Christopher Columbus = Christ Bearer

If you are a Christian you have something in common with the man whose accomplishements we celebrate today.

His name means Christ Bearer

Happy Columbus Day!

So often, when God says, “Move,” we ask, “Why?”

I cannot imagine being an explorer, going places where no one has ever gone, risking my life, leaving behind loved ones, having no idea what I might face, where my next meal would be found, how I would find a doctor if there were no Emergency Rooms… on and on I go. Oh, and by the way, these are very real thoughts I have each time I face a move.

Yet Christopher Columbus took the challenge and set sail leaving all comforts behind.

We learn from our earliest elementary school days about Christopher Columbus. We are told many stories surrounding his goals, purpose, preparations.

I wanted to hear from the horses mouth.
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Why did he do it?

It didn’t take me long to find excerpts from his journal. You can read them for yourself. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/Columbus1.html

I cut through all the formal language and satisfied my curiosity. It appears Christopher went to Sunday School and learned the great commission. Well maybe not, but he certainly understood that God had a calling on his life. Read what he wrote:

IN THE NAME OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
Whereas, Most Christian, High, Excellent, and Powerful Princes, King and Queen of Spain and of the Islands of the Sea, our Sovereigns, this present year 1492… I had given your Highnesses respecting the countries of India and of a Prince, called Great Can, which in our language signifies King of Kings, how, at many times he, and his predecessors had sent to Rome soliciting instructors who might teach him our holy faith, and the holy Father had never granted his request, whereby great numbers of people were lost, believing in idolatry and doctrines of perdition. Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians, and princes who love and promote the holy Christian faith…, determined to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the above-mentioned countries of India, to see the said princes, people, and territories, and to learn their disposition and the proper method of converting them to our holy faith; and furthermore directed that I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that any one has gone. So … your Highnesses, in the same month of January, ordered me to proceed…

WOW! He wanted to share the gospel!

Further research brought me to this site:
http://www.millersville.edu/~columbus/columbus.html

Without a doubt, the Bible was a great source of inspiration to Columbus. He drew heavily from it and took his name, “Christ Bearer," seriously, believing, in fact, that he had a divine mission to accomplish.

http://www.millersville.edu/~columbus/columbus.html

With so many distractions today, Monday, October 13, 2008 – political doubt, nations at war, chaotic economy, uncertain future, one thing hasn’t changed.

God has a message for every person in the world –

“whoever believes in GOD will have everlasting life!”

How will the whoevers hear unless believers are willing to move into their hearts and “determine the proper method for converting them to our holy faith”?

Right now, let’s determine to be inspired by today’s man of the hour.

Move beyond your world. Be a Christ Bearer to those across the across the hall, or across town…

Standing with my feet in two places

My husband and I started out this morning on a road trip. We have had our trip planned for many months. We spent our day driving lazily across the Ozarks, crossing two of our nation’s biggest rivers, finally coming to a stop in southern Illinois at the historic Rose Hotel. We are spending the night on the Ohio- I mean several yards from the river front. Our room opens onto a wide veranda from where we have broad vistas of the river – East to West. I plan on getting up to see the sun rise!

I have one regret from the day. I could have planned a very special moment, but I waited until too late.

This is what I wish I had done and I did not.

I had the opportunity to stand with my feet in two rivers! That is right. When we left Missouri behind we climbed up and over the Mississippi traveling on a long expanse of bridge. When it touched ground we were in Illinois. From the road a smaller road traveled down to the river. I could see it, but I had not pre planned it.

In no time our car climbed up and over the Ohio River. Looking back over my shoulder, from my vantage point I saw three states: Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, divided by two rivers – the Ohio and the Mississippi!

I was impressed with myself. Never mind hundreds of other cars were traveling over the same expanse of civil engineering feats.

I was “standing with my feet in two places” In my mind that is!

I wanted to go back, DH said no. He was tired of driving, longing to arrive at our peaceful destination.

Standing with my feet in two places. Can you relate? I want to be here, but I need to go there. Looking back, needing to look forward. Holding on to the past, needing to grab hold of the future.

Today’s experience helped me realize that my moves, be they physical or spiritual cannot be successful if I don’t set my heart and face toward the goal. Too often I don’t want to leave the past behind. I want to stand with my feet in two places. I want it all – living in the yesterdays but anticipating the tomorrows.

So we didn’t stop to stand in two places, we moved on and what a delightful experience awaited us!

Sometimes we have to give up the past so we can fully enjoy the present and the future.

Had we stopped to stand in two places, we would have missed the peaceful end to our day – a most wonderful sunset over the Ohio River, right outside the door of our very own charming bedroom in this delightful Bed and Breakfast – the Rose Hotel.

Tempted to stand with your feet in two places? Let me encourage you – pick up the foot that is keeping you form moving forward and place it in front of your other foot, Keep going…be amazed by God’s plan for your life.

Waiting, sitting on the front step…

My husband and I walk together every day – most of the time!

Right now we are visiting his parents in Little Rock, Arkansas. Our MO is to announce one to the other – “I’ll be ready to walk in a few minutes. Let’s walk early. Let’s walk later.”

Today I announced – “Let’s walk early, I want to get home, wash my hair, and run some errands.”

“OK,” my husband replied. “Do you mind waiting a few minutes? First I am going up into the attic to check on the roof.”

My father-in-law has been waiting to make roof repairs. He won’t tell us what he is waiting for.

While my husband banged his way around in the attic I waited on the front stoop. I took my shoes out the front door and sat down on the step, put on my socks and shoes, and waited. The wait gave me an opportunity to stop.

I have been avoiding spending down time. When I slow down I am forced to think about my heavy waits, those waits that are a burden to me right now: circumstances that threaten to weigh me down, stresses that slither into my mind stealing my joy, reminders that life is hard and feels out of my control…

Mostly I want to keep busy so I don’t have to wander out of my comfy garden and into the wild and dangerous jungle.

But here I was, forced to be still while I waited.

While sitting on the stoop my eyes explored the front flower bed and the world beyond where I reviewed many spiritual lessons:

1- Looking at the weeds that wound their way through the flower bed I wondered, “What weeds have I allowed to choke out my relationship with Jesus, with others?”
2- Observing the hard bald spots in the grass I questioned, “Have I developed a hard heart, protecting myself from becoming too vulnerable, too close to those whose hearts I could touch if I simply slowed down enough to care?”
3- Seeing the many homes around me, I asked forgiveness for not getting to know the people around me, forgiveness for neglecting to pray for those whose lives brush mine on a regular basis.
4- Watching the squirrels dashing here and there with confident purpose as they gathered acorns and planted them, I could relate, “Am I confident in my calling or am I whining about the challenges God has allowed into my life?”
5- Looking up through the branches of the tall pines I wondered, “Am I standing tall and confident in what I believe about the Christian walk? Does my life glorify my Savior? Am I so strongly rooted in Christ that I trust Him no matter the storms that threaten to undo me? ”

“Are you ready?” I heard my husband’s voice.

Normally I don’t like having to wait. Today God gave me an energizing opportunity in the midst of a wait. I had not planned to spend a quiet moment reflecting, but my Father had other plans.

“Sorry I kept you waiting,” I heard my husband apologize.

“Waiting?” I replied. “No problem.”

For once waiting had been a welcome gift. I believe it transformed my day!

God showed up this morning. I remember having read STREAMS in the DESERT last night. Within the reading of September 30 I recalled:

When God places a burden upon you, He places His arms underneath you.

God uses time trials to remind me, He protects me in the midst of life’ difficulties. Winds of insecurity may be blowing, but His arms are strong. If I focus on His truths, He will take care of my uncertainties.

Have you treated yourself to the movie, The End of the Spear?

Talk about a move! Five young men in 1956 risked their lives to introduce an unreached people to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I copied and pasted this review in case you are not familiar with the story:

This amazing story of forgiveness is a deep in the heart of the jungles of Ecuador, along the Amazon River basin, the Waodani Indians are murdering each other to the point of near-extinction. Tribal conflicts (internal and external) have led to a staggering 60 percent mortality rate, and the average Waodani male lives to be just over 30 years old. In response, the Ecuadorian government plans to send in troops to stop the killings and "reclaim" the land, essentially wiping out the Waodani.
It's the early 1950s and Nate Saint, along with four other young American Christian missionaries, sense the urgency of this crisis and set out to befriend the Waodani people. Nate establishes contact with the remote tribe using a revolutionary aeronautical technique that he invents. Flying his small yellow craft in a tight circular pattern, he dangles a bucket on a rope (which centers itself due to centrifugal force), using it to lower gifts. Then, on Jan. 3, 1956, after weeks of what seems to be a progressing relationship (the Waodani have begun to place gifts of their own in the bucket), Nate and his friends, Jim Elliot, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming and Ed McCully, land the plane on a sandbar and make face-to-face contact with the Waodani.

Five days later, their speared and hacked bodies lay in the Curaray River. must see for every Christian family.

A must-read is another story, the tale of a young native girl who grew up in the midst of the violent culture that dictated- kill or be killed. Know someone who died at the end of a spear? = Take revenge at all costs.

I bring this up because I am reading the story of this girl – Dayuma.

She fled the violence of the vicious Waodani when she realized her life would probably be terminated by the end of a spear if she didn’t leave the jungle where constant retributions took place.

Eventually she wound her way into a Spanish plantation where she found work. At the hacienda (farm) she met Rachel Saint, sister to one of the men who was killed by the spears of the Waodani warriors. A friendship began as Rachel painstakenly learned the language of the murderous tribe.
To stand back and observe the mighty hand of God move in order to get His story into the hearts of a remote tribe is an amazing experience!

The first Bible verse we all memorized, John 3:16 teaches us –
God loved the world so much that He sent His only Son so that anyone who would believe in Him would have everlasting life.

God means what He says – He loves everyone in the world – even the remote, non-seen tribesman and woman. He moved into the hearts of 5 missionaries and their families with a call to carry the gospel into the jungle.

We may not always understand God’s calling on our lives. It may seem dangerous or foolhardy to step into circumstances that don’t make sense. We may reason and justify our actions or lack thereof. One thing I do know – God loves us and His will for our salvation extends beyond anything we can ever imagine.

Are you available to God and His plan for some one else’s salvation?
Where is God moving you today to go with His message of love and forgiveness?