Significance of Jesus' Humanity (Heb. 2:9-18)

Hebrews 2:9-18 gives in a short amount of space several reasons the incarnation is significant:

• Jesus, fulfilling Psalm 8’s words about “man,” (cf. Heb. 2:5-8), “was made . . . lower than the angels . . . so that . . . He might taste death for everyone” (v. 9).
• “Through sufferings” Jesus, “the author of [our] salvation” was “perfect[ed]” (v. 10).
• “He . . . partook of [flesh and blood], that through death He might render [the devil] powerless” (v. 14).
• “He . . . partook of [flesh and blood], that through death He . . . might free [captives]” (vv. 14-15).
• “He [was] made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest” (v. 17).
• “Since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted” (v. 18).

NASB

April 2013 Report

We appreciate your prayers for JM’s questioning and ordination service in February. We feel God’s kindness and the love of our sending church. We are thankful for each of the twelve churches and fifteen individuals who are currently partnering with us on a regular basis. Many, many others—including our parents and numerous teachers—have had an important part in our preparation for the gospel ministry and for work in Uruguay. We thank God for you and invite your continued prayers, counsel, and gracious accountability. You are part of God’s means for our growth into Christ’s image.

Please continue to pray that we will be able to leave for Uruguay on June 11. Our monthly support is now at 87% of the amount required by EMU before we can leave.

 

Please pray for wisdom and efficiency in making decisions and packing our belongings during the month of April and during the weeks following our return to SC toward the end of May.

 

We have meetings scheduled each weekend for the entirety of April and May, including about three weeks in MD, NY, and PA. We desire that each of these opportunities be used by God to equip His people for the work of service and to edify these churches. We always need His protection in travel.

 

We also request prayer for the salvation and growth of several people with whom we have had contact here in SC. In some cases these friendships are new; in others the relationships are many years old. We do not feel freedom to share the names publicly, but please do pray for the Lord clearly to work in the lives of this list of people who need to respond to the gospel.

 

Instituto Bíblico F.V. Dabold in Montevideo: Please pray for Matías Espinel, the other teachers, and the students. JM is preparing course material for the second semester, which will begin in July.

 

Facultad de Estudios Bíblicos del Uruguay (College of Biblical Studies of Uruguay): Plans continue for opening of classes in March 2014. Those involved would still ask for your prayers for efficiency, discernment, and unity.

 

The purpose for all of this is, of course, not the building and maintenance of institutions. Rather, we desire to see Uruguayan churches strengthened as their pastors and other members of these local bodies are trained in the Word and work of God. This is the work that you are doing where God has placed you: the making and maturing of disciples of Jesus. To our friends who do not follow Jesus, we urge you on His behalf to believe the gospel!

Winter 2013 Report

Thank you for your continued interest in the work in Uruguay. God is answering your prayers:

 

We have received approval from our mission agency to plan on a June departure, though this permission depends on our receiving the entirety of EMU’s monthly support requirement. The Lord has provided excellent airfare out of Miami, and we now have tickets for our final move to Uruguay. We will leave the U.S.—the Lord willing—on June 11. Our current support level is just under 80%.

On November 19, 2012, approximately thirty-three pastors and missionaries met in the Parque Batlle neighborhood in Montevideo to hear and consider the work of the committee making plans for the new FEBU (College of Biblical Studies of Uruguay). There is considerable enthusiasm for this project, and plans continue for classes to begin in 2014. Much work remains to be done in the coming year.

 

 

During the past three months we visited churches in SC, NC, IL, and OH. We pray for fruit that only God can give from the preaching of His Word. These months also included a good deal of study—not only for JM but also for Elizabeth. Déborah is homeschooling her this year; and she is on schedule to finish first grade in time to begin second grade in March (in order to be in sync with the Uruguayan school year). Daniel James turned 2 in late October, and Elizabeth turned 7 the end of January. If anyone knows how to keep them from growing so fast, we would like to hear from you.

 

 

We thank the Lord that Sofía Belén was born safely to Matías and Kristine (and big brother David Misael) Espinel in Uruguay on December 12.

 

We would appreciate your prayers during these next several months:

• February 13: JM’s public ordination questioning
• February 24: Our commissioning service, along with friends Jon and Andrea Crocker, who hope to begin gospel work in Mexico City this year
• March through May: Safety in travel and God’s gracious work in churches we visit (U.S.)
• June 11: Travel from Miami to Montevideo, Uruguay

Thank you for the calculated ways you focus your energy and resources toward what God is doing in the earth: the making of disciples of Jesus Christ for His glory. The outcome is sure. Stay encouraged!

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)

Request for Prayer: Kane Family

Friends, please pray for Brian Kane, EMU missionary to Cambodia. He is extremely ill and is currently being treated in Thailand. Updates are available on FB page:

http://www.facebook.com/UpdatesForBrianKane 

November 2012 Report

Forty Years. This past month Uruguay remembered the tragic 1972 plane crash high in the Andes Mountains. Sixteen of the original 45 passengers endured the death of their friends and spent 72 horrific days of solitude, hunger, avalanches, and almost unbearable cold. On October 13 most of the survivors met to commemorate the event. The providential preservation of these men hints at some purpose beyond mere man-centered inspiration: we would like to think that God will save some of these 16 Uruguayans.

 

Most of the world did not notice Don and Edith Garwood’s arrival in Uruguay that same year; nor did many note the launch of a new church in Kaysville, UT. But 40 years later there is ongoing gospel ministry in both of these places. And in Greenville, SC, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of our home church, Mount Calvary Baptist. Only after Christ’s return will we fully realize the significance of such seemingly unnoticed events.

 

Update. Thank you for your prayers as we travel. God has graciously kept us safe and given us many hours of productive and confirmatory fellowship with other believers. We continue to be encouraged toward a final departure in early March. Please pray that the Lord will make this possible if it is indeed what He desires. We know that His timing takes into account all the details—many of which we are unable to see or predict.

 

Pray for our nation!

In October we re-visited churches in SC and GA, and took part in conferences in PA and the Washington, D.C. area. JM used airline miles to fly to UT, where he participated in Kaysville Bible Church’s 40th anniversary celebration, taught a Sunday school class in Liberty, and met with friends in the Salt Lake Valley.

 

 

Requests for Prayer. On November 19 a meeting will be held with Uruguayan pastors and missionaries interested in the developing Bible college, now identified as Facultad de Estudios Bíblicos del Uruguay (College of Biblical Studies of Uruguay). The planning committee will present information and invite input. A great deal of work has been done. Please continue to pray for efficiency, discernment, and unity.

 

Our co-workers Matías and Kristine Espinel’s second child is due to be born in December in Uruguay.

 

Early in March classes will begin at the F.V. Dabold Bible Institute in Montevideo, Uruguay. Though this is still months away, please pray as JM and Matías prepare material.

 

We do not take your prayers for granted! We are in constant need of them. Please let us know how we might pray for you. Without God’s grace we cannot for one day—let alone 40 years—be faithful in our service to Christ.