FUTURE PLANS 

1. Continue the work in Campos Sales until a national pastor can take over, and a building is erected. 

2. Continue teaching in the Bible institute in Manaus and in the interior.

3. Continue teaching Bible in the public schools. 

4. Continue the translating of good Bible literature into Portuguese, and distribution of free Bibles.

5. Continue helping interior pastors through the river ministry.

Quote of the day:

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Something to think about:

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The test for a prophet is in the Bible. It is this. "When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken."

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Sin and its consequences

John Hawkins

Sept 16,2006 

Parintins is the heart of what I call “calf worship”. It is a festival that involves dancing around two calf heads, one white and the other black. Very immoral and wicked things go on during that week. They say that 15% of the girls under the age twelve have aids and 40% of the women have aids. Thousands flock there every year from all over the world. 

The Parintins Bible institute is 500 miles south of Manaus on the Amazon. I teach there for ten days, twice a year.

The church there has a congregation in a small village down river called Villa Amazonia, it is pastored by Isaias, a graduate of our Bible institute in Manaus. 

To get to Villa Amazonia you must go by barge. It only takes about two hours to make the trip, but there is only one barge a day. It leaves at 7am and comes back at five in the afternoon.

I had arrived on Monday morning and gone directly to class. I was teaching four hours a day, all week, and trying to stay ahead with studies, and staying awake late into the night. 

It had been extremely hot all week, and it was Saturday morning September 16, 2006. I was already tired and it had not cooled off during the night. I flagged down a scooter taxi, and climbed on the back and headed for the river

The barge I was taking to Villa Amazonia was already filled with cars, trucks, bikes, motor scooters, food, animals and all such things as people need to work and survive in the jungle.

The people who were climbing on were of all sorts of men, women and children. Many had spent the night before drinking and wandering after every pleasure available at no matter what cost and the smells were many.

There were the poor, hungry, discouraged, drunk, sick and a host of people all wandering back home, or as close as they could get to it that day.

Some looked at me with curiosity, others with meanness, others were indifferent, and some were wary of my presence.

There is no where to hide from the suns heat, there was no wind, and very soon the sweat  starts to run down the middle of my back and down my legs. There will be standing only for the whole trip.

By the time we started moving out into the river where we could get some breeze and a little relief, my shirt and pants were soaked with sweat.

My stomach was a little queasy from the fish I had eaten the day before, and I prayed to God that I would not need a bathroom for another hour or two. There are no bathrooms on the barge.

I began to think how long it would be before I could have a cold drink of water, clean clothes and a cool place to lie down and rest.

About an hour later we pulled into the shore of Villa Amazonia. The river was dry and there was about 100 yards of sandy embankment to climb before hitting the half road half path into the village. The sun was so hot.

There are no convenience stores, no where to go except towards Pastor Isaias’s house, and I will have to go through the village and beyond about a mile through some low jungle.

As I strolled through the village the sun burned hot, and sweat was running down my pants and on to my sandals making mud out of the dust that gathered on my feet. I could hear the catholic church bells ringing about half a mile up ahead.

There were pigs and chickens in the street, and there was trash everywhere. There are always a few bars in those small villages, and people glared through red eyes as I passed by and I was so thirsty!

I stopped and sat down on a low hill over looking part of the village. I thought about how long it would be before I would be home; I wasn’t even half way done with my trip. I wished that I could make it all disappear and be back homewith Rebecca. (Now I know how important Jonah’s gourd was to him). The sin that is in me (as Paul said in Rom 7.14) made me angry inside. I thought to myself, “What in the world am I doing here?

The bells of the church were silent but I heard the priest beginning to speak over the loudspeakers mounted on the church steeple. His words sounded something like we might hear from the middle ages. He was ranting about “People who were teaching things that were different that the ‘real’ church”. He said that there was no room in their community for those who would inhibit their growth. There were those who would have us believe that the only true church was theirs, and these are the ones who will cause our village to suffer (as if they weren’t already suffering; That village is at least 150 years old).

It was then that one word pooped into my head, SIN!

That evil presence that is in us all and brought evil and suffering into the world. 

Sin is present at conception and will continue to be present until death and until the soul is loosed from its body, it will be tempted and tormented by it.

It never gives man one single chance, and before he breaths his first breath, he is already dead by it. 

All those who are born, are born into its arms and will never be past its reach and we have all seen great men destroyed by it.

Every soul has been infected by it right down to our most loved. Our children, our grandchildren were born into it by our flesh. The Bible says Rom 5:12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

It gave man hate, murder, rebellion, lasciviousness, adultery, drunkenness, and a million other ungodly acts and thoughts, and presents them to him as profound desires. These are inseparable from the heart, and no man can escape or tame them.

The vilest of sinners is but a shadow of sins essence.

Sin is a fountain of evil that spews forth endless death.

It took man; that living soul, God’s very own image and returned it totally depraved and degenerate. A creature so vile that it became incapable of even the presence of his maker, and apart from God’s grace that soul would be banished forever from his presence, never to be remembered again. Damned forever and ever in the eternal lake of fire.

Sin affected the physical world so completely that it must be totally destroyed and it has felt the agonies of the curse from the first day it entered Eden and will continue until the last star has fallen from the heavens and all things have become new.

All of natures brute beast and creatures groan because of it.

It gave Satan power and might, and pleasure in his quest in the destruction of God’s plan.

It transformed paradise into a grave, and that of hell itself.

Sin gave man his most feared enemy, death. Death swallows every man, every creature and nature itself has been swallowed up. Everything dies.

What misery, such desperation, sadness and guilt.

I remembered what the writer to the Hebrews said in 11.25. “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;”

I am glad that sin is just for a season, and it won’t be long before God’s redeemed are freed from its effect.

I could not sit any longer and I felt like the rich man, in need of Lazarus to dip his finger in water and put it on my tongue.

There could be no greater curse than one that would bring the very Son of God, His only begotten into this wretched world to die for a worm like me.

As I stood and headed for Pastor Isaias house, another word came to mind….GRACE.

As I arrived at his house, Isaias went to a clay pot on his table and poured a glass of water for me.

Then it dawned on me! I was in the village because of the Grace of God. Grace and mercy had been granted me, and God had promised Abraham that in him “all the families of the earth would be blessed”!

Pastor Isaias was there because of grace, and he was seeking others, praying for God's grace in their lives.

As I sat down and drank the cool water, it was as if my soul had been refreshed, like the refreshing of my soul the day the Lord saved me.

Re 22:17  … And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

There was nothing in that place that was luxurious. Their house was not any better that the next, worse than a lot of others, but there was a comfort, friendship and love that was not present in the others. Amidst all the suffering and desperation there was a family who seemed removed from it all. Blessed of God!

Grace knows no boundaries and is ever present in God eternal, part of His divine essence.

Grace looses the chains of spiritual darkness forever. The passions that force men to their own destruction are without power because of it.

Love, joy peace goodness and gentleness take their place.

Grace is the giver of tender mercies, and most abundant in to those in the most terrible of places.

By grace all blessing are obtained, and without it, man is left to his own devices and void of any and all hope.

Grace can be gotten of none, and given by only one.

It was present from the foundation of the world, and by its signature men were signed into the Lambs book of life.

Grace considers not the depths of the fallen only the measure of God’s love.

Grace brings us to God, Christ for us and His spirit in us.

The agonies of earth are transformed into still waters and green pastures.

Because of grace the dead become alive, the pit becomes a mountain, weakness becomes strength, foolishness becomes wisdom, the poor become rich, paupers become priests, death is swallowed up in victory, and we go from condemnation into His Kingdom.

I hope we never forget how terrible we were before God invested His grace in us.

Though the place I just described was yours, and you were forced to live in Vila Amanonia, you would still posses all the riches of his grace.

You would posses everlasting hope of salvation and glory.

1 Co 6.11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

To God be the glory! Great things he has done.

Quote of the day:

"A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many people want in, and how many people want out". Tony Blair