Mexico City, Mexico

In the Heart of Darkness : Ciudad de Mexico Dec 21-28th, 2008
“ The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “ O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord. “ Ezekiel 37: 1-6
Dear Lord, Please allow me to efficiently present this work you have so privileged me to be involved in this week. Lord, let me show the work you have done through my words. Allow people’s eyes to be opened to the darkness in the world, and the darkness in their own lives. Reveal yourself to those who don’t know You, and if they do not You are just in not drawing them to Yourself. You are also just in doing so. Make Your name known through my message. I love You, Father. Tis Grace. Amen.
Sunday afternoon, a group of 7 members of the body of Christ Jesus jumped on an airplane to the city of Monterrey on a connecting flight to Mexico City, Mexico. Our beloved brother, Jonathan Murdock, has left many of his possessions and responded to yet another calling in his life to la ciudad de mexico to live with a family and preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:16) This place that he lives in is, as many of you know, the heart of the heart of darkness, but as many of you also know, God is Light. My prayer before I left was to be discerned in my speaking and my actions and the correlation between the two. It is so easy for men to speak empty words. I prayed that when God chose to use me, that I would discern that clearly and that my words would be completely and utterly saturated in the Truth that He has given me to make Himself known; namely, His Scripture. Before I left for Mexico, I have been in Romans 1… just mapping it out; I have decided to completely and utterly take away all of my preconceived ideas about theology and God, and allow God to reveal Himself to me as I read Scripture. I was stuck on verse 5 and verse 16. In verses 1-4 of Romans 1, it goes through the “salvation story” and how Christ has made salvation available to men. (It’s beautiful, and verse three was very applicable to Christmas!) Verse 5 says, “through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.” My first question was, what is the obedience of faith and how is that made available? Later in verse 16, it speaks of the gospel of Christ being the power of salvation and if we are obedient in being completely saturated in Scripture and desiring God that we are conformed to His image by the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives? So, I started with these questions, and jumped around in a few other places of Scripture. On the plane to Monterrey, I began to read the gospel of John tracks we would be using for bible saturation during the week, and I began in verse 1 of John 1, “ En el principio era el Verbo, y el Verbo era con Dios, y el Verbo era Dios.” I stopped there because there is so much packed into one verse. The whole reason we came on this mission trip is for His name to be glorified. He is one with the Father, which makes grace so unfathomable that grace which is brought forth by His birth, life, resurrection, and reign which through His death the Father satisfied his wrath on the Son. I was dwelling on that grace, and not understanding the means thereof. We arrived in Mexico, and the sweet reuniting of those who have worked together in the body and for the Father in previous times was muy rico (very rich). Previous to the sovereign placing of the church in Mexico, I was in Romans, and verse 11-12 better explains it than I can place words. “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you- that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” As a group, we met the family, which would later become a rich realization of the grace and who the church is, and experienced the intense reality of kissing everyone on the cheek and hugging them genuinely. The smiles were everywhere and the open arms of those who love God were everpresent! As a family in Christ, ready to work, we went to Tacos de Jugo on the street and had chicken and beef tacos in fellowship and just getting to know one another. We then came back and Jonathan laid down the ground rules, number one being “Do not lead people in a prayer to accept Christ.” That night I was exhausted from a long days travel so Tori and I had a long night of attempting to sleep on an air mattress. (Let’s just say that worked for about a night, and then I slept on the concrete floor the rest of the week… mostly because there was a hole in our air mattress. Haha.)
Day 2 “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord.” Proverbs 17:15 I attempted to fathom grace, yet again, in that fact that God justified me in my wickedness. How intense a thought. I had a really bad dream the first night in Mexico… so I woke up praising God that it was not a reality. I woke up to Paul Washer yelling, (not knowing that it was Paul), and I asked who is yelling?! They need to stop! Then I found out it was Paul Washer proclaiming the gospel! I read in Ezekiel 36-37 and it speaks of God’s jealousy for His own name, and that any favor poured upon the nation of Israel is not for the sake of Israel but for the sake of His great name! Ezekiel 37 spoke of the dry bones only becoming alive and having life within them because of the Spirit and breath poured into them. We all went downstairs and had breakfast and a devotional on the utmost attribute of God: His Holiness. We determined that the root of evangelism is the holiness of God. The only explanation of His Holiness is Ex. 3:14 in the I am statement and that He is completely other. We prayed and went out to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. The team split up and half of us went to the streets evangelizing (and by that meaning attempting to make known the name of God by telling others of who He is backed up with Scripture, and trying to explain His rightness, holiness, and kindness) and inviting kids to the park to play games and others preparing and speaking to people in the park. I was part of the group that went to the streets, and the highlight of that is that the group that went to the streets invited several people, but spoke with five drunk men on the road. Jonathan spoke with four, and then one singled me out(Miguel) and began speaking about the United States. Jonathan was in the background, “No! Cerveza es malo! Tienen Jesu Cristo solamente!” I asked the man if he worshiped the muerte because it was right down the street, and he said no that he went to mass and that he was a good person. Jonathan turned around and said “No! Tue eres muy malo, por que romanos doce dice…” He said that he believes the whole Bible, yet he doesn’t believe Romans 12 is true. He said he believed what he did because His parents told him so, and I told him that it wasn’t his faith, it is his parents faith. He continued to argue. Speaking Truth to the dead person is hard, it is a privilege. We made our way back to the park, and the kids games began. I watched while the kids were playing and there was a mom that was watching her kids, so when Paco sat down with the kids for bible study I went and sat with Juana (the mother). I began speaking to her about her faith, and she said she is catholic. Jonathan and I spoke with her about how worshiping the muerte and mary aren’t any different because they are both idols and they are simply rocks. We spoke to her about how God is the living God who cannot be contained in things made by men. We explained the money aspect of the catholic church, and the fact that mary is no different than myself. Her heart and intentions thereof are evil only continually. Gen. 6:5. She said she would be dwelling on this God of the Christians and she left with her children. As a group, we went to the muerte church. It was closed, but the idol is sitting outside the church and people buy these candles to worship the muerte. The fear of this “god” is so disgusting and sad. The idolatry seen there is gorgeously outright, rather than hidden by “good intentions” as in America. It’s disgusting, but it was encouraging to see them outright about their sin, rather than hiding it with whatever Americans want it to be. Jonathan spoke with a man who worshiped the muerte while we were there. It was a long day. We went downtown to Starbucks and went to the market. I twisted my ankle and fell, which threw my hip out for about two days. Darkness became more evident; spiritual warfare is true and demons are real. “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?” 2 Cor. 2:16-17 (This passage hit home when dwelling on grace, that we are not solely saved one time, but one knows that they are saved because they are continually being saved.)Lord, center my life on Truth. Consuming Fire, fan into flame a passion for Your name. Spirit of God, would You fall in this place? Lord have Your way, Lord, have Your way with us.
Day 3 I struggled with missing someone dearly today. I started my day out praying that my gaze would be on Christ. I started my day out with some Paul Washer preaching on the cross of Christ. Our devotional was on the righteousness of God. “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.” Romans 9:15-16 Whenever He saves, He does so to display His rightness. We sang Marvelous Light and How Great is Our God. “Into Marvelous Light I’m Running, Out of Darkness out of Shame.” We went to the park and Vasti and I teamed up and talked to another lady and her son. It was along the same lines as Juana and that she believed in the Guadalupe (Mary) for the reason of that’s what her parents always told her, and it was a good conversation, but it was heartbreaking because she was asking her son all the answers because he goes to the church. We also talked to a very drunk woman in the park. It was actually funny, but also sad to see a soul who knows she’s going to hell, as in Ezekiel 16, wallowing in blood and drowning in her own blood. Psalm 5 says “ you hate all evildoers.” This woman said, “No one loves me.” We told her, you are wrong in the fact that no one does. We care for your soul. We are concerned, but God hates the evildoer. Let me tell you more about who He is. She was so drunk. She poured out her cerveza after we talked to her. Like I said previously, talking to dead people is a privilege… not only in God using us in the souls of others for His name, but that I get to see who I was yet again. We then went to Murdock’s English class, and he teaches English using scripture. It was really neat to watch it, and to see that God works through the simple.
Day 4 1 Peter 2:11 “Abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” I just spent time dwelling on what I put as an idol in my life, and I was quite disgusted at what my muertes were. I pleaded with God and thanked Him yet again for His grace. It never fails. Today we went to the market, and we really got to see the rightness of God after hearing the gunshots last night. We found out that two blocks down the street a man was murdered. We had an amazing time of fellowship on Christmas Eve. The women in the church cooked us a three course meal. It was amazing and we went to church as well. There were several times on this day that I felt God really desired for me to just be silent. I dwelled on Him being God.
Day 5 CHRISTMAS DAY! We had a devotional on the kindness of God. Today was my favorite day of the whole week. We took cookies out to the prostitutes, and spoke with them. I spoke with one prostitute named Karen, and God used her words to prove Himself right, good, holy, and completely other yet again. I pointed her to John 4 (the woman at the well), and told her that she can continue to drink of the water of money and she will continue to be thirsty. The men that were using her for sex are only thirsty for his desires and he will be hungry again. I showed her the passage in Romans that says that God has handed them over to their lusts, and he has made Himself known and His invisible attributes known throughout creation. We asked her if she attended church, and she said no because she felt like that would be like laughing in the face of God because of her job. She said she knew she can’t get out of the job on her own, and that she doesn’t know God, but she desires for Him to know her. She said she liked my Message because I don’t condemn her. I told her that she is exactly right. She can’t get out of the job on her own. She said that it would require her to leave everything and she has no reason to do so. She spoke so much Truth, and she had never read the Bible. There are so many people that go down through there telling the prostitutes that if they just pray this prayer… they will be saved. Paul Washer says in one of his sermons, ““Greatest problems on the mission field is also one of the greatest problems in America: we have taken this glorious gospel and turned it into a superficial creed that has no power to save but has great power to deceive a multitude into believing that they are saved when they are not. “ Karen asked me how she is to pray. I told her that unless she is pleading with God to save her soul, then there is no reason to. He does not know her, and if she is looking to God as solely a ticket to a place where she has preconceived ideas of escaping hell and not of knowing Him for eternity (and He is no ticket), there is no purpose in praying. She asked many questions, and God broke me in the matter that He spoke so much to me through the mouth of a prostitute. We left, and about five minutes later she took a guy into the hotel, and one of the missionaries asked why she did that after we had just talked to her, and I told them that is a perfect example of the dry bones becoming as flesh. Until the breath is poured into them, they will not live. She has no reason to change. She has no reason to drop everything in her life to walk with Christ. God hasn’t poured out His Spirit into her life. We went and fed the homeless, and we read out of John 6 where Jesus says that they only come to obtain their fill, yet He is the Bread of Life. It was good, and then we had a service (church) in the house in Spanish. It was really good and I prayed and fellowshipped with another missionary on the roof. Best Christmas day ever. “For thus says the Lord God: Behold I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.” Ezekiel 34:11-12
Friday and Saturday we went to the pyramids and saw where the muerte started, and it was good fellowship and rest from the work we had done. We saw God’s beautiful creation. Some of the pictures from the week are posted on facebook. I will end this with a quote I heard today in a sermon from Paul Washer (one of my favorite preachers by far besides Tim Presson, Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, Conrade Mbewe, and many others.)
Repentance… and this is not a thing about Armenians and Calvins(they agreed)… Repentance is a supernatural work of God in which God came down and dealt with the heart when the gospel was preached and opened up that heart to understand the wickedness of its sin and the holiness of God and brought contrition… brokenness until the person becomes totally destitute of any hope in their flesh or their ability to merit God’s declaration of righteousness, and then they throw themselves upon Christ believing that Christ has died for them their salvation is sealed in His person and His work.
Actually I will end with scripture,” For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ, we are weak but you are strong, you are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.” 1 Corinthians 4:9-13