Pastor and missionary in Costa Rica

Next week I’ll be heading out (January 2nd through the 8th) to Tacoma, Washington, to attend Faith Baptist Church’s annual missions conference.  I want to personally thank all the folks at Grace and Truth Baptist Church in Pleasant Hill, Missouri, for their wonderful generosity in making this happen! You guys have been praying for us and supporting this ministry, and I want you all to know we are forever grateful. Thank you!!

I want to say a special thanks to Brent Blaise and his wife, too. I’ll be staying with them (Lord willing and the roads don’t freeze) during my week in Tacoma. They are moving from Kansas City to Tacoma on December 30th. I arrive on January 2nd! I used to camp out at lot with the Boy Scouts… so this trip should bring back some pleasant memories!

But, seriously, I am grateful for the Blaise’s hospitality and would ask everyone to be praying for them and their family as they make the move out to Tacoma to work with Faith Baptist. Brent has been a tremendous encouragement to me over the last couple of years (along with Jeremy Bonneen) and I’m looking forward to being with him and his family for the week of the conference at Faith.

We had our special Christmas service this morning. One of the aspects of culture here in Latin America is that around Christmas and New Years, lots of people leave. They visit family, go to the beach, or just “go away” for a while. But, we decided to try to take advantage of the time of year anyway and invite friends and family that would otherwise not come to church.

We had a fair turn-out and it all went well. We sang Christmas songs (like Silent Night) and then I preached a messaged based on Luke 2.8-14: “On earth peace.”

1. I explained why we needed peace: Because man without Christ is God’s enemy.
2. I explained what would happen without peace: Judgment and condemnation to eternal hell.
3. Then I explained the text: God wants peace and so came to take our punishment so we could be forgiven and granted eternal life and entrace into heaven!

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. [1Tim 1.15]

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. [1Pet 3.18]

After the service, we fed everybody donuts. If you’d like to see some pictures of the service, one of my guys got some snapshots.

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Please pray for all those that heard the Gospel, that they might repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.

I was reminded again today of the absolute love affair of modern Christianity with pragmatism. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the same question when people go with me out onto the streets to evangelize: “Does it work?” They ask me about the fruit… about the number of people in my church as a result of witnessing out on the streets… about how many have “made a decision” because of the tracts we’ve passed out… That’s pragmatism!

One of the great evils of the time is that of deliberating about a plain command of Christ, and asking, “What will be the result of it?”  What have you to do with results? “But if I follow Christ in all things, I may lose my position.” What you have to do with that?  When a soldier is bidden to go up to the cannon’s mouth, he is very likely to lose his “position,” and something else; but he is bound to do it.  “Oh but I might lose my opportunity for usefulness!” What do you mean? That you are going to do evil that good may come? That is what it comes to. ~C.H. Spurgeon

God has called us all to go and preach the Gospel to every creature. He has told us to find where the sinners are, and verbally communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them (Rom 10.13-17; Mar 16.15). We do not have the liberty to change the message… We do not have the liberty to change the method either! God said: Go and preach!

In the great day, when the muster-roll shall be read, of all those who are converted through fine music, and church decoration, and religious exhibitions and entertainments, they will amount to the tenth part of nothing; but it will always please God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Keep to your preaching; and if you do anything beside, do not let it throw your preaching into the background. In the first place preach, and in the second place preach, and in the third place preach. ~C.H. Spurgeon

Believe in preaching the love of Christ, believe in preaching the atoning sacrifice, believe in preaching the new birth, believe in preaching the whole counsel of God. The old hammer of the gospel will still break the rock in pieces; the ancient fire of Pentecost will still burn among the multitude. Try nothing new, but go on with preaching, and if we all preach with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, the results of preaching will astound us. ~C.H. Spurgeon

But, what if nobody is listening…? What if nobody cares…? HEY, CHRISTIAN! God is listening! And you can rest assured that God cares! Set your eyes upon Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith — Jesus, He who suffered and died for you! Jesus is our Lord, and we are but His servants. He tells us what to do, when to do it, with whom to do it, and HOW TO DO IT. We have no right to change the mission… the message… the method… just because we want to see “results.”

Pastor Steve Sanchez had a very good post on his blog today — that’s him in the photo at the top of this post. He ends with a quote from Spurgeon:

God never clothes men until He has first stripped them, nor does He quicken them by the gospel till first they are slain by the Law. When you meet with persons in whom there is no trace of conviction of sin, you may be quite sure that they have not been wrought upon by the Holy Spirit; for “when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”

Amen. Keep it up, Steve! And may God raise up more labourers to go forth out into His harvest and preach the cross of Christ: God’s Law, God’s Grace, and man’s ultimate decision (repent and trust Christ, or perish).