A Testimony of God's Love

"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love." 1 John 4:18

I lied in bed the first night that I spent with my host family, and had just fallen asleep when I was awaken by crying and screaming coming from the bed next to me (I share a room with the two youngest boys of my host family (ages 5 and 8)). The older of the two boys, was having a nightmare, and was crying out, in his sleep, for his mom to protect him. I started praying against the spirit of fear in the room in the name of Jesus, and, shortly thereafter, he fell into a restful sleep.

The following night the exact same thing happened, so I called him over, and told him that he was a child of the living God, covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, and that the enemy could not touch him. He immediately fell asleep in my arms.

The next night, and all of the nights since then, I have had the two boys take turns praying over all of us for our protection and that we wouldn't have any fear as we slept, and he has slept peacefully and without fear every night since (although his sleep talking sometimes still keeps me awake).What an awesome testimony about how God's perfect love for us really does cast out all fear!

Jesus did not give His life up for us to be paralyzed by fear, but rather He gave up His life for our salvation, not only that we may be able to spend an eternity with Him in heaven, but also for our salvation and freedom here in this life on earth. May we let His love wash over us so fully that those fears would simply fade away, allowing us to run towards Him with everything we have, unhindered.

You Will Recieve Power

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." -Acts 1:8

I sat on my bed a couple of days ago with my Bible on my lap, and had absolutely no clue what to read, so I somewhat mindlessly flipped over to Acts 1:8 in the hopes that, if nothing else, it would pump me up before I started my day. I decided to start from the beginning of Acts instead of with that particular verse, and I noticed something that I had overlooked every time I read the first few verses of Acts. To many of you, this is probably a "well, duh Tucker, where have you been?", but it hit me pretty hard, and I figured it might be noteworthy. It was verses 4 and 5 that spoke to me:

"...he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." -Acts 1:4B-5

We are not supposed to leave "Jerusalem" or, I'd venture to say, do anything until we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said not to leave Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit fills us (Acts 1:4-5), and then he said that once the Spirit is upon us, we will be His witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). It seems pretty clear to me through these verses that we cannot truly be His witnesses until we have been baptized with the Holy Spirit. Because, how can we be witnesses of a Spirit that we do not carry?

It is easy for me to get so caught up in "going to the ends of the earth" that I forget that without the Holy Spirit resting upon me, anything I do will be fruitless. Just like the Israelites were led by a cloud in the day and a fire by night, so are we to be constantly led by the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Oh that we would have the same attitude of Moses who refused to go anywhere unless God was going there with him.

To the Ends of the Earth

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." -Acts 1:8

I have a couple thoughts on this passage of the Bible, so I decided to break them up into two posts, because who wants to read one long posts when you could read two short ones?

Missionally speaking, this just might be one of the most heavily quoted scriptures in the Bible. I have often heard pastors preach about how this passage is about how we should be witnesses in our homes, or maybe even our home towns, and then we should move out to our prospective counties and be witnesses, and once we've done that, maybe our prospective states, then our country, and then we should be witnesses to the rest of the world. Among a few other concerns that I have with it (of which I will not discuss now), I believe there is one fundamental problem with this teaching.

For that to have been true, it must have also been true of Jesus' audience as well. So, who was Jesus talking to...to whom did He give this command? Jesus was talking to His disciples, who were not from Jerusalem, but from Galilee. So if Jesus was teaching in Acts that we should be witnesses in our home towns and work out, why did Jesus start with Jerusalem and not with Galilee?

I believe that Jesus was giving His disciples a missions strategy. If you look at a map, you will find Jerusalem at the center of the world, and, at the time that Jesus said this, Jerusalem truly was also very much the center of the world as far as trade and modern civilization at that time. Doesn't it just make sense then, why Jesus said to start there? As the word of God spread throughout Jerusalem, people also came in and out of Jerusalem for trade and travel, and were able to take Jesus' name with them as they went, thus, the name of Jesus was more readily able to be spread to the ends of the earth.

Is there a Jerusalem-type location in your sphere? A central place where the word of the Lord can more readily and easily be taken out to the ends of the earth? A city? A business? A country? If there isn't, are you willing to find it, and "be His witness in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth"?

Homeless...

I feel like you are probably long overdue for a story from the ridiculous life I lead. Well, I returned to Mexico after spending a few weeks in the States, visiting family and friends, and doing a host of other things. I came back expecting to move in immediately with a host family and start a summer of intensive language learning to make me a more effective minister.

I got in late last Saturday night (April 26th), crashed at the base, and then went to my host family to make sure everything was good to go for me to move in later that day. When I asked the woman of the house if everything was a go, she responded by telling me that she had absolutely no idea what I was talking about; an awkward situation to say the least. I somehow managed to get myself out of the conversation, and proceeded to try to find out what in the world had just happened, and what I was going to do next seeing as my plans for a place to live for the next 3-4 months had just crumbled before my eyes.

I spent the next 4 or so days trying to get all of the confusion worked out, and though I'm still not positive what happened, I do know now that the woman of the house is apparently pretty sick with something or another, and I think the thought of hosting someone at their house right now is simply overwhelming. Please pray for her health. Her name is Jaci.

I finally did find a place to live with a different host family, and I will spend the rest of the summer with them, learning as much about the culture and language as possible in order to be a more effective minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is just another example of God’s faithfulness in all situations. He holds us in the palms of His hands, and He will see us through no matter what we face, even with things as small as finding a place to live. Praise the Lord!

Extraordinary Giving

God's hand is moving mightily here in Tlaxiaco.
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds and to him who knocks the door will be opened."
~Matthew 7:7
The more that we ask the more that God gives. As we have been praying in accordance with God's will for the market town of Tlaxiaco, we are seeing the Lord give in spectacular ways. The Lord's desire is that none would perish but that all will come to freedom in Him. I have seen the answering of our prayers as friends begin to thirst for His truth and other friends come home with great news of people drawing close to the Lord. We are so blessed to serve a God who fulfills His promises, He is faithful, a God that is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow. As I learn to walk in the authority that the Lord has given me, I have found that my heart's cry is growing louder and pleading more persistently, More of You Lord, more of You. Please pray with me and all the workers here in Oaxaca as we enter into the Lord's throne room and intercede for Tlaxiaco. And rejoice with us, and all of heaven, as more are learning the sweetness of having the door opened to their persistent knocking and coming face to face with Christ. Praise God, He is worthy of all our praise.

Answer to Prayer

God has done some incredible things these past couple of weeks. I have been meeting with a friend of mine, Jack, in town a couple of days a week since August, building a relationship with him. He has spent several years in the states and speaks English quite well, and is my language helper of sorts. Basically when we hang out, he speaks in English and I in Spanish, and we correct each other when we make mistakes, and whatnot.

I had been discouraged for a while that we were not getting deeper into God stuff, but rather staying pretty surface level with our conversations, so before I met him this past week, I asked a few friends of mine to pray for me, that God would help us to go deeper into the things of Him. So, while waiting for Jack, I started reading my Spanish Bible, and when he got there, I asked him to help me understand some of the Spanish that I didn't understand. Whenever he'd help me with a word, I would explain, in my own words, what I thought the story to be saying. He was really excited about me getting it, which was so awesome! At the end, I asked him if next time he would like it if I brought an English Bible, and he could read it to me, and practice his English. He was really excited about the idea, so we did that a couple of days later. Now we are going to study the Bible together twice a week, every week, switching between English and Spanish. Praise the Lord! I cannot wait to see what is going to come of it!

Biblical Basis for Missions (What Will We Do About It?)

I want to make my life about being a fan of the things that God is a fan of, and hating the things that God hates, which is something I think that all Christians could get on board with. In the last entry we looked at God's heart for missions, and I think it's pretty evident in scripture that God is a fan of reaching the world with His love, so what will we do about it?

I believe there are three main things that we can do:

• Pray:
  
• Mark 11:15-18: "my house is to be a house of prayer for all nations..."
• Matthew 9:37,38: "harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few..."
• I cannot even begin to describe how important prayer is to the work that is going on here as well as all over the world. We need to pray intentionally; to stand in the gap for the Unreached People of the world, asking that God would stretch out His hand to them, supernaturally or through the "laborers" in this world.
  

• Give:
• Matthew 6:19-20: "store up for yourselves treasures in heaven..."
• Why save up money for ourselves, instead, we should invest in the kingdom of God, our money can be used in no greater way than to further the Gospel.

• Go:
• Mark 16:15: "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."
• Warning: If you pray and give, He just might ask you to Go...How fun would that be?!