India 2014

And thank you all for your prayers during the 3 weeks we were gone. We needed His traveling mercies for sure!

If you are committed to the Lord and love the Lord, you will be committed to others.

This is what I witnessed when visiting different pastors in India. Even though Christians are the minority there, these pastors really live their whole lives for others.

They enjoy training other men to become pastors and evangelists, and they enjoy reaching out to Hindus in the poor villages in their area with the good news. It is their heart’s desire, and their joy.

When God started Christ Saves Ministries 10 years ago, I didn’t know why, and I was surprised that He called me out in this way. I am now so grateful, able to see more clearly, and able to work with such dedicated men on the front lines of the battle for men’s souls.

One reason we travel is to see who is for real and who is not. We have been blessed in India to find dedicated men of God, with hearts for Christ.

In addition to Pastors Conferences, we also taught at the 4 bible schools we currently support financially, speaking to over 100 students face to face, teaching about Salvation by faith alone in Christ, and eternal security.

We also were able to hold several crusades; which are outdoor tent meetings, in the streets of various villages. We had one large crusade and 4 mini crusades, in which believers and unbelievers attended.

The main focus the Spirit gave us was “The Real Jesus”, because the Hindus that dominate India believe in millions of gods, and if you asked them if they believed in Jesus they would say yes, but to them he is only another god.

And so our preaching focused on Christ’s deity and resurrection, and how they must believe in the Real Jesus of the Bible if they want to be saved. COL 1:15-17, 1CO 15:3-6.

This same emphasis took place in the “Village Gospel” nights, in which we traveled to remote slum villages and handed out salvation tracts to Christians, Hindus and Muslims, stopping to explain the Good News when we had the chance.

We probably visited 10 villages throughout our time there, gathering a following of children as we walked, saying “shubawarta” (good news) as we handed out the tracts, and they helped pass some to the adults.

One Hindu woman became saved when her daughter, a believer, invited us in and asked for prayer. God is showing me more about love too, about investing in
others, and He had me reach out for her mother’s hand like it was my own mom, and plead with her about the true Jesus and her need for salvation; her need to believe in Him alone, and she did!

We led her in prayer to accept Christ, and her daughter was very happy.

In the past, I have given the gospel is a factual way, stating the truth and maybe even in a cold way. How sad is that?! But without love we are nothing.

The gospel, and the issue of eternal life and death, if we really believe it, compels a compassion for the one being witnessed to. (how quickly we forget that was US at one point who needed the compassion of another to share the gospel)

We had 4 Hindus come up to us after our last mini crusade wanting to accept Christ! And after our return from India, we have heard that at least 21 Hindus and 1 Muslim man believed in Christ for eternal life!

After the grace messages about the Real Jesus and His once for all sacrifice, some wanted prayer, and were ready to deny their other gods and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. What an awesome privilege.

We have a lot of goals and plans for India, including getting out more Bibles and salvation tracts to them, to reach the lost in the villages.

If you want more information, please email me at scott@christsavesministries.org

But the summary of the trip was the love of God present in the pastors we support. I felt like a child learning from adults in this situation. They have been living for others for years, every single day, and that turned into such a selfless life of love.

I can best illustrate this by the willingness of our main contact Pastor Adams. He and his wife Indira want to take into their home up to 50 orphans and 40 bible college students. You heard me right, into THEIR home.

Right now they rent 2 rooms of a house for their family. They want to rent the other 2 rooms and the rooftop, which will allow this to happen.

Many of us in America aren’t willing to have one roommate. They desire, and have for years, to take all these orphans into their own home, so they have a place to sleep together and eat.

Such a simple pure desire from God’s love, and such a huge sacrifice at the same time. It’s where the rubber meets the road, and illustrates the PROOF of their love.

Please pray for this, their heart’s desire. It is an example of Christ’s love that I still cannot fully grasp.

I think this reveals the true meaning of Communion. Communion itself is celebrating Christ and His body,… and by His grace, WE all make up His body.

It means to live for one another, as Christ lived and died for us.

It means to gather together as family, and remember our Lord and King, and to operate as ONE, because we are ONE in Him.

1 Cor 10:16-17
16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
NIV

Communion means to commit to living as part of His body, because commitment to Him means committing to others.

Jesus would say “If you love Me, love one another.”

It would be as the early church operated, as I heard came up in this week’s bible study:

Acts 2:44-47
44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
NIV

My thanks for our hosts in India, for their love and care, and most of all for their hearts for our Lord and Savior, the only One worthy of praise and glorification.

To see pictures from our trip, please click on https://www.facebook.com/christsavesministries.org

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Love in Christ,

Scott