Monday, January 19, 2009

Ministry and travel updates

Our trip from home in Maine began Saturday, Jan 11 and we finished cleaning the house out early that morning. We said our goodbyes and headed to Gorham for the night visiting with Gary and Marilyn Watson, friends of Mark's from high school. Sunday morning, we drove to Spring Hill Gospel Hall in Westbrook. We enjoyed meeting new folks there and seeing the Stultz family again.

The weather was not wonderful, about 4 inches of snow, so the crowd was few in number, but the spirit of the Lord was with us as we came around the table to worship. Mark shared during the family Bible hour and we had a wonderful lunch provided by Mrs. Stultz.

After lunch, we drove to Shrewsbury, MA where we met Chaplain Jeff with Transport for Christ. He was a wonderful man and we enjoyed our visit there. We also met a trucker named Omar who helped Mark find a place to park the truck and trailer. Monday morning we headed for Buffalo, NY area. Due to inaccurate directions, we did not find the TFC chapel there and the weather was terrible, so we drove as far as we could and parked overnight in Angola, NY. We did not get to meet anyone that night, as there were not many cars on the road, and fewer folks in the service area.

Tuesday we completed this leg of the trip and arrived mid afternoon in Beaverdam. We will be here until Wed AM and then head off to Fort Worth, TX area. Mark has had lots of time to work in the TFC chapel here and met a few truckers and gotten to share from the Word with truckers and workers alike. Today(Saturday) we will head to Toledo for the remainder of the weekend working with the TFC chapel there in Perrysburg, just outside of Toledo proper.

Mark will preach at the truckers service Sun AM, but we will miss gathering around the Lord's table as we are accustomed to doing. This should be the only week that we will not be able to meet as we usually do. Our adventure in the camper has gone well, and we find that most people think we must be freezing in the weather here. Overnight lows combined with wind chill of -34F was taxing on our little furnace, but we have yet to be cold.

Really, our new little home on wheels is just what we need, and affords most of the comforts of home as long as we stay inside. Texas weather should be more fun for all of us when the kids can go outside to play and we can get fresh air that is not so cold. We have heard the weather in Maine is just about as cold or colder, so for those of you still in Maine, keep warm! Most of our days have been spent visiting with Sara's family and working at the TFC trucker's chapel.

We are looking forward to leaving the cold weather soon enough and expect to be in Texas on Friday PM. Justin has secured us a spot at a local RV park for the month. We are planning at this point to stay in Texas with Justin until he leaves Feb. 23 approximately. We are still praying about the Lord's direction after we leave Texas.

Our home has been shown a few more times and we have been told an offer is in the works. We will continue to pray about that. We feel led to continue in the evangelistic work with the Humes and believe that we can continue to work with the trucking community while traveling and also team with Justin in his continued work.

The kids are doing great, enjoying their time with family and really are adapting well to camper living. Sara is feeling fine and we plan to visit a midwife when we arrive in Texas to find out more about how the baby (babies?) are doing. Our family time in the Word and in prayer has been great lately. We really see the Lord at work in our lives and pray that God continues to draw us closer to Him and use us for His service.

Please continue to keep us in prayer. We will try to put out another email when we arrive in Texas and have a better idea about where things will lead from there. Most of all, pray that we will be used to bring the Gospel to many that have never heard or understood the love that God offers to those who will surrender themselves to Him.
Mark, Sara, Nathaniel, Virginia, Naomi, and baby Cowperthwaite
-- Mark and Sara Cowperthwaite78 Cedar DriveWarren, Maine 04864

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Light of the world

THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD IS JESUS

 

January 16,2009

 

-Meaning of darkness and light 

Gen 1:1-2 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Even in the beginning, we see darkness as a void of the true Light. The earth had no form, no purpose until God gave it light. The first recorded words of God Almighty are "let there be light" and then we see the authority of God "and there was light" God's authority and power are revealed in such simple words, yet show the absolute power of God as Creator.

 

-Plague of darkness on creation

Exodus 10:23 talks about the terrible plague of darkness that was cast upon Egypt when Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go with Moses. "they did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings." This was a curse, a terrible judgement from God. Imagine not just your average day without much sun, but the complete absence of light. It was as if God shut off the sun for those days. It must have been a frightening experience and caused turmoil and fear. It is the same when we look at our lives while living in sin, hiding from the Light that God gives. When we hide from Him, we cannot experience the warmth and growth that only comes from that life giving light. 


Here we see God has the ability to suspend His own creation, allowing no light to come upon those He chose to keep it from. We will see later how God reveals Himself to us in love, offering us life and love through the Light of His Son, Jesus.

 


-THE Light of the world

John 1: 1-12 is a great picture of Jesus Christ coming into the world to save us, bringing the Light of His life, leaving us with His Spirit that will guide us into all truth. We also see that He was rejected. The Light(Jesus) is offensive to those in the dark. For one thing, offering this light implies that others are in darkness. Nobody wants to think of themselves that way, but each of us who have placed our faith in God for salvation have at one point had to realize the error of our ways, that we walked in darkness, choosing to give in to sinful desires rather than lay our lives at the foot of the cross and walk into the light of Jesus perfections, His sinless life and His offering to cleanse us from the sin that offers as its wages death and hell for eternity.

 

-The Lord is the Light

Psalm 27:1 "The Lord is my light"

Psalm 119:105 "Thy Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path"

Prov 4:18-19 "The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day. The way of the wicked is like darkness, they do not know over what they stumble"

 

We have seen that God has used light to reveal himself. Truly, if you walk up to a table in dim light and then brush off the surface, you cannot see the dust. But when the light of sun shines down upon it, the dust is evident. It is the same with our sin. If we try to live in dim light, allowing God's Word to only have a small part in our lives, we have not examined it fully. It is only when we let the light of the Bible shine on our lives, holding ourselves up to God's standard that we see the true picture, the effect of sin, and the degree to which we have been polluted by it.  

 

-What is the purpose of the light of God's Word?

James 1:21-25 talks about the mirror of God's Word applied to our lives. It shows us what is wrong, and when we see the clearer picture, we must not just walk away doing nothing to fix the blemishes. We must apply the "perfect law of liberty" and cleanse ourselves from sin. But what can be done. Shutting off the light will not make the sin go away, but rather just hide it. Something had to be done much greater than just hiding sin, it had to be taken away.

 

-A light to the world

Matthew 5:13-16 Refers to Christians as being salt of the earth and tells us that if we lose our saltiness, we are worthless. We are the light of the world. We are to bring the light of Jesus into every place we walk. We have to make sure that our lives are free of sin, as a hypocrite has no testimony to the unsaved. If we think we can walk in sin, telling ourselves that we are better than "those sinners" then we have fooled ourselves. We can not just sit back as Pharisees and judge others, but bring ourselves under the same standard, the divine standard of the Light of God in His Word. "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven" Our lives are to be examples of righteousness, unadulterated by sin and the pleasures of the world.

 

-Light/heat/growth

I was up at 3am the other night thinking about the cold, the heater, how long the propane would last. Then I got to thinking more about how life must be for those walking constantly in the darkness. The kind of cold we have had lately is the kind that brings pain and death to those who are not sheltered from it. Just think if we didn't have the sun. Imagine the coldness of space, the temperatures on the outermost planets from the sun. Then imagine the heat of hell that burns with fire and brimstone. Hell is not just the absence of the Light of God, but the final judgment on those who refuse the light. Not only is Hell the absence of God, but also the eternal wrath of a Holy God that righteously judges His creation. We don't like to think about it, but while God is love, He is also Holy and must judge sin.

 

God the Father sent His only begotten Son to the world to offer salvation from this wrath. Salvation is a nice little word that Christians tend to use, but I like to refer to it as rescue. We are headed for impending doom, and out of love for us, God gave of Himself, rescuing us from certain death and also offering us eternal life through His son. We can be with God for eternity, worshipping Him and thanking Him for the love that He offered us. We have a choice to make and it will count for all eternity. Today is the day to make the decision if you have not already.

 

-The call to a Holy life walking in the Light and shunning the darkness

Now, for those who have received the free offering of salvation, we see the call to take this seriously. We read in 1 John 1:5-10 that (6)"If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth, but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

 

This is the call to believers to keep ourselves in the Light. Darkness is death and light is life. Why would anyone who claims to have dedicated their lives to God want to be associated with darkness? James 4:4-8 reminds us that friendship with the world is enmity with God. There is no half way point according to this passage. "Choose you this day whom you will serve" is not a multi-option plan, but a demand by the God who created us to walk in His Light, following His ways and not our own. We must not sit on the fence, God does not need any secret agents. We must dedicate our lives, our all to Him and trust Him to take care of the rest.

 

-Do you think God wants you toeing the line?

You may use the excuses I have heard so many times. I talked with a trucker yesterday who was explaining away his blatant breaking of the law and said "if I do the speed limit, I am a hazard" and "God knows what is going on and I just have to ask forgiveness." The problem is that this argument is flawed. Romans 6 "Are we to continue to sin so that grace may increase? GOD FORBID!" How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" The following verses go on to talk about how ridiculous it is for us to say that we are born again, with a new nature, wholly dedicated to God, and then throw out the parts of the Bible that tell us to obey the authorities that God put over us.

 

This gentleman told me that it is the only way he can make a living in the trucking industry. I say that if that is so (which it isn't) then he should find a new job. Also, if he really believes this, he should examine himself to see if he is in the faith. We tread under foot the blood of Jesus Christ when we continue in sin, saying that living in sin is the only way to survive. We think God can not handle our little situations and needs our sin laden help. When we do this, we are defying Him and choosing to live in our sin. Heb 10:26-31 tells us that willfully "sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries"

 

If we can trust Him with our lives, we can trust Him with everything. 2 Tim 4:13 reminds us that "He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. The very nature of God is faithfulness, and we are promised that all things work together for good for those that love God, for those who are called according to His purposes. This is not about our purposes, human reasoning, or our desires, but about obedience to the God that made us and reconciled us to Himself through Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

So, we must use the light of Scripture to examine ourselves, to light the path that we must walk in. We also must be light to a lost and dying world that is headed for the darkness and punishment of a very real and literal hell that is promised for those who choose not to allow the light of God's Word to change their lives. We have the offer and all we must do is respond accordingly.

 

We also have to remember that as believers, we have the Light that shines in the darkness. We need to tell those who have not yet given their lives to Him that it is time to choose. Tomorrow is not promised to anyone, and we must be out there sharing the good news of forgiveness of sin and heaven with those we see on the road, at work, on the street. Our families and friends and everyone we meet should see the light shining in our lives. Let's go and spread the light to someone today.

 

 

 

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Cowperthwaite family itinerary

Tentative itinerary for Cowperthwaite family- subject to revision



January 10-    leave home headed to Watson home for visit, stay overnight.

January 11-    Visit Westbrook assembly, worship time and Mark will teach.

                    Drive to Shrewsbury, MA visit TFC chapel in evening, then stay overnight.

January 12-    depart from Shrewsbury, MA headed for Buffalo, NY. Visit TFC chapel in

                    Evening, then stay overnight.

January 13-    depart Buffalo, NY headed to Beaverdam/Bluffton Ohio. Will be working with TFC chapel on site

                    in Beaverdam.

January 21-    depart Beaverdam, Ohio headed to North Richland Hills, TX to work with Justin and family.

We will stay with Justin as long as the Lord leads. There are no definitive plans as to length of stay, but we are willing to stay as God provides us with work to do. We are waiting for our house to sell, but feel led to start the work.

We will still be working with Transport for Christ and also plan to be in Kentucky for the surge week with Good News On the Move and following up contacts for a couple weeks afterwards. Even with the work in Ohio, we plan to be in Maine for the month of August. There is much work to do, and we want to be used however and wherever the Lord leads.



Please keep us in prayer for:

-souls to be saved and lives changed through the Gospel message

-safety in travel

-health of Sara and the baby (due mid-April)

-sale of our home



Contact Information

Mark Cell     207-542-8916        

Sara Cell     207-701-8477



Mail can be directed to:

Mark and Sara Cowperthwaite

c/o Dan Allan

12 Emery Avenue

Thomaston, Maine 04861



Email: cowperthwaitefamily@gmail.com



Please call us anytime to see how things are going and keep us up to date on the happenings here while we are gone. We will be providing email updates whenever possible for those with email. We will also have someone post our updates at the chapel for those who do not have email.