The Necessity of Faith

During my two weeks in Brazil, I taught English to missionaries, pastors, and future missionaries and leaders.  Yet, I was often taught by my students. Flavia,  one of the students at the school, shared her testimony during one of our English classes.  She began to asking what excuses do we give for not doing God's will. She shared how she, a single-parent of two, with little education, felt a call to the Muslim world. Given the cultural and linguistic barriers for this poor Brazilian young woman, the demands looked insurmountable. Yet, here she was studying English, finishing her second year of Bible school, and on her way to a conference on Islam in her own country of Brazil. Nothing is too hard for God. Read the poem and reflect on what is keeping you from faith in the call on your life. 

Fear does not nibble

Fear gobbles until

It Devours
All of  Your Shalom *
It Conquers all of your Victories
 
It is not content to merely subsist
It must needs be Consuming
Wholly and Entirely All Joy
Until what is left
………………………… is but a crumb
 
Refuse Fear
For it’s a snare
Choose Wisdom
For it’s L’ Chaim*
 
I have seen a man
Made so afraid
That his own shadow
Seemed a Giant
 
I have seen a weakling
Made a hero
Through Faith
 
I have seen fear make
Cowards of many
And children of men
And Bullies of  youth
 
I have seen fear
Handcuff possibilities
And kidnap Futures
 
Resist  Fear   
at all Costs
 
I have seen fear
Level a monarch
To his knees
And faith raise a beggar
To his throne
 
 
Fear comes to master You
To tame you
Ultimately, to enslave
and encage you
 
It encroaches like a true despot
It gives nothing back,
 but the dead.
It offers only crematoriums----
Wisps of smoke
Where once substantial lives existed!
 
Resist Fear!
 
For in your resistance,
You become strong.
 
Resist Fear
Scale its rocky crags
Reach deep into its terrible wonders
Excise its irrational power
And plant your feet on its summit
 
Or
Plummet to its Abyss
 
 
Shalom:  Hebrew for Peace- Wholeness experienced in the spirit, the soul, and the body
L’Chaim: Hebrew for Life