Worthy is the Lamb

One of the Scripture texts that I review daily is from Revelation 5, where the 28-member praise team sings a new song, Worthy is the Lamb to open the book... and receive...
Sometimes I spend time with the sheep (4 of them) with their new little lamb, and look up at the mountain that I mentioned in my last post in this blog, and claim all the land watered by its streams. Jesus is worthy. He did pay with his life. As Jesus and his 12 disciples harvested Galilee, I am praying for this area to be harvested. I am praying for prayer warriors to come alongside and fight daily with us for the release of prisoners from their esoteric delusions, from dead traditional religion, and from total materialism. That is my hope in writing this. Pray also that Sharon and I will be focused on our "Galilee" and be able to convince our many friends that "Jesús es más grande..." (Jesus is bigger...). The team in Revelation 5 not only had the harps for singing, they also had the golden bowls which were filling with incense which is your prayers. Then God took action (Revelation 8:5). During the 47 seconds of this video pray that here in the mountains of central Spain people will turn to the Lamb of God to give them the whiteness of wool (Isaiah 1:18).

Give me this mountain

This week we celebrated our 47th anniversary. Went out for supper to a place where some of

our friends hang out. Several of them commented that we deserve a prize for being together so long. Most of them don't have much of an idea of what a lifetime commitment means. We thank God for the way we complement one another and for the family and the ministry that he has given us.

Thinking of the years reminds me in this our 45th year in Spain, of what Caleb said. Let me quote from the King James, behold, the LORD hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years... I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in. Now therefore give me this mountain... (Joshua 14). Physically I'm not as strong as I was then (although Sharon probably is), but we have been learning to be victorious against  principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6). And we have a prayer support team who carry out what Paul requested in verse 19, (praying) that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel... Here's the CEV:  Pray that I will be given the message to speak and that I may fearlessly explain the mystery about the good news. (...)< This parenthesis is for you to take some time now to pray for God to clearly lead David and Sharon. We are grateful to those of you who have responded personally to my last SpainScreen, and my goal is to be more in touch.

20 years ago, thinking of Jesus evangelizing Galilee in about 2 years with 6 teams of 2 (all from Galilee except Judas), I began writing up my own Galilee plan. Josephus tells us there were about 200 Jewish towns in Galilee at that time. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem in triumph a large part of his followers had accompanied him from Galilee and Perea (see John 12:12). To have a Galilean accent made you suspect of being a follower of Jesus. The whole region had been harvested, as Jesus had planned.

Now I say with Caleb, GIVE ME THIS MOUNTAIN. It is generally translated hill country or mountainous region. The peak that we see from our house is the highest in the Gredos range, which runs about 150 km from East to West and whose southern slope drains into the Tagus river. "As the Father hath sent me so send I you".

Father, now enable us to reach the families in these towns, with special emphasis on the children. Enable me this coming Sunday as we study Romans 15, where Paul was planning to evangelize Spain, to enable this little group of believers to take steps to become a ministering church with the ability to reach their neighbors.

Father, your Word is a powerful sword. It will be read in thousands of Catholic churches this coming Sunday (starting Saturday evening). Open the eyes of people who are hungry for the truth as they listen to the reading of Colossians 2:12-14 (July 28, 2013). May they understand that you have cancelled our debt, nailing it to the cross. And show us how to contact the "people of peace" (Luke 10:6) who will become the key to the establishing of your church in their communities.

Give me the strength to prepare the property with the big house that we are renting and would like to buy, to make it a magnet for children to come for camps and for young people to come for retreats and become excited about Jesus. Send the army of helpers that you are preparing.

The mountain is named after Almanzor, a Muslim chieftain who commanded some of the armies that overran Spain for 600 years. Father, in this month of Ramadan, when they are fasting in the day and feasting at night, speak to our dear friends from the Maghreb who have come to work in so many of these towns. Give us an intelligent outreach to them. Strengthen our co-workers who are engaged in ministries to them. Show the Muslim people that Christians are a people of love and sacrifice. Show them Jesus in us.

Enable the prayer warriors who are supporting us to understand what this battle involves, to see the demon powers lurking with the intent of disarming us and maintaining the blindfolds on the people in this mountainous region. Free them up to dedicate more time to this warfare. Give us victories that will encourage them to pray even more.

And yes, what I am dreaming about here is unrealistic, when you look around at what is happening in Spain. But wasn't it also unrealistic for Jesus to try to harvest Galilee? There was so little spiritual life. People had been crushed by spiritual tyrants. But then Jesus came. And he is here now also, in us.

Unexpected

This abandoned property that we are fixing into a place for ministry brought us a surprise. We found unexpected fruit. Pray that we will see the same thing happen among people around us who have abandoned any idea of faith in Jesus. In this 2 1/2 minute video you can see what's been happening.

Let's pray together

Take 4 minutes to go on a prayer walk with me. This is the route that I take every day from our house to the ministry property. It is a time for praise and prayer. This is a time for pears and apples so let's have a pear-able with an apple-ication.

Looking for Elkanah and Hannah

Every summer we go through part of the Old Testament. On July 1 we began 1 Samuel. I am envious of Eli. How wonderful it would be to have a little boy (or girl) sent by God through their mother and father, and teach them. He would learn the Word of God with me. He would learn to prune the grapes and feed the sheep and gather the eggs. As a person called by God to be his messenger he wouldn't have to commit all the errors that some of us have committed. He would be a genuine apprentice and I would be fulfilling the mission of training others. We would help him to identify his spiritual gifts and help him with his homework as he attends the local school. He would be a prime object of our prayers and we would hope to see him develop a great ministry. That's what happened to Samuel when his mother dropped him off at the temple.

Looking at 5 years

I read once in a book by Ted Engstrom that we tend to overestimate what we can do in a year and underestimate what we can do in 5 years. Recently as Sharon and I were planning some church activities I remarked that this needs to be part of a 5-year goal. What does it involve for missionaries who've been plugging away for over 40 years to say, "We're embarking on a new 5-year plan"? What has brought us to this point?

Things we have learned - Long ago, hitchhiking from Vancouver to Prince George a truck driver who picked me up stopped at a cafe where I saw a plaque on the wall, Ve get too soon oldt und too late schmardt. But these years in Spain have taught us a few things like:

• Although I am called to teach, I get restless when we accumulate a lot of classroom knowledge without putting it into practice. That is why we have prayed continually for helpers, younger people who love the Lord and want to learn. But at the same time:
• We have been too ready to include anyone who shows up. Sharon would have been more cautious but I always hoped they would work out. As I shared some months ago people come with different motivations and sometimes think they don't need to learn, but are here to take over. Right now there's just the 2 of us, and that is a factor in taking a serioius look at the future.
• There are some really nice people who have rejected anything to do with historical Christianity. We have many friends like this, and long for their eyes to be opened. 
• Even though the majority of Spain's Catholic majority are not really practicing Catholics, there are many sincere seekers after God, doing everything that they are told to do by their leaders.

What we want to do different

• Go from friendships to purposeful sharing. Although in the past we have seen good results from friendship evangelism,  now we tell our friends, we would like to go to your place (or meet at ours), to share our faith. The response has been positive. 2 days ago we spent 2 hours at the home of a couple who are community leaders, each of us sharing our faith. Their "testimony" is that of belonging to a group of a few thousand people worldwide, who meet regularly and call themselves Christians.and never open the Bible. They use a consciousness-altering drink in a large group, to get in touch with the supernatural. The god of this world has blinded the minds of those who don't believe... Lord, open their eyes. I felt that the best thing to recommend at that point was that they become familiar with the gospel of John. We have a long list of people to visit.
• We still want people to come to live and work with us, but mainly as trainees, with a good recommendation. In the past this was not much of an option: for a :number of years sending countries quit recruiting for Operation Mobilization in Spain because of leadership problems at a national level. It was traumatic for us as well. Finally the international leadership had to oversee the necessary changes, and things are looking up. 
• Use the property that we have been fixing up, as a center for outreach activities. The goal is to be able to eventually own the property by offering time-shares to tourists and for it to become self-supporting. 
• Special emphasis on outreach to children: We start with activities that they will enjoy. There still is widespread prejudice against anything "Evangelical", and we must build confidence with children and their parents. 
• Recruit local youth to help with these activities. Hopefully this will serve to draw in a group of idealistic young people whom we can train and share the way of Christ. The project is called Caminos, or Paths. We hope to see many people turn to El Camino, La Verdad, y La Vida (The way, the truth and the life)
• Emphasize being Christians rather than any particular denomination. This morning as I listened to a preacher talk about John Wesley I thought again how beautiful it would be to have groups of Christians meeting in homes in all 20 of the towns in this district

What we want to do the same

• More than ever, do everything by prayer. You, our prayer partners, and we, could be in touch weekly, daily. 
• The gospel never changes. People will always need God and his forgiveness, 
• Be a witness by our lives. We have lost some ground recently in this area as people who came to work with us have decided to do their own thing in a way that seems to be competition. 
• Count on the work of the Holy Spirit, who will convict of sin and turn people to Jesus

Why we stay

We're still here because we're not finished. In 1968 we arrived in Madrid for a teaching job in a Bible School. When we left Madrid years later to come to Extremadura, a couple of my students at the Sefovan Bible College were the grandchildren of the family where I had given my first home Bible studies. None of our co-workers from that time remain in Spain. Unless you include John Blake of the Billy Graham Association, whom I helped by being available to show the old evangelistic movies in Madrid while he lived in Barcelona. John told me recently that at 78 he is still going strong, supervising 21 co-ordinators of the My Hope TV evangelistic campaign. Our co-worker Raúl is nearing 80, and carries a full load.

We're still here because we can't think of anything we would rather do than share the gospel with people who need salvation. And we have a vision to establish communication networks in which the gospel can travel effectively.

We're still here because we are in good health and still able to carry on, hopefully with increased effectiveness, the ministry that God gave us.

We're still here because no one has come to replace us.

We're still here because we like to visit our grandchildren in Spain. (Of course we also like to visit the ones in the U.S.)

What got me thinking along this line was that this morning a song came to my mind from back in the days at Prairie Bible Institute,

Sacred Trust

Where He leads me I will follow; oft I've sung it blessed Lord.

Oft I've said with heart o'er flowing, I would follow at Thy word.

Now I stand in holy wonder, hushed and awed by pow'r divine

Stand before an open gateway, with my hand still clasped in Thine.

Sacred trust, Oh blessed privilege

Theme befitting angel voice, yet to me the trust is given

Oh my soul rejoice, rejoice! 

When the God of all creation bids me go his love to tell

Naught in earth or heav'n can stay me; home and friends and all, farewell.