Pieces to the Puzzle

My life can be simply summed up as a puzzle. It's one of those puzzles that takes a long time to put together combined with a great deal of patience.
I grew up in Peru, South America as the son of a missionary couple. Learning two languages at the same time. Adjusting to two cultures at the same time. Was it difficult? Not one bit, but I wouldn't know any different. God has seemed, if you will, to give one piece of the puzzle at a time, and this life in Peru was my first piece.
At a young age, while in Peru, Christ came into my heart. I remember very vaguely my father preaching in our church, and I recall kneeling by my parents bed and turning my life over to Christ. I would call this the "corner" puzzle piece. You know, the one that helps everything get started. Simple faith took place here, but amazing grace reached down upon my life. What an awesome piece. The truth is that this piece is a little fuzzy in my memory, but I know that I have placed my faith and trust in the risen Savior. The One that died on the cross for all of my sins.
Pieces kept coming my way as the years went by. I lived in Ohio, Missouri, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and two cities in Peru. All the while God work sovereignly in my life. Often times choices were made without consideration for what God would have. This is when I would take a piece of the puzzle and try to cram it into another piece even though it didn't really fit. The best example for this occurred when I graduated from high school and moved to the U.S. I was so excited to get away from home and just begin to live the "American dream." Oh, and yes the "American dream" can be desired even if living in a 3rd world country. So I took the first career that came my way, auto mechanics.
Auto mechanics became my life for about a year and half. I spent three semesters studying at a tech school, all the while working at a small transmission shop. Finally I gave into the Lord's persistent conviction. I knew He wanted something different for my life, but like I said, I wanted this piece to work. Funny thing is that God has chosen to use this time in my life. The skills I acquired are still being used today and will probably used again in the future.
My search then began for a good Bible college, and the Lord landed me at Northland Baptist Bible College. Well, that piece of my life took four years, but that piece carries with it many weighty lessons. Mom passed away my very first semester. I call this the make or break section. The pieces were fitting, but I didn't like it. I couldn't figure it out. I wanted to see the whole puzzle, but the section wasn't finished. I expected God to do something awesome through a seeming tragedy, but nothing miraculous happened. No one that I know got saved at her funeral. I flew down to Peru for all of three days, buried my mother, and flew straight back to school to continue as if nothing had occurred. During that semester and the following, God gripped my heart and began to squeeze it until I gave in to Him and recognized His timing, control, love, and many more truths. Simply saying thank you to God for this brought me to my knees in tears. I am truly grateful to God because He has used this piece to shape my life and to make Him more real. It was a make or break for me. I would leave or follow Him. I chose to follow.
The last three years of college led me to love the Gospel more than I ever did before. My cousin summed up those four years by saying, "It's amazing how we have learned to love/cherish the Gospel so much more than when we first started." So true!
Today I'm in seminary and preparing to go to the mission field. Who knows where that mission field will be. That piece has yet to come. Maybe I'll never see that piece. Maybe I'm on my last piece, but I know that while I'm still on earth I am to seek to do God's will. I am to seek to find that next piece of the puzzle no matter what situation I'm in.

Romans 12:2 "...that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
Jam 1:3b,5 "for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him."

Everyone has a puzzle to work on! Not all the pieces are easy, but ask Him in faith and He will give you wisdom. Not necessarily answers but wisdom. Just ask!

another one on James

I'll warn you, I'm going to be writing much on the book of James. Partly because I love this book, partly because I'm going through it in my devotions, and partly because I'm taking a Greek book study in James. So it will be no wonder why this book will be on my mind.
Some call this book "The Proverbs of the New Testament." It must have been written by a preacher. James perhaps was just this. If this was the case then it makes sense why it is the book in the New Testament that contains the most commands/imperatives for the believer, and James begins right away giving us a command from verse two. He has the apparent "audacity" to bid suffering believers to count it a joy to suffer. It is at first sight a seeming paradox. How could someone do this? At least I always asked myself this. The answer is simple but easily missed. You see, "God is more concerned with our character than with our comfort, with our transformation than with the trials necessary to get us where he wants us to be," Ware, God's Greater Glory, 173. Each distinct (literally multi-shaded) trial is so designed by God not to bring us suffering but to bring us spiritual gain and "ultimate joy." There is no joy in pain, but there is joy in knowing the purpose of the pain. "We dare not fix our eyes so much on the affliction that we miss its God-designed outcome," Ibid.
As soon as we take our eyes off God's sovereign control on our lives, we begin to focus upon ourselves and our suffering. Thus we miss out on the entire purpose of the trial. It simply produces in us as it says in verses three and four steadfastness, which in turn produces maturity. The problem,trial, difficulty, irritation, call it what you may, is real enough, but it is not reason enough to loose sight of God's sovereign purpose in your life.

"Count it a joy!"