Monday, June 29, 2009
To Every Tribe Website
To Every Tribe has an improved website - check it out at www.toeverytribe.com. They have given a page to each missionary and to those in training. You can find us under the "to train" section which tells about the school. We will have a blog attached to our page at some point in the future with a photo gallery as well. We will let you know if / when we switch blogs but hope you'll put the page on your faves.
Dental and Bible Study in EZ, Mex.
Last month we took our in-training missionary denists to EZ in Mexico to visit our friends there and do some dental work for the village. Dr. Gerry Beauchemin offers a basic course for missionaries in dentistry that enable them to check for and fill cavities. It is a great way to reach out to people in remote or not so remote places. Dr. Gerry has a heart for showing compassion in this way and is very mission minded. Debbie thoroughly enjoyed connecting with the people of EZ in this way and we can see lots of potential for this skill in the future. Below are some pics we took while there.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Hidden From Sight
Psalm 42:7-8
Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
There isn’t anything more unpleasant than feeling like you can’t find the face of the Lord. It seems there are times when sin clouds our view. We need a better perspective. Possibly at times we are too focused on ourselves or our circumstances. Our vision of God can be clouded by many evil thoughts. The enemy is always working to get our minds on the world and off of God. In those times there is the mental knowledge of God but no real sense of his presence. We fight with faith for faith until we can discern his voice again.
There are other times though, when it seems that we cannot “see” the face of God and yet feel strangely close to him. There are times when he takes us aside to himself and holds us in a way that we cannot see him in the way we like but feel he is very near. The picture that comes to mind is as if you were sitting in God’s palm and he put his other hand over you, to cup you in. There is a closeness that is undeniable yet it is a little lonely. You feel isolated from your ministry objectives and wonder how to be close to people. You feel alone with your sins and it seems that the consuming fire of God is dangerously close. It is dark in the sense of not cheery but not evil. Perhaps you have come closer than you bargained for? If you were not sure you were in his hand, you would have great fear of judgement.
This is a place of quiet and of few distractions. Sinful thoughts are unraveled and there is the exposing of some of the depth of sin you are capable of and are loving. This is a place to be stripped of filthy rags. This is not the awareness of some simple adjustment you need to make. It is an awareness of what justice would mean were it not for the wounds and death of Jesus. God brings conviction until you are at the brink of despair, yet you are not hopeless. God knows who you are and for this time you know some of who you are also. Gratitude and godly fear abound.
What can be prayed at this time? Who can open their mouth except to say, “save me or I will not be saved!”? There doesn’t seem to be voice for any other request. God is near; lovingly near. He is saving. He is close and you are glad that you are in his hand. He will not consume his own hand and he will not deny the request through his Son. Praise God! His mercy is real. Salvation is not a yesterday necessity that you have received. It is a right this moment necessity that you have the privilege of realizing. It is the kind of realization that doesn’t come on bright cheery days when you see God smiling. It comes when he draws you close enough for you to feel the heat of his holiness and the fire of hell within yourself. It is a gracious dose of his love and beauty that can only be seen in the darkness of his hand cupped over you.
This is the kind of love from God that made the Apostle Paul declare that he was the chief of sinners. He was given the discipline of God’s mercy and was able to see some of what he was being saved from. Thank God for all his wonderful and terrifying ways. He is a God to be bowed to, a hand to be cowered under and also the only safe place anywhere. When we see what we would be without Jesus (a little like toast) we can appreciate him more. When we see what we are and what we would be stuck with if he had not brought us the light of his gospel; we are blown away by what we have received. The hand is removed and something is different. God is bigger, you are smaller.
Heb 12:6
My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Enemies of The Cross
Philippians 3:18-19
For many, of whom I have told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
How easy it is for us who claim Christ to think the enemies of the cross are those who are busy with blatant sins or those who would not even consider entering our churches. It is easy to see the unbeliever as the enemy of the cross. Those who don’t trust Christ do not know the value of the cross and have no part in it. But the Apostle Paul is talking about those who are among the children of God. Otherwise there would not have been reason for him to warn them twice.
Those who are enemies of the cross have no death in their gospel. For them, no death is required for life to be gained. They believe they can hold onto the world and have Jesus also. They think that Jesus’ death is all that is required. Certainly Jesus death is sufficient for our forgiveness. But Jesus calls his disciples to follow him in suffering and death; to pick up their cross daily. Paul says they are specifically “enemies of the cross”. These do not put themselves forth as anti-gospel or anti Jesus. They have knowledge of his atoning sacrifice for our sins but they refuse to accept the command to leave the world and die to the flesh. Since they are unwilling to follow in the prescribed way; they are eager to justify themselves with outward works.
Enemies of the cross are enemies of Jesus. If we despise our cross and hate the command to die to ourselves and set aside our earthly treasures, what do we have to look forward to besides the accumulation of worldly treasures? Without the company of Jesus at our cross, what do we have to enjoy besides the endless worldly pleasures? If we set ourselves against the cross assigned to us, our God will be our belly.
There is the tendency to quickly defend the appetites of the flesh. The natural appetites are not necessarily always evil. They are only evil in so far as they deter a person from following Jesus with their whole hearts. But here is the problem: we kid ourselves that they are not deterring us when they are. Since we do not have the ability to gauge our own hearts, Jesus protects us with the command to lose our lives that we may find them. He makes a perfect example of not living for earthly things and tells us to follow him in this. We protect our inclination to befriend the world with the claim that in would be legalistic not to.
Beware lest you think your appetites are too small to be harmful; it is a lie. Perhaps your satisfaction comes with a quiet life with simple pleasures like family and fishing. You say you don’t want many possessions – just a simple life. To do what? It doesn’t have to be riches and a breakneck pace to kill you, spiritually. Whatever your life is about, if it’s not killing the desires of the flesh – not merely turning away but running in the opposite direction; it’s just numbing your spirit.
For many, of whom I have told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
How easy it is for us who claim Christ to think the enemies of the cross are those who are busy with blatant sins or those who would not even consider entering our churches. It is easy to see the unbeliever as the enemy of the cross. Those who don’t trust Christ do not know the value of the cross and have no part in it. But the Apostle Paul is talking about those who are among the children of God. Otherwise there would not have been reason for him to warn them twice.
Those who are enemies of the cross have no death in their gospel. For them, no death is required for life to be gained. They believe they can hold onto the world and have Jesus also. They think that Jesus’ death is all that is required. Certainly Jesus death is sufficient for our forgiveness. But Jesus calls his disciples to follow him in suffering and death; to pick up their cross daily. Paul says they are specifically “enemies of the cross”. These do not put themselves forth as anti-gospel or anti Jesus. They have knowledge of his atoning sacrifice for our sins but they refuse to accept the command to leave the world and die to the flesh. Since they are unwilling to follow in the prescribed way; they are eager to justify themselves with outward works.
Enemies of the cross are enemies of Jesus. If we despise our cross and hate the command to die to ourselves and set aside our earthly treasures, what do we have to look forward to besides the accumulation of worldly treasures? Without the company of Jesus at our cross, what do we have to enjoy besides the endless worldly pleasures? If we set ourselves against the cross assigned to us, our God will be our belly.
There is the tendency to quickly defend the appetites of the flesh. The natural appetites are not necessarily always evil. They are only evil in so far as they deter a person from following Jesus with their whole hearts. But here is the problem: we kid ourselves that they are not deterring us when they are. Since we do not have the ability to gauge our own hearts, Jesus protects us with the command to lose our lives that we may find them. He makes a perfect example of not living for earthly things and tells us to follow him in this. We protect our inclination to befriend the world with the claim that in would be legalistic not to.
Beware lest you think your appetites are too small to be harmful; it is a lie. Perhaps your satisfaction comes with a quiet life with simple pleasures like family and fishing. You say you don’t want many possessions – just a simple life. To do what? It doesn’t have to be riches and a breakneck pace to kill you, spiritually. Whatever your life is about, if it’s not killing the desires of the flesh – not merely turning away but running in the opposite direction; it’s just numbing your spirit.
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