Dear Friends:
September was the kick-off of our new school year! Hopefully all of you sponsors received your letters from the students you sponsor, and hopefully you will have time to write a short note back to them. Please e-mail any response to dpatnoble@gmail.com or jamesvpnoble@gmail.com, and we will print them up for your students. You can also send by regular postage to Pat Noble, 1017 E. Tours Rd., West, TX 76691. We started of the year with encouraging classes about doing well in the school year, and we also provided them with their school uniforms. This month, we will be giving them athletic shoes.
We will be teaching them about being overcomers, “Vencedores”, as we talked about last month.
Most people, especially we Americans, who are very independent, approach “religion” as a last resort. We want to live life “my way” as Frank Sinatra famously sang, “I did it my way.” But honestly when we do it our way, we know we are going to make painful mistakes, we are going to do things that harm not only us, but others, and we may even end up in a very bad place, as those who have struggled with addiction problems have discovered.
I think even doing life “God’s way”, is not going to mean that we will have a life without problems or hurts. We live in a fallen world that is full of bad things, and we are not immune from them. Even as Christians, we have a hard time keeping our eyes on God. I often find myself worrying about problems or getting depressed over situations that I really can’t control, and even if I could, I would probably choose the wrong way to solve things. But Paul reminds us that when we do this, we have separated ourselves from the love of Christ:
Rom 8:37-39 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If I recognize that I need to live close to Jesus in my thoughts and actions, then I can turn all of these problems over to Him and trust that His love will be sufficient. And, after all, if we understand that our lives on this earth are really but a short time, and that God has an eternal future of love for us, then it helps us to have the right perspective and to feel His love guiding us through. Of course it all starts with being born again.
John 3:1-8 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again , he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again .' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Many people call themselves Christian or Catholic, but what does that mean? Jesus says that to be his follower, you must be born again. He says you must be born of the spirit. He tell us that happens by following Him.
How do you understand the concept of being “born again?” Clearly Jesus is pointing to a person whose life has been transformed. A person who has had a radical experience with Him. Think of the disciples when Jesus was crucified. They were fearful and they went into hiding. They thought that all their time with Jesus had come to nothing. They certainly did not feel “born again.” Then, they discovered that he had come back to life! They began to realize the implications of this, as we read above in Romans 8. They understood that His love overcame persecution, hunger, fear, pride, and death itself! His love would see them through to eternity. Suddenly they were no longer fearful, they went about preaching salvation in the face of persecution. They acted as Jesus had acted, doing all they could to bring love to a world full of darkness, even when they were threatened with flogging and death. And yes, all but John were martyred (and John was severely persecuted), but they realized that even martyrdom would not separate them from the eternal love of Christ that carried them through, even beyond death. They understood that even the death of their mortal bodies would not separate them from the eternal love of God.
So, I think being “born again” means that our eternal perspective has completely changed, much in the same way it was changed for the disciples. We have an eternal hope, and a faith to take us through the worst things that can happen in this life. We should no longer allow sin to control our lives. We should no longer seek “our way” of approaching life, but rather, “His way.” Admittedly, we all fail sometimes, meaning that we all sin, but not even that can separate us from the love of God if we confess and seek to restore a life-style of putting Jesus first (1 Jn. 1:9)
Without a doubt, the disciples were “born again.” They lived lives in community, encouraging believers. They reminded one another of Scriptures, so they obviously spent time studying the Bible. They were willing to sacrifice their interests for others. They spent time in prayer, and in imitating the things they had seen Jesus do. I think if we are born again, we want to be Marco encourages the parents to support their kids in school close to God. We want to study His Word, the Bible. We want to spend time talking to God and seeking to hear His voice. We want to be filled with the Holy Spirit because He empowers us to overcome the issues of life. So, we need to go to the one who is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. We need to seek to imitate Him. Jesus tells us that if we are His followers, we must seek to live and do the things that Jesus did. He wants us to be like him.
Jesus encourages his followers in John 10:27-30 My sheep hear My voice , and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one."
Do you think you have been born again? Are you trying to live like Jesus lived? Do the things that Jesus did? Seeking to live as the Bible teaches? If not, then just remember that He is ready to begin the transformation process in your life as soon as you are ready to surrender to Him. Rom 10:9-10 tells us how simple it is to start that process: For if you tell others with your own mouth that Jesus Christ is your Lord and believe in your own heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in his heart that a man becomes right with God; and with his mouth he tells others of his faith, confirming his salvation.
When Jesus is in your heart, and when you are seeking to let him guide your life, then you will see that your life has completely changed from being in the kingdom of death into the kingdom of life. From the kingdom of darkness, to the kingdom of light. You will see that you like to read the Bible and to learn what God wants from you. And, you will discover his amazing promise that in Him, you will be an overcomer of everything in life that is trying to destroy love and peace and joy and a promising future for your life.
This is the message that we will be sharing with our students in the Alas program this month! Please pray with us that they will want to hear and that they will want to start the process, if they have not yet done so.
We will encourage them by reminding then that without a doubt, the Lord wants them to learn. He wants them to learn more about Him by reading His word. He wants them to learn more about skills and professional opportunities that can take them from poverty to a more valuable life where they can help more people. Education is important to God, and it needs to be important to them. The more they can learn, the better they will be able to handle the problems of life that will hit them.
And The Lord makes a beautiful promise to us in Romans 8:37-39, that if we are in Him, if we are seeking to follow Him in all we do, in the way we live, we will have success. We will be overcomers. He is there to help us by his Holy Spirit in our studies, in our relationships with our family and friends, in our goals and in our future. If we will draw close to Him, we will begin to receive His promises. If we do not, then we will not be an overcomer.
We plan to challenge the students with the following questions: What problems are you having in your life? Are you ready to be an overcomer? What is the solution that we have learned today? Are you willing to follow Jesus? Would you rather be an underachiever, or an overcomer? Are you willing to give up your own ideas for your life and start asking Jesus what his ideas are for your life? For how you can be an overcomer? It is not easy. Jesus overcame death, he overcame persecution, he overcame everything the devil and the world could throw at him, but he did have to go through many difficult problems. You will never avoid them. Your choice is to decide if you want to let those problems control your life, or if you want to let Jesus guide you into becoming an overcomer!
Please pray for our volunteers as they share this powerful message of the transformed life that can have a huge impact on our students’ lives, and let’s pray that the message will be received and taken to heart!
Somos Vencadores!
Jim and Pat