Eternity is Now

Guest blogger: Today’s post is the words from the heart of Andrew Glass, our new Operations Director.

 

To be honest when I was asked to write my testimony down I had a hard time because I feel that nothing I say can truly show you how powerful God is, how He used Africa to show me a calling & how He has changed not just my life & direction but that of my family’s as well.  It’s like trying to tell someone a funny story that happened & finally just saying, “I guess you had to be there.”

 

To give you the full picture let me give you a brief look into my life & where I was before the trip to Africa. Prior to Africa, I was chasing the quintessential American dream, not fulfilled in my job, asking where can I take my career, how much money can I make? I was unfulfilled spiritually, my marriage was just managing to get by at best, & my priority was checking the boxes, not my relationship with Christ. I was making time & trying to fit Him in instead of making Him a priority and seeking a true relationship with Him. The Lord & I were merely acquaintances.

 

But all that changed as I prepared for the trip to Africa & during Africa.  As I prepared for the trip I began to pray diligently for the Lord to meet me, to give me dreams & visions & to show me His true purpose for my life. I knew that I had grown lazy in my spiritual life. I began to seek His face & guidance in not only the preparation for the trip, but for my life. My prayer time grew because I was intentional & so did my daily walk & relationship with my Lord.

 

During the trip it was like a breath of fresh air to be around like minded people who had similar desires as we continued to seek Him, His will, & His help as we dealt with spiritual warfare. I began to seek the Holy Spirit & began to see Him move in ways I hadn’t even imagined. His presence was with us daily. Operating in the presence of the Lord is why we were created. Time does not carry weight in the Lord’s presence because we do not worry. Energy levels were always high. This presence was the only thing that mattered, and by operating in His presence we are able to glorify the Lord.

 

As I sat in church with the people of Ghana I watched & participated in worship while they danced & sang joyfully to the Lord, God broke my heart as I wept for the lost.  Eight or nine people gave their heart over to the Lord in a service that we were able to attend; there hadn’t been a regular service in this village in months. We were able to pray over them and eventually give the new believers Bibles translated into their local dialect. Also, later on in the week we gathered the villagers together, prayed and danced around the school in a dedication ceremony, handed out donated clothes to people and eventually distributed food that we had taken up a collection of our own money for. Being rushed by people for a bowl of rice, a can of sardines, a can of tomato paste, and a loaf of bread EQUALS a life changing experience.

I was challenged to do more. I wanted to share Jesus Christ more & to care for people & serve more. I knew if they experienced His presence, too, that they would see that having a relationship with Him is the main thing.

 

Since returning from Africa I have been striving to seek the Lord daily & to take my prayer life to a priority; to a level of conversation. Why was I content only praying when I needed something before? It seems a simple understanding that as Christians, we would seek to know the Lord’s face. Somehow, in this American life we have managed to complicate everything. There is much to be said in the Bible about keeping our focus singular and simple. Focus on knowing God. Who he is. Having a relationship with our Father. Looking back at the trip, I can see why God was so evident to us; because we sought him daily, our Focus was on serving Him. Our thoughts were on his presence, His Will, and glorifying him with all of our actions.

 

I have seen a change in my marriage to a more unified, God glorifying marriage. I can look back and see God weaving our desires & directions together.  After sharing with my wife the Goodness of the Lord and the Realness of his presence, the power of the Holy Spirt, she too wanted to know him more. My wife prayed to be filled with the Holy Spirit & has begun to seek God as never before. It’s amazingly clear to me now how important our relationship with the Lord is to our lives. Do we truly seek him daily? Is He our priority? We would all answer a questionnaire of what our priorities are in our life by listing God first, our wives second, families third, and so on…….but when we reality checked ourselves, we knew that wasn’t true.

 

As I sought God on the plane during our return trip, He spoke to me about releasing my security blankets. Where was I really putting my trust? In my job?  In my income? In my 401K?  In my mutual funds? I couldn’t help but cry out to the Lord for Him to use me to His fullest extent, use my life for his will and to allow me to see his face forever and always.

 

We prayed for God to reveal His will for our lives as I knew He was calling me to do more & feel He is calling me to a full time position working with Feeding the Orphans. I have stepped up my leadership for my family and turned off the TV.  I am having more focused conversations, praying together, and eating dinner together as a family.

 

I want to share some final thoughts with you:

I went to Africa looking at what I could gain backwards. Telling myself that I hoped through my service that I would meet God there and become closer to Him in relationship. While that happened, it is only because of God’s Grace and answered prayers. But I believe the following quote is the correct Biblical principal-

“We have to let the service be the consequence of our communion with God, instead of hoping that Communion will be the consequence of our service.”

What is the moral of my testimony? If you need a good cry, go on a mission trip? NO.

 

It’s simply this: ETERNITY IS NOW.

So I want to challenge you to do something! If you truly believe that your ticket has been punched to spend eternity with God in heaven then why are you not doing more to lend yourself to His service now?

Faith without works is dead.

 

Join us in welcoming Andrew Glass as FTO’s new Operations Director.  He and his wife, Amy, have answered the call of the Lord for him to leave his corporate job and volunteer full-time with FTO.