Brian and Cathy Gray Bible study

Prophetic Joy

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1Pet 1:8-9

Peter is writing in the context of his previous exhortation to endure trials that test the genuineness of our faith. “Tested Faith is genuine faith”. Tested faith is evidence of belief apart from which we can not be saved. Mark 16:16 Some of our most profound experiences with joy arise after we endure the testing of our faith and we behold more clearly and fully that we truly are IN HIM. Eph 2:1-7. It is a clear and present joy that verifies,

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Cor 5:17

The joy of encountering the manifest presence of God on the proverbial mount of transfiguration during worship and other encounters is an important part of the Christian walk. Mat 17 The joy of passing the test in the valley is another. God reveals Himself on the mountaintop and we rejoice. Meanwhile, our character is revealed in the valley. Character produces hope. Rom 5:1-11

“…joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,” is chará – cheerfulness, calm delight:–gladness, fulness of joy.

In my mind “calm delight” implies a deep fearless, assurance of His salvation that is rooted and grounded in His love despite circumstances. Eph 3:17. This is the eternal perspective that sets our minds on things about not below. Col 3:1-4

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. 1 Pet 1:10-12

The Old Testament Maranatha prophecies about Jesus are so very clear in retrospect.

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14

Maranatha 1 Cor 16:22 is usually translated as “Come Lord Jesus”. Yet Maranatha is an Aramaic word with a twofold meaning.

Jesus has come. Jesus is coming.

We walk in joy each day that is rooted in assurance. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, Eph 1:13 This is the first Maranatha, the fulfilled gospel of salvation about which the prophets searched and inquired carefully.

The second part is prophetic and refers to the fulfillment of the Gospel of the Kingdom. …the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. Eph 1:14

We spoke a lot about our full inheritance when we studied the book of Ephesians. As good as the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit is in our lives is now, it is a downpayment- a taste of what is to come when the second half of Maranatha is fulfilled.

Still, I wonder what went through the mind of Isaiah as he wrote the script for the first part of Maranatha 700 years before it took place. Isaiah 53 Did David know he was quoting Jesus nearly 2500 years before He was crucified?

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? Psalm 22:1

There are at least 350 prophetic references to Jesus in the Old Testament that connect perfectly now that we have the whole canon of scripture. We can rest in the assurance that the Gospel of the Kingdom will be fulfilled because we now see the intricacy of the fulfilled promise of the Gospel of Salvation.

But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. Mat 13:16-17

1 Peter is framed in the context of our faith being tested and found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Pet 1:7 As I said there is a unique experience of joy that attends our passing the test in the valley. Similarly the joy we experience in the valley here is but a taste of the joy that is to come when our tested and genuine faith is found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Let’s face it. Most of life is lived apart from the mountaintop experiences that so many covet and roam from conference to conference in search of the Shekinah Glory. However, there are times when we may feel we are drowning in grief and suffering. We may wonder if God has abandoned us. We can take comfort in the fact that even Jesus had the experience of feeling abandoned by the Father. He wasn’t of course. It is for this reason that Paul instructed us to …rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and be constant in prayer. Rom 12:12 We rejoice in hope while waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Titus 2:13, Mat 24:29-31.

We rejoice in the reality that Jesus has come and experience joy because He is here directing our paths. Prov 3:5-8. We also rejoice in the fact that Jesus is coming...for the he Joy of the Lord is our strength. Neh 8:10 The prophetic nature of Maranatha joy is even more poignant if you understand the eschatological significance of the Feast of Booths. And while many do their best to imagine streets paved with gold and eternal life devoid of pain and tears, what lies ahead is beyond our wildest dreams.

This is the seed of prophetic joy.

Maranatha

Brian and Cathy Gray Honduras Continues

Que Rompe Tu Corazon?

– What Breaks Your Heart? –

One of the most frequent questions we are asked by visitors is,

“What is it like to be a missionary?”

To be a missionary is to pursue brokenness. It is first and foremost about love. Love in the context of a relationship with God and with each other. Everything we do is rooted in intimacy with Him and each other in Him. The greater the intimacy the greater our recognition of our dependence. Dependence on God is a to key success on the mission field. It is the understanding that apart from relationship, the words “love” and “God” are meaningless.

Sometimes the gospel is more effectively preached with a smile, a hug or a small act of kindness that leaves people with questions rather than answers to questions they never asked.

Being a missionary means understanding that preaching a sermon and cleaning a toilet might be one in the same.

Being a missionary means having set schedules that rarely pan out because like everyone else, missionaries are gifted and dysfunctional. It is understanding that the patience spoken of in James 1:4 is an end and not just a means.

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Some days begin at 3 AM in the back of a pick-up truck on a muddy road in the rain and end at 10pm in the same. Others might start at 10 and end at 3. Sometimes we are hot, hungry thirsty and sick. Sometimes we are cool, relaxed and full of energy. Sometimes we have electricity and water. Sometimes we don’t. The periodic absence of first world comforts begets a greater sense of gratitude for the little comforts we once took for granted.

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Being a missionary means not punching a time clock

or looking for one to punch.

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It means not coveting Friday and a bigger paycheck. It means not working for the next vacation or retirement. It means not being afraid of being late or failing to perform. It means not being distracted by materialism, the latest styles or trends or the busyness of first world life. It means not being consumed by sports, politics and sewer-stream news.

It means keeping the eternal end in mind.

It is freedom from fear of suffering and the death that no one escapes.

Being a missionary means being willing to live in the desert, proverbial and literal rather than paradise.

Being a missionary means more than being a humanitarian.

It means honoring an old man or shaking a hand dripping with slime at the dump knowing that you can wash your hands, but he can’t and may die because of it.

It means traveling for an entire day to hug a suffering child.

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It means paying attention to the little things, those who don’t matter to the world.

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It means understanding the words of Mother Teresa,

“the most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.”

That these words apply to eternity.

That eternity apart from God is the quintessence of loneliness.

We can tell people ad infinitum that Jesus loves them, put on our best Jesus smile and our best Jesus act in hopes that they will see Jesus in us and raise their hand at an alter call.

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We can pat ourselves and each other on the back in celebration of decisions for Jesus on a given day.

But at the end of the day it’s about us seeing Jesus in them, “in the least of these” in the ONE in front of us.

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It means staying in touch with what breaks God’s heart.

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There is a reason that it is written twenty-three times in the New Testament that Jesus had compassion. Compassion (literally to suffer with) is the door to God’s heart. Knowing what breaks His heart is the key to intimacy with Him. Intimacy with Him is the path to joy in Him. Being a missionary is about joy. It is the freedom to follow the call of God we received as a fruit of our relationship with Him. It is a freedom that comes with the knowledge and understanding that if we delight ourselves in Him he will give us the desires of our Heart, of His heart. He has.

To be a missionary means to be fully human.

To be human is to be paradoxical.

The blessing is in the brokenness.

Que Rompe Tu Corazon?

Brian and Cathy Gray Africa Bound

      Africa Bound

Well it’s been a long time coming but it should come as no surprise to those who know us well that we are giving all to become full time missionaries.  

Granted we’ve been short term missionaries in Honduras since 2008, however this different. 

We have also run a faith based transitional home and lived with furloughed inmates since 2005 which probably seems crazy enough to most, however we’ve always had financial security, and a place to lay our heads in a paradise that most people only dream of visiting.  In a word we have lived the proverbial American dream.  

Giving everything up now in hopes of serving the poorest of the poor in the most impoverished and worn torn corners of the world might sound like foolishness to some.  However this has been our dream since before we were married.  In fact we have both known since we were children that we were made for this day.

As Christians we are called to live and walk by faith.  There’s really nothing in the bible that even hints that we should play it safe.  In fact Jesus gave us the formula for success.  Those who will lose their lives for His sake will gain true life. And so we are going.  We are going with a goal of loving the lost and unloved in hopes of one day becoming love ourselves.  This is our theory.  This our plan.  To be perfectly honest we don’t really know what that looks like or even means at this point.  We are simply stepping out with child like faith, knowing only that we know nothing especially in terms of what lies ahead.  We are only certain that God has called us to a deeper place, a place of knowing Him more, a place of acquaintance with His sorrows and with those sorrows, an unspeakable joy that we know will be our inheritance if we remain obedient to His call. 

We will be departing Kauai to attend the IRIS Global Harvest School of Missions in Pemba Mozambique on Oct 4th.  This is a turning point and not just an event.  God willing we will eventually be in places like South Sudan, Honduras and wherever the Lord calls us from here on out. 

Follow us here if you’d like periodic updates as we journey deeper into the heart of God and endeavor to love Him by loving His children here on earth.