Beneficial Faith and the Gospel of Christ

I've seen a lot of blogs posting links to this remarkable article written by Matthew Parris, an atheist, entitled As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God. Read the whole article. I want to cite some of what he wrote:

The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world - a directness in their dealings with others - that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall.

Anxiety - fear of evil spirits, of ancestors, of nature and the wild, of a tribal hierarchy, of quite everyday things - strikes deep into the whole structure of rural African thought. Every man has his place and, call it fear or respect, a great weight grinds down the individual spirit, stunting curiosity. People won't take the initiative, won't take things into their own hands or on their own shoulders.

Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosphical/spiritual framework I've just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates.

He observes that Christian faith liberates the mind. However, he is unwilling to himself have that freedom for his own mind. It's one thing to acknowledge the truth. It's another thing to think the truth applies to you. The man has a faith of sorts and acknowledges it as such:

It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I've been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I've been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.

What's more astonishing is that he recognizes that the Christian faith is spiritual, real, and good:

Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.

Umm. If it's spiritual, real and good then why not have it? This leads me to an observation. If knowing and believing isn't enough to have faith, then we must conclude that faith comes from some other source. Is it that he has simply choosen not to have faith? I imagine that he simply doesn't believe that God exists. At this point a toughtful atheist can't argue that faith is a product of evolution; otherwise we'd all have faith. While he accurately observes that faith in Africa is spread through the missionaries who bring the gospel of Christ, he himself doesn't have this faith. Presenting the information isn't sufficient for producing faith. It's like pointing out all the people who have died of emphysema to a smoker who already has a bad cough and watching the smoker himself become diagnosed with emphysema and continue to smoke until his lungs are too weak to take a drag. The truth is evident and the evidence abundant, even in the life of the atheist. So, why not have faith while one can?

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Romans 12:3

Faith is a gift of God.

Beautiful Feet

How beautiful the feet of those who bring the gospel of Christ.

What Body Part Are You - and Why?

Are you part of the Body of Christ? Think about your place in the Body. What is your role? What are you inclined to focus on with regard to fulfilling the purposes of God?

We each have a function. The metaphor of the Church as a human body isn't particularly designed to encompass one-for-one all the possible, or even just the necessary, functions within the Church, or even within a church, to be matched with specific body parts. Nevertheless, this might be a good thought experiment.

Know also that if you're not part of the Body of Christ, you can't answer this question.

For myself, I have to look at the places I minister.

I'm intelligent. Does that make me a part of the brain? Not necessarily.
I'm a family man who husbands his wife and feeds his kids on the Word of God. Does that make me a mammary gland? In some ways, perhaps.
As a musician, videographer, and other various technical assistant who desires to help others commune with God in worshiping Him, could I be a mouth or voice, ear or arms to reach with? I don't know.
I pray. Does that make me a nerve to connect the Body with the mind of God?

In my office at work I have two computers, each with screensavers that have a significant number of missions photos that rotate through. One computer has photos of our most recent trip to Venezuela. The other has photos of our most recent trip to London. I enjoy seeing photos and hearing accounts of missions activities around the world. I have a list of missionaries I pray for that include Steve in Trinidad/Tobago, Paulas in Nepal, Mari Daniel in India, the McLellands mission in Uganda, Darrin in Russia, G&M, BJ&K (in sensitive places), and Sam's trips to teach discipleship in various places, just to name a few. I also keep in prayer the people who minister to the sex slaves in Southeast Asia and the Chinese evangelists who are crossing into the -stans, although I don't who they are.

I like to open up Google Earth just to find places around where people live. I love being able to see some of the photos in panoramio to see what these places look like. I wish I could be everywhere at once. It's entirely an unrealistic dream, but my heart is with the people of God wherever they may be. There's a song I know that I rarely can get through without choking up. It's called Here I Am. The refrain is this:

Here I Am, Lord,
It is I, Lord,
I have heard you calling in the night,
I will go, Lord,
If you lead me,
I will hold your people in my heart.

So, barring that I can't be everywhere at once, I'll go wherever the Lord provides and dream of the people I can't go to keeping them in my prayers. And when i go, I go to offer them hope, life and whatever they need to help add new people to the Body.

So all things considered, within the Body of Christ, I'm blood.

What Body part are you?

Fear Not

Many American Christians, when asked why they are hesitant to be involved in missions will say that they are afraid that God will send them to Africa. What about African Christians? When they are asked where they are afraid God will send them, many say Tanzania. There usually seems to be somewhere worse than where we are.

What are we afraid of?

Perhaps it's the discomfort of living within means that seem woefully impoverished although the people missionaries minister to are typically moreso. Would it be the infestations of various insects and vermin? There are cockroaches in South America that chirp you to sleep at night from the wall next to your head. There are the tiny ants that you share your food with in places in Africa. You may just get several with each bite for some additional protein.

Perhaps its the security factor where you shouldn't go out at night exposing yourself to attack by various types of mauraders. Sometimes theft or attack happens in broad daylight.

Perhaps its the exposure to diseases and parasites in the water, the people you minister to, or the animals you come in contact with such as stray dogs, flies or mosquitos.

There's the trepidation we all have towards various governments and their hatred for Christians. We fear imprisonment. We fear separation from loved ones. We fear torture and even death.

Face it, many people around the world don't like us. We could get caught with an extra Bible in China or the Middle East. We could be burned to death in a car in India with our children. We could become deathly ill in the Himalayas with no physician, medical care, or even roads for quick travel for many miles. We could be taken prisoner in the Indies and required to live in solitary confinement. We could be taken hostage by a rogue militia in the Phillipines and watch them kill our spouse. We could watch our spouse go out to make first contact with a tribe in Ecuador never to return. We could be beheaded in the Middle East or tortured to death in Turkey with multiple surgical stab wounds designed for the maximum amount of pain. We could spend hours in gruelling interrogation for our activities. We could discover that the government has an extensive dossier on us and has been tracking our movements for years for the purpose of destroying the local underground church and all who attend it and minister therein. We could sit by and watch as our villiage faces attack by a neigboring villiage - right in your front yard.

All these things have happened and it's only a small sample.

Is this what we are afraid of?

I got into a conversation recently where the fate of the United States was questioned. It was noted that once we were a moral people and now we are decidely not. We have gone through periods of relative morality and periods of relative immorality. At no time have we been completely immoral or completely moral.

As an aside, part of the most recent slide into immorality comes from the fact that our last spate of morality in about the 1940's was merely moral and not explicitly Christian. It's one thing to do the right thing becuase doing the right thing is in your best interest and another to do the right thing because you want to glorify God.

The larger picture is that history is like the vibrating of a guitar string. There is a cyclical arch to it. However, the string does not merely vibrate between its end points. It also vibrates in subdivisions. That is, it vibrates from the center point to the ends or in halves. It also vibrates in thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, on up to the point where the segments are too small for it to physically vibrate. Each of these vibrations, being fractionally smaller than the length of the string have different pitches that comprise the harmonic overtones that characterize the timbre, or tonal quality, of the string.

History is like this vibrating string in that historical patterns happen at large intervals as well as smaller intervals such that history resonates with harmonic regularity: the flow of thought through history, the conduct of wars and international policy, the fidelity of the people of the living God, the settlement of the land, the technological advances, etc. Have we the capacity to build structures that rival the pyramids of Egypt or the Colossus of Rhodes? Sure we do. But for a long time after the pyramids were built, we didn't. Read the book of Judges and see how the Hebrews would become unfaithful, God would punish them, they would become faithful for a time, only to slip back into infidelity as a nation.

Inasmuch as men have been barbaric, and have become civilized, the civilizations of men will fall once again into barbarism.

As the conversation the other night progressed, one fellow conceded that he feared that our way of life would be over and our children would have a difficult world in which to live. I assured him that God was still sovereign and told him that he therefore had nothing to fear. This is why we need to prepare our children now.

Do you fear the future? In whom is your trust? If you trust God then no matter what happens, fear not.

Venezuela 2008 Video

Last night was the share service at church for the Venezuela trip this summer. Here's the video for it:

-

-

The traditional Venezuelan music was performed for us by the youth of the church we ministered with. I have a full-length version of it and plan to post it in the very near future.

Off to London

It seems like only a couple of weeks ago I was in Venezuela...

Actually, I was. One of these days I'll get around to posting some photos and accounts here. I already have some photos up on Facebook. (I'm not sure if you'll be able to access these - I have the albums tagged for "everyone". It is what it is.)

I'm leaving to day for London for more ministry. I can't be too specific, but we have a specific people group we are reaching out to and God is doing great things there. As you are led, please pray for us. Aside from standing up for long periods of time, the physical work isn't too demanding. However, the spiritual warfare can be tedious. From the teams that have been going on throughout the summer, the response has been tremendous. However, the spiritual warfare is no less than it ever was. Our spiritual enemy doesn't like what we're doing I'm sure and a productive year easily causes people to become lax. Pray that we would continue to bear the gospel well.

While I'm gone, I'll leave you with some lighter things to keep you occupied. When I'm feeling down, the following two sites are sure to give me a good chuckle if not a serious belly laugh:

If you like cats:
Lolcats: I Can Has Cheezburger?

Examples:





If you like dogs:
Loldogs: I has a hotdog

Examples:







Then, someone takes Garfield comics and photoshopped Garfield out of the picture leaving only Jon Arbuckle looking hilariously mentally disturbed. These can be found at Garfield minus Garfield.

Examples:

Recent Activities

To all who follow this, Lois and the kids are back in Venezuela for several weeks. She has a full itinerary. Last year, she wasn't certain at any time what she was going to be doing. She did a lot of things, but could have done much more if it was organized a bit better. This year she pushed our missionary, Ised, for a full itinerary up front and got it.

She will be doing many of the things she did last year such as women's cell groups and children's Bible lessons in mission areas. Some additional activities include building relationships with other churches in nearby towns and helping take the gospel to the Yucpa Indians.

As for me, I've been preoccupied and haven't had the chance to post much lately. I've had all kinds of neat thoughts about such things as discipleship, absolute truth and crises in ministry, but just not the chance to type them up in a coherent way. So, forgive the lack of posts lately and I'll get back at it while I can.

Lois plans to keep us updated on the blog she started last year for this purpose. Her Internet access is rather limited this year, however, so she may not be able to post often. subscribe to her feed so you can get the updates as they happen.

Random Thoughts

I’ve been slammed with projects lately and haven’t had time to post much. I’ll give you a run down of some of my latest disjointed thoughts and musings.

---

It occurred to me that materialism is necessarily deterministic. Then, I realized that unless God is not the creator of all things or He is not omniscient or He is not omnipotent, then all things are ultimately determined by Him. However, materialistic determinism is physical and existential. Therefore, unless God created a physical universe where the laws of physics are always constant, then metaphysical principles, which precede and define the physical, at least occasionally override physical laws thus making materialistic determinism an impossible proposition.

In this same vein, if the human will is limited to mere neurological activity then our minds are products of materialistic determinism. It is true that nothing informs our decisions that are outside of God’s created order. But this created order includes that which is spiritual. Inasmuch as the spiritual is metaphysical, then we are agents of metaphysical manipulation of physical existence. That doesn’t mean that we can go about breaking the laws of physics on our own, but rather that the animation of our bodies is a product of something greater than the mere chemical and electric impulses found in our nervous system.

---

I’ve come to realize that DNA is arranged to store and convey information, much like a language. The two differ in one astonishing regard. Language requires an external common frame of reference for the purpose of communication. If I write using the Phoenician alphabet with the understanding that most people in this world don’t know Phoenician, then I can expect that most people will not be able to understand what I’ve written. However, if I write in English, there are dictionaries all over the place to fix the common frame of reference. If you don’t understand a word, then you can look it up. If you understand the word order and usage of at least most of the words, then you can understand my intended meaning. If I write the word “branch”, you have the experiences of trees, streams of water or genealogical lines associated with that word.

The language of DNA is different because it does not exist for the purpose of communication. It exists for the purpose of defining and building biological morphologies. The astonishing thing is that you can define a biological morphology in any language you want. You can invent your own language for the express purpose of defining all the morphological possibilities of an organism or its genetic family. It’s useless unless you have a frame of reference with which to translate the definition from the language into an actual functioning morphology. The astonishing part is that the language of DNA is self-referencing. Within the language and definition is the information required to perform the translation. The breadth of this capacity exceeds that of, say, the Rosetta Stone by several orders of magnitude.

DNA is more than mere information. Necessary for its function is an understanding of quantum and macroscopic physics since the DNA itself functions on the quantum level and defines organisms that function macroscopically.

---

I’ve often contemplated the benefits and drawbacks of evidential and presuppositional apologetics. Although presuppositional apologetics is compelling if you understand it, evidential apologetics is better understood by the average person. There is yet a third way, and I haven’t named it yet. Its intent is evangelism where the truth is espoused. Either the Holy Spirit quickens people to understand or He doesn’t. In those who He quickens the truth will resonate.

---

Perhaps when I get through some of these projects, I’ll be able to finish a thought. Until then, you’ll probably see more of these partial thoughts here. Keep my church in your prayers. Missions have been sporadic throughout this year with teams having been to China, Costa Rica and the near East recently. We have people and teams preparing for China, Nepal, London, Venezuela, Sri Lanka, Four Corners, etc. We are excited about what God is doing, but it is a lot of work and requires much prayer…

So pray!

Translator Torture

This video on the torture of a perfectly good translator is making it's rounds among ministerial blogs:




If you've never used a translator or tried to translate yourself, you might not get it.

I have some experience using translators. Currently we use two primary translators in Venezuela as well as one or two other Venezuelans who have learned some English. Actually, only one can accurately be called a translator, reciting almost word-for-word what is said. The others are better referred to as interpreters. I still find it disconcerting when I say something that takes only a very few words and the interpreter takes two or three sentences to convey my intended meaning. My attention span is dubious at best and it's a humorous way to cut to questions while I try to get my train of thought back on track.

Silly me once tried to use a translator to have a congregation of mostly Spanish-only and English-only speakers sing a simple praise chorus in both languages simultaneously. The resulting confusion was a lesson in disunity.

We have a preacher who travels with us who brings his favorite hand-puppet, Baggie the Bear. One year, he used Baggie to introduce a sermon. he has a special silly voice that he uses with Baggie. the funny thing was the translator imitated his voice in Spanish when he translated for Baggie.

One last thing. I had a translator once who I knew had studied his theological terms in Spanish, so I was comfortable taking the level of discourse up a notch. I brought up the term "propitiation" and was immediately asked by someone in the class to define it. I made the mistake of including the word "atonement" in the first sentence of my explanation. Even in Spanish, it's helpful to keep things simple.

Pushing the Cultural Divide in Worship

How many true ethnomusicologists are there really? I imagine most who delve into ethnomusicology are either cross-cultural musicians who have merely a passing interest in the anthropological significance of the music or anthropologists who view the music of a culture as just one of many facets of the anthropological analysis of a culture. Between these extremes there are a few who I'm sure strike a balance better fit for the title "ethnomusicologist" (EM).

The Christian EM would be a missionary of sorts vested in going into remote areas where the gospel has only recently been shared with people of a little known culture. The Christian EM would have the ability to analyze the cultural import of different aspects of music and help the first church of the ethnic group develop a meaningful body of musical literature for corporate worship.

People are not very comfortable going outside of their normal worship routine. I've been in two culturally similar western denominations that have their own almost completely separate musical circles. Many of the old hymns differ from one denomination to another or even church to church within a denomination. More often than not I have heard a hymn shared where the question must be asked, "Have you sung that hymn before?" Even within a denomination, the range of musical styles available are a cause for division. It can be challenging to consider the music of another culture, another subculture, or even another generation within a culture.

I saw this video clip on a post over at the Black and Reformed Ministries Blog:




I posted some observations in the meta and I'll expand on them here.

First, I note the intricacies of the meter and rhythm in rap. Most English-speaking Christians I know, whether they favor the King James or not as fruitful for personal study, consider the translation to be a particularly beautiful one considering its rhythm and tempo, especially read by one classically trained who can read the older form of the English language with fluidity and ease. Who hasn't studied poetry and learned something of the metrics and rhyming patterns? These patterns are often rather simple compared to the patterns a rap artist will create. Rhyme, alliteration and rhythm may be loose, but it stays strictly within a larger pattern and one gets an idea of the extensive vocabulary employed by rap artists. While colloquialisms abound, the meaning is clear even to those of the larger culture.

Second, good poetry follows form and function for the purpose of enhancing and preserving meaning. I've recently considered Genesis 1 for it's poetic form. Precisely when writing was developed in the antediluvian times isn't known. (Archeology has found that Abraham's people had sophisticated enough writing a mere few hundred years after the flood to have libraries.) But until writing was developed, the creation account was most certainly developed in poetic form in order to aid in memory and fix the meaning. When rap first became popular, I remember learning a couple. Years later, I still pretty much remember them, and I'm not great at memorization. Most of the hymns I've sung since my childhood I can't recall beyond the first verse - and I'm a musician.

Third, the substance of this piece is impressive. I've heard a valid criticism of many praise and worship songs that their meaning, or lack thereof, leaves something to be desired. They rightly point to old hymns as having more substance. To be fair, there are newer songs of worship with plenty of substance. There's more substance in this rap than some old hymns I know.

Pay attention - we just might have some raps like this around the throne as well as some Oriental or Gregorian chants, Middle Eastern scales, African rhythms, or Latin American beats. Learn to worship unencumbered by mere stylistic biases and preferences.

Old Photos - Mission in Caney Valley: 1959-1961

I had earlier made mention of my mom having spent a couple of years as a missionary in the Appalacians. This is Caney Valley, Tennessee, circa 1960:

At the bend in the road you can see a small cabin. This was where my mom and the girl who partnered with her as a missionary lived. Here's a closer shot of the cabin during the winter:

This is a closer shot of the cabin with my grandparents and aunt Ann. She's younger than mom was and was still in high school at the time.


Here's a picture of my mom and the kids she taught Bible to:

Mom was always thin, but she gained a few pounds these couple of years. Perhaps it was because the people of the valley ate well as is evidenced by this photo taken next to the cabin:

Such a sight didn't bother mom. She was raised on a small midwestern farm and was well acquainted with agrarian food production. Besides, you have to slaughter the hogs if you want the barbecue:

Actually, that looks like it might be cake, but you can't have your cake untill you've polished off your lunch. These kids were my mom's kids as they sat in front of the church on what may have been a special Sunday. It didn't have to be a special Sunday for ball games. I've been told that many summer Sunday afternoons the people of the valley gathered to play ball:

Lessons From the Moravian Church

There's a Pastor's Conference going on at Desiring God right now. This morning, Monroe Brewer, international director at the Center for Church Based Training, gave some lessons from the Moravian Church. This list concerning Christian parenting and missions was among them:

• A child's brain is meant to be used. Respecting children includes taking their minds seriously.
• Parents are the best teachers for their children. When others are involved in kids' education, it is still the parents responsibility.
• Moral discipline follows mental discipline.
• Children are special objects of Christ's concern. They have gifts like faith, humility, curiosity, and memory that adults have often largely grown out of.
• Music is a significant teaching tool. It is often better to sing than to lecture.
• Preparing a child to go on the mission field begins at birth or sooner through prayer.
• Though not everyone will be missionaries, everyone should be prepared to be.

As a Christian homeschool dad and musician with a heart for missions, this resonates with me.

There is Hope For Saudis

...The hope of salvation, that is.

Are you interested in fighting terrorism through spiritual warfare, but don't know what to pray for? Are you interested in sharing the gospel with Saudi Muslims?

The Saudi Advocacy Network can put you in touch with resources than can help. There is information to help you pray. Every day since last spring I have been receiving an e-mail from the "Captain Bin" (aka "Happy Camel") called the Saudi Prayer Calendar. I start out my day in prayer for Saudi Arabia. You can sign up for it here. If you are inclined to go and help, you can find out how you can get involved here. We need mature Christians on the front lines, not to kill Saudis, but to offer them true life.

Faith and Obedience, Joy and Happiness, Part 2

Given that we at Western Avenue have been convicted of the need to fulfill the Great Commission, there are some observations that need to be stated. I observe that we tithe our membership to missions.

These are not full-time missions in the sense that 10% of our membership is in the field at any given time. That said, it must be understood that many of our people work year-round to raise funds and prepare for any particular mission.
We may be sending 10%, but what of the other 90%? Understanding that not everyone can go, we can still send more.
We have done no special thing to grow spiritually for this task besides to earnestly seek God’s face. God Himself is the progenitor of our status. We strive to be faithful. We strive to worship Him in every way. We strive to glorify Him in everything we do. From among us, God has provided everything we need to fulfill His purpose.
Our missionaries are no better than any other group of true Christians. We still bear evidence of the old sin nature. We are not uber-spiritual, but rather normal Christians who happen to agree that we need to figure out how to be about the business Christ told us we need to be about.

With that last statement, let me offer a montage of snapshots of our congregation, proverbial warts and all. No names are given here and the textual faces are smudged to protect identities. The point is that these are people I love. These are people who filled the church Sunday. As we offered praise to God, considering His call for us to go, the faces I saw in worship were the faces of people I knew had obstacles of sin to overcome. Nevertheless, God is glorified despite their weakness. Here are some of the brothers and sisters with whom I attend church:

• There’s the man who left his wife and kids, but came back to them.
• There’s the woman who starts major projects all over the church, but invariably gives up on them after a short time.
• There’s the younger man who had a stroke. He’s functional, but he lacks the ability to control some aspects of his behavior and is often annoying.
• There’s the woman who has a good heart, but can really find a harsh way of showing it sometimes.
• There’s the man who longs to minister to some of the most downtrodden people on the planet, but his wife’s health has gotten so bad that he has to expend all his energy ministering to her.
• There are the couples who have divorced for various reasons.
• There is the husband and father who has been attracted to another woman, but has remained faithful out of true love and a willingness to offer himself up for his family.
• There is the woman who feels devalued, but has been able to bring meaning and stability to so many ministries.
• There is the man who too often takes the path of least resistance, but whose heart is so tender that he encourages others to be likewise tender.
• There is the woman who is often impatient with children, but has a desire to minister to children around the world that makes her effective.
• There is the man who organizes several activities, but can't seem to put church property back where it goes so that others can find it.
• There is the woman who engenders the attentiona and affections of many because of the tenderness by which she ministers to all near her. However, she keeps herslef so busy with all this that she fails to follow up on those who she has left behind.
• There is the man whose health has caused financial problems, but who seeks to minister in any way he can.
• There is the woman who is raising her children alone, but keeps them active in the church and teaches them to minister to others.
• There is the man whose wife has passed away and continues to lead missions to difficult places.
• There is the couple who couldn't have children until they started adopting.
• There is the man who is trying to stop smoking and works for a secret agency, but who has discovered a joy in using his gifts to minister to others.
• There is the couple who comes from a difficult background who seek to teach their kids to minister.
• There are the ones who complain from time to time, but remain faithful to minister.
• There are those of significant wealth who give generously, but sometimes try to put strings on their gifts.
• There are those of limited means who continue to find God's provision to go on missions.
  

There are so many more that I could include. Perhaps you recognize some of these people at your church. The snapshots are not particularly unique and some of them represent more than one person I know at my church. If you think that a people must be particularly special to get involved with God's work, you're mistaken.

One of the songs that we sang Sunday was Days of Elijah. One line, in reference to Ezekiel, is "The dry bones becoming as flesh". We are those dry bones. We are told that if we do not praise God, He can make the rocks cry out. All of us have had hardened hearts. When our hearts become soft enough to praise God, we are the rocks that cry out in praise to our God. He is the one who gives us life. He uses us to take His message of life to others.

To His glory!

Faith and Obedience, Joy and Happiness, Part 1

Sunday was a profound day for me. I’ve been struggling on how to convey this. The struggle is over the fact that there is significant information that I cannot share. Some of it is very personal and some of it is involves sensitive information. These things I cannot share. I have written and re-written an account of Sunday, but have been unable to express clearly what has happened spiritually. There is a message attached that I’d like to share, but the message has greater meaning than I can relay with a simple linear discourse.

The theme for worship Sunday was missions with a focus on the sovereignty of God. I sang the following song:

I Will Go

Give me ears to hear your Spirit,
Give me feet to follow through,
Give me hands to touch the hurting,
Give me faith to follow you.

Give me grace to be a servant,
Give me mercy for the lost,
Give me passion for your glory,
Give me passion for the cross.

And I will go where there are no easy roads,
Leave the comfort that I know,
I will go and let this journey be my home,
I will go, I will go.

Dejaré mis ambiciones, (I’ll let go of my ambitions)
Cortaré cualquier raíz, (I will cut any root)
Que impida despojarme, (That impedes or defiles me)
De lo que no sea de ti, (Of what is not of you)
De lo que no sea de ti. (Of what is not of you)

Por la fe de seguiré, (By faith I will follow)
Tu poder yo vestiré, (Your power I will don)

Yo iré siguiendo tu voluntad, (I will go following your will)
Dejaré el confort atrás, (I will leave my comfort behind)
Yo iré y donde estés será mi hogar (I will go and where you are will be my home)
Yo iré, Yo iré, (I will go, I will go)

I will go, Lord where your glory is unknown,
I will live for you alone,
I will go because my life is not my own,
I will go, I will go.

Our Sunday school teacher, David Moss, develops his own material and this lesson fit right in with everything this morning, although it may not be readily apparent. He’s been teaching on the subject of Holiness using a book by Francis Schaeffer as a guide. Despite having 150 members in our class, we still manage to have good discussion, well moderated by David. The discussion Sunday developed to make a comment that follows a post I made several days ago about happiness:

“I have considered that God does not want us to be happy. He wants us to be faithful and obedient and there through He gives us joy.”

David heartily agreed and spent the rest of the class unpacking this statement. This is where I have derived the title of this post. I’ll unpack it here briefly adding to what I posted earlier.

One of my Christian Philosophy professors posed the question, “What is Faith?” He said the answer lies in considering the definition of Faith with regard to the question, “What is faithfulness?” The answer to the first question is answered not by Paul in Hebrews 12, which is more descriptive, but by James, whose letter handles Faith more definitively.

Our church is involved significantly with missions around the world. Venezuela is only a small part of it. We have at least 10% of our congregation going to places such as Argentina, Peru, Guatemala, Brazil, Costa Rica, Honduras, Great Britain, Sweden, Germany, Ukraine, Uganda, Sudan, the Middle East, India, Nepal, Vietnam, China, Canada, Four Corners and the Gulf Coast. That’s not to mention local missions. And I’m sure I’ve forgotten something. Sunday evening we had a share service for our biggest mission effort.

Brian Burgess preached a message last week that fit well with what went on this week. Listen to it here. He goes into much more detail about one of our missions than I am willing to in my blogs.

I will continue the topic of this past Sunday in my next post.

Accomplishing the Mission - Boot Camp

We just had a serious day at church - serious in a good way. I long more than ever to be on the mission field. I got past my deadlines on creating mission oriented videos from photos given to me only a few days ago and now I've just been spending a few moments seeing what I can find interesting on YouTube.

As such I found the two videos of Marine Corps Boot Camp you see below. (There is a third one I liked that I won't include because of the strong language.) Honestly, they bring back fond memories. They are representative of the sorts of things I encountered in Boot Camp. You might think that many of these moments are pretty brutal. It was a brutal three months, but worth it.

I began this post with a brief reflection on my yearning for the mission field and quickly transitioned into Marine Corps Boot Camp. The two seem incongruous, but they are very much alike. Boot Camp may be brutal, but the goal is to learn how to effectively accomplish assigned missions under fire. It's the difference between life and death. My fellow Christians will recognize that our enemy roams about like a lion seeking whom he may devour. Our mission is to proclaim the gospel under spiritual fire and sometimes under the real threat of loss of life. The loss of physical life is nothing for us who have the certain hope of Christ, but the real danger is the life of those to whom we are called to proclaim the gospel. We cannot save them ourselves, but God uses the obedience of His people through evangelism to make certain His election.

From the testimonies of my fellow short-term missionaries tonight I was reminded of something I already know - the Great Commission has as much to do with the spiritual development of the missionaries as it does the salvation of the people to whom they are called to go. Taking the gospel to people is training for further spiritual warfare.

Interestingly, I've discovered that even the most mature Christians among us are susceptible to spiritual attacks that could kill our witness in a moment. Likewise, even the most highly trained warrior can be taken down with a single bullet. The stakes are higher in Christian missions because we deal with eternal life. However, we have the Spirit of God and He will allow us to persevere through confession and repentance. I'd rather be on the mission field.

Ok - enough rambling. On to the videos of fond brutality...

Photos from Venezuela

As usual, there's more photographs from Venny than I could discuss. Let me introduce some of the people there:



This is Ised. She's the missionary we support who works with Iglasia Bautista Salvacion. She serves as our liaison with the church there and facilitates our trips there. She learned English in a single year fluently enough to serve as a translator when she worked with ITAM.


This is Keny and Adriana. Keny works with the energy industry in Cabimas and Adriana is in medical school. They're not married yet. Adriana is in medical school and is busy ministering in Cabimas when she's not studying. If they marry, it will yet be in a few years.


Darwin is the fellow with the white beard in the center. He's the pastor of Iglasia Bautista Salvacion. His wife is wearing the white shirt and her sister is wearing the blue shirt. Her sister's husband, Antonio, is the pastor of a mission church that just turned two years old, Iglasia Bautista Jehovah Jireth. pastor Darwin's children; Alejandra, Alexandria, Franc and Josue; were all part of the terrific team that we worked with.


Ghandi and Pedro were our bus drivers/owners. Ghandi isn't his real name, but everyone calls him that because he looks like the old Indian sage and because when the bus breaks down, it seems like he just waves his hand over the engine and it starts. His real name is Vincente. Pedro is his son. They came to Christ last year when the drove for our team for the first time. We found out that they had never heard the gospel before so Ised sat down and explained it to them. Once they understood they prayed to accept Christ like it was a "no-brainer".


This is Lesseth. She ministers to a children's cell group at a mission site in Cabimas. She was invaluable to my wife and kids during their stay because she helped watch the kids. Her husband whisked my wife and I away one evening for a secret "date" across town in a restaurant that appeared to have been kept open just for us. It was the first date we had had in 10 weeks and was a complete surprise to me. That's all you're going to hear about it...


This is Robert. He is in the University studying to be an engineer. He has only been a Christian for a couple years now, but is a tireless evangelist and an inspiration to know.

This is how most of us will remember Daniel - ever spinning his notebook. He is a great guy to know and was on the Venezuela team we worked with.


Yelianys (I think I spelled her name correctly) was another who helped out with the Venezuelan team. She, Adriana, Lisseth and some others do the music at Iglasia Bautista Salvacion.


I also dodn't find many pictures of Martin. He's the one standing and smiling. He and Robert often seem to work together in evangelism. They were both in my wife's "conversation club" when she was there. She would teach them English and they would teach her Spanish.


Suje (I don't know if spelled her name correctly) is a friend of Ised's from ITAM who came and helped. That's her son Juan that Ised is holding. There was another friend of Ised's from ITAM who Ised is discipling. She came and helped out often standing in the shadows observing and praying. Consequently, I didn't get any stills of her. She did show up in some clips of the video I took.


This is Adriana's mom. That's what everyone calls her so I don't know her real name. She and Big Jose (Adriana's dad) welcomed my wife and children for the 10 weeks they were there into their home. Along with Ised and Adriana were the last people we saw there in the airport as we passed through the doors through which they could not pass, both with tears in their eyes. Because of how they welcomed us I will always consider them like family. Were it possible, I would have them in my home.


This is Big Jose with my youngest son, Paul. They got along famously.


Here's one fellow I can't fail to mention. He's Little Jose, Adriana's younger brother. Those are my kids splashing about in the rain in the background. Little Jose was quiet much of the time. He often played soccer and Connect Four with my oldest son, Luke. They are about the same age. While I was there, he mostly kept quiet and always seemed to stand ready to do what his dad, Big Jose, told him to do. He would often jump out and open the gate to the house when we arrived or close the gate when we left. He did these things without complaining. I mention this because few notice what he does. I liken him to Christians who quitely obey the Lord and accomplish much without acclaim. In honor of him and them, I offer the largest paragraph of this post.


These are many of the Venezuelans we worked with. There are many more, but there's no way that I could learn them all in only a week. God bless them all and we look forward to seeing them next year.

The Video of the Venezuela 2007 Mission Trip is Complete!

I've been working diligently to complete this video of the Mission Trip to Venezuela and have finally completed it. I had actually finished it earlier this week, but Adobe Premier crashed and I realized I hadn't saved the entire second half of the video. I was able to rebuild it in short order from an investigation of the rendered workspace files, but even that was painstaking.

There are yet plenty of pictures to follow. Of course, you can always see how my wife and kids spent their summer in Cabimas, Zulia in Venny prior to the arrival of the team.







That's me hugging my wife and 2 out of 3 kids in the airport.
Get a good look, you won't often see American Baptists dancing - er, uh... we'd rather call it "interpretive movement."

You will see many images of us in a poor neighborhood in the second half. The people you see praying in this poor neighborhood were praying their first prayer as new believers in Christ. The local church there will follow up with these people to see to their discipleship and will care for them as best they can until we return next year. By then, perhaps this neighborhood will have an established church body of its own. Right new believers are meeting in the homes of individuals.

The images of the bus being stuck in the first half of the video came from one of our trips to this neighborhood. It's been unseasonably cool (below 100F) and rainy. One of the puddles ended up being a litte deeper than the bus driver thought.

Back from Venny

The team just flew in from Venezuela today. We had some minor illness this past week, but held out until the end. We might have fed a few people for a day, but we also offered the flesh of Christ that is real food, a spiritual feast that offers not the appearance of life for a season, but true eternal life. We saw people in all situations proclaim a new faith in Christ. The church we go to visit and help out is doing so much to share the gospel with the people in their town that we are humbled by their dedication to our Lord.

...it's also nice to have my family back together again after all these weeks.

More to come...

Do We Really Do Missions for the Experience?

I tell people at church that my wife and kids are going to Venezuela for the whole summer and they typically rejoice that they are able to minister in this way. However, most often when I tell fellow Christians outside my church, they typically respond with, “Well, that will be a good experience for them.” I don’t understand this. We’re not going for the experience! We’re going to plant, water, and harvest – whatever it takes to fulfill the Great Commission. How do you convey a vision for missions, whether at home or abroad? Why don’t many Christians “get it”?

I suggest that during the sweet years of American culture when most people were nominally Christian, there wasn’t the persecution enough to keep the church on her toes. Only now when the political climate is getting hot against Christianity in the West is the church starting to awaken. Sadly, it may be too late. We’ve had missionaries all over the world and there is still work to be done. The church in South Korea has become a great witness and has been faithful to send missionaries that rival, if not exceed, the contribution of missions in the West. The next great source of missionaries is China and India. There is an effort started in China to send missionaries westward back toward Israel and take the gospel to the people who have traditionally been the most hostile toward the gospel. This is not just a good experience. This is a matter of life, death, and eternal life.