NTM

I was thinking of the Body life principles that Paul explains are within the of the Body of Christ. I had to ask myself a few questions, here they are and I will pose them to you as well:

-Is anyone encouraging and comforting me or am I encouraging and comforting others with truths about the Lord, Salvation, about the Victorious Christian life or about “not I but Christ”?

-Am I looking for the ways God has comforted me so that I can comfort my wife, my kids, the members of the local church we attend? Am I leading them to Christ, to God, who can raise the dead?  Or am I not wanting to be used by God to comfort to them, because then I will have to share my struggles and sufferings?

Paul said we will comfort others with the comfort with which God has comforted us, because God is the God of all comfort and it is His Body (the church) that then comforts its members. (2 Cor.1.3-7) In this section of 2nd Corinthians, Paul also shares his struggles and sufferings for Christ with the church at Corinth. He trusts and knows their hearts so well that he was not afraid to tell them “that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life.” (1.8) How incredibly open Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, was with this church who supported and prayed for him. “So that we despaired even of life“, what a sense of the condition of their thinking and emotions about what they were going through, real despair.Despairing of life!?! Was Paul wanting to die?! Was this a time in Paul’s life that he wanted to give up?

What did he do about his feels and his thinking? Did he hide it? No, instead he shared it to the glory of God!

In my local church and with my christian friends, do I/can Ispeak this openly? This honestly? Have I ever opened up to anyone to this degree, knowing that Christ will comfort me through His Body, the Church? Do I have relationships that go to this level, where all I need is encouragement and comfort in the Lord and I find it?

Do I allow, or better yet, encourage, my fellow members of the body of Christ to come and share like Paul shared without doubting their walk with God, but instead praying for them, encouraging them and looking for all that God has for them in and through this time of struggle or suffering? Am I looking to give God the glory as He comforts others through me?

Paul goes on to say that his time of suffering and comfort was “so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;” Paul puts it all back into perspective, this life is about God who is the only One who can truly do anything. It is God who comforts, it is God who delivers and it is God who raises the dead!

God has chosen to live His life, in this world, out through me (Gal. 2.20) and as He lives His life out through me, how am I as a member of the Body of Christ? Am I looking to be comforted in my sufferings and struggles by God, so that I can be honest and open with others about them? What about God, how does He fit into all of this, do I trust Him in the times I suffer to be the God of all comfort? The God who raises the dead?!

Paul’s returns to who he knows God to be and who he knows the Body to be.

For our children as we consider their schooling needs in the future.

Our families spiritual lives, that we all grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

For where God wants us to serve Him in Tribal Church planting.

Pray for wisdom in whether or not we should take the linguistic course here at the MTC, this spring.

That our children will trust God in all that He has for us as a family; moving, ministry, country, etc.

Thanks so much for praying.

John and Becki

Jesus said apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15) Have you ever thought about that? What doe He mean? Does He mean just as far as spiritually or physically? Or does Jesus really mean what He said “Apart from me you can do nothing”.
When Jesus was alive here on earth, 2000 years ago, He never did anything apart from what His Father told Him to do and told Him to say. Jesus depended upon His Father and the Holy Spirit to guide Him throughout His life on earth. He prayed to the Father; the Spirit descended upon His like a dove, Our Savior Jesus Christ depended on the Father His whole life. He said, “I must be about my Father’s business”; “I only say what the Father tells Me to say”. Jesus was all about listening to and doing all that His Father told Him to do, through the power which the Father gave to Him. “The Father abiding in Me does His works”, Jesus said, in John 14.
John 15 alludes to this same relationship between the Believer and Christ. The Christ abiding in the believer does His works; And “He is faithful, He that began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil.1.6) For the believer “it is God who is at work in you (the believer), both to will and to work of His good pleasure.” Our christian walk/life is Christ’s life actively working itself out through the “new creature” (the believer). 1 John says that our fellowship is with the Father and the Son; and in 2 Peter 1.3 we are told that “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him…” The life of Christ in us is what lives, “for it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal.2.20) “Christ, who is our life” (Col.3.4) “for to me, to live is Christ…” (Phil.1.21)

Since, the fact of the matter is that, the believer can do nothing apart from Christ. Absolutely nothing! (John 15)
How will you live your life, if all you can do is nothing?

The answer is simple, YOU DON’T LIVE YOUR LIFE, CHRIST LIVES HIS LIFE THROUGH YOU.

“it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me”

This past Thursday and Friday was “Field Fair”, which is a two day meetings involving representatives from many different fields of service. Each field gives a presentation and relays its specific needs (areas of ministry) so that we may see where we might serve in the near future. With all the information we are given we usually come out feeling overwhelmed, but praise God He is in control. As we pray about where and how he wants us to serve Him, will you pray with us? We are trusting in Christ to guide us into the ministry He wants for us.

Join with us.

2 Cor.1.11 “…as you also join in helping us by prayer, so that many people may give thanks to God on our behalf for the gracious gift given to us through the help of many.”

Please pray for God’s direction this week. On Thursday and Friday, NTM missionaries will be presenting many different fields of service and we are asking Christ to give us direction and wisdom as we meet with and listen to those presenting areas of service.
Thank you, John and Becki.

Change #1: As you can see our ministry web page has changed, big time! We are hoping that this will be easier for you to navigate through and stay caught up with us and with what the Lord is doing in our family.

Change #2: All 6 of us are now attending school which is a totally new dynamic for our day; for the past 3 years Derek has been home with us during the afternoon and now he is in Kindergarten from 7:30am getting on the bus to 4pm getting off the bus, this makes for a really long day for him. There have been quite a few days where Derek has come home and just been exhausted.

Change #3: The classes that Becki and I are taking right now are not lecture, study or reading based, but instead they are based on relationships, cultural ignorance and trusting the Lord to give us wisdom as we go through the courses. The class that we are in now is called “Dobu”, which is a course designed to give us experience in tribal church planting. Basically, we meet with a tribal person (instructors roll play this character) and talk with them attempting to build relationships with them, learn their language and their culture, all without doing things (cultural blunders) that will hinder our relationship building. WOW! this is not one of those classes that we have all had in which you can forget about it while you are not sitting in the class, it is on our minds constantly. The implications of causing cultural blunders can be devastating to our ultimate goal of preaching the gospel! We are trusting the Lord in this class to teach us, give us wisdom and insight, so that when we do get to the field we will have a working knowledge of being culturally and relationship sensitive so that we might win some!

Change #4: SQUEALLLLL, SQUEAKKKK, SCRATCHHHHH, GRRRIND!!!!  “WHAT IS THAT NOISE!!???!!!” That is what Becki was saying about a week ago as we drove to Walmart. The noise was coming from our front brake pads and rotors on the van. After our long trip back to Missouri from Virginia and New York, our brakes were completely shot. they were worn right down to within a 1/16th of an inch of the metal. Thankfully the Lord provided our neighbor, Neil Hess, to give me a hand changing them, greasing the bearings and showing me how to clean all of the parts so that we might get the most out of them.

We hope that through this blog, e-mails and phone calls we might be able to keep you up-to-date with what the Lord is doing, how He is changing and challenging us and we REALLY want to hear what the Lord is doing in your lives too.

Please contact us and let us know what is going on in your life, so that we can accurately pray for you.

In Christ,

The Bennett Family.

2 Cor. 5.5-9

Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.

Therefore we are always full of courage, and we know that as long as we are alive here on earth we are absent from the Lord –

for we live by faith, not by sight.

Thus we are full of courage and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

So then whether we are alive or away, we make it our ambition to please him.