I have made it to Paradise and am in transition to a new life, a new ministry, and eventually a new home. My host home has been extremely gracious. I am actually enjoying my camping experience living in the RV. I have all I need. Most of all I have ample time to seek the Lord through prayer and scripture reading. I am afforded much solitude and want to use it wisely so God has not disappointed. God is speaking.
Yesterday His message to me came from [Matt 6:8] “So do not be like them; your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” This scripture comforted my heart reminding me God knows all the challenges we are facing. He knows our needs and He does not need me to remind Him. He desires that I seek Him and trust Him. He already knows the needs and His plan to meet them.
Early this morning the Lord spoke to me again through [Joshua 14:6-15] about the life of Caleb who continued to follow God fully even at eighty-five years old. I asked God for strength of body and mind to serve Him fully for at least the next thirty years. I would be eighty-five. I do not want to entertain getting too old to serve. He has inspired in me books that need to be written and sermons that need to be preached. While I can I want to have the spirit of Caleb and serve the Lord fully.
I ate breakfast on Monday with my great uncle Buddy who preached in the Nazarene church as a pastor for over five decades. He is eighty-one now but still has the fire of God burning in his soul. He showed me a message he studied in recent days trusting God for an opportunity to deliver that message. That is what I asked God for. I want to fully serve God well into my senior adult years. I am middle aged by definition today but that is only if I live to be ninety. I could be in the last days or I may have more life ahead of me than I have behind me. That is all up to the Lord. I just want to follow Caleb’s example and follow the Lord fully all my days regardless of how many I have left.
Later on this morning the Lord spoke to me yet once again through [Joshua 21:45] “Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.” I am standing on this promise for the Edwards family and for Faith Community Church. I trust the Lord to work out all the details for my family. I trust the Lord provide a house for us here in Paradise and to sell our house in Seminole. I may have to fight for these things in prayer, which I am glad to do, trusting God will keep his promises.
I went back to my old barbershop for a haircut today. This barbershop is close to ten miles from Paradise but he had already heard we were coming back to start a church. He spoke a word straight from the Lord as I was walking out the door. He told me the story of how twenty years ago he had been a part of a church plant in the Fort Worth area. He recounted how they started with three families around a kitchen table. They rented facilities at a school as the church grew, bought and renovated an old bar, then moved into a bigger rented facility. He told me that church today that started with just three families has to over 4,000 in attendance each week.
When I left to get in my truck I sensed the Lord speaking through the Holy Spirit, “Do not despise the day of small beginnings.” Everything the Lord keeps speaking to me challenges me to trust Him even in the day of small beginnings. I am living in a borrowed RV and yet the Lord continues to meet with me and speak to me. We have our first official meeting tonight in a home. Most of the night I will cast vision for the work to be done. People have asked me where we are going to meet and so forth. We will start in a home tonight. This coming Sunday we will meet in a daycare. Next Wednesday we will continue to meet in the daycare. We will follow the Lord fully until we outgrow the daycare. When that times the Lord will provide the next place. He is at work. I sense it more than I can see it.
What I noticed as I read through the book of Joshua is that Israel did receive the promise land but they had to possess it. It did not come without challenges and opposition. They fought for city after city. In the same way I have to possess the land for my family only I am fighting through prayer and faith. This new church must be possessed by faith.
The God that called me to this task and this community is the God who goes ahead of me. He has a house picked out for my family. He has a plan for Faith Community Church. I continue to ask Him to work out that plan. There must be trials along the way to try and strengthen our faith. There have to be obstacles in the way so God can demonstrate His unfailing power. We have to deal with some mountains in the day of our small beginnings in order to promote the glory of God when He overcomes them.
Watching God give birth to this church is like watching a pregnant mother carry a child in the womb and then give birth to that child for the watching world to see and behold. The baby was real inside her all the time. She could feel the growth and the baby moving and kicking. When she holds the child she is holding the one she has loved and nurtured in our womb. I feel the embryo of this church and my house in my spirit. Soon God will give birth to both for the watching world to see.
Though there is not much of a church to see in Faith Community Church now, it is real in my spirit. We have very little but we all share the call of God and the dream of a church that seeks first the kingdom of God. We might be starting small but we believe in time God will do great things out of this small beginning. So I do not despise the day of small beginnings. I can envision sitting around in a room full of new comers to the church and share how I lived in an RV, the church started in a daycare, and how we brought our own chairs that first Sunday. I will tell the miracle story of the birth of this church over and over again. I will tell how God moved on people’s heart to bless us with down payment on a house. I will tell how one man wrote me two checks for $1,000 each quoting the scripture about the preacher who faithfully preaches the word being worth double honor. I will also tell the story of one who gave me another $1,000 telling me he loved me, believed in me, and is praying for me. In this way God is moving our mountains. Getting our house here is just one miracle away.
Through Faith Community Church I believe hundreds of souls will trust Christ for salvation. I am confident God will give birth to multiple new church plants through Faith Community Church all over the world. By faith I am assured this new church will grow and one day we will look back on these days of our small beginnings with fond memories. Until that day we press forward in faith. We press forward trusting God to build a great church but more importantly to build His kingdom through this church.
Lord, I will not despise the day of small beginnings. I will not resent these humble beginnings but will believe from these unassuming beginnings as a backdrop you will paint a masterpiece in the brilliant colors of miracles, trials, victories, triumphs, and kingdom expansion. Thank you for choosing me to be a part of it. I also thank you for the roles you have used FBC Paradise, FBC Seminole, CentrePointe Community Church, Denman Avenue Baptist Church, and Southside Baptist church in shaping me and preparing me for this assignment. From these modest beginnings you are setting the state to do something great.
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