Tales from Middle Earth

What is the BGR?

2011-08-23T16:26:00.000+05:00

I posted this on SBCImpact a few weeks ago.
Sometimes you can be in a place too long. Being somewhere too long can make you blind, you just kinda get used to what you see and you forget to be amazed or even horrified. I have been traveling down to the barren south of Gondor for almost ten years. That is a long time to become blind. But a few weeks ago we had a pastor come from the West and as I took him down to show him our projects and I saw things through his eyes. I showed him our drinking water well projects, the villages we were working in, the believers who were worshiping God in really dark places. Do you know that guy took pictures of every kid who was drinking water out of a ditch? It is what everyone does…. when they can get water out of the ditch at least. That first night we were sitting out under the stars eating dinner in the yard of one of the believers there and I ask him what he thought. He said he was very interested in getting us funds to ramp up our drilling capacity. I told him that while we had the technology (yes, it is banging a pipe down in the ground with a sledge hammer but that is a kind of technology) to do wells lower down in the village we could not beat the rock up here where this family lived and so this part of the village remained dry. I asked him if he really wanted to help. He replied choking up with tears in his eyes, ‘These are my brothers and sisters in Christ and they are drinking water out of a ditch! I have to do something.’ I wonder why I hadn’t thought of it that way before.

To be clear he is doing something and so are most of you. I would venture to guess that the vast number of of people in the Southern Baptist Convention don’t know much if anything about the Hunger and Relief Funds. In 1978 the SBC established the hunger fund and some of you as old as me may remember cans sitting on our fellowship hall tables during Wednesday night potlucks. Well, that fund still exist and many churches still keep the cans on the tables collecting loose change. Many also take up a special hunger fund offering in October of every year. My experience is that most people today don’t give much to stuff they don’t know much about or understand. That’s probably why the fund is down from twelve million dollars about seven years ago to just over five million today.

For many years the fund was operated by pretty much one guy with a secretary. Yes, I too think that is insane but we didn’t want to waste money on infrastructure in the US when so many were suffering. Jim did a great job administrating the fund as did the director before him- whose name escapes me just now. I set up a humanitarian aid agency as did many other missionaries in the 1990′s and we spend around $200,000 per year serving the needy people here in Gondor. Let me say a big THANKYOU to all of you who have supported the fund through the years. There is a Gospel witness in many countries that were formally closed thanks to your support. But don’t get the idea that we have set up some kind of ‘fronts’ or platforms that are just an excuse to share Jesus. NO SIR! We love people well with the funds entrusted to us. It has taken time but we have learned, and not only my team but all around the world missionaries who previously walked around with nothing but a Bible in their pocket are now experts in Community Development, running projects, and even disaster relief.

This brings me to BGR. A couple of years ago someone somewhere realized we needed to beef up our organization and become more effective in our ability to help people well. Baptist Global Response was the answer. This is a lean organization of some of the best community development and disaster response guys and gals that we have. How it all works is this: Churches send money to the hunger and relief funds. Notice that there are two funds, hunger and relief. If you only write hunger on the check then we can only buy food or provide water. If the check says ‘hunger and relief’ then we can use it to build homes, schools, canals, whatever the community needs. The funds are then sent to the Christian Life Commission. Yep, that’s right our ethics organization has charge of administering and advertizing the hunger and relief funds. Richard Land could spend more time promoting the hunger and relief offering but that’s just me. Anyway, now you know why you don’t know! So, once the check is received it gets divided up 80% to the IMB and 20% to the NAMB folks who use it in the US.

Now, there are some of you who love to give and help others but you do it through lots of other agencies. Some of you even give to secular agencies in the belief that you want to help people effectively. So, here is Strider’s list of reasons why the hunger and relief funds are the most effective way to help poor people there is.

All the funds are used by your personnel and we are accountable to the BGR for what projects we are asking funds for, we are accountable to our own IMB finance office for all the receipts on how we spent those funds, and we are accountable to our supervisors to do effective projects in a strategic way.
All the funds go to national people who need the help. NO money goes to IMB personnel- not for office expenses, not for my fuel for my transportation, not for my food on the project, not to US based advertising or administration. When you give a dollar 20 cents stays in the US and 80 cents goes overseas but 100 cents goes to meeting real human needs. There are zero other organizations who can make such a claim.
We are good. 13 years ago when we got started we made mistakes, we didn’t always know what a good project was and how to pull it off. When I did learn I was discouraged to be in the minority of guys with significant experience in doing quality project work. No longer. Today we have teams all over the globe doing effective work.
People are poor because their relationships are broken and their relationships are broken because their relationship with God is broken. – Brent Myers from his book Walking with the Poor. We don’t just drop off a sack of floor and walk away. We love people, we help them with things, with prayer, with truth. I dig wells to provide people with drinking water but we would never do that without telling them about the living water. Our aid comes with no strings as does our love but we always share the truth about why their communities are broken and who is the only one who can heal them.

So, get the cans back on the table. Label them Hunger AND Relief and get real help to people in the darkest corners of this planet. Get on the BGR website and partner with teams on the ground. Do what it takes to reach the lost, to serve the least, to be His disciples. And I thank you again for the privilege of doing what I do where I do it.

On Rob Bell and the Myth of Universalism

2011-05-25T16:28:00.000+05:00

I should have written this post months ago but have been busy with other things. Still, I want to get my thoughts down on this important subject. Rob Bell published a book earlier this year called 'Love Wins'. In it he posits that God is love and that love will win out over all evil. Sounds pretty good so far huh? But he goes on to suggest that love winning must surely mean the salvation of most all people whether they currently embrace Christianity or not. He seems to suggest- very vaguely in a Rob Bell kind of way- that people get a second chance and that eventually, in eternity beyond this world, most everyone will end up in Heaven because of the irresistible pull of love. I would love for this to be true and Bell ask some good questions along the way that I don't think his critics have answered very well but what I want and what is truth are two different things!

Rob begins by asking a good question (which is what he is famous for by the way). In the opening of his book he says that when we present the Gospel Evangelicals very often say that God is holy and just and hates the wicked. They go on to say that Jesus came to die for our sins and saves us. Bell's question then is this: Are we saying that Jesus came to save us from God? And if this is the case what kind of God are we seeking to spend eternity with? Do we even want to spend eternity with such a God? This stings me because I have indeed proclaimed just such a Gospel- years ago- and I don't like it at all. It isn't that I don't like it because I don't prefer it- as if the character and nature of God is somehow my own choice- but rather I don't like it because it is a lie. It misrepresents the nature of God entirely. Bell wants to rescue Evangelicals from proclaiming a God who is narrow, vengeful, and mean. Well, good. God is not vengeful, narrow, and mean and we should not proclaim Him to be.

Unfortunately, Bell's solution to the problem is classic heresy dressed up in new clothes. With no recognition that the Church has throughout history struggled with these questions and no biblical backing he postulates his own view of truth. Many critics have already torn Rob's ideas to shreds here so I wont go into it in detail. In short, Bell suggest that because of Jesus' death on the cross all sin is atoned for and in eternity all people will see God's love- regardless of their earthly decisions- and accept it and be saved by it. He goes on to suggest that the few who will not bow the knee to our savior will go to Hell but that Hell is not eternal, suffering is not eternal, (after all love wins) and those who go to Hell will cease to exist. This is known as the doctrine of annihilation. The problem with this view is not so much that it is unsavory as much as it has no biblical backing. 'Forever and ever' are used too many times by the biblical writers to mean 'not at all'.

But here I am writing on this topic when it has been exhausted by countless writers. Why? I am glad you asked. It is my belief that of all the writers who have written on this subject none of them have satisfactorily answered Bell's questions. The truth has yet to be told. The error lays in our basic understanding of salvation and what it means to be 'lost'. The consequences of our misunderstandings here are the reason the church is weak and poor. This issue is huge and we need very much to get a proper understanding of it. Bell saw his critics coming and he knew what they would say. "But God is just and holy! People must go to Hell for eternal punishment because they are sinners. Don't you want God to be just and holy?" I will answer this for Bell, 'No, we don't.' At least most of us don't think we want that. Just and Holy for most of us who have grown up in the church means that God loves us and hates our enemies. We have a vague notion that we all deserve punishment and are really glad that Jesus sacrifice somehow gets us off the hook. Some of us are grateful but most of us are just glad that the whole 'sin' deal is dealt with and now we can go on with our lives.

The thing is that God is holy and just. Holy means 'other than, or set apart.' What we are really saying is that He is not like us. This is an excellent thing. It's like when you are talking about police and you think of the riot police in Syria shooting unarmed people in the street and you say, 'Yeah we have police but they are not like those guys!' There is a God but He is not like anyone you have ever met- and trust me on this one- that's a very good thing. God is love. We take all the worldly definitions of this and confuse the issue as much as possible but once we back up and read 1 John we can't get away from it. He is love. That is not a metaphor or some kind of symbolism. It is what He is. And He will win, the title of Bell's book is dead on correct. The misunderstanding is in the nature of sin and what it means for love to win.

If you have read this far please stay with me for a bit more- I am getting to the point finally. The Bible uses a couple of metaphors to describe the effects of sin and our human condition. We get these confused and this has led to both Bell and his critics getting it wrong. In Luke 15 we find three parables describing things that are 'lost' and the desire to find them. The point of these parables is to show the nature of God as He (as love itself) is determined to save us and restore our relationship at all costs- even the costs of His own Son. But we get confused. We think these parables are about us (a common human failing). We talk about 'lost' people as if they are just somehow misplaced and if only they could be found and put on the right road then all would be well. In this context we have arguments about sin and judgement. Some say that if people are merely lost then surely God should have mercy on them. "After all it isn't their fault, what about all those who don't even know about Jesus? Surely God would not send those to Hell who have never even heard the truth? It isn't fair! They are 'just' lost and we should be pitying them instead of condemning them." The response is usually that God is holy and just. "Those poor lost souls deserve Hell and so do I but thank God I was saved, darn shame about those who weren't. Hey, did you see who won on Dancing with the Stars the other night?" No, friends we are missing the other metaphors for those who do not know Christ. The Bible says that we are dead in our sins. Lost means that we would be fine if only someone just pointed out the way. Dead is not a choice. Dead is not a decision or a minor irritation. God told Adam that in the day that he ate from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil he would die. He did die and so have all of us. God could choose to put a bunch of dead people in Heaven but they would still be dead. God is not harsh, or mean, or unloving to send people to Hell. Hell is where the corpses go regardless of how much we love them. I loved my grandma but I carried the coffin to the graveyard just the same. Her body belonged in the ground no matter how much I would want otherwise. We could have kept her in the living room but that would not have helped her or us. This is the reality that God has faced. He is all powerful and He can raise the dead but if they will not be raised then there is no place for them but Hell.

Now let me say something else about Hell that most do not understand. It is eternal in the sense that it is final and forever. Once a soul has refused life and remains dead it will go to Hell and burn there in the knowledge that it was created for life and can never ever have that. Hell is awful, not like Dante's Inferno or our popular mythologies of Hell being eternity in the waiting room of the Department for Motor Vehicles. Did you see the pictures of the survivors of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan? Those folks were really devastated. Can you imagine? Everything that they knew, their homes, work, school, communities, friends, family, evaporated in minutes. They are disoriented, their very personalities changed by the whole experience. Hell is that times a million. The body dies and the broken and dead soul discovers that all of what it thought reality was is gone. Don't imagine your dear Aunt who knitted you a sweater when you were ten years old burning in a fiery pit thinking, 'I really cared for little Timmy and now here I am burning alive while he is in Heaven living it up.' Whatever was good and wonderful about your dearly departed aunt is gone. In this sense annihilation is not entirely false. There is goodness, and decency in people who do not know Christ but for those who are not made alive in Christ none of what was the marred image of God in them will remain. Sin destroys lives here on earth how much more in Hell! I don't pretend to understand everything on this point but this I do know, we will know the truth in the end when we stand with our God at the last judgment and whatever the final state of all things is we will declare God to be holy, just, and love itself.

Do you see where all this takes us? If the dead are dead forever then what of the living? If salvation is not just a free pass at the final judgement but a dead soul come to real life then what does that mean for us now? If you are truly alive then you and every truly alive person in your church are not just 'better than everyone else' you are ALIVE! This makes you real and eternal and everything else this world is not. This world is not eternal. The money you work for, the home you build, the life you lead will not stand forever. In that sense it is not real. You too will face death and everything and everyone you value will be washed away in an instant. What will remain? God is love and whatever in you is love will remain. Souls are eternal and every soul you have valued and invested in will still be there at the end of all things. How should you be living your life then? The church is weak and poor because we have become experts on building organizations that will pass away while filling those organizations with eternal souls that we do not invest in or value. What am I saying? Forget about your parking lot, the color of your carpet or your tax exempt status. Forget about politics and who who wins what powerless temporal position. Invest your time, energy, and resources in people. Use the hurt and the suffering around us for what it was intended for: to make us stronger, more loving, more alive, more like Jesus who will reign forever and ever. This is our calling and in this we have so far fallen far short of where He has created us to be. It isn't about Hell, its about a soul made alive and what that means for now and for eternity.

Miracles Come in Many Forms

2011-01-31T17:42:00.000+05:00

Last week Eormer, the local house church leader who drives for our humanitarian aid agency came in with a good story. So for your edification, here it is told in his words. Of course, his words are actually in the language of Gondor but I will go ahead and translate.

"Strider, as you know my family is from the village of Pelegir way down south on the border with Mordor. I have one aunt, a niece, and one uncle who have become believers in that village but they have been really persecuted by our family and neighbors there. In December I made a trip down to Pelegir with my wife and we had a good meeting with them. While we were there in the room with all the relatives around my aunt who is a believer complained how her husband has been gone to the north to work for many years and she has not seen him nor any money in a long long time. I told her to stop crying and that if she needed anything then what she must do is to ask Jesus for it. So, I prayed for her in front of everyone that her husband would return. I prayed in Jesus name. Many people there laughed and made jokes. No one believed praying would bring this man back who had been gone for so many years.

The next week the woman's husband returned. Not only did he come back but while he was up north he had become a follower of Jesus! So, two weeks ago another of my aunts came up and stayed with me several days. She is the one who persecuted the believers the most. She was always very condemning and never wanted to hear about the truth. Friday night a week ago we had a meeting at my house and she listened to all of it. She had many questions after the meeting and late that night she accepted Jesus as her Lord.

I called her yesterday and she told me that she had been very mean to her daughter in law. She went to her daughter in law and asked her for forgiveness. I asked her what about Jesus, who is he? She told me that Jesus is her God. I would not believe her for her words but because she asked forgiveness of her daughter in law we know that she is a true follow of Jesus."

Amen and Amen.

5x5x5 IMB Strategy Goals for 2011

2011-01-27T21:31:00.000+05:00

As I set my goals for 2011 I am keeping the 5x5x5 principle in mind for the work that God has called our team to here in Middle Earth. The three fives stand for the following: We are to be praying for

5 lost people

5 national believers

5 unengaged unreached people groups

The first 5 is an obvious one. We should be praying for the lost and striving to find ways to engaged them with the Gospel. I have been praying for ‘my 5′ for several years now. The number 5 is a bit artificial but it is a good number to shoot for. Obviously, we want to see many more than just five people come to faith this year, but these five are the guys that I am close to and have regular opportunities to share with.

The second 5 is one that I am most passionate about. We are to be praying for five fruitful believers. These are men and women who have ministries that are bearing fruit in their community. I am firmly convinced that this is an area we all need to do better in. Every time a team member comes to me with a job request my first response is, ‘Is there anyway that this position could be taken by a trained national?’ I believe that my main job is to empower nationals to do the work that God has called them to so that their people will be reached with the Gospel. I have said it before and I will say it again, I love John 4:1-2 where it says that Jesus was baptizing people by the Jordan but in verse two it says, ‘although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples.’ That is so fantastic! This was the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry and his disciples knew next to nothing but Jesus began his training of them by having them ‘do’ ministry. This concept has had a huge impact on my ministry. I remember when I was a pastor back in the West that a young man came to me for help. He had a porn addiction problem and he wanted free of it. I counseled with him a little and prayed with him and told him I would see him on Wednesday night. He thanked me and said, ‘ok, but what I really needed from you was something to do at 2:30 in the afternoon when I get off work!’ I am sure he never got free when I was there. I hope he found someone who knew better later. If I had it to do again…. man, don’t we say that too often! I would have grabbed that guy and taken him visiting in hospitals and nursing homes and found ministry for him to do to fill up those few empty hours between the time when he got off work and his wife came home. Now, I know better. I pray for my 5 and I empower them to do the ministry God has called them to. I make sure they get to the people they are supposed to reach and I make sure they know what they are supposed to do when they get there. It is hands down the funnest and most rewarding part of my job.

It sounds kinda funny to say but I am equally excited about finding and engaging unengaged unreached people groups (UUPGs is the new term in missiology). If that phrase is new to you what it means is a people group who are not only ‘unreached’( there are thousands of these) but an unreached people for whom there is no one even making plans to reach. It is one thing to be lost, it is another thing for no one to be looking for you! And you and I both know that the Good Shepherd is looking for them so we must be about his business. So I am praying for the five largest UUPGs in Middle Earth and guess what? Already we have the possibility of engaging one this year. I will be hosting a volunteer team of nationals from a country to the north of us to go and see about reaching one of these groups where there are no churches and no known believers. We also have a new long term person who has come to reach a small UUPG in the mountains above our city here in Gondor. Two down maybe but still way too many to go. God is on the move though and we are striving to keep up with him here in Middle Earth.

There are truckloads of issues in the IMB today. We still don’t have a president. We have an administrative reorganization that has been an unmitigated disaster. We are way short of funds still even though we have cut personnel by the hundreds from the totals two years ago. But I am not going to focus on any of that. It’s not my job. The thing that God has called me to are the things I just outlined and I am sticking with that. What about you? What are you focusing on as you go into 2011?

What is Offensive- a repost from SBCImpact Blog

2011-01-14T13:13:00.000+05:00

Last week Tucker Carlson over at Fox News did what guys in his business are supposed to do, he said something controversial in a controversial way. It made some headlines and even caught my attention way out here in Middle Earth. In discussing the Eagle’s quarterback Michael Vick, Carlson said that Vick should have been executed for torturing and killing dogs. Vick famously went to prison several years ago for cruelty to animals ending, it seemed then, a promising career as an NFL football player. After prison though, the Eagles signed him up giving him a second chance. President Obama made mention of his approval of giving Vick a second chance and this led to Carlson’s comment. What interests me is Carlson’s preface to his comment. He said, ‘Now, I am a Christian, I have made mistakes myself. I believe fervently in second chances, but…’ And that is of concern to me. He doesn’t just believe Vick should have gotten a harsher sentence, (yes, I understand that the ‘execution’ rhetoric was probably (hopefully?) hyperbole) he believes that Vick should not have been given a second chance. Well, he is entitled to his opinion but is he entitled to claim his opinion is grounded in Christian teaching?

We talk about the ‘offense’ of the Gospel. We usually use this term when discussing why we need to speak out against homosexuals or drinking alcohol. As I look through the Word of God and study the life of Jesus ‘offense’ looks a little different to me. It seems that Jesus offended a lot people and almost always for the same reason: forgiveness. The Pharisees were mad at him for forgiving the sins of the paralyzed man. They were mad that he fellowshipped with sinners, that he ate with them, talked with them, and even seemed to like them. They were mad that he healed people on the Sabbath. It seemed there was no good deed or loving act that they couldn’t criticize. It was as if he knew what would really push their buttons. He talked to women, and not just any women, he went to Samaria and spoke words of comfort and hope to THOSE people.

The picture of Jesus that I keep in my head, the one that defines him for me personally is the story of the woman caught in adultery. In John 8 the religious leaders bring a woman caught in adultery before Jesus and ask him what they should do. The religious leaders believe that if he sides with the law and condemns her to stoning then the crowds will leave him because his message will not be new or hopeful. If he lets her off free then he would not be respecting God’s law and that would make him no true prophet. But you know what happened. He proclaimed that the one without sin should cast the first stone. At this point in the story I am waiting. Will he not pick up a brick, declare to all what they already know, that he is sinless and bash her in the head? No, he doesn’t. I do that, you do it too, but Jesus didn’t and still doesn’t. The woman is guilty. The laws were written for a reason and a purpose. They can not be ignored because we don’t like them or popular culture decides they no longer apply and yet, Jesus forgave this woman and let her go. This is why I love him and this is why the religious leaders of the day killed him. Not because he stood up for the law, for what was ‘right’, for morality, or anything else; he was killed because he forgave sinners. And this is so cool because it was his sacrificial death that enabled him to forgive sinners!

We are the older brother if we like it or not. We, as Southern Baptist Church members have grown up in our Father’s house and have done our duty. We go to the meetings, we pay the tithes, we do the work and we have watched in eager anticipation for the day when our younger brothers get what is coming to them. The drug addicts, the prostitutes, the crooks, the homosexuals, the guys who sleep in on Sunday morning, the divorced, the Democrats and anyone who voted for the Health Care Bill, those Church of Christ people, the evil, the lawless, the lawyers, and even those guys who believe the earth is getting warmer are all around us and we have been waiting for the fire to come down on their heads. Now, I am a Christian, I have made mistakes myself. I believe fervently in second chances, but… Jesse Jackson? Anyone in Hollywood? Most people in New Hampshire? Surely not these Lord! It couldn’t possibly be politically correct to kill a fatted calf for Michael Vick, right?

I was in a local friend’s house for New Year’s Eve. They have a son who is becoming increasingly Muslim fundamentalist in his outlook and belief. He usually wont come in and sit with us because we are kofirs (unbelievers). But Friday night he came in and sat across from me. After a while he began talking about religion. He said that there were not even 100 good Muslims in this Country, they all fell short of the law. They didn’t read and obey the law as they should and now they are building a large new mosque here in Gondor. He said, ‘Strider, we have satellites and compasses and all kinds of science to tell us exactly which direction Mecca is in but do you know what they are doing? They are building the Mosque to face directly West so the walls line up North, South, East, and West. When we pray we will be facing straight at Rome!’ I laughed out loud but he responded that this was ‘NOT FUNNY’. I disagree. It is hilarious and in the end it always is. Legalists can never satisfy the law no matter how hard they try. I told him that Jesus died to save us from our sins and that our works were useless. He was angry with me. ‘Jesus could not have died’, he said, the Koran says he didn’t die. Our only hope is in obeying the law. I told him that was no hope at all. Our only hope is to trust that the Jesus who forgave that woman, the Jesus who rescued the thief on the cross, the Jesus who loved little helpless children still loves and forgives today. I love my friend. I love him so much that I was willing to offend him by proclaiming a God who loves and forgives. Go out today and offend someone- it’s fun and it’s the Christian thing to do.

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T16:37:00.000+05:00

May God richly bless each and every one of you in the coming year. I am praying that 2011 will be a year of harvest where God's glory will be revealed to many and His Kingdom will a blessing to the whole earth.

Each of you who have persevered in coming back to this blog have been a blessing to me. Thank you and may God pour out his grace and mercy on each of you.

Merry Christmas from Middle Earth

2010-12-23T21:51:00.000+05:00

We have some great Christmas traditions out here in Middle Earth. No, not in this Muslim culture but at our house. One of my favorites is the Carol Sing. Every year we stuff as many homesick expatriots into our house as we can and sing Christmas Carols for four hours or so. It always starts with my wife at the piano and us all singing hymns out of the Hymnal and slowly degenerates to the Karaoke where we go from Winter Wonderland to the inevitable Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer. Last night we had over fifty people in our living room at one point and a great time was had by all. We had truckloads of fancy sweets and cookies. The highlight of the evening is usually my daughter Goldberry and I singing O Holy Night but last night we also sang the much lesser known One Small Child which was beautiful not least because Goldberry coming home from University was unexpected and a great joy in its own right. Just so you know I do sing Rudolf the Rednose Reindeer with a red flashlight on my nose every year and last night was no exception. When I think of Christmas I think of my Lord and how His coming has made our remarkable community possible. I love our community. They are special, extremely cool, dedicated people who love the Lord and are committed to bringing hope to a very dark and desperate place in this world. We sing and laugh and hug each other and part knowing that though we will each face remarkable trials we will each be there for the other over the coming year. On Saturday several of the families will gather again at our house where I will have a Turkey and some of my homemade stuffing. A good friend of mine is coming up with a ham! It will be a great day full of love and good friends and family. This is Christmas to me.

This morning my daughter Goldberry got up early and went out with a local fellowship. When she came back she walked in the door and fell into my arms and sobbed and cried uncontrollably for nearly ten minutes. I wondered if something terrible had happened but between sobs I understood that they had been to the local orphanage for handicapped children. Whatever you are thinking about how bad it could be there you are wrong. It is much worse. These children are not just blind, or have Downs syndrome, or are crippled. They each have several of these issues to deal with and are living in one of the poorest institutions in one of the poorest Countries in the world. Goldberry went with a local church group that gave gifts and sang songs. They even did a short play on the Good Samaritan. My daughter spent most of her time holding a two year old boy who had no eyes and clubbed feet. She told me about the young autistic boy with boundless energy who exasperated his caregivers by continually bolting for the door. She told me about the little boy who sang songs about everything all the time and in spite of having empty sockets where eyes should be he was continually happy. She told me about the little girl who danced in circles with joy for their coming though she couldn't use her hands and her cleft palate made speech difficult.

Christmas is a reminder to me of the community that Jesus came to establish but it is also a reminder to me of the war He came to declare. Jesus coming to the world was a declaration of war on the evil forces mankind has unleashed on itself. The forces of Hell are trying to mar dehumanize the image bearers of God and Jesus has come to declare that our enemy's power is broken. We declare this with every song of hope and joy that we sing, with every love-soaked hug that we give, with every generous act of compassion we share. The Christ is born in a humble manger as a poor baby in a small insignificant place for a reason. He is the way. Our way is not with the politically powerful, nor with the wealthy, nor with the cunning. Our way lies with the meek, clothed in forgiveness, full of grace and peace. When we live this way we bring His Kingdom and in the wake of His Kingdom injustice fails, falsehood is overthrown, and poor blind children are held and loved forever.

Fredegar's Miracle

2010-12-09T12:34:00.000+05:00

My friend Fredegar the lawyer had an opportunity to go down to Mordor. He saw a local believer there and got to encourage him as he faced imprisonment and trial for his faith in Jesus. They may yet execute him but time will tell. It was really great that Fregegar got to see him and encourage him two days before he had to face a council of Islamic leaders who demanded that he return to Islam. He stood strong in his faith and testified to the love and grace of God through Jesus. I am not sure he would have had the courage had he continued to believe he was abandoned and alone.

Fredegar came back last Saturday and arrived in the middle of the night. He jumped in a taxi and went home. Upon arriving home he got out and the car drove off will his bags! It was dark and he couldn't see the license plate number and he assumed that his computer and all his documents were lost forever. The next night a guy called him and offered to sell him his computer for $3000. Fredegar laughed at him and he came down to $2000. Fredegar told him that he could buy two new computers for that price and the guy hung up. The next day a guy called and said if he would meet him at midnight at a remote park he would give him his documents back. Fredegar is not a complete fool and told him he should call him tomorrow during the day. The guy didn't call. We were in a team meeting hearing about all these events and praying for Fredegar when he got a call from a local pastor. He took the call and went at once to the church. Some ladies had found a bag at the park and found the documents in it and realized that they were very important. They took the bag to the US Embassy but since Fredegar is not an American they took no interest. They searched through the bag and found one receipt in the local language. It happened to be a receipt from the local church for some materials Fredegar had purchased some time before. Fredegar doesn't even go to that church regularly! So, the ladies took the bag to the church and now Fredegar has his passport and other important lawyer type documents. For you it may be another lawyer story but for Fredegar it is surely a Christmas miracle.

Dazed and Confused: Women in Ministry part next

2010-12-02T12:59:00.000+05:00

In my last post I gave a long introduction to what I am writing about and now in this post I want to get some scriptures written down and evaluated. My intention is not a full exegesis but a list of scriptures with the questions I have about them.

In the beginning God... yes, let's start in the beginning. We note that God made man and woman in His image. In chapter two of Genesis we have a cool story about Adam going to sleep and God creating woman from his side. Some make a big deal of this story concerning the roles of men and women. I don't see any roles at all. Woman is a helper to man. Well, yeah but don't we all want to be helpful. As we look at what it means to be meek and to submit to others is this not the basis for all loving relationships? In my mind there are two ways to relate to people: We can love them by considering them better than ourselves (Philipians 2) or we can use them and manipulate them for our own ends(Jesus' definition of worldly leaders). The word 'helper' gets a bad rap if we think of helper in the sense of our maid or some kind of worldly definition of a servant. Isn't that what Jesus came to turn up on its head? Isn't the Holy Spirit the one who comes alongside and comforts us, helps us, guides us, encourages us? I see this original relationship as something intimate but when some people then conclude, "And that is why a woman can't be a pastor" I can't see it. Eve was not a position she was a person. She lived and loved and served and I am not willing to shackle today's women based on this story. I don't think that Genesis 2 can be used to address this issue without us losing the meaning that it was intended to have.

But what about the curse in Genesis 3? I have heard lots of teachings on these verses that basically say that the curse says that the 'woman's desire shall be for her husband and he shall rule over her.' There you have it straight out. Men are to rule their wives. But I have a couple of questions here. One, if the curse in chapter three is that women are to be ruled by the men then doesn't that presume that that was not the case before the fall? So, if the work of Christ is to undo the the work of sin- and the curse- then would that not mean that in the New Covenant that men should most certainly not rule over their wives? And secondly, why is it that some teach that women have to respect the curse in verse 16 but in verse 17 and 18 no one teaches that we should not use fertilizers and pesticides to make farming easier? If the curse is what God wants for us why do women have to submit to it but men are encouraged to fight against it? The more I think this through the less I am convinced that it was God's original plan for man to rule over women much less His plan for now.

Regardless of what we think God's original plan was or the intentions of the curse men most certainly did rule over the women after this. Patriarchy defines family life in the Old Testament. We know about Noah and we know he had a wife but we don't know her name. We know that Abraham had a wife and we know her name but it was most certainly through his son Isaac that the line of promise is passed. I say this because if you read through Genesis you see the story of the Patriarchs. But if you look to the genealogy of Jesus you see several- not just one or two- women mentioned. Apparently, in spite of the whole 'Patriarchy is the fabric of society' thing women have a huge role in salvation history. In fact, we know there were something like 613 laws in the Old Covenant. That's a lot of legislation. While many of them are particular to men or women none of them delineate specific roles for them except for the priest. Priest were a special class who could approach God in the Temple in a way no one else could. We don't know why women were excluded- there are no verses I know that explain God's reasoning for this and Him being God I don't demand that He explain everything- but women were not allowed to be priest. That is a specific role difference. Deborah was a Judge though, and a good one. There were also a couple of queens who were not so good. So, apparently the role deal did not extend past the priesthood. Women did exercise positional authority over men in the Old Testament and there was no rule against this. A lot of people disagree with this conclusion but I don't know what else to do. There is no law forbidding a woman to rule in the Old Testament and Deborah did. I have heard some complementarians complain and say, 'I am tired of hearing about Deborah' but that does not seem to be either an argument nor an explanation.

Moving to the New Testament there are several must see passages on this issue. Since I myself am a very practical guy there is no argument stronger for limiting women's roles than the fact that Jesus called twelve men to be his main disciples. That he had women ministering with him in so many other ways only emphasizes the fact that women somehow 'couldn't' be among the Twelve. Jesus teaches women, gives them opportunities to serve, he honors them, he protects them, and I think most significantly he appears first to a woman after his resurrection. I have heard some extreme complementarians argue that a woman can not preach and certainly should not teach a man but Jesus encouraged both. If good preaching is to proclaim the resurrection then according to scriptures a woman did it first and she proclaimed it to men. Mary was the first apostle and she was sent to the Apostles!

Paul dealt with the Church as it was being established. Jesus replaces the 613 laws with one law, the law of love. Paul then has to explain to the young believers how to understand that one law. I see in Paul's writings a desire for two things. One, he is calling the church to love God and each other well and two, and he spends a lot of time here, he wants everything we do to advance the Kingdom. Paul is very big on Christian liberty and he never wants believers shackled to a set of rules but he also exhorts us to never use our liberty in a way that will hinder the spread of the Gospel. As we look through the things Paul says to the Church it is important to keep these two types of teachings separate. One, declares how we should love and is eternal. The other declares how we should behave honorably in society and is contingent on culture. To wit, sexual immorality is always wrong because it abuses yourself and others in unloving ways. But wearing a headscarf may or may not be the best way for a person to demonstrate that they are respectable. The first is always true, the second depends on the culture. When we confuse these two we end up either acting selfishly or ridiculously and neither gives glory to God.

And so we come to the first of the difficult passages 1 Corinthians 11:2-16. If anyone can make sense of these verses be my guest. It starts out by Paul commending the Corinthian church for doing something right. They remembered the teachings and traditions he gave them. He then says that the head of every man is Christ, the head of every woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. If this verse were by itself or even if we skip to verse 11 where he makes clear that men and women are not independent we would not have much of an issue. We are interdependent as designed by God. We are to submit to one another. The man is the head, fine but what on earth is he talking about in the intermediate verses? He says that a man must not pray or prophesy with his head covered but in Jewish tradition they DID cover their heads. He says that a woman must cover her head because of.... angels? Or does he mean 'messengers' there? And what do you mean it is shameful for a man to have long hair? How does 'nature' teach us this and have you ever seen a picture of Jesus without long hair? Well, I am not writing a commentary and I don't have to answer all these questions. What I can say is that the husband is the head of the wife. They say that here in the culture I work in too. They say the husband is the head and the wife is the neck and she turns him where she wants. But all that aside what I don't see is men/women roles in Church. If the husband is the head of the wife does that mean she can not perform some roles or exercise some gifts? I don't see that it does. So, while I am a bit confused by this passage I am not going to let it push me to demand that women do or do not do anything. As a man my responsibility to my wife is to be the head. For me, taken in the context of Jesus teaching on leadership and authority I must serve my wife. I must disciple my wife and help her to become what Jesus is making her to become. She serves me as well. We function together. I see this but I don't automatically toss out Jesus teaching on servant leadership and start talking about that woman doing what I say. I certainly don't start making illogical connections of, 'If the husband is the head then the woman can't be a pastor because she would then have authority over a man.' What? But bear with me as we move on to 1 Corinthians 14 and then to Timothy.

1 Corinthians 14 bothered me for a long time. Verse 4 says that the one who prophesies builds up the church. We know that Philip had four daughters who were prophetesses. We think of Anna who prophesied over the young Jesus in the temple. We all know women who speak the truth of God well. Paul goes on in verse 26 saying let each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation... Paul is encouraging everyone to participate orderly. But in verse 34 Paul demands that all the women keep silent in the churches for they are not permitted to speak. Now I know that most have ignored this verse not knowing what to make of it and that bothers me. I don't want to throw out a command just because I don't understand it. Some have interpreted this to mean that when the church meets in the big church building on Sunday morning that the women can't speak in the service. That is an anachronism. When Paul wrote this he was writing to small groups of people who were meeting regularly- not just Sundays- in their own homes. In fact, one of the groups met in Chloe's home. Paul even intimates that Chloe was the leader of that group as he refers to 'Chloe's people'. Do you think Paul was saying Chloe could not speak in her own home, with her own friends? I was confused about this for a long time. Then someone pointed something out that should have been obvious. He says that the women should be silent 'as the Law also says'. Where does it say that? Is there one verse in the Old Testament that says that women should be silent? In all 613 different laws that one is not there. So, what is he talking about. He is talking about the oral law that Jesus got after the Pharisees about. It was the highly abusive over the top oral law that Jesus condemned that Paul is quoting. So, is Paul forbidding women to speak or is he quoting his opponents here? If he is quoting his opponents then the verses following demanding that people not be contentious and forbidding people to make up their own rules certainly take on a different meaning! To be honest though, it does not seem very obvious from our English translation that he is now quoting his opponents. For me, the fact that he is quoting the oral law is enough to prove that 'women keeping silent' was not Paul's desire but I would not feel I had a very strong argument in insisting that you see it that way. We need more verses and more clarity.

1 Timothy 2. Verse 8 asks men to pray lifting holy hands- yeah, most of us don't but ok. Verse 9 women shouldn't 'adorn' themselves with fancy clothes but be dressed modestly and with 'good works'. Ok, I am cool with that. Verse 11, 'Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.' That sounds good to me. I think we should ALL learn quietly in all submissiveness. Again, remember the context of house church that they were living in. Remember Mary and Martha? Martha was running around serving and while Mary was doing what? Sitting quietly and submissively. In our big western churches we have everything under control and this command is well enforced. We all sit in pews, in rows, facing forward and we know to sit still and listen respectfully. In the house church we do things a little differently. Everyone is sitting on the floor in a circle and the host is very busy hosting. Remember Chloe? I guarantee you she was serving tea more than once when she should have been listening. Submissively? Oh man, you get a bunch of people on the floor in a circle and you get to talking and order can go out the window in a hurry. I have no problem with the proper application of these verses. I am telling you that in context these were necessary instructions. The men should pray, the women should dress modestly (and not to impress others), and the women should sit quietly and listen to what was being taught submissively. Yep, it is all clear and easily understandable and applicable in the house church context. But he doesn't stop there. Verse 12 says, 'I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.' This verse- in context with the following verses that make clear Paul is speaking of a universal principle based on Adam and Eve- is the biggest headache to both egalitarians and complementarians. How on earth are we to understand this? Some complementarians say simplistic things like 'just believe it'. Believe what? Women teach all the time. My mom taught me tons. Let me remind you again that in our proper western big church meeting on Sunday morning in the big building we have fooled ourselves into thinking that the application of this verse is simply not to let a woman speak from the pulpit but this verse says nothing about that because pulpits did not exist then. Paul was speaking to small groups of people who called themselves the Church. Church was not a meeting or a building. It was the people gathered together. Women shouldn't teach? How could they not? But maybe we should put teaching into the context of the verse and say they should not teach and have authority. That is usually where this discussion goes. The issue is not so much that a woman can't teach- tell what they have learned about God- but that they can't be in authority. The word used for authority here is an ugly manipulative word for authority by the way. One of my issues when this is discussed is that by the time Pastor so-and-so is finished explaining why a woman should not have authority over a man I don't want him to have authority either. I looked up authority on Wikipedia and it confirmed my culturally conditioned reservations:

Essentially authority is imposed by superiors upon inferiors either by force of arms (structural authority) or by force of argument (sapiential authority). Usually authority has components of both compulsion and persuasion. For this reason, as used in Roman law, authority is differentiated potestas legal or military power and imperium persuasive political rank or standing.

So, you can see from Wikipedia that really no one, much less women, should have this kind of authority over another. We have leaders- those who have influence- and we have those who are responsible- those whom God has gifted and is holding accountable for the usage of those gifts- but authority belongs to God alone. For me this is the heart of the whole discussion. Who is in charge? It seems that too many read the scriptures decide what they mean and then take over and manipulate everyone else to do what they think should be done. A lot of violence has been done to women in this regard. Woman whom Jesus freed and gifted to serve get told what to do by authoritarian men. As a former pastor myself I both understand this and abhor it. The pastoral gift was meant to empower people to find the power of God in their lives and unleash it to serve in their communities. Too many pastors have behaved as if the authority was theirs. They have decided what a person can do and limited that person to doing what was in the pastor's plans and not what was in God's design. This is all just a theoretical debate until a woman comes along and seeks counsel. When a real person seeking God's will comes along and the church says, 'No, you can't be a pastor. You are mistaken in what God has gifted you to do.' This now is dangerous ground. Do you really have the authority to say this. No, you don't. You have no authority at all. God's Word is our authority and I am a long way from a definitive answer on this.

The problem lies in our application as I have said. If we interpret these verses to mean that a woman should never teach then why did Paul work with women who taught. Lydia, Pheobe, Priscilla, the list goes on and on. Paul had multitudes of co-laborers who were women as did Jesus. So, can a woman be a chaplain? We used to say yes, now Southern Baptists are saying no. Why or why not? If we interpret this too strictly then we can't even have women teaching boys in Sunday School. The glaring inconsistencies are ridiculous. I mean, if Jesus teaches that the greatest among us are to be the servants and that is how to become the greatest leader then surely the pastors in our churches should be kicking the women out of the fellowship halls and doing the dishes themselves. But that doesn't happen. It doesn't happen because we don't really believe this. We understand that servanthood is much more than doing the dishes and we understand that teaching is much more than delivering a 30 minute speech on Sunday morning.

At the end of the day we must be much more discerning when it comes to these issues. We need to stop making decisions based on protecting our positions of power and really try to understand what God is doing in the life of that person who is seeking our advice. We need to stop making blanket statements about what women can't do and prayerfully empower them to do that which God is calling them to.

At this point you might be saying, 'Hey Strider, are you not an IMB missionary and should you not be acting in accordance with the BFM 2000? Well, actually I do. The BFM says that the office of pastor is limited to men. So far in the ministry that God has blessed me with God has only brought along men who were pastors. In the first church we planted it had a woman pastor (two co-leaders really) for a while but only because they were all women! Once a discipled man showed up they encouraged him to exercise his obvious pastoral gift. I didn't have to pull out 1 Timothy and beat the women over the head with it. The Holy Spirit gifted a pastor and the Church recognized him.

As far as where I am now on this journey I remain a reluctant complementarian, sort of... depending on the day. I would love to be an egalitarian and just give men and women equal rights and responsibilities. I will say this though. I don't like any of the talk of the current flavor complementarians. They say women are separate but equal. That was said about the blacks in the fifties and it has the same meaning then as now. Separate is not equal. Many conservative Christians are crying foul about this subject. They say that egalitarians are 'liberals' who are caving into 'worldly' ways. Let me just say that that is utter nonsense. In Western society there is an extremely small percentage of battered and abused women who hate men and are very militant about their feminist stance. Numbers-wise this is like .0001 percent of people today. A billion Muslims, 3/4 of a billion hindus, half a billion Budhists, and countless animists, still see men as superior to women. Fear not, my fundamentalist friend your numbers are yet strong. For me, I want to see women empowered to fulfill everything God is calling them to do. They do this best (same as me) when they are encouraged and empowered to believe that with God all things are possible and that the heroes of faith recorded in the Bible, far from being exceptional, are all models that we are called to transcend. God forbid that a Deborah came my way and I discouraged her from pursuing her calling.

Dazed and Confused: What about the Women in Ministry Question?

2010-11-24T16:09:00.000+05:00

I have been wanting to get my thoughts down in writing for some time on this 'women in ministry' issue. This paper will not likely come to very strong conclusions but let's see where writing this down takes us.

First, Some presuppositions need to get stated. I strongly believe that all women who love Jesus should be in ministry. Everyone who has the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in them should be about the work of loving others well. Loving others well is my own definition of ministry. Christian women must be in 'ministry'. Most people don't say it this way and I realize that the way I have said this is not very controversial. There is controversy to come, I promise you. Second, I believe that God's Holy Spirit has protected the Scriptures and they are trustworthy. I may not understand everything the Bible says and Lord knows I disagree with what some people have said the Bible says but I believe that the Bible is inerrant even if, and perhaps especially when we are not. Some people approach the scriptures with a view that says everything I don't agree with must be wrong. I don't think that. I am also not a big fan of assuming we have mistranslated lots of stuff. We may have, but I don't like to fall back on that excuse for our not understanding what God is trying to tell us. If we assume that only people who know the original languages can rightly understand scripture then we set ourselves up for our own enslavement to worldly scholars and we minimize the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

My own journey has been vast in this area of theology. I was baptized in a very conservative Southern Baptist Church. The pastor always wore a tie and we believed lots of things to be true just because we believed them. As a teenager I never questioned that women should never be pastors and I was pretty suspicious as to whether in some circumstances they could be deacons. I had never heard a contrary opinion to this kind of thinking. There were many strong women around me. My mother and my sister are both very strong women. I respect and like strong women but in my early years I accepted without question that women, even strong ones, could never hold any kind of authoritative position in the Church. When I was 18 our youth group visited a church that had an 'Assistant Pastor' who was a woman. I questioned this and our youth group leader suggested that this was a great thing. I was baffled. Someone who I had not only knew but respected thought a woman could hold an authoritative position. Crazy. So, for the first time I began looking to see what the Word actually said. I was immediately impressed by two things. A couple passages of scripture seemed to very clearly say that women could not serve in any capacity in the church and second women in the New Testament clearly did serve in many capacities in the New Testament. Where was the disconnect? At that time I decided to abandon any idea that there were any artificial limits on women in ministry. I believed then that women were full equals and if what is grace and mercy in us is the Holy Spirit then women have as much capacity for ministry as men and therefore as much responsibility to minister as men. I assumed then that the passages that spoke against women ministering- and specifically speaking and teaching- must have a good explanation and I just don't understand them yet. In 1987 I went to Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. I came into contact with big words that tried to describe the positions of those who believed one thing or another. I learned the original languages and I studied the Word a lot. At the end of the day I could not undo the passages of scripture that prohibited women teaching men or holding authoritative positions in the Church. I worked on it, prayed about it and in the end I had to make a decision. Either the Bible was mistaken and women could hold such positions or it was not mistaken and I was. I decided that the Bible was right even if I didn't understand it.

At that point in my journey I was an unhappy complementarian. There are two categories used to describe the positions on this issue; Complementarianism and Egalitarianism. The simple definitions for these terms are:
Complementarianism- God has created male and female with distinct and complementary differences. Since men and women are different they obviously have different roles and ministries within the Church. The most important of these distinctions is that women should submit to their husbands (Ephesians 5) and men are to be leaders and teachers in the Church (1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2, and the fact that all of Jesus' disciples were men).
Egalitarianism- Men and women are created equal and each can do whatever God asks them to do. There are no role or functions that are out of bounds for either to do (Galatians 5 and the many passages that list what women have actually done- like Deborah, Phoebe the deaconess, Philip's four daughters who prophesied, Lydia who helped Paul start the Church in Philippi, Prisca who helped teach Apollos, etc).

It should be duly noted that these two 'camps' are not uniform. There are many different expressions of these two groups. The extreme positions of these two are pretty horrific in my opinion. Radical egalitarians include women who hate men altogether. This radical element takes credit for getting women the right to vote and equal pay for equal work. These are worthy accomplishments but there are lots of women who were not radical feminists who also helped bring these things about. I would like to think there are egalitarians who love Jesus- even though he was a man, love the Word, and don't think all men are oppressive zealots. At the same time there are lots of levels of complementarians. The average Southern Baptist for instance, just believes that men and women are largely equal but that woman can't be pastor's of churches. There are radical complementarians who are pushing this issue much farther. They would like women to submit to men in all things and there is even a growing group promoting 'patriarchy' who believe that men are the rightful leaders in every aspect of society and that a woman's only role is to have babies and cook for their husbands. The 'quiverfull' group is particularly troubling in that they take this idea a step further and contend that since women are 'saved' through childbirth they should have as many children as possible.
What has made the whole discussion all but impossible is that each side attributes to the other all the extreme characteristics and accusations of being either 'women-haters' or 'Bible rejectors' get thrown around until the shouting gets quite overwhelming.

Let me be clear about where I am on this journey. I will not accept a position that indicates that a woman has value based on what she does. She is not more blessed if she has more children. She is not more loved if she pastors a church. She is not of more value to the Kingdom based on her contribution. Neither the woman nor the man is capable of screwing up God's plan for creation, redemption, or eternity. God loves women and men because it is His nature to love. Out of our understanding of His tremendous love for us we are ourselves set free to love. Our position on the position of women must not be based on a woman's value but our understanding of what God in His Word is asking of us.

In my next post I will identify the relevant scriptures and attempt to see what they say on this subject. Which scriptures we choose to evaluate and which we leave out have a big bearing on our conclusions here. Then we need to apply and let me just say it is in the application that both sides run into serious trouble.

Loving Your Enemies

2010-11-16T15:11:00.000+05:00

I didn't have a blog back in the days of the civil war here in Gondor. I didn't even have an internet connection. It is a shame because there were so many great stories that I have lost over the years. Yesterday I was talking to some friends and they reminded me of one of those 'lost' stories.

In 1997 the Government of Gondor signed a peace agreement with the Opposition whom they had fought with for five years. What this meant practically for us was that while previously all the fighting had been up in the mountains now all the factions could come down into the Capitol city and fight every night for a seat at the table of power. It was a very ugly time. Just outside of Minas Tirith there was a small town where three Opposition commanders and their troops settled down. Some friends of mine were living in this town trying to reach people there for Christ. Unknown to them at the time there was one believing family who lived there. They were holding meetings with their neighbors and one night three armed and masked men came into their meeting and said they would come back in one week's time. If any of these people were still here they would kill them. These guys were hard core Islamic Fundamentalists and no one doubted that they would do what they said. One week later the neighbors were gone but the one believing guy stayed there with his family. That night the three masked men came in with guns and told him he was going with them. He called into the next room and told his wife that he was going out with friends and would see her in the morning. The took him out to a trash dump that was a famous place for executions at the time. He knelt down and they told him he had one last chance to pray. He prayed. He prayed for his captors,for their forgiveness and for their salvation. They stopped him and said, 'What are you doing!? You can't pray like that!' He told them that as a follower of Jesus this is how he was taught to pray. They let him go and he went home.

A week later two of the three masked men were back and this time there were thirty men with them. They asked him how he knew what to do and he told them he didn't know what they were talking about. They said that a few days ago the Government forces had them pinned down against the river. They were sheltering behind a low wall and it was raining bullets down on them. They were being taken out one by one and knew they were finished. Then they saw the believing man walk right through the hail of bullets and up to the wall. He told them that the only way to be saved was to jump in the river. Two of them jumped and the rest perished. For the record, the river really rages through that point and I am sure I would not want to jump into it anytime much less at night.

The believer told them that he was not there but clearly an angel of God was. They asked him to share about God and he told them the Gospel. As far as we know just one man made a commitment to Jesus that night. Where the others are I have never heard. But I have two things to say about this story. One, it is interesting that God sent an angel in the likeness of this believing man. Apparently, he was the only one these guys knew that they could trust. So, praise God for his godly character and we must pray that we would face adversity with grace as well so the next time the Lord wants to use someone as an example of love He has someone to show them. Second, it never ceases to amaze me what God will do in order to reach us. Of course, it similarly amazes me what God must do in order to reach us. I mean, come on all that pain and death and sorrow just for one guy? And what was keeping the others bound? Strong delusion has a grip on the world. Pray it does not have a grip on you so that you will be free to act whenever God calls.

Why You Should Support the IMB

2010-11-13T23:11:00.000+05:00

I posted this the other day over at SBC Impact.

Facebook is a funny thing. Not only do you get to get back in touch with old friends that you had hoped to leave behind but you also get to see the weird conversations they are having with their other old friends. The other day a conversation popped up on my screen from a friend of mine who pastors a church. He is also a trustee for our International Mission Board and had requested prayer for the meeting he was about to go to. One guy (obviously not a Christian) commented that the very idea of a ‘mission’ agency was deceptive and evil and we should ‘help’ ‘those’ people instead of cramming religion down their throats. Ok, well I expect this from those outside the Kingdom. But then a person who was apparently a church member commented that we should not spend any money overseas and that all of our money should be spent right here on the poor at ‘home’. Wow. I forget the battles you guys face at home. I am sorry that I forget and so, to make amends I am posting the ammunition you need to face such battles as these as we approach our Lottie Moon Christmas Offering- or is that the Lottie Moon ‘Holiday’ Offering? I am so behind the times.

First of all, let me say that your response to non-Christian guy should be the Gospel. In the context of what he was saying about being ‘deceptive’ and ‘cramming’ religion down other people’s throats I plead not guilty. I understand where he is coming from and I know the guys he is talking about but we is not them. Back in the early 1990′s we escalated greatly the accessing of what was called ‘closed’ countries. I know facts and figures are boring but to be blunt we used to work in around 90 countries and now we work in them all. No, I am not speaking in hyperbole. We are now accessing all the countries of the world with the Gospel in one way or another. Your money is paying for some pretty darn creative, brave, and obedient people to get the Gospel everywhere the Lord has commanded us to go- which is everywhere. We have done this in many ways. One way has been to do what I do; set up a humanitarian aid agency in order to get a visa. Fifteen years ago that sometimes meant that guys would go out, say they were helping poor people and then just pass out tracts. Some of us (me included) thought that was deceptive and wrong. Today the situation is very different. Many of you are thinking that perhaps if you fund a secular agency, or a christian agency that just focuses on relief and not church planting then your money will be more effective in relieving poverty. You would be wrong.

Major concept to get your head around: People are not poor because they don’t have money. People are poor because they have broken relationships and people have broken relationships because they have a broken relationship with God. (That is a slight paraphrase from Brent Meyers’ excellent book, ‘Walking with the Poor’). For 15 years I have been learning about indigenous church planting, avoiding dependency issues, being culturally appropriate and relevant, doing things in a reproducible way, letting the locals have ownership, etc etc. A couple of years ago I went to a big humanitarian aid meeting sponsored by the UN. All these secular guys got together and started talking about all the same concepts for their humanitarian work. The upshot of the downside was that they all agreed these concepts were essential but they couldn’t implement half of them. Why? Because they have to impress the donors. Look guys, you don’t hear alot from me about all the great work that I have done and now the funds for my work are drying up. I am sorry for the lack of communication here but it is essential. I can’t take credit for the work I do because we are giving the credit to everyone else. So here is the deal for Mister Athiest who thinks we should be doing good. We are. People are being fed, getting fresh drinking water and even getting housing. I have built seven villages since I have been out here- except, I haven’t. They built their own villages and even provided much of the materials. I taught them to work together, to trust each other. I gave them a few things they didn’t have but mostly they did it themselves and I am proud of that. They didn’t need money as much as they needed forgiveness and a right understanding of who God is. The Gospel makes all the difference.

Secondly, for Mister Atheist who thinks we shouldn’t be shoving religion down people’s throats, tell him I agree. I have no interest in going to a Muslim people and telling them that my set of rules is better than their set of rules. I never criticize Mohamed or Islam. There is no point and no need. The people we work with are fed up with the status quo which keeps them in bondage and brokenness and are looking for something else. They are excited to find out that God is not some powerful vindictive spirit who is out to get them. We present Jesus and that is always received well even by those who do not ultimately accept Christ. Persecution comes and it is vicious. It comes to the new believers who are persecuted by a community that does not understand. I have more to say on this but that is for another post.

Now, for Miss Shouldn’t We Just Stay Here I have this to say. No we should not. First of all, and most of you reading this blog are up on this, Christ commanded us to go so, we should go. End of story. But more than that can you not see how inconsistent that is? Most of our Church members are Republicans who think that our going to Iraq was a great thing. They think that going out and interacting with the world directly benefits us at home. Well? Does it not make sense then to send me? Who is more effective at changing society and relieving poverty the Gospel or a gun? All right, I had better answer the question because in recent years some of you have gotten confused. The Gospel! I have a friend who when he speaks at churches back home apologizes to our military for them having to shed their blood in Afghanistan and Iraq because we were too lazy to go there fifty years ago. I have not decided if he is right but he goes on to point out that all of our places of greatest conflict today are places we have failed to take the Gospel. He says we should have gone fifty years ago and lost a couple hundred martyrs so that today thousands would not be dying. Again, I don’t know if I agree completely or not but you see his point.

Secondly, for Miss Shouldn’t We Just Stay Here we also need to address her further concerns- and these many of you might also have. Are we not wasting our time? The Muslims are hard soil, should we not put our resources into the harvest fields and wait till later for these difficult places? We need so much here at home should we not spend more at home and get ‘over there’ later when we have more? I consider these questions a slap in the face to the Spirit of God. God is not poor. His resources are not limited and neither are ours. I know, I can hear you “But, But but, but, but…’ But nothing. Is the soil hard? Yes it is. It has hurt my family for us to stay here for 15 years and the vast majority don’t last nearly that long. Is hard soil of any consequence to Almighty God? Not one bit.

When we first came out we had to learn about security. We had to learn that there were groups, organizations, and whole countries who wanted to stop what we were doing so we had to be secretive. Our media folks back at the home office threw a fit. How could we not tell the most exciting story to happen in the last 2000 years of mission work? Well, we haven’t. Even I don’t know everything that has happened over the last 20 years. I have thought long and hard about just telling you what I know and name the countries and all in this post but I can’t do it. As far as you are concerned I am Strider in Middle Earth and it has to stay that way. So, let me be as general as I can and still be helpful. Here where I live there were two known Muslim Backround Believers (MBB’s). We use MBB’s to differentiate majority population people from the local minority traditional Christians that you find so many places. For instance, the Coptic Church is there in Egypt and Ethiopia and such places but when we are looking to reach Egyptians and Ethiopians with the Gospel we are trying to do something new and we use MBB to differentiate this new work from those Churches that have been there for centuries. So, as I was saying there were two known MBB’s in Gondor in 1990. By the year 2000 there were over 2500. In a couple of Countries to the north of me they went from two to over 12,000 and two to 30,000. Rohan, a brutal Christian persecuting dictatorship next to me has seen the church go from zero to untold thousands. But this is not the whole story- not even a small part of the story. I wish we would stop counting baptisms and count numbers of alcoholics who have stopped drinking, numbers of wife beaters and child abusers who are now loving fathers and husbands. I wish we could count on our forms the number of fearful and oppressed who now stand up bravely in the face of certain persecution. I wish I could tell you about the martyrs who have given their lives willingly for the cause of Christ. There are many and you don’t know about them. I am truly sorry about that. But the story of what God is doing goes on and on. To the south and east of me are some of the most hostile areas to the Gospel in the world and you know what? Not thousands but millions are coming to faith in Christ. I am just talking about the Muslim world here!

But some of you might say, ‘Hang on Strider we didn’t do all that! There were lots of different agencies involved.’ Yes, but what is your point? Lots of different agencies have not done any of this. God has done it all and what I am telling you is that in every case there has been an IMB worker who has been faithful and has pulled together with lots of people from all over the world. We have been the primary catalyst to see all of this happen and I don’t think you will find many who will disagree with me on this. When you start talking about defunding the IMB and sending your own teams you are- in my opinion- talking about leaving behind the most important organization for unified mission on the planet. I know the word cooperation terrifies some of you but believe me, we have led the way in many places around the world and the Kingdom of God has been greatly expanded by this.

Finally, there is one last criticism to be dealt with. Is not our IMB a huge and expensive organization? Are we not wasting thousands of dollars on this dinosaur? With respect, no. Our recent reorganizion has been an unmitigated disaster. We have 17 vice-presidents. Nuff said. But even with all of that we are more efficient than any agency I know about. The Trustees just voted on next year’s budget, 308 million dollars. If you divide that out by 5000 missionaries on the field (we have more still but by the end of 2011 that is where we are meant to be) that comes to around 62 thousand dollars per missionary. My salary and benefits comes to about 42 thousand dollars. So, that not so much per missionary to cover medical expenses, pay home office salaries and expenses, do actual ministry like print Bibles and such, and a host of travel, not mention the ever increasing platform budgets to pay for humanitarian and business offices all over the world. For all our faults we are doing pretty well.

If you kept reading this far you deserve something special. All I have to offer you is what you should already know. God is on the move in this world. He is opening doors that have been closed for centuries. He is bringing people to faith in places that even if I named them you would not know where they were. I have gone places with nothing but a New Testament where are US Military are not willing to go even with air support and many of my colleagues have gone to really dangerous places and what we find when we get there is that God has already been and is bringing a people to himself. I urge you in the strongest possible terms to be a part of that.

The Story We are Telling

2010-11-08T14:31:00.001+05:00

When I first started this blog in 2006 I was keen to get my stories written down. Tales from Middle Earth was to be a place where anyone could go and find out the story that God was telling in the world around me. I had a lot of romantic notions about that. I thought that my life would be so fascinating that thousands of people would log on every week to find out the amazing things God was doing here in Middle Earth. I told myself that I was being 'brutally honest' because I would share the good and the bad. The great days with the wonderful miracles along with the depressing days and the rotten setbacks. I think I have accomplished much of what I set out to do in that regard (except of course, that about 20 people read this blog instead of thousands but I don't mind).

But the stories are fake in one important aspect. Each blog post comes to an end but real life doesn't. Shoot, even when when one of the subjects in my blogpost dies it is not really the end of their story. Take the young woman who was murdered a few years ago. She sought the truth, we tried to share with her whole family but they wouldn't listen and then one day she was murdered. End of story right? Wrong. She left behind several books that were picked up by a cousin who shared them with an Aunt who sought out Bible study with some others and now there is a small church. The story goes on even when we don't. I remember writing a brutal post about one of this lady's relatives and how he had rejected the Gospel and chose @#!*% . But today he is a follower of Jesus. The story goes on well past the publishing date of my blog post.

This is a really hard thing to live with actually. You see, while we can take comfort in the fact that no defeat is final it also means that no victory is sure. I have written much about Frodo. A man of great faith who led my national team of Church Planters for six years. Frodo was prophetic in his nature, he called others to account and turned many to the Lord. I have seen him stand in the midst of a village that was tearing itself apart in greed, and mistrust, and who knows what all, and call for peace. He got others to work together to accomplish what they never thought they could accomplish. After we showed the Jesus film in a village once he went to do marriage counseling at 12:30 at night. Everyone else was exhausted and surely we had done enough for one day but he kept going and was largely responsible for saving that couple's marriage and possibly the woman's life. He has preached to many, seen many miracles including the raising from the dead of his own Aunt. I would very much like to leave all those stories just as I wrote them. But his story goes on. Early this summer he left his wife for another woman. He lives with this young woman now and his own wife and three children are shattered. I don't understand how that can happen. I don't know where his story is going but it seems a long ways away from 'happily ever after.'

Donald Miller says that a good story is a guy who wants something and has to overcome adversity to get it. In the story we are telling there are guys. There seems to be plenty of adversity. I really believe there is something worth having in Jesus Christ. So, I guess the missing element seems to be the overcoming. I will keep writing stories as they happen but you have to understand that we are a long way away from the end. Before the end a whole lot of overcoming is going to have to happen- and keep happening.

On the Church

2010-11-07T13:31:00.000+05:00

I was invited to speak to a small church yesterday. It was a good day as we spent about 7 hours together discussing all kinds of things. I was supposed to talk about Church Planting and we did some, but much of the day was spent with their questions. They asked about everything from, 'who are those Sons of God things that come and breed with women in Genesis 6?' to 'If a guy becomes a believer but he has several wives what do we do?' It was some good discussion but the best part was definitely in talking about the true nature of the Church. They,like so many here, have been established by foreigners who built a building, registered an organization,and then declared it 'church'. It was great to see their faces light up when they found out that the Church is actually a community of the redeemed, that their love for one another is the very truest praise for our Father, and that Jesus Kingdom is not a meeting or a meeting place but the reign of God in our lives right now. Buildings and meetings are not good or bad, they are irrelevant to the love relationship we are to have with one another. It is remarkable to me how many people there are out here who have come to plant churches but have never really thought through- much less prayed through and did biblical study on- what a church is. Our working definition of a church is as follows:

A Church is a group of baptized believers who meet regularly together, to celebrate the Lord’s Supper and worship together, and are obedient to fulfilling the great commandment and the great commission together.

I like this because it uses the word 'together' several times. The Kingdom is all about relationships. When the lawyer came to Jesus and asked him what the greatest commandment was Jesus could not give just one answer. He told him that the greatest commandment was to love God but then he threw in a second which was to love our neighbor. I am convinced that Jesus gave just one answer. In the heart and mind of God these two things are the same thing. We are to love God and we are to love each other. In God's mind this is one and when we do this well I think we have achieved what He meant us to have all along: Church.

My challenge is to not grow weary of proclaiming this, to never take this for granted, and to be faithful to see churches planted and grow that never forget this.

Under Persecution

2010-10-31T12:29:00.001+05:00

This post was recently put up over at SBCImpact blog.

Tuesday morning I got a phone call asking me to check my e-mail right away and get in touch with the team in Cair Andros. For those of you who don’t know I am the director of a humanitarian aid agency that has four offices in Gondor. Some are IMB personnel and some are seconded from other organizations. The team in Cair Andros is a multi-national team and on Monday night an armed group of men broke into the home of one of the families there and tried to take the Doctor hostage. He refused to go. They beat him and in the end he gave them all of his money before they left. His wife was hooded and threatened with a gun, his money was taken, and he has a really impressive black eye but we praise God that his four young children were asleep and heard none of this. We evacuated the team down to Minas Tirith and they began their debriefing. The five families are pretty shaken up but it was clear that they are determined to return and that they were pretty annoyed that I made them leave in the first place. I have given them some protocols for living in dangerous places where kidnapping is a possibility- something I learned here 14 years ago when Gondor was a much more dangerous place- and two families will go back up tomorrow.

The team has been there for two years and has faced some really intense spiritual warfare. Cair Andros is in fundamentalists territory and the the Enemy does not want to give it up. In the two years the team has been there several have had to leave, there has been sickness, threats, difficulties, and a small church has been started that is beginning to grow. What we need to understand is that persecution has one aim: Persecution’s aim is to stop the proclamation of the Gospel. Our enemy does not want the truth of our Lord’s salvation proclaimed anywhere much less where it has never been proclaimed before. He recruits any who will aid him in his endeavor to silence those whom our Lord has called to proclaim the Truth. When we remain silent we cooperate with the persecutors. When we proclaim the Truth we are His Ambassadors. The Cair Andros team needs some time to regroup, pray, and heal but I am so proud of them in their determination not to let the persecutors win. They are and will continue to be proclaimers of Truth.

I have been asked on occasion if I think that serving where I serve in Middle Earth is harder than those who serve in the West. The short answer is yes. Most of you don’t want to live here or even visit. The economy is non-existent, the standard of living is low, the difficulties in sharing the Word among Muslim people is enormous. But the long answer is no. The truth is as difficult as it is to live here you and I face the same enemy. The battle I fight looks different in content but in reality it is the same battle. And, to be quite honest, persecution in the West is very effective. Would you say that even 10% of Christians in our Churches have shared their faith this week? Very few have had attempted kidnappings, beatings, threats, jeers and yet how many have been silenced? Persecution as it is usually defined in the West is not needed in an environment where 90% of the Body of Christ is silent.

My point here is not to ridicule but to wake up. Many in the West have fallen asleep and the oil is running out. The Bride Groom is coming and time is short. We must wake up and face the challenge in front of us. Most of those around us are going to a Christless Hell forever and we are saying nothing. A small vocal few are railing about homosexuality and abortion and we believe that the world’s opposition of our views on this constitute real persecution- that is neither biblical nor true. If we have biblical positions on social issues that is all well and good but if we are silent about our Lord in what way will He be pleased with us? We are those who proclaim the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. If we are not then our enemy has stolen our identity from us and our prophetic voice is silenced. If this is true then we will be found on the side of the persecutors. We hold our tongues and silence the message that will bring life to the dead and dying.

We must come to grips with the waywardness of the Church. We are consumed with ourselves. It has been said that if we took the entertainment off of our stages then our churches would be empty in two weeks. I pray that is not true. What is true is that 60% of the money of the Church in the West goes towards interests payments on the buildings. Banks are wising up to this and are forcing pastors to get insured because they know if anything happens to the visionary leader who is leading the church into this debt they will likely not be able to pay it off. I recently heard of a pastor who was challenged to go on a mission trip but though he was convicted to go he was unable to because his insurance policy would not allow travel to a dangerous place. It is time to wake up, stop giving the Church’s authority to the persecutors and shout out the message of salvation.

I know that some of you are rightly horrified that our team was attacked in this way. What I want you to see is that a black eye pales in comparison to an eternity in Hell. Too many are weighing the costs of sharing, the costs of missions, the costs of personal evangelism. You may believe that at the Judgment Seat Christ will stand and you will not be judged. This is foolishness and completely unbiblical. You will be judged and if you are silent about Christ now how will He stand and defend you later. Stop siding with the persecutors. There is a team that is going back to Cair Andros. They know what they are going to face and are prepared to face it. Will you go out today and face the persecutors in your life?

The Gospel Unleashed

2010-09-18T17:26:00.000+05:00

I just put this up at SBCImpact blog and thought some of you might like to see it here.

I sat, just a year and a half ago, with some of the most experienced apostles of our age. They had each been used by our Lord to change whole societies, impacted nations, and discipled hundreds who have in turn reached thousands for the Kingdom. I was eager to impress them, to be accepted, even admired by this group of men. I told a story of my going to a remote village, sharing powerful Bible stories, and moving hardened Muslim villagers to tears. I completed my story and took another bite of lunch expecting approving nods. Before the bread had reached my mouth a hand came across the table and slammed down into the middle of it. ‘Where was the Gospel?’ a man catty-corner across the table cried. ‘I didn’t hear the Gospel in that story!’ ‘Um…. what?’ I replied more than a little alarmed. He went on, ‘The Gospel! You want to tell stories to get people ready for the Gospel, to changed them, but ONLY the Gospel can change them. They can not change until you proclaim the Gospel.’

These words have deeply impacted me and the ministry the Lord has given me. We do over $250,000 of aid work each year (thank you to all who give to human needs funds and the Baptist Global Response). We serve others and I would dare even to say we love others well. But we accomplish nothing until we get to the truth of the Gospel. There is nothing more important. Yet, as I look around at our ministry and so many others like me I see us stopping short again and again. We seem to have so many messages to give. It seems that we have so much truth to share but when it comes to sharing the Gospel itself talking about it doesn’t come naturally. Just yesterday I lamented to a friend that sharing the Gospel would never be a natural thing since it is in fact a supernatural act!

But yesterday put action to my words here. I have been working in the remote village of Anfalas for several years. There, down on a desolate plain over looking Mordor is the poorest village in the poorest country in Middle Earth. Four years ago we saw two couples baptized there and their faith in the face of persecution and trial has been inspiring. But there has been a man there who has puzzled me. His son was miraculously healed 5 years ago. His daughter was likewise healed a couple of months later. He has heard much truth and has seen more of the power of God move in his village and his life than many of us will ever hope to witness. But he would not become a follower of Jesus. He could not because he was an alcoholic. Now, you might say that God could move in his life anyway, he perhaps should become a follower and then worry about giving up alcohol. I agree, but he could not. He knew what becoming a follower of Jesus would mean, he counted the costs and he was unwilling to give up the alcohol or face the persecution of his Muslim community. I saw him for the first time in two years yesterday. We had just prayed for a man with kidney stones and coming out of his house I was greeted by the former drunk. I did not at first recognize him. After greeting him and talking with him for a few minutes I realized that this was the drunk. Except, he was not drunk and had not been drunk for a long time. His face was relaxed, fleshy, and even joyful. His countenance could not be explained solely on the basis of his sobriety. He was a true follower of Jesus and the Spirit on him and in him was evident. He was not afraid to speak of his faith or the divinity of his savior in the presence of the community. We went and sat down to tea in Kili’s house and he told me of his experience.

He knew that Jesus was the truth. He had come to the end of himself and found that he had nothing left. He would not say, I think, that he ‘chose’ to follow Jesus. I don’t believe that he believes he had any ‘choice’ at all. (No, I am not a Calvinist for those wondering). For him there was a long crooked road that led to death and he had followed it almost to the end when he took the only road left to him that did not lead to eternal destruction. I think salvation is always like this but it is very rare to find someone who sees it so clearly. I asked him who Jesus was and he simply said that He was God. He was his God and he would follow him regardless of the consequences. There have already been quite a few consequences. He has been brow beaten and persecuted by the local mullah and his neighbors. He is standing very firm. His wife is overjoyed and can’t wait for them to be baptized together. Oh, and he has a job. He is the accountant for the county government office. How is that for an old alcoholic who hasn’t been able to keep a job for years upon wasted years?

The Gospel is a beautiful thing. When I asked my fellow workers about it they often can not tell me what it is in just a few words. But we must learn. We must strive with everything we have to understand it and explain it as simply and clearly as we can. It is ‘good news’. Now, I know that some people begin their presentation of the Gospel by explaining that there is bad news. We are sinners. Man is by his own foolishness separated from Almighty God. We are a cursed and suffering people. May I say that I have stopped describing this as bad news. It is not. My sister in law went to the doctor a few years ago with chronic back pain. He told her there was nothing wrong and that she would have to ‘live with’ the pain. She did not hear this as good news. She cried for a week. No, the ‘nice’ guy delivers no good news by telling the divorcing couple that they are fine, the alcoholic that God loves him just as he is, nor the homosexual that there is nothing wrong with him. The good news is that all of us ‘feel’ terrible but we were not meant to. It is indeed good news that you are not supposed to be hopeless, helpless, powerless, and joyless. The multitude of addictive behaviors driving you to break every loving relationship you have ever had is not the way you were meant to be. The good news is that God has made a plan and paid a horrific price to rescue you and restore you to His Kingdom. And His Kingdom has come. It is here. It was made possible by the death of Jesus on the cross and transferred bodily to you now by the power of His resurrection from the dead.

This is what we must be about proclaiming. This is the only message that makes a difference to those we have been called to serve. We must never stop short by giving good advice or providing moral guidance. People do not need to be moral, they need Jesus. Let us love them truly and sacrificially. Let us tell the world that we have one message and it is that God’s Kingdom has come and you are all invited. Let us tell them of Jesus clearly and unashamedly. When we can do that we will see many more broken people made whole and stand up as beautiful witnesses to the power of our Lord.

It's Not About You: A Reprise

2010-09-11T23:35:00.000+05:00

I first published this October 29, 2006. I am republishing it in remembrance of 9/11.

When our team reached Gondor we made a plan to get to the whole country with the message. Ithilian was mountainous and remote. The regional capital of Minas Ithil seemed very far away. Out in those mountains were six people groups who spoke different languages. In faith we began praying for a way to get there and people to answer the call to go. In 2001 Gimli and his wife Galadrial said they would go. It was like cutting off my right arm to help them get out there. Gimli and I had a singular vision of using disaster management to reach into the remote villages of Gondor.
But this post is not about what is comfortable, or strategic, and certainly not about what is practical. It is about what God is doing and a little bit of how he is doing it. If Ithilian is remote then Mordor was a wall. Minas Ithil sits on a river looking over to Mordor. It was locked in a permanent civil war. It was a strict muslim country where the work of the Kingdom was almost completely halted. One day Gimli left Minas Ithil to come and see us in Minas Tirith. It was a grueling twenty hour drive that he decided to do in two days. Gimli slept in a little village on the river that night and the next morning rising up very early which was his custom he prayed looking out over the river to Mordor. As he was lifting up the impossible situation in Mordor to the King he was surprised to hear the King answer him. It was not audible but just as clear as if it had been. "Do you see Mordor? I am going to change everything." Now, Gimli is not accustomed to dramatic supernatural events. He was very excited and drove all the way to Minas Tirith eagerly wanting to tell me all about what the King had said. When he arrived at my home he came in and immediately told me what had happened. He said that God was going to change everything in Mordor and that we would be able to get in at last. I told him that I had something to show him. I took him into our living room where the news was reporting the second tower coming down in the West. They were already making some Mordor connections on the news coverage. Yes, it was September 11, 2001. Gimli immediately looked at me and said, 'Well, that's it! The West will never stand for this. They will free Mordor and 20 million people will have access to the truth for the first time ever!'
Of course, that is exactly what happened. I know that the King had many lessons rolled up in that one event but I still think that the most important thing that happened was that His Kingdom was expanded. It will continue to expand. His truth will be taught in all nations among all peoples. He will be worshiped among every people, tribe, and tongue. Terrible things have happened and will happen but in the end it is not about us. It is about Him and His glory.

On Finding Water

2010-09-11T23:23:00.000+05:00

In order to be in Gondor we need to do some kind of work. In order to have a visa in this Country we need to have a reason other than, 'we want to tell everyone about Jesus.' I do not make it a secret that I love Jesus and tell others about Him but they still wont give me a visa to do it. For that reason we do humanitarian work. Of course, we love doing humanitarian work. Jesus has called us to love people and in loving them we find that they need two things: a relationship with Him and a standard of living that will enable them to survive. We live in a very poor Country that needs multitudes of things. I hope we choose the things we do by listening to and obeying the Holy Spirit.

In order to hear His voice we pay attention to several things. One, we help people with some of their deepest felt needs. People may need sanitation but if they don't know this then there is no sense in providing it. We go to a community and asked them what they need rather than provide for them what is convenient for us to do. In following this line we have been asked repeatedly for fresh drinking water. Many people- possibly several hundred villages- need clean drinking water and are suffering greatly with water borne illnesses as a result of not having access to any. Two, we need a project that gives us sustained access. Many teams have come in and dropped off a load of much needed aid, prayed a quick prayer, and then moved on. This is somewhat helpful... sometimes, but a viable church is not likely to result from this. Too often people do aid work which makes them feel better and successful and humanitarian and even spiritual but if we measure success by lives impacted then these kinds of fly by night projects don't add up to much. We need relationship. So, digging multiple wells in villages has been very good for us. We have spent all summer in a remote village in the south, going down, spending the night, serving and being served. It has provided good ground for great conversation and the opportunity to share much love.

We have banged down the pipe for three wells so far. They are all in the lower end of the village. We need a way to get to the upper end but we need to beat the 25 feet of solid rock in order to get to the good water there. Its tough but that is ok, the longer it takes the more time we have to share.

This summer also gave me a great opportunity to get to know Beren a little better. He is the son of a co-laborer on the field who works with a different organization and the young man is courting my daughter Luthien. The two of them have just started their second year in University- he at Loyola and she at Liberty- and they came out to Gondor for the summer. He volunteered to work on our project and I put him to the test by getting his hands dirty digging deep useless holes in the ground while sharing Jesus in a remote village. He worked hard and was a good traveling companion. It tested his character and mine to work hard in 115 degree heat for six days only to abandon the hole as dry. Several holes were dug and abandoned before water was struck and he remained cheerful, prayerful, and a positive witness through out. He will need such tenacity if he wants to court my Luthien and as much patient endurance as is available through our blessed Holy Spirit if they one day marry.

We did find water, Beren with a lot of work and patience. And with equal work and more patience we may one day see the time when I walk her down an isle to meet you.

The Truth

2010-09-07T08:56:00.001+05:00

This is an old story that deserved telling long before now. Many years ago I taught English at a language institute with two other Westerners. We always had one person who spoke English a lot better than the rest of the students and we knew that person was likely a member of the security services keeping tabs on us. In each of our classes there was a lady. She was a very nice lady who signed up for all three of our classes and sat diligently in everyone never missing a class. She was the wife of the Deputy Mayor of our city and we were not sure if she just wanted to speak English or if she too was reporting on us.

Often at the end of class we would play Pictionary to let the students practice their English and have a little fun. One day it was the Deputy Mayor's wife's turn and she drew her card with the English word on it and went to the board to draw something that would encourage the class to guess the word. She drew a simple cross and stood there. The class called out, 'cross?' 'Intersection?' 'lines?' 'Give us something else, draw more!' They called and cried out and the lady just stood there staring at the board without moving. Finally, my fellow teacher called time and they moved on to the next word. After class he asked the lady what the deal was. Why was she so stuck? She said, 'My word was 'Truth'. I drew the cross and then I just stared at it. I could not get past the fact that this was THE truth. I couldn't think of anything but the cross.'

Being a political person as the wife of the Deputy Mayor she never told us outright that she was a Christian. But one day we were discussing how to appropriately pass out Christian literature in this very restrictive environment when suddenly she told us how she did it!

Today, Rohan is a dark police state and the believers there are under constant threat of arrest and persecution. I like to think that there is still a bright intelligent lady there who knows the Truth and is telling others about it.

Introducing the New Pipen

2010-08-03T18:00:00.000+05:00

If you have followed my blog over time you will realize that I have named the national team of guys I work with Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pipen. Frodo and Merry have their own ministries now and Sam alone is working with me from the original team. Over the years however, Pipen has been a changing position rather than a single person. About a month ago we hired a new Pipen. He was recommended to us by a national friend who said that he had been a believer for about a year. Ok, so he is young but I gave him a shot. After all, I needed a unique kind of guy for the team. The team is digging wells which is hard work and they are sharing the Gospel in a fundamentalist area which is harder work. Not just anyone can share passionately and work physically hard. (Come on Pastors you know its true!)

The first night down in the village I ask him about his testimony. I wondered what this guy might say to his prospective boss. The first words out of his mouth were that he had been a despicable person. After getting out of high school he got married, beat his wife mercilessly and was full of anger and hatred. Eventually his wife left him and he ran into some trouble with a group of guys in his neighborhood. He didn't really believe in God even though he considered himself a Muslim so, he prayed to God to help him kill these men as a way of testing if God were real. He was not able to kill the men which was such a disappointment to him that he considered killing himself. Then he remembered that he had some classmates who worked with our team up in Cair Andros. He decided he had nothing to lose so he went and visited them. They shared their faith with him and he was amazed at the way everyone on the team treated each other with love and respect. Eventually he accepted Jesus as his Lord and his life has taken a radical turn for the better.

I couldn't believe he was so honest with me! He totally opened up in front of me and the others there what a terrible person he was. I thought, 'Wow what a great testimony to the saving work of God!' This is why I love Jesus so much. He takes broken, bound, evil people and makes them kings. His story is a powerful testimony in this culture that has so little hope. Don't settle for laws, for social clubs, for religion of any kind. Seek Jesus and find the miraculous today.

Frodo In Anfalas

2010-07-06T12:54:00.000+05:00

The team is still struggling with the first well down in Langstrand so in the meantime I thought I would tell you about Frodo. While we were digging a deep hole and not finding water Frodo, who is doing his own ministry now and is not a part of the well-digging team went down to Anfalas. Six years ago we did a lot of work in Anfalas and that story is well told on this blog back in October and November of 2006. In 2006 two families were baptized there and the small church has struggled to minister in the village ever since. Last week Frodo went down with one of his sons and spent four days there sharing his faith, encouraging the small church, and showing evangelistic films every night.

Frodo ran into Bombur and was surprised at what the Lord has been doing! Bombur was the father of a young boy who had been miraculously healed back in 2004 in Jesus name. He had also seen his daughter healed a month later. He had had Bible studies in his home and had heard more truth than most. He believed it all but could not be a follower of Jesus. He was not free to, you see, Bombur is an alcoholic. More than an alcoholic he was the village drunk who could not hold down a job nor be of any use to anybody. Frodo found someone else though. Bombur was a changed man. He said that with the encouragement of his wife and the local believers he had finally given his life to Jesus and that Jesus had set him free from alcohol. More than that the villagers have seen the change in him and he is now the deputy mayor of Anfalas!

I preach God's ability and desire to change lives. His transforming power is truly wonderful. But I stand amazed every time I see it in action as if this is the first time I ever comprehended what it is that the Spirit of God is able to do in the heart of man. Bombur and his wife will hopefully be baptized this week. Lift them up as they walk a dark and dangerous road. But it is a dark and dangerous road that leads to life.

Picking Up Stones

2010-06-28T18:13:00.000+05:00

We finally began our long awaited well project! We have a team and a system to dig wells using a modified auger provided by the good folks at Hydromissions. We went down last Thursday and stayed through Saturday. I wish I could tell you we finished our first well but alas, I can not. This is going to be a long process and that is not a bad thing.

Sam and I went down with a couple of new guys and set up the pilot project in the village of Langstrand. We have been praying about this village for over a year now. It has an interesting history. Ten years ago another team went down to this village and showed the Jesus film in the local language. There was a guy named Golasgil who operated the film projector at the old theater nearby and they hired him to show the film all over the place. After about a year he and his wife came to faith in Jesus. They started a Bible study in their house with about 20 people from the village. After a few months however, the local Mullah through a fit. He condemned them and through them out of the local mosque (please understand that this has a huge social as well as religious meaning to them). The 20 or so seekers fled and one night a group painted a big red cross on Golasgil's gate. It was meant as a threat. After that the team that had been going down to Langstrand went elsewhere and Golasgil and his wife were on their own for several years. Sam ran into them last year and now we intend that this project of bringing clean drinking water to their village will also be a way of bringing the living water there.

The ground is rocky. We struggled to get through the first six feet and when we did we hit a two foot thick gravel pack. Drat. We tried in a couple of different places but found the soil the same everywhere. So, we started pulling rocks out of the hole. It was slow going. We thought we were stopped cold several times but each time we prayed and the way was made clear again. We have gone down 45 feet in this manner and have not hit water yet. The team goes back down tomorrow to continue the work and we hope that soon fresh drinking water will be enjoyed by all.

The first day I stood up in front of 30 or so villagers and prayed a blessing for the village and for the project. Golasgil told me later that man after man came up to him and asked him if I was a Muslim because only a Muslim who really knew God could pray like that. He laughed a told them that I was a follower of Jesus. They all know that he is still a Christian and they now know that he has invited our team to share the truth there in Langstrand. That first night Golasgil looked me straight in the eye and said, 'Strider, I am glad that you guys are here and are digging the wells. But the real reason I asked you here is to share the truth about Jesus with these people. I have invited many of them to come by and talk to you guys tonight but no one has come. We have to keep praying that they will listen.' I was very moved by this poor, uneducated man's dedication to the Kingdom. The next day as we were digging the well a two year old boy fell in an irrigation canal nearby. His older brother was screaming and crying, 'He fell, he fell!'. He had fallen right near a culvert and had been swept down the two foot in diameter pipe. Golasgil ran to the spot, stuck his arm down the hole and miraculously pulled the crying young boy out! The boy was taken away, the people who were shaking a crying with fear walked off to their homes and Golasgil sat down in the shade letting his heart rate slowly return to normal. I was the only one to walk over to him and thank him for saving the boy. No one else said anything to him at all. These villagers don't like his faith in Jesus and they don't like us coming to tell them about Jesus. We have more rocks to pull than just in that hole! Still, the Boss has us there for a reason. Saturday before we came back to Minas Tirith one of the chief men opposed to us had us all over for lunch. I was very surprised. He prayed for us- or against us, I wasn't quite sure- and he chanted a Surah of the Koran for us I think to make sure we knew where he stood.

It is good to be back working in the villages again. I am excited about the new team and the work that God has for us to do in this difficult place. As we were pulling out the rocks one by one I was for a while praying that the work would get easier. As I prayed the Lord said, 'It isn't going to get easier. Will you do it anyway?' Yes, I will and gladly.

Writing again

2010-06-14T16:30:00.000+05:00

Well, after too long of a break I am going to tell some more stories here. After all, it isn't as if nothing much is going on. The Boss is moving and His Kingdom is expanding. It is a battle to be sure, there are victors and casualties. They deserve the honor of you knowing that the Father has been glorified through them.

I was gone for a couple of weeks for my second daughter, Goldberry's graduation. When I returned Legolas came up to me and ask if I had time to talk. I didn't but I couldn't have stopped him in his excitement if I tried. He told me that there was a 52 year old man in a village not far from Minas Tirith who had come to faith the week before. This is a man who was a strict Muslim. He had listened to what Legolas and one of his friends had had to say about Jesus years before and had rejected it. He had read some of the Bible they had given him but had not thought much more about it. One day last week as he was doing his daily prayer the Holy Spirit powerfully convicted him that what Legolas had said about Jesus was true. He got up, took a bucket of water and baptized himself. Then he went to the group meeting that Sunday and announced that he had come to faith! He has told all of his relatives that he is a Jesus follower and is encouraging them to do the same.

I like Legolas' response to the baptism. He told the new believer that it was a wonderful step of faith. Then he went on to invite the man to be baptized again before the Church as a witness to them. I was glad he didn't just say, 'Hey you did the baptism thing wrong!' He affirmed the man's faith while at the same time guiding him into deeper truth. This man will need strength to stand in the truth. He has two wives and will need God's wisdom to be able to deal honorably with both in a way that is a declaration of God's love. If he sorts it out I will for sure write a post on what he did and how God was glorified. In the meantime, there is a 52 year old former Muslim man proclaiming the good news in Gondor. God is still in the business of imparting faith in the most unlikely places and we are blessed to be witnesses of it.

The Father Is Always at Work

2010-03-09T14:54:00.000+05:00

A few years ago I got a call about a flash flood. There were several villages affected so we went up to see if they needed any help and do an assessment. We traveled over two high passes through the mountains and then to the major city in the north of Gondor. We spent the night at a friends house there and the next morning we traveled up a valley along the edge of a huge reservoir and then up over another mountain that looked like the landscape of the moon. Then we crested a ridge and there was a beautiful city, all green and surrounded by barren granite mountains. This city is known for Islamic militants and in fact a year after we were there a wonderful local believer was martyred in that city. We drove on. We turned south to a very narrow valley and drove between great cliffs. An old fortress was up on one side of the mountain guarding the pass from ancient times. We traveled on through that valley and drove straight toward the cliff wall. I wondered how we would go on when suddenly we saw a fissure in the wall to one side and we drove through a very small pass. It reminded me some kind of old movie like 'Land of the Lost' or something. Then came the Redhorn pass and we drove through that pass and on to the next valley. There at the end was our destination and to our surprise the reported disaster was no disaster at all. Four houses had experienced some water damage but no serious need was in evidence.

But the trip was not a complete waste of time. First of all, it was a really interesting journey but more important it gave us a chance to try and connect with a group up in Redhorn. Years ago someone had wandered that way and gave out a video cassette of the Jesus Film- which is a Campus Crusade film of the life of Jesus based on the Gospel of Luke. Now, some forty people gather several times a week and watch the film. It is all they know to do as they don't have a Bible. Later a Bible was provided for them and some of them received some discipleship from the guy who was later martyred. The group still continues to meet and that to me is miraculous. How on earth, with so little input and teaching can a group of untrained believers continue in a fundamentalist Muslim area? The Father is always at work. Some time when like Elijah you think you are standing alone and everyone else has lost faith remember this group who truly stand alone, and can continue to stand because the Spirit makes them able to stand.

Fasting: When We Need Jesus More Than Food

2010-02-04T14:28:00.000+05:00

I posted this on SBCImpact blog earlier this week and thought that I would put it here for my own records now. If you have not read it yet, enjoy.

In 1982 I read a book by Richard Foster called “Celebration of Discipline’. It has become a classic on biblical disciplines and has been read by millions. One of the chapters that struck me was the one on fasting. I had never fasted before and I could not recall that in my ten years as an active follower of Jesus anyone ever talking about fasting. So, I tried it. I just did a one day fast and since then I have done many one day fasts. Some are more spiritual than others. Some are more painful than others! But for the last several years I have not fasted at all. I would tell myself that it was not really necessary, after all we can’t make God love us more. But over the last few years as I have stumbled into middle-age I have gained weight, began feeling tired all the time, and my spiritual life has felt like my physical one. So, when a friend of mine gave me a new book on fasting by Jentezen Franklin I was immediately challenged to, in Jentezen’s words, ‘dethrone King Stomach’. I prayed about it and meditated on it for a month and then in the middle of January I began a two week fast. I broke it yesterday with the Lord’s Supper in our small house church. I learned two things that I want to share here for your encouragement.
The first thing that I want to share is that it was not that hard. I know, if you told me that you fasted for two weeks and drank only water and fruit juice I would be impressed. Don’t be. It really was a joy. Yes, I was hungry. Yes, the caffeine withdrawal gave me banging headaches the first three days. But fasting really is praying. You never forget what you are doing or why you are doing it. My constant refrain was, ‘Jesus, I need you more than food’. And He was faithful to be present to me and to fellowship with me. There has been a lot of joy these two weeks. I took naps in the afternoon sometimes but I was never really wiped out. I was dizzy sometimes but I was never immobilized as if I was starving to death. Jesus put King Stomach in its place and showed me that he does not have to rule me. I can live without him in control.
My wife asked me why I was fasting and I put it this way. Of course we can not make God love us more. We can not manipulate or force God to do anything. Our righteousness really is as filthy rags. But then, neither can I make my wife love me more. If I never took her out on a date again she would still love me. But we really enjoy dates- when we can get them! I don’t take her out to force her to do anything. I take her out because I already love her and want some dedicated time with her. Fasting is like that with God. But don’t think that God is a cheap date! He likes it when we lavish Him with extravagance and for a Westerner there is no greater extravagance than going without food for someone else. More than half of you still reading this have already come up with two dozen good reasons not to fast. This post is meant to encourage you to do it anyway. Jesus said in the Sermon on the mount that ,’When you pray…. When you give…. When you fast….’ No one would deny that praying and giving are absolute necessities for a healthy relationship with God. How can we who parse every iota of scripture and strain it for the last ounce of truth ignore fasting? I am going to fast day fasts once a week for the rest of the year and next January I am definitely going to do a two week fast again. In fact, I am already looking forward to it.
Secondly Jesus taught me something special throughout the fast. I have been on a long journey. Not physically- although I have traveled far! But my spiritual journey out of fear and into the faithfulness of God has been a long one. When I first arrived in Rohan in 1996 we found a police state that was under real oppression and fear. There were secret police in my English as a Second Language Class. There were secret police and informers in my neighborhood. Several of the guys I thought were friends turned out to be reporting on me regularly, it was brutal and every blow served to heighten fear. I remember feeling the need to cover up that I had been a Pastor in the West. I played up my Music Major credentials. It all makes me sick to think of it now. How close I came to denying my Savior as Peter had! When we moved to Gondor I determined never to make a decision based on fear. Since we have been here I and my team have proclaimed the Word boldly in dangerous places and in remarkable circumstances. But I have not ‘arrived’ by any means. Do I proclaim in faith? Usually? Sometimes? When fundamentalist Islam has returned to Gondor and the Sulafis are gaining strength am I bold? Sulafi’s by the way are an ugly brand of fundamentalist Islam who make the Pharisees of Jesus day look like weenies. Their fear-laden legalistic sickness is spreading across Gondor like a disease right now. What can I say in the face of that? On the first day of the fast God led me to 2 Corinthians 10: 4-5:
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ
Paul said that he destroyed arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. Can I do that? If the same Spirit that did it through Paul resides in me how can I not? We can and we must proclaim the truth in the face of the lies told about God. He is faithful, He is loving, and He did send His only Son to die for us. Jesus was crucified and has risen from the dead! These words spoken in my power mean nothing. But when the spirit of God lives in us these words take on divine power that tears apart the works of the evil one. The last day of the fast this lesson continued with Isaiah 54: 16- 17:
Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy; No weapon that s fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, declares the LORD.
Ok, Isaiah might could refute every tongue that rises against him in judgment but can I? Again, if we are talking about Strider’s abilities probably not. But if our faith is not in our abilities but in the power of God then who can stand against us? I will proclaim the Gospel boldly and the Lord will vindicate me Himself. This is a powerful promise to me and I hope it is to you also. I hope you understand that I don’t write this to brag about my great discipline. I did not fast to impress you or anyone else. I just really enjoyed my date with Jesus and I encourage you all to go and do the same.

Dreams and Visions

2010-01-26T17:06:00.000+05:00

The atmosphere in Gondor has been getting darker and it isn't because it is winter. Fundamentalist Islam has been spreading among the population again and is being taught everywhere here in Minas Tirith. The Government is doing all it can to stop it but it is growing just the same. Sulafi Islam is a fundamental branch of Islam whereby the adherents teach that only the Koran is authoritative. The Hadiths, traditions and other books are not to be trusted. The Sulafis are bullies who go door to door in their neighborhoods and coerce and threaten people to agree with them.
One of Legolas's relatives who goes to his house church has a cousin by marriage who is a Sulafi. She accosted Legolas's relative and insisted she repent of her heresy of being a follower of Jesus. This lady actually asked Legolas's relative what books she read. She gave her a New Testament. The lady read it for several days. She was confused. She wanted to know whether it was true and one night she had a dream where Jesus appeared in her room and told her the book was true. The next day she went straight to Legalos and asked him if the New Testament was true. He said, 'Why are you asking me when God has already given you the answer?' She is confused. Her whole world is turned upside down and if she does find the faith to be obedient to Christ it will cost her everything. Of course, if she pays the price she will find that she gave up exactly nothing and gained eternity. Pray for her and for the many like her who are in bondage to the lies of the enemy.

A Long Walk in Mordor and the Way of the Cross

2010-01-18T12:09:00.001+05:00

I was going to write a post on missiology. I have list of principles that we work by, a philosophy of ministry. But then I decided to tell a story instead. In truth we don't live by principles or guidelines. We don't follow a program, we follow the God-Man Christ Jesus. He is our guide, our shepherd and He leads us into truth- and much more. He leads us on a dangerous adventure. He leads us into battle for the souls of men and women. He leads us to the establishment of His Kingdom in enemy territory. This story illustrates for me what it means to be a follower of Jesus, who we are and where we are going. Where we are going is the Cross, what we find on the other side is a resurrection.
In June of 2005 I went on Stateside Assignment for three months. As soon as I left there was a disaster in northern Mordor and our team was asked to help. They gave some immediate assistance to some families who had been through a flash flood that came down their narrow valley and washed away several flour mills and a few water canals. While they were there a man came up to them and asked if he could have a New Testament. The team assumed this man was a seeker and immediately gave him one. He in turn showed it to everyone in the village and loudly denounced us as proselytizers who were only there to convert them not help them. I came back in the fall and we made a plan to complete the project. We would provide them with materials they could not get so that they could fix the flour mills and the water canals. I live in Gondor and it is a nine hour drive from the Capitol to the border of Mordor where this village sits just across the river. There is a new bridge there but no road on the other side in Mordor. So, once we spent a week or so getting all the various permissions to take stuff across we went down. We spent several days in Ithilian on this side of the border and then we drove up to the bridge. The plan was that I would walk across the bridge with two of my national staff and the other two would present the various permissions to the various agencies and send the aid across the river on a raft in the morning. The guys said to me, 'Strider, you know it is a 15 mile walk to the village are you up for that?' I told them to 'shut up' I was not that old, I could do it just fine. I would eat those words badly. I was ready to walk 15 miles but I would soon learn that it was more than 10 miles straight up a steep mountain and then a little less than 5 harrowing miles down a deep gorge to the village which sat on a steep river bank. My legs were cramping furiously, I was drenched with sweat and we plodded on and on into the night. We reached the village at about 10:30 pm and I hoped we could just go to bed and meet with everyone in the morning. No dice. The village leaders piled into the house we were staying at and the meeting began right then. The first thing they did was to complain about the New Testament given earlier. I assured them that we would not give out any other literature. My team was critical of this decision but I told them that I was not going to get kicked out of this village for passing out literature when almost no one in the village could read! Then they asked us how long it had taken us to come and when we told them they replied, 'Five hours! We usually walk that in three, what is wrong with you?' So much for the foreigner coming in and being treated like a king. Anyway, I told them our plan to put the aid across the river in the morning. They agreed with the plan and we finally went to bed. The house owner slept in the doorway with his automatic rifle in his lap so that we would feel safe.
The next morning we got up and I limped down to the river. We waited all day. About 11 am the guys showed up across the river and began setting up the raft. An hour later they still had not sent anything across. Why not? It was only 50 yards across the river and we shouted back and forth. Apparently there was a problem with the paperwork. So, they went back into town to figure it out and we waited. We waited all day. At 5:30 pm they came back. No go. The local officials would not recognize our paperwork from the Capitol. We were discouraged. Sam who was with me shouted across to Merry, 'Get over here now!' Merry shouted back, 'No, they said that anyone who came across the river would be arrested.' Sam shouted again, 'We agree!' Yeah, me too. Much better to spend the night in jail than walk back over that mountain. But they didn't come. We turned and walked back up the hill completely depressed. We had been working on this for nine days now and still we couldn't get the aid across. Now we would spend the night here in the village and then trek back over the mountain. I looked up and said aloud in English, 'I know why you want us here one more night but you are going to have to get me back over that mountain in the morning.'
When we reached the house again all the village elders gathered. It was bad. They complained long and loud. 'Why can't you guys get the aid across?' 'Don't you know what you are doing?' 'Other agencies can do this why can't you?' 'We waited all day for nothing!' In defense I had nothing. No plan B no next step. I didn't know what was wrong and I couldn't fix it. After an hour or so of abuse they fell to talking about what they know all too much about. Drugs. A lot of drugs cross this border and these guys all know about it. I looked at Pipen and said, 'Have you told these guys your story?' Pipen has a dramatic testimony of how he was a drug addict and tried to kill himself but God miraculously saved his life physically and spiritually. He told his story to a rapt audience. They had never heard of anyone actually getting better! When he finished one of the men exclaimed, 'So, this drug addict has come to help us!' The local sheriff stopped him short and said, 'Quiet! This man has repented.' Very powerful. Slowly, everyone left. By 10 pm there was just our host and his nephew, a man I called the student because he was 18 and one of the only guys in the village who could read. Our host said, 'So, who is Jesus anyway?' Sam said, 'Who do you think He is?' The host said, 'I don't know anything about Jesus. I have never heard any stories or teachings about Him.' So, Sam started with the Old Testament and for two hours explained exactly who Jesus is. During the last 20 minutes as he shared about Christ's death and resurrection the Student sat with his mouth open dumbfounded. Then we went to bed.
At 3 am the Sherrif came by and got us up. He walked with us back over the mountain. I had no pain or tiredness at all. My legs didn't cramp and I felt good. When we got back to Gondor and found Frodo and Merry we realized what had happened. Nothing crosses that border without a bribe and they would not take a bribe from a foreign organization. Nine days on the road wasted. Or was it? I went to a guesthouse while Frodo tried a couple of more angles. Sam and Pipen went to sleep immediately but I could not. As I lay there in the guesthouse the Holy Spirit spoke to me very clearly. It was not through my skills or abilities, not through money or power that His Kingdom was to go forward. I Corinthians 2:3-4 says it this way:
"And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power."
We all want to proclaim the Word with power. We all want a 'demonstration of the Spirit'. But are we willing and able to go through the humiliation it takes to get there? There is no room for power politics in the Kingdom. The road we are on must lead to the Cross. Only as we go to the Cross can we find a resurrection on the other side.
By the way, we did get the aid across a week later by giving it to someone else and they bribing their way across. A year later we were driving by that village and our host was over on the Gondor side. He said that he, the Student, and two others met everyday to listen to a fifteen minute shortwave radio broadcast in their language. The programs are all about Jesus. Is that a Church? I don't know. I didn't report it on my Annual Statistical Report! But when I get to Heaven and stand before the throne don't be surprised if we all discover that the most important thing I have ever done in my life was to fail, fall, be humiliated, and proclaim the Gospel on that dark night in that dark place. Brokenness is a key component of my philosophy of ministry. I hope it is yours also.

Happy New Year

2009-12-31T19:08:00.000+05:00

No New Year's resolutions here. Just wishing you all a happy New Year and trusting that you will draw nearer to our Lord, that you will find in Him all joy, and that your life will resound with His glory in 2010.

Paul Had It Easy In Corinth!

2009-12-18T17:01:00.001+05:00

When we read through Corinthians in the New Testament we see that the Apostle Paul had some pretty serious issues to deal with. Gross sexual immorality, division, bad doctrine, and bad behavior seemed to define the young Church in Corinth. As Paul wrote to correct these things he crafted 1 Corinthians 13, the Love Chapter. It stands as one of the most beautiful things ever written and I think that Paul intended it to be the heart of his answer to the problems the Corinthians were facing. It was written almost 2000 years ago and yet we are so far from experiencing a 10th of what he described.

I was up in the north of Gondor last week teaching a class on Missiology for a local Bible College. A friend of mine whom I had worked with five years ago found out I was in town and took me out to eat one evening. It was great to see him. I asked him how he was and how his relationship with his church was. He had often been at odds with his church in the past and he was often in the wrong, so I wondered how he would answer me. He left his church about a month ago. I was not too sorry to hear about this as he described the church he was going to now. There are only five churches in all of the north of Gondor, so not too many to choose from! But why did he leave his first church?

About six weeks ago a broken, homeless, middle aged man came to the service. He had been there before. The church had tolerated his on-again off-again attendance for a few years. He was homeless for a reason, he had lots of issues. That Sunday he came forward to repent and asked to be baptized. The church voted on the baptism as was their custom. Every hand went up for 'no'. Every hand except that of my friend. He stood up and said, 'All of you who have taken so little effort to raise your hands for 'no', all of you who have such a strong opinion, how many of you visited this man over the last year as he was struggling?' No one had. 'I visited him several times. Ok, I should have done more, I didn't help enough but I tried to do something. I tried to encourage him some. Can you just send this man away now? Can we really throw out a man who has asked us for help?' The Pastor stood and asked that my friend leave. So my friend said, 'I am sorry for bothering you. Please forgive me if I have offended you but if you can, please help this man.' And then he walked out. I asked my friend what the objection to this man being baptized was. He said that every one knew he still dipped tobacco. Such an offense! Two days later the Pastor came to my friend and apologized. He said he should not have spoken to him rudely and thrown him out of the church. My friend said that he forgave him but now he was going to a different church.

I asked my friend if he thought this man was really ready to be baptized and he said, 'I don't know. I can't see into his heart but I know that he came for help. I know that he wanted to change.' He went on to explain something that touched me deeply. 'I can't say if this man was a truly repentant man who was ready to fully follow Christ. I do know that when I stand in Heaven before Jesus he will never say to me, 'You were too forgiving, too loving, too accepting.' He will never condemn us for welcoming and loving others but what will he say to us about any of His children that we might turn away?'

What indeed.

Paul had to contend with a lot in Corinth but I wonder if he would write such a grace filled letter to this church? I wonder if he would be so patient with us?
Maybe, Paul had it easy in Corinth after all.

Teaching a Bible College Class

2009-12-02T07:28:00.001+05:00

Some friends of mine started a Bible college here to stop the bright and talented young believers from leaving to go to the US for Bible college never to return. I have been very supportive of this effort since I can either help do it right or complain about how someone else has done it wrong. That being said this has been a challenging week. I am teaching 40 hours of missiology this week to a class of 12. I will go up north and teach it again next week. This eight hours of teaching a day for five days is brutal but as I sit and drink a cup of coffee and prepare to start the next session I thought I would share with whoever is left reading this occasional blog a great chart given to me by my good friend Ted Sandyman.

Christian approaches to Muslims

If we see Muslims as …
Enemies
Our approach will be …
Attack!/Defend!
Our heart attitude will be ..
hate

If we see Muslims as …
Foreigners
Our approach will be …
Separate Coexistence
Our heart attitude will be ..
Indifference

If we see Muslims as …
Poor, uncivilized, uncultured
Our approach will be …
Invite them to be like us (join us)
Our heart attitude will be ..
Pharisaic/condescending

If we see Muslims as …
Rivals
Our approach will be …
Polemic debate
Our heart attitude will be ..
proud

If we see Muslims as …
Human beings
Our approach will be …
Respectful dialogue
Our heart attitude will be ..
listen and learn

If we see Muslims as …
Unresponsive
Our approach will be …
resigned to do nothing
Our heart attitude will be ..
hopeless

If we see Muslims as …
Lost people Jesus died for
Our approach will be …
Salt/light (demonstrate love)
Preach the Gospel (speak truth)
Pray for their needs (show power)
Become all things to all people (Pauline)
Our heart attitude will be ..
Love

I like Ted's chart. Why not apply it to the people you meet today?

A Fireside Story

2009-11-21T12:35:00.001+05:00

We have had several interesting experiences with fire and this fine Saturday I thought I would share one with you. You might consider this a new take on the term fiery trials.

Back in 1997 the civil war had just ended and the people of Gondor were in a fierce battle to see who would get a seat at the power sharing table. There was gunfire in the streets every night and many were assassinated or just burgled and killed. Usually the gunfire would pick up just after dark and continue until around midnight. Sometimes it went on until 2am but not usually later than that. One night I was awoken by a huge boom followed by a series of crackles that sounded like semi-automatic gun fire. I rolled over and noticed that it was 4am. I said out loud, 'Come on guys, go to bed!' Just then the phone rang. I then thought oh no! Is this something to do with one of our team! Sure enough it was Gimli who lived just two hundred yards up the hill from us. "Strider! Our neighbors house has just blown up. Can you get up here and help us get our stuff out of our house before it catches fire and burns down?" Gimli's house had an adjoining wall and roof with the house next door to him. I told him that it sounded like a lot of gunfire out there but I would try. I stuck my head of out our front gate and our street was quiet. I could see the fire raging up the hill with flames going up more than 50 feet in the air. I walked gingerly up the street. I know that 'gingerly' is not the right word- well, it is the right word but it was a silly thing to do! Anyway, I got to the corner and there was a guard outside a Red Cross house. I asked him what was going on and he said he didn't know. He had not seen anybody but it sure sounded bad up there. So, up there I went. When I got to Gimli's house I could see the problem. There was no gunfire. The fire was blazing so bad that the asbestos roofing sheets were exploding in loud crackling burst. I ran into Gimli's house and we started taking stuff out and putting it on a porch on the other side of the yard from the fire. I felt the adjoining wall with the house that was on fire. It was not hot at all. More than that the roof that ran as a single roof over to the neighbor's side was not burning. The fire stopped at the property line! We got everything out- including the extremely heavy 286 computer that I carried myself. To be fair Gimli told me to leave it. He was right, it wasn't worth it. But then the fire department came. I know I was surprised to see them. They negotiated with the neighbors for a price and then they put the fire out. Yes, you read that right. It turned out that the natural gas had spiked and their kitchen had blown up. The next day everyone exclaimed what a miracle it was that God saved Gimli's house. The fire was huge and hot and it had no effect on anything on Gimli's side. Gimli told the neighbors about Jesus and while no one came to faith right then it had to be a powerful witness. Gimli has never forgotten that I braved the seemingly dangerous streets to come and help him. Of course, I consider my most valiant effort that night to have been lifting that 286 computer.

When the Road Is Too Long

2009-11-16T16:41:00.000+05:00

Last week we were invited to a wedding out in the Argonoth. The village there is about four hours away over a couple of small passes and then across a river. We have done a couple of projects out there and there are several people who have shown interest in listening to the truth. Arwen and I got the boys ready and we headed out about one in the afternoon so that we had plenty of time to get there by the six o'clock start time of the wedding. Only one problem, it rained. All day. When we got into the passes and over the main dam in Gondor there was roadwork that had turned into pure mud, landslides, stuck cars, tractors shoving earth every direction. It was a nightmare. One humorously frustrating thing happened. As we waited for a large landslide to be cleared out the cars behind us started passing us and forming a second lane, then a third, finally a fourth lane was formed waiting for the road to reopen. When the road did finally open we discovered that the cars on the other side had done the same. Two sets of four lanes of traffic converged and no one could get by anyone else. I thought it was pretty funny. Arwen made frustrated hand gestures to the cars trying to pass us on the inside. When it was all said and done we reached Osgilioth about six o'clock and it was dark. We still needed an hour and a half more to reach the Argonoth and there was no way I was going to try and cross that river in the dark in the rain. I had a friend who lived in Osgilioth who I owed a visit to anyway. We stopped by his house and it was dark. It turned out that there was no electricity but he and his family were all there and very happy to see us. We came in and sat down and they began to prepare to feed us. Several neighbors came over and we sat and talked all evening. I was getting frustrated though. I was looking for an opportunity to share truth and it just was not happening. My friend was in and out serving the guests and the guests were talking among themselves except when they wanted to hear a funny story or two from me. The chance to share a Biblical story was not coming and I was concerned that I was somehow missing a good opportunity.

Finally, the neighbors left. Arwen put the boys down in an adjoining room and my friend and I talked into the late night. I was still not really finding an opportunity to share spiritual truth. Then, at 11:30pm he shared some personal struggles he was having at work. He shared about struggles with his boss, ethical issues with his department. He wanted to quit but that would be a breach of contract from his side, making him look bad. Then, at nearly midnight I shared some stories of Jesus. Then just after midnight I shared truth about our Lord and encouraged him to trust in God. He listened and agreed with me. My friend has heard a lot of Gospel over the years and it had never really touched him before. Now, it seemed to resonate, 'I need God in my life.' He did not commit to Jesus right there but for the first time he wanted me to pray for him and he was determined to do it 'God's way' in his decisions at work. I was amazed. It may seem like a small step to some of you but it is the biggest step I have ever seen him make in ten years of knowing him.

We have a saying on our team that says that if you can't spend the night don't bother going. I don't always live by this but this story reminds me of the truth of it. When we spend the night with people we stay past the polite guest phase and hang around for the deep conversation phase of the day. The vast majority of decisions to follow Jesus come after 10 pm. At least, that is what I have heard from those who claim to know. If we are not staying late then we miss the chance to talk to people when they are finally ready to slow down enough to think deeply about life. Let us go and proclaim boldly the truth of God's love, and as long as we are going we should spend the night.

Of Traveling, Documents, and Stamps

2009-11-11T17:02:00.000+05:00

I have not told of many of my travel adventures because they don't always have a devotional point. Some are funny and other stories are just incredible but I generally like to write things that glorify God. But then again I am wanting to get some of these stories down in written form so.... With acknowledgment of the fact that I could do nothing and go nowhere without God's guidance, strength, and protection here is one of my favorite traveling stories.

Back in 1996-7 I lived for a year and a half in Rohan before moving to Gondor. There was much to arrange and figure out. How do I get there? How will I get a visa? Where will I live? With whom will I work? All these needed answering before actually moving to Gondor so I made a lot of trips across the border in 1997. 19 to be exact and after years of therapy I will be much better, thanks for asking. There are various routes to get from Rohan to Gondor and I will simplify the story by describing the routes as follows. The Southern Route involved a 12 hour drive to a border guarded by a lot of young thugs. It was the time of the civil war and the Southern Border was dangerous. The Northern Border was the easiest to cross, the only problem was that I was in Southern Rohan wanting to go to Southern Gondor. North was easy, but way out of the way. The Middle Border was very tough. It was the closest to me and the shortest route to where I was going but the border guards were always tough and then there was the 12,000 foot pass to contend with once you crossed. The Middle Route could be crossed and Minas Tirith reached in as little as six to eight hours if all went well- it only ever went that well once but it did happen! Anyway, so after a long introduction here we are, me going over the pass to Minas Tirith and spending a very nice week in the big city working out housing plans etc. I heard that there was an in-country flight from Capitol of Minas Tirith to the Gap of Rohan- right next to the Middle Border and only an hour away from my home in Rohan. Too good to be true. But even though the flight was infrequent it was going this week so I got a ticket and boarded the plane. It was a little 17 seater with two prop engines and it looked very old so I took a picture of it before I boarded. The pilot saw me take a picture and noticed that I had a decent 35mm camera and he invited me up to the cockpit as soon as we took off. I half stood, half crouched in the doorway of the cockpit for the whole forty-five minute flight. He would veer over to the left and say, 'Look, there is a beautiful mountain lake. Take a picture!' Then he would veer over to the right and he would say, 'Look, there is the mountain pass that the cars go over. Take a picture!' Back and forth over the beautiful mountains of Gondor we traveled. As we approached the airport I took a final picture of the town and the runway and then told him I needed to sit down and fasten my seatbelt. The pilot was puzzled by this. Why? When I did sit down I noticed a couple of things. One, I was the only one on the plane with my seatbelt on, including the pilots. And two, someone had thrown up in the middle of the aisle, probably a result of our veering back and forth over the mountains so I could get my pictures.

When we landed I was stopped at the gate of the airport and told that since I was a foreigner I had to register- even though this was an in-country flight. No big deal. I registered and then started to leave. A soldier came over and told me that I could not leave yet. The Security Forces guy wanted to talk to me. I waited around. Finally, as the last taxi in the parking lot was leaving I ran out and got in. As we began to leave the soldier stopped us and said I could not leave until I talked to the Security Forces guy. He had the gun so I got out and watched the last taxi drive away. This annoyed me so I was not in a very agreeable mood when the Security Forces guy finally got around to talking to me. He searched though my bag. Twice. Three times. He asked me a lot of questions and then he would leave for a while, then come back and asked some more. I was starting to get really fed up when the soldier said, 'Look, he just wants some money. Give him a little money and he will let you go.' That did it. I was determined now. I had saved eight hours by not having to drive and if this guy wanted to hang out with me all day then that was just what we were going to do. The old traveling rule was, 'If you have time you don't need money.' So, I smiled, I talked. I was patient and I told him that there was no way he was getting my money. A funny thing happened at that point. He found a $100 bill and said, 'Oh!' as if this was a big deal. I told him it was my money and it was no big deal. He said that since I was going to Rohan I had to have a certificate for the money. Now, at that time Rohan used these currency declarations but Gondor did not. I told him that I would get one when I got to the border. For a man looking for any excuse to harrass someone this was not good enough. I found an old certificate that I had but interestingly, it had no stamp. In this part of the world a document without a stamp is no document at all. Well, we went round and round about this and then went to his Security Headquarters where we went round and round about this for an hour and a half more. Finally, when he realized I would not give him anything and he was thoroughly fed up with me he put a stamp on my Rohan Certificate and let me go. I walked into town found a taxi and went to the border to go home. Once at the border the usual gang searched my bag again. As they searched and harassed me- they were never nice at the Middle Border- I noticed that my camera was gone. It was a large, 35mm Pentax in a black bag about the size of a loaf of bread. It was not in my bag. I told the guys that that Security Guy must have stolen it. They actually felt sorry for me and let me go. I went home and tossed my bag on the bed and told my wife what happened. Then I went and unpacked my bag and there was the camera! It was a miracle but what kind of miracle was it? Were the guards and myself at the border blinded from seeing it or is the Security Guy wondering what happened to the camera he stole? I don't know.

Two weeks later I was back in Minas Tirith. There was no flight to the Gap of Rohan so I took a taxi to the Southern Border Crossing. At that time there were around 30 to 40 armed thugs with a bad attitude waiting to harass anyone wanting to cross. I got out of the taxi and was surrounded by these guys- mostly young kids in their late teens. They took my passport and handed it around and then they asked if I had any dollars. I replied that I had $200 on me at the time. They told me I had to give it to them and I refused. They said I had to have a Certificate for the money. I told them that Gondor didn't use these Certificates but they replied that that was not their problem. If I did not have a Certificate then I had to give up my money. Just then I remembered that I had the same bag as I had had two weeks previously. I took out the old Certificate from my bag and said, 'Look, I have a Certificate for the money!' They said, 'No, that is a Rohan Certificate. You need a Certificate from Gondor.' I told them to look at the stamp. When they looked at the stamp that the Security Guy had stamped my document with two weeks before they broke out laughing. The stamp clearly said 'Gondor' on it! They called their Commanding Officer over and told him I had beaten them at their own game. They let me go and I said a quiet 'thank you' to God for the way he guided me through the weird wild circumstances that is Middle Earth.

Avoiding Fear in the Midst of Turbulent Times

2009-10-28T11:37:00.000+05:00

Our office administrator needs prayer. She is really struggling with a difficult family situation and she is running out of options. She is a 25 year old single woman who has been a follower of Jesus for over five years. She has worked in our office since February this year and she is very beautiful, intelligent, and spiritual. Why we can't find any Christian young men for her is beyond me. One of her Church elders has tried all year without success. Now her parents have decided that she needs to be taught a lesson and the best way to straighten her out is to marry her off to the most difficult Muslim man they can find. In case you thought your life was tough in any way let me give you a window on hers. She comes home every night to her family who tells her that it is painful for them to look at her. They yell at her and demean her as much as they can because they hate her faith in Jesus. She goes into her room with her cat and shuts the door every evening because she is not welcome to sit with the family. Every month she gives them her whole paycheck and she obeys them in everything they tell her to do- even when they forbid her to go and meet with believers on Sundays, which they do frequently. I met with her the other day and she was really discouraged and on the verge of panic. She had had a horrific fight with her Mom who said that she must marry this latest Muslim guy. She met with the guy and he told her she would have to quit work, renounce her faith, and stay at home. He told her to 'say goodbye to your western clothes and your friends'. Like all young girls in the city she wears western style dresses but there is a move towards a much more radical Islamic society here. The Government is fighting it but losing. Anyway, in response to her desperate situation I was reminded of a story. I will tell you what I told her.

We met Elanor over ten years ago. She was a translator on a medical project for our aid agency. She worked with a woman doctor from the West for a couple of years. During that time she became a follower of Jesus. Her parents did not know it and she kept her faith a secret for a long time. I don't remember how they found out but when they did it was bad. We did not know that they did not know about her faith. If we knew the situation we would have counseled her differently because I hate the secret believer situation and we have always worked against it. Elanor's father was a diabetic and had some serious complications as a result. The Western doctor gave him free medical care for a year but it did not help the situation. They took Elanor and locked her in her room. Her father would come home everyday from work and beat her pretty severely. Then her grandfather would read her the Koran every night. They took away her Bible, they forbid her to meet with her friends, they never let her out. This went on for months. She had one girlfriend who would sneak up to her outside window and talk, pray, and encourage her. She was even able to smuggle in a Bible but it was later found. That had really terrible consequences as you can imagine. Elanor has one of the most beautiful smiles you have ever seen. She literally radiates joy and light. This drove her family crazy. Literally. As the beatings and the harassment went on she became more and more despondent. One day, as she was crying after a particularly bad beating she called out to God and asked where He was in all of this. "Why can't I hear you anymore? Where are you, God?" Just then she heard a voice in the room. An audible voice that said in her native language of Rohan (Yes, God speaks Rohan apparently!), "It is because of your fear that you can not hear me. Fear drowns out my voice." She dedicated herself to trusting Him entirely after that. She needed to because after that the beatings grew worse and the threats to kill her increased and became much more credible. Finally, she escaped and stayed hidden in the village of her friend for three months. When she came back her mother was very grateful to have her return and said there would be no more beatings and no more discussion of her faith if only she would stay. They honored that and she lived with them for a time. Then she went to the West and did a year in a Bible College. I hate it when this happens because very often people don't come back and if they do they have a Western expression of the faith that makes no sense to their home country. Elanor did come back and immediately realized the barriers she would have to overcome. She has overcome them and now she dresses very traditionally and expresses her faith in a very culturally appropriate way. She married a very fine young man who is a sincere follower of Jesus. He probably has as beautiful smile as she does. They work together in a village to the south and the way they radiate Jesus is one of the most beautiful things I have seen in Middle Earth.

But for our office administrator we are at the beginning of this story. She has a long road ahead and many trials. The same Jesus who was with Elanor is with her and I am confident that His glory will be made known in wonderful ways in this situation.... as long as fear is silenced.

Walking by Faith with the One Who is Faithful

2009-10-16T12:30:00.000+05:00

This is going to be a complicated post with two major parts. Sorry, but I have a good story to tell and some issues to get off my chest. Let's start with the story.
Our local accountant had a premature baby last week. The little lady is just short of 3 pounds and is in an incubator in Hospital Number One. Arwen and I went to see her the other day and had a nice visit. Coming down the stairs from the fourth floor (why do they make pregnant women walk to the fourth floor?) I was reminded of Arwen's second miscarriage in 1997. It was a difficult time for a lot of reasons. In 1997 Minas Tirith was reeling from the end of the civil war. Warlords vied for control with armed gangs of men harassing everyone in sight. In November of 1997 a small gang took a Western couple hostage and eventually the lady was killed in a rescue attempt. Our NGO that was run by another agency at the time was in an uproar with broken relationships everywhere and lots of conflict. The Country of Gondor had nothing and was on the verge of being a failed state. Our team was working hard to help people and share Jesus with all who would listen. It was then that we got word that my supervisor was coming to visit. We were sure he would make us evacuate. We tried to make contingency plans to demonstrate that we were being careful. We varied our routes and times as we traveled and I walked around my car to inspect it before getting into it every time I went some where. Having said that we were never afraid and we went places that in hind sight was probably quite dangerous. Arwen was 14 weeks pregnant when my boss was due to arrive. The day before he came she began bleeding. Then she miscarried. She still cooked for us. There was a lady doctor from the West working with our NGO and she took Arwen to Hospital Number One for a D and C. The local medical system was totally nonfunctional but the doctor was able to get some things together and we took Arwen the to Hospital and walked her to the fourth floor. She had a shot of something to deaden pain and make her sleepy. She had the D and C and then, since it was November and it was darn cold outside and inside we took her home. As she started down the stairs I helped her and I said, 'Are you ok, are you still drugged?' She said she was fine. Then she collapsed and very fortunately I caught her. I picked her up in my arms and carried her the rest of the way down the stairs. When we reached the lobby there were ten chairs and more than 20 people there. I stood with Arwen semi-conscious in my arms. I told the doctor to get her car and pull it around front and I would wait here out of the rain. I was concerned that I would have to stand but when I turned back around the room was empty. Those folks did not know what was wrong with that foreign woman and they didn't want to know! I sat down in one of the many empty seats and waited for the car. The other day I told Arwen that I would write up this story but I didn't really have a spiritual point to make. She was quite surprised. She said, 'What are talking about? God provided everything we needed right when we needed it. Gondor was a mess and had nothing and yet when we needed it we had a doctor, and medicine, and support from good friends.' Well, of course she is right. God did all that and more. He always does.

So, on to my rant. A guy came to me the other day from Mordor. He said he needed help to get to the West. I asked him his story and this is what he told me.
"I am a family practice doctor from Mordor. I work with a couple of foreign doctors and I am now a believer. Only my wife knows this and I think my father a little bit. Last week my father found my Bible. He accused me of being a Christian but I denied it and said no, a lot of people want to read this book. He said no, you are a Christian I think. So, I went to the Gondor consulate that day and told them I had to leave immediately, could they get me a visa. They said no, but some guys outside the consulate sold me a visa for $800. Now my family- wife and two children- are here. We have registered with the Gondor Officials and now we have no money left. I can not get work here legally and I don't know what to do."
I asked him, 'Did anyone threaten you? I don't understand, didn't your father help you leave?' No, no one threatened him but being a known believer is a big problem in Mordor. He had to leave. I suggested that he return and he was terrified of the idea. That was out of the question.

Now, let me be clear here. I have no sympathy for this guy. Maybe I should but I don't. If you want to tell me that you are afraid ok. But if you start to tell me that the situation is hopeless I have a big problem with that. Mordor, this situation- and your situation- are not bigger than God. Is life tough? You bet it is. Can I promise that man that if he has faith then no harm will come to him or his family? Nope, I can't and I won't. But our God is faithful. He will walk through even the Valley of Shadow of Death with us. He has walked there with me more than once. Running away is not the answer to anything. Recently a friend of mine asked me what he should do in a very difficult situation and I told him. 'I don't know what you should do but the answer lies with faith. Whatever takes more faith is what pleases God and so I think you should do whatever it takes you more faith to do.' Dangerous advice perhaps but it is based not on our ability to see, understand, or act. It is based on God who is faithful. Any act of faithlessness on our part is not an indictment of our own weakness it is an accusation. When we fail to act because of faithlessness we are accusing God of being smaller than our problems and faithless to act. He is not small or faithless. Stand and see His salvation.

Arwen On Joy

2009-10-13T08:49:00.003+05:00

Most husbands, if they have any sense at all brag on their wives occasionally. I don't do this near as much as Arwen deserves so today I am posting a paper she wrote recently that surprised me. A friend of ours asked her to give advice to some struggling folks about finding joy. Rather than a three sentence e-mail reply about having hobbies or getting enough exercise this is what Arwen wrote.

Keeping Joy Alive

Before thinking about how to keep joy alive, I decided that I had better look up the definition of the word joy. Paul tells us in 1 Thess 5:16 to be joyful always, and follows with the equally challenging command – pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances.

From Webster:
Joy – 1. a very glad feeling; happiness, great pleasure, delight 2. anything causing such feeling 3. the expression or showing of such feeling.

Enjoy – 1. to have or experience with joy; get pleasure from; relish

Enjoy oneself – to have a good time; have pleasure

Rejoice – to be glad, happy or delighted; be full of joy

What gives joy?
Here are some things that bring joy according to Scripture:
1. The Lord and His presence. Ps4:7 “You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.” See also Ps 28:7, Ps 21:6
2. Ps 19:8 “The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.”
3. Our children. Prov 23:24,25 and Prov 27:11
4. Seeing justice done. Prov 21:15
5. People being healed and evil spirits being driven out. Acts 4:8
6. Coming to faith. Acts 16:34 (the jailer)
7. Salvation. 1 Peter 1:8,9 “…you are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” See also Luke 10:20
8. Finding others walking in the truth. 2 John 4
9. Being with other believers. 1 John 12
10. Other believers. I Thess 2:19,20; I Thess 3:9
11. When we know that people know about Jesus. I John 1:4
12. Being in the right place. The Israelites “joy was complete” when they returned from exile. Neh 8:17
13. A cheerful look from others. Prov 15:30
14. When others are concerned about us. 2 Cor 7:7
15. The love of friends. 2 Tim 1:4; Philemon 7
16. Perfume and incense Prov 27:9

There are many other references to joy in the Scriptures, not to mention all the references about rejoicing.

My thoughts about things that bring joy
Prov 21:15 says that “when justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous…” When I read that I recognized that the opposite of that is also true, that when injustice is done it brings heartache. In this country we see a lot of injustice. People are treated unfairly and wrongly accused every day. For me, that is one thing that makes living here so difficult. I see people being treated unjustly and there is nothing that I can do about it.
We can see what other things steal our joy by looking at the opposites of other verses. For example not being in the Lord’s presence, not being with other believers, and not receiving cheerful looks can bring us down. There are so many things that can steal our joy. When we live in places that are unjust, or where we don’t receive cheerful looks or when there are no other believers then I think we have to focus on other things that can bring joy.
The presence of the Lord gives us joy. That is something that other people can’t take away from us. We cannot flee from the presence of the Lord. (See Psalm 139) Psalm 118: 24 says “This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Every day we can start the day by rejoicing that the Lord has made another day and we have been given another day of life. When I feel down I like to put on some praise music and turn the volume up. Also finding some quiet time to read my Bible or a devotional when the kids are busy doing other things can lift my spirits.
We can rejoice when we hear about others coming to faith. I used to get very discouraged when other team members were able to spend more time out building relationships while I was at home taking care of kids and schooling them. For years, when people asked me how they could pray for me I asked that I would be able to prioritize the way God wanted me too. I always felt that I should be doing more. Over the years I have learned that being at home with my children was an important role for me at this time in my life. Now that our youngest is almost 5 and we no longer have babies or toddlers I am looking forward to going out more with my husband to villages and to see the work and have opportunities to share with ladies. The concept of team is so important in keeping our joy. I can rejoice because others on our team have been able to start churches. I can also rejoice when our local co-workers and friends share about people giving their hearts to Jesus. It is easy to get discouraged when we don’t see the fruit of our labor, or when we hear about how many are coming to faith in other parts of the world. But this is just one way that Satan works against us. When we hear of things happening in other countries or in other cities in our countries, or even amongst other teams in our city, our response should be to be joyful. It is all the Lord’s work. We may not see the results of our work here on earth, but our reward is in heaven. When we get those “really cool stories” in the e-mail we should rejoice with our friends that they are seeing some fruit.
Children are a joy and a gift from the Lord. Seeing them grow and learn brings us joy. We need to enjoy the time that we get to spend with them. Wise children also bring joy. It is important for us to teach our children how to be wise. Teaching our children is important and we should not feel like we are failing if we spend a lot of time investing in our children.
Another thought about children - it is hard for us when we see that our children are not happy. Where we live there are very few English speaking kids. We have seen that many kids who come here when they are young are able to make local friends. But these friendships are usually harder to maintain during the teenage years. For one thing, the level of language needed to communicate is higher, but more than that, our kids just don’t have the same interests. Our kids have more knowledge because of their opportunity to travel and because of the things that they learn in school, and the local kids don’t have the same base of knowledge. We have seen many families (especially from other organizations) leave the field when their kids hit the teenage years because they see the need for their teens to be with other teens. We have learned (or maybe we are still trying to learn) not to be judgmental when we see the decisions that others make concerning their teens. Each family is different and there is not a magical formula that will work for all families. What we did is to send our teenagers to boarding school. Although it is difficult for us not seeing our children every day, we rejoice that they are getting the education and social skills that are necessary for them. So, I feel joyful when I know that my kids are joyful.
And, also on the subject of family, a good relationship with our spouse can, and should, bring us joy. We need to make sure that we keep this relationship healthy and take time for each other. We can encourage each other during the days when we don’t feel so joyful. I rejoice that I have a good relationship with my husband. We have fun together and enjoy being together.
Being with other believers gives us joy. We make sure to schedule time just to have fun with other international (i.e. not local) believers. We get together every two weeks on a Friday night to have dinner and play games with another American family that are our good friends. Additionally, we meet for worship with other foreigners and for prayer with our team. We like to have people over for dinner and make a point to have the families of the other English-speaking kids over often. I don’t think this takes away from our relationships with the nationals; it gives us the balance that we need and helps us to maintain our joy so that we have more energy for our national friends. Just like with our teenagers, our national friends don’t usually enjoy the same things that we do, for example, they don’t play games. When we are with other foreigners that understand us better we can receive those joyful looks and feel the love and encouragement that bring us joy.
Being with national believers also gives us joy. We love those opportunities when we can visit a local church, do Bible studies, have local believers over for dinner or visit in their homes. I can’t say it better than Paul does to the Thessalonians. “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy…How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?”

Other thoughts
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Gal 5:22,23 Also, in I Thess 1:6, Paul says to the Thessalonians, “You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.” We can receive joy from the Holy Spirit. Just as we can pray for more patience or love, we can also pray for more joy.
James tells us to “consider it pure joy …whenever you face trials”. (James 1:2) Not just joy, but pure joy! It certainly is not easy to feel joyful when we are faced with trials. But why should we consider it joy? In the following verses we get the answer – we will be mature and complete. In times when it is hard to feel joyful because there are too many trials, maybe we need to focus on the future and rejoice that we are being made into a better person through it all – mature and complete.

Thanks Arwen.

A Brief Tribute to Dr. Jerry Rankin

2009-10-07T10:08:00.000+05:00

The good folks over at SBCImpact have asked me to write for them from time to time which I consider an honor. I wrote this for them a couple of weeks ago and since I have been slow to post anything new here I will repost this for the benefit of those who did not see it on SBC Impact. I have several good stories to tell and hopefully will get time to write them down soon. In the meantime here is my tribute to Dr. Jerry Rankin who recently announced his plans for retirement as my boss.

Dr. Jerry Rankin has announced that he is retiring as the President of the International Mission Board as of July of 2010. I will tell you right up front that I am a big fan of Dr. Rankin. I was a pastor in West Virginia when Dr. Parks resigned. I was very concerned that the mission that Southern Baptists were on was going to be sidelined. We needed a peacemaker who could come in and assure everyone that the then FMB was going to be both conservative and effective. From the first vote there was controversy, but I believed then and have believed ever since that Jerry Rankin was the man God had for this position for this time.

Now, history according to Strider is a little different than history according to… well, everyone else. So, here is a part of the story you may not have heard that defines what I love about the Rankins. Keith Parks had a passionate vision to get to the unreached of the world. Missiologists had talked for a century or more about the need to get the Gospel where it had never been heard before but done little. Dr. Parks worked hard to realign our resources to get where we had never been before. But he was a bull in a china shop and the constant fighting with Trustees and everyone else made him less effective than he should have been. Maybe that is not fair, I am not his judge. I just know that when Dr. Rankin took over the FMB was split into two odd shaped entities. Traditional mission stations still flourished in a few dozen countries- though the vast majority of our resources were in Brazil, Kenya, and Nigeria. Then there was CSI. Cooperative Services International was developed by Brit Towery to reach into Communist China. It was appropriated against his will to become what was then described as the ‘humanitarian arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.’ CSI became a platform to get Christian workers to all kinds of countries that would not allow traditional missionaries with traditional missionary visas to go. It was new and it was exciting and it grew like crazy under the leadership of some of the most remarkable men of faith I have ever known. Within a few years it had three regions spanning the length of the 10/40 window. It had a linear organizational structure and it moved fast and efficiently when opportunities arose to get personnel into formerly ‘closed’ countries.

There were lots of problems with all of this but the relavant one to list here is that Dr. Rankin hated it. CSI was like an estranged relative in the FMB family. Its personnel were all ultra security conscious, some early Strategy Coordinators would not even tell the home office where they were because they believed they would compromise their security. They were probably right! The fight was on. I was appointed CSI by the way, and I still love the ethos that we had- and in some places still have. In 1997 Dr. Rankin instituted New Directions. When we first got word of this we thought our work was finished. CSI was disolved. We would be platformless in the middle of hostile territory. As we read and reread the e-mails the truth began to dawn on us however. CSI didn’t disappear, it took over! The ethos and linear structure of CSI was placed on the whole new IMB. I didn’t understand it at first but later came to a startling conclusion. Dr. Rankin hated CSI and had constant conflict with its Regional Leader but when it came time to reorganize he did what he always did. He got on his knees and asked God what He wanted. I am sure no one was more surprised at the answer than Jerry. He had wanted to reorganize to get rid of an administrative and relational irritant but heard God say much more than he bargained for. But when Jerry Rankin hears from God he moves in faith to do it regardless of the price to be paid by himself or anyone else. He swallowed his pride and reorganized. It could have been done better. No one- least of all Dr. Rankin- denies that. One problem was that while Dr. Rankin swallowed his pride the Regional Leader of CSI could not reconcile with him and work with him. If he had taken the VP slot offered him everything would have been different but it didn’t happen that way.

Dr. Jerry Rankin is a man of prayer, a man of passion for God and His glory, a man of humility and grace. When 9/11/2001 shook America he took a lot of phone calls some loudly demanding that we remove our personnel from those ‘dangerous places.’ Some insisted that Dr. Rankin not allow their loved ones to serve in those dangerous Muslim countries. He replied that that is where his own daughter was serving! He walks his talk. Dr. Rankin has now walked us through another reorganization which streamlines our support process. Through it all he never shies away from conflict, he never sways from what God is calling him to do, and he never fails to be exceedingly gracious as he does it. I am very proud to serve with this man and his wife who deserves her own post or three written about her. As long as Southern Baptist produce men and women of God like this I want to be known as a Southern Baptist.

Thank you Dr. Rankin, for your service, your example, and your perseverance. You are welcome here in Middle Earth anytime.

The Team in Amon Hen

2009-09-18T22:47:00.000+05:00

One of the coolest aspects of my job is the really cool people I get to work with. It is, or has become my job to facilitate the work of many. This was not always the plan. When I was a pastor in the West I imagined myself coming out here alone with my family, leading people to faith in Jesus, baptizing them, worshiping together, starting churches that started churches.... it all seems simple and straight forward. Surprisingly, I did an odd but wonderful thing. I allowed my basic faith in Jesus to guide my actions. Oh, you think that sounds easy? Simple? Obvious? You would be quite wrong. I remember when we set up our new team in Minas Tirith in 1997. We were immediately overwhelmed with the number of western workers who needed more care than the nationals we came to serve. We worked hard to do both. Basically, I as team leader spent more time with Westerners and the other two families stayed on task ministering to nationals. Then, in 2000 we had new families join us. It was hard. I remember during one team meeting that some of the others complained that we were taking too much time dealing with the new folks. There were all kinds of issues... I cut them off. I said in no uncertain terms that any child of God deserved our love, our respect, our loyalty. How we treated each other was a big signal to the new Church in Gondor on how they were to treat each other, how we all valued each other in the Kingdom. Hospitality is a primary value for me. My door is open to all who need to come in. My table is ready to serve all who come by. If you have not had water in three days and need a shower or need to wash clothes my house is available to you. In the 13 years that I have been on the team hospitality has been a non-negotiable value.

I saw firsthand the results of this two weeks ago when I went up to Amon Hen. Amon Hen is a town at the head of a remote valley here in Gondor. More than 300,000 people live in that valley with no access to the Gospel. This wrong is now being righted as we have a team there now. The team is made up of four couples. Two couples were thrown out of Rohan three years ago. Even though one of them was not with our organization we gave them a visa and set them up with housing. Another couple tried to go to Rohan and was unable, again we took them in and helped them with visas and language training. Another couple was worn out by the unrest in Mordor and needed a new place to serve. We took them in again. Now, we have four experienced families in Amon Hen who know language and culture already. They are fantastic folks who will see the Lord do more in that valley than I could have ever hoped to dream to accomplish myself. Two weeks ago I sat down at a long table with all of them and all of their kids and they said, "Strider, this is your Amon Hen team!" I said, 'No, this is the team that God has placed here in His timing for His purposes." This is true but it is also false humility. I should not forget why that team is there. It is because my family and our team made the simple yet difficult decision years ago to love God's people regardless of the costs. There have been costs but I would pay a hundred times more to see the people of the Amon Hen valley reached for Jesus. He deserves the worship of everyone up there. I don't know how or when they will worship Him but I know now for sure that they will hear that He is worthy to be worshiped.

Surprised by Passion

2009-09-07T20:17:00.002+05:00

I complain a lot actually. Here in Middle Earth there seems to be plenty of things to complain about. We have not had electricity in the daytime for the last five days and today someone said that could become a permanent regime. Our secretary went down to the local government office to register some guests and was told that because they were only here for three days that they did not need registering. She had already paid a $100 for the registration fee when they told her this and now they wont give the money back. Life as normal in Minas Tirith. I complain about it often. They are tearing all the old trees out of the city to widen the streets and it is a mess and it is taking away the only attractive part of our city. There is a lot to complain about. And then this happened.

I heard from a colleague of mine that his home church would not support him anymore. There were a couple of reasons for this. They said that being in Gondor was too hard on his family and they said that he did not have enough fruit to show for his efforts. I wrote to them to encourage them to support him. When they refused something in me was greatly offended. A man and his family had come to Gondor and learned the language and communicated the love of Christ (effectively I might add) and they want to take him away? But these are MY people. Jesus loves them and we MUST reach them with His truth. I was surprised by my passion for these people, for this place, for what God is doing and will do here.

So, I here and now determine that I will be thankful. Thankful for a sending organization that loves Gondor and believes in the work that we do. Thankful for the privilege of sharing Jesus in a tough place. Thankful to serve a people who are hospitable and gracious. Thankful to live on the roof of the world amidst majestic mountains and beautiful river valleys. Thankful to serve my Lord who gave up everything to serve me.

Going out of the Camp

2009-08-31T14:27:00.002+05:00

When reading Francine Rivers' book,"The Warrior", which was a fictional account of Caleb's life I was struck by a larger truth. The Israelites were given an important task, a command to take the promised land. They stopped short. By the end of the book of Joshua we see that the Israelites had won all the battles but failed to take the land. Several towns which had been taken were even abandoned and then the Canaanites had moved back into them. It must have been really hard to keep after the task year after year. I can't imagine what butchering people day after day would do to man a but of course, the consequences of not finishing the task costs Israel centuries of disobedience and hardship.

We have been given a task as well. We are to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. We have for 2000 years so far fallen short! Yes, it is hard. There are a lot of reasons to stop short. We are comfortable in the camp. We want to build up communities and organizations that we can hide in. We call it 'being fed' or 'being not of the world'. We stay busy 'loving' the brethren so much that we don't have too much time for more conquests. Beth Shemesh is a darn big and scary town. Maybe next year. Caleb had to make the offer of his own daughter's hand in marriage to the guy who would finally take it. Well, you can't have my daughter but what is it going to take for you to get out and take the next town?

I was reading in Hebrews the other day in chapter 13 and it reinforced this point for me. Hebrews 13:11-14 says,

For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

People talk about being far away from God all the time. Some people feel disconnected from Jesus and if you go into any Christian book store you will find shelves and shelves of books on what is wrong with you and how you can fix it. I think the issue is right here in these verses. 'Let us go to him outside the camp'. We sing songs, read the Word, listen to other's sermons, etc etc but where is Jesus? Outside the camp with the needy and poor is where we will find him every time. If we will stop trying so hard to make our home here and seek for a better home in the age to come perhaps we will at last fulfill his calling and go out and complete the task He has for us. It is very hard and costly. In fact, we won't be able to do it without Him. Apparently, we can find Him if we go outside the camp and serve others as He did.

God's Timing

2009-08-27T15:26:00.002+05:00

Work here is slow going a lot of times. It seems that no matter what I do people just take a long time to move from point A to point B. That goes for both humanitarian and spiritual things. It seems also that God is never in a hurry. We wait on Him to move and He does move.... in His own time. I have seen what I thought was the 11th hour come and go and yet when He moved everything was made right. His purposes were fulfilled even when I thought all was lost. He is like that and part of my sanctification is to learn to see His timing and be content.

Sam and I went to Osgiliath before I went on vacation. We did a major project there and it failed. Then we did another project and it finally succeeded resulting in a village with no access to clean drinking water being supplied with some of the sweetest, cleanest water in Gondor. After our initial failure most in the village lost faith. On the day that Sam and I stood next to a running tap and prayed a blessing over the village in Jesus' name a man came up to me and said, "You need to come to my house now." He explained that he had told his neighbors that water was never coming to this village and if it did ever come he would kill a cow. The cow was now dead and I was invited to go help eat it! Before we went in to eat the cow he told a story in front of all the other villagers. He said that after he had lost faith that the water would ever come there were only four people left who would go up the mountain to work on the pipe. One was a young unmarried women who was in bad health. As she toiled day after day she exclaimed that she would not live to see water in the village. She died two weeks before the water came. Many villagers around us had tears in their eyes as he told that story. I know I did. What kind of woman keeps working for her people when everyone else has given up? The kind of person who might listen to the Gospel? We will never know. When we went in to the man's house to eat the cow several talked about God and His will, and their very fatalistic view of life. I told them that the religious bully's of Jesus' day tried to manipulate people. Jesus said that he knew what God was really like and he told them the story of the Prodigal Son. I shared the story and I said, 'Some of us are like the younger brother and some of us are like the older brother but the Father invites everyone to the banquet. Jesus' point is that the Father is inviting us all. He loves us all. They were all clearly moved at this. Sam then shared the Gospel and they received it well- but no commitments yet!

Sam and I will go back up to Osgiliath next week. When we do we will see how the seeds we have planted are growing. I still don't understand God's timing. I don't know what I will find or how much more work will need to be done before the Kingdom seeds take root and grow into a faithful Church. I don't know about timing but I believe that that is exactly what will happen as we remain faithful to love the poor and needy.

There and Back Again

2009-08-24T09:42:00.003+05:00

I have been on vacation to the rainy cool United Kingdom and it was a great joy. We spent time with my wife's family- they are from Scotland- and had a very refreshing three weeks. At one point we took six days and went to Staithes in Yorkshire. It is a little fishing village and it is so remote that it does not have internet or cell phone coverage. Yeah, my kind of vacation! When I wasn't watching the boys play in the tide pools, eating copious amounts of fish and chips, or playing cards with my wife, her sister, and her Mum I read a couple of books and meditated on God's goodness.

The first book was Brennan Manning's newest effort 'The Furious Longing of God'. This book made its point again and again like a thundering sledge hammer. God loves you. This is all you need to know. The knowledge of God's love is what will change the world. Brennan writes passionately about this from the perspective of one who continually falls from God's grace and yet can never escape the God who is furiously longing for him. I needed to hear this for myself but also, I needed to see that all men and women everywhere are sought after by God. God is holy and that means that He is set apart from us, that He is not like us, that He is wholly other than us. Usually we take this to mean that He somehow does not have the emotions and passions that we have but I think that to the contrary it means that God loves more, is more passionate, is more emotional, is more loving than we can conceive of. Manning borrows his good friend Rich Mullins' phrase, 'the reckless raging fury that they call the love of God' and uses it throughout the book.

When I was up in Cair Andros a month ago I saw some crippled people. A hunch back with serious health problems, a few blind people, and several other physically and emotionally damaged people. I prayed to the Lord and asked Him if He wanted me to pray for their healing. He replied that if He healed these then how would I demonstrate His love for them? He longs for these broken people who are physically disabled but more importantly are in spiritual bondage. He wants me to show love and compassion for them. He says that that kind of love is what will transform the village. I am looking for ways to obey his calling. And this leads me to the second book I read.

Francine Rivers is my second daughter's favorite author. I have not read her before but I picked up her book 'The Warrior' from her Son's of Encouragement series. It is a fictional account of the life of Caleb who was granted to go into the promised land with Joshua when they alone of the 12 spies of Israel gave a good report to the people who rebelled against God and refused to take the land God gave them because of fear. When he was 85 years old he asked Joshua to give him the hill country as his share of the inheritance of his family even though that was some of the toughest country to take. While the account was fictional much of it was plausible. At the end of the book something really impacted me. Caleb had trouble motivating his sons and his clan to keep taking the land, to fulfill all of God's commands to them to totally wipe out and push out the former inhabitants and fully occupy the land. Finally, he offers his daughter's hand in marriage to the man who will take Kiriath-Sepher. This is biblical but we don't know why he felt he had to do this. In Francine Rivers' book he is compelled to do this because it is the only way to get his clan to keep on fulfilling God's command. It occurred to me that we also have a command to fulfill, to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. It must have been exhausting for the Children of Israel to keep on fighting, to keep on destroying town after town, village after village. I don't know, and don't really want to know what that much fighting and death would do to a person. There were good reasons to stop short, to turn to farming and consolidating the land they had. By not fulfilling the task the Lord gave them they crippled themselves and condemned themselves to constant disobedience and lives lived far from the blessings God had intended for them. Are we any different today? The church in the West is huge and wealthy and has a thousand different calls on its time and energy. Does she have time to take the land? Does she have the strength and will to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth? Will we be faithful to fulfill God's commands or will we like all those before us hope that our children rise up in obedience where we have fallen short.

For me and my family we can say with Caleb, 'Give us this hill country' but of course that is because He has called us to a mountainous difficult land. Someone will need to take the valleys, the plains, the islands etc. So, I will continue this blog as a record of our battles here in Middle Earth. Join us when you can.

Light

2009-07-02T21:46:00.002+05:00

Every time I see Eomer these days he has another great story to tell. A couple of months ago a cousin of his came to faith and Sunday that cousin's brother-in-law came to faith. Eomer said that this guy had come to their home during their family worship time about a month ago. He was depressed and just sat with his head in his hands the whole time, looking down and not saying anything. They supposed that he just was not interested in the Good News being shared. Saturday night he had a dream. He was standing in the presence of Jesus and light radiated from Him. He wanted to approach Jesus but he was dirty and he felt ashamed. Just when the longing to approach Jesus was about to overwhelm his shyness he woke up. He got down on his knees and prayed to receive Jesus right then. Then he got on the phone. He called Eomer later that morning and told him what happened. Eomer and his wife went down to see him that evening. They counseled him and rejoiced with him. They told him he must tell others about Jesus and asked if he was ready to do this? Family persecution is a big deal and many are secret believers for years before they get up the nerve to tell even their closest relatives about their new faith. He replied that he had called his mom and dad and all his family and told them what had happened before he had even called Eomer. Praise God who gives faith in abundance and shines His light in the darkest of places.

The Controversial Divorce Post

2009-06-30T17:23:00.001+05:00

This issue is not my issue. I don’t know why this subject touches me so deeply. But nevertheless, it does. I feel deep emotion well up in me every time this subject comes up. I don’t know why…. Or maybe I do. Let me get my thoughts down on paper (or cyberspace) and see if I can make sense of what is going on inside of my heart. This post should have been several posts but here it is all at once. Don’t feel you have to read it all at once!
The Gospels bring up the subject of divorce several times. Jesus uses the sin of divorce in the catalogue of sins that we underestimate in Matthew 5. Murder is bad but so is anger, adultery is bad but so is lust, divorce is a sin equal to adultery when the person remarries. Divorce shows up several other times. Jesus is asked about divorce in Matthew 19. He makes the point that while Moses allowed a certificate for divorce this was the result of man’s sinful condition. Divorce was never the divine plan. In all of this Jesus brings us to see the beauty of Marriage. Marriage is one of the highest goods that man can attain to. A husband and wife submitting to one another, serving one another, loving one another is a powerful blessing in the world. It is a picture of the oneness we were meant to have with God. It is at once a reality of love lived and a picture of love as it should be. Because of this our enemy hates it. He attacks it mercilessly and as a result he has succeeded in destroying many marriages throughout history. Divorce is the death of the unity and love that God intended for us to have. Jesus makes it clear that this is sin. Everyone who has been divorced understands this all too well. It is painful and devastating. Preachers declaring divorce to be a sin is like a scientist publishing a paper declaring fire to be hot. Duh. So far, I have said nothing that I know of to be controversial. Christians and non Christians in every culture around the world understand that divorce is wrong and that it is devastatingly hurtful to all involved. It is a sin- something that God does not intend for us. As Christians we understand that sin is rebellion against God and His ways. When we sin we are separated from God. As sinners we are separated from God and His family, His purposes, and His plans. Rebellious sinners live as enemies of God. Jesus whole point that he was making in Matthew 5 was that we are wholly separated from God and what God has intended us to be.
I am notorious for introductions that are too long. I stand guilty again! Now, on to the point. Divorced people like all other sinners can be saved. The sin of divorce is covered and forgiven by Jesus through His death on the cross. Sinners can be saved and used by God for His Kingdom purposes. We have the privilege of cooperating in our Father’s business. We become Ambassadors for Christ and ministers of reconciliation. We are made a ‘Kingdom of Priest’. I get excited about redemption. I love redemption stories. I love stories where the bad guy, instead of being killed by the good guy, is converted, joins the good guy team. There are not many of these stories and yet, I am in one myself! I was the bad guy, an enemy of God. I was in rebellion and even after my ‘salvation’ I continued to rebel in many different ways. And yet, here I am a servant of the most high. His grace truly is sufficient for even me.
But in the Church in the West today grace seems to have different meanings for different people. Just the other week I was in a conversation with good friends who love the Lord and they were arguing that there were ‘consequences’ for divorce. Sin was forgiven but the consequences must remain. Divorced people could not be pastors in the Church. In our organization divorced people can not be appointed as career Missionaries. The sin of divorce can not be undone. There was a time when I understood and agreed with this. Then there came a time when I didn’t understand this but still agreed with it. Then there came a time when I didn’t understand this and stopped agreeing with it. Now I seem to be coming to a time where I do understand this and I hate it with a great hate. As I have said before this is not my issue. I am not a divorced person. But somehow this issue is coming to represent a larger issue for me and the Church that I love. For me, this issue is not about divorce but about salvation. It is about the sufficiency of the cross of Christ. Let’s take this issue point by point.
First, let me reiterate that divorce is a sin. This is scripturally true and experientially true. You won’t find many divorced people who say, ‘Hey, that was fun. Let’s do it again!’ Divorce is so enormously destructive that it is one of the few sins all people everywhere can agree on. So, let’s move on. Second, sins can be forgiven. Forgiveness of sin is not some automatic stamp that comes down out of the sky however. Peter calls the Israelites to believe and repent. Belief is very important because if you don’t know that your sins can be forgiven you won’t ask for them to be forgiven. You must have faith in the Cross of Jesus. It is belief in Jesus suffering and death on the Cross that enables God’s work to be done in our hearts. It is faith that opens up our hearts and minds to inviting the Holy Spirit to come into our dead souls and bring us to life. Faith is a gift of God- but we can discuss election and the ‘how’ of the gift of faith another time. For now, most of us agree that by faith we repent of our dead useless lives and receive salvation. Salvation is the cleansing of our sins, the joining of ourselves into God’s family and the restoration of our souls from lonely, isolated death to eternal life in relationship with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I am sure I could have worded all that better but again, we pretty much agree with that so let’s move on. Third, once we are saved we are redeemed to walk in the ‘good works’ that He has prepared for us. He saves us for a purpose- His purpose. Getting to go to heaven is a shallow and inadequate view of salvation. He saves us to eternal life now. Now, we are in relationship with Him and now He is working in us and through us to achieve divine plans and purposes. The Holy Spirit not only cleanses us from sin but He gives us gifts with which we serve the Body of Christ, His Church.
Here is the deal. If a guy commits murder and then gets saved we give him a place to speak. He encourages us with his story of God’s saving grace and we rejoice. If God so calls him we make him a pastor, a deacon, a missionary. We love this guy! He reminds us of how great a love our God has for us and just how powerful that love really is. Same thing if a guy is a drug addict, or a pimp, or a gangster, or a lawyer. God’s grace is sufficient for those guys so that encourages and inspires the rest of us. But not if he is divorced, not in Southern Baptist life anyway. Not in a lot of churches in fact. If a guy is divorced there are consequences. I have actually heard people in the Church say that in spite of a persons gifting, and regardless of whether they believe they are called they can not serve as pastors, deacons, or missionaries. They believe the Word forbids them to serve in these roles.
So, now I am to the place where some of you probably think I should have started. 1 Tim 3 lists the qualifications of pastors and deacons. The ESV says in 1 Timothy 3:2-3:
Now a bishop must be above reproach, married only once, temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, and apt teacher, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, and not a lover of money.
It goes on in verse 4 about managing his household etc but this is enough to be getting on with. Now, the problem for what I am talking about is found in the second qualification; married only once. The Bible translators left no doubt about what they thought when they translated this. The Greek that Paul wrote said, ‘the husband of one wife’. It is interesting to look at the history of how this has been interpreted. Today it simply means that anyone who has had a wife, divorced her and remarried another woman is disqualified from leadership based on this passage. But in SB life today we go further. Not only is anyone who remarries disqualified but if a man marries a divorced woman he is then disqualified but more than that any divorced man is disqualified even if he remains single after his divorce. We don’t interpret any other qualification on the list as strictly as we do this one. A guy steals and repents then that is fine. A guy commits adultery, is a bad tempered, loud mouthed, obnoxious jerk and he gets promoted to the bigger church with the bigger salary. Our society rewards the ‘big’ personality. On alcohol we are again pretty strong. The verse says ‘not a drunkard’ but anyone who believes that it is ok even for someone else to have a drink and we pretty quickly toss that guy out. But I am not concerned about our stance on alcohol. I am very concerned about this idea that divorce is the one sin that can not be forgiven. I know, I know, no one is saying it is not ‘forgivable’ they are just saying that it has ‘consequences’. Well, lets look at the ‘consequences’. As we look at 1 Tim we see that Paul is concerned with the character of the person chosen to lead. This matches Jesus emphasis on the ‘heart’. All of the qualifications are character qualifications- except for the divorce one. Or is it? When Paul requested Timothy to look for a godly leader is he concerned about his past marriage record or with his current character? I believe that as we read this in context we see that Paul is wanting a leader that is a ‘one woman man’ (this is a much more literal translation than ‘married only once’). We all know men in our society that are decidedly NOT that. There are men who view women as conquests, men who keep looking over the fence regardless of who they are married to. This is the person Paul is warning us against and quite honestly we should heed that warning much more carefully. But more than this, this list is not a set of laws that are carved in tablets of stone. Quite honestly, taken as laws set in stone no man has ever qualified to be a leader! Who has never lost his temper? Who has never coveted or been greedy? Many of you reading this are Americans so be honest! A bigger problem for me as I plant churches in a Muslim country is that a man be of ‘good reputation’. Anyone who becomes a follower of Jesus here is considered to have sold his faith, betrayed his people, and become a ‘kofir’. So, there are no men of good reputation in the Church! Is it Paul’s desire that we not have leaders in the Church here? Of course not. He was laying out the general characteristics of the kind of man that Timothy was to be looking for. We should heed his advice but we should not make his advice a law. What I am saying is that we already do this with all the other qualifications. It is just the husband of one wife qualification that we refuse to budge on.
Let us look now to the truth of the situation. Does the divorced and remarried man have more than one wife? My answer may surprise you. I contend that it depends. Remember what I said above about salvation? Faith is needed for repentance. What if the divorced person believes his sin to be beyond repentance? What if he believes that this sin is beyond forgiveness? I know guys like this. I know guys in the West who have told me straight to my face that they were beyond help. They had divorced and remarried and now they could not undo what they had done. They gave up on the Church and sent their children hoping against hope that their children would do better. The logic goes like this: A man gets divorced and then remarries. He repents of the sin of divorce but there is nothing he can do about the sin of remarriage. Everyday he is committing adultery with his second wife and it would be wrong to leave her and wrong to stay with her. I firmly believe that there are many men and women who feel this way even if they never express it this way. So, what is the outcome? Men and women marry and divorce, marry and divorce again never seeking repentance and forgiveness because they have no faith that there is any forgiveness for them. I know, I know, your church doesn’t teach this. No, your church just declares that a divorced person is unfit to be a deacon, pastor, or missionary. ‘Welcome divorced people we have a great class just for divorced people. Go in there and don’t bother us anymore.’ I know this is harsh but I have met many divorced people who feel this way. The result is that 75% of second marriages fail. Why? Because they never dealt in repentance and humility with the issues that killed the first marriage. For these people they are not the ‘husband of one wife’. The broken relationship with the first wife is still there like a millstone around their necks. Often they are bitter and hurting and no, they are in no position to be leaders in the Church.
But what about real repentance? What about the man who looks deeply into his sinful heart, sees the evil there and begs forgiveness and cleansing? Can it be found? The Bible leaves no room for doubt here. Romans 8:1 says that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:17 declares that we are new creatures in Christ- the old has passed away behold all things are become new. Is divorce a sin? Yes. What happens to sin once we nail it to the cross? It is eradicated. It is removed as far as the East is from the West. For the man or woman who has been divorced and truly sought forgiveness and healing I firmly believe that it is wrong to accuse them of divorce anymore. I believe that the person is a new creature. In Romans 7 Paul uses the issue of divorce to illustrate our sinful predicament. We are married to sin and Satan and only by death can we be set free of the contract. Jesus died on our behalf to set us free. Maybe this is why the issue is a big one for me. If there are ‘consequences’ for the sin of divorce how can I be free of the consequences of my sin?
The only consequence of sin for the follower of Jesus is the Cross. This I believe and this I proclaim. If you are weighed down by sin in any way then you must give it to the Cross. Only Jesus blood can atone for sin. To declare that there is any other consequence of sin is to declare the Cross inadequate. I will not do this. I know that there are many good and gracious leaders and teachers who have searched the scriptures on this and come to a different conclusion. I believe they have come to the right conclusion about the nature of divorce but they have misunderstood the radical nature of forgiveness. For all you divorced people out there I think that when someone says, ‘hey you can not serve because of your divorce’ then a proper response is that Romans 8:1 declares there is no condemnation. No one has a right to condemn what Jesus gave his life to forgive. If sin is forgiven then one must conclude that divorce is either not sin or that it is not forgivable. I reject both of these options on the grounds of the Biblical witness and the Cross of Jesus Christ. Divorced people must use their gifting to fulfill their callings. The Church must help them to do this, not stand in their way in the role of the accuser of the brethren. There is one ‘Accuser of the Brethren’ and his name is not Jesus. We are those who offer grace and forgiveness. So, offer it and don't hold back.

Michael Jackson and a Love Not Found

2009-06-26T09:25:00.001+05:00

Michael Jackson is dead at the age of 50. This is a very sad tragedy. He died after a life of seeking acceptance and recognition. He never believed that he was loved and beloved. He was always striving and seeking for that which, even with all his immense talent, he could not earn. His search for love and acceptance drove him to great heights as a musician and great depths as a person of destructive addictions. I wish he could have known the truth.

There is a scene in the movie The ‘Jesus’ film where Jesus is sitting on a bench or wall- hard to tell what- and there are several women sitting next to him. It is an uncomfortable scene to watch with Muslim men here in Gondor. Jesus is completely culturally inappropriate. These women are obviously ‘loose’ women and they are sitting so close to him they are touching him. He reveals no shame or disdain for them at all. On the contrary, he is teaching them about the Kingdom and seems to be enjoying himself. From everything I know about the Gospels this surely did happen. Jesus ate and drank with prostitutes. As I watched this scene with some coworkers recently – all men- I joked that that is fine for Jesus but if any of us are ever found to be on that bench with those women we will be fired! And yet this is the God whom we represent. A God who invites, accepts, welcomes sinners home. His love and his invitation are not dependent on our works, our character, or our understanding. His love is.

We use words to describe God like ‘glory’, ‘majesty’. ‘righteous’ and surely all these words and many more describe Him as accurately as mere words can. But there is so much more to our God. I wish Michael could have understood that he was invited, and accepted, that there was a place for him sitting next to Jesus. I pray that the men and women of Gondor can understand this. It is the only way they can repent and turn from the sin that is killing them. I pray that I could really believe this kind of love and invitation. Can I be welcomed on the bench? Can I sit so close that I touch him? Will he laugh and tell me of his love for me or will I be asked to move over and make room for someone more worthy? Everything about the Gospel revealed in the Bible says that I will be welcomed. Why is that so hard to know and understand? Michael never heard this- even though growing up in America he surely heard it many times. I pray that I will live it much better, much truer, and offer it much more boldly.

Remember Your 5!

2009-06-19T14:28:00.002+05:00

Remember your five is a slogan. Generally, I don't like slogans, methods, formulas, etc. They seem artificial and impersonal. But the reality is that we are creatures of habit. We all respond well to formulas, slogans, and methods like it or not. 'Remember your five' is a slogan that many of us in our region have been championing for some time now. It means that we should remember to pray for five lost individuals that we are asking God to save. I have been praying for five and reminding others to pray for five for six months or so now.

Back in March I visited a team down in Belfalas. They were struggling with a great problem. Several people had come to faith in different communities around them and they did not know exactly how to bring them together in a Church. The decision was made to not bring them together in an artificial group run by foreigners but instead to see that each individual in his or her own community would lead others to faith in their community and start separate churches. This of course, is slow work. How will the individuals relate to each other and support each other until new Churches are formed. The foreigners were at a loss as to what to do. They could disciple the individuals but how could they get them into community? Community is essential. When the religious leaders asked Jesus what was the greatest commandment He couldn't give them just one. He said that they must love the Lord with all their hearts- AND their neighbors as themselves. You must do both. If we would be real disciples of Jesus we will love God and we will love each other in community. This is what real Church is. The living out of this 'second' commandment.

I went back down to Belfalas this last week and asked them how it was going. It turns out that the foreigners did not have a clue as to how to solve the problem but God did! They taught the individual Christians in the scattered different communities to 'Remember your 5.' The result was that as these Christians were praying for their five people they felt burdened and overwhelmed. They began to meet with each other to pray for each other and encourage one another. They have not started one big church- they live in different villages- but they meet to encourage one another on a regular basis to pray for their five and to pray that God will raise up a Church in each one of their communities.

Man's problems are messy, God's solutions are always elegant. Do you have five you are praying for? Remember your five.

Weddings and Answered Prayer

2009-06-02T15:14:00.002+05:00

Eomer just came in to see me as I was catching up on all my financial reports and administrative work. So yeah, I told him to sit and talk to me as long as possible. He had a good story to tell. I wrote a few weeks ago how he had devised and presided over a Christian wedding between believers that was acceptable in the eyes of the onlooking Muslim community. I finished that happy story with the story of another couple who were not permitted to do this as their foreign pastor felt that it was compromising the Truth. Eomer just informed me that the Bride AND Groom came to him and asked him to help them do a Christian wedding in the Bride's village. Apparently, neither set of parents was happy to have the couple marry in the Christian Church with a Western ceremony. So, they will go to the Bride's village this weekend and have a Christian wedding that honors the cultural traditions of the village. Eomer is excited. I am excited. The foreign pastor is annoyed but he wont stop them. We have a team in that village and this is going to be a great witness for Christ there as these two young people honor their parents and lift up the name of Jesus at the same time. We prayed this would happen. Why are we surprised? It is funny to me- in a desperately sad kind of way- that no matter how many times God has proven Himself faithful we still are surprised when He is found to be..... faithful yet again. We should pray more.

On the road again

2009-05-24T16:19:00.001+05:00

Well friends, I am traveling again but when I come back next week I have some good stories to tell. Our King is on the move!

Weddings: The Joy and the Challenge

2009-05-14T16:59:00.003+05:00

One of the really cool things about my job is the learning of a new culture. I have enjoyed going to weddings and funerals and all kinds of important life events here in Middle Earth. I know the Culture of Gondor better than most other Westerners on this planet and yet, I am still learning new things all the time. No matter how much I know I am still not a man of Gondor. I am an outsider. I must be yet a learner.

One of the great challenges of a new Christian community is how to behave in their culture. We are no longer 'of the world' but we are still in it. Years ago missionaries came to new cultures and by way of converting them to 'Christianity' the missionaries would teach them to read and write, wear Western clothes and reject all local traditions that the missionary did not understand. We have come a long way in our understanding of the Gospel in culture since then. Well, some of us have.

Eomer is becoming a great man of God. I have known him for eight years now and I have seen God work miraculously to take him from a self-centered materialistic guy to become a true saint. His influence has expanded in the Church here in Gondor and he has especially become an expert on how to have a Christian family while still living in a broken and lost community. Recently, he was asked to officiate a wedding between two believers in a town just south of Minas Tirith where we live. There had been a couple of weddings between believers before but no one was very pleased with how everything came off. You see, some of the more traditional groups teach that if you will have a Christian wedding then you can do none of the cultural things that are so important to the locals. Many Christian couples leave their community and get married rejecting their parents and shaming their families. For some, if you do not do the traditions then in the eyes of the community you are not really married and are living in adultery. In the eyes of the traditional Church all the cultural things are 'Islamic' and to do them is to compromise your faith.

Eomer was convinced that with a lot of input, and a lot prayer he could devise a Christian wedding that would satisfy the onlooking Muslim community. Two weeks ago we went to a truly wonderful event. Two young believers from different Churches were married in a very culturally traditional ceremony. Eomer brought in an older man from a different town and he dressed in traditional clothes. This man was a pastor but when the Muslim Grandfather of the bride saw him he exclaimed, 'Oh, This is going to be a proper wedding!' He knew his daughter was a believer and had assumed that she would not get 'properly' married. The older man came in and gave a blessing. Then the two families broke bread- which is the official engagement ceremony. The pastor then took a cup of water and said a prayer. He read a verse of scripture from the Holy Book about how Jesus offers us living water and then they all drank from the cup. This essentially 'baptized' a very folk Islamic practice. It was interesting to me that they baptized several of these kinds of practices but other practices they refused to do. In the end all the Muslim onlookers were satisfied that these two young people were officially married and all the Believers rejoiced to have a wedding that fit in their culture and yet lifted up Jesus. We danced, sang, and partied all day.

A week later one of the women who were there went to her pastor here in Minas Tirith. She was to be married in a couple of weeks and she wanted to do the same kind of wedding. Her pastor- a European man- said no. All cultural practices were Islamic and any compromise with them was a compromise of the Gospel. This young lady is from a village and she said that if she is married in a 'Western' wedding then she can never go home again. That was irrelevant. Her future husband backed the pastor and so she went to her father to see what he would say. He was surprisingly understanding. He knew she was a Christian and would do things differently. He asked only that they keep one tradition. Could one man from their village go to the breaking of bread ceremony and receive promises from the grooms family that they will treat the bride well. The pastor's answer was an unequivocal no. This was a 'Muslim' practice and they would not compromise. She came to me in tears asking if I could intervene. I told her that I could not. This guy has never listened to me before and he will not now. I told her no matter what she did she was always welcome in my office and our house. This meant a lot to her as she was facing two groups who were willing to reject her forever for making the wrong decision. She will get married two weeks from now. When she does she will never be able to go home again. I wish I could say this was for standing up for her faith but I am afraid that actually she will be banned from her village and her family forever for standing up for European culture. To me, that is a pretty sorry thing to be persecuted for. It is easy for me to see how this European pastor is blowing it. It is less easy to see all the ways that I am yet blowing it. Lord, give us wisdom to proclaim the Gospel- and nothing else.

The Breaking of the Fellowship

2009-05-06T14:11:00.002+05:00

I started this blog to tell a story. I hoped that by telling my story- indeed the story that God was telling in and around my life- that you would be encouraged, challenged, changed. This Spring has been a difficult chapter and as many of you have noticed I have written very little of it. Five years ago I began a fellowship with four men of Gondor, a national staff of believers. We have seen and done things of Epic proportions. We have succeeded and we have failed in big ways. We have grown closer than brothers but I always knew they were not mine. They were on loan from the King for some very special purposes and then they would have to move on. That time came in January.

Frodo is really from what I call Ithilien. He lives in Gondor but does not belong here. Merry is not in fact, a disaster management specialist or a community development expert- he is a musician with a unique talent for recording and dubbing. I knew that they would go and work in those fields one day. Well, that day has come. Frodo now runs a taxi service to Ithilien. He will have 18 plus hours on the road to share with his countrymen as they travel to and fro. He will have a few days rest time each week to stay in Ithilien and share his faith there. I am very excited for him. Merry has started a studio. He is currently working on dubbing the film 'Gospel of John' into the local language using professional actors. I am very excited about the project. We have often used the 'Jesus' film but it is almost 30 years old now and the cinematography is quite dated. 'John' will be a great tool. It is the whole Gospel of John put to film- not an adaptation, the actual Gospel is the script.

This leaves Sam with me alone. He is a great evangelist but he is not able to run projects on his own. For now, I am going with him. I love that but as the Country Director for our Aid Agency I don't really have time all the time. We need a new team. That will be hard to build again. But it is important to know where we are in the story that He is telling. I could offer more money, whine and cry, and get the team back. I could keep things exactly as they have been and everyone would say, 'Oh well done! Keep up the good work!' But I will not, must not do that. God is telling a story in each of our lives and we are each a part of a larger story that is going on. When we make the story about us we begin to manipulate, strive, and contrive. When the story is His story we are free to let go, to fail, to fall, and to wait for a resurrection. So now I am waiting. I know that this year is a crucial year for Gondor- indeed much of the world. As the financial crises has revealed the false god of money to be unreliable and false, we have an unprecedented opportunity to share the truth to those desperate to know. To offer real food to those who have been sated with empty promises for so long will be a great joy. I am not sure how I will do this, where I will go, and who I will go with. I need a new fellowship. I know that as I wait he will provide this for this is what He longs to do. He loves it when we love each other well and work together to accomplish the Father's will. As the story goes on I will remain a part of the Frodo and Merry's stories, if in a small way only. I have loved working with them, and learning about our Father and His ways with them. For now, I am grieving but I grieve with hope and with expectancy; expectancy that the greatest chapters in this story are the ones about to be written.

Out with the Old in with the New

2009-04-27T17:07:00.003+05:00

An amazing thing has happened in the midst of the world-wide economic storm that has raged. My organization has authorized me to get a new vehicle. Wow. That is grace! I have been driving a 1995 Nissan Pathfinder since 1998. What a great vehicle! It has really served us well. We bought it in during our first year here in Gondor. The American Ambassador's wife owned it and due to security risks was not allowed to drive it much. We bought it for $18,000. That was a good deal for a tough four wheel drive vehicle back then. We have racked up over a hundred thousand miles on it on the worst roads on this earth for over ten years now and it is pretty tired.

The first big trip it went on we drove it out to central Gondor and back. It forded rivers and went over landslide areas with ease. It was an unnerving thing to be driving along a cliff edge a hundred meters above the river with a hundred more meters of dirt and rock hanging above you only to come to a place where it had all come down across the road. What to do? You go over the landslide which puts your vehicle at a 45 degree angle and when you look out the passenger side window you look straight down to the river. Oh yeah, that is when you go by faith. One time coming back from central Gondor with a friend it had rained all night while we were out there in the village. When we got on the road the next morning it was clear that the easily fordable rivers the day before were now raging. We slowly pulled out into one raging stream and the tires were not catching. We began to be pushed sideways when my friend said in a slightly panicked voice, 'Give it the gas man!' I did and the tires caught and we pulled up on the other side of the river no problem. After years of this kind of abuse the engine had lost a lot of zing and the chassy made many strange squeaks and groans so we decided to retire it to the city. I went out to a very remote village in another vehicle and it broke down. I spent the night out there and the next day the team had driven the Nissan out to find me. They found me, I got in the car and we turned the corner and sunk the Nissan in the river. That is a long story that I told on an old blog post (The Dwimorberg 3/29/07). But in the end a truck pulled us out and we made it home. There was water in the headlights for a year after that. It prompted a lot of questions whenever I would pull up some where!

In the end we did retire the Pathfinder to the city. It doesn't go uphill real well and it no longer has 4x4 capability but I have greatly enjoyed the gift of this vehicle over the years. There are many people in Gondor, Ithilian, Rohan, and even Mordor who have heard the Gospel because the Nissan Pathfinder was able to get me there- and it always got me back.

Tomorrow I will go and pick up a new Mitsibishi Pajero. May it go- and come back- just as faithfully. My promise to all who support us through the Lottie Moon offering and the Cooperative Program is that I will share the Word faithfully everywhere this car takes me.

For HIm Who Has Ears To Hear

2009-04-15T13:49:00.002+05:00

Frodo came by this morning and told me a story. Recently he and Sam went out and were speaking in a home. The host was up and preparing tea and food while they sat in the guestroom. There was a man there and Frodo began speaking to him. He looked at Frodo intently and Frodo was surprised by this man's intensity. So, Frodo began to share the Gospel with him. He didn't ask questions but kept looking at Frodo intently, clearly interested in what he was saying. Frodo went into detail about the love of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for this man. Still the man did not ask questions or respond. It turned out he was a deaf mute. Sam still can't stop laughing. For those of you wondering, no, the man could not read lips either!

Yes yes, it is back to the beginning- we never get far from the beginning it seems- Gospel proclamation is a dialog not a monologue.

From Learners to Doers: Discipling on the Go

2009-04-04T15:42:00.002+05:00

My wife Arwen is annoyed with me often. Yeah, I know I am pretty annoying much of the time- for instance, here it is a beautiful Saturday and I am typing a blog post instead of playing with the kids. Shoot, I even annoy myself. But on the point she is most often annoyed with me, I am standing firm. I am not putting in a plethora of job requests. I really don't want lots and lots of Westerners out here. That doesn't sound right does it? One of the first things Jesus asks his disciples to do when considering missions is found in Luke 10:2- we are to pray for more laborers for the harvest. So, why wont I put in more job requests? Well, first of all there are some more people coming to join us. I do have one or two coming along. I need the help and support to keep all the balls in the air. But a friend of mine says that everything you need to know about missions is in the book of Acts. That might be an overstatement but the sentiment is right. Look what I found the other day....

Acts 20:4
He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Beroea, by Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, By Gaius from Derbe, and by Timothy, as well as by Tychicus and Trophimus from Asia.

Beroea, Thessalonica, Derbe, Asia? All these are places where Paul first brought the Gospel. All these guys were guys who came to faith through Paul's ministry and then it seems he brought them along for the work of ministry. He did not, as far as we know, write lots of letters back to Antioch and Palestine begging them to send more believers. He used the resources available in the harvest. It took a long time. It was years- estimates vary but it was probably many years- between Acts 9 and Acts 20. During that time it seems that rather than publish alliterated 7 point book studies Paul grabbed the disciples and went to work WITH THEM.

I am getting challenged a lot lately to get more laborers into the harvest by putting out more job requests and getting more Westerners here. Well, God may in fact, be calling some. But the strategy I am following is from the book of Acts. It is Jesus and it is Paul. It is finding men and women of faith and getting them into the Word so that we can immediately go out into the fields and begin working. It can be argued that a farmer needs to know a thing or two before he starts plowing but it is beyond argument that a farmer will never know what he needs to know about farming until he gets out there are starts plowing.

We must be learners. We must be in the Word reading, studying, praying, learning, growing. But until we are doers of the Word and not hearers only (James 1:22) we will not be true disciples. We will be deceived by our own intellectual sophistry as our world revolves around us. We must get out and obey the Word of God for only this is walking in faith. In order to fulfill Christ's command to go and make disciples we must bring men and women from the point of learning to the point of doing. Only then will they be Children of the Living God. As I go and do then it is imperative that I take true disciples along with me that we together may become what He is calling us to be.

A few years ago I went with Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pipen down to Anfalas. We began work there and the project lasted about seven months. During that time we lived together Tuesday through Friday. We camped out in the village, we got up early and prayed. We ate breakfast together and studied the Word. We sang songs of praise and worshiped together. We loved each other and served the villagers daily. After a few months of this Frodo said, 'Strider, every week we go down to Anfalas and pray, worship, learn, serve, and grow together. Then we come back on the weekend, drive half-way across town and meet with a bunch of people we barely know for an hour and a half and we call that church. That is not church, what we do in Anfalas is church!' We have been struggling with the reality of that observation ever since. Since that time we have each started our own house churches. We have each tried to encourage one another to love and good works. We have each tried to discover what the Church in Gondor should look like. This is real discipleship. These learners are on the go.

Bottom line for this post? If we will truly go from learners to doers then church cannot be a Sunday meeting- not even primarily a Sunday meeting. Church must be our life in community on the go. Only then will we be making disciples who are doers and not hearers only.

Oops! My son just came looking for me. Looks like I will go get out in the sunshine after all. Going and doing can be a lot of fun, you know.

Enmity in the Camp

2009-03-17T09:23:00.003+05:00

Frodo got the call from some friends in Anfalas a couple of weeks ago. There was big trouble. The believers were fighting and it was a bad scene. Ok, I thought, nothing new here. They have fought before. We understand that the Church is the Body of Christ. The enemy hates Christ and hates His body with a great hate. It is not surprising that the enemy would try to cause division and to try and prevent the Church from doing what it is primarily supposed to do; love God and love one another. So, Frodo, Sam, and I jumped in the car and drove on down to Anfalas to see what could be done. I was quite confident that we would see some minor problem blown out of proportion and as soon as we put the light on it all would be put right. This is not the first time I have seriously underestimated the situation.

As we drove down Frodo related the story he heard from one of the villagers who called him. Apparently, a couple of weeks ago someone died and Fili traveled with the body back to Ithilian where they are all from originally. While he was gone Kili watched after Fili's wife and children. Fili's oldest boy is a bit of a hooligan and one day he was playing with rocks and sticks and abusing other children and Kili stepped in only to get hit himself. Kili then smacked him in the head. Fili's wife objected to him smacking her son- even if he did deserved it- and thus began the fight and the estrangement between the two families. For those of you new to this blog Kili and Fili and their families are the only baptized believers in this region of southern Gondor. They are a small church who usually meet together daily for prayer and reading the Word. When we arrived we saw that a fence had been erected between their two houses. This would have been funny had it not been so sad!

We went into Fili's house and sat and talked with them. Frodo spoke with them for about half and hour while Sam and I prayed. It was quite hopeless. Fili's wife was very bitter and angry. I winced at every word she spoke. She insisted that Kili had hit her son and when she protested he hit her as well. Fili said that they would forgive them if only they would ask for forgiveness but that he was not about to go talk to them. Frodo shared Matthew 18 with them and talked about how we are commanded to forgive each other and to reach out to the weaker brother. If Kili sinned then it was Fili's responsibility to go to him and forgive him and love him. They were having none of it. Finally, Frodo stood up and declared that he was through, there was no hope, and we might as well go. Sam spoke for a few minutes then. He also spoke like a teacher to misbehaving students- he said some good things about God's love and forgiveness- but the atmosphere in the house was toxic. The spiritual atmosphere in the room was angry and oppressive. We were not getting anywhere and I was praying hard about what to say. Then it came to me- I trust it was from the Holy Spirit- the Gospel is the power of God for salvation. The Gospel is what is needed here. I had been wanting to go down to Anfalas and share with them a simple story set of how to share the Gospel anyway. So, when it was my turn to speak I told them, 'I am not your teacher and I don't want to speak down to you.' I then in a calm voice shared the story of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, I then skipped to Jesus. I talked about Man's great sin and God's great sacrifice and redemption. The air cleared. The heaviness and anger left. Fili and his wife seemed to understand and were coming around to the concept of forgiveness in their lives. Then, as if a switch was turned back on, Fili's wife started in again. She was bitter and angry all over. Discouraged and very tired we stood up and went over to Kili's house. I was thinking, 'Man, I can not keep fighting this spiritual warfare like this- I am exhausted.' But I didn't have to. When we got to Kili's house the spirit was great. They greeted us warmly and told us what had happened. It turns out that Kili was sorry that he struck Fili's son and had apologized and had sent his wife to mediate and apologize as well when that didn't work. It turns out he never hit Fili's wife- she made that up! They were glad we were there and hoped that the relationships could be made whole again. Frodo stood up and said, 'I'll be right back!' Sam also got up and went out. I sat for a few minutes with Kili and his wife when Fili's wife came in. She came in quite sheepishly and sat near the door. I got up and went out while they worked it out. When I went outside Fili and Sam had taken down the wall between the two homes. Fili's wife apologized for lying about Kili and all was made right again. Fili himself would not go over yet though. He said he needed a little bit more time to forgive and work things through. I didn't like this at first but then I realized that this was real. He would not put on a show for the outsiders- he was being honest and I knew that that also meant that when forgiveness and reconciliation was complete it would be honest and full. We prayed together and we left. The villagers were all very grateful that we had come and several told us how good it was that we came to straighten out the believers. Many villagers are not brave enough to follow Jesus yet, but they do want the Church there to succeed. They want to believe there is hope.

The enemy is always at work trying to divide us. Light and the truth of the Gospel are our best weapons to fight division and discouragement. Different gifts and personalities in the Church caused division in the first century and they continue to today. Apparently, one of the real struggles that they have in Anfalas is that Fili shares his faith with his fellow villagers and Kili works sharing his faith in two neighboring villages. I looked at them and said, 'Hey, guys it's just Peter and Paul!' One was the Apostle to the Jews and the other the Apostle to the Gentiles. They had different gifts and callings but they were brothers in Christ and working toward the same Kingdom. We can be jealous and misunderstand one another in our callings or we can encourage one another. I'll give you one guess which one Jesus wants us to do!

What Can Pop Up At a Funeral

2009-03-11T22:34:00.002+05:00

This is a sensational story and I have not written it till now because I wanted to double check all the facts and the witnesses myself. In this world of increasing anger, violence, frustration, and hopelessness I hope that you are encouraged today.

Frodo and Sam were returning from a trip to Anfalas when Frodo received a call on his cell phone. It was his sister saying that he should come home immediately as his aunt had fallen suddenly ill and may not make it. They rushed to the house and prayed for her. She seemed to get better but two weeks later she died. Again, Frodo got the call from his sister and this time was told she was already dead. Frodo called Sam and asked him to come with him to the funeral. Sam- ever loyal and ready to go- said yes and they were off to the uncle's house. The yard was full of wailing people and the body was draped in a cloth in the yard as they were preparing to wash it and get it ready for the burial. Frodo went in and immediately got into an argument with one of the Mullahs there. He said that this woman was a Christian and he did not want a Mullah chanting at the grave. Several of Frodo's relatives are believers but most are not- and certainly none of the neighbors there were believers. So, they argued with him and Sam. They denounced them and said that they had 'sold out' their religion. They told Frodo and Sam that Jesus was powerless and that they were fools for trusting in Him. Frodo turned away from them in disgust. He and Sam went over to the body and stood over it. Frodo says he didn't know why but he lifted up his voice and prayed, 'Lord, this is not a day of mourning! This is a day for you to display your glory!' Then he and Sam went over and sat down in the shade of a tree. Less than five minutes later, as everyone- some 50 or more people- were gathered in the yard waiting for the ladies to prepare everything to wash the body, Frodo's dead aunt suddenly sat up. She says that she knew she was dead but she has not shared anything about what she experienced during that time. Everyone was very surprised and all agree that it was a miracle that Jesus brought about.

I asked Frodo if any of his relatives have come to faith since this event and he said that none of them have. He has been asked several times to come and pray for relatives that are sick but none want to hear more about Jesus. Frodo says the interesting thing is that many of the neighbors want to hear about Jesus. Frodo has a small house group that has been meeting for a couple of years. He started it to reach his family but most of them have not come. Now, he has people from families from three different Middle Earth tribes! It reminds me of the parable of the banquet. Jesus quotes the banquet giver as saying go to the highways and byways and compel them to come in. My house will be full. It will be.

One other interesting thing: Frodo says that his aunt, even though a believer was a very negative person who was always complaining. Not anymore. Since her resurrection she is always smiling, always positive, always thankful, and eager to tell all who will listen about her wonderful Lord. I trust it will not take your death and resurrection to do the same.

Lessons Learned

2009-02-27T16:11:00.003+05:00

I was recently at a conference of evangelists who are working with Muslim peoples. I learned a lot from my colleagues and I thought I would get some of these ideas down in blog form- before I forget them and have to relearn them over again in the distant future. I should start off by saying that I have long known that one of the coolest aspects of my job is the great people I get to meet and work with. This conference underlined that fact with a big black magic marker. From the first presentation to the last there was one great continuing testimony to the love and grace of our God. It was quite overwhelming.

As I sat in my seat on day one of the conference I did not know what to expect. I thought, 'If this is going to be all about methodology and how we should all do it 'this way' then I will be very disappointed.' The first guy got up and began talking about how he uses a six story story-set to share the gospel. I teared up and sat transfixed in my seat. Not because he had led so many to faith but because God had asked me to create a six story story-set in 1998. I decided to do it, tasked it to some teammates who created a 20 story story-set and because it was too big and awkward we never used it. Now, God was speaking again. DO IT! Since I have been back I pulled out six stories and have shared them several times already. It is a really great way to share the truth!

For those of you not familiar with the idea of storying the concept is really quite simple. If you want to communicate to the average Westerner then you need to share a step by step logical formula. So, the Gospel becomes the 'Four Spiritual Laws.' There is nothing wrong with that. It just makes no sense whatsoever to a Muslim. As one former Muslim once said, 'We have spaghetti brains.' I am glad I didn't say that. So, what makes sense to the 'spaghetti' brain? Stories. You can start with Adam and Eve if you want- chronological is not that important- and you can emphasis how man has sinned and God has provided salvation. The concept of the sacrifice is throughout the Scriptures starting when God slew the beast to make clothes for Adam and Eve- pointedly, to cover their shame. Anyway, as you may have figured out I am a bit of a story teller anyway so I love this approach.

But this approach is more important than a simple methodology. As I was sitting at lunch one day I was telling a story of how we were interacting in a village when the guy across the table interrupted, 'Hang on, I didn't hear the Gospel in what you just said.' 'Excuse me?', I replied. 'The Gospel. What you said was truth and it was good but the Gospel is the power of God for salvation. Only the Gospel can change people. You can tell some good stories, and you can give out a lot of truth, but you will not see changed lives until you proclaim the Gospel.' Wow. I have thought a lot about that. How many times have I told parables, or OT stories, or simple sayings from Scripture and yet never got around to proclaiming Jesus' death and resurrection. Well, sometimes you don't know if people are ready to hear that yet. We have tried many methods to 'filter' people to determine who is ready to hear the Gospel. A big lesson learned from this conference for me is that we find out who is ready to hear the Gospel by telling the Gospel! I have already put this into practice in my work here in Gondor and I can tell you it is very exciting and empowering.

Here are some other lessons learned in no particular order:
1. Go where you are invited (from Luke 10). We have ignored this one to our own peril more than once.
2. Spend the night. The vast majority of decisions for Christ happen after 10pm. They should spend the night at your house and you at theirs. If not then you don't really know each other. This is important for evangelism and discipleship.
3. Churches don't start Churches, Apostles do. I really appreciate the emphasis these days of Churches becoming more involved but it is Apostles who are sent out from the Churches who start Churches. Churches serious about getting into the Great Commission need to find, train, and support the men and women that God has called to go out and cross barriers to start Churches.
4. Find a national partner with a vision bigger than yours.
5. Fervent, desparate, 'ugly' prayer has proceeded every significant movement of people. We asked them what they meant by ugly prayer and they replied that they spent hours before God crying out to Him on behalf of their people, bemoaning the injustice and misery that they lived in apart from Him.
6. Scripture memory is essential. I know the Word really well but the guys who are seeing the most people transformed in their ministries know bucket loads of scripture and it comes out of their mouths in paragraphs concerning whatever we are talking about. I have some work to do here, how about you!
7. Stay with the Person of Peace. This is an old idea but still a good one. God is working with someone in your community: find him and stay with him.

Well, there is more but that is enough for now. I will continue to digest what I learned from this excellent conference and I will try and be obedient to God to do all He is calling me to do. Oh, in case I have not made it plain one other thing this conference has made plain is this: Great numbers of Muslims are coming to faith in Jesus Christ. Rejoice!

Pure Water

2009-02-19T17:05:00.002+05:00

Last week I was in Fair Havens for a conference. It was a really great conference and I hope to have some of the things I learned from there up on a post soon. The week before I left for the conference I went down to the village of Pure with Eormer. We had been invited by a friend to look in on the village and meet with the local mayor. It seems that the village has no water and they want us to help out. One of the many difficult lessons I am learning is to go where we are invited. It just seems that every time I force my way in somewhere we end up hitting a brick wall but when we pray and seek the Lord invitations come our way- seemingly out of nowhere- and we have a much better situation to share in.

As we arrived in the little village we were met by the Mayor and he seemed like a nice enough guy. It was obvious to me that this was a typical village situation here in Gondor: The Mayor was very secular and the villagers were very religious. I don't know why this seems to always be the case, it just is. We sat down and and drank tea and discussed the problem and the potential project together. It seems that this village has never had water but has always had to walk a couple of kilometers down the road to a neighboring village to get water. Now, I have been here long enough to know this is not the whole truth. The truth is that there is irrigation water that flows in a ditch along the edge of a nearby field and nine times out of ten the young girls going after water in the morning will take a short cut there and use that water rather than make the hike up the hill. This of course, results in a multitude of water born diseases and a very high infant mortality rate. One of my favorite sayings is 'Even though you know they are exaggerating to get your favor, the truth is worse!' So, what was the solution? The village up the hill had a big beautiful natural spring and we could tap that and pipe it down about three kilometers to this village. Sounds good, but again I have been around this block before. All natural springs in this country are holy places. There are often mullahs there offering prayer to pilgrims and very often they don't like their holy places messed up with a water project. So I asked, 'Is there anything special about the spring?' 'Oh Yes!' came the reply. 'The water is so holy that there are fish up in a pond around the spring and we can't eat them.' But of course, they will give permission for the water project, 'It is all sorted.' Maybe. So, the Mayor asks, 'What shall we do?' I said that we should pray and then go and see the spring. Instantly, Eomer and I saw the anxiety in his face. Pray? Secular mayor types don't know much about prayer even though in their culture they should do this every time they sit down, and get up from the table with guests. Eomer said, 'Strider speaks our language well. He can pray for us.' Relief washed over his face and I prayed. As I was praying God suddenly said to me, 'Don't end the prayer 'in Jesus name'. I usually do say this and it is never offensive since I am a westerner and they expect me to be a Christian. But I heard and obeyed. So, I ended my prayer with a phrase that many believers here in Gondor end their prayers with, 'in the full power of God's name, amen'. This phrase means the same as 'in Jesus name' for the believers but is not offensive to any Muslims present. I ended the prayer and we got up and left to go up to the spring.

I was amazed when we got to the spring. Here was a beautiful spot at the foot of a high mountain and water was pouring out of the base of the cliff and tumbling down in three different directions. Question number one for these kinds of projects was answered, 'Yes, there is enough water!' Question two: Will they let us cap some of this spring and pipe the water away. There was in fact, a mullah at the spring and he came over and offered us his encouragement. 'Yes, there is plenty of water and you will do no damage if you pipe some away. It will be a good deed for the village with no water.' That's good news. Then the Mullah offered to chant a surah of the Koran and pray for us. I never really know what to do when this happens. Everyone there knelt down but I just stood quietly and respectfully with my hands behind my back. I was thinking, 'Ok, when he prays will I raise my hands and say, 'Amen' with everyone else or will I not? Sometimes I do this out of respect but I always hate to amen a prayer that I usually do not understand- it is usually in at least half Arabic- and if I do understand it I usually do not agree with it- 'Lord, make us all rich' is a common refrain. So, as I stood there wondering what I should do the Mayor stepped in just as the surah of the Koran was finished and said, 'Hey, this guy is a God-fearer and he speaks well, let him pray.' I was shocked. This had never happened before. The mullah looked at me and nodded. I prayed for God to have mercy on the local villagers so that they could learn His ways and walk in His truths. Everyone said, 'Amen' and Eomer and I walked away. About 15 people heard me pray that prayer and it never would have happened had I not prayed sensitively in the Mayor's house. Eomer and I will go up again this next week to further the water project. But more important we will start telling the Story to see where God is at work and to determine why He wanted me to be recognized as an authoritative God-fearer on my first day there. I think it means God is moving in that village and He just might use Eomer and I to reap where we have not sown and gain a harvest for the Kingdom. Pray to that end for us.

Calvinistic Thinking- Perseverance of the Saints

2009-02-07T00:00:00.003+05:00

Here we are at the end of this Calvinistic discussion and no, I have not scratched the surface of the debate over reformed theology. Instead I wanted to get my thinking down on paper- eh, er, uh... cyberspace about what I think the Holy Spirit has taught me about the nature of God and salvation. The 'P' of the Tulip is my favorite- as it is with most Southern Baptist. It just seems to be something that most of us have 'gotten' about the nature of God and salvation.

The Perseverance of the Saints is an essential doctrine to many of us because it states that salvation is God's work and not ours. Calvinists and non-Calvinists alike tend to agree on this one. If we can lose salvation through our own work then salvation IS of our own work and we know it is not. The Calvinist adds to this that his soteriology is systematic and uniform on this point and that the free will/Arminian is inconsistent here. Of course, I am not going to get into too many details here but for the sake of clarity let's put a few facts down. One, the Calvinist is exactly right that once one adopts the idea that Grace is granted without condition, and that once it is granted Grace can not be refused, and once it has been given it must have its salvific effect, then one can only conclude that no action on the part of the beneficiary could possibly undo it. As far as Calvinist thinking goes the only way for one to lose their salvation would be for God to choose of His own will to arbitrarily cast them out and God is not arbitrary. So, for the Calvinist their is nothing to defend here. God saves those whom He will and He will never reject them. They will live for however long and then go to be with Him in Heaven forever. Once they are saved they will be forever saved because the nature of God is steadfast and sure.

For the Arminian Perseverance seems out of place. I submit that it is only out of place if we fail to understand the nature of our salvation- which we often do! I believe that if we understood what salvation is then we would understand why it Perseveres. We begin dead in our sins (Total Depravity, which everyone believes we just disagree on the degree). Then God calls us by His Grace (Irresistible Grace- which we all believe in His grace we just are unsure how 'irresistible' it is). We are moved by his sacrifice for us on the cross (Limited Atonement? I am convinced that we all hold the same position here; Christ death impacts all of creation and all Men but only some are saved by it). We are undone by the knowledge that we can not save ourselves and our need for a savior (Unconditional Election- again we agree more than we disagree on here, neither the Calvinist nor the non is promoting the idea of works righteousness: We can not earn election). The savior comes and gives us life. Here is the bottom line for Perseverance: Life is eternal and therefore can not be lost. John 3:16 declares that those who believe in Him have (present tense) eternal life. The reason this life must be eternal is obvious from 2 Corinthians 5:17 once we are saved we become a 'new creature'. This is very descriptive wording. A 'new creature' can not choose to become the old creature. The butterfly can not choose to be a caterpillar again. He can choose not to fly, he can crawl around on the leaf if he wants, but he will still be a butterfly- a new creature. It is not in his nature to go back and it is not in ours. So, for the Arminian who chooses to obey the call of God and for the Calvinist who has no choice but to obey the call of God our election has the same end; a new creature in Christ Jesus.

But some will throw out seemingly Biblical objections like Hebrews 6:4. The problem is two fold when passages like this confuse us: We don't understand the nature of our salvation and we don't read the whole passage in context. Let's look at it to see what I mean.

Hebrews 6:4- For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5- and tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6- if they fall away, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

This passage taken by itself seems to indicate that those who are saved can be lost (fall away) and not be able to be restored. I will repeat myself one more time for emphasis at the risk of sounding arrogant: we do not understand our salvation and that is what I think the writer of Hebrews was getting at. Look at the list, it seems fool-proof doesn't it? Enlightened- has knowledge and perhaps understanding, heavenly gift- seems to indicate God's grace in some form, the Holy Spirit? Surely this is referring to someone who is saved yes? The goodness of the Word of God- only saved people understand this surely. The powers of the age to come? Wow, we are all praying for such powers in our lives. So, this then describes one who has been saved and then of course, in vs. 6 salvation is lost and that proves that salvation can be lost. I disagree. The reason I disagree is not that this passage does not agree with my theology but rather if we look at the whole passage we see the author making a very different point here.

Hebrews 6:9-10
Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things- things that belong to salvation. 10- for God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do.

Well that's odd yes? The writer seems to indicate that salvation can be lost and yet is convinced it wont happen to the Hebrews. Why couldn't it? If salvation can be lost then surely we are all in danger at any moment of giving in to sin and throwing everything away? But the writer disagrees. He says they wont. Look at why he believes they will not fall away. Verse 10 says that they love and care for the saints for His sake. Could it be that one who 'tasted of the heavenly gift', one who has been enlightened with knowledge, one who has even 'shared' in the Holy Spirit and experienced the powers of the things to come still has not been transformed by salvation? It is not these things the writer values as an essential sign of salvation. It is the loving of the brethren that is a true sign of a transformed life. Wow! When was the last time you judged someone on their knowledge? Their spiritual prowess? How powerful they are? But what the writer of Hebrews values in making this judgment about his friends is their love for the brethren. Do you judge others by how much the love the brethren? Maybe we should since that is the one category that the writer valued.

As a short aside to this post let me say right now that this is a scary concept for me. If we judge our fellow brethren in this light most of them don't look to secure in their salvation. We have a lot of people promoting knowledge today. They say if you believe xyz then you are ok, if you believe abc we will not call you condemned but you are in real trouble and we won't fellowship with you. If you believe mno, well, that is just silly, no one believes mno so if you do you are a heretic. This is not how the writer of Hebrews judges the Church. Using his category of love those who have knowledge and power are irrelevant, it is those who love who have truly demonstrated that they are transformed- and will never lose their salvation. When I look at my fellow Southern Baptist who are willing to disfellowship so easily and NOT serve each other for almost any reason- even based on the Calvinist/nonCalvinist debate- It saddens me. Would the writer of Hebrews write to us today and say, 'Oh, of course you guys are saved, you love each other so well it is obvious' or would he say, 'Right guys, back up to verse one: These are the elemental things and you are not ready for the real meat at all.'
I believe in the Perseverance of the Saints. The real question is who are the saints? Love is the bottom line here and it seems to be a scarce commodity.

Breaking the Molds

2009-01-24T15:01:00.002+05:00

Reproduction is a key sign of a healthy Church. Anyone will tell you that out here on the field. It has become Missiology 101. You start a church and if you do it right you empower its members to trust in Jesus, hear the Holy Spirit, and evangelize like crazy. In no time at all a daughter church will be born. I have even read one guy, whom I greatly respect write that if he has not seen a daughter church start within a year he will have considered that church plant a failure. Well, that’s clear. And it is a principle that I think is a good one. But if there is one thing that I am convinced of is that God is all about breaking down our principles, rules, paradigms, and slogans. It is almost as if God believes that if we have a dependable method then we won’t need Him anymore. Trust me, God’s job is secure. We still need Him.

This last week I traveled down to Anfalas with the team. It was great to be traveling with Frodo, Sam, and Merry again. Kili and Fili and their wives were baptized in Anfalas almost three years ago. Since that time they have met daily for prayer, Bible reading, and mutual encouragement. It has been a rough road for them as they have faced persecution but they have stood strong. They are bold and fearless in expressing their faith in Jesus. We went into Kili's house and began to sing and worship together. We arrived around 6:30 in the evening and prayed, sang, and worshiped until just before Midnight. We ate bread and tea with milk in it together and even though it was quite cold outside we were warm and cozy in the small room that they live in. In the morning we got up fairly early- about 5:30am and gathered together for the Lord's Supper and some more encouragement from the Word. It was then that I asked them, 'When is someone else going to have the courage to be baptized?' Their answer surprised me a little. I thought that maybe they did not expect anyone else to join them, maybe they had grown cold in their evangelism. I was wrong. They said that they prayed for the villagers everyday by name. They went to this villager's house and then that villager's house for prayer and Bible study but they didn't like it so they would stop going there and then go to someone else's house. They prayed for the sick often. They served their community every way they could think of. I honestly did not realize how active they had been. We went out of the room and walked down the street. Almost as if to make his point with an exclamation mark Fili invited me into a home where a man had hurt his leg and could not walk. The leg was not broken and there was no sign of injury but he was in pain and could not get up. We invited Merry in as well and we told the man how Jesus came to show us the love of God. We told him that Jesus was the Son of God and that there was healing power in His name if he would believe. We laid hands on him and prayed for him. I don't know what will happen. I just know that Fili had done and said all this before. As we walked and talked to many in the village it was obvious that all the guys had been saying was true. Kili and Fili and their wives are sowing seed with tears in their eyes but to this day there is no fruit. Fili is asking us if they should leave the village and go back to the mountains where they came from. I don't know what he should do. I long for God to move in that region and be glorified by many but after three years I don't know what to say.

And yet, I do know what to say- and we said it. Two years ago Sam had a dream. He woke up in the night while we were out on a project and he woke us up and told us about his dream in a very animated excited voice- especially for 4am. He said that he saw Kili and Fili standing in the barren wasteland that is their village and they were arguing. They were arguing about what to do about the drought and they could not decide whether to go or stay. In frustration Fili hit the ground with his hoe and water burst forth hundreds of feet in the air and rained down on the village, the neighboring villages, and the whole region. Sam was convinced this was a word from God about what He was going to do in Anfalas. We told Kili and Fili to remain faithful and to be patient. God is at work. He does not work by our time-tables or by our measures of success but He works none the less.

I have my own definition for success and it is simply this: Are the men and women with whom I am working obedient to the Word of God and to Jesus? If they are then that is success. It has been three years but even if we wait for three more or if we never see huge numbers of converts I believe that the faithfulness of the two couples in Anfalas has already brought more glory to the Father than many large organizations. Faithfulness and obedience are the key characteristics in the Kingdom of God. May the Lord fill us with both.

A Missional Paradigm

2009-01-13T12:24:00.002+05:00

Many of my stories are events in my life where a significant paradigm shift happened for me. I was having a good strategy conversation with a friend yesterday when I described an event that happened a few years ago that really impacted me. I suddenly realized that I had not shared it here! So, here is a story of a significant paradigm shift in my ministry understanding. It concerns the idea of 'extraction evangelism'. Now, this may not be a concept that many of you know or understand. Extraction evangelism is really just normal evangelism, it is the kind that usually happens unless something intentional is done to stop it. What it means is that a lost person living in a lost community gets saved. Someone shares Jesus with that person and that person leaves his/her lost community and joins the community of the redeemed- usually that means they start meeting with a group of Christians whom they previously did not know. The group rejoices because this person has found Jesus and is no longer lost and their Church has now increased in size signifying God's blessing on the group.
Now, this model is very problematic in a Muslim society such as the one I live in here in Gondor. First, very often there are no Churches for individuals to join! Second, the individual's community does not usually give that person up without a fight. Family and community persecution are very common here even though technically the Government of Gondor claims to provide for freedom of religion. But the biggest problem is that once a person leaves their community to join a Christian community then that lost community is left without a witness and is now more resistant to the Gospel than ever. For all these reasons we have tried from the beginning of our ministry here to avoid extraction evangelism. But I always considered that others may choose a different path and that one EV method was not necessarily better than another. That was until....

One day we were having a meeting of key leaders in Gondor. There were about ten nationals there- mostly guys I knew well but did not work with. Quickbeam is a Westerner who works with us. He thinks very strategically and although he was quite young he impresses everyone with his spiritual discernment. As we discussed different issues I was hoping to get the national leaders to see the importance of house-churches and if we could not get them to practice house-church could we at least get them not to condemn the idea. Quickbeam asked a question:
Q: I was thinking about sharing my faith with a whole family instead of just one individual. What do you guys think of that idea?
I thought this was a really lame question. Who would say this is a bad idea? What point could be made from this. I thought this line of questioning was a waste of time. The answers really caught me off guard!
Pastor 1: Well that is a good question! You know, once I shared my faith with one guy and six months later he brought his wife to our Church and within a year she was saved too.
Quickbeam: That is a great story but I was thinking of sharing my faith with a whole family. What do you think of that?
Pastor 2: That is an interesting idea. One time I was working with a very difficult family situation. I led one guy to the Lord and then it took two years more to see the rest of his family saved but many did finally come.
Quickbeam: Wow, that is really great. But I was thinking of sharing my faith with a whole family. What do you think of this idea?
By now I was getting irritated at Quickbeam repeating his same question in the same way each time. I thought, 'Why doesn't he get to the point?'
Pastor 3: That is a good question, Quickbeam! I shared my faith with a young lady once and after many months of praying she came to our Church. After many more months several others of her family accepted Christ.
Quickbeam: I am thinking of sharing my faith with a family. What do you think of this?
Now, I was getting embarrassed. These Church leaders are surely going to get annoyed that he is asking the same question again and again. I also could not understand why they just would not answer him. Could someone not just say 'yes, it is a good idea' and then we could move on in our discussion?
Pastor 4: You know Quickbeam I have shared my faith with many people and seen many individuals come to faith in Christ.
Quickbeam: I was thinking of sharing my faith with a whole family. What do you think of this idea?
It just kept going on and on. The whole discussion seemed like one big awkward moment to me and I could not understand what was happening. Quickbeam was like a dog with a bone and none of these guys would cave in and just say, 'Ok, it's a good idea.' Why not? Finally, the meeting time was finished and we prayed and left. I was very confused. I did not understand what all of this meant. I was rooming with Quickbeam and we went back to the hotel room together. When we got into the hotel room I blurted out, 'What was going on? I don't understand why you kept asking the same question. Why didn't they just answer you?' Quickbeam replied with a very profound observation that I had not seen before.

"They couldn't reply because their ministries are built on extraction evangelism and to admit that would be to undo the organizations that they have built."

Wow. What does that mean? This sentence hit me as the most prophetic word that I had maybe ever heard. My world spun around and when it came to a stop I was looking at things in a completely new way. In Revelation 7:15 the Seventh Angel blows his trumpet and announces that 'The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah.' This means that our King is about transforming kingdoms into HIS Kingdom. We spend most of our time as 'ministers' or 'missionaries' building organizations and trying to fill them up with people. God is about transforming this world. So, what does it all mean? It means that rather than build a kingdom and hope Christ will bless it I want to see earthly communities transformed. I want to share the love of Christ with whole families and communities not so they will leave where they are and come and join me, but so that those communities will be redeemed and become a part of HIS Kingdom. As I think about this paradigm shift it is huge. I don't want to condemn anyone who is serving our Lord in traditional ways but I think that God has blessed us in spite of our efforts not because of them. I think that too often we have built our own kingdoms and called them His when in fact, we remain in control and do what we see fit to do.

In our ministry here in Gondor I have seen two Churches planted that were not founded on the extraction model- just two. One, is in a remote village and continues to this day to transform the community it is a part of. The other was a traditional extraction model Church that has moved to become a Missional Church that reaches out with the Gospel to other communities and leaves people in those communities to continue to be a vibrant witness there. Both of these have problems but they are problems for the King to solve as He is in control of them and not me. I hope to continue to grow in my knowledge and proficiency of planting Missional Churches. I hope this not because I believe they are more effective but because I believe that they better give glory to our Lord who is the King of Kings and the redeemer of the communities of this world.

My Oldest Daughter is 18 Today!

2009-01-11T11:16:00.003+05:00

This post will be a little bit self-indulgent as I am making this a tribute to my daughter Luthien. The truth is that I could call it a 'Tribute to God's Grace' but I used that on the last post! So, Happy 18th Birthday, Luthien!

Luthien was born my last semester at Seminary in Texas. She is the only one of my four children who was born in the US. Her mother went back to work teaching High School science just three weeks after Luthien was born. I took care of her between classes and my Mom helped out the rest. I remember thinking as we drove home from the hospital with her, 'What are those doctors at the hospital thinking! I don't know anything about how to raise a child and they are letting me just walk away with her!' I went on to prove those words right any number of times. We really didn't know what we were doing. It is a wonder that any of our kids survived but I want to talk about Luthien today. She is not a normal child- maybe there are no normal children. Luthien was quite different from early on. She walked at nine months and we were proud of her. She could count to ten on her first birthday. She talked very well with an excellent vocabulary for her age and she had a brilliant imagination. She would talk constantly and to anyone and we thought we had a really special child. Then something changed when she was three. She kept talking but only to herself. We put her in Montessori school and she went more than two months before she acknowledged the teacher. The other kids would get very frustrated with her and could not understand why she would tell her stories constantly but never talk to them or acknowledge them. Her sister, Goldberry was almost two years younger than her and she would sometimes find herself in the story Luthien was telling but for the most part Luthien lived in her own world. She had an imaginary horse and an imaginary friend named Vanish. I thought Vanish was a pretty clever name for the imaginary friend of a three year old.

We then applied to the IMB to go oversees and serve the Lord in Middle Earth. When Luthien's Montessori teacher put on her evaluation that Luthien was the most 'different' child she had ever taught in 16 years of teaching the Board took notice. We had to have her tested for autism. The test was negative and we were appointed and went off to Middle Earth. My wife, Arwen began home schooling Luthien and put her through Kindergarten in about 7 months. Luthien loved to read and learned quickly. She played on the street with the other kids occasionally but refused to learn the local language. I told her that we would be here for a long time and that if she was going to be happy here she should learn the language. She said, 'Nope, I am going to teach them all English!' She tried. She did not like our new life for the most part. One day she came in and ask her mother why we were here. Arwen told her that we were here to tell people about Jesus. Luthien replied that Arwen should asked her language helper to tell her how to say 'Jesus loves you' in the local language so we could tell people that and go back home!

Transition was very difficult for Luthien. She did not know the food and would not eat it. I took to force feeding her as we really believed that she would starve to death if she didn't start eating. Culture shock hit us all pretty hard but Luthien was especially despondent as we finished our first year on the field. One day I came in and she was watching TV. I asked her if she wanted me to turn it on and she said, 'No, I'm fine.' She wasn't. Home Schooling was the biggest nightmare. She had learned to read quickly but writing and math was another story. Often I would come home and I would hear Arwen teaching Luthien in the back room, "Luthien, do the next problem. Are you looking at the problem, look at the problem, 4 plus 3, what is 4 plus 3, look at the page, Luthien, look. Are you looking? Say it with me, 4 plus 3, look at the page, no, Luthien, look are you looking. What is 4 plus 3?" I fled. This would go on for hours and hours a day. Most missionaries don't like to be referred to as heroes. Arwen is a hero. Period. Later we joined a home schooling cooperative. As Luthien grew she became more, not less, socially dysfunctional. We were at a loss. I blamed myself. I thought perhaps I had done something terrible to unbalance her. Luthien was constantly preoccupied. Her little mind would never stop working and as a result she wouldn't sleep through the night. I remember the first time she did sleep through the night. She was nine years old.

As Luthien grew her education issues became more pronounced. She was virtually incapable of writing anything down. It would take hours of badgering and heartache to get her to produce two or three sentences. I remember once she was practicing handwriting and she was supposed to do a row of 'P's. She drew one 'P' and then began telling a story about a princess. When Arwen came back in to check on her she had drawn just one 'P' and it had a hat and a flower. We felt like failures and Luthien just became more and more lost in her own little world. By the time she was 12 I really believed that she would never be able to survive a classroom setting and I had serious doubts that she would ever be able to grow up and live on her own.

That year, when she was 12 we went on home leave and had her tested- again. This time a man from a local school district agreed to see her. He spent just ten minutes with her and saw the problem immediately. He said she had Aspergers Syndrome. We had never heard of it. Apparently, there is some debate as to whether it is related to Autism but it has about half the characteristics of Autism. The cure? Well, there is no cure but there were a number of coping techniques. My wife and Luthien both wonder from time to time whether she actually has Aspergers but what I say is that the interventions for Aspergers work for her so I don't care what you call it- for the first time we knew somewhat how to deal with it. She cleaned up her room. Everything had to be in order. We made out a schedule and began to give her more order in her life. Also, she was depressed out of her mind because she never slept. We did not want to put her on medication so, we would make her go to bed- but we could not make her sleep. We decided then to let her sleep in. She would sleep in till ten or eleven sometimes but when she finally got up she would complete her school work in less than half the time she normally took and she was happy. Now, we live a lifestyle that is not good for people who need structure and dependability. But we did what we could and it made a huge difference.

When she was in 9th grade she said she wanted to go to boarding school. We really didn't think she could survive. We tried internet school but that was a complete disaster. Not only did we not have good internet but we are not nearly disciplined enough as a family to get through internet school. So, the next year we sent her to boarding school- three time zones away. We didn't know what would happen. I had visions of her sitting and reading a book and forgetting to go and eat and starving to death. But she thrived. It was hard. She learned some hard lessons socially, but she grew. She changed.

She also grew in her faith. She was baptized along with her sister when she was 12. Her sister, Goldberry, was very much ready and had made a firm commitment to Christ but Luthien was hard to figure out. She said she wanted to be baptized and she answered the questions right but what was she really thinking? We didn't know for sure but I decided we would baptize her as she requested and then make sure we kept on her about discipleship. It turned out to be the right decision. When Luthien went to boarding school she consistently made good decisions and showed wisdom in her choices about social things. When she was sixteen she asked permission to date- which at this boarding school I was required to give before students were allowed to date- and I gave it. I knew I could trust her to make good decisions and she proved me right. She had been pursued by a young man who was having a very difficult time. He was about ready to quit all his classes and drop out- or get thrown out of the school. Luthien encouraged him to study. He began to study as he realized if he got thrown out he would not be able to see Luthien any more. Luthien kept a level head throughout the relationship and as a result the young man graduated. He would like to have continued the relationship but Luthien had no interest in a long distance relationship and so she broke up with him. I was proud of her for making good decisions and having a very redeeming relationship with this young man. How many of your High School relationships were redemptive?

Luthien went on to graduate from Boarding School this last June and she is now half way through her gap year with us. She is taking language lessons and finally learning the local language. She is learning guitar. She has been accepted into Liberty University in Virginia and will start there next Fall. How proud of my 18 year old daughter am I? She has faced huge obstacles and succeeded. An evangelist has said, 'David without Goliath was just a shepherd boy.' Well, Luthien has faced several Goliaths and won. The other day we had a family over for dinner. They are friends of ours with another agency and they are struggling. Their daughter has Aspergers and the Mom is at her wits end. I invited Luthien to share some of her journey with them and she ministered to that family in remarkable ways. I was very proud of my articulate, intelligent, sensitive, spiritual daughter. She is 18 today but she has faced more difficulties than many twice her age and she has overcome. She will face many more obstacles and the road ahead will not be easy but this father is not worried. Our heavenly Father is guiding, directing and creating a future for Luthien that will be special and I am sure that she will persevere.
Keep growing in love and grace, Luthien!

A Tribute to God's Grace

2009-01-04T13:33:00.002+05:00

Our office manager has left us. I suppose that is a bad thing. For us, or for me it is a great tragedy as now I have to manage the office and try desperately to find a replacement before our entire operation implodes. But on the other hand maybe her leaving is not a bad thing. Not in the eternal perspective anyway. If I can take my eyes off of me for a second maybe her leaving is a great testimony to God's love and grace. Let me tell you her story and you can decide.

We started our aid agency in 1998 here in Gondor. I met with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs guys filed the paperwork myself. It became clear really quickly that we needed a dependable national person to represent us to the Government and keep us in sync with the laws of Gondor. I was perfectly happy to hire non-believers for a number of positions but I really wanted our office manager to be a believer who would represent us well (with integrity and honesty, concepts that completely escape normal operations of business and Government here in Gondor). Now, interestingly enough our team had decided that we would not teach English here. We had taught English in other countries but had decided that the Boss was not leading us to teach it here. So, I was very surprised when after being here a whole five months that Gandalf and his wife came to me and asked to start an English Club. They said that the Boss wanted them to do this just this one time for a limited time- maybe six months. That is what they did. Gandalf said they were led to study the book of Job in English Club. Weird. They did it in obedience to what the Boss was saying and six months later three of the six English Club participants had become believers. You wont see that in any of the books on how to reach Muslims.

Gandalf's wife came to me and said that one of the young women who had become a believer would be a good office manager. I met with her but was not impressed. She was just out of University and she was from a small village outside Minas Tirith. She was so shy I could hardly hear anything she said which was not much. Her English was terrible and I didn't see how she could represent us to the Government or relate to other aid agencies. But there was no one else and the Boss was quite clear with me and with the team that she was the one He wanted in that position. So, in October of 1998 we hired Freedom as our office manager.

Our office was not too busy at first. Freedom spent all of her time studying English and talking to the office managers of other aid agencies to learn how we were to operate. She excelled. I was concerned that when it came to corrupt Government officials she would be overwhelmed but they loved her. She was quiet and non threatening to them so they would put their arm around her and say, 'don't worry dear little daughter we will get you what you need.' And she got our visas, our permissions for work, everything we needed. One day the secret police called her in. I remember when she came back from the meeting with them she came to my office and said, 'Strider, they asked me to be a patriot and spy on you and the agency for them. I told them I would.' I told her that was perfect. She should report to them all the good humanitarian aid work we were doing, and she did.

I told her that I wanted our office to be a place of blessing. Visitors should be warmly received and people with real needs should be prayed for. She was great at this. Within a year she was counseling with many people who would come in just to visit with her. She grew in grace and knowledge and was an inspiration to many. At the same time her family began to hassle her about getting married. It was past time now that she had graduated University for her to get married. She refused knowing that they would try and arrange a marriage with a Muslim man. This became a huge strain on her. She really wanted to get married but there were no available Christian men to marry- and I doubt her family would have agreed to such a marriage anyway. So, she remained single at a cost to herself that I am sure that I can't comprehend. She is a very beautiful young woman, over thirty years old now and virtually un-marriageable. I can see it in her eyes sometimes- the hurt and loneliness of that decision- I pray there is someone for her some day but I believe that she has given up on marriage entirely.

About four years ago now Freedom called us. We were to go to the village immediately because her mother had died. Her mother had in the last year accepted Jesus and become a believer which was a great comfort to Freedom especially as her mother protected her from the rest of her family in her decision not to get married. Now her mother was gone. The whole aid agency crew went out to the funeral. We were shocked by what we saw. Freedom met us at the door wailing frantically. This is traditional in Gondor but there was something wrong here. She was not wailing for tradition's sake. She was despondent and without hope in a way I had never seen anyone before. The loss of her mother shattered her in ways I could not understand. Local believers including her pastor could not understand it either. Freedom's faith was utterly devastated. She was a broken shell of a person. When she finally came back to work she would sit despondent. She never smiled. She was depressed beyond recognition and she blamed God for it all. She stopped going to Church. She did not counsel or pray with anyone anymore. She did her job- very inefficiently- and went back to the village to mourn. Traditionally this can last a year.

After one year however, nothing changed. We did not know what to do or how to help her. She did not want help and she would not talk about anything personal with any of us. Her Church which she helped start and lead went on without her. I would have been surprised if this lasted two weeks, as it was she did not come out of her depression for over two years. That is a long time to stay down. Last year however, she came in the office and she smiled. Slowly, she came back to us. One of her good friends turned from following Jesus and returned to Islam and then married a Muslim man. Freedom counseled her against this and then when her friend did it anyway Freedom continued to counsel her and help her. I was surprised and impressed.

This last Spring Freedom asked me if she could go on a special one month training opportunity. This training was for women to better minister to women in crisis. I gave her permission wondering if this would help her in her recovery or if I was just being taken advantage of. We often wonder this, you know. When are giving someone the chance they need and when are you indulging in someone who is lazy and useless. Freedom still was not going to Church but I took the chance. She went and when she came back she was on fire again to do ministry. She was praying with people and sharing with them again. Last week she asked if she could talk with me and I went to her office. She handed me her resignation letter and said that it was time for her to move on. I knew immediately that this was the right thing. It hurts us- and me in particular- very badly. I don't have another office manager and we are in the middle of a lot of work including reregistration with the Ministry of Justice. But the Boss is telling me that this is right. It is time for her to grow, to change, to serve elsewhere. I have every confidence that she will become someone very important in the Kingdom. I have been privileged to work with her this far and I pray that I have been a blessing to her, that I have been everything the Boss wanted me to be to encourage and grow her as she was becoming more and more His servant, His child, His Bride.

Calvinistic Thinking- Irresistible Grace

2008-12-24T11:53:00.005+05:00

I have been thinking about this post for a long time now. I know, I know, some of you have given up on me even writing it. The truth is that I have been very sidetracked these days with the Ministry of Justice trying to close us down, our moving back out to Gondor after six months in the West, and now our local office manager leaving us after ten years of very faithful service. In the midst of this I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. In the midst of this I want to write a post that is the continuation of a series and yet also a very seasonal topic to discuss. In the midst of busyness and transition and everything else that is going on I want to talk about the efficacy of Love.

If you have not figured it out by now I am not that interested in a 'you're wrong', 'I'm right' kind of debate. What I have been trying to get at in these Calvinistic Thinking posts is more of what is Jesus really like rather than why is my systematic theology better than yours. I am convinced that we miss the truth on both sides of this issue. A good example of what I am talking about is found in the last post on Limited Atonement. 1 John 2:2 is a slam dunk verse defeating this idea. You can't get around it. Limited Atonement states that Jesus only died for the elect and yet this verse clearly states that Christ died not only for our sins but also for the whole world. Like I said, "Slam dunk." I am right, you are wrong and that is the end of it. There is only one problem. The whole world is not saved. So, what are we talking about again? Yeah, we kind of lose track of God and what He is doing in this world as we parse each other's systematic theology. There is obviously a lot more going on here than who Jesus died for. Apparently this is a very big and complicated story. As we look to Irresistible Grace I would like to get past the whose right and wrong and get to the 'what is really going on here' part. I will try at least.

What Calvinists get accused of on this concept is that if Grace is irresistible then all those whom God wants to save will get saved. His love and grace can not be resisted. It kind of makes us sound like robots with no free will. More than that if this is true why am I working so darn hard to reach others for Jesus if all of those whom God wants saved will be saved without any effort on my part. I could just go home and watch TV and stop all this insanity right now. Calvinists on the other hand love this concept because they say that this means that their toil and effort which they are commanded to do will not be in vain. We can go confidently out to the fields of harvest knowing that we will have the victory. This is a great comfort and motivator for them.

Biblically we can look to passages like those in Romans 8 and the word 'predestination' is actually used. For all of you opposed to the concept of Irresistible Grace I caution you not to be opposed to the concept of predestination. It is in the Bible, you can look it up. Now, we can argue about what predestination means but we don't really have the right to discount it as a biblical concept- it's right there in the Book. Calvinist might also point to passages like Paul's conversion in Acts as proof of God's overwhelming Grace in His relentless pursuit of those He has chosen. I have been asked on more than one occasion why God does not just strike down blind those whom He is pursuing more often. It sure would seem to make my job easier. But on the other hand the reason so many do not believe in Irresistible Grace is because we have seen it resisted with our own eyes so often. The sister story to Paul's is the story of Balam who while on his way to curse the Israelites was told off by his own donkey. An angel stopped him on the road and Balam's donkey spoke to him to warn him. A great story. Unfortunately for Balam the story does not end there. Later we see this same 'prophet' giving advice to Israel's enemies on how to defeat them. This so-called prophet of God had a huge capacity for resistance. Of course, the good Calvinist could reply that Balam was destined to play the role that he played. But this line of reasoning goes no where fast because then I might reply that I am not predestined to be a Calvinist and then the Calvinists could rejoice in this fact and be at peace that all is exactly as God would have it. Except it isn't and we all know it isn't. There is more going on here....

The bottom line is that I believe that Grace is irresistible. If I get to define what that means. I also believe that very very few people believe this. Grace is God's unmerited favor. I like to call it God's love. I believe that the love of God is the most powerful effective force in the Universe. I believe that it transforms all that it touches. I believe that it creates life and breathes out beauty wherever it goes. You probably think that you agree with me on this. I wonder if you really do? I was sitting in a hotel room at a conference not long ago with a man that I think God has truly transformed into someone wonderful. This man works for our company and as we were debriefing at the end of the day about the conference we were at I spoke to him about an evangelist friend of mine. My evangelist friend was talking about the most effective evangelistic methods he used. He talked about love. He told me that if he could just communicate love to others that was enough. As I shared this with my friend I could see his eyes narrow. Doubt and concern lined his face. Love? That word is so watered down that it has lost its meaning. My friend doubted that a Gospel presentation that consisted solely of love would be effective. I could read his mind as clear as a book- what about sin? what about repentance? what about so many other issues? Love? Is that enough? Most don't really think so.

The reason of course that we don't believe in love is because we have lost what it means. The love of God is the unmerited favor of God. To love is to meet another's needs. To set aside your own desires and to promote the good of someone else. Real love is oblivious to selfish ambition or self gratification. It's all in 1 Corinthians 13, look it up. We think of love as fluffy and sentimental. That is why we jump in so quickly to say that the Gospel is not 'just' about love, it also means sin and repentance and whatever else we are feeling particularly passionate about just now. For some an effective Gospel means love and being baptized in my church, others believe the Gospel is love and being against drinking alcohol. Still others demand that the Gospel be presented as love and being anti-President Elect Obama or anti-abortion or anti-everyone else who is not just like me. Is love really that complicated? I don't think so.

It is not that love is so complicated as much as it is just so wholly other than what we are. We can hardly conceive of real love. Look at the Nativity story. God comes to earth and 'Immanuel' happens. He is with us. Ah, we think, 'this is going to be big. Now His enemies are going to get it. Now everything will be put right.' But what do we get? A baby. The baby is helpless. He just lies there. He does not 'do' anything. What a big disappointment the love of God turned out to be. But wait! What happens? Judgment on a huge scale. As the helpless baby lies there truth is revealed in unprecedented ways. As God invites us into relationship Herod judges himself to be a liar and a murderer. The wise men are judged to be true worshipers. Joseph is judged to be selfless and faithful. Mary is judged to be obedient and is found to be blessed. Maybe we don't need to put all kinds of restrictions on love after all. Maybe it comes with its own built in power to judge, to transform, to make right. Maybe it is in fact, irresistible. It was to all involved in the Christmas story. That story continues to this day and that helpless baby grew to be a helpless man who was violently taken and crucified... helplessly. But the love demonstrated there continues to transform hearts and reveal true judgment to this day. I believe in the efficacy of love. I believe that it is powerful to change lives and that it alone is the Gospel we are to present. There is more to this story than predestined robots or a giant throw of the dice. The reason some people are saved is because a loving God invited them in and that love was irresistible. The reason some people are not saved is because a loving God has sent out the invitation and the call of love has not been heard or understood. The enemy is waging war and there is the part of the story we are missing. Revelation 12 is a reality we live in. We are not free to choose, we are not robots predestined, we are a people caught between titanic forces. Love is the only way out. Believe that, live it, present it as a saving Gospel to all. The little baby judges me and you even today.

The Games People Play

2008-12-17T11:55:00.002+05:00

I sat down with the national team yesterday and we had a great time of sharing together after my absence of six months. I often write here about spiritual warfare and it seems today I need to write some more. When will we grow up I don't know but until we do we will continue to be vulnerable to the enemy's attacks. Defeat is not inevitable however, in fact victory is certain as this story will show.

I heard a couple of months ago that Kili's wife was attacked in their village of Anfalas. You may remember that Kili and Fili and their wives comprise a small house church in the remote village of Anfalas that is more than three and a half hours drive from the Capitol of Minas Tirith where I live. The full story is a warning and a testimony for all of us. One day Kili's wife was walking in the village when a neighbor came up to her and began verbally abusing her. She said that she was a loose woman and a despicable person because she had become a Christian. Kili's wife's character is well known in the village and these accusations are completely without basis. But as this woman began attacking verbally she got more and more animated and finally hit Kili's wife and began repeatedly striking her. Kili approached them at this point and struck the woman and pushed her back off of his wife. Then other nearby villagers joined in and began beating on Kili and he was fighting back furiously. Before he accepted Christ Kili had a great reputation as a fighter and a hot head. This was the first time he had struck anyone since before his baptism in 2006. Fili happened along at this point and tried to break up the fight. Kili hit Fili and the fight broke up but now the two men were furious at each other. Kili was mad because Fili did not join his side and Fili was angry that Kili was fighting- and I think because he got hit. The team was called and Frodo, Sam, and Merry headed on down to see what could be done. Frodo was totally discouraged at the scene. He could see everyone was angry and that the testimony of the group was greatly damaged if not destroyed. It all looked hopeless as the two families would not talk to each other and the whole village was saying, 'this is how Christians act'. Frodo wanted to get back in the car and drive away for good but that is not what the King wanted. Frodo, Sam, and Merry got out a guitar and started singing praise choruses. They prayed together and sang together for some time. Finally, the two families came together and the haze of anger and resentment dissipated. They hugged each other and cried and forgave each other. The village was amazed.

Since then they have had to get more Bibles to hand out to all who want them. They meet daily to pray and worship together and encourage one another. Worship is a powerful and effective weapon in our arsenal. As Frodo found out it is even effective when we don't feel like doing it! Let us draw near to God and discover the promise that He will draw near to us. When He comes near He will deal with the evil one Himself and we will find the strength to love and serve each other with joy.

Home Again?

2008-12-10T13:10:00.002+05:00

We are home again... or are we? We arrived in Minas Tirith at 3:30am on Monday early morning after a 36 hour trip. The very good news is that after four flights we arrived with all of our bags. The bad news is that since we have all of our bags we will now spend the next week or so trying to figure out where to put all the stuff. But I don't want to talk about stuff just now- maybe later- now I want to talk about home.

We were talking to a friend of ours last Sunday and we told him how much we were looking forward to going 'home'. He said he had a problem with that. He said he knew that most M's referred to their assignments overseas as home but he didn't understand it. Were we not patriotic Americans? Well, the answer is yes, I am. My father was a pilot in the US Air Force and I grew up on base. I was born in Kittery, Maine- a place that I never lived even two full days. I actually lived at that time on the Air Force base across the river in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We moved when I was one to Mobile, Alabama. When I was two we moved back to New Hampshire and when I was three we moved to California. We then moved to Nebraska, where my parents were originally from, when I was seven but moved to Florida when I was ten. When I was twelve we made the big move to Okinawa, Japan which was very significant because that is where I accepted Christ and was baptized in a Southern Baptist Church- actually, it was an SB affiliated Church as there are no SB Churches outside the US. When I was fifteen we moved to Germany. I was called into International Mission work then but a significant event happened then that cemented how I felt about America. On base we always stood for the National Anthem before the movie began in the movie theater. One day I was standing with my best friend and he started acting silly- well, we were just 17 at the time. I had taken off my hat as the anthem began but he grabbed it from me and put it on his own head. I was offended and took it from him but he grabbed it back and placed it on his head again. Just then a large man behind us in an officer's uniform snatched my hat off of my friend's head- with no small amount of hair- and pushed the hat forcibly into my friend's chest. My friend looked very sheepish and said softly, 'thank you, sir.' As I stared at my friend I understood something that I hoped that the officer understood. My friend was really grateful. He was grateful to be reminded of the importance of our anthem and he was ashamed that he had momentarily forgotten it. I was proud of my friend for feeling this depth of patriotism and I realized that I loved my country very much as well; that my Country was not something that I took for granted but something I chose to be thankful for and responsible for.

This last time I was home I heard a lot of Christians complaining about our Country and it saddened me. I know we have a lot of problems but I wish others could see our country from a global perspective. Here's an example. My wife and I were talking about this issue in a local fast food place. As we discussed what a real post-christian nation would look like and what a real financial meltdown would be like a worker came by cleaning the tables around us. It was obvious he had down-syndrome or some such handicap. As he worked his fellow workers treated him with respect and dignity, so did the customers. In fact, I began to suspect that this young man was actually a very popular person in this community. Do you know how many communities there are in the world that accept and respect people with disabilities? How about none, especially with mental handicaps. Zero, zilch, nada. No community in the rest of the world is capable of accepting mentally disabled people. Only in America. I could be wrong, maybe there are places where the disabled are loved and respected, maybe in England for example. I don't know about them. I am proud to be an American. But I don't live in America. I am home now in Minas Tirith, Gondor. A country where the disabled are hidden and shamed. A country where the banks do not function and people suffer under the oppression of a truly non-existent economy.

I received some encouragement this morning as I pondered all of this. I read in Hebrews 11:15-16:
If they had been thinking of the land they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.

Let us all be proud to belong to the nations that have sheltered us but at the same time let us work for the promise of a new home. A home provided for by our loving heavenly Father himself. The old writers were right, 'This world is not my home, I'm just passing through.'

Trying Again

2008-12-05T22:09:00.002+05:00

Well dear friends, we arrived at the airport on Tuesday morning 4 am only to be told that the travel agent messed up and we did not in fact, have tickets. I guess all of us who have ever flown on e-tickets have waited for this to happen. But after some wrangling the travel agent has us booked on Saturday's flight and we will go early tomorrow to discover if we will really be seated or not. Surely we will. Surely I did not say 'surely'. If all goes well we will land at the Minas Tirith airport in Gondor on Monday morning somewhere around 3:30am.

Once More Into the Breach

2008-11-30T08:49:00.002+05:00

Well dear friends we have everything lined up, staked out, and packed up and we are leaving the West for Middle Earth on Tuesday. We go into uncertain times. The Ministry of Injustice cleared us but the Ministry of Security is very unhappy and would like to bother all westerners in poor little Gondor right now. We have one month visas and we will see what the Boss has in store for us beyond that. Our family is very ready to be back. Goldberry who is at boarding school will come and meet us in Gondor December 20th. We look forward very much to our reunion with our 16 year old daughter.

Pray for us as we return to a cold and possibly unfriendly Gondor. Do not consider that we are in danger in any way. Our national friends face many dangers and challenges but the most likely result of folks being very unhappy with us is that we will be kicked out of the country. I don't want that to happen but we will take whatever time they give us and use it as wisely as we can to sow eternal seeds for His eternal Kingdom. I have seen many get kicked out of the countries in which they were called to serve. Many have been emotionally devastated by the loss. They were so invested in the people that the King had called them to love that they went home broken as a result of being kicked out. For our family- and I think I can speak for our team- we love the people of Gondor very much but the reason we are in Gondor is because of our love for Christ. No government can take Him away from us! We are eternally His and He in turn has promised to be eternally ours. Grace and love like this demand an attitude of obedience and service. We gladly go to cold Gondor for Him and we will just as gladly leave there and follow Him wherever He wants us to go next. For Arwen and I who have been so rootless all of our lives we know that we will never be 'home' until He calls us to rest with Him in an eternal home where our visa will never expire and our welcome will never where out.

Falling Short

2008-11-25T08:45:00.003+05:00

I know I need to finish off the Calvinistic Thinking posts but if you can be patient a little longer I promised a friend that I would tell her story. Really, it is the story of her husband but since I have her permission- and encouragement- I will tell the tale.

We didn't come to Middle Earth alone. I remember so well arriving at the home office for Candidate Conference and discovering someone else wanted to go to Gondor. At first we were afraid that we were in competition for the same job! Then we discovered that our Boss is trustworthy indeed- funny how we need to keep discovering that! No, this couple was coming to join us and we were to be a team. The first team to go to Gondor from our Company. Boromir was everything I was not. He was organized, experienced, business minded and analytical. I was and am, a dreamer. I listen to the Boss and do that. That's the end of my unique abilities but the point was that we had never met before and yet we were the perfect match. We went out to dinner the next night and as we sat around the table with our wives we dreamed big dreams and each of us committed to laying down our lives for the sake of getting the Gospel to the people of Gondor. These were not oaths taken lightly. We had just heard that a deacon in a foreign church there was killed with his entire family- 9 children- by Islamic Fundamentalists. I later found out that only the man was killed and not his children but with what information we had we accepted the challenge knowing the costs. I was the team leader and Boromir was the business manager. I was proud to work with such a fine man and his equally talented and committed wife.

We went through orientation together and then went to Rohan. The plan was for us to live in Rohan for a year learning language and then figure out how to get to Gondor. We enjoyed having house church together, learning the new city together, praying and planning together. It became apparent right away that Boromir was very competent and even in a new culture with a new language this guy could get stuff done. After a year I started working on getting to Gondor. I made many trips and began to work out the details of how we would get there, what aid work we could do there, what organization we could work with, where we should live etc. Boromir never went with me. At first it seemed that he was just too busy but over time I realized he had worked hard in Rohan and he was invested there. He was not going to move. In February of 1997 he announced that he was staying to support the team in Rohan. His wife agreed to the decision feeling that God was definitely calling them to stay. I was really disappointed. Not devastated, but really disappointed.

Boromir had always been a fill in all the boxes kind of guy. He was meticulous. I considered him to be borderline legalistic in fact. Everything had to be done the 'right' way and believe me this was not easy to do in a former Soviet Republic. I remember the time he charted the steps we had to take to get a package from the post office in the Capitol city Edoras. It had 18 steps which invariably changed from week to week. Only a guy like Boromir could keep up with that! We left for Gondor in the summer of 1997. Boromir came to visit that fall- the only time he came to Gondor. It was a difficult time for us. The city was a mess as factions continued to fight even though the civil war was over. The aid agency that we were with had a serious breakdown and some good friends were wrongfully fired. A couple from another agency was kidnapped. And to top it all off my wife, Arwen, had a miscarriage that weekend. Boromir was encouraging and his approval of how we were handling such a stressful situation meant much to me. I loved and respected that man.

After he left I did not hear from him often. I saw him one more time the next Spring at a company meeting. He was doing well. The work was going well, if slow. The Government was not getting any easier to deal with. Then a few months later I got word that he was missing. We prayed for him. He was found in Edoras.... with another woman. He confessed to the team there and his wife that he had had prostitutes but then had found this woman. He was going to leave his wife and marry her. This was beyond unbelievable. My first thought when I heard that he had had an affair was that he was so legalistic he would never forgive himself. He may do something drastic. I called him and told him I was praying for him. He never admitted anything to me. But later I found out I was concerned for naught. Boromir was completely unashamed of what he had done. His wife went back to the West by herself and was forced to go through the divorce by herself. Boromir did marry the woman and spent several more years in Rohan before finally bringing his new wife back to the West. I have never seen or heard from him again.

This is a tough story for me. I loved Boromir and consider that he was a better man than I. But he fell- and fell far. How? There are a couple of reasons that I can see. One, legalistic people are often wound too tight. Several who know this story say they were not surprised that the strict guy was the one to fall. Colosians 2 has an interesting phrase in the King James Version where it uses 'will-worship'. Legalism is all about making our own righteousness- or worshipping our own will-power. As every religion on earth has abundantly proven this does not work. Will-worship never leads to purity. We can not save ourselves. Second, we are in a real spiritual battle. We are taking the Gospel where it has never been before. The enemy is fighting like crazy to stop this. Boromir was a casualty of this battle. Dr. Johnny Hunt is a pastor whom I had the privilege to hear speak once and he said that he prays, 'Lord, keep me close and keep me clean' everyday. I pray that too. In fact, I will ask you right now to pray it for me as well.

The cool part of this story is the way our organization took care of Boromir's wife. Once she resigned they hired her on in the home office where she still works. I saw her this summer and her healing is an on-going reality. She is being used- too often- to help those who are in her position, to comfort those who need it with the comfort she herself was comforted with. I love that about our Organization. I love that about our Lord as well. I don't know why Boromir fell and I have not except that I stand in the grace of my Lord who is able to make even me to stand. You can rest in that.... in fear and trembling and no small amount of humility.

There was a Crooked Man who Walked a Crooked Road

2008-11-14T07:29:00.002+05:00

As many of you know my time and energy have been taken up by the wonderful folks at the Gondor Ministry of Injustice. They came into our office in Minas Tirith and claimed we were breaking the law and threatened to throw us out of the country- a threat we took seriously since they had just thrown out another aid agency. My first thought was, 'Oh no Briar Bear, don't throw me in the briar patch!' Hey, do I want to spend another miserable cold winter in Gondor? Do I want to continue to beat my head against the wall that is Middle Earth? My wife and Legolas' wife began thinking of other places we could serve. Nice places. Places that had relatively clean running water and perhaps an actual economy. Of course, I also thought of the many folks who depend on us. We have three teams outside of Minas Tirith accessing the lost villages of Gondor for the first time. I was torn.

The news got worse. The Minister needed lots of money and we were going to pay it. We refused. Now, don't get me wrong. I have paid extortion before. It is the way of things, but there is a difference between understanding how a strange system works and being bullied by a thug. You can't do business with a thug and the Minister was looking quite thugish. We counter offered. We said we would do a good project for poor people in a village of his choosing. He thought that was a great idea. Yes, we could do that in addition to giving him $10,000. We said no. We began to think seriously about leaving Gondor. We began to make contingencies for the other team members. How could they stay? Could they switch to other agencies? Could they register seperately? We began looking into this. Then the Minister came down to $5000. We said no. I didn't trust this guy and I don't like being bullied.

Finaly, I had the conversation that I should have had from the beginning. I talked to the Boss.
Me- What do you want me to do?
Boss- You can go somewhere else if you want to.
Me- Yeah, but what do you want me to do?
Boss- There are lots of places you can go. Needy places.
Me- Yeah, but what do YOU want me to do.
Boss- I gave you the authority to reach the villages of Gondor.
Me- Ahh... right. So, I should stay?
Boss-
Me- I take it that you want me in Gondor? Right, well you keep me here and I will stay here. I don't quit.

So, here I am. On Monday I got a call. They came down to $3000. I pushed the button and said, 'Yes, Howie I am taking the deal.' Two scriptures came to me right then. The first was Matthew 6 where Jesus says if someone takes your coat give him your cloak as well. The second where Peter asked Jesus about the Temple tax. Jesus tells Peter to pay the unjust tax by going fishing and giving the coin found in the fish's mouth. Very strange. The point I suppose is that Jesus wants us to go and make disciples. He will deal with corrupt Governments, that is not our job. We pay the authorities what they ask and we move on knowing that God Himself will provide. Really- and this is the hard thing for me- it is just pride that cries out against us losing our stuff. It's just stuff. He's got more and better. Today I went fishing and a guy gave me $3000. He told me he would be happy to be a fish. I am quite certain we underestimate how good and gracious and loving our God is. I will just say it this way, whatever you think He is, He's more. I will leave for Gondor on December 1st with my family and we look forward to seeing what our God has in store for the people of Gondor.

Falling In and Out of Love

2008-11-06T01:19:00.003+05:00

I have been wanting to tell this story for some time now. It indirectly relates to the Calvinism posts I have had up but mostly it is about a love story that went terribly wrong.

When I first came to Middle Earth I met a guy who had worked in another country for 15 years. He told me one day that he got a letter from a national friend in that country that really broke his heart. His friend who had worked with him for 15 years, helped him lead folks to Jesus, helped him plant Churches, prayed with him daily, and had shared so many of his joys and sorrows had given up on Jesus and gone back to Islam. I didn't know what to say. How do you make sense of that? I prayed that this would never happen to me. The truth is that everyone who stays out on the field lives to see a story like this. It is one of the more painful things that any christian worker will experience.

One day a young man came to the gate of one of our Doctors. Doc answered the door and was surprised to find a young man of Gondor asking if there was a follower of Jesus that lived here. He told Doc that he had become interested in Jesus through some stories from a friend and wanted to learn more. Doc suspected some sort of trap at first. Who was this young man who spoke good English? Why was he really there? They began studying the Word together a couple of times a week. After a couple of months the young man, I will call him Grima, insisted on praying and receiving Jesus as his Lord and Savior. It was an exciting time. They continued to study together and young Grima grew in his faith. Balin started a prison ministry about that time and Grima joined him with two other men. The four of them began feeding sick prisoners, sharing their faith boldly, and praying with sick and desperate men and women. Grima grew greatly in his faith. He shared well but did not really enjoy evangelism the way Balin did. Grima liked to follow up with men who had made decisions. He had Book studies with eager convicts who would gather in the prisons and discuss the Word of Life.

Later we had openings in our aid agency and Grima began to help out. He helped us support the new team down in Mordor and twice he made trips to Mordor himself. The first time he passed out Bibles indiscriminately and got the team there in trouble. The second trip he was more careful and was even able to meet with some secret believers and encourage them greatly. This all happened over a four year time span during which Grima grew in faith and knowledge. We were thankful to have him working with us.

One day I became aware that there was some tension in the office. I asked around and found out that Grima had been really prideful in front of the Muslim workers on our staff. I confronted him and he apologized but I saw something in him that I had not noticed before. Grima was really a very prideful young man. I told Doc about this and he promised to follow up on this in their discipleship meetings. A month later Grima went back to his village in the mountains. He had not been back since he became a Christian- I did not realize this- and he was concerned with how his parents would react to him. We prayed for him and a few weeks later he came back. He could not bear to face the shame of his parents upon hearing that he had become a Christian. They were very angry so he renounced Christ and declared himself a Muslim again.

In addition to this he quit his job with us and joined a non-christian aid agency. He went back to the Church that he had been a part of and convinced a young lady that he was interested in to renounce Christ so they could get married. She did but later they could not get married because the parents would not bless the wedding. I never understood why not but they didn't. I still see Grima now and again. Sometimes he comes by the office just to hang out. He says that life is miserable now. He hates himself but refuses to change. He has no peace and comes by the office sometimes to remember what it was like when he had peace and worked with gracious people. Honestly, it is hard for me to look at him as his very face is a picture of contorted pain and confusion. He becomes quite angry at any suggestion that he did the wrong thing. As far as he is concerned this was the only path for him and if it is an unhappy path then that is God's will. The bottom line for him is that he could not dishonor his father and mother.

So, after my horrific story are you ready for some good news? The good news is what all this teaches me about the Gospel. Most of us really don't understand the Gospel if we are honest. We believe it, sure but we don't understand it. We try and boil it down into some kind of propositional truth- just believe A, B, and C and you will be fine and go to heaven when you die. But then a story like this comes along and we don't know what to do with it. Jesus teaches us better. Believing propositional truth does not save you. Knowing what is right does not save you. Doing what is right does not save you. Salvation is loving and being loved by God. It is a love story from start to finish. Grima knew as much and more about the Bible as you do- and he believed it to be true- but that did not save him, and make no mistake he is not saved. Grima is not going to Hell, he is there already. I can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. His hopelessness is palpable and it breaks my heart.

I knew my wife over a year before I loved her. I worked with her in the University cafeteria. She was cute but I did not love her. I was not that interested in her really. Then one day I understood she was interested in me. We talked- exchanged some propositional truth like, 'we both wanted to go into missions' and stuff like that. Then one day I looked at her and nothing was the same. I didn't want to do anything but look at her. I would do anything for her and once we were married I discovered just what that would mean. I was no longer my own man. It is like this- but much more so- with Christ. We learn about Him. Know some truths about Him but we are not truly His until one day when we fall in love with Him completely. We give our lives to Him in ways that take the rest of our lives to understand. Jesus says it this way, 'Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.' Luke 14:26. You can't 'choose' that. Grima couldn't choose to reject his family. No, love is more than a choice. It is a mystery that takes us and takes over. Poets have written about this for as long as there have been poets writing but none of them capture completely what it means to be in love. And that is what we are. We are in love with the one who loves us more than His own son's life. Let us love passionately, unreservedly, and more deeply than ever before. Look to our great lover and BE loved. And in this great love be changed to be a lover who will never shrink back, hold back, or hold out. The Bible is full of propositional truth about who God is and what he wants from us but mostly it is a love story sung over us by our Great Lover. Rest in that and find the peace that Grima threw away. The old Baptist were right when they said, 'Faith that fails before the finish was faulty from the first.' Grima knew truths about God but could not love Him more than his own family. We must be more than this. Look to Jesus and see the love in Him and be changed by that vision of love forever. Let others see Jesus in you and in turn they too will be changed.

I Have Had Enough!

2008-11-03T22:10:00.002+05:00

I am fed up with the election rhetoric here in the US so I need to write just one post about it to get it off my chest. I have read blogs, e-mails, seen Youtube Videos, and had countless conversations about the Presidential Candidates and I am just about ready to punch the wall. Why? Because of the anger, hopelessness, and downright hatred coming from too many followers of Jesus. I am hearing things like, "America is finished." "America is under God's judgement." "All is lost." And why am I hearing this? Because the Republican Candidate looks like he wont win. Barak Obama is being vilified in the most disgusting ways imaginable by people who claim to be followers of our Lord. Well, here's my take on this and let's start at the beginning- or at least with our current President.

I voted for President Bush in the 2000 election. I have always been a Republican and I firmly believe in that form of Government. After the 2001 bombings I believed that I was justified in my decision. I believed that George Bush led well and I saw the hand of God at work as a worldwide coalition rallied behind us and went after Osama and the Taliban. But then Bush went after Saddam Hussein who had nothing to do with 9/11. I was confused and disappointed. The rhetoric spiraled out of control and we left the hunt for Osama behind. I remember arguing about this with friends in 2002 and the Spring of 2003. They couldn't understand why I didn't see that Saddam had to be taken out right now. After all he had used chemical weapons in 1989- 14 years before! But the war was not all. Then George Bush set up Guntanamo Bay Prison. I am sure that most Americans don't care about it. That is why Bush set it up in Cuba. Cuba is supposed to have illegal detentions with no charges and no trials and no human rights. We were supposed to be treating these guys like prisoners of war- except we couldn't- and we were supposed to develop a legal means of dealing with them- which we still haven't. We tortured the prisoners there which we have never done before. We have always been the good guys calling the rest of the world to behave better and live freer. With Bush's second inaugural address he declared war on the rest of the world. He openly said that if people would rise up against their totalitarian governments the US would help them. The rest of the world saw that we were just the same as Saddam Hussein and they shook with fear and anger. We became everything we ever denounced, even sending other nation's citizens to Syria for them to torture for us. Condeleeza Rice taking the stand before Congress said it was a big mistake, 'The Syrians promised us they wouldn't torture them.' Unbelievable.

But wait! Is not President Bush against abortion? How many babies have been saved during his Presidency because of his brave stance? Any? I have not heard of even one. It has not been on his agenda as far as I have heard. It was on Ronald Reagan's agenda but he was unable to stop any abortions even though he spoke more eloquently against them than any politician I have heard since. So now we have Christian leaders everywhere saying this is the end of America because Barak Obama does not oppose abortion. Give me a break! America will not be judged based on one stance of her President. The Church will be judged on it's allegiance to Christ and His Kingdom. So, let me tell you where we stand on that. While we weep and wail over a Presidential Candidate who would not apparently make any difference in the abortion situation it is OUR daughters who are having abortions. OUR children are living lifestyles of selfishness, lust, and greed and the result is that OUR daughters need to get abortions. WE are the ones holding up a rock star's lifestyle as the ultimate goal and WE are the ones who are failing to teach our children to love and respect each other, to act responsibly, and oh yeah, just as an aside, to live for Jesus and His Kingdom.

I do think that abortion should be illegal. Roe V Wade is a horrific abuse of the Constitution which is supposed to protect life. In our democratic society I will vote as I can to make a difference. But as a good Republican I still believe in individual and community initiative. I believe that we live in the society we create. In spite of the fact that Roe v Wade is bad law not a single abortion has occurred because of it. Abortions occur because our daughters want to kill their children. The Supreme Court is not responsible for that!

We have two million people in jail in this country- more than despotic China- and every single one of them lived next door to a Christian who has made no difference in his or her life. A million abortions a year? They are not living next door, they are living under our roofs. And we want the next President to do something about this? Talk about intrusive big government liberalism! Teach your children to love Jesus. Share your love of Jesus with others. Reach out to your community with the love of Jesus. This will make a difference far greater than electing a Republican. Barak Obama is not the anti-Christ. For my money whoever wins this election America wins because Bush will no longer be in the White House. Many of you have heard so much fear mongering that you will not be able to read this without breaking out into an angry sweat. Trust in Jesus. Live for him and do not fear whoever leads America. America is not eternal, Christ's Kingdom is. Live for what is eternal. If we stop looking to Washington save our nation and put our lives and the lives of our families in Jesus hands that would be change we could believe in.

Calvinistic Thinking- Limited Atonement

2008-10-26T11:31:00.005+05:00

I have a friend who was married for over twenty years. One day she found out that her husband was having an affair. In fact, he had gone to prostitutes for a while and then found this other woman. He was not sorry. Her world collapsed. She would go to work and not remember any of the drive. She became so physically ill she threw up. She couldn't think straight or concentrate for a year. This is what his unfaithfulness did to her. You probably know someone like her- maybe you have even been her before. I think God feels even more deeply than this. I know we like to think of God as someone who is utterly 'other', someone who is completely unaffected by what we do or how we feel. There is some safety in thinking in this way. If God is so far removed- so utterly 'holy' then what we do doesn't really matter. Our sin is not a big deal and therefore God's wrath wont be such a big deal either. This is not who we see in Jesus. This is not who the Word portrays God to be. God is intimately related to us- humankind who are His creation. I think that God being wholly other than we are means that He loves more deeply, more truly, more passionately than we mere humans can imagine. I think that His capacity to suffer is just as deep and wholly other than ours. We black out, we escape into fantasy or delusion, we deny and ignore. He never does. I think He FEELS in a way that we can not understand. He knows every inch of our rejection of His love, every detail of every betrayal and He takes it all in. He absorbs it in ways we will never understand.

As we look to theology to make sense of who God is we are betrayed at a key point and I think it is important to bring it up now. Most of our 'official' theology was written by lawyers. That's right, Calvin, Luther, Augustine and many others were all trained as lawyers. Now, bypassing all the great lawyer jokes I know let's look critically at what this means. I have some good friends who are lawyers and the reality is that they don't think like the rest of us. I read poetry and they read loopholes. Their worldview is different than most of the rest of us. I think that that is very valuable when trying to write a constitution that will protect the rights of a nation's citizens but it is not so helpful- or at least of limited help- in understanding God. Contrary to some popular books the Bible is not a code to be deciphered or a manual to build a healthy life. It is a love story. I heard a man preach once on Genesis 1 and proclaim emphatically that whales were the first mammal that God created. Well, Genesis 1:21 does list sea monsters first when talking about what God created that day... No, I am sorry Genesis 1 is a beautiful poem about the Creation. It is full of wonderful truths about God, nature, and Man. But reading it with a lawyer's eye is like reading Psalm 23 in order to determine how to get the best return on our flock of sheep. Excuse me while I get up, pace back and forth and give a loud frustrated 'AAARRRGGGHHH!'

So now finally, we come to Limited Atonement. Honestly, I have studied this and tried to get my head around what people are saying with this one and I don't get it. Limited Atonement means that Jesus only died for the elect- those who will be saved. He did not die for the those who will not be saved. Rev in the last comment section said truly that people for both sides could trot out our scriptures for both positions for and against this point and we would not get anywhere. I suppose he is right depending on where we want to go. It seems to me that what the Calvinist is saying is that God accomplishes everything He sets out to do and therefore if some are not in the end saved then He must never have purposed their salvation on the cross. That's lawyer talk for sure. Jesus did not hang on the cross writhing back and forth thinking, 'This blood is for Suzy, but not for Jimmy. This blood is for Sammy, but not for Jenifer.' The picture of the nature of Jesus and of His Father from start to finish is that of a God who stands on the hill over Jerusalem and pleads for His people to come to Him. And lest we lose sight of the facts we are all His people. There is no other creator. The only people walking this earth are people He created. 1 John 2:2 says that, 'he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.' There are scriptures that could be construed to mean that this is not so, I suppose but the point of what John is saying here is that you need not fear your sin because Jesus death on the cross covers all sin. I am not a Universalist. I do understand that many will reject His sacrifice. Indeed most today do not know or understand His sacrifice and will therefore not benefit from it. But I do not see any value in delineating some kind of fine line between those Jesus loves and redeems and those whom He loves and who remain lost.

I guess the point I want to make in this post is that I don't really care if technically Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross is only 'for' the redeemed or if He really did mean that His sacrifice was sufficient to cover the sins of all men for all time. The nature of Jesus is that He loves all of us with a real and tangible love that is deeper and more passionate than pitiable human words can convey. Do what you want with the lawyer talk but do not minimize His love because to do so would minimize His pain. The depth of His pain is real just as the depth of His love is. His wrath makes no sense otherwise and His wrath is real as well. Since I have been back in the West I have heard several people say that we hear too much preaching on the love of God, what we need is more preaching on His wrath. I hate this kind of talk with a great hate. It is a misunderstanding of who He is on so many levels. There is no wrath without great love and I don't hear anyone talking about His love with any depth of passion. Preaching on His love is sufficient to change the world. Too many have opted out of the true Gospel for a bunch of lawyer talk that presents passionless principals for living that look nothing like the one who laid down His life for us. Let us be passionate, feeling, loving people who serve and walk in the ways of a passionate, feeling, loving God. Surely His sacrifice has purchased at least that much?

The Ministry of Injustice

2008-10-18T00:23:00.002+05:00

Well, I had several posts I was meaning to get up here but life has caught up to me. Arwen and I spent several days down in San Antonio without the kids! Then we got back and we hear from Middle Earth that the Ministry of Justice seems to think we are doing evangelism and now they want to shut our aid agency down. I wish I was more guilty than I am but nevertheless they are taking us to court soon and it wont be pretty. I should be able to get back into Gondor in December and then this whole thing will take the best part of next year to sort out but as of right now unless someone steps in and tell the Ministry to back off of us then we will be out sometime in 2009. I am not worried about it as our Father has a good plan. We may yet stay- or if we go we will go on to do His will wherever He calls us to. Arwen and I are at peace and so is our team on the ground. Nevertheless pray for the Boss's own wisdom and power to be at work in our lives and the lives of those in Gondor and throughout Middle Earth.

Calvinist Thinking: Unconditional Election and Irresistable Grace

2008-10-03T23:46:00.003+05:00

A few years ago Gandalf had a Bible study with some of the Muslim guys who work for us. I was concerned at first because I did not want the fact that they worked for our aid organization to influence what they would say to us about their faith. The truth is I would rather go to their homes and discuss God. But Gandalf said that God was moving him to do this so he did it. Four of the guys attended every morning and paid close attention to what was said. One guy always found reasons not to be there- he is still working with us and is a great guy but just as lost as the first day we met him. But the others listened and as they did one of them seemed to be changing. He cleaned up his language and really seemed to soften. He was a truck driver and a pretty rough character really. After a couple of months he seemed to be a completely different guy. I am not just talking about language but about optimism, charity, hope, and kindness. We were all quite excited to see the transformation in him. Then one day he got in an argument with one of the other workers. I don't know what started it but as I came out of the office he declared to Gandalf and to the other workers there, 'I will never believe that Jesus was the Son of God.' After that he began to deteriorate quickly. He began swearing, he was rude, he was dishonest. Six months later I fired him for stealing.

Well, you can see where I am going with this already can't you? And some of you are quite unhappy about it I am sure. So, let's start from the top. First, while this is a powerful story in my mind it does not overthrow the Word. My theology is built on the Word of God not my experience. I can misread my experience but the Word says what it says. Today we are looking at the U and the I of the Tulip. They do in fact go together (for many Calvinist the TULIP as a whole goes together) and I could not think of a way of approaching one without talking about the other.

Unconditional Election is an important Calvinist teaching that has much merit for us to consider. Calvin used this concept to emphasis that Man can not earn his salvation. There is nothing that Man can do to 'force' God to do anything. With this concept in mind most Calvinists go on to say that this means that men and women are saved by the grace of God alone and Man's choosing to accept God's offer of Grace is simply Man's preordained response to God's call. To put it more simply God calls and Man must respond with a yes. Calvinists reasoning at this point explains that if Man responds of his own volition to the call of God then that constitutes a 'work' that Man could boast in. "Yes, it was God's lucky day when I said, 'yes' to His call." Irresistible Grace takes the idea one step further and states that whoever is called must answer yes. The reason for this concept is that God is Sovereign and if Man could potentially say no to Him He not only would not be sovereign but again, all those who were smart enough to say yes would have reason to boast.

I hope that I have explained these concepts fairly- if not thoroughly- and that everyone reading has a good grasp of what is being discussed to this point. I apologize to my Calvinist friends who doubtless feel I have done a poor job but in my defense I was never destined to be a great theologian or deep thinker. What I really want to address now is where Jesus stands in all of this.

First, let me say that God's sovereignty is a literal reality and I respect Calvinist for highlighting it. Too often Christians glibly say that 'He is in control' and then live a life of high octane anxiety that clearly indicates they either do not believe He is in control or do not trust Him to control things 'properly.' I do believe that the Bible paints a picture of a God who knows what is going on and is in control of it. Look at Jesus life in total. He knows he is going to the cross. There are a million variables that could take Jesus life in another direction. What if more of the Pharisees believed Him? What if the people really had made Him a King after He fed the 5000? What if Judas got cold feet and backed out of betraying Him? He knew what would happen from the beginning and it happened as prophesies had foretold over a thousand years beforehand. He is in control today just the same. You can't read the Bible and come to any other conclusion honestly. But... and here is the but. But Unconditional Election and Irresistible Grace fail to capture what is happening in the life of Jesus and in the world today.

So, moving past our experience with one grumpy driver who rejected Jesus what does the Bible say about this subject. I think of Jesus experience with the Rich Young Ruler in Mark 10. A young man comes to Jesus and Mark records that Jesus 'loved him'. But when the young man hears what he needs to do (the conditions?) he walks away sad. Jesus does not chase after him or cajole him in any way. He lets him go. He invited the boy in and the boy refused. To apply Unconditional Election is to make irrelevant half the verses in the Bible. God gives us through out the Old and New Testaments 'conditions' that we are to meet. Isaiah 55 is one of the greatest OT invitations and in Acts 2 we see Peter inviting people to come again. He gives some pretty good conditions for coming- like repentance and belief- and I just can't read these without thinking that God is honest and upfront in His invitation. I do not believe that He is telling everyone that they are welcome when in fact, He is only calling some. I will get to Limited Atonement in the next post. We are commanded to seek the Lord and Jesus informs us that all who seek will find Him. Unconditional? How's this for a condition?
"But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?" Romans 10:14
Those are conditions. In our work we see the truth that in places where the Gospel is boldly proclaimed people respond and in places where it is not there is little fruit. We are to go out to the highways and byways and compel them to come in. I appreciate that salvation is a gift from God, provided at great expense by God and it is only by His grace that I am saved. Our works can not save us but we must say yes to His grace. There are many Biblical examples of those who have rejected His grace. The Bible is full of the conditions that must be met to receive His grace. He was very clear about this.

I do not believe that holding such a view denies God's sovereignty. To use a poor analogy that is sure to break down somewhere, God is a master chess player. He will win the game. He is not surprised at the moves being made but anticipates and is prepared for them. Even now He is moving His pieces into position for the final push to the endgame. We must be out and about sharing the Word and giving the invitation. Many will reject Him but some will receive Him and be transformed into an army that will swell the ranks of His Kingdom until the whole of Heaven is filled with grateful souls giving Him the glory He deserves. I do not go in for the saying, 'Pray like it is all up to God and work like it is all up to you.' It makes a nice point about hard work but it is not good theology. No, pray as if it is all up to God and work for God is coming soon and will require an accounting of the use you have made of the costly Grace He has given you. We can resist His Grace as many have- we must not. We must accept His Grace and offer it in turn to a lost and rebellious world. He has commanded us to go and to love and to share. If we fail to meet this condition the judgment will be terrible indeed.

I just reread all of this and I am not happy with it. The bottom line of what I want to present is that of the character of God as demonstrated in Christ. He is an inviting God. In the parable of the Prodigal Son the Father is inviting the younger AND OLDER sons into the banquet. The invitations are genuine. Saying yes is not an act of self righteous works, it is the response He honestly seeks from all of us because He honestly loves all of us.

Practicing what you preach

2008-10-02T00:40:00.003+05:00

I will now take a short break from my Calvinistic posts and tell a short story. This story could be construed to illustrate Total Depravity but that is not my intent.

We had a team meeting with our new family a few years ago and Legolas seemed to fit right in. I wanted to impress him with my deep spiritual nature and I gave a devotional on loving our enemy. I gave the example of the local traffic police who pull over drivers and shake them down for money regularly. I said that we needed to see the oppressor as a victim of his own violence. I said we should pray for these guys and present them with the love of Christ just as we do to the down and out. I said a lot of things and the next day as Legolas and I drove down the road the Lord decided he would test out my theory.

As Legolas and I turned a corner there were a couple of traffic police, one in particular that was notorious for being less than fair and truthful. He pulled us over immediately even though I had done nothing wrong at all. He asked for my documents and I pulled them out. My Identification Card, my drivers license, and my... my... hey, where was my local driving talon? It was here before. I looked and looked but now it was gone. He walked over to a large group of his friends with my documents- minus the talon- in hand. He announced to the group of around ten traffic police that wasn't it shameful for this foreigner to be driving without his driving talon. I replied that it was not as shameful as a traffic cop who pulled people over for no offense. Yeah.... how did that devotional sermon go again?
So, we got in my car and followed him to an office. This was unusual but he said we could pay a fine at the office and be on our way. I parked the car and when I went in to pay the fine the clerk said that I could have my car back when I came back with a driving talon. Hold on, I cried, I was just supposed to pay a small fine. Nope. My car was now in the impound lot and the traffic cop was no where to be seen. Legolas was mercifully silent as we walked about a mile down the road to public transport and then on to the talon office where I got a new talon and then headed back to get the car.

We got the car back and I was batting 500. I did not exactly pray the Father's peace on this guy but neither did I lose my temper. My advice to all of you is to preach the Gospel and as you go expect to find the opportunities to live it.

Calvinist Thinking: Total Depravity

2008-09-20T09:20:00.002+05:00

I have a strong conviction about how to read the Bible. When we read a verse of scripture we should never interpret it in a way that is opposed to the clear meaning of other scriptures. For instance, 1 Corinthians 14:34 says, 'Women should be silent in the churches'. Taken out of context this seems pretty straight forward but when we read the rest of 1 Corinthians- much less the rest of the Bible- it is clear that women do speak and teach and proclaim within the Body of Christ. So we conclude that Paul is speaking about a specific situation here and not as a universal all-time rule for women in churches. By the same token Paul says many things about the character and nature of God, Man, Creation, etc. But we must always keep these in line with what has been revealed in Jesus. In John 14 Jesus makes an incredible announcement. He tells Philip and the disciples that whoever has seen Jesus has seen the Father. Do you want to know what God is like? Look to Jesus. So here is my point: Any interpretation of the Old or New Testament scriptures that is contrary to what Jesus has revealed to us about God can not be correct. Or to put it another way, we don't read Paul to find out what Jesus is like we look to Jesus to explain what Paul was talking about. This all sounds terribly complicated until we look at Total Depravity in the Calvinist system of thought.

Total Depravity according to Calvin meant that everything about Mankind is fallen and broken by sin. To Calvin's way of thinking this is a critical point in his theology because it sets up the number one point that John Calvin wanted us to understand about God. He chooses us, we do not choose Him. WE CAN NOT BY ANY MEANS FORCE GOD TO DO ANYTHING. I happen to believe that. But I do not understand Total Depravity the way some Calvinist consider it. Here, I will diverge from what some of you may have been expecting, namely a scholarly discussion of what Calvin thought. I am actually not too terribly concerned about what Calvin himself thought. I am much more concerned with what we think and in the conversations I have with Calvinists and non I am concerned with this Total Depravity issue. You see, Calvin may be right but I have two things to say about this. One, I believe that Man was made in God's image and that no matter how badly Sin has messed it up it is still in there. You can see it in the beauty of friendship, love, and forgiveness in Christians and non-Christians alike. I see this as God's original splendor still percolating beneath all the filth we have covered it with. So, while I- and every non-Calvinists I know- agree that there is no part of Man that does not need the redemption of Christ I will not yet declare Man totally depraved in the way that some Calvinists seem to think of Man. Man is not wholly evil. Second, Jesus does not see us this way.

If Total Depravity is technically correct or not too many Calvinists and non use it to misunderstand how God looks upon Man. When Jesus sits next to prostitutes and tax collectors the Word does not record Him thinking, 'What a bunch of despicable reprobates! There is no good thing in them and they make my skin crawl.' On the contrary, the Pharisees are rather annoyed with Jesus because He not only teaches them but seems to genuinely enjoy being with them. I know, I know, we are fallen, corrupted, 'All have fallen short...' Yes, I understand that. But when Jesus looks on the Rich Young Ruler who rejected Him the Word says, 'He loved him.' Think about that for a moment. Some of you may have thought, 'Ok, I know God loves me but it is solely because of the work of His Son. It is because of Christ's sacrifice for us that God can stand to look at us.' Or, some of you might think 'Well, of course He loves me. He knows all things and He knows what I will become in His Kingdom. He loves me for what He will make of me.' But the Rich Young Ruler rejected Him and would never become any more than what he was- in fact, he was probably never closer to the Kingdom than at that moment and the Word says he walked away. I have seen those who walk away and I bet some of you have as well. What they go on to become is never pretty. No, somehow Jesus loves us. He does not love the sin. He does not love us for the good things we occasionally do. He loves us.

Now, some may step in at this point and say, 'I see that He truly loves us but that is because He is so loving. It has nothing to do with who we are. We are yet totally depraved, utterly sinful.' My only response to that is that sometimes we say things we just don't think through. God does not love sin or depravity and yet He loves us. Therefore there is something about us that is not sin or depravity. I have a teenage daughter. If she came home one day and told me that she was a loving person and that is why she is going to marry a totally depraved, sinful, immoral man I would have a less than positive response to this. God loves us and He plans on marrying us!

Total Depravity is a good way of understanding our relationship to God in regard to our salvation. We have nothing and can do nothing that demands God's love. But do not then go on to understand that is all Man is. The King of Kings truly loves us. He finds a value in us that I do not comprehend but as we relate to one another it is perilous to forget that the King loves those whom you love, those whom you hate, and yes, even Democrats and Republicans. Let us treat each other with this love and leave Total Depravity on a theoretical shelf to be pulled down only when we get too prideful. But in my life I have seen more people rescued by the certain knowledge of God's love than the hell-fire sermons of a vengeful God who may or may not save us against His better judgment.

The Calvinist Way of Thinking

2008-09-18T01:15:00.002+05:00

Theology is an interesting subject. It can be studied, analyzed, debated, or even gulped down whole like a glass of cold milk. Many of us do the latter. Well, of course we do. We grow up with admirable people around us who spout off probable or improbable things and we swallow them whole not so much because of what those ideas are but because we trust the person spouting them off. As an example look at what it means to be a ‘conservative’ in American life. If you are conservative you believe in the sanctity of life and therefore you are against abortion. You believe in the Second Amendment and therefore you are against gun control. And you believe that Capital Punishment is an acceptable form of punishment within our criminal justice system. I defy any of you to have a conversation with any conservative and leave off one of these positions. If you do you will quickly be told that you are not a conservative at all and as we know good Christians are conservatives and therefore you are not a good Christian. Some of you are saying, ‘Hey, wait a minute that won’t happen!’ Yes, my friend it will. And if we set the glass of milk aside and look at these three completely disparate issues we will see that it is ridiculous to equate the three in any meaningful way. Sanctity of life is a biblical issue. God created us and we should respect that. Gun Control? Give me a verse of scripture on that. It may be a valid discussion to have within our society but it is not a moral issue biblically. If I am opposed to gun ownership in our society it does not make me a cursed liberal God-hater. If I believe that Capital Punishment is wrong that does not make me a tree hugging hippie. So, you get my point I hope. I have brought up three volatile issues that will surely have your head reeling by now and I am trying to show that we don’t have to believe all of them in order to be a biblically faithful Christian even though we have been told we must by good people.

This unhelpful ramble brings me to Calvinism. We have been told by some good men and women that all Calvinists hate missions and if we give any space to them in our Churches then missions will decline and we will fade away. That is of course, non-sense. There are now and always have been lots of God loving, Bible believing, missions focused Calvinists just as there have always been those who believe in man’s free will to choose who never ever share the gospel with anyone. That is a false argument that has kept many in fear for too long. The truth is that some of my superiors here on the mission field are Calvinists. They love Jesus and they love to tell others about Him. I believe that Calvinists within Southern Baptist life have reminded us of important doctrines like purity, God’s sovereignty, and God’s grace. I am not however, a Calvinist. I think that the doctrines of Calvinism fail to describe to us what God is like. I believe that good theology tells us what God is all about- Theology is supposed to mean ‘the study of God.’ So, with all that I have said under our collective belts I would like to lay out what I believe about Calvinism and therefore what I think God is really like.

Calvinism best describes itself as doctrines of grace. When they talk about Grace there is much we can agree on and much that I like about the way they say it. But Calvinism is usually described by their famous TULIP. I think that this is interesting because the TULIP does not describe everything that Calvin himself believed. I remember talking with my supervisor who is a Calvinist once and someone came and joined us. After we continued our conversation for a moment the newcomer said, ‘Hey, are you a Calvinist!’ He was clearly surprised to find a Calvinist as a top leader in our missions agency. Before our leader could reply I said, ‘Yes, he is. We would complain about his infant baptism if we weren’t afraid he would burn us at the stake!’ It was very funny but it was not true. Even though Calvin believed in infant baptism and did have just one enemy burned at the stake my friend believes in neither of these things and yet is a Calvinist in good standing. I don’t understand that I just accept it as reality and move on. So, we will stick with the TULIP which stands for the following:

Total Depravity
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints

Now, because this post is long enough as it is I will unpack each of these issues over the next couple of days. This subject touches on the Mission but as you can see it is a departure from my usual story telling agenda. I will return to story telling about what God is doing but I wanted to get my thoughts down about this important issue. I hope it is helpful for you as well as a good exercise for me.

Twenty Years

2008-08-21T00:00:00.002+05:00

Twenty years ago today Arwen and I were married. Our marriage has been a tribute to God's grace. I am very thankful to be one with such a beautiful, intelligent, God-honoring bride.

We met at University. She was dating my roommate whose ambition it was to get rich and go into politics. She had other values and upon finding out that I was called into overseas work she set her sights on me and I had no chance at all. Twenty years later we have experienced much more than we had planned. We live in Middle Earth, we have four really cool kids, and God is opening up new doors everyday in the ongoing adventure that is our lives. It is the life I have always wanted and certainly never deserved. God's grace is amazing.

More on Brokenness

2008-07-27T07:44:00.002+05:00

I have said it many times before and written about it specifically more than once: I am a big fan of brokenness. That's really odd isn't it? Who wants to be broken? There is a verse in a song that says,

Brokenness, brokenness is what I long for
Brokenness is what I need
Brokenness, brokenness is what you want from me

I like that song a lot. Jesus won our freedom on the Cross. It was in His brokenness that He found the victory. Now most of us spend the majority of our prayer lives pleading with God not to allow brokenness in our lives. Well, it isn't fun is it? But is 'fun' what we are about? If it is then we have definitely picked the wrong God. Fun in the sense of life is like a trip to Disneyland is not what is going to happen if you are faithful to the true Lord of All Creation. But before you panic let me show you what you will find if you follow the in the Way of the Cross.

Our missionary career began like few ever have. We moved to Middle Earth in 1996 and began trying to figure out how to get to Gondor. We had no workers in Gondor and our organization was intent on reaching 'All Peoples, Nothing Less'. The year after we moved there all the workers in Mordor were forced to leave. So, we moved into Gondor from Rohan and in the next year registered a disaster relief organization. In 1998 we went south into Mordor, responded to a huge earthquake crisis there and reestablished work in that country. In 1999 we saw a small church start and in the Spring of that year before I went on my first home-leave we baptized 14 people. All this in a Muslim country that had just come out of a brutal civil war and was still a very dangerous and violent place. It was awesome and we expected that in year 2000 we would return to more and more victories.

In year 2000 I came back to some irritating news. Other families joined us but they would not be on MY team. My boss decided that Mordor was not MY responsibility and he gave supervision of the new office and personnel there to someone else. There were no disasters in early 2000 and we all sat around wondering what God was up to. Why were we not making a difference in other peoples lives. One of the families decided to move to another city and set up another team. The other family on our team became increasingly contentious and decided that they would not support our disaster work anymore. They went out and did there own projects. I was reeling. MY self esteem was in the toilet. Everything I had built up had fallen apart. I went to a conference in 2002 and I learned that most of my problems were due to my lack of organizational skills. I was a terrible administrator and no one on the team felt called to step in and help. I got some books, cleared off my desk and got to work making sense out of my life and work. At the same time I thought I would now be able to pull my wandering team mates back in. I went to them several times and talked about new vision and new organization. They were unmoved. I kept hearing that they were talking bad about me and that they were unhappy with me. I went to them to confront them over their unbiblical behavior. I sat down and confronted them in one of the most painful meetings I have ever had. I laid out for them all the ways they were wronging me and they looked sheepish and would not reply. Then I pressed forward and demanded an answer and they gave one. It was me. I had betrayed their trust on more than one occasion. I had let confidences slip too often and I had not protected their reputations. It was me. I wept openly. I went away and prayed about it. I came back and talked to them again confessing my sin and weeping tears of bitter repentance. I wish I could say that our relationship was restored. They said they forgave me but our relationship was never the same. They left six months later and went to work in some new opportunities in Mordor.

I went on home-leave again in 2002. Arwen and I wondered what we would share in the churches we spoke in! Where were all the great stories of what God had done. We had not seen anything. Well, God is good and there were a couple of neat things that happened and we made the most of it telling others about what God had done in some friends lives. But we were empty. I stayed on my face before God all winter. I was like a zombie walking around with nothing inside. All the I's, MY's, and ME's had built up until the scales tipped and the story of my life collapsed like a house of cards. But in the early Spring of 2003 God began to speak to me in a still and very quiet voice. He was not through with me. There was more to do and I was going to go back and do it. He called me to put together a national team of guys who would work with me in Disaster Management. That team has seen villages changed, men and women come to faith, and faithful churches begun. There is no I, ME, or MY in any of it. Just God working in us and through us to make a difference in others lives. I never could be a witness to 2003 if I had not gone through 2002.

Brokenness, brokenness is what I long for. Brokenness is what I need. Brokenness is what He wants from me. And in return I get to witness the Kingdom of God being established in places you can not imagine. That beats the snot out of Disneyland any day.

Praying for Patience

2008-07-11T21:18:00.002+05:00

One day Gandalf made an off-hand comment about needing more patience. His reply was quick and dramatic. "Don't you pray patience for me!!! If you do I will let all the air out of your tires!" Why you might ask would he respond so? Because if you pray for patience God will give you opportunities to practice. I really love the way God moves us forward in our lives. My boss says that 'God is ruthlessly committed to your sanctification.' Hmmm ruthlessly? Oh yes. I think we all have stories. God moves us forward through suffering- see Romans 5 or James 1- and he moves us forward by stretching our faith. Asking us to take great leaps of faith into the unknown is one of my favorite ways to grow. At least, it beats the heck out of life threatening illnesses. But God also moves in the small mundane things of life. Like through our children.

When we lived in Rohan we went through some really serious culture shock. We were deeply unhealthy emotionally and all of our relationships suffered. Arwen and I started yelling a lot at our two girls. Of course, they were in culture shock too so they behaved in ways that deserved to be yelled at a lot. But it was not good parenting. It was becoming increasingly out of control and one day after screaming at the girls in an uncontrolled rant I broke down. Arwen and I prayed together and then brought the girls in and sat them down. We told them that if they disobeyed they would be punished in appropriate ways but mommy and daddy were not going to yell at them any more. I have raise my voice on occasion but I can honestly say I have not broken this promise and railed on the girls the way we had done and neither has Arwen.
Well, after a promise like this you can count on it being tested. Not by the girls- they were 3 and 5- no, God was going to test this one.

I was cooking French Fries in the kitchen and had the potatoes and the oil out on the counter when our five year old Luthien came in. She just stood there quietly. I said, 'Hello sweety.' She didn't say anything. I turned back to the potatoes for a split second and when I turned back to her she was gone. And so was the open bottle of cooking oil. I took off out of the kitchen and into the living room- to her bedroom- to the next room- and then to my bedroom. I ran in and there she was. She was laughing and jumping on my bed with the open bottle of oil in her hand. Oil was flying out of the top and going everywhere. It soaked our pillows, sheets, dripped from the walls, and puddled on the floor. I took all this in in an instant and then immediately ducked out of the room and collapsed in laughter. I didn't want her to see me laughing but I looked up as I laughed and I knew without doubt that God had sent her to test my words which I had just uttered yesterday. I went back in the room and took the oil away from her and I gently asked her why she did that. She had no idea but I could hear Him laughing in Heaven with a deep laugh at the guy who promised never to lose his temper again.