Like Sheep Having No Shepherd

Here's a challenge. What do you do as a believer when everything is going wrong. I am in a position to mentor a young Christian who's been saved and filled with the Holy Spirit now for a couple of years. At first things went very well, the freshness of the new birth was exhilarating. But then problems crept in, jobs were lost, bills couldn't be paid, no Christmas for the kids, into a homeless shelter. What about "I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor their seed begging for bread." Yet here it is. A blind beggar cries out in the streets of Jericho "Son of David, Have mercy on me!". What is going on? What do you say? "I don't have any answers, but I know a God who knows the end from the beginning and who holds this young man's life in his hands. What do I say? Just that. And perhaps this is how God is teaching your children that you have faith and don't give up, don't become bitter as your father did and never shared his salvation with you. What about grace and mercy Theophilus? It's there, I hold on to that even when I can't see it, even when it's years into the future. Hold on when you're in the pit and in Pharaoh's prison. Don't lose heart, don't stop praying even though the heavens seem as brass. At the appointed time (KAIROS) (in due season) we shall reap if we faint not. The mark of a Christian is not that we don't fall down, it is that we get up, and continue getting up as many times as it takes.
Matthew 9:36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."

I think the laborer is me. I've been charged to feed His sheep and tend His lambs. I can't do it. But He can through me.

Grace In The Passover

Have you ever noticed that when God instituted the Passover, the only thing the Israelites had to do was to be obedient to sacrifice the Lamb and apply the blood to their door posts and lintle. That was all that was required for the death angel to pass over (I believe the death angel was Abbadon/Apollyon although the word shachath {Strongs H7843} is used for destroyer in Ex 12:23). The aside aside, the Israelites had nothing else they had to present to avoid destruction except the blood of the lamb. They didn't have to show their faith in any other fashion. They didn't have to crawl backwards up a high mountain. They didn't have to walk through the streets beating themselves with whips. They didn't have to hang themselves from trees, suspended with ropes tied to bamboo needles thrust through their breasts. All they had to do was trust in the blood of a lamb. I thought of this as I took communion this past Sunday. Communion really symbolizes that Jesus is all we need. Sure we should show our faith by our good works, but for our salvation, all we need is the blood of the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.

One Starfish at a Time

I was blessed over the past week to be a (small) part of a medical mission opthamology team to provide eye surgery to some of the most most poverty stricken people I have ever encountered. I have been in about ten countries in my life, and the living standards of the indigenous peoples we were ministering to are among the worst I've seen anywhere. It was a moving time. To the left, you'll see a picture of three team members giving pre-operative medications to one of the people who came to the campaign. There were over one hundred surgeries completed. Mostly these were cataract surgeries, but there were also some other procedures done to correct strabissmus (cross eye) in some children. Our fellow volunteers included 4 American opthamologists and one Mexican opthamologist. Some of the patients live two hours away in small villages in the mountains of Southern Mexico. They started arriving Thursday evening, the day before surgeries were scheduled. Unfortunately bad weather in Houston delayed all of the physicians from getting there until late Friday, so we got off to a very late start. The patients slept on the ground outside the clinic waiting for the next day to start, some would wait for two days to get their surgeries. While they were waiting, Mexican evangelists would come and preach the gospel. We know of about 20 who were saved.
The Lord had me read Matthew 25:40: And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.' I cried as I read that scripture portion. The Lord seemed to be telling me that as I ministered to these poverty sticken people, it was the same as ministering to Him.
We also traveled to visit an orphanage. It was a blessing to see how well the children were cared for in this particular orphanage, especially after hearing some of the stories of how they had been severely abused and abandoned.

The needs in Mexico seem overwhelming to me. Flying over Mexico City reminded me that there are millions of unreached and unsaved in that and other major cities of the world. There are many many orphans and abused children, many many elderly without any rudimentary health care. I was remined of the story of a man walking along the shore tossing starfish back into the ocean that had washed up on the tide. As you've heard, he was approached by a skeptic who chided him that the task was just too great and he couldn't make any difference, to which the man replied, "It made a difference to THAT starfish." We can only do what we are called and can do. I have a few skills and occasionally the means to go to Mexico to help these "Starfish".