Guatemala, like much of latin america, is well aquainted with the message of Christ and the culture embraces it with both arms. There is no violation of culture to speak openly about the gospel. This is similarly true in the States. There has never been a question for me whether or not to live the gospel openly.
With our thoughts moving toward living in Jordan this conflict of heart becomes more clear. It is perfectly legal to live in Jordan as a Christian as long as you don't proclaim the gospel or try to convert muslims. This is where the legal line is crossed. I have been hearing from a couple Christians in Jordan to live a quiet and honorable life there and as people ask about why you are there and about your life you can explain the Gospel to them. I see a Biblical example of this in Daniel. I understand the need for this sort of Cultural sensitivity in order to show respect and gain the favor of the people and rectifying stereotypes of American Christians.
My struggle is that I also read the book of Acts. There, whenever the Spirit came on them, they spoke "with boldness". I find that the situation in Acts is most applicable to the Middle East because the culture of the people is still similar and the policital climate against Christianity is similar. It was illegal for them to "preach" yet they still were "compelled" to do it and they DID spend time in jail and many died.
"My case is different though" I tell myself, I have a wife and four small children to consider and the scripture says that being married, my "interests are divided" and for good reason. My family is my primary ministry. On the other hand, Jesus himself says, "whoever doesn't hate...his family yes even his own life, cannot be my disciple". Which is more important, Jesus or my children? It is easy to answer this simplified question until the choice really starts coming into view.
What exactly is the cost of following Christ? Everything. Well what does that really mean and what does that look like, simply, without rationalizing and applying logic to everything? I am not sure. I don't know if I will ever be sure but one thing I do know is that my thoughts and possibly my experience living in the Middle East will bring me closer to an understanding of the implications of that very question.
Like the words of Jesus to his disciples, "ye of little faith", this is yet another reminder (read post Raising the dead?!?) where God tells me, "you think you have faith? it is just peanuts buddy. You are still in the minors son, but be encouraged because to see me do great things only requires faith the size of a mustard seed"
Do I really live for the Gospel? I have found that the most difficult part of the Christian life is not being willing to obey but rather knowing th appropriate way to do it. God give me both zeal and wisdom.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Raising the dead?!?...
I thought I had written of this before but I guess I hadn't, maybe out of fear of being labeled a "wacko".
Most of you who know me also know that I have a conservative theology. I have rarely seen anything in the physical realm that I would quanitify as a "miracle". I usually reserve this word for the spectacular acts of grace that God does within the hearts of men, which I still feel is the most important. This disclaimer aside, I wanted to share a challenge with you that was FAR outside my theological box.
Several months ago I travelled to Tabacal to minister to minister to a family that had lost a daughter and to intoduce Carlos (the Guatemalan that is continuing the work in Tabacal with our local church). We entered the house and saw the young lady's body on the bench prepared in the traditional Mayan way, covered with a white cloth with flowers and some money. I sat right next to the body and as "holy men" we were asked to pray for the family.
As Carlos was praying I felt an odd urge as I have many other times before when God had asked me to do something scary or brave or stand up for the gospel against reason. This time the prompting was with thoughts of Elijah. It was like God was saying, "lay on this young lady's body, feet to feet, hands to hands, nose to nose, and I will bring her back to life. This will serve as a living testimony of the Gospel for these people".
WHAT!! My logic and reason fought back saying, "If I do this and nothing happens, then I have just violated the dead body of this families daughter and we may never be able to work in Tabacal again." The best I can describe the feeling was like the time I went cliff diving and while standing on the top of the cliff I often started to jump but then stopped myself. The difference with the cliff jumping is that eventually I actually did jump. In that room that day I started to get off my seat probably 7 times but at the end of the day I did nothing.
To this day I still have no idea what would have happened if I had actually laid on that woman but really I don't think that was the point. I don't think it was God's intention to bring that girl to life or not to. I think his primary purpose was to teach me something about myself. I could almost hear him saying, "Don't get so proud about your life of faith. Your faith is peanuts, you are still in the minors son."
God grant me more than just the faith to move mountains, with it grant the wisdom to know your calling and act in accordance with your kingdom.
(also see "The Balance..."post)
Most of you who know me also know that I have a conservative theology. I have rarely seen anything in the physical realm that I would quanitify as a "miracle". I usually reserve this word for the spectacular acts of grace that God does within the hearts of men, which I still feel is the most important. This disclaimer aside, I wanted to share a challenge with you that was FAR outside my theological box.
Several months ago I travelled to Tabacal to minister to minister to a family that had lost a daughter and to intoduce Carlos (the Guatemalan that is continuing the work in Tabacal with our local church). We entered the house and saw the young lady's body on the bench prepared in the traditional Mayan way, covered with a white cloth with flowers and some money. I sat right next to the body and as "holy men" we were asked to pray for the family.
As Carlos was praying I felt an odd urge as I have many other times before when God had asked me to do something scary or brave or stand up for the gospel against reason. This time the prompting was with thoughts of Elijah. It was like God was saying, "lay on this young lady's body, feet to feet, hands to hands, nose to nose, and I will bring her back to life. This will serve as a living testimony of the Gospel for these people".
WHAT!! My logic and reason fought back saying, "If I do this and nothing happens, then I have just violated the dead body of this families daughter and we may never be able to work in Tabacal again." The best I can describe the feeling was like the time I went cliff diving and while standing on the top of the cliff I often started to jump but then stopped myself. The difference with the cliff jumping is that eventually I actually did jump. In that room that day I started to get off my seat probably 7 times but at the end of the day I did nothing.
To this day I still have no idea what would have happened if I had actually laid on that woman but really I don't think that was the point. I don't think it was God's intention to bring that girl to life or not to. I think his primary purpose was to teach me something about myself. I could almost hear him saying, "Don't get so proud about your life of faith. Your faith is peanuts, you are still in the minors son."
God grant me more than just the faith to move mountains, with it grant the wisdom to know your calling and act in accordance with your kingdom.
(also see "The Balance..."post)
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Prayer - just thoughts...
A friend asked that I write this though I don't know exactly how to put it in words which is the point exactly. Huh...
Sometimes I have a difficult time praying out loud, not out of embarrasment but out of lack of practice, not lack of practice in praying but rather in putting my prayers in words.
When I want to communicate with another person, fist I have to encode my thoughts into words and then the other person has to receive and decode them for their original meaning. I think many times people forget that God does not require this encoding and decoding. When I pray, I feel the Lords leading to pray for my wife in a certain area, in my mind I "visuallize" it and simply say yes Lord. Again I don't know how to put this practice into words but it is a way that I can understand prayer as a two way communication with God rather than giving God my Christmas list. I am open to the thoughts that he brings my way and I am open to agree with him. Or I am open to express the internal feelings without having to process them into words and present them before God in trust.
Being that it is just thoughts, I can cover a lot of prayer ground very fast, not to say that I free up more time but rather that I can pray about more things. After being practiced I understand what the scriptures mean when they say "pray at all times" because my prayers are more of a consciousness of God near me and a real-time processing of my circumstances in his presence, I can be in a constant mode of prayer, constantly in communication with God. This takes many forms many of which are too hard to explain but I thought I would give an attempt to explain something so central to who I am and how I live that does not exist in words.
Talk to God without using words and open yourself up to what he has to say as well as communicate the deep things inside you that you don'tknow how to communicate and process them together with God and the reading of scripture. I would encourage you give it a try... that is if you can make any sence of the ramble that I just typed.
Sometimes I have a difficult time praying out loud, not out of embarrasment but out of lack of practice, not lack of practice in praying but rather in putting my prayers in words.
When I want to communicate with another person, fist I have to encode my thoughts into words and then the other person has to receive and decode them for their original meaning. I think many times people forget that God does not require this encoding and decoding. When I pray, I feel the Lords leading to pray for my wife in a certain area, in my mind I "visuallize" it and simply say yes Lord. Again I don't know how to put this practice into words but it is a way that I can understand prayer as a two way communication with God rather than giving God my Christmas list. I am open to the thoughts that he brings my way and I am open to agree with him. Or I am open to express the internal feelings without having to process them into words and present them before God in trust.
Being that it is just thoughts, I can cover a lot of prayer ground very fast, not to say that I free up more time but rather that I can pray about more things. After being practiced I understand what the scriptures mean when they say "pray at all times" because my prayers are more of a consciousness of God near me and a real-time processing of my circumstances in his presence, I can be in a constant mode of prayer, constantly in communication with God. This takes many forms many of which are too hard to explain but I thought I would give an attempt to explain something so central to who I am and how I live that does not exist in words.
Talk to God without using words and open yourself up to what he has to say as well as communicate the deep things inside you that you don'tknow how to communicate and process them together with God and the reading of scripture. I would encourage you give it a try... that is if you can make any sence of the ramble that I just typed.
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Last minute convergence, like the Red Sea...
On April 3rd we found some airline tickets to the states for really cheap and bought them in faith thinking that Anzo's adoption would be done in time for us all to visit the states together. Complications arose in the process and we were coming to the deadline. It looked as though we would not get the visa in time. To make the story short, we had our embassy interview at the end of Wed, received our visa end of day Thurs, they were closed Fri, Sat, and we flew out of Sun. It was at the VERY LAST MOMENT that we received Anzo's visa.
Prior to all this I sat and pondered such a stressful situation and wondered why God had things unfold in this manner. I knew that our interview was just a couple days prior to the flight and that things would have to work out perfectly for us to travel and things rarely go well at the embassy. I wondered why didn't God let Anzo receive his visa a month ago to relieve all the stess. I realized that it was to show his presense more definitively.
Had Anzo received his visa the month prior, I would have given little thought to God's involvement in this process. Getting cheap tickets to fly home was amazing and getting Anzo's visa was also amazing but the fact that both realities converged at the exact moment they did was nothing short of divine.
I look at the Israelites as they came to the Red Sea. I believe that the Red Sea did not just spontaneously part at that particular moment, rather that it was planned long before. Take this hypothetical situation, I believe that several weeks before the Israelites ever left Egypt there was a storm developing in the Atlantic off the coast of England. It blew across Spain and the mediterranian until it came to the Red Sea where it "blew all night long" and seperated the waters.
I believe that wind would have come one way or another. The parting of the Red Sea is amazing, but what makes it divine was the convergence of this amazing event at the exact moment that the Israelites arrived there and cried out in need. God didn't provide only after the cry. He knew and planned it beforehand. He sent that wind on its path long before they arrived and needed it.
Many times I cry out to the Lord to provide "at the last minute" in my time of need only to find out that for God, "at the last minute" had been planned for long ago. This is more comforting to me than a fleece blanket and cup of coco on a snowy evening. God can be trusted because he cannot be suprised.
Prior to all this I sat and pondered such a stressful situation and wondered why God had things unfold in this manner. I knew that our interview was just a couple days prior to the flight and that things would have to work out perfectly for us to travel and things rarely go well at the embassy. I wondered why didn't God let Anzo receive his visa a month ago to relieve all the stess. I realized that it was to show his presense more definitively.
Had Anzo received his visa the month prior, I would have given little thought to God's involvement in this process. Getting cheap tickets to fly home was amazing and getting Anzo's visa was also amazing but the fact that both realities converged at the exact moment they did was nothing short of divine.
I look at the Israelites as they came to the Red Sea. I believe that the Red Sea did not just spontaneously part at that particular moment, rather that it was planned long before. Take this hypothetical situation, I believe that several weeks before the Israelites ever left Egypt there was a storm developing in the Atlantic off the coast of England. It blew across Spain and the mediterranian until it came to the Red Sea where it "blew all night long" and seperated the waters.
I believe that wind would have come one way or another. The parting of the Red Sea is amazing, but what makes it divine was the convergence of this amazing event at the exact moment that the Israelites arrived there and cried out in need. God didn't provide only after the cry. He knew and planned it beforehand. He sent that wind on its path long before they arrived and needed it.
Many times I cry out to the Lord to provide "at the last minute" in my time of need only to find out that for God, "at the last minute" had been planned for long ago. This is more comforting to me than a fleece blanket and cup of coco on a snowy evening. God can be trusted because he cannot be suprised.
Undo...
I have been wanting to write about this for a while.
As a civil engineer I use the program AutoCAD almost every day. One of the most crutial commands that exists is the "Undo" command. You can try out a certain way of design or presentation and if it doesn't seem to work out you can just undo 5,6,...1000 times to get right back to where you were. This inspires some risktaking in design and drafting. I have also found that this manner of thinking expands beyond my drafting and into my daily living. Sometimes I step out to try new things or change things and then, quite naively am shocked that there is no undo command to return things to normal. The most important thing I have found about this mentality is that I rarely regret it. Life is to be lived and to tak e chances even if I take them naively.
Many people consider me to be a "fix-everything" handy man and wonder how I do it. I have found that 90% of fixing something is having the courage to open it up and have a look. I believe that life is similar. To see the greatest things in life I must have the courage to step out and have a look and I have realized that things are not nearly as scary as they seem to be.
If anything I am glad that I have this inate sense of abandon. It keeps me in a "childlike" faith that is willing to follow God in the sketchiest of situations.
As a civil engineer I use the program AutoCAD almost every day. One of the most crutial commands that exists is the "Undo" command. You can try out a certain way of design or presentation and if it doesn't seem to work out you can just undo 5,6,...1000 times to get right back to where you were. This inspires some risktaking in design and drafting. I have also found that this manner of thinking expands beyond my drafting and into my daily living. Sometimes I step out to try new things or change things and then, quite naively am shocked that there is no undo command to return things to normal. The most important thing I have found about this mentality is that I rarely regret it. Life is to be lived and to tak e chances even if I take them naively.
Many people consider me to be a "fix-everything" handy man and wonder how I do it. I have found that 90% of fixing something is having the courage to open it up and have a look. I believe that life is similar. To see the greatest things in life I must have the courage to step out and have a look and I have realized that things are not nearly as scary as they seem to be.
If anything I am glad that I have this inate sense of abandon. It keeps me in a "childlike" faith that is willing to follow God in the sketchiest of situations.
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