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“Reverence for the Presence of God” (Ecclesiastes 5:1-7) – Audio recording of my Sunday evening sermon at Maple Hill Church of Christ in Lebanon, TN on July 8, 2012.

Looking at the seriousness of approaching God, and how we will do it if we truly have the proper reverence for Him.

Copy of the Handout referenced in the sermon

Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 (ESV)

¹ Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. ² Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. ³ For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words.

⁴ When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. ⁵ It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. ⁶ Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? ⁷ For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.

“Recognizing the Power of God” (Isaiah 40:27-31) – Audio recording of my Sunday morning sermon at Maple Hill Church of Christ in Lebanon, TN on July 1, 2012.

Looking at Isaiah’s prophetic instructions regarding the power of God and how we can tap into that power for dealing with day to day life.

Isaiah 40:27–31 (ESV)

²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob,

and speak, O Israel,

My way is hidden from the Lord,

and my right is disregarded by my God?

²⁸ Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

his understanding is unsearchable.

²⁹ He gives power to the faint,

and to him who has no might he increases strength.

³⁰ Even youths shall faint and be weary,

and young men shall fall exhausted;

³¹ but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint.

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This Sunday I will be preaching the morning service at Maple Hill Church of Christ in Lebanon, TN. As I’ve said before, being at Maple Hill is always a thrill, because it is my home congregation, and my parents still attend there. Here is a brief overview of my planned lesson…

• Sunday Morning (9:00am) – Recognizing the Power of God (Isaiah 40:27-31) – Looking at Isaiah’s prophetic instructions regarding the power of God and how we can tap into that power for dealing with day to day life.

If you are in the Middle Tennessee area, we would love to have you join us this Sunday for worship!

“Honoring the Father Who Gave Birth to Your Faith” (II Timothy) – This is the audio from my morning sermon at Maple Hill Church of Christ on Father’s Day – June 17, 2012

How children can truly follow the command to “Honor Father and Mother” – Includes a survey of the book of II Timothy.

This Sunday I will be preaching the morning and evening services at Maple Hill Church of Christ in Lebanon, TN. Being at Maple Hill is always a thrill, because it is my home congregation, and my parents still attend there. Since this Sunday is Father’s Day, my lessons will revolve around this theme…

• Sunday Morning (9:00am) – Honoring the Father Who Gave Birth to Your Faith – How children can truly follow the command to “Honor Father and Mother” – Will include a survey of the book of II Timothy.
• Sunday Evening (6:00pm) – Becoming Like Children – What fathers can learn from their children about being a true servant in God’s Kingdom – Matthew 18:1-5

If you are in the Middle Tennessee area, we would love to have you join us this Sunday for worship!

Wow, are you scared? I can’t imagine what it must be like to be behind the pulpit!

Not at all….I usually end up preaching a dozen or so times a year at various congregations in the area. Something that I love to do. Starting next week I will be helping another church as a “fill-in” until their new pulpit minister starts in August.

The irony about this is that I was originally scheduled to preach for another church on Sun PM, which is also in Wilson County. That ended up getting cancelled last week, but today my good friend Andy, who is the preacher at Center Chapel, called and asked if I could be a last minute fill-in for him. Funny how things work out sometimes 🙂

Anyway, I’m excited to visit with this congregation on Sun, and plan to preach from one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, Ecclesiastes 5. If you’re in the area please come and join us.

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Great video from @missionlazarus and my friend @sethdaggett on the making of their San Lazaro Estate Coffee. This really is fantastic coffee, and it helps support the amazing work being doing in Southern Honduras by Mission Lazarus.

missionlazarus:

Do you drink coffee? Are you drinking coffee right now? Check out this new video on the coffee process–from start to finish.

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Music by the fine folks of Seryn – Make sure you check them out at serynsound.com

Learn more or try some of our coffee for yourself – sanlazaroestatecoffee.com

I spent a good bit of time in Honduras doing mission work… such a neat country! And I think Rosetta Stone is great if you don’t know much of the language to begin with. If you already know a good bit, it might feel remedial for a while. Good luck!

Love working in Honduras, and especially getting to teach and study with the people there. Do you know Spanish? If so, how did you learn? I know very, very little so remedial level will be perfect! Thanks!

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Well….I took the plunge. Ever since I started making annual mission trips to Honduras four years ago, I have been thinking about purchasing Rosetta Stone to help with learning Spanish. Today I finally pulled the trigger. They were offerring $100 off of the Level 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 Spanish (Latin America) Set today, and this pushed me over the edge.

Since a single installation will support up to five users I am hoping that Olivia and I, along with our oldest daughter Kate, will find it beneficial. Kate is already having weekly Spanish classes in school. Olivia is a trained sign-language (ASL) interpreter and has expressed interest in also learning Spanish.

It should arrive on Monday and I’m very excited to get started.

Hasta Luego!

Our group landed safely in Nashville, and now I’m home with my girls! It was a great week, but always good to be back. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support.

The Maple Hill Church of Christ missions group has landed safely in Atlanta. Hope that getting through customs will be smooth. We have about a 2-hour layover before our flight to Nashville. Can’t wait to see my girls!!!

Today we started our journey back home…

The day began with a sunrise devotional on “Prayer Rock” on the Mission Lazarus ranch, which is one of my favorite places on earth. We sang songs, and I delivered a message about God’s power from Isaiah 40.

After breakfast we headed north on a 4-hour drive to the capital city of Tegucigalpa. We stopped briefly at the hotel, and then most of us headed a little bit further north to Valle de Ángeles. This is a tourist area that ended up being a big disappointment for me. I was thinking it would be a place to find all kinds of things which were handcrafted in Honduras. Instead, it was not much more than a bunch of worthless souvenirs mass produced in other countries, and every shop seemed to have exactly the same things.

We came back to the hotel and then went our separate ways for dinner before returning back for our nightly devotional. Wayne presented a message about the things that show us the greatness of God. After the devotional, my dad and I got to spend some time talking with some of the missionaries in Honduras that Maple Hill Church of Christ supports. They visited our group at the hotel, and it is always great to meet with those who have dedicated their lives to the Gospel of Christ.

From left to right…My Dad, Juan Santamaria, Samuel Diaz, Ricardo Guerra (his son, Andres), and me

Tomorrow after breakfast we will have a worship service by the pool, and then head out to the airport for our flight to Atlanta and then Nashville. Please pray for our continued safe travel.

Today we were in the village of Las Tremintinas way up in the mountains of southern Honduras near the Nicaragua boarder. The goal was to setup a full, one-day clinic, and for the evangelism team to visit some of the families with the preacher from Jayacayan, a neighboring community. The village does not have an established congregation, but some of the initial converts are meeting in a home. This was the first time that Mission Lazarus has taken a group up to this location.

It was interesting to see the differences from Namasigue. Even though this community was in a much more remote location and even though it was still filled with poverty, overall it was a lot cleaner, the houses were quite a bit nicer, and the people were dressed a lot better. I’m not sure what the reasons are for this, but it was fascinating to observe. It was also obvious that many of the people in the village had never seen anyone from the U.S. before.

On a side note, this was probably the most beautiful area of Honduras I have seen in my four visits. It was very difficult to get up there, but the beauty of God’s creation was overwhelming.

Evangelism – Today we were working with Jose who is the preacher in Jayacayan. Jose was introduced to Mission Lazarus through his daughter who has cancer. She was going through chemotherapy treatments, but Jose ran out of money before those treatments were completed. Mission Lazarus stepped in and helped out this family to ensure his daughter could complete her chemotherapy (she is now in remission). Jose was desperate to repay Mission Lazarus for their generous gift, but they continued to tell him that there was nothing to repay. They explained that what he had received was a blessing from God, and not something provided by man. He persisted in asking how he could repay them, so they finally told him to go out and tell people what God had done for him.

Upon hearing this, he decided to become a preacher and ultimately planted the church in Jayacayan near the Mission Lazarus ranch. From there he also began preaching and teaching in other surrounding communities. This included his first contact with Las Tremintinas which occurred last October.

We spent the day today visiting homes and distributing food bags with Jose. Some of these families had already committed themselves to Christ, some had just begun visiting the house church in Las Tremintinas, and some had no association with the church at all. Since this a new work in this community, the studies were fairly basic compared to some of the ones in Namasigue. Our goal was to plant the seed of God’s word and share his love.

From left to right…Joe, Wayne, Jose, Joseth, me

Jose had not worked much (or any) with Americans, so there was a bit of a feeling out process. However, it turned out to be a great day with several good studies. Please pray for this community and these people.

Overall, we had a great week on the evangelism team. Eight new sisters were baptized into Jesus Christ. We visited with over 50 families, distributed over 50 bags of food, and had lots of great Bible studies in Namasigue and Las Tremintinas. Praise God!

Clinic – The medical brigade was setup in a schoolhouse in Las Tremintinas. They were able to operate a full clinic in cramped conditions and saw a LOT of patients today. This was the first time that anything like this has ever been done in this village.

One gentleman who was so happy to receive his first pair of eyeglasses asked the question “Why are you here?” Someone from our group answered “Because God loves you!” He thought about this for a second and said “Yes, and God’s love is manifested in you.” Please pray that these seeds that were planted today will bear fruit in this great community.

Local residents lining up for the Medical Brigade 

Our clinical group has done amazing work this week, and the following are the patient totals for each area:

• Monday – 130 medical, 30 eyes, 9 dental with 22 tooth extractions
• Tuesday – 170 medical, 46 eyes, 12 dental with 39 tooth extractions
• Wednesday – 125 medical, 56 eyes, 9 dental with 39 tooth extractions
• Thursday – 104 medical, 33 eyes, 7 dental with 21 tooth extractions
• Friday – 153 medical, 37 eyes, 11 dental with 28 tooth extractions

That’s a total of 932 patients seen in the brigade this week. WOW!

Construction – This part of the post is especially for Judy Vance. The picture below should explain why I have not posted much about the construction crew this week:

On a serious note, the construction crew has continued to work on the new warehouse and offices for Mission Lazarus. They have endured a number of frustrating circumstances, but were able to make good progress today. This new building is going to be a great blessing to Mission Lazarus once it is completed

From left to right…Justin, Blake, and Jody

Closing Out the Day

Once we got back from Las Tremintinas I did my last 4.75-mile run around the ranch, and my legs will be happy to not do this route again for a while.

After dinner, we listened to a great devotional by Joe Widick from the 23rd Psalm, and then shared with each other the reasons why we came on this trip and what we are taking away. Great night.

Tomorrow we head back to Tegucigalpa in preparation for our flight out on Sunday. Please pray for safe travel.