"My Supreme Weapon is Dying"

Yesterday, in between our work and school and other activities, some of us watched part of the Penn View Bible Institute Missions Convention livestreamed.

David Black gave the closing challenge last night, including the story of a Christian who was facing death for his faith. His persecutors were determined to get him to deny his faith by torturing and then killing him.

 His answer to his tormentors was, "Your supreme weapon is killing;

my supreme weapon is dying."

What can the world do against a faith like that?

And what can God do with a faith like that?

What can God do with people who are willing to die for Him--

and with those who are willing to die daily?

What can He do with moms, who are called to die on a daily basis to living life for ourselves,

and instead to find our lives wrapped up in God, in family, and in Christ-like servic?

The theme related to missions came back again and again to denying ourselves.

"When you deny your false self," Ryan Colson declared, "you find your true self."

Self denial, he said, is hard because you are not the boss, 

but God frees you to be what you ought to be.

"We're a little bit like rocks," Ryan Colson said, bringing out the four years that Michelangelo took to carve his David out of a huge piece of marble.

"There's time and process for God to make us what He wants us to be."

By taking time with Him, we will be taught by Him what to say no to, 

and what to say yes to, he said.

Interestingly, he brought out the necessity of taking time not only for God,

but for whatever it is that refreshes us--because, he said, "It's in the places where we are refreshed,

that we begin to hear God."

Walking in beautiful nature, quietness, reading, and writing refresh me.

Blogging, journaling, writing letters, writing down verses and thoughts that minister to me--

this is what refreshes me. 

It's why I sit down a few times a week and blog my heart out.

Other are refreshed by reading, hiking, scrapbooking, traveling, cooking, decorating, etc.   

God wants us in relationship with others, Bro. Ryan said, because it helps us learn what God made us to be.

When people around us see that we can bake beautiful cakes, like this one another home school mom made for last presentation night , they tell us that this is an area where we can excel. 

Perhaps people will see that you do well with playing instruments, or teaching,

as Natalia does, Carrie's violin teacher who is helping her tune her violin before playing it for presentation night.

 Whatever it is, God wants to chisel and shape and mold you into what He wants--

 a speaker, or a leader, or a manager of a business, of a store, school, or home;

 or perhaps a drama queen!

(Hopefully not the wrong kind!)

 Whether mothers, grandmothers, or daughters, 

our supreme weapon, too, is dying.

When it doesn't really matter who gets the credit, or who wins, or who comes out on top,

when we're not into what we're doing just to compete with some other mom
or be approved by some other mom,

or to be the Mrs. Perfect,

when our poor ego is not intimidated by some mom doing a better job than we are,

that's what gives God glory.

  There will be plenty of devils, monsters, Rumplestiltskins, and people of the world

trying to take away our confidence in Christ,

our virtues, our character, our reputation, and the future generation of faith.

 

 But we do not have to be afraid of them.

Their supreme weapon is killing:

ours is dying.

Dying to having a career and instead having children.

 

 Dying to having a lark, and instead having self-discipline.

Dying to our foolish and selfish appetites  that want what pleases our palette 

 and instead choosing what is good for us,

 

 and what will count for eternity.

Bro. Wilmer Paulus in the morning session quoted Billy Graham who quoted Ravi Zacharias

(if I understood correctly)

who said,

""The world's smallest package is a person or a family all wrapped up in themselves."

When our ego is okay with not always having to be on top,

not always having to win,

not always having to be the best or the holiest or the nicest or the most perfect or the most approved
or the most liked,

we'll find that dying is not so terribly terrible after all.

It just frees us to be what God wants us to be.