Perspectives

Wow!! I'm a little behind on my summaries of class. Well here it goes.

Week 3: Your Kingdom Come.

The Kingdom of God has already come in the person of Jesus Christ. It is actively working to destroy the evil schemes of Satan and to prepare God's people for the ultimate coming of the Kingdom when Satan will be utterly destroyed. The disciples were charged with telling others about this truth. They were to show that Jesus ushered in the Kingdom and that the Holy Spirit is now using us a believers to defeat Satan in this present age. This gives us the hope that we need that we are not fighting on our own. God is behind us and in us to bring about the manifestation of His Kingdom.

Week 4: Mandate for the Nations

Jesus started His ministry with just a few followers, and concentrated almost all of His efforts on the Jewish people. He knew that the time of judgement for the Jews was coming soon so that their time of exposure to the Gospel would be short. He did reach out to a few Gentiles at this time to show His disciples what His future plans for them would be. They were ultimately to take the Gospel and spread it to the Gentiles. The disciples at the time were very confused when Jesus worked with the Gentiles. They thought that the Messiah was only coming to save the Jewish people they didn't understand that God's plan was for Jesus to pay the debt and redeem the entire world. Jesus told them in the Great Commission to "go and make disciples of all nations", they still didn't get that they were to reach all people not just the Jews. They were finally showed what to do with the vision that Peter saw on the rooftop just before the men from Conelius . They realized now that God wanted the message of the Gospel to reach all peoples of every tribe, tongue and nation.

I will try and do a couple more later today. I still have three weeks to catch up on.

To update our lives. It looks as if we are going to be applying for the CDTS in Tyler, Texas. We have the applications and need to start filling them out. We can't wait to get started, but have a lot to do before then in getting the house sold and a lot of other things sold as well. Please pray for us as we continue to prepare.

To God be the Glory

Confirmation abounds!!

God is amazing that's what I have to say.

If you don't know about the housing market in Michigan, let me tell you that it's really bad. The thought of trying to sell our house before leaving for CDTS was quite distressing. But again God in His infinite wisdom has taught us a lesson that He undoubtedly will teach us over and over and over again. With one phone call and talking separately to some other family members, we have two people already interested in buying our house. In Michigan that is near impossible. He is able to take care of seemingly impossible things. Like He's telling us "Therefore do not worry", sound familiar. Here's the full text from Matthew 6:25-34:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Why do we continue to worry? Why do we have to re-learn this lesson all the time? God will take care of us. It may not always be in the way that we like, but it is the way that He has in store for us.

We are humbled and in awe of His grace and mercy and guidance. He has proven His ability to provide for us. We will continue to trust in Him to bring us into His work for His kingdom.

May the Name of the Lord be praised.

Peace

Wow, it's amazing the peace that God grants. If my unemployment had happened at any other time, both Robin and I would have been freaking out. But God has definitely been granting us peace during this time and during our quest to find His will and join in with Him.

We are currently looking into two different CDTSes, one in Lebanon, PA, the other in Tyler, TX. What's really turning us off to the one in PA is that they usually do their outreach portion in the Ukraine, and we really have no desire to go there, but we'll see what God has in store for us. We really like the site of the TX one. You can see information on both schools here:

http://www.ywamtyler.org/index.html

and here:

http://www.ywampa.org/

After the CDTS we hope to move to a small YWAM base in Creel, Mexico to help serve a tribe of Tarahumara Indians that live in the area around Creel. We've been looking at pictures of the area and of the people and are falling in love with both. My passion is to reach the unreached peoples of Mexico, and while the Tarahumara people aren't on this list we felt it would be a great stepping stone into the area of reaching the unreached people. According to joshuaproject.net there are 14 unreached people groups in Mexico. Our job as Christians is to bring the gospel to all the world making disciple of ALL nations. The use of nations in the Great Commission is not referring to the Geo-political nations that exist in the world today, but rather the different people groups that are present in the world. Reaching out to these people and bringing them the good news of Jesus Christ is an exciting and wonderful task that God wants us to undertake.

There is more information on YWAM Creel at: http://www.ywamcreel.com/home.htm

We trust in God's providence and are continually amazed at His goodness. We are feeling an incredible joy at being able to join with Him in His desire to bring His name to the world and bring the nations into worship of Him.

We continue to ask for your prayers as God guides us down this path.

P.S. I will try and and review weeks 3 through 5 of Perspectives soon.