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 “THE FINAL FRONTIER: A CRY TO THE GLOBAL CHURCH” 

By Reuben Kachala 

O Church of Christ, you shining bride,

Clothed in light, once crucified.

Redeemed by blood, called to proclaim—

 *Have you forgotten your Husband’s name?* 

For He, the Lamb with nail-pierced hands,

Declared His worth in every land.

He made a vow, a promise bold:

 *“All nations shall My glory hold.”* 

From Abraham’s seed, the Word took flight,

To bless all peoples with saving light.

Through Moses, David, prophet’s pen,

 *He spoke His heart: “All tribes, all men.”* 

Yet today He waits… waits still,

For hearts to burn, for hands to will.

His great ambition unfulfilled—

 *The task remains, the world stands still.* 

O Church, hear now the voice of flame—

A summons not to play, but claim.

The Great Commission still undone,

 *The Harvest waits beneath the sun.* 

Six billion souls have heard His Name,

And lifted high the Savior’s fame.

But two billion more still walk in night,

 *Untouched by Gospel, lost from sight.* 

They live in lands where none have gone,

Where Jesus’ name is yet unknown.

No church to call, no praise to sing,

 *No cross, no Christ, no risen King.* 

Frontier People Groups—obscure,

Yet two billion lost, of this be sure.

Five thousand peoples, waiting still,

 *For just one soul to do His will.* 

O Church, what have we done with grace?

Have we kept it locked in just one place?

While 1% go to those unreached,

 *The rest stay home where pulpits preach.* 


We staff our teams with media pros,

We plant our churches row by row.

We fund our bands, our concerts grand,

 *But neglect the unreached in distant land.* 

We disciple those already found,

Yet leave the lost in foreign ground.

We’ve built our empires, carved our pews—

 *But left the unreached with no Good News.* 

What is this Great Imbalance now?

 *The time to shift, to act, is now.* 

Malawi’s cry, Brazil’s alarm,

From China’s house to Kenya’s farm.

From India’s call to Europe’s shore,

 *“Let us send! Let us give more!”* 

The Spirit shouts through Paul again:

“Make it your aim to go to them!”

To places where His name’s unknown,

 *To build where none have built a stone.* 

Oh William Carey, Ralph Winter too—

They saw this task and rallied through.

Shall we just read their tales in books,

 *While turning from the unreached’s looks?* 

Rise now, O global Church, arise!

Shake off your sleep, open your eyes!

God is moving, the time is near—

 *The final tribes must also hear.* 

He’s calling not just preachers bold,

But senders, givers, warriors old.

He wants the mobilizer’s cry,

 *The intercessor’s daily sigh.* 

He wants the technician’s hand,

The advocate to take a stand.

He’s calling trainers, shepherds, teams—

 *To live and die for Frontier dreams.* 

The FPGs are waiting long—

No church, no witness, no salvation song.

No Gospel seed, no Jesus told,

 *No fellowship to break the hold.* 

Yet half the missionaries we send,

Go where the Gospel does not need friends.

The rest go feed where sheep already graze—

 *But none go into that darker maze.* 

Why, Church? Why this tragic split?

Did Christ not call us out of it?

Did He not say: “All peoples reached”—

 *Not just our comfort zones and streets?* 

The hour is late, the King soon comes—

The trumpet waits, the angel drums.

But will the cry of FPGs

 *Be silenced still by our strategies?* 

Will He return with tears instead,

Because His bride refused what He said?

Because we prayed and played and taught,

 *But never reached the lands He sought?* 

O Church, repent. Return. Reclaim.

Renew your call. Rekindle flame.

The task remains. The map still burns.

 *The King still waits. The Spirit yearns.* 

 *So GO, or SEND, or WEEP, or PRAY—* 

But do not sleep another day.

This cry from Heaven shakes the land:

 *“I have other sheep—extend your hand!”* 

From Pakistan to Bengal’s streets,

Where Urdu, Hindi, Bengali meet—

To Pashtuns, Shaikhs, and Rajput clans,

 *To Persians, Turks, and tribal lands.* 

God waits for songs He hasn’t heard,

For tongues that never praised His Word.

Will you help fulfill His greatest joy—

 *Or will His glory we destroy?* 

Now Church—choose. Obey or stray.

The call is loud. The cost is grave.

The frontier waits. The King commands.

 *Will you respond with pierced hands?*

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Final Wishes

When will the day end of sorrow and regrets?
All the if only’s, what if’s, and not yet’s …
All the misunderstandings, that unspoken word …
All the flaws and failures, and debts we incurred.
We wonder with whom, when and how we will die;
Thoughts of that day lead us to mourn and to cry.

While yearning for hope and avoiding the pain
In the midst of the loss, what did we gain?
A chance to be loved and to love in return;
The lessons of grace and forgiveness we learned;
The wise courage to try and strength to endure;
A confident trust and new hope that is sure.

We look for answers of truth, but inwardly sigh:
What happened? To whom? Lord, Why? Why? Why?”
Our loved one was marked with dreams and wishing
But now we are left and the person is missing.
We had all those things we wanted to say,
Yet for now we must wait, we gather, we pray.
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Fear of the LORD, Faith in our Father, & Fuel for a Faithful Life

Some people believe that faith in God is opposed to fear of the Lord or that God only revealed himself as a Father in the New Testament. This short summary shows that the truth affirms more than is popular among people today.

An early reference to the fatherhood of God is found in Deuteronomy 5:8: You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. Notice several things:

  1. This is a truth that should settle deep in our hearts.
  2. God is our Father, which is the basis for human fathers caring for their children.
  3. Because God is our Father, He disciplines us with both rewards and the rod.

Often in Jesus’ day, the leaders asked him questions, but there came a point at which he asked them a poignant question: Matthew 22:41-46 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” They said to Him, “The Son of David.” He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool” ’? If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.

Every Jew believed that the Messiah had to be the Son of David and thus a son of Judah and of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. But Jesus traced his lineage back further and got to the root identity of the Messiah: The Son of God, and thus the Lord of David. Though you and I may be children of God by faith, we do not possess the divine right to be called children of God, for we have all sinned and we die.

Jesus had quoted the first verse from Psalm 110:1-4 A Psalm of David. The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies! Your people shall be volunteers In the day of Your power; In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, You have the dew of Your youth. The Lord has sworn And will not relent, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”

This was regarded as a messianic Psalm in Jesus’ day: The Messiah was Lord, ruled among his enemies, and led a voluntary association, not necessarily a merely ethnic or national army. Indeed, he was the Priest-King, par excellence, Like Melchizedek. This should energize us to volunteer in some way. This should energize us to live well.

David had received a promise in 2 Samuel 7:12-16 that spoke of his Heir, a Son of David that would be the Son of God. “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.” Again, both blessing and blows are promised to the son of David. He is both the Royal Son of God and the Rejected Suffering Servant.

As we look at the end of the Bible, we see how this all ties together: Revelation 22:12-16 “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the [f]Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” Blessed are those who [g]do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie. “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.”

Jesus is both the source and the son of David. He shines both brightly and early. Jesus sets the standard of perfection. You cannot love the Savior and love sin at the same time. Yes, we all sin in many ways, but Jesus helps us hate the sin and seek His salvation day after day. Our Father will reward those who seek the Lord while he may be found. If you look the Lord Jesus, you will find favor with the Father in Heaven.

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Gardening and Your Health

Edited from version shared for WC-CMH Health & Wellness Team – June 2024

George Washington Carver, founder of the Tuskegee Institute, believed that everyone should garden to cultivate virtues and learn the lessons of growing things.

Gardens have long been a refuge for the soul and body. The joy of planting a garden, even in pots on the porch is an act of hope for the future: believing that a harvest will come.

As gardeners watch their cultivated plants grow, bloom and fruit can reduce stress and add a little excitement into the day. The exercise involved in cultivating the soil, planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting builds endurance. The bigger the garden you manage, the more exercise you will have.

Watching pollinators like butterflies and bees can add a bit of excitement to the small piece of land that you manage. Taking photos of the garden can remind you of the fun and warmth of summer during the cold nights of winter.

A good strategy for getting a balance of nutrients from your garden is by planting produce with a variety of colors and kinds. Different shades in the edible portions of plants are often associated with different nutrients. Legumes, leafy greens, squash, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, all have a different set of nutrients.

Planting a few herbs in pots that you can bring inside during the winter can ensure that you get very nutritious bursts that are especially good for gut health, and you will also have flavors year-round. Having some indoor plants to cultivate during the winter can also help fight off the winter blues. 

Another benefit of growing your own strawberries or peppers is that you will get to pick the fruit at the peak of ripeness and eat them soon afterwards, ensuring you get the maximum number of nutrients. Produce in the store often comes from miles away and requires many gallons of petrochemicals to get to the store, and the quality and quantity of nutrients in the store-bought foods diminishes daily after picking during this transit.

If you haven’t already, now is the time to gather a few plants to grow at your home so you too can enjoy the fruit of your labors.

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The Lamb & the Tree

While Israel waited in the land of Ham

Our God prepared to send them out and free

Them through the sacrifice of year-old lambs

Which shed their blood to cover doors. “Believe

The coming sacrifice,” God spoke through lambs.

By looking to the Lord who came, we see

Messiah was a babe and great “I AM,”

The promise found in tree-curse prophecy,

An answer to the high priests’ offering scam.

In One bold Man, both Jews and Gentiles freed

From ancient rites with bethlehemic lambs

To live our lives now Son-set-free indeed!

Because of Him, at holidays some eat ham

Or turkeys—trimming, too, their festal trees.

Agnus Dei (Latin for Lamb of God) is an oil painting completed between 1635 and 1640 by the Spanish Baroque artist Francisco de Zurbarán. It is housed in the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain.

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Broken Branches

“Broken Branches”

The storms of winter descended upon the city.

Many rendered powerless.

Darkness descended on the land.

Yet in the morning, a sparkly, bright, and dangerous wonderland.

As many as could, huddled inside to stay warm and comforted.

Food that would have been wasted was eaten.

And all around lay fallen, broken branches.

Men gathered limbs, cleared roads, restored lines of communication.

Power was returned to the people.

And then another wave of weighty storms descended.

“When will winter end?”

“When will I have power?”

And there in the carnage lay Mr Squirrel, fallen from the heights.

Yet still along the streets lay rows of broken branches.

Warmth and cold ebbed and flowed,

Walks were shoveled and hovels released residents.

The winds changed.

Rumors of other storms and floods and deaths rolled through.

Power was mostly restored,

though some still were disconnected.

But the memory of winter would not quit till spring

For all over town, hanging all around, lay broken branches.

With time, trees are trimmed, twigs picked up, limbs pruned.

Broken branches were sawn in pieces.

Peace was slowly restored.

After Pi Day and Patrick’s Day, and Impossible Shepherd’s Pie:

Joy erupted, sun shines later, heralding Spring:

Clean Streets! Clean homes and hearths and hearts!

Soon enough life will emerge in baby squirrels and budding branches.

So we shall march onward,

until the Common Life we had forgotten,

is remembered as risen in fresh power.

(C) Merton J. Hershberger St. Patrick’s Day 2023

First Shared with my Sherman Street Neighbors.

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God Devises an End to Divisiveness

“We will certainly die and be like water poured out on the ground, which can’t be recovered. But God would not take away a life; He would devise plans so that the one banished from Him does not remain banished.” – 2 Samuel‬ ‭14:14‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

Note:
Context: Joab put a wise old woman up to persuading David to welcome banished Absalom back. His intended goal was reconciliation and joy. He referred to common wisdom in Israel that David knew.
A. We are not going to live forever.
B. God doesn’t delight in the death of the wicked.
C. God plans and purposes to reconcile & redeem us to Himself.

Do you feel distant from God? Look for the ways the Lord is working through others to reconcile you to Himself and to make you right.

Does someone you know seem banished? Look for ways to connect them to Jesus’ redeeming power. Don’t give up. If what you are doing isn’t working, try something else … but by all means pray fir the person & for yourself.

A friend and I reaching out to a fellow from a Muslim background.

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Water and the Word of God

Help People Having Fresh Water - Eat2Save

Do you take water for granted or is every sip flavored with gratitude?

  1. What are you thankful for?
  2. How have you been able to share the Word of God with others lately?

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  1. Jesus is the Source of Living Water. He created water in the beginning, and He is working out a New Creation.

The Father, His Word, and The Spirit/Breath/Wind of God were present at Creation: Genesis 1:1-3 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

            Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles: John 7:37On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

            Several OT passages hinting at a New Creation: Isaiah 58:11 The Lord will always lead you, satisfy you in a parched land, and strengthen your bones. Ezekiel 47:1-12 Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple and there was water flowing from under the altar… Zechariah 14:8 On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it toward the eastern sea[Dead Sea] and the other half toward the western sea,[Mediterranean Sea] in summer and winter alike.

  • Our daily water is a metaphor for the continual supply of life that the Father gives us through the Holy Spirit because Jesus opened the well of life.

  • Sharing water can be an occasion for sharing living water: John 4:4-16

Now [Jesus] had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

(Notice: Jacob had to have dug the well generations earlier for Jesus to share the gospel at this well.)

God can cause water to spring up miraculously for His glory! Exodus 17 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah[a] and Meribah,[b] because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Again the Lord answered the cry of Moses and the plea of Moses and brought forth water. Numbers 20:2-13

            The Waters of Meribah part 2 … This time Moses Strikes the Rock

Jesus linked the sharing of water with rewards from God. Matthew 10:40“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. 41 The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42 And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”

  • Digging wells & sharing water can prepare the way for the gospel to spread to the glory of God.

What would you do if you were faced with going thirsty or drinking contaminated water?

  • The Lord can also change bitter, poisonous waters into sweet waters, which illustrates the way He changes the attitudes of our hearts and the words of our lips: from bitter to kind.

Bitter Water Made Sweet Exodus 15:22Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah.[b] 24 And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25 And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log,[c] and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.

There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, 26 saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”

27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.

The First Miracle after crossing the Jordan that Elisha (The leading true prophet of his day) performed in the eyes of the sons of the prophets was that He purified water, with salt. 2 Kings 2:19

Then the men of the city said to Elisha, “Even though our lord can see that the city’s location is good, the water is bad and the land unfruitful.”

20 He replied, “Bring me a new bowl and put salt in it.”

After they had brought him one, 21 Elisha went out to the spring of water, threw salt in it, and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I have healed this water. No longer will death or unfruitfulness result from it.’” 22 Therefore, the water remains healthy to this very day according to the word that Elisha spoke.

Jeremiah spoke of how false teaching and judgement in the land were like poisoned water:

Jeremiah 8:14   Jeremiah 9:15   Jeremiah 23:15 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets: “Behold, I will feed them with bitter food and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”

Again, let us listen to the words of Jesus at the fall Feast of Tabernacles (which is what our Thanksgiving is modeled after): John 7:37On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

  • True teaching leads to clean water which leads to healthy bodies. Trusting human ideas leads to a sick society. Trusting God’s Word leads to good health in mind, body, soul, spirit, and society.

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Applications:

  1. Be thankful as the people were to be thankful at the feast of Tabernacles.
  2. Turn to Jesus for your supply of life. Believe the Gospel.
  3. Share your life and water with others with clean water and pure teaching.
    1. Drink water with someone as you share the gospel. (Recent chats over cups of cold water with students.)
    1. Help get clean water to others as a way of sharing the gospel. (Kenya water purification project, Sharing bottled water at a festival.)

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From the pit to the peak

Trash redeemed, riches gathered,

Earth’s treasure lost shall be restored.

The pit loses; seed scattered,

God’s reign descends; the hill gains more.

Us nobodies and our nothings.

Unwanted folks and things wasted.

The Lost are found, God shouts and sings:

Truth uncovered; heaven tasted.

Graves are emptied; bones fleshed out.

Resurrection happens: lives arise!

The trump shall sound, the angel shouts!

Deceased shall live! Grace fills the skies!

May be an image of nature and sky
A sign of promise over a place where senior citizens live.

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The Quest

The hunt, the search, the questioning;

The goal, our end, the destiny.

Where am I from? Where will I go?

Do you wonder or do you know?

Are you lost or are you now found?

The quest for Truth plumbs the profound.

The looking can lead one far from home;

Or guide you back, though once you roamed.

Come to your senses! Use your mind!

Look to your Searcher! Then you’ll find!

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