Love, Service, and the Cross

Cultural Quip:

In Ecuador, it is rare to take your shoes off indoors.

What’s Up?

I have been here now for almost a week and I feel like I have done quite a bit. This past week consisted of me settling in. As you may or may not know, I am quite blessed to have a beautiful apartment here in Quito. If you want a video tour of it, there is one on my Facebook page. Internet, laundry, electricity, water, cable, telephone, and all that lovely stuff is included in my rent which is very good for Quito. I have almost everything I need, but I did have to go out and get a few essential things that were missing (such as utensils).

I have also been trying to work out a schedule with Mark and Nancy Summers, the missionaries I am working with. It looks like I am going to be teaching some conversation classes for the next month, just trying to give the other students some extra help. In July I am going to be doing a summer vacation English school for about 15 non-Christian teenagers who want to improve the English they have been learning in school. The material we are going to use is from the book of Mark, so I am praying for opportunities to share Christ with the class or with individual students. Soon we are going to begin advertising on the radio and maybe on television. We visited the HCJB television station the other day and when the idea of a commercial came up it was suggested that I do all the speaking in it. I think that would be exciting, but I am not going to get my hopes up too high. The class will be three days a week, three hours each class. It is going to involve a lot of prep work, but right now I am looking for ways to fill some of my spare time.

Christ is Changing Me…

For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  -John 3:17

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to a conference on false doctrines that both Mark and Nancy were teaching at. It was all day long. We got there at 9am and it ended at about 7:45 at night. It was long and tiring (especially because it was all in Spanish so I had a lot of thinking to do), but the last speaker to go up had my attention from his very first words. He has a television program on a Christian television station where he answers tough questions about Christian faith. Instead of speaking specifically on the four false doctrines he had been assigned, he spent the first hour just speaking on the corruption of religion, including Christianity. His words on the manipulation of power within all religions were especially powerful to me. You know, Christ didn’t come to earth to establish a religion called Christianity. He really didn’t. He came to teach three things: love, service, and the cross. Christ didn’t come on chariots to establish an earthly kingdom or to bring condemnation. He came in humility, “…not to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 20:28). And who did He serve? The sinful. The marginalized. The sick. The lost. The unwanted. He set Himself lower than the lowest and then died to save people who wanted nothing to do with Him.

Maybe you are thinking “duh Robbie! That is all so basic. How do you not know this already?” Well, I did know it. I guess I just feel like I have not been living it. This is what Christ has been teaching me. There is a huge difference between confessing with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believing it in my heart (Romans 10:9). When I really believe something in my heart then I am going to act on it, aren’t I? It is only when one is truly convinced of something that they are willing to give their lives for it. And that is what we ALL as Christians are called to do. “Then [Jesus] called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it” Mark 8:34-35. No, I am not talking about extremes. This is not the Jihad of Islam. I am talking about dying to the sinful nature that we all carry and living in Christ. I am talking about living a life that is radically different than the world around us. I am talking about giving everything I am for the cross of Christ. A relationship with Him is not passive, but active and constantly maturing and growing.

No, we are not going to be perfect. That is not the idea. Following Christ is a process and our job to allow Christ to complete the work that he began in us (Philippians 1:6). Today I was reminded of a healing that Jesus performed on a blind man in Mark 8:22-26. Jesus spit on the man’s eyes, placed His hands on him and asked “Do you see anything?” He responded that he saw people walking around like trees. So Jesus put His hands on the man’s eyes and he saw everything clearly. For a long time I thought this was the weirdest miracle that Jesus performed. Why did he have to apparently heal this man twice? Had he messed it up the first time? I looked into it further and discovered something amazing about this miracle. It is about more than just healing this man’s physical body (as is true for all of Jesus’ miracles). Jesus is using this miracle to teach something very significant about life in His Kingdom.

Right before this healing in Mark 8:14-21, Jesus reprimands his disciples for not understanding who He was, even after witnessing Him feed thousands of people with only a few loafs of bread. In Matthew 8:27-30, the passage right after the two-phase healing of the blind man, Peter finally identifies Jesus as Christ. The miracle is placed right between these two passages because it is a demonstration of growth, and that was exactly what the disciples were doing. The miracle is a demonstration of the life of those who have been touched by Christ. Here on earth we have only had a glimpse of our glorious Savior! He has begun the good work of making us like Him. But we will not be fully changed until we come into the presence of God. Here, we only see things walking around like trees. We can try our best to interpret them, but it is only as we draw close to Christ that we can better understand what we see. And it is only when we are in His presence that all will be made known.

Sorry that was so long, but it has been building up inside of me for several days now!

Praise and Prayer

-          I asked people to pray that I would not be lonely here. Praise God I feel I have made some really great connections already. Please pray for more relationships with people my own age.

-          Please pray that I will be bold for Christ and that I will grow in love for the people here and never miss an opportunity to serve.

-          Please pray for patience with some things. I am very sensitive to mannerisms and quirks and I often find myself frustrated with trivial things about people.

-          Last but not least, please pray for God to provide whatever is necessary for me to stay here in Ecuador. I still have to get a visa and I am only 50% fundraised! If God wants me here for the full year, then this is all going to work out. I have confidence it that.