Missionary Spotlight | Nick Wille | August 8, 2016

Missionary Spotlight Nick Wille Meet Nick Wille, missionary with Casas por Cristo. Nick came on staff in 2016 as our Acuña Field Coordinator after serving with us for two summer internships. On top of leading teams through the home building process, Nick also scouts work sites, creates maps, and maintains the Casas facilities in Acuña. INTERVIEW WITH NICK 1. Tell a little bit about yourself and where you're from. I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, but I was born in Seoul, South Korea and was adopted when I was three years old. I love keeping up with sports (for sure the St. Louis Cardinals and Blues). I love working with my hands, and I have done a lot of woodworking in the past. 2. What made you choose to serve at Casas por Cristo? I went on a Casas trip as a high school freshman and could not get the experience out of my mind. Before I started working with Casas por Cristo, I loved working with my hands and being able to create something. I also really enjoyed serving others and helping them in any way I could. My other favorite thing to do when I was back home was hang out with the high school students. They drove me crazy sometimes, but they were fired up about God and wanted to learn. Casas por Cristo combines all three of these passions, making it the perfect fit for me. 3. How have you seen God through your ministry at Casas por Cristo? I've seen God in so many ways. I think the biggest thing I've seen from God is that He has given me so many opportunities to tell my story, which is actually His story. I had no control over the events of my life, and sometimes I felt like I was lost or misplaced, but God placed me exactly where he wants me to be able to do the work He has planned for me. 4. What has been your biggest challenge so far? The biggest challenge for me so far has been the language barrier. Learning a new language does not come easily to me, but I have been working to improve my Spanish. I am looking forward to spending four weeks studying Spanish in Guatemala. It has also been a challenge for me to be so far away from family and friends. But I am thankful for the other Casas staff and how they have taken me into their families. 5. What are some things people should be praying for on your behalf? Please pray that my faith continues to grow, that I develop more skills for working with teams, and that my Spanish becomes better. I would also ask people to pray that I would find friends and be able to build new relationships in Del Rio.

SUPPORT NICK SUBSCRIBE TO NICK'S NEWSLETTER 915.778.0046 | questions@casasporcristo.org | casasporcristo.org

Day 19 | Servants Hearts

In Matthew 20:28, Jesus says about Himself, “the Son of Man came to serve, not to be served.” With that in mind, today we ask that you would pray that all those who claim to follow Jesus Christ would be true servants. Jesus came to this world and showed us how to live the life of a servant. He cared for others before He cared for Himself. Wherever we find Jesus, we find Him to be serving others. This attitude of service often flies in the face of what our society preaches. We live in a world that says, “watch out for number one.” We see professional athletes holding out of training camps in order to get as much out of their new contract as possible.

Being a servant means we put someone else's needs before our own. I am reminded that some of the greatest moments captured in sports is when a runner stops to help a fellow runner, a competitor, who has stumbled just short of the finish line. They stop, support their weight and help them cross the line. Those moments inspire us all.

A servant is all of those first responders that ran into the collapsing World Trade towers while everyone else was running out; those that put the needs of their fallen brothers before their own. True servants change the world and they change how we view the world. Even though we may not understand what motivates them, they inspire us.

Those people that live out the words of Matthew 25, caring for the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, the naked and the strangers that are in their own communities and neighborhood; those people are true servants. Those people that give up a week of their vacation to come to México or Guatemala and build a home for a family that they have never met; those people are true servants.

Do you want to help change the world? Do you want to look in the mirror and begin to see a reflection that looks a little more like Jesus Christ? Do you want to help change someone else's eternity? Be a servant! I dare you!

Today, join us and pray that God would rise up new servants all across this world; servants that will think of others needs before their own safety. Pray for more people — more servants — that will help change the world!
-David

Wash One Another

On the night of Jesus betrayal, Jesus is going to spend a lot of time with his disciples, teaching them and encouraging them before he would give his life. His very first teaching is maybe the most heart wrenching. Jesus stands up from dinner, takes off his outer garment and ties a towel around his waist. He fills a basin full of water and begins to wash the feet of the disciples with the towel wrapped around his waist. When Jesus gets to Peter, he enters into a very important dialogue with him.

Joh 13:6                He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, do you wash my feet?"

Joh 13:7                Jesus answered him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand."

Joh 13:8                Peter said to him, "You shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me."

Joh 13:9                Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!"

Joh 13:10             Jesus said to him, "The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you."

Joh 13:11             For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, "Not all of you are clean."

Joh 13:12             When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, "Do you understand what I have done to you?

Joh 13:13             You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.

Joh 13:14             If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

Joh 13:15             For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.

The words highlighted are very important. Jesus statement here reveals several truths that are of the utmost importance to us.

"The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean…"

If you have been born again by the cleansing power of Christ, you no longer need to be completely washed by Christ.

1Jn 1:7                  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

So if we have been cleansed for all sin, why does Jesus go on to say…

"The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean…

At the end of his teaching and encouragement, Jesus prays for those who would follow him. Here we find a clue to why Jesus would say that our feet need to be cleansed despite the power of his blood to completely cleanse us.

Joh 17:11             And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

Joh 17:12             While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

Joh 17:13             But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

Joh 17:14             I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Joh 17:15             I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

God uses us to display himself and the truth of the gospel to the world. He has left us here in direct contact with the world in order to bring them to him. But being here leaves us in danger of corruption. Jesus understood the danger of being exposed to the world. He knew it so much so, he prayed for their protection when he would leave. This is the danger:

 1Jn 2:15                Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1Jn 2:16                For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world.

1Jn 2:17                And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

The world holds the lusts of the flesh and eyes. If we respond and go toward the world and away from Christ, we are going to pass away with the rest of the world. We still have flesh and we still have eyes. The world is luring. It calls for us. It tries to grab for us. Our bodies and our eyes respond with desire but our spirit recoils.

"The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean…"

This is what Jesus is saying:

I am leaving you here together. I am leaving you here to be the church; the bride of Christ, that the world will see who you are united to and by. Your whole being will be toward heaven but part of you will still be touching the world. It must. You must touch the world for the world to know that I am in you. Your feet must be washed because it is touching the world. Wash each other’s feet because you are in danger of being corrupted by the dirt and filth that comes with touching the world. You must wash each other and keep each other from falling away.

The first question for us is, are we corrupted? Are we dirty? Are we lured away from by the world away from Christ? We cannot wash each other if we ourselves are dirty. It would be a dirty rag washing a dirty plate. Are you living in the world? The world is of the flesh.

Gal 5:19                 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,

Gal 5:20                idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,

Gal 5:21                envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Does this raise any red flags? Seek to be cleansed by God and go to your brothers and sisters for help in confession and repentance.

If you are cleansed and you are living according to the Spirit, are you coming in contact with the world? We are to be in it and not of it. Many of us do everything possible to stay away from anything secular and to stay in our safe bubble of American Evangelicalism. The church has made many incredible attempts at this. If we do everything we can to avoid and be away from the world, if we shut ourselves up from contact with anyone or anything that is not institutionalized Christianity, how can we be a witness? How can we fulfill the great commission?  Have you made contact with your neighbors? How many people have you tried to share Christ with in your city? Have you been purposeful in seeking and sharing with those around you daily?

Finally, we are to be confrontational to each other. We are the ones who are to wash the feet of each other. We are to come to our brothers and sisters and say, “Sit down while I help you rid the filth from this world.” We are also to receive such cleansing no matter how much we look the fool. Christ tells Peter that he must be washed. Scripture says it best. The author of Hebrews will conclude this matter.

Heb 3:12             Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

Heb 3:13              But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Heb 3:14             For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Heb 10:23            Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

Heb 10:24            And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

Heb 10:25           not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.