Counting the Cost in India 11-3-08

Good morning, Lord Jesus. It's good to be home from my journey. And it's good to know You are always at home in my heart on my journey with You. ... "Whoever does not carry the cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? ... Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? ... So therefore, none of you can become My disciple if you do not give up all your possessions" (Luke 14:27-23). I've spent most the past two weeks in south India with my good friend and faithful disciple of Jesus Christ, Ghuna Kumar of Gospel Friends ministry. With all of his gifts of wisdom, passion, leadership, and energy, he could be a wealthy man, overseeing his own kingdom in any culture. But his heart burns with a passion for You and Your kingdom. He has humbly and faithfully counted the cost and surrendered his all to use every gift You've given him to spend all his energy and pour out his life for the poor, the downtrodden, the hopeless, and forgotten, to bind up the brokenhearted and set the oppressed free in the power of Your name and Your love. Through this ministry You've entrusted to him, they send out evangelists to the villages and regions that have never heard the good news of Your gospel, establishing houses of prayer that become churches and shelters of refuge, life, and hope. They gather the outcasts and the orphans and bring them to Living Hope, where they learn they are loved, learn practical skills to live productive lives, and learn the Word of God and the One who is their Living Hope. They teach students in the Bible College who are now coming from remote areas of India to teach and preach and pray as they return with the passion You impart and fan into flame in this army of the kingdom You are raising up. I was so humbled and honored that You would allow me to come alongside them to help encourage them and pray for them, and that You allowed them to encourage and pray for me. You've given me a great gift to have a small share in the glorious work You are doing through these faithful disciples in this distant land. As our team from Fishhook International met with many of Ghuna's pastors and evangelists who spread the gospel through the seven hundred and fifty churches they've established in places that had never heard Your name before, we were amazed to see all You are doing and all the lives You are changing in this land. We heard stories of incredible faith in the face of fierce persecution, of Your faithful disciples literally willing to lay their lives down for You and Your gospel. We heard story after story of how You have used Your miracles of Your power and the miracles of sacrificial love to lead people to Christ despite the grave cost of being cast out of their villages and rejected by their own families. Yet the light of Christ in their eyes and the joy of the Lord in their hearts is so clearly worth every cost they've been willing to pay for the deep peace that now fills their souls. Thank You for letting me see this and be a small part of this. Thank You for letting me see an altar filled with souls who heard and responded to the message of Your salvation in our outdoor meeting one night. Thank You for letting me minister Your healing love and deliverance in the power of Your name, as You filled Your disciples afresh with Your Holy Spirit and encouraged them in their calling and gifting in Christ. Thank You for letting me bow on my knees and stand in faith with Ghuna and his Bible students from the southernmost tip of India one morning to stretch out our hands and pray for revival fire to burn north throughout this land as we proclaimed India for Jesus. Thank You for letting me see the joy in the little faces of the children who were once rejected, abandoned, and without hope until You brought them to this place of Living Hope. And thank You for inspiring me through these faithful lives to keep giving You all I have and keep carrying the cross of the calling You've given me to fulfill my part for the glory of Your name and Your kingdom. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, thank you! for all your prayers for us on this journey and the lives that were touched and changed, including our own. I couldn't do begin to do this kind of ministry without you! And you share with me in it in every way as you join with me in prayer! Please continue to pray for Ghuna Kumar and the ministry of Gospel Friends. Please prayerfully consider sponsoring a child in their orphanage, a Bible student, a pastor or evangelist, or other way as the Lord leads to support this ministry of such integrity and passion, bearing such tremendous fruit for the kingdom of God in India: http://www.fishhook.org/ghuna/gospelfriends Please continue to pray for the persecuted church in India, where it's estimated at least 40,000 Christians are remain in hiding in the jungles in the Orissa region, where Ghuna Kumar also has ministry workers and Christian families. Pray for their faith to stay strong in the face of threats and torture to renounce their faith. God bless you! Subscribe free by email to Messiah Ministries -- MessiahMin@aol.com Please Click Here to Order our Ministry Resources On-Line -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" www.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY 40502