During this Easter season I would like to share my thoughts with you about the time that Jesus was on the cross. I want you to think about the final seven statements Jesus made before he died. In the bible the number seven refers to completion. Christ's work here on earth was finished.
The first statement Jesus made was recorded in Luke 23:34 "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." Notice there was absolutely no bitterness expressed in Jesus words. There were only words of a forgiving spirit. When Jesus said forgive them, he was speaking of Jews and Gentiles alike.
Luke 23:43 Records the second statement, "Today thou shalt be with me in paradise." This statement was directed to the thief on the cross. Here the word "today" goes with the words, "you will be with me." This indicates the thief would immediately be received into heaven, not as other scriptures reference being asleep in the Lord until the resurrection. Read here what
2nd Corinthians 5:6 & 8 says, Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
In John 19:26 the third statement Jesus uttered, "Woman, behold thy son!" To address Mary as "woman" may sound harsh to our ears today, but it was a title of courtesy and respect in that time and culture. The bible says Mary was blessed of women, but she was still a sinner and needed a savior the same as all of us. Mary said herself in Luke 1:27 "And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior."
Mark 15:34 records the fourth statement Jesus made, it was; "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" A Holy God hates sin but loves the sinner. 2nd Corinthians 5:21 tells us that Christ who was sinless became sin in order to pay sin's penalty for us. Galatians 3:13 tells us that Christ was made a curse for us and God turned completely away from him.
In John 19:28 the fifth statement was; " I Thirst." In John 7:37 Jesus says to all of us; "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." Revelation 21:6 "And he said unto me, it is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." To thirst here in these scriptures is to painfully feel the want of or to eagerly long for those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported and strengthened.
In John 19:30 the sixth statement was when Jesus said; "Finished." Here in John 17:4 is a shout of victory; "I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do."
In Luke 23:46 the seventh and final words Jesus said was; "Father into thy hands I commend my spirit."
Psalm 31:5 Into thine hand I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth.
To "commend" is to entrust for safekeeping, to deposit, to trust and believe in God's word just as the apostles did in Acts 14:23 And when they had ordained elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.
Acts 20:32 And now brethern, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them who are sanctified.
I want to urge all of you to read and think about these last words spoken by our Lord and Savior as he hung on the cross dying for all of us. Study the scriptures and listen as they speak to you personally.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Daily Bread, Valentine's Day, Tia Rafaela
The hardest part of writing a blog is matching the title to the contents. Know what I mean??
Came across this thought today and wanted to share it with you. "Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil - it has no point."
Are you guys reading your Daily Bread? John and I read ours each morning after breakfast. The other morning the subject was, The Other Side. It touched me as it spoke about the uncertainy of life. Who will be here another year? Who might by then be on the other side - in heaven? I remembered that I had came across the scripture they used, James 4:14 which says, For your life is like the morning fog - it's here a little while, then it's gone. I liked the scripture then and I like it now. Makes one think about how short life is and how important it is to make each moment count.
Last Sunday being Valentine's Day our service was about love and it's importance. Amazing how many songs one can find about love in a Christian Hymnal. Pastor John's message was entitled, Thoughts of Love. It pointed out how important love is in all our thoughts and actions. Then we moved over to the Homemakers Club for our annual Valentine's Day potluck. It is so wonderful being here with this church and receiving all the love that is given to us. Thank you!!
Today, John and I did our regular Wednesday Bethel Storehouse caper. That's such fun. We were told that many senior citizens came in for their food boxes yesterday. That meant the shelves were empty so John, Ray and I hit the ground running. We prepared 28 boxes, all senior boxes which are prepared for either one or two people. John had his monthly noon lunch ministerial meeting so he was not there helping us for a big part of the day. Meaning we didn't get as many boxes prepared as usual.
Now our thoughts turn to our Mexico trip. We will leave Monday, the 22nd and return the following Monday or Tuesday. We look forward to checking in on all our precious, needy ones there in Alamos as well as Hermano Nestor and family. Yesterday we made a Walmart run and purchased many personal items such as shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorants & etc. The stores there sell all the major brands that we have in the US, however they are more expensive. That means many don't have the basic things we take for granted here. Makes one feel guilty when we say, "we need this, we gotta have that". Really, we could do with lots less.
This is Tia Rafaela and her grandson. She is one of our have-nots. Precious lady. She had a very hard shell (no smiles) when we began ministering to her. We gave her the Tia (aunt) title, don't why. Over time she came to love us. She lives in a small one room shack without the modern necessities of life, however she has some beautiful flowers and always wanted to give me a small plant she had started in a milk carton or a soda can. I want to take her a bare root rose bush, hopefully it'll survive crossing the border.
One day in December when we stopped by her place we found her in the yard attempting to wash the clothes (in cold water) with her left hand as she had fallen and broken her right arm. She, being right handed that did not work very well. We asked if she knew someone who would do her washing until the arm healed. Yes, the woman next door would probably do it. We negotiated a price of 100 pesos a week to do Tia's washing. That's was about $8.50 USD. The neighbor did the laundry for her for about six weeks as Tia's arm healed. These are the things one does for the love of God and our fellow man.
Came across this thought today and wanted to share it with you. "Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil - it has no point."
Are you guys reading your Daily Bread? John and I read ours each morning after breakfast. The other morning the subject was, The Other Side. It touched me as it spoke about the uncertainy of life. Who will be here another year? Who might by then be on the other side - in heaven? I remembered that I had came across the scripture they used, James 4:14 which says, For your life is like the morning fog - it's here a little while, then it's gone. I liked the scripture then and I like it now. Makes one think about how short life is and how important it is to make each moment count.
Last Sunday being Valentine's Day our service was about love and it's importance. Amazing how many songs one can find about love in a Christian Hymnal. Pastor John's message was entitled, Thoughts of Love. It pointed out how important love is in all our thoughts and actions. Then we moved over to the Homemakers Club for our annual Valentine's Day potluck. It is so wonderful being here with this church and receiving all the love that is given to us. Thank you!!
Today, John and I did our regular Wednesday Bethel Storehouse caper. That's such fun. We were told that many senior citizens came in for their food boxes yesterday. That meant the shelves were empty so John, Ray and I hit the ground running. We prepared 28 boxes, all senior boxes which are prepared for either one or two people. John had his monthly noon lunch ministerial meeting so he was not there helping us for a big part of the day. Meaning we didn't get as many boxes prepared as usual.
Now our thoughts turn to our Mexico trip. We will leave Monday, the 22nd and return the following Monday or Tuesday. We look forward to checking in on all our precious, needy ones there in Alamos as well as Hermano Nestor and family. Yesterday we made a Walmart run and purchased many personal items such as shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorants & etc. The stores there sell all the major brands that we have in the US, however they are more expensive. That means many don't have the basic things we take for granted here. Makes one feel guilty when we say, "we need this, we gotta have that". Really, we could do with lots less.
This is Tia Rafaela and her grandson. She is one of our have-nots. Precious lady. She had a very hard shell (no smiles) when we began ministering to her. We gave her the Tia (aunt) title, don't why. Over time she came to love us. She lives in a small one room shack without the modern necessities of life, however she has some beautiful flowers and always wanted to give me a small plant she had started in a milk carton or a soda can. I want to take her a bare root rose bush, hopefully it'll survive crossing the border.
One day in December when we stopped by her place we found her in the yard attempting to wash the clothes (in cold water) with her left hand as she had fallen and broken her right arm. She, being right handed that did not work very well. We asked if she knew someone who would do her washing until the arm healed. Yes, the woman next door would probably do it. We negotiated a price of 100 pesos a week to do Tia's washing. That's was about $8.50 USD. The neighbor did the laundry for her for about six weeks as Tia's arm healed. These are the things one does for the love of God and our fellow man.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Mission work
This is one of those lonesome roads that we would take to a countryside village. The beauty of God's creation never fails to stir my heart.Always be ready to answer God's call, Acts 9:6 Lord, what will thou have me to do?
For the past several months I had been putting off making a trip to Sierra Vista, Az. and then on to Nogales, Mexico. This past week I convinced myself that I should get this trip out of the way.
On Tuesday morning the 9th I left Albuquerque Sunport on Southwest Airlines and flew to Los Angeles and then back to Tucson. (Strange flight pattern - no, when you fly free you take whatever gets you there.) In Tucson I rented a car and drove to Sierra Vista, AZ. There I spent the night and the next morning with the help of a friend we made the trip to Nogales, Mexico to deliver a van to one of our Mexican pastors who had ridden the bus up from Alamos, Mexico where Ginger and I had served as missonaries for 11 years. This aged van (1996) was donated to our work in Mx and it had been a faithful friend for all those Mexico years. It allowed us to ferry special education students to school each day and provide transportation to folks wanting to attend church as well as delivering food boxes for 11 years to our needy families in Alamos.
A Mexican pastor Matias is a very dear friend of ours and one of the most dedicated workers for the Lord that I have ever known. This man is one of the men whom you may remember us referring to as the "Lazarus Brothers" He is one of those workers who has truly denied himself, taken up his cross and followed Jesus wherever he leads. The van was truly needed for his ministry work there in Mexico. Many small mountain villages which have no church receive the message of Jesus Christ from this dedicated man of God. It was truly a blessing to get to see him and enjoy fellowship with him although it was only for a short time. When I think of this man who has forsaken all the comforts of life as we know them and totally dedicates his life, body, soul and Spirit to serving the Lord it makes me wonder how many of us would be willing to do the same for our Lord and Savior. Let's pray that the van continues to serve our Lord for many more years.
There are many pastors in Mexico who love and serve our Lord in just the same way as Hermano (brother) Matias and everyone of them should be very precious to us. I would ask all of you to please lift them up in prayer each and every day.
The Stanley Union Church is very generous in their financial support of our Mexico mission work. I would like to say a big thank you to the church for allowing Ginger and I the time to visit with our Mexican pastors two or three times a year as it is wonderful to visit with them and see first hand the work that God is doing through these wonderful God fearing men.
Please remember them in your prayers.
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