Thoughts: Belief

Belief leads to action.

Believing lies and disbelieving God (the Truth - John 14:6) keeps us from right action and guides us to wrong action. 

Hebrews 11:31 commends the faith of Rahab who "perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace." It is interesting to note that the Greek word for "that believed not" implies disobedience as well as lack of faith. This idea is reinforced by other translations of the verse, such as NASB which simply says "those who were disobedient," or a Spanish version which calls them literally "the disobedient ones."

Haven't you found this connection between sin and disbelief to be true in your own life as well? I certainly have. Generally when I sin, it's simply because I'm not believing God's statements like "...the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life" (Gal. 6:8). I "lose heart in doing good" because I'm not really convinced that "in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary" (Gal. 6:9). Instead of trusting that God "is a Rewarder of those who seek Him" (Heb. 11:6) and taking God's Word for it that "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23), I rather think that my disobedience is worthwhile. So I sin.

Faith/belief is seriously important, because it protects us from the deadly choice to disobey. So how do we get more faith? "...Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17).

Let's dig into the Word and harvest that life-giving faith. And let's follow God's warning and encouragement in Hebrews 3:12-13. "Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God, but encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called 'Today,' so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."

Belief leads to action. Let's believe the Truth. 


(For more truth on this subject, consider the following passages. Numbers 20:12; Psalm 78:22, 30-32; Psalm 106:21-24; John 3:18; John 8:24; Hebrews 11:26; Psalm 58:11; Proverbs 11:18; Hebrews 11:1-12:4. Especially Numbers 14:11; Revelation 21:8; Hebrews 3:18-19; Hebrews 4:2,6.)

Happenings: Conferences Update

Thank you all for praying for the Conferences! 

God worked, and lives were changed!

Happenings: Conferences!

Tomorrow we will leave on a four-week trip to Pachuca, Guadalajara, Cuernavaca - and then San Antonio, TX - to work with home school conferences! Mr. and Mrs. Richardson have been making these conferences happen for many years, so they are quite experienced - but if ya'll want to pray, that would be good because, "unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it..." (Psalm 127:1a).

"God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us
- Selah -
that Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations."
Psalm 167:1-2

What I See: The View

Where I'm living may be geographically the most beautiful place that I have ever seen; sometimes it's so amazing that it seems like a dream.
I took the last three pictures from my bedroom window: that's how close the beauty is to me. The other three were up the road a bit.
My God is an absolutely amazing Artist.

Happenings: Valentine’s Day Tea

For Valentine’s Day (“Dia de Amor”), Mrs. Richardson, Anna, and I made a tea party, a “Merienda,” for some of the ladies in the church. My friend Lupita is the one with the baby, and her little girl, Dayana (who is hiding behind the baby's blanket in the group picture), is her daughter whom I teach English. I don’t know why they all look so grumpy in that picture; they really aren’t!

It turned out to be such a good day, especially because one lady brought three guests who weren’t saved, and Mrs. Richardson was able to do a Bible lesson on God’s love, including a good discussion on the Gospel. These three ladies aren’t in the picture, because they had to leave early – but not before they had heard the Gospel and, very interested, asked questions about it! Praise our wonderful God!

Happenings: Easter!

"But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
"...Reconciliation...."
Romans 5:8, 11

May God bless you with personal, complete, ongoing reconciliation with Himself.
Happy Easter!

Happenings: My Schedule

My days have developed a bit of a routine (well, except for all the random things that break up the routine!):

Every day except Sunday, I work with Timothy (age 11) and Benjamin (9) on reading, writing and 'rithmatic.

Tuesday afternoons, I walk a mile up the mountain to Lupita's house to teach English to her and to her 5-year-old daughter, Dayana. They are such good students. By Lupita's request, I spend two hours every week going over the alphabet, vocabulary, Bible verses to memorize, etc.; by the following Tuesday, they have memorized almost everything that I taught them, and they're ready for more!

On Wednesdays, usually I either run the house or go with Mrs. R as she drives 1.5 hours to Saltillo for groceries, violin lessons (for Anna and Samuel), dentist appointments, etc. It's interesting to note the differences between life in the city/town versus life in the ranchos were I am. The ranchos, being a community of tiny farms chiselled into the mountains, remind me a lot of the valley in southern Colorado where my Granddad and Grandmom farm, whereas Saltillo is... I don't know how to explain it. It has roughly the same population as Charlotte, NC or Fort Worth, TX - but it seems poorer, dustier, and shorter than cities I've seen in the States. Saltillo - and all of Mexico that I've seen so far - has an interesting feel that is hard to explain; it's just Mexican. Monterrey is different from Saltillo; it's huge and, unlike the latter, has tall and impressive buildings - and roughly four million people.

Thursdays don't usually contain anything special except that once in a while there is a guitar lesson in San Antonio.

Friday afternoons, I help pick up people for Church meeting, bumping down and up and around the rough mountain roads for a couple hours, then sometimes doing it again to take people back after the service.

Saturdays are when I help do laundry, house cleaning, and various projects for the Richardson, but it's usually a little more laid back than other days.

Sunday morning brings another Church meeting, and therefore another few hours of bus route, and then (usually) time in the afternoon to rest and enjoy time with God!

When I'm not doing these things, I help with meals and dishes, cleaning and organizing, taking care of the kids, reading to Anna and sometimes to the others, doing laundry, visiting with neighbors (in Spanish = hard!), and getting ready for home school conferences that the Richardsons arrange. In the past couple of months, I've spent hours and hours taking inventory of the home school resources and books that we'll sell at the conferences, ordering more, and then counting the new books, recording them in the inventory, and prepping the boxes to be taken to the conferences.

Well, enough about myself. Hopefully that gives you an idea of some of what I'm doing and helps you imagine my world better. :)

Prayer Request

I have been convicted recently of some serious pride and self-righteousness. It's been so much a part of me that until yesterday I didn't even realize what it was. It's affecting everything I do. It's disgusting, and it's so ingrained in me that it seems impossible to get rid of. That's why I'm asking you all to pray a lot for me: God says that "...the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much" (James 5:16). I really need help to change my thinking; please pray that God would get this pride, self-righteousness, and judgmental attitude out of me. And soon.
If you, my siblings in Christ, would help me out in this way, I would really, really appreciate it.

Thoughts from Life: Fear

I am so sick of fear. Why should I be accepting something that displeases God, often damages the people around me, and makes my life miserable?! Alright, fear: consider yourself rejected. And don't come back, or I'll get my Father to teach you a lesson.

"For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, 'Abba! Father!'" ~Romans 8:15

Thoughts from Life:

God's gracious answer when I cried to Him about my problems: "Turn your eyes upon Jesus; look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth [both competing affections and yucky things in life] will grow strangly dim in the light of His glory and grace" (by Helen Howarth Lemmel)

People: the Richardsons!

The Richardson family: Mr. Mike, Mrs. Pam, Samuel (age 17), Isaac (16), Anna (14), Joshua (13), Timothy (11), Benjamin (9), and Abigail (3).

(From left to right, that's Benjamin, Timothy, Anna, Abigail, and Joshua)

(Isaac, Timothy, Samuel)

To Come...

Allow me, in the following posts, to introduce you to my world here in Mexico:

What I see
People
Happenings
Interesting Bits
Thoughts from Life (what I've been thinking)
Thanksgiving (things for which I'm thankful)

And any other topic which I make up later on. :)

...I feel like Alex Trebek...

Hurray!!!!!!!!!!

I only have a second to post this, but I HAVE to let you know!
Thank you all so much for praying for the salvation of the tile workers! God is hearing and answering: God saved Pépe tonight!!!
After Church meeting this afternoon (in which Mr. Richardson presented the Good News very clearly), he talked to Mr. R about wanting to repent and believe, and then he prayed and gave his life to God!!! As my daddy would say, "Yes! Yes! Yes!"
Pépe told Mr. R that he couldn't sleep well last night, and kept thinking about it. Hurray!!!
The other workers may be close, too, to salvation; keep praying! God is working!

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" 2 Corinthians 9:15

Precious

Today Timothy and Benjamin demonstrated to me their impression of “two bucks locking horns.” Together they’d count “one, two, three,” and then charge at each other (thankfully not headfirst), crash hard, and go sprawling onto the floor laughing their heads off.

Boys: fearfully and wonderfully made with a couple extra doses of daring. :)

Prayer Requests

If you would like, please pray for…

*A 19-year-old friend at home who just found out that he has cancer and is looking into what he can do about it. Pray for peace, wisdom, and a closeness to God for him and his parents and siblings – and for healing, if it’s what God wants.

*The salvation of the four unsaved tile-layers working on our house: Raul, Pépe, Mario, and Luís. The 17 years old, Mario, has especially been on my heart as his mom (the only parent in his life) passed away a few weeks ago. He has an older brother and a younger sister who are living with their grandmother, and he’s trying to figure out his life. Happily, all the workers have heard the Gospel at least once since they have been here; it would be wonderful if they gave their lives to God!!! Pray, too, for wisdom for Don Poncho (the other tile-layer) and his wife: they are saved (Don Poncho is also a pastor) and have been a witness to the workers.

*My granddad who is in the hospital with a kidney infection and pneumonia.

Learning a Language is Good for Humility

Five tile-layers from Monterrey and the wife of one of them have been here for the past few weeks to work on a house we’re building, and the wife, “Anita,” brought a bunch of groceries because we are feeding them meals while they are here. Some of what she brought was a massive stack of corn tortillas (which they eat with almost every meal). It looked like they may have been homemade, so I carefully chose all the words I needed and asked her if she had made them. I couldn’t figure out why she just looked confused and seemed like she didn’t know how to answer me – until I realized that I had asked her if she had eaten all of those tortillas! Of all the words to mix up…. :)

I also always mix up “te quieres” and “te gustas” (as my sister, GraceAnn, well knows!). I think the other day I may have stuck my foot in my mouth asking a girl if she “wanted” a thing she had when I meant to ask if she “liked” it; I probably sounded like I was asking for her to give me whatever it was! Oopsy. At least the girl was only 7 years old – probably a little less likely to give me her stuff than an older person.

A “Divine Appointment”

Waiting in the Houston airport for my next flight, I was a bit tired and lonely. Having explored the airport, I sat down in a sunny area to do some reading – but just as I started, God decided to fix my “tired and lonely” problem by plopping a very chatty, white-haired lady in front of me and letting her start telling me – with no introduction – all about her life. Bye- bye loneliness. :)

Then after about an hour of hearing of her family in Germany, of her Hispanic husband’s love of sports, of the silliness of cell phone capabilities, and of her physical ailments, she started talking about spiritual things. Bye-bye tiredness. :) She was religious, but she didn’t know God; she may be close to accepting Him, though. When it was about time for me to start heading back to my terminal, it occurred to me to offer her a tract to read while she waited for her plane, and she was very happy to take it. We parted as friends (though we still don’t know each others’ names); the cheerful little woman summed up our short time together by stating matter-of-factly how happy she was that we could have our little talk “instead of sitting and looking stupid.” I agree.

No Fear

On the plane from Houston to Mexico, my seatmate asked me “Aren’t you afraid to go to Saltillo because of the shootings that have been happening every day?” I told her that I hadn’t been aware of the violence she was talking about, but that it didn’t make any difference. I am completely secure because of knowing God and being 100% sure that He wants me in Mexico.

It doesn’t matter whether I’m in my own home or in downtown Saltillo; if I’m being and doing what He wants, I can rest in the fact that I won’t die (or get injured, either) unless He wants me to – and if He chooses that for me, I’ll be okay in it because He knows a whole lot better than I do and because He provides (for His children) what it takes to pass – ultimately unscathed – through whatever situation He gives. He works everything for my good because I am called by Him and I love Him (Romans 8:28). Though I am often scared about a lot of things, I don’t have to be; His love casts out the fear when I go to Him with it (1John 4:18; 5:14-15).

He’s powerful, and He’s good; we can trust Him.

My Prayer – for this Blog, and for my Life

O Lord, be my Life and be magnified in my life. Bind me to Yourself with cords unbreakable, unmovable. Cause me from now to the safety of eternity to abide not only with You but also in You. Envelop me in Yourself. Consume me. Dissolve me in Your essence so that I exist only as an extension of You. Through my life, shine Your glory into my heart and into the heart of every person who knows me so that Becky is forgotten in the wonder and worship of her Lord, her Life, her God, her All.

Let the glorification of You be my life’s one success.

Perfect Peace

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee,

because he trusteth in Thee;

Trust in the LORD forever,

for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.”

Isaiah 26:3-4

This verse came to mind many times as I thought about going to Mexico. Leaving for a country I’ve never seen, staying for five months with people I’ve never met, and trying to speak a language which I’ve never used before has the potential to rob from this homebody any peace I used to have. Or, it could be the way that God gives me a deeper peace than any I’ve previously even imagined by motivating me to focus on Him and to trust Him instead of leaning on what’s familiar to me. It’s in this God-centered focus and in this reliant faith that real peace is cultivated.

My intent for this blog is that God will use it to fix my focus and yours on Him. In recording what He’s doing in my life, I hope that both you and I will be edified, that God will be glorified, and that His perfect peace will saturate our lives.

Here it is, Lord; please use it how You want to.