"Holding the Rope" (Panama - June 8, 2003)

Thank you for “holding the rope” for us this week while we’re in Panama. We arrived late Friday night with our team of 28 North Americans. On Saturday we had our orientation for both our North American and Panamanian teams. We are working with 8 different mother churches here who desire to plant another 10-12 churches this week.

Last night after orientation we had an opportunity to go down to the beach (Pacific Ocean) which is only a 5 minute walk from the campground that we are staying at. We had an awesome time of worshipping our Heavenly Father there. As I looked up into the night sky at the millions of stars I was reminded of the Rich Mullins song “Sometimes by Step” - “Sometimes I think of Abraham; how one star he saw had been lit for me.” What an incredible thought! When God told Abraham to look into the heavens and realize that his descendants would outnumber the stars (Genesis 15:5-6), one of those stars that he saw represented ME! And one of them represented YOU as well. As I gazed up at the night sky I realized that although Abraham lived some 4-5 thousand years ago, God’s promise remains and you and I have inherited that promise because we are descendents of Abraham; not by race, but by faith. “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations . . .” (Romans 4:18). And so the promise remains – and that promise is why I am here in Panama – and that promise is why you are partnering with us through prayer. God has told us to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20) and as sure as the stars are set in the heavens – the stars that our team looked up in wonder at last night – the same stars that you will see if you take the time to look up tonight – those stars have been set there as a reminder for us to trust God for spiritual descendants. Against all hope Abram believed and became our father – and against all hope I’m going to believe that God uses this week to bring many into glory! Will you believe with me? “By faith, Abram . . . was able to become a father because he considered Him faithful who made the promise. And so, from this one man . . . came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.” (Hebrews 11:12)

Holy Father, we consider you faithful. You have made a promise to bring forth spiritual descendants through us and for that we are grateful. Direct us to those here in Panama for whom You lit a star in the evening sky. And multiply the work here so that believers become as numerous as these grains of sand on this seashore. Thank you for choosing to use me. And thank you for choosing to use the ones who are reading this message. Lord, we believe!