Dear Friends:
Another school year begins! We have about 140 kids in our Alas program. They have all received their backpacks, shoes, and uniforms, along with school supplies and notebooks to begin a successful school year! We pretty much have sponsors for all of our kids, I think we are lacking a couple of sponsors yet. We want to encourage you to please write letters to your child when he or she writes to you! It makes a big difference to them! It is easy for you to do, you can write an e-mail if you want and send it to dpatnoble@gmail.com, and Pat will make sure it gets to your student. You can translate it on google translate if it is in English, or we can do it for you. Otherwise, you can write your letter and send it to Pat at
1017 E. Tours Rd.
West, TX 76691
Or to
Pat Noble
The Light at Mission Viejo
4600 Mission Bend
Santa Fe, NM 87505
If you would like to come to Palomas and meet your student(s), we will be meeting the second Saturday of each month this school year. So, our next Ministry Day in Palomas is Sept. 9. We would also really love to have more volunteers to help us each month! Is God calling you to come check out the ministry?
This month, the volunteers will be giving out uniforms for kids and we will have our initial teaching session on “Descubriendo mi propósito”. (Discovering my purpose)
Something I learned recently is that the t.v. series “Seinfeld” has been immensely popular over the years. People started wondering, why? It appears to be a series about young adults who bounce from situation to situation without ever really getting anywhere in their lives, and who seem to spend most of their time reacting to things around them rather than being proactive and trying to change things. People still watch re-runs of it today! Why? Studies showed that it is because the series is without a plot, basically purposeless, and simply reflects so many people’s lives, aimlessly moving from situation to situation, meandering, no brilliance, no significance, no sense of destiny or calling. Many people can identify with this.
We as Christians can get caught in this same trap, living a life without a clear sense of direction and purpose. It is easy to get like a hamster on a wheel, spinning around and around, but never really getting anywhere. Far too many people are living like the flicker of a candle instead of the brilliance of the noonday sun! It is easy to start feeling like you don’t matter very much, you are not important, no real feeling of ultimate purpose or calling.
Ask yourself, “What has God designed me for and me alone, for His glory, and the maximum expansion of His Kingdom?” God’s calling and purpose for you is a creative purpose, just as He created you! Think about this: No one has your exact DNA, of all the people on this planet! No one has your fingerprints, of all the people on this planet! You are unique. You think differently than others, you act differently, you are inspired by different things, you are bored by different things, and yes, you may share many of those characteristics with other people, but you are the only person in the world with the exact characteristics you have. Why? Do you think maybe God created you without a purpose?
In the opening of Genesis, God created a Universe. He created light, he created sun and moon and stars. He created this earth, and he created Adam and Eve. What did he tell them to do? To rule over the earth, to be fruitful, and to multiply. He made us stewards of this world he created. But notice: All that He did in the Creation was with a purpose. Nothing was just random. It all fit together. In God’s perfect world it does all fit together.
But, when God gave mankind free will, it was not long before we began thinking that we know how to make the world right! How many times have you or I thought, “if only I could rule the world for a day, I could fix so many things!” How presumptuous of us! We whose lives are a mere fleeting second in the scope of the Universe! And so, we have all gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and so the Lord had to lay our iniquities on Jesus to provide a bridge back to a relationship with our Creator (See Is. 53:6).
So, let us assume that our Creator created us with a purpose, which many, even most people today do not know. So, what is your purpose? Our first mistake is thinking that we should define our purpose. We do not understand that the created thing does not know its purpose until the Creator tells the created thing what its purpose is! A car does not know its purpose. Go ahead and ask one and see what response you get! In fact, a car cannot fulfill its purpose until it has a driver to drive it! Are you sitting in a chair? Do you think the chair knows its purpose? Of course not. Its purpose is fulfilled when a person sits on it! If someone calls you on the phone, do you know why they are calling you? No, you do not know until the caller tells you why they are calling. In the same way, we do not know our calling until our Creator shows us our purpose.
As I get older, Acts 13:36 seems more and more wonderful to me. It says, “Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed.” Why do I like that verse so much? Because it tells me that we are supposed to be here to fulfill God’s purpose in our generation. He has given us a purpose, and we are not going to “sleep” while we are still working on fulfilling that purpose.” Once it is done, we get to go and be with Him for eternity! But how many people never even look for their purpose, much less fulfill it?
Prov. 29:18 tells us, without vision, the people perish. Without a calling people wither, they die.
Jer. 1:5 tells us that God called him when he was in his mother’s womb. That’s great news! God calls us in advance! So, your calling is critical, and it is tied to your creation. Everyone who is saved, who has accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior by faith alone, who has been born into God’s family, has been called. Once you receive the call to salvation, then you receive God’s calling to your life purpose. It is a customized call, no one has that call but you. There is no greater satisfaction than knowing you are fulfilling the purpose for which you have been placed upon this earth.
So let’s understand, if you are born again, you will use your passions and talents in ways that will bring Him glory and that will bring maximum expansion of His Kingdom in your area of influence. Your job is to go out into the world with your calling representing the kingdom and destroying the confusion and harm that are being caused by Satan and worldly desires. That is what your job is. Our maximum happiness will come when we know we are in our calling and doing those things. That is why Paul wrote Ephesians 1—where he reminds us of our calling, and then says,
Eph 1:15-19 I couldn't stop thanking God for you — every time I prayed, I'd think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask — ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory — to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for Christians, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him — endless energy, boundless strength! (MSG)
This is what we will be emphasizing with our students this month, so please pray for them, as we also pray for you, that we may all become impassioned to fulfill the Calling that He has upon our lives!
Blessings,
Jim and Pat