oswald chambers thoughts

"Paul's idea of service was to pour his life out to the last drop for others. And whether he received praise or blame made no difference. As long as there was one human being who did not know Jesus, Paul felt a debt of service to that person until he did come to know Him. But the chief motivation behind Paul's service was not love for others but love for his Lord. If our devotion is to the cause of humanity, we will be quickly defeated and broken-hearted, since we will often be confronted with a great deal of ingratitude from other people. But if we are motivated by our love for God, no ammount of ingrattude will be able to hinder us from serving one another." - devotional from February 23

The battle has seemed fierce lately. I can know in my head that the battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces in this dark world.... (paraphrased Eph. 6:12), but it can be hard for me to remember if I don't see the "crisis". I think maybe my focus has not been Christ but people. Funny, isn't it? I can be "ready" for the physical crisis that takes place here, but the spiritual battle can catch me off guard and quickly deplete what earthly energy I can muster.

These last few days I have been able to get away and spend time with Jesus and it has been so rich, allowing Him to fill me and allowing Him to minister in a way that was and is meant to be. These two pictures I have today are of a couple of places here in Jos that I have been able to find to be peaceful and no distractions (for the most part anyway). One is of a picnic table at the kid's school. I frequently can be found here after taking the kids to their school and then taking a moment to myself. The picture of the table and chairs is at a local bakery that has outside seating. The workers at this local establishment are so nice to me and I am grateful for their Coca-Light and quaint setting (all relative).