Jeffrey Bush – Page 77 – Missions Tips

13 March, 2020

Practical Ministry Lesson #2

Defending with Meekness

This lesson comes from one too many times sticking my foot in my mouth.

I am very thankful for what God has taught me through His Word, godly men and personal experiences. When I began college, I realized that I could not defend many Biblical doctrines and began to study deeper and find out what the Bible truly says. Although I am continually learning, I praise the Lord that I now have my own convictions based on God’s Word.

It is important that a missionary, or any Christian worker, knows what he believes and why he believes it. It is important to take a firm stand and have convictions. But I am learning a very big lesson in my little experience as a servant in the Lord’s work … I must not only teach and defend what the Bible says, but I must do it with meekness.

I Peter 3:15 says: “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear”

I praise the Lord that I have the privilege to teach and preach the Word of God – but I believe the Word of God must be presented correctly. If I speak pridefully, boastfully, harshly or looking down on those I am speaking to, I am doing a great harm to the cause of Christ. In other words, a great Bible truth can be ignored by the hearers if I incorrectly present the great truth.

Meekness, which is quiet, gentle and submissive, is exactly the opposite of what I many times do when I want to present or defend the great truth of God’s Word. It hurts me to admit this, but I have offended people more than once because I did not control the situation with meekness. Of course I don’t want to “water down” the Gospel or “coward” away from what the Bible says, but standing for the truth is no excuse for boastfully offending people.

May God give us all a love in our heart and attitudes that when we present or defend a great truth, we will do so with meekness. May we love people like our Father loves people. May we learn to be patient with people as our Father is patient with us. May we learn to respond to doubts or accept criticism as our Father teaches us to. Our Savior did not coward away from the soldiers when they came to arrest Him, rather He showed meekness. He did not get scared when He was falsely accused, rather He sat in silence saying nothing and showing meekness. He did not lose His temper when His disciples did not learn the lessons He so clearly and consistently taught them, rather He manifested meekness.

Here to Serve,

Jeff Bush
Argentina

13 March, 2020

Practical Ministry Lesson #1

In the next few blogs, I will be writing a few “Practical Ministry Lessons” that are very helpful for missionaries, but also of up-most importance for anyone in the Lord’s service. Although this series of blogs are simple and practical, I can almost promise that anyone in the ministry will face them sooner or later. The first “Practical Ministry Lesson” I would like to share is about “Handling Criticism”

I don’t write this as someone who has perfected this area, but hoping to help others handle and face the criticism with more grace.

For years, I have taken very personal any criticism (whether from other missionaries, from friends, from church people or coworkers) and I have taken it so personal that it has affected my health. One of my Biblical heroes is Barnabus and how he comforted, encouraged, uplifted and took others to another level. It is my goal to help, encourage, love and teach others, … therefore when I get criticized, it hurts. I have in no way gotten over the hurt of being criticized, but my desire in these few paragraphs is to share a few ways that makes it easier to accept criticism.

#1 – Pray for your critics. Before you throw me out saying it is easier said than lived, allow me to tell you that I totally agree that it is easier to write than to live. I find it hard in my personal life to pray for those who I think are against me or have hurt me in some way. But I also have found out that when I pray for these people, soon I can hear their name or see them without feeling hatred or hard feelings in my heart towards them.

#2 – Listen to the Criticism. Although criticism hurts and is many times intended to hurt, there is usually a piece of truth in every criticism. I must be honest that I sometimes wish bad upon my critics, but when I begin to think about it, some of my critics have taught me great lessons. I have learned to write everything on paper, thanks to my critics. I have learned to present the truth in a humble way, thanks to my critics. I have learned to listen to others advice, thanks to my critics … and many more great life’s lessons have been accumulated all thanks to my critics. So critics are not always my enemies, I need to listen to the criticism and search out the truth from the criticism.

#3 – Respond to criticism slowly. Because criticism hurts, I have many times responded back quickly and harshly. Usually what is done quickly is not done wisely – of course this is not always the case, but when it comes to criticism or bad situations, a quick answer or reaction is not usually good. When criticism comes, the best answer is usually given after a period of silence. If I don’t respond to that e-mail, phone call, smart comment, etc, I usually save myself from more headaches and heartaches.

#4 – Stay close to the Lord and your spouse. I have learned the hard way that I can not please everyone. I desire to be friendly and help others, but I think it is impossible to avoid criticism 100%. Staying close to the Lord and walking with Him always helps me with my emotions. Staying close to my wife lets me know that I have another human friend I can go home to and fellowship with not worrying about so many details. Maintaining my priorities of my relationship with my Heavenly Father and my spouse is of up-most importance in moments of criticism.

Here to Serve,

Jeff Bush
Argentina

13 March, 2020

The Gospel Commandments of Leadership

“The Gospel Commandments of Leadership” is a great list of qualities that we all must have. I read it recently, but the author is unknown. Whoever wrote it was right on. I hope this list will be a big encouragement to you as it was to me.

1. People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centered. Love and trust them anyway. (Luke 23:34)

2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway. (Matthew 11:16, 19)

3. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. (Luke 19:36-38; John 19:15)

4. The service you render today will be forgotten tomorrow. Serve people anyway. (Luke 17:17)

5. Honestly and frankness will make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway. (Luke 12:51; Luke 13:5)

6. The biggest men with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men with the smallest ideas. Think big anyway. (Luke 22:22, 24)

7. People pretend to love the “little” people but sell their souls to the “big” people. Fight for the “little” people anyway. (Matthew 19:14)

8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. (Matthew 26:48, 49, 56)

9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help. Help people anyway. (Luke 4:18, 19, 28, 29)

10. Give the world the best you have, and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway. (Matthew 27:17, 21)

Here to Serve,
Jeff Bush

13 March, 202013 March, 2020

Marriage Advice After 63 Years

I was able to have breakfast with a man years ago who was married for over 63 ½ years and had just recently lost his wife. It was a great privilege and very challenging hearing this man speak of his wife and how much he loved her – I hope these 10 principles can be a blessing to you as they were to me.

1. Love her
Maybe a general statement, but as Ephesians 5 says, love her as your own body – don’t neglect, forget or ever hurt her.
Love is patient, forgiving and gives multiple chances.
Love is never failing
As Christ loved the church, the husband is to love his wife – and we shouldn’t forget that we love Him because He first loved us – so we should love our spouse first.
I once heard someone say: greatest thing you can do for your children is to love their mother, your wife.

2. Love kids she gave you
Child bearing is a very painful and difficult thing – and when a father chooses not to love or spend time with the children your wife gave birth to, you are not only saying that you don’t love the children, but also that you don’t care about the pain she went through to give birth to them.
Spend time with the children, love them.

3. Don’t discuss problems and certain things in front of children
Children are a lot smarter than we give them credit for – so be careful what you talk about in front of them.
It is wise to stop the conversation, go to the bedroom or another room in moments of disagreements.

4. Kiss her every day
It cost nothing and shows affection.
You don’t get to kiss just anybody, so take advantage of the one you can kiss ☺

5. Kiss her before going to bed at night
You never know when the last night might be with your spouse, so end the day with a kiss.

6. Be kind to her
I’ve heard some say, “I love you but I don’t like you”.
Being kind proves you’re not just with your spouse because you have no other option and don’t want to divorce, being kind proves that you really are happy that you are married to your spouse.
I Corinthians 13 says that charity is kind.

7. Show her you love her
Actions speak louder than words. Words are cheap – so show your spouse you love her.
Sometimes we forget manners and get too “comfortable”, but a little romance of keeping the manners – opening doors, saying kind words, complementing, hugs, etc show and prove love.
God loved so much that he showed it – we would be wise in proving our love, showing it so there is no doubt it is true.
Time is a great way to show your love.

8. Try and get her anything she wants
We don’t have to wait until Christmas, we can buy or do things that our spouse wants now.
The majority of things that our spouses want are not things of great value – with a little creativity, time and effort, we could do or get things our spouse would like – which is a great gesture of love.

9. Tell her you love her all the time
No one expects to leave and not return to see their spouse again, but there will be a time in life that will be our last to see our spouse – make sure the words “I love you” are constantly on your lips.
It cost no money or energy to say these words, yet many times they are not said enough in a marriage.

10. Hold her or put your hand on her shoulder and talk to her
Acts, gestures, and physical touch are super important in marriage. Simply giving a hug or putting your hand are very comforting and supportive to your spouse.
Holding hands in public tells everyone, “we’re still in love”.
Hugs and just holding someone to listen to them has a great power of showing you support them, back them up and are there for them – everyone needs a cheerleader to say, “I’m on your side, you’re doing great”.

Here to Serve,
Jeff Bush

13 March, 2020

It’s Your Turn

Joshua 1:1-2 — It’s your Turn

“the Lord spake unto Joshua… saying” (vs. 1) “Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise” (vs. 2).

Moses, God’s servant was the leader of Israel. Israel now is a mega power after leaving Egypt and 40 years in the desert. Whether hundreds of thousands of people or over 1 or 2 million people, it is still a lot of people for one man to be leader over (especially with no cell phones, emails, FB status’, Twitter and any form of social media to let everyone know what is going on), but God used Moses to lead this massive group. Now Moses dies before they cross into the promise land and God tells Joshua it is time to step up. How in the world can Joshua fill Moses’ shoes? How can Joshua know what to do and where to even start? But this book, Joshua (named after the new leader), relates how Joshua was ready and prepared. Here are a few of the reasons why I believe Joshua was ready when it was his turn to lead:

He had been Moses’ servant for a long time (Num 28:11 — “And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men”)
He had his own personal relationship with God (Ex. 33:11 — “his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle”)
He had been serving in positions of leadership (one of 12 spies, meaning he was representative of his tribe as well as captain of army. Ex. 17:9 — “And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek”)

Sadly, many people are not ready for the next step in life or ministry that God may have for them because they have not prepared as Joshua. Who are you serving right now? Do you have a personal relationship and walk with the Lord or are you depending on someone else’s relationship with God to keep you going? What ministry and area of leadership are you working in right now? If we are not preparing right now, what makes us think that we will be ready tomorrow when God says, “it’s your turn, time to step up to the plate”. No sports player enters into a game without practice before. No musician plays in a concert without lots of practice time. No doctor goes into surgery without many hours backing up his profession. So why do we think that we can just “shoot from the hip” in God’s service, the most important work in the world. May we be faithful in preparing right now… and we will do fine performing when it is time.

13 March, 202013 March, 2020

Rehearsing What God Has Done

Acts 14:27 — Rehearsing what God has Done

“And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.”

After arriving back from their missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas get the people together to rehearse (run through, go over) all that the Lord had done and the open doors God had given. I love that the first thing they did when they arrived back was not complain, give prayer request, talk about the challenges and difficulties, rather tell everyone how great God was to them while they were out.

This practice should be a regularity for us as Christians, we should be quick to share with others and remember ourselves how great God has been to us. If we would look at every situation, there is always something for which we can praise God. It would do us good to “rehearse” regularly how good God has been to us, it would change our mindset, our attitude and our outlook… we would almost look for blessings throughout every day instead of just trying to get through a day with the least amount of problems possible.

Rehearsing what God has done should be on the tip of our tongue. In Acts 15:3 they were declaring the conversion of the Gentiles”. In vs. 4 “when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them”. In vs. 12 they began “declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them”. And in 21:19 Paul “declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry”. It appears Paul walked around reminding himself and reminding others of how good God had been to him. We would be smart to do the same.

Proverbs 3:6 tells us that in all of our ways we are to “acknowledge him”. Every day and in every situation a Christian should acknowledge God’s hand of protection, guidance and blessing. God has been good and we should acknowledge that fact… and rehearse it constantly in our life.

13 March, 2020

Going Where God Wants you to Go

Going Where God wants you to Go

Acts 16:1-13

In vs. 1-3 Paul comes Derbe and Lystra where he meets and picks up Timothy to takes him along on his missionary journey. Timothy was already a disciple, follower of Christ, and had a good testimony but Paul was going to take him further in ministry and spiritual life. This is a great example of how a Paul should always keep his eyes open for Timothys and how a Timothy should keep his eyes open for a Paul to help him do more for the Lord.

So Paul and Timothy begin their journeys with anticipation of open doors, serving God and seeing much fruit. In vs. 6 and 7 they desired to go but “the Spirit suffered them not” and they were “forbidden” twice (whether closed doors because of money, no peace, being refused by authority or some other way we do not know, but Spirit didn’t allow to go). Finally in vs. 9 they had a vision and a man “prayed him” saying come over and help us. My favorite part is vs. 10 where it says they were “assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us” to go preach there. It’s almost like they were told not to twice and finally were told to go and so they figured this must be where God was calling them to. This is contrary to what most Christians believe, or at least practice. We want to have all the confirmation and then move, where it appears that Paul clearly just tried serving God wherever and left the geography part up to God. Paul didn’t care where he would serve, he just knew he was going to serve the Lord… and God would take care of the “where”.

May I have the same attitude as Paul of not worrying about where, just serving God faithfully and letting Him take care of the geography.

26 February, 2020

Missions in the OT & NT

Missions was on the heart of our God from the very beginning. Missions, getting the Gospel to the world, is the heartbeat of our God and reason of existence for the New Testament Church. As it was well said by missionary Hudson Taylor, the Great Commission is not an option to be considered, it is a command that must be obeyed. Below is a brief list of verses in both the OT & NT in which we find missions.

Missions in the Old Testament

Genesis 2:17 – since fall God wanted His restoration for mankind made to Him — Gen. 2:17; Rev. 20:14; Rom. 5:12
Exodus 9:14-16 – purpose of the plagues (Romans 9:17)
Numbers 14:21 – “But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.”
Joshua 2:10-11 — everyone heard about crossing of Red Sea, what God did
Joshua 4:23-24 — “That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord”
1 Samuel 17:46 – “the whole world shall know there is a God in Israel”
1 Kings 8:41-43, 59-60 (also in 2 Chronicles 6:32-33) — “so that all peoples of the earth may know your name” (Solomon’s prayer dedication of Temple)
I Chronicles 16:24 – “Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvellous works among all nations.”
Psalm 2:7-10 – “Thou art my Son… I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession”
Psalm 8:9 – “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”
Psalm 18:49 – “I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen”
Psalm 24 – “The earth is the Lord’s”
Psalm 47:8 – “God reigneth over the heathen”
Psalm 48:10 – “so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth”
Psalm 57 – “I will sing of you among the peoples”
Psalm 66:1 – “Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands”
Psalm 66:4 – “All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah.”
Psalm 67:3, 6 – “Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee” Vs. 7 – “all the ends of the earth shall fear him”
Psalm 72:11 – “all nations shall serve him”
Psalm 72:17 – “all nations shall call him blessed”
Psalm 82:8 – “O God… thou shalt inherit all nations”
Psalm 86:9 – “All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.”
Psalm 96:1 – ” sing unto the Lord, all the earth”
Psalm 96:9 – “fear before him, all the earth”
Psalm 96:13 – “for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth”
Psalm 105:1 – “make known his deeds among the people.”
Psalm 105:7 – “He is the Lord our God: his judgments are in all the earth.”
Psalm 108:3 – “I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.”
Psalm 117:1 – “O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.”
Isaiah 43:10 — Jehovah said to Israel, “You are my witnesses .. .” Christ instructed His followers, “You will be my witnesses .. .” (Acts 1:8).
Isaiah 45:22 – “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth”
Isaiah 49:6 — “salvation unto the end of the earth”
Jeremiah 16:19 – “O Lord… the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth”
Ezekiel 36:23 – “and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord”
Daniel – king Nebuchadnezzar, king Belshazzar, and king Darius all made proclamations that all the nations worship the true God.
Whole book of Jonah – God sent him so the heathen could know God (Jonah at best was a very reluctant servant)
Zephaniah 2:11 – “The Lord… will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him”
Malachi 1:11 – ” For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles… for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts.”

Missions in the New Testament

Matthew 13 (Ezekiel 17:23) – parables of sower, weeds, mustard seed, fishing net
Matthew 24:14 – the Gospel will be preached in the whole world
Matthew 28:19-20 – The Great Commission
Mark 11:17 (Isaiah 56:7) – a house of prayer for all nations
Mark 13:10 – “the gospel must first be published among all nations”
Mark 16:15 – “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Luke 10:2 – “The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few”
Luke 15 — 3 parables, all about lost. Great rejoicing when lost are saved.
Luke 19:10 — He came to seek and save lost
Luke 24:47 – “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
John 3:16 – For God so loved the world
John 20:21 – “as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.”
Acts 1:8; 2:5-12 (Isaiah 49:6) – witnesses in all the earth
Acts 13:47 — “salvation unto the ends of the earth”
Romans 10:12-15 – “How can they hear?”
Philippians 2:10 – Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess
2 Peter 3:9 – “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
Revelation 7:9 – Every tribe, tongue, people and nation
Revelation 22:17 – “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”