Fri.NiteKids: A Quick Intro.

Yodeysi, Luisana, Coco, Yudeisy, and Alondra w/ Gina. #Fri.NiteKids

I'll call "Fri. Nite Kids" an inner-city ministry in Tampa that my beloved sister, roommate, and co-laborer in the gospel, Gina, unintentionally started about 2 years ago in her old neighborhood by sharing the gospel with a little girl, who then told her neighborhood friends, who then repeatedly showed up at Gina's door with questions about Jesus, the Bible, etc. There is much more to say about how the Lord began this ministry and how He has been reaching these children with the gospel, but I will post that later, Lord willing. 

For now, I rejoice that after praying for some months now for the few laborers of this ministry and the many children in this neighborhood, God has opened a door for me to serve in the ministry every Friday. I am now teaching the middle and high school kids about the gospel at 6:45pm after Gina teaches the younger children at 5:30pm. I can't express how much joy and burden God has given me as I begin to share the gospel and my life with them (1 Thessalonians 2:8). They have become even more dear to me as I have spent time with them in these last few weeks. My heart is so burdened for these children, and I praise God that He has me here to labor that they might know "the Father of the fatherless" (Psalm 68:5). 

Gina also plans on trying to post more about the Bible study on her blog here: http://unabridgedgina.wordpress.com/

Prayer Requests: 

• Salvation: Most of these children come from extremely broken homes, and they do not know Christ yet. Please pray for the Spirit of God to open their eyes to the glorious gospel of grace as He also empowers us to proclaim it to them weekly. Pray also for their families' salvation. 
• Laborers: The Lord has blessed this unexpected ministry with laborers who love these children and have proclaimed the gospel to them for about 2 years now. At this moment, however, only Gina and I are serving/teaching on Fridays. Please pray that the Lord of the harvest will send laborers (especially faithful brothers to disciple the young boys in the neighborhood) to this neighborhood. 
• Local Church: Please pray that He will connect the Bible study to a local church so that it can be under elders, etc. Efforts are in progress to connect the Bible study to a solid local church that is near the neighborhood, but please pray that it will happen.
• Unity: Please pray Philippians 1:27 for Gina and I. Pray for our unity and harmony as we labor together in the gospel and live together along with 3 other beloved sisters in Christ. Pray that He will keep us humbled by His glory and remind us continually that our lives are hidden in Christ alone.

"The church is the Embassy of the City of God within the cities of man." 
- Michael Horton (paraphrased, sermon on Psalm 68/Ephesians 4)

Journal Prayer: 7.7.12

True Prosperity 

"Who is the man who fears the LORD?
He will instruct him in the way he should choose.
His soul will abide in prosperity,
And his descendants will inherit the land.
The secret of the LORD is for those who fear Him, 
and He will make them know His covenant." 
- Psalm 25:12-14

Father,
I do taste in some measure the prosperity of my own soul in Christ Jesus. For in Him, You have blessed me with every spiritual blessing there is in the heavenlies. He prepares a home for me in Heaven. He reserves my inheritance--imperishable, undefiled, and unfading--for me as You keep me by Your power until I see it and hold it. I rejoice with joy inexpressible in this hope given to me in Christ. And I am presently given the privilege of tasting and seeing that You are good. I taste these hors d'oeuvres now that whet my palate for Your kingdom coming. Charles Leiter's illustration of regeneration and justification in the sermon I heard yesterday was such a beautiful picture of how You presently let my soul abide in prosperity. Justification is like a class that I take in which the professor declares to  his students on the first day of class, "Do not worry about your grade in this class. I have already given everyone a 100% for the whole semester. Now you have the privilege to learn  this subject with no fear of failing, nor with the futile motive of scoring the highest in the class." And regeneration is as though the professor had the power to change each students' heart prior to the beginning of the semester to genuinely love the subject of the class. And the subject is Your Son, who explains You, Father; Your Spirit is my Professor; and Your Word is my textbook; and my class is paid for in full by Your Son's sufficient blood. "Now," You tell me, "Enjoy learning." It's as though You say again, "From any tree in the garden you may eat freely. See, there is the fruit of sweet juice called the doctrine of adoption. And over there is the fruit of reconciliation with Your Creator. Taste, see, touch, explore. Enjoy the abundance of My overflowing goodness, and drink deeply from the river of My delights and the wells of My salvation." Here, in Christ, I have freedom and longings to pursue the prosperity of my own soul. For I know the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ, "that though He was rich, yet for [my] sake He became poor, so that [I] through His poverty might become rich." (2Corinthians 7:9). Though within myself I am poor in spirit, wretched, blind, and miserable; yet the splendor of the gospel is that I receive beauty in exchange for my ashes, riches in Christ for my destitution in Adam. 

So let me know more deeply, and pursue more fervently, the prosperity of my soul in the fear of You, Lord. If no other aspect of my fading life here is prosperous, and perhaps it is better for me this way, but let me seek the food that does not perish. Let the eyes of my heart be enlightened, so that I may know what is the hope of Your calling, what are the riches of the glory of Your inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of Your power toward us who believe. And, oh, to know Your secret--the deeper, more intimate knowledge of You--is what my heart wants more when I read that You will make me to know Your covenant when I pursue and fear You. Let me seek it with perseverance and delight at Your table of delectables, in Your classroom of many treasures to explore. 

In Jesus' name, 
Amen.

Poem: Snowflakes

Snowflakes (Nehemiah 9-10)

By: Quina

I fear my last breath will be filled with regrets

on this deathbed 

lying next

to idols I chose over You

left

empty and excuseless

My heart is weaker than

            a dried leaf

            I crumble and think

            of Your past and present faithfulness to me

            and I am baffled by my unbelief

            this senseless

            response to pressure and stress

Even these

            precious and pure

            snowflakes

                        fluttering down from

                                    Your hand above

                                                to mine below

            unique, glimmering

            necessarily temporary

            crafted to make me smile           

            and sing with

            greater praise to You…

I see them and

            run inside, and

            tell myself I will get

            cold and wet

            run inside,

            it seems safer, yet

            Love is

            pleasure and pain

            and I run as

            an escape with my lusts

            promising me just pleasure, but

            leading me to this deathbed

            and I feel the depression set in

            pressing upon my soul

for I’ve

            locked myself in this room with

            suicidal ambitions

            fueled by lies

I’ve heard in my heart, believed, and repeated until

it seems they’ve become a part of me—

            “You will

            never be understood, so

            silence will save you

            from more pain.”

            “There’s no

            deliverance

            for pits this deep, which

            you have dug for yourself.”

            And,

            “You are alone.”—

and I crawl toward

shadows in this room

cast only

by undeniable beams of light,

Your continued mercy,

shining through the window

where I still see

            those snowflakes

            You are

            still pursuing me…

But I am

            unable to comprehend

            these depraved shadows in my mind

            much less articulate a confession

            when

            my sins have reached the heavens

So I

            close my mouth, and

            pride freezes me from the inside

This warm house was a delusion

            stupid lies

            embrace of insanity

running

from my cross to bear

when

You offer me

life in exchange for my worthless tries

at breathing in this room, suffocating

Ashamed,

I

cannot run from You, yet

before You I cannot stand.

When

             I reach to close those blinds

            upon the window, so as

            to dwell in despair

            with darkness all around me,

a shadow You cast

            from behind me

            startling

            it reaches around my arms,

            horizontal beams,

            then the rest of me is covered, a

            vertical beam,

and I am left to gaze

trembling

at the cross You bore for me

there on it

is nailed all my iniquities

and before it

I weep,

and confess,

            “You are a God ready to forgive

            merciful and gracious

            abounding in

            steadfast love

            You will never give me up

            You keep covenant,

            Righteous One,

            You have dealt faithfully

            and I so wickedly,

            Yet in this room

            You have refused to grant me rest

            Only to meet me in my misery

            to hear my cry of distress

            and answer me with Your sure salvation

            so I might run

            outside into the snow

            finding warmth in Your fellowship—

            this cross on my back.

I mind not

getting wet, soaked even

by trials and daily death

if my heart is on fire

and I can feel You again…”

Snowflakes will fall and melt at Your will

Still, I’ll take Your path:

            Death to self for life You will resurrect

            instead of a life preserved for regrets

            on this deathbed.

"The best songwriters are the best exegetes." 
- from Gina's notes in Poetical Books class