Preacher

Posted on February 3, 2014 by opendooreurope

A few weeks ago the priest at Mom’s church asked me if I ever preach. Without thinking or hesitating, I said yes. In truth, I’ve only ever preached in cyberspace (AKA, my blog), but this was an amazing opportunity, and I wasn’t going to turn it down.
So yesterday was the day, and what a perfect Sunday for me to preach: Presentation Sunday. The Gospel passage for Presentation Sunday is Luke 2:22-40:

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, the parents of Jesus brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

So here is my sermon for Presentation Sunday:

Living in Breathless Anticipation

I am a missionary, based in Milan, Italy and called for all of Europe. What I do is encourage missionaries because Europe is a very difficult and discouraging mission field. I work with missionaries and pastors of all Christian denominations. When I started ministry in 2010, the problem was how to find missionaries. The answer was simple: go where missionaries hang out—churches. So it became my habit to attend at least two church services each Sunday.
I love going to church. I know that some people come to church, and once a week is about all that they can stand, but I love church. I attend services from the whole range of Christianity: Catholic high masses to chandelier-swinging Pentecostal services, and everything in between. Of course, I have my own preference, which lies somewhere in the middle, but no matter what kind of expression of worship, I love going to church. I love going to church because no matter where I go or what the worship is like, God always shows up. Sometimes it’s my favorite song or my favorite passage from the Bible. Sometimes it’s a nugget in the sermon and every once in a while, it’s a whole sermon that feels like it was a personal message to me from God. So I love going to church because God always shows up for me.
So I can relate to Simeon and Anna. They were at the temple every day. They each had a promise from God that they would see His Messiah, the Christ. So they did what I do: they came to the Temple every day with the breathless anticipation of seeing God’s Messiah. And because of their expectation of meeting God, I believe that God showed up each day for them, like He does for me. So every day for years, for decades, they came to the temple in breathless anticipation, meeting God in the little things until that day finally came when they saw Him in the face to face.
But my story is not over. We are living in the time when Jesus could return. According to Bible prophecy, His return is likely to be in our lifetime. So we should not only come to church, expecting to meet God, but we should wake up each day with breathless anticipation: is today the day? It could be!

So yesterday, on a sunny Super Bowl Sunday, I gave the sermon at both morning services in the sweet little Episcopal Church around the corner from home. It was wonderful, getting the opportunity to preach. My sermon was well-received. God is good!

Divine Forgetfulness

Posted on June 19, 2013 by opendooreurope

“No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more,” (Jeremiah 31:34, emphasis mine).

Of all the things that God can do, I think the most mind-blowing power He has is the power to forget. Have you ever considered how God is able to forget? I mean, He’s God, right? He knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10)—every detail! How does God forget anything? Psalm 9:18 says that God will never forget the needy.

I heard a sermon in which the preacher said that in order to resurrect the dead, God doesn’t need the entire body intact, only a sample of their DNA. But there are many saints who were martyred by being burned. Their DNA has been completely destroyed. But God, who has numbered the very hairs on their heads (Matthew 10:30), remembers them in detail, right down to the details of their DNA. Even with all our scientists and computers, we still don’t know the exact number of genes there are in human DNA, but estimates range up to 150,000, according to the Human Genome Project. And each person is absolutely unique. So if God knows the exact number of the hairs on each head of every person alive today (over 7 Billion, source World Population Clock), and everyone who has ever previously lived, which is a number that only God knows, but we could estimate would be another 7 Billion, that is a mind-boggling amount of information. And God doesn’t need to write it down. He remembers it—all of it!

So I think I’m safe in saying that God has an infinite memory—He is omniscient, which means that He knows everything (I John 3:20, Hebrews 4:13). How does someone with an infinite memory forget? Yet the Bible says again and again that God will forget our sins (Hebrews 8:12, Hebrews 10:17, Isaiah 43:25, and Jeremiah 31:34, above).

The Bible gives the answer in Psalm 32:1: “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered,” (emphasis mine). And again: “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them,” (Romans 4:7-8, emphasis mine). How does someone with an infinite memory forget? He forgets by focusing on the thing that has covered our sins. There is only one thing that covers sin, and that is blood. And only the blood of Jesus permanently covers sin.

If your sins have not been covered by the blood of Jesus, you cannot stand in the presence of our Holy God. But you can very easily remedy that situation. Right now you can make Jesus your Savior. Pray this prayer with me:

Lord God, I know that I’ve sinned against You. I am truly sorry. Please forgive me for the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank You for sending Jesus to die in my place to cover my sins. Help me to live a life that is pleasing to You through the power of Your Holy Spirit who I receive right now. In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen.

If you just prayed that prayer for the first time, welcome to the family of God! Yes, you have been adopted as His child, and you are now a new creation (Romans 8, Galatians 4:6-7, and 2 Corinthians 5:17). All the old life has passed away. Hallelujah! To start this new life right, you should do 2 things right away:

Read the Bible. If you don’t have a Bible, most cities have a Christian bookstore where you can get one. Most churches also sell Bibles—some even give Bibles to new believers.
Get involved with a Bible-preaching church in your area. Notice I say “get involved.” Church is not a building. Church is a living organism—the Body of Christ. So get actively involved.

Remember this above all else: God is good!

The Damned Cowards!

Posted on June 8, 2013 by opendooreurope

But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death, (Revelation 21:8, emphasis mine).

The first few times that I read Revelation 21:8, it just didn’t sink in. Take a good look at who leads the list of people that are destined for hell: cowards! When it finally dawned on me that cowards are going to hell (along with murderers, idolaters, liars, and the rest of the nasty crew), I wondered why. After all, aren’t they already scared?

Then the Lord reminded me that courage is not about not having fear. Courage is facing down the fear and triumphing over it. Courage is not allowing fear to stop you when you know what you should do.

Courage is something I see every day in the missionaries and pastors of Europe. While the rest of the world treats them as irrelevant, these brave men and women—and whole families, even!—take their faith to the nations. Many of them have sold all their possessions to enter into the mission field. Some have suffered hardships that have cost them dearly: health, marriages, and family death.

The cowardly are the ones who go to church, but don’t obey when God calls them to ministry. In their amazing book, Experiencing God, Henry T. Blackaby and Claude V. King wrote that God invites you to join Him in work that He’s already doing, and that God’s invitation leads to a crisis of belief. Joining God in His work requires major adjustments in your life. But the thing that was hardest for me when I was working my way through Experiencing God was the chapter titled “Joining God Requires Obedience,” and especially the section titled “The Cost of Obedience.”

I was fine with obedience costing me, personally, but when I got to the subsection titled “Cost to my Family for me to do God’s Will,” it stopped me cold. This was 1997, and I was a housewife and stay-at-home mom. My family was more important to me than anything else on earth. How could I ask my family to suffer and sacrifice for my answer to God’s call on my life? Of course, at the time, I didn’t know what God’s call on my life was. And if I hadn’t counted the cost—including the cost to my family—I might never have known. God might have deemed me unsuitable for service if I had chosen my family over serving Him.

Baby Steps

God took me along in baby steps. I didn’t jump into missionary service right then. Later in the book, it asks the question: What work is God inviting you to join Him in? When I prayed about that question, I remembered that I had been asked by another mother to help put together a children’s church program. The church had been through a very bitter split just before I moved there, and the children’s program was a casualty. So Sunday mornings consisted of great music, great teaching and preaching, but absolutely nothing for the children. While the adults enjoyed the sermon, the children all around me colored pictures, ate candy, and went out to the bathroom with a frequency that far exceeded the needs of even the tiniest bladder. So I called this woman and we met to pray and plan for putting together a children’s church program. We had so much fun, both with each other and with our own children, that really the hardest part of all had been making that initial phone call. That phone call had taken courage.

One day as I was showering I had an idea for a children’s program. I was living in New England at the time, and there the kids had a week off from school, usually in February, and it was called Winter Break. Many times, winter break put a strain on working parents, who then had to scramble to find someone to watch the kids while they work. If they didn’t find someone, they simply had to take time off work for that week. My idea was a one day Winter Carnival at which the kids could play games, win prizes, and learn about Jesus in a fun atmosphere. My immediate reaction was “What a fantastic idea!” and on the heels of that thought was resistance because it was going to be a huge task to put it together in just a month’s time.

Having recently been through Experiencing God, I knew that an idea that great for sharing the Gospel together with my feeling of resistance meant that this was really God’s idea. So I called the pastor and told him the idea. He loved it, and told the elders about the idea. They also loved it. Before I knew it, people were calling and volunteering time, volunteering resources, and volunteering to help. In the end, I had only a small part to do in planning, most of the set up, implementation, and clean up was done by others. I had so many volunteers and so many resources that in the end, I couldn’t take any credit for any of it. The biggest thing I did was call the pastor with the idea that God had given me. And all that the phone call took was courage.

I knew at the time that children’s church was a temporary call, but I had no idea that God had a much bigger call on my life. Two years after Experiencing God, and having Him change my life through service in children’s church, I got the big call. But even the big call happened in small steps for me. That story is too long to place here, but it is recounted in detail in my book, Laughing in My Dreams.

The point is that as I showed myself to be faithful in smaller things, God gave me bigger things. The biggest obstacle to overcome was my own resistance. That’s not to say that there wasn’t resistance and obstacles from other quarters. There was. But once I made my mind up, it was easy to overcome those things.

When I moved back to Italy as a missionary, I had a strong call of God upon my life, and my own determination to follow that call. People on both continents told me that I am a very brave woman to have moved to Italy alone. At first I thought that they just didn’t know how scared I am at times. But then I realized that courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is going ahead despite the fear. And you know what I learned? Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” What I learned in facing down fear is that fear flees when faced with determined action.

As many of my readers know, the End Times is on my mind a lot lately. In reading Revelation 21:8 again, I realized that there will be a lot of people who take the Mark of the Beast, knowing that the Bible says not to. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Antichrist made that mark the number 666, just to snub his nose at God. I have heard that several non-believers are reluctant to take a microchip into their hand because they recognize that it sounds like what Christians say will happen. Those people who take the Mark knowing that they shouldn’t, will do so because they don’t want to be beheaded. They are cowards. They will end up in the Lake of Fire because they chose temporal comfort over eternal security. And really, the only reason why they would do that is because they just don’t love God.

Don’t be cowardly! Stand up for your beliefs. We will overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and by the Word of our Testimony. And never forget: God is good! He will give you the strength and the joy to go through whatever you must go through. Yes, joy! The joy of the Lord is your strength.

Blessed Reassurance

Posted on May 23, 2013 by opendooreurope

Part One

My title today is a play on words. Many of you know the old hymn Blessed Assurance (link here, just in case you don’t), which sings of the assurance that we can have of our salvation. The same people who feel strong assurance about salvation are some who have trouble believing in the full message of grace or a pre-tribulation rapture.

Grace

The people preaching against “hyper-grace” believe in grace, up to a point. They believe that they are saved by grace, but then they must take over and work hard to live a holy life. And if they’re discipling somebody, they stay vigilant over that person to make sure that they dress right, live right, talk right, etc. They believe that the grace of Jesus Christ got them into Heaven, but they need to work hard to stay there. They teach a God of rules that watches to see if we are going to continue in sin.

Read 1 John 1:5-2:17. Anyone who continues in sin proves that they are not really born again (1 John 1:6). But John continues by explaining about what happens when believers sin, which we do. Remember that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). We are in perfect agreement about the fact that there must be repentance. What we disagree about is the power to live out that repentance.

They believe that it’s now up to us, and so mix law in with the message of grace. “Oh, you’ve got to watch out for sin,” and they teach daily confession and repentance. The law has never saved one single soul. That’s because the purpose of the law was to demonstrate our need for a Savior.

How do we get saved? It is as easy as believing. Here are some sample verses (there are many!):

John 1:12 – Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.

John 3:16-18 – For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

Acts 16:30-31 – He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”

Romans 3:20-24 – Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Hebrews 11:6 – And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Galatians 3:6 – So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

That last one is so good and appropriate for this discourse that I’m going to expand it:

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” (Galatians 3:1-6, emphasis mine).

You know what I think? I think that it’s all just too easy for some folks. After all, there are lots of religions out there that require their followers to live by a set of rules: don’t eat this, don’t touch that, etc. Christianity breaks that mold by being simple and easy. It’s simple and easy for 2 very important reasons: 1. God is almighty and He has done it all for us; and 2. Since we didn’t do anything besides believing, we can’t take any of the credit.

So what is the power of grace? Love! Just as it was love that kept Jesus on that cross when He could have called down countless angels to save His life, it is love that gives us the power to live a life that pleases God. We love God because He first loved us (I John 4:19). When full grace is preached—that is preaching that gives us an idea of how long and wide and high and deep is the love that Jesus has for us—then we respond with a love that seeks to please the lover of our soul. At that point, sin loses all its appeal. And it’s not because we confess and repent daily. It’s not because we dress right, talk right, act right. It’s because we think with a completely different mindset. Instead of doing this or that based on what we want to do, we do things based on what would most please or honor God.

Most days I wake up with a love song to God playing in my head. Nobody told me to do that. I just love Him, so my heart wakes up singing love to Him and my head overhears it. Here’s a link to the one I woke up with today: Amazing Love. God is good—believe it!

The Poster Child for Communism

Posted on April 25, 2013 by opendooreurope

The missionaries I came to meet with, Ted and Carol, picked me up at Budapest airport and drove me to their home about an hour and a half away. They live in a former mining town in Hungary. Their town’s people were the “poster children” for Communism because the workers were miners. Miners have big muscles, so they were celebrated in pictures and sculpture shirtlessly embodying the Communist ideal. The Communist dictators treated them very well because they were the poster children. So the town’s infrastructure was far better than most of the rest of Hungary.

This is the pretty town square viewed from T & C’s window

When Communism collapsed, there was joy all over Hungary—except for this town. They had lost their celebrity status and all the perks that come with it: the finest housing, cars, the best food, good schools for their children, etc. For them freedom meant learning how to scrape their resources together, working at whatever jobs they could find when the mine closed. Many in this town are nostalgic about the “good old days of Communism.”

Having arrived Saturday night, I had missed the gypsy Bible study (see Six Hours Late). But I did get to hear Ted preach. Over breakfast this morning I had mentioned the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-6) in conversation about how God is moving among the Italian Catholics (see Touching the Hem of His Garment). Ted said, “Guess what scripture I’m preaching about!” Yup! John 5:1-6. His sermon was really good, teaching me something new that I had never considered before.

Jesus had approached the paralytic and no one else. Why? Perhaps because everyone else had someone there to help them into the waters when they rippled. Ted said that it was strange that this man was alone. Jesus asked him a strange question, one I had always wondered about: “Do you want to be healed?” Of course He knew the answer, but it gave the man the opportunity to reveal something about his own character. He complained that there was no one to help him into the water. And even when he had been healed, he “blamed” Jesus because He had told the man to carry his bed home—in other words, to work on the Sabbath. And after he saw Jesus again, he ran to the authorities and told them that it was Jesus. Not one word of gratitude for his miraculous and life-changing healing. This guy had some definite character issues, which is something I had never really thought about before.

After church we walked around town a bit, returned home, and prayed together. Ted and Carol mostly work with gypsies, doing CHE, Community Health Evangelism. The CHE concept is great. It involves health, but not only the health of the body, but of the whole person: body, soul (mental/emotional), and spirit. I love the holistic approach, and it is so desperately needed in the gypsy communities of Europe. The gypsies are the most receptive of all Europeans when it comes to the Gospel message. They grab it with both hands. So we prayed together for them, for their family, and for their ministry.

And I pray daily for the Lord of the Harvest to send more workers for this mission field. The harvest is ripe, but the workers are few. If you are interested in missions in Europe, whether with gypsies or not, check out GoMissions.

God is good! Working with God is great! He’s the best Boss ever, and the retirement plan is out of this world!

Serendipity—Another Word for Coincidence

Posted on September 24, 2012 by opendooreurope

Dictionary.com defines serendipity as having an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident; good fortune or luck. http://dictionary.reference.com/. If you know God, then you know that He is in control, and there are no accidental desirable discoveries nor luck.

I started to write the first part of this post between flights back in August when I returned to Texas to help Mom move to another state. Moving is a very busy, exhausting activity, so I had never finished writing it. The second part happened yesterday afternoon, and the third part happened this morning, which served as the catalyst to finish writing.

My Brazilian Buddies

Greetings from Dallas!

Today is a travel day, so I’m writing this between flights. I came back to the US to help my mom move. When I checked in at Milan Malpensa Airport three hours ahead, like they say to do, of course there was no one to check in with. I don’t know why I keep showing up three hours early for these early morning flights, but having missed a flight because of a very crowded airport check in line, I want to avoid missing another flight. The only other people there were a Brazilian father and daughter. They were also flying across the Atlantic today. We talked, and became friends, trapped together as we were, waiting for a ticketing agent to show up.

A ticket agent did eventually show up and check us into our flight. We were flying to Frankfurt first, and then I would fly to Dallas. When I was checked in, and passed through security, I found my gate at the far end of the terminal. But we had stood there waiting for the ticket agent for such a long time (over an hour) that I felt like I needed to walk the kinks out. And since I wanted to buy a bottle of water and a last cappuccino before leaving Italy, I walked past our gate area in search of an open coffee shop. I heard someone running up behind me, with urgency in his voice saying, “Signora! Signora!” I turned around and it was the Brazilian father. He told me, “The gate is back this way.” I thanked him, explaining about the need for a walk and a cappuccino.

Having satisfied both needs, I returned to the gate and sat in the open seat next to the father and daughter. While waiting for boarding I became very drowsy. Father and daughter got to their feet and headed for the line as soon as boarding started. I waited, in no hurry to be confined to an airline seat any longer than absolutely necessary. So they were among the first to board, while I was one of the very last.

On the plane I found my seat, stowed my backpack, buckled up, and promptly fell into a deep sleep. Those who know me know of my ability to fall asleep quickly and deeply sitting up in a car or on a plane. I believe that this is a gift from God for a missionary who travels as much as I do for ministry.

As we were about to land I woke up and reached for the bottle of water that I had brought. In my peripheral vision I saw a boldly striped blue shirt on the person sitting next to me—it was the Brazilian father with his daughter next to him in the window seat. “It’s you!” I exclaimed, and we laughed about how I had been so sleepy that I hadn’t even looked to see who was sitting next to me. I told them that it had been very pleasant traveling with them, even if I hadn’t known it was them. And as we parted, I wished them a buon viaggio (good travels). And I marveled at how funny life is sometimes.

Going to Church

Yesterday was my favorite day of the week: Sunday. I love Sunday because I love going to church. I love going to church so much that I go to my own church in the morning, and another in the afternoon. I go to two churches in the US, too. The reason I love going to church is not the music (though the music is excellent) or the preaching (which is also excellent) or even the fellowship (which is wonderful). The reason I love going to church is because I always go expecting to meet God—and I’m never disappointed! When you expect to meet God, He always shows up.

I go and sit as close to the front as I’m allowed (some churches reserve the very front row for leaders and/or the worship team). I sit down front so that I won’t be distracted. This is especially important if the service is in Italian, which it is at my home church here in Milan. From that place down front I find freedom to worship God with complete abandon. In the past years when I sat back toward the middle, I found that I became self-conscious because those around me didn’t raise their hands or dance in worship. Down front, where I can’t see what others are or are not doing, I just worship God from my heart and my spirit, completely uninhibited. It is possible that there are people behind me watching me and wondering what kind of an exhibitionist-lunatic I am. But since I can’t see them, and since I don’t know what they’re thinking, it doesn’t concern me in the least. I would rather be David than Michal, and being down front allows me the freedom to dance like David (2 Samuel 6:16-23).

After church I went home with the intention to rest and then go to the afternoon service of the sweet little church in Monza. But I rested a little too well and fell asleep. When I woke up, it was clear that I would be late getting to church, even if each train was right there, waiting to take me. I considered going to the church up the road, instead. But when I prayed about it, I felt like God wanted me to go catch the train to Monza.

So I walked to the train station, and once inside, I was coming off the stairs and onto the platform when a young man said, “Do you speak English?” I said yes, and he asked if the train would stop at the Porta Garibaldi train station—the same train station that I needed to take to get to Monza. I explained that all the trains on the Passante line stop at all the stations in the city. Relieved, he asked me if I was on vacation, and I told him that I’m a missionary here. His smile got wider, and he said, “Well, what do you know! I’m on my way to church.” He explained that he just arrived from Australia as a student, and that his mother had found him an English-speaking church on the internet. It was one I had heard of, but it had closed down some years earlier, as far as I knew.

Now it was my turn to smile more broadly, I said, “Hey! If it’s OK with you, I’ll go with you.” He was very happy to have my company, so we went together, following the directions sent to him via e-mail.

It turns out that the English-speaking church has a mostly young congregation composed of students, like my new Aussie friend. The music was great and the preaching was solid. I love young churches! This was truly a gift from God—and all because I was late for church! God is good!

Coming to Church

But that’s not the whole story of so-called serendipity. The pastor of my home church in Milan made an announcement yesterday as the service was ending, saying that the last Sunday of the month would be evangelism Sunday, and that we should each bring someone to church with us. I prayed about who I should invite, and Barbara immediately came to mind.

I have known Barbara for most of my eleven years in Milan. And I’ve often wondered if she might be one of the reasons why God keeps me in this neighborhood, where I’m currently occupying my third apartment.

This morning I had to go to the gas company to set an appointment for them to turn on the gas. On the way home I stopped by the street market to buy a few things. I love walking through the street markets, but today it was drizzling. Rainy days at the street market can be miserable, but drizzle isn’t so bad. Suddenly, there was Barbara. I’ve had it happen before that I’ll be thinking of her and she suddenly is there. Between her work, my travel, and my move, I hadn’t seen her for over a year. We had a joyous reunion right there in the market, and I invited her to come to church. I had invited her before, but something always interfered and stopped her from coming. She assured me of her interest, but said that she doesn’t know if she will have to work. So I told her that I will call her on Saturday.

Barbara has been interested and asking questions for years now, and this time I believe that she will come to church and meet her Savior. Serendipity? No way! This is the hand of God, and God is good!

Let it Reign!

Posted on July 2, 2012 by opendooreurope

I recently had the privilege of hearing Pastor Alexandre Guzzardi preach. Pastor Guzzardi is one of those rare individuals with an honest-to-goodness supernatural gift for preaching God’s Word. Not everyone who preaches has a gift for preaching, which doesn’t make them bad preachers, it just means that they may be more scholarly, and therefore, lean more toward the teaching gift than the preaching gift. There’s nothing wrong with that. I enjoy teaching, too. In addition to his gift, Pastor Guzzardi is also a delight to hear because of his bust-a-gut-laughing hilarious delivery (not all of which translates with such hilarity into English, and some is purely visual).

Pastor Guzzardi, who is Brazilian, lives in England, and has for many years. But he preaches in Italian. Since the pastor of my home church in Milan is Brazilian, I am used to hearing Brazilian-accented Italian, but it really throws some people.

The “it” in my title is the Body of Christ, and “Destined to Reign” was the title of Pastor Guzzardi’s sermon. In Genesis 1:20-21 God filled the waters with fish and other sea creatures, and the air with birds. In the Amplified version it says, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly and swarm with living creatures, and let birds fly over the earth in the open expanse of the heavens,” (emphasis mine). And in verse 24 it says, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creeping things, and [wild] beasts of the earth according to their kinds,” (emphasis mine). The sea creatures are actually made of water, and the land creatures (including humans) are actually made out of earth, and in Genesis 2:7 we actually get to see God at work making the first man, and indeed, he is made from the earth.

Pastor Guzzardi said that when a creature gets too far away from the environment it was made from, it is in mortal danger, for example a fish out of water or a land animal in the middle of the ocean. Then in Genesis 1:26 it says:

God said, “Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth,” (emphasis mine).

(Note that the word “tame” that the Amplified version inserts is something I disagree with. Before the fall (and this is clearly before the fall), all the animals were tame.)

Other versions use words like dominion, rule, and reign, it all amounts to the same thing: humans were made to rule over the earth and all the creatures on earth and in the sea and skies. Then Pastor Guzzardi showed a picture of a flower, like this one:

He said, “People sell their souls, rob from their mothers, and even kill to have this. It’s an opium poppy. If you don’t reign over the earth, the earth will reign over you.” Then he showed another picture:

He said, “People sell their souls and lose their families to have this, too. Paper money is made mostly of cotton. If you don’t reign over the earth, the earth will reign over you.” Then he showed other pictures:

He said, “Men sell their souls and walk out on their families to have this. Women sell their souls and leave their children to have this. We just read that these bodies are also made from the earth. If you don’t reign over the earth, the earth will reign over you.”

Anything you can think of comes from the earth and can rule over you, if you don’t rule over it.

We have been given the authority to reign on the earth and over the earth. When sin entered the picture, we forfeited that authority to the devil. But through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, He bought back our right to reign. But we have to take authority, which is an active thing. It won’t do us any good just to know that we have authority, we have to take it and use it. If we don’t reign over the earth, the earth in one way or another will reign over us.

The only one who doesn’t have any legal rights on this earth is the devil. True, he tempted and tricked us out of our authority, but without a physical body made from the earth, he has no legal right to rule over the earth. He is called the prince of the power of the air because he has no physical body.

Great sermon!

And here’s how I took authority over the earth: when I was almost too tired to keep going, and do what I needed to do, I took authority over the earth (specifically the earth that my body is made of), and I said, “I speak strength to keep going over my body. Thank You, Jesus for giving me back the authority to reign over the earth!” And I did feel stronger and was able to complete my work. Then it occurred to me that we can do the same thing with sickness, injury, and any other earthly need. Jesus was the perfect example of a man who reigned with authority over the earth.

Reign on!

Walking By Faith in Europe

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