Enkindling

“Bali, Indonesia — At least two bombs exploded almost simultaneously Saturday in tourist areas of the Indonesian resort island of Bali , killing at least 22 people and wounding about 50 others, officials said.” — Fox News

Bali, 595 miles east of Jakarta, is Indonesia’s most popular destination for foreign tourists. The predominantly Hindu island is home to 3 million people and is famous for its beautiful beaches, rich culture and picture postcard landscapes of rice fields and volcanoes. — Reuters

Today I arose thinking of all I needed to do this weekend. Pay bills, clean up around the house, run some errands, and enjoy the beautiful weather. What about you? Today my friend Jeanne escaped bomb blasts in Bali. One exploded within a mile down the beach from where she ate dinner. The other exploded in a shopping center where she had been 2 hours before.

If you assumed she was on vacation taking in all the beautiful scenery and living in luxurious hotels you were wrong. She’s on a journey for God. During this time she’s been sick and had to use, as she calls them, “squatty pottys”. In the midst of the uncomfortable she is there to be a blessing. Why? Simply put, God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others.

Jeanne is there teaching business skills and assisting Indonesians in the formation of businesses. Some of her students have had success in leading Muslims to Christ. In fact, it is their sole purpose in creating a business. How many of us have started a business for His benefit and not ourselves? Not long ago Indonesia was affected by the Tsunami’s. In the midst of this, Indonesia’s president has managed to grow their economy and rip a hole in terrorism. Today the terrorists struck back.

We thank God for keeping our sister Jeanne safe and using her to be a blessing. But, just for a second, I wonder how many of us would thank Him if she had been killed? Where would our faith stand if she departed us? Would we rejoice if we had lost a woman of purity, heart, character, and integrity like Jeanne?
I celebrate her death. I celebrate the death of her students who risk their lives to love Muslims with the love of Christ. If you think I’m being a little extreme or melancholy I’m not. In case you have not heard… NONE OF US ARE GETTING OUT OF THIS WORLD ALIVE! It’s about VICTORY. It’s about being RESCUED.

Romans 8:9-11 (The Message)
9 - But if God Himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of Him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. 10 - But for you who welcome Him, in whom He dwells–even though you still experience all the limitations of sin–you yourself experience life on God’s terms. 11 - It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, He’ll do the same thing in you that He did in Jesus; bringing you alive to Himself! When God lives and breathes in you (and He does, as surely as He did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With His Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!

If you’re a Christian, right now, where you sit reading this, I challenge you. Get up. Go outside. Feel the breeze hit your face. Stretch your arms out. Open your hands. Close your eyes. And say: You are my Joy! You are my Joy! You are my Joy!

Dead to the world. Alive in Christ. Father, I thank you Jeanne is Alive in Bali.