cool happenings

So,

there were a couple things that happened the past couple days that really showed the presence of God so I wanted to share them.

The other day I had a meeting with a young aspiring missionary in France, and I had prayed that morning God would give me an opportunity to spread His love. I didn't know that Nicolas had prayed the same. As we were eating lunch in one of the university restaurants an Iranian girl came and sat next to us. After a bit she started talking to us and we talked for about an hour. Nicolas was able to give her a gospel of John and she said she would come to the Feu for a Bible study. She seemed interested in talking about spiritual things. This was a clear answer to prayer and a great encouragement.

I have also missed a very important meeting for being allowed to stay in France. As most of the world knows, even if you follow all the rules, dealing with the authorities is at the least volatile. I was quite gutted that I missed this meeting and I have attributed it to the fact that I mixed up the dates and times that I was given. This is not too difficult to accomplish seeing that there were 5 different dates and times, they were all in French and all the dates and times are written differently than I have ever seen. I prayed a lot about it, but pretty much everyone I talked to said it wasn't likely I would escape this problem without some consequences. However, I went down to the controlle medicale today and was bumped to the front of the line, and was out with all my paper work in less than 15 minutes. If you have never lived here, you can't understand how much of a miracle this is. Also, the fact that I didn't have to strip down was quite a blessing too. I hate doing that for medical visits. Praise God. He is good even in small things.

Another thought. The probability of the theory of evolution can be comparable to the chances of Homer Simpson building the Eiffel Tower by himself, even if he was given 3 million years. Not very probable.

paix a le monde

"I'll have an order of answers, without the contradictions, please."

A few important things about life;

If someone claims to have the answers, they’re not in the habit of asking themselves real questions.

If someone claims to have unlocked one of the mysteries that has plagued mankind for thousands of years, they probably misunderstood the mystery.

If a store claims that they have the highest quality for the lowest price, its probably because they have a well-deserved reputation for poor quality and high prices.

If a restaurant wants to make you smile, it might be because after eating their food, smiling isn’t the first thing on your mind.

If someone is too eager to be your friend, it is probable they see something in it for themselves.

If someone claims they can give you the world, it’s going to cost you an arm and a leg, and if it doesn’t, it will cost you your soul.

If you want to be rich, you must be willing to be poor, and care for other things more than money.

If you want to be happy, happiness is not the road to being happy.

If you really want to do something, walk away while you can.

If there is ever a choice, the hardest, most uncomfortable, most unnatural thing to do is usually the best.

But we are surprised when being a Christian is hard. When following Christ causes us to do things in ways and at times when we are least accustomed to it, when the best thing for us is the hardest thing to do, and often we cannot do for ourselves, that when we want to gain life we must first lose it. That when we want to have joy and peace and true love, it must be that we stop pursuing joy in what we discern, peace in what we can understand and love in the subtle sentiments of this world. We are surprised when the most important relationship we can enter into, is by far the most difficult, but at the same time one we cannot and would not initiate.

We try and try and try to find away to make it better, to fix ourselves, and to better prepare ourselves, but He says though we must “be better,” “be fixed,” and “be prepared,” if we do it as we can, none of the above will happen. Unfortunately, as often as we are fooled by the subtle inconsistencies of the above, we are often fooled into thinking that our earthly and daily tasks take precedence over the one relationship that is more important than live itself. This is because the Author of this relationship is the Author of life, more directly, the Author of our life, both physical and spiritual, and is the Author who wrote the story of our salvation and then became its chief benefactor, investor, and servant. But the Author of our story has asked for a few minutes to sit and chat with us, so we can understand His purpose, and He can prepare us for the role, and explain its privileges, frustrations, demands and blessings. But we prefer to ask the bystanders, sometimes people who don’t even know the author. We search Google, the world, our minds hearts, feelings and friends, movies and music and books and schools, but when it comes down to it, He sits in the place where all the above do not know and cannot understand, and He waits for our heart. He waits for us to run to His refuge, His salvation, His restoration. “His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. Great is the Lord, and abundant in power, His understanding is beyond measure. The Lord lifts up the humble, but casts down the wicked…..” Psalms 147: 10,11,5,6

Lumpy and You and..... Who's in Control here anyway?

Imagine for a moment you are a potter, and you create bowls from talking clay. Quite the niche you would have in today’s market, I should think. And while we are imagining things, imagine that the clay has limited ability to create itself into things, but generally these things aren’t very good. Even when it can manage to create itself into something good for the clay’s standards, it seems quite miserable sitting on a shelf next to cutlery, sculptures and vessels fit for a palace.

One day, as you are preparing a sticky hunk of clay, you notice the clay trying to shape itself into a bedpan. “Lumpy,’ you say, “We have already talked about this. Remember what happens to bedpans? I thought you wanted to be a fountain on the front lawn of the White House?” Lumpy replies, “Oh, well I thought that I could help you, I was wondering where you were because I didn’t see you, and I just really, really, really want to help.” You reply, “Well that’s nice you want to help, but your aren't worth anything unless I create it. Without my skill, you would either get ditched or you would end up codswallop. The one thing you can do is to relax and loosen up. Then I can make you into something glorious.”

I think your relationship with lumpy is somewhat like our relationship with God, only we are the clay and He is the potter. Why is it so difficult for us to be still and know He is God? Why is it so difficult to take time and humility to be shaped by His Word and Spirit? Why are we so busy doing things that are contributing to who we are, but not who God wants us to be?

I get the feeling that we want to become ready for God to use us. We want to get rid of certain sins, and we want to accomplish certain objectives, and then we will be ready for God to shape and mold us. The problem is, that by the time this happens, we have already been shaped and molded. We have been shaped by the perceptions of man who looks on the outward rather than God who desires the heart. We have been molded by the flesh, when God desires we are molded by His Words and Spirit, all the while our flesh being stripped away.

God desires that we come to Him now, with a broken and contrite heart, and find our refuge, our shape, our usefulness in Him. While we are busy preparing ourselves, He is silently waiting for us to realize the fact that no amount of preparation can ready us for being broken. No amount of effort can reverse our simple nature, it is purely the work of God in life that can prepare us for the glory in store.

But how can He work in our life if we don’t allow Him time in our schedules, our minds, and our heart? How is a potter to work without His tools? And how is clay to be shaped if it has grown hard?

The problem is, we don't want to lose control, because if we lose control of who we become, we could become anything! Well not anything............ but if we aren't reading our Bible we wouldn't know that.....................

dwell and destroy

Hope my musings can exhort and encourage you.

I have been realizing more and more how the mind set on the flesh is death. I tend to be the kind of person who can think everything through and through(unfortunately this is often after a deed is done or a word is said) and I can even think things through to the point of mental exhaustion. I think I get some kind of mental satisfaction in mulling over my sins and making myself mentally pay for them. I like to think about the way they have hindered my relation with God, are obstructing love for others, and setting harmful trends for the future. In this over-thinking of things, I spend a lot of time and energy focused on myself. I think that is easy to justify when I think about it from a human perspective. After all, I am reminding myself of the consequences of selfishness and pride so I can remember not to do it again. I think Pascal talked about this as negative reinforcement. It is easy to justify this as better preparing and reviewing myself for a better future and less sin. At this point I can't help but stop and chuckle at myself because it sounds amusing to hear myself say this. This reasoning sounds even more than amusing when reviewed in light of truth. God says that the mind set on the flesh is death, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. If I am setting my mind on the flesh so that I can better my flesh, I should give up while I'm not more behind. God is telling us to be innocent of evil and the ways of the world. When we dwell on our sinful flesh and our evil ways, I think it is like giving more airtime to a presidential candidate- they'll take anything. Though He tells us to not be ignorant of the schemes of the devil, there is a difference between being the young wandering fool in Proverbs and being "wise to the world" and living in the power of flesh and reason(this is pride, really). It is also interesting that in Jesus' prayer for His people, He prays that God would sanctify them in the truth of His Word. I think it is notable that He doesn't pray for the Spirit's power so that results driven Americans could sanctify themselves. Another principle stressed in Paul's writings is that the mind set on the Spirit is life, righteousness and peace. It would seem to me then, that my natural desire to dwell on and destroy the flesh is a harmful one. I need to turn my mind, heart, will and strength towards the Word and humbling myself to listen to the Spirit using it to cleanse my heart and mind. As Paul says, why after beginning by grace, do I think that I can continue in the flesh? As the French say, "c'est marche pas."

an undefinite lie, but who's lie is it anyway?

If God could pray for us, what would He pray? What is it that we need more than anything? There are a lot of books written about the “main things” of the Christian life, but what does God have to say? If He could express His will for us, what few words would He use? John 17

I have been bothered recently because of some of the partial lies that are circulating through the “Christian arsenal of clichés.” One of these partial lies is that “people don’t care to know until they know we care.” The Bible says that this saying is true, but in a different way than it is used. This is often used in encouraging people to be timid and hesitant to share their faith. It is used to encourage people to wait until spiritually dead people become less spiritually dead and are ready to hear the hard truth that they are completely dead to the only source of true life. How can dead people become less spiritually dead without life? Where is their life apart from Christ? Where is the knowledge of Christ apart from His Words? How are His Words heard without a preacher? The reason I call this cliché a partial lie is because there is actually some truth to it. If I were to tell someone about the abundant life I have found in the love of Christ but at the same time I was taking a nap in a coffin, I wouldn’t be able to be convincing, even if I were Bill Clinton. The problem is that most of us are taking naps in spiritual coffins. We are living in the power of the flesh every day, wondering why the watching world thinks we are annoying gongs and clanging cymbals. Romans says that the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is righteousness, joy and peace. Galatians tells us that the outworking of the Holy Spirit in our life is life and joy and peace and righteousness. Where is their life apart from the Spirit? Where is the Spirit apart from the Word? The problem is where our obedience lies. Too many times it lies in the flesh, to the desires and hungers of the flesh. If we have any doubt about this, we can just compare the time we spend with God to the time we spend in gratifying the desires of the flesh. When we learn to love the Lord, when we learn to love His Word and His presence, than the world will know that we care. When we tell the world we love the Lord and His light and life, but we walk in the flesh and its death and darkness, we lie and the truth is not in us. This isn't really a post about preaching the Gospel, its just that the fruit of what we do reveals a whole bunch of what we are.

Boaring speeches.

I like this picture. When I was here I felt that I could jump off the rock, fall about a mile, and roll down the grassy meadow, through some snow, some trees, and perhaps land on a nice wild boar preparing his boaring speech after which I could continue my wild tumble into the Isere river and perhaps the momentum would carry me all the way home. Not. Quite the view though. Sorry it has taken me so long to blog. There have been a lot of important things taking up my time. Some of you have asked me to blog about specific details. I'm afraid that is not possible here, but please feel free to email me and I would be happy to fill you in. Thanks for being a patient audience.