Are you a sideliner?

Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few.”

1 Samuel 14:6

Where are the men and women today who live like this? With boldness and surrender, courage and decisiveness… aggressively accomplishing God’s purposes here on Earth! When God tells us that he will never leave us, that promise is not meant to leave us trying to figure out God’s hidden will for every decision we make, rather, it is meant to give us a fearless boldness to seize every opportunity we can that God sends our way. Maybe things will turn out great, maybe they won’t (like Jonathan said) but if life is short (and it is) and God is waiting for us in heaven (and He is) then what a GREAT way to go out!! Daring great and small things for God!

How many of us consider the work of Christ our personal responsibility? I have a suspicion that there are far more sideliner Christians than we could ever imagine. People who look as if they’re in the game, but in reality are watching from up close. To follow Jesus is to move with God. When you become a part of God’s movement, you are a missionary.

“Every missionary has a mission. The mission gives him both intentionality and purpose. He has no minutes to waste. He is required to seize every moment that God gives him. Is it possible that God longs for this for all of us?

Maybe you’ve been afraid to get in the game because you’re afraid to lose. In the Kingdom of God, victory comes the instant you refuse to simply watch life happen and you get in the game. For too many of us, because we fear failure, we are afraid to try. Sometimes we live vicariously through the lives of others. Instead of being life voyagers, we become life voyeurs. I think it’s one of the reasons we entertain ourselves to death. We find our romance in You’ve Got Mail, and we fight our battles through William Wallace and Maximus Aurelius. And there might as well be a glass screen between real life and us because the closest we get to fulfilling our life’s dreams is watching them. We’ve accepted our place, our lot in life, as sidelines.”

When someone near us seizes his divine moment, it stirs something within us. A lifetime of passivity only makes dormant our longing for adventure. A life where endless moments are left buried in the cemetery of unfulfilled opportunities may grow cold, but not dead. Until our bodies return to dust, there will always be a voice crying out within us to move from existence to life. The possibilities that await us in each moment are fueled by the potential God has placed within us. Seizing your divine moment is not simply about opportunity; at the core it is about essence. It’s about the kind of life you live as a result of the person you are becoming. The challenges you are willing to face will rise in proportion to the character you are willing to develop. With the depth of godly character comes an intensity of godly passion. It is in this process of transformation that we find the fuel to engage with confidence the opportunities placed before us.”

Seizing Your Divine Moment

In the End, mature Christianity is realizing that WE ARE GOD’S WILL. WE are the representatives of Christ in this world. So we can dream, take action, be bold, make decisions, and God promises to empower us and to bless what we do in His name! So let’s seize these “Divine Moments” that God sends our way…maybe it’s a kind work here, or selling something to give the money to someone who just lost their job, or opening up your home, or going overseas on your first mission trip, or listening to that hurting person, etc…whatever it is, realize that most big things in the kingdom starts with small things here…or at least, what appears to be a small thing. The Word tells us to “Despise not the day of small things”. Need I remind you that the feeding of the 5,000 started with 2 loaves and some fish.

Brady N. Rose
Pastor of Mobilization

Where’s Brady – Update 3

The Lord has done so much in such a small amount of time…

Pastor Brady has been busy preparing to share the Gospel with all those who are working for them as well as their families. Part of the way he is doing this is by making it part of their payday. The men have been encouraged to bring their families with them, then after arriving to receive their money the Gospel is shared with them by a local pastor before they are paid. God is moving!

The Lord is also using Pastor Brady to change individual lives.

One such life is that of little Angelo. As you may have seen on his facebook post, Pastor Brady met a little boy with a a cleft pallet… after meeting him and taking a picture of him to remember to pray for him he logged into facebook one day and saw that a girl he went to high school with was working for an NGO in MANILLA and had posted a picture of a young boy who had just had a successful cleft pallet surgery. He then contacted her to find out if she had “room for one more?” She checked and found a way to get him in which meant Brady needed to find this random little boy again. He returned to where he had found him and the first boy he asked if he knew him was… HIS BROTHER!! The next day they had a five hour journey to Tacloban and would then fly Angelo and his Mother to Manila for his surgery… all expenses paid!

There is another man who walks for miles using sandals on them and he farms on his hands, picking up coconuts for a living… he is very poor and is unable to afford a wheelchair.

God provided a wheelchair for this guy!!! A wheel-chair bike with room for a cooler on the back so he can sell stuff from his chair!!! For this guy! Now, just have to find him!!

“I can’t do everything…but I can do something.” – Jerry Harding

Pastor Brady’s prayer request:

Please pray for some of the little boys that follow me everywhere back at my base.

Please pray for Angelo, pray for a strong and good recovery!!! He’ll be in Manila for a few weeks following his surgery to heal up.

Pray for the group I hired (all 55 of them). Pray that the seeds that have been planted in them would grow and God would continue to draw them!!!

Pray as I wrap things up here in our pay outs. Gotta move all our stuff 6 hours down the road to Tacloban. Pray that my exit would be honoring to the Lord and a blessing to everyone here. Pray I could bless all the staff and expats of Samaritans Purse as I go.

Where’s Brady?

“As Christians, if we aren’t in over our heads we are swimming in the wrong ocean.”

-Brady Rose

Pastor Brady will be spending the next two months on an island several hours away from the large Philippine city, Tacloban.

He is there as a part of the Samaritan’s Purse efforts to provide relief to an island that has been struck with two hurricanes since the major storm surge, Yolanda. The team is bringing with them ten vans, one truck and different types of aid for distribution. The team will spend their initial time cleaning up the island, clearing paths and building relationships. Then they will try to restore the community physically and spiritually.

As Pastor Brady is on this journey, pray for strength and wisdom as he leads this team. Pray that the people of Samar’s hearts will be softened and that through everything Christ’s name is lifted high.

Update: Sunday night Pastor Brady made his team chili, Philippine style, and lead worship. This was the day before the team made the all-day trek to the island of Samar.