Dear friends of Mexico Ministries:
It is now officially 2020 - TWENTY TWENTY! In 1978 when I resigned as pastor of Evangel Temple in Denison and went on the mission field, 2020 seemed like a science fiction date so far out in the future we would never reach it, but here we are, 42 fulfilling years of missionary ministry down the road from those first difficult days of serving in Mexico.
The years have been fulfilling, but there have always been difficulties, including spiritual battles. We all have spiritual struggles from time to time, and over the last year I have wrestled with something that has given me many sleepless nights and caused my flesh to want to lash out but my spirit, my better self, kept saying no. Then the answer to my problem announced itself as I was reading Matthew 20 a few weeks ago, where Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for the vineyard...” I wish you would take time to read the entire parable, but it ends with the master of the vineyard asking, “Is it not lawful for me to do what I want with what is my own?”
What settled the battle between my flesh and my spirit was the realization that the vineyard in Mexico - the churches, the congregations, the clinics, the buildings, the schools, the houses - none of that belongs to me. Although I already knew it in my heart, the Lord brought it to the forefront that the vineyard of ministry isn’t mine, it is the Lord’s. I have just been invited to labor for a while in that vineyard, remain faithful, and do all I can to help it prosper and expand and bear much fruit.
I often forget the name of a church (in Mexico or in the U.S.) and I refer to it as, “Pastor Jim’s church,” or, “Pastor Manuel’s church,” or whoever the pastor may be. But, those churches were never the pastors’ churches. Like me, they are workers invited to labor in the Lord’s vineyard. These churches belong to Christ alone. “And he gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers. For the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of
Christ.” (Ephesians 4.11) None of these - from the apostles and prophets in the beginning, to the pastors of today - are vineyard owners. We are all just workers, called to be faithful during our time.
In a few days I will be back in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca, doing what I have been doing for 42 years. Laboring in the vineyard. May the Lord grant me faithfulness to serve, and grant all of you faithfulness and strength in your own labors for the King.
God bless you,
Larry