Saturday, November 20, 2010

An Update on the Healing in Paraguay

Some of you may recall the “healing” I witnessed in August while I was in Paraguay (click here). Maximo and Reinaldo, two of TPI’s teachers in Paraguay, returned to that village, Cruce LiberaciĆ³n, for the first time this weekend, visited the family last night, and gave me this update…

The girl has remained out of her depression and is still feeling fine.
She and her family have been attending the church where we held the TPI classes and she was healed.
She, her mother and her father were all baptized this past Sunday.
This weekend, she will be giving her testimony to the rest of the church.

What an awesome God we serve, amen?

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Pray for this famine!

"Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord GOD,
"When I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water,
But rather for hearing the words of the LORD." - Amos 8:11

God used Amos to prophesy this famine. Do we have this famine today? I know it exists in some parts of the world, even here in the US, but it is not widespread. Pray that people would hunger and thirst for the words of the LORD. But be careful…

People will stagger from sea to sea
And from the north even to the east;
They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD,
But they will not find it. - Amos 8:12

How can this be, they will not find it? The context tells us that “from sea to sea” indicates from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea, and “from the north even to the east” means from the area of Dan in the north to… the east? Why not from the north to the south? From the west to the east has been covered (from sea to sea), so from the north to the south would follow, right? But Amos says: from the north even to the east. Guess why he didn’t say from the north to the south?

Jerusalem was in the south. Jerusalem held the true “words of the LORD.” The people already had in front of them the “words of the LORD” (Amos and the other prophets) and didn’t like what they heard. (See 7:12 – Then Amaziah said to Amos, "Go, you seer, flee away to the land of Judah and there eat bread and there do your prophesying!”) They were searching for the god of their desires, not the God of the bible; the god they thought would give them what they wanted, not the God that was ready to give them what they needed.

Paul warned Timothy that this would happen: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires – 2 Timothy 4:3.

Yes, pray for this famine. Also pray that people search for the true “words of the LORD.” The bible tells us: you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. – Deuteronomy 4:29. Seek the true God, the true words of the LORD, and you will find them; seek your own god and your own happiness, and you will be like those Amos spoke of: they will not find it.