Saving Grace at Work and Preparing for More

This week has been filled with preparation, preparation for the barbeque, for preaching on Sunday and, to a lesser degree, for having guests. In about a week and a half, the Michaels, my missionary friends currently in France, will be visiting me here. The day after they leave, my parents and my younger sister, Brina, will be arriving. Also, there is a 24-year old young man named Brian Hill coming from Florida on May 25th to help with Grace Church for over two months. To prepare for his arrival, the Buckleys have decided to buy a mobile home and put it on a fenced area of the property. Tom and I spent yesterday preparing this area for the mobile home, which included breaking up concrete with a sledge hammer (that part was fun, until today when my shoulder is sore), cutting off branches from the overgrown hedges and moving all kinds of rubbish. It felt good to do some physical labor for a change.

Young Tom

But most importantly...and I have been meaning to write about him for a while...When I came to Grace Church, Tom had just started coming and I was told at first (and wrote on the blog) that he was a brand new believer). This was perhaps partially true, but I was soon after told by James and Sandra that they weren't sure if he really understood the gospel. Tom is 32, taking college courses part-time and lives with his dad and step-mom. He is knows by the church members as "Young Tom" since there are two Toms usually there, and sometimes a third (one was known as "Old Tom" though he's only 45 or so, but it's now been improved to "Wise Tom"; the other is "Big Tom" as he is about 6'5, 280). At first, I thought Young Tom was just extremely quiet, but I later found out he has learning disabilities. He lived with his mom until age 18, when she took him to his dad and said, "You take him, I can't deal with him anymore." She said this in front of Tom, so you can imagine how things like this affected his confidence. I don't know what to call Tom's learning disability, but I would say he has the learning capacity and social maturity of a young high school boy. He is quiet, but we've seen him really come out of his shell lately. He'll get the room laughing by on off-the-wall joke.

He and I have meetings which we read and discuss a chapter from the gospel of John. We are currently through the first 10 chapters, and have covered 5 in the 6 days since I've been back from France. We've met at pubs, cafes, at the Buckleys' house and outside of his house for our discussions, sometimes during the day and sometimes in the evenings. We've also spent time together just doing things, hanging out, seeing local attractions, watching movies. When we first started discussing John's gospel, I asked him to explain what it meant to be saved, the reason he would give on why he should be in heaven. He struggled with this and ended up saying that he shouldn't be allowed in heaven, but he was working towards that by reading the Bible, praying and going to church. I explained the gospel to him again, slightly surprised at his answer considering the teaching he'd been hearing at Grace Church and his boldness to talk to non-Christians about the church. This just shows that our natural inclination is to think that we must earn salvation and that only when regenerated by the Spirit can we grasp the gospel truth. At that point, I came to the conclusion that Tom's primary motivation for being so active in the church was that he had found a place of acceptance. If were to have moved and some zealous Jehovah's Witnesses would have befriended him, he would have gone along with them, accepted their denial of the deity of Christ. However, in the past several weeks, I have seen remarkable improvement in his understanding of the Scriptures and he is so hunger to learn the Scriptures and his teachability is a blessing to me. The other night, I asked him again and he clearly and correctly explained that only by faith in Christ was he saved. I believe Tom is saved and he'll be baptized soon. I take no credit for this; the Spirit revealed the truth, but I'm glad I got to be a co-laborer of the work God is doing. I now believe that if Tom were to move and was befriended by a group who believed a false gospel that he would not be misled and would stand up for the true gospel. Thanks be to the God who saves and answers prayer!

The Barbeque

It is set for Saturday from 4-6pm. We have gathered the food and necessities for it this week and I have been inviting friends, acquaintances and the neighborhood right around the community center where we meet for church (and where the bbq will take place). At some point about halfway through, I will call for everyone's attention, introduce myself and tell them what Grace Church is about. By this, I mean I will share the basic gospel message in no more than 5-7 minutes, with Ephesians 2:1-10 as my guide. Please pray that I can briefly, clearly, lovingly and powerfully communicate the gospel, hopefully to many who have never heard it before. Today, the weight of this hit me and I feel like any training in the Bible and public speaking, plus any gifts God has given me will be used for His glory in these five minutes. This doesn't make me nervous as I am resting in God's promise that he saves, not me, but it is an exciting time. After my brief talk, we are going to sing a few songs being led by a man sort of a sister congregation nearby. We will, of course, invite people to ask questions or visit us on Sunday mornings and/or Wednesday evenings.

Preaching and Teaching Schedule

The Bible Study I was hoping to start on Thursday evening with the political exiles had to be postponed as there is a group meeting in the facility they had suggested on Thursday evenings. So we are soon going to discuss other possibilities for day, time and/or place. The study will be "What Did Jesus Say About Himself: The "I AMs" of John's Gospel". That's how I have it written out on the flyers they are going to post at the Rectory. For example, one week will discuss what it means that Jesus said in John 6, "I am the bread of life", another week "I am the good shepherd." Counting "Before Abraham was, I am" in chapter 8, there are eight "I Am"s in John's gospel. This will be a challenging thing to teach on, but each "I am" illustrates different aspects of the gospel, so it should be an interesting and beneficial study. I will do all in my power to see that this gets off the ground next week.

I am preaching this Sunday on Luke 4:15-21, where Jesus claims the prophecy from Isaiah 61 for himself. I am going to look at how this prophecy was fulfilled by Jesus' life as a moral example for his Church to follow, and how it was fulfilled by his death to save us from spiritual poverty, blindness and captivity.

I am also preaching on Sunday, May 23rd and May 30th (my family will be here for the latter), so I will be d0ing some preparation next week so I'll have less to do when my guests are here. Also, I'm apparently training for a marathon (but not really). I went on a 7-mile run on Monday, which is the most I've run at one time in a LONG time. Took a couple days off and went for what was supposed to be a 4-mile run. But I was running on unfamiliar roads and received some bad directions. Ended up running 9 miles, possibly the most I've ever run at one time. I'm hurting, but I'm feeling fit anyway.

Thank you for your support!