Prophet To The Nations

Jeremiah 1:4-5 (NASB)
⁴  Now the word of the LORD came to me saying,
⁵  "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations."

I recall the day and exactly where I was when I read these verses years ago. God gripped my heart with them. I felt like He personally wrote those verses to me that day. It moved me so deeply I had "Jeremiah 1:5" engraved on a Bible I used to preach from. 

In no way am I comparing myself to Jeremiah or any other biblical prophet. What struck me that day is that from birth God had a plan for me. He knew me in the womb and consecrated me in the spring and summer days of 1966. When I was born in the fall of 1966 He had set me apart in His plan to preach. 

I did not meet Jesus as my Savior for seventeen years. It took another year and a half before I clearly heard God's call on my life to preach. I did hear it though and responded to that call on July, 4, 1985. 

God did not just call me to preach. He put a boldness in me to preach hard truth among a hard hearted generation. I have not shied away from preaching the hard stuff as well as the encouraging stuff. Neither have I backed away from writing hard truth. 

I have taken some mission trips and anticipate in the future I will do so again. I have traveled to a few foreign countries for Jesus. Yet, I have never felt like I was truly getting to be a prophet to the nations. 

That is until I began writing this blog. Through the wonder of technology what I write and post here is available to people all over the world. What I like even more is this material is available for free if people have access to the internet. I want it that way. I am not looking to make a quick buck. I am looking to share truth. Like Vance Havner used to say, "I came to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted." Through this blog I can do so all over the world. 

A few weeks ago a very strange thing happened. I am able to keep up with how many visitors come to this site as well as from what countries people are from and how many visitors view the site from each country. By far and away over the past eight years the United States has the most visitors. Usually that is followed by Canada with a few. From time to time sporadic visitors come from countries like France, Germany, Brazil, China, and so forth. A few weeks ago for several days in a row there were four times as many visitors from Russia reading this material as from the United States. Hundreds of visitors from Russia came. I do not know one person in Russia. I don't know how they stumbled on this material. Yet they did. 

In that moment I felt like I was truly getting to serve as a prophet to the nations. As suddenly as all those Russian visitors showed up they disappeared again. In the past thirty days not one person has visited this site from Russia. We have had people visit from Kenya, Portugal, Spain, and the Philippines. I praise God for He is using this material all around the world. Glory to God. 

I trust in the future I will again board planes and travel to distant shores. Until then I write His messages to be sent out around the world. This is what I was born to do. For this purpose God appointed me. I am a prophet to the nations.