God's Will for Slaves

» 10/11/2007 (THU) » Romans 1:1; James 1:1

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If you are going to be attending Youth Week at Bates Creek Camp, near St. Louis, Missouri the following week, I think that you might be interested in checking out this sermon! This sermon is going to be provided to the Cabin Leaders at this camp, but I am including the link here for your enjoyment! Our theme this year is going to focus on what it means to be taken from a slave of sin to a slave of righteousness.

The original Sermon Audio page can be found here.

Preparing for Camp

Next week is Boy's Camp at Bates Creek. As I was thinking over some things that would be good to meditate on concerning this week, and I was reading through a book that I have been pushing through for a few months now. This book is a good read and I would suggest it to everyone. It is entitled, "The Heart of Prayer - What Jesus Teaches Us" by Jerram Barrs, Professor at Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri.

As I was thinking about the task that is set before us, here is a quote from the book that really spoke to me. He is speaking here about the High Priestly Prayer from John 17.

Jesus is showing us in the clearest possible way that our work in God's kingdom will be ineffective without our prayer for the Father to accomplish his purposes through his blessing on all we do. He is showing us that our attempts to teach the Word will fail unless we pray that the Father send the Spirit to render them powerful and effective. AS will our teaching of our own children at home, our teaching in our churches or any other kind of teaching ministry, our leading of worship, our music and our singing, our visiting, our serving, and our hospitality.

By the example of his High Priestly Prayer, Jesus is teaching us that in all the things we do, it is not enough to be busy for the Lord, not enough to be active in doing his work, not enough to be committed to teaching his Word. In addition to the work we do, we are always to bed the Lord to do his work in people's hearts and minds. For without his work, without his blessing, all our labors will be in vain.

This is why Acts records that the apostles devoted themselves to the ministry of the Word and prayer. In fact, the text reverses the order--the apostles said:

We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:4)

Our ministry is to e prayer and the ministry of teaching; prayer and the ministry of serving; prayer and the ministry of music; prayer and the ministry of singing; prayer and the ministry of hospitality; prayer and the ministry of giving; prayer and the ministry off...You complete the sentence! All of us whatever our service to the Lord and to his people, are called to recognize that all our devotion and everything else we do will accomplish nothing unless we turn to the Lord in prayer, and unless the Lord blesses our efforts and establishes the labors of our hands.

(145-146)

We are back in Texas

Brothers and Sisters,

Thank you for praying for us while we were in Mexico. We are back in Texas and we will all be heading back home tomorrow morning. Hopefully there will be many testimonies to post here and I would like to invite all of the members of our team to do so.

Please check back soon to see some of these comments as well as I will be posting a link to our church's missions website so that you can view the pictures and comments as well.

In all things....Christ preeminent!

Aaron

Aaron called

Well, last night I heard from Aaron again! Things are just great there!

Aaron had to get up extremely early Tuesday morning, and didn't get back to Centenario until 10:30 last night. The "Senior Trip" to Ciudad Victoria was nice, but tiring. However, he was not complaining, because again, what an opportunity to spend such a special time with the young men. When he got back to the camp site last night, the rest of the team was so excited because they had such a wonderful day with the people.

Also, I WAY underestimated the amount of people that have been attending the Bible study! The women's group has been having about 25. That is amazing!

Today, Wednesday, the team will say their goodbye's and head back across the border into Texas. I know I mention this every trip, but please pray. It can be so difficult to say goodbye. Especially when you don't know if you'll ever see these people again. Also, not knowing the impact of the time spent there can be difficult. Especially with this kind of mission trip. So often you hear of people building houses, or libraries, etc. Also, I myself have been on a mission trip that the whole point was to walk into a village, talk someone into saying a prayer....and really meaning it...then going on our merry way.

This week, I have had a handful of people, all "Christian's" mind you, question me as to what my husband was doing in Mexico. I explain that he is there on a mission trip. They say...oh, what's he building. I say relationships. They say...yeah, but is he building houses? I say no. They say... well then what is he doing there? I say making friends and telling them about Christ. Preaching. Teaching. They say...oh, that's all! As if to say that preaching the Gospel of Christ is not as important as building a house! Unbelievable.

So, if any of you kids are reading this after you get home. And you're struggling with knowing whether or not your time there was used by God (even though you didn't build a house!) Know that the Lord has used you. Remember Carmen. We saw no fruit for two years. Who would've thought that Carmen would come to know Christ!

Thank you for spending your time off with these people that we have come to love. They need to know Christ, and what an honor it is that they have invited us there to share! Thank you Lord for making a way!

Love you ALL!!!!!