Larger and Stronger
By Shirley Mitchell
With Phil Taylor
“The Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it. It doesn't diminish or weaken over time. It's the same all over the world. The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger, just as it has in you.”
Colossian 1:5-6 (The Message)
About a month ago, Phil who is a Christ Compels Board Member was contacted through Facebook by an old friend from high school. Her husband and she live in Thailand now. He is working there for a pharmaceutical company. Their church group in Bangkok is doing approximately 120 boxes for an orphanage in Mae Sot, Thailand. The orphanage in Mae Sot is populated by Burmese children who have fled Myanmar with or without their parents. If they fled with their parents, then many of their parents moved further into Thailand to look for work and simply abandoned the children. The workers and volunteers at the Mae Sot orphanage are trying to teach English to the children so that they can further their lives. English Bibles are often used as a tool to teach English. Although this is not the best way to share the Gospel, we can trust that His Word will accomplish what He sent it out to do.
So Phil responded to their need for help. He was impressed by God to get Bibles for them. He found out that it would take hundreds of dollars to buy the Bibles and ship them. He knew that he didn’t have the resources, but his God had whatever resources it took to get them the Bibles. My husband Doug and he prayed about it and discussed what to do.
After struggling through not knowing what to do, spending time letting God show them what to do, they knew what God wanted them to do. Phil contacted his friend also named Phill, Executive Director of Holman Bible Outreach International, to donate 150 Holman Christian Standard New Testaments. His friend in Bangkok was able to get the address of a friend at the Embassy. This allowed them to ship the Bibles at the media mail rate to her for less than $20. The entire project should have cost much more than a meal for two.
Phil and Doug were just jubilant! They were praising God for His provision. They knew that God set this whole thing up, and now those Bibles will be used in Thailand for His purposes! They trusted God and took the next steps of obedience until God made the way.
Phil could have responded like this, “I can’t. Lord, You know I don’t have the money for this. You know that my back is injured and I can’t lift the boxes.” But he didn’t respond at all by looking at his own ability to meet the need. He wanted those precious children to have the education they needed to help them have a better life on earth, and much more so, to have the Gospel in their hands to radically change their hearts and minds and give them a relationship with the God Most High.
In the Message version of the Bible, Paul said in Colossians 1:1 that he was on a special assignment as part of God’s master plan. He preached, taught, and shared Christ. He says in verse 29 that he works so hard day after day, year after year, doing his best with the energy God so generously gives him.
My dear friend, is this your passion too? Do you work hard day after day, year after year, with whatever energy God has given you to be about kingdom work and sharing Christ with whoever God brings your way? Or do you look at your own resources to give to others? Most of us have very little to give on our own. Even if we have a lot, eventually the supply will be exhausted. At some point if we are going to be true ministers of the Gospel, we must realize that we are completely dependent on God to bring the resources required to meet the needs of the people. The needs of the people will always be greater than what we can give them from our own supply, but they will never be greater than our God’s infinite great riches! The Gospel Message doesn't diminish or weaken over time. It is not different from country to country, but it is the same all over the world. The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger!
Pray with me: Heavenly Father, we adore You! We praise You for what You did to bring those Bible to those precious children in such great need. Meet their needs for an education as well as their spiritual needs to be fed spiritual food that satisfies and transforms.
The Gospel is as true among us today as when it was first heard. It doesn't diminish or weaken over time. It's the same all over the world. Even in an orphanage in Thailand. Your Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger. So increase, get larger, grow stronger, and bear fruit in those precious lives in Thailand.
It’s in the Name above all names, in Jesus’ Name, Yeshua’s Name, we pray. Amen.