Abounding in Hope 9-5-05

Good morning, Lord Jesus. You are the personification of the Father heart of God. You and our Father are One, and You come to dwell in our hearts by Your Holy Spirit, bringing the fullness of hope and joy and peace in our lives by the power of Your love. ... "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15.13). You are the God of hope. We saw the hope that brings joy and peace through believing in You in the eyes and faces of the people and heard it in the songs of the children as we worshiped You in tiny villages of India yesterday. Though in the world's eyes, they had nothing, in their hearts they had everything. How humbling. How beautiful. How inspiring to see the power of lives changed by the love of God in Jesus Christ. By the power of the Holy Spirit filling their souls and praising Your name, they were literally abounding in hope. Hope is contagious. We went from village to village with Your servant Ghuna Kumar to pray with and encourage his pastors and evangelists and the people of these humble village churches where Your light was shining in the midst of the darkness, where Your hope sprang up like a fountains of living water in the hearts of the believers. Their songs of praise and prayers from the heart were like a fresh streams in the drought of a desert. Four years ago, they had never heard of Jesus Christ, but one soul at time, they had come to believe and come to receive of the living waters of hope. Their tiny huts and buildings can't hold them and their neighbors who don't yet believe can't silence them. This is the power of the Holy Spirit, this is the power of abounding hope in Jesus Christ. You sent us here on one mission to join with Christian lawyers of this nation to set captives free from the oppression of bonded slavery. Yet You've been on a mission to put a love for these people in our hearts. Though the people of one of these villages had never seen a white person until we joined our hearts with theirs in prayer, they embraced us as their brothers in Christ. And we embraced them as one family in one Spirit in the Lord. Continue to fill them, as You have filled us, with all joy and peace in believing. Let us forever abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Freinds, please join us in prayer for the people of these villages being touched the Love of God through the ministry of Ghuna Kumar and Gospel Friends. The Lord sends them only to the villages where the gospel has never been preached. They build the churches slowly through relationships one soul at a time, shepherding the people and embracing them as family through tall the persecution and hardships they endure in a nation of extreme persecution of Christians. We are to judge a tree by its fruit and the fruit of this ministry is amazing to see on the front lines of the spiriutal battle for the hearts and souls of those who have lost hope. If you would be interested in knowing more about the ministry of Gospel Friends, please send a note to my friend Ghuna at GhunaKumar@yahoo.com Please continue to pray for Gerry Calvert and me as we join with International Justice Mission (www.ijm.org) this morning to begin our mission with them this week. The Lord has already blessed us beyond belief, and we pray He will use us to be a blessing to others. We are also continuing to pray to the God of Hope for those in America who suffering such destruction. To subscribe/unsubscribe, please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord." Our address for ministry and contributions: 2800 Tates Creek Rd.; Lexington, Kentucky 40502. Come to The Fountain the 3rd Saturday night of every month. Daily archives: www.morningbymorning.blogspot.com andwww.morningbymorning.injesus.com