Thoughts for Those who Suffer (Reposted from www.jonatorres.com)

This life, with all its joys and blessings, is part of a long story that is—in a very real sense—a story of human pain and sorrow. We long for babies that never come. Children come but die in the womb before we get to meet them. Parents bury children they never planned to bury; and children bury parents with words left unsaid . . . and memories of words that should have never been said. We walk through the children’s cancer ward, where bright colors and happy toys fail to hide the stinging knowledge that here are little people who are very sick. Our hearts—and sometimes our voices—scream to the unanswering sky . . . “Why? Is this what it is to be human? Where is God in all of this?” And in our most honest moments, we admit that we’re tempted to question how there could even be a God who allows such suffering.

 

These questions are not new. And though we will never understand all of the answers in this life, God has told us a lot about why we suffer . . . and about how the long story will finally end.

 

The story, at least our part in it, began in a perfect garden. A garden without disappointment, or cancer, or pain. We were there, though we don’t quite understand it all, on that fateful day when our first parents disobeyed God. And even if we can’t agree that we were there, we have to agree with the Bible when it tells us that we—with everyone else—have sinned against a holy God: There is no one righteous, not even one. And so death passed to all men, because all sinned. And here is the root of all the suffering that we know so well—sin.

 

Our sin was not a design defect in God’s plan. But neither is God in any way responsible for sin. And because He is perfectly holy—that is, He is completely separate from sin—God must condemn sinners. For a righteous God to call an unrighteous sinner “righteous” would undo the fabric of the universe. And so the wrath of God is revealed against mankind’s unrighteousness; and we continue with our backs turned and our puny fists raised against our Creator, unwittingly awaiting eternal hell. And this, for many, is the end of the story.

 

But God the Father’s loving plan was that God the Son would become man—without ceasing to be God. He would live on earth as the only righteous person ever to walk the planet. This righteous one, Jesus Christ, would suffer on a wooden cross for unrighteous people. He would endure the full fury of the Father’s righteous wrath; and He would do so in order that all those who would come to Him—though they deserve to suffer for their own sins—would never have to.

 

God’s plan was to restore His creation to a perfect state; to rescue a people from themselves, from sin, and from the kingdom of darkness; and to make this people look like His Son, so that His Son would be preeminent.

 

Jona’s story is a microcosm of what God is doing in the earth. He is revealing this good news about His Son to people like Jona, to people like you. When Jona believed Jesus, putting all his weight on Him; when he called on Him, relying completely and only on Jesus’ work of death and resurrection; when Jona came to God in this way, this righteous God could—and did—call Jona “righteous,” because Jesus had suffered God’s wrath in Jona’s place. God is graciously doing this for all those who believe the gospel. And He not only justifies them once for all— but He is also making them holy, conforming them into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.

 

Jona’s suffering was not God’s failure to take care of one of His children. Jona’s suffering was God’s completing the work He had started in Him, a work that He will inevitably finish in every Christian. Through the fires of suffering, God made Jona look more and more like His Son. And God used Jona to continue that work in the life of every other child of God who knew Him. God has promised this—that everything that touches our lives will have that effect.

 

And for all who believe this gospel, the day will come when there will once again be no more disappointment, or cancer, or pain. Jesus will rule God’s kingdom in a way we have not yet seen. God’s children will enjoy and glorify God for eternity. We invite you to read the Bible, the story of His redemption of man. We urge you to believe His words, to call on Him to save you from your sin, confessing Jesus as Lord and as your only Savior!

"The Awakened Sinner"

Friend, 

Wake up from your wandering dream.

Turn from chasing morning mists.

Look inward, Look forward, Look upward.

Look at yourself.

Think about yourself: Who and what you are, Why you are here,

What and where you must soon be. . . .

You are a creature of God, formed and shaped by him,

Lodged in a body like a traveler in his tent;

Don’t you want to know God’s forgiveness, his ways, . . . him?

 

(Adapted from “The Awakened Sinner,” The Valley of Vision)

Winter 2012 Report

The apostle John opened his first letter (1 John) by referring to his eyewitness testimony that centered in Jesus Christ, “the Word of Life.” He announced this gospel in order that “you, too, might have fellowship with us.” This fellowship (which ultimately is fellowship with God the Father and with His Son) implies certain responsibilities and (especially) evidences—evidences and responsibilities that are rooted in the good news of the person, the words, and the work of Jesus Christ. We hope that you have placed all your confidence in Him alone.

The day after Christmas we left for Miami with Esteban, Esther, and Marcos Torres. (Esther is Déborah’s sister.) We were joined by a friend from Colorado, a high-school girl from a church we’ve visited, who then traveled with us to Uruguay. We’re thankful for the opportunity to show her some of what God is doing there, and for her help along the way. The purpose for our trip was to attend the wedding of Esteban’s sister, Julia, who had asked us to provide music (play the piano, compose a musical number, and sing) for the ceremony. The Lord had provided airfare from a source apart from ministry gifts, and we believe the trip was the best use of those weeks. (You can see pictures in a previous post.) One highlight of the visit was time with young people, some of them Bible institute students or potential students, who regularly express their eagerness for our move to Uruguay.

Our travels during this spring semester are mostly regional. Several days after our return from Uruguay we took part in a conference in Ohio, where JM preached several times and Déborah shared in a ladies’ meeting. In mid-January, JM took a class focusing on preaching from historical narrative, material that we expect will be integrated into Bible college courses in the future.

Last August we enrolled Elizabeth in a K-5 program in Simpsonville, SC. We’re thankful for their flexibility with our schedule, allowing her to do some schoolwork while we travel. She will finish kindergarten in May, after which we will leave again for an extended trip west. Please pray that we will be in Uruguay by the end of this year. Our current plan is to begin homeschooling in June, so that Elizabeth can finish first grade before we move to Uruguay. She would then turn seven in January 2013 and be able to start second grade in March 2013, when the Uruguayan school year begins. We appreciate your prayers for us as we train our children. We desire to see them become true disciples of Jesus Christ, showing evidences of Life that come from genuine faith in Him.

March is also the beginning of the school year in the Bible institute in Uruguay. The Espinels (Matías, Kristine, and David Misael) are now there; please pray that they will be able to stay long term. Matías will be helping with some Bible institute teaching this semester. Pray for the Lord’s help in their transition to life and ministry there.

As you pray for classes in Uruguay, please also pray for the Bible college and Bible institute ministry of Iglesia Bautista de la Fe here in Greenville. Déborah is teaching a Spanish grammar course, and JM is teaching a class on 1 John. Please pray that God would use these weekly classes to conform us and our students into Christ’s image, that the classes would better prepare us for teaching in Uruguay, and that they would contribute to the health of His Church worldwide. This is experience that will directly benefit the Bible college program in Uruguay.

Thank you for your prayer and support! “Keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21)—they appear in many forms.

The Bible and the Book of Mormon

When an LDS missionary comes to the door, Christians need to know this about them:

“Like most members of my faith I don’t take every word of the Bible literally, Old Testament or New. My embracing of the Bible allows room for human errors of translation or omission, or indeed of interpretation. In that, I’m typical of most Latter-day Saints” (Michael Otterson).

This makes me realize that I have to understand the Bible’s teaching about its own preservation. (In my view this providential preservation has taken place within the totality of the immense number of manuscripts available to us.)

But perhaps more significant than Otterson’s statement itself is that he says nothing comparable about the Book of Mormon, thereby leaving it in a position of superiority to your copy of the Bible.

His entire post is here.

Psalm 67

The first time I remember paying attention to Psalm 67 was when reading notes that Jim Elliot had made in his journals. Appropriate, considering his interest in the subject that interests the psalmist: the nations of the earth.

In the years following 9/11, nations new and ancient have occupied our attention: Iraq and Afghanistan, Russia and Georgia, Libya and South Sudan. Some nations, like South Sudan, should receive more of our attention.

If we would allow this psalm to renew our minds, our interest in these places would go beyond our own national security, beyond our questions about the economy and price of gas, and beyond even a love for democracy and freedom. The writer of Psalm 67 prays for the nations to be rightly related to God. How would this happen?

His first prayer is for God’s blessing on His people, the Jews, a blessing that he hopes will result in the nations’ praise of, fear of, and joy in God. We haven’t seen this yet. How would this happen?

The Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon piques our interest as we watch her observe God’s blessing on Israel and as she then praises Yahweh (2 Chronicles 9:1-8). But this leaves us unsatisfied. Has God answered the Psalm 67 prayer? What kind of blessing would result in the nations’ being rightly related to God?

The answer is found in the New Testament, where we read of God’s blessing on the Jews in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah . . . “that the Gentiles (the nations) might glorify God for His mercy” (Romans 15:8-9). We wait to see further fulfillment of the psalmist’s prayer when Jesus will exercise His full, visible rule over this planet and its nations. But in the meantime, you and I as (mostly) Gentiles from the nations rejoice and glorify God for His mercy to us. Undeserved mercy! Why did we respond to the gospel when North Koreans will die without hearing Jesus? How will they call on someone whom they will never hear?

There is a right way to think about the nations of the earth. Jesus is the only way for these nations to be rightly related to God. We glorify Him for His mercy to us. And those mercies are adequate motivation for us to present our bodies in living sacrifice . . . that the nations might experience such mercy and thus glorify God. And South Sudanese brethren have known greater sacrifice.

Request for Prayer: 27 May 2011

A company based in Provo, Utah, has recently begun business in South Carolina. Apparently much (perhaps most) of the door-to-door sales work is done by employees who are either former or future LDS missionaries. Please pray for Samuel (not his name), who will begin his mission this summer, and for Yadín (no, not his name), a former Mormon missionary to Chile. According to one website, Chile has the first and “Uruguay has the second highest percentage of nominal LDS members in any nation with over one million inhabitants . . . , although only about 0.5% of Uruguayans are active Latter-day Saints” (www.cumorah.com). Nevertheless, a visitor to Uruguay would not likely go far or long without noticing the presence of Mormonism. We would be thankful if the Lord would give us contact and opportunity to give the gospel to these who are believing a “gospel” much changed from the good news that we have been given in our Bibles.

Who is this?

For those who have ever spent a Christmas wondering about the identity of Jesus, or about your relationship to Him, but who now know—rejoice!

For those who rarely think about Jesus—make good use of the season to consider His claims!

For those who are still plagued by doubt—consider the individual statements and the overall impression that the Bible gives of Jesus.

The hymn is true:
Who is this so weak and helpless, child of lowly Hebrew maid,
Rudely in a stable sheltered, coldly in a manger laid?
‘Tis the Lord of all creation, who this wondrous path hath trod;
Christ our God from everlasting, and to everlasting God.
(William Walsham How)

An Offer

I believe that a man named Jesus was both a powerful prophet and the only Son of God. I believe that He was and is the rightful King—not only of the Jewish people but of every nation of the world. Both the Jews and the nations—and I myself, for I wanted no such king—nailed his living body to a wooden cross. We sinned against Him and against the Father when we did this; and we are responsible. But our doing so was by God’s design and was a fulfillment of the writings of God’s prophets. Jesus was offering His own innocent life and shedding His own blood to pay the penalty that my sin deserved and that God's holiness and law demand. He was purchasing a people for Himself, a people that God would graciously call “righteous” on the basis of their God-given faith—a people that God would relentlessly mold and change until they each would look like His own Son, who will thus be “firstborn” (preeminent) among them, His brethren. I believe that He is alive! Trustworthy witnesses saw both the empty tomb and the living Lord. And He has commissioned His people, the church, to make other disciples of Jesus—of all the nations.

If you are an unhappy sinner, come join us! (If you aren’t, then Jesus offers you no hope.) Deny yourself and come to Jesus—the only way to the Father, and the only valid Priest—and throw all your weight upon Him. He will forgive. He will give life!

Last night in Utah

Good days here visiting people, including a former pastor on Monday. The Lord gave opportunity today to speak a few words to two LDS missionary girls at Temple Square. The trend is their use of biblical terminology, though with different meanings, and their eager agreement with my statements of truth. For example: “Jesus is the Son of God.” But the Bible first tells us of an eternal God—unchanging, with no beginning. And the title “Son of God” as used of Jesus refers to His deity, to the fact that He is of the same nature as the Father. I will never be a “son of God” in this sense.

Encouraging prayer meeting in Marysvale. Tomorrow we drive to Denver.

Several requests for prayer from Fairbanks

Safe, healthy delivery of two new future co-workers: our second child, due in October . . . and . . . Matías and Kristine’s first, due in January! (And S and C's third, due in September.)

Effective ministry of U.S. Army chaplains at Fort Wainwright here in Fairbanks.

Salvation of LDS in Fairbanks (2 or 3 LDS buildings in the city).

Native Athabascan pastors to serve indigenous village churches. This has not yet been seen in Alaska. The obstacles are overwhelming, but so is the power of the gospel.

We long to see Thy churches full,
That all the chosen race
May with one voice, and heart and soul,
Sing Thy redeeming grace. (Watts)

Saturday we leave Fairbanks for two weeks in Anchorage, which will be our base for several meetings and a nearby pastors’ conference.

To Calgary

Thursday: Cedar Rapids, IA, to Greeley, CO.

Friday: Met briefly with pastor in Greeley. Drove from Greeley to Rexburg, ID. Spent the night in the home of a pastor's family in Rexburg. City is something over 90% LDS, they told us. Population has swollen due to BYU-Idaho. Clear view of the nearest ward building and the Rexburg temple from the front door.

Saturday: Rexburg to Calgary.

Sunday: Spent day with church in Calgary. Thankful for this opportunity. The Lord has done great things here.

Through Omaha

On the north side of Omaha is the Mormon Trail Center. Today in passing I left a gospel booklet there for an LDS missionary whom Deborah and I met last week. Please pray that this young adult would be free to read the booklet and to spend time thinking about the Scripture contained in it.

The museum is built near the site that became the Mormons’ winter quarters during the winter of 1846-47, following a journey across Iowa that, due in part to heavy rain, had taken four months. The trip today from Cedar Rapids to Omaha took only four hours, across land that is again saturated with water—water devastating to fields of tiny corn but producing everywhere else a beautiful early-summer green.

In Cedar Rapids several weeks ago, while participating in the church’s neighborhood visitation, a group of us met a young couple that had been affected by the severe Midwest flooding of 2008. It seems as if the Lord might have used this experience to help prepare this man to respond to the gospel. The two have begun attending Lord’s Day services. Please pray for their salvation.

I praise God for the gospel—good news for any sinner who will come to God through Jesus in the way explained in the New Testament. I’m thankful for the privilege of dedicating my time to gospel ministry, specifically in preparation for teaching in Uruguay. Please pray that we will rely on His grace to be faithful to this task!

Spring 2010 Report

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement to us as we prepare for work in Uruguay. This month (May) we left our Greenville jobs and began to devote ourselves to full-time preparation and ministry in local churches.

Two years ago this month we visited the city of San Ramón on the northern edge of the department of Canelones. Here the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints had predictably built one of its meetinghouses, while we looked in vain for an entirely sound church in this town of approximately 10,000. Though this 1 to 10,000 ratio of Mormon buildings to people may not hold true throughout the country, the LDS Church claims over 92,000 members in Uruguay. If this is accurate, then one out of every 38 Uruguayans is a Mormon proselyte.

The Lord has not led us to San Ramón at this point. But someone should go. Someone who is convinced that every person in that town is responsible before their holy and glorious Creator. Someone who believes words like “Trinity” and “incarnation”—the Bible’s teaching that the Creator Himself, the Son of God, while remaining fully God became man to suffer righteous punishment for sinners. Someone who is prepared to preach the message of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Someone who can oversee a biblical, balanced ministry.

Someone should reach San Ramón and other needy towns. The Uruguayan churches are reaching out beyond their own immediate locales, opening new gospel-preaching works; but there remains much work to do. Our task is to assist them in doing this, specifically by helping to provide further Bible training. The importance of Bible and ministry training is represented by a conversation John Mark had in February with Ruben Rodriguez, the pastor of an EMU church in Treinta y Tres, Uruguay. Ruben shared his experience of testifying to false teachers and of grappling with the subject of the Trinity. In his city of approximately 35,000 are three LDS meetinghouses.

We write from Wasatch County in Utah, not far from Provo, where John Mark lived during his last year of high school. Shortly following graduation, many of the students of Provo High went through the LDS Missionary Training Center (just blocks away) in preparation for missions around the world. We hope to see the Lord open doors for ministry to the LDS in Uruguay. Whatever the case, their presence is part of the context in which Uruguayan pastors are serving. This past week in Utah Valley we met a former Mormon missionary (to Paraguay), now attending a gospel-preaching church, an example of God’s power to save from false teaching.

Thank you for your prayers for us and for Uruguay (and for Utah). Since our last report, we have had good meetings, missions conferences, and visits in like-minded churches in North and South Carolina, Iowa, Colorado, and Utah. We anticipate a full summer of travel and meetings, and we will need God’s grace for each day.

We would appreciate your prayers for several specific requests:

• Increased love for God and His Word
• Fruitful ministry in Alberta and Alaska
• A safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery of our second child (due the end of October)
• Salvation of Rick, Justin, Jamie, Mindy, Steve, Linda, Brian, Jim, Serena, and Arturo
• Wisdom concerning planning of future meetings, travel, and ministry
• Our arrival in Uruguay early next year with co-workers Matías and Kristine Espinel
  

In grateful preparation for work in Uruguay,

John Mark, Déborah, and Elizabeth Steel