On March 15—the Sunday morning at Cabo Church that turned out to be our last morning service for a season—Richard and I were greeting at the door. Near the end of the already small crowd (as a result of news of the coronavirus in North America) was our precious drummer, who is just one of a special group of younger adult overcomers that we are blessed to have at Cabo Church. As I said goodbye with the usual, traditional Mexican greeting of a hug and a kiss on the cheek, I looked right into his eyes and said, “The darker it gets, the brighter you will shine” (with reference to Daniel 12:3). The Holy Spirit used me to say something that was beyond my understanding at the time. In fact, I discussed why I had said such a thing with the Lord several times during the following week. Then, the fanning of the fear in the United States hit Los Cabos as our tourist industry shut down—from our most opulent resorts to the taco vender on the streets. Since this affected the majority of our population in the lower income brackets, the gloom quickly spread over our municipality.
Never Fear the Dark
In response to the growing darkness in Los Cabos, on April 1, the Lord shared a mini-teaching with me for the Body of Christ—Never Fear the Dark.
There are no opportunities in life without darkness. Even in a time of peace and tranquility, if we launch out into something new or different, there is no guarantee of success. In this dispensation, we really never know what the future holds. Uncertainty, itself, is a form of darkness. However, we do have multiple scriptures which give us the assurance that God always goes before us, that He is always with us, and that we will always be given the strength to overcome whatever might stand in our way! We will never be left to our own resources. The life of the risen Christ abides in us, we are temples of the Holy Spirit, and nothing ever happens to us that our Heavenly Father has not allowed!
Our job on this earth is not to flee from darkness, but as ‘carriers of the light,’ we should rejoice in overcoming evil with good (Romans 12:21). We have been given “authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy,” (Luke 10:19). Where light is, darkness flees; it has to. When the light is turned on, there is no more darkness. It’s that easy.
Darkness does bring a feeling of oppression and the antidote to this sense of doom is the joy of the Lord. Pray for joy over your assigned area (you all have one even if you haven’t thought about it)! Wherever you go, share a big smile (possible under a mask) so that at least they can see the light in your eyes. Whether those around us see our smiles or not, it does not negate the effect. When we release the joy of the Lord in this way, it helps dispel the gloom and doom over people’s lives, whether they are aware of it or not. Joy cuts through darkness like shafts of light and touches their hearts with a glimpse of a better day.
One Glorious Light in Los Cabos
As I shared in my previous blog, Pastor Carlos immediately went into action to organize his churches as soon as the ability to meet together was suspended. They organized the entire church family of between 250 to 300 people by What’s App (which is available in other countries, but given that it is free, it is a mainstay of Mexican communication). Pastor Carlos had already sent out ideas for how the head of the home could establish a ‘family altar’ in their home. You will notice in the photos that some even have a container of tithe envelopes on their altars and a box in which to place the envelopes with money in. These brothers and sisters are not doing this under compulsion; they love the work of the Lord. Pastor Carlos still consistently sends an outline of the message for each Sunday service, with instructions on how to lead their families in worship. You will notice in some of the photos that there appears to be guests in the homes of the lay leaders. They are very careful to include single person households, along with the elderly or anyone else in need of special care. Thursday night is their mid-week service and, again, everyone is sent the teaching for that night’s service in their homes, as well as a list of suggestions as to what to pray for on Friday night’s prayer meeting. Pastor Carlos makes himself available to pray—by phone—to anyone who needs prayer or has a need of food or other items. He told us just this week that to date, there are now 120 homes represented on Cristo es el Camino’s What’s App chat. They have actually grown in confinement!
I wanted to send the photos to show you how serious these wonderful brothers and sisters are, even though most of them either have little to no money left and have no guarantee of quick return to employment when they are released to go back to whatever it was they previously lived off of. Their joy and lack of complaining is amazing, and most of them definitely are a glorious light to their surroundings.
One last thing—for all of you who prayed for Los Cabos to be protected from looting and crime, our police and military are doing a spectacular job. In fact, there are very few “street people” out in the open, and we have only heard one specific report of an attempted personal robbery, which failed! I’m sure there must be some, but the overall atmosphere is very peaceful. Thank-you so much for praying!
Continue to shine—Light in the darkness!
Never Fear the Dark
In response to the growing darkness in Los Cabos, on April 1, the Lord shared a mini-teaching with me for the Body of Christ—Never Fear the Dark.
There are no opportunities in life without darkness. Even in a time of peace and tranquility, if we launch out into something new or different, there is no guarantee of success. In this dispensation, we really never know what the future holds. Uncertainty, itself, is a form of darkness. However, we do have multiple scriptures which give us the assurance that God always goes before us, that He is always with us, and that we will always be given the strength to overcome whatever might stand in our way! We will never be left to our own resources. The life of the risen Christ abides in us, we are temples of the Holy Spirit, and nothing ever happens to us that our Heavenly Father has not allowed!
Our job on this earth is not to flee from darkness, but as ‘carriers of the light,’ we should rejoice in overcoming evil with good (Romans 12:21). We have been given “authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy,” (Luke 10:19). Where light is, darkness flees; it has to. When the light is turned on, there is no more darkness. It’s that easy.
Darkness does bring a feeling of oppression and the antidote to this sense of doom is the joy of the Lord. Pray for joy over your assigned area (you all have one even if you haven’t thought about it)! Wherever you go, share a big smile (possible under a mask) so that at least they can see the light in your eyes. Whether those around us see our smiles or not, it does not negate the effect. When we release the joy of the Lord in this way, it helps dispel the gloom and doom over people’s lives, whether they are aware of it or not. Joy cuts through darkness like shafts of light and touches their hearts with a glimpse of a better day.
One Glorious Light in Los Cabos
As I shared in my previous blog, Pastor Carlos immediately went into action to organize his churches as soon as the ability to meet together was suspended. They organized the entire church family of between 250 to 300 people by What’s App (which is available in other countries, but given that it is free, it is a mainstay of Mexican communication). Pastor Carlos had already sent out ideas for how the head of the home could establish a ‘family altar’ in their home. You will notice in the photos that some even have a container of tithe envelopes on their altars and a box in which to place the envelopes with money in. These brothers and sisters are not doing this under compulsion; they love the work of the Lord. Pastor Carlos still consistently sends an outline of the message for each Sunday service, with instructions on how to lead their families in worship. You will notice in some of the photos that there appears to be guests in the homes of the lay leaders. They are very careful to include single person households, along with the elderly or anyone else in need of special care. Thursday night is their mid-week service and, again, everyone is sent the teaching for that night’s service in their homes, as well as a list of suggestions as to what to pray for on Friday night’s prayer meeting. Pastor Carlos makes himself available to pray—by phone—to anyone who needs prayer or has a need of food or other items. He told us just this week that to date, there are now 120 homes represented on Cristo es el Camino’s What’s App chat. They have actually grown in confinement!
I wanted to send the photos to show you how serious these wonderful brothers and sisters are, even though most of them either have little to no money left and have no guarantee of quick return to employment when they are released to go back to whatever it was they previously lived off of. Their joy and lack of complaining is amazing, and most of them definitely are a glorious light to their surroundings.
One last thing—for all of you who prayed for Los Cabos to be protected from looting and crime, our police and military are doing a spectacular job. In fact, there are very few “street people” out in the open, and we have only heard one specific report of an attempted personal robbery, which failed! I’m sure there must be some, but the overall atmosphere is very peaceful. Thank-you so much for praying!
Continue to shine—Light in the darkness!
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