Hast thou found honey?

This blog is turning out to be a lot more about what is going on with me spiritually and a lot less about what is going on with me physically than I had originally thought. I guess that makes sense though. I do try to keep mid mind on things of heaven more than or things of earth as much as possible. The picture above is of a friend of mine named Angel ("ONG-hel") who works at a taquería (taco restaurant) about two blacks from my house. I give english lessons to the owner of the restaurant´s son and they pay me in tacos. I can eat there as much as I want and as often as I want and they have a pretty good menu: tacos, piratas, campechanas, enchiladas, hamburgers with avacado and jalapeños, etc. Its good food...good and greasy! I have had to learn to not eat there every day though: steak and tortillas and oil and jalapeños are good in any combination but I think I might give myself a heart attack if I eat there too much. The Lord has blessed me with that restaurant, but I shouldn´t abuse what He´s given me. The reason I am telling you all of this is because I believe there is an important spiritual lesson that I can take from it. Let me try to explain.

This week God has been talking to me about honey. I keep running into scripture about honey (Samson eating honey out of the side of the lion he had killed, etc), and I even had a dream a couple nights back that I was eating a big dripping poeace of honeycomb. Yesterday I finally realized what I think the Lord was telling me. I read Proverbs 25:16. I like the way that the King James Version translates it:

"Hast thou found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it."

God invented honey. He knew it would be delightful to our taste. It is good. All other joys he has given us are good. But it is very important that we don´t gorge ourselves on those things and forget about the One who gave them to us. God wants me to have joy. God wants me to have pleasure. God wants me to have desires in my heart. But He wants those joys and pleasures and desires to all be very much secondary to the joy and pleasure I have in Him and the desire I have for Him. God wants me to eat just enough honey. Not none. Not all of it. Just enough. On the other hand, He wants me to fill myself with Him. A few months back I wrote on this blog "Its about Jesus??????? YES! ITS ABOUT KING JESUS. Period. Me, Him." He continues to teach me about that.

I have also felt that God is reminding me to remember that this period of my life is one of building up. I am not yet a pastor or full time evangelist and I need to remember that. I am here in Mexico to perfect my Spanish and prepare myself to minister to hispanics. This is a time for me to recieve from teachers, to learn, and to be humble. There is something very freeing in that truth. I think there is real power in accepting that we are where we are and that where we are is just excactly where we need to be.

This Monday was a holiday so we didn´t have the Bible study this week but I´m excited about next week. I don´t know if I will continue with it in the Spring or not. I just want to do what God wants me to do. There are so many "good" things we can do that can be so meaningless if they aren´t thing things God is calling us to do. A friend of mine gave me a definition of "religiosity" a few months ago: he said it is "doing the things of God without God." I don´t want to do that! Its all about Jesus.

Please Pray:

--For a friend of mine from Austria named Lukas who I have been talking to a lot lately about Jesus. He believes in God but satruggles with the idea of God taking the punishment for our sins.

--That I would learn to eat just enough of the honey God gives me....just enough to give me the energy I need to praise Him! (In all areas of my life!)

We will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

Romans 6:3-5

Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

I had the high honor of baptizing a sister of mine this week. What event is better? Marriage? Birth? Every truly incredible event we have in this life gets its significance from the reflection of God that is portrays. It was wonderful to be a part of that celebration of Jesus.

The Lord is, as you may have heard me say by now, faithful. Specifically the Lord is faithful to convict me of sin. This last part of the semester is a little tough simply because I am busier with school than I had been which means that I am tempted to spend less time with the Lord and His Word. How foolish! Me neglecting my relationship with God in a high-stress time makes about as much sense as a soldier throwing away his gun in the middle of a battle. Glorifying the Lord takes discipline.

The Lord has called me to preach his Gospel. Wow! Romans starts with the phrase "Paul.... set apart for the gospel of God..." What an honor I have! The Lord calls me to live in sync with the fact. I fail daily. May Lord have mercy on me. Please pray that would live in sync with my calling to preach the gospel.

Pray that Lord will have His way more in my life. I do not want my will to be the prevailing force in my life and I know that it often is. Praise King Jehovah because He is faithful me despite my imperfection. Praise Jesus for His blood! There is no hope apart from it for me.

Romans 7:21-25a

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

He keeps being faithful!

Hello all,

The picture above is a picture of my campus and the weather and the Las Mitras mountians. It has been beatifull and chilly lately.To be honest I don´t feel like there is a tremendous amount of news for me to share this week so this will be a little on the short side, but I at least wanted to let you all know that the Lord is continuing to be faithful in my life: guiding me and changing me and convicting me of sin. On Monday the Bible study went well (although Mexico is a little different culturally when it come to puncuality I am learning: 2 guys showed up 30 minutes late and another almost 45, aned the gorup is only like five people total!). A new friend of mine has brought his guitar for the last couple of weeks so we´ve started having a little worship time in addition to the studying. The topic was repentence. If there ever comes a day when I think I have nothing to repent of I will then need to repent of my pride and blindness! How merciful is our Lord to forgive us through our faith in Jesus´ blood. There is NOTHING more important than what He did for us on the cross.

I met yesterday with the co-pastor of my church. Wow! The Lord keeps being faithful! I am not sure if I have ever come across someone with more humility, knowledge, and wisdom all together. Thats a tough combination to achieve for me! We´ll be meeting every week for discipleship -thank You God!

Also, I was invited by a friend of mine to come and visit the missionary school that she goes to (which I previously mentioned) so this morning I went and was very impressed. (In fact the class I attended was taught by that same co-pastor and was focused on the gift of evangelism [which is the gift I believe God has given me] so I am excited about possibly getting more involved there.)

Okay- that´s all for now!

PLEASE pray:

--That the Lord would help me to trust Him more and fear less. (I recently bought a book by Max Lucado called "Fearless." For some reason I haven´t gotten around to reading it yet - on the to-do list!)

--That the Lord would give me more love for my neighbors so that I will be more bold in sharing the gospel with them in love.

PS: Thanks to those who left comments last week! Its encouraging just to know that people are taking a look at this blog every once in a while. And thanks for the prayers! I need ´em!

Those butterflies don´t worry. Neither should I.

Friends and family,

I remember learning in elementary school about how the monarch butterflies migrate south for the winter in droves but I had never personally witnessesed the phenomenon until ths week. They were only here for three days, but it was spectacular. The sky would at times be filled with what at first glimpse appeared to be immeanse flocks of buzzards gliding all together southward - but at second glance it became clear that they were much smaller than your average buzzard and that their groups much more numerous. They looked like little bomber airplanes silhouetted against the bright blue sky. The pictures of the high-gliders didn´t turn out as well of this one of a few stranglers stopping for fuel so I decided to post it instead. You can see couple dark smudges on the sky there which are the high-gliders. (Fun fact about Nothern Mexican medicinal folklore: the burgambelia that they are drinking from are used here locally to make a tea to help cure a cough.) I was inspired by the butterflies to go outside and praise God yesterday morning with my guitar before heading off to church. If our God guides millions of butterflies over thousands of miles of the US and Mexico and provides them with all the nourishment they need how much more will he guide and provide for His saints, his children who´ve been pardoned and redeemed through their faith in His Son. Those butterflies don´t worry. Neither should I.

Matthew 6:26
"Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? "

This week has been full of the Lord. I have been thinking and praying a lot about my future. I know that God is calling me to bring the hope of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life in Jesus to people who need it. Beyond that, my future is really quite unrevealed to me so far, but there is one thing that I can bet on with pretty clear certainty: the Lord wants me to grow in my knowledge of Him and ability to serve Him. This will no doubt involve at least a little school and a lot of discipleship. I met with my pastor this week to talk about my desire to grow in knwledge and undterstanding of the Lord and His Kingdom (and consecuently, His Bible) and he suggested that I look into small bible institute here in Monterrey where I could possibly take some evening clases this spring. I just sent an email off to the director there. When it comes down to it, however, I need to remember that my personal one-on-one seeking of God and self-yielding to God is what will turn me into the servant He wants me to be. The rest of my future is really quite misterious as yet. I was reading this week in Mathew where Jesus says that some men make themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom´s sake.

Matthew 19:12

"For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it."

Do I have the gift of singleness? Or does the Lord want to provide me with a helpmate to run with on this marathan of faith? I pray, but I don´t worry. Those butterflies don´t worry.... Neither should I!

Please pray:

--that the Lord would give me more energy and discipline to seek knwledge of His will for my life.

--that the Lord would make me more of a master man-fisher (I used to be an obsessive fisherman, now I am an obsessive man-fisher!)

PS: I often wonder how many people actually get a chance to take a look at my blog every week and I don´t know any high-tech way of figuring that out, so I would like to ask you (yes, you!) the favor to please click below on the light-grey "comments" link and take a second to say you looked at my blog this week. I think it just might be encouraging to me to be able to see that somebody is actually reading what I write! (haha!) ¡¡THANKS!!

God loves me, even knowing who I am.

Hello again!
This picture I took just the other day as I waited for the bus across the road from my school. I think that horse likes the new green grass and cooler fall weather as much as me! I have had the immense priveledge of being able to wear a jacket a little this week. Its often overcast and breezy. Trust me, with the memory of the 110-degree August days fresh in my memory, I am definitely not complaining.
The Bible study on Monday went especially well this week. Our topic was "loving your neighbor as yourself." It just happened that I felt inspired to write a simple worship song that same day which dealt with the same topic so for the first time we actually had a little time of praise and worship right there in the classroom before and after the meat of the Bible study. I am very greatful that my parents brought my guitar to me when they came down to visit last week.
The song goes like this:

"Even Knowing Who I Am"
I have a God who loved me
Even knowing who I am
And he keeps on loving me even though
I always let Him down
I have a God who pardoned me
Even knowing who I am
And He keeps on forgiving me even though
I keep on always sinning
I have a God who loved me
Even knowing who I am
Because I have Jesus, who laid down His life
So that I could have it

Or...in Spanish...(it sounds a bit more poetic in Spanish, haha!)

"Aun sabiendo lo que soy"
Yo tengo un Dios que me amó
Aun sabiendo lo que soy
Y me sigue amando a pesar de que
Le sigo siempre fallando
Yo tengo un Dios que me perdonó
Aun sabiendo lo que soy
Y me sigue perdonando a pesar de que
Sigo siempre pecando
Yo tengo un Dios que me amó
Aun sabiendo lo que soy
Porque yo tengo a Jesús, quién Su vida puso
Para que pudiera yo tenerla

The connection there between the topic of our Bible study, loving our neighbor, and this song about how God loves and continually forgives us regardless of the fact that we don´t deserve his love and pardon is simple. I can only truly and unconditionally love my neighbor (who, by the way, is a dispicable sinner who will no doubt let me down sooner or later, being that my neighbor is a human being), if I first understand that Christ loved me (also a dispicable sinner) so much that he gave is very life for me and that the Lord continues loving and forgiving me even as I let Him down. We must truly appreaciate that love that we have in Christ to be able to love our neighbor. When we really humbly understand who we are and that God loves us despite the fact that we a despicable sinners, the challenge to love others becomes easier. So I can definitely say that this week Jesus has been teaching me about love.

Please pray:
--That the Lord would help me use my time in a way that is honoring to him!
--That the Lord would guide me to a mentor here underwhom I can learn spiritually for the remainder of my time here in Mexico (I´ll be here until June).

...With all your heart and with all your soul....

Hello family! First of all I must beg your pardon for not having posted anything at all last week. It´s actuallly a good thing- believe it or not - because the reason for my not telling you anything about what was going on was that I was too busy with my parents (sight-seeing, bible-reading, praying, talking, and singing praise songs to Jesus) to find a moment to update yáll. They came down here for a week which was simply amazing. It´s really is amazing how the Lord uses us to help each other grow in our relationships with Him- He even uses our parents, haha!
I think the word that best describes best what the Lord has been teaching me about lately would be humility. Humilty and the fact that I need to serve and try to please im and Him alone. Sometimes the deep spiritual things that Jesus shows us are so personal that I feel it could be in bad taste to share them on a blog so publically like this but I think I can at least tell you a little.
First of all, somewhat logically, spending a whole week with my father brought, for me, the issue of my personal manhood to the forefront of the spiritual battlefield. It makes sense I suppose that for a young man to spend time with his father, the man who first gave him his definition of manhood through the way he lived his life, would make him think about his own manhood. Well for me that´s how it works anyway. Practically everything a young man knows or thinks about what it is to be a man is related directly to his father. Well the Lord had his reasons for bringing my dad and I together. I was forced by my gracious Jesus to look at and talk with my earthly father some insecurities that I have. Isn´t it amazing how in God´s infinite grace, He even helps us change in ways that we don´t want to! As I thought and prayed about my insecurity one day this week, the Lord spoke a verse into my mind. Its one that He has showed me before, one that I know I need to keep looking at for the rest of my life:

Deuteronomy 6:5
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Maybe your wondering what that has to do with manhood and insecurity. Hang with me a sec. Insecurity, the feeling that you are not what you "should be" from the point view of other human beings, has a direct relationship to what I will call "love of the praise of man," which come in direct conflict with loving God with "all your heart." Check this out, the Bible talks about this sin:

John 12:42b-43
But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.

In this case the these guys had accepted Jesus for who He was but they loved the praise of men so much that they wouldn´t admit it. When I (we) feel insecure about ourselves it is because we are already sinning by loving the prasie of men. When we humbly realize that we have weaknesses and imperfections and problems and simply resolve to serve and try to please Jesus despite them (and them to overcome them), the result is that we grow closer to Him and what "man" may think about us doesn´t matter to us. This is good becasue in the long run the opinion of the Lord Almighty about us does matter while those of our fellow sinners does not. For instance, if I realize that I have a lot to learn about what it means to be a godly man (and husbund at some point), I have the choice between:
a.) Feeling extremely self concious and trying to cover that weakness up with ego and machismo
or....
b.) I can choose to recognize that for me to be able to serve God in the most effective way possible I will need to grow in that area and humbly ask the Lord to teach me how to be more of who He wants me to be.

The first option is sin. I am letting my life revolve around people. I am loving the praise of men with at least some little percentage of my heart when I have been commanded by the Lord Jehova to love Him with ALL of my being. Let me give you that verse one more time, it has taken me a while to get back to it:

Deuteronomy 6:5
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

I hope I am explaining myself well enough. It really is nothing new...The answer to insecurity, to apparent unmanliness, or WHATEVER other problem we may have is Jesus, and more love of Him.

The ministries I am involved in here continue to go well but please continue to pray:
--for the Bible study on Mondays: that I would be more of a confident leader and seek to put what I just preached to you into action there.
-- for the prayer group on Fridays, I would like to see it grow a little. (The picture above is of the little garden where we meet.)

Viddles: Spiritual and Natural

Hey! Well... I was just thinking about what I might write for you guys this week and I realized that what I wrote last week actually does a pretty good jos of describing what God is doing in my heart this week as well. It can be summed up in one phrase: Jesus is saying "more of Me, less of everything else." He is a jealous God. I am starting to understand that.

I had a pretty amazing time of ministry this last Tuesday. My buddies Daniel, Eliezar, and Karla and I went to a hospital nearby that serves the most needy sector of the population in this area. Before we headed to the hospital we went down to the local supermarket and filled a shopping cart to overflowing with bread, cheese, ham, mayonaise, chips, and drinks and brought them back to my apartment where we made a ham sandwhich assembly line and ended up being able to give out about 100 bag lunches. (I believe creativity in tything is pleasing to our Father.) There are hundreds of family members of patients who live for months camping outside of the hosptial and not all of them have money for food. After giving out the food, we had a time of preaching (I love preaching and so infrequently do it), and then spent a few hours praying with patients and their family members. Amazing. Simply incredible. I remember saying to another believer that I ran into there that I came thinking I was going to teach but ended up mostly learning instead. Jesus is having his way.

The Bible study is going well. Last week I told the group that I often feel that I am inadequate to lead/teach a Bible study because of my imperfect Spanish and lack of Bible knowledge but that I know Who is adequate to lead it and I know He is in control.

Please pray:

--That the Lord would enable me to be more obediant to His voice.

--That the Lord would strengthen my faith and use it infectiously.