Being very busy doing the Word and being engaged in important ministry activities that have meaningful impact on those being ministered to is what loads-up the scheduling of so many pastors. It’s no different for pastors in the Philippines including those attending the three respective weekly Life-Discipleship groups. Patty and I did a review of Rev. 2:2-3 for the weekly groups who are being trained to care for their respective congregations. Although leaders of the Ephesian church were busy being doers of the word and doing all the listed practices in their ministries, they obviously were too busy in order to submissively maintain their first-love relationship with the Lord, abiding in the Vine (John 15:5, Proverbs 3:5-6). We all came under conviction about these issues since any one of us can be so caught up in so much busyness. Other discussions during our sessions had to do with “Temptations”. In themselves, are they sin or not? Hm-m-m-m-m! What do the Scriptures really teach about this? What’s the difference between “trials”, “testings”, and “temptations”? Needless to say, we had rich discussions about these topics as we reviewed the lesson together during the week of December 15-19.
Pami (our daughter from the greater Los Angeles area) is visiting us over here in Metro Manila for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Being that she just completed her nursing training to become a RN upon her completion of the California state RN examination after she returns, she’s assisting at a birthing clinic for a week.
An interesting situation came up that should be well worth the subject for discussion when our Life-Discipleship groups study the two lessons on marriage relationships. A young woman in her early twenties was brought into the clinic to deliver her baby. She is a mistress of the man and his wife who her brought her in. Both this women and her newborn baby encountered serious problems during the birthing process. She spent more than 20 hours in labor and during that time, the baby was in serious stress. As of last night, the mother was in critical condition. The “father” of this baby remained at the clinic and was very concerned over this whole matter.
Now let’s suppose that the Lord may have allowed this whole situation to be in order to get his attention preparing his heart for the Gospel. And let’s imagine that he prays to receive the Spirit of Christ into his life while undergoing counseling by a local pastor or missionary. This would mean that he would need a local church to take him in for spiritual-nurturing and to disciple him in the Scriptures. If he should grow in the Lord, then what should be done concerning the relationship with his mistress and what limitation should there be concerning his role in that church? Men and their mistress relationships are common among married men in this country. What should be done through the local church leadership for the whole family including the mistress? These are issues that we would like to take up with the pastors being trained in the groups. Please pray with us for the Lord’s guidance on our discussions and discovery of practical biblical principles relating to this matter. The culture in family relationships in this country must also be taken into account.
There’s a young pastor who’s active in one of the training groups. He’s the same young man who was rather distractive during the beginning sessions with his humor during the beginning weeks of training. But as the weekly ensuing sessions continued and because of the group discussions on very important life-changing biblical principles with many references to the Scriptures, he seems to be growing spiritually based on his interactive participation in the discussions. However, he hasn’t turned in his week-by-week homework lesson assignments as others have done. He did promise that he would be up to date by the next scheduled session after the holidays. Please pray for him that he will have much interaction with the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures while he studies the lesson assignments.
We’re glad that you read this blog offering you an insider’s view of what’s been going on in our lives and ministry here. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. If you would like to respond offering your comments, feel free to send us an email with your thoughts. lifediscipleship@gmail.com.
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