Dear Friends:
Happy February!
Many years ago, when I was a young Christian, I was challenged on almost a daily basis by our Pastor asking, “What is God saying?” Every time I saw him, those would be some of the first words out of his mouth. And he was expecting an answer! As I think about the First Commandment God gave us, to love Him with all our hearts, souls, mind, and strength, it becomes apparent that if we are really putting love for our Heavenly Father first, of course, He will be speaking to us! John 10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. NKJV
I love the way the Message version translates Deuteronomy 6:4-6:
4 Attention, Israel! GOD, our God! GOD the one and only! Love GOD, your God, with your whole heart: love
him with all that's in you, love him with all you've got!
Write these commandments that I've given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.
There are Jewish sects still today that take all of this literally. They pray 3 times a day, morning, mid-day, and evening. I have seen them literally place a little box of Scriptures (phylactery) on their foreheads, fastening it with a band around their heads and then wrapping their arms with a strap so tightly as to almost cut off circulation, and pray at the appointed times even on airlines! I suspect we have all seen mezuzas on the door frames of Jewish people’s homes. These mazuzas contain the 10 commandments and every time someone passes the doorway they kiss their fingers and touch them to the mazuza as a reminder to keep God’s commandments in their hearts in all of their goings and comings. I am not advocating that we approach God so legalistically, but keeping Him on our minds throughout the day is the best way to keep our lives lined up with our Creator and to hear what He is saying!
If we think about what it means to love Him with all our hearts, that is the emotional, feeling side of us. It is easiest to compare it with how we feel about our families. We feel love. If they are not doing well, we feel their pain. If they just had victory over something, we feel their joy. We are emotionally connected to the point that they are frequently on our minds, we want the best for them, we are loyal, we enjoy being with them. We will act sacrificially to help them, we feel a bond of trust between us. So, if God is commanding us to love him with all our hearts, it is obvious that we are spending a lot of time reading His Word, seeking to know Him better, praying to Him, asking Him to guide us.
To love with our souls, I think refers to who we are—our identity, our inner self. It is where we make our decisions and choices that make our life path. So, we not only feel love towards God, we also are to identify ourselves as being in Him, and making our choices and decisions in ways that honor Him. Obviously, that involves having an intimacy with Him created by reading the Bible, spending time in worship and prayer, and in listening. I think this is very close to loving Him with our minds. I get the idea of meditating on His Word—I like to read the Psalms and Proverbs for this, and seek to understand what He might be saying to me personally through them.
And finally, to love God with all of our strength I think implies that our god-nature that came from accepting Christ as our Lord is constantly at war with our human-nature that wants to place US on the throne of our lives instead of God. It takes strength to resist the “ME” nature and submit to the “GOD” nature. Paul writes all about this in the Book of Romans.
I am one of those who, so far as I know, has never heard the audible voice of God. However, there have been times in my! life when I have been impressed with a thought so strongly I knew it had to have come from God. That happened to me once when I was listening to some people talk about their recent experiences in Albania, and I was struck with this great urge to go there and see what God might show me there. It resulted in 7 years of ministry there, and many people accepting Jesus as Lord! Another time, I heard the Lord through our Pastor, who asked me to go and see how the church might get involved in Mexico missions. It has resulted in 23 years of ministry there! I knew it was the Lord because He built a great love in my heart for the people and our ministry to them.
HOW DOES GOD SPEAK TO YOU? I expect you will agree with me that it all starts with wrapping our lives around the First Commandment and then implementing what God is telling us through what Jesus called the other Great Commandment, to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matt 22:36-40). WHAT IS GOD SAYING TO YOU?
We are struggling with all of this in our mission in Mexico right now, because we have few regular volunteers to keep the ministry strong, and at the moment, we have few girls left at the orphanage, and we are unsure where to find appropriate staff if the Mexican government sends us more girls. We struggle with finances. And so, we ask, “WHAT IS GOD SAYING TO US?” I believe that it is not always clear, and that we must see what doors He opens and closes for us. We are at a crucial point: Will the ministry continue, or will it begin to gradually fade out? A lot of that will depend on the people who come alongside us in the months and even years ahead. If you think God may be calling you to get involved, we would love to have you come and experience what He is doing in Palomas. We are looking for those who can teach kids, those who can befriend families, those who can translate letters, those who are “handymen” who can keep the facility in good working order, and we are looking for at least one staff person who is dedicated to living with and raising our girls at the Orphanage.
We continue to meditate on Habakkuk 2:2-3,
Then the LORD answered me and said:
"Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.
3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, it will not tarry. NKJV
If you would like to come and experience Mexico Missions with us, we invite you! We are at the orphanage the second weekend of every month. In February, that is this coming week-end, February 10-11.
We will leave from the Light on Friday afternoon, as early as we can get away, and return late Saturday night. If you want to go, please call Jim (505) 690-8302, or Pat (505)670-5659, and we will talk to you about it.
Everyone should have received your statement of donations made in 2022. Some were sent by email, others by regular mail. If you did not receive yours, please contact Pat.
Next month, we will be meeting with Pastors to begin preparing our program for the coming school year. Please note that our monthly support will be changing beginning in August, as follows:
Support an elementary student: $35/mo.
Support a Jr. high student: $45/mo.
Support a high school student: $55/mo.
Support a college student with full support: $100/mo. People may provide partial support and we will put sponsors together to reach full support. We have 6 new students considering college right now.
May the Lord bless you and keep you, may He make His face to shine upon you, and grant you peace!
Jim and Pat