KEVIN ELWORTH LIVE

Been thinking a lot of planting crops or in our case scattering seeds of the gospel around our world. I’ve never thought more about this principle that Jesus talked about in Luke 8 more than I have in the past few months. There are so many different approaches to this and thoughts about it, but I think you can boil it down to a few thoughts, some of which are becoming our strategy for reaching people in Zacatecas and Mexico.

As you read through this short passage you can see the 4 different types of people Jesus was talking about

1) Some seed falls on the ground, is trampled under peoples feet, and eaten by birds. In other words it just doesn’t get anywhere. It falls on deaf ears you could say.

2) Some fall among the rocks, grows a bit and then dies for lack of water. This is the very common one, people hear, like what they hear, accept and as soon as something hard happens man they jump ship and high tail it back to safe ground.

3) Some fall among thorns. This guy evaluates the situation. Do I want to make this decision or do I want to continue my current lifestyle (obviously thinking they have to change certain things about their lives to be accepted by Christ which in itself is wrong) It proves unfruitful Jesus says.

4) Some fall among good soil. Simply stated in Matthew 13 this is the person who clearly understands and has been prepared by the Spirit for this interaction.

Awesome right, but what’s the point? The point is that you have no idea who is that 4th person and who is not? In missions we consider this something like the 1/4 principle. Only 25% of the people you present the gospel to are ready and willing to truly accept it. Even fewer than that will amount to anything, go places and be profitable in ministry. So here’s what I’m saying it’s our job to make sure that 100% have an opportunity, it’s God’s job to see that the 25% change their lives. Simple as that. That’s why Cris and I are interested in large evangelistic events and opportunities to get a crowd together to preach to or present Christ to. Until the whole world hears….

Tuesday we had the opportunity to visit the Cathedral of the Holy Child or in Spanish El Santo Niño de Atocha. It is the third most visited place in all of Mexico and holds an enormous place in a Catholics heart as they believe that this holy child has the power to grant miracles. There’s even a entryway that you drive under when entering the city that says- Tierra de la fe y de milagros, Land of faith and miracles. We walked around for a bit and checked things out. Looked at all the promises that had been placed on the walls, things like If you heal my child, I will do such and such. It’s a very strange and foreign concept to people (like me) who have never experienced true idol worship or seen in take place. That is exactly what this is!

I drove away from that place feeling almost in a place of oppression. Like the devil himself lives there, I can’t explain it to you unless you’ve experienced something like that yourself, and if you visit us we’ll probably take you there. Aside from my sense of oppression I also felt a deep gratitude knowing that I have a true relationship with my God rather than on that I have to beg and make promises to get Him to listen to me. Makes me thinks of Romans 8 and the fact that we are children of God. Thank God for that!

I’m an avid journaler (not sure that’s a word but it is now). I’ve kept a journal every year faithfully since I was 17 years old, and it’s an amazing thing to be able to look back over the years and see how God move me, the struggles I faced and the ways God gave me victory in those areas. It’s always a great way to record ways that God proved Himself faithful and answered prayer. I’m very private about what I write there, only my wife is allowed to pick it up and read it and even when she tells me she does I cringe a bit because those are raw thoughts between me and God. I’m going to share a bit of what I wrote on March 23, 2009 because God’s been messing me up about it all week.

Last night I was humbled by my wife. In our talk before sleep she asked me a question that caught me off guard. She asked me- What are you praying for? Simple enough question right? Should be, but I could not answer it with any certainty at all. It’s as if I’m not praying for anything. I’m praying that God will show up and do something great here (in Zacatecas), but what more? There’s got to be something more specific than that.

The sad part about that was that in the days that followed I didn’t record anything that changed my way. I never started praying for anything specific….until I reread that entry this week and God shook me up about it. How can we expect God to answer specifically if we don’t ask specifically? Now I know we all understand that God knows all even before we ask or think anything, but He as our Father still wants us to ask.

So, what are you praying for?

It’s amazing to me that God would choose to bless us, to answer our prayers and to show His favor on us but that’s exactly what He is doing- WHAT AN AWESOME GOD!

I wrote yesterday about how God answered a specific prayer request of ours well if that wasn’t enough He answered another one last night and reaffirmed the first one.

I met with a local pastor here in town that is quickly going to become a good friend of mine. We met at Starbucks (where else would we have met?) and while we were talking about life and ministry who else would show up than the lady I met early in the day that wants to work with Crystal and her Spanish. She was so excited to see me again and asked is she could come today to start working with Cris! I couldn’t believe it!

Besides all this, I finally found some awesome Spanish worship music, a group here has adapted Hillsongs music into Spanish. It doesn’t get any better than Hillsong

What an awesome God…

Wow! I’m excited this morning. You ever wake up feeling like God has forgotten about you and doesn’t even know where you are in the world? Now I know that’s far fetched because we all know that He is all-knowing and everywhere, but sometimes we just feel like that.

So I walked into Starbucks this morning to an answer to pray we’ve been pleading with God about all week. (I knew Starbucks was a spiritual thing!) I was introduced to a lady who asked me about my wife and then proceeded to tell me how she could help Cris with Spanish conversation! A huge answer to prayer for us right now.

Thank God for little glimpses that He’s still in control and aware of our needs