To our dearest Prayer Warriors,
Bondage or Liberty:
Hanna Whitall Smith, a late writer of the deeper life, once wrote: “It is a fact beyond question that there are two kinds of Christian experience: one is an experience of bondage, and the other an experience of liberty.
In the first, the soul is controlled by a stern sense of duty, and obeys the law of God either to keep from being punished or from expectation of wages. In the second, the controlling power is an inward life-principle that works out by the force of its own motions or instincts to do the will of the Divine Life-giver, without fear of punishment or hope of reward. In the first the Christian is a servant of God and works for wages. In the second the Christian is a child of God and works for love.
The following contrasts may help some to understand the difference between these two kinds of religion.
The law says: Do, and you will live.
The gospel says: Live, and you will do.
The law says: Pay me what you owe.
The gospel says: I forgive you all that you owe.
The law says: Make yourself a new heart and a new spirit.
The gospel says: A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you.
The law says: “Thou shall love the Lord your God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”
The gospel says: “Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
The law says: “Cursed is every one who continued not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.”
The gospel says: “Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.”
The law says: “The wages of sin is death.”
The gospel says: “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The law demands holiness.
The gospel gives holiness.
The law says do.
The gospel says done.
The law extorts the unwilling service of a bondman.
The gospel wins the loving service of a son and freeman.
The law makes blessings the result of obedience.
The gospel makes obedience the result of blessings.
The law places the day of rest at the end of the week’s work.
The gospel places it at the beginning.
The law says: If.
The gospel says: Therefore.
The law was given for the restraint of the old man.
The gospel was given to bring liberty to the new man.
Under the law, salvation was wages.
Under the gospel, salvation is a gift.”
Dear brothers and sisters let us celebrate the liberty by which Christ has made us free. Free to know God and love Him with abandon and to delight in His presence..!
Developments:
* Praise God.!! On September 9th we had a very Spirit led meeting with Pastor Chet, the Mission’s Pastor of our home church, Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale. We have now the full backing of our home church! In fact, Pastor Chet wants to take me through an accelerated pastoral track to train me and ordain me as a Calvary Chapel Pastor before we leave to the mission field. He said he realized that, because we’re going to serve in an existing church, we are not being sent as regular missionaries, but as Pastor and Pastor’s wife. Also, Pastor Chet has asked Pastor Steve Turner to put together a mission trip for people from Plantation to go down and support us next year in Miraflores-Lima, Peru.
* We received one more pledge of monthly financial support that puts us in the 9% of our budget. We also received three open pledges, people who formally let us know they intend to support financially but don’t know the dollar amount yet—praise the Lord!
* Our sister in Christ, Niurka, one of our fiercest supporters since day one, organized a support-raising event that she called “Pillows for Peru.” There she sold her homemade pillows and raised awareness within our Christian community about the ministry the Lord is entrusting to us in Lima, Peru; $176 were raised… Thank you Niurka..!
* Our three kids received in the mail their Peruvian passports; they are officially citizens of Peru.
* We set up a booth and officially presented our missions ministry at our sister church, Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood Campus. Thank you Pastor Greg for your encouragement and support..!
* I haven’t given my resignation at work yet, but I told my boss and my boss’ boss about our plans to move to Peru early next year to do missionary work there. This was a scary step of faith that put our family halfway in Peru already.
* We put our house in the market.
* The boys started homeschool with their new A Beka curriculum.
* We will be setting our booth at the ORC, Operation Rescue the Children, “Sponsorship of Love” Auction and Dinner event on October 10th at the Hilton Hotel in Deerfield Beach. For more information on ORC visit them in the web at www.rescuechild.org.
* We may need to do a preliminary trip to Lima mainly for Karla to request my residency.
* We are planning several support-raising and ministry awareness events in the next couple of months.
Prayer Needs:
* For God’s will to be done in our lives.
* For ORC event on October 10th, that many kids be adopted and overall be a fruitful and God honoring event.
* Pray for all the items mentioned above in the Developments area, especially for Pastor Chet to hear God’s heart in regard to our pastoral training and for direction in regard to the planning of our church’s mission trip in 2010 to help us in Miraflores-Lima, Peru.
* For one-time donations toward our moving expenses.
* For monthly financial support for our ministry.
Brothers and sisters, like the prophet Hosea said, let us press on and pursue the knowledge of the Lord till He comes and rains righteousness on us.!!
In His love,
Andres and Karla, Sebastian, Daniel, and Samuel—the Garcia’s.
PS: Make sure to check out the new pictures of our recent activities to your left...
