Nov. 1 we turn back the clock one hour, ending Daylight Savings Time for another year. Don’t you wish you can turn back your life a few years as well? I sometimes think of what it would be like to go back 35 years to when I first came to Main Street Baptist Church. If I could go back and do it again, with the experience and maturity I now have, how different I would be! I could have been a much better husband, father and pastor.
Lately, as the time for our next trip to India gets closer, I think of how different it would be if I could turn my body back 35 years. Then I had endless energy, great health and youthful enthusiasm. Instead of the whole India experience being such a physical drain, I could much better manage it all. I’d have more energy to do more things and do them better.
So why did God wait until I was 60, clearly way past my prime, to start sending me there? To be honest I don’t know, but I suspect it has something to do with me now being aware of my total dependence on God for all that happens. He wants me to realize my own weakness so I have to depend on Him. That way He can work through me, and that way I can recognize that all that happens is His doing and He gets the glory for it. In addition, I also realize that when I was 35 I really wouldn’t have been able to pass on to the pastors in India what they need to hear. While my physical energy has been fading over the years, God has been faithful to help me grow in wisdom and understanding of His Word and works.
Why did God let Daniel be thrown into the lions den when he was in his 90’s? Or Moses lead the Jews out of Egypt in his 80’s? Or call Abraham to leave his life-long home to go to an unknown land when he was 75? We might honor youth and feel that it is superior to age, but obviously God doesn’t see it that way. In His eyes it is true: we aren’t getting older, we are getting better! (Doylestown, PA, October 27, 2015)
Ruth 4:15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age.
Isaiah 46:4 Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
Psalm 92:14 They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,
2 Corinthians 12:10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Are you becoming more and more aware of your increasing limitations and weaknesses? Great! That makes it obvious that you must depend on God more and more.
INDIA UPDATE: Thanks to those of you who have contributed to CTO. We are getting closer to our needed money for our trip but still have a way to go. You can make contributions payable to “Christian Training Organization” and mail to 252 W. State St., Doylestown, PA 18901. Pray for Pastor Moses as he travels to arrange sites for our January conferences. Pray for me as I work on the lessons and sermons I will use. Thanks!!!