[lightbox full =”https://missioncriticalintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/16473979_10208383292239381_3897009942121704009_n-e1486485875505.jpg” thumb=”https://missioncriticalintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/16473979_10208383292239381_3897009942121704009_n-e1486485875505.jpg” title=”Levi and Rebekah in Zambia” /]
[quote]“but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” – Acts 1:8[/quote]
God’s will for my life and yours is to be His witnesses. We are to witness to what He has done in our lives. Tell others what you know to be true about God because of what He has done in your life. I can be a witness to the fact that God answers prayer because of prayers He has crazily answered for me over the years.
[quote]“I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” – Psalm 27:13[/quote]
[quote] “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” – Matthew 25:35-36 [/quote]
[quote] “They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” – Revelation 12:11[/quote]
Spent the whole day teaching kids at a new foundation I have been volunteering at… They are all way behind in school so they come there everyday after school to learn the basics and get help with homework… Was so awesome… One boy is about 12 and has never studied in school.. He recommended the foundation to his mom for his nephew and cousin but would not come himself because he was embarrassed cause he doesn’t know anything about school and works with some relatives recycling all the plastic out of the huuuuge trash yard right next to where the foundation is.
I am excited about something awesome that I am doing soon. I will be participating in the 2013 March for Missions Fun Walk/Run in Zambia Africa with the Children I will be serving on my Mission Trip at Project Samuel.
March for Missions raises awareness and much needed funds for various foreign missions projects all over the world. This year’s event will benefit Project Samuel, a project for children in Zambia, Africa. I need your help to reach my fund raising goal and help the children of this impoverished African nation. Please go to the link below and sponsor me today!
http://marchformissions.com/sponsor-walker
I am willing to give my time to walk or run in this event, but I need you to help make it a success. I can’t do it without you!
Rebekah Bullen
[lightbox full=”https://missioncriticalintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/paul_s_missionary_journeys-e1358033832355.jpg” thumb=”https://missioncriticalintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/paul_s_missionary_journeys-e1358033832355.jpg” title=”Paul’s Missionary Journeys” /]
Romans 15:20 I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation,
Often times we think of raw, unchecked ambition in a negative connotation but Paul was not shy in stating that he had a holy ambition… a missions ambition… and we should have it too.
If God has saved us and made us His own, be assured, it was not just so we could sit back and relax. He saved us and has called every single one of us to join Him in His mission to save the rest of the world. Missions isn’t just the job of a few hyperactive Christians in the church. Missions is each of our calling.
I love how Matthew Barnett says it,
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“When you were born, God instilled many things within you. One of them was a great CAUSE that He wants you to embrace. In His unique grandeur, He created a universe in which the cumulative effect of all people faithfully pursuing the cause within them would result in a transformed world – one in which everyone’s needs would be met and every servant’s heart would be filled with the joy of blessing others. Unfortunately, we live in a traumatized world – in part because so many people fail to identify and pursue the cause He has given them. Even though it would provide the happiness and fulfillment they have been seeking, they have failed to build their lives around that cause.” – Matthew Barnett
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God has more for us to do and to be a part of than we have dared to dream. We need to get a holy ambition to impact the world.
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“If your vision doesn’t scare you, then both your vision and your God are too small.” – Brother Andrew
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So why does the great majority of church going, faith professing, Christians live lives that don’t reflect this kind of raging ambition? Somehow we have been lulled into the thought that impacting the world for Christ is a calling reserved for a radical few. We have traded God’s plan for the Christian life for one of our own making.
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“We tend to drift away from God’s bold vision, replacing it with a safer, tamer vision of our own.” – Richard Stearns
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Many of us at some point in our lives get an inkling that something isn’t right. We read the book of Acts and wonder… “Why doesn’t God work the same way today?” For a moment we wonder if we aren’t supposed to be doing more for God and experiencing more of His power and seeing more transformation in the world. We wonder if we shouldn’t break from the norms of our culture and give ourselves to the work of God completely. Then fear strikes. “We can’t just give up everything. I mean we can’t all be gospel agents can we? Somebody has to be average American Christians.” We look around and notice that no one else seems disturbed with the disparity between the Bible and our lives and so we shrug, assuming that we have just experienced a brief lapse in reality. After all, “we must submit to the demands of our society. How can we provide for ourselves and our family if we don’t stay in the rat race? Radical ministry must be for someone with less responsibilities and encumbrances than me. Some of us are made for big dreams but not me.” I’m tempted to believe it but then I read quotes like…
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“We need to dream big dreams because it keeps us on our knees in raw dependence. Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. “ – Mark Batterson
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or like…
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“God loves with a great love the man whose heart is bursting with a passion for the impossible.” -William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army
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And I know that I can’t quit. It’s why I love to keep quotes like these around me. Because the enemy is always trying to lull me back to sleep but the future generations of the Bullen family can’t afford for me to get distracted. The hundreds of orphans our ministry serves can’t afford for me to get distracted. The young ministers and missionaries whom I have the joy of mentoring and encouraging can’t afford for me to get distracted. The seasoned saints who have invested in me over the decades can’t afford for me to get distracted and squander their spiritual investment. The lives that I will touch with my simple obedience can’t afford for me to get distracted. My own soul and my joy and my happiness can’t afford for me to get distracted. I am addicted to the mission of God and I can’t live without it. My mind and soul having been stretched to know this amazing life can never retract back to their original smallness. I must press on. I have a mission ambition to push out the boundaries of His kingdom until all know Him and worship Him. I’ve read and believed quotes like the ones below and they have stretched my heart beyond the point of no return. I’m hopelessly consumed with an ambition… a mission ambition…
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“One of the reasons that we are often not as happy as we should be and could be is that our vision of what our life is about is too small. We try to find happiness in our work, our family, and our friends. He wants the whole world to be embraced by His saving glory in Jesus Christ and He wants you and me to be involved in this. Our hearts can expand with joy in God as we watch Him triumph in the world. One of the reasons that missions is so advancing to our happiness is because you are engaged in something that not only is God very excited about but that cannot fail… we are linking our lives to something global, something absolutely indomitable, and something absolutely eternal and when you are linked to big things, strong things, sure things like that your joy is deeper, stronger, and bigger.” – John Piper
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[quote]”‘Not called!’ did you say?
‘Not heard the call,’ I think you should say.”
— William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army
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“I pray that the Lord might give you a dare-devil spirit, consuming you with a passion that is called by the cultured citizen of Christendom ‘fanaticism’, but known to God as that saint-ly madness that led His Son through bloody sweat and hot tears to agony on a rude Cross—and Glory!” – Jim Elliot
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So, will you take up the challenge? What Holy Ambition is God stirring in your heart even now?
I know it may sound wrong in our “politically correct” christian circles to ask such a question. We might even hear someone comment “don’t say that you might get struck by lighting” like we are going to step on God’s toes or something for questioning Him. But in these last couple of years I have found myself asking it more and more even out of anger sometimes. I just could not shrug the feelings of guilt and obligation that I felt in my soul. I know the Sunday school answer God wants our “everything”. I am always like what does that mean everything? What does that look like because the people that are usually telling you that are the ones whom themselves are just living the typical christianized american lifestyle. But before I run off on a rabbit trail I don’t think I have it all figured out yet but I would like to share some of what I have been learning. This morning I was reading Psalms 1-5. One part struck a nerve with me that I wanted to share. Psalms 2:10-12 10Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. 11Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Now I am sure you are a little puzzled but bare with me for one minute. I am going to substitute a couple of words for other words that could also be used.
O ____ insert name, be wise: be warned, O people of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Pay homage to the Jesus, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
The reason for substituting the words kings and rulers for more general words like your own and people was to show that this passage could be personalized it is not just some Psalm written long ago for a single purpose but it can hold meaning for us as well. As you can see I substituted Kiss for pay homage to. If you look up that word in the greek that word can also mean “do homage” so out of curiosity I looked up homage and it means – a feudal ceremony by which a man acknowledges himself the vassal of a lord. I also substituted Son with Jesus because any time you see the word Son capitalized it is referring to Jesus. So when the psalmist said “Kiss the Son” what he was saying was pay homage to your lord acknowledge yourself to be his subordinate.
So to go back to my original question, what does God want? I believe what he wants from us is total surrender and to stop serving everything els in this world and to serve him with everything in us. For us to give up everything in our lives that distracts us from Him. Most Christians here in the States say that they don’t pray and read their Bibles more or at all because they are to busy. Busy doing what? Working to make money or spending that money on more or better things. So what we are really saying is that serving money and things is more important to us than spending time in the presence of the one we call our Lord and Savior. What He desires is more than our words saying thanks or singing praises with hands raised. He desires total and utter submission and obedience to His will. That is the hardest thing for us to give because we want control, we want to decide what to spend our money on and time doing. We don’t want to really believe that God is going to hold us accountable for how we have spent the time and resources that God has given us. We like to think that so long as we thank Him for all that He has given us that it is up to us how we use it. We don’t have to worry about the billions of peope that have little to nothing. I am not trying to tell you what you should or should not do but I am saying seek after your Lord pay homage to Him, surrender yourself to His will, put yourself at His mercy before you are out of time and find yourself on the day of Judgement and find that you have wasted your life seeking after the comforts this world has to offer and missed it and have to suffer His wrath.
In my recent two month internship in Colombia I spent most of my time in an institution called Santa Maria, this is the same institution where my God-sister lives.
On one occasion I was invited by my friend to a prayer meeting that is held one night a month at every institution. This night I went to the one held at San Miguelito. When we arrived all the little boys and babies were patiently waiting for us in the group room. One by one the pregnant mothers entered the room and sat down I was able to see Louisa again and her best friend. I can’t remember her name but we were able to catch up and share some time together. Afterward we sang a few songs and a few of the kids got up and read prayers out loud for the group. It was amazing to see these kids ministering to each other at such a young age. Then it came time for all of us to pray together. I felt God hard on my heart that night to pray for these precious kids. As I stood there praying I felt eyes on me. I looked up and saw a young mother, watching me pray. I just flashed her a quick smile and continued. After we had finished, a little girl came up to me and asked my name and why I was in Colombia. I introduced myself and told her that I felt God calling me to come and serve the children of Colombia. She smiled and shook her head. We talked for a little and then she had to go to bed. She said she hoped to see me again soon and thanked me for coming.
Shortly after my friend ushered me upstairs to the pregnant mothers room. Many of these girls are barely into their teens. They are victims of rape, abuse, trafficking, and sin. As we approached a bed my friend explained that one of the girls was having pain in her stomach and had been bleeding for two days, but she was only five months along. I kneeled by her bed and put my hand on her stomach. My friend spoke softly to her, asking if she knew who Jesus was and what He meant to her. She said through tears that she did and that she had trusted Him as her Lord and Savior but she was very concerned for her baby. We asked if we could pray for her, she was more than happy to accept.
After we had prayed and were about to leave a young mother ran up to me and grabbed my hand, I recognized her from down stairs, she was the one who had been staring at me during prayer. It was hard to make out what she was trying to say at first, she seemed very distressed. I got the idea that she was seven months pregnant and was very scared. She was not ready to be a mother, she was concerned about how to raise a child, and what the future held for her. She asked me to pray for her so I gave her a hug and prayed. I felt so lost as to what to say to this girl. I could not say that everything was going to be fine. I did not know what to do. But after we prayed together, I saw a bit of peace come over her face. I knew God was at work in this girl, I told her that He has a plan for her life, and for the life growing inside her, and that if she trusted Him, she would not have to worry.
When I reached home that night, I knelt by my bed and just sighed a prayer for both of those girls, and I thank God that the one is now fine and her baby is fine too. God is good. Please keep all the young mothers of San Miguelito in your prayers that God would give them strength and peace.
About a year ago my friend Stephanie told me about a girl who was sold out to Jesus and missions and who might want to come on our June 2011 mission trip. Not long after my family and I had dinner with Stephanie, the girl Magan and her mom. We had a blessed time together and Magan signed up for the trip.
On the trip Magan surprised me with how quickly she jumped in and began to build relationships with the children. She was a natural with the obvious anointing of God upon her heart and vision. I could tell that God was doing a mighty work in Magan.
Last fall she went off to college but with plans to attend our January 2012 mission trip to Bogota. When it became clear to her that she was not going to be able to attend the January trip, I felt so bad for her when she sent me this message,
“Hi there! First off, how are you and your family? I miss serving with you and the rest of the team and I hope all is going well with everyone! I saw recently that the dates for the January trip were posted, and when I realized that my university goes back to school January 9th, my heart just sank. I know that God wants me here at UMHB, but my love and longing to be with my kiddos over there is still so strong. I kinda pushed it out of the way, just crushed since I felt like there was no other option or possibility. But when I began praying about it, I felt so dumb for letting something as silly as school stop God from working through me to reach those orphans. I’m continuing to pray about it and I’m still not sure what exactly God wants me to do. All I know is that He definitely doesn’t want me to give up on it. So my question to you is if you have any thoughts on this. Like, is there a way for me to go by myself or with a couple friends at the very beginning of January or December. I really have no clue as to how all of this gets worked out or if thats even feasible or anything really. At this point, I’m just trying to keep running towards God searching for the open door. I would appreciate so much your prayer and advice on this.”
I sensed the hand of God at work in this as I prayed with Magan and her approach to the whole thing was so Spirit like that I knew I had to help. We tried to work something out for her to go in December but it never materialized. Finally we were able to make a trip for her happen over spring break last month. Magan is back from her trip and we talked on Sunday and here is the rest of the story… so far… of what God is doing for her and through her.
First, she was able to stay with my dear friend, Nelda. Magan told me about how every night Chris and Oscar and Javier would come over and they would have dinner and devotions and end with a prayer meeting. She said it was awesome.
She spent two days with our little friends at an orphanage in Madrid and was able to share her testimony of salvation and life with Jesus with three different groups of girls. She opened it up to questions from the girls and was amazed by the questions that the girls asked after each testimony. She said the questions were deep and sincere, like “How do know that God is with you all the time?” She was able to pour deeply into these precious orphan girls.
She was saddened by the amount of turnover in the orphanage. She didn’t see any of the girls that she had built relationships with the previous summer. She also took 100 hair bows and 50 Bibles. All the Bibles went to another orphanage that she visited later in the week. She was able to spend time at a baby/toddler orphanage and at a safe house for aged out young people. All in all she said the trip was vastly beyond her wildest dreams.
Some people commented to her, “I can’t believe that you are spending your Spring break in an orphanage.” Magan simply replied, “I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”
At the end of our conversation I asked Magan a question and was delighted and blessed by her answer.
Matt: Did the Lord reveal anything new to you while you were there?
Magan: It is mind boggling what God is doing and how He is moving in Bogota and I am even more excited now to be involved. My friend Brittany wants to go there for six weeks in the summer and we had talked about it before I went so I was praying about trying to go as well. While there I prayed about it so hard and I came home convinced that God wants me there for the summer. The night I arrived home my mom was filling out the paperwork for me to go to summer school and she needed a yes or no answer from me about whether I was going to summer school. I really wanted to pray more about it before answering her but I felt the Lord saying, “I have this all worked out.” One of my scholarships required summer school but recently they changed the requirement so my mom said, “You don’t need to take summer school.” I knew in my heart that my parents have already been reluctant about me going on these trips and I knew that if they said no about this summer that that was it. I would honor their wishes. I told them of my hearts desire and they said they would think about it. The next morning my parents texted me that they were 100% behind me going to Colombia this summer. I had to sit down when I read the text message. I felt God saying with a big smile, “I told you I had this worked out.” One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that anywhere God has called me to I have always been apprehensive about it at the start, so many factors, so much to figure out, but once I let go and decide that God is calling me this way then the doors start to open and they open beyond anything I could ask for. Shortly after my parents said yes, a lady from my church contacted me to say that she wants to buy my plane ticket for the summer. God is amazing.
It is one of the great joys of my life to walk beside, uplift, and encourage, young warriors for Christ like Magan. I can’t wait to see where God takes her. She knows that the Bullen family is behind her 100%.
My dear friend, Grove Norwood with Heart of Texas Foundation, is one of my heroes in the faith. His story of love and grace has been portrayed in a movie and that lead him to become involved in prison ministry. We met through Tres Dias and over the years have cheered each other on in our respective ministries. He has been after me for a year to come with him to visit Louisiana State Penitentiary otherwise known as Angola and see the amazing things God is doing there.
I knew that Grove had been going to Angola to learn what they did and duplicate it here in Texas starting with a seminary in Darrington Prison. This is an incredible undertaking with the potential to change the Texas prison system, the state, and the world. I am so excited to be an onlooker.
So I finally was able to go with Grove last week and it is truly an amazing God story… Angola is the largest maximum security prison in the U.S. It’s land area is larger than Manhattan Island, NYC. There are 5300 inmates. All are serving life sentences. Every other man is a murderer. Once notorious as the bloodiest prison in America with 40 murders in one year, 17 years ago Warden Burl Cain started a Bible College inside the prison and today there is no violence. It’s a prison full of preachers… They send out “missionaries” to other prisons in Louisiana. When they sent the first missionaries out, the new prison’s violence dropped by 1/2 in 6 months. Wednesday – Friday I was able to tour the prison with Warden Cain, Grove Norwood, and others from The Heart of Texas. What a faith builder! The gospel truly is “the power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16)
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| Warden Cain and the Heart of Texas team. |
An amazing and totally unexpected thing happened that made me think that God may have had me on this trip for more than one reason. There are over 400 inmate led worship services here in Angola every month. In one of them on Thursday I met Miguel “the chin” Velez (aka Cumbamba), Medellin Drug Cartel founder Pablo Escobar’s Colombian hit man who spent 23 years in solitary confinement here at Angola. He is now a passionate follower of Jesus and he was thrilled to hear about our ministry in Bogota and gave me some contacts there of old associates who were at Angola and are now serving God back in Colombia. Miguel and Gary, the chaplain, asked me to look them up when I’m back in Colombia. I told Miguel I would and let him know how they are doing. Amazing.
You never know where God will take you when you sell out to Him. I just want to be with you on mission Lord. Take me with You.
I have discovered over the years that I can only give away what I possess. This is never more true than in the spiritual realm. Ministry must happen from the overflow of my relationship with and pleasure in God. Therefore, I must prioritize time with Him and I must constantly be seeking those things that feed my soul and add to my love for Him, my understanding of Him, and my motivation to serve Him. Consequently, I read many blogs, journals, articles, and sermons on a daily and weekly basis and I always have two or three books going at the same time mostly out of self preservation. I can only give from the overflow of what I have and I long to give. I long to be used up for the expansion of His kingdom in this world. Recently my wife has taught me a new method of reading (or should I say digesting) a book. She reads it straight through (sometimes first in audio version), then reads it again with a highlighter, then reads it again, outlining and taking notes as she goes. It doesn’t allow me to gobble up as many books as quickly as I once did but I must say that I really know and understand and comprehend the contents when I am done. Below are the books I’ve enjoyed and benefitted from in this first quarter of 2012. Click on the cover to read more about each book.
One of the great joys of following Jesus these past 30 years has been investing in younger men and women and seeing them become leaders in the kingdom of God. Again and again over the years God has put young people in my life, sometimes for a very short period of time, and has allowed me to pour into them from the overflow of my relationship with Him. Since my junior year in high school I have had a passion to build young leaders. It probably arose from the fact that the young evangelist who led me to Christ was only 22 years old and he had such a profound impact on my life that I wanted to pass that on. Later as I read the Bible and church history I realized that this is a repeating pattern in God’s strategy for building His kingdom.
Lisa and I have had the great joy of having dozens of young people live with us and hundreds sit at our dinner table over the years as we encouraged them in the Lord. We have been so blessed to see many of them go on to be pastors, youth pastors, missionaries, and church planters serving all over the U.S. and on 3 continents. We regularly have the joy of hearing from many of them and this week was no different.
What a joy to spend time on the phone this week with Chris, our young friend in Colombia, and hear what God is doing for and through him. What a blessing to spend a couple of hours on the phone this week with Brian, a young church planter in San Angelo, Texas, that we have had the privilege of mentoring for several years now and hear all that God is doing in their family and young congregation to reach the nations.
This morning I was blessed to receive this message from another young man who worked for me and my sons one summer when he was home from Bible college and he and his new wife at the time spent time at our dinner table.
“Hey Matt not sure if you remember me, but i would like to say thank you your influence and kindness to me and my wife. I think back to working with you and your sons often. God has worked in our family alot since that time we now have 3 kids with one on the way. And God has called us to be apart of a church plant in the Southern Houston area “Advance Church” http://www.advancehouston.com/ We are reaching out to change the World and doing so by starting a multi-lingual Church and sending the reached back to there home country to spread the Good News of Jesus. Did not think God would ever call me back to Houston and now he has and I am trusting God to do something, Amazing! I would love it if you and your family prayed for us during this time. Thank you so much.”
Randy Rutledge
Advance Church – Advancing Christ to a Changing World – Coming to Houston in 2012
www.advancehouston.com
Thank you Lord for allowing us to be a little part of what you are doing in the world. I can’t wait for heaven when all the stories that we don’t even know about now will be told.
The Lord has really been working on me the last 2 years about trusting Him for everything. He has shown me in multiple and miraculous ways the path that He wants me to go and I am learning so much. I’ve been reading a wonderful book called The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson about prayer and so the subject has been on my mind even more than usual. I’ve been praying more too. No matter how often the Lord answers a specific prayer request, I am always amazed. I am learning that He delights to show Himself even in the little things.
Computer Bag
My computer bag was starting to look pretty ragged but it still had some life in it. However, as I have added cables and such to do presentations about our ministry in Colombia it has increasingly become too small for all of the things I feel I need to have with me at a moments notice. I was in Office Depot the other day and I stopped at the computer bag display. There was a black leather one there that was perfect for what I need but it was $200.00. I set it back on the shelf and walked on and suddenly it hit me, “God wants me to bring everything to Him.” I stopped in the aisle and said, “Lord, I know its a small thing and maybe silly but would you give me that computer bag.” I walked on feeling a little sheepish for bothering the God of the universe with such an insignificant thing and then I forgot all about it. You know, prayers don’t have a shelf life. God never has forgotten one prayer in the history of the universe. Two weeks later a dear brother of mine called me to say he was bringing something by for me. That he just wanted to bless me. You guessed it. He showed up at my door with the exact black leather computer bag I had prayed for. “Wow, Father. You even care about computer bags.”
Tires
I do a lot of running for our ministry and I had 3 tires on my Yukon that were getting very bald. For weeks I have been praying every time I get into my car, “Lord, you know I am running out of tread. I am rapidly approaching a serious point here. Please provide for some tires.” This last Sunday the right front tire started to come apart on the way to church and I had to stop and put air in it. On Friday the Lord had provided some extra money and so Monday night Lisa and I went to Discount Tire in Tomball to buy a new tire for that right front one that was coming apart. The nice young man who helped us told us several times how dangerous it was to not go ahead and replace the back two tires that were very worn as well. We thanked him but explained that we simply couldn’t afford more than one right now. As we waited in the waiting area I reassured my wife that God knows the work we are doing for His children in Colombia and that’s why we can afford tires right now and He will provide. It came time to go get our car and as the gentleman walked us out to our car he said, “You know I told you about those two back tires…” and I cut him off politely and said, “Yes sir, you did but we just can’t afford…” he bent down with a big smile and patted a brand new tire on the back and said, “Well, you have all new tires now.” We were stunned. I couldn’t understand what he was saying to us. He smiled real big and said, “We like to help out when we can. They are a gift.” I couldn’t believe it. I shook his hand and then it was my turn to smile and say, “You don’t know this but we are missionaries to the orphans of Colombia and by helping us today you have helped a bunch of sweet little kids too.” Now it was his turn to be stunned. He shook hands and drove away praising God. “Wow, Father, You are even concerned about tires. Please bless those who bless us with a double portion.”
There are lots of trials and spiritual warfare when you try to go into dark places and help the “least of these” but that’s also where the miracles are.
Tell me about an answer to prayer that has bless you recently…
Often the Holy Spirit leads me to something that really enlightens, challenges, and encourages me greatly. This one I feel compelled to share. This is an excerpt from a longer message by Catherine Booth. She and her husband William founded the Salvation Army. They were heroes of the faith. After reading this message I thought, “Well, no wonder every one of her 8 children became missionaries and every one of her 48 grandchildren became missionaries.”
Aggressive Christianity
By Catherine Booth
I have been reading the New Testament lately with special reference to the aggressive spirit of original Christianity. And as far as I can see, we come infinitely short by comparison. “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation.” Look at what is implied in this commission. I believe that no generation since that first century has yet fathomed the meaning of this divine commission. Look at it!
Would it ever occur to you that it really meant, “Go and build chapels and churches, and invite the people to come in, but if they won’t – leave them alone”? “GO!” To whom? “To all creation.” Where am I to get at them? WHERE THEY ARE. “All creation.” This is the extent of your commission. Seek them out, run after them, wherever you can get at them. “All creation” – wherever you find a creature that has a soul – there go and preach My Gospel to him. If I understand it, that is the meaning and spirit of this commission.
In another commission to Paul, God says “…I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God.” (Acts 26:17-18) They are asleep – go and wake them up. They do not see their danger. If they did, there would be no need for you to run after them. They are preoccupied. Open their eyes, and turn them around by your desperate earnestness, intense persuasion, and moral force. Oh! It makes me tremble when I think of how much one man can do for another! ‘”Turn from darkness to light, and from the dominion of Satan to God.”
How did Paul understand this? He says, “We persuade men.”(II Cor.5:11) Do not be content with just putting it before them, giving them gentle invitations, and then leaving them alone. Paul ran after the poor souls, and pulled them out of the fire. Do the same! Take the blindfold off their eyes which Satan has bound them with; knock and hammer and burn your words into their poor, hardened, darkened hearts with the fire of the Holy Ghost, until they begin to realize that they are IN DANGER! Go after them. If I understand it, that is the spirit of the apostles and of the early Christians.
Sure it’s okay to build churches and chapels; we should invite the people to them. But do you think it is consistent with these commissions to rest only in this, when three-fourths of the population utterly ignore our invitations and take no notice whatsoever of our buildings and of our services? They will not come to us. That is an established fact. Jesus Christ says, “Go after them.” He says, “Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, that My house may be filled.” (Luke 14:23) I will have guests, and if you can’t get them in by nice, civil measures, use military measures. Go and compel them to come in.
Oh! People say you must be very cautious. You must not push religion down people’s throats. What! Should I wait until an unconverted, godless man wants to be saved before I try to save him? Am I to let my unconverted friends and acquaintances go quietly down to damnation, and never tell them about their souls until they ask, “If you please, I want you to preach to me!”
Is this anything like the spirit of early Christianity? No! Therefore we must make them look, and if they run away from you in one place, meet them in another, and let them have no peace until they submit to God. This is what Christianity ought to be doing in this land, and there are plenty of Christians around to do it. Why, we might give the world such a time of it, that they would get saved in self-defense – if we were only aggressive enough and determined that they should have no peace in their sins.
What We Must Do
Men are preoccupied with many things, and we need to bring this subject of salvation powerfully to their attention. There is some one soul that you have more influence with than any other person on earth. Are you doing all you can for their salvation? Take them lovingly aside and say, “My dear friend, I have never spoken to you closely, carefully, and prayerfully about your soul.” Let them see the tears in your eyes, or if you can’t weep, let them hear the tears in your voice. Let them realize that you feel their danger, and are in distress for them. Then God will give His Holy Spirit so they can be saved.
It is a bad sign for the Christianity of this day that it provokes so little opposition. If there were no other evidence of it being wrong, I could tell from just that. When the Church and the world can jog comfortably along together, you can be sure there is something wrong. The world has not compromised – its spirit is exactly the same as it ever was. If Christians were equally as faithful to the Lord, separated from the world, and living so that their lives were a reproof to all ungodliness, the world would hate them as much as it ever did. It is the Church that has compromised, not the world.
You say, “You’re implying that we should be getting into endless conflict with the world!” Yes- “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matt. 10:34) There would be uproar, yes! The Acts of the apostles are full of stories of uproars. One uproar was so great, that the Chief Captain had to get Paul over the shoulders of the people, otherwise he would have been torn to pieces. “What a commotion!” you say. Yes, and bless God, if it was like that now, we would have thousands of sinners saved.
The Dignity Of Love
“But,” you say, “wouldn’t that be inconsistent with the dignity of the Gospel?” It depends on what you mean by “dignity. ” It was a very undignified thing, humanly speaking, to die on a cross between two thieves. The Pharisees spat upon the humbled sufferer and shook their heads and said, “He saved others, He cannot save Himself.” Ah! But He was intent on saving others. That was the dignity of everlasting, unquenchable love, baring its bosom to suffer in the place of its rebellious creature – man. It was incarnate God, standing in the place of condemned man – the dignity of LOVE!
Oh friends! Will you get this baptism of love! Then you will, like the apostles, be willing to stuff your body into a basket and be let down by the wall, if need be – or suffer shipwreck, hunger, peril, nakedness, fire, or sword, or even beheading (II Corinthians 11:23-33) -if thereby you may enlarge His Kingdom and win souls for whom He shed His blood. Oh Lord, fill us with this love and baptize us with this fire! And then the Gospel will arise and become glorious in the earth, and men will believe in us, and in it. They will feel its power, and they will yield to it by the thousands, and by the grace of God, THEY SHALL! — By Catherine Booth
As long as I can remember I have always been a reader. I call it feeding my soul and I have a voracious appetite. I find great encouragement and strength from walking with giants through their books. I find it sad that many miss out on this great opportunity for one reason or another. I think often of this quote and pray that it does not become true of me,
“One thing I’ve noticed about Evangelicals is that they do not read. They do not read the Bible, they do not read the great Christian thinkers, they have never heard of Aquinas. If they’re Presbyterian, they’ve never read the founders of Presbyterianism. I do not understand that. As a Jew, that’s confusing to me. The commandment of study is so deep in Judaism that we immerse ourselves in study. God gave us a brain, aren’t we to use it in His service? When I walk into a Evangelical Christian’s home and see a total of 30 books, most of them best-sellers, I do not understand. I have bookcases of Christian books, and I am a Jew. Why do I have more Christian books than 98 percent of the Christians in America? That is so bizarre to me.” ~ Dennis Prager, Jewish radio talk show host, in an interview in The Door. Quoted in Disciplines of a Godly Man, Pg. 78.
I love and have imitated Erasmus comment,
“When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.”
~ Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)
Elizabeth Hardwick said and I agree,
“The greatest gift is a passion for reading.”
~ Elizabeth Hardwick
I read many journals, blogs, theological articles, etc. daily to keep my soul feeding on and pursuing Christ and I try to always have a book or two going as well. Here are some favorites (in random order) that I was blessed to read in 2011 and that have greatly benefitted my life. Click on the book cover to order the book for yourself. Many Blessings!
Radical by David Platt
Crazy Love by Francis Chan
The Cause Within You by Matthew Barnett
Costly Grace by Jon Walker
Spiritual Warfare And Missions by Jerry Rankin and Ed Stetzer
Out Live Your Life by Max Lucado
In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day by Mark Batterson
Primal by Mark Batterson
Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson
The Dangerous Duty Of Delight by John Piper
Hudson Taylor, The Man Who Believed God by Marshall Broomhall
Experiencing The Spirit by Blackaby
The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun
The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer
How To Be Filled With The Holy Spirit by A.W. Tozer
Forgotten God by Francis Chan
Revolution in World Missions by K.P. Yohannan
Reckless Abandon by David Sitton
I’m compiling my wish list for 2012… Tell me, what was your favorite book from 2011?
Last December I wrote a post entitled No Room At The Inn about how God often sends people (Jesus in disguise as Mother Teresa would say) to our door who have nowhere else to go or who need a family. Last Christmas it was a homeless girl just out of prison and then three Colombians, (two orphans and a government official.) This Christmas is no different.
Our daughter Mercy came home for Christmas yesterday and brought another girl, Angelica, who is without a family or place to go for the holidays. It made my heart swell with joy that once again the Bullen Inn has room for Jesus. Having girls sleeping on bunk beds, the floor, and the couches makes it feel more like Christmas around here. Another blessing this year has been the people coming to our door with groceries and gifts. That’s something new and wonderful for us. Usually we are the ones giving but this year it is the other way around and it has really made it feel like Christmas as well. It warms my heart to think that those dropping by with food, and presents, and those who collected clothes and gift cards and food for our family this year were also giving to Angelica without even knowing and according to Matthew 25:45 they were giving to Jesus.
Michael Wells, a preacher now in heaven, used to say, “When you become a safe person for God to use, you won’t have to go searching for people to minister to, He will send them to you.” I often pray for God to make me that person. I ask Him to send me and to send His children that need help to me. And the most intriguing thing is that no matter how hard you try to give God always gives you more in return. The fun and happiness that has permeated our home over the years as we took in whomever God sent us and the memories that we share and are making every day are treasures that silver and gold cannot buy. The Christ child is all around us if we are ready to receive Him. May there always be room in our inn for Jesus. Merry Christmas.
I saw firsthand today that one little boy or girl can impact the world. It all started when my friend Mike Ford agreed to go to Colombia with us last June. His heart was touched as are so many as they walk through the fields of the fatherless. Mike came home so excited to tell his family about all that he had seen and felt. His family was very touched, especially his 6th grader Michael. The whole family has put their weight behind Orphan Hope and have worked hard to help in any way they could. Recently Michael’s teacher at school, Ms. Lisa Stoyak, proposed a plan to teach her students about giving and selflessness. She gave each one of them $5.00 of her own money and encouraged them to go out and find ways to multiply that money. She then told them that each of them would have an opportunity to make a presentation about their favorite charity and they would take a vote and all the money that each student raised by multiplying that $5.00 would be given to the charity that was selected. Michael worked and worked with the help of his dad to create a presentation about Orphan Hope International and when the day came he gave a wonderful presentation and his teacher and some of his friends even cried. Michael and his friends in the class worked and worked to raise money. They baked and sold cookies, had car washes, lemonade stands, made and sold jewelry and many other things. Altogether they raised the amazing amount of $6,000.00. The class selected two ministries, Living Water International and Orphan Hope International, to give the money to and today was the day they presented the checks to us. I had no idea of this whole story when I arrived at the school, Tomball Intermediate, today. I only knew that Michael had made a presentation about Orphan Hope and his class had raised some money to present us. I was so touched and impacted in my heart when I heard the story. The library was filled with children and parents and news media as the children each stood and told about how they had raised the money. They had made a giant poster saying “We love Orphan Hope” and another one saying “We love Living Water.” Mike and I shared with them about our personal stories and then about the ministry. Living Water shared as well and then the children presented us with the money. There were lots of photos and interviews. It was really wonderful. I realized today that one teacher with a big heart and a good idea, one class of 6th graders with big hearts and a little work, one little boy, one little girl can change the world for someone, somewhere.
God is so good to give me friends like the Grahams and then to let me share with them in this amazing journey. This is why we do what we do.
One of the beautiful stories resulting from our summer vacation host program.
Evermons on Adoption from Shoby John on Vimeo.
As a young Christian I was constantly thinking about and worrying about “What is the will of God for my life?” It seemed that I constantly wrestled with such questions as “What city does He want me in?” “What ministry does He want me to do?” I wanted to serve Him so desperately. I wanted to be used by Him terribly. I wanted to make a difference in the world. And it seemed to me that knowing the will of God was a mysterious, mirky, uncertain business. Today, I know better and it is a great delight to my life that I have figured out how to consistently discern the will of God for my life. God doesn’t play shell games with us. He doesn’t have a mission for our life and then spend the rest of our life trying to hide that mission from us. He has a mission for our life and He wants us to know what it is and to accomplish it more than we could possibly imagine. As Mark Batterson says, “God wants you to get where God wants you to go more than you want to get where God wants you to go.” Matthew Barnett says, “God wants you to know your cause. He does not play games. Because He loves you more than you can understand, He is not going to make the discovery of your cause a tug-of-war in which He simply messes with your head. He designed that cause specifically for you because He knows it will deliver tremendous joy and fulfillment.”
Of course, sometimes God speaks directly to us in dreams, visions, or other ways but I have generally observed that He more often speaks in that still small voice. So quickly, here are the steps God has taught me for discerning His will in my life. I learned these by experience and then God has confirmed them through others over and over again and I will quote some of them. I specifically want to focus on the last one, Invitations. This is not a formula but the steps that I know God uses in my life to get me where He wants me to go.
1. Pursuing God. God’s will is not something He wants you to run off and do without Him. The first part of God’s will for every Christian is to know Him deeply and love Him deeply and stay in His presence. It’s only when I am pursuing God Himself that I can have any chance of knowing what He wants me to do.
2. Absolute Surrender. God’s will is GOD’S will not my will. The Lord’s prayer is hallowed be THY name not hallowed be MY name, THY kingdom come not MY kingdom come, THY will be done on earth as it is in heaven not MY will be done. If I want to be used of God I must be completely surrendered. I must lay my self on the altar and say, “Lord, use me how you want. You decide how my life can best bring You glory.” If it is suffering, sickness, prison, death, or advancement and prosperity, I submit to You Sovereign Lord. When God knows that I will do whatever He tells me without hesitation then He will clearly show me what He wants me to do. Matthew Barnett says, “So how do you find out what your cause is? From experience – mine and others’ – I’d argue that the first step is to surrender your will to God.”
3. Passion. God begins to lead us into the specific areas of service that He wants us in by desire. This was a wonderful revelation to me. When I realized that God put this unquenchable passion in me to know, love, and serve Him, I remember leaping for joy. I was studying 1 Timothy 3 regarding the qualifications for pastors and it hit me that the first qualification was desire! It says, “This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a pastor, he desireth a good work.” When I realized that the call of God starts with desire/passion my whole life changed. Matthew Barnett says it so well, “In my life, God speaks through passion and circumstances. In other words, He instills a sense of desire and urgency within me. I have a passion to accomplish certain dreams. Because those dreams are not the normal human impulses, especially in today’s self-indulgent culture, I believe those are God-inspired passions.” For example, I have seen God take the passion He put in me as a little boy to be a good father when I grew up and to be the leader of a family that would love God and impact the world for generations to come and expand that original passion beyond just my blood descendants to encompass the orphans of the world. Amazing.
4. Invitations/Circumstances. The final way I, and others, have found that God directs us to His mission for our lives is through invitations to become involved in what He is already doing in the world. It has been one of the greatest joys of my life that as I am pursuing God and loving Him and that relationship begins to spill and splash on to others around me that invitations begin to come in from people to “come over and help us” (Acts 16:9) Most of the greatest blessings in my life have come from an invitation that I said yes to. Our involvement in evangelism, youth ministry, church planting, conference speaking, authoring a book, Tres Dias, adopting our precious daughter Mercy, our ministry in Colombia, our wonderful church that we now attend, and many other blessings all started with an invitation that lined up with a passion God had already stirred in our hearts. Matthew Barnett again says it so well, “If you’re serious about knowing God’s chosen cause for you, think carefully before you turn down invitations to help somebody you know engage in some type of service activity, no matter how big or small it might be. That invitation might be the beginning of the adventure that identifies the means to filling the hole in your heart.” Wow! I love that and have proven it in my own life.
So, all that being said, as I begin to think about the year ahead and what God wants for my life in 2012 I realize that God is drawing me to Himself and His presence more powerfully than ever before, I am less afraid to lay it all down on the altar for Him than I have ever been, there is a terrible burning passion in me and in my family to be involved in what God is doing in the nations, and I currently have invitations from people that I love and admire to come and preach/minister with them next year in Colombia, Mexico, Zambia, Liberia, Rwanda, Nepal, & India. I am humbled and amazed at the way God is moving in my life and I can’t wait to see where He leads.
Last Thursday night I had the joy and privilege of being interviewed by the guys at Streettalk Live on 700 AM radio here in Houston. It was wonderful because one of the hosts, Michael Smith, is one of the parents in the process of adopting a girl from this summer’s Texas Vacation Host Program. It was great to share about what God is doing with Orphan Hope International and to hear a little of Mike’s heart as well. Here is the audio from the interview.
Today was a wonderful Sunday. This day was part of an ongoing story of God connecting us with others of His messengers to the nations. Recently Bill Byrd and I were blessed to meet with Omar Garcia, missions pastor at Kingsland Baptist Church, and Omar suggested that Bill contact Pastor Gorge Cardenas, of Church on the Rock, Katy because he is Colombian. Pastor Cardenas put Bill in touch with Missy Christie of Conviventia, a ministry in Bogota. We visited with them and saw one of their projects when we were in Bogota last month. We were meeting with them again the other day and we mentioned our vacation program and that we wanted to take the kids to a Spanish church service while they were here and Mitzy, Missy’s assistant, shared with us that her husband is Pastor Cardenas’ Assistant Pastor and that we would be very welcome.
Long story short, Bill and Morgan Pylant of Grace Fellowship, Katy set everything up with Pastor Cardenas and we had 90 people from Orphan Hope in the Spanish service at Iglesia Sobre La Roca (Church on the Rock) today. It was marvelous. Pastor Cardenas preached a wonderful sermon, the worship was amazing, I was able to share a little about Orphan Hope with the church, and then we shared a wonderful Colombian lunch together. One of the most amazing things was that Pastor Cardenas’ son just came back from Colombia from a trip with his dad and mom and he is selling everything he has and returning to work in one of Conviventia’s schools in Cartagena just like our three OHI mission trip attenders are preparing to do. Pastor Cardenas leaned over to me and said, “I don’t know what God is doing but He is doing something special for the children of Colombia right now.” His son and I traded information and we promised to stay in touch and see how we can work together. When I hugged Pastor Cardenas goodbye I told him we would come again and visit and he said, “Oh yes!” “We will be seeing more of each other since my son is going to be working together with you guys.”
One of my favorite things about this ministry is getting to rub shoulders with God’s people who have a heart for the nations. It is exhilarating to be around people whose hearts are near to the hear of God.
An amazing thing happened to me today. I was sitting in a meeting with the owner of the building that I just completed and Ed Wong, a landscape designer whom I had just met that day. The owner of the building, (who is a strong believer and who knows that my job has run out and that this is my last week in construction and I will be launching out by faith in full-time ministry starting next week), asks me if I know how I am going to support my family and I respond that I don’t know yet but I am trusting God to take care of us. At this comment, Ed Wong’s head comes up and he says, “You know, J. Hudson Taylor said, ‘God’s work done God’s way will never lack for God’s supply'” I smile and say, “I love that quote! I am a big fan of Hudson Taylor. Ed smiles and says, “I am a good friend of J. Hudson Taylor IV who is a missionary in Taiwan. He calls me whenever he is in Houston and comes and visits our little Chinese church in Chinatown. Here, I have a photo of him.” Ed pulls out his iphone and shows me a photo of J. Hudson Taylor IV and his Chinese wife. Then we shared Hudson Taylor quotes for a moment and then got back to designing landscaping. I don’t know if this little exchange was a message to me from God but I am receiving it as such anyway.
I also couldn’t help but think about the incredible legacy of Hudson Taylor and to pray that God will give me children five generations from me, if He tarries, who are still serving the Lord, maybe even in Colombia. When I wrote my book, The Blessed Family, a few years ago, in the first chapter, Value of a Vision, I talked about the legacy of men like Hudson Taylor and William Booth and how I pray for the next ten generations of Bullen descendants. I used the illustration that if our five children (at the time) each married and had five children and each of them married and had five children and so on and if my wife and I thoroughly discipled our children and they thoroughly discipled their children that in ten generations we will have impacted twenty million souls just by bringing up our own children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Hearing about J. Hudson Taylor IV today reminded me that my greatest ministry may be after I have been in heaven a long time. Praise God!
Please pray for our family as we move into the next phase of this grand adventure of following Christ.
