“I don’t like timing games!”

My youngest daughter was famous for uttering those words, time and again, whenever someone suggested playing a game that had a countdown.  She simply didn’t like the mounting pressure of opportunity coming to an abrupt halt.

This pandemic has produced a variety of emotions, but, I would content, the fear of death and the afterlife is the most prominent.  Coronavirus has reminded humanity worldwide that we are in the midst of a personal countdown to the appointed day of our physical death, and eternal existence either:

– in the presence of our Savior, Christ Jesus (Rev. 21:3)

– or receiving retribution for not obeying the gospel of our Lord Jesus: eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power (2 Thess. 1:8-9).

The unbelieving world would never acknowledge the truth that God is sovereign and has “written the days that were ordained for each person, when as yet there was not one of them” (Ps. 139:16). 

They may vehemently deny that fact, but it is that reality producing their fear, and the mercy of God providing a reminder that “it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” (Heb. 9:27).

Ecclesiastes 3:11 states,

“[God] has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”

Alexander MacLaren wrote the following in regards to this passage,

What a madness it is to go on, as if either I were to continue for ever among the shows of time, or when I leave them all, to die wholly and be done with altogether!’

That eternity which is set in our hearts is not merely the thought of ever-during being, or of an everlasting order of things to which we are in some way related. But there are connected with it other ideas besides those of mere duration.

Knowing what perfection is, they turn to limited natures and created hearts for their rest. Having the haunting thought of an absolute goodness, a perfect wisdom, an endless love, an eternal life – they try to find the being that corresponds to their thought here on earth, and so they are plagued with endless disappointment.

My brother! God has put eternity in your heart. Not only will you live for ever, but also in your present life you have a consciousness of that eternal and infinite and all-sufficient Being that lives above. You have need of Him, and whether you know it or not, the vines of your spirits, like some climbing plant not fostered by a careful hand but growing wild, are feeling out into the vacancy in order to grasp the stay which they need for their fruit and their strength.

By the make of our spirits, by the possibilities that dawn dim before us, by the thoughts ‘whose very sweetness yield proof that they were born for immortality,’ – by all these and a thousand other signs and facts in every human life we say, ‘God has set eternity in their hearts!’

“God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith” (Rom. 3:25)

Therefore, as Alistair Begg notes in his book, Name Above All Names,

“Christians have a story unlike any other story.

Islam has only scales, the good outweighing the bad. Hinduism, at best, hopes for multiple reincarnations. Zen Buddhism has no real god at all. But we have this amazing story of Christ for which so many believers have been willing to be marginalized, persecuted, and even killed.”

It is the Gospel for which the unbelieving world is frantically searching, amidst their personal countdown to a meeting with their Maker: a Creator who is “patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Pet. 3:9)

Hello, my name is Jean-Didier Pierre-François, I’m 16 years old, and I’m a student at the “Liceo Francés de Santo Domingo” the in Dominican Republic. Recently, my school asked all the students from 10th grade to coordinate an internship with a company, in order to discover the professional world. I had the opportunity to work with Empowering Action.  I was really anxious at the beginning, because I didn’t know what to expect. But since the moment I walked in the office for the first time, I was reassured. Everybody was so nice to me that I never felt like a stranger. It was a really pleasant working environment, and at the end of my first day I was very happy.  And, fortunately it just got better and better.

I had a lot of different activities, and my tutor was really the best, explaining every little aspect of the organization. I had the chance to visit some poor neighborhoods in and around the capital, and it was probably my favorite part of the internship, because I got to see a lot of people, to interact with them, to play with the kids. It was also very hard to see them live in such conditions. I was very touched. At one point, when we went to visit some Haitian churches and their communities, thanks to my understanding of 4 different languages, I had the chance to translate the meeting between the members of the churches and the employees from the organization. I was really proud to be able to contribute to the work of the NGO, and to make their job a little bit easier. At the end of the week, to be honest with you, I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay and help them more, because I saw that they are working very hard everyday to fight poverty, and that they’re truly changing people’s lives. I also saw that faith was a HUGE part of their work, the most important one. It was really important for me to see that, because I realized that without faith, you can’t achieve anything. In conclusion, my Internship at Empowering Action was a total success. It was a truly enriching experience, and I hope I’ll be able to bring them more help in the future!

The other night, as my wife and I sat in our daughters’ room, doing our nightly devotions with our girls, my eye caught the many magnets on my daughter’s metal bunk bed, that I had collected for them over time. Years ago I started the habit of bringing them something tangible and permanent whenever I traveled to a new city or country, with refrigerator magnets being the economical and logical choice. Yes, at times I’ll couple the magnets with something temporary and consumable, like a unique candy from a far-off land, but I recognize that while those are nice, I want to bestow upon them something of permanence and lasting value.

This past week as we celebrated Mother’s Day, I was reminded of Paul’s words to his disciple Timothy, regarding the lasting value of the spiritual impact of his mother and grandmother,

“I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.” (2 Tim. 1:5)

I have no doubt that Paul’s mother and grandmother demonstrated their love for him in a variety of ways over the years, many meeting an immediate, short-term, temporary need. However, the most urgent and permanent need for any Christian parent is to exemplify a sincere faith, as Lois and Eunice did for Paul. Serving as personal chauffer, chef, fashion consultant, tutor and career counselor are all valuable and selfless acts; however, in the eternal spiritual scheme of things they are temporary and minor, in comparison to faithfully nurturing, in partnership with the Holy Spirit, a sincere faith in Christ in our children.

In the end, nothing is of more lasting significance, as Hebrews 9:27-28 reminds us,

“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”

And Paul notes an ingredient of vital importance to leaving a lasting spiritual legacy on children, when he states, “your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice.”

In short, we, as parents, cannot impart what we do not possess.  Paul’s faith was birthed in him to a large degree because it lived in influential people in his life.

So while I’m certain many a sermon was preached this past Sunday encouraging mothers of the sacrificial nature of motherhood, in the end, God’s Word indicates, wherever we parent, as believers around the globe, our top priority must be to emulate Paul’s words to the Ephesians elders in Acts 20:28,

“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.”

We had the privilege of connecting with Angela and her husband Salvador three years ago. They were serving faithfully in a small rural church plant in an impoverished community outside of Santo Domingo.  Immediately their heart for the Lord and their vision for the community were evident.

The psalmist writes in Psalm 90:16-17,

“Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,

and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!”

It has been a unique pleasure to see the Lord show favor to Salvador, Angela and their team of volunteers, and truly establish the work of their hands, as the ministry has grown from its humble beginnings in a small chapel, to acquiring the adjacent property and establishing a campus that supports a variety of ministries.

This is the privilege that the Empowering Action staff and all our supporters enjoy, witnessing the local church at work, faithfully serving their communities’ physical and spiritual needs out of the overflow of their own personal walk with the Lord.

Join us on this journey.  Your time, talent and treasure can be greatly used by the Lord to encourage, equip and empower the many faithful servants like Salvador and Angela in the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Haiti.

https://vimeo.com/109195696
Maria is a 33-year-old single mother of six children whose story has become a powerful testament to the Abundant Life Program. Maria became seriously ill during her pregnancy with her youngest child. As a result, she had to leave her work behind to care for herself and her unborn child. As her situation grew more and more desperate, Maria lost hope in her ability to support her family. Empowering Action came alongside Maria during this time and began supporting her in a number of different ways. Our volunteers and leaders built her family a new home, taught her small business skills, and helped her get an income-generating project off of the ground.

Shortly after, Amanda joined Maria’s team and began using old t-shirts to make coasters, scarves, bracelets and headbands. She, like Maria, has started using her natural ability to teach others how to follow in her footsteps. Cintia joined the team last and has since been able to provide for her eight children better than ever before as a result of the Abundant Life Program and partnership with Maria and Amanda. Cintia’s first product was a coaster that she made out of recycled newspaper.

Today, Maria, Amanda, and Cintia are inspirations to others and vital members of the Empowering Action team. It is stories like these that inspire us in our work every day, and confirm what we are doing to combat spiritual and physical poverty in the DR.

So often, understandably, we think of poverty merely in terms of physical hunger. However, Empowering Action seeks to emulate Christ by combatting both physical and spiritual poverty.

Robert Watson of the Salvation Army described it like this,

“We don’t consider the two aspects of our mission – to preach and to serve – as separate from one another. We don’t serve people who are hurting only to preach to them. And we don’t preach without offering the example of service without discrimination. To us, the two obligations are inseparable.”

A great verse that captures the essence of someone who has moved from spiritual poverty to spiritual affluence is Psalm 119:20,

“My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times.”

19th century theologian Albert Barnes commented regarding this passage,

“The desire to know more of the commands of God acted continually on him, exhausting his strength, and overcoming him. He so longed for God that, in our language, ‘it wore upon him’ – as any ungratified desire does. It was not the possession of the knowledge of God that exhausted him; it was the intenseness of his desire that he might know more of God.”

Spiritual hunger differs from physical hunger in that it cannot be satisfied, but instead produces a continual, ungratified desire to more intensely know God. That is Empowering Action’s goal in addressing spiritual poverty: cultivating in individuals an insatiable desire to know and honor God!

The picture above is from a March training event at EA’s new expanded office, where over 60 leaders, who possess that intense desire to know God personally and share him publically, met to be encouraged, equipped and empowered in our new Abundant Life Poverty Reduction Program.

This is one of my favorite pictures for a variety of reasons. Over the years I have viewed more picturesque, moving photos of ministry throughout the globe; however, this simple image of me, as an Empowering Action Team member, walking alongside Pastor Salvador through his community of Los Brujanes, has a special place in my heart for two reasons. First, it is a visual representation of the mission of Empowering Action to walk alongside local pastors in order to encourage them in ministry to their communities.

Paul writes to Timothy,

“Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.”
– 2 Timothy 4:11

Our ambition as Empowering Action is that the pastors we serve in our networks might say the same thing: We are helpful to them in their ministry.

The second reason I love this photo is that it inspires me with the faithfulness of Salvador to shepherd his flock, having left Santo Domingo, with its comforts and conveniences, to live amongst the people he feels compelled to reach, love and serve for Christ.

Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica,

“…You know how we lived among you for your sake.” – 1 Thessalonians 1:5

Thabiti Anyabwile writes in Desiring God’s Still Not Professionals,

“Shepherds should smell like sheep. The sheep’s wool should be lint on our clothes. Our boots should be caked with their mud and their mess. Our skin ought to bear teeth marks and the weather-beaten look of exposure to wind, sun, and rain in the fields. We belong among the people to such an extent that they can be called on to honestly testify that our lives as messengers commend the message. We should be so frequently among them that we smell like them, that we smell like their real lives, sometimes fragrant but more often sweaty, musty, offensive, begrimed from battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil.”

 

The story goes that President Abraham Lincoln, a great communicator, was known during the Civil War to attend a church not far from the White House on Wednesday nights. The preacher allowed the president to sit in an adjacent room with the door open to the chapel, so he could listen to the sermon without having his presence disturb the crowd.

One Wednesday evening as Lincoln and a companion walked back to the White House after the sermon, the president’s companion asked, “What did you think of tonight’s sermon?”
“Well,” Lincoln responded, “it was brilliantly conceived, biblical, relevant, and well presented.”
“So, it was a great sermon?”
“No,” Lincoln replied. “It failed. It failed because he did not ask us to do something great.”

What are you aspiring to do great for the Lord? It’s easy to be lulled into a mediocre version of Christianity.

A.W. Tozer said,

“You’ll never be more than the common Christian until you give up your own interests and cease to defend yourself and put yourself in the hands of God.”

The Apostle Paul aspired to do something great for the Lord, stating,

“It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.” (Romans 15:20)

Paul purposed in his heart to do something great for the Lord, by opening new territory to the good news of Jesus Christ. Is it any wonder that it was he, the Apostle Paul, that said,

“And [Christ] died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Cor. 5:15)

So avoid the allure of mediocrity, and aspire, as the Apostle Paul, to do something great FOR Christ…motivated BY Christ.

I’ve been reading a great book by R.C. Sproul, The Prayer of the Lord, and this morning’s section was on the phrase “Give us this day our daily bread.” The section was even more powerful, given a recent visit to an EA ministry partner in the impoverished village of Los Brujanes. I recalled the scene pictured above of children passionately thanking God for the provision of food, as part of the Sunday ministry program.

Sproul writes,

 “After the Korean War ended, South Korea was left with a large number of children who had been orphaned by the war. We’ve seen the same thing in the Vietnam conflict, in Bosnia, and in other places. In the case of Korea, relief agencies came in to deal with all the problems that arose in connection with having so many orphan children. One of the people involved in this relief effort told me about a problem they encountered with the children who were in the orphanages. Even though the children had three meals a day provided for them, they were restless and anxious at night and had difficulty sleeping. As they talked to the children, they soon discovered that the children had great anxiety about whether they would have food the next day. To help resolve this problem, the relief workers in one particular orphanage decided that each night when the children were put to bed, the nurses there would place a single piece of bed in each child’s hand. The bread wasn’t intended to be eaten; it was simply intended to be held by the children as they went to sleep. It was a ‘security blanket’ for them, reminding them that there would be provision for their daily needs. Likewise, we take comfort in knowing that our physical needs are met, that we have food, or ‘bread,’ for our needs.”

Let our prayer today, and everyday, reflect the gratitude of the children for the Lord’s daily provision, and echo Proverbs 30:8-9,

Keep deception and lies far from me,
Give me neither poverty nor riches;
Feed me with the food that is my portion,

That I not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the LORD?”
Or that I not be in want and steal,
And profane the name of my God.