Service or Devotion?
It is easy to confuse one with the other.
To say, “Oh look at me God, look at what I am doing for you! Look at what I have given to your church, and done for the homeless! Look at how much I gave last year! Look at all these orphans I played with and look at this church I helped build in Africa!
But these are acts of service. They, in and of themselves, are not the devotion to our Savior that is necessary to carry the name of Christian.
How easy it is to arrogantly fall into the trap of measuring our acts of service and calling ourselves “good christians.”
I struggle with this often.
Do you?
Is this just another discussion about faith vs. works? I dont think so. I think they may be related to this issue, but they are not the same. To me the faith vs. works discussion has always left out the most important part of being a Christian, GRACE! That very thing that we as Christians are so bad at giving is the very thing that we typically place a distant third to faith and works.
So how do we overcome this paradigm? Prayer and fasting. But not the nice idea of dropping those three little words and talking lightly about it. I am talking about the headache inducing, 14 hours of sleep a day, gut wrenching prayer and fasting. This is something that God has given us that along with His Holy Spirit, can crush enemy strongholds and create a true paradigm shift in our way of thinking.
Have you ever fasted?
If not, why?
It is an integral part of the Christian walk, and if you have never done it, I encourage you to do so.
So, this past week here in Cancun has been truly amazing. So much has taken place, so much has been done and while we know that great things are being done and the Lord’s Kingdom is advancing. At the same time we know that God has amazing blessings in store for the future of the ministry taking place here in Cancun.
The people in charge of the Back2Back Cancun site are Matt and Julie Cooper, I highly recommend you check out their blog here:
http://www.whereyougoigo.com
Matt is wonderfully honest about the future of the ministry here and the fact that it is totally and completely going to be led by the Holy Spirit. This really is an amazing step of faith, to know that you have hundreds of investors waiting for updates and the American need for a plan and a vision and a framework to take place, and to hold that all at bay and say “No, this ministry will not be led with human ideas and will not be molded by human hands, but by the breath of God and the gentle prodding fingers of the Holy Spirit.” That is a strong faith in action.
And even while a plan and a framework and a vision have yet to be revealed by God, every day brings a new opportunity to share His love, and be His hands and feet.
We continued our work at the DIF center creating separate offices., we have one room almost completely finished and the others are in the process of getting mud and tape on the drywall and new commercial fans installed! Sorry no pics right now, I will get some when we are closer to being done so you can see the finished product.
We also took a few trips to the DIF Children’s Center. Within the DIF Children’s Center there is a closed off section that is guarded 24/7 by police where they keep the children who have been removed from violent or life threatening situations. We went and talked about heroes and did a craft with them one day. Yesterday, Matt, Mau and I were able to just go and play games with them and hang out. Here are some of the children of CAT. It is truly amazing to think about where these children have come from, and how the joy of the Lord is miraculously shining through their darkest nights.
