STAINED BY THE FLESH

Philippines Trip Update: Good news! Our class rooms are air conditioned. I have also found out that the fifth person joining our team is not a Pastor but a student at TEDS who is doing his masters and will go on to do a doctorate to become a seminary professor with a specialty in education for the third world church. Our team leader has asked that Samuel teach with me to gain some field experience. Please continue to pray and thank you for praying.
-finances for the trip
-preparation of lesson plans and reading I need to get done
-good health, strength and daily stamina in the heat 
-flight connections, travel safety, stamina for long flight 
-physical safety in Philippines and safe in country travel 
-perseverance, clear thinking, and wisdom in classes 
-Pastors to be receptive, encouraged, built up in faith 
-that I can be a rich blessing to these Pastors 
-that I can grow spiritually, in humility and love 
-unity and fellowship for our team 

I have been meditating on a particular phrase this last week from Jude 23, "And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh". The phrase is "the garment stained by the flesh". What an odd statement! Are we to hate a garment? Is this a figure of speech?
Generally I take this phrase to mean that the salvation of people is very important to God but that believers are also to hate anything that is of the flesh. Like the cliche, "love the sinner but hate the sin". The Greek word translated here as "garment" is chiton, which is a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin. This garment would by nature have the person's flesh impressed upon it. By extension, as believers we are to hate whatever is influenced by the flesh, and even further as this verse says to fear the flesh. This does not mean that we are to turn away from what is wordly in a legalistic, self-righteous, unthinking way, but to turn away and fear the flesh because we know that any involvement with the flesh makes us an enemy of God and can enslave us in sin quite quickly.

 As Christians we are not conscious of how much the flesh influences our thoughts, goals, attitudes, behavior and dress. With the mention of garment in the above phrase let me speak to how we dress as Christians. Is our choice of fashion stained by the flesh? How conscious are we of the influence of the flesh on the clothes we wear? Obviously the world has a different goal in mind for the function of clothing than we should have as Christians. Listen to what Paul says, "Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold and pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness - with good works" (1 Timothy 2.9-10 see also 1 Peter 3.1-6).
Our aim as believers is to walk in holiness and to not be stained by the flesh. This takes a knowledge of God's Word, sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, and daily conscious effort. Oh, but what peace and joy it is to please God in all we do and wear.

REMEMBERANCE

Philippines trip update: About 4 weeks to go. This morning we had a team meeting online to discuss how to prepare and teach our lessons. Please continue to pray for lesson preparation and for the Pastor's who will be in the class. One thing that was stressed was to communicate the lessons using none technical terminology and words that might be familiar to us but not familiar to the Pastors who have English as a second language. Ongoing prayer is vital to this trip. Here is a list for prayer:  
-finances for the trip
-preparation of lesson plans and reading I need to get done
-good health, strength and daily stamina in the heat 
-flight connections, travel safety, stamina for long flight 
-physical safety in Philippines and safe in country travel 
-perseverance, clear thinking, and wisdom in classes 
-Pastors to be receptive, encouraged, built up in faith 
-that I can be a rich blessing to these Pastors 
-that I can grow spiritually, in humility and love 
-unity and fellowship for our team 
Thank you for praying.

 God our Father knows all of our needs. He knows that we easily forget who He is, what He has done, who we are in Christ, and what His purposes are for us. So God in his loving wisdom continues to remind us of these great truths lest we forget and walk in our old ways.
Have you ever noticed how God often tells His people that He is God and how often God reminds His people of their history with Him, creation, Abraham the father of faith, Israel and their redemption from Egypt, Babylon and their restoration, and of His promises for the future? (1 Samuel 12.6f, Psalm 78, Acts 7, Hebrews 11)
God surrounded Israel with reminders of Himself and of His works and they were to remind themselves of these things by placing His Word all around them (Deuteronomy 6.4-9), having tassels on their robes (Numbers 15.37-39), and attending the yearly feasts and so on.
The New Testament writers were conscious of the need to remind the believers of the truth of God and of their position in Christ (2 Peter 1.12-15, Jude 5, 2 Timothy 2.8).
Knowing our proneness to forget God helps us to remember by calling us to regular gatherings together, his ordinances of baptism and communion (do this in remembrance of me), and the songs we sing to one another (Colossians 3.16). But we also must remind ourselves of our past history, of our God and Father and His works and promises, of His great salvation in Jesus Christ, and of our future destiny, by daily reading God's Word, daily prayer alone with God, memorizing scripture and meditating on it, fellowship with other believers (talking about the great things of God), and by what we read and watch and imagine.
Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. (Revelation 3.3)

LOYALTY

Philippines trip update:  We have added a fifth Pastor to our teaching team which reduces class sizes to about 10 Pastors. I have purchased my tickets for the flight and am now focused on lesson preparation in the midst of other demands.  Ongoing prayer is vital to this trip. Here is a list for prayer:
-finances for the trip 
-preparation of lesson plans and reading I need to get done
-good health, strength and daily stamina in the heat
-flight connections, travel safety, stamina for long flight
-physical safety in Philippines and safe in country travel
-perseverance, clear thinking, and wisdom in classes
-Pastors to be receptive, encouraged, built up in faith
-that I can be a rich blessing to these Pastors
-that I can grow spiritually, in humility and love
-unity and fellowship for our team

 What character trait do you admire? We all have favorite character traits and Bible characters that exemplify those traits. Is it courage that you admire or mercy or gentleness of faith? The character trait I most admire is loyalty and my favorite Bible characters for this trait are Abigail the wife of Nabal, and Uriah the husband of Bathsheba. 

For me, loyalty is more than being faithful to your commitments and to your family, friend or leader. With loyalty must come perseverance when conditions become unfavorable, uncomfortable, tiring, stressful, painful, extend over a longer period than first proposed, costly, humiliating, even shameful. Loyalty sticks it out to the end and remains until every loose end is tied up, and then rejoices or sorrows with family, friend or leader.

Loyalty must also have compassion. It must be more than legal loyalty or duty loyalty, a requirement, an obligation. The binding of loyalty must be deep friendship and may I even say biblical love.

This kind of loyalty is rare. It smells of heaven and reminds me of Jesus in relation to his Father and the Holy Spirit. I praise God for Jesus' loyalty and whenever I find loyalty in others.

PHILIPPINES TRIP UPDATE

As I mentioned on March 15th, I will be serving with Training Leaders International (http://trainingleadersinternational.org/) through Reach Beyond Canada (http://reachbeyond.ca/). I am joining a team of three other Pastors from the USA on a trip to the Philippines, from May 19th to 29th, to teach a group of 50 Pastors for a week on a course in Hermeneutics (the rules we use to interpret the Bible), a very important course.

I will be leaving from Toronto and flying to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, to meet the rest of the team there. This is about a 25 hour flight with layovers. We will stay in Manila Saturday night and then fly South for 1½ hours on Sunday morning to Davao to meet our host Pastor. Then we will drive for 1½ hours to Digos City where the training will take place. Digos City is on the island of Mindanao which has a strong Muslim presence with a faction seeking independence from the Philippines. We will be staying in hotels during our stay in the Philippines. The temperature in Digos City is already in the mid 30’s so it will be hotter in May. The population is about 150,000.

Digos City downtown

The group of 50 Pastors will be divided into 4 classes so we will each be teaching from 12 to 15 Pastors. We will be teaching from 8:30 to noon, and then 1:00 to 4:00, Monday to Thursday with a half day on Friday and a celebration at lunch time. So far these Pastors have taken 2 courses, the Attributes of God and Biblical Theology. Hermeneutics is the third core course in their studies. Teams from TLI will be returning to Digos City three times a year for the next three years to complete the training for these Pastors. The goal is for these 50 Pastors to serve their congregations more effectively and to train other Pastors with the material they have learned.

On Friday afternoon we will drive back to Davao and take an evening flight back to Manilla, stay overnight and fly home on Saturday morning, arriving back on Sunday.

At present I am developing my lesson plans and doing a lot of reading in preparation for the trip. These next two months will be very busy.

You can donate towards this trip through the Rosedale Baptist Church short-term mission fund for Ron Latulippe (11 Rosedale Pl, Welland, ON L3B 1J2).

I am particularly conscious of my need for prayer for this trip which will be a physical, mental and spiritual strain.

I would especially ask you to pray for the items listed below:

-finances for the trip. Tickets will be purchased next week.

-preparation of lesson plans and reading

-good health, strength and daily stamina in the heat

-flight connections, travel safety, strength for a long flight

-physical safety in Philippines and safe travel within the country

-perseverance, clear thinking, and wisdom in classes

-Pastors to be receptive, encouraged, built up in faith

-that I can be a rich blessing to these Pastors

-that I can grow spiritually, in humility and love

-unity and fellowship for our team