Come and See

"Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works on man's behalf! Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me." 

I wrote that verse from Psalm 66 at the very top of the dry erase board as a reminder to everyone, including myself, of the reason we were all there. 

I noticed the exclamation mark in that Scripture right away. People put exclamation marks everywhere these days. If you put periods instead of exclamation marks in your text messages, you sound rude. Everything has to be high energy and excitement all the time. But the Bible is not that way. In fact, exclamation marks in the Bible are not that common, so whenever I see one, it makes me think it's there for a reason. 

"Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works on man's behalf!"

I decided that I wanted to make this whole evening about just that. With an exclamation mark at the end! 

I named the event "come and see" based off this verse, and I invited a bunch of people that I love to come and hear about what God has done, is doing, and will do in Burkina Faso, the little west African country that I have come to love and call a second home. 

We ate dinner together and I got to share an hour and a half worth of stories about Africa, but mainly about the people and the transformation I have seen in them and in me in the past year. 

At the end, we finished with the most reasonable response - unified prayer and worship. It was like the exclamation mark at the end of the evening. 

Sometimes I feel like half my responsibility as a missionary is to come back and testify to what God is doing. I feel like a messenger - a messenger in Burkina for the word of God and a messenger in America for the work of God.

I think that's who we all are really. We are messengers with a message to share that the world needs to hear. We are jars of clay with an all-surpassing treasure within. Revelation says, "We will overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony." We are witnesses with a testimony, messengers with a message. It's a message that is perfect for every type of person in any type of situation or stage in life. It's a message that changes and saves and transforms lives. It's a testimony and a message that is fat and full of truth and hope and life. And it's also a message of joy...with an exclamation mark at the end!