7/19/08
Mario was straight tonight, clean, and all together, different.
I couldn’t have asked for a more closure. We sat at the back of the church and made small talk. From the first day he approached the church he has moved from a drunken seat on the curb, to standing outside the entry, to a seat in the back row. I know he can feel the Lord. He knows that it would be a lie to run away from what the Lord is speaking into him.
After the service, I gave him a Spanish/ English Bible with a letter inside that my squad-mate Dre translated into Spanish. You would have thought that he had never received a gift in his life, which might be the case. He wept. Steph asked him if they were happy tears and out of his tears he looked up and nodded, yes. Then he gave me a deep hug.
The smile he had as he drove away was true, almost like it wasn’t of him. Maybe it wasn’t. I hope, that what is closure for me is just the beginning for him.
Philipians 1:6 …being confident of this, that he who began
a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the
day of Christ Jesus.
My preconceived ideas of ministry have been altered drastically this month. Ministry is not an act, it is the movement of the Holy Spirit in and through willing and prepared hearts. Ministry is to speak in Spiritual Love.
Spiritual Love will meet the other person with the clear word of God and be ready to leave him alone with His word for a long time, willing to release him again in order that Christ may deal with him… Spiritual Love will speak to Christ about a brother more than to a brother about Christ. It knows that the most direct way to others is always through prayer to Christ and that love of others is wholly dependent upon truth in Christ. –Baunhoffer
As a disciple of the Lord, I am “interceding/standing in the gap”-Steph, for those that we encounter. We are here to proclaim the Lord’s faithfulness and speak Truth.
