Breathe In, Breathe Out

Webster's Dictionary defines the word "breathe" as follows: to draw air into and expel it from the lungs or to inhale and exhale freely.

Have you ever heard someone respond to a stressful situation by saying something like, "I just need to breathe" or "I can't even breathe!"? Breathing, of course, comes naturally to everyone who is alive - it's not something that you typically have to think about - it just happens.

How often do you think about your every breath being a gift from God? Genesis 2:7 - then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Man was not a living creature until God breathed out the breath of life in to him. If something does not breathe, it is not alive. The Christian faith is intended to be a living faith - after all, we worship a living Savior! Since Christianity is alive, it breathes, and therefore it needs to inhale and exhale freely.

I like to think of the Christian's "inhale" as time spent with other believers and in God's word. Spending time among believers includes going to church, Sunday school, small groups, bible studies, Christian retreats or camps, etc. Time spent in the Bible is certainly vital to the life of a Christian and 2 Timothy 3:16 reminds us that "All Scripture 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 competent, equipped for every good work." I like the idea of God breathing out Scripture and us breathing it in. For the Christian, the "inhale" is meant to build us up, strengthen us, and encourage us in Christ.

But breathing is a two step process of equally important parts. You have to inhale and exhale to stay alive.

The "exhale" of our faith in Christ should be in our neighborhoods, in our schools, in our workplaces, in our streets! The "exhale" needs to come in places where life happens and people need to be reached with the Good News. Often it is more comfortable for Christians to spend time only with other Christians. Oh, you can easily do that and think you are fine - just like you can breathe with one lung at a diminished capacity.

However, for our faith to be alive, we need to breathe out what we believe, not just breathe in.

Mark 16:15 - "And he (Jesus) said to them (the disciples), 'Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation."

Europe as a Mission Field

I was reading through some of the older posts on here and was reminded of what a need for Christ that there is in Ireland and throughout all of Europe. The need is great enough that Operation Mobilization has identified Europe as one of the 9 focal points for world missions. It is a mission field that is not thought about often, but this was a good reminder to me of why God has called our family to serve there.

The following is from the OM International website (http://www.om.org/):

Europe - Restoring Hope

Once, European Christians told the world about Jesus. Today's "Christian" Europe is spiritually bankrupt. The ruins of ancient churches symbolize a continent that has turned away from Christ.

Prosperous Europeans may seem content. But rising suicide rates, the desperate search for alternative spiritualities and the growth of other religions demonstrate the emptiness behind the façade.
Throughout Europe, nations are battling against the effects of crime, drugs and alcohol abuse while in places such as Bosnia, Kosovo and Ukraine whole communities have been shattered by war and poverty.

Yet, in the midst of brokenness, God is restoring hope to Europe. Across the continent OM teams are living out the reality of the Gospel as they provide practical help, build friendships and share truth.

Together with the European church, OM is transforming lives and communities in more than 30 nations by caring for the unwanted, loving Muslims, empowering the next generations, reawakening the religious and challenging the secular.

Once the sender of missionaries to the world, Europe is now the one continent where the church is shrinking. In most of the countries, including Ireland, less than 1% of the population is evangelical. But, there are open doors to share the Gospel with Europeans and a growing immigrant population throughout the continent.

In Ireland, while Catholicism is still a major influence over the country and culture, few have a living relationship with God. Traditional 'religion' has failed to tackle serious social problems such as alcoholism, teenage pregnancy and a high suicide rate among young men. Evangelical numbers have grown over the past 10 years and stand at 0.75% of the population, though according to Operation World, this is still the lowest percentage of any country in the English-speaking world.

Some Prayer Points to consider:

Please pray that God will restore hope to Europe.

Pray for workers reaching out to the marginalised people in Europe (homeless, refugees, immigrants, drug addicts, alcoholics and prostitutes) that they will be filled with compassion and will demonstrate the love of Jesus to those they meet.

Pray for God to raise up a new generation of Europeans who are on fire for Jesus and willing to share their passion for Him with others.

Pray for unity among European churches and a common commitment to reach out with the good news of Jesus.

Pray for the thriving churches in Eastern European countries such as Ukraine, Moldova and Romania to catch a vision for world missions.

Isaiah 58:12
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

Support Raising Update "40/40" Club

I am excited today! In a way, I feel like today is the beginning of something big that God is going to do in our lives. It is the first day of my new "job", which consists of being 100% available to share our ministry vision for Ireland with interested friends, and watching God work.

Last night I was figuring out how many days we have left to get to 90% of our support raising goal (which is the mark we need to be at 30 days out from when we leave). We are currently at 50% of the financial requirement, so we need an additional 40%. Our goal is to get to Ireland no later than the last week of June - so 30 days backward from there is May 23, or 40 days from today.

So for everything to fall in to place as we believe God is leading, that means that 40% of our financial support must come in the next 40 days. I'm not a numerologist or anything, but I like the sound of 40% in 40 days!

There is no way we can do this on our own - in fact, it seems more than overwhelming to consider exactly how this is supposed to happen. Thankfully for us, it is God who will provide and we just need to be available to be used by Him for this purpose.

If you haven't joined our prayer and financial support team yet, would you pray about it? If you feel like this is something that God may be leading you towards being a part of, please let us know. If you think this is something that your church or family or friends would be excited about, please share it with them.

We are looking forward to watching the 40/40 club grow and keeping everyone updated on how God is working!