Printer friendly version

Cornerstone Communications
Korea
April 25, 2006

Dear Friends & Family,

Greetings for the last time from Seoul. Korea is bursting with blooms. It just couldn't be more beautiful anywhere else… except heaven! I wrap up my week with a whirlwind of activity! Next week, I will arrive in the UNITED STATES! Hello America! I will probably have "reversed culture shock" as I've become so accustomed to other foods, languages and cultures. I'll be in Raleigh, North Carolina and Dallas, Texas in the month of May to produce three different productions! Pray for me!

Production Update

As for this week, I am in meetings and rehearsals 16 hours a day this week, as we prepare for this wonderful musical that opens tomorrow night! What we've been anticipating for weeks is finally upon us. We moved in to the theatre yesterday, and began putting up the sets, moving in the costumes, hanging curtains and lights, checking sound, etc. The theatre has a stage manager that says, "NO! Now what's your question?" He has slowed us down in our set up. However, everyone has been kind and diligent to get their work done, so for the most part, we are set up. Koreans are gentle and polite according to their culture, so someone like this really stands out!

Now inside the theatre, yesterday we hung the sets on the theatre's fly system. In the background you see one of the many colorful sets for the production.

Last night we ran through our paces and had a cue-to-cue (you go from stage position to stage position without lines or songs) to checking staging transition from the gym to the actual stage. Actors then changed into costumes, and we ran through the musical. There's thousands of little things to work out, but we're essentially ready.

Please pray that the musical will be a success. As you know, this is the way we reach people for Jesus Christ. They come to see a musical. They leave knowing more about a loving God, preferably making a decision to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Please be in prayer this weekend as we watch the Holy Spirit change lives during this very important production.

Last week we were busy building and painting. Here the opening sign, the pyramids and several other set pieces can be seen in construction.

EXTRA-Ordinary

A few years ago, I had heard a message that I should believe God for the extraordinary in my life. What did I do? I began to look for extraordinary things to happen. However, I began to notice that many extraordinary things were not happening! "I knew that pastor was wrong!" is what I told myself. However, I did go to the Lord and pray, and asked Him why I wasn't experiencing the extraordinary."

The Lord, replied, "It's your fault." Wait a minute! I was expecting a God-lier answer than that! I read Romans 13:14, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." The Lord began to give me understanding, as I meditated on that scripture. By "making provision", I'm "allowing" or "positioning" myself to do things MY way. Not God's way. My way. I found the problem. I wasn't seeing the extraordinary in my life, because I wasn't allowing it to happen. I was meditating on my problem. Not on God's Word.

A large banner promoting "Joseph" adorns the Gunpo Theatre Centre where we'll perform the musical tomorrow night.

Often, we say we believe God can do great things, but then we don't believe Him to do them in our lives. We're not positioning ourselves to receive. The good news is that the opposite must also be true! I can position myself to do things God's way! Hebrews 11:1 says "Faith is the evidence of things hoped for…" When I believe and start "speaking life" by quoting God's Word, and stop "speaking death" by thinking "why doesn't anything good happen to me?" we then give God something to work with in our lives. By walking by faith and quoting God's Word, you "make provision" for the extraordinary!

II Kings 4:2-7, "Elisha said to her, ‘What do you have in your house?' She said, ‘Nothing, except for a pot of oil'. Then Elisha told her, ‘Go and borrow pots from your neighbors, and not a few (but many) . Pour the oil into every pot, and fill them.' So, she went and shut her door, and took the pots her sons had brought her and filled each one of them, and the oil continued to pour out of her pot until every pot was filled. Then Elisha told her, ‘Go, and sell the oil, and pay your debts, and then you and your children can live off the rest."

This poor woman thought that she had nothing. The devil lied to her and made her believe that she had nothing with which to pay her debts. She did have something, a pot of oil. In her mind it was nothing, but in God's mind it was something to work with. She had to make the conscience decision to believe God and position herself for the extraordinary.

Korea is truly a beautiful and charming country. With the bushes, trees and flowers in bloom, and the serenity of a morning stroll, some Korean girls dressed in traditional clothes take in the brisk morning air.

God's Word says in Luke 5:18-25 that "The power of the Lord was present to heal them" , but not one of them was healed. Why? They didn't position themselves for the supernatural, and it passed them by. However, one person did get healed. A paralyzed man and his friends were so determined to receive the extraordinary that they literally tore the roof off a house and lowered the sick man down in front of Jesus! When Jesus saw their faith, He healed the man! Would you agree that they had positioned themselves to expect the extraordinary? What about you? Would you have done the same, or would you have just waited outside the house, and said, "Why doesn't Jesus heal me? Doesn't He love me?" My friend, God is doing miracles around you! Are you just going to stand there and let Him pass you by? Why? Because "He doesn't love you? NO! Because you're not positioning yourself to receive! The examples are endless! Blind Bartemaeus. Did he position himself to receive the extraordinary? Yes. What about Mary, Martha's sister? Yes. And Peter stepping out of the boat? And Noah, and Paul, and Moses, and …. and….. YOU?

Years ago, God taught me how to make provision for the extraordinary when He told me to believe Him for my ministry, to take me around the world. "Lord, I don't have enough money to take me to the next city!" (How's that for positioning?) I mean, to believe God to take me around the world, and to trust Him for the funds to, not just travel, but to live, and pay for the productions in different countries, when I didn't have money just seemed like foolishness, not faith. Yet, I decided to "position" my self, and I started telling everyone of my calling. You know the rest. I've traveled to 52 countries, and have done productions in 24, and more than one production in many of these countries.

Does God love me more than He loves you? No. I've just learned to "position" myself to receive the EXTRAORDINARY! By thinking and praying, and confessing God's Word over areas of your life where you are believing the Lord for a breakthrough, you can "make provision" for the extraordinary. Give God something to work with! And then, expect to see God begin to do the Extraordinary in your life!

Choeun Haroo Daeseyo

That's Korean for "Have a blessed day" . I have been so blessed to be here, and can't believe my time here is over. I will miss my time here, but I'm so glad for what the Lord is doing. Please keep the production in prayer this weekend as we open "Joseph" tomorrow night. Countless souls are in the balance, and your prayers will push them off the "fence of indecision" and into God's Kingdom! God bless you!

For the Kingdom,
Richard Montez