How do I get more halloween?

...oops, I mean humility! How do I get more humility.

Try this definition of humility on for size...

Humility - A choice I make to be known for who I really am. Nothing more, nothing less. Recognizing that all good in my life comes from God.

I have to say, I've never thought of Humility as a choice. In fact, I've heard some teachers argue that the second one tries to become humble, they are being prideful. I wonder if they've heard the above definition. I can choose humility to the extent that I humble myself to allow people to know me for who I really am, nothing more, nothing less.

What does a family with 3 children do in Mexico on the hallowed eve? Well, we pack them in to the family van and head to Carl's Jr. Yes, the fastfood restaurant. They had the biggest playland I've ever seen and it took the kid's minds off the fact that they weren't at Weird, Wild and Wacky night at RVC.

Who do I need?

...other believers, of course. Our teaching this week has been on spiritual warfare and it has been awesome! Our speaker said, "As soon as we believe lies that we don't need other Christians, we are in a dangerous position." Can I get an amen to that? We learned about how we need to take an active role in seeking revelation from God. There are 3 voices we are going to hear, our own, God's and the devil. Which one are we paying the most attention to?

Intercession this week was at the Macro Plaza downtown Monterrey. We went to a music store, a book store, a Catholic Church and the market. In each place, we spent time observing what people were doing, how do things differ from back home, what type of people in each area, etc., then interceded for the city of Monterrey in front of the capital building.

While I've often heard people say, "The battle was won when Jesus hung on the cross," I think that became so incredibly real to me this week. The revelation came during a discussion around Genesis 1:26, that God created man to rule over all creatures of the earth. The devil is of the earth and guess what that means fellow believer? That through Jesus, we've got dominion over him. The real question isn't, "Can I overcome this issue in my life with God's help?", it's, "am I going to believe a lie or am I going to believe in the light, the truth and everthing God has and wants for me?" Freedom!

Wal-Mart Evangelism

We spent our intercession time today at the base praying for an evangelism outreach at a local Wal-Mart. Sandra and I were translators for this outreach and several people accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior! Praise God!

Plaza Sesamo

What does a family of 5 with children's ages ranging from 3-7, do on a Sunday afternoon with free tickets to the main amusement park in the city of Monterrey? Aprovechar! Translated - Take advantage of it! Plaza Sesamo is Spanish for Sesame Street. As you can imagine the children had a blast. Those of you with children can just about imagine a 3 year-olds eyes lighting up at the sight of a 6-foot tall Ernie, Cookie Monster and the rest of the gang.

We visited a friends church from the YWAM base this a.m. It was a lot of fun. It's a small growing church with a pastor who's got a radical heart for the Lord. It will be neat to see what God does with this church!

Hot Tamales!

When most people hear, "Hot Tamales," they think of those little red spicy cinnamon candies that they sell in movie theaters. I'm not referring to those, I'm talking about real tamales.

The staff of the YWAM Monterrey base threw a dinner party for all the DTS students. We had tamales and frijoles charros. It was a delicous meal. More importantly, it was another incredible example of their servant hearts. They believe in doing before teaching, and they did a great job of doing.

We finished up a week of teaching on Worship with some extended time in worship. What an awesome week we had. God, I love spending time in your presence.

Today we spent almost all day doing outreach at a medical brigade near a government housing complex in Monterrey. It was incredible. Noah, Bianca and Gabe had an awesome time playing with the kids. They warmed up playing pogs in the street until we got a game of pick-up futbol (Soccer) going. We learned some new childrens games in Spanish and did dramas, a puppet show and sang some songs with them.

Toward the end of the day, there was an opportunity for those who did not know Christ to come forward and give their hearts to Him. 5 people came forward and we (DTS Students) layed hands on them and prayed for them (Noah too). It was very powerful. As we were praying for them, I could sense their hurt and pain. It was very moving. Later, we were playing a kids game (similar to bubblegum bubblegum but called something different in Spanish) and accross the circle from me was a little girl (probably 5-6 yrs old) whose face looked just like one of the kids you would see on a World Vision commercial. I know I have always been moved by those commercials. It is an everyday reality here.

Lord, I pray that your love was felt. More than the dramas, songs, etc., I just pray that your presence and love were experienced by those around us today. I pray that those who gave their hearts to you today would experience a radical life change as a result of their decision. I pray that the rejoicing of angels that happened as a result of these people surrendering their lives to you today, would be sensed in their hearts and that no plot of the enemy would prevail in deterring them from running hard after you.

Book of Hope

We got to preview some exciting new evangelism tools geared toward children and youth today by an organization called, "Book of Hope." They are founded on a vision of creating high quality and culturally relevant materials in a variety of mediums for children and youth. Our children got to be a test-market for an animated video of Jesus that covers from creation up until the resurrection. The quality of the animation and soundtrack were outstanding. We got to view the entire International version of this film translated into Spanish. The kids loved it! Book of Hope also creates a magazine type booklet for the children as a takeaway after watching the video. All the materials are very high quality and we look forward to partnering with them in the future for outreach to children/youth. Check them out: www.bookofhope.net

King of Glory

Well, I was up before the chickens today to spend a little time with the Lord. How I wish I was a morning person. It seems that everytime I get up before 7 or 8 a.m. God rewards me richly, but I'm such good friends with my snooze button (looking for a little more slumber). Going to bed before 11:00pm might help also, I seem to get my second wind about 11:30pm. Anyway, I had a fantastic time with Jesus this morning.

I spent some time in Psalm 24 and I sensed God saying, Ron, I am your King of Glory (verses 8-10). I also sensed him saying, "I will calm every rough sea in your life, if you will let me." Then, as fate would have it, our teacher on worship this week focused on verse 3, where David writes, "Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?" The answer comes in verse 4, "He who has clean hands and a pure heart. Who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false." Then, after discussing the fact that an idol can be anything that takes the place of God in our lives, I realized how many things in my busy life crowd Him out. However, I take comfort in knowing that when I see my heart for what it really is at moments like these, Jesus, with his battered body, carried a cross up a hill and took the weight of these things and many more upon his shoulders.

God, I take all these things that have come to my mind today and I offer them up to you. Obviously they are not a sweet smelling sacrifice, but it is necessary to give them to you, so that I can give you my very best. You know the areas in me that need to die Father, and I can't wait to see what you are going to plant in place of the weeds as they are taken out of the garden. King of Glory, do in my heart and life whatever you see necessary so that I may become more like your Son.

Why Worship?

We had an awesome time of intercession up on a mountain overlooking Monterrey today. I was reminded how when Isreal went up against the Amalekites, Moses went on top of a mountain and raised his hands up. And as long as he kept them raised, Isreal won the battle, but when he lowered them, they would begin getting defeated. So he had others hold his hands up for him. It reminded me of how much we need our brothers and sisters in Christ in order to make our Christian walk and ministry all it can be.

God has given me a burden for the City of Monterrey and I'm sensing that he wants us here for a while. There is much to do and much to learn. We are being stretched every day at this point in our journey, but God is so faithful and always answers our calls and cries!

We also had an awesome teaching on worship today. To sum it up, worship isn't a song and it isn't what our worship leaders do, the music, performance, etc. It is what we do in response to who God is! Period! Whether we feel like it or not, whether the music is the style we like, whether the singers sound good. All of those things are irrelevant. What is relevant is our response to the Creator of the Universe. God, you are worthy of so much more than my praise, nonetheless, I pray that it would be a sweet fragrance to you. I pray that my worship would be extravagant.