March 2005 Update

It Is Not About You

A well known Christian writer recently published a book entitled, "It's Not About Me." Though I have not read the book, I want to say that I am thrilled to hear a title like this on a mainstream Christian book. I am concerned that the church today is feeding the Christian community at large a "false gospel" that goes something like this. . ."Come to Jesus and He will fix you up and then He will give you everything you need to live a good Christian life...You will be able to do anything and everything that Jesus did...You can become progressively healthier, stronger, and more powerful in your Christian walk if you do the right things." Well, this all sounds good and in some ways there is some truth in it. However, it doesn't tell the whole story.

The central truth of the gospel that is quickly becoming a distant thought in the minds of most Christians is death. Yes, your mind is not playing tricks on you, I said death. Look at what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, "For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf." Paul says that he has come to a conclusion concerning the Christian life. His conclusion is that since Christ died and we died with him, we no longer live for ourselves, but for Him. The key to this powerful truth is found in the notion of death. The only way that you and I can stop living for ourselves is to die. God knows that the most powerful force in all creation is selfishness and pride. This force causes all creatures to look out for their own interests, i.e., living for themselves. But God says that He wants us to die to ourselves and to live completely unto Him. You remember Paul's words in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." There it is again! You and I no longer live. The only way something stops living is to die! I am afraid that we have trivialized this central truth of the gospel message. While many of us give intellectual assent to this notion of death as a part of our Christian experience, few of us embrace the cross in our lives to the point that we daily die to self and live wholly unto God!

I share this message in depth when I have the opportunity to share with people in different settings and inevitably the response is something like this, "I have heard of this stuff but I never knew it was such an important part of the Christian life!" I am amazed. What gospel are people listening to?

The only way that we will ever truly enter into abundant life is to fully embrace the way of the cross. God knows that a life lived for one's self and what we can get from God is empty and unfruitful (see John 12:24-25). So it is really not about us at all. It is all about Him and His empowering life manifesting through us. We need to ask the Lord to help us to understand these things through a revelation that will radically reorient us and release us into a deeper reality of life in Christ.

Family Update

Greetings Friends and Family! We pray that you are doing well and prospering in the Lord. We are staying busy and working diligently in the things the Lord has given us to do. God's goodness and grace surround us and His faithfulness is such a comfort in our lives. As we are writing this update we are rejoicing in the Lord because it is raining. It has been months since we have seen rain and our region is in one of the worst droughts in 100 years! It is hard to explain how a good rain can bring so much excitement after such a long drought. Wesley and Stephanie were dancing in the kitchen and the girls are sitting on the back porch watching the "show." We praise God for the rain!!

Cliff is continuing his work serving on the board with the Kibbutz El-Shammah and the street kids ministry. The men on the board had a weekend prayer retreat and it was a powerful time of praying for the boys and for wisdom and direction for the ministries. On a friday night the boys came to our house for a sleep-over. It was quite an experience to host 16 boys plus 4 counselors to join our family in our small house. Thankfully we have a large garden here on the farm! Also, the boys had a five day retreat during the school easter break.

Cliff flew to Johannesburg for a weekend seminar with ministers from South Africa and Zimbabwe this month. It was a small group of men and they had a great time of fellowshipping together and sharing about the body of Christ. All the men there were very hungry for the truth and willing to grow in their walk with the Lord. It is always refreshing to be with brothers like this. Cliff will be traveling in May for 2 weeks through Botswana and Namibia. We will update you on this time next month. Please pray for him during this time of May 4-16.

Saturday night before easter Sunday we had a special time of eating and fellowship with the saints here in Worcester. The time we spend with our brothers and sisters in the Lord is so precious to us. We worshipped and prayed together and thanked Father God for sending His Son Jesus. The Monday following easter Sunday is a big holiday in South Africa. We joined together with several families for fellowship that Monday and when we were all together in the same room worshipping we counted 26 kids!

Our family enjoyed a break from our regular routine in March when the children had a two week holiday from school. We planned to go camping but our plans were postponed when the timing belt on our combi van broke. Thankfully we were able to camp for three days after all, and we traveled two hours to Cape L'Agulhas and camped near the lighthouse which is stationed on the southern most tip of Africa. We had wonderful family time and some of our friends were staying there also so the children played together as well.

As many of you may know, we have been praying fervently that God would provide for us to return to America for a visit. God has answered our prayers and we will be visiting America in June and July. Stephanie and the children will be arriving on June 17th and Cliff will be joining them on July 14th. We will all stay until July 29th. We are so grateful for this opportunity and we want to thank all who prayed for us in this regard. We hope we can see many of you during our time there.

Thank you all for your continued love and support. May God richly bless you today.

Cliff, Stephanie, Camille, Natalie & Wesley