A Message from Alaska...

A friend of mine sent me this link.   A clever and cute Christmas message from the 5th grade class of the Kuinerrarmiut Elitnaurviat school in the very remote and cold village of Quinhagak, Alaska! Brrr!!! Thank you from the 'Lower 48!'

2 milliseconds into eternity

John Maisel of East West Ministries is of the ilk of what might be described as the Christian special forces. He's all about risk for the sake of advancing the gospel, and his talks always make me realize that I have little idea of what 'sacrifice' really means. Here he describes some friendly banter with a pretty high dollar donor to 'East West'.

This friend of mine - we joke a lot.   Yet God struck a chord in both of us where he came to me and he said, "Maisel, how in the world did you ever hook me into giving East West Ministries a million dollars?" I said, "Let me tell you something, Bozo.  Within 2 milliseconds after you are in the presence of Christ you will come looking me up saying, 'Maisel, why didn't you talk me into two million?'

- John Maisel, Sermon: A Kingdom Agenda, Dec. 5, 2010

Dead Man Walking

Classic commentary on Galatians 2:20 from Watchman Nee...

I remember one morning—that morning was a real morning and one I can never forget—I was upstairs sitting at my desk reading the Word and praying, and I said, ‘Lord, open my eyes!’ And then in a flash I saw it. I saw my oneness with Christ. I saw that I was in Him, and that when He died I died. I saw that the question of my death was a matter of the past and not of the future, and that I was just as truly dead as He was because I was in Him when He died. The whole thing had dawned upon me.

I was carried away with such joy at this great discovery that I jumped from my chair and cried, ‘Praise the Lord, I am dead!’ I ran downstairs and met one of the brothers helping in the kitchen and I laid hold of him. ‘Brother’, I said, ‘do you know that I have died?’ I must admit he looked puzzled. ‘What do you mean?’ he said, so I went on: ‘Do you not know that Christ has died? Do you not know that I died with Him? Do you not know that my death is no less truly a fact than His?’ Oh it was so real to me! I longed to go through the streets of Shanghai shouting the news of my discovery. From that day to this I have never for one moment doubted the finality of that word: “I have been crucified with Christ”"

- Watchman Nee(倪柝聲), The Normal Christian Life, pg. 64-65

underwearheads...

On a lighter note, the "underwearheads" will be making their debut soon... we have a drummer, but if you know of a good electric guitarist, can you let us know?

T-day Thoughts...

Thanksgiving day... woke up this morning and this passage was rattling in my head...

“Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every tribe; and Joshua said to them: 'Cross over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever...

Then he spoke to the children of Israel, saying: “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’ then you shall let your children know, saying, ‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land’; for the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over, that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever.” [Joshua 4:4-7,21-24]                  

It sounds too cliché so as to strangely minimize the force of the statement, but truly there is much to be thankful for.  An appropriate posture would be for me to have my face in the dirt in utter thanks and worship.  As I look back over the last month, year, lifetime, I have more than a large pile of rocks to serve as a signpost to God's faithfulness.  But, we are a forgetful people; I am forgetful.  Thanksgiving is appropriate and right.   God wants us to remember His faithfulness, give thanks and declare His works to the next generation.

Not one of them is missing...

"To whom then will you liken Me that I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.  Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, not one of them is missing." [Isaiah 40:25-26]

The Self-Existent One

"Philosophy and science have not always been friendly toward the idea of God, the reason being that they are dedicated to the task of accounting for things and are impatient with anything that refuses to give an account of itself. The philosopher and the scientist will admit that there is much that they do not know; but that is quite another thing from admitting that there is something which they can never know, which indeed they have no technique for discovering.

To admit that there is One who lies beyond us, who exists outside of all our categories, who will not be dismissed with a name, who will not appear before the bar of our reason, nor submit to our curious inquiries: this requires a great deal of humility, more than most of us possess, so we save face by thinking God down to our level, or at least down to where we can manage Him. Yet how He eludes us! For He is everywhere while He is nowhere, for ”where” has to do with matter and space, and God is independent of both. He is unaffected by time or motion, is wholly self-dependent and owes nothing to the worlds His hands have made."

- A.W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy

The Parrot and the Prelude

"Sometimes we smile when we hear children parrot spiritual words they've heard adults say - and we know they don't understand the implications...They grow up repeating what they have heard; but it's the prelude to their one day speaking from their own reality.

All little Samuel could say to God at first were the words old Eli told him to say: 'Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening' (1 Samuel 3:9,10). It was pure parroting, but God didn't mind. And Samuel grew to be a great mouthpiece for God."

- Anne Orlund, Children are Wet Cement, pg. 79

A Secret Language

"Never lose the wonder of watching her and her mother together "

Father to Daughter: Life Lessons on Raising a Girl by Harry H. Harrison as quoted in Bringing up Girls

All Glory is Fleeting

”For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeteers, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.”

- from the movie Patton (1970)

Two Scriptures come to mind from this quote (Daniel 2:44, 2 Cor. 2:14-17).  For the sake of brevity, I will only talk about the first for now...

“And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” [Daniel 2:44]                  

It's true.   All earthly glory is fading away.   All earthly glory, earthly power, earthly kingdoms are fleeting.  Are you on top of the world today?  Have you won the championship?  Is the wind at your back?   Is your popularity soaring?   Your beauty blossoming?  Are you in a place of power?   Drink it in if you will, but know this, all earthly glory is fading away and will be as quickly forgotten as it came.    Only one kingdom will stand forever.   Attach every resource, every endeavor, every desire, every motive to that kingdom.

The Mathematical Advantage of a Campout

Good advice from my Greek professor. Don't remember much about parsing or Greek tenses, but I remember Dr. Jay's walk with the Lord and how the Word of God and his family were a priority.

"Let me get very practical for you seminary fathers. You need to play Legos at night on the floor on a very regular basis. You need to tell bedtime stories and play hide and seek. The game Chutes and Ladders needs to be a staple for you… And, I have one specific suggestion… I’d like to see you fathers… have a campout…flashlights, s’mores, ghost stories (yeah, ghost stories), the whole works. I learned this trick from my older brother as I watched him and his young son crawl into a tent in the backyard. And, I listened to the excited chatter of a 4-year old and watched beams of a flashlight ricochet off the tent constantly… Here’s my mathematical assessment: one such campout equals at least 100 so called family devotions. "

- Dr. Jay Smith, Professor of New Testament, Dallas Theological Seminary 

   "Plan to Finish Well", Oct. 11, 2011, Dallas Theological Seminary Chapel

A Peculiar Way of Victory

"For God's way of deliverance is altogether different from man's way.  Man's way is to try to suppress sin by seeking to overcome it; God's way is to remove the sinner. Many Christians mourn over their weakness, thinking that if only they were stronger all would be well.  The idea that, beause failure to lead a holy life is due to our impotence, something more is therefore demanded of us, leads naturally to this false conception of the way of deliverance.  If we are preoccupied with the power of sin and with our inability to meet it, then we naturally conclude that to gain the victory over sin we must have more power. 'If only I were stronger,' we say, 'I would overcome my violent outburst of temper,' and so we plead with the Lord to strengthen us that we may exercise more self-control.

But this is altogether a fallacy; it is not Christianity.  God's means of delivering us from sin is not by making us stronger and stronger, but my making us weaker and weaker.  That is surely rather a peculiar way of victory, you say; but it is the divine way.  God sets us free from the dominion of sin, not by strengthening our old man by by crucifying him; not by helping him to do anything but by removing him from the scene of action."

- Watchman Nee (倪柝聲), The Normal Christian Life pp. 53-54

Kung Fu Biker

What can I say... Wow!   Not sure what is more amazing in this scene: this fellow's incredible survival or the fact that the onlookers don't seem to care or notice while going on about their daily routine. Just another day in China.    

God of the Waves and Billows

"But God is the God of the waves and the billows, and they are still His when they come over us; and again and again we have proved that the overwhelming thing does not overwhelm. Once more by His interposition deliverance came. We were cast down, but not destroyed."

- Amy Carmichael