With the ringing in of the new year came also my regenerated hope for new
beginnings based not off of the fad driven knee-jerk response to a new year
accompanied by a false desire to make New Year's Resolutions, fueled by
pressures of society or family and friends who are doing similar, but that
of simply reviewing some facets of my life, making a conscious decision to
change some old habits and increase various aspects of my daily life. Many
times, often times, people make New Year's resolutions because they are
just that "re-solutions" to the same problems they had a year earlier.
You've heard them all I'm sure, I know I have before and from my own mouth
at that. Things like... loose weight, begin working out, quit smoking,
spend more time with family, or if a Christian, more time with God perhaps.
And I suppose I need to recognize that even my desire to review some daily
habits is due to the convenient mark of a new year falling upon me, but
hopefully the commitments I make near this time of year, do not come to be
New Year's re-commitments next year at this time with excuses of
circumstances that caused a change in plans, but rather have looked back to
see I stood the test of endurance with God's help to overcome those
circumstances and complete what I feel he is telling me to do. Still yet we
ought never lose hope of erasing the slate and starting over, we have a God
of allowing us many beginnings in our trek to keep focused on him, but as
he also said let our yeses be yeses and our noes be noes. With that mind
set, we ought have a more serious motivation of those things we feel we
need to change. Also ringing in the New Year this morning, after coming out
on top of a battle with some sort of infection/illness, was the ringing of
my alarm clock. Bright and early it beeped only once at 4:30 AM, and only
once because I was already awake with excitement of not only feeling
somewhat human again, but also to begin making the most of the days ahead.
Still yet in some planning stages, I knew however that my days would start
with an early rise, something to drink, time with the Lord in either
reading of his word or taped sermon, and prayer.

Having hit the snooze button, and then turned off the alarm clock, I
started up the coffee pot with the half and half, decaf and regular coffee
to continue my trek to decaffeinate myself, I then carefully and quietly
grabbed up my tape player and a tape to listen while I let the warm drink
soothe a recovering throat. The tape I listened to was not the preacher I
had hoped but I had decided to listen anyway. As he began to preach he had
a very pointed, very short message with four points regarding having faith
to endure through things we may find ourselves plowing through. One, keep
your eyes on Jesus. Two, remember who God is. Three, remember who you are
in Christ. And four, trust in God 100% to take you through. He then
proceeded to give a testimony of his adopted daughter. This man and his
wife are missionaries to Thailand. They happened across a young lady whose
mother was a prostitute and  the daughter, or mother for that matter, had
no idea who the father was. This man and his wife had taken her in and
helped bring her up for just over a year now. She attended school in
Thailand and of course Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist country.
Fortunately  the leader of that country had past two articles in their
government. One that gives freedom of religion, and the other to have
freedom to express that religion. It happened then that this young lady,
Ann, was to attend a drug prevention class in her school based from
Buddhist precepts. She did not want to attend so this man and his wife
wrote a note to the teacher stating they  wished them to honor Ann's
request to not attend. The teacher tried to tell Ann to attend anyway,
because her parents would never know the difference. Well Ann, walked out
the room and placed a call to this man and wife, who she now calls mom and
dad. They go to meet the principle of the school and after an hour and a
half of Ann preaching at the principle, he finally said  "OK! OK!  you do
not have to attend". She then became the target of verbal abuse stating she
was a trader to her country and heritage, trader to her race, and this by
teachers not, just students. She came home that day and they prayed about
what to do with a nasty situation now on their hands. They decided to let
God take control. She went to school the next day and no one abused her
verbally. In fact there were some kids that never before wanted to be her
friend, now wanted to be her friend. And three weeks later the principle
and many of the teachers, the ones that assaulted her verbally, were
removed from the school for corruption.

I sat back and pondered about how a 17-year-old girl, in a foreign
country,  with a foreign religion to that land, was strong enough to take
on her school and make such a difference. I thought how great that sounds
after it is all said and done. How powerful it is and like our pastor from
our former church mentioned afterwards, it is so much different hearing
such testimonies from those who lived it, as it tells so quickly but lasts
so long. And with my repeated rendition of it, I'm sure it does it an
injustice, but for the purposes of my point of ponder hopefully it will
suffice. It sure sounded great, the power and passion in this man's voice
of the details of how this all came to pass in a country where Christianity
is a minority and persecution is on the rise all over the world. How he
encouraged his newly found daughter to count herself honored to be in good
company as Peter, John, James and of course the rest of Christ's followers
as well Jesus Christ himself, to be persecuted for upholding the truth.

When I hear these stories I look at my own life as a point of reflection
and see how a 17 year old young lady has proved more courage, lived out a
testimony, and made a difference in those around her more than I had in a
long time living in a Christian based country with persecution being
primarily that of "Oh don't preach religion to me" or "Oh save your
preaching for the next guy". It also occurred to me that in the midst of
this family's encounter, had they recognized that that day's event is
tomorrow's testimony in the making? If they hadn't, they will from here
out, based on the four points that accompanied this testimony. If they went
in that situation with the four points he made, that of  focusing on Jesus,
knowing who God is, knowing who they were in God, and trusting god, then
they had to be conscious of what they were living was a testimony in the
making.

This realization helps give a new sense of expectation in my life. An
expectation to recognize that what we are living now, this minute, is part
of some sort of testimony in the future to how God has worked in our life,
and if it is not, than am I really living life with God as center? Have I
gotten side tracked to where I do not recognize or have expectations of his
hand in my life? Testimonies do not have to be a dramatically wowing of
awesome proportions but it may well be walking away from a conversation
knowing God gave you the words to say to help that person better know God,
or a step closer to knowing him for the first time. It could be standing in
the midst of financial difficulties and seeing provision coming in, or it
could be standing in front of hundreds or thousands of people citing how
God spared your life miraculously while doing his work and having many of
those want that loving God in their life and accept him at that time.  And
when we  cannot seem to find a testimony complete or  having reached a
solution, we certainly can stand  with expectation knowing that what we are
living now is tomorrows testimony, and that hope will cause us to look
harder for God in a situation, to listen closer for his voice.

I know this man's points were focus on Christ, know who God is, know who I
am in God, and trust in God, but what I remember hearing most in-between
his words, in the pauses of his testimony, is the summation "today's events
are tomorrows testimonies".

Brad