Faith like potatoes- a movie review of your faith

My sister gave me a DVD for my birthday at the end of March.  I had a whole month in which I could have watched it.  But with packed preparations for going to live in Russia I never seemed to fit it in.  Melody and I eventually watched it on our third night in Russia, on our own out in a small Russian village.

I had already begun to feel the spiritual oppression here again, and of course I know why we are here, but still it was a little overwhelming and discouraging.  If we had watched this movie while in Australia it still would have been encouraging but watching it here it received 10 times the value via the spiritual exchange rate.

The story of Faith Like Potatoes is tremendously inspirational.  It left me praying that God would give me the gift of faith in my own life.  I know that learning another language and communicating the gospel stories are necessary and important parts of the work.  But I also know that people come to faith the most when God does miracles in their lives and cultures.  Miracles are not an end in themselves.  In fact Jesus was actually more concerned that people would be forgiven of their sins than that they would be healed. This comes out clearly in the story where the crippled man is lowered through the roof.  Jesus says, "so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive your sins, take up your mat and walk!"  But miracles have a massive impact that challenge people's world views to the point where they are prepared to repent of their sins.  This is why I want to see God work miracles in people's lives, even through my ministry.  This has become my prayer.

Does God always heal?  Actually that's none of my business and none of my choice.  But we have not, because we ask not.  When we were in China I prayed for beggars on the streets on a couple of occasions.  The first time God told me to pray for the woman.  I did so in obedience and I know that he worked.  The second time he actually moved on me to pray for a cripple to be healed.  But I was too afraid.  I was too afraid of what would have happened if the cripple was healed.  It was in a subway train station.  If the cripple was healed, pandemonium would have broken out and I would have had to disappear for fear of being arrested.  Surely God is big enough to take care of those little details.  So I repented of not praying for the cripple to be healed.  That was before watching this true story movie.

Next time Lord, please give me the faith to not be afraid of the consequences but to trust you no matter what.

I've barely told you a thing about the plot of the movie, apart from hinting that there are miracles in it.  That should be enough.  It's well worth watching and should seriously challenge your faith.