After fifteen hours of traveling through airports and an eighteen hour bus ride through the night and then a two hour ride in a truck, we made it to our village. It is like being in another world. It doesn’t take long to develop an appreciation for those who live around us but do not fit in. When you are the only white people (gringos) in a village, everyone stares. There is no blending in. Also, the average height is approximately five feet and one of the guys with us is 6’4. Everyone looks at him as if he is Goliath! The faces of the children when he walks in are priceless. As far as we know, there are four believers out of about 400 people in the village. We have so many differences: nationality, skin color, language, economic status, occupations, culture, and knowledge of the world. The hardest difference for me is the language. I struggle tremendously. I wish I could remove this hindrance of the language barrier and yet, the Lord reminded me that He was the who created it to begin with. At one time we all spoke the same language and I believe that we will once again return to a single language in Heaven or at least we will all be able to understand each other. That will be an awesome time. Having the hindrances of language keeps us humble and dependent. When people became too prideful and too united, God separated the people and formed different languages. They were going to build a stairway to heaven. God didn’t go for that idea and so He separated them both physically and verbally.
I must admit that if I could speak the language of the villagers I would depend on my words more than my actions to show the love of Jesus to them. When I do not have the words, I must rely on my smile, my touch, my hug to show love. That is my goal this week, to show the love of Jesus without words.
So many people are sick of our words. Even God in Revelations tells us He is sick of our words. We have always heard the saying, ‘Words without actions are dead”. What are you speaking to the people around you? Are you saying one thing and being another? If your life was a silent movie without any sound, how far into the movie would it take someone to know that you were a Christian?
I must admit that if I could speak the language of the villagers I would depend on my words more than my actions to show the love of Jesus to them. When I do not have the words, I must rely on my smile, my touch, my hug to show love. That is my goal this week, to show the love of Jesus without words.
So many people are sick of our words. Even God in Revelations tells us He is sick of our words. We have always heard the saying, ‘Words without actions are dead”. What are you speaking to the people around you? Are you saying one thing and being another? If your life was a silent movie without any sound, how far into the movie would it take someone to know that you were a Christian?
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
John 13:34-35
2 comments:
You really have a serious game of charades going on for sure. Isn't it amazing how we seem to get our messages across,one way or another. Jesus is always working to give us the words even if we have to act them out. We are looking forward to the service this Sunday. Love from all of us to you.
My mom always says actions speak louder than words. You have reinforced that!!! :-)
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