rebelling against low expectations
A wave of noise washed over me. I was fresh off the plane to intern with a church planting team in a country on the other side of the world, and I had just walked into a room full of kids. We chatted and drank tea as I eyed pastries I’d never seen before. Slowly the students filtered out, and my teammate and I squished into the tiny kitchen in the back to wash the plates. However, one student...
We all have days when we feel like life is kicking us down and the world is throwing one too many punches. As Rebelutionaries, we want to seriously pursue the spread of the gospel and see the expansion of God’s kingdom, which means the enemy has put a very large, red target on our backs. We daily wrestle against “the world forces of this darkness” and “spiritual forces of wickedness” (Ephesians...
What if God says “Go”? Will you obey, following His lead into the mission field, or will you wait for another? When He says, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8), how will you answer? When you stand before your Heavenly Father, what will you tell Him when He asks why you did not go into all the world declaring the gospel? I recently heard someone say, “If God is calling you...
When we hear the word “missionary,” we usually think of someone in a foreign country spreading the Gospel amidst constant persecution. We sigh, feeling guilty that we aren’t helping to “make disciples of all nations” because we have fridges, soft beds, supermarkets, vehicles, hospitals, plenty of food and water, and relatively easy lives. But the truth is, you don’t have to travel overseas to be...
A call is heard from far away From over sea and land Of lives expiring every day Like an hourglass of sand. To the ears of our hearts They call without words, From the world’s farthest parts They’re desperate to be heard. With broken souls and hungry bones They cry for what they do not know; With blind eyes and hearts of stone Day by day their needs grow. They don’t...
I sat on a low concrete wall at the edge of the river. Across the river in front of me, a mosque stood guard. Throughout the day, prayer calls reverberate in the city from this and the several other mosques in my small town. The architecture was beautiful. But that day my heart felt so heavy. That day, I was the only known Evangelical Christian in the entire town, and for many, many miles. I am...
“Christianity is the white man’s religion,” said Malcolm X in his autobiography. This is a claim we often hear, but is it true? As a black person, I can understand why people might believe that Christianity is only for white people. They question, “How can you believe in the Bible if it was used to justify slavery? After all, black people were not Christian before the Transatlantic Slave Trade.”...
“I would love to meet you and it would be a day I would not forget.” These precious words came from halfway across the world. From a village made of mud and sticks. From a young girl who has impacted my life forever. I refolded the piece of paper and gazed at the picture of the dark-skinned young girl smiling up at me. She comes from an underprivileged family in Uganda and is part of a program...
I walked into my chiropractor’s office, expecting nothing more than a normal spinal adjustment. But God knew my back wasn’t the only part of me that needed correction. A magazine in the waiting room caught my eye. When I saw one of the headlines on the cover, I snatched it up. Why would a secular magazine publish the story of a controversial Christian? I heard about John Allen Chau when news of...
International mission work has increasingly been on my heart lately. If only you could see the passion in my eyes and hear it in my voice as I say that! After attending the Cross Conference in January, I texted some friends, “This is what I was created for!” I’ve been poring over Isaiah 6, when he is commissioned, reading it over and over again with a longing heart. Verse 8 says, “And I heard the...
rebelling against low expectations
