What have we been up to?
What does a tattoo artist and a Native American have to do with missionary training in Papua New Guinea...? In the past month or so, we have done tons of Greek, we have plenty of exciting church news, and we have a couple evangelism stories we would love to share! Now, I know all that you care about is the tattoo artist, but…first thing is first: Greek!! Greek is AWESOME! No, really, I’m serious! It’s so great! We’re plowing through first year Greek (2 semesters) in four months. Don’t be impressed, anyone could do it. Bill Mounce is an AMAZING teacher. The leadership at Grace Bible Church in Tempe, AZ (https://www.gbcaz.org/) is also SO helpful! They are helping us through the process. Also, Daniel and I couldn’t learn ANYTHING without our friend and fellow-tribe-mate (Lord willing), Greg Brown. He’s like a humble, undercover genius who can help you with anything. He said he’s going to start a blog soon…so…if I were you…I’d probably read his blog over ours so that you gain more brain cells... 😊 So…what’s one thing we’ve learned from Greek so far? I’m sure you’re dying to know. I’d say the most important thing I would like to share is that when you can see how Jesus would have said things, rather than in your own American understanding, it’s not only awesome, but it’s so incredible that words can’t express it. Just seeing how John 1:1 proves the divinity of Christ should be enough to make your heart soar! What else do I have to say before I get to the tattoo artist? Well…exciting church news…as of tomorrow…Grace Covenant officially votes on us to become members of the church! YAY! I can’t celebrate yet, (it’s highly probable that they’ll vote for Daniel because of his accent and not on me…kidding…) but, we're very excited to (hopefully) become official members of our church! We have worked hard on the membership process, and we’re so happy to finally have a solid church family that we can attend together and have regular fellowship with! You will just have to wait until my next post to see if we made it in or not…live in suspense… Now, for what you really want to hear about – the tattoo artist and the native American! I will do more for you than just explain to you in words some narrative of evangelism encounters… I will actually provide videos for you to watch…courtesy of Daniel, because it was his idea and he knows how to use tech stuff WAY better than I do. We have two videos we would love to share with you. We really encourage you to watch both of them. With genuine sincerity, we pray that God will touch you with what you see. Please allow me to explain both videos first... Video #1: Niko the tattoo artist Here’s a video of a lady who wasn’t in the mood for a conversation about the things of God. If you’re watching this video, you’re probably thinking, why post a terrible witnessing encounter gone wrong to try to promote yourselves as missionaries? And, you may have another objection…I didn’t share the Gospel. I didn’t even try. Why? Didn’t I say in our last post that the Gospel is everything, everything should be centered around it and it alone?? Here’s a principle for you: Law to the proud, grace to the humble. Another note: God is glorified in the accepting of the Gospel, the rejecting of the Gospel, and in the mere proclamation of the Gospel. More thoughts: Someone needs to be broken by the fact that they are a sinner (they’ve lied, stolen, cursed God’s Name, made an idol to suit themselves etc.), before they will ever hear the truth of the Gospel. If you don’t understand the disease, you won’t understand the cure. Because of this, we're not going to share the Gospel. We don't want to share with someone the precious news of the Christ, the God-man, shedding His blood for His people, rising again, and living forever to rule and reign for all of eternity, to someone who is just going to laugh it off and find it contemptible. God knows what He’s doing, because He is sovereign. He shows all of His attributes in His mercy and justice. His mercy in sending souls, deserving of Hell, to Heaven based on the shed blood of Christ alone, with no merit of their own, and His justice in justly sending law breakers to Hell because of their eternal crimes against a holy God. Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8cpY9i2PpE&list=PLqumN3lIcj9rJz7OJnvfLAAFlQNBlX9WE&index=2&t=233s PLEASE remember that we're not professional video editors. :) Thoughts? Video #2: Daniel the Native American You have to see this video!! My husband Daniel shared the Gospel through the grace of Christ alone to this eager, searching man with such clarity and humility, that it was moving to be there. Yes, you understood right, Daniel (my husband, the Australian), witnessed to a guy named Daniel, and it went SO well, that the man flat out told us he wanted to get right with God right then and there. More thoughts: Did we take this man through a sinners’ prayer, or did we run him through a system of questions planned out that we ask every person to answer? No. We believe it is God who saves, not us, therefore, if someone is truly being convicted by the Holy Spirit, He will save them. All that we can do is do our part to proclaim the whole counsel of God through the Gospel and through prayer. Please join us in praying for Daniel, for God to truly save him and to grow him in Christ likeness. Just focus on the words, not on my husband and his gorgeous accent… because he’s mine. 😊 Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCcvt28tV1s&list=PLqumN3lIcj9rJz7OJnvfLAAFlQNBlX9WE&index=3&t=68s Thoughts? Do you like the idea of these witnessing clips? This was not our own idea!! Please visit Living Waters YouTube for more information on how to share your faith biblically: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmrVJGUS1u5-Hsm_BFS_1YA Also, if you made it this far, please note that you can always donate to us at https://www.finisterrevision.org/donate/#howtogive. We would love comments on the videos!! Contact us with any questions!
3 Comments
Tessa
6/30/2020 08:21:00 am
This is so great! Can you share more on the specifics of the divinity of God in the Greek of John 1:1. I have had Muslim friends tell me that they have never found any place in the Bible were Jesus claims to be God. I am familiar with many passages were Jesus claims divinity in both word and deed, but it always seems like he could say it more directly. Why do you think Jesus tends to take a little more indirect route?
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Sarah Bruce
6/30/2020 05:35:49 pm
Thanks so much for your post, Tessa!
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Sarah Bruce
6/30/2020 05:37:31 pm
(Continued from previous post, ran out of room...)
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AuthorsDaniel and Sarah Bruce are missionaries in training to Papua New Guinea. Daniel is from Australia and Sarah is from Detroit, MI. They reside in Phoenix, AZ, where they are members at Grace Bible Church in Tempe, AZ. Archives
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