upate from africa

7/30/2019 Upate from Africa

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As I read through the Word today, I was reminded of the way that Paul addressed hisletters to his readers by referring to them and himself as slaves to Christ. Again, slavesto Christ.

It is as a slave to Christ and in reference to fellow slaves of Christ, that I penthese words. Are you a slave to Christ? Im not asking if you are a Christian or not, Im

asking if you are a slave to Christ as were the Apostles James, Jon, Peter, Paul,Andrew, and Steven. If you are not, why arent you? We have the b lessing of revelationand godly examples to digest and mimic throughout the whole Bible and many greattestimonies of faith that the disciples and apostles of the first church didnt have the luxury from which to hear and learn. They went out and did it first on only the powerof God. So why havent you tapped into the same power plus all the examples ofChristians on fire for God since. God has equipped and supplies us with everythingand more that we may need to surpass the God-led feats of such apostles as beforelisted. You may say that we live in a different culture so things are different and beinga slave to Christ looks differently than it used to. Yes, culture has changed but haveyou allowed its subtle implantations of societal norms and expectations to cause yourfailure in being a completely devoted slave to Him? Are you allowing the excessivetime-intense demands of your dream job to come between you and your calling to carefor the widows and orphans, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to visit theincarcerated, to truly love your brother as yourself? I like to think in absoluteswhenever they are available because they make my life and my Christian walk muchsimpler. For example, an absolute is that if Jesus truly is who he says he is theneverything concerning him must be true. If he says he loves me then I find nohardship in believing he truly does love me because it came from Him. So come alongwith me and lets apply a simple absolute that the vast majority of the world doesntunderstand and yet is stated quite clearly, visibly, and in the open as purposed to notbe missed and that all can locate, apply, and learn from it.

I love absolutes. They are as satisfying as life can ever be. Im almost to thesimple absolute that God has for you but Im going to build the suspense. Patience is avirtue so practice as I continue. God has created man with a desire for one thing thatonly He can supply. This one desire, that kings and emperors would sacrifice theirwhole kingdom to possess, is peace. This is something every Christian has tasted butis only fully possessed by those that are slaves to peace. History shows how mansambitions are limitless and how his search for peace and contentment has neverended in material gain, wealth, or power. Alexander the Great wasnt satisfied with hisconquest of 2/3rd of the known world so he died without returning to Macedonia orrelishing in his conquests as a satisfied god on earth. Had Napoleon and Hitler beencontent with their domination, they wouldnt have spread their forces so thin and havebeen crushed (Im not a history buff so if these facts arent true, just play my game).

AT LAST, we arrive at the absolute so long awaited for by you and the general public tounderstand. Absolute: The chase of contentment merely reveals more possibledestinations to search rather than reveal THE destination where peace can be found,arrived at, and therein dwelt (Holy Sprit written through Jon). To further drive thisabsolute into the blood-stained, peace giving cross of Christ, the story of Solomon isthe clearly stated, visible, and openly posted example of possessions not yieldingpeace, EVEN when they are given by God. As I was reading through the Kings saga ofthe Old Testament, I was struck anew by the description of the richest king ever torule on this earth. I encourage you to check these facts for yourself. We are told that


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Solomon received, as yearly tribute, in the realm of 660 talents of gold. Not astoundedyet? This amounts to nearly 20 tons or 40,000 POUNDS of pure gold. Let us do somemath. Today, gold is valued at $1457.95 per ounce. Multiplying this figure by 16 toarrive at the price of gold per pound, we arrive at $23,327.20 per pound. Again,multiplying this figure by 40,000 we find that Solomon received, as valued by ourstandards today, gold to the tune of $933,088,000. Though the value of gold could be

less than today.This amount doesnt reflect the value of Solomons tax upon hispeople, the wealth inherited to him by his father, the gifts of the many kings andrulers who visited to hear and behold his glory and wisdom, nor his received tribute ofprecious stones, exotic and practically used animals, rare and valuable spices, silverand other minerals, and costly woods such as Cedar from Lebanon. I hope yourastonishment has begun. And yet by receiving in excess of well over a billion dollarsper year, Solomons description of emptiness and lack of peace evidenced by hisanguish as written in Ecclesiastes demonstrates how possessions, how vast orminiscule, are unable to impart peace when you have turned your back upon God. Notin many lifetimes, much less one, could we attain the wealth, the beautiful andpleasurable company, wisdom, nor fame or respect attributed to Solomon. In thishistorical example, we visibly, clearly, and openly see that wealth, women/men,power, respect and fame are searches for peace devoid of a destination of the one,easily attainable thing for which we are all searching. Peace is available for the asking.God stands ready to impart peace to the devoted follower who remains a slave to Him.The moment we go our own way, peace will go its own way and only upon returning toGods welcoming, palatial slave quarters do we once again find peace. Yet sinceSolomon, mankind has yet to be convinced that peace is not attainable by sheer willand conquest. Again, I refer to the absolute in a simple way you wont find peaceunless you lay down your life and receive it in return as a gift bestowed as peace byGod.

I would like to ask again, do you know peace? Are you a slave to God? If you are

then you know that which men would sacrifice everything to possess just a taste. Ifyou arent a slave to Christ and dont know the freedom and peace afforded to a slaveby Christ, my heart cries for you and implores you to wholly lay down your life,believer or non-believer, in total surrender that you may receive that which is wortheverything. Peace.

I wasnt planning to write the above letter. But before I began, a group of menand myself prayed that the Holy Spirit would speak through my fingers that I may beable to adequately explain what God is doing in my life and in Sierra Leone beginningin just the few days recent past. Three days ago, a friend and I began a conversationthat would change our lives. This friend was explaining his frustrations at sacrificingto work at the hospital whereas his colleagues he graduated with are buying cars and

houses while my friend is working for only 100$ a month and doesnt have muchmoney to fill his dirt bike tank, which he shares as transportation with a few othermen, let alone buy a car. Prodded by the Holy Spirit, I simply said, I understand yourstruggle but there is more to life. This launched me into my personal testimony of myjourney on becoming a complete slave to the will of God. I would love to share this in amore comprehensive manner in the future, but it is sufficient to say that at the pointof 18 years old, I succeeded in establishing a significantly meaningless and destructivelifestyle guided by own decisions and desire to lead my own life. In the throes of adrug-addicted, food-deprived brain screaming for more drugs, I simply said, God I


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know you can do a better job of leading my life then I, it is your turn, use me. It hasbeen a short time period yet a long journey since that August evening four years agoand God has led me further and more completely than I ever thought possible. As Iexplained this to my friend, I further explained that I could be making a verycomfortable living with my education thus far, and most certainly with the soon to beacquired additions to my resume when I finish the last phase of post graduate work,

but Im not interested in the things I can buy or what that life affords. I told my friendthat Im sacrificing all of those things to follow the will of God because I made a choiceto be a slave to him and do all that he commands. So here I am volunteering my time,my skills, and abilities to absolute strangers simply at the calling of my master. As Ifinished, my friend stared at me and whispered, Jon, God has called you to SierraLeone to tell that testimony. My friend admitted that he was a struggling Christianattracted to what the world offers but stuck between his desires and his conscience tofollow God. He described his stubbornness to the gospel of slavery but was instantlyconvinced of its importance upon my sharing of my testimony. At this point, thankyou for your prayers that the Holy Spirit would guide my steps, inhabit my speech,and pave the wave before me. Further more, God gave me great discernment into thismans life and for the plan that God has for him if he will only give in to Gods call toslavery. Upon my description of, unknown by me but visible to the Holy Spirit leadingmy words, things hidden in his heart, my friend confessed his hold on his life andcommitted his will of slavery to the will of Christ. At the close of his surrenderingprayer. My friend explained that God has told him that we must take my testimony tothe ghetto of the capital city of Freetown. This brother in Christ grew up in a veryrough fashion and is well acquainted with the area, the people, and the ghettochurches that we will be visiting.

Though exited and ready to hit the road for Freetown, the Holy Spirit remindedus of the need to enter a time of fasting, prayer, Bible reading, and devotion to God toseek His full discernment in this matter. To this purpose, we met early the next

morning for a time of devotion and prayer that God would pave the way and empowerus to preach His gospel. At the conclusion of the morning devotion, we decided to meetevery morning and every evening for prayer and Bible study until the time that we feelready to go to Freetown. Gods hand has been evident in rapidly giving growth andwisdom to our group. By the 1st evening, God had increased our number to 3 slaves.The following morning, 4 slaves had gathered to worship God to begin the day. Ournumbers are continuing to grow. As part of the discernment into the calling of myfriend, God told me how this man is going to be used by God as a powerful mouthpieceof the gospel and part of my purpose in being here was to shake him out of his pursuitof worldly things and introduce him to slavery in Christ. With the help of God, I haveestablished goals and structure to our growing morning devotion and evening Biblestudy time. So that the group may continue after I have gone, Ive established my

future evangelist friend as the head of this brand new church. In my understanding ofthe importance of small and corporate group worship, God has led me and hasdirected accordingly. As God adds to our church, groups of 7 members maximum willbe created for the purpose of small group discussion about the Bible study lesson thatwas given. After we have reached 21 members, enough for 3 groups of 7, we will splitour time together from just 1 session into 1 main session, led by my friend, thensubsequent small group discussion led by within-group appointed leaders concerningthe main session message. After only two days of meeting, we are close to 7 and arenearing our first goal of 21 members. Presently, my friend is the leader of our group


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and is prayerfully approaching the time when he will step into his role as main leaderover the groups of 7. We call this group Slaves for Christ. The point in the governmentof this group is so that when God calls my friend and I to travel to Freetown, a smallgroup leader will be ready to step into a place of leadership over all the small groupsso that Slaves for Christ will continue when its original founders are travelingelsewhere in Sierra Leone. The first person God added to our membership of 2 slaves

is the person God has given to step into my friends place when God calls us toFreetown. Gods hand of leadership and covering all unforeseen bases is evidentthroughout this whole experience.

As Ive been studying successful ministers and evangelists throughout churchhistory, I see a common theme in many examples of fire for Christ. For every sermonhe preached, Spurgeon had a group of 300 people, in a separate place, on their kneesbefore God praying for divine presence, divine inspiration, and Gods blessing uponevery word uttered by Spurgeon. In this fashion, God led my friend and I to establishthis gathering of Slaves for Christ to not only spread the gospel and imperative needfor freely devoted slavery, but to recruit our own prayer team that will be daily liftingus up as my friend and I travel and follow the leading of the Sprit of God. As eachmember has been added, the full intent and purpose of Slaves for Christ is explainedand full submission to God is absolutely necessary by the members of this ministryteam.

My friends and family in Christ, exciting days await those sold out to acceptingthe cross of Christ and bearing it in peace and devotion. We are acutely aware of ourneed to cover this ministry in prayer before any rash and impetuous decisions aremade out of passion in a timeframe other than stipulated by the Timekeeper. So I askthat you will bathe this operation in your prayers. We need patience to await the clearcall of God to traveling action. We need the discernment of God in the recruitment ofnew members as well as patience for Him to bring them to us. We need hearts of one

accord so that when one speaks of the will of God, that all understand it to be so thatwe may move forward with the smoothness and fluidity of a church body in motion forChrist. The devil has already begun his attack against this group. There are those whomock this gathering. They say that this group is only existing only because a whiteman is present and encouraging people but that it will die when I leave. God hasprovidentially provided for a defense against this attack by my initial decision toestablish my friend as the head of the organization. My intention was that the groupmay be preserved and grow in my absence but God has used it also as a means tofight against adversarial assailment by being able to explain to the mockers that thewhite man is simply a face in the crowd and isnt running the show but a nationalmember of their own committee is the figurehead of Slaves for Christ. Though I leadthe devotionals and part of the Bible study, this is only as a jump starter until

nationals can move into these positions after my friend and I have demonstrated howwe want the tasks of these positions to be executed so that seamless transition will bemade when my friend and I travel to Freetown and pass the group onto the interimleaders.

Above all, I ask that you remember and often pray for slaves of Christ.Furthermore, I request that you forward this letter to all whom you ascertain tounderstand the full power of prayer. Be they stranger or close brother, lips moving inprayer are heard in heaven and will be counted as favor upon this ministry in the eyes


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of God. On a selfish note, I ask your prayers for my skin. Through painful discovery,Ive learned that mangoes come from the same plant family as poison ivy, poisonsumac, and poison oak. So accordingly, there is oil present in the skin of the mangothat can cause magnificent rashes associated with pain, itching and discomfort similarto the poisons listed. For some time, a rash has been spreading from my hands torandom areas of my body in a fashion not indicative of a bacterial infection. Through

some research, Ive ascertained that Im allergic to the skin of the mango. Being nearly3 weeks into what I believed to be the tastiest 3 week period imaginable, it is safe tosay that my mango consumption doesnt affect me internally but the majority of myskin surface is racked with rashes because of eating a mango and only rinsing, notthoroughly washing my hands because of the lack of geographic availability of soapand water, then proceeding to touch my arms, legs, back, and chest and effectivelyshipping this poison oil to the rest of my body to take up rashy residence. I ask yourprayers for a speedy recovery as well as the strength to resist the mangoes. I have 3massive mango trees less than 15 feet from my front door that continue to attack theground with sweet, juicy, life giving, yet sadly torment inducing fruit from the depths.

Although not intended and admittedly quite lengthy, please take time to pondermy sermon of slavery given me by the Holy Spirit. It is a powerful, life changingmessage and I desire each and every one of you to dwell in the peace God has givenme as a slave and beyond. Finally, please remember Slaves for Peace and thesubsequent ministry soon to be taking place by my friend Samuel and I as God leads. Iwould greatly appreciate you advertising our group to your own prayer partners andas objects of prayer to your various Bible studies and churches.

As one heavenly soldier to another,It is a pleasure serving with you

Jon

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