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Archives: July Joy Report
Posted Jul 01, 2010 - 12:00 AM
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 | Another Bible story involving King David, the man after God's own heart, helps us learn an amazing truth this month about the thrill of partnership!
July 2010
Dear Partners for Souls:
I want to share with you a message that the Lord has laid on my heart specifically for our ministry partners, and it comes from an Old Testament story found in 1 Samuel 30. David and a detachment of 600 soldiers arrived home after a long and tiresome journey throughout Philistia as they attacked and conquered the Philistines. While they were gone, however, the Amalekites had captured their wives and children and all of their belongings, and David and his men were devastated (verses 4-6). David sought the Lord on what to do and the Lord told him to pursue the Amalekites with the assurance that the Lord would give David the victory. David informed his mourning men of the plan and it seemed good to all of them (verses 7-8). The only problem was that 200 of the 600 men were too exhausted from the journey that they could not go with David and the other 400 men, so instead they stayed back at the camp and guarded the remaining supplies. David and his 400 men ended up conquering the Philistines and recovering all of the people and possessions that had been stolen from them (verses 18-20). When they returned to the other 200 men who had stayed behind, some of the 400 men became proud and selfish saying, “Because they did not go out with us, we will not share with them the plunder we recovered.” And then David replied, “No, my brothers, you must not do that with what the Lord has given us…The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike.” (verses 22-24)
This story demonstrates beautifully the relationship that we have with you, our faithful partners. We understand that not everyone is called to be a full-time evangelist; not everyone is supposed to go out on the battlefield as their full-time calling, and yet that does not mean that those who stay back with the supplies are any less vital or important to the evangelistic ministry. If all of you were out on the mission field full-time, then we would have no financial support to allow us to go and do the ministry that God has called us to do! But the good news is that we both share in the same harvest reaping the same rewards!
Romans 10:14-15 reiterates this truth when Paul asks these four rhetorical questions: “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?” We live in a world that must have the gospel preached to them in order to believe, but they can only believe if those who are staying back with the supplies are sending out those who are fighting on the front lines. Each part is vitally important; each cannot be done without the other; and each receives the same reward because “the share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike.”
And that’s you! Thanks for standing with us the way that you do. Heaven will be filled with multitudes of people eternally thankful to you for partnering with our front-line evangelism. Have some great fun in the sun with Jesus this month!
For the Lost,
Joshua Wagner
All donations made to WAGNER MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law in the United States and Canada
Note: --Evangelist Joshua Wagner, July 2010 |
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