Romans 1:16

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."

Romans 1:16

I have been making a very consistant habit of spending my lunch time on the deck overlooking the flightline. I takke this hour to feed my brain rather than my belly. It is very nice, very quiet, as the heat of the noon day sun keeps others from sitting at that time. usually in the hour I read for forty five minutes or so and pray for fifteen. By the end I am set for the rest of the day.

The deck is just adjacent from our Subcontracted Ebgineers office atop the set of bunkers. We have several new engineers in and most I had not met. Most days the closest that I get to talking to any of them is as the come out before lunch and use the Porta Johns below, a wave or freindly hello as they pass. Yesterday, one of the gentlemen that has passed several times during these times varied from the regular routine. Atfter using the restroom and returning to his office he returned with his lunch in his hands and climbed the stairs and sat next to me on the deck. We have nine Adirondack chairs there and it is quiet comfortable.

I generally think right away, here is an opportunity to have a conversation and give it to God to lead me through. Yes I look for opportunities to wittness in most conversation! so I put my book down and placed my glasses back across my eyes and said hello. Dave he said as we shook hands. Dave was from Oregon and had been doing this work for a while. Said there was no work in the United Satates and he had a few businesses that he had to close and that brought him here.

I am not sure what prompted me but I confirmed that he was a Christian with the question if he was. He responded yes and for the rest of the time, as Dave ate his lunch we spoke about our faith and how it has brought us through the time here in Afaghanistan. Each with our paticulars but very similar experiences. One that was exactly the same, and he had mentioned first, was that being here had made him learn to rely on God for evrything, to trust him fully. That had he not been here it would have not been so powerfully lived in his life.

I was happy to hear this as it is one of the greater lessons that I have learned also. There is not the same support, and because of the daily battles that you fight in your mind you find that the only support group that you need is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That everything else is of this broken world and therefore will eventually fail you. I have also seen so vividly over the past eleven months that the best place for me to be is completely emptied before the Lord. With nothing else left of me dependant soely on Him. Noone at that time will fill the void nor can be expected to.

So we spoke, and ebncouraged each other with our faith. We for those fifteen minutes or so allowed Iron to Sharpen Iron and confirm parts of our faith, to strengthen it even more. I believe this is the descernment that God will provide you when you look. Two men, Christians, who come together and without anything else but faith speak into one anothers lives a bit. Small experiences of faith that build us up for endurance of Faith.

"For I am not ashamed of the Gaospel for it is the power of God for everyone who believes" Romans 1:16 God will help us maintain our faith. He will help confirm it and strengthen it. He will provide the people around you to sharpen you and confirm you if you believe. We can not sit back and be quiet in our home lives, work or whatever, we most be bold and believe, we must not be ashamed of our Gospel. If we are we close of the opportunities that are just a word away.

This man could have sat with me for fifteen minutes and I could have kept my face hidden in my book. Not willing to even engauge him in conversation we could have parted without even more then a glance in each others direction. The same could have applied for him to me. Had he not ventured to the deck or sat near we may never have had that moment to speak. But because of our faith, and the willingness to speak the Gospel, god used that moment through us.

I asked him in the end why he had come up today. I wanted to see if the Lrod had spoke to him. He responded that he had for so long been in his office and today wanted to get out and breath. I imagine it was the same sense of being closed in that I get when I spend similar time in my room. The Spirit wants us active and available. We are to believe that God is soveign and that he will use us in all circumstances if we are available to Him. We can not sit and wait, we must be agents of the power of God and believe whole heartedly in the gospel.

If we are to call ourselves Christains and identify with Christ then we must live unashamed of that descision. It must be what we seek to be at every moment of our lives. Christ calls us to this in His declaration to follow Him. He enables us through closeness to Him to live the gospel, to breath the Gospel, to not be ashamed of it at any time. This is our calling and our purpose, anything less then you must ask why you fall short, what is the fear that you have, why are you ashamed?

Lord Jesus, Spirit, fill us all with your power so that we may trust and not be ashamed in the Gospel that God has provided. Allow us opportunities to strengthen not only our faith but the faith of others as we live in our faith. Let it be what consumes us and moves us. Amen.