GLOBAL FRUIT FOR THE GLORY OF THE LAMB!

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Published: Wednesday, 11 November 2020 13:36

Even though there remains a ban on International travel, the glorious Gospel is still bringing forth fruit in the harvest field of this fallen world! Only yesterday, I received a Facebook message from a Cuban pastor, who reminded me of this precious reality. When I initially met Nelson, (nicknamed Andy), he was a 17 year-old gang member in the streets of Santiago de Cuba. He was invited by a friend to attend El Caney Baptist Church on a Sunday morning, where I was the visiting preacher on that particular day. I preached the truths concerning ‘the bad news of the sinner’s terrible problem before the Holy Lord God’. Of course, I followed that bad news with ‘the Good News of the Person and the Work of our Lord Jesus Christ’; as well as, the Gospel commands of repentance toward God and saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This young man was pierced to the heart with Holy Spirit conviction and contrition. I witnessed to him for quite a while after that morning service, and upon the conclusion of our conversation, I sent him home, urging him to seek the Lord!

He returned for the evening service, still under the powerful ‘prosecuting work of the Spirit of God’. Later he would testify, that on that Sunday evening, in his bedroom, he was graced with the assurance from God that he had been born from above! Immediately, he began to witness to his family and his friends. Shortly afterwards, he was called to be a preacher of the Word. He attended the Eastern Baptist Seminary in Santiago de Cuba. A number of years later, I had the joy of teaching him the Word of God in a church-planter’s conference in Santiago de Cuba. You may remember the story of this young man from past newsletters. Pastor Andy, as he is called, had planted a church near the city of Baracoa with only 4 believers. But he had seen a number of adults converted to Christ. The church was growing and they were meeting outdoors on a concrete slab. They were in desperate of a church building. Friends, the Lord God used your gifts to this ministry to supply their needs, as you will see in his message below. Look at it now! - On-going fruit is being produced from your work.

Hello brother Ed. This is Pastor Andy from Cuba. I came to know the Lord in Ed Caney, Cuba in one of your evangelist campaigns. I hope you remember me. The Lord called me to be a church planting missionary a few years later. We met again in one of your ‘church planters conferences’, 14 years later! The Lord led you to give the funds to construct the church building for our church plant. This is a recent photo of the assembled church in the church building that your offering built. God bless you very much. To God be the glory! I hope you write us a few words. Please continue to pray for Cuba and for our Church”.

God is continuing to open incredible global doors to proclaim his Word and to train pastors and church-planters within the nation of India. My dear brother Raj Eleazar, who has been my interpreter for many ‘Christ-centered Evangelism’ conferences in India, has just completed 29-sessions of teaching the ‘Christ-centered Evangelism’ workbook to hundreds of pastors in the Hindi language. After each major section of the study, I would have a ‘Q and A’ session, which would last about 2-hours with the pastors and church planters via ZOOM meetings. There were pastors and church-planters from every state in the nation of India, as well as leaders from the United Arab Emirates. Already we have had as many as 500 to 700 to join in on these ‘Q and A’ sessions. They are being posted on Facebook and youtube for others to be able to study. I have now begun teaching my workbook ‘Redeemed to Worship’ in a ZOOM meeting with many of these same leaders, as well as, laymen and university students. Additionally, I will also be privileged to teach ‘The Life That Glorifies God’ workbook, (which is an exposition of John 15:1-10), the last week of September and the early days of October via ZOOM in India. The Lord has also opened the door to teach ‘The Armor of God’ workbook for a number of weeks in November, to an ever-enlarging group of pastors and church-planters in that nation. Furthermore, even at this moment, a group of pastors in South Africa, who are associated with Heart Cry Missionary Society, have requested that I teach the ‘Christ-centered Evangelism study on Facebook Live. Presently, we are seeking to arrange it in my schedule. Moreover, another precious brother and interpreter in the Telugu language in India, has invited me to teach “Christ-centered Evangelism” with a group of pastors. I am thoroughly amazed at these new ‘open doors of ministry’, which our Lord has presented, even in the midst of these months of pandemic. Please pray for these.

ENCOURAGEMENT FROM JOHN 17

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Published: Wednesday, 11 November 2020 13:30

Recently my Facebook devotions have been focusing on John 17. So, today I would like to encourage and exhort each of you from this powerful portion of our Lord’s High Priestly prayer to God the Father. On the eve of His crucifixion, He interceded on behalf of everyone who would ever be converted by the mighty demonstration of the power of the Gospel, “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” Our great Intercessor was praying that ‘all of those, whom He had selected out of the world, (through the birth from above)’, would then be propelled into the world, to carry out the Great Commission. Notice carefully, that the Lord was not only praying for us to enter into the blessed reality of eternal life, He was also praying for us to be sent into this wicked world for the purpose of declaring His glorious Gospel! Friend, if you have been called by a heavenly call of grace, then you have also been commissioned to be a caller to other needy sinners. In other words, if you have been reconciled to God, then the scriptures declare that you are a minister of reconciliation!

God the Father has sent His Son into the world, for the singular purpose of accomplishing His great salvation mission. Now, the Lord Jesus was sending these original eleven into the same hostile world, for the sacred purpose of effectuating their personal responsibilities in this majestic mission. Friends, this same mandate from the Master is assigned to all who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Every bonafide disciple has been ‘set apart to be sent’! Earlier on this very eve of the Cross, our Lord had issued an awesome promise, saying, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, … .” (John 15:8)

Brothers and sisters, we must remember that the ‘proclamation of the message of the Cross’ is an offense to all sinners, until they are born from above! For the Cross confronts men and women in their rebellious, guilty and condemned condition before the pristine holiness of God and His moral law. The message of the Cross is offensive to the ‘falsely imagined morality and superficial religiosity’ of the self-deceived church member. The message of the Cross is foolishness to the poisonous pride of every unconverted sinner. And yet, Paul could faithfully testify, “I am determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified”. Oh dear ones, may each of us demonstrate a stronger determination and a resolute devotion ‘to know nothing, but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, risen and ascended as our King of kings and Lord of lords!

July 2020 Update

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Published: Wednesday, 11 November 2020 13:26

Dear Friends in Christ,

We pray that you are doing well, in the midst of all that is taking place in this world. If you are like our family, your conversations are often accompanied by phrases like, 'This is SURREAL'; or questions like, 'Now, what day is this'? But even though we are walking through uncertain days, we have the sweet assurance that our Lord is reigning on His throne and His promises are standing sure. As I have been studying through John 17, the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus, I have been reminded of the great gifts that our Lord has given to every child of God. One of our Savior’s precious gifts is the certain promise that we may be filled with His joy, in the midst of the storms of life! Friends, this assures us that no matter the adversities, the afflictions or the challenges that we may face, we can know the sweet assurance that ‘the joy of the Lord is our strength’. You may be passing through a troubling and chaotic valley. Nonetheless, you must remember that nothing can take away the unspeakable joy that God has placed within your inner man. We are well aware that all of the destruction and mayhem, which we are witnessing, is exposing both the futility and depravity within the lost souls of men. And yet, the Lord has placed us in the midst of this collapsing culture, as living witnesses, for such a time as this! We are to live as light and salt; and we are to fix the our eyes of our hearts on the joy set before us. We are to live our lives in such a manner, that we are shining a spotlight on the One who has saved us and filled us with His Holy Spirit. We must never forget that just as the Lord Jesus was our only hope for salvation; He is the Only Hope for others to be saved. So let us be faithful to live our lives in the joy of God’s salvation, as well as, possess an ever-increasing burden for the lost around us. May we be daily reminded of the urgency of the hour.

These last few months, I have been given the privilege of preaching weekly at the Mission of Hope in Mobile. I was also given the precious opportunity to preach a 4-day outreach meeting at the Mission. It has been a great opportunity to build week by week upon God's Word, with the same group of men. The Mission has been very organized in the way each service is carried out. Strict precautions were implemented to keep everyone safe from the possibility of being exposed to the virus. Their plans have proven to be very successful; for they have had no cases whatsoever of COVID- 19. One of the greatest blessings was to have men accompany me, who were converted in the past few years at the Mission of Hope, through the ministry that God has given to me! They were preciously addicted to drugs and alcohol, but that have been set free to be witnesses unto Jesus! These extended months have also afforded me an extended period of time to prepare my new workbook on the Great High Priestly prayer. This intensive time of studying this magnificent chapter has been both a tremendous encouragement and powerful challenge to my life.

Additionally, as we shared with you previously, we have been given many wonderful opportunities to help people experiencing great need during this pandemic. This has not only been true here at home, but in a number of other countries as well. This pandemic has severely affected all of the pastors and church planters that I have taught on numerous occasions, throughout India and Kenya; as well as their congregations. The pastors and church planters that we work within these countries, have been encountering tremendous needs among their people. These faithful servants of the Lord have been faithfully giving of themselves and their limited resources, to help others. Most of the people that they are serving have no other means to help themselves. God has allowed us to be a ‘channel of physical blessings’ to literally hundreds and hundreds of believers and non-believers in these nations. We have been able to receive both messages and videos from some of these precious pastors, which blessed us with visible evidences of how the funds that we gave were being used in providing food and a witness to hundreds of people. I wish I could share some of these videos with you. I would love for you to be able to see the joy on the faces of these brothers in Christ, as they served the needy souls around them. I am thinking of one particular video, which was a special blessing to our hearts. Let me attempt to describe it to you. They prepared a very large vat of food, which is an Indian staple for them.

After all the prep work and cooking is completed, they loaded this large and heavy vat into the trunk of their small vehicle. Once they arrived in a poor, dirty and dilapidated village, people of all ages with all types of medical issues and deformities lined up to receive the food. It was amazing to view this event, because everyone in line was awaiting their turn so patiently. This was so remarkable to us, because it was just one large vat of food. There were no guarantees that there would be enough food for all of the people who were standing in line. And yet, one by one, they patiently came to the pastor's car and handed him whatever container they could find, that would hold some food. One little girl may have had a small plastic bag. A teenage boy may be holding a small pot. A man or woman, who lived in a cardboard shack, may be holding out a small, rusty tin can. This precious pastor who was obviously filled with the joy of the Lord, would scoop the food into whatever they brought to him. The faces of these pastors, which I have taught in past conferences, were filled with such a loving and caring smile. As we gazed into the background of the video, we could see that the area was so dirty and impoverished. The video was so vivid, that you could almost imagine the stench that had to surround them. These were people that the Indian government and the vast majority of the Indian people totally ignore. Oh, but not these pastors who have been called to shine the spotlight of their lives on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Friends, why do I share these things?--Because you are such a vital part of all of these blessed opportunities. For it is because of your prayers and your willingness to give, that we can help so many others. Dianne and I wish that we could see each of you, individually, and express how very thankful we are for you. We realize that this has been an unusual and trying time for all of you. No one has been exempted from various types of major changes, that have occurred in their lives, in the midst of this pandemic. Many have walked through health-related issues, financial challenges, separation from loved ones and even the loss of close friends and relatives. There have been radical changes in the way that we buy groceries and conduct our daily activities. However, your faithfulness to pray for us and support us, in the midst this deep and dark valley of adversity has been unwavering! Our hearts are overflowing with joy, love, and gratitude for you. Your thoughtfulness and generosity, which you have so willingly shared with us, is truly an amazing blessing to us, to this ministry and to countless thousands of people worldwide. We thank the Lord for you. Your heart to share and be a blessing to others is truly a gift from the Lord.

Please be in prayer for us. This next weekend will be the first time that I will resume preaching in a church meeting. As you can see from the schedule, I will be in Ocala, Florida. This county has had very few cases of Covid- 19. So we feel that it is safe to carry on with this meeting. I think that this study on the Armor of God will be a much needed and timely message for these days. So again, please be in prayer for the Word to go forth in power and for people to be blessed for His Name Sake.

Your Servant for Jesus’ Sake,
Ed Lacy

OUR HEARTS ARE FILLED WITH JOY IN THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE WILL OF GOD THROUGH YOUR LOVE, YOUR PRAYERS, AND SUPPORT FOR THIS MINISTRY!

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Published: Wednesday, 11 November 2020 12:55

Our Lord has employed your love for others, your intercessory prayers and your financial support to accomplish His will ‘in and through this ministry’! We are so very grateful that our Heavenly Father has led you to stand with us, in prayer and support, for the extension of His Kingdom and the accomplishment of His purposes. We have seen our Omnipotent Father accomplish His mighty works in answer to the prayers of His people. You have called unto our Lord and God on our behalf. And He has shown us great and mighty things, which we did not know! He has shown Himself strong on our behalf! Your love, prayers and financial support have become the vehicle through which God has accomplished His will! “If we ask anything, according to HIS WILL, He HEARS US!” For our God always hears the prayers of His adopted children, which are voiced within the parameters of His will. Our Lord and Savior has given a promise to each of us, “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full”. Thank you, dear friends, for all that you do to help us reach out to others, for His Name Sake.

Your Servant for Jesus Sake,

Ed Lacy