Dulins and Team are Guatemala Bound

Men,

I am counting on you to be in prayer for me, my wife and our missions trip team as we prepare to head to Guatemala for a missions trip.  Below are a list of the activities and members.

Guatemala Team Members
Kelly Richardson
James Lashley
Andy Richardson
Diane Richardson
Travis Richardson
Rachel Miller
J.P. Polinsky
Dave Babb
David Babb
Jacque Dulin
Danny Dulin
Stewart Eastep
Tom Cooney


Saturday, October 22  Team members arrive in Guatemala City at various times throughout the day. Pray for coordination in pickup and transportation to the team staging area.  Pray also that all the dental supplies team members are transporting in their luggage will clear customs without any problems.

Sunday, October 23  Worship in Guatemala City at La Iglesia Camino Y Verdad, pastor Andy is preaching. The team will travel 4 hours into rugged highland terrain (6,000+ ft elevation) to Piedras Grandes, a village area.  Pray that there will be no rains and that the roads will be passable.

Monday-Tuesday, October 24-25  Dental clinic evangelism in Piedras Grandes. Pray for physical endurance for the dentists, patience for the team members supporting them, and wisdom and enthusiasm for the team evangelists. Pray that many people will respond in faith to the gospel.


Wednesday, October 26  Travel back to Guatemala City... safety.  Pray for Andy and Tom as they engage in pastoral counseling for an on-going situation for a local family in the church.

Thursday, October 27  Convoy into Ciudad Quetzal, a drug-gang controlled area of the city that is very dangerous.  The team will set up a dental clinic in a new church (Casa Mana) starting with mostly women and children.  Pray for a good response to the gospel and for safety coming back out at night

Friday, October 28  Convoy back to Ciudad Quetzal and the team’s preparations for a large children’s concert in the afternoon with Chochy Ruano, recording artist.  The team will canvas the neighborhood extending invitations to children for the concert, which could be both the most exciting and dangerous part of the whole trip.

Saturday, October 29  Pray for a safe return to the USA

"Let the memory of all your sins grieve you..."

...and especially lament and bewail your daily transgressions.

Men, I was reading in Imitation of Christ a chapter that was describing how to examine your conscience before participating in the Lord's Supper.  Thomas a' Kempis is a Roman Catholic, so in the book he's referring to Holy Communion, but it doesn't change the context of how we should be examining ourselves and repenting before participating in the Lord's Supper. 

I found it interesting, though, how he said "especially lament and bewail your daily transgressions."  At night when I pray, I try to remember to repent and ask forgiveness for specific sins I committed for that day.  I don't always do to great a job recalling the day's sins, but a' Kempis gives a good list to run down that NAILS me.  See how you fare. 

Lament and grieve because you are still so worldly, so carnal, so passionate and unmortified, so full of roving lust, so careless in guarding the external senses, so often occupied in many vain fancies, so inclined to exterior things and so heedless of what lies within, so prone to laughter and dissipation and so indisposed to sorrow and tears, so inclined to ease and the pleasures of the flesh and so cool to austerity and zeal, so curious to hear what is new and to see the beautiful and so slow to embrace humiliation and dejection, so covetous of abundance, so stingy in giving and so tenacious in keeping, so inconsiderate in speech, so reluctant in silence, so undisciplined in character, so disordered in action, so greedy at meals, so deaf to the Word of God, so prompt to rest and so slow to labor, so awake to empty conversation, so sleepy in keeping sacred vigils and so eager to end them, so wandering in your attention, so careless in saying the office, so lukewarm in celebrating, so heartless in receiving, so quickly distracted, so seldom fully recollected, so quickly moved to anger, so apt to take offense at others, so prone to judge, so severe in condemning, so happy in prosperity and so weak in adversity, so often making good resolutions and carrying so few of them into action.

Thomas a Kempis (2009). Imitation of Christ - Enhanced Version (Kindle Locations 2687-2691). Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Kindle Edition.

Christ is forming the Heavenly Crown

MY CHILD, in this life you are never safe, and as long as you live the weapons of the spirit will ever be necessary to you. You dwell among enemies. You are subject to attack from the right and the left. If, therefore, you do not guard yourself from every quarter with the shield of patience, you will not remain long unscathed. Moreover, if you do not steadily set your heart on Me, with a firm will to suffer everything for My sake, you will not be able to bear the heat of this battle or to win the crown of the blessed. You ought, therefore, to pass through all these things bravely and to oppose a strong hand to whatever stands in your way. For to him who triumphs heavenly bread is given, while for him who is too lazy to fight there remains much misery. If you look for rest in this life, how will you attain to everlasting rest? Dispose yourself, then, not for much rest but for great patience. Seek true peace, not on earth but in heaven; not in men or in other creatures but in God alone. For love of God you should undergo all things cheerfully, all labors and sorrows, temptations and trials, anxieties, weaknesses, necessities, injuries, slanders, rebukes, humiliations, confusions, corrections, and contempt. For these are helps to virtue. These are the trials of Christ’s recruit. These form the heavenly crown. For a little brief labor I will give an everlasting crown, and for passing confusion, glory that is eternal. Do you think that you will always have spiritual consolations as you desire? My saints did not always have them. Instead, they had many afflictions, temptations of various kinds, and great desolation. Yet they bore them all patiently. They placed their confidence in God rather than in themselves, knowing that the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to come. And you—do you wish to have at once that which others have scarcely obtained after many tears and great labors? Wait for the Lord, act bravely, and have courage. Do not lose trust. Do not turn back but devote your body and soul constantly to God’s glory. I will reward you most plentifully. I will be with you in every tribulation.

Thomas a Kempis (2009-04-19). Imitation of Christ - Enhanced Version (Kindle Locations 1836-1843). Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Kindle Edition.

Where is the "eye of your intention" directed

Men,

Many of you of you know that I am taking a Seminary class and through the required reading, I have found many jewels of God's wisdom that have encouraged and inspired me.  I'm sure that each time I've posted about the jewels I've noted that the current jewel was more precious than the previous one.  I'm sure also that I will continue to do that.  Let me say now...My bad, but I want to share a new jewel with you.  It is indeed precious and may prove not to be as precious as the next that I discover, but this one is special because it proves to me once again that my Heavenly Father is right beside me and at the ABSOLUTE PRECISE moment I need a word from Him, He delivers causing tears of joy to flow freely no matter where I am.  Not a word I personally think I need, but what He knows I need.

I had my first exam this Wednesday night and I did fine.  Fine meaning I tested fine, however, I did not do fine leading up to it.  I was a mess, stressed out and full of anxiety that I would not do well.  I wrapped myself around this exam and was basing my value in this exam.  Did He come to my rescue, no.  Did I ask Him to, shamefully I confess no.  I can offer the excuse the enemy had me too wrapped up in the stress and concern of doing well on the exam, but I don't believe that's true.  I believe that God was letting me lean on my own understanding because I basically, because I didn't take it to Him in prayer, told Him I didn't need Him, that I had it under control.  I suffered for it.

The exam and studying for it is over.  Now I have to get back to my reading of  Thomas 'a Kempis' Imitation of Christ.  In this book he often uses a dialogue between Christ and a believer and identifies Christ talking with the section title "The Voice of Christ."  I open to where I left off Chapter 33 "Restlessness of Soul-Directing Our Final Intention Toward Christ."  This is where I find the Jewel...The Voice of Christ speaking directly to my heart and reminding me how I failed in preparation for my exam.  Enjoy:


MY CHILD, do not trust in your present feeling, for it will soon give way to another. As long as you live you will be subject to changeableness in spite of yourself. You will become merry at one time and sad at another, now peaceful but again disturbed, at one moment devout and the next indevout, sometimes diligent while at other times lazy, now grave and again flippant. But the man who is wise and whose spirit is well instructed stands superior to these changes. He pays no attention to what he feels in himself or from what quarter the wind of fickleness blows, so long as the whole intention of his mind is conducive to his proper and desired end. For thus he can stand undivided, unchanged, and unshaken, with the singleness of his intention directed unwaveringly toward Me, even in the midst of so many changing events. And the purer this singleness of intention is, with so much the more constancy does he pass through many storms. But in many ways the eye of pure intention grows dim, because it is attracted to any delightful thing that it meets. Indeed, it is rare to find one who is entirely free from all taint of self-seeking. The Jews of old, for example, came to Bethany to Martha and Mary, not for Jesus’ sake alone, but in order to see Lazarus. The eye of your intention, therefore, must be cleansed so that it is single and right. It must be directed toward Me, despite all the objects which may interfere.

Thomas a Kempis (2009-04-19). Imitation of Christ - Enhanced Version (Kindle Locations 1799-1801). Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Kindle Edition.