Our Journey into Missions- part 2

(You can read part 1 here.)

It was about this time—three years into our marriage or so—that God began revealing some things about us and our lifestyle to us. One particular night, we went out on a double date with Rachel and Nathan (my sis and bro-in-law). 

I remember that we went to the Blu Tomato and then bowling afterward. When we went back to their house afterward, we began talking, and Nathan felt he had to say something to us. He asked us (in a kind and loving but serious way) why exactly it was that we thought we always had to entertain ourselves? He posed the question to us in a way similar to this, “When there are people dying and going to Hell all around us, why would we spend our time doing things that are simply fun and comfortable and entertaining?”  

Aaron and I were both speechless, really. We had never really considered a question like this before. After all, we went to church on Sundays, we even led a small group at church that year…couldn’t we spend the rest of our time the way we wanted to? Didn’t we deserve to relax and watch TV and constantly go out with friends and play video games and spend time online? Nathan’s question to us seriously shook our world. And the Holy Spirit used that one simple question from him to us to transform our lives.

Over the next few days, weeks, and months, Aaron and I made some big changes. We began reading the Word—a lot. More than either of us ever had before in our lives. We also began reading a lot of other books to try to start to figure out what exactly the Christian life is all about and what exactly we were supposed to be doing with the rest of our times on this earth as disciples of Christ. A few books really impacted us during that time. 

One was The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus by John Cross. This book gave us a comprehensive look at the Bible that we had never seen before.

We both commented to each other many times over those few months things like, “I really feel like I am understanding Christianity for the first time,” and “Why didn’t anyone ever tell us sooner that we were not living like we should be?” We were (and are) so extremely thankful for Nathan being honest with us and challenging us—pointing out that what we said we believed contradicted how we were living our lives.

We began listening to sermons, too. A lot of sermons. Sermons by Paul Washer, John Piper, Tim Conway, John McArthur, K.P. Yohannan, and others. God began convicting us of so many areas of our lives that we were selfishly keeping to ourselves and not allowing God to have. We began seeing that God wasn't just another area of our lives to add on to everything we were doing--no, God needed to be the focus and center of every aspect of our lives. He should get our time (that was huge for us), our money, or talents, our possessions, and our lives.

Because of some of the things we were learning, we starting making some small decisions that ended up making a huge difference in our lives. We got rid of our TV and about 90% of our DVD’s, CD’s, and books. We donated our diamond engagement and wedding rings to Gospel for Asia and bought very cheap ones in their places. We began selling a lot of our possessions. We began questioning how much stuff and how much space we really needed. We discussed selling our house. We began talking to people about Christ.

And we had never felt more joy. But we still didn't understand how urgent the need was for us to be involved in missions. Our eyes were about to be opened to it, though.