What a great season we are in here in northern CT.  So many of our church missionaries are home for a long visits.  This is not typical, so we are trying to glean as much as possible from their life, stories, faith, wisdom and more.

We recently had Robert & Becky Cooley (their link is to the right on our blog).  They are missionaries with AIM in Lima, Peru.  Not too long ago the Cooley family was living here in CT just like everyone else.  When Robert, as an elder and father, went as a chaperone on a church mission trip.  After a few year had passed, they sold all they had and moved to Peru to build the church there.  Close to their arrival God used a huge natural disaster to open doors for their ministry.  A massive earthquake left many without homes.  The Cooley have used this trial in many lives as a wonderful opportunity for service, generosity, and showing the love of Christ to all people.

We had them over for dinner to share their story with our children.  They have come before and shared WHY they went to Peru, so this time they shared about the some of the hard trials they face in their ministry.  The struggles of helping to heal generational patterns that keep people from freedom in Christ.  They also shared about using everyday things (like STRING) to build connections with children and families.  They taught our kids about STRING FIGURES and how they use it in their ministry.  (there are many free downloads online for free tutorials on string figures to share the gospel)

Becky teaching the kids string figures.

Josiah worked hard to figure out the “Apache Door” which can be used to teach about Straight is the gate and narrow is the path principle with the importance of Decisiveness in life.

Sophie learned the “Broom” or “Crows foot” which can be inverted to a Palm Tree to teach  about Flexibility in trials

Robert showed the kids many photos of their ministry in Peru.  What the people are like and their needs. Some pictures of people who are part of THE WORLD RACE with AIM.

What a blessing to learn and grow some more, as well as build lasting friendships with friends around the world!!!

As a pastor of a main line church, one of the challenges is relating to the masses while being true to the gospel.  I have been on both sides of this issue, trying to be flashy and engaging, as well as avoiding everything that might hint at being of the world.  Below is an article that I came across that was posted by the NCFIC on their website.  I do not know the author or the group that wrote the article, but I appreciate the warning.  Read the article and let me know what you think: Evangelicalism’s Addiction to Novelty.

We can remember all the thoughts that would rush to our minds when we thought of Christmas each year.  Traditions, cookies, family, more cookies, stockings on the mantle, carols, candles being passed at Christmas Eve services, etc.  All those things are still wonderful and we love them, but God saw fit to change our perspective over the years.

Christmas 1999- That fall God gave us Jacob, our first baby, and that Christmas on of Jill’s Grandfathers died.  That Christmas we were all sitting around the room with thoughts of loosing Tom, yet holding new life. Families were changing. THAT Christmas God began to show us that all life is much more precious than we had ever known.

Christmas 2001- Now with two beautiful children, this year God called us to begin the process of adoption with Project Star in Pittsburgh, PA. THAT Christmas we began to think beyond ourselves and take seriously God’s call to care for orphans.

Christmas 2002- God had just given us twins through adoption in August, but He saw fit to multiply that blessing the very week of Christmas (Dec 20) that we might bring home Joel as well.  THAT Christmas our hearts went beyond caring for orphans, to being BROKEN hearted for those left behind by the world.

Christmas 2003- we received our adoption court date for the finalization of adopting all three boys at once! January 8th we stood before the visiting Juvenile Detention Judge as he spoke on and on and on about what he saw God doing through the lives of our little ones. Oh how grateful he was to see children NOT get left behind and end up knowing him in a different way.  He blessed us greatly by openly sharing his heart. THAT Christmas we began to see that EVERYTHING you do matters to even people you might never think. THAT Christmas we really saw that God’s plans are WAY bigger than ours!

Christmas 2006- On Christmas eve we received a call about a little girl born in Montana who, as our case worker put it, “was a Martin”.  The day after Christmas we scheduled plane tickets, emailed and faxed papers. In March she came home.  We named her “Beautiful Oath to God” because THAT Christmas God reminded us of what He had taught us years before and what He had asked us to do with our family and lives.

Christmas 2008- We went into Christmas anticipating to joyfully celebrate our new daughter, Sarah, which we did do, but God had additional plans. That advent we almost lost Sam to lung failure. On breathing tubes and lots of medications to keep his life going, we struggled weekly, daily. Would we even have him for Christmas? The week before Christmas they tried to remove the breathing tube to see if his lungs could make it, they could not.  We watched face to face as our son fought for life, turning blue and gasping, doctors rushing to open his airways once again.  The tube was back in, and we made plans to learn about having a trach placed in his neck to breath.  MIRACULOUSLY we brought Sam home on Christmas Eve in almost perfect health.  THAT Christmas God showed us that HIS plans are bigger than doctors and the importance of knowing that God is THE Creator and Sustainer of life at all moments. And it would be 3 years later we would see one of the great reasons why Sam needed to be in that place at that time…but that’s 2011.

Christmas 2009- We now had TWO beautiful daughters to celebrate, Sarah AND Joanna. Completely surprised by God that year when our case worker called to say “We have a Martin again!”  We also began homeschooling all of our children that year before.  THAT Christmas God gave us new perspective on family, loving your children for who God made them to be (no matter how hard that is some days), and what it really means to go the second mile and give of yourself to the children God has blessed you with.

Christmas 2010- Heading into Christmas with great joy and anticipation for the soon coming birth of our daughter Jocelyn, we were about to really learn what God had been teaching us all year.  For months God had been challenging our belief in His COMPLETE SOVERIEGNTY over all of life. So much that Sean had planned to study God’s Soveriegnty for the first three months of the year with the whole church.  When Jocelyn went home to glory on her birthday, we knew within moments that THIS was a whole new level of trusting God’s soveriegnty in our lives. THAT Christmas we learned that God’s plans are beyond our feeble minds and plans and are much, much greater than all we could ask or imagine. THAT Christmas we learned that you do not have to be immensely learned to be an amazing missionary. That weighing in at a mighty 5lb 3oz, Jocelyn was quickly becoming the littlest, yet mightiest, missionary we had ever known. How humbling.

Christmas 2011- A full year of “AHHHHHH so that’s one of the reasons God did that” kind of years.  Every time we turned around God was showing us how HE was using past challenges, struggles, hurts, and more ALL for HIS glory that would go much farther beyond our own little lives. Sean was asked by the head brain surgeon at the Children’s hospital to be on the hospital’s Ethics Committee. WOW how humbling. That God would use Sam being in the hospital years before in this way. Added on the many follow up visits for Sam and other regular appointments for our other kids with medical needs, and in God’s mathematical equation that equals “opportunity to teach God’s truth for God’s glory”.  THIS Christmas we got defend the “quality of life” argument that lies with in hospitals every day and influence the top surgeons at the Children’s Hospital. THIS Christmas we had couples come to us for help with past sin in their life, and they were led to us because of the way God used Jocelyn in our life. THIS Christmas we have seen a whole year behind us, proving to us, that God used to show us that the salvation of souls and bringing people to “get right with God” is of UTMOST importance beyond anything else on our calendars.

THIS year and all the other Christmas Seasons before it God gave us an amazing gift.

PERSPECTIVE

We still LOVE cookies, pie, carols, and stockings hung just so……but now our memory floods with different traditions.  The traditions that God set in our lives of using Christmas Season to give us PERSPECTIVE on so much more than we could ever ask or imagine.

Now THAT’S a great Christmas gift.

Thank you God for giving us new memories.

Some words you connect right away because you see the “overlap” in the words and meaning. For some reason it took me ages, I mean AGES to draw the connection I will mention below.  But first, WHY I needed to draw it. Hang in there with me- I will get to the point!!

I have long had the discipline of making lists. Especially of things that are forever running through my mind looking for resolution.  So I had made a list.  It was about two years ago, just after our Sam had come home from the hospital for an unexpected and long visit.  So we were in “recovery mode” and kid behavior was…well, not the prettiest.  So I sat in my bed one night, praying, contemplating, churning, praying some more.  Then, I made my list.  My list of all the things that I was allowing to irritate me. I say allow, because I know irritations are a choice. But none the less, they were irritating me and I wanted it to be resolved.

List in hand, I began my discipline further.  I began to dig through my Bible for answers.  I know that God is soveriegn and that He knows what is very best for me, but still I needed a NEW perspective.  I knew I wasn’t looking at things the right way.  One by one I began to find the answers I needed to hear.  The truth in Gods Word that went DIRECTLY to “my list”.  Changing my perspective on little and big things.

But there was one problem.  I couldn’t find one of the answers.  I KNEW it had to be there somewhere, but let’s be honest for a minute—how in the world was I going to find “dealing with kids with compulsive perseveration issues”!!  Last time I checked that was NOT in the concordance—or was it???

But you see sometimes God makes us wait for the answer so that we will never forget it once He gives it to us.  That thing tortured me!!!  One thing left on the list, seriously, it was there somewhere- I just needed to find it! But how?

God knew I needed time, about two weeks worth that is.  You see, He was having me wait until the correct day on the calendar.  I had been reading through the Psalms and Proverbs of the Day each morning. (The number Psalm that correlates to the day on the calendar).  Anyways, I needed to get the 25th day of the month.  On that day I would read Psalm 25, Psalm 55, every 30th psalm from that day.

THERE IT WAS!!! Staring me in the face. Well actually it wasn’t staring at me at all, it HIT me like a ton of bricks. I mean GOD PLOWED ME OVER.  I was SOOOOOO off track. I was looking for the answer that I wanted or that I thought would resolve my issue.

PSALM 55 “As for me, I will call upon the Lord , And the Lord will save me. Evening, and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice. He has redeemed my soul in peace form the battle that was against me.”

Did you see it??? Oh I surely did– “morning, evening and noon- calling, crying, praying”  Oh yes my friend. God LOVES perseveration.  I was bemoaning perseveration issues in my children, and there God was telling me that He LOVES perseveration.  Oh yes He does.  He calls us to continually pray, constantly call upon, cry out to Him, ALL DAY LONG.

And then, if that wasn’t great enough, God says “He will redeem my soul in peace”!!!!!!!  Isn’t that we are looking for- peace? It comes from God. He supplies it.  He gives it.  Through His own ability to redeem our souls.  But if we aren’t crying out to Him all the day long, then our soul will be missing out on that peace!

Oh God is so funny!  Just when I thought I was going to get a “resolution” to my irritation. God tells me to turn around and start perseverating too.  He wants me to perseverate on Him!

Annd now for my “word connection” that I mentioned in the beginning.  Did you notice that “perseveration” and “perseverance” are very similar?  One we think of as a negative definition, and the other we commend people for having it.  Thought provoking.

Perseveration on God and His Word brings about perseverance.  Perseverance brings about endurance.  You can’t learn to endure without persevering. But you can’t learn to persevere without perseverating.

Now that was two years ago, but God loves to remind us often of what we need to keep at the forefront of our minds. So recently, I have been praying again about the same thing.  Now, this time I know what God has to say about it, but I decided to look even deeper to see what ELSE I might find.

In Revelation 3:10-13 God says “because you have kept my command to persevere” you will not loose your crown, and He will make you a “pillar in the temple of My God” and on it He will write “all the names of God” and the name “New Jerusalem”.  I LOVE visual pictures.  A giant pillar standing in God’s temple there with a crown, and written all over it, like gorgeous graffiti, the names of God. That pillar could be YOU.

So then, what will you perseverate on?

Yesterday was the 23rd.  It is our family practice to read what we call “The Psalm and Proverb of the day” which is the Psalm that correlates to the number day on the calendar.  So yesterday we read Psalm 23.  The classic shepherds psalm.  Most people know it…”the Lord is my shepherd….”

But I encourage you to watch a WONDERFUL sermon on this Psalm.  It gives a great perspective.  It is not boring or dry, but VERY well done.  So well done, that our kids all watched it and LOVED it!

It is available through Embassy Institute on this link below.  You can subscribe for $9/mo. and have access to hundreds of amazing teacings.  It would be worth it to just watch this one:

A Shepherd’s Look at the 23rd Psalm

https://www.embassyinstitute.org/node/227

Enjoy!