MY FRIEND DOC RYAN

I lost a special friend a few weeks ago. The sad thing was that I didn’t realize he was gone until today. A January 1 Facebook message from another friend in the Philippines somehow got overlooked.

Many people knew my friend simply as “Doc Ryan.”

We met him in October 2008 in Mindoro. He was an instructor for a mini-medical course Deborah was taking. He was a Filipino who had studied medicine in the US & could have, if he wished, stayed here & done very well for himself.

Instead he chose to return to the Philippines & dedicate himself to serving God by using his training & skills there.

I know Doc Ryan knew & loved the Lord. He could be very straightforward in dealing with people, but that characteristic was just an overflow of his passion to give his best to them for God’s glory.

Doc Ryan was with us for nearly all the medical outreaches we hosted. He understood the sacrifices that medical professionals make in giving their time (usually almost 2 weeks including travel time to & from the Philippines), energy, & finances. 

He also had a gift for stepping into situations that others couldn’t handle. (You would have to participate in a medical mission to understand this.)

I’m not sure how old Doc Ryan was when cancer took him. Maybe early 50s. Honestly, as a doctor he made a much better care giver than patient. He probably erred on the side of working too hard & not taking good enough care of himself.

But a couple things are sure.

He loved the Lord & demonstrated that love thru his love for people.

He is now in the presence of the Lord he loved.

We’ll miss you, Doc. 

But we’ll see you in the morning.

UN-IDEAL MINISTRY

Ministry is messy. It's messy because we're making disciples of people whose lives are a mess. They may have done things that were foolish, & even sinful. People may have done terrible things done to them. So the process of making disciples, which is what God has called us to do, is by default a messy business.

No big surprise. Jesus set the pace. He served, trained, & ultimately gave His life for people whose lives were a mess.

A part of our ministry here in New Mexico is serving people who need help with English. Not surprisingly, some of those people may be here illegally. God gives us wisdom & resources so that we can help them while maintaining integrity with the law. 

But the bottom line is this - ministry and making disciples brings us into situations that are far from ideal. Situations of injustice, situations for which there doesn't seem to be any simple resolution. 

Through Bible times people like Joseph in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon,& the apostles under an oppressive Roman regime faced and dealt with this reality. 

All through church history & even now God's people have faced  evil, lawlessness, & injustice. But they have continued to advance the Kingdom of God and fulfill the Great Commission.

We're not revolutionaries in the sense of overthrowing an evil regime and replacing it with God's righteous millennial reign. 

But we are revolutionaries who proclaim forgiveness & cleansing from sin in Christ, deliverance from demonic domination, & spiritual transformation to individuals, families, & communities.

Ministry doesn't take place in the bubble of ideal situations. But it is what the Lord has given to every disciple to fulfill in the power of the Spirit. 

SELLING THE NEW BIRTH SHORT

As Christians we use a lot of terms from Scripture that are important & that describe God does in us when we come to Christ. We call it being born again, born from above, born of the Spirit, regenerated, receiving eternal life. We use a lot of terms like that to describe the desired result from what that we do to help people to to receive Christ.

Some of the things we might do are share with them the 4 Spiritual Laws, The ABCs of Salvation, or The Roman Road. We encourage them to put their faith in Christ, to repent of their sins to turn to the Lord, to trust in God's promises, or to respond to an invitation to say the Sinner's Prayer.

But, after we've done all of those things there is the one thing that only the Holy Spirit can do. 

We can have somebody pray the sinner's prayer, but if they didn't actually receive Christ, they just said words. Somebody can be sorry for the wrongs that they have done or say that they trust in Christ, but their life is not inwardly changed or regenerated. They haven't truly received eternal life.

This reality of Christian experience is scary and intimidating, because we can DO a lot of things but we can't make a person a new creation in Christ. Our hands are tied; we don't have the means to do that.

But this reality is also comforting & encouraging. No matter how many of those other things we've done or how well we've done them, they have no power of their own. In the end, only the Spirit of God can do the work that brings a person to Christ. 

And that's exciting, because once that happens their life is changed. They do become a new creation in Christ, & and nothing that we can do or that the devil can do can take that away or can change that moment in time. If you have experienced this, you know it to be true.

So let's do what we can do, but let's also be glad that it is the undomesticated Spirit of God who executes God's work in this world. 

Ultimately, He is the only one who can do the work in the lives of the people that we seek to lead to Christ.