Friday Devotionals from the Mission Field Archives - Page 2 of 2

Consistency is the Key

12/11/2015 By: CCPearsoncomment

Our youngest daughter Julie’s favorite work-out slogan is: “Consistency is the key!” She should know. She’s been working out consistently since she was in the 8^th grade, and now she’s the 37-year-old mother of 7 children who is still in great physical condition.

A consistently healthy diet and exercise program will lead to a good Body Mass Index.

A consistent prayer life will lead to knowing God’s will.

Consistently taking prescribed medicines will lead to healing.

Consistent communication with family and friends will lead to strong relationships.

One morning in Ecuador I benefited noticeably from my husband’s daily habit of reading Proverbs. On the 10^th of the month, he reads Proverbs chapter 10, and so on. This works very well because there are 31 chapters in Proverbs, enough for one every day during the month. My new friend and neighbor Claudia was asking how often and by what methods I studied the Bible. I showed her my notebooks, Bible translations and commentaries and then remembered Steve’s habit. Sure enough, there it was on January 23^rd and his book mark was in Proverbs 23. The example I showed Claudia was clear and consistent.

In what areas do I need to develop more consistency? What about you? What comes to your mind?

“O love the Lord, all you His godly ones! The Lord preserves the faithful . . . “ Psalm 31.23

LIFE’S TOO SHORT TO LEAVE OFF THE MARSHMALLOWS!

12/04/2015 By: CCPearson3 Comments

(Journal Entry from Ecuador)

Just last week when refreshment time came at the end of our first Bible study for English-speaking women here in Ecuador, I asked for my friend Pat to pass the hot chocolate mix. Her question was, “Do you want the kind with marshmallows?” And immediately, I thought, “Of course! Life is too short to leave off the marshmallows!” I heard the “life is too short” phrase repeatedly in my growing up years, and it was very graphically demonstrated and illustrated when my mother died quickly and unexpectedly at the age of 55. Mother was the type of lady who didn’t “save her best perfume for special occasions.” She splashed it on generously on a daily basis. In fact, the thing that my youngest daughter (who was 7 when she died) remembers about her most was that “she always smelled so good.” She also planned the dessert first when inviting company over for a meal. She figured you could always figure out the meat and vegetables later, but that wonderful last sweet taste was supposed to be memorable . . . and worth her grocery money and her time in the kitchen. In the first months after her death, my Dad said on a number of occasions things like “I’m so glad we went ahead and made that trip to Israel . . . or Hawaii . . . or wherever,” and “It makes me feel so good that I replaced her lost diamond ring last Christmas,” and “For some reason she was determined to give Laura her treasured Shirley Temple doll for her last birthday. Aren’t we glad she had already made that decision?” He seemed to take a lot of comfort in realizing that my mother had experienced a full, though short, life and that he had done everything he could to add pleasure to it.

Well, I’m sure you’ve realized by now that these devotionals (well the whole blog for that matter) is just a collection of life lessons I’ve learned and have been encouraged to share. I am 65 now. Ten years older than my mother was when she died. Maybe that’s why I feel a new urgency about putting my blessings, blunders, adventures and personal revelations from God on paper. After all, life is too short to keep them locked inside rather than knowing that maybe you might laugh a little, shed a tear or two, raise an eyebrow, learn something the easy way through me rather than the hard way on your own, get a fresh perspective or idea or just sigh and remember a similar time of your own. For Steve, the children and grandchildren, maybe they will get a fresh glimpse into what made me tick, but mostly, I want to praise my Heavenly Father who “knit me together in my mother’s womb” and has bestowed abundant blessings on the person He wove together. Thank you, Father. You made me just as I am for Your honor and glory.

James 4:14 – Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”

Eagerness to Worship

06/05/2015 By: CCPearsoncomment

“I was glad when they said unto me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Psalm 122:1

That morning I saw a truly beautiful sight – people of all ages and economic backgrounds hurrying to worship God.

There is a wonderful evangelical church about a mile or so from our mission-owned house in Quito that holds worship services on Saturday nights and at 7:30, 9:30 and 11:30 on Sunday mornings. That day we were getting out of our truck about 7:25 a.m. headed to the early service when we noticed some people parking their fancy cars, others walking from nearby streets, and still others streaming from the trolley station, all moving at a fast pace in the same direction where we were going. The faces were eager and expectant, and the voices gave us a happy greeting. Indigenous, Afro-Ecuadorians, gringos (like us), upper and lower class Quitenos (citizens of Quito), young and old, dressed in jeans or in Sunday suits, each of us had the same goal – assembling in the house of the Lord for praise, worship, prayer and instruction in God’s Word.

Steve and I estimated that 700 chairs were available. Within minutes every single one of them was filled, and 70-80 people lined the walls. No one left because their needs weren’t going to be comfortably accommodated. There was just an unmistakable sense that everyone who was in the room wanted to be there and was grateful to have a place of any kind.

The music was powerful and well-planned. The words, melodies, and rhythms took us all from quiet meditation to a lively crescendo of fast-paced celebration and then back again to peaceful, private reflection. The prayers were fervent and personal. The pastor’s sermon was passionate and pertinent. The ordinance of the Lord’s Supper was challenging and convicting. Every aspect of the service pointed us to God and His holiness. At the end of nearly two hours, we would have gladly stayed longer, but another large congregation was eagerly waiting to come into God’s house. As we filed out in an orderly, although shoulder-to-shoulder fashion, the second group was streaming in with the same hopeful, excited faces and attitudes that we had displayed when our group congregated. Together, we had participated in a time of genuine adoration and praise for our Heavenly Father. OUR Heavenly Father. It occurred to me that we would one day be in a similar gathering around the throne of God, people from every race, tribe and tongue glorifying the Lord in heaven. I am anticipating a whole new level of eagerness as that time approaches.

Psalm 95:1-2, 6 “Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.”

A Mango in Guatemala

05/29/2015 By: CCPearson2 Comments

For our second volunteer mission trip, Steve and I joined a street evangelist, a musician, and two other helpers for Holy Week in Guatemala. During the mornings we would go into cities and towns with names such as Huehuetenango, Jalapa, Quetzaltenango and Guatemala City, find an available spot, set up sound equipment and pass our tracts while the evangelist preached and the musician sang. In the afternoons we would find a likely-looking neighborhood and go door-to-door inviting people to come to a showing of the “Jesus” film in the early evening.

Several actions utterly amazed me. Of the hundreds of tracts that we distributed, not a single one was thrown on the ground. All were accepted graciously and read by the person who received it or by a literate friend. And, there were no chairs for watching the movie, but people were willing to stand for several hours without saying a word or acting bored or uncomfortable. Both were such contrasts to what would have happened in the States.

Through all of the experiences of the week, one incident is forever engraved on my mind. We had separated to go two-by-two through a pathetically-poor neighborhood using our broken Spanish to invite the people to see the “Jesus” film. Steve and I were walking down a dusty street when an undernourished brown boy about 10 years old came and started motioning for us to come with him to his house. He wanted to introduce us to his mother and sisters. We followed him and stepped into a hut with dirt floors and not a single piece of furniture. No chairs or tables, just some hammocks attached to the walls but rolled up out of the way during the daytime. We visited for a few minutes, inviting all of them to the film, and then started back down to the street. In a few seconds, the little boy came running after us holding a mango that he wanted to give us. We had seen where he lived and what his family’s “worldly goods” were. We knew that any money that had been scraped together to buy fruit in the market was precious and that such foods needed to be consumed by them to sustain life, and yet, he was insistent that we take the mango. We thanked him and went on our way. We learned later that during Holy Week the people are taught to present to someone else a gift of value that they own, and the mango represented that boy’s Holy Week observance.

What a lesson in sacrificial giving! I doubt that we’re ever been given anything of such proportional value. We’ve always given and received out of the abundance that we and others have, not in a way that would deprive us of an essential of life. And, the boy was smiling and joyful about the gift, not reluctant and begrudging. I wish I could remember his name, and I wish there had been some way to preserve that mango. I need to be reminded of its significance on a daily basis. I want to learn from this Guatemalan child the joy of exuberant giving.

Jesus witnessed a similar scene with the widow who quietly gave two mites to the temple treasury and made an example of it to those standing nearby. Luke 21:1-4 “And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a certain poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And He said, ‘Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on.’ “

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