Open Doors

I have been in Atlanta this last week getting ready for the trip to North Africa and it has been very good. God has grown me in a lot of ways. It has been very exciting to see God open many doors and give many opportunities to myself and others to see the gospel of Jesus Christ go out to people in Atlanta. Just to give a few highlights, (I won't go into super detail. I also want to mention that everything that went on this week was totally of God. So I want to praise Him for what took place) but last Tuesday I had the opportunity to share the gospel with two Muslims from Somalia. I was able to sit down and talk with a family from the Congo for about 45 about the gospel. I had the opportunity on Wednesday to give the gospel to a man from India at an Indian restaurant. I had the opportunity to share the gospel with a kid on Thursday in a Hispanic community, and on Saturday Cole and I were able to sit down in the apartment of one of the Muslim Somalians that I had talked to on Tuesday and share the gospel with about 5 or 6 of his family and friends in his living room. God has been so good this week in opening up doors so that the gospel of Jesus Christ can be proclaimed amongst the people in some different immigration communities in the Atlanta area.

Now, we left for North Africa today but we ran into a few problems. We left Atlanta this afternoon and we were supposed to make a connecting flight at JFK airport in New York with no problems. Unfortunately, to say the least, we missed the flight because we landed at JFK and then sat on the plane for about an hour. We ran to our gate but it ended up being a little too late. We went through the hassle of trying to get some vouchers for a hotel and food but to say the least after talking to 4 different employees for Delta I wasn't able to get anywhere. God is good though and He is in control. We ended up making it to a church in Manhattan so we are sleeping here tonight and then we fly out tomorrow evening. God is definitely in all of this so I am excited about our short detour.

I have been reading the book "The Holiness of God" by R.C. Sproul and I would like to leave you with a quote from the book. It is lengthy but very good. Think about it. Meditate on it. Ponder it and let me know what you think. To set up the context were are jumping in on a discussion of God's Holy justice and how he dealt with certain people in certain situations for instance Uzzah or Nadab and Abihu and an appearance of vast difference between the two testaments but Sproul inserts a thought.
"The false conflict between the two testaments may be seen in the most brutal act of divine vengeance ever recorded in Scripture. It is not found in the Old Testament but in the New Testament. The most violent expression of God's wrath and justice is seen in the Cross. If ever a person had room to complain of injustice, it was Jesus. He was the only innocent man ever to be punished by God. If we stagger at the wrath of God, let us stagger at the Cross. Here is where our astonishment should be focused. If we have cause for moral outrage, let it be directed at Golgotha.
The Cross was at once the most horrible and the most beautiful example of God's wrath. It was the most just and the most gracious act in history. God would have been more than unjust, He would have been diabolical to punish Jesus if Jesus had not first willingly taken on Himself the sins of the world. Once Christ had done that, once He volunteered to be the Lamb of God, laden with our sin, then He became the most grotesque and vile thing on this planet. With the concentrated load of sin He carried, He became utterly repugnant to the Father. God poured out His wrath on this obscene thing. God made Christ accursed for the sin He bore. Herein was God's holy justice perfectly manifest. Yet it was done for us. he took what justice demanded for us. This "for us" aspect of the Cross is what displays the majesty of its grace. At the same time justice and grace, wrath and mercy. It is too astonishing to fathom."