Bogota June 2011: Day 3
Father’s Day Among The Fatherless:
I don’t think there are words to describe how amazing today was but I will try. Today was over the top anointed and blessed. We left at 7:00 a.m. and headed into Bogota to Hector and Lilliana’s church. We arrived at 8:00 a.m. and they had a beautiful breakfast spread for us. We ate and fellowshipped and took lots of pictures.
Many of the workers from the orphanages go to church there or came because they knew we would be there. Our dear sister Nelda was there and Sophia whom I wrote about in March. Some of our Goddaughters and friends from the Safe House were there. It was a great reunion and a beautiful picture of the body of Christ. One man came up and asked for a picture with me. He said he knew me from facebook but it took me a minute to remember. Ah! Brother Carlos! I couldn’t place him because his church is way over near Ecuador! He had heard that we were coming and had come all the way to see us. He asked me to come to their humble mining town and preach someday. I assured him that I would. Jose Vicente and his wife Diana were there and of course Hector and Lilliana’s beautiful teenage daughters and son and nephew. Hector came forward and spoke about the blessing of two countries worshipping together. They had a full size American flag and Colombian flag and they had me lead us in the National Anthem and then Hector and Jair led in singing the Colombian National Anthem. It was breathtaking!
Soon it was time for the worship to begin and when their children and Jair began to lead us in worship it was absolutely stunning. They would lead us in familiar worship songs in Spanish and then sing the chorus in English. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the place when they sang Mighty to Save in Spanish and then English. It was so powerful to sing at the top of our lungs, “Solo Dios puede salvar, mi Dios puede salvar!” Hector then read the story of the Good Samaritan and then the music started and we didn’t know what was coming next. Then the young people came in the side in costume and enacted the story of the Good Samaritan but in modern Bogota style. It was wonderfully done and very moving. Then Lilliana introduced Jair to come and sing some songs from his latest album Viraje. It was such a blessing because Hector and Lilliana were Jair’s pastors when he was a 10 year old boy in northern Colombia and for them to see this amazing man of God in action was a crown for them. Then Lilliana introduced me to preach and Luis to translate. I prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to help me represent Him properly to these people and then shared the message that God had given me for this day. I have added my sermon notes below.
The God Who Pursues To Be Pursued
The God Who Pursues
Adam & Eve
Walking in the garden in the cool of the day… “Adam, where art thou,” is still the Divine call (Gen. 3:9)
The Woman At The Well
John 4:23 “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
The Hound of Heaven
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat–and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet–
“All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.”
I pleaded, outlaw-wise,
By many a window, curtained red,
Trellised with intertwining charities
(For, though I knew His love Who followed,
Yet was I sore adread
Lest having Him, I must have naught beside);
1John 4:19 We love, because He first loved us.
Or as my pastor, Frankie, says, “You crave God because He first craved you.”
God is so wonderful that if you slow down long enough, get quiet long enough He will show Himself to you and you will be ruined for anything else ever again and then you will spend the rest of your life chasing Him.
O God, I have tasted your goodness, and it has both satisfied me and left me thirsty for more.
The God Who Must Be Pursued
Prov. 8:17 “I love those who love me; And those who diligently seek me will find me.
Jer. 29:13 ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
Is. 58:2 “Yet they seek Me day by day and delight to know My ways, They delight in the nearness of God.
Lam. 3:25 The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him.
Moses
At the burning bush Moses got a taste…
After walking with God through Egypt, the Red Sea, and so on Moses still wants more. In Exodus 33:18 Moses says, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” And God did!
Heb. 11:27 tells us that Moses endured because he saw Him who is invisible.
David
David got a taste of God out watching his father’s sheep…
Psa. 42:1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God.
In my favorite chapter of the Bible he expresses beautifully his pursuit of God…
Psa. 63:1 O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly;
My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.
3Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips will praise You.
4So I will bless You as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
5My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.
6 When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches,
7For You have been my help,
And in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.
8My soul follows hard after you.
Paul
Paul found the pearl of great price… Phil. 3:7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
I love the way Tozer says it… “The Holy Spirit is a Person, and as a Person, He can be cultivated; He can be wooed and cultivated as any person can be… People grow on us, and the Holy Spirit, being a Person, can grow on us… Be engrossed with Jesus Christ. Honor Him… The Holy Spirit will never, never flood the life of any man except the man in whom Jesus is glorified. Therefore, if you dedicate yourself to the glory of Jesus, the Holy Spirit will become the aggressor and will seek to know you… As we honor Jesus, the Spirit of God becomes glad within us. He ceases to hold back, He relaxes and becomes intimate and communes and imparts Himself; and the sun comes up and heaven comes near as Jesus Christ becomes our all in all… I can walk with Jesus when I am doing the same things He is doing, and go the same way He is going and travel at the same speed He is traveling. I must be engrossed with Jesus Christ.” – A.W. Tozer
Some of you are running from God… you can feel His breath on the back of your neck. Just stop… just submit to Him… He will give you a taste of Himself that will be so fantastic that you, like the man who found the treasure hidden in the field in Matthew 13, will spend the rest of your life, your time, treasures, talents, and thoughts pursuing Him for more of that life giving Bread. Those of you, who have grown weary of pursuing God, don’t quit. Tell your Father that you, like Jacob, won’t let go until He blesses you. Tell Him that you are coming after Him and you want all that He has for you. Amen.
There were many tears and many hands raised to heaven as we prayed together aloud, “Father, we are coming after you! Give us all that you have for us!”
Next, a young woman and man came forward and played some traditional Colombian musical instruments. It was fabulous as well. The church leadership then presented each of our team a handmade Colombian gift. Then a lady came forward with a young man in her arms who suffers from acute cerebral palsy and several of us laid hands on them and prayed for them. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place then for sure. And last but certainly not least our brother Tracy Davis stepped forward with a short testimony. He shared how blessed he was by the service and especially the singing of Hector and Lilliana’s daughter Heyli and how God had spoken to him through them and that he could no longer look at them as Colombians but as family. He said that in coming to Colombia to minister to those without families, we were now without our families but the people of the church had taken us in and given us a home for the day and it was a beautiful picture.
We hugged and kissed and cried and took lots more photos and then we were on the bus and headed back to our lodgings. But God. Jose Vicente told us that he had an emergency center nearby with 100 orphans there and could we please stop and just say hi for a moment. We said absolutely! So we wound our way up the mountain a little to a house called Chamuel. We had to climb up a long stone path and there they were waiting for us with big smiles and a song.
We mingled and loved and got acquainted. Jose brought over three sisters ages 16, 13, and 10, Catalina, Geraldine, and Laura. Their grandfather died and their mother is a drug addict and they have no one in this world. They have been at this home for 7 months. Jose told us that he’s been so concerned for these girls and he thought that if he could just get us to stop there for 15 minutes we might be able to help him find a family for these girls. We assured him that we would try and he said that we had just given him the best Father’s Day gift by coming!
As we sat over lunch I asked my brothers and sisters what words they would use to describe today. The one that best fit I think was overwhelming… It truly was an amazing day. As we headed back to our rooms for some much needed rest I was surprised with one more story for the day. My dear Colombian brother, Luis, our main ministry translator stopped me and he said, “I know why we had to stop at Chamuel today even though it wasn’t on our agenda for the day.” I said, “Really, Luis, tell me about it.” He proceeded to tell me that he had struck up a conversation with a 13 year old girl who had been living with her grandfather in Spain but then he died and she had no one and since she was from Colombia they sent her back here. She was very sad and had become addicted to Marijuana and will soon go to rehab. Luis asked her what she thought about God and she said that she didn’t believe in Him because she couldn’t prove His existence. Luis kindly asked her if her grandfather had loved her. She replied that he had, very much. Luis asked her how she knew her grandfather loved her, what proof did she have. She told him that she could feel his love for her. Luis gently explained that this is also true of our Heavenly Father and us. We can feel His love for us. Luis told her that her Heavenly Father loved her more than even her grandfather and that He was always with her. This precious girl broke down and started weeping profusely and Luis started weeping with her and praying for her to know how much God loves her. They prayed together and then it was time to go. Dolly, one of our team members who was sitting with us said, “I saw you two weeping but didn’t know what was going on.” I looked at Luis and shook my head, “Wow!” “I guess you do know why we were supposed to stop there today.” “The Hound of Heaven was after that girl!” Praise God!
Thank you to the prayer warriors back home!