Actually this is Thursday, March 27th - Blogger is messed up !

Hi guys, I pray that you all had a great Easter, and that you had a great time reflecting on our risen Savior. Recently the Lord opened up the doors for a sister from C.C. Philly to get an opportunity to travel to Central Asia to visit one of our CC Philly Missionaries serving on the field there. She was able to encourage her, as well as help out with the various ministries there. I asked Lilly to write a little synopsis of her trip which I will post in two parts. What are we doing with our free time ? Here is a little glance at an awesome way that the Lord used Lilly and her free time to bring comfort and encouragement to missionaries serving in a lonely land.

"My workplace decided to gift me two weeks vacation, which is very atypical. I was really hoping to visit some family that I have in South America but unexpectedly the opportunity to do that was gone. The more I prayed about what to do with my time, the more I became certain in my heart that my time off from work was not only a gift from God but it needed to be invested into eternity in some way. After hearing from Carlos that there were several opportunities to go serve abroad, I prayed about what to do, and started to have peace in my heart to go to this country - a place where I hardly knew anyone, or the needs that could be met. What I did know is that I was being called to serve my God there in whatever opportunity presented itself.

The culture that I was surrounded by was amazing. It was a beautiful mix of Russian and Persian culture. There is a predominant Muslim culture arising from the people, but many of the people here claim Islam as their root heritage but subscribe to no real religion. There are some strict cultural rules of behavior, such as when it is appropriate for a woman to look up at a man, who gets to sit on the bus, how to behave in public, and what times of day it is appropriate for a woman to be out of her house. There are laws that forbid anything that might resemble proselytizing to anyone under the ago of sixteen. I stayed in the capital city which was very busy, booming, overflowing of people and cars, dusty, and extremely environmentally unfriendly. I have never been so close to so many oil wells, rigs, and tankers in all my life. Driving down the highway, on both sides of the road for miles on end are oil wells pumping oil twenty four hours a day. The ministries that I was involved with are multifaceted and work independently of one another to help protect the people that are out serving on a long term basis. There is an NGO that helps run a home for girls that are too old for the orphanage and who want to be trained to become part of society. The love of Christ is poured out into their lives and some have come to know Him and some are learning about God for the first time. The ladies who run the home do not impose anything religion onto the girl’s lives, thus allowing the home to continue as an NGO, but they consistently and constantly shower the girls with God’s love and life skills. This "aroma of Christ" is very effective in presenting the Truth. Also, being that these girls received an extremely limited education, I was given the chance to teach several classes on health and the human body.There is also an English language teaching program here as well as a small medical team here, all of which participate in multiple activities that are focused on simply sharing the love of Jesus by their deeds and sometimes by their words. "

Please check the blog in a couple of days for the conclusion of Lilly's summary of her trip. In it, she'll write about what she was able to do there, as well as what the Lord showed her through all of this. We'll be informed on how we can be praying for the people there, as well as the missionaries that are pouring out their lives for Jesus, and for the sake of the gospel being spread in that area of the world.

The Hope of Resurrection Sustains the Promise to the Nations

A couple pictures of the "kaonde" people of NorthWestern Zambia

Hello everyone. On this Saturday night before Resurrection Day, I started thinking about the resurrection, and the obvious impact in our lives as believers, but then I started to think about what it meant for the nations (by now you guys should know that I mean "people groups", not political countries). Hopefully this will make sense as I begin to write down some thoughts that have been circling in my brain today.
1 Corinthians 15 is such a great passage talking about the resurrection, and at least 6 gifts written about because of the ressurection, but I want to briefly just look at one or two verses before I get to my main verse in Isaiah that I was thinking about. 1 Corinthians 15:17 " And if Christ had not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins." And verse 20 says, "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep." It's very true that if Jesus was not raised from the dead, we would still be in our sins.....heading to hell. Our sin has separated us from God, and really unless we are forgiven nothing of God's promises and blessings can be bestowed to us. " ....Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures" Paul says in verse three of that same chapter in Corinthians. But it doesn't stop there - Romans 4:25 says that "He was handed over [to death] on account of our transgressions, and he was raised on account of our justification." Thus meaning that His death paid the penalty of our sin, and purchased our justification. Then to validate His Son, and this great victory over sin and death, God raised Jesus from the dead ! Awesome stuff.

I then started thinking about how awesome and incredible this is - not just for me his son, who already is in the family, but looking at the world, it's His resurrection that actually sustains the promise that "in him shall all of the nations be blessed". Without the resurrection, not only would I still be in my sins, but the nations as well. So if we reverse that thinking, now with the resurrection, we can thus fulfill the "Great Commission", and tell those who have never heard that Jesus died for their sins, and was raised for their justification (Rom. 4:25) !

Anyway, here is my main point in all of this, and what I started to think about today. In Isaiah 53 talking about Jesus' death, verse 11 says "He will see it and be satisfied." But what is the Son satisfied with? Verse 11 says, literally "He will see [it and] be satisfied." here is what I wa thinking though. Verse 10 says, "He will see his offspring." I truly believe that part of Jesus' satisfaction in the resurrection is looking out on a great assembly of people from every tribe and language and people (s) who have trusted Him and been forgiven and justified, and are now part of the family of God enjoying Him forever !

Therefore I write that the hope of Resurrection sustains the promise to the nations. Let us be praying for them this Resurrection day, that this next year whether through us, or through someone else (Lord let it be through us), those who haven't heard of Him, who have never experienced true faith in Christ, and forgivness of sins throught Christ's death and resurrection, will hear and put their complete trust in Him.

blessings,
carlos

Missions Prayer - this Thursday !

Hello everyone. Let me start by apologizing for the lack of posts recently. I had the flu, and was in bed for about a week. When I got back to church, I had allot on my plate with regards to finalizing our Missions Conference on May 17th, and then also with finishing up some details on the Sr. Highs missions trip to Brazil. Anyway, my goal is to update this site at least twice a week so I'm back on track now, and will be updating some more later this week.

Before I go into the missions conference, let me finish my thoughts on people groups. I hope that you have enjoyed thinking about these verses, and exploring this topic together with me. I want to just mention a couple verses in the gospels that shed some light on "people groups" and God's desire for them to hear the Truth, and for a representation from "every tribe and tongue" to be in heaven giving glory to Him. The first is in Mark 11:17 (which is actually a quote from Isaiah 56:7). When Jesus cleanses the temple he says,
"Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'".
This is a great verse because I believe it sheds some light on how Jesus interpreted the O.T. regarding the worldwide purposes of His Father. In Isaiah, that word nations "pasin tois ethnesin" is the Hebrew word for "peoples". Isaiah says that there will be converts from "all peoples" that will enter the temple to worship! Jesus uses this verse when going to the temple, and cleansing it from what was a misrepresentation of His Father. It was a place that was going to be for "all nations", but instead became a "den of thieves".
There are many more verses that have this type of language : John 11:51-52, John 10:16, John 17:20, but I want to end with this one. Luke 24:45-47.

"Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, 'Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.'"

We see here that Jesus opens their minds to understand the scriptures, He then teaches from the O.T. three specific truths - 1. That Christ is to suffer, 2. that He is to rise on the third day, and 3. that repentance and forgiveness of sins are to be preached in His name to "all nations". So Jesus is saying that His commission is to take the message of repentance and forgiveness to all nations - and that the O.T. teaches that. When he opened their minds to the scriptures, he was showing them the truths of the O.T. where this "all peoples" Theology is clearly seen. (Go to my post on 2/29/08 for more O.T. verses)

Therefore, going back to this "Great Commission" that we looked at in Matt 28:18-20 in my post on 2/29/08 - the term "of all nations" panta ta ethne can be clearly seen (by looking at O.T and N.T. references) as meaning to make disciples not just from as many gentile individuals as possible, but rather reaching and making disciples in all the people groups of the world. One would have to go totally against the flow of all the evidence on translation of that phrase to suggest that it would simply mean "all gentile individuals". So I believe that there is a distinct calling on the church to do this frontier missionary work among all the remaining unreached peoples of the world. I believe that we should be praying about our part in this "Great Comission" and if the Lord would indeed want to use us to bring the light of the glorious gospel to those who have NEVER heard. This Pauline type of ministry is greatly needed - Lord, I pray that You would reveal Your heart regarding these things to us, and that You would burden our hearts for the nations.

I'll talk about our Missions Conference on May 17th in my next post. If you want to download the brochure go to www.ccphilly.org - it's right on the homepage as a link. It's all very exciting.

blessings,
carlos

A few more thoughts......

Before I forget - MISSIONS PRAYER IS THIS THURSDAY (3/6) AT 7:00 PM IN THE PRAYER ROOM.

I hope your enjoying these posts regarding unreached peoples, and the places in scripture that point to God’s heart to reach them with the gospel. I know the posts are long, but I think it is a very important topic, and it warrants a healthy, fair, look at these verses. To start with what I left with in the last post…..In Exodus 19:6, the Lord calls Israel a “Kingdom of Priests”, and I think the meaning behind that name gives much insight into what Israel was to be to the nations around them. In a sense I believe that Israel was to be the missionary, representing the True and Living God to the nations around them – after all that is what a priest does, he represents God to man. We see this in the plagues given to Pharaoh in Egypt right before the deliverance of God’s people. Each one of the those plagues had to do with the things that the Egyptians worshipped as gods (ie. The Nile river, cows etc.) The purpose was to show the Egyptians that Jehovah is the True and Living God, and there is none other. And it worked. We read in Exodus 12:38 that as the Israelites we leaving Egypt following the passover, that “a mixed multitude also went up with them”, meaning Egyptians that saw the God of Israel, and all that He had done, and began to follow Him, leaving Egypt with the Israelites. And when Jethro (the father-in-law of Mosses) comes to bring Mosses his wife Zipporah and their sons in Exodus 18, after hearing all that the Lord had done to Egypt, and Pharaoh, he replies by saying “Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods..” . He then brings a burnt offering and sacrifices to the Lord. What an awesome example of our God being a missionary God – by His mighty acts Egyptians came to know Him, and Jethro a Midianite worships the True, and Living God.

But we were supposed to talk about Paul for this post. I can give you many different references in which Paul points us to his “all nations” theology, but I will only talk about a couple in this post. The first is in Romans 15. This chapter gives us remarkable insight on Paul’s heart, and passion for unreached peoples. In verses 8 and 9, we read that Christ became a servant to the circumcised (his purpose in coming to the world) in order that 1. He would confirm the promises given to the patriarchs (Gen. 12:3), and 2. That the gentiles (ta ethne – NATIONS), might glorify God for His mercy. And to support what he just wrote, Paul gathers four O.T. verses that speak the same type of language regarding the ethne – and God’s plan for them.

"Therefore I will praise you among the nations (ethnesin), and sing to your name."
10And again it is said, "Rejoice, O nations (ethne), with his people."
11And again,"Praise the Lord, all you nations (panta te ethne)and let all the peoples extol Him."
12And again Isaiah says "The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the nations (ethnen); in him will the nations (ethne) hope."

If you look up each of these references in their O.T. location the Hebrew word “goyim” is found meaning people groups, not just gentile individuals. Secondly, in the same chapter, Romans 15:18-21, we see another fine example of Paul’s mindset regarding the gospel going out to unreached people groups.

18For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; 20and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, 21but as it is written, "Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand."

Jerusalem to Illyricum stretches from southern Palestine to northern Italy, and Paul says that he has fulfilled the gospel in that entire area. That is an amazing statement. What did he mean by that? Certainly everyone in that entire area did not hear the gospel in 10 to 15 years of ministry. And we know that Paul still knew that work needed to be done in those areas because he left Timothy in Ephesus, and Titus in Crete. Paul was set on going to people who have never heard ! He saw the O.T promises of the nations being blessed, and he knew that his calling was to go to the gentiles, and more than that, to people groups. In Acts 13:46-47, Paul quotes Isaiah 49:6 as his calling after the Jews received not the gospel. “I have set you to be a light for the gentiles (ethnon – nations) that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth”. In the Isaiah passage that Paul quotes, the word we have in Acts 13:47 as “gentiles” is the word “nations”, in Hebrew the word is again goyim, meaning "people group". I would encourage you guys to read through Romans 15, and think about some of these things - it also contains a great verse regarding raising support to go out into the field ! In my next post we’ll wrap up all of this with a couple passages in the gospels.

blessings,
carlos