Back at Home in Monterrey

After traveling approximately 3,500 miles, we have arrived back in Monterrey. We thank the Lord that the trip went well and the van held up. We are grateful that we could see family and friends, as well as being at a missions conference and Bible Conference. It was fun being at my 10 year class reunion at Bob Jones. Thank you for your prayers as we traveled.

We are busily preparing for our conference that will be celebrated April 7-9. Having been gone for several weeks, there is much to do in the next few days. We appreciate your prayers for that conference.

Why do we sin?

A few days ago I saw an article on the internet published by Newsweek. The title of the article was "His Cheating Brain: Why do powerful men risk everything for sex?"

Without wasting time and bytes on Spitzer, as a Bible-believer I was saddened by the answers that the article provided. "It has to do with brain chemistry, evolution and, yes, testosterone." Sadly, those are the only answers that a godless society can provide. Those are the answers of a society built upon an evolutionary psychology that treats men as animals essentially, responding to uncontrollable primitive urges. If we accept the answers of psychology, we have no hope. I mean, come on, what's a guy doing to do? He has millions of years of evolutionary development urging him to spread his genes around. He's helpless.

Thankfully, we have a better answer. The answer to the question "Why do powerful men risk everything for sex?" is simple: man is a depraved moral agent that loves sin and sometimes pursues it no matter what the potential consequences may be. If we accept the biblical answer, we have hope. Our hope centers upon the transforming work of regeneration that the Spirit brings about in the hearts of men and women that put their faith in Christ and His cross work.

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 7:24-25a) Christ delivers us from the body of death (our enslavement to sin).

Family Picture

We just had a family picture taken here in Greenville. As usual, that was a lot of fun! :-) But thankfully we got a pretty good picture. We plan to use it for new prayer cards this summer.

We are enjoying our time here with the grandparents. We are also looking forward to Bible Conference and my class reunion next week at Bob Jones.

Missions Conference

Last night was the closing service for the missions conference at Oakwood Baptist Church. We had a wonderful time with the church people and staff as well as with the other missionaries. The Lord stirred our hearts for ministry and missions as we were there. The people at the church were wonderful and extremely service oriented. I don't know how many people came up to me to ask if we needed anything. One practice that they had at the missions conference which was wonderful was the "host family" idea. This host family helped us by meeting us before each service, taking our children to the nursery, picking them up after the services, watching them while we were talking to other people, etc. Sometimes it is very difficult to talk to other people while you have to watch your kids run around the church lobby! We absolutely loved that program and our host family, Chris and Lisa Traynor. We also enjoyed spending time with my sister and brother-in-law, Hannah and Vic Irving. Vic is the youth pastor, and everybody seemed to love Pastor Vic and Miss Hannah. We were certainly blessed by our time at Oakwood.

One of the missionaries that was at Oakwood was Tom Kweder, representing ROGMA International. ROGMA is a free correspondence course ministry that has materials in many different languages. The materials seem to be top-notch quality. They were mostly written by fundamentalist pastor, Dr. William Piper (father of John Piper). Brother Kweder told me that they have 100,000 people at any time enrolled in the program. Each course has a lesson that is mailed to a grader who either passes or fails the student. Once the student has passed the course, they can go on to the next course. There are three different levels with 12 courses in each level. I am excited about getting more familiar with these resources and using them in Mexico.

We arrived at my parents house this afternoon. We are looking forward to a few days of a little bit more rest!

Thank you for your prayers during the travels. Everything went well (except for the three hour delay on the Texas-Louisiana border caused by an overturned tractor-trailer).