Friends and Family!
Merry Christmas! I am very happy to announce that I am fully funded to embark on this mission to Guatemala! The date that I leave is Monday, January 20th, 2014. Thank you so much for the support! You are such a blessing and I can’t thank you enough!
With today being Christmas, please ponder this remarkable situation with me:
“Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” -1 John 3:7-8
What does this imply for living our lives? Here are three Christmas presents the Lord has for us (content is taken from a devotional by John Piper):
1. A Clear Purpose for Living
“This is God’s commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.” These two things are so closely connected for they are called one commandment: believe Jesus and love others. That is the sum of the Christian life. Trusting Jesus, loving people. Trust Jesus, love people. That is our first gift – a purpose to live.
2. Hope That Our Failures Will Be Forgiven
Christ not only came to destroy the works of the devil — our sinning — he also came to be an advocate for us when we fail in our fight.
So my hope and prayer is to let the freedom to fail give you the hope to fight. But beware! If you turn the grace of God into license, and say, “Well, if I can fail, and it doesn’t matter, then why bother fighting?” — if we say that, and mean it, and go on acting on it, then we should question whether we are born again in Christ, and should tremble.
But for us who have put our faith in Jesus, God is saying this to us: Let the freedom to fail give you hope to fight. “I write this to you that you might not sin, but if you sin you have an advocate, Jesus Christ.”
3. Christ Will Help Us
He is on our side. He didn’t come to destroy sin because sin is fun. He came to destroy sin because it is fatal. Jesus Christ will help overcome sin in you. 1 John 4:4 says, “He who is in you is greater than he that is in the world.” Jesus is alive, Jesus is almighty, Jesus lives in us by faith. And Jesus is for us, not against us. He will help you. Trust him.
Make a joyful sound, it’s Christmas! Make his praise resound, it’s Christmas! Enjoy this awesome song of praise! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf6OoAZbAQg
I love you!
Your Friend,
Stu
P.S. – Here is a video showing what the Lord is doing at the Adventures Guatemala Base: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jh4wmXrP8A
