Mexico

This past Easter Break, I traveled to San Luis Mexico, a poverty-stricken town in northwest Mexico, mere miles from the Arizona or California state border, yet immersed in the living conditions of a third world country. It was my second trip to this place, and my second stay at an orphanage overseen by Caring Hearts Ministries. The time there, as always, was refreshing. The Lord is good to His children, as evidenced in what I experienced with the church there in San Luis. Their approach to their faith is a lot different than the usual, Western/American/my approach. I believe that there lack in material things greatly influences the way they pursue their faith: whether by valuing the little they do have, or by truly seeing the power and provision of a gracious and benevolent God. There is something earnest and sincere about my brothers' faiths in San Luis - something living, and not constricted, something vibrant, and not choked, something unseen, and not commercial. It gave me hope, and it gave me encouragement. Every time I visit that place, I taste a little of that heavenly gift, I see a little more of God's Church, and I learn a little more about what it truly means to carry one's cross, to live out the gospel, and to truly follow Christ.

I could go on and on about what occurred in Mexico last week. I could tell of the criminals I worshipped with, the believers I prayed with, the children I learned from, the poverty I yearned for, the freedom that abounds with the Spirit's presence. I could tell of the Lord's blessings poured out on His people. But, alas, I am mortal, I am finite, and could never fully tell of God's grace and His provision and His blessings.

God is good, Amen and Amen, let His people find joy in Him. He has given us salvation. Let us rejoice in our rescue, let us love our Redeemer - not only with words, and gatherings, and "sharing," but with living and doing and loving other people. Let us drop our overly-infatuated lust for emotional joyrides and the individual quest for experience, and let us live as Christ's church, of one accord, and one purpose - to love God and to love others. To give glory to Christ for being our only hope and our only Savior, and to live in the grace we have received, and to pass on grace to others who come in our path. Let us sincerely devote ourselves to prayer, let us unashamedly stand for THE Truth, and let us invest ourselves, diet ourselves on God's holy and infallible Word. Let us quit the patterns of THIS world, ITS desires and pollutions, and let us fix our eyes on Christ Jesus. Let us not become distracted by what is seen, let us not focus on the minutia and irrelevance of what is fallible and faulty, what is sinful and seductive, what is worldly and wicked. Let us hold fast to our faith, and see the Lord as our life - that without Him we would truly perish. And let us not view our lives as monuments, we are but dust. Only in the hands of our Creator can we hope to be of use, can we hope to leave a mark, can we hope to change a life, and not for our own gain. For we fade, we fall, we fail. But Christ's Kingdom - yes! that which is everlasting - THIS is the end for which we labor and strive. For our King's glory, our King's Kingdom.

Oh, if only we could do this. If only I could do this. God give us strength. God give me grace!