3rd Trimester

Someone asked us recently what it feels like to be near the end of itineration.  Mike looked him straight in the eye and said, "It's like we're in the last trimester of pregnancy.  We just want the baby out."  Everyone laughed and that was the end of it.

That is how we feel though.  We're at the end.  The race is now uphill but we're almost to the top and headed down the other side.  We're tired and if we never had to see the inside of our car again, we'd be very happy.  But God.

One Monday a week or so ago, after half a day of discouraging phone calls, we chucked it in and headed out to lunch.  Little did we know that God had an appointment for us on that day.  As we walked into the restaurant, we saw two women having lunch who happen to be friends of ours.  We said hi, did the requisite small talk, gave our order and went to eat.  Wouldn't you know it they were still there when we went to leave.   What ensued was a conversation that encouraged us more than we could ever have expressed to them.  

Mike gave them the above analogy and some of our discouragement leaked out.  "But think about it" they said, "the last trimester is the most important.  That's when all of the internal work is done.  That's when the lungs mature, the bones are fully developed, the baby begins to put on weight and prepares for birth and living outside of the womb.  You don't want to have a premature birth, that's when all the problems happen."  I think we probably stood there for a moment with our mouths wide open.  How that resonated with our hearts and our spirits!

We are in the final stages of itineration.  We have 13% (unofficially) left to go which looks like $885.00 per month.  During this time, we are very busy with meetings, Pastor contacts and services.  But God is also preparing us internally.  We're being prepared by the Spirit for the field as we are waiting to leave.

God is preparing each one of us for the work to which He has set us.   He speaks.  He prunes.  He causes good growth.  As we wait on Him, He does what He's promised to do.  When God calls, He equips.  We're learning not to rush out into premature birth.  We want to be strong and able to grow as we enter the field.  We wait on the Lord.

31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.  Isaiah 40:31

Blessings to you all!

Mike and Tina Hook

Say Goodbye

Not to us...not yet, but very, VERY soon.

Rather, say goodbye to what you thought your life would be like.  Say goodbye to the dreams that you had for your life good, bad or indifferent.

Mike and I just sold our home of almost 18 years.  After the big move on Wednesday, well it only took us a couple of hours so maybe it wasn't that big,  we watched our couches go (the last thing).  We stood in our empty and very dirty house and felt overwhelmed.  We had purchased our house with dreams of raising a family there.  It wasn't to be in the Lord and now we saw the end of those dreams in this place.  

So on Thursday we went to clean the house, and when I say it was dirty I'm being very nice.  Some of that furniture was heavy and hadn't been moved since we placed it there.  We spent 4 1/2 hours cleaning and praying over that house.  We prayed that God would bless the people that have purchased it as He blessed us.  We prayed that there would be laughter and joy in it as we have had.  We prayed that God would make this house a safe place for many as He has done all the years we have been there.

For those of you who offered to help us clean.  THANK YOU!  We didn't accept anyone's offers because this was our time to say goodbye to our house and to all the dreams that went into the purchasing of it.  There wasn't anything wrong with the dreams that we dreamed they were just not what God intended for us.  

Today we signed the final papers and now we are no longer home owners.  We were just as apprehensive as when we signed the closing papers when we purchased the house.  (Only this time I didn't throw up!)  But then a curious thing happened, Mike turned to me and said, "I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off me."  I felt the same way.  As we said goodbye to our dreams for ourselves, we said hello even more fully to God's dreams for us.

Matthew 11:28 says, "Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest." May I say that some of what is "heavy laden" on us is what we place on ourselves by shouldering our dreams and those that others have for us rather than just giving them to the Lord and letting Him take care of all of it for us.

God's dreams for us are massively more than we could ever, EVER dream for ourselves.  They are far beyond the small spheres in which we place ourselves and encompass all that He is.  May God grant you a time to say hello to all that He has dreamed for you.

Next move....SCOTLAND!!

Blessings on you all,

Mike and Tina Hook

Fish Men

Luke 5:1-11

Take a moment to read the passage right now if you're not familiar with it.  Go ahead...I'll wait.  Done?  Good.

There are a couple of things that God has shown me in this passage.  Can you just imagine the scene?  Jesus is on the beach and there are so many people that they're pressing in to hear Him.  He gets into Simon's boat and asks him to put out a little from the shore.  Imagine Jesus in the boat, standing there teaching as the shore is literally filled with people.  Love that image.

Then, when He's done, the carpenter tells the fisherman to go out into deep water and let the nets down for a catch.  Now, common sense and experience tell Simon that they're not going to catch anything.  This is the wrong time to fish; they've been at it all night with no luck; they've already put into shore and washed the boats and the nets.  We've already done it that way and it didn't work.  Don't you know, Lord, that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results?  But Simon says, "At Your word, we will put down the nets."  Jesus called, Simon did regardless of how impossible it sounded.  

When they put the nets down, they pulled in such a great number of fish that the nets began to break, they had to call their partners in to help, and both boats began to sink.

Simon falls at Jesus' knees and says "Go away from me for I am a sinful man".  Simon's afraid, we know that because Jesus says "Do not be afraid, from now on you'll fish men."  He's been given a visual representation of the greatness of Christ and he's overwhelmed by it.  Simon isn't focusing on his sin in this passage, he's focusing on the awesome power of Christ.  

Here's what God has shown me:

1.  Do what the Lord tells you to do, even if it doesn't make sense.  If you've done something 9,999,999 times and you know He's telling you to do it again, do it the 10 millionth time and watch Him show Himself strong.

2.  Expect the Lord to show up.  When we walk in relationship with Christ, as Simon did although this was very early for them, we should expect the Glory of God to be manifested in all that He calls us to do.  He's going to do that which He said He would do because He's Faithful and True and He will not go against His very nature.

3.  Focus on the Lord.  Simon wasn't focused on his sin although that's what it seems like.  He's making an appropriate response to the sovereignty of Christ. When the Lord shows up, give Him the glory.

It's about the furthering of the Kingdom of the Lord.  It's about telling people the Way to Christ.  It's about giving people and opportunity to come into relationship with Christ so that none would perish.

That's the call of every believer.  Is it yours?

Blessings to all of you.

Mike and Tina Hook

Missionaries to the children of Scotland  

Remember God?

You're perhaps thinking to yourself: What does that mean?  Does that mean God remember me? Or does it mean I should remember God?

The answer to that thought, if indeed you have had it, is yes.  

In many Psalms, the Psalmist entreats God not to forget him.  Now, David didn't have the indwelt Spirit so he didn't know the constant presence of God inside himself.  But he did know the presence of God in his life.  Perhaps this is a Old Covenant cry.  God please don't forget me.  Please remember your promises.  

How often has this been the cry of our Spirits even today?  God don't forget me, don't forget your promises.  And yet Jesus told us that God knows when even a hair of our heads falls to the ground.  We have been told in Scripture that God knows the end from the beginning and that every promise has been completed in His mind since before the foundation of the world.  

How great is our God?  How wonderful are His promises?  How perfect is His timing?  How awesome His power?

Do we remember that God is the creator of the universe?  Or do we let our circumstances guide our thoughts and feelings?  Do we remember that Jesus died for everyone in the world?  Or do we let our prejudices get in the way of our call to bring the word?  

I prayed with a young lady on Sunday who feels that she has a Pastoral call on her life and yet she couldn't seem to break away from the world and begin to walk in the way.  What I told her is what we all need to evaluate in our lives:  Make God the God of your life.  Who is God to us?  Is He just someone we go to when we have problems?  Is He just someone that we think about on Sunday? Do we say "yes, yes that's what I'm supposed to do" and just go on about our regular lives and forget?

James says be doers of the word.  Those that listen to the word and then don't do it are like someone who looks at themselves in a mirror and then go away and forget what they look like.  That always seemed odd to me...how can one forget what they look like.  But really that's the point isn't it?  How can one listen to the word, really listen, and then not do what it says?

2 Corinthians 3:18 is somewhat of a "life verse" for me.  It says that all we with unveiled face contemplate or reflect the Lord's glory are being transformed into His image from one degree of glory to another (or with ever increasing glory) which comes from Lord who is the Spirit.

Is God the God of ALL of our lives?  Note that I ask the question of myself as well as of you.  I have determined in Spirit that I would rather be transformed into His glory than forget what my natural self looks like.  

Today, this very moment, begin to let God show you what He wants you to do or do what you know He's told you.  We do hear and recognize His voice if we are His children, but I guess that's a blog for another day.

Please keep remember Mike and me in your prayers as we go.  We need more funding so that we can go and do what God has told us to do in Scotland.

Blessings on you all!

Mike and Tina Hook

Stunning

What an absolutely stunning day!

If you're in Syracuse NY today, you know what I mean.  If you're not, I hope it's as nice where you are.   God is so absolutely fabulous that sometimes I just stand in awe and wonder, mouth hanging open and speechless when He moves.

This is going to be a very short post, you can stop laughing now any time, I'll wait.  Are you done?  Good.  Today is one of those God is so awesome days and, since I hadn't blogged in awhile, I just wanted to tell you all that.

If you're reading this and you say, well it's really nice that you think that Tina, but I don't see it, I pray that God will show up in a way that will knock your socks right off!  Our God is the best thing ever.  There's nothing that can compare to Him.  His timing is perfect.  His mercy is boundless.  His grace is lavished on us just because He loves us that much.

God loves you!  You're His absolute favorite!!

And so are we.

Blessings to you all in more abundance than you can think to ask.

Mike and Tina

Can you hear the cricket?

Have I got your attention?  The story, as I heard it from a Pastor this past weekend, is this (I told her I was going to pass the information on):

A native New Yorker took a Native American friend on a trip to New York City.  When they got to Times Square, the Native American stopped and listened.  Times Square was as it always is busy with noise everywhere; people walking, talking and traffic noises abound.  The Native American turned and said to his host: "I hear a cricket".  The native New Yorker was astonished: "You what?" he replied.  "I hear a cricket," the other man reinterated.  The New Yorker shrugged and began to look around.  Sure enough there was a cricket on a nearby bush.  While everyone around him was focused on the hustle and bustle of Times Square, the Native American was focused on the song of that one tiny cricket.

I loved this story because it's so true.  What do you expect to hear when you're in Times Square?  You expect to hear the humanity around you; people walking, talking on the phone, cabs going by, buses and honking horns.  If you've never been there, this is seriously one of my favorite places on the planet, it's just a continuous melee of sound and it never stops.  What you don't expect to hear is the song of a small cricket on a bush.  The Native American man in our story was listening for it and so the entire ebb and flow of sound that surrounded him faded into the background until only the cricket could be heard.

Let me take you into Scripture now.  In Matthew chapter 14:22-34 we have the account of Jesus walking on the water toward the disciples who were in a boat being tossed about by a storm.  Take a moment to read it...go ahead...I'll wait.  Done?  Good!  The last thing that those men expected to see on the sea at that moment in time was Jesus walking toward them.  Peter, who is my disciple by the way, says, "If you are Jesus, bid me come to you on the water." 

Jesus doesn't hesitate and says, "Come ahead" and Peter answers the call and steps out of the boat onto the heaving sea.  Note that Scripture doesn't say that the boat held steady for him to step out.  It probably wasn't an easy thing at all for him to do and yet he did it.  He walks on the water toward Jesus, we don't know how far or how long, and then gets distracted by the wind and the waves and begins to sink.  When Peter got distracted, when his focus moved off Jesus, he expected to be overcome by the wind and the waves (my interpretation but really...) and so he was.

Again, Jesus doesn't hesitate when Peter cries out "Lord save me".  Instead He immediately reaches down, grabs Peter, and takes him to the safety of the boat.  He does say "You of little faith, why did you doubt" but why do we always assume that Peter is being scolded?  Why can't it be Jesus saying with love why did you doubt?  I have no idea what the tone of voice was that Jesus used, scripture is in a monotone and we add the inflection to it when we read it.  I read this as a loving, parental tone.  Disciplining?  Yes probably, but loving discipline.

We had a person ask us at the beginning of our itineration process if we walked on water because of an answer we gave to one of the questions.  We said, "no of course not, that's not what we meant at all".  While I was out walking a week ago I finally got an answer to that comment some 16 months later I might add.  "No we don't walk on water, but we certainly could if God so willed it to be."  If you think about it, every time you do what God has told you to do, you get out of the boat and walk on the waves because of HIS strength and HIS ability not your own. 

When you're in Times Square, EXPECT to hear the cricket.  When you're in the Lord, EXPECT to walk on water.  What you look at is what you become.  I choose to look at the Lord and EXPECT all that He has for me from His hand.

Blessings to each!!