Grasping God's Grace Personally
To Give God's Grace Globally.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - Mary

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - Mike

1Co 9:23"I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

Jdg 7:14 "His friend replied, "This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand."

There have been some highlights, lowlights and "mediumlights" recently.  Let me try to explain.  A lowlight for us, is that our financial support has taken a nosedive and we will be returning to the US to bring it up to 100%.  BUT, although I am calling this a lowlight, and it is discouraging to us, having to take our furlough 6 months early may not be a bad thing.  Perhaps God is using this as a vehicle to draw us closer to Him, or in some other way bring glory to Himself.  As we discussed in chapel just last Friday, a "thing" in and of itself isn't bad or good, but the determining factor is whether it moves someone closer or farther away from God.

A mediumlight is my back injury.  I was very fortunate that it turned out to be only a painful experience and not a paralyzing trauma.  Through it all I had God's peace that I was exactly where He wanted me to be.  It was very inconvenient for Mike while I was on my back and not moving.  Yet, even through this personally painful period, God used it.  Mike has been attending a local church (I haven't because they sit on a cement floor and I cannot do that with my previously ruptured disk.)  When the pastors learned I was injured, they came to the house and like the apostles, laid hands on me and prayed for me.  I had my own personal sermon that night!  What a blessing.

A wondrous highlight is the publication of the "A" New Testament.  The books arrived here yesterday.  This was a work of over 21 years.  It actually began in eternity past and will be reaping an eternal harvest.  The dedication is set for March 30.  PTL!

Mike just recently was privileged to speak to the eighth graders at their annual "sneak".  This is a special tradition for our school, dating back to the time when the eighth grade was the last grade together before the kids had to part to go to boarding school or even return to the home country.  It is an occasion where the eighth grade teacher just suddenly announces that it is time for sneak.  The class leaves school and has a day and a half (or so) of fun activities together.

This year Mike spoke on transitions.  It is something we all go experience, but missionary kids (as well as other third culture kids) have challenges that adults don't have.  The kids don't have life experience to tell them that although things are changing, there are fundamental certainties upon which they can rely.

For his lesson, Mike used the biblical examples of Gideon and Peter.  Both of these men went through transition periods.  They both were rather cowardly in their actions ... until God brought them through a transition and empowered them.  They were lambs which became lions.

Gideon led a mighty army against the Midianites.  At least, it was mighty until God eliminated all but 300 soldiers.  The opposing army numbered about 15,000.  Gideon's army prior to the downsizing outnumbered them.  But now, the odds were 50 to 1.  No human could win that.  But not only that!  God didn't give them the standard issue weaponry of the day.  They had clay pitchers and torches.

Peter was another brave stalwart for God.  He denied Jesus.  Yet God made him brave to share the Gospel.

The lesson is that God is the one who brings us through transitions.  He supplies what we need to accomplish the work to which He calls us.  Mike and I are still learning this lesson.

Monday, January 4, 2010 - Mary

I'm going to break from our "usual" format and just share with you some of our activities over the holidays. School continued until the 18^th of December.  There was the usual rush of concerts and Christmas parties and final testing.  Suddenly, on Saturday, December 19, all was quiet.  Christmas was less than a week away.  An annual event for us was coming up on Monday.  The musicians of the community get together and sing through, without rehearsing, Handel's Messiah.  The goal is enjoyment and fun, rather a performance.  There are a few people in the audience, however it is understood this is "just for fun."  I get to direct the Messiah.  I suspect this is more to keep me from singing instead of due to my superb talents as a maestro.  I'm satisfied if we start and end together and stay reasonably close to each other in the middle.  We don't sing everything in the Cantata.  I pick and choose those that are the more familiar choral pieces.  I've always wanted to perform #53, Worthy Is the Lamb and when another musician asked for it, I agreed.  It is by far the longest arrangement in the piece and is in two parts.  The text is based on Revelation.  The second part is an Amen! sung by the choir.  I jokingly called it, "A two-hundred and sixty-three fold Amen!"  Those familiar with a more liturgical worship immediately understood the humor.

The very next day, I developed my third case of malaria for this year.  I responded well to the medicine.  However, I wasn't able to do any Christmas shopping until Christmas Eve.  I just had no strength.  The next day was not strenuous.  We had two friends arriving for dinner and another friend joined us all in the evening to sing Christmas carols.  The malaria continued through the New Year.  The biggest effect of it was a headache and exhaustion.  I am doing well now.

The biggest joy I received was an affirmation that God is using me.  On Christmas Day, one of our guests related a story one of the parents told during the sharing time at church.  It seems his son was "chatting" via Facebook on the internet with his cousin.  The cousin doesn't attend church and isn't familiar with spiritual things.  But somehow, during that chat, the cousin inquired how a person could become a Christian.  So, the student, the man's son, told his cousin how.  He used the four basic principles that I had taught them just a few weeks previous in our Friday morning chapel services.  What a joy it is to see one of my disciples in turn, leading others to Christ.  At this moment, I do not know if the cousin has committed his life to Christ yet.  But I can rest assured that God calls His chosen and He never loses any one of us.

Mike has used this time between semesters to review  lessons to be taught next semester, develop course material and work on music arranging.  He also has done some motorcycle repair and general maintenance around the house.  Even though the flurry of school activity has ceased, there is more than enough work to keep him busy.  People from the community who need to talk with him have been stopping by.  Mike also has continued working with the church group in teaching them basic music knowledge.  We are praying that somehow we will be able to give the church a keyboard or some type of piano so that they can use it to enhance their worship on Sunday.

As I look to the schedule of activities for January, I see that I need prayer.  I am on three major committees and am the chairman of two of those committees.  Please pray that godly decisions will be made, that we will be sensitive to the needs of others and that we will be bold where the Spirit wants us to be bold.

Finally, as often happens a Christmas, I am overwhelmed by the concept that God became flesh and dwelt among us.  My thoughts stop right there and I am left pondering the enormity of that transition.  Mike and I experience a "culture shock" when we transit from the US to here and back again.  There are things in both places which seem strange to us.  But not only did God, Jesus Christ, leave the culture of heaven (where everything is perfect and glorious) and live in this fallen world, He became fully man and subject to hunger and growing up and the physical limitations of an earthly body!  God became man!  Awesome!  Truly awesome!

Rev 4:11 Thou art worthy O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Mat 28:19 & 20  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:    Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

John 1:14  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Monday, November 30, 2009 - Mike

Monday, November 30, 2009 - Mike

Amos 5:21 - 24 "I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies.  Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.  

More and more it has been impressed upon me how important correct and proper worship is.  I've been pondering over how to enter before the Lord in worship and what it takes to properly worship Our Father.  Here in Amos we have a clue.  Right living, the correct administration of justice, living godly and righteous lives, will make our forms of worship acceptable.  This takes precedence over choir music, organ playing psalmody and liturgies which may aid in our Sunday Services.

It is the heart properly tuned to the Lord which sings the sweetest.

In Old Testament survey class, we are currently studying the book of Judges.  The entire thrust of the book is the consequences of sin.  God is very clear that He alone is our ultimate source of justice and government.  When God is supreme in our lives, we will automatically do what is right and we will not need an external governance.  But when sin prevails, there is no government that can fundamentally prevent the anarchy and waste.

This study is also a springboard for further discussions concerning the significance of the Old Testament law is today.  Many have the erroneous teaching that the Ten Commandments no longer apply to today's Christian.  That is because people have been told that the Commandments are a list of "dos and don'ts."  While it does say, "thou shalt not...", it is primarily a revelation of the characteristics of God.  God said, "do not steal," because He is not a thief.  He said, "do not lie," because He is The Truth.

Monday, November 23, 2009 -Mary

Monday, November 23, 2009 -- Mary

Psalm 123:2 "Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, So our eyes look to the LORD our God, Until He is gracious to us."

John 17:3  "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

I confess.  While on the field, I have household helpers to do my housework.  There are many reasons for this.  Yet, I am learning that househelp is not always the luxury one assumes. 

One of my current helpers is excruciatingly slow, but very thorough. Once we employed one that was so fast (but NOT thorough) that I nicknamed her Hurricane Tilda. Some are not so bright, others are smart, but usually think they know more about how you want something than you do! The one who is here now came two hours before I wanted her to arrive.  I am not prepared for her. But she is very thorough one and wants to please.

He reminds me that the things that I don't like about my helpers (not checking with me for instructions, leaving at the end of the day w/o telling - yes, the work is done, but I want to know!), not getting something done on schedule and letting me know why not, not informing me when something is about to be used up and asking for more (like floor soap) are often things I neglect in a spiritual sense.

It is a humbling experience.

How many times do I run ahead of God's plan w/o giving the Holy Spirit time to lay the groundwork? The Holy Spirit might be using other Christians to do this who are slow to hear or not quick to do or engaged in other tasks and haven't gotten to this one yet. I must be patient and operate on His timing, not mine.
 

Fridays are special.  These are the days that I lead the Middle School chapel services.  I'm the "permanent guest" speaker.  I get to open the Word of God and help lead these sixth, seventh and eighth graders to the throne of Grace.  What an awesome privilege!

This past Friday, I followed up on some feedback from a previous lesson.  We had been going over how to share the Gospel with outsiders, what our demeanor should be, sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit, what we should pray for, Jesus's examples of evangelism and what the core principles of the Gospel is.

Some students asked me to repeat what those core principles are.  Yippety skippety!  I'm overwhelmingly glad to do just that.

So, this past Friday, I elaborated on four key elements of the Gospel message.  Many people have already learned them as "The Four Spiritual Laws" used and taught by Campus Crusade for Christ.  We went over verses to support these key points and illustrations to communicate it.

Then, I shared with them a sample prayer.  I'm waiting to hear back from the other teachers the results of Friday's chapel service.  However, the results aren't necessary for me to learn.  I know it was a successful message because "successful evangelism is sharing Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God." 

Monday, November 16, 2009 -- Mary

Sunday, November 15, 2009 -- Mike

Mike and I attend a Bible study on Tuesday evenings.  This year we are going through The Truth Project which is put out by Focus on the Family.  Last Tuesday's lesson had several points upon which I am thinking.  The lesson was entitled Unio Mystica, the Mysterious Union.

It refers to the union we believers have with God in Christ.  We will never fathom that.  It is to grand for our finite, created minds to grasp.  Angels see it and wonder.  How can God, the loving, holy, just Creator of the Universe intimately unite with us, fallen, sinful, finite?  Yet, He does.

In preparation for the evening's study, I was browsing through the forum on  The Truth Project's website.  One participant shared this observation: the amount of filling of God in me is in direct proportion to the emptying of me in me.  I took this to mean that the less I am concerned with getting my needs met, the more God will find me yielded to His will and He can thus use me more and more conform me to His life.

If I remember correctly, the other sacrifices in the Old Testament were eventually consumed by the priests who worked in the temple.  But the drink offering was different.  It was poured on the ground and drained into the earth.  It was wholly to the Lord.  Like Paul, I rejoice when I am poured out as a drink offering.

A quick update from last week's lesson to me.  Not only was the power off on Monday (I typed the web page on Tuesday) but the power was off ALL DAY on Wednesday.  I am still learning last week's lesson.  It was very hard to not grumble during the second outage.

It is amazing that it hasn't happened before now.  Every Friday night when there is a high school game, one of the high school classes sells a meal that they have prepared.  It is usually something like tacos, or chili or barbecued chicken along with a salad and other foods.

A week ago, something went wrong, very badly wrong and many people in the community became ill with food poisoning.  Such a thing had never happened (at least in my recollection) to the Friday night meal.  You can imagine the guilt and the horror felt by those students involved in that week's meal preparation.

I teach that particular class in Bible.  So it was especially gratifying to see the class respond in a Christian manner to the crisis.  They accepted the responsibility for the problem.  They did not blame or accuse each other.  They worked as a body to  determine what can be done in the future to prevent this from happening again.  They encouraged each other and reinforced talents and strengths they see in each other.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 -- Mary

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 - Mike

Jas 1:2 "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, ..."

Jas 1:4 "And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

1Ti 1:5 But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

The electricity here frequently stops working.  It isn't as bad as it used to be fourteen years ago when we first arrived.   But we are depending more and more on electricity to power the tools we use in the ministry.  It is necessary to power the computers we use.  It is necessary to wash our clothes and to cook much of our food.  It is even needed to power the piano Mike uses to teach the music students who come to our home on Wednesday evenings.  So, when the power does stop, a lot of our work stops, too.  The adjustments that we formerly had prepared aren't available as they used to be.

Sunday night, the transformer on the road outside our house blew up.  Literally, it blew up.  There were sparks and smokes.  Then, no electricity.  We knew Monday would be a long day.  Monday was every bit as long as I feared.  It didn't bother Mike as much.  The school has a generator.  But I had planned quite a bit of electronic work.  I needed the printer, the scanner and the computer.  I had planned to work with graphics which uses more computer energy than working with text.  So, I knew that I couldn't even use the computer do get at least something done.  It was very frustrating.

I have learned, and am still learning, that praying for the electricity to come back on is not the attitude I need to have.  To be sure, it is never wrong to pray for the cessation of an irritation.  But the more correct prayer that I need is;

1. To ask to be patient through the trial,

2. To ask for insight into what I can be doing instead, and

3. To ask that I rejoice in the time that has been given to me, especially if my work is halted and I have unexpected free time.

All my plans are in the hands of God.  He may, and does, change them to suit His sovereign design.
 

Lesson plans are created the week before they are taught.  In fact, general lesson plans are in place before the school year and the semesters begin.  We like to think the lesson plans are set in cement.

That is not always the case.  Nor should it be the case.

Last summer our community received the very sad news that one of our community whose son is working in Africa, lost their grandson to a virulent case of malaria.  This is a rare occurrence but we know that it can happen sometime.  Because we had watched the father grow up and because we know the grandparents well, this death impacted all of us.

It is unknown to another person with what thoughts is someone is struggling.  About two weeks ago, one of my students in our Old Testament class departed from the lesson plan and asked, "what happens to babies when they die?" 

The lesson plans were immediately scraped.  This was a much more important topic.  Other students expressed a concern and so we spent the rest of the class dealing with it.  We looked at what the Bible has to say about salvation and covenant families.  Many opinions and hopes were expressed.  The doctrine of the "age of accountability" (with which we do not agree) was mentioned.

I pointed out that the Bible doesn't address this directly.  But I steered the class toward God's characteristics.  While we don't have the answers to some questions such as this one, we can trust Our Loving Father to act within His own characteristics. 

When we don't know the answers, we can rest assured that God does.

Sunday, October 25, 2009 -- Mary

Monday, October 26, 2009 -- Mike

2Co 12:9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

2Ti 2:2 "The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 

For what has turned out to be several years now, I have been beset by one relatively minor illness after another.  It has become so frequent that I am reluctant to accept a job which requires consistent every day attention.  I cannot be sure if I will not have a migraine or malaria or some other challenge.  Therefore, it was with much trepidation that I agreed to substitute for the high school english teacher during the two months she was with her mother in the states.  I only had three of her five classes to teach.  However, all year I've been anemic and in late July was only just feeling any sort of energy at all.

Still this was a genuine need and so, by faith, I accepted the challenge.  The first two weeks were unbelievably wearying.  I would get up and go to school.  Then as soon as school was over, I would go home and collapse in bed.  The faculty and I committed this to prayer and things began to improve.  By God's grace, I made it through the entire 9 weeks of the teacher's absence.  She returned home on a Thursday and began teaching on Friday.  My plan was to rest on Friday and putter around the house.  That was such a restful day!

The next day I felt twinges of a backache which focused on my left kidney.  There were a few other symptoms as well so I had a test done at a local medical lab.  Yes, I had a kidney infection.  I was back in bed, taking medicine and living quietly, not expending much energy.  That was two weeks ago.  I'm not sick, but I, again, do not have much stamina.  I am learning to be patient with where God has me right now.  When He needs me to act, He will enable me.  I can trust Him.

During this resting period, I am reading and listening to lectures online from Covenant Seminary and I am listening to many sermons.  I am trying to become a better correspondent and I am pursuing some personal sedentary interests.  For the moment, swimming and SCUBA are out of my plans.  I would like to have recovered from the anemia enough by January that I can resume those activities.

This is the week of the elementary school Spiritual Emphasis Week.  This is a week of meetings designed to emphasize a person's need for the Savior.  It is a joy to be part of a team that explicitly gives invitations to come to Our Father's throne to receive forgiveness and sanctification and all the other blessings of the Christian life.

But it is not just the elementary students who are ministered to during this week.  The meetings are planned and lead by the High School Tenth Grade Bible class, which I am teaching this year.  The topics we discuss are many but during this time, the students put into practical application the instructions on how to present Jesus Christ.  The 10th graders plan the singing, skits, contests, Bible Memory verses and the presentations.

In this way, my teaching of the principles of the Christian life and evangelism are now put into practice by the 10th graders and they, in their turn, are teaching others.

It is the Holy Spirit who drives the lessons home to the hearts of the elementary students and the high school students.  He will bring about the harvest in due time.