Imagine with me that you are a creepy, crawly caterpillar. You crawl around from leaf to leaf, eating them all up as you go along. You are happy with your creepy, crawly life until a butterfly comes along and tells you that you need to learn to fly. After all, aren’t caterpillars supposed to turn into butterflies? Of course! You admire the beautiful butterfly flitting overhead. He has such beautiful wings, and he floats so gracefully along above the flowers. “Wow,” you think. “It really would be wonderful to be a butterfly. Flying must be so much better than just crawling around on the ground. I’m going to learn to fly!”
How well do you think you are going to do? How long do you think it will take you to learn to fly? It’s ridiculous to even try. It won’t ever happen. Why? Because a caterpillar does not have the capacity to be able to fly. A caterpillar is not supposed to be able to fly; he is supposed to turn into a butterfly. That is God’s design for him. He is not supposed to stay a caterpillar. But just because he is supposed to become a butterfly doesn’t mean that he can just choose one day to fly. He can’t decide that since he is tired of crawling around on the ground, he will just fly everywhere from now on because it’s a smarter way to travel. The caterpillar doesn’t have wings, and he cannot choose them into existence just because he wants to fly. As hard as he tries, as much as he chooses, the caterpillar cannot begin to fly. As good and right as flying may be, it is not an option for the caterpillar.
While it is God’s design that the caterpillar be transformed into a butterfly, learning how to fly is not part of that process. The caterpillar does not become a butterfly by learning how to fly. Choosing to fly is not something that a caterpillar can do. Only as a butterfly can he have the choice to fly. Because he is a butterfly he can learn to fly. It doesn’t work the other way around.
There is a process of transformation that must first occur inside the caterpillar. He must be changed from the inside out. He must die to being a caterpillar and experience a new birth. Then, as a butterfly, he will be able to choose to fly. It is a choice that he did not have while he was a caterpillar. When he was a caterpillar, with the nature of a caterpillar, flying was not a choice. But now, with the nature of a butterfly, flying is a choice. His new nature allows him to choose things that he couldn’t choose before. But it also takes away choices that he used to have as a caterpillar. As a butterfly, he cannot choose to eat leaves like he did when he was a caterpillar. He is a new creature, with a new nature. His life is forever changed.
You and I are like the creepy, crawly caterpillar. We are stuck crawling around on the ground, bound to sin and selfishness by no choice of our own. We did not choose our sinful nature; we were born with it. We were born caterpillars. We have no choice but to crawl around. Not that we were born sinning, but with a fallen, sinful nature, that is all we can do.
God has a plan for us though. He doesn’t want us to remain in our sinful nature as caterpillars crawling around on the ground. He wants to recreate us. He wants to give us new natures, to transform us into beautiful butterflies. He wants to give us wings so that we can fly, so that we can be free from sin.
But just because I know that God has a plan for me to become a butterfly and learn to fly (live sinlessly), doesn’t mean that I can just choose to fly (not sin) when I am still a caterpillar. I don’t have that capacity. Flying, or living a life free from sin, is not a choice that I have in my sinful nature. I may want to fly. I may want to stop sinning. I can see that it is better. I know that I need it. I know that God wants me to stop sinning; He wants me to fly. But I can’t just choose to stop sinning. I can’t just choose to fly because I want to fly. Like the caterpillar, I don’t have that capacity. I can’t create my own wings by deciding that it’s time to fly now. Choosing to fly won’t give me wings. Pretending that I have wings won’t do me any good. Strapping wings onto my back won’t work either.
I must go through a transformation of my nature, just like the caterpillar. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3. First, I must die to being a caterpillar; I must die to my sinful nature. I must have the transforming power of God in my heart. I must be changed from the inside out. I must experience a new birth, be recreated with a new nature. I must have the nature of Christ. Only after I have become a butterfly, because I am a butterfly, will I have wings, and therefore have the capacity to choose to fly. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” Now, as a new creation, with a new nature, things are possible to me that were never possible to me before. As a caterpillar, I could only eat leaves, now as a butterfly, I can drink nectar. As a caterpillar, I could only crawl around, now as a butterfly, I can fly. It’s a choice that I have now that I never had before.
Before this transformation takes place, I can try as hard as I want, in as many ways as I want, but I will never be able to fly. I will always fail. Not because I haven’t tried hard enough. Not because I don’t have enough faith. Not because I’m not good enough. Not because God doesn’t love me enough. Not because something is wrong with me. I’m not a defective caterpillar. I will fail simply because I am still a caterpillar; and caterpillars can’t fly.
So don’t beat yourself up if you’re still crawling around on the ground and haven’t learned to fly yet. God does not expect caterpillars to fly. He didn’t give them that choice. But He gives them something better; He gives them the choice to become a butterfly. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Eph. 2:8,9. You cannot work your way into flying. You cannot work your way into becoming a butterfly. It can never happen. But you can, by grace through faith, accept the gift of transformation that God offers to you; the gift of transforming you from a caterpillar into a butterfly.
Instead of worrying about your inability to fly, recognize the truth about what you are. Maybe you have some wings strapped on your back to make you look the part. Maybe you have been trying to fly your whole life. All that counts for nothing. You are not a butterfly. All the attempts at flying, however good they may have been; all the beautiful sets of wings you have gone through in your attempts at flying: none of that changes the truth. None of that can make you a butterfly. The truth is you are still a caterpillar. You don’t need to learn to fly. Flying will be easy and come naturally once you are a butterfly. You don’t need flying classes. You need to be transformed into a butterfly. You need a new birth, a new nature, the nature of Christ instead of your sinful nature. Then, and only then, can you succeed at flying, because by their nature butterflies can fly. But those creepy, crawly caterpillars? Well, caterpillars can’t fly.
Camp Meeting Testimonies
In September we held our first camp meeting at our ministry location in Cabool, Missouri. God truly blessed and provided all that we needed to make it happen. Thank you to everyone who volunteered their time and talents to make camp meeting a success. We were blessed to have over 100 people in attendance.
Thank you to everyone who came and participated with us! We are thankful for each one of you. Here are a couple of testimonies from people who came.
“I absolutely LOVED camp meeting and the symposium, but the best was when I got home and realized my 13-year-old had actually taken the information in and is starting to apply it in his own life!!!! Praise the Lord!
Thank you to the two beautiful ladies who gave so much time and effort to teach the children! ❤️”
“[T]he campmeeting and symposium really helped me to understand a lot more and made me to think deeper than I have before. I have been seeing the law in so many different places that I hadn’t before. It’s been on my mind constantly and I have much desire to share the message.”
Welcome Jonathan & Angela Peoples
Jonathan and Angela Peoples are our new next-door neighbors, and they are also the newest full-time members of New Paradigm Ministries. Previous to coming to Missouri, Jonathan and Angela lived in Washington State. Jonathan is an award-winning videographer, but he is also skilled in graphic layout, video editing, and construction. Angela is a teacher and cancer survivor. Together, they teach marriage seminars, sharing with others the principles and tools that helps their marriage to thrive. Welcome Jonathan and Angela to the New Paradigm Ministries team!
Join Us for Camp Meeting in April!
We will be hosting our second camp meeting April 17-21, 2024. The meetings will focus on relationships. We will be covering topics such as: Eaters vs. Feeders, Sphere of Action & Healthy Boundaries, Delegated Authority & Submission, Courtship, Marriage, Parenting, Conflict Resolution, Confession, Forgiveness, & Restitution, and more. Jonathan and Angela will be leading out in the breakout sessions, helping you apply the principles needed to experience healthy relationships. Keep these dates in your calendar and plan to join us. When we have registration open, we will let you know. As last camp meeting, space will be limited, so plan to register early to make sure you can attend.
Future Projects
Vehicles
Our faithful van, which had 330,000 miles on it, has been totaled. Though the accident was the other person’s fault, and their insurance would cover the damages, our van is not worth the $2,700 it would cost to fix the body damage to the front of the van, so it will be totaled. It isn’t worth fixing up if we bought it back from the salvage yard either, as the engine has been losing compression and burning more and more oil. Unfortunately, the cost of new and used vehicles has increased significantly. So, we are in a situation where we are expectantly looking to God to solve this problem somehow. Our other vehicles are too small, old, unreliable, and/or not working at the moment. Our long-distance travel plans may be limited until this can be resolved.
Kitchen Building
As you may know, Valentina Dragomir and her small team prepared all the meals for our last camp meeting using the small kitchen in our single-wide home. Walking back and forth to the barn where we had storage space for food and using only a single-family oven and several instant pots to cook with, Valentina and her team did a wonderful job providing meals for camp meeting. But it was not without much difficulty that they were able to make it work. We need a dedicated, larger kitchen space with enough appliances and storage space to make events like this work well.
We plan to build a small building next to the pavilion to include a larger kitchen, along with more bathrooms and showers so we can have enough facilities for everyone. We are also considering making the building 2 stories so that we can add some guest housing options as well.
Media Project
Many of you have been blessed by the Monday evening group sessions and the videos made available through our YouTube channel. We would like to get a digital media group involved in managing our website, YouTube channel, and social media accounts so that many more people can know about and be blessed by the messages of freedom the Lord has given us to share. We would like to be blessing millions where we are blessing hundreds right now, and that is possible, but not without cost. We are currently exploring this option with a digital media group and will let you know more when we know more. We are also looking to purchase more video and production equipment so we can produce higher quality video content for you and your loved ones.
LIFE Restoration Program
The LIFE Restoration Program will be a 1-year recovery program conducted on a weekly basis in a church or other meeting space in your community. The program will be divided into four quarters. The first quarter will focus on Living Free. The second quarter will focus on Improving Relationships. The third quarter will focus on Finding Purpose. And the final quarter will focus on Experiencing Health. Each quarter will have a separate book and workbook with a chapter dedicated to each topic. Each meeting will involve a presentation delivered either by Dr. Sandoval via pre-recorded video or delivered by the group facilitator using the available PowerPoint slides. And the group discussions, activities, and homework will come from the facilitator’s guide, workbook, and book. We want to make the facilitator’s guide, PowerPoint slides, and videos available to everyone for free so as many people as possible can run these LIFE Restoration Programs in their community. Only the books and workbooks would need to be purchased.
LIFE Restoration App
Once the LIFE Restoration Program is operational, we want to develop an app that will run the whole program through the app. This way, people who would never come to a church or join a group for recovery, but are interested in being free themselves, can access all the materials through the app. We would develop the app with the ability to have support groups (addictions, anxiety, depression, marriage struggles, parenting struggles, spiritual help, etc.) to help facilitate each person’s recovery from the issues they struggle from. And we would give the users access to schedule one-on-one appointments with our LIFE Coaches for additional assistance. But, where are the LIFE Coaches going to come from?
LIFE Coach Training
After the LIFE Restoration App is completed, we will develop a training program for LIFE Coaches. This program will help train students how to use the principles of the Law of Life and the methods of Biblical counseling to help others to freedom. Through this training, we can grow a network of LIFE Coaches that can help more and more people find freedom through the practical gospel applied to their lives in a way that sets them free in Christ. We know many of you are waiting for this training to be a reality, because you want to become a LIFE Coach to help your friends, family, neighbors, and all those who need your help.
Please keep all these projects in prayer. It will take a lot of time, effort, personnel, money, and skills that we don’t have. If you have an interest in any of these areas, skills that could help with it, or access to resources that would be needed, ask God what He would have you to do and step out in faith. We believe Jesus is returning soon, and we want to do what we can to reach as many as possible with the messages that set them free in Christ for now and for eternity.
Prayer Team
If you would like to be a part of our PRAYER TEAM, please send your name and email address to [email protected] and we will add you to our team. We are grateful for all who have volunteered and are always looking for more prayer warriors.
Group Session Notifications
We offer group sessions every Monday night from 6:30-8:30pm Central Time. If you would like to be notified/reminded before each group session begins, simply email us at [email protected] and let us know. We will add you to that list. Anyone can join the group sessions during those times at this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87592054012 and prior group sessions can be viewed on our YouTube channel HERE.
Ministry Updates
Orange City-Debary SDA Churc
In October, we had the privilege of sharing messages of the practical gospel at the Orange City-Debary SDA Church in Florida. We were warmly welcomed, experienced blessed fellowship, and enjoyed the lively questions from the congregation that allowed us to expand upon the messages with greater clarity. Thank you so much for everything!
GOTA Camp, Southern California
In October, I also had the privilege of spending a week with the wonderful staff and guests at the new GOTA Camp in Southern California. Our friends, Mario and Alejandra Robinson, have developed this beautiful retreat and lifestyle center in San Diego County, Southern California. I was able to share the Law of Life with the guests of their lifestyle program in a depth that I rarely get the opportunity to do. It was wonderful! Thank you all for your questions, openness, and interest. May God continue to set you completely free!
Oklahoma Academy & Oklahoma Korean SDA Church
After spending a week at GOTA Camp, I flew to Oklahoma to share with the staff, students, and community guests at Oklahoma Academy for the week. Many were blessed by the messages shared. It was a blessing for me to spend the week counseling one-on-one with as many people as I could accommodate. The following weekend, I was able to share about God and relationships with the Oklahoma Korean SDA Church. God bless you all!
Brazil / L’Esperance do Brasil
The law of Life book has now been translated into Portuguese by the ministry, L’Esperance do Brasil (lesperancedobrasil.com.br) and is available through their ministry. My daughter, Angelise, and I had the opportunity to travel to Brazil and share the liberating message of the Law of Life with precious souls in São Paulo and at L’Esperance’s ministry in Minas Gerais state. After sharing about my story and the development of the Law of Life book with a young YouTuber couple and sharing about the freedom that is found at the cross at one of the churches in São Paulo, the book was unveiled at one of the Conference offices in São Paulo. Then we went to Restaurante Taste and See and shared about the Law of Life with the participants there. Early the next week we traveled about 6-1/2 hours to L’Esperance do Brasil’s ministry headquarters where we shared a long weekend series on the Law of Life with the guests there. Thank you all for your prayers. Thank you, Regina, and everyone involved in this trip to Brazil. What a blessing!
YouTube
Keep your eye out for new videos on our YouTube channel youtube.com/@NewParadigmMinistries. We need 5 more subscribers to reach 1,000 subscribers on our YouTube channel. So go to our YouTube channel link above and subscribe, and thank you for doing so.
The Law of Life Program
Do you want an immersive program for you, your church, or your community in the Law of Life? There is a new program available for you that includes the Law of Life book, workbook, and video series. Rupert Salmon, general manager of He’s Alive Broadcasting and CEO of 3 AM Network, LLC., has taken studio-quality videos of Dr. Sandoval covering the entire Law of Life book in 16 videos, developed a workbook to go along with the series, and re-designed the Law of Life book cover (while the content of the book remains the same). He is offering the entire package of book, workbook, and access to the online videos for $99. If your church wants to purchase the entire package and then purchase individual books and workbooks for your members, you can start a Law of Life study group or book club in your church. For a short video about the series, click on THIS LINK. If you would like to purchase these materials, simply click on THIS LINK.
Online Store
We now have our books available on our online store. You can order at https://npmin.org/shop/. If you would like bulk pricing on books, please email us at [email protected].
Counseling or Health Consultations
If you are struggling with personal, relationship, or health challenges, we are available to counsel with you. Virtual appointments can be scheduled through our website at https://npmin.org/appointments Dr. Dorothee Louis and Angela Peoples have spots available now.
Upcoming Events
2024
January 6-21
Cuba
February 19-25
Law of Life symposium in Columbia at Fundación Las Delicias
March 1-2
Post Falls Idaho SDA Church
March 8-10
SDA Church in Champaigne, Illinois
April 17-21
*New Paradigm Ministries 2nd camp meeting at our ministry location in Cabool, Missouri.*
April 26-28
St. Louis, Missouri
May 4-11
Mental health seminar at the Hayden Lake SDA Church north of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
July 3-7
Red River Camp Meeting in Stanton, Kentucky
July 25-28
Pathway to Paradise camp meeting in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri
August 14-17
West Salem Mission camp meeting in West Salem, Ohio
September 25-29
We will have our 3nd New Paradigm Ministries camp meeting at our ministry location in Cabool, Missouri.
October
New Zealand and Australia
December 6-8
Houston Metropolitan SDA Church in Houston, Texas
December 11-14
Manvel SDA Church in Texas
2025
February 14-16
Antlers, Oklahoma SDA Church
April 23-27
Delton SDA Church in Delton, Michigan
June 16-27
Biblical Counseling class for The Bible Institute, Revelation of Love Ministry
Donate
If the Lord is laying it upon your heart to support the work of New Paradigm Ministries financially, we would be most appreciative. We still have much work that needs to be done at our ministry before our camp meeting. Your tax-deductible donations can be given via check to:
New Paradigm Ministries
14527 Berry Rd.
Cabool, MO 65689
Or you can donate on our website HERE. Also, consider including New Paradigm Ministries in your will or estate planning.
If you have been thinking, “I have this extra money sitting around just earning a little interest in the bank, and I would like it to be used in the Lord’s work before my bank accounts are frozen and I can’t use it anymore,” then I have some suggestions for you. Pray, and ask the Lord what He would have you to do with His money. And then follow His leading. You will be glad that you did. I encourage you, now is the time to put everything into the Lord’s work. If we wait much longer, it will be too late. Here is some inspired guidance on the topic.
It is not God’s order that parents who are capable of managing their own business, should give up the control of their property, even to children who are of the same faith. These seldom possess as much devotion to the cause as they should, and they have not been schooled in adversity and affliction, so as to place a high estimate upon the eternal treasure, and less upon the earthly. The means placed in the hands of such is the greatest evil. It is a temptation to them to place their affections upon the earthly, and trust to property, and feel that they need but little besides. When means which they have not acquired by their own exertion, comes into their possession, they seldom use it wisely. {CS 333.4}
Those who flatter themselves that they can shift their responsibility upon wife or children, are deceived by the enemy. A transfer of property will not lessen their responsibility. They are accountable for the means which Heaven has entrusted to their care, and in no way can they excuse themselves from this responsibility, until they are released by rendering back to God that which He has committed to them.—Testimonies for the Church 1:528-530. {CS 335.1}
I was shown that some children professing to believe the truth, would, in an indirect manner, influence the father to keep his means for his children, instead of appropriating it to the cause of God while he lives. Those who have influenced their father to shift his stewardship upon them, little know what they are doing. They are gathering upon themselves double responsibility, that of balancing the father’s mind so that he did not fulfill the purpose of God in the disposition of the means lent him of God to be used to His glory, and the additional responsibility of becoming stewards of means that should have been put out to the exchangers by the father, that the Master could have received His own with usury. {CS 331.2}
Many parents make a great mistake in placing their property out of their hands into the hands of their children while they are themselves responsible for the use or abuse of the talents lent them of God. Neither parents nor children are made happier by this transfer of property. And the parents, if they live a few years even, generally regret this action on their part. Parental love in their children is not increased by this course. The children do not feel increased gratitude and obligation to their parents for their liberality. A curse seems to lay at the root of the matter, which only crops out in selfishness on the part of the children, and unhappiness and miserable feelings of cramped dependence on the part of the parents. {CS 332.1}
These are just a few thoughts to consider as you think about your privilege to be involved in the Lord’s work before your money will be worthless.