The Word Unites the World
These are some of the kids from King of King's Church, where I preached Sunday. It was an amazing experience and one in which I felt more humbled as a preacher than ever before. Not so much because of the location, the emotion of being away from my church in Wyoming, or the people themselves.
I was moved by the weight of God's Word.
This happens at some point most weeks as a prepare to preach or when I'm actually taking my spot on the stage, to open the Word I so dearly love. I've preached in multiple states, on barges in the Ohio River, at camps along rivers in West Virginia, at the beach, on the top of a mountain, to pastors in Central America, in nursing homes, at a village in Uganda, in my hometown city park, converted gas stations, and more in between.
What I've learned over the years is that no matter the worship style, age range, temperature, view, language, region, or continent, the ONE thing that is constant is God's Word.
That is the mission of Training Leaders International and Africa Renewal University. To impart the global unifying truth, of the very Word of God, to pastors and leaders in churches and businesses, in Uganda and around the globe. This mission changes the trajectory of whole generations by showing them the centrality of the gospel and how to disciple others through the word.
In my Hermeneutics class there is a young man named Cephas.
He has an amazing story of being raised Moslem, being confuse after hearing the grace of Christ preached, attempting suicide, and then putting the Koran and the Bible side by side in an intense study. The result of his salvation came from reading the Gospels and finding that Jesus was a savior filled with hope, love, and an eternity secured in Him alone. Mohammend only promised blind obedience, hopelessness, and internal despair.
He was rejected by his family for years, grew in his faith, became a changed young man, and then was able to be a witness to his brothers, who are all now walking with Jesus. Now he is here being equipped for ministry and praying about where God will have him serving.
The Word of God is what was able to bust through his lonely and confused heart. Not some program, not some well orchestrated service, or some deeply entrenched doctrinal statement that is preached more than the bible.
The very words of our God.
Inspired Inerrant Eternal Universal
East Africa is as diverse in cultural background as the United States, and I imagine that is true for each region of the world. Thousands of languages, billions of people, and a myriad of cultural contexts...... But one true scripture that is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
There are many physical needs around the world, to that I am greatly aware. However, if those who break our hearts because of circumstance, don't also cause our hearts to break for their need of God's Word, we are doing little more than delaying their inevitable & eternal demise, void of God's love.
The Kingdom of Heaven promises relief, but it also demands response. I pray that this truth is a beacon, drawing all who are weary to the arms of Christ, and to the confidence of his love found in His Word.