ESI, Patience, and Heaven

It has been a minute since I have taken the time to write anything. There are numerous factors that play into the why's but this morning as I was doing my daily reading I felt compelled to get back to sharing from time to time. As I was getting onto the computer I received an incredibly encouraging email about ESI (the pastoral training program we partner with). We are going to be starting a group here in Valdivia hopefully within the next month or so. Next week Don, Dorian, and Francisco will be heading to Santiago to do a two day Facilitator training crash course. Luckily for Don he has gone through a week course a while back so it will be a review for him. After that we will fire up. The program in Cajamarca is still striving and growing. The email I got shared how ESI is probably now going to be taking off in Spain and Portugal! I can't express how great it is to see these tools being made available for the edification of the church. I am excited to see how ESI will impact Valdivia for the gospel as church leadership here begins to gain a deeper understanding of biblical ministry and how the growth in our own personal walk will impact those we shepherd. And what a blessing it is to see church leaders, from all sides of the theological spectrum, come together with open hearts and a desire to be teachable to the truths of God's word.

On our radio program "Notas de Gracia" we are currently in a series on the Holy Spirit. This week we are covering the fruit of the Spirit. As I was preparing the message I couldn't help to see how several aspects of the fruit of the Spirit will not be needed in heaven. For example, faithfulness. We will not need faith in the heavenly state because we will be there and we will see the Lord face to face and so faith will give way to sight, as the Bible puts it. Here and now we need faith. We need faith to be saved. We need faith to live the Christian life….because.......well…we walk by faith the Bible says.
We are continually dealing with the invisible. We don’t see the Lord and we are in a battle and we are going through this world and we desperately need faith now. And of course faith is a gift of God and faith is developed and increased in our hearts and lives and at times it is up and at times it is down. So we need faith, but when we get to heaven we won’t need faith. Another one is patience. And it struck to the core. Here we need patience, but when we get to heaven we will not need patience. Why? Because there will be nothing there that will try us. We won’t need patience in heaven. We need it now because we live in a world of trial. So many things try us. And you know...…it all starts with ourselves. We are a trial for ourselves, in the sense that we are such great failures. We are filled with so many faults and so we need  patience with ourselves; to put up with ourselves. That is where it starts and then we work it out from there. Yes we live in an ungodly world and we we need patience to deal with it. And sadly, there are times even when we need patience with other Christians and they need patience to deal with you. It works both ways. But when we get to heaven, there will be nothing to try us, no afflictions, everyone will be perfect. Everyone will see things exactly the same. I long for that day. What about you?

Soli Deo gloria