Words By Brandon

This was in Brandon leaflet from the funeral and it was taken from his FB notes that he had wrote a couple of weeks ago while he was in India. If you have a FB page request to be his friend if it is set to private Brandon Scott McDaniel and read what has been written about him and his notes he had posted. Oh, I know they have blessed and challenge me..

India - Part 2.Share
Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 2:58pm
God is working. God is moving. God is convicting. God is breaking. God is building. God is doing huge things and He is using the country of India to show me how real those things are. We serve a God that is active. We serve a God that convicts and changes lives all over the world in all types of cultures. He is passionate about His people and desires for them to know Him and to live their lives for Him. It is a beautiful thing.

Today, we had the opportunity to go to a training seminar called Tree of Life. It was for a church in this town of about 50 members. They met in a tiny building for the seminar and we were there to film and take pictures so that we could make a video for them to use to promote the program. Tree of Life is a training program that raises up disciples in specific areas so that they can be equipped to take the Gospel to the people in their community. This process is an incredible way to take the Gospel to the nations by training new believers in a specific community to lead others to Christ in their community. It is The Great Commission at its finest.

So in this training there were about 20 men that were being equipped to take the Gospel and the love of Christ to the people that were lost in their communities. The idea is to develop disciples, that will then make disciples, and those disciples will make other disciples, etc. It was great to experience and witness these brothers being trained and brought up in the knowledge of God and the Gospel. It was amazing to see the passion that was within them. The passion to take the truth and love of Christ to the ones that had yet to hear or had yet to receive. I could sense the urgency inside of them to get this truth out before it was too late. It began to convict me. I realized that I live my life without being as concerned about furthering the Gospel as I should be. I live my life as though I expect others to pick up the slack when I choose not to be urgent about the Gospel. I live my life as though God only suggested that we make disciples... and it's not just me. Most of you do it too. The thing is, we are commanded by God to make disciples.

"Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them everything I have commanded you."

The men in the training understood and committed to this commandment. They understood that a lost soul is an urgent matter and that there is no time to waste. As followers of Christ we have been blessed with life. Life has been spoken into us and we are all called to speak that life into others. The key word in The Great Commission is "GO." This is not a suggestion. This is not an option. This is not a "do this if you feel like it" kind of thing. It is a command. It is an order from the creator of life that has spoken life into us. I don't think we realize how severe this calling is.

We live our lives waiting on God to tell us to go when he has clearly already done so. Seeing the need in this country for more disciples that can share the love of God has opened my eyes to how important this is... how important it is to go. Without you, someone may go without hearing. Without YOU, someone may go without hearing of God's love! We cannot go day by day relying on and expecting others to take Christ to the world. We cannot continue to latch onto our comfort and our self-centered desires. We are clearly ordered and commanded to go. I believe that it is impossible to truly be a follower of Christ if this commandment is ignored because this is the main point in BEING a follower... to bring others to know HIM.

We have the life but we choose not to share it with those who need to hear. It is not a matter of how you can get there if it means distance for you. It is not a matter of why you should go because it is obvious. It is not a matter of whether or not you should because if there was ONE thing you should do and just one it would be to GO. It is a matter of where your heart is. Do you care enough to go? Is your heart for the world greater than your heart for yourself? Do you care enough to speak life into the lifeless? Hope into the hopeless? Healing into the broken? Love into the unloved? Someone cared enough to speak life into you.

It's very simple. Go. Make. Baptize. There is no excuse. We have been given all of the methods in doing so. Our heart will determine what we do with it. There is such a bigger picture than our safe and free America.

Go.

The lost is waiting.

The lifeless is eager to hear.

You have life.

What will you do with it?

Be precise in what you say and be BOLD in how you say it. It's time for the "followers" to be leaders and truly follow Christ. It's time to be urgent. It's time for disciples to be made. GO.

This was part of a comment someone had left:

its isaiah 50- the whole chapter. i particularly like verse 4 which says, "... Read Morethe lord god has given me a tongue of disciples, that i may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. he awakens me morning by morning, he awakens my ear to listen as a disciple."

i also really like verse 6 and verse 11. but i suggest that everyone just read the whole chapter. its really good. its one you can just study for a long time. :)

What will you do?

What A Week

I posted earlier how the week was up until Wednesday and it was already an emotional draining one.. The end of it has been better. On Thursday night I went and had dinner with a very dear friend of mine Robbie (I believe I posted about her in FB post). We have been friends since 4th grade her and her sister Ann were my best friends and they were my sisters we did everything together. Since high school me and Robbie talk about once year 6 months on a good year and the rest at least 1 a year. We have gone on and on about meeting for lunch and dinner and w/ my 3 and her 4 little ones all under the age of 9 it has been hard getting together. We finally decided to go Thursday night to California Dreaming and all I can say is she is honestly my lifetime friend we just picked up right were we had always been. We were sat and talked about our families, growing up, our deepest secrets and just laugh and I felt a few tears. We have agree to do this at least once a month and to stay in contact w/ each other more now. Maybe for April we will just meet for dessert or something small since we talked more than ate, which I did tell her we needed to meet every day for 2 months so I could loose some weight..lol

Then on Friday we were suppose to go to Saskatoon for a friends birthday but they had to cancel so Eric asked me out on a date and he plan for us to go to downtown to eat wings and then go listen to jazz on main but we didn't communicate with each other so great so the plans were not exactly like he had plan and I felt bad... First I left work 25 mins late, then I had to come home and change and freshen up for my date, I didn't realize he had not gotten Tyler and he was waiting on me to come home so we could do all the stuff we had to do before we left. Then we had to go and get Ryan's car and I wanted to check out the consignment sale at church that 4 great ladies put on and I thought he was getting the boys dinner so I stayed and talk for a few mins when I got home he was home already and I thought that was quick and when we came out he ask me if I got them dinner and I hadn't cause I thought he had. So now at 6:30 we are heading out and getting the boys dinner and gas so we didn't even head to Greenville until 7 at the time he had hope we would have been eating. Then we get to Wild Wings and they say the wait is an hour. We leave our name and walk downtown looking for others place to eat and about 30 mins later we go back and I ask the lady about the wait and she ask if I had a pager and I told her no, she said come on and she sat us down I hope we didn't break in front of anyone. But I am glad she did cause I messed up his night and I wanted him to eat where he wanted too. He is so sweet he was ready to leave downtown and go to Chili's my favorite place but I had insisted going back to Wild Wings to check on the wait. Glad we did cause the wings and the big fries were good...

Today I am cleaning something I have been needing to do for a while and then we are going to dinner with the Benson's can't wait to see all of them.. Stephen is already excited to the max to see Josh and so is Tyler (he LOVES this family)... It will be a great night...

My mind was on Brandon's funeral all day and I got home and read the leaflet that Ryan brought home (we let him stay out of school to go with Bucky to the funeral). I have to say I wish I had gone. It was a celebration of life and I would have love to have been there. One of the girls had left on his FB page that even at his own funeral he was leading them in worship and I can honestly see that. One day when I have time I am going to post what he had wrote in his own words that put in the leaflet. It might be on his FB from India, is it a great challenge for all of us..

I am almost finish with chapter 2 of Excellent Wife it was a hard long week to really focus on it..