Man Up

The next 'Guerreiros' Program will be this afternoon, and God has been speaking to me a lot about this week's theme. I will be discussing Biblical manhood and what it means to be a man. In this age, I feel like there are few men assuming the roles that God has for them. And especially here in the community, the idea of what a man is seems to be very skewed. The world around us teaches many falsehoods of manhood - whether it is to be overly domineering, abusive, obsessed with sports, zealously climbing the business ladder, or complacently surrendering the inborn drive and responsibility to lead.

R.C. Sproul Jr. called out men saying " I'm not sure whether our men in the church wear skirts because we worship a god in a skirt, or whether we worship a skirt-wearing god because the men in the church are so weak." (http://www.cbmw.org/Resources/Articles/Off-with-the-Skirt-on-with-the-Pants)

In all areas of life, God has called men to step up. Whether in the Church or the family, God has given roles for men to take on. According to the article 'Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood' manhood is described as follows: (http://cdn.desiringgod.org/pdf/books_bbmw/bbmw.pdf)

At the heart of mature masculinity is a sense of benevolent responsibility to
lead, provide for, and protect women in ways appropriate to
a man's differing relationships.

To Lead. Protect. Provide.

All of these have spiritual value, for the perfect example of all of them is found in the life of Jesus. For the body of Christ is to submit to him, yet even with his authority and responsibility to lead, Jesus led by humility. Seeking the best interest of the Church, he protected her from death through His sacrifice, and provided all that she needs, 'so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:27)'

As Pastor Mark Driscoll said, masculinity is not looking at femininity and doing everything the opposite. It is not choosing to avoid any signs of weakness, or choosing to rule without mercy.

Thomas Bjerkholt wrote, "It is this we find in perfect balance in Jesus. He is the Lion of Judah. He is the Lamb. He grasps the whip and clears out the temple court. He cries at the grave of Lazarus. He had the courage to reprimand the Pharisees and the scribes. He dared to show weakness when the trial was at its hardest—in Gethsemane. We see that love and strength, tenderness and firmness, mercy and truth are in perfect balance in him. Therefore Jesus is in a special way the true model for all men." (http://www.cbmw.org/Resources/Articles/The-Mature-Man)

May we as men be empowered to live as God intends!

'Dem Bones

The first 'Guerreiros' (Warriors) Program went down this past Saturday. And it really felt like it went down- downhill. It was pretty hectic, 23 boys showed up for it, which initially seemed like a real blessing and cool opportunity. But difficulties were pretty rampant throughout the program.

I have been reflecting on that afternoon a lot lately, and too often I get down on things like this where my big visions of how things will be turn out quite differently.

While praying today, God directed me to Ezekiel 37 and He really spoke to me.

It starts: 'The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley, it was full of bones.'

"Drew, I brought you here, I have been guiding this whole process of bringing you here."
And it has been to the middle of a valley, full of bones. Bones of alcoholism, drugs, violence, abuse, complacent belief in God. Praise God that there are indeed signs of vibrant life in believers here, but one cannot ignore the mountain of bones towering out of the valley.

'And there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold they were very dry.'

I believe that I am more gifted in discipling believers than evangelizing, but it seems like it is a place of a multitude of very dry bones. And I feel inadequate with this task.

'Son of man, can these bones live?'

That was the kicker. "Drew, do you believe I can transform this place? These people?"

'O LORD God, You know. '

'Then He said to me, 'Prophesy over these bones and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the LORD God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live... you shall know that I am the LORD.'

When we are discouraged, we must remember who it is that stands behind us and is sending us to spread the word of His gospel.

'So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army (Guerrerios).'

Will God cause breath to enter the bones and raise up this great army of Guerreiros in this community? O LORD God, You know. And that is enough for me to continue.

Guerreiros

The next three Saturdays I will be leading a group for boys in the community here on the theme of warriors. Too often I believe that the church has feminized the gospel and emasculated the radical and powerful words of Jesus and the truth that God is a mighty warrior.

From the beginning of God's involvement with mankind, He has had warriors carrying the banner of His name. Men who have forsaken the ways of the world and have set their eyes on their eternal homeland. 'Heroes' of the faith who "through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight." (Hebrews 11:33,34)

What a difference it would make if young men in this community activated passive, complacent belief for active, heroic faith. If God would have warriors in and from this community raised up for His glory.

Please pray:
God would be bringing the boys He desires to this program
Wisdom with teaching
Open hearts and true, living faith to take root

Tres Coisas

I realized that I have less than 30 days here at Casa Luzeiro in Brasil, and I thought some reflection would be good as I enter the final month.

The first thought that stood out was that it isn't what I do that God desires foremost. He desires me and my heart and who I am. The actions will flow out of who I am.
Just because I have followed God here doesn't result in me being in a perpetual state of obedience and pleasing Him. I still need Him, and seemingly, need Him even more than ever because of being in intensive ministry. It can be easy for me to be impatient, selfish, prideful, and these diseases can manifest themselves just as easily here as in 'normal' life.

The next thing that ties in with that thought is that 'normal' life doesn't have to be normal. Because our God is not a normal Being, He shatters any box we can try to put Him in and so our daily lives can and should be reflecting His activity in, through, and around us.

Third thing is that I have seemingly lost importance on the practice of prayer. I have sectioned that off to prayer times, and many times they are scheduled when I have little energy to even think straight. I need to be in continual prayer as Paul wrote.

As I continue here, I desire to be abiding more in Christ and letting Him shine through me, rather than who I naturally am blocking or diffusing His light.

With Davidson and Marcelo
After speaking in a church

Idol Factory

At the center of me is a deep well of self-centeredness, and within that well is my idol factory which is busy producing idols in the image of me. Little Drew idols are produced at every hour of the day. Some days the quota is low, other days the workers need to put in overtime to keep up with the demand. These idols are then placed on podiums in my heart - the place that controls my will, desires, and emotion.

So often my decisions are then made in accordance to what would please these 'gods.' And then my feelings are a direct result of if the gods' appetite for worship and glory has been satiated.

These gods demand my time be given to please them. Even the gifts I have received from the true God are required by them for their purposes and pleasure. Worst of all, they crave my motivations when I pursue acts of love.

Fortunately, I know Someone who makes a business of demolishing such factories. The problem is, whenever I take my eyes off His business card, a new factory begins construction. That's why I need Him in the construction zone that is my heart, every day - every moment. Do work Jesus.

Holy Love

A trend in the church today is to highlight the love of God and ministries center around that message of the love, grace, and mercy that God offers. This is a refreshing thing for people to attempt to see through the lens of God - seeing people the way that God sees them. It is very true that God loves people, that He loves the lost, the drugdealer, the prostitute, the sinner. I believe that it would be accepted to say that the anthem verse of Christianity today is John 3:16, and the banner that the church today is carrying is the message that 'God is love.'

But one potential flaw with this seemingly singular focus is that we are using selective vision when looking through the lens of God, and missing the complete picture. It may be good to take a step back and have a look at the way we see God. For a healthy perspective of God can lead us into deeper truth and life with Him, but if flawed, or incomplete, can draw us away into worshiping and touting a god of our own making. A.W. Tozer said that "the most important thing is what one thinks about when one thinks about God."

Obviously the best source for a right perspective is His Word. A theme that seems to rise above all others is that of the Holiness of God. Holiness is defined as being set apart. The Bible reveals that God is perfectly set apart from us, that He is not man, but an Almighty, Holy Creator. God's Holiness is directly connected with every aspect of His character: His Righteousness, His Justice, His Wrath, and His Love.

Even when looking through the Bible, it can be easy to see things one dimensionally. Take for example the story of Noah. It can be easy to focus so much on the sparing of mankind and the rainbow as symbol of God's goodness and promises, that we can almost skip by the humbling truth that God was so disgusted by the sin of mankind that He "determined to make an end of all flesh." (Genesis 6:13)

First and foremost, God is Holy. And He loves us with a Holy Love. The most complete picture of that is the cross where the Holiness of God demanded punishment for our sins, and in His love He gave His only Son (John 3:16) to take our place on the cross. There Jesus received the full wrath of the Holy Father, so that we may be made right with God through faith and repentance. When the Holiness of God is more understood, it makes the love of God so much more powerful, penetrating, and humbling.

How then should we share the Gospel (Good News)? As said by many evangelists, there is no Good News without bad news. While it may be common and easy to just speak on God's love and His desire for relationship, it takes boldness to get into the gritty truths that at the moment, without the atonement of Christ's work on the cross on your behalf, you are considered by God to be an enemy of Him. And you are under His coming wrath, because of your sin, which is a vile offense to the Holy God. As Jonathan Edwards said, you are like a spider held over the fire. Just as that spider faces sure destruction if he is not rescued, a sinner faces sure and certain judgment and punishment if he is not redeemed. But the Good News is this: "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God." (Romans 5:8,9)

That is love - Holy Love.

Weekly Schedule

Here are some updates on what I am involved with here at the Lighthouse so you can get a better taste of what it is that I'm doing here. These are the structured times that I am scheduled for and then there are also other times such as ministering in the community and building relationships, weekend programs, etc.

The Children's Group I am helping with (the leaders are Melina from Brazil and Jo from New Zealand) started on February 14^th, and I am starting to build relationships with those children and continuing to work on my Portuguese through those times. That group meets each Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 2-4:30, as they have school in the morning. (Schools here run throughout the day, but because of a low number of teachers, the students go for half days, at least that is my understanding of it) The group is for 6-8 year olds and we have around ten children that come. The group time is split into three periods, which has included a variety of activities such as Bible stories, singing, puppet shows, arts and crafts, geography lessons, games, and free play at the playground.

Please pray for that group that I will have energy as I usually feel drained after those times and that God will empower me to be able to pour myself with that group and see each child the way God does. Please pray that relationships of trust will be built with the children, and pray especially for one boy, Joao Victor, who hasn't come the last three times and is often seen roaming around the streets here.

On Wednesday mornings, I help out with a school group that comes to the Lighthouse. It is called an 'Escola Integrada' or integrated school. Their slogan is 'Belo Horizonte is a classroom' and their education philosophy is to allow the children to learn through experience and it is very activity and experience based. The school comes with a younger group Wednesday morning and an older group in the afternoon. Each large group is split into three groups when they arrive, and I help out with Maarten, Eleanor, and Andreia's group. This time also is split into three periods, and in the two times we have met we have had icebreaker activities, name tag designing, games, free play, and Bible study time. Each group has a teacher/monitor with them and ours is Bruno, who is probably in his late twenties-early thirties. It is exciting to have the school groups at the Lighthouse where we are able to show the gospel through our words and our actions, and it is a great time of building relationships with the kids and the teachers/monitors as well to further cement the Kingdom's presence here in Cafezal.

Please pray for those times that we would clearly present the gospel through our words and actions and that we would have opportunities to go deeper with the relationships even though we meet only once a week. And please pray for the teachers/monitors that they would experience God through their time at the Lighthouse and relationships would be built with them to encourage them and point them to Christ.

I am also helping with an English class that happens on Monday nights at 7 o'clock here at the Lighthouse. Jo from New Zealand is teaching the class to interested members of the community and I am her assistant. That has been interesting in seeing the desire of the people (many middle aged women) to learn English. It really flies in the face of stereotypes of impoverished people not caring about empowering themselves with education and being lazy. For many in the class probably have very long days for not much pay, and then they come to this class which is very taxing and difficult on their minds. I believe that it shows that poverty can so easily come about because of a lack of opportunities, and that it becomes a vicious cycle of the impoverished then not having opportunities.

Please pray for that class, that Jo would have energy and creativity with the lesson plans and that the class would be a blessing to the residents here and that God would use the relationships through that class to bring His Kingdom here.

Thank you for your prayers! May God bless you and be revealing more and more of His glory in and through your lives.