Dearest Uncle Richard and Church Family,

I pray this finds you all well and keeping warm! It has been cold here, but nothing compared to ya’ll’s snow……………….(actually today it warmed up to about 78 degrees surprising us into short sleeves!)
I just finished fixing Frank a big bowl of Chicken soup. And just that. Plain old chicken boiled in water with an onion. Man, I’d forgotten how good a base just some simple chicken caldo makes!
Although we had unseasonably warm weather today, we came home at 4pm , from the beach rather cold. Cold, but praising the Lord!!
As you know, last week we attended to a family who suddenly lost their 17 year old son, brother, uncle, cousin to a car accident. Actually the young man was hit by a car here in Maneadero in the early afternoon. No one was drunk or sleepy, really it appears not to be anyone’s fault, however two families wee, in an instant, destroyed. The elderly gentleman who hit Marcos apparently wandered around the accident site, mumbling to himself and asking who’s dog he had hit. The elderly fellow was obviously in the throes of dementia or Alzhiemer’s or something. Sadly, he had no insurance and was arrested on-site, taken to jail to await the judges a valuation of the life he had inadvertently taken………………..so sad. Our last word was that he was still in jail waiting for his family to collect $60,000 DOLLARS, which is what he must pay under Napoleonic law here, to “make up for the life he took.”
But back to our day here. We returned at about 4 pm COLD FROM THE BEACH. From the service or funeral for the young man that was killed last week, 8 persons committed their lives to the Kingship of Jesus Christ and showed up to be BAPTIZED in water today! What a victorious time we had today. It seemed ever the more sweet as it followed upon the heels of the death of such a young person which is so difficult to take and understand. Even more difficult to attempt to explain. However at the service , Pastor Frank spoke of the promise bodily Resurrection and of how anyone could be SURE to partake in that wonderful thing. He even went into the importance of water baptsim at the memorial. At the time my innards screamed- and of course I thought in my tired flesh, “He is going TOO far! Too much at one time!” How wrong I was, a one by one and two by two, persons who had attended the service have showed up at the Church Building this week , all asking for baptism!!
Praise Jesus! These were people totally unknown to us before the accident, people who basically just walked in off the street looking for life in a situation where it seemed that death was reigning.
We have also returned to feeding an average of 51 people this week for our daily lunch. On top of that I do about 15 breakfasts every morning. We are thanking Yahweh for providing the extra funding to keep that feeding program going, a few weeks we really didn’t know if it would continue or not. The feeding ministry alone costs about $650-700 dollars a WEEK……………… it works out to a couple of dollars per meal served. It is a lot of money and a lot of work. BUT in this week as I have repeatedly watched new families walk up to 2 miles to eat their only meal for the day, then after eating I very often watch as they surreptitiously tuck their scraps and leftovers into a coat pocket lined in preparation with a plastic bag. I realize it is worth it, physically and spiritually as when people come to us hungry they NEVER EVER go away with just a pat on the back and and a “God Bless You , Brother.” We see and live the feeding program as we do the preaching of the Gospel and the Drinking Water Ministries, EXTENSIONS OF THE KINGDOM OF THE LIVING RULING KING, Yahweh’s Son JESUS CHRIST.
In a time where dead religion runs rampant thru Mexico and the world it is important to us that we walk the talk and SHOW the lost what Jesus would do for them.
It is not a focus on works for us, (because we know that the Lord will care for His people no matter what they DO…………………….. but it is a work of GRATITUDE. We are so thankful for a;ll that the Lord has done in our lives , that we can’t see living any other life but one that shows the LOVE of Jesus in our very being………………………..Yahweh has been so Good as to call us out of darkness into His marvelous light! And you all at Harvest of Faith, over the years have been so good as to keep us in prayer and to bless us with your finances, enabling us to bless these precious people!
As we enter a New Year, we just wanted to say thank you and to let you all know how dear in our hearts that we hold you…………………
Much love and many many blessings as we enter this New and Prosperous Year,
In Jesus’ Name,
Detra and Francisco

Some more pictures of the Christmas meal and medical clinic

Here are some pictures of the Mission at Christmas and gifts given.

No More Sin Consciousness by Stephen R. Crosby
The scope of the change from the Old to the New Covenant era has been debated since the first days of the church-even before Jew/Gentile and legalism issues. The apostles had the unenviable task of trying to simultaneously claim continuity and discontinuity with the Old Covenant Scriptures. They had to wrestle with: “How, and to what degree have things changed?” It wasn’t an easy job then. It’s not an easy job now, and to this day, has never been fully resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. My personal conviction (which I hope is agreeable to many) is that the Calvary-Act (i) is the great interpretive filter for all Scripture. However, this hopefully amenable premise does not eliminate debate on various issues.

It has been my church experience (36 years) that most Christians live in varying degrees of mixture of old and new creation beliefs and practices. The sweep of the change from the Old to the New era (pre to post-Pentecost) is neither well understood nor practiced. Most Christians understand our sins are forgiven in Christ. But that is Godward awareness. The mixture normally manifests in the daily mucking and grinding of practical living, what some call sanctification. Some sincerely teach that we are justified by grace, but after that, it is all up to our discipline to live the Christian life.

The Pauline grace of God in the New Covenant is so radical, that scrupulous moralists of his day accused Paul of excusing sin (Rom 6:1-2). That accusation still echoes today in those who want to resist the New Covenant message of undeserved, unmerited, unqualified, raw, grace, effective for both our justification and sanctification. They think that preaching a “grace message” promotes sloppy living and that diligent focusing on our sin, and mastery and overcoming of the same, is the way to please God and obtain his personal favor above others who are not as disciplined as, well . . . our wonderful selves!

Sin awareness and management through the disciplined application of biblical principles is not the new creation life we are promised in Jesus Christ. If we could manage our sin, we would not need a Redeemer. The old creation nature is very disciplined. This is especially true if there is some benefit or gain associated with the mastery of sin such as, esteem, respect, promotion, privilege, promise of leadership position, etc. Like a dancing dog in a circus, the old nature will flawlessly perform to biblical standard for the applause of a crowd. But when the applause stops . . . its still . . . a dog . . . the old nature.

Spiritual maturity is not defined by how well we apply biblical principles to suppress sin. The Scripture plainly tells us that trying to a live a life of commitment to principles is contrary to God’s will and designed to cause us to fail, go backward, be broken, snared, and taken in a trap. (ii) God had a rest and refreshing for Israel, bound up in His Person, relationship, and love, which they refused. So he taught them precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little, like a bunch of babies! It is not a compliment from heaven! Most of Christianity thinks “line upon line” is the “standard” to be desired and pursued!

Gordon Dalbey (iii) has a unique grasp on the depth of this significance:

Father God will not allow relationship to him to be reduced to a set of principles. Men who live by principles therefore cannot know God, for he is approached and known not by striving after righteousness, but only by confessing brokenness. A man cannot hide the fact that his rigid principles are not signs of integrity, but weapons to shield his own fearful weaknesses. The man who is always right is the most dangerous threat to God’s purposes in the world. It is the man of principle who is always the most ready to reject the gift of God and to hurt, even destroy others whom God has ordained for us to be in relationship, because of adherence to his principles. A person who lives by principles can only receive what he or she has earned through his/her careful adherence to those principles. (iv)

It’s a negotiated deal-Deuteronomy 28-We do our part, God does His. I have heard it taught that way. The only problem is, the terms of the New Covenant have only one party involved . . . Himself (Heb. 6:13-20). Part of the joy of being a participator in the new creation is to be free of a constant awareness of sin (Heb 10:2, 10:22)! Yes, I know this sounds too good to be true, and some are probably already shouting at me: “Yeah, but what about obedience?” I will get to that. The strength of sin is the law. (v) That is, all law living, not just Torah adherence, but striving to live by “laws” . . . Jew or Gentile law, even “good” biblical “laws.” Being “hard on sin” is actually empowering the same. You can bet that if a preacher is harping on a particular sin, that his/her own sin is lurking in the dark somewhere.

The essence of the old order was sin consciousness: God is holy, humanity is in debt to that holiness, Torah demands adherence, and a hope that sins might be forgiven for at least another year after the Day of Atonement. There was no assurance. Rather, through the repeated necessity of offerings, the worshiper was continually reminded of his or her sins. The whole point of the New Covenant is to accomplish something that the Old could never do: provide the believer no more conscience (awareness/self-indictment) of sin.

Instead of Torah as a center of consciousness and as a means of conviction of sin, we have been given the spirit of sonship in the Person of the Holy Spirit, who brings conviction of sin-in filial relationship with the Father, through Christ. The only sin believers should be “focused” on, is the sin the Spirit brings to light as we are in intimate dialog with the Father! Only as we sit on His metaphorical lap, hear His heart beat, and listen to the mercifully severe Voice of transforming love and power, are we to address matters of behavior. We are not called to self-energized, self-analyzed, self-managed, “sintrospection!”

The Psalmist said, that in His light, we would see light. (vi) Our ability to even recognize sin is the direct result of His gift of light to us! Without His light, we will only see what we want to see! We do not possess the faculty necessary for sin inspection! We’re not capable of accurately assessing our own iniquities. Depending on our personality and temperament our self-analysis will result in either excusing ourselves into licentiousness (Oh, its not that bad) or accusing our selves into guilt (Woe is me, I am undone). Neither is appropriate for a new creation believer! There are only two verses in the entire NT that specifically tell us to examine ourselves. One is in the context of the Lord’s Table in 1 Corinthians 11:28, and the other is an exhortation to examining ourselves to see if we are in the faith, (2 Cor. 13:5), not examining our selves for sin deficiency. That’s it.

For believers, we are supposed to have experienced the joy of a sprinkled (washed) conscience, as well as a change in a center of consciousness. My awareness is no longer supposed to be sin-centric, or Torah-centric, but Christ-centric. That is, He in His Person and His work for me, in me, and through me, is the new center of my own self-awareness and understanding. Our faith is made practically effective, not by focusing on sin, but by the acknowledgment (vii) of every good thing in us, in Christ Jesus! (Phm. 6).

Only in the light of His Fatherly embrace should the issue of sin, behavior, or sanctification be even considered. Because there, at the throne of God, seated with Him, I find not only conviction and truth–but transforming grace, the teaching and empowering kind, that enables me to overcome, not through my own disciplines and determinations, but through receipt of the transforming power of a new life . . . the very life of Jesus, living His life through me, as a new creation.

I am crucified with Christ: never the less, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Gal. 2:20

But by the grace of God I am what I am; and his grace was bestowed upon me not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 1 Cor 15:10
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i Birth, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and glorification of our Lord, Spirit out-pouring, and Spirit indwelling.
ii Please read Isaiah 28 in its entirety and in context some time.
iii http://www.abbafather.com
iv The preceding paragraph was paraphrased and adapted from Sons of the Father, Gordon Dalbey, 1992.
v 1 Corinthians 15:56.
vi Psalm 36:9
vii Epignosis – experiential knowledge . .. . knowledge gained by participation in and with the object of one’s knowledge. This is fundamentally . . . relational.

http://www.drstevecrosby.wordpress.com
He is Risen.
He is Lord.