Insights Newsletters

If You Can Explain It, God Isn't Doing It!

I can't explain what God has done. For the last nine years, I have served as pastor of the Spanish Ministries at Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas. As a Spanish-speaking ministry, we have witnessed the changes Christ has made in the lives of many people. Incredible changes! But I can't explain how it all took place. I have heard this statement that holds great truth: "If you can explain what is going on, then God isn't doing it!"¹ God is the God of the impossible. Miracles are His specialty. Don't misunderstand, we are not a perfect church. We have many deficiencies and many challenges to face! But God has blessed the Spanish Ministries at Stonebriar far beyond my own expectations and the expectations of many others. Even more amazing to me, God has blessed my life as well.

As Stonebriar's Spanish Ministries was flourishing, God opened yet another door of ministry for me in January 2007. I was invited to participate with what God was doing all over the world through radio. Along with my responsibilities at Stonebriar, the Lord added the honorable responsibility of my becoming the radio pastor of Visión Para Vivir, the Spanish-language ministry of Insight for Living. I am now able to give voice in the Spanish language to the biblical teaching of Chuck Swindoll. The testimonies of the thousands of people in the Spanish-speaking world who have been touched by this radio ministry are overwhelming. And the opportunities to minister outside the church's walls are nothing short of amazing. But "amazing" is what God does best.

I know, I know . . . it sounds like I am boasting a little. To be sure! I am boasting for the Lord. To God be the glory! When I was age 16, I trusted Jesus as my Lord. But I was not (and still am not) an eloquent speaker or a brilliant scholar. I was simply a distressed boy. But God took me—an ordinary young man—and completely transformed my life. First Corinthians 1:26–29 best describes my life and ministry:

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. (NIV)

That is me! The most valuable lesson I learned in nine years of ministry goes hand in hand with those verses: "You can never be too small for God to use . . . only too big." God uses the lowly and the weak to accomplish His purposes. God wants, but does not need, our participation in His work. Isn't He marvelous?

May each of us recognize our weaknesses before the Lord, and though we can't explain all that God is doing, we know that He promises to make us strong and to bring glory to Himself.