm 23 itself.

“The valley of the shadow of death.” No matter how you define that phrase, it is not a good place. It is perhaps one of the darkest places possible. Can the Shepherd lead us into such places? The verse states that even in such a place, we need not fear. So I ask. How is it possible to be in the darkest time of life, yet not fear? The verse gives the answer. It is because the Shepherd is with us. The state of peace and the lack of fear would not be possible any other way. When we walked into that valley, our Shepherd walked in with us.

“The presence of mine enemies.” This is another fearful place, threatening and dangerous, removed from help and resources. Did the Shepherd lead us there? Again, I think the evidence is found in how He treats us in that place. The verse states that even in these circumstances, we are provided for. Our Shepherd deliberately meets our needs. In fact, this is not written as if He gives us a pittance of dry hardtack or a paltry snack to nibble on to hold us over. No, He prepares a table. This speaks of abundance, or at least of the same daily provision that we are used to. Is this not an evidence of the Shepherd’s oversight of our path? We are not abandoned and wandering just because our enemies are near. It is just the next day, the next step, in our journey with the Shepherd, and He provides just as faithfully in that setting as He previously did in the bucolic pastures.

Comfort. In between these two settings of the valley of the shadow of death and the presence of the enemies comes another truth. “Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” Does this assurance connect with the valley of the shadow of death, or with the presence of the enemies, or does it stand alone as an independent statement? If I had to take a guess, I think it is connected with the former. Regardless of the connection, it is interesting that this statement falls right in between the two darkest statements of the psalm. And what it tells us is that the Shepherd knows when we need comfort, and the Shepherd responds by giving comfort. The difficult setting may not be specifically identified, but once again, we got there at the Shepherd’s leading. And once again, the Shepherd is displaying His oversight by responding with comfort.

There are indeed dark and difficult days in the Christian journey. But if the Shepherd is with us, if His presence gives us peace, if He comforts us, and if He supplies our needs just as He always has, then I think that we are precisely where He intends us to be. For now.

May you be comforted and rest in peace in the knowledge of His presence.

Love in Christ,

Peggy Holt

member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA