Killing Time

Sometimes the best preaching is the kind where all I jot down is quotes straight from scripture because there's not much "filler". That was the kind of message Paul Sr. preached Sunday morning. I've got about two whole pages of scripture and no fluffy stuff and nothing I don't know where to find in the Bible. But since the title of this post is quotes . . . .

Sunday night my brother from Brazil, Robson (pronounced Hobson) preached on Galatians 6:17.

"The marks — Scars always tell a story."

"What do you think about a person who would suffer so much for you?"

"The marks and scars we have will one day disappear. The only one left who will have marks on his body in eternity is Jesus."

"Jesus has the marks of love. It's a love that is eternal."

More from Jonathan:

"The Word became flesh . . . The world needs the word inside us to become flesh. They need to see the word lived out in our lives."

"We need to expand our vision and see this world as God sees it."

I think it was Rand who quoted this:

Some men die in battle;
Some die in flames;
But most die little by little
Playing silly games.

Phillip Pritchard had this to say:

"Some people think that missions began with the Great Commission, but it began with the fall of man."

"We must realize that, just as with Abraham, God blesses us so that we can be a blessing."

Susete and Nela both wrote short notes to me before we left. Brother Paul translated Susete's note for me. It reads:

My dear Sister Bi:

When you return to your land of America, I will not forget you because I will not forget you being here in Cape Verde. I'm not going to stop going to church. I'm writing this letter with a lot of joy because I'm going to miss you. I hope you will come back.

Go and be strong,
Susete

Paul Pritchard Sr. left us with a series of challenging questions early in the trip:

- Are you in? (In Christ, that is)
- How far are you in?
- Are you faithful?
- Do you love the Lord?
- Are you a disciple?
- Are you getting others in?

Mrs. Cynthia:

"There is a certain type of person God is looking for." (Isaiah 61:1-2)

Russell Snoddy had this to say:

"In your life, don't believe you've reached it. There's farther to go. If not, you'd be in heaven. . . . If you think you've arrived, you won't follow Jesus any farther."

"I see God's hand moving all over the globe. The question is — Do you want to be part of it?" (I do. Do you?)

"If we don't pay attention, we're going to miss something God is doing."

"When we remember how valuable our salvation is, when we remember how LOST we were, it will make us RUN to get others saved."

"Our time here (in Cape Verde) is short, but what we're doing is eternal because God is eternal."

"Satan has us convinced to just stay put – You've got good music, good preaching, you need to grow a little bit more first. You go to all the services, you give, you give to missions, you're good. But the job of the church is to go right into the enemy's territory, not hide behind our comforts. . . . The normal Christian life is to push the enemy back – it's what we're doing right here. This is the normal Christian life." ( . . . to which I can only say a hearty amen!)

"You can only live a normal Christian life if you have some things:
- You have to love God and love his Word. Jesus said, If you love me, you'll keep my commands. We desperately need this kind of love. This is the kind of love God saved us with. We can speak about the love of God, but if we have this kind of love, we can show them his love.
- You have to put God first. I'm here because God loves this place, and I love God. Moses said, If your presence is not with us, I'm not going to take one step. That's obedience!
- You have to have love for the lost. That love will cause us to leave the comforts of home and go forward to overcome the obstacles."

"Don't lose the opportunity to make a difference."

"The normal Christian life — Love God — Love people — Be obedient."

Joe Davis again:

"The World is the next person you give a tract to."

"Why did I come back? Here is the place I have a common bond with men of like passion. I don't fit nowhere else."

In one of the classes at one of the high schools, we finished handing out the Bibles just as the kids were going to a break. So I got to talk with Carla and some of her friends. Communication was a little difficult, but at that level of education some of the kids know a little English, so it’s not totally impossible. I had them all read John 3:16 from their new New Testaments. Carla and I spotted each other as we were leaving. She’s the third girl to the left of the pole.

This quote from Joe Davis that I overheard from the men’s devotions one morning deserves a post all by itself:

When the towers fell, we saw people risk their own lives to rush in and rescue people. We’ve seen tornadoes, and car wrecks, and house fires, and a hurricane on the Gulf Coast where the same thing happened. . . . People are perishing! . . . . What I don’t see is the sense of urgency to get the Gospel to them.

This young man received a tract because Anna got sick, and we had to stop and get her and the van cleaned up. This was the only time it happened, and she was fine the rest of the day.

One day after returning from working in the schools all day, I went up to the roof and was just praying for a while. This was part of my prayer that day:

Lord, I know you have people here, or you wouldn’t have sent us. Help us find them.”

This particular method of help was a bit unusual, but seems to have been as effective as any other I’ve come across.

Here are a few memorable quotes from the first week.

Joe Davis, speaking about Jesus' words in Matthew 11:28-30 spoke about how young oxen are trained by being put into the yoke with an older, bigger, more experienced ox.

"The little ox doesn't pull anything. All he has to do is learn the yoke. The burden is all on the big ox."

Do you want to be a disciple of Christ? In Luke 14, three times Jesus says you can't be his disciple. "Verse 33 kicks most people right out the door. . . . He's not trying to keep people from being disciples. He's showing us what the path of discipleship is."

"Americans have so much stuff we're trying to get rid of some of the stuff so we can get more stuff."

"How can we make disciples if we are not disciples?"

"Christ is first. . . . He makes the choices. . . . He owns it all. . . . One of those three will knock most people out of the race."

"There are many things you can know about the Bible, but there are many things you will never understand until you give your life to the Gospel."

From Jonathan Quinn:

"God's priority is to redeem fallen man, not make us happy and comfortable."

"We think the community we live in is the world, but Jesus died for everyone on the face of the globe."

"We think the call to serve God is something only a few people have, but the call is to the world, and we're all responsible."

"There is going to have to be some suffering that has to take place in order to get the Gospel out to the world."

More later.

. . . things from your dream start showing up in real life. Yesterday, while stopped at a gas station, I looked across the street, and lo and behold, there's the Suzuki shop from my dream. Not, only that, but I talked to a homeless guy named Derrick who was from Liberia while we were stopped there. He was probably a little Schizophrenic just judging from the way the conversation went, but I gave him a tract and talked to him a little bit about Jesus. Of course, this is a sea port city with closely packed streets and no grass, at least now during the dry season. So it was “interesting”.

Two of the schools we stopped at yesterday wanted to feed us. At the first there was a selection of different foods. At the second, we had a goat and potato stew with rice. It was different, but good. I was in the group that got left at this school while some went to distribute Bibles in a smaller schhol. That gave me a chance to hang out with some of the kids. Yes, I wished that I knew more Portuguese. We did several group photos where the point seemed to be who could do the most interesting thing for the camera, I got them to do a hand pile with me. My hand really is at the bottom of all those other hands. It doesn't take much to be instantly surrounded by about 30 or 40 kids. The kids with the pile of sticks are having some sugar cane for an afternoon snack. And, yes, the lady really is sorting the rice grain by grain.

Rachael seems to be having a good time here. She's been holding the wordless book while Brother Robson from Brazil tells the story. I'm just a bit concerned about her spiritual condition, however, as she was considering converting to Buddhism today. (Just kidding folks!)

She did get just a bit lobsterized on the last day.