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Ghana UBF, Africa
February 12, 2014

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” ()

In Mark chapter 12, the Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus to catch him in his words. But Jesus gave them a good answer. One of the teachers of the law asked him this question, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” There were more than 600 commandments. And they used to debate over which is the most important. Jesus answered in this way. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
People have their own philosophy and principle of life. However, when we see Jesus’ answer, we can know that our most important life principle should be this: “Love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.”
I came to UBF in my freshman year at the university. I did Bible study and attended Sunday worship service sincerely. But frankly speaking, I didn’t serve God with all my heart and mind. However, through spiritual training I could have one principle of life which is that I should obey God’s will first. It is because I had a small faith that God will always lead my life the best way. I was neither a spiritual person nor an able man. But this faith is the only reason that I could make up my mind to go out as a missionary. I served in the Nigerian ministry for 7 years. Then in October of 2012, I started to pioneer Ghana. When I look back over the last one year, I realized again that God led my life.

Shepherdess Maria met Sisters Lind and Effia who kept up one to one Bible study sincerely all last year. Sister Lind lost her father when she was young. Perhaps because she had to pass through many difficulties, she has much spiritual desire. Just a few weeks after she started Bible study, she came to our service. Actually, I couldn’t prepare message well and my pronunciation was not good at all. My message was about Jesus’ calling the twelve disciples. After the service she said that the message touched her and that she had been hesitating about doing evangelism but she decided to go on an evangelism journey which school/church prepared over summer break. I never expected this kind of reaction, so I was surprised and realized that the work of the word is not done by human beings, but by God. From the last semester we tried to help her write a testimony. After the service I gave her the printed message. Maybe, she said to me ‘thank you’ with merely lip service, but I could read from her face that she did love the word of God. When we had thanksgiving service, we had time to share personal thanksgiving topics for the last year. She said that she believed God led her to meet our family and she was happy to have weekly Bible study. Through Sister Lind I realized that although we prepare Bible study and deliver the message to the congregation, it is really God who works in their hearts through his word.

Sister Effia has a nice personality and her father is a pastor. However, she didn’t have much spiritual desire. We are praying for the word of God to work in her and that she may have greater and greater spiritual desire.

Last year, we studied Mark’s Gospel. During the week, I was so busy with office work. In the evening I was exhausted. And on the weekends my kids disturbed me. However, from last semester, Shepherdess Maria started a language course at school and she applied for a hostel room. There we had Bible study and Sunday worship service. Also, from last May, Shepherd Jinsu came to Ghana through his company job. He is Shepherdess Maria’s brother. However, he left UBF two years ago. He joined Bible study and worship service with us; we are praying for him to be restored in mind and spirit. So every Saturday morning the three of us came to the hostel room and had Mark’s Bible study. Many times I couldn’t prepare well for Bible study. However, it was a wonderful thing for us to learn from each other and have fun and a joyful time in the word of God.

At first, I was burdened about pioneering. I didn’t have any confidence that I could serve pioneering work very well. But I realize that God loves us. Jesus died on the cross because he so loved the world. Moreover, Jesus leads the spiritual work and works through his word. All I need to do is to just obey and follow God’s will.
I want to begin this year holding on to , “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Sometimes, I felt lonely. Sometimes, I was tired and wanted to have a break. Sometimes, I wanted to think of my family first. And sometimes I even fell into many worries over my future security. These things happened to me when I lost the love of God in my heart. I should love God with all my heart and mind. This must be my first life-principle. The Bible says that there is no one who seeks God, and that all have turned away. All human problems begin from that point. I pray that I may love God with all my heart and all my mind. In this way, may God enable me to experience God’s love and deliver this love to the students of Ghana. Amen.

Prayer Topics:
1. May God bless Matthew’s Bible study
2. Sister Lind and Effia to grow spiritually and to be Jesus’ disciples
3. May God raise one Abraham of faith and one Sarah of faith

By Truman Lee