Dear Friends:
Hillsong has a song called, HOSANNA, that is a great song of worship, You can watch it on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdQB9iOpBp4 In the middle of the song, we find these lyrics:
Show me how to love Like You have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks Yours Everything I am
For Your kingdom’s cause
As I walk from earth into eternity
Have you ever asked God to break your heart for what breaks His? What comes to mind when you think about the things that break God’s heart?
I think it dates all the way back to the garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve chose the enticement of sin and thus separated themselves from God. We can look at America today, and see a nation that has turned away from God, a nation whose leaders have rejected God’s moral compass and chosen one that suits them, a nation whose people, quite honestly “wink at sin.” Without a doubt, it breaks God’s heart.
It is good for us to consider our own lives to make sure we are not breaking God’s heart by our thoughts and actions. Are we truly seeking to live according to His precepts, His guidelines surrounding our thoughts and deeds? I believe that the people in our lives, whether they have made a profession of faith or not, are looking at us, how we live, what we approve of and what we do not. I also believe that God’s law of sowing and reaping found in Gal 6:7-10 is going to result in much suffering as a result of sowing into ungodliness. This also breaks God’s heart.
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
I see the destruction spreading in the world all around us and I think as followers of Christ, it breaks our hearts as well. There is shameless murder of unborn children, abuse, abandonment and neglect of many young children, and now, people cannot even accept the gender God gave them. Everything has become SELF-centered. So, we must ask, how must we live in the midst of this? What things must we do?
I often think about another song, by Matthew West, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I2csO7_pOI
I woke up this morning
Saw a world full of trouble now, thought How'd we ever get so far down, and How's it ever gonna turn around
So I turned my eyes to Heaven
I thought, "God, why don't You do something?" Well, I just couldn't bear the thought of
People living in poverty Children sold into slavery The thought disgusted me So, I shook my fist at Heaven
Said, "God, why don't You do something?"
He said, "I did, yeah, I created you" (now listen)
If not us, then who If not me and you
Right now, it's time for us to do something, yeah If not now, then when
Will we see an end To all this pain
Oh, it's not enough to do nothing It's time for us to do something
Let us seek God with repentant hearts and ask God what He wants us to do to help restore this world that has fallen so far away from Him. The way we live, our priorities, how we spend our time and money, all of these things can make a difference. Perhaps God will use us to “do something” that begins to turn our world towards Revival in Him, restoring where His heart, and our hearts are broken. Let us pray for this!
I look at the young people in our lives, and in particular our girls at Casa and the young people in our Alas program. It is so easy to fall into sin! It is so easy to want to choose the world’s ways instead of God’s ways. And, I think young people often choose this even though in the back of their minds, they realize it may cause harm later. So often people, particularly the young, think the consequences will not befall them. . . but of course, so often, they do! Our 2 Ana’s who run our orphanage need our prayers and God’s wisdom as they seek to bring correction into the girls’ lives when they make bad choices. You may be a sponsor for a child in Alas, that child needs your prayers, and your wisdom as you write letters of encouragement to him or her.
Now that the restrictions are finally coming down regarding the covid issues, perhaps you will plan a trip to Casa this year to visit and encourage your sponsored child, or perhaps you would like to come and help in other ways! The building is now over 20 years old, and there are more and more repairs and upgrades that are needed. Pastors love visits and encouragement. Parents do as well! What things is God calling you to do in response to that broken heart?
May the Lord bless you and keep you, may He make His face to shine upon you, may He be gracious to you and grant you peace!
Jim & Pat
We had our first successful face-to-face meeting with all of our students and their parents. It was great to meet with all of them once again after ten months. We had a speaker for each one of the groups.
Abraham helped us with elementary, Raymundo with middle school, I met with the high school students, and Gloria helped us with the parents. The topics that were touched on varied from the story of Joseph, living a life with purpose, and the Parable of the talents and how God wants us to use our talents.
It was great a blessing to be able to experience some normalcy and we were able to see how our students also felt that joy. We will continue to host our events in the same manner. Our main concern is the safety of our students and our second concern is to be able to share words of wisdom that they can remember when they most need the advice. We care for all our students very much and we want to see them be successful in all the different areas of their lives. That is why we also encourage anyone that is sponsoring a student to write a letter to their student(s). There might be some valuable words of advice that you may want to share and that is why we have opened up this line of communication.
This is year has been going by very quickly and once again we have to prepare for the new school year. Next month we will be providing the applications for the new academic year. The following month we will be evaluating the applications and determining the number of students we will have and how many sponsors we will need. We are very blessed to have been active in this ministry for seven years now and we are looking forward to starting our eight year!
All of your support in contributions, prayers and volunteering has kept us strong in Palomas. For that we are very grateful! Thank you for all that you are doing for Alas de Amor! May God bless you and your families.
Berenice