Month: October 2012

Yesterday was the day that 16 of the kids that come to our kids club have been waiting for for 5 weeks – Bible day.  Every child that comes to kids club gets a Bible but they have to come an entire month without missing and then the following week they get their Bible.  It is not exactly as cheap to buy Bibles here as it is in the U.S. but it is well worth it.  There are 9 families represented in the kids’ picture below.  That is 9 families that now have God’s Word in their home.  God promised His Word would not “return void”.  Most of these kids probably won’t read their Bible that often, right now, but their parents and others in the house will.  They were all excited to get their own Bible!

Here’s an article by C.H. Spurgeon that I read on another blog.  I believe what he wrote over 100 years ago is even more applicable to the age in which we live.  Enjoy!

 

The following article is by Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

1834-1892 

 

An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord, so gross in its impudence, that the most shortsighted can hardly fail to notice it during the past few years. It has developed at an abnormal rate, even for evil. It has worked like leaven until the whole lump ferments. The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them.

From speaking out as the Puritans did, the church has gradually toned down her testimony, then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated them in her borders. Now she has adopted them under the plea of reaching the masses.

My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the church.  If it is a Christian work, why did not Christ speak of it?  “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15)  That is clear enough  So it would have been if He had added,  “and provide amusement for those who do not relish the gospel.” No such words, however, are to be found. It did not seem to occur to him.

Then again, “He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers … for the work of the ministry” (Eph. 4:11-12). Where do entertainers come in? The Holy Spirit is silent concerning them. Were the prophets persecuted because they amused the people or because they refused? The concert has no martyr roll.

Again, providing amusement is in direct antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ and all his apostles. What was the attitude of the church to the world? Ye are the salt” (Matt. 5:13), not the sugar candy—something the world will spit out not swallow. He was in awful earnestness.

Had Christ introduced more of the bright and pleasant elements into his mission, he would have been more popular when they went back, because of the searching nature of His teaching. I do not hear him say, “Run after these people, Peter, and tell them we will have a different style of service tomorrow, something short and attractive with little preaching. We will have a pleasant evening for the people. Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it. Be quick Peter, we must get the people somehow.” Jesus pitied sinners, sighed and wept over them, but never sought to amuse them.

In vain will the Epistles be searched to find any trace of this gospel of amusement! Their message is, “Come out, keep out…!” Anything approaching fooling is conspicuous by its absence. They had boundless confidence in the gospel and employed no other weapon.

After Peter and John were locked up for preaching, the church had a prayer meeting but they did not pray, “Lord grant unto thy servants that by a wise and discriminating use of innocent recreation we may show these people how happy we are.”

If they ceased not from preaching Christ, they had not time for arranging entertainments. Scattered by persecution, they went everywhere preaching the gospel. They turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6). That is the only difference! Lord, clear the church of all the rot and rubbish the devil has imposed on her, and bring us back to the Bible.

Lastly, the mission of amusement fails to effect the end desired. It works havoc among young converts. Let the careless and scoffers, who thank God because the church met them halfway, speak and testify. Let the heavy laden who found peace through the concert not keep silent! Let the drunkard to whom the dramatic entertainment has been God’s link in the chain of the conversion, stand up! There are none to answer. The mission of amusement produces no converts. The need of the hour for today’s ministry is believing scholarship joined with earnest spirituality, the one springing from the other as fruit from the root. The need is biblical doctrine, so understood and felt, that it sets men on fire.

The Lord blessed us with another good weekend of ministry.  We had 31 in our children’s ministry on Saturday.  We are very excited that more kids from the neighborhood around the church plant are coming.  I have been able to meet the parents of one of the little boys coming and hope to meet the others as well.  We would love for our attendance on Sundays to be more but at the same time we want to be thankful for those coming.  This week after church we passed out balloons with our church information on them in the “get active” area in front of our church.   We are trying to get out and meet our community which God has so graciously brought to our door step and show them God’s love in practical ways. Everyone loved getting a balloon and it was great to see so many walking around with balloons advertising our church plant! It is truly amazing how grateful the children and adults were just to be given a balloon.  One girl would not take one because she thought I was selling them, of course, I promptly told her they were free and she gladly took one. So often we take for granted what we have. I feel ashamed at my own complaints when seeing the joy of these people receiving a balloon.

 

 

 

 

The Lord has blessed us with a good week here in Peru and a good weekend with children’s ministry and church services.  Praise the Lord we had 27 in our kid’s club!  We had several children come from the neighborhood around the church and we look forward to getting to know them and their families.  On Sundays for the next several weeks the municipality of our district – San Jeronimo has started a kind of “get-active” campaign right on the main road in front of our church plant.  They are going to be doing this for the next several weeks and we are planning on doing different things each week to show God’s love and tell people about the church plant. So this morning after our services we walked around giving out gum and invitations to the church.  As far as I know only one person wouldn’t take gum. We were able to invite many other people to church who would have otherwise been in their houses and not open to our invitation. God is good!  Please pray that God would give the increase over the next several weeks!