Greetings brothers, Praise God for peacefully bringing us through this month. Also thank you for your service to us and care for my family life and me. May God remember your contributions.
My personal reading of Scripture this month has been in Leviticus and Numbers. I have read both of these books before, but this month I read through them with more of an exegetical method. This was a great help to me. In Leviticus when I saw the commands for the sacrifices I was involuntarily moved to thanksgiving. The reason God gave the law to Israel was so that the Israelites would receive blessing under His rule. But He knew that they couldn’t keep the law and so set in place sacrifices to deal with their sin so they could continue to live under the blessing of His rule. These sacrifices pointed towards Jesus in the New Testament. He alone was the perfect sacrifice that took the sentence of God’s people.
I used to think the genealogies in Numbers had nothing to do with me. However, after having received theological training, this time reading through it I saw the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham. However, the ultimate fulfillment was in Christ. He is the true Israel. And because of Christ we have become Israelites. This encouraged me. I know that my church and me are a part of the revealing of God’s Kingdom spoken of if the New Testament. I am greatly blessed to be a part of this.
I re-read Tedd Tripp’s “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” this month. It reminded me that training a child starts with focusing on nurturing the child’s heart and not by adjusting his actions. Otherwise I will raise a Pharisee. It also told me that it costs to raise a child. Though it is difficult, yet the end result is great blessing. It encouraged me to be careful and diligent in the raising of the child God has given me. I cannot neglect my responsibilities and duties. Though it’s hard, God’s grace is sufficient.
This month I still preached three Lord’s Days. When I was preaching through Mark 11:12-14 about Christ cursing the fig tree with no fruit I was greatly moved to wonder if my church is producing fruit. If not we will also be cursed. However, I am thankful that Christ came to this earth to take our curse in our place. He bore righteous fruit in our place so that all in Him need not fear a curse. Because of Him we are now His fruit and are greatly blessed.
I spoke three Thursday evenings this month. One week I was at the Seminary teaching. Thursdays we are continuing in our study of Biblical Theology; seeking to help the brothers and sisters understand the thread running through the Bible. The class I taught at the seminary this time was “Critical Thinking”. The school’s purpose was to open the thinking of the students to enable them to better study.
I started discipleship work this month at the church and encouraged the brothers and sisters to do discipleship too. I asked each member to aggressively enter into each other’s lives, to help other people in the church to better know Christ and to have a greater commitment to the church. I also asked the families in the church to show hospitality in order to serve each other and build each other up.
We had a members meeting this month to pass a statement on our church government. This was so that our church’s structure will become healthier. We also restated our church values and mission statement and again recited our church covenant. This was a reminder to us that we need to act according to what we committed ourselves to. This meeting was an encouragement to the brothers and sisters.
Timothy began working for HeartCry in 2015 and assists with the work in Asia. He is married, has eight children, two sons-in-law, one daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren.
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