The Old has Gone and the New Has Come!

The Old has Gone and the New Has Come!

Here are some thoughts I had as I challenged our group to Lima Peru on taking the Buckner Mission Trip back home to America.

Focus our attention on continuing what we have learned here in Peru and taking it back home.  We can never replicate our experience here this week.  What has happened here is unique and special; carved out as a moment in time that God has used for His good pleasure.  My challenge for us is how do we use this experience as an onramp for things to come in our lives back home?  How can we take the act of using our gifts, persevering, serving others and relying on God’s power and apply it to our lives back home?

First thought – We must change our worldview to see things as God sees things.

·      2 Corinthians 5:15-17 - ¹⁵ And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. ¹⁶ So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

·      We have been focusing on what has God done through us to benefit & minister to the people here in Peru and how it will change their lives, but in reality, our lives have been changed.  Through serving others, it has allowed God to change us and taught us that we need to go back home and make some needed changes with how we do life.  How we view our neighbors, our finances, our churches and more.

Second thought – We must get out of our comfort zone and allow God to stretch us and take us to places that make us rely on Him and not ourselves.

·      Matthew 28:19-20 - ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 

Third thought – We must look for opportunities to serve the mission field in our own back yard. 

·      Acts 1:8 - ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Final thought - We carry this further – we all open our hearts up to going on mission again and bring someone with us! – How powerful and impactful the trip has been and encourage others to get our on the frontier with us.  Thank you to Cynthia and Buckner for making this a reality and success to want to do this again and again!