Getting Prepared.

It has been a very busy two weeks here as we prepare for 2015. There have been construction projects, repairs, cleaning and many little tasks to finish in order to be ready for our first team of the year. When I arrived, work had already begun on the first major project. Our storage room was being turned into another bedroom and bathroom for people. This involve carrying and cutting many cement blocks, mixing cement and concrete by hand on the ground and bending and tying lots of re-bar. Because we are going to have two teams, working on two different projects at the beginning of February, we will need to house 35 people. This is about 6 more than we have done before. We completed the rooms, got them painted and cleaned about 6:00 last night. That was good timing because we had our first team of 6 arrive at 10:00 last night.

I also have been able to spend some time working with Mike and Cindy Harrington. We went to the Children's home in Santiago earlier in the week and worked on a few small projects to help them out. We built a work bench for the wood shop, repaired bikes, fixed screens and other minor tasks. It was fun to get to hang out with the kids and help out a little at the same time. I always love to spend some time there. The kids make life interesting but it is always fun.

A lot of the work that we have done is difficult or tedious and many would ask why I come here to do things like this. I wanted to share the thought that keeps coming to me for the last few weeks and hope that it blesses you as it has me.

We have limited time to accomplish anything on this earth. Whatever money or possessions we acquire here will eventually decay, break or burn. We work 40 years to have 15 or 20 years of retirement when we are mostly beyond the age of doing many of the things that we dreamed of when we were younger. Life as we understand it is short. Why live for it? In eternity will we be bragging about the car, house retirement plan, vacations or any other thing that we worked so hard for on the earth? We all will die. Why not make the most of the time we are here?

I think that God is telling us to build an eternal retirement. More than that, He is calling us to invest our time here in an eternal inheritance. If we are co-heirs with Jesus and we are Sons of God, doesn't it make sense to forget about the things that we hold fast to and spend ourselves on  building the kingdom of God? Is there any other thing that will pay dividends into our eternity? To build His kingdom means to invest our lives in people. Get to know them. Help them in their need and also help them prepare to live beyond need in the place of their Father's love. It means to live from a Heavenly perspective looking to see the Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. Mostly, it means to lay down our lives in worship to the one that created and redeemed us and allow Him to direct our every interaction. I think that this may lead to some difficult places and it may have a cost temporarily but I believe the eternal rewards will outweigh all of that.

2Ti 1:9-12 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.

Do you know that you have been called and entrusted? Do you know that you can trust God to hold and to multiply that which you hand to Him? Do you know that your choice as a believer is to work for the temporary, fleeting rewards of this life or to invest in a Kingdom where you have an inheritance? Are you working as hard on the eternal as you are in your preparations for today? Now is the time to prepare.

A New Way of Looking at Life

I was thinking about something this morning. As Christians, we are promised an eternity of rewards. All of them are because of the work that Jesus did on the cross. We cannot earn Heaven or cause our own salvation. Jesus accomplished what was necessary for us to be in relationship with Him. Heaven is mine not because of my righteousness but His.
There are however, references to rewards in Heaven. While we cannot earn Heaven, we are rewarded for our acts of obedience 
to God. I do not know how this all works out and I know that even my obedience is prompted and empowered by the Holy Spirit. I cannot take credit even for that. But, if there are eternal rewards for obeying Jesus here, on this earth, why do we settle for temporary enjoyment at the expense of eternity?
Obedience to the things Jesus calls us to may come with an earthly expense. It may cost us to follow and obey Him. Some are called to give up everything and live in poverty with the people that they serve. Others may be called to give up their life or spend it in a forced labor camp for the sake of the Gospel. I think that there is a reason that Jesus told people to count the cost. Following Him could cost us everything that we count as precious to us.
Bonhoeffer said "When Christ calls a man, He bids him 'come and die'." In our Western mindset, we do not often acknowledge that our call is a completely surrendered life to the cause of Jesus. We live for immediate rewards. The Church is in disarray because we have bought into the lies of immediate gratification.
Wanting out inheritance now, makes us much like the younger son in the story of the Prodigal. We are wasting an eternity of rewards and inheritance for the right to live it up now. We neglect to understand that the son was a son who had and inheritance that he squandered. When he came home, he was still a son but the inheritance all belonged to his older brother. He could live in the comfort of his father's house but it would never be his house.
What are we living for today? I think that it is time to fix our eyes on Jesus and our eternal reward. We need to live like that only thing that matters is God's purpose. Everything else needs to be laid aside. Let us learn to live for eternity.

If you would like to contribute to my expenses for the ministry in Guatemala, you can do so by mailing a check to:
My Father's House of Prayer
C/O Guatemala Missions
P.O. Box 679 
Morris, IL 60450 
Checks can be made out to MFHOP.