True Conversion

The other day I (again) ran across this, one of my favorite quotes by Dr. J.I. Packer (from his book Keep in Step with the Spirit):

"The only proof of past conversion is present convertedness."

An encouraging testimony

This week we're working on a promotional video for the college. Part of our work has been to videotape interviews with a number of students. One testimony in particular was a special blessing to me. I asked one of our freshmen students named Josué what kind of impact his time here has had upon his relationship with God. He replied like this:

The impact that UCLA has had on my life is that it has taught me to know God. Before I came here I knew absolutely nothing about God. . . . But since I came here I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior.

Praise the Lord! Our ministry here is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. By God's grace, we've had a good start with Josué!

The Essence of the Gospel by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

This morning I was reading my favorite preacher, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on 2 Peter 1:1-2. Here's the Doctor's explanation of the essence of the Gospel:

The message is, that there is only one way whereby man can be right, or righteous, in the sight of God; and that is by the righteousness that is given to us in Christ. The problem confronting man is how to be just with God. It is certainly very right to come back to God and to believe in God, but the first question is, How can I do this? God is Holy, God is Absolute, 'God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.' I am sinful. What can I do? The Old Testament contains a law, and the law said, If you do these things you will be right with God. And the tragedy is that so many people still try to do that. Yes, they say, we must be right with God. But how do I become right with God? How can I live that new life? I read the Commandments, I do my best to keep them -- I try to get right with God. But by my own efforts and exertions I will never put myself right with God. To believe that I can is in utter antithesis to and a contradiction of the Christian Gospel.

What is the Gospel? It is this . . . that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was none other than the only begotten Son of God, and that He had come on earth for one thing only, and that was that He might bear the sins of man Himself. In Christ God has dealt with the sin of mankind; He has punished sin there, He has done away with it. How can a man be right with God? Believe that, submit yourself to it, and say: I have no righteousness of my own; I accept the righteousness that God gives me in Christ; and, clothed in that I can stand and face God and the righteousness of God. That is the essence of the Christian faith.

Wow! That is truly "precious" gospel (2 Pet 2:1). Lloyd-Jones ends his sermon with this challenge:

It does not matter who you are, or where you come from; if you are a Christian, that is your faith, that is what you believe. You will find it all in Christ. You see that without Him you are lost and nothing, but in Him you are complete, for He 'of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.' He is my All -- Christ is all and in all. He is everything. Jesus Christ! And the faith in Him is 'precious' to my soul because of these amazing things He has done for me, and is still doing to me, and will yet do for me until I stand complete in Him in the presence of God. is the faith precious to you? It is precious to all who are truly Christian (italics added).

Amen!

¡Feliz día de acción de gracias! (Happy Thanksgiving!)

As is our annual tradition all of us "Gringos" that work at UCLA got together today to celebrate Thanksgiving. We had a great time of food, fun and fellowship. Lots of turkey and all the sides! I, for one, am particularly thankful for the great team of workers that the Lord has assembled here. We are unusually blessed to work in a place on the mission field with so many like-minded, Christlike co-workers. In all there were 23 of us (13 adults and 10 children).

Prayer update

God has been blessing at our mission church. The last few months we've had a good number of visitors that have continued to return fairly regularly. In addition, it seems that God is doing a work in the lives of several of our members. Here are a few prayer requests.

1. Please pray for Julio and Joel, two middle-aged men who have been attending very regularly for a couple of months. Julio professes to know Christ and has invited a number of friends to church, but we are still unsure of his spiritual condition. Joel has not yet professed Christ, but both he and Julio are attending a weekly Bible study with David, a member of our congregation.
2. Please pray for a number of married ladies who are regular members of our assembly whose husbands are not believers. Pray that God will use their testimony to bring their spouses to Christ.
3. Please pray for some special evangelistic outreaches that we will be doing from now until the end of the year.
4. Please pray for Obed, a 20-year-old young man who was converted here in the mission about three years ago. For about one year Obed was very faithful and manifested much fruit of conversion. But a couple of years ago he seemed to suddenly lose interest and quit coming. On many occasions we tried to meet with him and encourage him, but always to no avail. But the last two or three weeks Obed has been showing up at church. Please pray that God will work in Obed's heart. If he is a believer, we know that God will bring him back to himself. If he isn't truly a believer, we are praying that he would be converted.
5. Please pray for Rosy, a middle-aged woman who is one of our most faithful and long-term members. Rosy has been going through some very difficult trials lately. Without going into detail, it appears that God is graciously bringing difficult circumstances into her life to force her to make some very difficult and costly (but necessary) decisions. From a pastoral perspective, it is encouraging to see Romans 8:29 played out in the life of our people: "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." Please pray the sanctifying fire of God's providential dealings in Rosy's life would result in her further transformation into the likeness of her Savior.
6. Please pray for a few other individuals who have attended the mission fairly regularly for some time and profess salvation, but do not evidence clear fruit of conversion. Pray that the gospel will continue to be clearly proclaimed and that the Holy Spirit will perform his convicting and regenerating work in their lives.
   
7. As I've mentioned before, Chuy Alanís, who has been serving as pastor of the mission for the past year, is currently raising support to go to Ecuador as a missionary. Chuy hopes to begin full-time deputation in the spring, which means that the mission will be needing another pastor. Please pray that God will meet this need. Finding a pastor for this area is pretty difficult. The "colonia" (neighborhood) in which the mission is located is very poor and is a difficult place to live. Because of the nature of the area and it's people, it is will be very important to find a pastor who is able (and willing) to live full-time in the colonia.
   

Thank you for your prayers.

Photos:
Top: A church-wide meal a couple of Sundays ago.
Bottom: Some of our students (from the university) who help at the mission.

On Fellowship with Christ

“Fellowship with Christ is so honorable that the sorest sorrow is a light price by which to procure it.”

Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, p. 255.

Conference Recap

On Saturday eventing Matt Bixby, Russell Raymer and I arrived home from our 2 1/2 day intensive pastoral ministry class/conference in Saltillo. A total of 22 pastors attended the event which began on Thursday morning and ran through noon on Saturday. Although they were very busy and exhausting days, the conference was very rewarding. The pastors really seemed to appreciate our instruction, and we enjoyed many opportunities to interact and fellowship with them.

On Saturday after the conference ended a group of 12 UCLA students joined us for a youth activity with the young people of the host church. They did a fine job and it was great to see our students minister so willing and joyfully.

Thanks for your prayers for this conference. We trust that God will use this and and the conferences we do in the future to increase the effectiveness of local churches in ministry. Right now we are planning on two more similar conferences in 2008 in other cities. Please continue to pray for us as we seek more opportunities minister to pastors and churches in Latin America.

Here are a number of photos of the conference:

Conference in Satillo, Coahuila

Tomorrow afternoon (Wednesday) my colleagues, Matt Bixby and Russell Raymer, and I will be heading to the city of Satillo in the state of Coahuila for a three day Pastor's conference. Over the course of the three days I will speak for approximately 8 hours on the topic of pastoral ministry/pastoral theology. My lectures are entitled "Pastoral Perspectives from Paul." Here are the three main topics I will be giving:

• Pastoral Perspectives in Acts 20: "Take care of God's Flock" (an exposition of Paul's discourse to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:18-38)
  
• Pastoral Perspectives in Ephesians: "Equip the Saints for the work of the Ministry" (an exposition of Ephesians 4:11-16)
  
• Pastoral Perspectives in Colossians: "Present every man perfect in Christ" (an overview of Paul's pastoral vision in Colossians 1-2)

Please pray for this conference. Please pray for me as I share the burden that God has placed on my heart. I'm very burdened to communicate Paul's vision of pastoral ministry to the men who attend and I feel that the message of the passages I will be teaching is crucial for the church in Mexico today. And please pray for Matt Bixby as he speaks on the topic of Expository Preaching. Like my topic, Matt's topic is vitally important and desperately needed here in Mexico. My prayer is that God will use these three days to inspire and motivate the pastors who attend to passionately pursue a biblical model of pastoral ministry and that as a result their pastoral effectiveness will be greatly increased and multiplied.

"And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding." (Jer 3:15)

Soli Deo Gloria!

Sabbatical

I'm off to take a weekend (2 1/2 day) sabbatical. I'm going alone and will be staying in nice little cabin about an hour from Monterrey. My purpose in doing this is primarily to prepare for our up-coming pastor's conference. Please pray that I will have a good and profitable time of study, prayer, and reflection.

Ministry update and prayer requests

We are now well into the new school year. The Lord has blessed and brought us a good group of new students. Between the university and the prepa (high school) we have over 50 new full-time students. In addition, in the theology department, we have a good number of new students (both full-time and part time). A number of them are students from other majors who wish to take some extra Bible/theology courses. This year we plan to begin offering a certificate program to students from other majors (like education, business administration, etc.) who wish to pursue a Bible certificate in addition to their own major.

In the theology department, the semester began with three weeks of modular (block) courses. The first week Will Pareja was with us to teach the book of James. Will is a former staff/faculty member of UCLA, having served for three years as the men's dorm supervisor and Bible teacher (2000-2003, I think). Will recently finished his M.Div. at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary and is now living in Chicago where plans to do church planting work.

The next two weeks we were privileged to have Jim West with us to teach Pastoral Theology. Jim is a "regular" here at UCLA, having taught 15 - 20 modular classes for us over the years. As a veteran missionary (to Spain, England, and elsewhere) and pastor, Jim's vast ministry experience makes him an invaluable resource for us.

This semester I'm teaching five classes, including Exposition of Revelation, Exposition of Romans, and Doctrines 1 (which covers prolegomena & the doctrine of revelation/Scripture). What a blast! There's nothing I enjoy more than studying and teaching the Bible.

A number of times I've mentioned a pastor's conference that my co-worker, Matt Bixby, and I will be doing early in October. This will be a three-day conference held in the city of Saltillo, Coahuila. The theme of the conference is "The Pastoral Ministry". Matt and I will each be giving 7-8 hours of instruction. Matt will focus primarily on homiletics and my topic will be pastoral theology. Please pray for this conference. This is our first time to do this kind of conference. Lord willing, we will begin to do them on a regular basis around Mexico (we already have two scheduled for next year). Our prayer is that this conference will be of great spiritual benefit to the pastors who attend.

Another project that you can pray for is a new video correspondence ministry that we're working on. My friend, Russell Raymer of OREMUNDO Ministries (a sister ministry of UCLA) is videotaping a number of our modular classes. Our goal is to offer to pastors from around the Spanish-speaking world and who are unable to take classes here on-site to earn a "Certificate in Pastoral Ministry" via video classes. This certificate (as well as the one I mentioned above) is part of a new branch of UCLA's theology program which is designed to provide more educational opportunities and options to those who are unable to pursue our regular bachelor's degree in theology. Please pray for these new initiatives.

A Christian View of Dying

Today I came across the following quote by D. James Kennedy who went to be with the Lord yesterday. It's true that Christians live well, but that's not what impresses me the most. What really impresses me is how well they die. Here's the quote:

“Now, I know that someday I am going to come to what some people will say is the end of this life. They will probably put me in a box and roll me right down here in front of the church, and some people will gather around, and a few people will cry. But I have told them not to do that because I don’t want them to cry. I want them to begin the service with the Doxology and end with the Hallelujah chorus, because I am not going to be there, and I am not going to be dead. I will be more alive than I have ever been in my life, and I will be looking down upon you poor people who are still in the land of dying and have not yet joined me in the land of the living. And I will be alive forevermore, in greater health and vitality and joy than ever, ever, I or anyone has known before.”

Drug Wars

Our co-worker, Matt Bixby, has a post on his blog concerning the drug wars here in northern Mexico and Monterrey. If you're interested, check it out here. Matt provides some links to Time Magazine's recent coverage of the issue.

And I thought the traffic in Mexico was bad!

Happy Birthday Ruth!!!!!

Yup, that's right. Ruth turns 32 years old today. How 'bout shooting her an e-mail "happy birthday?"

Eye of the Storm

For those of you who have asked or are wondering about our safety with hurricane Dean, it looks like the brunt of the storm will hit a bit south of us (click on the map to see where we're located relative to the projected path).

This is a HUGE storm, though (see below), so we're likely to see at least some heavy rain here. Thanks for your prayers. Please pray for the many families and friends of our staff and student body who will be affected by the storm.

"You rule the raging of the sea...." Ps 89:9a