This year’s State of Theology survey revealed that 71% of U.S. adults and 65% of evangelicals agreed with the statement, “Everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God.”

Commenting on the finding, Ligonier Ministries explained:

• When God created the world, everything He made was good (Gen. 1:10, 21, 25, 31). Yet through Adam and Eve’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden, humankind became corrupted. The Bible teaches the concept of original sin, which means that since the Fall, every human being inherits a sin nature from the time of their conception (Ps. 51:5; Rom. 5:12). In other words, we are not sinners because we sin; rather, we sin because we are sinners.
• It is unsurprising that most U.S. adults believe that humans are born innocent, given the influence of humanistic philosophies and worldviews that teach self-determinism and a view of humankind as basically good.

Theologians contend that Genesis chapter 3 is arguably the most important chapter in the Bible, explaining,

“Those who do not understand the Fall cannot diagnose properly the human dilemma…It is impossible to understand man’s behavior if you do not understand that it is all a product of sin. And all sin in the world is a result of what happened in Genesis 3.”

Perhaps that is why it is so encouraging to listen to Dominican Pastor Roberto Araujo King of Iglesia Bíblica Bautista Mi Esperanza, after ten months of study in the Genesis Family Life Program, explain the vital importance a proper understanding of sin and theology play in the spiritual transformation of the mind (Romans 12:2).

I just wanted to pass along an encouraging photo and note from Raydel Riquelme below regarding ministry in Cuba amid unrest and rolling power outages throughout the country in the wake of recent hurricanes.

The simplicity and fervor communicated by the image reflects the words of Charles Spurgeon:

 The Devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the Church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them. Providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the Church. The need is biblical doctrine, so understood and felt that is sets men afire.

 What a privilege we have to be a part of biblical training that leads to individuals and churches equipped and aflame for Christ!

 The Lord promises in Isaiah 55:10-11,

 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it bear and sprout,
And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”

As we pray for those in the path of Hurricane Ian as it makes landfall in Florida today, we also ask that you remember those in Cuba amid the storm’s aftermath. We have five regional facilitators in Cuba overseeing our efforts there, including Pastor Yalexis in the province of Pinal del Rio, who reported that while he and his family are doing well, there is significant damage in his area as seen in the pictures below.

As we observe the following pictures, we get a sense of the damage and suffering caused by Hurricane Fiona for more than 8,000 families living on the east coastline of the Dominican Republic.

Patience is vital to faithful ministry. Ask Adoniram Judson or William Carey who both labored over six years before their faithful ministry was rewarded. Or the prophet Jeremiah who saw no visible fruit after decades of ministry.

McKitterick (2020) cautions below regarding how impatience can cause even the best-intentioned servant to become unfaithful in their pursuit of being fruitful, while in the words of Hudson Taylor, “Attempting great things for God!”

We live in a society that expects everything now! We don’t like to wait for anything. You could say we live in a society of impatience. While this sin is concerning to the Lord in every believer’s life, its danger becomes exponentially greater when shepherding the church. Impatience illustrates an attempt to usurp the workings of God by taking matters into one’s own hands. Impatience can lead to rash decisions, manipulative leadership, and discontentment. It can frustrate the church by either dragging them along, or worse, running so far ahead that they are left in the dust. Impatience is often friends with irritability, anger, self-will, and other ministry crippling sins.

The team at Empowering Action is keenly aware of this danger. It wasn’t until our 8th year of ministry that our Savings Groups program was finally launched, which could have understandably resulted in frustration from staff members with both passion and proficiency in financial ministry. And yet after three years now and a slow methodical rollout we are grateful to the Lord for his acquiescence to be serving: 500 individuals at 25 churches in Haiti, 275 participants at 8 Haitian churches within the Dominican Republic, and 120 persons at 6 Dominican churches.

Faithfulness may require that we, as William Carey said, plod, while others foolishly rush ahead.

References:

McKitterick, J. (2020, July 21). Are we there yet? The need for patience in pastoral ministry. The Expositor’s Seminary. https://expositors.org/are-we-there-yet-the-need-for-patience-in-pastoral-ministry/

The Apostle Paul described how word of the faithful ministry of the Thessalonian church was spreading throughout his missionary travels.  

For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. (1 Thessalonians 4:8)

The term sounded forth carries the concept of reverberation, conveying how the ministry of the Thessalonians had resulted in:

• local outreach to Thessalonica,
• national outreach to Macedonia and Achaia,
• and international outreach to regions beyond.

As Raydel and Carlos depart today to present at the Precept Ministries International conference in Guatemala, we are grateful for the Lord’s gracious use of the ministry in local, national and international settings.

In the nonprofit fundraising world, the summer months have become known as the Summer Slump, as historically, donations typically cool down when the weather heats up. So if you are in a position to offer EA some extra prayer and financial support over the next few months, we would be most grateful.

We are incredibly enthusiastic about how the Lord continues to graciously use our efforts for His glory. With the recent easing of travel testing requirements we are anxious to soon see a return of visiting groups laboring alongside our staff and partnering churches in seeing individuals and communities “turning from sin and false gods to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10).

Amid the rapid growth of early Christianity, the leadership of the Jerusalem church would send leaders to investigate remarkable developments:

• “Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John.” (Acts 8:14)
• “…a large number who believed turned to the Lord. The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch.” (Acts 11:21-22)

In a somewhat similar fashion, EA ministry partner, Precept Ministries International, has requested that our team travel to Guatemala to update the regional leadership regarding the growth of our K2:42 church network development program.

Recognizing that it is “God who causes the growth” (1 Cor. 3:7) and, as the great missionary George Muller said, “The Lord condescends to use us as His stewards,” we are excited to be able to share how God has graciously allowed us to minister to 5,314 students in the past 5 years, including 596 church leaders.

Just a quick update on our year-end match campaign. I’m happy to report that we exceeded our goal and raised $57,159 which when combined with the $50,000 match totaled $107,159. This gives us a great nudge into the new year of ministry in which the Lord has already provided some exciting opportunities and developments even in the past week.

So thank you once again for your continued prayer and financial support. This is our 10th year of ministry and I’m continually amazed at God’s provision through generous financial partners.

George Muller once said, “God has many ways of moving the hearts of men all over the world to help us. While I am praying, He speaks to one and another on this continent and on that, to send us help.” 

And for that, we too are eternally grateful.

Over the years, on early morning New Years Day runs, I’ve contemplated the dawn of a new year amidst the solitude and serenity.

Proverbs 4:18 states, “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.”

The desire for God’s will in the days to come is my perpetual prayer on such occasions.

Haddon Robinson explains that the existence of the three wills of God often confuses even the most earnest Christ-follower:

• God’s Sovereign Will – God’s purpose from eternity past to eternity future whereby He determines all that shall occur (Eph. 1:11).
• God’s Moral Will – The Scriptures tell us what God wants us to believe and how God wants us to behave (Ps. 119:97-104).
• God’s Individual Will – While God works out His sovereign will through all men and has revealed to us His moral will, He doesn’t necessarily reveal His specific, individual will to us.

Robinson provides a good exhortation as we approach 2022, emphasizing the importance of repeatedly dedicating ourselves to the glory of God:

In God’s sovereignty, He can work in our choices, through our choices, and in spite of our choices, to accomplish His will.

The Bible is clear that glorifying God is our ultimate goal. But it doesn’t leave us with vague generalities—in achieving that goal, we are given intermediate goals.

God’s direction is clear and unambiguous. We are to act in love and kindness. We are not to be self-serving. We are to have integrity. We are to be faithful and generous. And we are to act out of proper motives. If we apply the characteristics of God’s sovereign and moral will to every decision we make, we will be well on the road to glorifying Him and living a fuller, happier life.

As we begin another year of ministry, our prayer for our program participants is the same for you, our faithful supporters:

1. Strength in the Word of God, which is essential to make good decisions;
2. Conviction to make Christ-honoring decisions, which often entail hardship and frustration;
3. Inspiration in Christ Jesus, who demonstrated that peace and pain-free living can not be proof that we’re in God’s will (Lk 22:41–44).

Paul warned Timothy, “in the last days there will come times of difficulty” (2 Timothy 3:1). Savage seasons have, in fact, battered Christ’s Church through its history by means of waves of worldly ideologies:

• Sacramentalism – in which ordinances and rituals were falsely elevated and undermined salvation by grace
• Rationalism – where scholarship and human reason attempted to dethrone God
• Orthodoxism – with its dead, cold, indifferent spirituality 
• Politicism – which led to a preoccupation with political power and social causes
• Ecumenism – where a lack of discernment resulted from an obsession with unity at any doctrinal cost
• Experientialism – that viewed truth as originating in feelings, intuition, and special revelations, relegating Scripture to secondary importance
• Subjectivism – where psychology captured the church, resulting in a man-centered, needs-based theology 
• Mysticism – as people began to seek individual, subjective spiritual experiences apart from the objective truth of God’s Word
• Pragmatism – where appropriate means of ministry were defined by the “customer-parishioner,” and truth was the servant of what worked 
• Syncretism – in which evangelicals, intimidated by cultural agendas and eager to find favor with the unsaved world, capitulated to blending Biblical truth with all forms of theological error

There is a cumulative effect as these movements increase in frequency and intensity (2 Tim. 3:13). In response to Paul’s exhortation that we have the divinely-empowered weapons to destroy such strongholds (2 Cor. 10:3-5), Guzik explained that wrong thoughts and perceptions, which contradict the true knowledge and nature of God, stubbornly set deep roots in human hearts and minds, influencing adversely an individual’s beliefs and behaviors. 

Christ’s church currently finds itself besieged by the ideological tidal wave of the Social Justice Movement, having been described as the greatest threat to the church in the last hundred years. Likened to a three-headed dragon, its peril lies in emulating secular culture while undermining Scripture in the areas of race, gender, and sexuality. The comprehensiveness of the movement presents unique challenges to church leadership, as it functions as a worldview, complete with its own soteriology, epistemology, sacred texts, and prophets. 

Almost a century ago, Machen cautioned regarding the powerful force of modern culture, which is either “subservient to the gospel or the deadliest enemy of the gospel.” He declared that subjugating culture necessitates not mere religious emotion but neglected intellectual labor, stating, “The Church has turned to easier tasks. And now she is reaping the fruits of her indolence. Now she must battle for her life.”