by John Carpenter | Sep 20, 2016 | Ministry News
Praises and Prayer Requests
Well, dear faithful friends, we have once again had a blessed and fruitful Del-Haven summer camp season. The Lord God has given to us many testimonies of His protecting and providing presence. Your continual prayers go a long way in validating this as being the truth. We consistently give our Lord praise for all of you for your faithful showing of love and prayerful support. Please do continue to lift up to the sovereign throne all the children that have been divinely sent through our schedule of evangelistic exposure and all those that the Lord has chosen to fulfill that ministry. They – each – earnestly need our continual prayers for God’s gracious provision, preservation and protection as they face the continual struggles with opposition of this world. Thank you in advance for your faithful persistence in praying for them. We love and pray for you all.
by John Carpenter | Sep 20, 2016 | Devotional
Col.2:6-7 descriptively declares: “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord – so walk ye in Him: rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith – as ye have been taught – abounding therein with thanksgiving.”
There is delivered here, for our understanding, a very basic and practical principle of God’s grace that becomes the very character of our walk through this world as a true child of God.
First of all, we can accurately and rightly conclude that our walk – our journey – through the wilderness of this fallen and cursed world is exactly in accordance to the same way in which we received the Lord Jesus Christ into our lives. 2Co.13:5 exhorts us in this manner: “Examine yourselves – whether ye be in the faith! Prove your own selves! Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates?” It is so important that our perspective opinion in this particular aspect that concerns the reality of our spiritual experience be purged from any and every iniquity or error. For a mistake on this vital point affects the entirety of our Christian life in and through this world. Our Lord, Himself, warns us against walking in a light that is actually darkness. He said, “If, therefore, the light that is in thee – be darkness – how great is that darkness!”[Mt.6:23] Therefore, how did we receive Christ Jesus the Lord? We must not forget that the Word plainly tells us: “For by grace are ye saved – through faith – and that not of yourselves! It is the gift of God – not of works – lest any man should boast.”[Eph.2:8-9]
Secondly, the same wonderful grace that saved us and gifted us with the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, continues on by manifesting unto us that we, indeed, have been loved by God and chosen by God and placed by God “in Christ”. Hence, as we have received Christ by God’s grace, even so, by God’s grace, we also walk through this world of trial and trouble in Christ – Praise His Name! Gal.2:16 adamantly declares to us this all important truth: “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by – the faith of Jesus Christ; even we have believed in Jesus Christ – that we might be justified by – the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” So then, from this text we learn that we cannot genuinely have faith in Christ – unless it is by the gift of God – the grace – of the faith of Christ!
Finally, as we walk in our Lord, an amazing thing takes place. We are still in this fallen and cursed world that is literally fraught with toils and struggles of all sorts, and yet, in our walk in our Lord, we grow in grace and knowledge of Him as being our Savior. This is because God has – by His grace — rooted us in His Word (through which the Holy Spirit has caused us to receive Christ Jesus in the first place) and is also, as we walk through this world in Him, building us up in the same. Acts 20:32 reveals what Paul was inspired to tell the Ephesians when he was leaving them: “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”
This rooting and building us up in the Word of God’s grace is exactly what we need to establish us in the faith of Jesus Christ that saves us. And as we walk in our Lord through this world – we walk by faith and not by sight. We walk by the Holy Spirit who seals Jesus Christ to our hearts and our hearts to Jesus Christ as being our sovereign Savior Substitute; which He has been unto us, from eternity, in eternity and for eternity! Again, Praise His Name!
For Christ’s Glory Only!
-John Carpenter
by John Carpenter | Aug 15, 2016 | Ministry News
We are in our final camp for 2016 as this prayer letter is being written. This camp is typically the smallest camp of our whole season. Please continue to pray for us. Often, it seems, these smaller sessions are actually some of the richest sessions spiritually. “For who hath despised the day of small things?” May our God restrain us from doing this.
For some, school starts as soon as next week! These children need our most earnest prayers for “the nurture and admonition” of our Lord throughout the whole year. This should be our faithful endeavor for both our staff and all the campers.
by John Carpenter | Aug 15, 2016 | Ministry News
Our Open House Event was well received even though it was a hot, sultry day. Those that came got a front row seat to an actual camp afternoon and evening. We had the campers sing songs — quote their memory verses — and many of them gave testimonies. One little boy stepped up and thanked those that attended for supporting Del-Haven so he could come to camp for free! I promise you that no one put him up to doing that…it was of the Lord! We had a blessed time together.
The children sang songs from the week, quoted their memory verses, and gave testimonies about their week at camp.
Visitors got a chance to eat and visit with the campers.
by John Carpenter | Aug 15, 2016 | Devotional
“Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him. (10) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. (11) Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men…(14)For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if One died for all, then were all dead; (15) and He died for all, that they which live should not, henceforth, live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them — and rose again!” [2Co.5:9-11;14-15]
It is a natural characteristic of having been quickened, or regenerated, by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God for the new “born-from-above” true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ to be eager and earnest — throughout this life — to desire to do something for the furtherance of the eternal Kingdom of Christ their Savior and Lord. This is what is being communicated to us from the Holy Spirit’s use of the word, labor, in the opening statement of our scripture that is referenced above. And, it becomes our ambition to be of service to Him in a way that is in full agreement and complete acceptance with that which the Word of God describes and declares concerning the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, our eternal Redeemer.
This scripture reference also states that it is inevitable that all of fallen mankind will eventually, and personally, appear before the judgment seat of Christ where we will justly receive from Him that which is justly due to us according to our life and the way that we have lived in this fallen and sinful body; “whether it be good or bad”. This means that we will experience being righteously judged for all the things we have thought; we have said; and, we have done. What a fearful and foreboding event that will be! It is no wonder that the Holy Spirit says: “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men!”
We put forth our most persuasive arguments from God’s Word — not for fallen and sinful men and women to convert themselves, or to make themselves, to be ready to appear before the judgment seat of Christ — for that is not something any of us can do for ourselves — no — we need the grace of the Savior for that accomplishment. But, it is the earnest desire of true godly ministers to convince fallen men that they are in an eternally dangerous state and condition as they continue to walk in their sinful ways that most certainly will lead them to no other place, but hell!
The true gospel ministers, that are yet in this world, are constrained, or literally controlled, by the love of Christ because they genuinely discern the truth of the efficacy of Christ’s sacrificial death as the only sovereign Savior substitute that there ever was, is, or ever will be. They see and understand that they which live by virtue of His death, “should not, henceforth, live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again!” Praise His all glorious and great Name!
For Christ’s Glory Only!
John Carpenter
