He fell to the ground.
I read these words this morning from the Bible, Acts 9:4.
It is of a man called Saul, a leading Pharisee who was persecuting early Christians. In a moment Saul the murderer became Paul the apostle. But it commenced on the ground.
God supernaturally knocked Saul to the ground.
In the gospels there is a story of an evil spirit throwing a young boy to the ground in a convulsion. The story ends with Jesus lifting the boy from the ground fully restored.
Today, June 23rd Elim UK remembers it’s missionaries who in 1978 were terribly murdered in the Vumba, Rhodesia. They fell to the ground.
Peter and Sandra McCann, Philip and Joy…Wendy White… Philip and Suzanne Evans and Rebecca…Catherine Picken…Roy and Joyce Lynne and Pamela Grace…Mary Fisher.
They are an inspiration who with the great cloud of witnesses cheer us on who are here today. They fell to the ground but their act propelled others into a life of service in missions.
They fell to the ground not because of God or an evil spirit, it was man who did this. But their life or their impact didn’t end on the ground.
Also in the gospels is the story of a leper who voluntarily falls to the ground in front of Jesus as an act of worship. The story ends with Jesus saying He was more than willing to heal the man.
Not God, not an evil spirit, not another person, but the man himself falling to the ground.
Today, the U.K. nation goes to the polls to vote either to Remain or Leave the EU. One of the many questions debated angrily by many is whether we will be better off? Are we going to have more money? What are we going to gain? What are we going to lose? You see we must not lose. That’s the main point. We don’t want to fall to the ground. That would be wrong. We want to rise and be something.
Yesterday I spent some time with TearFund discussing many things but mainly the plight of those under the threat of ISIS. We were sharing stories of people who are the epitome of a Living Sacrifice.
Before the meeting I read an email from our worker in the Middle East who has a hidden church 500m from a very dangerous place. We cannot promote him and as a result he doesn’t receive much compared to others, but we do our utmost to support. He wrote this, “…still talking about Jesus and sharing with new people about His saving love, the last person I spoke with about Jesus was yesterday.” He is a living sacrifice. He is a surrendered man. He has poured his life on the ground for God. Spending time with this man you realise how rich he is, but not the riches of this world, a richness that is not of this life.
I have just got off from a Skype call to a missionary and a church pastor. The missionary could today be earning lots of money and have what everyone else has in her generation. The pastor she works for has a church in a slum and he feeds the poor every day. My world is split into 2 parts: I spend part of it overseas and though there are equal examples of corruption and politics to be found in the church in various places, I gravitate towards those who are on the ground and I love sitting with them for awhile, learning from them no matter whether it was God, evil, man or themselves that caused the falling how do they live and serve a surrendered life. The second part I live with those who are standing tall, reaching for the heights, being somebody big or trying to be. I live in a culture that doesn’t do ground work. Everyone wants to richer, bigger, stronger, taller. But I am a better man with the broken.
I am off to vote now.
Missions Paul 