Posts Tagged ‘Dick Gascho’

Is God Really on Your Side?

Posted: March 20, 2012 in Christianity, Church Planting, Ministry, Missions, Reflections & Musings
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Dick & Vicki Gascho

Dick & Vicki Gascho

Is God really on your side? Have you ever wondered about that? It is a thought-provoking question, isn’t it? I know we’d all like to believe that He is.

Recently my good friend and ministry coach, Dick Gascho and I discussed this question. Dick is a veteran missionary who serves with Greater Europe Mission. He’s been a great source of encouragement to me over the last several years. You can learn more about Dick, and his coaching ministry at leaderlifecoaching.com.

At first blush it seems like a slam dunk.

If you are in Christ, you can be confident that God is for you. In fact, Paul states in Romans,

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:31, 32 ESV) So yes, we can say God is for us. Nothing can come between us.

But when Joshua asked this question of the commander of the Lord’s Army, he responded differently. Commentators of the Bible believe the commander of the Lord’s Army refers to the pre-incarnate Christ.

“When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, ‘Are you for us, or for our adversaries?’” (Joshua 5:13 ESV)

Do you ever wonder if God is for you or for those that are against you? That is Joshua’s question.

Then notice how God answers. “And he said, ‘No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.‘” (Joshua 5:14 ESV) Can you believe that God says no to Josh? In effect the Lord says, “No, I’m not on either side.” How can the Lord say this to Joshua?

The sense here is that God will not follow Joshua’s agenda. The pre-incarnate seeks to encourage Joshua, but He also makes it clear that he needs to get on board with God and follow Him. He needs to make sure he, and the people he is leading are on God’s side. If you read the entire book of Joshua you will learn that the Israelites didn’t win all their battles. They made mistakes. They didn’t always follow well.

Fall down and worship

Fall down and worship

Maybe the question about whether God is for us is not entirely the right question to ask?

But Joshua does have a wonderful response. His response is to worship.

“And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, ‘What does my lord say to his servant?’ And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, ‘Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.’ And Joshua did so.” (Joshua 5:14-15 ESV)

We have confidence that if we are in Christ, nothing will separate us from the love of Christ. Yet don’t ask God to follow your agenda, follow Him. Worship Him. That is the response He is looking for.

In His Grip, Dave

P.S. Keep praying for our upcoming ESL training that will begin this Friday, March 23rd. We just found out there is an issue with the electricity in the place we are holding the training this weekend.

DiasoLifeontheBorder.org

My Last Post of 2011 – Praising the Lord for His Many Blessings!

Posted: December 31, 2011 in Bright Spots on the Border, Journey, Ministry
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Happy New Year from the Diaso family

Happy New Year from the Diaso family

This is my last post for 2011. Hard to believe another year has passed us by. I started this blog in January of 2011. At first I was fearful that I would be able to keep up with it, or that I would enjoy it. The blog itself has been a huge blessing, as it allows us to let people know what is going on in our life and ministry. It is also great that our friends can interact with us through the blog. I thank the Lord for our blog: DiasoLifeontheBorder.org.

I also thank the Lord for the many friends that he has given us to encourage us along the way. I wrote some posts about our champions. And more champions!

Just a couple of days ago I got together for coffee with one of my champions, John McKeever. John strengthens me as he gives me perspective. He helps me to remember how far we have come. Believe it or not sometimes I do get down. I think about all we have left to do rather than what God has already done. John was one of the friends that encouraged me to start my blog, and to work on my email prayer updates. Thank you John!

Dawn and I have a number of champions, and by mentioning a few I realize that I’m leaving out a number of people who have spurred us on. I’m grateful for all of our champions. David Quintanar, who I wrote about earlier in the year has been a huge encouragement to me. Dick Gascho, who’s been a great friend and coach to me over the last few years. He also helps me to keep things in perspective, and to work on setting achievable goals. Dawn also has some great friends that come alongside her. Then there are many families that hearten us along the way. Thanks to all of you who have stood with us, strengthened us, encouraged us, motivated us, cheered us on and believed in us during this long journey!

David, Jr., Dave, Daniel, Bill and Ray

Another huge ministry highlight for us in 2011 was the Living in Grace conference we held in Tijuana in November. More people looked at our blog on the day we launched our ministry in Tijuana than any day of the year. It was so good to have my friend and colleague, Bill Yarbrough with us leading the conference. It was wonderful to hook up with Daniel Nuñez and the great people he has connected with in his ministry. I enjoyed being able to have my son, David Jr. join us for part of the conference. A good friend and co-worker, Jim DeWitt flew in for the conference, and to learn more about our ministry on the border. BEAMM teammate and friend, Ray Call helped out. We had a great group.

I pray this will be the first of many such ministry events where we will see the gospel go forth, and be a blessing to other ministries. I’m so encouraged by Daniel Nuñez. He’s a gifted and godly leader that’s doing a great work in TJ.

Dawn and I appreciate your prayers for David Jr. We learned on Friday that he will need surgery for a torn meniscus. Now we have to figure out when and where. He leaves for college on January 9. Never a dull moment with our family.

Thank you so much for loving us, and for taking an interest in our lives and our ministry. It’s been a great year! I can’t wait to see what the Lord will do in 2012. Happy New Year!

In His Grip, Dave

DiasoLifeontheBorder.org