Consider your ways

I have been teaching through the book of Haggai during our midweek service.  I don't know if I have ever heard the book taught and I know if I have it was probably in connection with some type of building project that a church was doing.  

I have been so blessed in preparing and studying this little book.  While Haggai is only two chapters the message is profound.  An issue that is sticking to me is the fact that even though the returning exiles where doing the Lord's work of building the temple, which was a noble work and a commanded work, their hearts were not in it.  Yes there were many circumstances and issues that they were dealing with, but nevertheless, they were apathetic in the work once they returned to the building process.

What an incredible wake up call for us Christians.  Even though we may be pastors, missionaries, sunday school teachers, greeters or whatever other "service" we do in the church, if our hearts are not in, as the Lord tells the people in Haggai's day, our service is unclean and defiled.  This is a wake up call for me.  Even though I live in Peru and am planting a church and serving the people, it is so easy to just go through the motions.  To think that I am doing the work of the Lord so it is all good.  Yet, if my heart is apathetic, the Lord would tell me that my service is unclean and defiled.  It is inherent in everyone to want to earn our salvation.  To earn the blessings that we may receive.  Grace can be hard to accept when we are full of pride.  So while we do all this, we need to check what our motives are.  Am I doing this because I think that I am earning a little slice of heaven?  That some how what I am doing is granting me entrance to the kingdom?  The Lord through Haggai told the people to consider your ways.  That is a great exhortation for each on of us to do daily.  Consider your ways, check your heart, check your motives.  This goes beyond those of us who may be in "full-time  ministry".  If you are saved you are in the ministry.  So whether at your job or the grocery store we need to consider our ways and serve the Lord because He is worthy and we need to do it with a pure and clean heart.  The Lord gives us great opportunity to be about His kingdom and His work.  It should be a joy and not a burden.  As God has told the people in Haggai's day and so many before and since, "I am with you declares the Lord."  What an incredible promise.  We all, I believe, go through those desert lands.  In those times is when we need to cling to the Lord's promises.  

John Newton the famous hymn writer and pastor from an earlier generation wrote an older lady who was struggling with spiritual flatness. Newton asked this lady...…."are we weary on our pilgrimage through this long thorny barren wilderness"

And I think we need to ask ourselves this question.....

I know I do...….Is that what our Christian walk looks like?……Yes, we do our labors for Christ.....but it is almost a burden......

There is no joy in our work for Jesus....there is no joy in our work for the church........we are just half hearted.

And the lady who John Newton wrote was dealing with that very issue.

And I would argue that many of us one time or another deal with that very issue as well......Newton responds to this weary Christianity with the following........

"God forbid! No! I would rather wish for a thousand hands and eyes, and feet, and tongues — for ten thousand lives — that I might devote them all to His blessed service!..To the service of Jesus"

In service we will encounter hard and dry times.  We will have seasons of lows, but the Lord promised, "I am with you."

A quick update from Peru

It has been a busy few weeks for us.  The Lord has opened up doors for us that we had been wanting to walk through but never had the opportunity.  We were finally able to meet with the director of a state run orphanage here in Cajamarca.  The Lord granted us favor in her eyes and they have opened the doors for us to come and minister to the kids and staff twice a month.  We will be starting in March.  They gave us 2.5 hours to come in and play with the kids and build relationships with them and teach them from the Bible.  We are so excited to see how the Lord uses this for His glory.

Our English classes are progressing rapidly as well.  We have on average about 30 people coming every Wednesday. We are going to be starting a kids class once the Petrik seniors return from their 5 week furlough.  We started this to bless the community and get more involved with our locals.  Through this we have had a few people start to attend church and women's Bible study.

Our youth group is growing as well.  It is such a blessing to see the few youth that we have wanting to step out in faith and serve and be used by God.  Don is doing a wonderful job with them.  All of the youth that come on a regular basis have brought friends and their parents to church.  Three of the girls who come, joined us one saturday up in Carhuaquero to serve.  A couple want to be on the worship team as well.  These are girls who had no Christian background.   The Lord is doing a great work in their hearts.  The youth group is also wanting to be active in street evangelism also.  Don wanted to equip them in this area and has taken them out into the plaza to pass out tracts.  We started a class on evangelism last week.  I was blessed to teach the first class and give them an overview on what evangelism is and why we are to do it.   On Tuesdays for the next month, Don will meet with them for an hour and discuss more on this.  They will go and put it into practice once a month on Saturdays.  I am so blessed by their hearts.  They are developing a passion for the lost and a passion to serve Christ.

The Lord has also blessed us with an incredible young man.  He is not only a blessing to us personally, but also to the church.  His name is Gerson and be praying for him.  We have been meeting every friday for close to a year now going in depth through books of the Bible.  We are currently in the Gospel of John.  He has such a servants heart.  Whenever there is an opportunity to serve, Gerson is always stepping up.  He goes faithfully to Carhuaquero.   He teaches the kids in Sunday school once or twice a month.  He helps out if we need it at English class and our movie nights.  He plays the Cajon during worship and will help translate if we need it.  He sees it as a privilege to serve the Lord (may the Lord give us all that heart).  He is a full time student right now at the university.  He is studying to be a architect.  I see in him a passion to serve the Lord.  Be praying that the Lord would guard him and continue to use him.


In April our dear friends Sean and Crissy will be returning from an extended furlough where they were blessed to go to language school.  They are part of Villa Milagro, which is a Southern Baptist organization here in Cajamarca.  Sean has a heart to see active discipleship taking place and equipping the local pastors to disciple their congregations.  The Lord put our hearts together on this and Sean and I will be talking a step of faith to see this happen.  Several pastors from the States have passed on material and wisdom to us to see this through and help us in this process.  Be praying for this ministry and the logistics and that the Lord would use this to further His kingdom.  

What are we doing with the time?

My kids have always wanted a dog.  More specifically they always wanted a bulldog.  For various reasons we put them off for years.  Earlier this year a student at the Bible college here in Peru purchased the cutest pit bull puppy.  He didn't think the whole deal through though.  He couldn't take a puppy back with him to Lima and now he had this puppy and had to find a home for him in less that a week.  I decided we would keep the puppy.  The kids loved her and she was a sweet dog, but she was growing fast and getting so strong.  When they would play she could chase down my youngest and just run her over.  Even though she was playing, I decided she needed to go because I didn't want any of my kids torn up by a dog even if the dog was only playing.  We gave her to a young man who has been taking great care of her.  My kids were sad, but we told them that we would eventually get a dog and probably even a bulldog.

About a year and a half ago, my grandmother passed away.  She was the most amazing and kindest woman.  She left my kids some inheritance.  Then, while on our furlough in the states, my uncle gave my kids some money for Christmas and their birthdays.  So we started looking around for a bull dog and decided to use the money they were blessed with to get a dog that they wanted.  My kids had been so patient for so long.  We found a bull dog in Lima and our good friend brought him up to us.  We named him Hulk and he was such a good puppy.  We had him for twelve days when he started to show signs of sickness.  We took him to the vet and they started him on IV's and he kept getting worse.  I stayed up with him for three nights and our friend stayed up with him one night.  He was under twenty-four hour care for four days and yesterday he died.  He had came down with Parvovirus.  It was so hard to watch him go through this and I feel so bad for my kids, but it brought to mind people who have to deal severe sicknesses in their kids.  I can't even imagine how hard it must be to watch one of your children suffer.  I think of Britt Merrick and all that he went through his beautiful daughter.  My heart aches for those with children suffering.  It has put a new section to pray for in my prayer time.  

One of the nights I was up taking care of Hulk, I was watching Hawaii Five-O.  The episode was about a bus of kids getting kidnapped and held for ransom.  What struck me was when a father said to the detective, "my son wanted to go surfing with me this morning and I told him I couldn't I had paper work to do.  I thought there would be one thousand more mornings to go surfing with him."  That hit me like wrecking ball.  How many times do I tell my kids, I'm busy preparing a sermon or I'm reading, or I have a paper to write for class or I have to work out or I have to………….fill in the blank.  Not that studying to preach or taking care of your health or any of the like is not important, but what if in that moment it was going to be a defining moment in your child's life?  What if that time you stop to play lego's they are going to come to see the gospel in your love for them?  What if that is the time that they see that dad truly does love me and he must truly love Jesus, he took time away from what he was doing for me.  Not only that, but time goes so quick.  Today is my daughters 5th birthday.  To me it seems just like yesterday she was learning to walk.  If I am too busy doing all these other things, I will miss out on those times that I will never get again.  This is her only 5th birthday, what she does today will only be done today.  I don't want to miss out on watching them learn and experience and see all that the Lord does in their lives.

While Hulk was sick I asked Don to preach on thursday night, because if Hulk had lived until tonight, I would have had to stay home and take care of him.  Life is but a vapor was heavy on his heart so he will preach from James about what are we doing with our time.  Our pastor's father just passed away a couple days ago and while Don was preparing he saw the news on Facebook.  When I read the post from Facebook, I was so blessed to see how my pastor was able to go and spend time with his father before the Lord took him into His presence.  I wondered, what if my pastor didn't have the time to go and visit his dad that one last time?   I wish we could have seen my grandmother one last time.  I wish Hulk was still running around chasing my kids.  One thing is for sure though.  I have this time and when my kids want me to take a break and build legos, play soccer, read a book or just talk, I have this time.  My pastor loves his kids and from what I have seen, he spends crazy time with them.  I respect that so much and I want to follow his example in that.  I have a God given congregation right in my own home.  They won't be in my "church" forever, so while they are here, I need to use the time.

BACK IN PERU

After a 7 week stateside furlough we are back home in Baños del Inca Peru.  It had been 16 months since we were in the US.  It was a very busy time, but we also had some good moments of refreshment.  One of the highlights of our trip was 2 days in Disneyland.  Nicole's parents blessed us with a fun time and her whole family was there.  It was not relaxing, but the kids loved it.  We got to see some family and share at our supporting churches and meet a bunch of new people so it was a much needed time.  We are glad to be back and getting back in the swing of things.  This month is a busy month with much planned at Refugio.  We will be having our annual Chocolatada on the 22nd.  This is a great time for those who do not come to church to hear the gospel.

I have to tell you about a little praise report on how the Lord blessed us.  When we arrived in Lima on thursday morning at 7 am, we went through customs and immigration and then went to check in for our connecting flight to Cajamarca which was supposed to be at 4:30 pm.  Coming out of customs, our dear friends Manolo and Holy (senior pastor of CC Lima and his wife) were there waiting for Holly's dad and they helped us push all our luggage over to the local terminal.  What a blessing that was.  It was good to see them and then they ran back to meet her dad.  When we got to the counter the attendant told us that our flight from Lima to Cajamarca was for the previous day.  When I booked the flights I booked the flight from Lima to SFO and then in a separate purchase, I bought our tickets from Lima to Cajamarca (we do this because we get a discount on in country flights because of our residency).  Well I messed up on the dates.  Keep in mind we have 11 checked bags and 5 carry-ons and 2 guitars.  The attendant left for a moment and then came back and said she is going to put us on the next flight and not charge us.  She felt bad because we had all the kids and bags and can see how we could of got confused on the dates.  The Lord is SO GOOD to us. We not only got a free flight, but we only had an hour and a half layover now.  When we were getting off the plane, a gentleman gave us a huge bag of Ghiradelli chocolate.  He said it was because our kids behaved so well on the flight.  We in turn blessed the attendant with the chocolate and she was ecstatic.  The Lord is SO GOOD.

Looking forward to see what the Lord continues to do here in Peru.    

7 week furlough

In October we are going back to the States for furlough.  We will be in the States a little over 7 weeks.  We are excited and nervous and every emotion that you can imagine.  We are so blessed that the Lord provided for the whole family to go back.  This will be the first time Arianna has ever been to the States.  We are looking forward to encourage and be encouraged.  We have a busy schedule but we also have some leisure times mixed in as well.  It will hard to leave the church and all our peoples here.  Praise the Lord that we have some good leaders and teachers who are going to be leading and shepherding the flock here.  Be praying for this time that it fruitful and restful and a time of great fellowship.

Looking to our victory

This sunday I will be teaching a very heavy text from Mark 8.  It is the section where Jesus calls anyone who wishes to follow him to deny themselves and pick up their cross.  This is a call to anyone who wishes to be a follower of Christ.  This is not just for the missionaries or the pastors.  This call, this demand is required of all who wish to be a disciple.  As Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated, 

“When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”

 
That is true and that is something to seriously ponder, but what we must also realize is what Jesus had declared right before issuing this sobering call.  In the previous few verses Jesus told his disciples that the Son of Man will suffer and die and be buried, but listen to this, will rise again.  Jesus did not stay dead and neither will those who deny themselves and take up their crosses.  Yes, the Christian walk is one of suffering for those who pursue godliness (2 Tim. 3:12), but we also know that this life is not the end.  This suffering here and now is temporary.  Of course that does not make it easier as we are going through tribulations and persecutions, but it helps to have the proper perspective.  So the call to deny yourself and take up your cross is a call to follow Christ to death, but as Calvin said, "Death is the way to life and the cross is the way to victory." 

Seeing Christ

Lately I have been working my way through The Death of Christ by James Denney.  I have had this book for quit some time and I will read a few chapters and set it down and then pick it up again and read some more.  It is a book that, at least for me, that I can not just power through.  It has a level of richness that I need to savor.  Going through it always brings me to reflect on Christ and the glories of the cross.

This is one of the books that transformed Martyn Lloyd Jones's preaching ministry.  After a message a man told him his message had very little Christ in it and Lloyd Jones went home and locked himself in a room and read this book and the Atonement by R. W. Dale.  These books transformed his ministry.  As I preach week after week, I do not want to have a conversation that I preach very little Christ.  I know that I have room to grow and I will always need to improve, but even now I must be sure to preach Christ.  Jesus said that the Scriptures testify of me (John 5:39).  Whatever portion of Scripture we come to, the focus must always be Christ. Spurgeon said "Whatever subject I preach, I do not stop until I reach the Savior. That is my goal.  As I pray and prepare each message I want to bring people to see Christ (John 12:21).

To see Christ, that is the gospel.  "Behold your God."  This is only possible through the cross.  Praise Him for His grace.

Soli deo Gloria