-------------- Original message --------------

> --=====================_8354468==.ALT
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
> HI Guys,
> I receive the Purpose Driven Life devotional. Pat has also posted some of
> the messages from this ministry to the list. anyway, I found this one very
> encouraging right now in helping me to think of my blindness and my other
> circumstances in life as well in a more positive light. I pray that it
> might encourage you as well today.
> God's peace,
> Kathy
>
> Don't Give Up
> by John Fische
> April 27, 2005
>
>
> Do you realize how privileged you are to be on a mission? That means you
> are important to God. You are a part of His plan. You can't blow this off. You
> can't say you are worthless, and for God's sake, you can't take your life,
> because you are important to God, to us, and to the mission. In fact, if you
> are having severe problems and struggles right now, that means you are
> needed even more. Your perseverance will give many others hope.
>
> Somewhere we have gotten the wrong idea that the best, most powerful
> Christians are the ones who sail over life's problems those with great
> stories to
> tell over and over again about how God delivered them sometime in their
> distant past. This kind of "ministry" is not really helpful, because in
> reality,
> no one sails over anything in life. We only think they do. So those people
> with their "perfect" lives only perpetuate a myth that, in the long run, isn't
> helpful to anybody.
>
> I often think of Joni Eareckson-Tada, a quadriplegic on a mission since her
> diving accident in 1967, and what would have happened if God had healed her
> 30 years ago. I'm sure that would have been wonderful for her, but not for
> the countless number of people since then she has emboldened by her everyday
> example of courage and dependence on God. The ones who can help are the
> ones who are toughing it through their own difficulties. They are the ones
> whose
> mission grows out of their own challenges.
>
> I have a friend who goes through some stretches of depression so intense
> that his idea of a good day is the fact that he didn't take his life. And he's
> a pastor! Now some would say he shouldn't be a pastor until he gets himself
> fixed. I say that if he were "fixed," he wouldn't have anything to say to all
> those people he is ministering to now who struggle with depression. He's
> got an incredible mission field, and he is, every day, a living, breathing
> testimony
> to the power of God not to the power of God ten years ago when God fixed
> him, but the power of God today that gets him out of bed, gives him words to
> speak, and a reason to go on.
>
> You see this is the type of mission no one is excused from. Deeper struggle
> only makes surviving that much more crucial. Remember? This isn't about you.
> We're not only talking about you making it. We're talking about the mission
> that you will have, making it the reach your experience will have into the
> real lives of others struggling with the same things.
>
> Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and
> salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort
> you. Then
> you can patiently endure the same things we suffer.
> (2 Corinthians 1:6)
>
> --=====================_8354468==.ALT
> Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii"
>
>
>
> HI Guys,

> I receive the Purpose Driven Life devotional.  Pat has also posted
> some of the messages from this ministry to the list.  anyway, I
> found this one very encouraging right now in helping me to think of my
> blindness and my other circumstances in life as well in a more positive
> light.  I pray that it might encourage you as well today.

> God's peace,

> Kathy


>
>         Don’t Give
> Up

> by John Fische

> April 27, 2005


>

> Do you realize how privileged you are to be on a mission? That means you
> are important to God. You are a part of His plan. You can’t blow this
> off. You

> can’t say you are worthless, and for God’s sake, you can’t take your
> life, because you are important to God, to us, and to the mission. In
> fact, if you

> are having severe problems and struggles right now, that means you are
> needed even more. Your perseverance will give many others hope.


> Somewhere we have gotten the wrong idea that the best, most powerful
> Christians are the ones who sail over life’s problems  those with
> great stories to

> tell over and over again about how God delivered them sometime in their
> distant past. This kind of "ministry" is not really helpful,
> because in reality,

> no one sails over anything in life. We only think they do. So those
> people with their "perfect" lives only perpetuate a myth that,
> in the long run, isn’t

> helpful to anybody.


> I often think of Joni Eareckson-Tada, a quadriplegic on a mission since
> her diving accident in 1967, and what would have happened if God had
> healed her

> 30 years ago. I’m sure that would have been wonderful for her, but not
> for the countless number of people since then she has emboldened by her
> everyday

> example of courage and dependence on God. The ones who can help are the
> ones who are toughing it through their own difficulties. They are the
> ones whose

> mission grows out of their own challenges.


> I have a friend who goes through some stretches of depression so intense
> that his idea of a good day is the fact that he didn’t take his life. And
> he’s

> a pastor! Now some would say he shouldn’t be a pastor until he gets
> himself fixed. I say that if he were "fixed," he wouldn’t have
> anything to say to all

> those people he is ministering to now who struggle with depression. He’s
> got an incredible mission field, and he is, every day, a living,
> breathing testimony

> to the power of God  not to the power of God ten years ago when God
> fixed him, but the power of God today that gets him out of bed, gives him
> words to

> speak, and a reason to go on.


> You see this is the type of mission no one is excused from. Deeper
> struggle only makes surviving that much more crucial. Remember? This
> isn’t about you.

> We’re not only talking about you making it. We’re talking about the
> mission that you will have, making it  the reach your experience
> will have into the

> real lives of others struggling with the same things.


> Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and
> salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort
> you. Then

> you can patiently endure the same things we suffer.

>  (2 Corinthians 1:6)

>
>
>
> --=====================_8354468==.ALT--