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I also want to give you an update from Tim’s visit to Quito, Ecuador. You will see how God answered your prayers for his time there and what to pray for in the future.
“Last week we joined our awesome Lord at work in Quito, Ecuador. The first day we talked much about the problems and challenges within the church both at home and abroad. The second day we decided that instead of joining "Martha" at work in the outer circles of the world and church that we would join "Mary" at the feet of Jesus (Luke 10:38ff). From spending time with Jesus to having a deeper understanding of the crucified life in Christ (Thank You Pablo and Judy), the Spirit launched us into the fullness of Christ and the necessity of oneness in our marriage. Each of us left with a renewed commitment to sitting at the feet of Jesus and loving our wives as Christ loved the Church, realizing without these components in our ministry, we labor in vain. GOD is at work in Ecuador! (See below what Pablo writes.) What a privilege and joy to join with these dear brothers and our awesome Lord at work in Ecuador. The Holy Spirit has started a renewal and revival among some key leaders challenging us all to be godly leaders in our families and churches. Pressing on for the Prize!” Tim Pablo: “We want to give thanks to God for allowing us to be translators, for this training these last three days. The topic was the plan of God for His church, using biblical principles that transcend time and cultures. Ecuador is the only country in Latin America where he has given this training. We have a challenge to share with leaders, this workshop, which serves to plant new churches and renew the churches already established, and become a catalyst for a revival.”
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Oswald J. Sanders told the story of a missionary at a Finisher Project meeting in 1992 when Sanders was eighty-nine. He said that an indigenous missionary walked barefoot from village to village preaching the gospel in India. After a long day of many miles and much discouragement, he came to a certain village and tried to speak the gospel, but was spurned. So he went to the edge of the village dejected and lay down under a tree and slept from exhaustion.
When he awoke, the whole town was gathered to hear him. The head man of the village explained that they had looked him over while he was sleeping. When they saw his blistered feet, they concluded that he must be a holy man and that they had been evil to reject him. They were sorry and wanted to hear the message for which he was willing to suffer so much to bring them. Piper, John, Let the Nations Be Glad – The Supremacy of God in Missions, Baker Academic 2003, pages 92-93. What marks do people see in our lives that make our message of the gospel authentic? In recent days the Lord has chosen to change my physical condition such that my next training trip is canceled. In my mind, this disappointment is overwhelming – until I entered the Lord’s presence and we had a heart-to-heart talk. In our training sessions, we strongly emphasize the central importance of a daily, close and intimate relationship with the Lord. I have strongly felt that if these principles were not lived out by myself, there would be no power in teaching them to others. Though I did not hear an audible voice, I know the Lord has spoken to me the last few mornings with words of comfort and perspective so that when my doctor told me today that it was not possible to go on the next trip, I was ready for the verdict.
Jeremiah was writing to discouraged elders of Israel in exile under a pagan king and he says to them, “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11). It really doesn’t matter what our circumstances or what period of human history we live in, God’s plans are in place and will never change. Our problem is that we allow circumstances to diminish our view of who God is and His Word, which means that we turn our attention away from the Author and Finisher of our faith to much lesser thinking, weakened faith and unbelieving actions. I love the admonition of Hebrew 12:12; “Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.” (Hebrews 12:12–13). This section continues in verse 15 to say, “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God.” If we miss receiving the grace in God in any circumstance we go through, we will miss the luster, freshness and power of the Lord’s presence and become unfit to impact the lives of others who are in need. I want to take us back to the comments of Oswald J. Smith in his book, The Challenge of Missions, where he rightly laments missionaries who act as pastors of native churches – “a thing unknown in Scripture”. Unlike Paul, many work in a place for “twenty, twenty-five, thirty years…have to admit that the country in which they have labored for so long, and in some cases even the city in which they live and preach, is still unevangelized. What a tragedy!
What, then, should they have done? They should have followed the example of Paul. They should have kept the evangelization of the entire country constantly in mind, adopting the Scriptural methods that would have made this possible. The business…of the foreign missionary is to train native workers and put responsibility upon them. Each church should be self-governing, and like a hive, it should repeatedly swarm. Thus new churches would be constantly springing up and in a short time the entire country would be evangelized.” Pages 93 and 94. “The word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” (2 Timothy 2:10).
Paul’s view of his calling was so clear and strong that everything he did was focused on fulfilling God’s purpose in ministry to others. He gave three examples prior to this verse of the good soldier, an athlete and a hard-working farmer. In all three, Paul points to a single minded attitude that is bent on accomplishing their purpose. Enduring suffering in all three cases was part of their calling. Paul is now giving himself as an example of one who endured “everything for the sake of the elect”. There was no higher goal for Paul and there can be no higher goal for us than to do whatever is necessary so that the elect are saved and immediately grow in spiritual maturity. Is this your aim in life and ministry? If you are going through a tough time, as I am this week, ask God to give you His strength to endure, not for your sake, but for the sake of those you serve so they may be blessed and come into a stronger relationship with Jesus Christ. “The word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” (2 Timothy 2:10).
Paul was bound in chains and shortly to face death at the hands of the Roman government, yet he was free in his spirit and was absolutely certain that the Word of God was not bound. To the degree that we see God’s Word as greater and more powerful than any other force in the universe is the degree we will be willing to use it to accomplish God’s purpose and plan now through us. Chains, persecution, opposition or the decay of the world will never limit what God has plannned His Word will accomplish. God gives the proof of this truth through the prophet Isaiah when He says, “so shall My word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11). How do you see God’s Word? Will you use it through the help of the Holy Spirit to accomplish God’s purpose and plan? “For over a hundred years now we have been sending our missionaries to be pastors of native churches, and thus God’s order has been reversed. Our methods as a church have not been Scriptural. Hence, the world is still unevangelized in spite of all our efforts.
Paul, the greatest and most successful missionary the world has ever known, did not become a pastor. He traveled, preached, won converts, organized churches, placed them under native leadership, and passed on. He did not attempt to change the manners and customs of the people. The gospel, where necessary, did that. He placed responsibility upon the natives themselves, made the churches he founded self-supporting and self-propagating, and that from the very first. He founded no colleges, built no hospitals and erected no church buildings. The natives provided for their own needs.” Smith, Oswald J., The Challenge of Missions, page 92. “God uses the suffering of his missionaries to awaken others out of their slumbers of indifference and make them bold. When Paul was imprisoned in Rome, he wrote of this to the church in Philippi, “Most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear” (Philippians 1:14). If He must, God will use the sufferings of His devoted emissaries to make a sleeping church wake up and take risks for God.”
Piper, John, Let the Nations be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions, Baker Academic, 2003, page 90. Please forgive me for not keeping up with my daily posts while we have been traveling. I have taken time today to reread portions Oswald J. Smith’s book, The Challenge of Missions, and discovered a portion that speaks to a major problem that hinders the expansion of the gospel in the western world.
“Did you ever see the little inexpensive {buildings used by this cult]? You have never known them to build a cathedral. Why? Because they realize that the message is more important than the building. Therefore, they put their money into the message, not into the building. That is where the Christian Church has made its greatest mistake. We have been putting out money into buildings instead of the message. It is the message that is dynamic. “The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16). Not the building message. How many church buildings were there when the Apostle Paul commenced his great missionary work? Not one! My friends, we will have to decide whether we are going to put our money into the building or into the message if we are ever going to evangelize the world.” (Pages 85-86). The Early Church expanded faster in the first century than in any century after. They did not invest in buildings, but in the power of God the Spirit communicating through them living truth to those who had not heard. This is worthy of careful consideration. God did a special work through the preaching of the gospel at Thessalonica. “For you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.” (1 Thessalonians 1:6–7). They knew firsthand the saving power of God’s Word and the work of the Holy Spirit in making the gospel a living testimony to the power of God.
For that reason, Paul does not hesitate to capitalize on the example of these young Christians by asking them to “pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed [run or rush in progress] ahead and be honored, as happened among you” (2 Thessalonians 3:1). Paul was very concerned that the gospel would spread rapidly. This must be one of our primary concerns so that those who have never heard will hear! |
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