Nahum 1:1-3

This study was done using the Amplified Bible, which I don't have permission to publish, so I will replace the verses here with the American Standard Version.  Because of that some of the comments may not totally make sense because the AMP has expanded explanations.  I would highly recommend going to a site like BibleGateway.com where you can read the AMP version for free.

Nahum Chapter 1:1-3

1  The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

A. The name Nahum means "comfortable" or "comfort".  It's interesting that a prophet named comfort is one who is given a burden to declare.  He is given judgement to proclaim.  

B. Elkosh means "God is my bow".  So far this city has not been discovered by modern archeology, but it is believed by many that it was originally in Galilee.

2 Jehovah is a jealous God and avengeth; Jehovah avengeth and is full of wrath; Jehovah taketh vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth [wrath] for his enemies. 

 A.  The Lord isn't just jealous as so many Christians seem to assume.  We have this idea that when we worship idols God just sort of sits on His throne seething and crying about it.  However God is a God of action, not just words or emotions.  He doesn't just feel jealous, but he acts upon that jealousy.

In line with God being action oriented, is that He is also measured in His actions.  He is full of wrath, but it is not an uncontrollable wrath.  He doesn't spontaneously combust, he is calculated in this wrath and stores it for the right time.  This gives opportunity for grace and mercy, which is always His preference.  He gives lots of time, storing that wrath in the hopes that repentance will be accepted by those He is calling.

3 Jehovah is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means clear [the guilty]: Jehovah hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

A.  God will not clear the guilty.  What an interesting statement, because we often say even in church that we are all guilty of sin, but that simply is not true any longer.  If we are guilty we will go to hell, this verse confirms that, but guilt no longer belongs to us.

B. The KJV translates this verse, "He will not acquit the wicked."  The Hebrew literally is, "He will not make the wicked clean."  In this we see the hole in the theology that we are all sinners even after salvation.  God will not make the wicked clean, therefore the only way to escape judgement is to be innocent and pure, which is what was accomplished on the cross and is received by faith. 

800 Grams

Here is an article from The Voice of the Martyrs that I really liked and thought I would share it today!

VIETNAM: 800 GRAMS
Front-Line Worker Profile: Xuan in Vietnam

She found Christ 13 years ago when she was a garbage collector. Every day, Xuan would pick through the garbage and find things to recycle for cash to support her family. Her husband had left her. She was paid by the gram for paper.

One day, Xuan saw some people worshiping in the area where she was going through garbage. She kept going back to watch them as they sang and prayed. “I found out that they worshiped God in heaven and I realized that they had a different God than me,” she said.
Then, a woman came by and handed her a Bible. She told Xuan, “Read this book.”

Xuan took it home and weighed it on her scale. It was 800 grams, not a large amount to recycle, but she could get a little money for it. She thought, “How could God be in this 800 gram book?” So she read the book, 10 chapters a day. She finished the book in six months.
“The first time I read it, I did not understand, so I was going to give it back to the lady,” Xuan said. “Then I thought I heard someone say, “I will give you wisdom.” She didn’t have electricity in her home, so she raised the candle she was using to read and looked to see who had spoken to her. No one was there.

“The second time I read the Bible, I still did not understand, then I heard the same voice. I lit a whole newspaper to make light to see who spoke to me,” she said. But there was no one.

The third time she read the Bible through, Xuan heard the same voice saying again, “I will give you wisdom.” Though again she saw no one, she began to understand the Bible, and she turned her life over to God. Thirteen years later, Xuan has read the Bible 21 times through.

Today, Xuan is sharing the gospel as a front-line worker. Every week she is teaching the Bible to new converts, sharing the gospel on the streets, at work and in another village. Thursdays are her day for prayer and fasting at the church. She also leads two churches. One of the young boys she mentored went on to Bible school and is now also in full-time ministry sharing the gospel. Another two are currently studying at Bible school.
She owes her new life and the fruit of her ministry to a small, 800-gram God book.

Floods and Teams

At the flood zone.

What a couple of weeks it has been!  There was major flooding in the nearby town of Cerro Punta.  We had a team of Canadians, and a team from the Cayman Islands which just left yesterday.  It has been a wild time.  For those of you who keep an eye on my YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/AlanCrookham), or my Facebook page, you will have seen my videos of ministry with the teams and during the flooding.  There are still several videos I am uploading from that time, I just had limited access and not much time to do so.

During the time we were helping with the flood victims we were able to go where many other people were unable to.  I went up to the disaster area the day after the flooding took place, less than 24 hours after.  The area was completely shut off, and only authorized personnel and rescue workers were allowed on site.  However the Lord had spoken for me and another staff member to go there and help.  At the first check point it didn't seem like we would get in at all, the police officer was pretty adamant that we could.  It wasn't until I flashed my pastoral ordination card (thank you Faith Fellowship!) that he instantly changed his tone.  Panama is a very religious country, and pastors are given more freedom and respect than many other places.

That was all it took.  After that we breezed through all four checkpoints into the center of the town that was hit.  We weren't able to go to the actual disaster zone itself, which was a little bit outside of town, but we did get to be where all the donations were coming into, and the food was being cooked for those who had lost their homes.  We were also right next to where those people were staying.  It was a somber environment on that first day to say the least.

Pictured: Day 3 (not quite as somber)

We worked with the donations for three hard days, two of them with the team from the Cayman Islands.  It was an amazing opportunity and we did as much as we could.  As you can see in these pictures there was an abundance of clothing donated, and we assisted in sorting it into men and women's, children, etc... in order to be distributed to families effected by the flood.

On a fun note, I got to see the First Lady of Panama, and just missed the President twice.  I didn't get to meet the First Lady, but we was standing across the street with some soldiers.  I did have a lot of reporters taking pictures of me though.  I guess there is something about a giant white gringo carrying boxes of water that looks interesting!  

Aside from the flooding we were all over the place doing a large variety of ministry.  However I don't want to give it all away because I am just about due for a newsletter and don't want to write it all here!  I'll be writing that newsletter in the next few days and you can get more details then!  

Many blessings!

The A Team

Here they are, in all their glory.

You thought I was going to talk about Mr. T didn't you?  Or maybe you thought I meant the A for Alan team.  Although that does sound kind of catchy.  But no, A is for Alpha team, because this is the first time I have co-lead a team since getting back here to Panama.  I've lead dozens of teams before of course, but there is something special about being back and leading again.  It was the first time I really felt like I was back in the groove of things.  They were a youth group from Canada, and it was so much fun to watch those polar people sweat in our 80 degree weather, which is still nice and cool compared to Texas when we left it.  A couple of them had little fans they hung from their necks to keep them cool.  Very funny stuff!

Aside from the fun, if you have access to either my Facebook or YouTube channel you have seen the steady stream of video clips I have been uploading.  There are still more to come even though the team has left now.  However, you can see in those videos that we were all over the place! We went to a Ngobe (Guaymi) camp, several schools, and old folks home, and more.  

At the schools we did presentations, prayed for the students, had dance contests, played soccer, and had an all around great time bringing the light of the Gospel to these students. 

At the old folks home there was a pretty horrible event that happened.  It wasn't very dramatic, but it looked very painful.  As you can see in this picture above, some of the people there use wheelchairs, and they have these concrete paths all throughout the complex with no rails or curbs or anything like that.  On top of that there are often drop offs that aren't very deep, maybe six inches or so, but if you are an older person in a wheelchair, it is a recipe for disaster.  

While we were speaking with the people, I saw this one man suddenly start leaning and his eyes got really big.  Before I could react, I saw that his back wheel was slipping off the edge of the walkway he was rolling around on.  It was like watching one of those fainting goats fall over (http://youtu.be/we9_CdNPuJg).  He let out a little cry of help and crashed over the edge.  As soon as he hit I ran over with the leader from the Canadian team and tried to pick up him up, but the wheelchair had collapsed and was effectively squeezing his hips and locking his legs in.  Needless to say, it was an ordeal to get him out, and nobody from the home staff came to help up!  We finally pulled him out and I was holding him up like some kind of super skinny teddy bear while the leader of the other team fixed the wheelchair and put it back in place.  

The ironic thing is that as painful as that fall must have been, the tough old guy just laughed the whole time I was holding him, and didn't seem any worse for wear when he was safely sitting again. After all of that someone from the home came and wheeled him off, presumably to check him for any serious injuries, but I didn't see him again that day, so maybe he was just taking a nap.

What do you mean those were my teeth stuck in the wheels?  Noooooo, those were my last teeth, my new ones are safe in the room under my pillow.  Shifty Ol' Grenilda steals them to make her quilts.

Ministry, whether on the mission field or in your home country is very much like having a garden.  It takes a lot of care, tending, watering, fertilizing, and everything else you have to do to keep a garden healthy.  Most people want ministry to be this: Walk into the field, stick a seed in the ground, come back in an hour and have a full harvest.  That is simply not how it works.  As a matter of fact, most experienced ministers will tell you that statistically it takes at least two years for real (ministerial) fruit to start becoming visible, and then five years for you to really start getting effective at what you are doing.  

"Whoa!  How long did this take?"
"About twelve minutes.  I just learned how to say 'Hello'".

We need every part of the body of Christ for the ministry to be effective.  Teams that come through often feel like they aren't providing much, but they don't realize that they are watering the garden that we have been laboring over for years, stirring up the hearts of people who need to hear the Gospel that would otherwise stay at home if there weren't visitors coming.  It is very similar to a church having a guest speaker come through, everyone is excited and you usually have more people show up on Sunday morning.

Now, we have been preparing for our next team which arrives tomorrow.  They are a team of 13 from the Cayman Islands and will be with us for ten days.  It should be just as eventful with them as it was with the Canadians.  Very different cultures, but God changes lives regardless of who you are or where you are from.  What matters is that you are available, have a right heart, and willing to be used by Him.  

Also, this coming weekend the base will be running a King's Kids camp, which is a Friday night through Saturday camp for local kids to come and learn more about Jesus!  That is a simple way to put it anyway.  This will be Karmy and my first camp on this base, although we helped with them several times when we lived in Costa Rica.  It is exciting to have another one coming up!

Expect a lot of new videos and testimonies of what God is doing, because after that we have our next DTS and Leadership school starting on September 12th, plus a team from World Race that will be with us for three weeks.  Also, our Ngobe DTS will be starting as well in the next few days.  Exciting times!

You know, on the mission field, in YWAM, nobody receives any kind of salary.  I get asked all the time by teams and others who come through how much we get paid to be out here, the answer is $0.00.  From the newest missionary to the Global Leadership Team of Youth With a Mission, not one of us receives a dollar from the organization.  We all raise our own support and rely completely on donations from others.  So, if you would like to partner with our ministry here, I am going to put the information out there for you.  Whether one time donations or monthly, they are all super helpful for us, and they all go to make the ministry you see in our videos and read about in our posts and newsletters possible.

First, you can do so through the Paypal button here in the blog.  That is not tax deductible however.  If you would like tax deductible donations, you can follow these instructions:

Tax deductible donations are processed through Mission Enablers International:

You can either donate online through the following link:

https://www.meigiving.com/mei.php

Simply fill out the short form, and when asking for the account number, write 9052.  Donations through Mission Enablers are tax deductible and you will receive a receipt for them.

If you would rather donate by check, you can also do it through MEI at the following address, just add a note saying the donation is for the account number above.

MEI

P.O. Box 1311

Fayetteville, AR 72702

Until next time!

Straight Grace

Every year Good focuses on one specific subject with me.  I'm not sure why, but that's just how He likes to do things with me I guess.  It probably just takes that long for me to finally get what He's trying to say!  If anyone read my other blog from last year, Kingdom Light, you'll remember that last year was pretty much all about consecration, priesthood, and heaven itself.  That was such an exciting year for me.  I loved that whole topic so much.

This year has been very different though.  Rather than all the deep insights on the Levites and consecration He was showing me, it has been straight up grace.  It seems like such a basic topic, but I have to say, it is one of those subjects that can be difficult to understand for someone like me.  Those of you who know me well, know that I am far from the shimmering beam of light most people see ministers and missionaries as.  Especially the teenagers I spent the last nine months with.  They all vomited under my care more than once (disgusting games are just part of the deal), the guys especially got a much more human look at me the day they came over and we played Xbox all day.  It turns out I'm not nearly as good as I think I am....

However, standing next to several of my friends in ministry who have such a passion for God, they often have great "testimonies".  You know the kind, the former vomiting transvestite with AIDs who was also the head of the mafia somewhere and had a instantly liberating encounter with God while doing heroin and simultaneously getting blackout drunk .  Those are the testimonies (tamed down of course) that you get to hear in church.  And if there is one thing we know, people who have had an encounter with God like that REALLY appreciate His grace and mercy, and love Him so incredibly much.  They truly understand grace because they have lived it out to such an extent they know the only way they are even alive is because of it.  "He who is forgiven much, loves much."

She understands in a way I can't.

I don't have a testimony like that.  A lot of people don't.  The fact is, I'm a church kid whose been in ministry forever and have never done anything remotely close to the things I hear people testify about.  I've never smoked anything in my life.  I've never done drugs.  I've only had one girlfriend, who is currently my wife of almost eight years.  The two times I drank alcohol were without my knowledge.  The first time was having dinner with another missionary who didn't tell me they were giving me wine, when I tasted it in and realized what it was I didn't drink any more.  The second time was during a special communion service where they had actual wine instead of grape juice.  I've never been in a gang or a fight, nothing people consider to be worth putting in a testimony.  

Don't be fooled of course, I've sinned as much as the next guy, just not the kind of stuff you consider to be "big".  The truth is though, it puts me at a serious disadvantage in the grace and mercy department.  

Grace.  Alan style.

See, there is a reason why Jesus came to earth and was tempted in every way.  Check this out:

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."                                                                                                                  - Hebrews 4:15 & 16

Jesus is able to have grace towards us because he understands the temptations we go through.  He gets it.  And it is because He gets it that He doesn't smite you into oblivion when your eyes wander in the wrong direction.  I on the other hand, have always been a supporter of the smiting.  Not because I enjoy watching people fall, it frustrates me like you wouldn't believe when someone with so much going for them chooses the wrong path.  It's just that in the past I have always have the attitude that if you choose the wrong thing, you should be held accountable for the decisions you have made.  I still agree with that, because we all will be held accountable one day, but now grace comes before the smiting.

Me, but not as cute.

So how do I understand grace better now?  It's not because I fell away from the Lord or anything like that.  I adore Him more than I ever have in my life, but when my family and I made the decision to go to Texas, I told Karmy that we would never be able to return to the mission field.  I was convinced we would lose everything here and even if we wanted to come back, we wouldn't be able to.  I went to Texas fully convinced it was for a long, long time.

But when we were there and I started to see that we were inevitably going to need to come back to Panama after a much shorter time than I expected, I was pretty scared.  I never doubted that God could take care of us, but after making such a big decision, and then going back on it, I didn't think God would want to.  Because if all the smiting, remember?  

Smitten

I am a strong believer in, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." Luke 9:62, because the Bible point blank says it.  There is no way around it.  As far as I was concerned, I was turning back and wasn't worthy of God's help on this.  I had resolved that I would come back to Panama and have to become like a tour guide or English teacher, or something like that.

God had different plans though, and decided to use it to show me what grace really looks like for the first time in my life.  Despite everything, not only did God allow us to come back and continue in the ministry here at YWAM, but He restored absolutely everything we had given up when we came here.  Same house, same beds, same laundry machine, same dishes, everything.  And on top of that He gave us an even better vehicle than we've ever had before!  

I know a lot of people would disagree with me, but if there is anyone on this planet who didn't deserve a second chance on the mission field, it is me.  But the grace of God was poured out on my life, and because of that I am now able to understand and extend grace to others where I would formerly be looking for the Hammer of Justice.  Thank you Jesus for grace, and for allowing me to experience it!

Old Miracles, Recently Revealed

I am here in Volcan for the day, and I just found out that the reason the pastor who invited me to preach the 9th of August was so quick in calling me is because when I preached at his campaign last year, and tried something new, which I'll explain in a minute, there were multiple miracles that took place.  I don't know what they are yet, but I am excited to find out in a few days!

The "new" thing I tried out, which was new for me, not for others, was something I saw Pastor David Hogan do a few times, which was to have anyone who needed healing for someone not in the meeting to bring a cloth of some kind, and I would pray over it.  This comes from Paul doing the same in the book of Acts.  A lot of people brought cloths and such, but I never heard any news about in until now! 

This happens so often, you sow seeds and have no idea the results until years later.  Often times God keeps us in the dark on what His has is moving just to keep you in Faith.  What a great God!

The Beginning and Continuation of a New Missionary Journey

As many of you have heard, after eight months of being in Texas, God has called Karmy, myself, and our kids back to the mission field in Panama.  This was one of the tougher decisions we have ever had to make.  It started around March when we began feeling God stirring in our hearts the call to the mission field.  At first I was surprised, because although we always knew our stay here wasn't permanent, I did expect us to be here for a few years, but God knows what He is doing.

After so many confirmations and encouragement from our friends, family, and pastoral staff, we made the decision to return.  Even though we spent eight years in Central America before this, and have only been here in Texas for eight months, it still feels like starting over again.  We are even buying everything to furnish a house because we sold everything when we came here.

The timeline is quick and fairly simple.  We are taking a team of 40+ people to Panama on Monday where we will be returning to work in Tugri, the Capitol of the Ngobe tribe land for nine days.  On our return Karmy will stay in Panama with the kids, and I will return to Texas to start transitioning out of my position in the church.  I will go to church camp with the teens, and continue as usual until July 13th which will be my last official day here.  I will fly out to Panama on July 14th.

So what will we be doing?  Great question!  We are going to be returning to work with Youth With a Mission in Potrerillos, Chiriqui.  You can see more about that at www.ywamchiriqui.org.  We will continue to work with the Ngobe tribe, which as some of you have heard me speaking about them, know that they are the largest indigenous tribe south of Mexico in Central America.  Although classified as a reached people group by most organizations (this being based on a 2% reached status), the Ngobe are only 4% reached.  You may read on other web sites or through statistical organizations that something like 60% or more are Christians, but they do not take into account any doctrinal beliefs, the person simply has to say they belief in some form of Christianity.  As a result, even though only 4% of Ngobe actually believe the core doctrines of Christianity, you have 50% or more that believe in a mixture of witchcraft, Mamatata (their native religion), and a form of Catholicism brought to them in the 1500's, which I may add were the same "Catholics" who raped and murdered their way through the lands.

You can imagine the kind of "Christianity" believed here.  The reality is that after that 4% of believers most Ngobe have never heard of Jesus, and if they have it is a very twisted and inaccurate view of who He is.  They need the true Gospel, and they need us to bring it to them!

This blog is being established in order to maintain updates as to what is going on in Panama and other nations God may take us to over the next years.  I would ask that you consider partnering with us in the endeavor to go places and reach people that few have ever reached and gone.  Feel free to contact me with any questions, and expect great things from God!