On a bright and sunny day in July 2011, (some twelve years ago), I was privileged to accompany 6 other members of my Sunday School class on a short term mission trip to a small orphanage in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, that our church had adopted and supported financially. So, this first week in the New Year 2024, I decided to converge upon my home office computer and put typing strokes to an electronic page and to share with you my experiences on one of the earliest saintly duty-calls our Lord and Savior ‘shackled‘ me with. In my humble attempt to eke out from my limited understanding of what God’s plan was for his people down in Mexico, I will share with you how He used me and my small mission team during those five days of service.

You see, that assignment, all those years ago, reinforced and put pep in my steps because I had always known that international mission work was far more different from ministering to God’s people in your local venue; and have wholeheartedly embraced His call on my life to step out from my comfort zone and to follow the wind. Let me be perfectly clear, that this is not to infer that international mission work is superior to domestic mission assignments, because both tours of duty are necessary to spread the message of salvation to everyone.

The wind was a cool 78 to 85 degrees each day down in San Miguel from the time our plane landed at the Leon Airport on July 22nd until our departure on July 29th. Each night we saw heavy rain clouds and most evenings it did shower. Light jackets and plastic rain slickers became our mode of dress at night. But nothing hindered the active lives of the local residents of this mountainous central region of Mexico.

The assignment given me by the mission leader was to select and coordinate five Bible story lessons for Vacation Bible School for three age groups of children, all Spanish speaking, that would be in attendance. Their ages ranged from three years to twelve years old. This required that all stories be age appropriate and related in a fashion that would include interaction with as many children as possible.

I sought the Lord who guided me to draw stories from the parables (New Testament) rather than the usual Daniel or Noah or Joseph stories (Old Testament). You see, most of these children come from homes heavily steeped in Catholicism where the worship of Mary and other biblical saints as their 'savior' is prevalent. So the Holy Spirit led me to develop the parable of the lost sheep; the parable of the Sower of Seed, the parable of Jesus feeding the 5,000, the parable of the Women at the well and the parable of the Paraplegic as my five-day lesson plan. All of these parables emphasize Jesus' divine authority as Savior and soon coming King. I was blessed to have the Pastor's wife, Sister Janice, of our host city as my Spanish interpreter. I furnished a cache of bible character costumes to outfit the children who were assigned to assist me in retelling the stories.

Reinforcement of the bible parables came during craft time with Sister Gail of the mission team as the instructor. The third hour of VBS was out door games that were supervised by Sister Tiffany. Brothers Morgan and Joe (also known as Big Country) of our team. Each day, the children had a craft to take home, along with a “Jesus” story and memory verse and usually a prize received while participating as a team-player in the games. Lunch and snacks were provided each day for the children as well as gifts and school supplies distributed to our hosts and teen helpers as a token of our appreciation and love.

It was a true blessing to witness the Holy Spirit interacting with the English to Spanish dialogues as the Dallas, Tx. missionaries and San Miguel interpreters labored to express God’s word to the anxiously awaiting ‘ninos‘. What revelation! What joy! What harmony! All I can say is; “To God be the Glory!”

As far as international mission trips go, I have fought the good fight and I have finished God’s course for me. I constantly pray for the next generation of all missionaries and financially support as many as the Lord says so. 

Click below and listen to my prayer in song as conducted by the Richard Smallwood, Hezekiah Walker, Kurt Carr, and others…

Mix – Richard Smallwood – You Are The Source Of My Strength

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Click the Red Song Title Below and be blessed.

Kings Return – Bridge Over Troubled Water (A Cappella)

Kings Return155K views 2 years ago

It only takes six minutes to listen to some melodious tunes by this young group of gospel men called “Kings Return”. These A cappella selections soothes the soul and comes from their hearts. I truly believe they trained those angels who ushered in the birth of Baby Jesus on that blessed night. Yes…angelic-harmony-extraordinaire! So, do yourself a favor and usher in 2024 by praising God with them in song.

And while you are at it, pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the entire world. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall have eternal life.” John 3:16

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However, there is a caveat to the title of this week’s blog. Before you ask God “why?”, perhaps you would receive a quicker response to your inquiry if you considered other interrogatives such as “how,” “when,” “what,” and “where”! After all, God is God. And his plans are far above our meager notions and understanding.

For ten years, I was a volunteer missionary with Buckner International, a Christ-centered privately owned humanitarian organization in Texas (USA), that works with vulnerable children, senior adults and helps to build strong families in the USA and also in more than six foreign countries. And during that time of traveling abroad to those foreign countries with the Buckner mission teams, I am ashamed to admit that I was full of “why” questions for the Lord.

Once when I discovered that I did not have enough supplies to teach the children in the orphan homes, or ample desks and chairs for them to sit on in the ‘make-shift’ class rooms; or that I was not assigned an english translator; or the building where activities were to be performed lacked ample electricity; I found myself complaining and crying out to the Lord. I realize now that I must have come off as an ugly American…spoiled rotten by the conveniences of the Grand ole USA. But boy, oh boy, was I ever smacked down by the Holy Spirit.

I shall never forget the spiritual lessons that the Holy Spirit taught me. Where is your faith, young lady? This mission trip is not about you, my child. Check your attitude and your motives. Smile and show my children that you represent a God who cares, provides and knows what is needed. Now go over to that corner and look inside that box, the Holy Spirit said to me. Guess what was in that box.

Several brown lunch bags were inside the box along with some broken crayons. Just enough for each student. The kids ran over and quickly grabbed a bag and a crayon. Each child found a chair and without any instructions from me, kneeled down in front of it and positioned them selves to use the seat of the chair as their desk. The children then turned to look up at me and I realized that it was time to teach the Bible story. 

As I told the story of Joseph leading Mary on a donkey, pregnant and heading down to Bethlehem, a child in the front row repeated my words in the language of the land. The children all begin to draw that scene on one side of the brown bag. As I continued telling each part of the story, the children would turn their bags to a clean side of their bag and draw the images. When I finished the story, all sides of the children’s bag was full of the story details. And the young man in the front row showed the class how to punch two small holes in the sides of their bag and slip their hand up in it and make a paper puppet.

Now the Holy Spirit whispered to me that now each child can take their puppet back to their village and become the ‘teacher’ and recite the story of the birth of the Baby Jesus to all their friends and parents. Glory, hallelujah! What if I had told that story by using my own drawings on a black board. There would have been no evidence for each child to take home!

I later learned that each child used their lunch bag to take back to their villages a portion of their lunch we provided for them to share with someone else. So the bags served two purposes and God was glorified and my faith was strengthened and my gratitude and attitude was emboldened.

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“But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13–14).

“A life without regrets is a life built on a mirage.” (Author unknown)

“For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10).

Boy, Oh Boy, have I had fun this week prayerfully calling upon the Holy Spirit to show Himself mightily and to help me understand two passages of scripture I ran across during my early mourning bible study time. One passage from the New Testament and another from the Old Testament.

”Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. (John 3:14-15)

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.

^” And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.” (Numbers 19:8-9)

The question that pondered me was this: Why did Jesus compare the example of His impending death on the cross to a manmade image of a bronze snake on a pole?

To refresh your memory of the incident in Numbers, you will recall that the Israelite people were sojourning from Mount Hor by way of the Red Sea on their way to Canaan (the Promised Land). They were hungry and had no water and so they began to speak against God and against Moses. ’Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?” they said.

As punishment for their blaspheming, God sent fiery serpents among the Israelites, and the snakes bit the people and many of them died in the wilderness. Then all the people came to Moses and asked him to pray to God for they realized that they had sinned against him and against Moses. God instructed Moses to make an idol of the fiery serpent and place it on a pole. And everyone who is bitten, when they see the pole they shall live.

Now, after many days, the Holy Spirit said to me, my child, what does that story remind you of. After deep thought and soul searching, I proclaimed that the event reminded me of the Garden of Eden and the first couple; Adam and Eve. They performed a sinful act of disobedience after entertaining devilish thoughts from the serpent (Devil, the father of lies). The Israelites’ acts were similar and their punishment was also death by snakes.

On the other hand, Jesus Christ was saying that the offsprings of Adam and Eve (people of the world), should/must become engaged in conversations about Him…accept Him…have faith in Him…obey Him…trust Him. AND LIVE (ETERNALLY) AND GET TO THE PROMISE LAND! In other words, we as His ambassadors, must turn our eyes upon Jesus and lift Him up before all peoples and He will draw all men unto Himself.

Satan is defeated!!

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus (Church Online) – Hillsong Worship

YouTube · Hillsong Worship930.2K+ views · 2 years ag

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This is the final blog post I will be publishing concerning the subject on “God alone”, my brother and I had some 40 years ago. You will recall in Part 1, I shared a personal discussion (did I say ‘heated’ discussion?) we had on a deep theological disagreement on the personage of Jesus Christ. Since my brother had recently died with a firm belief that God alone would receive him into heaven without his having to confess Christ Jesus as his personal Savior. At the time of our disagreement, I was trying to convert him to Christianity and the acceptance of the Son of God as a propitiation for mankind’s sins.

I have since learned that…”So then neither is he that planted any thing, neither he that watered; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planted and he that watered are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.” 1 Corinthians 3:6-9 KJV

So, now, let’s come to the conclusion of the matter:

And God said to the Apostle Paul, His prisoner… (Column 1.)

And God said to me, His prisoner…(Column 2.)

• To Mary, wife of Joseph, we find this statement by an Angel: Luke 1:30-35 provides a clarifying identification: Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.“
• At Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist we read: …suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.  And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, who I love. I am very pleased with him.” (Matthew 3:16-17 – See also Mark 1:10-11; Luke 3:21-22.)
• And on the mountain where Jesus was transfigured we read: …suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, who I love. I am very pleased with him. Listen to him!”  (Matthew 17:1-8 – See also Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36.)

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Yes, My Lord. It’s me standing in the need of Your consultation and prayers. Why is this so? Because three weeks ago I lost my last male sibling who died professing his loyalty to God alone but not ever acknowledging God’s Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Where did my brother go, my Lord? I need your wisdom and closure. (Speak, Holy Spirit. My prayer for our session is in the song lyrics below. Please click, hear my plea for direction, and console me.)

YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com › watch

I remember vividly that Monday afternoon on June 27, 1983, (some 40 years ago) while visiting my brother in Michigan (USA). I guess you can say we were having a heated discussion on the subject…’How can a person believe in God but not his Son, Jesus Christ.‘ My brother was more confident in his persuasiveness in our discussion than I was in mine. (He had been apostatized*.) He could talk louder and had a better track record for followers of the ‘God alone’ theory than I had in effectively leading others to become followers of Christianity. Which for me is the only true Gospel.

I recall that our conversation had become so toxic that I fled the living room, ran upstairs, fell on my knees in my bedroom and sobbed uncontrollably.

In due time, I received several revelations from God on this subject and I began to keep a diary of my thoughts. Now, some 40 years later, I would like to share with my blog followers and others, just how God dealt with me through his holy word. The telling of this saga (which will be presented in parts) will no doubt extend through the remaining Fridays in 2023. So stay tuned.

And God said to the Apostle Paul, His prisoner… (Column 1.)

And God said to me, His prisoner…(Column 2.)

(*) NOTE: apostatized means renounce a religious or political belief or principle.

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The month of November has been set aside as a time to give thanks. Let’s look at some of the ways people in America celebrate it.

Have you ever wondered what do clasped hands pointing upward towards heaven have to do with God? Well, according to several references from a Google search, it has to do with an acronym I have penned…R-O-S-S. Repentance – Obedience-Submission-Sincerity

However, needless to say, we have a higher authority than Google…do we not?

When the Patriarchs and holy men of the bible prayed unto the Lord, they often spread out their hands towards heaven. And the wisest man in the Bible (Solomon) went a step further; he also knelt on his knees (1 Kings 9:54).

So, at the beginning of this holiday season, let us posture ourselves in a position of repentance, obedience, submission and sincerity and call upon the Name of the Lord while doing so on bended knees.

Another thing we can do is to spend some special time with our little children. Several American cities celebrate the month of November with various parades and festivals. Attending activities that the whole family can enjoy is an excellent way to teach your child how to love unconditionally. When you return home from a family outing, take the time to discuss it with your child. Ask them questions that will give you a time to share your faith and to apologize for anything that has gone amiss. Discuss safety rules with them when in a crowd. Plant seeds of wisdom and reasons why they need to obey you. To be submissive means to yield to someone else in a higher authority. This type of training can also be incorporated in family times of pleasure. After all else is said and done, you can now heap sincere praises and compliments on the child’s conduct. A few hugs and kisses could also seal the time you have spent in godly ‘training’ with your offspring.

So, at the close of the day, let us posture ourselves in a position of repentance, obedience, submission and sincerity and call upon the Name of the Lord while doing so on bended knees.

As you mature in Christ, broaden your prayer time to include the widows, orphans, homeless, calamity dispossessed victims, jobless, sick and shut-ins, governments, the lost, backsliders, friends, wars and rumors of wars, and relatives and most of all…PEACE!

WHY?…

Because God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son that who so ever believed on Him should not parish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

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Today I led a co-ed discussion group of seniors at my church on the subject of “Spiritual Disciplines”. In fact, that’s my monthly assignment for this group. The president of this senior ministry asked me to be the featured moderator on the 4th Thursday of each month to lead invigorating discussions and prompting effecting action on any subject I choose. So far, the sessions have been very stimulating and beneficial to those in attendance.

I began the discussion by asking the audience to give me their definition for “Spiritual Disciplines”. After a brief silence, someone said, ‘when I hear the word spiritual, I think of God’. Very good, I exclaimed. Now define disciplines. Well, that’s when God…STOP! I said! Say no more! (Whom the member was about to identify would have been a misnomer…a wrong or inaccurate use of a name or term. And I did not want her to mistakenly name the wrong player. The member was about to name God which would have been wrong. The second word (disciplines) is the responsibility of a person to carry out. Not God’s!

Definition for “Spiritual Disciplines”

As a follower of Jesus Christ, these (disciplines) are the intentional and deliberate acts of each believer’s conduct to enhance their spiritual growth and that will transform and change their interaction with the Holy Spirit. But in order to experience a healthy spiritual growth, you must listen to the Holy Spirit and put into practice God’s advice.

Suggested habits/disciplines to institute in your daily life.

l. Bible reading – This exercise, if practiced on a daily basis, is like a super-charged spiritual diet. It provides raw material that the Holy Spirit can use to renew your mind and transform your heart.

2. Bible study and prayer – This is different from Bible Reading. Every Christian should from time to time join a bible study group and engage in group and/or corporate praying. Just keep in mind that anything can be a spiritual discipline (habitually performing this act) if it develops better habits, makes you aware of Jesus’ presence or changes behaviors that makes growth difficult.

What shall I watch next? I’ve got nothing but time.

3. Bible Memorization – By making a concerting effort to committing key passages to memory, you can incorporate Scripture into your disciplines. Choose passages that are particularly meaningful and can help you share your faith with others.

4. Stewardship – Have you yet come to the realization that God is the ultimate owner of everything and you are just his manager. If God instructs you to donate a certain amount of your wages (income) to your place of worship are you obedient only if no financial emergency arises? Why not make a ‘discipline’ vow to obey God regardless of any impending financial circumstance. And stick to it! Generosity is a critical discipline that trains Jesus followers to appropriate God’s resources better and be more thankful and appreciative of God’s blessings.

5. Fellowship – Jesus gave us more than an invitation to develop a relation with God when He preached that the Kingdom of God is at Hand. (Jesus Christ Himself was God’s kingdom and steward over all of God’s possessions, including salvation.) And just as Jesus came to reconcile mankind back to God, we, too, ought to be reconciled to our fellowman, relative, persons of different ethnicity etc. And we should make a concerted effort to love everybody.

6. Fasting – Most people think of fasting as denying yourself food in order to focus your attention on prayer and other spiritual pursuits. However, food is not the only thing you can fast with. Think about it! How about refusing to become engaged in gossip or foul language. Flirting on the job or pocketing office supplies when nobody is looking. Now my next suggestions will require some serious thinking. How about fasting from putting off until tomorrow what you can accomplish today. In other words, fasting from laziness, non-dependability, making hollow promises, etc.

7. Silence – Did you know that many people set aside time in a day to just sit alone with God where they can appreciate silence. If your scene is outdoors, just take in all of God’s creation. Be thankful. Be amazed. Be enriched. Speak to the birds. Call on the butterflies. Feed the squirrels. Shout to God with a voice of triumph. You get the picture.

Scripture Lesson: “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales. Rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:7-8