The Lord has allowed me the privilege to work with men and women, equipping them to study the Bible on four continents. Each week, online, I meet with people on three continents – the technology we can bring to bear for the Lord is simply overwhelming.
I have learned something in the past seven years. There seems to be more hunger for God’s Word everyplace other than where I live.
Last week I was sick and had to cancel all of my scheduled meetings. I tried really hard to keep the Thursday night session, but it hurt to talk. Thursday is an online version of the 10 week workshop I do. Counting mine that group is in four time zones that spans a total of 12 hours’ time difference. The men with which I meet are in three time zones spanning four hours. I got on early with the intention of telling them that I needed to just hear if they had questions and then I needed to end the session.
When I launched the application we use, all five men were waiting for me. That has never happened. I have done a bunch of workshops. I have never had all the participants show up before I do and there has never been a time, here at least, that people did not come late.
Not only were they waiting, they had, for the most part, done more than I had expected them to do. I was humbled, excited – well as excited as I could be with a fever of 101.
What is going on? Why is it that there is so much hunger for the Word seemingly everywhere but here? It may be because we have so many resources, so much opportunity that we take it for granted. On my radio I can find four or five broadcasts without much effort that have some level of Biblical content. If I drive from my home to the grocery store, I pass three churches and a Christian college. There are at least three Christian Book stores within five miles of my home. I haven’t counted the number of Christian TV stations, but there are more than we will ever watch.
It has been that way since I have been a believer, yet I have been in countries where there were people who had never heard the name Jesus.
I do not do much. It seems like, in the grand scheme of things, very little at all. But, what the Lord has allowed me to do – scares me. I am fearful of the accounting it seems my home will face. We have been given much, Luke 12:47 says much will be required of us.
Last week I was sick and had to cancel all of my scheduled meetings. I tried really hard to keep the Thursday night session, but it hurt to talk. Thursday is an online version of the 10 week workshop I do. Counting mine that group is in four time zones that spans a total of 12 hours’ time difference. The men with which I meet are in three time zones spanning four hours. I got on early with the intention of telling them that I needed to just hear if they had questions and then I needed to end the session.
When I launched the application we use, all five men were waiting for me. That has never happened. I have done a bunch of workshops. I have never had all the participants show up before I do and there has never been a time, here at least, that people did not come late.
Not only were they waiting, they had, for the most part, done more than I had expected them to do. I was humbled, excited – well as excited as I could be with a fever of 101.
What is going on? Why is it that there is so much hunger for the Word seemingly everywhere but here? It may be because we have so many resources, so much opportunity that we take it for granted. On my radio I can find four or five broadcasts without much effort that have some level of Biblical content. If I drive from my home to the grocery store, I pass three churches and a Christian college. There are at least three Christian Book stores within five miles of my home. I haven’t counted the number of Christian TV stations, but there are more than we will ever watch.
It has been that way since I have been a believer, yet I have been in countries where there were people who had never heard the name Jesus.
I do not do much. It seems like, in the grand scheme of things, very little at all. But, what the Lord has allowed me to do – scares me. I am fearful of the accounting it seems my home will face. We have been given much, Luke 12:47 says much will be required of us.
"Familiarity breads contempt" I had been told several times in my youth. I find it true in my own life. Couple that with the fact that much of the resources available out there consist of spiritual "junk food" that is neither nourishing nor satisfying. it's no wonder American believers have little appetite.
ReplyDeleteBut I think the worst part is most of us have so little sense of real spiritual need, of a connection with God that we need to get through the next day, or even hour. It's a wonder what that has done for my spiritual life and hunger. Desperate dependence is what I've heard it called. These days I have far more of it than ever in my life. And the cost was high. I grieve that I am such a slow learner.....