I just recently learned\u00a0that a\u00a0missionary brother I knew died of a brain tumor.\u00a0 You can see his final message and it is one of great encouragement.\u00a0 You will see nothing but joy\u00a0on his face greater than someone\u00a0you\u00a0are\u00a0working with on their last work day before their wedding.\u00a0 \u00a0I was about to leave a comment on the site and out came this blog post, so I wanted to share it here and maybe be a blessing to someone, somewhere, somehow!<\/p>\n
Because when you know Jesus, life is simply SOME WOW!\u00a0\u00a0 Often the WOWS of life don’t hit us until after the fact, and many WOWS are reserved for Heaven. Bro Jeff was a like me, in love with Jesus, but wondering if his life really made a difference.\u00a0 In Christianity we often don’t get all the pieces of the puzzle in this life, but Jesus holds it all in his hands.\u00a0 One day, that puzzle will make something beautiful even though every individual piece may not be.\u00a0\u00a0 All things work together for good is God’s promise in Romans 8:28, to them that love God.\u00a0 Jeff wanted his life to make that verse real.\u00a0 He did.<\/p>\n
You can watch his final message on the following link:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/mindrenewers.com\/2013\/06\/27\/jeff-smiths-last-testimony-god-loves-me\/<\/a><\/p>\n I must have misread the post a comment part to read “post a chapter.”<\/p>\n I met Bro Jeff several years ago during the annual October Scotland Missions Conference up at Pastor and Missionary Jim Vanvoltenberg’s church in Scotland.\u00a0 I am out of Bro Lou’s church in Hamburg NY, Old Time Baptist (oldtimebaptist.com).\u00a0 What stood out even then is how the lives we live PREACH louder than any message we have said.\u00a0 I don’t recall what Pastor Smith preached on in Scotland (I can barely remember what I preached!) but there are still things that I remember to this day.<\/p>\n Even back then I saw Romans 8:28 alive in his life.\u00a0 From his first tumor, he ended up having to wear a hearing aid.\u00a0 On the last day of our trip, Bro Jeff drove us in Bro Jim’s big white passenger van on our 2 hour drive to the airport.\u00a0 It died on us and we needed a jump and a prayer to get us the rest of the way.\u00a0 It basically would stall out if you took your foot of the gas.\u00a0\u00a0 Well, it died.\u00a0 We pulled into a gas station to work on the van, and I know at least one of our passengers was in panic mode and yelling at him for taking his foot off the gas.\u00a0 I went up to him about it and apologized and explained not to take their yelling personally. He smiled and said, “Don’t worry, I just turn down my hearing aid!”<\/p>\n I have seen many Christians fight illnesses and they tend to act more like Job’s wife today than Job.\u00a0 I am just as prone to whine and wander as anyone else today.\u00a0 I think I am spiritual and I think I arrived.\u00a0 Then God loves to shake things up and show me reality.\u00a0 For example, I was driving home from working in Rochester recently and my GPS could not pick up a signal at first.\u00a0 I have no sense of direction and I was forced to choose between two options on the route 390.\u00a0 I almost had a stroke.\u00a0 I had prayed hard when I realized I had no working GPS and when it finally kicked on I realized I was going the RIGHT way.\u00a0 Yet I could hear Jesus saying, \u00a0Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?<\/em><\/p>\n It is definitely encouraging to remember Bro Jeff’s attitude and faith.\u00a0 Someone said a faith that can’t be tested is a faith that can’t be trusted.\u00a0 Bro Jeff shows us the balance of Christianity by his life and his death.\u00a0 Today the\u00a0typical view\u00a0Christianity is\u00a0this big party and rock and roll atmosphere they try to pump up.\u00a0 They tend promise instant sanctification, and recruit with grand promises that fail to deliver.\u00a0 So they have to keep pumping and re-pumping.\u00a0 “Become a Christian and have no problems ever again!”<\/p>\n Yes, the Christian life is \u00a0easy when you are on the mountain.\u00a0 The reality is we don’t camp there.\u00a0 In my experience, we are on our Christian journey through mountainous terrain.\u00a0 We climb one mountain and get to enjoy the view, but then it is back down the mountain and we are back marching through the valleys of life.\u00a0 Psalm 23 says EVEN though I walk THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH I will FEAR NO EVIL, for THOU ARE WITH ME.\u00a0 <\/em>We may not like to be in the valley, but it is in the valley where we find Jesus.\u00a0 It is only when we are on the mountain that we usually see what He had been doing all along.<\/p>\n The reality is life is hard and when you become a Christian you are not only still in this often miserable world but you now add an enemy, the devil, and you find out how much your own flesh will fight you and how the world will come after you to pull you back.\u00a0 Yet Christianity is most joyous and most alive in the hard times.\u00a0 Persecution has always been good for the church.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When our backs are to the wall and we have no option BUT GOD, that is when our faith becomes alive.\u00a0 It is not a bed of roses, but a crown of thorns, and we need to not be surprised when adversity comes.\u00a0 Expect it, and know in those times Jesus becomes alive and real to you.\u00a0 At this point, I haven’t had the experience Jeff has, and I don’t know if I would be as daring now to pray for a brain tumor.\u00a0 What I have seen though in the 11 years I have been saved is all things really do work together for good.<\/p>\n One other lesson Bro Jeff taught is he really encouraged me that God is using you even if you don’t see it.\u00a0 Oswald Chambers never thought he was doing much for God, but the opening of his book is\u00a0 John 12:24, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.\u00a0 <\/em>His book My Utmost for his Highest<\/em>, is one of the greatest devotional books ever written.\u00a0 Yet it took his death for the seed of his life to grow into something wonderful and bringeth forth much fruit<\/em>.<\/p>\n Missionary Jim Elliott’s life ended by the spears of the Auca Indians, the very tribe he wanted to reach with the gospel.\u00a0 \u00a0By the world’s account, this former businessman wastes his life.\u00a0 Yet after the Indians brutally killed him, Jim’s wife was able to miraculously love on them and reached that tribe.\u00a0 His legacy lives on. Jeff’s legacy lives on because we don’t serve a dead Saviour.\u00a0\u00a0 Jeff told Bro Lou he didn’t think he was doing that much for God.\u00a0 I struggle with that.\u00a0 I think we all can fall in that boat, thinking our love for God is in direct proportion to how big our numbers are.\u00a0 Blog hits. Church attendance.\u00a0\u00a0 Offerings.\u00a0 Whatever.<\/p>\n I think a good clue you might be doing something for God is that the devil tells you over and over you aren’t.\u00a0 It really is God doing something THROUGH you, not you doing it anyway.\u00a0 Just stay close to Jesus.\u00a0 Remain in HIM, He is the vine, and we are the branches he says in John 12.<\/p>\n In the good times we can quote the clich\u00e9s of Christianity and sound spiritual.\u00a0 In the hard times we can find the Christ of Christianity and become alive spiritually.\u00a0 It makes all the difference in the world.<\/p>\n Our lives are like ripples in a pond.\u00a0 Jeff’s life impacted this world far more than he can imagine. People are listening to our lives even when their ears are plugged.\u00a0 I don’t see much fruit from my efforts.\u00a0 I don’t see many blog hits for my efforts.\u00a0\u00a0 Our lives might not show much.\u00a0 Yet he that loses his life for the Gospel will find it.\u00a0 It means surrendering our lives even\u00a0when the\u00a0circumstances of life don’t reveal much.\u00a0 Jeff literally gave his life for the gospel and\u00a0only\u00a0now can he truly\u00a0see his faith revealed\u00a0and the results of his obedience and faithfulness.\u00a0 We need not to be discouraged by thinking our lives for God\u00a0are a waste or that God has forgotten us.\u00a0 Jesus loves me, this I know.<\/p>\n I will close with this.\u00a0 Here is another ripple.\u00a0 I merely wanted to leave a comment on the website,\u00a0and a blog post came out of this.\u00a0 I have a blog on my\u00a0own\u00a0website ETVFC.org.\u00a0 I wasn’t trying to write anything long today, but when I start I don’t stop.\u00a0 I can’t stop.<\/p>\n Perhaps, I am stockpiling articles so one day when I die there is something that can live on that will bringeth forth much fruit.\u00a0 \u00a0I had a very down day a few days ago.\u00a0 Just when I was going to send out invites to my pity party, I turned on the CD player in my wife’s van. She just happened to have this one CD on that is a huge blessing to me.<\/p>\n It goes like this.\u00a0“God wants to hear you sing, when the waves are crashing round you. When the fiery\u00a0darts surround you, when despair is all you see.\u00a0 God wants to hear your voice, when the wisest man has spoken, and said your circumstance is as hopeless as can be.\u00a0 That’s when God wants to hear you sing! HE wants to hear you sing!”<\/p>\n Have we lost our song, Christians?\u00a0 Maybe we need to realign our expectations.\u00a0 Expect adversity, but in it we need to better run TO GOD, instead of RUNNING FROM GOD.<\/p>\n It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0 We sing that.\u00a0 Do we believe it?<\/p>\n Jeff ran to God.\u00a0 And now he is there forever,\u00a0singing praises to Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I just recently learned\u00a0that a\u00a0missionary brother I knew died of a brain tumor.\u00a0 You can see his final message and it is one of great encouragement.\u00a0 You will see nothing but joy\u00a0on his face greater than someone\u00a0you\u00a0are\u00a0working with on their … Continue reading