2007 Bible Reading Schedule

"Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens." Ps. 119:89

I'd like to take a moment to recommend an excellent Bible reading schedule for 2007. It's Robert Murray M'Cheyne's schedule. I really enjoyed using it this last year and highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in reading through the Bible in a year. Here are some highlights:

• Read through the Old Testament once in the year.
• Read through the New Testament twice in the year.
  
• Read through the Psalms twice in the year.
  
• Read from four different places at one time. I especially like this feature. Rather just start in Genesis at the beginning of the year and read through to the end of the Bible, M'Cheyne's schedule has you reading from Genesis, Ezra, Matthew and Acts. This way you are constantly reading various parts of the Bible throughout the year.
• Also, the schedule is divided into two sections: private and family. You don't have to use this feature, but it makes it convenient to use the schedule for family and private devotions or to split your Bible reading into two times (for example, morning and night).

Dr. Mark Minnick of Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, SC has put together a nice one-page "edition" of M'Cheyne's schedule. A .pdf version of this schedule can be found here. This can be printed on both sides of a sheet of paper and folded in half and conveniently kept in your Bible.

Also, I'd like to recommend an excellent companion to M'Cheyne's schedule - For the Love of God by D.A. Carson (my favorite Bible scholar). Carson's daily readings follow M'Cheyen's schedule and help the reader to understand and apply the Bible as well as to follow and understand the Bible's "story-line." Carson has also written a second volume of For the Love of God.

Here are two excellent online resources related to M'Cheyne's reading schedule.

• You can receive the daily devotional from For the Love of God via e-mail. Sign up here.
  
• You can hear M'Cheyne's daily scripture reading from the English Standard Version online here. Note: This should not replace actually reading the Bible, but can be an excellent supplement to your own devotional time.
  

Christmas Blessings

God is truly good. In our last post we mentioned that we were having problems with our transmission. Two mechanics diagnosed it as "terminally ill." Originally we had planned to try to make it back to Texas where we would buy another vehicle. It has over 190,000 miles and we did not feel that it would be worth it to have a new or rebuilt transmission installed so we were just going to do our best to make it back to Texas/Mexico. But those plans changed when some friends offered to pay to have a used transmission installed here in PA. So that is what we will do, Lord willing.

On Friday I had the unique privilege of preaching in a Russian church in Denver, PA. I have, of course, spoken through a Spanish translator before, but this was my first time to do so through a Russian translator. I was also able to share a little bit about our work in Mexico. We very much enjoyed the experience and the opportunity share God's word.

Long overdue update

It's been a while since our last post. Here are some highlights of what we've been up to:

• On November 18th we were privileged to go on an all-day outing with the university's dorm students to a camp about an hour south of Monterrey. Ruth and I both spoke to the students. We count it a great privilege to get to know the students better and interact with them on a personal level.
• We celebrated Thanksgiving with a number of our "gringo" friends. We are very thankful for the team of dedicated colleagues that God has given us at UCLA.
• The first week of December we finished our normal classes for the semester in the theology program. We finished out the semester with a modular class taught by Jim West, retired missionary to Spain.
  
• On December 6th we left Monterrey for Pennsylvania to visit Ruth's parents and some of our supporting churches. It has been over three years since we visited many of our supporting churches and two-and-a-half years since we've been to Ruth's family's home. After two weeks in PA we will be returning to Texas to spend New Year's day with my parents. Lord willing we will be returning to Monterrey after the new year for the beginning of the spring semester.

Here's some prayer requests:

• Please pray for our students as they go home for the Christmas vacation.
  
• Please pray for our travel safety as we return to Monterrey. We are having some problems with the transmission on our van. Please pray that we will be able to make the 2,000 mile trip back to Mexico safely without any problems. Also, please pray that God will give us wisdom as we look for a new vehicle.
  
• Please pray for us as we begin the new semester. Each semester poses new challenges and undoubtedly this one will be no different.

SPECIAL OFFER!!! Free round-trip visit to the Christian University of the Américas!

Well, let's say a "virtual visit." If you have "Google Earth" installed on your computer and would like to see where we are located, you can click here to visit the Christian University of the Americas (via the Google Earth Community).

If you don't have Google Earth installed on your computer and would like to, click here. Google earth is a free program that you can download to your computer (broadband required). From your own desktop you can view high-resolution satellite photos of almost any place on earth. You can even find your own house, church, or favorite missionary!

If you don't want to download Google Earth, here's a screen shot of what you'd see if you did:



















If you're considering downloading Google Earth, here's another sample that may whet your appetite - a Google Earth view of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. (click on it to see a larger version):

Announcement: Guestbook

We've added a Guestbook to our weblog (see the sidebar to the right, below our photo). Please feel free to sign in and say hello!

Prayer Update - Conference on Worship

Thanks to those of you who prayed for the conference that I'm speaking at this week. Tonight was the first night and the Lord blessed. Please pray that he will continue to do so.

Here's a little background on the conference. It is being sponsored by a small local church near us. In May the pastor and assistant pastor of the church attended our Pastor's Conference here at the university. The theme of that conference (as you may recall) was the Glory of God. In the conference both men were deeply impressed with the need to improve the quality of the worship in their own local church. They began to pray about how to go about doing this and concluded that they needed to train their people in this area. What is worship? What is our responsibility in our church in corporate worship? With these questions in mind, they decided to begin by having a conference on the topic of worship to help train the people of their church. They recruited one of our students, Natán Abellán (a Theology student from Spain and a gifted musician), to organize the conference. Natán and I are the speakers for the conference and a group of about 15 students from the university are helping out with the music each night.

Tonight it was great to see the people's interest and desire to learn about their own responsibility in corporate worship. Please pray that God will use those of us involved in the conference to encourage the dear people of this congregation (and others who attend) to strive to worship God in Spirit and in truth.

Glorifying God for running water

We just spent the last 24 hours without water in our house. I'm not sure what happened, but there was a water "outage" in several neighborhoods in our area. Nothing like loosing running water for a day to make you appreciate the luxury. In fact, as I thought about not having water....well, ok, as I grumbled about not having water I was rebuked for my ungratefulness. I really should be thankful. If I should glorify God in even the smallest things of life like eating and drinking (see 1 Cor. 10:31) then surely I should be able to glorify him in my use of the luxuries of life . . . like running water. So how do I glorify God in eating and drinking and using running water? Well, I think that more than anything else, I do it by partaking of those things thankfully. As Paul says in the verse before 1 Cor. 10:31, I can partake of these things "with thankfulness." When I eat or drink or use running water I should do so with a sense of gratitude because I recognize that it comes from God. This kind of humble, thankful dependence upon him glorifies him.

With that in mind, I began to form a list of reasons that I am thankful for running water. This is my attempt to glorify God for the running water that I (usually) have in my house.

1. I'm thankful that God has called me to minister in a country and city where running water is a normal part of life. (Some of my friends live in countries/places with none and most of the people in our mission church do not have running water in their homes.)
2. I'm thankful that the running water that we have in our home is potable. (Contrary to popular opinion not all the water in Mexico makes one deathly ill.)
3. I'm thankful that only 24 out of the 20,640 hours that we've lived in Mexico have been waterless.
4. I'm thankful that I do not have to take a shower with only one gallon of water like I did when I was a kid (when my family traveled in our camper in Mexico).
5. I'm thankful that my wife does not have to wash our laundry by hand (like my mom did when we traveled in Mexico).

Well, there it is. I'm glad for this little lesson. I guess a day of rationing bathroom breaks was worth being reminded that whether I eat, or drink, or use running water, I should do it to the glory of God. "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes" (Ps 119:71)

Prayer requests

"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. 13 And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." (Rev 5:12-13)

Just a couple of prayer requests:
1. Next week I will be preaching at a conference on worship in a local church here in Monterrey. Please pray for me as I prepare my messages the next few days. My desire is that God will use the conference to encourage His people to actively pursue excellent worship in their local church--that is, worship that truly honors God and that is worthy of Him.
2. Thursday - Sunday of this week our church will be sponsoring a youth conference. Please pray that the Lord will work in the lives of the many young people that attend and especially in the lives of our students.

God bless!

Some Boyz Pics

Jonathan & Christian "hanging out"


Christian's first day of school

September/October Prayer Update

Dear Praying Friends,

"O sing unto the LORD a new song: sing unto the LORD, all the earth. 2 Sing unto the LORD, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day. 3 Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people." (Ps 96:1-3).

Greetings from Monterrey, Mexico! It is a joy and privilege to share with you what the Lord is doing in our lives and minstry as we tell His glory and his wonderful deeds among the nations.

At the beginning of August we began our fall semester. We have had an especially good year thus far. The first week of school we had the privilege of hosting Mr. Matt Willians from Northland Baptist Bible college for a special spritual emphasis week on spiritual leadership. That week set the tone for our semester in a number of ways and we have seen the Lord working here at the school, and especially in the lives of our students. Please pray that God will continue to work in our students lives as we seek to remain faithful to our task of preparing the next generation of Spanish-speaking young people for Christ.

Since our last prayer letter there have been several changes at our mission church (the church plant that we've been serving in the last 15 months). In August Pastor Martín Rangel resigned as pastor of the mission. From then until the beginning of October I was privildged to serve as interim pastor. What a great joy to shepherd God's people! It has been a particular blessing to see people growing in Christ. On October 1st our new pastor--Pastor Chuy Alanís--began his ministry in the mission. Chuy is a former student of mine and a graduate from UCLA. We are very excited about the privilege of working with Chuy. Please pray that the Lord will bless our ministry at the mission. We face many challenges. As we've mentioned before, the neighborhood is a particularly difficult one. Drugs, alchol, and immorality are rampant and the ever-present activity of a number of denominations and cults has served to harden the people to religious teaching. Please pray especially for a young couple, David and Paty. They are relatively new believers who are very faithful church and who are growing spiritually. But they are facing a number of challenges (especially financial) and are in much need of prayer. Please also pray for our continuing evangelistic work in the community. We have made a number of new contacts lately with people here in the community. Please pray that God will work and give us lasting fruit.

Please pray for us in the weeks and months to come. We are excited to see how God is using UCLA to minister in the lives of many people. Since our pastor's conference in May whe have had almost 1,000 sermons from the conference downloaded from the internet each month (see a photo of the conference below). As we look to the future and plan future projects we see many new opportunities for ministering to the Spanish-speaking world. Please pray that God will give the faculty, staff, and administration of the school wisdom as we seek to honor him in the Christian University of the Americas.

Thank you all very much and may God richly bless each of you!

For the Gospel and the Kingdom,

AJ & Ruth Gibson

Prayer Requests:

1. For our church planting work at the mission. Please pray especially for our new pastor, Chuy Alanís, and for the growth of those who are currently attending.

2. For the spiritual growth of our student body.

3. That God will supply our need for new faculty in the theology department.

4. For a number of preaching opportunities that I have this fall in the Monterrey area.

5. For our continuing need for land for a new campus.

6. For our family. Please pray especially for Jonathan's and Christian's salvation and for wisdom for us in raising them.