We Made It!

It's Thursday morning and we're finally connected to the internet. We've been bursting with a desire to report on our first day! We have seen and done a lot already. First of all, both legs of the flight went off without a hitch. We flew Detroit to Dallas-Fort Worth, three hour layover, then Dallas-Fort Worth to San Jose, Costa Rica. Praise God. The only difficulty (which is hardly worth mentioning in light of the extraordinary blessings we have already experienced) was the airline leaving my main suitcase in Dallas (which is now recovered!). Cameron & the van driver, an unsaved man named Randall 2 (so designated to distinguish him from Cam's church member Randall). We drove south out of San Jose, through Cartago, through Pariaso ("Paradise" where Roca Viva, Cam's church is located) into Orosi in south part of the Orosi Valley. We arrived at the Camp, El Jardin Sagrado ("Sacred Garden"), late Tuesday night. It’s a beautiful place. All of the ceramic-tiled, small buildings (barracks) are surrounded by beautiful, flowering trees, palm trees, and fruit trees. There's a beautiful smallish river running along the back border of the camp. Just beyond the water are beautiful round-topped, lush green mountains with misty clouds encircling their peaks.

I’m rooming with Joshua, Mike & Dennis. Doug's rooming with Jeff Cady which shares a bathroom with Brad and Elias. Chuck is rooming with Randall 2 which is a good thing because Randall speaks no English and Chuck has proven to be an invaluable translater (You were right, John, your Dad is more fluent than he lets on!). We're sleeping on bunk beds (everyone sleeping on the bottom thankfully...not sure the top would take the weight of most of us!). If you remember back in 1999 when the men went to Brazil, the showers were hard-wired with electricity at the showerhead (which is why they're called Widow-Makers). Same thing here. When we step out our barracks we take just a few steps to a covered porch connected to the kitchen where we all sit for breakfast with 4 picnic tables line up end-to-end. Breakfast on Wednesday was scrambled eggs, fresh pineapple, rice-beans, some kind of "zip" sauce (our name for it) and fresh orange juice. And in case you were wondering, Starbucks has nothing on the coffee here. Thank you for my many friends who have prayed for my "food anxiety." Despite the fact that my granola bars were in the lost suitcase, I've enjoyed the gracious refreshment that has been provided to us.

We have already seen in our men relationships developing and men stretching themselves as they share testimonies and devotionals from the Scriptures. Wednesday was a day of fun, connecting with men from Cameron's church and unsaved men that tagged along. To give you a taste of that joy so far:

I encouraged the men at breakfast yesterday to remember that our work here is based on a connection between 1 Timothy 6:16 (God alone having immortality and dwells in unapproachable light) and 2 Timothy 1:10 declaration that Jesus Christ abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Our trip has meaning and power because of this great work that Jesus has done.

Yesterday at lunch, Chuck shared a wonderful devotional (vast majority of which was in Spanish) for the benefit of the 9 Ticos (nick-name for Costa Rican men...Ticas are gals) at a local restaurant. It was a beautiful message out of Psalm 103. One particularly beautiful point he shared was that God redeems our lives from the pit, from destruction. Not one of us was unmoved by his exposition of God's steadfast love toward his children.

This morning Doug shared a brief testimony which was a foretaste of a longer devotional he will share tonight. He spoke on Jeremiah 4 and how God formed Jeremiah in the womb, chose him, prepared him to bring God's Word to the people, and then sent him to do it. It was a great blessing to see this man's man get up after breakfast and share this text and how it spoke to him so powerfully because he, like Jeremiah, needs God to enable him to speak truth to a crowd.

As I'm typing this, Joshua is sitting next to me in Central America studying his Bible written in Telegu (an Indian language) and Chuck is walking by praising God in Spanish. If that isn't a picture of the mystery of Christ bringing all people groups together in Him, I don't know what is!I have to say, I love these guys more than I did when I left. Pray for us to be faithful and patient with each other in close quarters and with a changing schedule. God has been so faithful to help us up to this point and we expect more of the same. But please pray. You are a big part of this trip.

I have much more to report, but we are going to be leaving for Paraiso to canvass the town with flyers advertising an evangelistic family conference at Roca Viva ("the Living Rock") later this month. I'll give you a report on yesterdays events later, but for now just a cliffhanger:

Fellowship in the Gospel International...2010 in Costa Rica

Back in last Summer, we heard from Cameron Woolford, our missionary to Costa Rica. You can check out his ministry here. Cameron asked if there was any way that our church could come and help him get a men's ministry off of the ground. You can imagine my excitement after having come down from the "high" of our first regional men's conference just a few months before. He testified that Costa Rican men are "spineless" and when converted they continue to be reluctant to lead. They are also plagued with sinful addictions to drugs, alcohol, and lust, as well as physical and sexual abuse being epidemic in their families.

After much prayer and planning, 9 men from Berean will be leaving Detroit Metro Airport this Tuesday, January 5th and returning on Monday, January 12th to do what we can to minister to the men of Costa Rica. We will be ministering in a number of settings with the men from Cameron's church (Roca Viva or "the Living Rock"). We will also be putting on a men's conference at an area campground on Friday night and Saturday. The men from a handful of local churches are supposed to attend. The men that will be there are likely to be spiritually immature mixed in with unsaved men. There will be three teaching sessions based out of Ephesians. Lesson 1: The Gospel Proper; Lesson 2: Gospel Truths of Inheritance & Transformational Hope; and Lesson 3: Living in Gospel Power.

Pray for our safety and ministry effectiveness. Pray for the hearts of those that are to come to the conference. Pray for the power of the gospel to overwhelm them and us.

Love Your Enemies

Jesus came and preached a message that is counter-intuitive. We want to hate those that hate us. In fact, we want to put our hate to action and retaliate against those that hate us. But Jesus came with a teaching that was altogether different. Hear His words from Matthew 5,

"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." (vv.38-39).

Jesus went still further in describing how sons of God should treat those that hate us:

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven." (vv.43-45a).

If you're a Christian, a "son of your Father who is in heaven," then you've heard these words before. You haven't mastered them, but as a new creature with new desires to honor God, you're no doubt growing in your ability to apply them. We must, however, see that we draw strength to love our enemies from the God who reminds us that "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." While we were His enemies, rebels against Him, Jesus came to be humiliated, rejected, scoffed at, beaten, and murdered. He did all of that in order to buy us back from our hatred of Him.

God loved His enemies. That is why we need to reflect Jesus Christ by loving our enemies. When we don't love our enemies, when we hate them back, we need to repent from our opposition to the gospel. We need ask God to forgive us for not acting like sons that were bought by the supreme demonstration of Someone loving His enemies.

As I said, you've heard these words before, but they are new to some. My non-Christian friend (we'll call her Sue) called me last night asking me if Jesus really said we should love those that don't love us. I've been praying for 12 years for an open door so that I might share with Sue how Jesus loves his enemies. It was a glorious time of sharing this good new with Sue. Pray for her, for conviction and repentance and new life.

Conference Review

It is with great joy and praise to our God that I write these few lines of review of our first Fellowship in the Gospel Conference! What began as a handful of men huddled up on the floor of our sanctuary, praying that God would grow a men's ministry at our church, culminated in a men's conference on leadership that would be organized and served by countless men of our church. God be praised!

With respect to the conference specifically, I cannot say enough about God's faithfulness and answers to our prayers. We prayed that men from many different churches would come and fellowship together around the gospel and its power...and God answered that prayer. We prayed that pastors from Detroit would come and join us in the fellowship...and God answered that prayer. We prayed for teaching that would challenge men to become better leaders...and God answered that prayer. We prayed for music that would lead the men in singing that lifted up Jesus Christ and His cross...and God answered that prayer. We prayed for many gospel-centered books to be taken away by the men for future encouragement...and God answered that prayer (half the books were bought!)...We prayed for efficient registration and traffic flow...and God answered that prayer. We prayed that the gospel would be advanced and Christ's kingdom would be benefited...and God answered that prayer.

For all that came, I pray God's richest blessings on you as you explore and cultivate again the power from what Jesus has already done for you. Continue to fellowship around that gospel with new friends you made at the conference and with the brothers in your own church. One prayer that we had (which we are awaiting with confident expectation that God will answer) is that you would take gospel-centered teaching, preaching, and living back to your churches so that the Kingdom might be extended in our region. Do your part by talking about it, praying about it, reading about it, and living it as God powerfully works in you. It doesn't end with the conference being over.

For those that could not come (and those that want to review what you've already heard), the website (http://www.fellowshipinthegospel.com/) will be updated in the coming weeks with audio recordings of the conference sessions (perhaps videos) and many photographs. We also are working on a resource page that will include a number of helpful links and documents.

May the effects of this conference continue to emanate for years to come as God is glorified in Christ and in His church. Pray to that end. Now go and fellowship in the gospel!

Jesus of the Prophecies

In Sunday School today, we were discussing the importance of being honest with unbelievers about the peril they are in. A powerful text, and a great exemplar for presenting the gospel, is Peter's sermon in Acts 3 in the temple courtyard. As his audience is of Jews, you would expect Peter to direct them to Old Testament prophecies that spoke of Jesus. Peter doesn't let us down. The conclusion of that sermon is chock full of messianic prophecies. Here is the end of his sermon (vv.18-26):

"But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of this holy prophets long ago. Moses said, 'The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.' And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.' God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.'"

There is much contained in these verses about who Jesus is and why He came. In class today, we spoke much about Moses' prophecy concerning "a prophet like me" (to use Moses' words). To say it another way, he predicted a Second Moses. While Moses was a deliverer and the mediator of a covenant, Jesus would come and be the perfect Deliverer and the Mediator of a New Covenant that far exceeds the Old.

What I thought was significant in this text pertaining to biblical theology (or the drama of redemption seen throughout the Scriptures) is that Peter tells his countrymen all of the prophets had been pointing to Jesus. Take note of v.24. Peter there explains: "And all the prophets who have spoken . . . proclaimed these days." Every prophet that God has ever sent, pointed the people to the days of Jesus, to the days of a resurrected Messiah that would lead His people out of spiritual bondage, to the days of the God-man who would be the perfect Mediator.

In other words, God's message for His people has always been concerning His Son that would one day come as the Deliverer and Mediator. God sent prophet after prophet that pointed to the days of the risen Savior. It is no wonder that Jesus could explain to the men on the Emmaus Road how all of the Scriptures spoke about Him. We too need to be men that can see all of the Scriptures as, in some way, concerning Jesus and His cross. May the Fellowship in the Gospel Conference help equip us to do just that. Commit to pray in these final days before the conference for such an outcome! Pray for the speakers and their final preparation. Pray for yet more men to register. Pray that many, many gospel-centered books will be bought, taken home, and read. Pray that men will fellowship in the gospel long after next weekend.

The Place to Start?

I've been reading a lot of gospel-centered books in the last several months in preparation for the conference. In doing so, I ran across this statement:

"[I]f you do not believe you are dead to sin's guilt, you cannot trust Christ for the strength to subdue its power in your life. So the place to begin in dealing with sin in your life is to count on the fact that you died to its guilt through your union with Christ in His death. This is an important truth you need to ponder and pray over until the Holy Spirit convinces you of it in both your head and heart."

Do you agree with the author's contention that "the place to begin" in defeating sin is trusting that (because of Jesus) you have "died to its guilt"? All Christians would agree that we have died to the guilt of sin because of the cross of Jesus (Romans 8:1). My question is do you believe focusing on the lack of guilt is the place to start in dealing with your sin?

Thoughts?

Cross-Informed Speech

Listen to the potential damage our speech can cause:

"How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell...It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison." James 3:5b-6, 8b.

We have all no doubt heard a sermon on James 3 and the tongue. But these words always seem to grab my attention when I read them. What is it about our speech that causes James to use such an alarming description?

Earlier in the passage (v2b), James says that it is the tongue that prevents a man from being truly mature ("a perfect man"). Or perhaps a better way to understand it would be that a person's speech reveals that they are not spiritually mature. You may remember the words of Jesus' rebuke: "[O]ut of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." When we speak evil, it's because our hearts are focused on evil, being governed by evil. (Matt. 12:34). What is so terrible about this is that when our tongues spread hate and bitterness, we act as if we were enemies of the cross. We can actually hinder the message of the cross by how we speak!

Our speech should rather reflect a heart that has been made new and that is focused on what caused its newness! Paul reminds us in Colossians 3 about this process of putting on the new man (which includes the new tongue). He reminds us of how our actions should reflect those of our Savior: We should set our minds on things above because we "have been raised with Christ" (v.1). If we have a complaint against a brother, we should forgive them "as the Lord has forgiven [us]" (v.13). We should let the peace and unity of one body that comes from the gospel rule our hearts (v.15). We should "let the word of Christ dwell in [us] richly" (v.16). Finally, "whatever [we] do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God teh Father through him" (v.17).

As Good Friday approaches when we specifically remember the cross, let our minds be fixated on His sacrifice and the benefits it brought us...and may our mouths overflow rather with praise.

We All Have an Equal (and Firm) Standing

We all do it. We feel like God must love us more when we live the way we should. The thinking goes something like this, "I'm really on a spiritual high. I'm finding such joy reading the Scriptures. God must be really pleased with me right now." Okay, so we probably wouldn't actually say that, but we think it...don't we?

The other side of the coin is true oftentimes as well. When our spiritual disciplines are in the tank we feel that God must love us less than when we are faithful. We can often use our failures to fuel an attitude that goes something like this, "Well, I've already sinned. God is disgusted with me. I might as well continue on with it!" Again, though these words probably don't come out of our mouths, this attitude can be prevalent.

Some might even think that God's love for them is evidenced by their situation. Trials indicate God's displeasure with me. Happiness and blessings mean God loves me.

Why do we feel like are standing with God is either kept or lost (increased or decreased if you'd rather characterize it that way) based on our actions? Why do we feel that God's love for us is such a fluid reality? It is because we are legalists. We have this innate sinful desire to justify ourselves. In the face of Spirit-illumined truth to the contrary, we continued to defiantly say, "My standing with God cannot be based outside of myself!" This war can wage within us.

It begins before our conversion, like the rich young ruler who asked, "Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?" (Matt.19:16 NASB). This young man needed to know what "good deed" (ESV) he should do in order to be awarded eternal life. Jesus' answer is so foundational: "Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good." (v.17a). Jesus told him that the "good" that was needed for eternal life only came from one source...and it wasn't from within the young man (as was demonstrated by his refusal to sell all of his many possessions and give the money to the poor). After he left, Jesus provided some commentary about the difficulty of a rich man reaching heaven. His hearers were astonished and wondered who then could be saved. Jesus redirected them from thinking about individual people to God, leaving them with a word of great hope: "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (v.26).

As believers, we know this teaching, don't we? This teaching that God is the one who has done what was impossible for us to do. This teaching that the goodness that is needed for eternal life comes from Jesus the Savior. But we forget. We try and replace the righteousness of Jesus with our filthy rags again and again. God is good to grant us fresh repentance, though, and bring us back to the hope in Jesus that we first understood. Consider how Peter reminded the Christians of his day of this very fact in the salutation of his second epistle:

"To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ."

Brothers, remember that God sees you every day as perfect, standing in Jesus' righteousness that is neither added nor diminished by anything you have done or failed to do.

Is Joel's Message Relevant Today?

Ever read the Book of Joel? A terrible swarm of locusts had come through the land destroying everything in its wake. There is an interesting question at the beginning of chapter 1. Joel asks this interesting question before making any comment: "Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?" The answer to this rhetorical question, of course, was that such an event had not happened in their lifetimes or even during their fathers' lifetimes. Joel was pressing his audience to ponder the reason for this monumental disaster. As they took the time to think through the locust swarm and the damage left behind and whether anything like it had happened in the past, they no doubt would have remembered the locust plague in Egypt that was poured out on a people that did not honor and love God. Frightening to look around your disaster and think, "This is similar to when God poured out His wrath on His enemies."

Listen to the damage done: "the fields are destroyed...the grain is destroyed, the wine is dried up, the oil languished...the harvest of the field has perished. The vine dries up; the fig tree languishes." (1:10-12).

This was a calamity of such proportions that they should be asking themselves why it happened. God's judgment of physical destruction of the land came as a result of the people's lack of fidelity to their God. Consider 1:13, "[G]rain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God." Is this a relevant message to our age? Do people need to hear the Joel's call to repentance?

First we are given the directive: return to God. Hear God's urging, "'Yet even now,' declares the Lord, 'return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments'" (2:12-13a). Second we are given a description of God which engenders sinners to return to Him: "Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love" (v13b). The end of the chapter assures the people of the result of repentance, "And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (v.32).

And so we see salvation history continue: God's judgment on men's sin and His offer to save them based in something extrinsic, or outside of, themselves. Men sitting in the rubble and ruin of their own "accomplishments," contrasted with their salvation being based in God's character and on the basis of calling on His name (not their own name or their own accomplishments). New Testament assures us that 2:32 was actually foreshadowing Jesus, "[I]f you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9).

It is on the basis of this ancient message of a God who saves that we fellowship together!

Imitate You How?!

Paul's exhortation for the Corinthians to imitate him (1 Cor. 4:16) was not the egotism of a charismatic leader desiring groupies. Paul was telling the Corinthians to listen for the true voice of the gospel among many other voices clamouring for their attention and allegiance. Paul uses the metaphor of a child's "guide" contrasted with his "father" to advance his argument. The guide was generally a servant or slave that would supervise a child, make sure they got to school, did their studies, etc. This was an important job, but it was not the position, authority, and relationship as embodied in the child's father! Paul tells his Corinthians brothers to listen to him over competing voices, as they would their father over a servant. Paul here reminds them that he became like a father to them, not because of anything inherent in Paul. No. Because of the gospel: "For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel." (Note the emphasized phrase).

It's only after this important contrast is pointed out, that he encourages them to follow him, to imitate him. And as if Paul's example was not worthy of imitation--especially in light of the transformational message that he had delivered to them--he mercifully sends Timothy to assuage any of their doubts about Paul's consistent gospel-centered life. We see this in verse 17: "to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church." Such evidence, such a life, is a powerful influence on others. Paul elsewhere instructs Timothy to ensure that his life the same kind of saving influence: "Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers." (1 Tim. 4:16). Paul wasn't boasting to the Corinthians about his piety, and he wasn't instructing Timothy to be boastful about his. Paul's instruction to both the Corinthians and to Timothy was to follow Paul to the extent that what he believed and what he did reflected the transformational power of the gospel of Jesus!

So can we ever tell someone to imitate us? It is dangerous, I'll admit. Pitfalls of pride abound. But if you are experiencing a self-denying, sacrificial life in the hope and power of the cross and you see a brother that is running after some other source of hope or power (e.g., the love of money or prestige), I think it is your duty to tell them about how your thinking and life has been changed because of your moment by moment trust in what Jesus has already accomplished. Its what Paul did. He instructed Timothy to do it.

The caveat is that you cannot live like a hypocrite and then tell someone to imitate you. You must heed Paul's advice to Timothy to keep a close watch on your way of living and your attitudes about your life, making sure that they are informed by, motivated by, and reflective of the gospel (There may even be the need of a Timothy to come and testify to it). Only then will your call for a brother to imitate you be boasting in Christ and what He has done for you.