Normal Christian Life

Pastor Gardner, in an offhand way, suggested that we should read the book "The Normal Christian Life" by Watchman Nee. I'm really glad he did. And I would recommend the book to any other Christian who wants to learn and grow in Christ.

I'll be brief with this post, even though I have lots I'd like to say. In my own words, here are some of Nee's most powerful writings.

-The blood of Christ has satisfied the Lord; it must also satisfy us.

-The Lord saved us, even though He saw us in the light with all our sins. How, then, does the devil have any room to accuse us?

-You were crucified with Christ. And this is a historical event! Paul writes that we are "Crucified with Christ!" If Christ was crucified around 2000 years ago, then, because we are crucified with Him, so are we! 2000 years ago, we died on a cross with Christ! We, then, have died to sin, and are raised with Christ!

I'm only about 60 pages into the book, but it's already taught me so much. You would do well to read it.

Pray for Spain. Pray that the Lord would raise up missionaries and native Spaniards to take the gospel to the millions of lost souls in Spain.

My Christmas list.

There was a coup, and I've taken Micah's laptop in order to post today.

No one named Micah was harmed in said Coup.

Anyway

Here's a list of gifts the Lord has given me since the last Christmas.

Or at least a few of them, since I won't be able to name them all.

-That I'm in a MUCH better place than last Christmas. I'm not talking about geographical location. I mean internally and in my relationship with the Lord.

-About two or three weeks ago, I was 750 in debt to OGTC and Mark Coffey. I just paid my rent. For January. Talk about provision.

-Vision Baptist church, and all the wonderful people there. Pastor Gardner, Ronald Tubillas, Chris Fies, Tony Howeth, Mark Coffey, Trent Cornwell, Micah Rastelli, Scott Newton, and so many other people have really helped me grow and mature in Christ.

-Cornerstone Baptist Church, and all the wonderful people there. Pastor Trimble, the Darbys, Starkys, Brad's family (who no one can spell their last name) The Trimbles, and the Shreves (Of course) and all the other people there. I know that they pray for me on a daily basis. And, in an offhand sort of way, I kinda feel like the relationship I have with CBC is like Paul and the Philippian church's relationship.

-The Lord's forgiveness, acceptance, love and salvation. I've recently had my eyes opened to these, and how powerful they really are. Totally life changing.

-Thumbs. Never forget how important those are.

-And a whole bunch of other things I can't think of right now.

Merry Christmas.

Pray for Spain. Pray that the Lord would raise up missionaries and native Spaniards to take the gospel to the millions of lost souls in Spain.

power outage

I don't have a computer right now. A rat chewed through my laptop charging cord, and my battery died. 

I use internet as I can mooch it. I'm mooching off the Fies right now.

They're great people, and I'm glad the Lord put them in my life.

Anyway...we're watching movies, so I'm not going to right anymore....even though I'm typing.

Merry Christmas.

Pray for Spain. Pray that the Lord would raise up missionaries and native Spaniards to take the gospel to the millions of lost souls in Spain.

Edgar

It's no secret that I didn't have the best relationship with my father growing up. Not that I always respected my mother, but I really laid the hammer on my dad. A lot. And I would talk back, and ignore him and just flat out didn't honour him in the way the God would have me to do.

But God worked in my life a few months ago, and I called him, and forgave him, and apologized for all those years of disrespect. And I'd like to think that I'm heading in the right direction towards having the kind of relationship with my dad that the Lord wants us to have.

Anyway.

I was driving a young man (who I'm working with/discipling) home tonight, and he asked me, "Have you ever prayed for help with something and the Lord wouldn't answer?"

And I poked and prodded, and it turned out he was having some problems with respecting his parents. Hmm. Interesting. A 19 year old kid, who recently had the Lord change his heart towards his parents is now working with a 16 year old young man who has problems with respecting his parents.

And I'm not sure if I really gave the correct answers or not, I hope I did. And I think I did, but all I said was that he already had the power to respect them. The problem wasn't respecthing his parents, but it was to chose to respect them.

Christians are dead to sin. We've overcome it through Christ Jesus. Our issue is not with overcoming sin, but it lies in choosing God over sin. I told him about Issac, saying nothing as Abraham laud him on the altar, and that Christ, son of God, didn't complain as His father let him be crucified on a cross.

I'm praying for him. I see so much potential and desire to serve the Lord in him. I'm grateful for the chance to work with him. I'd ask you to pray for a young man named Edgar, and that the Lord would grow him to be a great man of God.

Pray for Spain. Pray that the Lord would raise up missionaries and native Spaniards to take the gospel to the millions of lost souls in Spain.

the play.

The Lord really, really worked a mighty work tonight. At least through my eyes He did. This week was kind of a heavy week for me. And what I mean by that is that some weeks are very light. And all I focus on is God's goodness, and everything seems to be going perfect.

But this week was heavy. And I think it showed a little bit. I mean, I was very out of sorts at Lang's last night, and I already blogged about Thursday's awkwardness. It wasn't that I ever doubted God's love and acceptance of me, as I am. I think it was simply that I don't like the fact that I sin.

And I know that it's my choice to sin, since I'm dead to sin and it has no dominion over me. But I chose to make a bad choice or two this week. And it's kinda heavy sometimes.

Anyway.

About two hours before the play, I was so out or sorts that I wanted to crawl in a hole and die. I was sitting at the desk I used for the play, and couldn't take it any more. Everyone else was working, and I was just sitting there, doing nothing. So I left. I left thinking I was going to fail in the play and would ruin it all.

And it was all because of two bad choices I made this week. I lost my confidence because of them. And all I mean by that is that I began to think that if I couldn't make a basic choice in my own life, why would I be able to act in a play?

I went and slept in the Spanish auditorium. In the time I spent asleep, the Lord worked in my heart. When I woke up, Scott Newton was coming to get me, because it was time for the final rehearsal.

As we walked to the stage, all I could think about was Philippians 1:6-That God's going to do all the work in my life. And that's when I realized that I had been making the choices and doing the work, and not letting the Lord make the choices and do my work through me.

And at that point I decided to turn it over to the Lord, and let Him work through me.

I think the play went pretty well. The music was out of this world. I mean, it really was amazing.

Something that really touched my heart was the line:

This is our God: Love, sacrificing. And I realized more that God really did sacrifice for us. And I knew that before, but I never understood it as well as I now do.

Two hours before the play, I thought it was going to be awful, that we'd get a few pity amens and that'd be it.

I think it was quite the opposite.

Pray for Spain. Pray that the Lord would raise up missionaries and native Spaniards to take the gospel to the millions of lost souls in Spain.

Just do it y Los ancianos

Jos 17:15 And Joshua answered them, If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants, if mount Ephraim be too narrow for thee.

I stole this from Trent but truth is truth, and there’s nothing new under the sun. ;)

The children of Joseph asked why they only got one inheritance, and Joshua told them to prove that they should have two. I remember Trent talking about this when we went to PCC. You’ve trained and trained, studied and studied, now get up, grab your axe, and go prove that you’re what you say you are. Show us that training and studying.

Jos 20:4 Y el que se acogiere á alguna de aquellas ciudades, presentaráse á la puerta de la ciudad, y dirá sus causas, oyéndolo los ancianos de aquella ciudad: y ellos le recibirán consigo dentro de la ciudad, y le darán lugar que habite con ellos.

Escuchar es aprender. Y aquí, Josué manda que se escuchen a los ancianos. Como un joven, hay ancianos que tienen más sabiduría y experiencia que yo. Y me ayudayía y me mejoraría si los escuchara.


Pray for Spain. Pray that the Lord would raise up missionaries and native Spaniards to take the gospel to the millions of lost souls in Spain.