Saturday, September 11:
Let me being at the beginning of this trip:
Thursday, my travel day was a typical experience without anything significant, other than a $600 plus item was lost on the airplane and when the container was found by those who searched for it – the contents were gone! I guess I like to throw money away! It is fun????????
Then I discovered that I had forgotten to change the “sim card” in my travel phone. Meaning: I could not call for assistance when I discovered the item was missing and I do not have access for others to call me.
Number 3: I brought a special surge protector with me to protect all items I plugged in and failed to note it was not good for 220 volts. Therefore I had a sudden electrical explosion, a rancid odor and the end of the surge protector!
Do you want to hear another one? I forgot my regular leather sport jacket. That translates into the reality that I have only one sport coat for the entire trip – 7 weeks!
Enough of the “blues” because I do not have time to dwell there! Why? Because there is “good news” available! Anything that begins with a struggle has got to have a great ending and my expectation is soaring! So let us move on and hurry through Friday because it was just a heavy work day in preparing some courses to be sure I have the correct translation on my PowerPoint presentations.
My ministry began with a combined youth service with three churches: Nuevas Fuerzas with Pastor Agustin and Jessica; Iglesia Centro Christiano De Avivamiento with Pastor Gustavo and Jenny Rodriquez and Iglesia Vida with Pastor David and Ceci Hodges. The attendance surpassed the 100 mark.
I had been asked to speak on the subject, “The Will of God” because there is a mentality here among the younger generation that one gets saved, attends church, gets married, works at their job and not much else.
I will not re-preach the message with which I struggled in preparation, but the delivery was free, flowing and fun (even for the preacher) with the result of an altar service for over one hour. However I do want to tell you that finding the will of God is easy! I can tell you right now what the will of God for you!
Most people spend agonizing hours trying to determine the will of God. Simply stated, when you are born again you have been called into the full-time ministry. So all you have to determine is how you are going to earn your living while you serve God. Your job could be God leading you into the position of being one of the five-fold ministries (apostle, pastor, teacher, prophet or evangelist) or into any other “job” that will provide income whether it be that of a doctor, a mechanic, a salesman, a secretary or a myriad of other occupations.
Look at Ephesians 4:1 where we are told to walk worthy of the vocation to which we are called. Our vocation is the call of God to ministry and therefore the only area left is that of a “hobby.” So our vocation is ministry and our “hobby” is the job we use to keep our needs supplied.
My premise, my understanding is that once we understand what God wants from us - ministry a personal relationship with him that produces salt and light for the world, then everything else, food, shelter and clothing fall under God’s responsibility to provide for us.
Enough of the message. The altar ministry of one hour in length and the one and one-half hour of fellowship afterwards were satisfying and exciting, so Sunday here we come!
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1 comment:
Dear Dr. D,
I think it should be OK that you buy yourself another jacket for this trip.
The problem maybe that with your busy schedule, when will you get a chance to do that? Sorry to hear about the other loss and problems. I agree with you, I pray there will be rich rewards for such a rough start.
That's interesting stuff in your message. I agree, we are all in the full time ministry. It's amazing that God would entrust us with the message of love and grace of His dear son, Jesus Christ. I want to represent Him honorably and do it well.
Blessings,
Jaime L. Hernandez
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