Imitators of Those

“And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

Hebrews 6:11-12

Tag: Prayer

  • The Change Along The Way

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    Dónal
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    The story goes, that when the Cambridge Seven (distinguished young British missionaries who had left their popular sports careers and student lives, to move to China) arrived on those Eastern shores, that they had somewhat of a run-in with their new team leader – Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor was well known for his deep commitment…

  • Trust Not In Fluent Lips

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    Dónal
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    “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” – Galatians 3:3 For new missionaries, the realm of language learning is a battlefield. Never mind the funny mistakes one makes (E.g. You try telling your students that you’re proud of them, and instead tell them that you’re pregnant…), on…

  • The Faithful Understand the Time

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    Dónal
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    If you were to drive a couple of hours North-West of Dublin, until you find the Middle-of-Nowhere, then take a left down a very bumpy, pot-hole filled road, cross a bridge, down another few roads with grass growing up them, you will come across a little village. It is a single street, with a couple…

  • Who Are You?

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    Dónal
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    Slowly, he approached his father’s tent. Heart beating, skin itching, mind whirring. Determination etched on his face; today he would finally steal grace. “Did my brother’s clothes always weigh so heavy?” he wondered. Maybe the weight lay elsewhere. Did he pause for a minute outside the tent door? Did he fortify his resolve with reasoning,…

  • 3 Months In

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    Dónal
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    Yesterday marked the 3-month mark in our new land. On any given day, 3 months is just a few days, or a quarter of a year. While it has always felt incredibly, blessedly, normal to be here, occasionally it hits home that now we live here. After all the years of praying, dreaming, planning, praying,…

  • The Extraordinarily Ordinary Spirit

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    Dónal
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    I place a high value on the ordinary means of grace. The ordinary means of grace are those things that God has given as regular, often non-spectacular, rhythmic events that form and shape our spiritual lives. They are the slow dripping of water to erode a rock, the steady flywheel of an engine that keeps…

  • Caught Before Taught

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    Dónal
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    A sunny Friday afternoon in April 2011 found me sitting on the lawn at the back of someone’s house, quite bewildered. It was a youth weekend away, or at least, it was meant to be. I had arrived at the house of those organising it along with some friends. To be honest, at this point…

  • A Voice in the Wilderness

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    Dónal
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    As daytime eased into nighttime, the animals began to sing their song. In this oasis of greenery, situated outside the capital city with all its clamour of horns honking, sellers shouting, power-tools working… there was peace. During the day, we had walked around the beautiful gardens of the retreat centre, our kids insisting on swimming…

  • A Prayer for the Families of Missionaries

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    Dónal
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    God our Father, You have brought us into your family by adoption, through your everlasting love. Christ our brother, You are not ashamed to call us your siblings, despite our constant shameful behaviour. Holy Spirit, our guarantor, You remind us of our position in the family of God, and of the inheritance that belongs to…

  • The Darkness of Doubt

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    Dónal
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    Darkness. Utter darkness. The anguish of a completely unsettled spirit compunded by the weighty shame of unwillingly facing doubt. I hadn’t chosen this. I’ve had other friends who walked into doubt over the faith because of deep-rooted sin in their lives that they just didn’t want to let go of. This wasn’t that. This had…

  • The Danger of Ordinariness

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    Dónal
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    “Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit. Never having been a human (Oh that abominable advantage of the Enemy’s!) you don’t realise how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary. I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who used to read in the British Museum. One day, as he sat…

  • We Are Praying

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    Dónal
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    This is the third and final post looking at some responses to our call to missions that we have experienced over the past couple of years. The previous installments consisted of my response to two opinions that have cropped up on multiple occasions, namely: an overstated view of risk, and an overstated view of sacrifice.…