ONCE UPON A TIME... …in a land filled with false doctrine and bearded old men… …there lived a man, a gruff, passionate man who was incredibly zealous for the sound doctrine of the Christian faith… …he made his way into the Council, the Council of Nicaea to be exact, listening to the lively debate going on… ”The Word”, one stated in error, “did not exist, in the beginning…” The gruff man lifted his heavy head, anger coursing through his veins… …with a fist of rage, he started towards the heretic, striking him with a terrible blow…” (to be continued) On that note (I’ll explain more later), hope you had a great Christmas!! Our Christmas was very nice. We were able to have great fellowship with church people, and we were able to make it to some great Christmas Eve services!! The teaching in the tribe is going really well! The Do tribe has learned about the character of God, who He is, as revealed in the Scriptures. It seems they have also understood how they don’t measure up to the standards of God’s Law, so much that they need a Messiah, and now they are starting to understand the good news of Jesus Christ! Please continue to pray for the Do people, and for their hearts to be softened to hear the precious truth of the Gospel!! Here's the link again: Do Update Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT1Z97BASs4 As for our lives, we have some exciting things going on too!! Greek is still going great! We are taking a little break for Christmas, and then we will be back at it in January. I’ve been doing some tutoring during the month of December, for an adorable little girl! She is so awesome to work with! The job has been such a blessing from God!! ALSO, we made it out to California again! Whoo!! That was SO much fun!! We were able to share the Gospel with Living Waters, Ray Comfort specifically, and then, we found out that it was his birthday! They were filming a pro-life documentary, so we were able to watch them make part of the movie right on the beach! ALSO, before I forget, you HAVE to see this certain video they filmed awhile ago!! We got to go to the location of one of the scenes in it and give tracts to the people that were there! It was SO cool to hand out cards that had information about the movie on them, and to be able to tell people that that movie was filmed there! Please see the pictures below for more details. It was awesome to be able to spend time with Ray and to share the Gospel alongside such a solid, amazing ministry. Another exciting thing about the trip is that my friend Renee was able to come too!! She was in the area to continue in her missionary training, and I’m SO thankful she could come with Daniel and I to California! She had never been before, so it was exciting for her to see Ray Comfort, to share the Gospel on Huntington Beach, and to go to John MacArthur’s church on Sunday! So thankful for her as a friend and sister in Christ!! Praying we will be life-long friends and partners in the work of the Gospel! After California, we had a few more exciting things happen before Christmas. FLASH MOB!! What? What am I talking about? So…our plan was to have a flash mob… …and we didn’t really expect to have people join us because we’re weird and crazy, BUT…a family from our church did show up, and it was a REALLY cool evangelism experience, way better than I thought it would go! You HAVE to see this short Living Waters video on flash mobs around the world. This movie is what gave us the idea to have ours. Here’s the link: Christmas Gone Viral: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWDMoqL_Qkc Our experience at the mall for the flash mob was SO awesome! We did end up singing (please watch the video if you’re confused), and having some people join in too! BUT, the BEST part was, we were able to hand out a ton of tracts, and they were really cool ones, too! They were GIANT $100 bills with the lyrics to Amazing Grace and the Gospel on the back!! I have a picture of Daniel handing them out below. 😊 ANOTHER exciting thing that happened…REALLY exciting…is that we OFFICIALLY became members of Grace Bible Church!! Please see this link: GBC Membership Sunday: https://www.gbcaz.org/sermon/church-membership-12-13-20/ The last thing I want to share is that we were able to have a great conversation at the park the other day. Here’s what happened: Daniel asked me if I wanted to go to a new park (one we had never been to before), and I was super excited! So, we went to the park, and it seemed pretty dead, not many people to talk to, but then, I found someone! Long story short, this woman was incredibly open to the things of God, and she seemed to understand her need of a Savior because of her sin! She said that the Gospel really made sense for the first time through our conversation! Being Hispanic, she said she had been going to a Catholic church that was in Spanish, and so she understood bits and pieces of what was said, but she didn’t really understand the true Gospel and its serious implications for her life. At the end of the conversation, she asked me for more information, so we exchanged numbers, and we have been talking since then! Please pray that she makes it to church with us! YAY! I could go on and on about stuff, but you probably want to understand how I started this blog, right? Or did you get distracted by something I said and forget about it? Well…in either case, here it is!! To put a long, awesome story short, the guy who the world calls Santa, or at least the idea of him, was actually a hero of the faith! St. Nicolas of Myra punched Arius, a famous heretic, in the face, at the Council of Nicaea because of his false doctrine of Christ. We’re not sure of the exact details, and I certainly don’t condone punching people who have wrong thinking, but the idea of the story is awesome! (See the picture and link below for further info.) Why am I telling you this? I want to encourage you this year to think on Christ, and who He is as God. When we think about Christmas, sometimes we can focus on other things besides Christ, or we can focus on Jesus Christ Himself, but in a warm, fuzzy way that’s completely separated from the Messiah who came to die for the sins of His people. So, please remember this Christmas season (and always) that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, that He is eternal, He always existed, and He always will exist. Be thankful that, if you have truly turned from your sins and trusted in Christ alone as your substitute, you have passed from a lying, blasphemous person deserving of eternal punishment, to one who is called righteous through the blood of Christ. Hope you had a great Christmas, have a Christ-centered New Year!! Merry Christmas! |
AuthorsDaniel and Sarah Bruce desire to be missionaries to the unreached peoples of the world. Daniel is from Australia and Sarah is from Detroit, MI. They reside in Phoenix, AZ, where they are members at Shepherd's House Bible Church in Chandler, AZ. Archives
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