First, I must apologize to each of you who are still checking my website that I have not updated in a month! I have had a problem with my internet here on the coast which has yet to be fixed, please pry about that for me! 

And second, I must apologize for not sending out a newsletter since i have arrived in the country. Once again, it would be due to my internet and also to the fact that my hard drive crashed. But HE is good and I have installed new programs and will be sending out a newsletter shortly!

Amongst all the fun that comes with not having internet, has come more waiting and resting in HIM. HE has been teaching me through His Words as I study personally, prepare studies with students/leaders,  and study for my seminary classes. What has been a central theme over the past month is His sovereignty in all situations and the power HE commands us to use when we communicate His Words.

I have been to say the least experiencing some very trying times and have been placed in some difficult situations. Yet, I can clearly see His Sovereignty in all of them. I may not understand nor may I wish for the situation, but I claim His Promise that He who started a good work will finish it in me. And I have been faced with the Truths that I deserve so much worse than I have been given and the fact HE still chooses to bless me, keeps me speechless in front of An Almighty and All-Loving Creator!

HE reminds me of what my purpose is here in Colombia and on this earth. Yes, I have been called to take His Message to a people whom have never heard but more than that...it is to simply bring Him Glory and follow hard after Him. And if in that, I get to eventually take His Words to these people, PRAISE HIM! GLORY TO HIM! And if in that, I never get to take His Words to these people, PRAISE HIM! GLORY TO HIM! Has it been easy to learn this, not really. Is it a lesson that He has tried to teach me before, of courses...I am the village idiot! Please join me in pryr to ask that I learn this lesson and daily/hourly/minutely put it into practice and count it all join when I face trials of any kind or receive blessings of any kind!

Now what about you? Where are you in this little life lesson? Are you truly okay with whatever HE chooses to do today to bring HIMSELF glory? Even if that means, the complete opposite of what you had planned for the day?

On to my second lesson this month...the power of His Commands for us to speak His Revealed Word to others. You know, me the village idiot, has always read the first two or three verses of all the books in His Word but it was not until recently did I understand the power behind each and everyone of those greetings and introductions. When you read Paul's greeting to Timothy that says: "Paul an apostle of Chrst Js BY COMMAND of Gd Our Svr and of Chrst Js Our Hope, to Timothy, my true child in the faith."

What sticks out to you? Well, if you are like me then really nothing except this is a letter to Timothy and this is how they use to start letters back in the olden days. WRONG! Did you see the capitalized part...BY COMMAND? What does that mean, whose command? What command?

What Paul was saying here was that He was specifically chosen by Gd or Chrst Js or Svr or Father and commanded to speak these words to Timothy! How incredible is that? How often have you heard a pastor or someone say that this is a message from Gd? Or how often have you said that to someone? How often have we skipped over the first couple of verses because we thought they were of little to no importance for our daily lives? When in fact these two verses not only name Our Dad in 5 different forms but tell you by what authority Paul is writing this letter and because of that, we (along with those in Ephesus) best pay attention!

I challenge you to search His Words this week and as you read them, see whom HE has commanded to speak and what HE has commanded them to say. I also challenge you to listen to what HE has command you to do, to speak and to whom. When you speak, do you speak with HIS Authority? Or when you speak, do you speak out of your flesh?

As Paul writes to the Colossians, we must walk in wisdom towards outsiders, making the most of every opportunity. Let our conversation be gracious and seasoned with salt, sot hat we may know how we ought to answer each person! Can you say that your conversations today lived out this verse? Did your daily tasks at work live out this verse? Did you obediently follow His Commands today and speak them with the powerful authority that HE has given you? If not...why?

Just something to think about as you sit maybe wi