Reaching way down deep inside to see if I can find the energy to tell you about the first full day in Nicaragua.

I’m teaching Introduction to Abundant Living to a group of mission staffers and pastors. We started the day comparing and contrasting “religion” with “Jesus” and discovered that religion is often about rules men make to exercise control over one another, while Jesus invites those of us who are tired and burdened to slip into His yoke and let Him do the heavy lifting. It seems that in Nicaragua the church is very legalistic—not unlike parts of the U.S. My emphasis was that Jesus invites (not commands) us to a life of freedom from religious tyranny that ultimately ends in “soul rest” where all our striving ceases and we are content to “be still and know” that He is God. That quietness where the striving has stopped, is a signpost on the road to Abundant Living.

Teaching that one paragraph concept took two hours (with interruption—–er, interpretation).

We then dissected Jeremiah 29:11 built around a God who knows, a God who acts, a God who is never late, and a God who has a plan for a prosperous future of hope. The word prosperity is the Hebrew “shalom” which means peace. Prosperity then, much like when all striving has ceased and we are still, comes when we are at a place that we are whole, complete, and lacking in nothing. We spent quite a bit of time on the issue of Isolation—feeling alone—(“Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen) coming back around an hammering the fact that God knows and we are not alone. Engaging with God as he unveils His plan for our prosperous future of hope fuels our acceleration onto the Abundant Living highway.

As I write about what I taught, it doesn’t seem all that compelling to me now, but the attention of the group this morning was rapt. From the after-comments I’m supposing it must have spoken to them. I was asked if I’d come present the same topic to one of the larger Assembly of God congregations in Managua tomorrow night, so………….Abundant Living is already spreading. One of the other pastors is already laying out the Abundant Living conference tour throughout Nicaragua—-we’ll see where that goes.

Just an observation: Being interrupted by the interpreter may be  a good thing. I think it gives people time to think. While I’m loading the next phrase in English, they are downloading the last one into their hearts and minds. The slowness of the teaching method may actually be helpful.

All in all it was a productive morning. I taught for four straight hours with only a ten minute break. The original plan was to do a two hour session in the morning and a two hour session in the afternoon, but scheduling issues caused them to put all my stuff into one longer session. By noon my dogs were barkin’, and while I can hold my own as a speaker, even I wouldn’t want to listen to me for four straight hours. I was impressed their backsides could stand it and that they stayed awake and seemed appreciative, enough so that they wanted to ask questions when I was finished.

Tomorrow we dive into Waiting on Abundance, and Preparing Yourself to Live Abundantly.