Reflections from Haiti
From Restoration Church member Alex B.
Jesús Cristo. Jezi Kris la. Jésus-Christ. Jesus Christus. Jesus Christ. No matter the language, the country, the people, He remains the same.
Draw near, O nations, to hear, and give attention, O peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it. Isaiah 34:1
About a month ago, I went to the Dominican Republic and Haiti with Restoration Church on my first mission trip of hopefully many. Leading up to our day of departure, I worried about having everything I needed, wondered if I would freeze when called upon to pray or share the Gospel, whether I would be miserable leaving my comfort zone or if I would let down my team. I doubted.
Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.“ Matthew 16: 24-25
Lisa Chan, wife of Pastor Francis Chan, spoke on this verse and explained we do not follow God’s will by our own power, but rather by relinquishing our lives to His power and simply following what He has called us to do. He will provide the strength and means to accomplish His will because our God is a sovereign almighty God. I never have to worry because He is always in control.
When I began working to let go and submit everything to God’s will, that’s when He gave me the boldness and peace to proclaim the Gospel joyfully and fearlessly. God worked for His glory; and not just that the Haitian people would see the beauty of His grace, but that I could see that His work knew no bounds...
Or language barriers. Throughout the week, I saw the Gospel shared in Haitian Creole, Spanish, English, French and German. The Holy Spirit works through every language and heart, by the triune God’s power, not by man’s. God’s Word is a global message, meant for all people of the earth. God’s people are not how man sees them by color, ethnicity or language. God’s people are all those who bear the image of the one true God and proclaim His Son, Jesus Christ, as Savior.
But that’s not to forget the significance of the local church.
"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.“ Hebrews 10:24-25
On the last day, the team evangelized in a Dominican town, Esperanza, with a local pastor. We talked with people about the saving grace of Christ in the middle of their daily work. While most people believed in the existence of God, not all knew their need for Christ. After talking with one woman about Christ, we were able to direct her to the local pastor and his church where she could continue to go with questions or in need of encouragement after the team left.
Compare this to the time of evangelism in Phaeton, Haiti, where there is not a healthy local church to direct people to. The time there was spent encouraging people who had previously come to faith with Noah in the months before. The only time these people received encouragement and instruction in the Lord was when Noah, with or without a team, visited. Without a local church, the people were not consistently pushed forward to growth in the Lord and were left without a pastor’s instruction.
Sending a team to Haiti for a week won’t have the greatest, life changing impact on the people we meet. It will introduce people to the Gospel and encourage the people, the local pastors and the long term missionaries in the Lord. But it will also reveal the unrestricted nature of God’s glory and power to the visiting team. God knows no limits and works all things according to His sovereign will.
“Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; His understanding is beyond measure.” Psalm 147:5
An Alternate Conclusion
Here's an alternate conclusion to this past Sunday's sermon:
Let me end with a question you might be asking yourself. You might be saying something like, “All this sounds really nice Joey. I understand my sin. I even agree that I need to turn away from my sin and turn to Christ. But here’s the problem: I don’t want to. I feel the need to repent, but don’t really want to act on it.”
Well to answer that question, that though, allow me to quote CS Lewis once again:
“The great thing is to prevent [your patient] from doing anything…The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able to ever act, and in the long run, the less he will be able to feel."
“Do not be deceived, Wormwood, our cause is never in greater danger than when a human being, no longer desiring, but still intending to do our Enemy's will, looks out on a world from which every trace of him has vanished, asks why he has been forsaken, but still obeys.”
Yes, sometimes we need to act out of a sense of duty, but it’s not a duty trying to earn God’s grace with empty actions; it’s a duty seeking to delight in God’s grace through earnest worship.
Realize there’s something glorious about the person who goes on loving and serving God when every feeling of joy has gone. We can do this because we realize that ultimate joy is not simply a feeling, but a Person. And true repentance leads us to true joy, to God himself.
Reflections from Haiti
From Restoration Church member Brandi G.
“Preach the Gospel and if necessary use words.” St Francis of Assisi said this but who gets the benefit from that? God is not glorified in it and people are cheated out of hearing an explanation of grace, wrath, repentance and true joy. The Gospel without words is a candy coated Gospel and let’s just be real, not the Gospel at all. Sure, the Gospel can be shown through actions but just like it reads in Romans 10:14-15:
14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!
I recently came back from my second mission trip to Haiti. This is one of many mission trips I have been on since my high school days. However, out of all those trips, I can count on a single hand the ones that included a verbal proclamation of the Gospel. Now, that’s a true mission trip! All the other trips were not useless but did they fulfill a Gospel centered purpose by simply building something or putting food on someone’s plate?
Everyone has tangible needs but even more is a spiritual need to know the Creator who formed them in His own image and gave His only begotten Son for them. God’s mission does include serving others but we don’t serve them well enough if we don’t give them the spoken Gospel. If you want to have beautiful feet and be on mission with God, you must proclaim the good news of a bloody cross and an empty tomb.
Our mission in Haiti was twofold: train local pastors and leaders in the church; proclaim the Gospel to the men and women of Haiti. It is a beautiful thing to go overseas and take with you the knowledge of the gospel and teach it to others. God has blessed us with many resources to learn about his Word that the Haitians simply don’t have. We had the privilege of taking those resources in the form of a theology manual and another book in the Creole language and gave it to the Haitians. These two books helped us equip the Haitians and proclaim the Gospel.
It’s a joy to go, equip and proclaim because God in His kindness has given us the tools to do so. It’s also a joy to watch the Haitians reap the benefits of that so that they might proclaim the Gospel to one another. That’s missions. Sure, we can build them a church building, paint their houses and give them a lot of rice to fill their stomachs. There’s nothing wrong with doing those things. But if that is all we do on a “mission trip” then we are missing God’s mission and only fulfilling our own.
Don’t give them a church building but instead, teach them how to “be the church”. Don’t just paint their house, but ask them if God is the foundation of their lives. Don’t just give them food for their stomach, but tell them about the One who can satisfy their every hunger and thirst. If we don’t give them the Gospel, we are not truly loving them. The people of Haiti have many tangible needs but their greatest need, and ours, is the spoken truth of the Gospel.
The Life of Humility
In Christ we see, unlike Pride, Humility leads to Life.
In Humility, Christ left His independence in Heaven, and became dependent upon a mortal mother named Mary. Because He did He made it possible for others to be born again.
In Humility Christ was baptized by John just so that He would be obedient. Because He did, He made it possible to be obedient in baptism.
In Humility Christ chose a rag tag group of men as His disciples when He could have chosen Princes. Because He did He displayed His power to the world by turning it upside down with 12 Simple men who were slow to believe, just like us.
In Humility Christ loved the poor, the weak, and the outcasts of society when He didn’t have to. Because He did, He helped us see that everyone matters to God.
In Humility Christ loved the Samaritans when none of His people did. Because He did a Samaritan women was given eternal water to drink & be full forever.
In Humility Jesus rode a Donkey into Jerusalem when He could have had a chariot. Because He did He made clear that He was the answer to Zechariah’s prophecy of a Coming King.
In Humility He washed the feet of the disciples who He knew would betray Him. Because He did He set an example that continues to impress the proudest of men.
In Humility He was honest before His Father when He asked the Cup to pass from Him. Because He was we know that our King knows what it means to be afraid.
In Humility Christ was silent before His accusers like a Lamb going into a slaughter.
In Humility Christ took lash after lash, fist after fist, and nail after nail. Because He did He has made it possible for sinful, prideful, rebel hearted men like us to be reconciled to God!
The Destruction of Pride
Pride caused Lucifer to think of himself before the Lord & he fell from Heaven.
Pride caused Adam & Eve to want to be Like God instead of serving Him & sin entered the world because of it.
Pride caused Cain to kill Abel because he couldn’t stand the thought of Abel’s offering being better than his.
Pride caused Abram to lie about his wife Sarah b/c he wanted to protect his own comfort.
Pride caused Jacob to scheme against Esau because he wanted his blessing.
Pride caused Jacob’s sons to sell their brother Joseph into slavery b/c they couldn’t stand that he was more favored than they were.
Pride caused Pharaoh to not let God’s people go because he wanted free labor.
Pride caused King Saul to offer up a sacrifice instead of obeying God’s words.
Pride caused David to kill Bathsheba’s husband just so that he could protect his good name.
Pride caused Solomon to follow his own love for foreign women instead of follow Lord.
Pride would cause his son Rehoboth to have people work harder so they would respect him.
Pride caused Israel to follow other gods that were more convenient to them & their tastes.
Pride caused Herod to imprison John the Baptist just because he wanted didn’t want to listen to the truth that he should not divorce & marry his brother’s wife.
Pride caused Judas to want cash more than Jesus.
Pride caused the religious leaders of Jesus’ day to offer him up rather than Barsabas just so that they could keep their control over the people.
Pride caused those same religious leaders to offer up The Apostle Paul for the same reason they offered up Jesus…they wanted control.
Pride caused the Apostle Peter to remove himself from the Gentiles when the Jews were around just so that he would be accepted by those of his own heritage.
Don’t the History books tell us of Hannibal to Hitler, from Caesar to Stalin, all go on rampages for what purpose? Pride.
Unless we can get control of our Pride: It will likewise be our own destruction: Pride goes before destruction…a haughty spirit before the fall
Cant we see why the Lord hates Pride and calls it an Abomination!?
Proverbs on Pride & Humility
8:13 - The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
21:4 - Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin.
16:5 - Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished.
15:25 - The LORD tears down the house of the proud but maintains the widow's boundaries.
29:23 - One's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.
18:12 - Before destruction a man's heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.
11:2 - When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.
16:18 - Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
22:4 - The reward for humility and fear of the LORD is riches and honor and life.
15:33 - The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.
16:19 - It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud.
The True End of Humility
From CS Lewis' Screwtape Letters (excerpt from letter XIV):
You must...conceal from the patient the true end of Humility. Let him think of it not as self-forgetfulness but as a certain kind of opinion (namely, a low opinion) of his own talents and character. Some talents, I gather, he really has. Fix in his mind the idea that humility consists in trying to believe those talents to be less valuable than he believes them to be. No doubt they are in fact less valuable than he believes, but that is not the point. The great thing is to make him value an opinion for some quality other than truth, thus introducing an element of dishonesty and make-believe into the heart of what otherwise threatens to become a virtue. By this method thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. And since what they are trying to believe may, in some cases, be manifest nonsense, they cannot succeed in believing it and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on themselves in an effort to achieve the impossible. To anticipate the Enemy's strategy, we must consider His aims. The Enemy wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the, fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another.
The Enemy wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favour that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbour's talents - or in a sunrise, an elephant, or a waterfall. He wants each man, in the long run, to be able to recognise all creatures (even himself) as glorious and excellent things. He wants to kill their animal self-love as soon as possible; but it is His long-term policy, I fear, to restore to them a new kind of self-love - a charity and gratitude for all selves, including their own; when they have really learned to love their neighbours as themselves, they will be allowed to love themselves as their neighbours. For we must never forget what is the most repellent and inexplicable trait in our Enemy; He really loves the hairless bipeds He has created and always gives back to them with His right hand what He has taken away with His left.
His whole effort, therefore, will be to get the man's mind off the subject of his own value altogether. He would rather the man thought himself a great architect or a great poet and then forgot about it, than that he should spend much time and pains trying to think himself a bad one. Your efforts to instil either vainglory or false modesty into the patient will therefore be met from the Enemy's side with the obvious reminder that a man is not usually called upon to have an opinion of his own talents at all, since he can very well go on improving them to the best of his ability without deciding on his own precise niche in the temple of Fame. You must try to exclude this reminder from the patient's consciousness at all costs. The Enemy will also try to render real in the patient's mind a doctrine which they all profess but find it difficult to bring home to their feelings - the doctrine that they did not create themselves, that their talents were given them, and that they might as well be proud of the colour of their hair. But always and by all methods the Enemy's aim will be to get the patient's mind off such questions, and yours will be to fix it on them. Even of his sins the Enemy does not want him to think too much: once they are repented, the sooner the man turns his attention outward, the better the Enemy is pleased,
Your affectionate uncle
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