La Laguna thoughts and digressives....

The following comes out of my monthly newsletter (by which, if you want to subscribe please e-mail me or e-mail "newsfrommexico (*at*) fortheeone (*dot*)com" with subscribe in the subject).

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“And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:” Exodus 21:5

The passage of Exodus 21:1-11 relate to the 5th and 6th commandment.  It differs from our time and custom but establishes a principle by which one should live.  The servant is an emblem of the state bondage to sin, the law, and Satan.  The law was brought in because of sin.  The servant in being made free was the emblem of God’s grace given unto man to have liberty in Jesus Christ. 

I share these verses because they made me think of what today is, Valentine’s Day.  Valentine’s Day has a long history of celebrating romance.  However, one cannot understand romance if he cannot understand the Love of God.  What first caught my attention in this passage was “I love my master, my wife, and my children”.  Many of you are aware of the True Love Waits program.  Within the program, there is a pledge to remain pure or abstinent until after marriage.  The three things mentioned in the verse above came to mind: God, spouse, and children.  Now of course in the verse, master is the owner of the servant, but God is our Master.  For years there has been talk about the need of teaching “safe sex”.  In the Love Worth Finding sermon today by Adrian Rogers he stated that there should be no need for safe sex because it was never intended to be dangerous.  That is why it is important for people understand the true love of Christ and the liberty that he provides.  One of the problems we have in the La Laguna is the lack of emphasis on purity.  Purity is so important that it is included in the Beatitudes as a quality or characteristic of Christians.  I am in the process of starting some True Love Waits camps in the La Laguna.  We will have our first camp hopefully March 29th and 30th involving three churches and if these dates fail, we will have it in April.  Please pray for those who will be teaching and those who will be attending.   There are around 65 Mexican Baptist churches in the area and many more other Evangelical churches.  It is our prayer that this will be a pilot project that will show the need of understanding purity and teaching purity.  Along with these projects, there come costs.  There will be a Friday night and Saturday retreat and the youth will be free to leave Saturday night.  A commitment service will be held on Sunday for all who will have attended all the training sessions and all who will have signed commitment card.   We are asking that each pay $60 pesos which is less than six U.S. dollars to cover their food.  That leaves the cost of lodging if the available institute is used of $5 pesos per person, the cost of printing the materials, and the cost of the commitment rings.  We have updated projects of near 40 participants.  Of course, no person will be turned down if they cannot afford to pay.   We are going to ask the churches and the area convention to start preparing now and set up a fund to make this an ongoing retreat and that they will be able as a convention pay for the majority of the expenses.  Please know that even though $6 dollars does not sound like much to use, for many families here, it is a lot of money.  If you feel led to cover some of the costs please let me know and I will tell you how to make arrangements.

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As my friend and compañero, Casey pointed out to me, this servant was willing to surender.  Are we willing to surrender to Christ?