Posted on 01/27/2008 7:56:14 PM PST by Manfred the Wonder Dawg
January 25, 2008
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."
I’ll cook my grandma’s “Butterscotch squares”!
In addition - wherein is it recorded that Peter claimed to a pope? Of that Christ established the RCC?
Press on my dear unseen sister.
Amen.
Yes, staying in Romanism will do that!
And what is even worse is what the likely eternal future for them.
I don't find that to be the case in my Presbyterian church. We're quite a happy bunch, by the grace of God. And guys like Quix and blue-duncan and Manfred and the_conscience and wmfights and wileypink and scubienuc and forstkeeper and harleyd and ftd and 1000S and Lord-Calvinus and Gamecock all give every indication of being likewise contented and productive and happy by and for and through the merciful faith in Jesus Christ that God has blessed them with.
Amen.
I am so happy that I have a hard time believing that heaven is going to be even better! (1Cor.2:9)
Grammar correction: That should read, 'what is even worse is, for most of them, their eternal future.
Actually it is recognizing that Jesus is the Lord (1Cor.12:3).
There are many gods and lords (1Cor.8:5) who are in fact, themselves fallen Angels and Satan himself (2Cor.4:4).
Modern versions remove the from 1Cor.12:3, thus anyone can now say Jesus is Lord without saying He is the Lord (King of Kings, Lord of Lords).
Amen.
LOL. AMEN!
His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God: Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever" -- Psalm 146:3-6"Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
Doctors?
LOL!
Wow. Anything to deflect the singular, personal, specific Lordship of Jesus Christ alone.
Another reason to stick with the KJV.
What do you mean if?
With those qualites you ought to run for President!
Everyone else has!
For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is the of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorah, their grapes are grapes of gall , their clusters are bitter: their wine (!!!!) is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps.(Deut.32:32-33)
And moreover, they were not worshipping the idol itself, but what it represented, it was to be an aid in their worship.
"Butterscotch squares!?!
You have FReepmail!
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
Seems pretty clear!
Wait, there must be a verse in the New Testament that states, 'unless you are worshiping, excuse me, 'adoring' a saint or Mary'
bingo.
The testament of those martyrs, in addition to the thousands and thousands of other martyrs (like the Japanese martyrs and kakure kirishitans) is irrefutable witness to our faith.
"I always eat the fruit I grow in my backyard; I walk up and down the stairs to get to and from my library; and when doctors tell me to take some medicine, I ask them if they're taking it, too. If they say no, then why should I take it? And if they say yes, well...they don't look so good."
Exactly!
Doctors are always putting people on medication that they do not need or has serious complications.
AMEN!
"Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him." -- Proverbs 30:5
Exactly right! I made that point yesterday with more words and less clarity. 8~)
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