Heidi Baker and her husband have a ministry in Mozambique to the poor and orphaned. This book is about their life's message: the beatitudes and Jesus' sermon on the mount lived out .practically. and .radically. They are bringing love and hope to some of the darkest places on earth.
When I first heard about the Baker's ministry 3 years ago, Heidi was sharing that she was simply called to LOVE. My heart leaped inside me and said "that is it! that is what God has called me to do too!" Ever since my first trip to Mexico, my heart has been to simply and practically be LOVE in the hard places. This book was both challenging and encouraging; it is a testimony of what God's LOVE can do through lives completely dependent on Him. The Lord was challenging me to live this not only overseas but here in my life now. In chapter 4 Heidi writes:
"The poor taught me how to hunger for God and to take spiritual communion. He invites us to eat and to drink of Jesus so that we become full. Just as we depend on food for our physical nourishment, we also need to depend on Jesus for the spiritual nourishment for our lives. We must feed on Him daily. Only then will we have the fresh bread from heaven that we need to give both the spiritually and naturally hungry."
I am challenged to look for the hungry in my world and be filled up so I can feed them. While I know the Lord is preparing me to serve the physically hungry and poor in far away places, right now I live in a place with a lot more people that are spiritually hungry and poor. Right now I want to be .humble. gentle. empathetic.dependent on Jesus. merciful. peaceful. forgiving. and .pure in heart. to bring the Kingdom of LOVE to this place. I know this season won't last forever but I love that God is teaching me to walk in my calling regardless of geographical location. The Kingdom of God and His love isn't contained by borders...and I don't want to be either.
2 comments:
Super cool post Heather! The union Christ calls us to have with Him is perfect and complete. So close in spirit to Him, it as if we are "eating His flesh and drinking His blood" (Jn 6:53). Just so we would know he was speaking of relationship and not merely the taking of the Lord's Table, He went on to say "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life" (Jn 6:63). The tragedy and the broken heart of God is found in Jn 6:66 - the multitudes left because they didn't want to hear that.
But praise God for times of preparation in missions work! He will surely bless all our labors as we prepare for His work. Paris Reidhead once said in a sermon not to be deceived by thinking of preparation as less than service. He said, "Preparation IS service".
My wife Emily and I are preparing to teach in a Bible School in Kenya next year. But we must also remind ourselves that our preparation now is no less important than our work there. Be encouraged! God bless!
~Karsten Harns
If you're interested in the Bible School at all, there's several courses that are being freely taught in the Lansing area and we usually try to hold one school overseas a year.
Studying and teaching God's Word for hours and hours with others who love Jesus Christ is a powerful thing. If you're interested in the school at all you can check out what we teach: http://faithtech.org/beliefs/
We don't have any buildings here or abroad, but walk by faith and God's Word of Truth goes out to people "never returning void" :) It is his precious Word that is the nourishment for all who truly "hunger and thirst after righteousness" (Matt 5:6).
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