Now that we have been in country since the 13th of Oct. our routines for each day are beginning to take shape. Certain realities are becoming more apparent as we navigate the new terrain of culture, language, and availability. When I say, availability, it is the reasonable amount of effort involved in getting simple things for each day. If it takes too much time and effort, its not an option or it doesn't fall under the heading as available for that day. Whatever we need must be carefully planed and allotted for, so as to allow time for walking back and forth, while keeping in mind that the items must not fill more than what can be carried in a back pack. Each visit to purchase something may take from 30min-2hrs. walking, but sometimes for long distances we take the bus, but that is tricky in knowing which one to take for each destination and then how to get home again. Frequently in the afternoon we find ourselves walking home in the rain and because it rains so hard here, your umbrellas leak like sieves and the rain splashes up to your hips. Needless to say you're totally soaked by the time you arrive home.
Getting food is more complicated here because of having to go to more than one place, and because things spoil so quickly, its best to buy only what you need for each day. We have found the carniceria (butcher shop) a good place to buy meat, but it tends to be very tough because these grass fed animals are very lean. It was explained that, being grass fed, the animals can't eat enough to get fat due to the moisture content of their food. To understand this consider how much watermelon you might be able to eat compared with something dry. The fact that the grass is water saturated makes sense because of how often it rains during the rainy season.
Spanish class is living up to its name as being intensive. Class instruction takes up half the day while homework takes the other half. The instructor teaches the course in Spanish, so one must strain to maintain a consistent focus on every word that is being said, which I find exhausting. However, learning this language is something which really inspires me. What that means now is that, in the near future, I will not be isolated from the people I've been called to serve.
Making friends with people is an everyday occurrence, but an interesting one because you are not only making friends with locals, but people who are here in transition from one part of the globe to another. Many are familiar with living and adapting to different cultures because they have had to do that much of their lives. By contrast however, there are others, like myself, who are learning to adapt for the first time and so we have been able to find some mutual encouragement through our shared experiences. I spend a lot of time listening and learning with the intent of accepting the differences of a reality I have no ability to change. Instead I must be willing to make new discoveries and change appropriately to the new world in which I live. Romans 12 speaks of being transformed by the renewing of your mind and from what I understand that change is not one which is outward only, but of an inward quality which only God is able to bring about. Not only being willing, but actually cooperating with the potter, so to speak, through being soft, tender and malleable is the only way to productively participate with our Creator God.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Friday, October 18, 2013
Sameness
"The steadfast love of the lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end." Lam. 3:22
During a time of major change in my life where nothing is the same, it has been comforting to know that I serve a God who is unchanging. He is the Great "I Am" Who within His name has the meaning of no beginning and no end. The fact that God attributes a name to Himself is so we can understand that He may be known; that we can know His character and that we can have not only relationship, but one of total communion whereby we may abide in Him as He also will abide in us. (Jn.15:5) He who, even now, is at work in those of us who believe; having been transformed from our hopeless state, separated from the life that is in Him, are now, by His great mercy and grace, daily recipients of His love and energizing power so as to be sons and daughters who are led by His Spirit.
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever." ( Heb. 13:8 ) In the New Testament we see the same character of God in Christ revealed to us. This wonderful consistency gives us confidence that in relationship with Christ, our faith, our trust and our hope is always steadfast. He will always be faithful, He will never leave us or forsake us and His word unto us is always true. He says "come unto me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." That was true yesterday, its true today and it will be true tomorrow.
Even though I serve an unchanging God, my own life must be changing everyday for it is the purpose of God to make us new creatures in Christ. Sometimes that requires us to let go of things which were good, to embrace those things which are better. One picture of this in the New Testament is that you can't put new wine in old wineskins. The new wine will burst the old and inflexible skin. Sometimes we would rather hold on to the way we have always done things because we find security in that, even when there is no generated life observed. Moving into a new culture can be a shock on our familiar system of doing things. I once heard, while visiting in Southeast Asia, "Its not that different is bad, its just different." Something C.S. Lewis wrote addresses this dilemma. He explained how we love to treat life like a movie in which we can rewind and relive the best moments in the film. Honestly, I don't like change any more than the next person, but I also realize that traditions and routines may hold me back and fog my vision for the future if I am constantly trying to relive and hold onto meaningful or valued life experiences. Our lives must be open to change if we are to develop into mature, functional followers of Jesus Christ.
Chapter 5 in the book of Hebrews, says, "by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you" In this chapter, having to be taught is pictured as an infant needing milk. An infant is one who needs to grow, but those who are mature are grown already and they need meat in order to work. They have become mature and have taken on the responsibility of not only themselves, but the weak who have need of discipleship. In the great commission, Christ did not leave us with instruction to evangelize, but to make disciples of all nations. That requires investment of our lives into others with our own authentic relationship to Jesus. Our lives are then the sermon that backs our words. In the U.S. gold used to back our currency, now we have nothing, but empty promises and cheap words of little consolation.
Babies are cute, but not when they are older. Babies who refuse to grow up, thinking only of themselves all the time, become a hindrance to the work of God and a stumbling block to those in and outside the body of believers. Lewis said it best when he said " its not that we should think less or more of ourselves, but that we should think of ourselves less." If we choose to live out our lives dominated with a consumerist mentality; satisfied with being spiritually spoon fed and never attending to our own relationship with Jesus Christ, then we will not only become dull of hearing the truth, but ultimately, we will become deaf and dumb to its impact. There is no better way to learn the word of God than by doing it and so prove to be His disciples. Reaching maturity, then becomes one of intentional growth and application rather than only hearing and reading all the best spiritual teachings.
During a time of major change in my life where nothing is the same, it has been comforting to know that I serve a God who is unchanging. He is the Great "I Am" Who within His name has the meaning of no beginning and no end. The fact that God attributes a name to Himself is so we can understand that He may be known; that we can know His character and that we can have not only relationship, but one of total communion whereby we may abide in Him as He also will abide in us. (Jn.15:5) He who, even now, is at work in those of us who believe; having been transformed from our hopeless state, separated from the life that is in Him, are now, by His great mercy and grace, daily recipients of His love and energizing power so as to be sons and daughters who are led by His Spirit.
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever." ( Heb. 13:8 ) In the New Testament we see the same character of God in Christ revealed to us. This wonderful consistency gives us confidence that in relationship with Christ, our faith, our trust and our hope is always steadfast. He will always be faithful, He will never leave us or forsake us and His word unto us is always true. He says "come unto me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." That was true yesterday, its true today and it will be true tomorrow.
Even though I serve an unchanging God, my own life must be changing everyday for it is the purpose of God to make us new creatures in Christ. Sometimes that requires us to let go of things which were good, to embrace those things which are better. One picture of this in the New Testament is that you can't put new wine in old wineskins. The new wine will burst the old and inflexible skin. Sometimes we would rather hold on to the way we have always done things because we find security in that, even when there is no generated life observed. Moving into a new culture can be a shock on our familiar system of doing things. I once heard, while visiting in Southeast Asia, "Its not that different is bad, its just different." Something C.S. Lewis wrote addresses this dilemma. He explained how we love to treat life like a movie in which we can rewind and relive the best moments in the film. Honestly, I don't like change any more than the next person, but I also realize that traditions and routines may hold me back and fog my vision for the future if I am constantly trying to relive and hold onto meaningful or valued life experiences. Our lives must be open to change if we are to develop into mature, functional followers of Jesus Christ.
Chapter 5 in the book of Hebrews, says, "by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you" In this chapter, having to be taught is pictured as an infant needing milk. An infant is one who needs to grow, but those who are mature are grown already and they need meat in order to work. They have become mature and have taken on the responsibility of not only themselves, but the weak who have need of discipleship. In the great commission, Christ did not leave us with instruction to evangelize, but to make disciples of all nations. That requires investment of our lives into others with our own authentic relationship to Jesus. Our lives are then the sermon that backs our words. In the U.S. gold used to back our currency, now we have nothing, but empty promises and cheap words of little consolation.
Babies are cute, but not when they are older. Babies who refuse to grow up, thinking only of themselves all the time, become a hindrance to the work of God and a stumbling block to those in and outside the body of believers. Lewis said it best when he said " its not that we should think less or more of ourselves, but that we should think of ourselves less." If we choose to live out our lives dominated with a consumerist mentality; satisfied with being spiritually spoon fed and never attending to our own relationship with Jesus Christ, then we will not only become dull of hearing the truth, but ultimately, we will become deaf and dumb to its impact. There is no better way to learn the word of God than by doing it and so prove to be His disciples. Reaching maturity, then becomes one of intentional growth and application rather than only hearing and reading all the best spiritual teachings.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Pushing the envelope
The phrase "pushing the envelope" became popular in the 80's when Tom Wolfe used it in his book, The Right Stuff, in which he described how the test pilots would test the upper and lower limits of speed and maneuverability in new types of experimental aircraft. Chuck Yeager was one of those pilots who was the first to officially fly faster than the speed of sound. In 1947 they dubbed him the fastest man on earth. Chuck Yeager, a man who came from a back woods farm in West Virginia, would literally push aviation into a new era because of his willingness to go beyond the pale of what was safe and secure.
In 1946 Michael Howe, a cognitive psychologist, who did extensive research in the area of environmental influences on the human psyche, explained that for a person to feel secure, they must not have any aspirations or desires for anything in which they might be disappointed. To live within the pale, so to speak, is not only about being safe from disappointment, but it is a result of ones own effort to be protected from fearful circumstances which might alter the course of ones life in a negative way. Living that way becomes a prison of the soul.
In the movie, Legend of 1900, a story is told about a talented musician who spent his life on a cruise ship. When once, for the sake of love, he was challenged to leave the ship for the first time in his life, he came face to face with his most dreaded fear. He would be stepping off the ship and embracing an ominous and unpredictable world which he had never known. In the moment that he descends the platform, your hoping he will make it to the end, step off onto solid ground and be free of his metal cell forever. Unfortunately he never makes it. Midway he turns around only to return to what he has always known, even if it meant sacrificing an opportunity for true love and fulfillment. Fear was the invisible shackle which would hold him fast; a prisoner to the Virginia, which was soon to be permanently harbored as relic of the past. Consequently he finds himself alone in the empty hull of the ship hiding and unwilling to come out even though it was soon to be demolished. While still on board, the movie ends, as does his life, with the ship blowing up and sinking.
Safety and security promise us peace, but it is an illusive and unattainable goal outside of ourselves because the lack of it is rooted within our inability to face fear and live with circumstances beyond the small confines of our own control.
Joni Eareckson Tada, as a young teenage girl, dove into the shallow waters of the Chesapeake Bay and suffered a spinal fracture which left her a quadriplegic; paralyzed from the shoulders down. She went through a period of major adjustment in her life, which threatened to destroy her with depression and suicide as the only means of escape from this new dark and horrific world of confinement and loss of self-control. Over the next several years, she found her faith in God and her relationship to Jesus Christ, to be her continual source of strength. She was then in a position to make a choice either to stay within that prison or stretch forth the wings of faith and fly beyond her severely limited physical boundaries. She discovered in that the liberating power that faith could bring, and so presently brings a message of hope and a ministry of help, not only to the crippled of body, but to those of the mind and soul all across our globe.
The message to the church today is not to focus on numbers or the embellishment of a personal lifestyle of comfortable entertainment, but one of challenging one another in living out the true message of Jesus Christ. His Spirit working within us will not leave us content to live for ourselves, but for those whom Christ died. Those who profess faith in Jesus Christ have the resources for living a life that resembles His character. Instead of "living safely" within the confines of our own small world we can become explorers going beyond boundaries with the faith that has been entrusted to us. By engaging it or should I say pushing the envelope we can go beyond our fears and self-imposed limitations. Active faith reveals God's faithfulness, which builds trust and reinforces our hope, but it also encourages others when we live courageously in our relationship with Jesus Christ. It is in this we soon discover the liberating power of God who longs to take us high above the limitations of human talent or effort so that we might see Him, touch the hem of His garment; know Him and make Him known by the way we live outside the pale of popular contentment.
In 1946 Michael Howe, a cognitive psychologist, who did extensive research in the area of environmental influences on the human psyche, explained that for a person to feel secure, they must not have any aspirations or desires for anything in which they might be disappointed. To live within the pale, so to speak, is not only about being safe from disappointment, but it is a result of ones own effort to be protected from fearful circumstances which might alter the course of ones life in a negative way. Living that way becomes a prison of the soul.
In the movie, Legend of 1900, a story is told about a talented musician who spent his life on a cruise ship. When once, for the sake of love, he was challenged to leave the ship for the first time in his life, he came face to face with his most dreaded fear. He would be stepping off the ship and embracing an ominous and unpredictable world which he had never known. In the moment that he descends the platform, your hoping he will make it to the end, step off onto solid ground and be free of his metal cell forever. Unfortunately he never makes it. Midway he turns around only to return to what he has always known, even if it meant sacrificing an opportunity for true love and fulfillment. Fear was the invisible shackle which would hold him fast; a prisoner to the Virginia, which was soon to be permanently harbored as relic of the past. Consequently he finds himself alone in the empty hull of the ship hiding and unwilling to come out even though it was soon to be demolished. While still on board, the movie ends, as does his life, with the ship blowing up and sinking.
Safety and security promise us peace, but it is an illusive and unattainable goal outside of ourselves because the lack of it is rooted within our inability to face fear and live with circumstances beyond the small confines of our own control.
Joni Eareckson Tada, as a young teenage girl, dove into the shallow waters of the Chesapeake Bay and suffered a spinal fracture which left her a quadriplegic; paralyzed from the shoulders down. She went through a period of major adjustment in her life, which threatened to destroy her with depression and suicide as the only means of escape from this new dark and horrific world of confinement and loss of self-control. Over the next several years, she found her faith in God and her relationship to Jesus Christ, to be her continual source of strength. She was then in a position to make a choice either to stay within that prison or stretch forth the wings of faith and fly beyond her severely limited physical boundaries. She discovered in that the liberating power that faith could bring, and so presently brings a message of hope and a ministry of help, not only to the crippled of body, but to those of the mind and soul all across our globe.
The message to the church today is not to focus on numbers or the embellishment of a personal lifestyle of comfortable entertainment, but one of challenging one another in living out the true message of Jesus Christ. His Spirit working within us will not leave us content to live for ourselves, but for those whom Christ died. Those who profess faith in Jesus Christ have the resources for living a life that resembles His character. Instead of "living safely" within the confines of our own small world we can become explorers going beyond boundaries with the faith that has been entrusted to us. By engaging it or should I say pushing the envelope we can go beyond our fears and self-imposed limitations. Active faith reveals God's faithfulness, which builds trust and reinforces our hope, but it also encourages others when we live courageously in our relationship with Jesus Christ. It is in this we soon discover the liberating power of God who longs to take us high above the limitations of human talent or effort so that we might see Him, touch the hem of His garment; know Him and make Him known by the way we live outside the pale of popular contentment.
Friday, September 27, 2013
Duplicity
“I continue to dream and pray
about a revival of holiness in our day that moves forth in mission and
creates authentic community in which each person can be unleashed
through the empowerment of the Spirit to fulfill God’s creational
intentions.” [3]
Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/john-wesley-quotes-23-great-sayings/#ixzz2g5RpC300
An authentic community of believers begins with each individual person within that community so intentionally and unreservedly dedicated to Jesus Christ because they love Him with all their heart, soul and body that they model His character without pretense or self-awareness. If we "abide in Him and He abides in us" how we live and move within our community will be a demonstration of that reality without special regard or prejudice of any kind.
"Self-awareness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of our life in God, and self-awareness continually produces a sense of struggling and turmoil in our lives. Self-awareness is not sin, and it can be produced by nervous emotions or by suddenly being dropped into a totally new set of circumstances. Yet it is never God’s will that we should be anything less than absolutely complete in Him. Anything that disturbs our rest in Him must be rectified at once, and it is not rectified by being ignored but only by coming to Jesus Christ. If we will come to Him, asking Him to produce Christ-awareness in us, He will always do it, until we fully learn to abide in Him." (Oswald Chambers/ My Utmost for His Highest)
The title of this post is duplicity because the struggle which exist within our hearts to procure our own sense of embellished identity is a constant opposing and undermining force which must be subjugated so that Christ may indeed be formed in us. The apostle Paul made clear in the book of Galatians how we were to resolve our dilemma when he wrote " I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Gal. 2:20)
We understand the word duplicity to mean divided loyalties, but that is a misnomer. We can really only have one true loyalty, the other is always an imposter of sincerity and trustworthiness. It is deceitful because it is always keeping personal gain as its master plan.
"When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship This means we can't live our lives with duplicity. It is not about us anymore, but it is all about Christ, and it will always mean that following Him with integrity will lead us to the cross and the consequence of this will be life to others.
"always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you." (2 Cor. 10-12)
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Multiplicity
"When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, your consolations delight my soul (Ps. 94:19 NAS)
The new normal of our lives these days has been one of multiplicity, refracted with the complexities of transitioning from the familiar routines of life as we know it and now letting go of all that to take hold of a new, different, unknown way and culture.
The Hebrew word for a multitude of thoughts is Sarappim which, according to one scholar, can be used to describe the numerous branches of a tree. Rather than the whole of the tree the picture is more about all the individual parts. In the English construction we might describe someone as going to pieces as opposed to being whole or complete.
In the New Testament, the apostle Paul, in the book of Philippians, wrote, "Be careful (full of care or worry) for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God and the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep (guard) your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Here the Greek word merimna is used for careful, which has the meaning of going in too many directions at once. Jesus chided Martha when he said, "Martha, Martha you are worried and bothered by so many things, but only one thing is necessary ..."
How many times like Martha do we loose sight of the one thing; the most important thing.
Our culture is being dramatically impacted by the amount of information we are being inundated with every day. Infobesity is a new term coined to describe a rampant condition in our society and psychological studies have found it to be a source of increased depression. When we have too much information and too many choices our thoughts become fragmented and the concern or worry for making the wrong choice increases exponentially. Learning how to deal with this condition is like sorting through too much spam. We need to establish boundaries for our minds as well as our computers.
The new normal of our lives these days has been one of multiplicity, refracted with the complexities of transitioning from the familiar routines of life as we know it and now letting go of all that to take hold of a new, different, unknown way and culture.
The Hebrew word for a multitude of thoughts is Sarappim which, according to one scholar, can be used to describe the numerous branches of a tree. Rather than the whole of the tree the picture is more about all the individual parts. In the English construction we might describe someone as going to pieces as opposed to being whole or complete.
In the New Testament, the apostle Paul, in the book of Philippians, wrote, "Be careful (full of care or worry) for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God and the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep (guard) your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Here the Greek word merimna is used for careful, which has the meaning of going in too many directions at once. Jesus chided Martha when he said, "Martha, Martha you are worried and bothered by so many things, but only one thing is necessary ..."
How many times like Martha do we loose sight of the one thing; the most important thing.
Our culture is being dramatically impacted by the amount of information we are being inundated with every day. Infobesity is a new term coined to describe a rampant condition in our society and psychological studies have found it to be a source of increased depression. When we have too much information and too many choices our thoughts become fragmented and the concern or worry for making the wrong choice increases exponentially. Learning how to deal with this condition is like sorting through too much spam. We need to establish boundaries for our minds as well as our computers.
Friday, September 6, 2013
Coram Deo
Coram Deo This phrase literally refers to something that takes place in the presence of, or before the face of, God. To live coram Deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God. To live all of life coram Deo is to live a life of integrity. Integrity is found where men and women live their lives in a pattern of consistency. It is a life of wholeness that finds its unity and coherency in the majesty of God. (http://www.ligonier.org/blog/R.C. Sproul)
Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1Cor. 10:31) Here the idea is not to categorize our lives in such a way as to live in two separate worlds, but to demonstrate a consistency of character in every circumstance regardless of what is happening around us or what everyone else is doing.
Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1Cor. 10:31) Here the idea is not to categorize our lives in such a way as to live in two separate worlds, but to demonstrate a consistency of character in every circumstance regardless of what is happening around us or what everyone else is doing.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Bonnhoeffer speaks on obedience
From his prison cell in Nazi dominated Germany Dietrich Bonnhoeffer, martyr as a result of his uncompromising faith in Christ, speaks on denying self and the cost of taking up the cross of Christ in obedience that faith demands. "To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only Him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. Action springs not from thought, but a readiness for responsibility. One act of obedience is better than a hundred sermons. To endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ. Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin and more about courageously and actively doing God's will."
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