Conclusion from Peru and Mexico

ESV Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

In recent days I have spent time in Lima and Sullana Peru and Mexico City and I have discovered that people by nature are the same. Man has a heart that is inclined to selfishness and idolatry. Sin abounds in the remotest parts of the land because the heart is desperately wicked. Thousands bow before statues of Mary and pray to her hoping for answers. I have seen these people stare hopelessly at Mary icons, Jesus icons, and a host of dead saints who will do nothing for them. I have talked with people who pray to the pope and say that they love him. I talked with one lady who said that she knew that Jesus was the Savior, but she loved the pope. Thousands bow before Santa Muerte (holy death angel) in hopes that she will do whatever they ask her. I have seen people bring money, burning cigarettes, beer, whiskey, chocolate, plants, and flowers to Santa Muerte in hopes of her answers. I have seen these people bowing on their knees on the concrete in the middle of public places to worship their idol. Millions of people come into the Basilica in Mexico City and pay their money, confess their sins, and stare hopelessly at relics in hope that their sins will be pardoned. In America countless thousands are chained to baseball games, football games, material possessions, and whatever else their heart of idols can produce to worship.

My heart has broken in these last weeks because the God of heaven is not honored as he ought to be honored. People worship the things that are created rather than worshiping the Creator. God has been gracious to all mankind and yet mankind has hardened their hearts against a loving God. God brings the rain on the just and unjust. God brings the beautiful sunrises and sunsets upon the just and unjust. God gives good gifts unto all and above all things he has given his Son that those who would believe in him would be saved. However, man has taken the good things of God and perverted them unto idols and turned their attention away from God. I get a feel for Jesus as he overlooked Jerusalem or Paul as he beseeched for God to save Israel. When you accept the reality of the truth of the glory of God is breaks your heart that people would turn away from the great and awesome God of heaven to serve lesser things. Moses was outraged by the golden calf, the prophets passionately preached against idolatry, Jesus was angered that the temple was changed in an idolatrous business, and Paul preached to the idolaters of Mars Hill by telling them of the unknown God.

I arrived back at home wondering how I should respond to all the idolatry that I have beheld in these last three weeks. I wondered how our church here in the states should respond to all of the idolatry in the world. What are the options? First, I suppose we could sit around and hope that people chose to get their life together and stop being idolaters. However, I do not know how that could ever happen apart from them hearing the truth. Second, I suppose we could spend a lifetime studying cultural issues and customs in hope that we could somehow learn to relate to the people of other countries. However, the bible is quite clear that all men are the same. Men are dead in sin, shaped in iniquity, and by nature are the enemies of God. Thirdly, we could pay other people or other agencies to go and do a work for us while we remain comfortably in the states. However, there is no way to insure that there will be doctrinal accuracy or integrity. If we only pay other people to take the gospel we will miss out on all of the benefits of being obedient to the mission of God. Lastly, we could seek where God would have us to do a lasting work and then invest our lives there for the glory of God. The gospel has the power to raise the dead in any culture and we must be willing to take the gospel wherever God would have us take it. It is for sure that our church cannot go to every country and reach every people group, so we must determine where God would have us work and seek to be obedient wherever that is.

It seems that some doors are opening in the Spanish speaking countries below us and perhaps God is beginning to reveal where we are to work. There are some options for work to be partnered with in Peru and there could be a couple of options in Mexico. The need is greater than I can express upon this paper for a biblical gospel to be proclaimed in Peru and Mexico. Oh, that God would glorify his great name in Peru and Mexico by using a small little church in a town that does not exist to proclaim his great gospel amongst a people who desperately need the truth.

I give thanks to the LORD for allowing me the privilege of going to these countries and broadening my horizons. The things that I have seen will be forever engraved upon my heart. I will long remember the pastors that I spent time with in Peru and I will never forget Adolfo who translated for me in Mexico. I will relish the time that I spent with Paul Washer and the others. When I think of church I will forever remember being on top of that mountain in Sullana at that church which had no electricity and no roof. I am convinced that heaven was looking down on that little church on top of that mountain and very few people on earth even know that it exist. Oh, God I pray that the things of this world will continue to grow dim and that God’s people will be caught up in his glorious presence.

Because of the truth: Pastor: J. Randall Easter II Timothy 2:19 "Our God is in heaven and does whatever He pleases."(Ps. 115:3) "He predestined us according to the good pleasure of His will."(Eph. 1:5) Those who have been saved have been saved for His glory and they are being made holy for this is the will of God. Are you being made holy? Spurgeon says, "If your religion does not make you holy it will damn you to hell."

To return to my artillery duel metaphor, we are so far apart that we can't tell if our shots hit their targets. But a difference between this and an artillery duel is that artillery folks, send out spotters, get information on the relationship between where shell landed and where the target is, and make corrections.

Yes, on many issues there is no common frame of reference. The speaker frames the position of the other side on the speaker's own terms. That has certainly been done to me, and I freely admit that I have done it to others. I think we can all do better to intellectually understand the other side, but to really "get it" may take something more than any of us have to give. :)

In my exile I have had the salutary experience of watching the posts go by. And it is simply astonishing not only how little our thinking is understood, but how those who misunderstand seem to prefer not understanding the enemy (for such they think we are) to knowing the truth about us.

Well, I think it would be fair to say that goes on from all sides. After all, for almost all of us our faith is the most personal part of our being. It's interesting, when someone from my church witnesses to a non-believer, one of the conversation-starting questions that is suggested to us is to ask the person: "If it was true that most of your views about God were incorrect, would you want to know"? One possible answer would be "No, that's not possible because I know there is no God". But the question is obviously designed to catch a fair and open-minded person who might say "Sure, I would want to know". He might well be receptive to hearing the truth. He still might not become a believer, but we can never ask for more from the person than an open mind, as far as witnessing goes.

Now, if FR Christians asked EACH OTHER the same type of question, I wonder how many would give an answer more like the first answer (above) or the second. :) Probably more so like the first. However, to me this is very understandable. All of us have very positive and definite beliefs IN SOMETHING. Many around here have years and decades invested. I think it is very normal and natural for us to want to protect that investment. (Many non-believers start with "nothing" so they have nothing to protect.) So, maybe every side could slide a little slack to the others because of this.

You can say it as often as you like, and that seems to be pretty often, but I don’t worship our nice icon of Dominic or our tacky statue of Mary. I just don’t. You can say it 10,000 times and it won’t be any truer than it is now.

I appreciate what you're saying and I can MORE than identify with it. :) One of many examples would be the Apostolic claim I have heard 10,000 times that we have 33,000 denominations. It must go back to our respective sides having very different ideas about what "worship" is and what "denominations" are.

Of course that passions and sensitivities have been provoked by and against all sides is no excuse for any of it. I am no less guilty than anyone else. One thing we can all do is just to recognize that the other guy (whom we honestly believe to be wrong) is just as passionate about his position as we are about ours. Everyone has his kryptonite. There are some subjects that really do make me angry, while at the same time those same subjects do not particularly provoke others of a like mind to mine. I need to work on getting those subjects down to a minimum, and then eventually eliminating them altogether, by God's grace. I also need to work on recognizing the other guy's sore spots and then try harder not to pour salt in the wound.

I don’t care a great deal what you believe about Quix.

Compared to a long list of other priorities in The Kingdom, Quix is neither here nor there in terms of eternal issues.

However, I do care what folks believe, think, feel about God’s priorities . . . particularly those emphatically made clear in more than a few Scriptures here and there.

Quix has been a ‘bird of rare plumage all his life.’ Doesn’t seem to be greatly changing at 61 years. I’ve seen God clearly use the way He made me for His purposes in a wide diversity of ways. That’s all HIS CREDIT and none mine.

But, I was thinking and prayerfully pondering on the way home from the Chinese New Year’s dinner . . . a few minutes ago . . . God has taken significant pains to insure that

1. Holy Spirit is available to woo and fan into flames any interest in God.

2. There are humans, ‘God-with-skin-on’ as the little boy might say . . . humans who

A) proclaim God in word and action winsomely, graciously, gently . . .

B) proclaim God starkly, fiercely, stridently, insistently . . .

C) and who proclaim God in ways at virtually all points in between that none shall have excuse for ignoring . . .

One size will never fit all at the human level.

Assuming that because one size doesn’t fit all, therefore a given presentation, personna, whatever—can’t have any redeeming social or spiritual value is a hazardous judgment—in my experience.

Beyond that . . . folks are quite welcome to avoid my posts. I’m not offended. My posts are primarily aimed at whomever they may have some eternal value for. I’d rather others ignored them. But that’s really up to them, of course! LOL.

Now, if folks are trying to tell me that my personna, style, motives, etc. are worthless or worse . . . wellll . . . I don’t think that message will get too far. I’ve too many decades seeing otherwise first hand.

I think your post has a lot of wisdom . . .

My first thought on finishing it was, however,

a memory of my step-dad forcing me to do the other half of a pocket-knife castration of a pig we were raising to sell, as I recall, during my teen years.

The next task was to pour a great deal of salt into the wound . . . which the pig did not greatly appreciate at all . . . but which prolonged his life by cleansing and sealing the wound, hastening healing . . . toward getting fatter . . . for his eventual destiny.

There are a LOT worse things than salt on a wound. Sometimes, it's precisely what the Doc orders whether the patient thinks so, or not.

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Americans have come to the conclusion that we have a right to avoid being offended. That we have a right to all our petty sensibilities, biases and the like. And, under the shredded Constitution, there's been some truth to that.

But that's not true of Christians.

We sold our rights to Christ in exchange for His Blood; His Blood covering; Eternal Life and Joint Heirship with HIM.

HE TOOK on Himself
--our offenses to God;
--our offenses to each other;
--our offenses to God's Creation;
--all our offenses.

To then take the offense back, or up, as our own right and duty to have a chip on our shoulder and huffily rant and rave about how horribly we've been wounded . . . when Christ bore it all . . . is AT LEAST

More than a little askew of God's priorities for us VIRTUALLY all the time.

There was a time when Paul insisted on being let out the front door by day by the officials who put him in prison vs the back door in the middle of the night. There is a time to stand tall and firm OVER WHATEVER PRIORITY GOD IS CALLING US TO STAND TALL AND FIRM OVER.

But most of the time, it's our pride, ego, sensibilities, constructions on reality, biases, pettiness etc. that gets our dander up the most. I think God is rather underwhelmed or worse about such goings on out of our flesh driven junk.

IF GOD IS TRULY OUR ALL IN ALL; OUR HIGH TOWER; OUR DEFENSE; BORE ALL OUR OFFENSES . . . then what do we, 'legally, spiritually-dead-in-the-flesh--alife-IN-HIM' critters--where do we get off getting our dander haughtily up about anything?

If it's negative--we learn from it whatever Holy Spirit would have us learn from it and pass it on up to Jesus for His disposition, handling.

If it's positive--we learn from it whatever Holy Spirit would have us learn from it and pass it on up to Jesus for His disposition, handling.

If it's a mixture--we learn from it whatever Holy Spirit would have us learn from it and pass it on up to Jesus for His disposition, handling.

We have been bought with a Price.

We are either His love slaves, or we aren't.

For Americans unreared or without the experience of living in an Asian or other culture where serf/master mentalities are much closer to our era than in the USA . . . I think we have lost something of the AUTHORITY of GOD ALMIGHTY.

Scripture says even slaves are to work cheerfully--not just for good masters but for horrible masters AS UNTO THE LORD.

Doesn't sound like a part of the bylaws of the United Auto Workers or Carpenters Unions, to me.

Imagine the Roman Master who's wife or mistress or best buddy gets assaulted by a vigorous protest from a slave for a perceived/projected attitude of the wife/mistress/best buddy toward the slave. I'm sure the Roman master would have been real sympathetic to the slave's opinion about the slave's wounded ego, sensibilities or whatever. . . . NOT!

Jesus even said to Peter, IIRC, WHAT IS THAT TO YOU, YOU--FOLLOW ME! [end of issue. end of story].

No, I'm not saying all Christians in all circumstances are to roll over and play dead. There's a time to stand tall with a fierce response to unmitigated UNBiblical destructiveness in our sphere of influence. But we do exceedingly well to insure to the best of our abilities that doing so IS part of God's call for us in that situation, at that moment.

Will we miss it? Of course. Will we still act partly out of the flesh and human sensibilties--probably--especially the younger and more inexperienced we are in fiery furnaces and long dark nights of the soul.

But lots of things are not as they appear on the surface on all sides of most issues. The discerning look deeper, prayerfully and with Holy Spirit's wisdom.

The merely reactive don't seem to give a flip about Holy Spirit nor about much else other than their wounded sensibilities and pontifically polished shoulder chips.

All of us are prone most to squealing most about our sacred oxen being gored. Again, the best and only Biblical thing to do with sacred oxen is to sacrifice them on God's Altar. Kill the suckers. Quickly and emphatically--whether the sacred ox is within or without; a habit, belief, 'doctrine,' sensitility, hobby, hobby horse, group, leader, symbol, or whatever.

THEN we are free indeed. Free to walk in Christ's wholeness REGARDLESS OF WHAT ANYONE THROWS AT US ABOUT ANYTHING. We are free to walk in Christ's love and forgiveness toward others WITHOUT STRINGS ATTACHED.

Without demanding that the other person relate to us strictly according to our sensibilities, priorities, sacred cows, hyper-sensitive boundary lines and the like.

If folks have not yet learned to Love their fiercest, most painfully destructive enemies, then I encourage them to ask God to give them, teach them that Love. Just realize it's a bit like praying for patience, humility, brokenness, wisdom, understanding, Christ's empathy--all together. The training program is . . . interesting.

But there's a measure and quality of understanding Christ and His love; of identification with Christ that will not come any other way.

Either we are dead to sin and the world the flesh and the devil in a given area--or we aren't.

And believe me, Christ knows very well now to assist us in CRUCIFYING THE FLESH. He's even well able to manage layers of such training without our explicitly asking for it at a given time on a given issue. After all . . . haven't we given him carte blanche to overhaul us and conform us to His image as we professed that HE IS -->OUR<-- LORD, MASTER, SAVIOR, ALL IN ALL?

Even my enemies do me a favor if they surface a sacred cow and a flesh-driven tendency to squeal inappropriately over inappropriateissues. They alert me to something else needing to go to The Cross. Something else needs more of my flesh to die to. Something else needs more LETTING GO AND LETTING GOD in a given area. Something else needs HIS SERENITY REGARDLESS.

I think far too often for my comfort--any would be far too often--folks seem to assume that my starkest fiercest satire comes out of great personal emotional hostility and the like toward whoever or whatever the target happens to be at the time.

Merifully, that's far from the truth virtually all the time. I don't know how to articulate the capacity to be detached yet intensely involved all at the same time. And, I haven't always been 'there.' But, by His Grace, I've been there more the last 10-15 years than ever before in my life. And it's very freeing.

I don't have a great personal . . . something that's at risk, at stake. I've already been shredded dozens of ways from every angle over and over and over and over. There's few existential, emotional, psychodynamic, even spiritual and philosophical ways I haven't been shredded by others; by circumstances, by relentless demonic forces etc.

So, most of what anyone says to me as an assault, I've virtually always already been there and done that. No great surprise. It may be weary-some in it's repetition or familiarity. But it's not all that novel or devastatingly new.

Yeah, there's still occasionally enough of the REACTIVE ATTACHMENT DISORDERED little country hick, poor white trash, shy, embarrassed, humiliated, aw-shucks-farm boy left lurking here and there to get occasionally pricked or tweaked unnecessarily, unfittingly because he hasn't been perfect enough to insure that 100% of everyone loves him 100% all the time 100% about everything. But he's quickly jerked back in line, most of the time.

But if Jesus in us cannot help us BE EFFECTIVELY LIKE HIM where the rubber meets the road in such matters . . . then there must be something lacking in our relationship with Him because there's no such lack in Him.

And we'd best be learning to put on the whole armor of God and flow in His Grace, Spirit, Life in such matters as the tests are going to get tougher, heavier and more frequent for most of us in the coming months and years. THEN, on-the-job-training will be a hazard. God is offering us many opportunities ongoingly to AVOID BEING OFFENDED.

We'd best learn to practice and practice well.

“I believe that God honors the way that those English, that you malign, have taken those Greek Scriptures, kept locked away for centuries in those Greek monasteries, and disseminated them unselfishly into all the languages of the world than the way the Greeks wouldn’t, couldn’t, didn’t and won’t, can’t, and still don’t. LOL”

Locked away in Greek monasteries? That’s absurd. Even you don’t believe that. The Gospels and Epistles are and have been for 2000 years, in every Orthodox Church for everyone to read; and you know what, Uncle Chip? Our people can and could and did read them. And what did you Anglophones pass out? Twisted translations of the scriptures we Easterners gave you designed to support your revolt against the Church of Rome! And now what does Western Christianity bring to the world? Support for Mohammedanism, destruction of Christian churches and the slaughter of their people. And right along side? “The Holy Spirit is doing a new thing!” Sin is no longer sin! The Western, especially American, female hierarchs and their limp wristed fellow travelers proclaim the sacredness of sodomite “marriage” while Protestant American leaders like Bush assure Mohammedan devil worshiping emirs that the American people love and respect their cult! And to prove it, we’ll defend the barbarian Turks’ practice of stabling animals in Orthodox Churches in Turkey and converting them to public urinals in northern Cyprus; we’ll prepare for war against Russia, plan attacks on Greece and Bulgaria and Serbia and Romania if they move to defend Orthodox Christians in Kosovo against the depredations of Saudi financed KLA jihadis; we’ll support anyone EXCEPT the Maronite, Melkite & Orthodox Christians of Lebanon (that just leaves Bush’s beloved Mohammedans, UC); we’ll subsidize Fatah homicide bombers to the tune of $500,000,000.00 of taxpayer money! My God, the Africans are so disgusted they are sending holy missionaries here to try to salvage something from the Sodom & Gomorrah the West has turned into since the Protestant revolution.

Yeah right, Uncle Chip, you American/Western Protestants have a lot to be proud of.

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