God Likeness....Paul Utley

http://utmost.org/the-divine-commandment-of-life

This morning Bryan and I were sitting at the table finishing breakfast and talking about issues here in the community where we live.  Then Bryan began to read the devotional for today by Oswald  Chambers.  We were both stunned at how it caught us and convicted us about our conversation.....  Oswald Chambers writes, "Our Lord’s exhortation to us in Matthew 5:38-48 is to be generous in our behavior toward everyone. Beware of living according to your natural affections in your spiritual life. Everyone has natural affections— some people we like and others we don’t like. Yet we must never let those likes and dislikes rule our Christian life. “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” (1 John 1:7), even those toward whom we have no affection."  Furthermore, he continues, "The true expression of Christian character is not in good-doing, but in God-likeness."

Immediately our thoughts went to a dear friend, Paul Utley.  Paul and Judy live in Thailand where they work for Campus Crusade for Christ.  He works on the Jesus film which is translated into many languages and sent around the world for people to hear in their own tongue.  It is a wonderful ministry and I even brought DVD's in Portuguese and the local dialects for the churches to use here in Angola.

The reason I think of Paul when I read today's devotional is because he is a man that is driven not by a desire to show goodness....but he has walked with the Lord for such a long time and so closely, it is now his nature.  I remember years ago when someone came to Bangkok to have a marriage seminar.  Paul, our assistant pastor at the time, came to the meeting.  The leader asked him to role play the part of an angry spouse that would not work things out in the marriage.  We all suggested that he not be the one to role play this because it is so against his nature.  The leader insisted and it was painful for the rest of us to witness.  Paul is not a man that even can role play as an angry man...... because he is a man of peace and gentleness and kindness.  Paul never looks to elevate himself...to stand up for his own rights....to have people look at him and marvel at a man who has given his life to serving his Lord.....he just quietly works and does what needs to be done....working tirelessly and is renewed through the work.

I remember years ago when Paul came back to the USA to work to renew funding.  He went were he was sent and shared what God was doing....and did not seem to worry at all about the ramifications of not having sufficient funds.  He trusted that God would provide....and you know, God does provide....and he hasn't wasted energy and sleep over worrying that maybe this time, God will not come through and meet the needs.....

Paul and Judy have raised two wonderful children, Hilary and Christopher.  They too have watched their father and mother and I am sure these kids are so dear because of what they have seen lived out in their parent's lives... as Oswald Chambers writes, " If the Spirit of God has transformed you within, you will exhibit divine characteristics in your life, not just good human characteristics. God’s life in us expresses itself as God’s life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of a Christian’s life is that the supernatural becomes natural in him as a result of the grace of God, and the experience of this becomes evident in the practical, everyday details of life, not in times of intimate fellowship with God"

Reflecting on Paul and the intimate relationship he clearly has with God that brings into and through him the reflecting of God in all circumstances....his continual calmness in all circumstances.....causes me to long even more for this permeation of God likeness in me....Oswald Chambers writes, "The example our Lord gave us here is not that of a good person, or even of a good Christian, but of God Himself. “. . . be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” In other words, simply show to the other person what God has shown to you...... And God will give you plenty of real life opportunities to prove whether or not you are “perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Being a disciple means deliberately identifying yourself with God’s interests in other people.".....loving them and being patient as God is with me......

Costas Macris, Man of Faith

http://utmost.org/arguments-or-obedience

Immediately upon reading this writing by Oswald Chambers, Bryan and I remembered a wonderful Greek missionary family we met in Indonesia, Costas and Alky Macris.  

Bryan was working for World Vision at this time in his life and was the Relief and Development Coordinator for all of the Indonesian islands.  He would travel frequently around Java, Kalimantan (Borneo), Sumatra, and Irian Jaya also known as West Irian and now known as West Papua.  

World Vision was trying to assist in community development in the areas of Irian Jaya in a holistic manner which included economic development with the missionary outreach.  The missionaries in Irian Jaya located in several of the highland areas and were somewhat resistant to this development.  Through the vision of Dr. Jerry Powell of the Un-evangelized Fields Mission (UFM), there was a large project started to bring livestock into the area.  Also, Jim Sunda of the Christian and Missionary Alliance.The staples in the highlands was manioc and pork and the health problems were significant with malnutrition and disease from improperly cooked pork.  

Bryan also met with the RBMU missionary, Costas Macris.  Bryan fondly recalls what an incredible visionary Costas was.  He immediately saw the value of the community development and said, "How can I tell someone that God loves them and they are dying of malnutrition and disease?"  

Costas and his family lived in a very difficult part of Irian Jaya......the low lands.  Bryan and I went to visit them and I was shocked to see the area.  I wish I had my photos to share because it was really incredible. I did find this photo online of Costas and some of the tribes people. The area is a swamp full of mosquitos, malaria, dengue fever, water diseases and river flukes that can enter the body if you spend time in the water and permanently damage your body.  The local people found ways to earn money by poaching crocodiles and selling the skins.  

The village groups were very small and one tribe would live on one side of the river and another, with another language, on the opposite side.  The people were also not very friendly at this time......due to superstition....but Costas came with love and a real desire to reach through the fears of the people and present Jesus Christ.

I remember thinking how amazing this man and his family were to be in such a difficult place.  We had visited the beauty of the highland areas and this was a stark contrast.  Costas and his family were the only missionaries we met there except two delightful single missionary women.  He did tell us that there were Wycliff Bible Translators in the area also.

We went with Costas to visit different tribal groups where he was working some with only a few families.  We went by Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) Cessna plane and would land in some of the smallest landing strips I had ever seen. I remember one place we stopped and a huge local man came and stood, resting his arm over the wing of the plane.  He was a alligator poacher and extremely fit.  The pilot kept saying....quietly, "Please don't break my plane.....don't break my plane".  There was no ill intent but it was very funny....

A man with his bow and arrows

At one of the stops there was a young man with his bow and arrows for hunting.  I had been collecting arrows of different types as a keepsake.  This man had a totally different arrow without a point...the tip was like a club and Costas said that the man would shoot the arrow and stun the bird.....then he could capture it.  I asked if I could buy this unique arrow and Costas asked the man.  I gave him a fair price of Indonesian Rupiah paper money.....and he sat down and just looked at it as we left.  I realized it had no real value to him at all.  There was nothing to buy in this area.  Costas told me later that a coin with the shine would have been better because it could be worn as jewelry.   

After we returned to the mission station I asked Costas to explain the markings on the arrow made in what appeared to be white paint......he said, this is were the witch doctor made markings to make sure the arrow would fly true and hit it's mark when used.  Now this caused me a great deal of concern.  How could I keep in my home something that had been blessed by the witch doctor?  Would this be wrong to keep? I decided to give the arrow back to Costas and when I explained why, he answered so directly....."So is your God not stronger than the witch doctor here?  If that is true, then you should give me the arrow but if God is stronger, then you should keep it."  After saying this and without pause he walked away and left me to think.   I still have the arrow in storage in the USA.   

Oswald Chambers writes, "Simplicity is the secret to seeing things clearly. A saint does not think clearly until a long time passes, but a saint ought to see clearly without any difficulty. You cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey."  When I think of the simplicity of Costas' faith and his absolute trust in God no matter where it took him....I realize how blessed I am to have had a chance to meet and spend time with such a wonderful man.  And when I think of Alky, his wife, I marvel at her willingness to go to such a hard place with her children and live there for the sake of the Gospel of Christ.  

I have attached a short history of Costas Macris from Helienic Ministries.  It will describe the incredible journey that Costas lived as he followed the Lord.     

"In 1962, Costas and Alky became the first Greek couple to become foreign missionaries, serving under the auspices of Regions Beyond Missionary Union (RBMU).  Their assignment: Irian Jaya-a lush tropical wilderness with dangerous, craggy mountains, cannibalistic Stone Age tribes and a breeding ground for tropical diseases.   

Despite these hardships, their years in Irian Jaya were fruitful for the Lord.  Overcoming the dangers, God allowed them to see spiritual breakthroughs and the church was planted in 12 different tribal groups.  Their accomplishments also include the establishment of 22 nationally staffed settlements with homes, airstrips, clinics, schools and other facilities.

In 1979, after 16 years of ministry in the primitive culture and wild surroundings of Irian Jaya, disaster struck! Costas contracted a deadly form of hepatitis, complicated by the tropical diseases of amoebic dysentery, malaria, and filariasis. He was rushed to a St. Louis, Missouri hospital where the doctors found extensive liver damage. The prognosis was imminent death. God, however, had other plans. Through the prayers of concerned friends, God healed him of every trace of all four diseases and he experienced a complete recovery, to the glory of God.

At this time Costas began seeking God earnestly for new direction, as the doctors had forbidden him to return to Irian Jaya. Throughout this year of intensive prayer, God reminded him of the spiritual needs of his own country-Greece. Costas understood then that he must return to his own people to rekindle the light of Christ's saving gospel. Why? In this ancient land of proud heritage, hardened hearts and superstition, Greek Orthodoxy had all but lost the true message of the Gospel. In obedience to God's challenge, Costas and Alky returned to their homeland. In 1980, the first national Greek evangelistic and missionary organization, the Hellenic Missionary Union (HMU-now HM) was born under Costas' able leadership.

The work grew quickly during the first five years. Costas immediately began doing large open-air evangelism programs, something that had never been done in modern Greece. Many in the tiny and marginalized evangelical community assumed he would be locked up for trying, as the Greek Orthodox Church exerted seemingly monolithic control over society, and the State of Greece has restrictive laws against proselytism. Against all expectations, the Summer Campaigns were not stopped-in fact, their blend of loud contemporary Christian music, street theatre and passionate preaching drew huge crowds and proved to be an effective means of communicating the gospel to masses of people.

Initially relying on large numbers of short-term foreign volunteers, Greek evangelical youth soon came forward to join Campaigns. Since the objective was not just evangelism but to change the course of a nation, this opened the second phase of HM's ongoing work-discipleship and training.

However, as the fledgling mission saw some fruit being born, 'disaster' struck again. While doing an open-air program with YWAM (Youth with a Mission) in 1984, Costas handed a 14-year old boy a New Testament. His mother, a fanatical atheist, used the anti-proselytism laws to press charges and Costas, along with two YWAM directors, were sentenced to three and a half years in prison!

What Satan intended for harm, God used for good. Freed for a year pending his appeal, Costas used the time to travel the world to let people abroad know of the spiritual conditions in Greece. By the time the appeal came to court, international media attention was focused on the trial, and the sentences were overturned. In addition, Costas had also been given a 17 meter (55 ft) steel-hulled sailboat to use in ministry to the islands, new workers had been recruited, and God's people on several continents were praying."

http://www.hellenicministries.com/pages/en/AboutUs/OurBeginnings.html

Costas died in 2006.  His life touched so many in Irian Jaya and Greece and around the world.  Oswald Chambers writes, "Bring all your “....arguments and . . . every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” regarding the matter, and everything will become as clear as daylight to you (2 Corinthians 10:5). Your reasoning capacity will come later, but reasoning is not how we see. We see like children, and when we try to be wise we see nothing (see Matthew 11:25)......when our natural power of sight is devoted and submitted in obedience to the Holy Spirit, it becomes the very power by which we perceive God’s will, and our entire life is kept in simplicity."

Pleiku, Vietnam...Reaching across Conflicts

http://utmost.org/missionary-weapons-2

As I read the Bible portion of the devotional today, I immediately think of my time in Pleiku, Vietnam, at the Leprosy Center.  In John 13:14, Jesus has just washed the feet of His disciples before the last supper and He says, "If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet".  I think of the Leprosy Center because it was there that I watched day after day one leprosy patient who was a trained worker, wash and clean out ulcers of the feet of patients in the center.  And as I watched them, there was no disgust nor aversion in the work but they would talk and laugh together as they preformed this task.  As I have stated before, this foot wash room was foul smelling many times but this didn't seem to bother the workers.  The sweet attitudes of these workers would raise the spirit of the patients that were too ill to remain at home and needed to come to the center for treatment. 

One day around lunch time I was alone with the staff and patients at the Leprosy Center.  Remember, this center was outside of town.....quite a distance.  The South Vietnamese army had built anti tank trenches around the city of Pleiku to keep the North Vietnamese army from riding across the open fields to the town.  They could use the roads but nevertheless, there was a huge project to dig this trench to protect the city and our leprosy center was outside of the trench.  Now this did not make us feel any less secure...and only for a short time this one day did I feel any anxiety at being there with no vehicle and no way to get back to town.  But this particular day, the Vietnamese pharmacist came to me very afraid and said I must hide.  He said that there were North Vietnamese soldiers outside the center and he did not want anything to happen to me.  I went to a room and sat on the floor.  After some time when no one came into any of the rooms looking for me, I snuck to the window and looked out and saw 3 young men, clothing in tatters, and they were so thin.....like they were starving.  I saw the workers giving them rice and fish and water and then the soldiers left after about half an hour.  Everyone came in to where I was and explained that these soldiers were lost from their unit and had not eaten in several days.  That is why they had come to the center......they were so hungry and  needed someone to reach out to them....even though they were the enemy at this time.  

Oswald Chambers writes, "Ministering in everyday opportunities that surround us does not mean that we select our own surroundings— it means being God’s very special choice to be available for use in any of the seemingly random surroundings which He has engineered for us. The very character we exhibit in our present surroundings is an indication of what we will be like in other surroundings......Jesus said, “I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you”."  The workers were kind and loving to these men who came for food.  They did not differentiate between sides in a conflict...they only saw people in need and extended kindness to them as Jesus did......their only fear was what would happen if I was found to be there......and this, thank God, was no real issue at all.   

Preparation in the Quiet Times

http://utmost.org/missionary-weapons-1

Oswald Chambers starts this reading with the following.  "We presume that we would be ready for battle if confronted with a great crisis, but it is not the crisis that builds something within us— it simply reveals what we are made of already.....If you are not doing the task that is closest to you now, which God has engineered into your life, when the crisis comes, instead of being fit for battle, you will be revealed as being unfit. Crises always reveal a person’s true character."  As soon as I read this I was convicted on several levels.  

First, Portuguese language study to be able to be prepared to work in the community.....I have a house girl that comes to iron and clean twice weekly.  This was started when I had my leg in a cast due to a knee injury and she is continuing.  She is 24 years old has 3 children ages 8 to 2 and her husband is unemployed.  She is continuing to go to school trying to complete the 4th grade.  She needs the income and I enjoy the company at home.  We were attempting to communicate....with pantomime and Google Translate....but I must sound out the words because she doesn't read well and the Portuguese is Brazilian not from Portugal so has some differences.  As we were attempting to talk together, she asked what my work was and I told her I am a nurse.  Also that I had visited Cabinda, Angola to try to work in palliative care there and again tried to get this started here in Soyo, Angola, and she with the innocence of a child said, "but you must study Portuguese first".  Now I am studying because I knew what she was saying....but it was a real reminder of how my laziness in the area of language study is obvious even to this young girl.  

The second thing that I thought of was the writing of this blog.  I have not written for the past week.  Why?  I can tell you that it is because none of the daily devotionals of Oswald Chambers fit with the stories I have from my life.....and on the surface, this is true.....but I believe that I am writing these stories to have something for my children and grandchildren as well as to take the time to reflect on not just where God has taken me through my life and lessons I have learned on the way.....but how those lessons can help me where I am today.  It takes time to think, pray, and wait for the right story to come to my mind.....and instead I have been watching TV and spending time thinking about and discussing the difficulties of life here.....and this is an easy way to fill my time.....but is not of value to me or to the purpose of leaving this for my kids......  

Oswald Chambers continues, "It is in the unseen life, which only God saw, that you have become perfectly fit. And when the strain of the crisis comes, you can be relied upon by God."  Now this is a real thought.....that I can be relied on by God......and this is a real motivator for me to focus again on the work of reflecting on the stories of my unusual journey and putting them down for the future.  God has taken me through many crisis and in those times it is much easier to stay close to Him and trust in Him.....it is in the mundane, boring, quiet times of life that cause me to drift away and not continue to stay close.....and I know that there are other situations that I will encounter that I want to be ready for......and not find that I have been less than I should be at that time.  "If your worship is right in your private relationship with God, then when He sets you free, you will be ready."