Missions Emphasis

So I’m headed out on a 2 month internship/mission trip in Asia. The reaction I get from almost everybody: “Have fun!” I appreciate the suggestion but find fault in it.

I have talked about it with my mom and prof leading the trip and we all agree. My goal is not to have fun this trip. It would be nice, but it is not my focus at all. My focus is representing Christ and doing His work. That is what missions are about. One should go whether fun is included or not. This trip is about God and glorifying Him. That is my focus. That is my team’s focus.

Please do not wish me to have fun. Wish that I represent Him. Wish that my faith in Him gets deepened and widened. Wish that I get in a situation that forces me to give everything to Him and trust Him completely. Pray for me, my team, and the natives. Thank you.

Beware

I am currently in a Contemporary Religious Movements class which addresses cults and offshoots of Christianity.  We are learning about various cults, how they started, and what they believe, like Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science, and Mormonism just to name very few.  It is very sad to learn about these cults and actually visit their services and talk to people in them.  It is sad knowing that they are under false teachings without even knowing it.  It breaks my heart and I just want to love them and minister to them.  It would be innapropriate and received badly to minister to them in their place of worship and with no relationship though.  It is very hard for those in cults to see the truth of God and Jesus Christ.  The person must honestly be searching and desiring to follow the true God in order to be willing to change their ways.  It also must take a strong relationship with them to help them.  Not many will just convert when a stranger tells them the truth in Jesus.  It takes time and love.

A great story of a cult that realized their mistake and changed to become a Christian denomination is the Worldwide Church of God (now Grace Communion International).  They believed many wrong things about God and the Bible, but once the false leader died, the people went searching for the truth and found their folly.  It is very hard for anybody to admit they were wrong after many years of being sure they were right.  The group changed to rightly enter into the true faith though.  In doing this, they lost 2/3 of their congregation and all of their support and income.  It was a bold move but one they realized needed to be done.

In my Bible reading today, I went through 2 Peter.  I found it very interesting because in this letter, Peter talks about being wary of false prophets and leaders, and always being sure you are on the right path.  After studying various cults for a month and visiting two different ones, this letter really resonated within me.  I found it very easy to relate to.  All of what Peter says in this letter about false leaders is true of every cult we studied.

“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” – 2 Peter 2:1-3

“For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.” – 2 Peter 2:18-20

I warn you, in brotherly love, brothers and sisters, to beware of false prophets and be sure that you are living in the truth of Jesus Christ our God.  Love and honor Him in all that you do.

The Perfect Lamb

Jesus is viewed as a perfect, flawless lamb in the Bible and American Christianity. But what is a lamb really worth you ask? Well, ask Graham Morrison who sold a “perfect” lamb to Jimmy Douglas in Scotland. The lamb was sold for $113,190 (USA), and is now the most expensive lamb ever sold.

How much is the Lamb, the Christ, worth to you?

The Creation and Curse

“The Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” – Genesis 2:7

“The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”‘ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die.’” – Genesis 3:2-4

“[God] said . . . ‘Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’” – Genesis 3:11-12

Then God said, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” – Genesis 3:19

Most people know the creation story, even non-Christians. We can all identify with it, the temptation to sin, and then the fall. This must have really saddened God. First, before He created the world, He had the angels. Lucifer then rebelled and left God along with some angels. Now God creates mankind and we rebel and sin, caused by lucifer’s temptations.

Adam and Eve would have lived forever if they had not sinned, but because they sinned, they, along with all mankind, die. But was the curse the focus of this story? No. The focus of the story is God trying to redeem and help us.

When Adam and Eve listened to the devil and disobeyed God, what happened spiritually? We always talk about it in the earthly manner: God is disobeyed and satan is obeyed. Spiritually, though, they allowed satan into them. They accepted what he said and trusted him. This left an opening for demons to come into them. This is also what happens to us when we sin. God is disobeyed and satan is obeyed. We allow satan into us. We accept and trust satan. The curse was not straight from God. It is what we put on ourselves when we allow satan into our lives. Women have pain in childbirth and they are to submit to their husbands. Men must work at growing crops. We all will physically die. This is because we allow demons into our lives.

But would God allow demons to do this? Yes. Look at the story of Job. God allowed satan into Job’s life, and satan took away everything that Job had, except his life. Job was even “blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned from evil” (Job 1:1). What more will we do to ourselves, those who sin daily and are not blameless? When we allow demons into us because of sinning, it wears us down and shortens our lives. We allow the curse on us. We kill ourselves via sinning. God did not allow the greatest humans to die (Enoch-Genesis 5:24 and Elijah-2 Kings 2:11). They avoided demons, for the most part, and were taken straight to heaven. These days, we are not as good at avoiding sin. God is a just God and will allow what demons do to us. “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 5:30).

When reading this story though, we usually assume that God is the most mad at Adam and Eve. He is actually more mad at satan though. After the original sin, God first addresses and punishes satan. He is most mad at satan. The person most deserving of punishment is usually punished first, because he or she is the one that stands out most in the punisher’s mind.

We also assume the following passage is a punishment for us:

“Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever–’ therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.” – Genesis 3:22-24

We think of it as God depriving us from living in Eden where we will be with Him and where He will provide everything for us. Read the passage differently though. He restricts us from getting to the tree of life and people assume it is because we do not deserve to live forever. It is actually because He cannot bear to see us living in sin for forever. By employing the cherubim to protect the garden, it is not to keep us from a great eternal life. He does it to protect us from a torturous eternal life without Him.

This is a different way of viewing the curse on us. The way that God views the story where we focus on the curse. The curse that restricted us from eternal life on earth. The curse that would send us to hell. The focus is not this curse. It is God’s redemption of us from the curse. It is evident before Jesus comes. It is evident within the first three chapters of the Bible. God has always protected us. God does not want us to have eternal life on earth while living in sin without Him. He knew His future plans to send Jesus to us and give us eternal life with Him. He had something greater for us, which we have now received. He is a beautiful, merciful God.

Christian America?

So this isn’t a case study, but it is something I thought about while reading Another Gospel by Ruth A Tucker.

The founding fathers created America as a Christian nation. This is a sticky subject that is widely debated everywhere, and I am considering each side of it. America was started with many Christian values. All of our money says “In God we trust,” we put our hand on the Bible when swearing into court, the Pledge of Allegiance used to say “one nation under God” until it was recently changed, and political buildings are covered with Christian sayings.  But were these things just cultural? Were they all that they knew, so they stuck with them?

They also wanted to create a free nation. One with no oppression and overall acceptance. So they put this in the Constitution:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” – The Constitution of the United States of America, The Bill of Rights, Amendment I

America, the land of the free, was then inhabited by many different religions. These religions now say that they are being oppressed by the Christian principles of the nation. They are demanding more rights and allowing Christians less rights.

The topic at hand, then, is why they made it a free religious country. An obvious reason why is that they hated being ruled by the British, and wanted a country where there was no such rule. It is also wise to let others decide things for themselves rather than having something forced upon them.

But if the founding fathers were trying to create a Christian nation, was it wise to create a country that had religious freedom? Or should they have declared a religion for America? Or perhaps it was their cultural upbringing and foundation that just made America look Christian, when they really did not care.

Thoughts?

Baptism Crisis

So I’m going to start a series on case studies by Paul Hiebert. These stories are from real missionaries. They show a difficult situation of missionaries and it is up to the reader to analyze it and figure out what to do. It takes a strong understanding of the faith, Scripture, and culture to know what is right and what is wrong, what is culturally Christian and what the core values of Christianity are. So here goes:

Pastor Prabhudas was uncomfortably aware that Rukhmini’s eyes often fastened on him as she sat quietly in the corner of the front-pew, awaiting the outcome of the church council meeting. Somehow he felt she could hold him most responsible for the decision. But he said very little, allowing the elders to carry on the discussion.

All she wanted was for the church to baptize her on the confession of her faith. How ironic it was, he thought to himself. The church prayed often and hard for Hindu converts, especially from among the castes that have been almost entirely resistant to Christianity. Now that they had an authentic convert from a high caste, the council was thoroughly perplexed about whether or not to baptize her. If, like the vast majority of Christians, she had come from the “untouchable” portion of society, now called “scheduled castes” in deference to the reforms of Gandhi, they probably would have baptized her immediately.

Pastor Prabhudas remembered his own joy when Rukhmini had come to his office to ask about baptism. He had heard something of her story from her college friends who were members of his church, but he listened gladly as she told him about her life and her conversion to Christ.

Rukhmini told the pastor that she was the eldest daughter of poor but high-caste parents who had sacrificed and struggled to send her to college so that her job and marriage prospects would be enhanced. They saw this, in the traditional cultural way, as a means to gain more income to support themselves and their younger children.

Once in college, Rukhmini became friends with some Christian students. They gladly drew her into their circle, although no one put any pressure on her to become a Christian. One reason for their “Christian presence” style of witness was that it is against the law in the state of Orissa to make converts from other religions. It is punishable by imprisonment.

Nevertheless, Rukhmini saw something in these Christians that was very attractive to her. She noted the joy and peace in their lives and wished it for herself. After a while, she asked to go to church with them. There she heard the story of Jesus and accepted him as her Savior. The experience transformed her life. She began to study the Bible with her college friends and grew in her faith.

For a while, Rukhmini remained a “secret believer,” like other caste people, some of whom never take baptism because it would mean total ostracism from family and caste. In the case of a single woman like herself, it would mean that her parents could hardly find anyone to marry her, because there were so few Christian young men from the upper castes. No Hindu parents would give them a son, and for her parents to give her in marriage outside the caste would be unthinkable.

The time came, however, when Rukhmini decided that she could no longer hide her Christian faith. That was when she came to Pastor Prabhudas and asked for baptism. He had not tried to hide the consequences from her, and it became clear as they talked that she knew them only too well. Her parents would object strongly, and her disobedience to them would itself become a reason for criticism of Christianity. This would be seized upon by the local organization of the Hindu Samaj, who were fanatical in their opposition to Christians and used any breach of cultural norms to condemn them. And, of course, if it could be proven that the Christians had converted Rukhmini, the Samaj would bring a legal case against them. It was not unlikely that baptism of a high-caste woman would become an opportunity for persecution of the entire poor and largely powerless Christian community in that town.

Pastor Prabhudas had promised Rukhmini that she could put her request for baptism before the church’s council of elders. Now they had spent almost two hours discussing the issues and seemed to be no closer to a decision. Some of them thought the whole church should be involved; others thought the decision should be made here and now by the council. The pastor finally let his eyes meet those of the young woman who sat patiently waiting for them to arrive at some conclusion. He knew it was time for him to enter the discussion. Choosing his words carefully, he began to speak . . .

If you were in Pastor Prabhudas’ shoes, what would you decide?

Why does God pain us?

Last night I went to Rob Bell’s tour in Minneapolis called Drops Like Stars. On this tour Rob talks about our response to pain.

Often times when people go through troubles and are in pain they ask, “Why this?” This question is countered by people saying “That’s just how God planned it.” But this is hurtful and tears people from God. The real question is not “Why this?” It is “What now?”

Life is not about trying to get what we want. It is not about questioning why things happen. Life is a journey where we should expect things to happen. Where our lives are in God’s hands. Where we should trust Him completely with what happens.

In the numb, comfortable society in which we live, called the United States, suffering is not as nearly as easy to find as in other countries. We are very much provided for and well insulated inside of our comforts. These comforts bring us numbness though. We have few feelings, especially strong ones. This is when people start to search out suffering. We yearn to feel something, no matter what it is, and suffering seems to be the easiest find. It reminds me of the song Iris by Goo Goo Dolls: “When everything feels like the movies, you bleed just to know you’re alive.” A feeling is yearned for, longed for.

It is through these crazy emotions that we find God, especially in our suffering. We find that we need Him in our times of need so we reach out to Him. This is when we grow closer to Him. We grow closer to God through suffering.

This does not mean that we should search out suffering, but it makes following the commandments and living His lifestyle easier.

You shall have no other Gods before me – Refuse to put money or idols or addictions before God. It is hard and it takes work and suffering, but God comes with it. Don’t take God’s name in vain – This is one I’ve been struggling with lately. Gosh, geez, golly, etc. are all derivatives of God or Jesus. Does that mean we shouldn’t say these, because it is essentially taking His name in vain. It is another thing to work on. Persevere through and catch yourself and your bad language habits. Etc, etc.

The biggest help for me is honesty. It is okay to be honest with others, as long as you are being considerate and thoughtful of what God wants. My honesty may cause suffering but it can bring everybody closer to God.  I still must watch what I say and do, but honesty is not a bad thing in the slightest, as some may say it is.

Whenever you may find yourself in undesired suffering, see God in it. Don’t stop your life and go crazy because it is not what you expected. Go on and see what He has in store for you.

I’m really not giving Rob’s sermon justice, but this is a big thing that I took out of it. If you want to check it out for yourself, look up his book, Drops Like Stars.

Adventurous life

I started reading the Twilight series yesterday. Stephenie Meyer is a very captivating writer and she really pulls you into the story. The adventurous lifestyle that books contain really excite me and make me jealous. Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hobbit, Left Behind. They all made me jealous of the characters in the books because they have such great adventures.

But today I realized that lifestyle is before me. Maybe not in the form of being a vampire, wizard, or hobbit, but in the form of God, persecution, adventures, and miracles. All of these are present in the life of a servant of God. I can go on a quest to bring people to God, and only take the clothes on my back. The adventure is in trusting God, meeting crazy new people, experiencing miraculous events that would normally be impossible, facing down those who persecute me and want to kill me. I can do this all in the name of God, carrying out His task for me. I can live the life that I read about. It is harder than it seems because books don’t always talk about the tribulations of the adventurer, but the quest is before me to reach out and take. All I must do is go.

You have the same adventure before you. Live the part, fulfill your task. Whether it be in an office building, doing construction, going to school, or traveling, your job as a Christian is to share the gospel and there will be adventure in that. Live righteously and share His works. Go!

“He told them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.’” – Luke 10:2-3

Worldly Pressure

A few days ago I received an email from a scholarship site that I had used to apply for college scholarships. The email said I was subscribed to receive random tips from them about writing scholarship essays, so of course I kept the subscription in hopes of getting some great tips. So I got the first tip today: “Screwup #1: Thrust Your Religion Upon Me‏.” Of course I laughed at this title. I’m going to entwine anything I write with my “religion.” So I read on, actually just skimmed on because the title made me uninterested and this was their main point:

“You have almost no chance of winning if you write an
essay ‘taking a side’ on controversial issues like abortion.”

So I am not supposed to say what I truly think, believe, and am convicted of? That means no taking a side on religion at all. No siding with Christianity. No siding with my beliefs and faith, in which I live by and was created by. I cannot talk about my Best Friend, Creator, and Love. I must ignore Him so I have a chance of getting money for college. Ridiculous. It may make sense to people of this world, but to me, no way.

It’s all about a choice. Are you loyal to God or worldly needs? I would do a lot for more scholarships. There is no earthly way for me to pay off my school loans with my future career. But I chose God. I love Him and am loyal to Him. He is all I care about and He will take care of me.

Don’t let the world pressure you and convince you otherwise. There are many ways that the devil tries to pry you from God through things of this world. Money from scholarships is just a tiny one. Whether it’s adultery, busyness, laziness, peer pressure, drinking, bad relationships, etc., satan will try to tear you from Him. In this case for me, the world was saying its bad to talk about what I believe and my faith in Him. I won’t stand for that. I’d rather not get the scholarship and instead trust Him to take care of me, and I know He will. So I ended up unsubscribing from that email service.

“People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” – 2 Timothy 3:2-5

“If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.” – Luke 12:28-31

Heartbreak

I miss you guys as my brothers and sisters. My heart yearns and breaks for you. I see you acting the way you do and tears well up. I wish and pray that you could see and know the truth.

You say we’re weak, and we don’t know what we’re talking about. But if we were unsure of what we were talking about, why would we take such a bold step and reach out to you?

You’re hurting and I know what you need. I know who you need. I’ve been through what you’re going through, and I’m no better than you. I just found relief and want to help you too.

Can you be honest with Him and tell Him what you really need? Don’t hide it because we all know its there. You’re missing something and can’t find what it is.

I know what it is. I know what you need because it is the same thing I needed. We all need Him. Don’t let hurtful and pushy people ruin it for you. It’s not about them. It’s about you and Him.

Allow Jesus into your life. If you need help, I’m here for you. Don’t be ashamed, every single follower has been at that point in their lives. Embrace Him and love Him like He has always loved you.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” – Deuteronomy 31:6