2017 SENT ONES

Tanzania mission trip update: I now know and am preparing to co-teach Biblical Theology to a certificate level class at the newly established East Africa Christian College. I also hope to take along a suitcase of reference books to donate toward building up their new library. Thank you for praying and continue to pray for this trip. Pray for safety and health, flying and connections, class preparations, and finances. Please pray for Malaki, a Tanzanian pastor who is translating the course material into Swahili. For donation information for this trip see <http://ron-east-west.blogspot.ca/2016/12/trip-to-tanzania.html>

Earlier this week I finished reading the Gospel of John. Toward the end of my reading I started to notice three things: 1) how the Jews are ready to stone Jesus for making himself equal with God 2) how Jesus often says the he is only saying and doing what God has told to him to say and do 3) And how often Jesus says that he is sent from God. So I am reading John again with pen in hand, underlining in different formats these three items as they repeatedly come up in John.

In John 20.21-22 Jesus says, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.^" And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit." 
Let us see ourselves in 2017 as sent ones, sent by Jesus to bring the glory of God to this world.
As sent ones we need to daily maintain fellowship with our Father in heaven so that we might know God's will and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Daily prayer and meditation on God's Word is an important part of maintaining fellowship with the Father who sent us, so we can be conscious and aware of those he is sending us to. Read John 17 to see why Jesus was sent by God and what he desired to leave behind upon his return to the Father.
As sent ones we need to know God's message that offers salvation to sinners who repent and trust Christ to save them, and God's message that can sanctify the saints and conform them to Christ the firstborn son.
As sent ones we need to live loving and holy lives and live out a biblical worldview.
As sent ones we need to be familiar with the ways of our enemy the devil, to know how to rule over our flesh, and learn to live as dead to the world.
As sent ones we have received the power of the Holy Spirit so that we can be witnesses to Jesus but we are to make sure we are filled with the Spirit and walk in the Spirit.
Yes, we have a great calling upon us for 2017 as Jesus' sent ones but we are sent by the Father fully equipped and supported so let us take every opportunity as we follow the leading of God.

May 2017 be a year of deeper intimacy with the Father, of knowing a fuller love from the Father, of deeper insight into the Father's Word, of increasing faith in the Father's promises, and of bearing more abundant fruit through abiding in Jesus. As the world collapses around us let us bring glory to God in word and action.

MONEY MATTERS

 It is not very difficult in our materialistic culture to defend how we spend our money. As Christians we seldom directly connect our spending to the state of our hearts and are often oblivious to how our heart should effect our spending. Should we allow spending and the state of our hearts to harmonize we would be surprised on both fronts. We would find our spending to be more in line with the world's values than God's values, and we would sadly discover that our hearts harbor more of the love of this world than we imagined or would like to admit. Jesus said that we cannot, try as we will, serve God and money. But we still try to serve both God and money, and think we are accomplishing the impossible. To the Pharisees who served money while claiming to serve God, Jesus said "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God." Luke 16.15 esv

How to use "unrighteous wealth" (v9,10) in the service of God is not easy and straight forward. We do not have a legal list of buys and don't buys, of amounts and percentages, of ethics to guide our spending, but we do have a few guidelines given to us.
1) Acknowledge that all you have comes from God and give yourself with a grateful attitude to God. "For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us." (2 Corinthians 2.3-5)

2) Give to God  the first portion. "Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come." (1 Corinthians 16.1-2) "The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.^" (2 Corinthians 9.6-8)

3) Strive to be content with what God has given you and be grateful for it. We don't need all that the world says we need. "Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content." (Philippians 4.11) "But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content." (1 Timothy 6.8) "Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13.5)
4) Seek to fulfill God's purpose for you as you walk filled with hope for the present and God's promised future. "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Matthew 6.33 [Read 26-34, a wonderful passage]). "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2.10).

Have a Merry Christmas and may God help us to increase in the understanding of our spiritual richness in Christ. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich." (2 Corinthians 8.9)

TRIP TO TANZANIA

On Wednesday I was approved for a mission trip to Tanzania from February 3-12 2017, with Training Leaders International <http://trainingleadersinternational.org> the same group I worked with in the Philippines in May. Have a look at the website. Here are the trip details ---

Tanzania Feb 2017  –  February 3-12, 2017

Location:  Mwanza, Tanzania
Trip Leader:  Steve Krogh
Synopsis:  We are partnering with East Africa Christian College (EACC) in providing theological training for pastors in the Tarime region along the Tanzania-Kenya border. This newly opened school is strategically located in an area underserved by pastoral training ministries. Recent gospel advances make the need for equipping pastors especially urgent. We currently teach Swahili-speaking pastors (via interpreters) in a Certificate Program and in 2017 we anticipate teaching English-speaking pastors in the new Diploma Program. TLI has also been asked to teach a bi-annual conference for regional church leaders, which has been well-attended. Tanzania is a beautiful country, home of Mt. Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti National Park, which is located a few hours drive from EACC.
Courses to be taught: Biblical Theology & Attributes of God

Mwanza is circled in red

 Preparation time for this trip is quite short so please pray as I prepare my lessons. It is not too early to pray about good flying weather (leaving from Buffalo), making connections, health and safety before, during and after the trip, the long flight, the preparation of the students, working in Swahili through a translator, the other teachers on the team and the establishment of this new Bible College. I look forward to this trip.

If you would like to support this trip you can donate:
1) By mailing a check to Reach Beyond Canada, Unit 3- 44 Saltsman Dr, Cambridge, ON, N3H 4R7 or online at <http://reachbeyond.ca/> then clicking DONATE button, and then from the drop down menu select - "Donate to a missionary and indicate name below in message", then enter Ron Latulippe in the "Message for Reach Beyond" box below, then fill out remaining information.
3) US citizens can donate directly to TLI at PO Box 310 / Wheaton, IL 60187 and specify that your donation is for Ron Latulippe for the Tanzania trip or through this link <https://trainingleadersinternational.org/support/give?tbl=teams&id=260> select "short term team members" and in step two select "enter unlisted team member" which is at the bottom of the drop down menu and add my name and trip "Ron Latulippe Tanzania Feb" to blank space, then proceed with donor information. Please let me know if donate directly to TLI so I can make sure it gets to my account.

Thank you for your patience.

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ALL WEATHER CONFESSORS

How easy it is to confess Jesus as Lord when the sun is warming your face and a slight  breeze makes you feel just right, and the bright blue sky is inviting you to a picnic or a walk or to read your favorite book in the shade of the back porch. What joy there is in being a fair weather confessor. But those days are not common days but special days, days to be enjoyed and remembered and hoped for. These are days which point to our eternal hope and destiny in the presence of Jesus. Eternal days that are yet ahead of us. For now we live in this present evil world, in these mortal bodies of sin, in the consequences of our own sin and the sin of others around us compounded into an anti-Jesus world atmosphere. And in this unholy atmosphere we are called to confess Jesus as Lord by deed and word and attitude not by compulsion but in love that we are to renew in the presence of our beloved Jesus each day. And this we must do on the peril of not being an all weather confessor of Jesus our Lord.
Peter is an example to us in this respect. "Peter answered him, 'Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away'". (Matthew 26.32) Peter had just shared in a wonderful communion with Jesus and the disciples. The future looked bright and promising. The weather was fair for confessing allegiance to Jesus. But that soon changed with the happenings in Gethsemane, the betrayal of Jesus, his arrest, and the trial before Caiaphas and the Council. A servant girl came up to Peter and said to him, "You were with Jesus the Galilean". And Peter denied it before them all saying, "I do not know what you mean". And then a second time, "I do not know the man". And then finally invoking a curse on himself and swearing, "I do not know the man". (Matthew 26.69-75)

Before we condemn Peter too harshly we need to see that we too can easily be fair weather confessors, not so much by deliberate denial but by convenient conformity to our circumstances. Peter would have been happy to sit and watch the proceedings on the trial of Jesus but when called out, deliberately denied his Lord. We too are too often content to watch and hope we are not challenged to confess, content to live in avoidance in our workplaces and playplaces and errandplaces. God calls us to be witnesses of Christ in deed, attitude, and word like lights shining in a dark world. (Philippians 2.14-16) Choose to be an all weather confessor of Jesus as Lord.

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