Dream to Reality
It began with a conversation at a table in the Dominican just before we caught a plane home after spending a week with Haitian Pastors...and now it is a reality. A combined effort from pastors, translators, editors, designers, and the answer to dozens and dozens of prayers.
The "Manyel pou Formasyon Espirityel" (Spiritual Formation Manual) contains 3-5 page chapters on core theological ideas in Haitian Creole to help deepen doctrinal roots of the Christians Haiti.
We pray God uses this resource to increasingly strengthen the Haitian church for the glory of his name!
Meditating on the Mighty
Listen to this excerpt from CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters - fictional Letters that instruct a Demon on how to defeat the enemy (which would be God and His purposes):
“I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who read in the British Museum. One day, as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind begin to go the wrong way…if I had lost my head & begun to attempt a defense by argument I should have been undone. But I was not such a fool. I struck instantly at the part of man which I had best under my control and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch…once he was in the street the battle was won. I showed him a newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a No. 73 bus going past, and before he reached the bottom of the steps I had got into him an unalterable conviction that, whatever odd ideas might come into a man’s head when he was shut up along with his books, a healthy dose of ‘real life’ was enough to show him that ‘sort of thing’ just couldn’t be true…[Many] find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of thing.”
So how do we not become distracted and dulled by the ordinariness of everything around us? How do we cultivate depth in our life? How do we fill our lives with the extraordinary, with God himself? Here’s how an old Puritan describes it:
“If you want a cup to take in water, you must hold it still for if the cup stirs and shakes up and down, you cannot pour anything in, but you will say “hold still”, that you may pour it in and not lose any. So if we would be vessels to receive God’s mercy, and would have the Lord pour his mercy into us, we must have quiet, still hearts. We must not have hearts hurrying up and down in trouble, discontent and vexing, but still and quiet hearts, if we receive mercy from the Lord.”
Here are a few practical ways to do that:
- Fast: Fasting is the putting away of something for a time in order to develop a hunger for God in prayer. This could last a day, a week, or a month, but discipline yourself through taking something away. And when the pangs of hunger come on for that object, beg God to give you more of Himself. Or, in those moments of “pain” be reminded of the sufferings of Christ that bought a sinner like you.
- Seek Solitude: Whether its 5 minutes while kids are asleep, an hour on Saturday morning, or a whole weekend, find a place where you can sit in silence & reflect on the Mighty Deeds of God. Try and schedule it as a regular discipline, be it every week or every other month.
- Read the Bible & Discuss it with a Trusted Friend: Schedule Coffee twice a month for 45 minutes. One person read the text for about 10 minutes, then the other for 10 minutes. Reflect only on God’s greatness in that passage. Then close in prayer, asking God to call to mind those places He is acting in your own lives
- Come to Weekly Prayer: Every Sunday at 4PM people gather to pray. They are not there to pray for “Aunt Sally’s toe nail to heal” (though you can pray for that in your own time). They are exalting the One True God & petitioning Him to act. This will help you to get your eyes off yourself and on what He is doing in the world.
- Invite Others in your CG to Memorize & Meditate on a Short Passage: Take something like John 3.16. For a month, recite it and reflect on the words of that verse.
What will be the outcome if you do this? You will see and be encouraged by the Mightiness of God!
Mission Trip Prayer Guide
Praise the LORD, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD!
On June 18, we will be sending another team to work with Haitians in the Dominican Republic and in Haiti. This will be our 5th trip and we are excited about building upon the relationship that have been established for some time now. We also look forward to continuing our partnership with Noah and HaitiLove.
We ask you to join us in prayer for this trip. To help you do that, you can download a daily prayer guide.
You Hate Being Busy, But You Really Love It
Chances are someone has recently asked you, "How are you?"
Changes are you replied with something along the lines of, "I'm busy."
Why? Why do we so often feel compelled to answer this way? Why do we so often offer up "I'm busy" as a stock answer.
Maybe it's not a "stock" answer after all. Maybe it says something about our soul. Michael Kelly offers some insight on why we hate being busy, but we really love it:
1. I believe that busyness validates me.
When I am busy, it means I have things to do, people to meet with, and stuff to accomplish. I am needed; I am wanted. And if you don’t believe me, just look at my schedule. Based on my carefully color-coded appointment schedule you can observe for yourself just how important I am.
2. I fear I am missing out on something.
Surely if I am this busy, then I must be in the crowd. In the game. A part of the action. If I’m sitting idly, then I know that someone somewhere is doing something. And they are doing it without me. But if I’m rushing from place to place, it means I’m included. Sure, I’m not included in everything, but at least there is a reason I’m not – it’s that I was included somewhere else.
3. My busyness makes me more important than others.
Oh sure, I’ll pay lip service to those who walk at an unhurried pace, but in the end, I enjoy the fact that I’m sprinting passed them. It lets me know that I am actually doing something, and I can sit in judgment of those who at least appear to be doing less. Yeah for me.
You feeling that? That sinking feeling that I’m feeling as I look back at those appointments that were giving me such a feeling of superiority and importance? Here, too, is another reminder of how creatively deceptive our hearts can be. We can pack our schedules with things – even good things – and yet they can subversively become a manufactured substitute for that which only Jesus can truly bring.
Validation.
Justification.
Satisfaction.
Security.
There is no great action step associated with this post. No calendar clearing. No “5 Steps to an Uncluttered Life.” The truth is that these things that fill our days must be done. What I’m instead asking the Lord for today is the kind of perspective that allows them to be done courageously and wisely in light of my full acceptance as His Son. To do it that way instead of using my calendar (along with so many other things) as an attempt to fill my heart.
Bringing the Gospel to Jordan
From Restoration Church member Paul B.
In the days that have passed since our team has come back from Jordan, I have had plenty of opportunities to sit back and reflect on all that the Lord was able to do in and through our team in two short weeks. We spent days meeting with university students, listening to them talk about their beliefs, culture and desires in life. We spent nights in conversation classes with English learners at a community center in downtown Amman. We had the opportunity to support the workers in Jordan by providing them with extra hands and feet as they were opened their brand new women’s café. In all of these varied tasks and responsibilities, God was kind enough to open doors for us the share the love, hope and eternal life that can only come through Christ.
Whether sharing the importance of forgiveness with a group of university students who wanted to talk about Israeli-Palestinian issues or explaining the bible’s view on marriage to a man from the community center, almost every conversation led to discussions of faith and the Gospel. During my initial few hours in Jordan, I had my own anxieties about how to bring up these topics, but as I was encouraged and challenged to look to the Lord for boldness and courage, He graciously worked through my weakness to the praise of his glory. Also, it didn’t hurt that many of the topics Americans deem unfit for casual conversation (i.e. religion and politics) are pretty safe and commonly talked about topics among Jordanians.
For example, one of the guys I spent much time in and out of the community center invited me out to see the city with him, during one of my final nights in Amman. I was truly thankful to spend some time before I returned home, and was prayerfully seeking opportunities to sow some seeds for the Spirit to work in his heart. Sure enough, after about an hour or so of us talking about American and Jordanian culture, our conversation shifted to American films. We somehow got to the topic of dating and the man (who I’ll refer to as Ahmed) asked me if I had a girlfriend. This question led to a discussion of purity and honoring God which eventually opened the door for me to share the Gospel over a period of hours that night. While he did not come to faith at the end of the conversation, I was able to see that he was more and more intrigued by Jesus and asking questions about Christianity as well as his own faith that he hadn’t before.
This experience with Ahmed, typifies many of the experiences that I had in conversations and interactions with the people I was blessed to meet. The Lord continually opened doors for his Gospel to go forth in conversation after conversation in ways that I never could have planned or expected. While there is still a tremendous work still left to be done, I left Jordan greatly encouraged to see what our great and awesome God is doing now and hopeful for the future work amongst those people. As for now, when I reflect on the blessing it was to be a part of that work, I can’t help but joyously write to share this news with you. God’s grace, in and through your support, helped things to go by smoothly and I know that without the prayers and financial support of this church, our trip would not have been possible. Our whole team truly does thank God for Restoration Church’s partnership in his mission to receive worship amongst the people of Amman. It’s a testament to your passion for God’s glory among the nations.
Continue to be in prayer for the encouragement and peace of the team that is working there long-term and for the God of grace and love to be revealed to the people in Amman!
Blessings to everyone at Restoration Church!
Paul
The Wisdom of God
From AW Tozer's Knowledge of the Holy:
In the Holy Scriptures wisdom, when used of God and good men, always carries a strong moral connotation. It is conceived as being pure, loving, and good.… Wisdom, among other things, is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve those ends by the most perfect means. It sees the end from the beginning, so there can be no need to guess or conjecture. Wisdom sees everything in focus, each in proper relation to all, and is thus able to work toward predestined goals with flawless precision.
From JI Packer's Knowing God:
Wisdom is the power to see, and the inclination to choose, the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it. Wisdom is, in fact, the practical side of moral goodness. As such, it is found in its fulness only in God. He alone is naturally and entirely and invariable wise.