The Paine Family

As the Journey came to a close yesterday, I was filled with a renewed appreciation for God’s faithfulness. He was the One who would continue the good work which He had begun in each heart and I could claim that promise.

Philippians 1:6
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”

Once again it was awesome to see God at work in the each of the hearts and lives of the ones on the Journey. God opened my own eyes to some specific verses that were very meaningful such as John 3:16. As I was pondering this verse, the word “gave” jumped out at me…
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

I had just been reading in Deuteronomy 15, and it was talking about having an “open” and “wide” hand towards your brother, the needy and the poor. I then recognized the relationship between love and giving. You really cannot have one without the other, for God loved us so much that He gave His only Son to pay the price for our sin. A relationship is built by love and in our relationship with God, there are many things that we must surrender in order to have that intimate fellowship with Him. Every surrender that we make requires an element of giving, which is in essence genuine love.

It was a neat connection that I had never really made between love, giving and surrender. But it sure made a lot of sense and increased my desire to be one who has an open hand towards everyone which comes out of a heart of genuine love.

Nate and I fly down to Oklahoma tomorrow to join our family in serving down there. Keep us in your prayers, it sounds like they have been keeping really busy with various projects and the upkeep of the place. God bless!