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Cartel Sadness -Winter

gialucy1

When we first moved to San Miguel de Cozumel twelve years ago, I was invited for breakfast. My amigo Ceśar took me to a place called Tacos Diaz. There you would pick the part of the pig you wanted in your taco. I chose ears, (why not? My dog liked them) and some pork gut mixture. It was a wonderful introduction to the culture and people of Cozumel. To be honest, I was supposed to go out to the land and continue my clear-cutting afterward…pretty sure I fell to the beach and tried to digest that wad o’ pig.


Later Saturday evening, there was an assassination at Tacos Diaz. Cartel violence has entered our small island over the past years. A man was shot in front of his family.


I learned about this and like always, I just filed it away, along with all the other cartel violence and sadness of Mexico. This morning, I started to digest it.


The people I love, the church we helped plant, are there in the midst of this. They are in the midst. To be honest, for many of them, before Christ entered their lives, they were the problem. Now, they hold the solution for Mexico. Our government is so corrupt, from the low stations to the highest echelons, there seems to be no solution. (Talking about Mexico, sadly, you can apply this to your own country more.)


Most Mexicans do not even talk about the cartels and corruption, even when living abroad. You never know who might hear and report. We just file it under “bad things happen, that is the nature of things”. That is just the nature of things.


As a Christ follower, we are above nature. We supersede it.


John: The true light that gives light to everyone is coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-.


The first time it says His own, in the Greek language, it's in the neuter. You know what neuter is, right? It's not masculine. It's not feminine. It's neuter, neutral.


The second usage of His own in that verse is masculine and refers to people. So it is probably best translated, He came unto His own things-- neuter-- and His own people did not receive Him.


That's how many translations take this spin on it. He came unto His own things, or His own creation, but His own people did not receive him. But as many as did receive Him, He gave them the right to become children of God. Do you get the point there?


So here's what we discover. The Word, Who made the heavens and the Earth, becomes flesh. And He comes to His own creation. And look how His creation responds.


Water is able to hold Him up because He made that water. Oh, I don't understand the physics; don't need to. The Creator just willed that so. Creation responded to the Creator.


People who are dead come back to life, because the Creator can do that. He can speak life into them. He has control over every physical force. The creation, the physical universe, is responding to Him. He came to His own things. He can take 5 loaves of bread and feed 15-20000 people.


And when it comes to people, that have a will, their own volitional capabilities, they did not receive Him. His own people, the Jewish people, with all of those predictions made about their Messiah, His own people did not receive. The creation did. They were responsive. But the people of God, who had the text of scripture and the prophets who foretold Him, did not receive Him, generally.


But those who did were adopted into God’s family.


Those people, that familia, that ‘Ohana……changed the world!


My church Olas de Gracia, Waves of Grace, is battling dark forces in Cozumel. They are serving the community, in prisons, halfway houses, rehabilitation facilities, etc. They are on the front line in their community. Church for them is not a Sunday morning pew sit, an emotional stirring to the worship band, an introverted response to the sermon. Christ’s Church, as it is written, is a catalyst of change in a hurting world. It is the only hope for a broken generation, a broken people.


For most when they hear of cartel violence, the natural response is, “We won’t vacation there for a while” Olas de Gracia’s response is not natural…it supersedes the natural. It is to create family, love the people, model Jesus…run towards the fire, not away. Step into the war, step into the flames. That is the supernatural church modeled well.


We hope to do that here on the North Shore of Kauai with another church, Hale Pule O Hanalei. Two different islands, two different languages, two different cultures, one mighty, mighty Saviour! Join the fight! Join the fight.

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