A.W. Tozer stated, “What we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

The doctrine of God’s providence teaches that Christians are never the victim of blind forces; instead, everything that happens to a believer is divinely planned for one’s spiritual and eternal good (Rom. 8:28).

Accordingly, Puritans described providence as “a soft pillow for anxious heads.”

Savings Group Director Pastor Widmy Mervilus describes below God’s gracious providence on his most recent trip to Haiti:

When leaving Haitian customs for the training site, our motorcycle had a flat tire; thankfully, we were quite close to a tire shop. It was resolved quickly, and we resumed our journey. However, about 20 kilometers later, the motorcycle got a flat tire again. At that point, we were already running late to get to the site, so we decided to look for a place to leave the motorcycle and hire another motorcycle taxi to take us to our destination.

 Occasionally, situations happen to us in life that we ​​will never be able to understand until God shows us His hand working in our favor. Brethren, 10 kilometers later, we encountered a terrible accident where two trucks and a jeep collided. At that moment, we recognized that the hand of our God was working to free us from death itself.

 We were late but arrived safely and experienced two days of wonderful fellowship and instruction. All honor and glory be given to our good God.

As we enter what traditionally can be the annual summer support slump for ministries, your continued prayer and financial partnership is both coveted and valued.

Charles Spurgeon once praised the Apostle Paul’s zeal for ministry to the churches, stating, “We once had a Saxon king called Ethelred the Unready; here we have an apostle who might be called Paul the Ready.”

Epitomizing his eagerness, Paul said to Barnabas in Acts 15:36, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.”

One commentator described Paul as having the heart of both an obstetrician (for bringing people into the body of Christ) and a pediatrician (for growing people up in the body of Christ).

This is our heart for ministry at Empowering Action, equipping the Church to faithfully fulfill her role of salvation, sanctification, and service.

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord (salvation), so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith (sanctification), just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude (service). (Col. 2:6-7).

As Paul thanked the Philippian church for their financial support that amply supplied his ministry needs (Phil. 4:15-18), we thank you for your past and continued support of our “obstetric and pediatric ministry” to Christ’s Church.

Rest assured that each and every gift is valued, enabling us to “proclaim Christ, warning everybody and teaching everybody in all wisdom, that we may present everybody mature in Christ” (Col. 1:28-29).

Recently, I ran across Pastor MacArthur’s statement below reflecting on the development of Grace Church and the importance of anchoring the ministry doctrinally in the early years. 

“The first 10, 15 years of Grace Church, maybe even heading toward 20 years, we were really working hard to crystallize and clarify doctrine. That’s why the church has such an extensive doctrinal statement, which is also the doctrinal statement of the college and seminary. 

We worked as a staff at writing papers on all kinds of theological issues. We’d have a staff meeting and I’d assign guys to write papers on various theological things that we needed to hammer out and discuss, and we called them “position papers.” 

And we still develop those kinds of things. But that first generation was primarily committed to the development of the truth, to understanding the truth, to systematizing the truth, thoroughly, consistently with Scripture, not imposing it upon Scripture. Establishing the truth, discovering it, refining it, and establishing it.”

In the same manner, I think this first generation of EA over the past ten years has crystalized and clarified our mission, goals, strategies, and core values, all of which centered around two foundational aspirations to serve Christ’s Church and remain faithful to Scripture. 

Amid increasing cultural pressure to accommodate prevailing societal norms, evangelical institutions must establish stable and transparent convictional moorings anchored in God’s timeless and all-sufficient Word.

In culture today, the term love has been redefined as wanting for others what they want for themselves, often irrespective of how harmful it may be.

Conversely, believers recognize loving God as the greatest commandment and the context in which the exhortation to love others must occur (Matt. 22:36-40).

Therefore, loving others biblically means wanting what God wants for them, based on what He has revealed in Scripture.

Recently in Hato Mayor another class of the Abundant Life Program graduated, representing 60 hours of biblical instruction and a desire to know personally and share faithfully God’s revealed will for humanity.

A.W. Tozer wrote,

“Our desire for moral self-preservation should dictate that we come over immediately onto God’s side and stay there, even if (as is likely) it may result in our being out of accord with man’s philosophies and man’s moral codes. 

We cannot win when we work against God, and we cannot lose when we work with him.”

This past week board member and licensed counselor Dennis Zulu traveled to Santo Domingo to serve as the keynote speaker at the Genesis Family Ministry Conference, where he equipped the lay counselor graduates on how to study and apply Scripture in the field of Christian counseling.

The Psalmist declares how God’s Word counsels the mind, stating,

Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes,
And I shall observe it to the end.
Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law
And keep it with all my heart. (Ps. 119:33-34)

All followers of Christ are to walk in the truths of Scripture (Ps. 86:11).

However, the Christian counselor, in particular, takes counsel from the counsel of God, recognizing that the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to do the work of God in the people of God, conforming them to the image of the Son of God.  

Please join me in praying for the Genesis program lay counselors Paul’s affirmation to the church in Thessalonica regarding the inspiration, authority, and power of Scripture,  

“For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.” (1 Thess. 2:13)

In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel followed a pattern of drifting from the Lord. Contemporary ministries such as Empowering Action can as well if they are not mindful.

Dr. Guy Saffold writes in his book, Strategic Planning for Christian Organizations:

A Christian institution is usually born when God convinces a key leader that a new venture could meet an important ministry need. With great faith and sacrifice, the new enterprise is launched and, perhaps after some initial struggles, enters a youthful period of growth and expanding ministry. As years pass, it matures, adds programs, and gains in reputation. As still more time passes, the now mature organization enters the prime of its life, a period of maximum ministry effectiveness. Eventually it begins to show its age…Eventually the institution dies or merges with another organization. Perhaps it senses the need to make a drastic attempt to survive through departure from the godly ideals that motivated its founding. In this latter case, even if it survives in name, it has effectively died as a consecrated Christian ministry.

As we enter a new decade of ministry, the leadership of EA commits to walk with the Lord regardless of the circumstances (Isaiah 43:1-2) and as long as He asks us to keep our hands to the EA plow (Luke 9:62).

FB Meyer reminds us of Christ’s sustaining power and presence on this journey, stating,

In all our lot, God is willing to be our partner and companion. He has called us into fellowship with his Son, and in his faithfulness He will see us through. The waters rise, the night is dark, the crossing is hard to find, and footing is insecure; but He is at hand, steadying the feet, and keeping the head above the floods.