October 20th, 2009
Psalm 136:1 “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”
Matthew 5:7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be show mercy.
Hebrews 4:16 “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need.”
Dear Friends,
Hi. Emie and I send you our warm greetings from the Philippines, in the name of our mutual Savior and Lord. “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”---Philemon 3. We pray that the Lord will strengthen & encourage you, and bless you in new and surprising ways---now, and in the New Year to come. “For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.” ---Isaiah 41:13
The Scriptures at the top of this page, share about one of the greatest needs of mankind---God’s mercy. One Hebrew word for mercy used in the Bible that occurs 250 times is “Chesed”. It is defined as: Kindness, mercy, unfailing love; tenderness, faithfulness. Another word used for mercy in Romans 9:15 is: “eleeo” and it means: “ to show kindness and concern for someone in serious need, feel compassion for, have pity. Mercy is not merely a passive emotion, but an active desire to remove the cause of distress in others.”
Much of what we need to know about mercy is summed up in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we might be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort which we ourselves are comforted by.” We all have a great need to receive God’s mercy: His kindness, unfailing love, compassion, and forgiveness. In Luke 18:9-14 Jesus shares a parable about a proud Pharisee and a contrite Tax Collector. In vs. 13 it says the tax collector would not even raise his eyes to heaven but that he beat against his chest and said: “God be merciful to me a sinner!” The Bible says that he is the one whose prayer was answered.
And when we ourselves are the recipient of God’s mercy---we also need to be a people who show mercy to others as the Lord leads and anoints us to do so. When we give mercy and compassion we place ourselves in a position to receive even more mercy & compassion back.
There was an old song back in the 60’s in which part of the words were: “What the world needs now is love sweet love, that’s what there is just too little of…” and the words are true but they were directed incorrectly, as they were being sung in a secular sense. Because what the world needs now, is indeed love sweet love—but they need to realize pure agape love can only come from Jesus. And when the people in this world come to know Jesus in a real way---they begin to realize there is no limit to God’s mercy and love to us, because it is so large it is beyond measure.
Sixty-five years ago on this day, General MacArthur and the allied force landed on the coast of Leyte to begin the liberation of the Philippines from the Japanese Army. About 2 miles from where I live is a memorial park on the coast and the Filipinos have a major celebration every year in remembrance of that special date. On one of stone memorials there is written Mc Arthurs speech, starting with the words: “I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God, our forces stand again on Philippine soil…” He had made a promise to return and on the day of the allied forces landing in Leyte, Gen. Mac Arthur gave tribute to the Lord. The Philippines was liberated and shortly thereafter granted independence. I will be taking our kids there for part of the celebration. When I am there, one thing that stands out to me---are those words that apply so much to us all: { By The Grace Of Almighty God} because in our own lives, we truly stand by His grace.
Many of you may have noticed on the news about the recent Typhoons in Manila and Northern Luzon. These storms caused a lot of damage and many people lost their lives. There are predictions of a 3rd typhoon coming in but we are praying it will just be driven out to the ocean. In Region 8 we have avoided these storms so far this year. Three years ago we had a typhoon that seriously damaged one church and destroyed two churches. The 1 was repaired and the other 2 had new church buildings constructed. All of the church members were safe.
Last month I shared how Emie and I had met a very sick teen-age street boy and taken him into our home. He was very malnourished and had open sores on part of his neck which we thought were fungal in nature but turned out to be quite different. When we were able to get a full exam for him, we discovered he had acute Tuberculosis, there is so much in the lungs that it spreads and breaks out on the skin. I had not see that before and since he was not coughing ( the Doctor says they lose their ability to cough) I did not suspect TB. He only weighed 70 lbs, and that was after 3 weeks of 3 meals a day at our mission’s house and compound.
We found a Christian missions group who works with street kids and had helped him once before and they are now helping with the medical prescriptions and the medical bills at the public hospital which we recently had to take him to have a cyst removed along with 1.5+ pints fluid. He is recovering and we should be bringing him back to our mission’s compound in 2 or 3 days. As he is under strong medication for the TB he should not be infectious currently. It has been some risk in having him here but he has been isolated most of the time. It is not always easy or convenient in helping take care of a street boy with these complications but I believe we have helped save his life and perhaps as he gets hopefully healed completely---perhaps God will use him in a special way. All things are possible with God. Please pray for Randy, that the Lord’s best will become reality in his life.
Last Thursday I felt led by the Lord to send a financial donation to a Christian named Aggrey Abwonza who lives in Kenya, Africa. I had met him there last April during my ministry there. He is working in Nairobi as a dental tech. and holding Bible studies and desires to pioneer a church there. The donation was unexpected and amounted to 3,000 Kenyan shillings or about $45. I got an email back from him and he was happy and thankful.
“Hi brother Gordon, Glory to God our Savior, His love never fails, Brother every week on Thursday I am usually in prayers (FASTING), today my prayer request was financial breakthrough and see what Jehovah God has done, It is a testimony!! May the Lord who led you into sending this donation bless you and let Him extend your boundaries according to His will, be blessed together with your entire family, may the Lord bless your ministry too…” [ I had thought about waiting till the next day to send it, but I felt led to make an effort to send that day and drove downtown in early evening (which was early afternoon in Kenya) and sent it Western Union and Aggrey received an answer to his prayer to God for that day. God is good; and it’s a blessing to be a blessing.
This month we had pastors and church workers from 20 churches stay at our mission’s compound for 3 days for our monthly meeting. They attended a seminar in Tacloban about training church members to help evangelize and train new Christians to more fruitfully and effectively serve the lord. All basic areas of ministry are doing well here and we praise the Lord for that.
God bless you all who are actively partnering with us in the ministry here and other parts of the world. We are very thankful for your prayers, encouragement, financial investments in the ministry outreaches, and friendship. We are confident that the Lord will reward your faithfulness.
In God’s love,
Gordon & Emie
P.S. Please continue to pray for the Lord’s anointing, clear guidance, protection, good health, financial provision, and abundant fruitfulness in the ministry--- for more people to be saved and trained to faithfully serve the Lord. Thanks.
