Bogota June 2011: Day 9

Today we admired…

Jesus the Focused

Matt. 4:1   Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.  3 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”  4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”

Matt. 4:5   Then the devil *took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple,  6 and *said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,

‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’; and

‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP,

SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”

7 Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”

Matt. 4:8   Again, the devil *took Him to a very high mountain and *showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory;  9 and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.”  10 Then Jesus *said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”  11 Then the devil *left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.

My pastor, Frankie Mazzapica points out that Satan was trying to get Jesus to take a shadow mission, a distraction from His true mission of going to the cross but Jesus didn’t fall for it. He was focused.

Jesus earthly mission before going to the cross entailed two facets that were recently pointed out to me by Omar Garcia, pastor of missions at Kingsland Baptist Church in Katy, TX. He explained it this way. If you were to ask a person in the west, “Who is the greatest Christian of our generation?” most would answer Billy Graham but if you asked the same question in the east most would answer, Mother Teresa because the west prizes proclamation of the gospel, embodied in Billy Graham, and the east prizes incarnation of the gospel, embodied in Mother Teresa. Then Omar said, “What we need is to get Mother Teresa and Billy Graham to the altar and get them married because Jesus ministry was a balance of both.”

Jesus mission… Incarnation

Acts 10:38 “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good…

Jesus mission… Proclamation

Mark 1:38 He *said to them, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.”

Luke 4:43 But He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.”

Our mission… most of our devotions this week have focused on incarnation, being the hands and feet of Christ, but today we want to focus on our mission of proclamation as well.

Mark 3:14 And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach,

Mark 16:15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

Acts 10:42 “And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.

1Cor. 9:16 For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.

Proclamation will be resisted…

Matt. 24:9   “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.

1Cor. 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the religious a stumbling block and to the heathen foolishness,

Adoniram Judson (father of American missions)

Suffered horribly in Burma. Preached 7 years without a convert. Wife and children died, second wife died, translated the Bible into Burmese.

Today there are 200,000 believers in Burma who can trace their spiritual heritage back to the work of Adoniram Judson…

John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

1Th. 1:6 You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit,

Today we get a chance to be our hero… We get to be Jesus… We get to be His hands and feet and HIS VOICE….

Today we split the team into two groups. One team went to Nuevo Mundo’s emergency center (San Miguel), safe house (Casa De Egreso), and baby orphanage (San Miguelito). I went with the other team to the emergency center that we went to on Sunday (Shamuel). They were just starting their weekly Saturday worship service when we arrived and we were able to enjoy and join in on the music and worship. Jair sang some and Hector’s daughter Heyli sang and then they called us up and introduced us and then we sang with them as well. I was asked to share my message about predators and I did. Then Pastor Hector gave a wonderful message from Psalm 148. He talked about how all of creation praises the Lord. It was excellent. After the message we distributed gifts to the children and then spent the afternoon playing and visiting. These children were so sweet. Several asked me to adopt them or find them a family.  We had a great time. They showed us how to make chocolates in different shapes and of course we had to taste several samples. I really enjoyed two of Hector’s kid’s friends, Patricia and Margarita.

By the end of the day Heyli, Caroline, Vale, and Andreas had everyone calling me Tio Mateo (Uncle Matthew). One little boy came up and told me his name was Mateo too and could he have a photo with me. The director told me that Mateo has no family at all and is available for adoption. So many sweet children, so much need. Soon it was time to go. We headed back to meet up with the other team and I was able to hug and kiss my friends at the safe house. I am so proud of them and how hard they are working at school and work.

We said goodbye and headed to the airport or so we thought… suddenly the bus turned into the Trail of Tears to Amparo De Ninas. They had worked it out for us to spend one hour with the girls before heading to the airport. What a treat!! The bus pulled up to the big steel gate and very soon we could hear girl screaming on the other side. They were aware that we were there. Pretty soon little hands started sticking out through the little porthole in the gate and we could hear more and more girls running to the gate and screaming like someone at a rock concert. It was so moving. Finally the gate opened and we poured through into the arms of 80 little girls. They were so happy and surprised to see us and we were as well. We gathered in the large room and visited… and got our nails painted again…  it was so great to be able to tell some of the girls that are coming next month on the vacation program that we would see them in 3 weeks. I was happy that the parting wasn’t as sad this night because we were all happy to just have that little one-hour surprise with each other.

We headed to the airport with happy hearts and a deeper commitment to help these beautiful children.