A Message from the President from the latest FTN Journal:
What do you do when calamity strikes?
What if you lived in China and experienced the earthquake and everything you worked for was gone? Or, maybe you were a resident of Myanmar (Burma) and it was your nation that flooded? It is run by the military which represses religion and common freedoms. You cannot be deaf to the cries of your own countrymen, but what can you do?
There could be something in your life not as big as these catastrophes, but it's still significant to you. You need to ask yourself, how will you react when disaster strikes?
1. The first thing we should all do is to look up because we know that the Bible says all good things come from above. Never lose your hope in God. The loss of property or the loss of friendships or even the loss of life is happening around the world, but you have to know and believe that God is the giver of all things that are good and He is the giver of life (John 3:16).
2. You need to find scripture that can be your foundation stones, in other words, something that you can hang your hat on. When some people go through tragedy, they run from God and His Word. But I have found in our lives, instead of running from God, you need to run to Him. There you receive the comfort of the Holy Spirit, the grace and mercy in time of trouble, and inner strength that cannot be manufactured by an outside intellectual force or physical strength that you might possess. You can receive strength that comes from the eternal words of God.
3. You have to be so careful about what you say about God. The Bible tells us in Proverbs that the power of life and death is in your tongue (Proverbs 18:21). The Bible tells us in Matthew 18:18,19 that our words can be life words. Make your confession sure. You can speak to mountains of unbelief or fear and they have to go. That is the authority that we have as believers. You are not denying reality by quoting the Word of God to yourself. We know that the Words of life, the Words of God, will come to pass in your life.
4. You need to start working. You don't sit down and twiddle your thumbs and wish something would happen (Proverbs 6:10). You need to make something happen because you are doing something. We are the hands, eyes and feet of Jesus on this planet. The Bible tells us that He will bless the work of our hands. The first pastor in Jerusalem, James, tells us very clearly in James 2:17,18 that "I will show you my faith by my works." James went on to say that faith without works is dead.
So, when tragedy strikes you need to look up, find scripture to stand upon, out of your spirit confess the Word of God and get to work! This is how we live with Feeding The Nations. Because of food, the gospel is able to be given. We confess and pray the Word of God over the food that we send around the world. We bless the believers who labor in the field handing out the food, work in communities, and spend long hours with hurting backs and tired feet. Thanks to the power of God, they are able to show Jesus in a tangible way and are extremely satisfied to have helped at least one person that day.
You must ask yourself what your role is in this. We need your help to be the hands and feet of Jesus to this generation. What will you do? Calamity has struck and now you must decide.
Steve Sumrall
President