The fruit of obedience

    "And Jesus came and spoke to them saying , 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.' Amen" (Matthew 28:18-20 NKJV)

     Have you ever felt like you are a failure for God? You have tried to do the things He has commanded you to do but they just didn't work our the way you thought they would? Are you discouraged, or are you resting on the fact that you are not in charge, God is? He is the One who knows what He is doing even though it doesn't make sense to you. '"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,' says the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.'"(Isaiah 55:8-9, NKJV)
        In 1921 a missionary couple, David and Svea Flood from Sweden, went to Africa to what was then known as the Belgian Congo. There they teamed up with another couple, the Eriksons, and went to a small  village in the interior of the country. At the village of N'dolera they were met by the chief who would not let them enter the village in fear that they would anger the local gods. So they set up in a small mud hut a half mile outside the village and the chief allowed them to have contact with only one little boy who would sell them chickens and eggs twice a week. Sevea decided that if the young boy was the only person she could talk to, she would lead him to Jesus and, after a time, she did!
  A few months later, the Eriksons became discouraged with the constant bouts with malaria and the lack of contact with the people and they left. Sevea became pregnant and delivered a baby girl they named Aina. Sevea was so weak from her bouts with malaria that she died shortly after giving birth. David was devastated. He went back to the mission station, gave his new baby daughter to the Eriksons and went back to Sweden, a broken and disillusioned  man who then turned his back on God. Within 8 months the Eriksons also died of Malaria and the girl was turned over to American missionaries who renamed her Aggie and when she was 3 years old they returned to the United States.
     Her new parents then decided to stay in the U.S., entered pastoral ministry, and Aggie grew up in South Dakota. She grew up and attended a Bible college in Minnesota and then married a Dewey Hurst who also became a minister. The Hursts enjoyed a fruitful ministry and raised a daughter and son of their own and eventually settled in Seattle, Washington, where Dewey was president of a Christian college. One day a Swedish religious magazine appeared in Aggie's mailbox and in it was an article on Sevea Flood and a picture of a white cross with her name on it in Africa. Angie could not read Swedish so she went to the college to get someone to translate it. The story was about a missionary couple who had gone to a small village in Africa in 1921, how they had had a baby girl, and that the mother had died. Then the father had returned to Sweden, and that the little boy that Sevea had led to Christ, when he grew up, persuaded the chief to let him build a school. There he had lead all his students to a saving knowledge of Christ,  then the parents to Christ, and the chief also! Now there were 600 belivers in that village, all from the sacrifice of David and Sevea Flood!
   Several years later the Hursts were allowed to go to London to attend an Evangelism conference. One of the speakers was the Superintendent of the national church in Zaire, (formerly the Belgian Congo) and he said he represented 110,000 believers in his country. Angie went to him after he had spoken and asked him if he had ever heard of David and Sveah Flood. He replied that he had, "It was Svea Flood that led me Christ. I was the boy that brought food to your parents before you were born. In fact, to this day, your mother's grave and her memory are honored by all of us.You must come to Africa and see, because your mother is the most famous person in our history" (Fresh Power by Jim Cymbala, pp.115-120)
   This amazing story is one of many examples of our God working through situations that look like total failure but, in fact, are all orchestrated by our Lord to accomplish His purposes. What David  Flood saw as failure was, in actuality, a wonderful victory for that young boy and 600 people in that isolated village!
    How do I take this story and apply it to my life? What has God called you to do? Has he called you to walk across the street and minister to your neighbor? To work with the homeless downtown? To visit the sick and the shut-ins from your church? To go overseas for a short term or long term? Why not seek His guidance right now? Why not be obedient to that one thing He told you to do a long time ago but you have not gotten around to it yet. He know best. He knows why He created you in His image. It is to worship Him and reflect His glory in everything you do and to be obedient in the big and the little things He has shown you. He may not have called you to the jungles of Africa, but He has called you to be light and salt to where you are right now.

Let us pray.

1. Lord help me this day to spent time with You in prayer and in the reading of Your Scripture.
2. Help me to see, through Your Word, what a loving and faithful God you are.
3. Help me to be obedient to what Your Son has commanded me to do with this short time You have given me on this planet.