I saw Jesus today

Saturday was one of those extra special days. Love In Action teamed with The Harbor Church for a Christmas outreach. We delivered bags of groceries to about 70 needy families who live in the neighborhood around the Love In Action Ministry Center.

Jesus says in Matthew 25:35, "For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink." And in Matthew 25:40, Jesus sums it up by saying, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me."

Today, I saw Jesus in a woman who smiled and hugged me after receiving a bag of groceries. She said, "I didn't know what we were going to do for food."

I saw Jesus in an elderly widow who thanked us for the groceries and for coming to check on her. I saw the example of the "widow's mite" (Mark 12:41-44) when the same elderly widow told me she wanted to donate to the ministry, pulled out her change purchase and gave me a $20 bill. I cried. That might as well have been $200 for her. She's a precious woman whose wonderful husband died earlier this year. She said, "The Lord has been so good to me this year, and I've been saving up to donate this to you. Thanks for everything y'all do for me."

I saw Jesus in a man with one leg who you can always find sitting in a wheelchair on his front porch. I saw Jesus in one of our volunteers who lovingly prayed for him.

I saw Jesus in foster children as we gave them brand new toys for Christmas, and in their foster dad as we handed him a big ham.

I saw Jesus in two homeless men as we visited them in their camp. One of them had been in trouble with the law for something he is very ashamed of. We hadn't seen him in a couple of years because he was in prison. He smiled when he saw us and said, "I didn't know if I'd be welcome after what I did." We told him, "we all have made mistakes. We love you."

I saw Jesus in my wife as she smiled and hugged both of those homeless men. And, when we were reunited with a woman we hadn't seen in a few years. The last time we saw her we had delivered food to her as she was living in an old garage. We never knew what happened to her. Today, we discovered she was living in her own apartment. It was so good to see her. She thanked God for where she is at now.

I saw Jesus in so many people we were honored to serve today and in all of our volunteers. Every time we "serve the least of these" those serving always feel more blessed than those receiving. It's just like the Apostle Paul said in Acts 20:35, "In every way I’ve shown you that by laboring like this, it is necessary to help the weak and to keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus, for He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Obeying Jesus by making disciples

You have often read my blogs and heard me talk about the importance of making disciples who make disciples. That's because Jesus commissioned all of His believers to do so. It's not a suggestion. Jesus clearly says "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations..." (Matthew 28:19)

We have great times of discipleship training every Wednesday nights at the Love In Action Ministry Center, and last night (Nov. 9) around 20 people watched the Multiply Gathering simulcast with David Platt and Francis Chan. The Multiply Movement is all about making disciples who make disciples. Check it out at http://multiplymovement.com

It is great seeing the homeless, poor and those who are not in great need all together on Wednesday nights and this past Friday, opening up the Word of God together and discussing it. We all share and help one another learn the Word of God. We share experiences and how God has helped us in different situations.

The discipleship training and events like Multiply are great, and they are needed. However, if we stopped at that we would be missing the point. Jesus taught His disciples, but He also lived life with them. He showed them how He prayed and how He loved and showed great compassion for others, especially the needy.

That's why a number of our volunteers choose to live life with those we minister to and each other. How will they know how to pray or read the Bible if we don't show them. How will they know how to show compassion and love others like Jesus if they don't see it in our lives?

Making disciples who make disciples is about much more than a weekly class. It's a lifestyle. I like what David Platt said, "To be a disciple is to make disciples." If we aren't making disciples, then we're not truly disciples of Jesus and we are living in direct disobedience to God's Word.

It is an amazing transformation when we see people who are hurting for many different reasons decide to surrender their lives to Christ. Not because they prayed a prayer, but because they experienced the love of Jesus at Love In Action. They hear the Word of God and see it in action through our volunteers. The hurting decide to give Jesus a try and He totally turns their lives around.

Those who had no hope, now find hope in Jesus. Those who had given up on life now have life through Jesus. Those who thought they were worthless find they are of great worth to almighty God. After they come to those realizations, we can't leave them on their own. We have to disciple them.

As Platt and Chan pointed out in Multiply, a great thing about discipleship making is God uses it to make us better disciples. So, if you want to be a better disciple of Jesus and live in obedience to His Word, then start making disciples who make disciples.

Also, please keep praying for us as we reach out to those who are homeless, poor and hurting. Please pray for those we minister to. God is doing an incredible work in their lives. Disciples are being made in downtown Dothan, and it's exciting to see God radically change people's lives.

Sharing Jesus through education

Children sing Jesus Loves Me at the Obadiah Learning & Development Academy.

A project for Love In Action this summer was building a school for our friends at Shiloh Bible Baptist Church in Punta, Philippines. They had the labor and know-how, but no resources. We put the word out and the good people in Dothan, Ala., and other places in the U.S. responded. Now, there is a new school building for the Obadiah Learning and Development Academy. Praise God!

This school provides quality education for indigent children who otherwise would not receive an education. The Philippines is not like the U.S. Education is not provided for everyone. There, if families don't have the money to send their children to school, then there is no formal education for those children.

The Obadiah Academy provides scholarships, when they have the money to do so, to children who otherwise would not be able to attend school. Education is a great way to fight poverty. Therefore, giving a poor child a quality education will help break the cycle of poverty.

But, as with everything LIA does and our friends in the Philippines do, everything we do is to lead people to Jesus Christ. That's exactly what our friends in Punta do with the Obadiah Academy. When parents accept scholarships to the Academy, they have to attend church services each Sunday and allow members of the church to come to their homes every week for Bible study. Entire families come to Christ during the school year. It's an awesome ministry.

We would like to thank all of those who have caught the vision of LIA Philippines and who have joined us to help reach the lost and unreached people groups in the Philippines. Because of your prayers and financial donations, people who have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ are hearing it for the first time and surrendering their lives to Jesus. Because of your prayers and support, these precious children are now receiving an education, and entire families are submitting to the lordship of Jesus Christ.

Our friend in Punta, Bro. Joel, who along with his sweet wife, who run the Obadiah Academy, sends their thanks.

"Please extend our best prayers, love and regards to Sister Martha, Mama Tuck and the whole family of Love In Action who have been there for the school outreach from the start, in praying and sacrifices," Bro. Joel wrote."On behalf of Obadiah Learning and Development Academy, Pastor we thank God so much for you. You just don't know how truly we humble ourselves to God in your behalf, always giving glory to His Name."

Joel asks that we continue to pray for them.

"Please continue to pray for us and the teachers, too, that God will continue to shower His wisdom and power and strength for these kids," Joel wrote.

It is exciting what God is doing. May we continue to work with our brothers and sisters in the Philippines to reach the unreached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and continue to make disciples who make disciples.
Click here for a photo slide show of the Obadiah Learning and Development Academy.

The new Obadiah Learning and Development Academy.

Making disciples around the world

We take Jesus' Great Commission seriously at Love In Action. We believe in reaching the lost and hurting with the Gospel of Jesus Christ through acts of compassion in our hometown of Dothan, Ala., and in other parts of the world. That's what Jesus says to do in Matthew 28:19-20. He says to "make disciples of all nations."

In Acts 1: 8, the last thing Jesus told His disciples before ascending to Heaven was, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

We consider Dothan our "Jerusalem," the Southeast U.S. as our "Judea" and the rest of the U.S. as our "Samaria." The "ends of the earth" is places like the Philippines, Myanmar and Ecuador.

 Wednesdays are a big discipleship night for us as we hold Bible study. I recently taught a nine-part series on the "Full Armor of God" to make sure everyone understands we are in a spiritual battle and God equips us to not only fight, but win the battle against Satan.

Currently, we are in the midst of teaching Discipleship Phase 1, a study written by my and Martha's pastor, Ralph Sigler of Harvest Church. Shaun Cast is helping me teach this 10-week class.

Wednesday nights at Love In Action are great as 20-30 people gather each week to learn and discuss God's Word.

For the past 1.5 years, we have been supporting indigenous pastors and missionaries in the Philippines, and part of that support is shipping King James Version Bibles to them and Discipleship Phase 1-5 books to them. We have shipped thousands of Bibles and Discipleship books, and we need to continue to do so as more than 4.6 million people there have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The newest door God has opened for us is in Myanmar. We just shipped Bibles and Discipleship guides to our new friends at Grace Theological College in Yangon. They do not have resources readily available, so the students were very excited to receive the Bibles and Discipleship books. The goal is to use the Bibles and Discipleship books for the students and also to use them to do outreaches to reach the lost and provide discipleship for new believers. There are more than 40 million people in Myanmar who have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Praise God! We are excited about all of these opportunities. Please continue to pray for us and the work God leads us to do in Dothan and in other parts of the world. Please pray for our brothers and sisters in the Philippines and Myanmar as together we reach people previously unreached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in both countries.

Please continue to support Love In Action with finances. Your donations help us reach the lost and hurting with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Together, we are accomplishing the Great Commission and doing what Jesus says in Acts. 1:8.

Maiking disciples in Myanmar

First year students at Grace Theological College in Yangon, Myanmar
with their new NIV Bibles and Discipleship books.

 Jesus is very clear about what He expects from His followers, "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

Jesus says to make disciples of all nations, which translated means all "people groups." We have to remember, the U.S. wasn't a nation at the time Jesus said this, nor were most other nations we have today.

Love In Action does an excellent job of reaching the lost and making disciples here in the U.S., especially in Dothan, Ala. The past two years we have watched God open doors on the other side of the world to reach previously unreached people groups. The majority of those doors have been opened in the Philippines, but God has opened another door in Asia - the country of Myanmar.

For eight months this year I have communicated with a pastor who helps run a small Christian college in the capital city of Myanmar. I have also researched to validate this contact. What I found was a wonderful man of God with a passion to reach his country, but without the means to do so. 

Grace Theological College teaches and trains its Christian students how to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others.It is not a college like we think of here in the U.S. They rent a building, and some times they have to move and rent a different building. But they keep teaching with the hopes of making a difference for Jesus in their part of the world.

Myanmar is a country that has been closed for years due to a heavy-handed military rule. But the doors have been opening up more, especially this year. So the time to reach Myanmar, also called Burma, is now.

My pastor, Ralph Sigler, has written a very powerful guide to discipleship. It is called the Five Phases of Discipleship. These books have been used here in Dothan to make disciples for years, and we have used them at Love In Action. Now, we can use them overseas. Pastor Ralph is as excited as I am about the opportunity to make disciples in Asia.

We first sent his Discipleship books to the Philippines, and this month we sent the first shipment to Myanmar. Harvest Church donated Bibles and all five phases of the Discipleship books to Love In Action to send to Myanmar.

Late last week, Pastor Siang emailed to let me know the two boxes made it safely to him. Here is an excerpt from his email:

"I have a great pleasure to let you know that yesterday (September 21, 2012) we received the Bibles and Discipleship books in two boxes it arrived safely to us. God answers our prayers. Praise the Lord! Thank you very much for your love and concern for our ministry.

"Today I distributed the Bibles and some of the discipleship books to our first year students, and some discipleship books to our senior students. When the students received them they are very much happy and very thankful to you and Love in Action International Ministries, especially the first year students over joy with the Bibles because they received very good Bibles."

Praise God! You can hear the excitement in his voice through his email. How often we take Bibles and Christian materials for granted here in the U.S. In Myanmar, just like in the Philippines, they have nothing, nor do they have access to Bibles and materials. This was a huge blessing to them, and will help them not only with the students, but also in reaching their country. Read the following from Pastor Siang's email:

"We believe that the books will be very helpful for us when we organize some seminar for the people of Myanmar, even much more will be useful for witnessing Christ to non-believers and giving them discipleship training."

Praise God! If you can't get excited about this, you can't get excited about anything. Jesus says to reach people groups throughout the world. In Myanmar, 83.4 percent of the country is unreached, meaning they have not heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That's more than 40 million people.

Wow! Talk about a huge opportunity. God has opened an awesome door of opportunity. He has certainly opened Asia up for Love In Action to spread the Gospel. From the Philippines to Myanmar, we are now spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ to previously unreached people. We serve an awesome God!

Please pray for all of our brothers and sisters in the Philippines and Myanmar. Please pray for us to know how to best help them. And please pray and ask God how you should be involved. Maybe God is leading you to donate financially to help us spread the Gospel on the other side of the world. Maybe God is leading you to donate King James Version and New King James Version Bibles for the Philippines and NIV Bibles for Myanmar.

We are very excited about everything God is doing here in Dothan and all the way on the other side of the world in Myanmar and the Philippines.

Senior students at Grace Theological College in Yangon, Myanmar with Discipleship books.