Another Chapter In The Life of A Pilgrim

Brothers and Sisters,
It has been far too long since I have written to you, and for that I do apologize. I have had the opportunity to go back and fellowship with some of the brethren that have been so faithful in holding the rope for me as I have gone into the well. I cannot mark words that would articulate my gratitude and state of being encouraged from the sweet reunion I had with those saints who have been steadfast in this work on my behalf. I do however wish to convey my gratefulness for their laboring in the work of intercession for me. It is such a vast tool in the war with the evil one, and a grand protection for me. Upon my return I have found myself overwhelmed with opportunity of service, and labors in the work of the kingdom. I have greatly struggled with discerning which open passage ways to proceed through, and which passage ways are a test of my discernment and faith in the All Mighty. I often find myself so easily entangled in a desire to master the whole city here on my own for it is frequent that my mind is positioned that I know the best way a thing should be done, and I should be the one to accomplish it. In learning this fault in my life I have since began to recognize as that selfishness arises and have been at war with it. Oh, how I wish to kill the evil one within me! I do so delight in the promise of our Father that is found in Philippians 1:6 that “He who began in us will bring it to completion”. On that day, this old man, will be slaughtered by the proclamation of His glory! What a wonderful day that will be!! I have, since my return, frequently visited the heathen in the streets and have felt greatly assisted by the Spirit, though none seen to yet be acquainted with grief over their sin, I do recognize that the preaching is not in vain for He will use His word to accomplish all the He has willed to do. When I arrived I found Paco had begun to lead the study in our house through the book of Acts, teaching of the faith and works of our church fathers. Both of the times I have met with that group I saw that the time was blessed by the presence of the Spirit, and feel as though two of the people left with great concern for their souls. It is my prayer that this concern would torment their heart and lead to their conversion. This past Sunday was in my consideration the unsurpassed of all the times past of my attending Remanente, Pastor Gerry gave an exhortation from Galatians 5:1 of our freedom in Christ, and took much time to explicate the importance of knowing the significance of being “In Christ” and much of the cause of lack our peace filling our churches today stems from an ignorance of this matter. This gathering was also attended with great praise of the Father through song, and communion with the saints. I consider it an immense blessing to be able to share in the Spirit with the brothers at Remanente. At the moment I see sparks of great things accruing for the Kingdom, and has been my prayer that the Father would grant me the fire that consumes those who do not release it, that He may use me to fuel those sparks and wildfires would spread though this land bringing great glory to the name of the Holy One. Below I will include a list of the works in with sfjm will be involved in, and how you can pray for these works. Once again I am too feeble to express the thankfulness in my heart toward all of you who sacrifice time, money, and effort to be a part of what the Lord is doing here.

Works of the Father through sfjm:
*June 21st – 26th- Group coming from New York to work in Tepito and La Merced. We will be handing out gospels, and evangelizing on the streets.
*July 6th – 11th- Steven Puckett will be coming down, and we will be heading out to San Luis Potosi to hand out gospels, and preach in the towns to people who have not heard the gospel.
*July 13th – 18th- I will be journeying to a town not too far from here to teach a group of young men how to preach.
*July 26th – August 3rd – We will be taking a trip to Chiapas to share the gospel with people who in the past have been very opposed to anything of Christendom.
*In the next month or so I will start teaching a class of evangelism at our church on Sunday mornings.
*My pastor and I met this week and feel the Lord leading us to preach through the book of Ephesians on Sunday mornings, and we will be partnering in this effort.
*Our church has started home group Bible studies, and my pastor asked if they start another group if I would teach that group.
*Also in our meeting we discussed more on the subject of starting a men’s Bible study to teach three things: 1. Good theology, 2. How to be a godly man, husband, and father, 3. How to labor hard for the gospel.
Thank you again for all of your prayers and support, continue to be in prayer for these trips and ministry opportunities. If the Lord places on your heart to be a part of one of these please contact me.

Food for thought:
“Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31
An idea that has seen a resurrection in this age of the church is the “glory of God”. It is my opinion that this resurrection has been sparked by men such as Sproul, Mac Arthur, Packer, and the obvious Piper. This is not an exhaustive list, just a few which enter my mind here on the spot. This returning to a great emphasis on the glory of God is one that was greatly needed, and is leading to the formation of a reformation in our nation. It is more often heard from the reformed groups, but is not exclusive to such groups. My heart flutters as the focus of God’s glory floods the mind of the saints across our nation, and across the world. It is true that our chief goal should be the Glory of the father, but this is true because it is God’s chief end. God values Himself and His glory solely. In saying this I do not say that God does not cherish or delight in His relation with man, simply that in His relation with man He seeks His own glory. God saves men for His glory, He does not save man houses and streets in the hope of receiving glory, He saves, and it is totally His work because His reason for saving is His glory (I think it is a very dangerous thing to think of this idea as 50/50, that God saves 50% for His glory and 50% for mans enjoyment. God saves solely for His glory and through this salvation man enjoys.) I feel the need to explain this with some more depth, but not exhaustively. The salvation of man is a miracle of God, and His chief end in the saving of man is His glory. Man is radically and totally depraved, and totally incapable of doing anything of any value apart from the sovereign work of the trinity in his life. Therefore when the Father saves one there is a radical change in his/her life, without this transformation there is no genuine salvation. Because man is incapable of this good work, when the world sees this change it does not point to some great thing man has done, but the sovereign work of God. That is why salvation brings God glory. That is why a good tree bears good fruit; to show the world the greatness of God. John Owen said “The price of our redemption is more precious in the eyes of God and his Son than it should, as it were, be cast away on perishing souls, without any care taken of what becomes of them afterward." God is faithful in salvation, and He is perfect at it. When He saves one it is effectual! Why?? Because He does not save solely so humans can enjoy pearly gates and golden streets, and sing glory glory hallelujah with their grandma, but that the world would see His great work and ascribe Him the glory due His name. Therefore, if His glory is His chief end so should it be ours. Now, I have a confession, often I have preached this truth, and it has not been acquainted with the understanding of what glory is. Often I have sought to do things in such a way to give Him the most glory, but have acted in ignorance to what exactly that means. I admit that I am often found in stupor, and do not claim to be part of the intellect, but I do not fell on this subject I am alone in saying I do not have a clear view of what His glory actually is. Then comes the great revelation!! I was driving to Fort Worth not long ago and had exhausted all of my washer sermons, so I decided to entertain my heart with some Piper. He was finishing his series on Romans, and set out to define glory. He opened the passage of Isaiah 6 that says “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, and the whole earth is filled with His…?” The passage does not say holiness, but glory. God is Holy therefore the earth is filled with His Glory!! Then Piper proceeded to use this text to help define glory, he said “Glory is the manifested beauty of His holiness.” When I heard this I was awestruck at the significance of this. One thing that has been so heavy on my mind of late is that it is necessary to have good orthodoxy, but it is also just as necessary to have good orthopraxy, so as I began to search for how this truth will be lived out my heart was consumed with conviction. We in Christendom often say “I am doing this for the glory of God”, but are we actually trying show the world the beauty of God’s holiness?? It saddens me that most of the professing church today is more concerned with what they can do for the church, or how many bible studies they did this year than they are the glory due His name. This glory will not be found in words or bible studies, but in a life that is being conformed to the image of the son for in this great work the Father’s beauty is revealed. The revealing of the glory of God is through the sanctification of the saints. Are we truly a people that seek to be holy? Romans 12:2 says “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” What are you doing in your life to not conform to this world? We are called to be different, holy, set apart for the gospel. Jesus cannot be our accessory He has to be our necessity! 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says “For this is the will of God, your sanctification.” We have to stop separating the spiritual world and the secular! For the children of God there is one world! It’s all spiritual, and it’s all about Him!! God is God’s greatest goal because He is the most valuable in the world, and for Him to make anything of less value His goal is Idolatry, and that is impossible for God. He should be the reason we eat, drink, sleep work, any and everything we do, not so that He will give us some great mansion or crown, but that the world would relish in His beauty.
*For a far greater and somewhat exhaustive explanation of God’s chief end read “The End for Which God Created the World” by Jonathan Edwards. It is the best book I have read a part from the Bible.

Works of the Father from the journey of a Pilgrim:

Works of the Father from the journey of a pilgrim:

I wanted to take a few minutes and write you all of you who faithfully support and pray for the ministry of Sing for Joy, and share with you some of the great things that the King of Kings is doing here in Mexico City.
About a month and a half ago, along with one of two of the IMB missionary’s daughters, and a couple of their friends, I went to the streets of la Merced to preach the Gospel to prostitutes. This is something that got started with the group that came in December, and has begun to flourish as an incredible ministry. That day we met a lady named Ely, and after a lengthy conversation found out that she had worked there for 20 years as a prostitute. Since that day I have been going back and talking to Ely often, I go on Tuesday mornings, and Paco, Kristi and I go on Thursday evenings. We have had several great conversations with her, but the one this past Thursday really made her examine her life. We invited her to church and she said if someone would meet her there she would come. Since I have been here many have said similar things, but often times it is not true, and when we go meet them on the streets they are nowhere to be found, or they are passed out drunk, so I didn’t have much confidence in her. It was Friday and I was in my room reading over my sermon for that night that I had labored so hard for, and was looking up as many words in Spanish as I could so I could try to preach with proper Spanish. The Lord spoke so heavily to me and said I was preaching the wrong message, and after telling God that it is impossible to change now because I had already written it out and didn’t have time to write another one, He rebuked me and showed me how small I am, and how weak my faith is, and I set out to preach Matthew 14 that he had placed on my heart. Because I had that struggle with God I walked into church just as we were starting, and Ely was sitting by Kristi! I don’t even know how to describe the feelings going through my heart in that moment!! Here sat a lady that made the woman at the well look like a saint in WMU, and God had made her come to church. That night I preached without notes and with few errors solely by the grace of God, and for an hour and a half Ely heard of the truths of the Father. After church she sat with us, drank coffee, and talked for almost an hour. She told us she would bring her kids with her this week. Please pray for the salvation of Ely! If she will be saved it will be through the preaching of the gospel.
As was stated above, when the group from Grace was here in December we started the ministry to the prostitutes, and the first day we went to the streets Katelyn, and Vasti (IMB missionary’s daughter) had an amazing conversation with a girl named Karen, she has worked there for a little over two years, and is a rough situation. Since the group has left she is another girl that we have had the opportunity to have more conversations with that have been fruitful. Two weeks ago Paco, Kristi, and I were in La Merced and began to speak with her once again. As was so with times before it was a lengthy conversation, and she realized truths of the Lord that needed to be applied to her life. Towards the end of the conversation we had really made a connection with her and I could see hurt in her eyes as she was realizing truth. I told her that I would be praying for her, and Kristi asked if she had a Bible and she said no, so I told her I would bring her one. I went out every day that week looking for her to give her the Bible, but she was not there. Last Thursday as we went to the streets we wanted so badly to see Karen so we could give her a Bible, but she wasn’t there. It had been a week since I had seen her, and I was worried something had happened to her. We approached a girl that stands close to where Karen normally is and asked her if she knew Karen, and she said yes, that they are friends. I asked where she was, and she said “about a week ago she said she was leaving and not coming back.” I have no idea if that means she left that kind of work, or if she just went to another place to work, but I give God praise for the work He is doing in her life! Please pray for Karen’s salvation. Pray that God would continue to place people in her life that will be faithful to preach the gospel. If Karen will be saved it will come through the preaching of the Gospel.
About three and a half months ago I met a guy named Josue. He lives on the street and is a drug addict, and really has a rough life. He lived in L.A. for a few years, and thinks he is in a gang. The Lord just made a connection between Josue and I. I am not sure why he began to cling to me, but others had tried to get close to him, but he just blew them off. Although I do not understand the sovereignty of the Lord I do praise Him for it. Every week I would meet with Josue and share the gospel with him. The whole time I would share with him I would have to pull his hand from his nose to keep him from sniffing glue, and some days he was more sober than others, but most of the time I felt like he didn’t understand much of what we talked about, but we just had a unique relationship. I remember one day I walked into the park and I heard someone yelling my name, and had no idea who? It was Josue! That day I looked at Kristi and said “You know you have status when a homeless guy knows your name!” I have not seen Josue in over a month, and was not sure where he has been, but last Thursday as we were coming back from the street I passed him, and he had new clothes that he bought, gained around 20 lbs., new hair cut, and was going to buy food. I know that these are not huge spiritual changes, and he is still just as far from God as he was, but it shows that something is changing in his life. Please pray for the salvation of Josue! Pray also for him that God would place more people in his life to preach the full council of God to him. If he will be saved it will be through the preaching of the Gospel.
I have also started a bible study with the men from our church that we are starting. We have had 5 of us who are involved, and I am teaching on the Doctrines of God. The first week it was over God being one, and we spent over 2 ½ hours talking about the Trinity. The next week it was about God being spirit, and we also spent over 2 ½ hours talking about why it is important to worship God in spirit and truth. This past week it was over the will and sovereignty of God. It was such an amazing time seeing these men crush their view of God and let Scripture form their opinion of who He is. One of the men in the study said he would like to share a story about his life that showed the sovereignty of the Lord. He told us about how one time his father was sick, and he prayed that God would heal him, and He did. Right when he got finished with his story another man in the study said he also had an example. He said that his dad was also sick, that he had a heart attack, and he began to pray for God to heal him. He told us that at this point in his life he was not a follower of Jesus, and he really didn’t even know what to think of God other than his father was sick, and he wanted him to be better. He said that he prayed for many hours in the hospital for his father, but in the middle of the night they told him his father had died. He said that he knew at that moment if God wants to do something He will and there is nothing we can do to stop it. One of the verses in the study that week was Dan. 4:35 that says “Who can stay the hand of the Lord?” He said when he read that verse it made him think of his dad. God is so good! He is not safe, but He is good!! Please pray for this group of men. We have two men coming that are not converted, and it is my desire for these men to be the leaders of their families. We want to have a men’s conference sometime this summer to teach biblical manhood. Pray that the Lord will open a door for this.

Food for thought:

Normally I write a little theological treaty here for you all to think on and hopefully it draws you to the father, but todays will not be that formal. I want all of you to know that I am doing well, and that we serve a God who is not lesser! He is faithful, and good!! He is doing so much here, and I ask that you do not let anything, not one thing steel from the glory He deserves!! He is the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and everything in our lives should scream with a loud voice that He is! There is nothing in the world that is worth the direction of our focus other than Him! Jonathan Edwards once said “The great end of God’s works which is so variously expressed in Scripture, is indeed but one, and this one end is most properly and comprehensively called, THE GLORY OF GOD.” If this is God’s end in all his works as I strive to be like him this too shall be my goal. Psalm 101:3 says “I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me." It is the desire of my heart to solely set Him before my eyes, and that every moment in my life would be a gaze towards Him! So often I fail at this, and I hate the fact that I cannot spend even one hour fulfilling the greatest commandment, but I have the promise that He will complete me!! He is good and will surely do it. Nathaniel Vincent said “True repentance is when we weep for sin as sin, when we weep for it because it is a defiling thing. It blots the image of God and stains the virginity of the soul.” Oh how I long to truly be broken for sin as that! We should not fear sin because of it consequences, but because He bore our sins, and is forever stained and scared from them. A promise the as believers we cling to so much is “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” Heb. 8:12, but what we often do not consider is why or how He remembers our sins no more? Oh, Church! Understand that it is because “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin”! He is forever stained and scared, and those will be remembered for all eternity! The song we will sing in the New Jerusalem will be “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.”!! Hate your sin because it blots the image of God!!

One of the Puritans prayed:

Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy,
cast off that I might be brought in,
trodden down as an enemy that I might be welcomed as a friend,
surrendered to hell’s worst that I might attain heaven’s best,
stripped that I might be clothed,
wounded that I might be healed,
athirst that I might drink,
tormented that I might be comforted,
made a shame that I might inherit glory,
entered darkness that I might have eternal light.
My Saviour wept that all tears might be wiped away from my eyes,
groaned that I might have endless song,
endured all pain that I might have unfading health,
bore a thorned crown that I might have a glory-diadem,
bowed his head that I might uplift mine,
experienced reproach that I might receive welcome,
closed his eyes in death that I might gaze on unclouded brightness,
expired that I might for ever live.

He is my propitiation and I will honor Him as such!! I will not let these light, although even the word light seems too strong in comparison; afflictions skew my view of the weight of glory! The afflictions are eclipsed by His glory, and I will honor Him as such!! In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. The promises of God are too rich to be hindered by afflictions. It is my prayer that as I go out to the world I will live in such a way that I would invite people to imitate me as I imitate Christ! That I would have the freedom to say love Christ as you see my example, love people as you see me love them, morn for sin as you see me morn! Such is not the case now, but He is good and He will surely do it.