The Four Crosses:
We come to a crossroad in our life. We aren’t sure where we want to go, but we know that we need to make a choice. We need to find out which way we’re headed and why we’re heading that way. This is the first cross that each of us must come to in life. We must ask ourselves what it is that we believe, why it is that we are living, and which path it is that we will take.
We then come to the cross of Christ. We see that we cannot save ourselves; we realize that we have no hope of freeing ourselves from our sin and our flesh. We know that Jesus died for us and that He can provide us with eternal life. Now, as we stand in front of the second cross, we’re forced to make a decision as to whether we will receive Jesus’ free gift of salvation. Whether we will walk away from Christ’s cross unchanged, having seen the mercy of Almighty God, or whether we will receive what Jesus did on that second cross and begin living for Him.
The third cross we come upon is the cross of death. This is the cross that all believers must first jump up on. I do not mean to say that we literally climb upon a wooden post, but a metaphorical cross appears before us. At this point we must choose to die to our carnal selves and we must carry that cross as a reminder for the rest of our lives. Just as in Christ we have all died…. The Word says that in Adam all men die, but I am not talking about a death in the physical sense, I am talk about death to the fleshly world and desires. In Christ all men die to their desires, their nature, their will, their wants, their sin.
Unfortunately far too many Christians think that this is the end of the road. Many Christians have gotten to the point where they came to the cross of Christ and they’ve made a decision to follow Him and they even decided to jump on their own cross and die to their flesh- but then they stop. They’ve been fooled into believing that God’s ultimate goal for their lives is to be sin-free. They think that getting sin out is the ‘Missio Dei’. We decide that the ultimate goal of a Christian is to be free from sin.
Yet, we see men like David who had an extramarital affair and murdered a man to try to cover it up. Abraham who got so sick of waiting on God that he had sex with and spawned a child with his maidservant. We see Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, who was so addicted to smoking that the tobacco companies used his face and personal quotes about cigarettes as a logo to sell their products. These were men who had sin in their lives and they failed in some aspect or portion of their life; but they did far more for the cause of God than nearly any others throughout history.
Why?
Because they were willing to be obedient. Obedience is better than sacrifice and quite frankly we DO need to get the sin out of our lives- but we need to be obedient FIRST AND FOREMOST!
This is where we come to the fourth cross. If we look at the progression we see a man who stumbles upon a crossroad. After standing at the fork he makes a short deliberation and then decides to follow God’s narrow path to see where it leads him. When he walks just a short way down this road of discovery and curiosity about faith in Christ he is then taken to the cross of the Almighty One whom gave himself as a sacrificial atonement. The man stands before the cross of Christ and decides that in and of himself he has no good thing to offer and he cannot take that step towards God, Therefore he will receive the open door, the bridged gap, that Christ has made for him when He died on the cross. Once he has stepped away from the cross that led to his salvation he is now led to another cross which is calling to him. It is his own cross. Will he now die to his carnal desires and his own will? Will he now get up on that cross and die? Will he cross over from life in and of himself to death in Jesus Christ? He chooses to die to himself and take up his own cross. A wise decision and one that will change every fiber of his destiny!
BUT… there’s still more.
He has crossed from life into death, but now he needs to cross back into life. The fourth cross is a crossing from death to the flesh, into a new life in Jesus Christ. This is where so many believers fail. We love the freedom that Christ offers- freedom from sin, freedom from self, freedom from pain, freedom from religion and fruitless personal strivings, freedom from hell. Yet we sit back in joy, having been purchased at the highest price any has ever paid, and we do nothing to return the favor to the King. Too many believers have failed to take the fourth step- or at least to fully take it.
When a man or a woman comes to that fourth cross and decides to come back to life in Christ Jesus he or she makes a declaration tantamount to that of the apostle Paul.
“For me to live is Christ and to die is gain!”
We have now made the decision that our efforts, our time, our money, our belongings, our everything is going to be used to bring glory to God and not to ourselves. We have decided that we will now live to advance the cause of Christ, not the cause of self. We have become a people who live to serve and bless others- not because it’s easy or it’s natural (although with time it becomes that way), but because we feel indebted to the One who gave everything for us.
We cannot skip out on any of these four crosses or our personal walk with Christ will be lacking and our salvation can be brought into question. Have you come to the crossroad? Have you seen the cross of Christ? Have you taken up your own cross and died to yourself? Have you crossed over from a fruitless life into a metaphorical death and back into life in Christ so that you may live each moment for the glory of God?
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Many See The Vision, But Few Catch It!
I have a clear picture in my mind of the typical American church, most people in the US have a similar image within their mind's eye.
It doesn't look too different from a professional ball game:
There are key players who stand in front of the audience and keep them entertained and satisfied. The key players in our churches aren't very different in practice from our pro-athletes; they are the superstars who were 'called' by God to go and preach the gospel. They were called to give of themselves in every aspect, while the rest of us just sit back and receive.
(or at least thus it would appear to an outsider)...
We've done it this way in our churches for quite some time, around a century. The superstars do the bulkload of the work while the rest of us sit back and participate by way of the occasional cheer, a little (at times even a large) donation, and a few prayers. Not very different from a sports fan when you think about it.
This style of church has become commonplace in the US and has even been exported elsewhere in the world. Just the main players are called, it's their job- their career. Only the starters should be in the game, the rest of us are backups and spectators; "Why we aren't called to full-time ministry... they are!"
I'll never forget when a young man asked me to talk to his family about Christ. He came to me and told me how he had recently converted within the last year or so and he wanted someone to share the gospel with his family. When I asked what they said when he told them about Jesus he said the following:
"Who me? I've never really shared that with them. I mean I'm not a minister and I don't think it's my style or my job to talk to them about that kind of stuff."
I was baffled! I told him that it was the responsibility of every believer to preach the gospel and I began sharing with him some creative methods for sharing his testimony or at least inviting them to church. I found out shortly after that he still hadn't taken that step because according to him that was someone else's job.
Unfortunately this is not the exception, this has become the American standard!
BUT, that's not the Biblical standard!!
There are two clear callings in the Bible:
1- The call to salvation.
This is the call from sin, into repentance, and into freedom at God's side.
(Matthew 9:13, Matthew 22:14, Luke 13, Acts 2:39, Romans 8:30, Galatians 5:13, etc..)
2- The call to preach the gospel.
This is a call for ALL BELIEVERS! To preach the gospel in action, in deed, and in word to our neighbors, our family, our friends, the state, the nation, and the world!
(Matthew 28:18-19, Acts 16:10, Matthew 24:14, Mark 13:10, Acts 8:4, Acts 10:42, etc..)
There is no pastoral call, no missionary call, no evangelist call. There is just a call to preach the gospel! Why then aren't we catching the vision? Whether it's as the lawn mower, the floor sweeper, the worship director, the bereavement coordinator, the cook, the deacon, or the pastor- we all ought to be preaching the gospel in action, word, and power! Just a few months ago in Peru two of our workers were ribbing on each other and one said to the other "Your job is to hold the microphone for Matt if the stand breaks during his preaching." The other wisely replied, "If that's my job then I'll do it with joy so that I can bring glory to Christ's name and facilitate the gospel to the 3,000 in attendance tonight." Once we realize that there are no minor roles in the Lord's work we'll be free to develop into the people we ought to be!
I contemplate the thousands of people who have seen the vision of our ministry in Peru and have seen the suffering of the children there and have even given a donation or said a prayer. I then am reminded that out of the thousands who've seen and heard and even the dozens who've gone to Peru and visited; only a few have really caught the vision. There is a list of maybe a half dozen to a dozen people whom I can name that have really put in a little elbow grease to help raise funds, open doors, or do something of eternal value to make sure those kids receive food, education, and opportunity. There are hundreds with immense talent and thousands with something to offer to advance that cause YET only a handful have taken the vision and ran with it. Most look at it as my and Aracelli's responsibility to care for the children at the school in Peru not the church of Christ as a whole.
I've often asked myself- What if just 20 people did 2 fundraisers a year? What if just 10 people really worked to make a difference? How different would the lives of the less fortunate be? How many more new opportunities would they have? How many other schools or orphanages could we plant across the world? If I gave more of my time, my efforts, my money- how many more lives would be touched? Why am I content to give so little? Why are you? Why don't we do more for those in need and for the lost?
How different would the local church look if every individual was truly working as an active member in the body of Christ? Why are so many of the appendages in the body of Christ asleep? Someone once said that we need to be the change that we want to see in others. If we aren't willing to step up, who will?
On numerous occasions I have been told that the church should do 'this' or 'that'. "Why doesn't the church do this?", they ask. "Why doesn't pastor do that?", they ask. "Why don't you just do a chicken dinner to get funding", they say. I always respond with the same... "That's a great idea, you should take it by the horns and run with it! You can really make an impact." Then for some crazy reason, almost inevitably, we don't do it... WHY?
Oh yeah, we aren't called to full-time ministry. Those people are, so it's their job. We'll just throw our scraps into the offering plate and send up a little prayer and walk away feeling content. Maybe when we're really moved we'll give sacrificially or spend 10 or 20 minutes praying for the need.
Or maybe we won't? Maybe we'll wake up! Maybe we'll catch a vision and give of our time, money, efforts, and passion to help reach the lost. Maybe we'll give up a little self-pleasure or *gulp* even a necessity (or at least things deemed necessary by American society) to help feed the poor? Maybe we'll live a truly purpose-driven life and live for the benefit of others and not just ourselves?
Lord help me to scan my life to see what I can give up for your glory!
I fear that when it's all said and done each of us will look back at our lives much like the character who played Oscar Schindler did in the movie Schindler's List. We will be standing there at the end of it all taking off our watches and desiring to sell our goods so that we can touch just one more life, but it'll be too late. Those lives will have been snuffed out by things we could've prevented and those souls will be lost eternally because we didn't step up. For now we're content to live a life of self-absorption and self-advancement while the world dies of curable disease and starvation. We're content to play church while over a billion will die without ever hearing the name of Jesus Christ. We're content to amass wealth while the world suffers and perishes. Are we living with vision and driven by vision, or are we just seeing it?
Dear God, help me to catch the vision- not just to see it! Help us to remember that we are all called to preach the gospel with our actions, our lifestyle, our money, our time, and even with our words when it's necessary. Help us not to have regrets when it's all said and done, but to be able to stand strong at the end of it all and say:
"I'm leaving this world a better place than it was when I found it!"p
It doesn't look too different from a professional ball game:
There are key players who stand in front of the audience and keep them entertained and satisfied. The key players in our churches aren't very different in practice from our pro-athletes; they are the superstars who were 'called' by God to go and preach the gospel. They were called to give of themselves in every aspect, while the rest of us just sit back and receive.
(or at least thus it would appear to an outsider)...
We've done it this way in our churches for quite some time, around a century. The superstars do the bulkload of the work while the rest of us sit back and participate by way of the occasional cheer, a little (at times even a large) donation, and a few prayers. Not very different from a sports fan when you think about it.
This style of church has become commonplace in the US and has even been exported elsewhere in the world. Just the main players are called, it's their job- their career. Only the starters should be in the game, the rest of us are backups and spectators; "Why we aren't called to full-time ministry... they are!"
I'll never forget when a young man asked me to talk to his family about Christ. He came to me and told me how he had recently converted within the last year or so and he wanted someone to share the gospel with his family. When I asked what they said when he told them about Jesus he said the following:
"Who me? I've never really shared that with them. I mean I'm not a minister and I don't think it's my style or my job to talk to them about that kind of stuff."
I was baffled! I told him that it was the responsibility of every believer to preach the gospel and I began sharing with him some creative methods for sharing his testimony or at least inviting them to church. I found out shortly after that he still hadn't taken that step because according to him that was someone else's job.
Unfortunately this is not the exception, this has become the American standard!
BUT, that's not the Biblical standard!!
There are two clear callings in the Bible:
1- The call to salvation.
This is the call from sin, into repentance, and into freedom at God's side.
(Matthew 9:13, Matthew 22:14, Luke 13, Acts 2:39, Romans 8:30, Galatians 5:13, etc..)
2- The call to preach the gospel.
This is a call for ALL BELIEVERS! To preach the gospel in action, in deed, and in word to our neighbors, our family, our friends, the state, the nation, and the world!
(Matthew 28:18-19, Acts 16:10, Matthew 24:14, Mark 13:10, Acts 8:4, Acts 10:42, etc..)
There is no pastoral call, no missionary call, no evangelist call. There is just a call to preach the gospel! Why then aren't we catching the vision? Whether it's as the lawn mower, the floor sweeper, the worship director, the bereavement coordinator, the cook, the deacon, or the pastor- we all ought to be preaching the gospel in action, word, and power! Just a few months ago in Peru two of our workers were ribbing on each other and one said to the other "Your job is to hold the microphone for Matt if the stand breaks during his preaching." The other wisely replied, "If that's my job then I'll do it with joy so that I can bring glory to Christ's name and facilitate the gospel to the 3,000 in attendance tonight." Once we realize that there are no minor roles in the Lord's work we'll be free to develop into the people we ought to be!
I contemplate the thousands of people who have seen the vision of our ministry in Peru and have seen the suffering of the children there and have even given a donation or said a prayer. I then am reminded that out of the thousands who've seen and heard and even the dozens who've gone to Peru and visited; only a few have really caught the vision. There is a list of maybe a half dozen to a dozen people whom I can name that have really put in a little elbow grease to help raise funds, open doors, or do something of eternal value to make sure those kids receive food, education, and opportunity. There are hundreds with immense talent and thousands with something to offer to advance that cause YET only a handful have taken the vision and ran with it. Most look at it as my and Aracelli's responsibility to care for the children at the school in Peru not the church of Christ as a whole.
I've often asked myself- What if just 20 people did 2 fundraisers a year? What if just 10 people really worked to make a difference? How different would the lives of the less fortunate be? How many more new opportunities would they have? How many other schools or orphanages could we plant across the world? If I gave more of my time, my efforts, my money- how many more lives would be touched? Why am I content to give so little? Why are you? Why don't we do more for those in need and for the lost?
How different would the local church look if every individual was truly working as an active member in the body of Christ? Why are so many of the appendages in the body of Christ asleep? Someone once said that we need to be the change that we want to see in others. If we aren't willing to step up, who will?
On numerous occasions I have been told that the church should do 'this' or 'that'. "Why doesn't the church do this?", they ask. "Why doesn't pastor do that?", they ask. "Why don't you just do a chicken dinner to get funding", they say. I always respond with the same... "That's a great idea, you should take it by the horns and run with it! You can really make an impact." Then for some crazy reason, almost inevitably, we don't do it... WHY?
Oh yeah, we aren't called to full-time ministry. Those people are, so it's their job. We'll just throw our scraps into the offering plate and send up a little prayer and walk away feeling content. Maybe when we're really moved we'll give sacrificially or spend 10 or 20 minutes praying for the need.
Or maybe we won't? Maybe we'll wake up! Maybe we'll catch a vision and give of our time, money, efforts, and passion to help reach the lost. Maybe we'll give up a little self-pleasure or *gulp* even a necessity (or at least things deemed necessary by American society) to help feed the poor? Maybe we'll live a truly purpose-driven life and live for the benefit of others and not just ourselves?
Lord help me to scan my life to see what I can give up for your glory!
I fear that when it's all said and done each of us will look back at our lives much like the character who played Oscar Schindler did in the movie Schindler's List. We will be standing there at the end of it all taking off our watches and desiring to sell our goods so that we can touch just one more life, but it'll be too late. Those lives will have been snuffed out by things we could've prevented and those souls will be lost eternally because we didn't step up. For now we're content to live a life of self-absorption and self-advancement while the world dies of curable disease and starvation. We're content to play church while over a billion will die without ever hearing the name of Jesus Christ. We're content to amass wealth while the world suffers and perishes. Are we living with vision and driven by vision, or are we just seeing it?
Dear God, help me to catch the vision- not just to see it! Help us to remember that we are all called to preach the gospel with our actions, our lifestyle, our money, our time, and even with our words when it's necessary. Help us not to have regrets when it's all said and done, but to be able to stand strong at the end of it all and say:
"I'm leaving this world a better place than it was when I found it!"p
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
The Opportunity Of A Lifetime!
I'll never forget that night some 12 years ago. As I sat there in the balcony of Brownsville Assembly of God and listened to Rev. Steve Hill preaching he said something so profound that I haven't forgotten it since. He spoke of Leonard Ravenhill and shared a piece of advice that great man of God shared with pastor Steve years prior.
Leonard told him: "When opportunity comes, do not pass it up! You must seize the opportunity of a lifetime during the lifetime of the opportunity!"
It would be this very advice that would lead Steve Hill to stay at Brownsville A/G and to cancel all of his speaking engagements in order to preach the nightly services at the revival.
It is a simple statement: "Seize the opportunity of a lifetime during the lifetime of that opportunity". Yet as simple as that advice may seem it can be revolutionary when put into practice in our own lives...
We tend to think of opportunity as a catalyst that will somehow help us in life. As Americans part of our mindset is individuality and we respect such character traits as self-sufficiency and self-improvement. As such when I say the word opportunity the first thing we think of by default is some open door that will lead to greater things for us, our family, or our career. We think of opportunity as being something that will advance our cause.
It was just over six years ago that a different type of opportunity came knocking on our door. Aracelli (my wife) was speaking with her mother on the phone and after hanging up she came to me with a very serious look on her face. For a moment I began scanning my brain to contemplate if I had left the toilet seat up, thrown clothes on the floor, or some other deficient action attributed to those with Y-chromosomes. Thankfully it was none of the above.
Aracelli told me that her mother, an Assemblies of God pastor in Peru, and another pastor there were overwhelmed because of a small village outside Trujillo, Peru that they had just visited. She went on to say that there was no church, no school, no running water, and no electricity. The people of that village were earning an average wage of $120/year and living like modern day slaves working 14-16 hour days on the nearby farmlands.
What perplexed me most about the situation wasn't just that these poor people worked hard on the farmlands and yet had nearly nothing to eat. What surprised me most was that they lived within a half hours drive from a local church, but no one from that church (or any of the dozens of other nearby churches) had gone out to reach them. They had a church building in the center of that farmland, but it had gone abandoned years prior and no pastor would come to disciple them because there was no offering or salary involved.
There was an amazing opportunity for the local churches to reach a forgotten people but no one stepped up to help that lost village. Many of the people there were caught up into witchcraft and would go to see the shaman (witchdoctor) whenever they could. Unfortunately some there there still do. They were a lost people in need of a Savior...
As I contemplated what (if anything) we could do to help I reasoned within myself that we didn't have the contacts, the funds, the experience, or the knowledge to help these people. After all, I was waiting for my own opportunities to arise so that I could advance my own personal life. Yet that nagging feeling that I should partner with those two local pastors pushed and pushed against me and I could almost audibly hear the voice of Pastor Steve Hill saying
"Don't miss this opportunity!" After a very short deliberation Aracelli and I decided to start sending sufficient funds monthly so that my mother-in-law and the other pastor could start a Sunday school for the kids and give them food each Sunday morning. It was a small opportunity to help that quickly turned into a large responsibility.
Within months that Sunday School had over 50 children and not too long after that we began paying an out of work teacher to sit on the rocks outside of the abandoned church there where she taught about 10 of the kids how to read and write each day. Then, in 2005, we decided that opportunity once again was knocking and it was time to respond. We went to our home church pastor, Randy Czyz, and asked him if the church could help to build a school. In all honesty we had no clue what we were doing. We didn't know about the legalities of such an action, we didn't have a background in building or planting, we didn't have resources to fund the school on an ongoing basis, we had almost no contacts to help us on the US or Peruvian side of things...
BUT, Pastor Randy saw an opportunity.
Pastor Randy wasn't looking for an opportunity to advance the name of World of Life A/G (his and our home church), he wasn't looking for an opportunity to make his name known. What pastor Randy saw was an opportunity to help those in need and to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ into a forgotten area. Our church took a leap of faith and took up an offering and enough money came in for us to construct a small building with two rooms and one class with about 10 students.
Now just 5 years later we have 18 staff members, five rooms, running water, electricity, a kitchen, and much more as well as 60 students enrolled at Nuevo Jordan School. We are helping hundreds there yearly with various outreaches, humanitarian support, and free seminars. The church there has been rebuilt and reopened and many locals attend there. We are in the process of expanding the school and plan on continuing this work until the Lord's coming! Has it been easy? NO. Do we still struggle constantly? YES- just this past month we were nearly $1,000 shy of our monthly budget at the school.
We didn't benefit from these actions and have sacrificed more than I'd care to share publicly- but Aracelli and I would do it all again without hesitation if we had to and we will continue helping the people of La Carbonera, Peru for as long as the Lord permits!
It has been six years of arduous labor with many victories and plenty of defeats. It has been very difficult raising a ministry from the dust, but we are thrilled that the Lord gave us that opportunity and helped capacitate us to make it become reality.
THEN late last year another opportunity came knocking on our door.....
This opportunity came with a serious hitch: leave your family, leave your friends, leave your careers, leave your possessions and GO! Aracelli and I knew that we had to go to Peru and we really weren't sure what we were going to do there, but then a knock came at our door (more like a phone call really). We were told that there was a large project that would begin sometime in 2011 if we would oversee it and we were asked whether we would be interested in moving to Peru and helping.
Would we be willing to go to Peru and plant the first ever Teen Challenge in that country?
When we Americans hear the word opportunity do we contemplate it in it's entirety? Do we truly understand that many opportunities that are God-derived are sacrificial and difficult in nature? That the kingdom of God truly is taken by force and can often be violent (although not typically physically violent) in nature.
Would we be willing to leave it all and move to Peru to work on the streets of Villa El Salvador amongst gang members, prostitutes and drug addicts? Would we be willing to uproot our two little children (Graziella 4 years and Renato 6 months) and bring them 5,000 miles away into a lifestyle of sacrifice and hard work?
We have decided that Leonard Ravenhill was correct. We may never be multi-millionaires and we may never have huge homes with big boats and picket fences... But when it's all said and done and we sit on our death bed contemplating whether we'd spent our life for God or for ourselves we don't want to regret how we spent our time and our money. We don't want to be at the end of the journey wishing we had taken up the opportunities that were once set before us; thus, we decided to drop it all and take up the cause of Christ. We decided to start once more from the bottom up and to raise another ministry from the dust as we have with Shekinah Gloria Ministries starting that fateful day in 2004.
What about you? Will you take the opportunities placed before you? Is there something God has placed before you that you've hesitated to grab hold of because you don't have the time, the resources, the knowledge, or the passion to do?
I've failed more times than I can count and missed opportunities to self-sacrifice for Christ's glory on more occasions than I care to consider: but we have decided to move forward and take this opportunities by it's horns. I can't say how it all will turn out and I'm sure there's plenty of hardship, labor, and difficulty ahead- but I wouldn't miss it for the world!
Will you take the opportunity to pray for this effort? To give towards this effort?
Will you take the opportunities that the Lord places before you?
Perhaps it's to go on a missions trip?
Perhaps it's to give financially or materially towards someone who is doing His work?
Perhaps it's to start a small group or to disciple a new believer?
Perhaps it is to interceed for your pastor, friends, family, or neighbors?
Perhaps it is to GO- to go to your town, to your city, to your state, your nation, and even to the world!
With billions who have never heard the name of Christ and millions perishing right here at home: Will we decide to set our own ambitions aside when an opportunity comes knocking and seize that opportunity during it's lifetime OR will you sit back one day with all of your amassed plenitude and wish you had made a move when God gave you the chance?
Leonard told him: "When opportunity comes, do not pass it up! You must seize the opportunity of a lifetime during the lifetime of the opportunity!"
It would be this very advice that would lead Steve Hill to stay at Brownsville A/G and to cancel all of his speaking engagements in order to preach the nightly services at the revival.
It is a simple statement: "Seize the opportunity of a lifetime during the lifetime of that opportunity". Yet as simple as that advice may seem it can be revolutionary when put into practice in our own lives...
We tend to think of opportunity as a catalyst that will somehow help us in life. As Americans part of our mindset is individuality and we respect such character traits as self-sufficiency and self-improvement. As such when I say the word opportunity the first thing we think of by default is some open door that will lead to greater things for us, our family, or our career. We think of opportunity as being something that will advance our cause.
It was just over six years ago that a different type of opportunity came knocking on our door. Aracelli (my wife) was speaking with her mother on the phone and after hanging up she came to me with a very serious look on her face. For a moment I began scanning my brain to contemplate if I had left the toilet seat up, thrown clothes on the floor, or some other deficient action attributed to those with Y-chromosomes. Thankfully it was none of the above.
Aracelli told me that her mother, an Assemblies of God pastor in Peru, and another pastor there were overwhelmed because of a small village outside Trujillo, Peru that they had just visited. She went on to say that there was no church, no school, no running water, and no electricity. The people of that village were earning an average wage of $120/year and living like modern day slaves working 14-16 hour days on the nearby farmlands.
What perplexed me most about the situation wasn't just that these poor people worked hard on the farmlands and yet had nearly nothing to eat. What surprised me most was that they lived within a half hours drive from a local church, but no one from that church (or any of the dozens of other nearby churches) had gone out to reach them. They had a church building in the center of that farmland, but it had gone abandoned years prior and no pastor would come to disciple them because there was no offering or salary involved.
There was an amazing opportunity for the local churches to reach a forgotten people but no one stepped up to help that lost village. Many of the people there were caught up into witchcraft and would go to see the shaman (witchdoctor) whenever they could. Unfortunately some there there still do. They were a lost people in need of a Savior...
As I contemplated what (if anything) we could do to help I reasoned within myself that we didn't have the contacts, the funds, the experience, or the knowledge to help these people. After all, I was waiting for my own opportunities to arise so that I could advance my own personal life. Yet that nagging feeling that I should partner with those two local pastors pushed and pushed against me and I could almost audibly hear the voice of Pastor Steve Hill saying
"Don't miss this opportunity!" After a very short deliberation Aracelli and I decided to start sending sufficient funds monthly so that my mother-in-law and the other pastor could start a Sunday school for the kids and give them food each Sunday morning. It was a small opportunity to help that quickly turned into a large responsibility.
Within months that Sunday School had over 50 children and not too long after that we began paying an out of work teacher to sit on the rocks outside of the abandoned church there where she taught about 10 of the kids how to read and write each day. Then, in 2005, we decided that opportunity once again was knocking and it was time to respond. We went to our home church pastor, Randy Czyz, and asked him if the church could help to build a school. In all honesty we had no clue what we were doing. We didn't know about the legalities of such an action, we didn't have a background in building or planting, we didn't have resources to fund the school on an ongoing basis, we had almost no contacts to help us on the US or Peruvian side of things...
BUT, Pastor Randy saw an opportunity.
Pastor Randy wasn't looking for an opportunity to advance the name of World of Life A/G (his and our home church), he wasn't looking for an opportunity to make his name known. What pastor Randy saw was an opportunity to help those in need and to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ into a forgotten area. Our church took a leap of faith and took up an offering and enough money came in for us to construct a small building with two rooms and one class with about 10 students.
Now just 5 years later we have 18 staff members, five rooms, running water, electricity, a kitchen, and much more as well as 60 students enrolled at Nuevo Jordan School. We are helping hundreds there yearly with various outreaches, humanitarian support, and free seminars. The church there has been rebuilt and reopened and many locals attend there. We are in the process of expanding the school and plan on continuing this work until the Lord's coming! Has it been easy? NO. Do we still struggle constantly? YES- just this past month we were nearly $1,000 shy of our monthly budget at the school.
We didn't benefit from these actions and have sacrificed more than I'd care to share publicly- but Aracelli and I would do it all again without hesitation if we had to and we will continue helping the people of La Carbonera, Peru for as long as the Lord permits!
It has been six years of arduous labor with many victories and plenty of defeats. It has been very difficult raising a ministry from the dust, but we are thrilled that the Lord gave us that opportunity and helped capacitate us to make it become reality.
THEN late last year another opportunity came knocking on our door.....
This opportunity came with a serious hitch: leave your family, leave your friends, leave your careers, leave your possessions and GO! Aracelli and I knew that we had to go to Peru and we really weren't sure what we were going to do there, but then a knock came at our door (more like a phone call really). We were told that there was a large project that would begin sometime in 2011 if we would oversee it and we were asked whether we would be interested in moving to Peru and helping.
Would we be willing to go to Peru and plant the first ever Teen Challenge in that country?
When we Americans hear the word opportunity do we contemplate it in it's entirety? Do we truly understand that many opportunities that are God-derived are sacrificial and difficult in nature? That the kingdom of God truly is taken by force and can often be violent (although not typically physically violent) in nature.
Would we be willing to leave it all and move to Peru to work on the streets of Villa El Salvador amongst gang members, prostitutes and drug addicts? Would we be willing to uproot our two little children (Graziella 4 years and Renato 6 months) and bring them 5,000 miles away into a lifestyle of sacrifice and hard work?
We have decided that Leonard Ravenhill was correct. We may never be multi-millionaires and we may never have huge homes with big boats and picket fences... But when it's all said and done and we sit on our death bed contemplating whether we'd spent our life for God or for ourselves we don't want to regret how we spent our time and our money. We don't want to be at the end of the journey wishing we had taken up the opportunities that were once set before us; thus, we decided to drop it all and take up the cause of Christ. We decided to start once more from the bottom up and to raise another ministry from the dust as we have with Shekinah Gloria Ministries starting that fateful day in 2004.
What about you? Will you take the opportunities placed before you? Is there something God has placed before you that you've hesitated to grab hold of because you don't have the time, the resources, the knowledge, or the passion to do?
I've failed more times than I can count and missed opportunities to self-sacrifice for Christ's glory on more occasions than I care to consider: but we have decided to move forward and take this opportunities by it's horns. I can't say how it all will turn out and I'm sure there's plenty of hardship, labor, and difficulty ahead- but I wouldn't miss it for the world!
Will you take the opportunity to pray for this effort? To give towards this effort?
Will you take the opportunities that the Lord places before you?
Perhaps it's to go on a missions trip?
Perhaps it's to give financially or materially towards someone who is doing His work?
Perhaps it's to start a small group or to disciple a new believer?
Perhaps it is to interceed for your pastor, friends, family, or neighbors?
Perhaps it is to GO- to go to your town, to your city, to your state, your nation, and even to the world!
With billions who have never heard the name of Christ and millions perishing right here at home: Will we decide to set our own ambitions aside when an opportunity comes knocking and seize that opportunity during it's lifetime OR will you sit back one day with all of your amassed plenitude and wish you had made a move when God gave you the chance?
"Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee!"
EPHESIANS 5:14
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)