We come to Colombia bearing a message. What is it? Jesus the righteous one was slain for sinners. He died and was raised from the dead on the third day. He was seen by many people before he ascended into heaven and now he intercedes for His saints. Some day soon He will return to judge everyone. Any and all persons that trust in this message about His Grace, through faith and do not trust in anything in themselves will be saved. This is called "The Gospel" (the good news).
I must tell you we fight a spiritual warfare down here that is harder, hotter and heavier than ever at home. Satan is not happy we are here. It is not because of us, but this message that we carry. Isaiah 52:7-12 states that we are bringing the glad tidings of the good news with beautiful feet upon the mountains, publishing salvation to all that will hear and saying our God reigns! This causes worship and praising for our God in places that don‘t worship him yet. For the Lord comforts His people and redeems them. His Holy arm of salvation has been bared to the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see this Salvation. Depart he says and Go, You shall not go out in haste, for the Lord goes before you, He will be your rear guard. We know that this can not fail. He will do His sovereign saving work through it. Satan can attack our flesh if we live by it. But if, by the spirit we put to death the deeds of the body, then there is nothing to attack. Pray for us to walk this way. We must keep our eyes on the Author and Perfecter of the faith. We must live and fight with this understanding that, we have been bought with a price too high to pay or ever earn. We fail when we look to ourselves to defeat sin with our will power or duty. This is fighting the spiritual things with flesh. Martin Luther said “Sin is man looking inward.” Strength comes to those who trust in the Lord to deliver them. I see that I have, like most I would say, in North America, have spent my life wanting to walk by faith, yet captivated by the things that I knew and could see.
We always say, “God uses Means.” We love and laugh at the two boats and helicopter story that came for the man waiting on God and say, "what a fool." Yet I'm afraid we take too far the other way. A man the other day at US customs asked me, how I could leave my family in Colombia without their Passports. I responded, “God is the God of everywhere.” He said he was a Christian too, but we shouldn’t jump in front of a machine gun. We must be wise, He counseled me. Two years ago I would’ve said the same thing. Now, I feel like The Lord has given me a grace to trust Him more than I could have or ever would have dreamed before. You see in the passage above from Isaiah states, that when we are doing this Good news work The God of Israel goes before us and is our rear guard! I don’t know of an army or king that has ever out smarted this God, do you? We think we are so smart with our lil’ plans and or big ideas. The truth of the matter is, if the Lord doesn’t build the house the men labor in vain. Oh the logic of modern day “Christianity” To hell with this fleshly logic. It makes me sick how I used to walk by “so called faith.” Yet, I always had a back up plan made by the arm of the flesh. Saying I was serving the Lord, yet in reality not giving Jesus full Lordship in my life. Having a hard time going to church “every” Sunday cause I had fun stuff I wanted to do. Not wanting to dedicate to Sunday school just in case I wanted to go camping or fishing through the weekends. I’m afraid I wasn’t experiencing God for the Awesome Joy filled life He had for me. Our life down here for sure, is way less fun and games, yet I have never been so satisfied walking in the world, as I am with walking with Jesus today. My Faith has changed so much I’m not sure it could’ve been called walking by faith before? It is so sweet I wish we could just let go of everything in our lives for real, and then say something like, "Jesus, do you want me to do more?" Some day soon we will stand before The King and give an accounting to our days spent. That drives me. We have what… Ten minutes of life left. Then ETERNITY!
I use to hope that there would be hunting and fishing in heaven. Maybe some hope for lots of family time or golf or… Now I don’t give a rip what’s all there. I can’t imagine looking for a second at the lame streets of Gold or the pearly gates. Do you look down at the pavement now and admire it‘s glory? Seriously, The King of Kings is there! We don’t need a sun… The Lamb that was slain for you, that bought you even while you where dead in sins. He is there…He is the light of the new earth. I am here to tell you He is out here in this faith walk and mission world like you have dreamed of. You can see Him, feel Him and taste Him. He is outside the camp. Will you join Him on the Calvary road and die to yourself. Or will you just wish today there was more power from God in the world. You don’t have to go anywhere, I don’t believe. You just have to repent and get in your heart where God has taken us to. He had to work a little harder on us. He had to send us to Colombia to get our minds and prayers desperate for Him. Will you join Him? A True life of Faith is waiting. I hope soon you could say with us, “Was it really faith before?”
Josh
