I Thank God for High Pointe!

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you . . .
(Philippians 1:3, ESV)

Paul’s letter to the Philippians is one of the more positive letters he wrote.  In it Paul expresses his thankfulness to God for the beloved saints, elders and deacons at the church in Philippi because they greatly encouraged him as partners in the gospel (Philippians 1:5).  This gospel partnership brought great joy to Paul and moved him to pray continually for the Philippians (Philippians 1:3-4).

I can confidently say that I know, understand, appreciate and identify with Paul’s great love for the church at Philippi, for I experience this same joy, love and thanksgiving over High Pointe because of your partnership in the gospel.  As I was on sabbatical and then vacation, whether attending another church or going about my day, I thought of you often and prayed for you regularly.  Particularly while on vacation, as I reviewed our last five years together, I was greatly overjoyed by God’s grace in you and grew exceedingly thankful for you!

It is both overwhelming and humbling to consider what the Lord has done at High Pointe over these last five years.  Not only has the Lord brought hundreds of visitors over the years, but each year we continue to have several dozen people join us in our mission to see all peoples become whole-hearted followers of Jesus Christ.  The Lord has also poured out His grace from heaven as He has blessed us and stabilized our finances. 

Most importantly, we have been growing in grace together as we have studied God’s word and learned to trust God regardless of our circumstances.  This faith has led us to give 10% of our operating funds to missions, allowing us to expand our missions reach even during difficult financial times.  In everything, God deserves the glory!  Therefore, I praise and thank God for what He has done in you and through you!  And I thank you, High Pointe, for your faithful obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ.

On a personal note, I thank God for your faithfulness toward me and my family as we serve together at High Pointe.  I was greatly humbled last Sunday by your expressions of love and kindness toward us as you recognized our fifth anniversary at High Pointe.  Your kind words, both spoken and written, will continually remind us of your love for us.  As for your generous financial gift, we were overwhelmed by the love you expressed to us.  It is truly a humbling privilege to be at High Pointe and serve such a loving congregation.

Just this week I was reminded once again of God’s providence in bringing us to High Pointe and Austin.  It has been five years since we arrived, and we have seen the Lord do great things.  As I shared four years ago after our first anniversary, I am thankful that God has allowed me to be with you during this time in your history, and I am confident that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to bring it to full maturity.  I only pray that the Lord would give me length of days to be able to witness even greater things that He will do for His glory through the gracious people of High Pointe.  It is right for me to feel this way about you because I hold you in my heart.  “For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.  And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,  so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.�

Love,

Pastor Juan

Accomplishing the Mission with Passion & Purpose

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . .
(Matthew 28:19, ESV)

In his book on missions, titled, Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions, John Piper suggests that, Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever. Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal of missions.

At first this idea that missions (and evangelism) is not the ultimate goal of the church may shock some; yet, I suggest that we cannot understand the necessity of missions and evangelism until we understand the priority of worship. Once we understand that worship is the ultimate priority of every believer and every believing community, then we will see that worship is the goal and fuel of evangelism and missions, and we will gain a genuine passion for both Let me explain.

Genesis 1:26-27, teaches that we were created in the image and likeness of God to image or reflect God's glory this is worship. Essentially, we were created to worship. However, Adam's sin marred God's image in humanity, for every one of us participated in Adam's sin with the consequence that we too bear Adam's guilt (Romans 5:12). Thus, we are no longer able to reflect God's glory truly and faithfully, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). A quick look at headlines evidences human sinfulness; instead of worshiping the one, true and living God, we prefer to worship those things which He created, including ourselves (Romans 1:18-32).

The good news of the gospel is that the Father is seeking genuine worshipers, those who will worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24). To worship in spirit means to worship God out of the overflow of the Holy Spirit in your life. To worship in truth is to worship God on the basis of the truth of who Jesus is for us. Thus, spirit and truth worship engages both heart and mind as transformed by the Spirit of God through the gospel.

Here's the point! There are people in this world who presently do not worship God through Christ. Their hearts and minds are geared toward self-worship or some other distorted worship. Since the Father is seeking genuine worshipers to worship Him, then we must join the Father on this mission. And since the people who presently do not worship God truly can only become genuine worshipers by a transformation of heart and mind that comes by the Grace of God, through faith in Christ, then our mission is to declare the truth about Christ (the gospel) to the uttermost parts of the world (Acts 1:8). So, missions/evangelism is really joining God in the gathering of worshipers who have been transformed by the truth of Jesus Christ for the glory of God.

You see, the ultimate goal of the church is worship, and the worship of the living God on the basis of the truth of Christ is what should fuel and drive our missions and evangelism efforts. This is our mission at High Pointe; we long to see all peoples become whole-hearted followers of Jesus Christ by reaching unbelievers, gathering worshipers, and making disciples to the glory of God. We hope you will join us in this effort to see those who presently do not worship Christ become true worshipers to the glory of God After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb (Revelation 7:9-10).

Love,

Pastor Juan

What Does It Mean to Follow Christ?

After this He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth.  And He said to him, “Follow Me.”  And leaving everything, he rose and followed Him.
(Luke 5:27-28, ESV)

Have you ever wondered what Jesus would think if He were to drop in on you at church or home or work or play?  What would He say about those who profess to be Christians on Sunday, yet live like the world the rest of the week?  When we look at Scripture, it’s clear that to be a Christian is to be a whole-hearted follower of Jesus Christ.  In Luke 5:27, Jesus noticed a tax collector named Levi and commanded him to follow Him.  When Jesus says, “Follow Me” we must follow!  And to follow Christ we must be willing to leave everything behind (Luke 5:28).  This is what Levi (Matthew) did, and this is what it means to follow Christ. 

Notice that there is a cost to following Christ.  Jesus said it is foolish to follow Him without counting the cost (Luke 14:28-30).  It seems that some today want to follow Christ, but they simply have not counted the cost.  What is the cost of following Christ?  Let me highlight only three from Luke’s gospel:

Following Christ may cost you your life (Luke 9:23-26).  Christ demands your life.  In the same way that He lived His life with a focus on His cross of death, so too we who follow Him must be willing to live our lives for His glory and His gospel, realizing it may cost us our lives.  This is the reality that Paul spoke of when he said, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

Following Christ may cost you your family and friends (Luke 12:51-53; 14:25-26).  It’s hard for some to understand that our relationship with Christ comes before all other human relationships.  Only when we realize this will we truly be able to love those around us.  I was the first one to follow Christ in our family, and it created great turmoil.  My parents were angry, but realizing the riches of God’s grace, I had to follow Christ.  To have followed my parents’ desires would have been to reject Christ and be condemned to eternal damnation.  Nevertheless, in God’s great grace, my entire family came to faith in Christ six months later.  Thus, though following Christ cost me my family for six months, what I gained was much greater: brothers and sisters in Christ for eternity (Luke 18:29-30).

Following Christ may cost you your possessions (Luke 18:18-27).  Jesus warned His disciples about how hard it was for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven: not because God is opposed to wealth but because wealth tends to become people’s master.  Jesus warned, “No one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). 

The issue of following Christ is not that it WILL cost you these things; the issue is that it MAY.  It’s not about having to give these things up when you come to Christ; it’s about being willing to forsake everything to follow Him.  Are you a follower of Christ?  If not, then what is keeping you from following Christ: fear, friends, family, wealth?  “What is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits his own life” (Luke 9:25)?

Love,

Pastor Juan

Fighting the Fight of Faith Against Sin

“In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;  and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,  praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, . . .”
(Ephesians 6:16-18, ESV)

We see in Genesis 3, that Adam’s fall resulted from a failure to believe God’s Word.  God promised to provide Adam everything, including wisdom and knowledge, but instead, Adam with Eve, turned away from God and turned to Satan and his promise for satisfaction.  Thus, the battle against sin is a battle against unbelief; it is a battle of faith.  Will we believe God’s promise to be everything for us in Jesus Christ, or will we turn away from God to Satan and believe his promises that sin will satisfy our seemingly frustrated, unmet, selfish desires (James 4:1-3)?

The apostle Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6:16, that the battle against Satan is a battle of faith.  In battling Satan and his minions, he reminds us that “in ALL circumstances,” we are to take up the shield of faith.  Why?  Because with it we can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.  What a promise!  In other words, when Satan throws his flaming darts at us, we have a weapon at our disposal with which to extinguish his darts.  That weapon is the shield which is faith.  Again, the weapon to use against Satan is faith, for faith functions as a shield against Satan’s seductions and deceptions.  But faith in what?

Again, Paul helps us.  The picture is one of a warrior in full armor.  As Satan is attacking, the warrior holds up the shield of faith, and Satan’s darts cannot penetrate.  At our disposal we also have the helmet of salvation; in other words, by faith we know and understand the great salvation that has been granted to us through Christ, and we know and believe that nothing shall separate us from the love God has for us, His children, in Jesus Christ (Romans 8).  Note, these are defensive weapons; these are the weapons that we hold up to Satan to battle unbelief.  But there is an offensive weapon—the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.  When we wield this sword of the Spirit against Satan, he must flee, for He is under the authority of the God of the Word.

As we put on the whole armor of God, we will be able to withstand the schemes of the devil (Ephesians 6:11).  By submitting ourselves to God and standing firm on God’s Word by faith, we will resist the devil, and he will flee from us (James 4:7).  So if we are going to fight sin and Satan, standing firm in faith, we must . . .

Know the Word of God—This is a weakness of too many Christians; they don’t know the Word.  If you don’t know the Word of God, then you will not be able to wield the sword of the Spirit against Satan.  You will not be able to recall to mind all the promises of God that are yours and which you can hold up as a shield of faith against the fiery darts of the evil one.  Therefore, you should do what you can by God’s grace to know the Word.  What you must do is choose a plan, a time and a place and be disciplined.  If reading is difficult for you, use a Bible translation that is simple to understand (i.e., The New Living Translation), and read small portions of Scripture, praying for the Holy Spirit’s illumination.  One option for non-readers is to use a version of the Bible on cassette or compact disc.

Treasure the Word—Let God’s Word become honey to your lips, a joy to your soul.  Study it; memorize it; meditate on it.  Pray that God’s Word would become more satisfying to you than food or drink.

Trust the Word—Finally, we must take God at His Word; this is the fight of faith and the fight against unbelief.  Only God is trustworthy, so believe Him and His Word and be satisfied.  This is true joy.

Love,

Pastor Juan

The Necessity of Growing in Grace

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,  from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love
(Ephesians 4:15-16, ESV).

Thanks to the modern technology of ultrasound imaging, one of the great joys of new parents is seeing their baby/babies for the first time while still in the womb.  As parents view their child, they begin to look for recognizable features.  For parents, this is a moment of great joy that is worth sharing.

On the other hand, it is interesting to consider this moment from the perspective of medical professionals.  To be sure, they too celebrate this moment with parents; however, unlike the parents’ sheer joy of seeing a baby with “ten fingers and toes,” when the medical team views these images they look at the various limbs and organs of the child in order to find and confirm evidences of appropriate fetal development.  They want to confirm the baby is growing properly.

Throughout God’s creation, whether it’s plants, animals or humans, health is evidenced by growth.  We understand that healthy organisms grow, while unhealthy organisms atrophy.  The same is true for the Christian.  It is only a recent phenomenon that evangelical Christianity has consumed itself with an evangelism that is separated from growth in grace and holiness.  Far too many churches settle for “converts” who never become true disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ.  When we look at Scripture, however, there is clear indication that growth in grace is an evidence of true and healthy Christianity.  For this reason, I want to challenge us to consider the necessity of growth in grace by meditating on the following passages of Scripture from the English Standard Version (ESV):

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit
(2 Corinthians 3:18).

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,  so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God
(Colossians 1:9-10).

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,  and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.  And this we will do if God permits
(Hebrews 6:1-3).

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.  Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good
(1 Peter 2:1-3).

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen
(2 Peter 3:18).

Oh, that God would grant us growth in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ to a mature manhood, and may our growth be evidenced by our walking in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called in all humility, patience, love, resulting in the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Love,

Pastor Juan

Be Careful How You Hear!

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; . . . Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”
(James 1:19, 21, ESV)

The preacher of the gospel, has a great and glorious burden to proclaim the Word which is able to save.  In this sense, preachers must bear in mind that every time they preach, people’s lives, both for now and eternity, truly depend on it.  I do not understand it completely, but God in His wisdom has chosen “the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21); the gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). 

Salvation comes to those who believe this gospel with their whole heart (Romans 10:9-10), and those who do believe will not be disappointed (Romans 10:11).  “How then,” the Bible asks, “will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?  How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard?  And how will they hear without a preacher” (Romans 10:14)?  Thus, since “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17), salvation does not take place apart from God’s Word.  Further, God has ordained preaching as the primary means by which this Word is declared (1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5).  The implications of these biblical truths are staggering and numerous—preaching is the central and most important aspect of corporate worship gatherings; we should long for more preaching, not less; we should demand biblical preaching, not self-help psychology, storytelling or comedy routines.  We could go on and on; however, I want to emphasize just one implication which stems from these biblical truths.  If you do believe what the Bible says about salvation through faith in Christ, according to His Word, then how do you listen to sermons?  Do you listen to them as if your life truly depended on them?

Being convinced of the Bible’s authority and the importance of God’s Word and preaching, allow me to give you some words of counsel and encouragement as to how to approach the sermon:

BEFORE THE SERMON prepare your heart to receive God’s Word.  Pray for the preacher of the Word that he will have spent time with God during the week, so that you will hear what he has already preached to himself.  When you enter to worship, dwell on the things of God, not on the things of this world. 

DURING THE SERMON listen as if your life depends on it because it does.  Take notes if this helps you remember.  Pray for understanding.  Listen as the Bereans did; they received the Word of God eagerly, but looked to the Scriptures to make sure what was being preached was according to God’s Word (Acts 17:11).

AFTER THE SERMON receive the Word of God with humility and act on it.  Don’t delude yourself by being a mere hearer of the Word; take action and do what God’s Word says you should do!  Truth that is not applied is truth that is lost.


Love,

Pastor Juan

The Practice of Intentional Witness

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses . . .
” (Acts 1:8, ESV).

When the church is the church, it will be an attractive witness to the glory of God (Acts 2:42-47).  However, the church’s witness is not to be merely attractional, for God has chosen that the church both originate and continue to expand through the intentional witness to Christ through gospel proclamation.  It is to this end that we have been commissioned (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:14-16; Luke 24:44-49).
Be encouraged, though, for we have not only been commissioned, we have also been empowered for witness by the Holy Spirit to proclaim this gospel of Christ to the ends of the earth.  Therefore, we go in faith, boldly proclaiming the gospel of Christ (1 Thessalonians 2:1-2).  In this light, let me give you ten practices of intentional witness.

1.  Know and understand the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)!  The gospel is a message (word) about Christ, and if we are to share this word, then we must know and understand it!

2.  Make the gospel central to all of life.  In other words, as we apply the gospel to our marriages, parenting, relationships, etc., then our lives will be markedly different than the world and thereby attractive.

3.  Know the culture (1 Corinthians 9:19-23).  The apostle Paul said he became all things to all peoples that he may save some.  We must seek to understand people and their cultures in order to reach them.  That’s what good missionaries do.

4.  Pray and fast for unbelievers (John 14:12-14; 15:7-8).  Pray that God would break your heart for the lost in general and for specific people.  Make a list of unbelieving people and pray for their salvation, for it is God who saves.

5.  Be willing to share your life with unbelievers (1 Thessalonians 2:1-8).  We can’t just share the gospel word, we must also share our lives, investing in those we desire to reach.  Evangelism is a lifestyle, not a program!  We need to take time to talk to people everywhere and invite them to a meal, small group, church, etc.

6.  Share the gospel with urgency!  We are on an urgent mission (2 Peter 3:8-10)!  We must share the gospel naturally & clearly.  Since the gospel is a word/message about Christ, then we must be word-centered and use the Bible.  Also, the gospel is a word that must be proclaimed – mission!  We cannot keep it to ourselves.

7.  Invite unbelievers to repent and believe!  We must recognize that the Bible calls people to repent and believe, and so must we.

8.  Invite unbelievers to church.  This goes along with sharing our lives with unbelievers and investing in them.  Invite unbelievers and unchurched to come with you on the Lord’s day so that they may hear the gospel proclaimed.

9.  Trust Christ for the results.  Faithfulness, not results is what God requires of us.  Salvation is of the Lord, so we must trust the sovereign Lord to do His work in the hearts of unbelieving people.  Our responsibility is to faithfully share the gospel indiscriminately.

10.  Share with others and ask them to join you in prayer.  I have found it greatly encouraging to hear other Christians’ stories of evangelism and to know that I am accountable to someone for evangelism.  Share your encounters and pray together for those souls.  May the Lord grant us a great harvest of souls!


Love,

Pastor Juan

Worship in Spirit and Truth

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth”
(John 4:23, ESV).

The following are some of the basic principles by which we seek to plan and practice corporate worship at High Pointe Baptist Church.

1.  True worship is God-centered.  We were created to worship, and we are commanded to worship God alone (Exodus 20:3-5; Revelation 22:9) in the ways that He has outlined in Scripture (Ecclesiastes 5:1-7).  Therefore, as we prepare our hearts for worship let’s remember that worship is about God, not us.

2.  True worship is Christ-focused.  Jesus Christ is the image of God, the creator, sustainer, and reconciler of creation, and the head of the church (Colossians 1:15-20).  It pleased God to reveal Himself through the Son and to reconcile us to Himself through Jesus’ death.  So with the disciples, we worship Jesus (John 20:28); Jesus is the focus of worship because He’s the focus of the Father’s work.

3.  True worship is Spirit-empowered.  The Bible makes it clear that we are born into this world as children of wrath and dead to God.  However, by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:1-10), we are made alive to God and dead to sin (Romans 6:1-14).  Only those who have been made alive by the power of the Holy Spirit can truly worship God; these are the true worshipers God seeks (John 4:21-24).

4.  True worship is Word-based.  God’s Word (the Bible) is the basis of everything we do in worship (announcements, welcome, singing, praying, preaching, etc.).  Why?  Because God works by His Word.  He created by His Word (Genesis 1); He sustains His creation by the Word of His power (Hebrews 1:3); He came into this world as the Word (John 1:1); He saves us by the power of His Word (Romans 1:16).  Preaching is the primary form of the Word in our worship because this is the model Jesus and His disciples left us (Luke 4:43; Romans 10:14-15) and because we are commanded to preach the Word until Christ returns (2 Timothy 4:1-2).

5.  True worship engages both mind and heart.  True worship requires that we engage God with our minds as we study His Word and seek to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  At the same time, it requires that we engage God with our hearts as the fullness of the Holy Spirit in our lives overflows and causes us to praise God in complete delight. This means that our worship will be passionate and Spirit-filled because it is based on the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ.  This is what it means to worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:24).

6.  True worship is edifying.  Though worship is about God and not us, true worship will build up believers in both mind and heart “until we all attain the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man” (Ephesians 4:11-13).  In other words, though worship is all about God, it will benefit us and cause us to grow in our love for Him and one another, for worship has both a vertical (Godward) and a horizontal (corporate) direction.

7.  True worship is more than Sunday.  As believers in Christ, we are not to neglect gathering together (Hebrews 10:24-25).  However, true worship is an everyday matter.  We are to give our entire lives over to God as living and holy sacrifices (Romans 12:1-2).  That means we worship God in how we live, work and play every single day of our lives.

Love,

Pastor Juan

Ask, and It will be Given to You.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him”  (James 1:5, ESV).

Charles Spurgeon was a confident prayer warrior.  Reflecting on prayer, he said: “Oh, that every Christian enterprise were commenced with prayer, continued with prayer, and crowned with prayer!  Then might we also, expect to see it crowned with God’s blessing.  So once again I remind you that our Saviour’s example teaches us that, for seasons of special service, we need not only prayers of a brief character, excellent as they are for ordinary occasions, but special protracted wrestling with God like that of Jacob at the brook Jabbok, so that each one of us can say to the Lord, with holy determination, ‘With thee all night I mean to stay, And wrestle till the break of day.’When such sacred persistence in prayer as this becomes common throughout the whole Church of Christ, Satan’s long usurpation will be coming to an end, and we shall be able to say to our Lord, as the seventy disciples did when they returned to him with joy, ‘Even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.’”

Such confidence in prayer flows from an understanding of what the Lord Himself teaches us about prayer in Scripture.  We are His children (Matthew 7:7-11)  “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.  Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”  Jesus glorifies the Father by answering prayers offered in His name (John 14:13-14).  “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”  When we are living in God’s will, our prayers will be answered.  John 15:7 (ESV) - “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”  1 John 3:21-22 (ESV) - “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;  and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.”  If we ask according to God’s will, He hears us (1 John 5:14).  “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”  If He hears us, then we have what we ask for (1 John 5:15).  “And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” 

These are not all the Scriptures that should give us confidence in prayer, but they are sufficient for our consideration and contemplation.  It is amazing to consider that we are children of the living God who came to the Father through the Son.  Since the Father delights in His one and only Son, He also delights in us who have been adopted through the Son.  And if He does not withhold any good thing from His Son, He will not withhold any good thing from us.  After all, He has already given us the greatest treasure—Jesus Christ, the beloved.  Why would He withhold anything else?

Love,
Pastor Juan

Don’t Waste Your Summer.  Read to Your Children

“And these words that I command you today . . .  You shall teach them diligently to your children . . .” 
(Deuteronomy 6:6, 7, ESV).

Don’t waste your children's summer (or yours for that matter) on television and video games.  Instead, utilize this time to read with and to your children.  One thing for sure, you should be reading Scripture with your family on a regular basis, and you can enhance your family Scripture reading with helpful devotional material. Beware of children's material that merely promotes moralism. I prefer books that help explain the storyline of Scripture (biblical theology) and present a BIG God!  Here are some helpful suggestions:

General Resources
1.  Catechism for Boys and Girls 
2.  Big Truths for Young Hearts: Teaching and Learning the Greatness of God by Bruce A. Ware (This is systematic theology for kids—great stuff!!!!)
3.  Window on the World: Prayer Atlas for Children by Daphne Spraggett and Jill Johnstone (helps you pray with informed intentionality for the nations)

Resources for Use with Younger Children
1.  Leading Little Ones to God by Marian Schoolland
2.  The Child’s Story Bible by Catherine Vos (my wife's personal favorite)
3.  The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sallie Lloyd-Jones
4.  The Big Picture Story Bible by David Helm (my personal favorite!)

Resources for Use with Older Children
1.  Grandpa’s Box: Retelling the Biblical Story of Redemption by Starr Meade

Resources for Use with Pre-Teens/Teenagers
1.  Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper
2.  Dug Down Deep: Unearthing What I Believe and Why It Matters by Joshua Harris

My charge to moms and dads would be to read Scripture with your children regularly and supplement Bible reading with the catechism and devotional reading.  Each family must find what (time and place) works best for them.  Also, use summer to read (together) through Christian literature like The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis or Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. 

Summer is also a good time to read Christian biographies with your family.  So, don’t waste your kids’ summer by allowing them to vegetate in front of a television or computer screen.  Instead, take advantage of this time to spend quality time together, making memories and making much of God.  I pray that these resources may be of great benefit to you and your family as you seek to raise your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Love,
Pastor Juan