I’ve been on a reading kick lately. Actually, I’ve been on a reading kick since I graduated from college. I used to think I hated reading, but then I just realized I hate reading assigned books and articles. Who knew?
Coming back from Ethiopia and feeling more passionate than ever about caring for “the least of these”, I went on a shopping spree on Amazon (thanks to a gift card I received this Christmas) and have just ordered three new books:
The Hospital By The River: A Story of Hope
by Dr. Catherine Hamlin
Too Small to Ignore: Why the Least of These Matter Most
by Dr. Wess Stafford (President & CEO of Compassion International) with Dean Merrill
It’s Not Okay With Me
by Janine Maxwell
Have any of you read these books? What are your thoughts?
I desire to know more, both about the issues in the world and those who have given their lives to caring for “the least of these”. God is stirring a lot of things up in me, I don’t know where they’ll lead or how He’ll use them, but I’m trusting Him with whatever comes!
My friend Kathryn sent me an email yesterday and in it she said, “He gives us big dreams for a reason!” I love that. Let’s use our dreams to bring glory to Jesus, to share the gospel with those who are broken and to care for His people!
I was reading Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper as I was on the subway this morning, and this prayer really resonated with me. May it be the cry of our hearts!
O Lord, the suffering in the world is so widespread and the pain is so great! Have mercy, and waken the souls of suffering millions to the hope of some relief now and unsurpassed joy in the age to come. Send your church, O God, with relief and with the word of the Gospel that there is forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ and that no suffering here is worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed to the children of God. Protect your church, Father, from callous thoughts about calamities that leave millions destitute, and protect her also from cowing to critics, like Job’s wife, who cannot trust the wisdom and power and goodness of Christ in the midst of inexplicable misery. Oh, help our unbelief. Incline our hearts to your Word and to its assurances that you “work all things according to the counsel of your will” and that “no purpose of yours can be thwarted” and that you are doing good and acting wisely in ways that we cannot now even dream. Keep us in peace, O Lord, and forbid that we murmur and complain. Grant us humble and submissive hearts under your mighty hand. Teach us to wait and watch for your final and holy purposes in all things. Grant that we would “rejoice in hope” even when present circumstances bring us to tears. Open the eyes of our hearts to see the greatness of our inheritance in Christ, and send us with tender hands to touch with mercy the miseries of the world. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
-from Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper (pages 48-49)
Taste & See 