Mongolia Mission Trip; Part II

We left from the Beijing train station about 9:00 AM. The country-side through China was beautiful. It was rugged mountains with beautiful valleys. By about 11:00 PM we had stopped at the Chinese/Mongolia border. We had been told that the border crossing could take up to five hours due to the fact that the wheels on each car had to be realigned to fit the Mongolian train tracks, plus the Chinese immigration officers were very particular.

About thirty minutes after we had come to a stop, the officers came to our booth and asked for our passports. They were very stern. They took each passport, carefully examining the photo with the person and asking questions about name, birth date, and spelling of name. Without another word, they kept our passports and went to the next car. I noticed that they had a stack of passports from the other passengers.

Outside our window was the Chinese immigration buildings with guards. After the officers took our passports, we began to notice people getting off the train and walking around. Greg and I got off to stretch our legs and look around. We noticed people walking into the building and coming out with soft drinks, chips, and souvenirs. We recognized a blond-headed lady who we had spoken to during the day from our car. She was from France. She came up to us eating an ice-cream bar. We asked where she got it and she told us inside. Greg and I both decided that an ice-cream bar would sure taste good. Only hours before we had skirted the Gobi desert and ice-cream seemed to be a wonderful idea.

We went in the building, found the store, which was full of train passengers, got our ice-cream bars and started back out. When I got to the glass doors they were chained shut! Like with a huge chain and lock. I said, “Greg, we are chained in and can’t get back on the train!” Greg was looking out the window and said, “What train? It’s gone!” Sure enough, the train was gone and we were locked inside a Chinese immigration building at 12:30 at night…with melting ice-cream bars.

We took comfort that we had not gotten left behind because there were so many other passengers locked in with us. Greg and I found a couple of chairs and for the next two hours shared mission trip stories and Bible insights together. We wondered how Terry and David were doing and wished we had stayed on the train with them. I told Greg, “Please hold me accountable never to follow a French girl with an ice-cream bar ever again.” He agreed as long as I would do the same for him.

About 3 AM we saw the train return and people started gathering at the locked doors. They soon unlocked the doors and we all got back on the train. Terry and David said that when the train started moving they worried about us for a moment but then prayed and committed us to the Lord and then rejoiced that they has stayed on. They said the train went about a mile or so down the track and then went through a long series of stops and starts changing out the wheels.

We all got back on the train. The Chinese officers came around with our passports, went through the drill again of asking us how we spelled our names, birthdates, looking us over to check our faces with the passport picture, and by about 3:30 AM we were on our way. We quickly got in to our bunks and were lulled to sleep by the rhythm of train on the tracks. It was a short night and by 3 PM we were rolling into the capital city of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar. Next blog I will explain what happened next.

Mongolia Mission Trip 2012 Report; Part 1

God put Mongolia on my heart the spring of ’08. I began doing research and discovered that Mongolia had been experiencing a revival since 1990. According to Operation World, a missions research manual, there were only four known Christians in Mongolia in 1989. Today there are over 50,000, with that number growing daily. This rapid growth is due to the demise of the old Soviet Union and South Korean missionaries who have been working in Mongolia for the past 25 years. Of course, the main reason is because God’s Spirit has been blowing across this vast nation. I wanted to go to get in on that revival. Mongolia is twice the size of Texas with a population of 2 million. Over have of the population lives in the capital city of Ulaanbataar, known as UB. The others live out on the steppes in small canvass igloos called gers. These “country Mongolians” are the original horsemen of the world. Horses are their livelihood. This was another reason I wanted to go to Mongolia.

I was supposed to go to Mongolia with David Beckett in July, 2010. I had to cancel that trip due to my bout with malaria that summer. David was then the Chaplin at Hongdong University in South Korea. He had met a group of Mongolian students at the university, led them to Christ, and was discipling them in 2010. They had taken him to Mongolia on a few mission trips. David told me in 2010 that there were many pastors in Mongolia who were new believers and were asking for pastors to come help them with some pastoral training. But the pastors were also very particular because many cults had also been coming into Mongolia. David had met one of the leading pastors in eastern Mongolia which was key in bringing other pastors in to teach.

David Beckett led our trip to Mongolia along with myself, Terry Taylor, a deacon in Kingsland’s First Baptist Church, and Greg Lewis, the founder and president of Go and Tell Ministries. The dates for our trip were August 6-22. We had been planning and preparing for months.

The Sunday before we left, I asked the children of our church, during the children’s sermon, to be our prayer partners for the trip. I asked them to pray two verses from Psalm 34 each day we were gone and that we would be praying that Psalm for them as well. We adopted the song Ten Thousand Reasons, by Matt Redman, as our song for the trip. It came out of Psalm 34. The children also gave us the five-fold blessing for a mission trip; “Drink lots of bottled water, don’t eat too much, pray like crazy, give’em Jesus, and come back changed!”

We left San Antonio at 6:30 AM the next day, August 6^th. We flew to Newark and then “over the top” to Beijing, China. I had never flown over the North Pole before. It was an 18 hour flight, and never got dark. We landed in Beijing in the middle of the afternoon on August 7^th. This was a special time for me because 30 years earlier, August 7, 1982, God called me into the ministry. Now, 30 years later, I was in Beijing, China on my way to teach pastors in remote areas of Mongolia!

We spent the night in Beijing in a guest house called the 365 Inn. It is located near the Forbidden City in the heart of Beijing. This hostel was filled with young people from all over the world. We briefly spoke with some from the UK that evening. The next morning we were up early to the train station to board a Chinese train on the Trans-Siberian Railway, the longest railway in the world, for our two-day train ride to Ulaanbataar, Mongolia.

Shortly after the train got underway we discovered there were people from all over the world on the train with us. During the two days of travel were able to engage people from eight different nations in spiritual conversations about Christ. A father and his adult daughter from Germany were led to Christ by our team during the trip. This turned out to be a mission trip of its own.

Our little booth on the train was made up of two bench seats that doubled as beds, with two bunk beds overhead that folded up during the day. There was a small table by the window. Our bags fit under the bench seats. Outside our booth was a narrow hall way that went the full length of the car.

There were about twenty cars on our train. The last one was the dining car. Going from car to car was an experience with both cars moving side to side. You would step between them to cross over to the next car being careful not to get your foot caught in the “cross-over plates” from both cars. You could see the tracks as you crossed. It was quite the thrill ride just getting to the dining car. Each car had its own bathroom, similar in size to an airline restroom. The only difference is that when you “flushed” you saw the train tracks! Each car also was equipped with a boiler with hot water for tea or coffee 24 hours a day.

We shared some wonderful times of worship and Bible study which actually drew people to our booth to ask us questions about what we were singing. Worship-based prayer from the Scriptures draws people to Christ.

The border crossing from China to Mongolia was a four-hour experience I will never forget! I will write about it in the next blog.

Favorite Worship Songs; But Why?

What are your favorite songs for worshipping God? It is interesting that we identify singing songs with worship? In the Bible, songs were primarily for teaching truth about God, His mighty deeds, and His promises. The second song in the Bible is found in Exodus 15 right after Pharaoh’s army was destroyed by God in the Red Sea crossing. Miriam wrote a song to teach the nation of Israel of God’s miraculous deliverance. (The first song in the Bible was written by a one of Cain’s descendants, Lamech, bragging about how mean he was.)

Music helps you remember words and events. You probably learned the alphabet by singing it. Some learned the books of the Bible with a simple song. Scripture can be memorized easiest by singing the verses in a song. There are many cultures in the world that have not had their language reduced to writing that have preserved their history in songs. Songs teach. That is their primary purpose.

So why do we sing in our worship services? Good question. What are the best songs to sing in our worship services? Divisive question. We all have favorite songs, but how did they become our favorite songs? And if songs are not primarily for worship, what is?

The Bible teaches that the main characteristic of worship is sacrifice (Genesis – Deuteronomy), but not just sacrifice, but a particular kind of sacrifice. The acceptable sacrifice for God, the one that has a “pleasing aroma” (Leviticus 1:9, 13, 17), is the sacrifice with faith, with humility, with obedience, with brokenness. God sees His Son in that kind of sacrifice and it pleases Him.

We worship God by offering ourselves to God as a living sacrifice with faith, with humility, with obedience, with brokenness. As God accepts our offering, we experience joy, His joy! God does not want a song of praise, He desires your song of praise, with faith, with humility, with obedience, with brokenness! Without you in that condition, its just words to God (1 Samuel 15).

One of the reasons a particular song becomes a favorite is because in your past, when you sung it with faith, humility, obedience, brokenness, God added His joy to it and you identified it with worshipping Him because you both enjoyed it together. But understand this; it was not the song that God enjoyed, it was you and the condition of your heart (with faith, humility, obedience, brokenness) when you sung it to Him.

Try this:

·         Identify some of your favorite songs and when they became favorites and see if at that time your heart was in that condition.

·         Identify in your favorites the truth you learned about God, His mighty deeds, His promises and how those truths led you, and continue to lead you, to grow in your faith, humble you, encourage obedience, or convict you to brokenness.

·         As you hear and learn new songs addressing God or songs about Him, humble yourself before Him, learn what the song is teaching about God, and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit as He convicts you of sin and go with Him to the place of brokenness, the cross. It won’t matter if it is an old song, new song, fast song, slow song, with or without certain instruments. All that matters is that it is your sacrifice with faith, humility, obedience, and brokenness as the main beat and melody. These are God’s favorites.

Redemption or Regeneration?

Oswald Chambers is one of my teachers. In his book, Conformed to His Image; The Servant As His Lord, (not a quick read) on pages 9-10, brother Oswald challenges our self-centered Christian culture. He moves us out into deeper water than we feel safe in.

“We must distinguish between the revelation of Redemption and the experience of regeneration. We don’t experience life; we are alive. We don’t experience Redemption; we experience regeneration, that is, we experience the life of God coming into our human nature, and immediately the life of God comes in it produces a surface of consciousness. But redemption means a great deal more than man is conscious of. The Redemption is not only for mankind, it is for the universe, for the material earth; everything that sin and the devil have touched and marred has been completely redeemed by Jesus Christ.

There is a day coming when the Redemption will be actually manifested, when there will be a new heaven and a new earth, with a new humanity upon it…What the Redemption deals with is the sin of the whole human race, not primarily with the sins of individuals, but something far more fundamental, viz., the heredity of sin.

Pseudo-evangelism singles out the individual, it prostitutes the terrific meaning of the Redemption into an individual possession, the salvation my soul.” Oswald Chambers

Becoming a Trillionaire Overnight

That’s what happened to Ira and Ann Yates on October 28, 1926. They had traded their small store in Rankin Texas for a 26,000 acre ranch “west of the Pecos.” Their family and friends thought they had lost their ever-loving minds. Nothing was west of the Pecos except trouble. There was some newly discovered oil exploration in West Texas in the early 1920’s but nothing west of the Pecos.

For several years they struggled to pay the taxes. The drought took their sheep and goats. The blowing sand nearly drove Mrs. Yates crazy. The ranch was about to go under. In desperation, Ira contacted a friend who worked for Transcontinental Oil to see if they would be willing to drill a test well on his ranch. They were not interested because the “experts” of the day did not believe there was any oil “west of the Pecos.”

Yates finally convinced Transcontinental to try a test well. After 23 days of drilling, at a depth of 1,000 feet, the Yates 1-A came in. A gusher. It spewed oil, rocks, and chunks of earth hundreds of feet in the air. They dammed up a large draw to catch the oil, which soon became a lake of black gold.

Over the next three years, several more wells were drilled producing over 41 million barrels of oil. Then in 1929 the Yates 30-A came in producing 200,000 barrels of oil a day! A world record. Oil at that time was being sold at $1.19/barrel. In 1929 $238,000 a day was a lot of money. Today it would equate to about $3.4 million a day! From just one well! A new town sprung up as a result of the Yates oil field. They named it Ira-ann after the Yates couple. Today it is Iraan, Texas.

On January 11, 1989 the Yates Field, now one of the largest oil producing fields in the world, produced it’s 1 billionth barrel. Today, it is still producing, and it is estimated that there is an additional billion barrels of oil still in the field. The Yates family went from dirt poor to multi-billionaires overnight.

When I hear that story, I think of the poor guy that traded his ranch and ended up with the store in Rankin selling dry goods. I also think of the many days that Ira and Ann must have considered selling out and getting out from under the financial burden of a piece of land that was worthless, not knowing that they were sitting on billions of dollars of oil.

Many Christians live in that same ignorance today, not knowing of the unsearchable riches that are found in Christ. In 1 Corinthians 2:12 it says, “We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit Who is from God, in order that we might understand the things freely given to us by God.” That verse tells me that the Holy Spirit, as my Teacher and Guide, will lead me to discover the surpassing wealth and value of what I am already in possession of in Christ and Him in me, if I am willing to spend the time with Him each day, studying, praying, and seeking after Him. He is of greater value than all the oil and gold and precious jewels that have ever been found or ever will be.

Start drilling some test wells today. In Christ, you are already in possession of an eternity of wealth.

Sinless or Sin Less?

Same letters but totally different words and meaning. There are some who believe you can reach a point of becoming sinless and not sin anymore. Baloney. The Apostle Paul at the end of his ministry, writing to young Timothy, referred to himself as the chief of sinners.

Yet, Paul knew that he was a saint. He addressed the Christians in all of his letters as saints. He taught in his letters to the church in Rome, the church in Ephesus, the church in Colossae, and the church in Corinth that when Christ died, we died with Him. When Christ was buried, we were buried with Him. When Christ rose from the dead on the third day, we rose with Him. One of his favorite terms is “in Christ.”

That means that in Christ all of your sins are forgiven; past sins, present sins, future sins. You are completely made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ, now and forever. In Ephesians 2:6 he even says that you are seated with Christ in the heavenly places! You are holy in Christ because Jesus paid sin’s penalty and you died with Him and then rose with Him. You have a new Life in Christ because He now lives in you. You in Christ and Christ in you. You are a saint in Christ.

But you still sin. Go figure. What’s the deal? In Romans chapter 7 Paul shares his testimony (I believe close to the end of his life) of the struggle with the “sin that dwells in me…” 7:17, 20, 23. Then in the eighth chapter he shares the victory over the power of sin by walking in the Spirit, and  not in the flesh. He also tells of the assurance we have that one day we will be delivered from the presence of sin, “the redemption of our bodies,” 8:23.

Theologians have talked about it terms of saved (past tense, completed action), being saved (ongoing process of sanctification), and will be saved (resurrection and glorification). In Christ, we are saved from the penalty of sin, we are being saved from the power of sin, and we will be saved from the presence of sin.

Being saved from the power of sin, today, is the struggle. We must learn how to win. In Romans 13:11-14, Ephesians 4:17-32, and Colossians 3:1-17, Paul uses the phrase, “…put off…and put on…” to describe how to walk not in the flesh but in the Spirit. What you put off are the grave clothes of your former dead-life with Adam which was dead, dead, dead in sin. Like Lazarus, you are now alive in Christ but still have the old grave clothes hanging on you. Put them off and move away from the tomb! The grave clothes in those verses are described by actions and attitudes that are associated with sin and death. You don’t have to think that way, act that way, treat others that way anymore. You are alive in Christ with Christ living in you, with you, through you, as you!

But when you do sin, here is what to do; first thank God that He has shown you what is offensive to Him in your thoughts, your feelings, your choices, and in your bodily habits. Then repent by thanking Him for the fact that you are forgiven because 2,000 years ago you died with Christ, were buried with Christ, and rose with Him. Then ask God to teach you His ways so that it will be in your experience as He has declared in His word, dead, buried, and risen with Christ to walk in newness of life.

God will continue to reveal to you the cleansing and renewing He is accomplishing in you day by day as you walk in the Spirit. This will continue for the rest of your life, just like Paul’s testimony. The closer you walk with the Lord, the more you will realize how deeply entrenched sin is and you will experience the ongoing change of becoming more and more like Jesus Christ; faith to faith and glory to glory. Not yet sinless, but definitely sinning less and less!  

Tired of Sin Getting the Best of You?

A believer still fights with sin; daily. The Bible talks about overcoming the power of sin in Romans 5:12-8:39. This is a section of Romans that you should read again and again. In this section Paul talks about the sin that dwells in him (7:17, 20, 23), and the Spirit of God that dwells in him (8:9, 10, 11). He also describes the daily choice of the one you present yourself to obey (6:1-23). You must make a daily choice to place yourself under the Spirit’s authority or you will automatically fall under the power of sin to obey its lusts.

One of the most instructive passages about this choice is found in Luke 2:51-52 where it describes Jesus as a boy and simply says, “And He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them…and Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” This means that as a 12 year-old boy, Jesus already was able to recognize, respect, and submit to the authority that the Father had placed Him under. Jesus had authority because He recognized, respected, and submitted to the authority in His Life!

Recognizing, respecting, and submitting to the authority that God has place in your life is a conscience decision. If you do not willingly make that decision you will automatically fall under the power (authority) of sin in your life. You don’t even have to think about it. You will just automatically stay under it, deceived into thinking that you are in charge, when in fact, you are simply a slave to the sin that dwells in you.

God has put in place authority for you to be under in creation, in family, and in society in order to teach you how to willingly, daily, and consciously be under His authority in your life by the Spirit Who dwells in you. When you begin to recognize, respect, and submit to the authority in creation, in family, and in society, you will be more prone to recognize, respect, and submit to the authority of His Spirit, Who dwells in you. A person under authority has it! Once you have it, then there is a power in you that is greater than the power of sin and you rise above it.

Isn’t it amazing how a huge 747 sitting on the runway, full of passengers, is able to fly? How does it overcome the law (power) of gravity? By a greater law (power), the law of aerodynamics. When the plane hits a certain speed, with the design of a particular wingspan, and with proper guidance, it overcomes the law of gravity. It doesn’t strain for it, or try harder and harder for it; it simply rises with it. The Spirit of Jesus does not have any trouble overcoming sin. And He lives in you, if you died with Him on the cross, God also raised you up with Him on the third day. You have authority (power) over sin!

Does that mean you are sinless? You don’t have to worry about being perfectly sinless for a while. What it does mean is that you are able to sin less and less. Progress toward perfection is what you should experience as the Spirit of God dwelling in you reveals more of more of the sin the dwells in you and you experience more and more of His power in you as you repent by recognizing, respecting, and submitting to His presence in you. This is bad English but good theology. Don’t try it until you get tired of sin getting the best of you.