My dear friend,
You (and many others that are reading this post) understand how that I am afflicted with a debilitating gastrointestinal disorder. There have been a few times over the course of this last year where I was completely convinced that I was only days away from a full deliverance from my affliction. Alas, in each case, I was not able to get past the threshold. Therefore, even as I write this, I am still suffering from my disorder. Perhaps you assumed that I must have found a cure to my problem, since I am now publicly telling world that God has called me out to circumnavigate the Earth. Yet, this is not so. God truly has called me out to do the impossible.
When I first accepted Jesus as my savior, I was still young and full of spit. Moreover, I did not know much about the Word of God. I certainly did not understand what it was to live by the law of faith. To the casual observer, I was every bit as heathen as any other twenty-year-old living a life of sin, apart from God. I have always been a hard worker, but apart from that, the only other thing I knew, in life, was how to party … and party I did! Therefore, in my folly God blessed me with this gastrointestinal disorder. I say that with all reverence; because, it was a genuine blessing. Had it not been for my affliction, I would have continued partying my life away into oblivion.
Over the course of the next twenty years, God used that affliction to cure me of an exceedingly more sinful and vile disease. In His infinite mercy, He reversed the behaviors of a hellbent sinner and blessed me with a heart of tender care and compassion. Thus, it is only fitting that the man that I once was, in years past, is now the man that I am accused of being, even still. As my favorite Bible teacher Dr. McGee is known to say, “Chickens come home to roost.” It is a reproach that I bear willingly, for by the mercy of God I still live. It is better that I live in reproach and in the pain of affliction, than to not live.
“4For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. 6Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished …”
Ecclesiastes 9:4-6 KJV
You may be wondering, “Dale, if God used your affliction to cure you of your seditious affinities, then why do you still have your affliction several years after the fact?” The answer is that He has been using my affliction to help me grow in many different ways. Lastly, he has reserved it for this very day. In essence, it has all been to help me prepare and to bring about the preparation for the present cause. All the reasons are too numerous to list. The only reason we need to be concerned about is the present: confirmation.
The point is that I am not worthy. God took an arrogant young man that was rebellious, disrespectful, injurious, lustful, covetous, stubborn, mischievous, boastful, unstable, deceitful, reckless, irresponsible, and a heartbreaker … loveless! … God took such a man, and He gave Him a new heart … a heart full of compassion and love. Yet for all of that, I am still a sinner! I am lowly and vile in the sight of the world, and as I just admitted, I am diseased. I have absolutely no power in myself, whatsoever! I find that if I take my eyes off of Jesus for one brief moment, my old sinful nature will immediately begin to devise some kind of evil and ungodly device. It seems like it only takes about five seconds for my mind to descend all the way to pit of hell when I let myself step away from God.
I do not understand why, but for some reason there is a broad belief that when a person becomes a Christian that they are no longer supposed to be a sinner. In fact, there are no shortage of Christians (or people that think they are Christians) that actually believe that they are no longer subjected to man’s natural inclination to sin. This simply is not so, neither does the Bible teach such a doctrine. Until Jesus Christ comes to take His church out of the world, even Spirit-filled Christians are subject to sin. Yet, by the power of the Holy Spirit of God living within those of us that believe in Jesus, we are no longer in bondage to sin. We do fall to sin more than we would like to admit, but we do not dwell in sin.
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
1st John 3:2 KJV
“I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”
Romans 7:25 KJV
You see then that I am, in nowise, an able or worthy candidate to serve God in this capacity. I am not physically capable to set out on a conquest more than 10 miles from my own house, let alone to the ends of the Earth. More importantly, I am a man of uncircumcised lips, neither am I pure of heart. All praise be to God that it is just such a shepherd boy that God has used in times past to lead His sheep through the most difficult and important chapters of His plan and purpose.
“And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.”
Exodus 4:10-12 KJV
“Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel”
2nd Samuel 7:8 KJV
David tells us in Psalm 51:5, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Even so, God washed David of his sin and He mightily used David to rule His chosen people in righteousness.
For months I kept thinking that God needed to heal me of this affliction before I could be used by Him for most any purpose, and especially for circumnavigating the Earth. What I did not realize is that God would not have received the glory for my deliverance. Hence, the reason why I still have this affliction is three-fold: The first is so that He can be glorified in my rescue. Secondly, it stops the mouths of unbelievers. There is no shortage of self-professing Christians that do not believe that I will ever be free of this disease. Finally, it serves as confirmation.
There are numerous Spirit-filled Christians that are reading these posts and they are thinking that I am out in left field. They know that I am a true Christian, by my confession. However, they think that I have been deceiving myself or that I have been listening to ungodly spirits. Who in their right mind would think that they have been called by God to embark on such an insanely suicidal errand?
This then is the test. If God does not deliver me from this affliction, then He is not the one that put it into my mind and heart to take on this errand, and I am utterly lost in confusion and self-deception. However, if God does deliver me, then He is glorified! Jesus is glorified! The scoffers’ mouths are stopped, and God is showing His confirmation that He really does have a plan for me to circumnavigate the Earth! Most of all, He shows us His great love! He illustrates His love for me, and He is showing to the whole world that He loves you!
Love Always,
Dale 😊
Your comments and questions are welcome, even the critical ones. You can submit comments without specifying an email address (despite the fact that it indicates that an email is required). If you do, I ask that you use a fairly anonymous (benign) username. However, if there is something amiss with your anonymously submitted comment, I will not have any way of telling you what is wrong.
