Well, I am back in the motherland! The United States is a good place for me to be for a while at least. Many people have asked about my time in Israel and South Africa the past half of the year. Spending 6 months out of the country, away from what is comfortable, and what is familiar has taught me a lot. So I want to bring a couple of things up that have been re-enforced or that I’ve learned for the first time.
Backing up all the way to 6 months ago is a little hard for me to do... but the one thing that sticks out in my mind that I had to deal with is the fact that on the mission field, you NEED to be focused on making Christ the center of your life. There are many distractions and many different challenges that come up because it is just a different way of living than what you are used to. For instance, last spring I lived in a dorm full of godly men. These guys are the type of people that you could go to at any time of the day or night to talk about anything from sports, any problems, to what you were learning from the Bible. In my certain situation was that, that I left America only three days after finals week was done. That meant that I was pulled from an environment where I was surrounded by people that I knew and I was put into an unfamiliar place.
As I look back on this, I am so glad that I went through it. I believe that I am now more prone to depend on Christ in those times of loneliness or isolation. Praise the Lord that He gave me a lot of free time to read His word and to pray.
Another highlight of South Africa was that I had the chance to read through Mark and to see Jesus’ compassion. God was faithful to have His word pierce my heart and to convict me of sin. I realized just how little compassion that I have. I mean I would even go as far as to say that some of the days that I hung out with the children of Lambano, I had the wrong attitude and I was the opposite of compassionate. This allowed me to change my thinking in this area, and even to adjust what I would do now that I’m home and how I live this out.
Moving to Israel for the last three and half months was an opportunity of a lifetime. I learned so much and I am thankful for all of the people who made it possible. My parents, The Master’s College, and the profs (Randy, Bill, Abner, and Ariel, plus their wives, support staff, and volunteers). So many people put in countless hours of work so that we could have a smooth stay in Israel.
I learned so many things, and the ones that I probably have to highlight are I learned just a little more the importance of knowing the Bible, and that means memorization and meditation. One of my favorite times at IBEX was the men’s Bible study that Abner led. We thought that it would be appropriate in the land of Israel to study the book of Hebrews. Studying Hebrews combined with Land and Bible class (our Bible geography class) it was clear that there needs to be an understanding of the Old Testament if you want to understand fully the New Testament. There are many different reasons why this is necessary. We need to understand why God gave a sacrificial system, and how Christ accomplishes everything necessary for atonement. Many times I have breezed by the Old Testament on my Way to read the Gospels, or Epistles, but I learned that I need to know what the Old Testament is all about if I want to get the New Testament. Thanks to our study, I am more convinced that Jesus Christ, God incarnate, who is not a fairy tale, who is someone real, is superior to any other thing in this life. I have been encouraged to live a life that honors Christ because there is a rest to come.
Another thing that I have learned is that there needs to be a practical discipline in my life to get things done. This was probably one of the toughest semesters that I’ve experienced, in so many different ways. But God is faithful through it all. We had maybe 4 “free” days the whole semester and I learned to be disciplined in my studies so that could be free on my free days. The work that was put in was well worth it. This semester I think I learned the most academically as well.
Something that many people say when they come back from Israel, and it sounds so cliche, but it is really true, is now when I read my Bible it is like I am reading it in living color, not black and white anymore. After being there and actually seeing the real sites where Jesus worked, and where the Israelites walked so much more the the Bible makes sense.
I really hope that anyone who is a Christian gets the opportunity to go to Israel and experience the Land of the Bible. And if you are not a Christian, I hope you get to go and that you can validate the Bible, and see that this is not a mere ideology that we believe in, we believe in something real and tangible. This has been an awesome year so far, and I’m looking forward to learning more and being sanctified into the likeness of the Son.
I will still be blogging, hopefully with some sort of regularity. Hope to see you soon to see some pictures.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Ireland...
Well, we’re back from travel study break and only 2 more weeks left here in Israel. Ireland was simply amazing. It is probably one of the most beautiful places in the world. I’m sure that I have noticed before, but this trip really highlighted the creativity of God. There are so many different shades of green. Light green, dark green, darker green, lime green, and the list goes on.
Our “Jewish Thought and Culture” professor, Ariel, has a special relationship with Ireland and some of the people there. And when he heard that we were going to Ireland he perked up and got really excited. He gave us many good suggestions and recommendations of where to stay and eat.
Our trip started off on Thursday, November 8 with a taxi ride to the airport. All five of us had all we needed for 10 days on our backs, and we were filled with excitement and uncertainty about the week to come. As you can imagine, Israeli airports are not a place that one can get into easily. I’m talking about all of the security. We got there 3 hours early and it was just enough time to get everything settled so we could get on the plane. We got questioned by security more leaving the country than coming into the country, which was surprising to me.
But once we got our boarding passes we found our gate. Our gate was situated right where one of those people movers, or the flat escalators, started. And as the gate opened for boarding we all stood in line. Now when I said that we all had our stuff on our backs, that isn’t totally true. Garrett had all of his stuff in a trash bag so he could carry it on. And as we were standing in line Garrett had the bright idea of sitting on the handrail of the people mover, and it sort of grabbed his jeans and lifted him up, but he was able to jump off quickly. It was a close call. But he didn’t learn his lesson. He was leaning up on it again and this time he wasn’t so lucky. The rubber handrail stuck like Velcro to his pants and lifted him off the ground and was taking him down the people mover. So he panicked and jumped off but didn’t land on his feet, rather his face. And he almost kicked a lady in the face who was sitting on the outside of the mover. So with about 50 other people around, we all were laughing. And the people behind us noticed that we had American passports, so they asked us where we were from. And its hard to answer that question in a foreign country because you can’t be super specific. So we said obviously the U.S. and from there, California, then Los Angeles, then Santa Clarita, then The Master’s College. Most times when we tell people where we are from it stops at L.A. but the people we were talking with were actually from the same area. The woman went to Master’s and knew my sister. And she went to my rival in high school. So after we met each other and talked, we got on the plane headed for Manchester.
We arrived in Manchester and it was about 7 degrees Celsius and 1:30 in the morning. We didn’t have a place to stay and our flight didn’t leave until 11:10pm November 9. So we walked around the airport looking for the train into the city. And we got a free ride into the city. Which was so nice because they use the British pound there, and our dollar is not strong there at all. Two American dollars is worth 1 pound. So we walked around and got something to eat, and tried to find a place to sleep for the night. We found a 24 hour café and ordered some coffee. But they weren’t too keen on us sleeping in there booths. So we just decided to sleep in the bus station.
And at 6:30am we got the treat of the semester. I drank my first Starbucks that I’ve had since August. And it was amazing.
That day we just walked around Manchester waiting for our flight to Dublin. And when we finally got on our RyanAir flight, there were 6 drunk ladies in front of us. Mind you, this is midnight, and we just slept in a bus station. As you can imagine, we were not too happy. Or at least I wasn’t. But nonetheless, we made it to Dublin. And that night we slept in the airport, because we didn’t think it was worth spending the money for a full night if we were only going to be at a hotel or hostel for a couple hours of the night.
So the next morning started our adventure in Dublin. This was a total shock to us coming from a Middle Eastern country where it is a harsh language, and culturally rude people (rude to Americans), and a pretty dirty country. The city was beautiful, clean, and the people were great. It was nice to be in a place where you don’t have to worry about people not understanding English to communicate. Even though some of the accents were thick, it was nice to know that we were speaking the same language.
We had a total of 5 days in Dublin, and we did a lot. One day we went to Trinity College which houses the Book of Kells, which was basically 5th century gospel tracts. It was a copy of the New Testament that monks would slip into people’s travel sacks. This was amazing to see because of how many countless hours of work went into making these hand written copies. And the artwork was unbelievably detailed and small. It was incredible. Other days we just walked around in the parks, and fed the birds. One day we took the train up to a city named Howth. This was a small fishing town and it was probably the highlight of the trip. We took a hike along the cliffs and it was just beautiful.
Most of the pubs there in Ireland you can sit down and have a meal. And that’s what we did most of the time if we needed to eat. And we got to a particular one named The Pale, just as some people were setting up to perform some music. This was another high point of the trip. There was a man in his late 60’s who was the lead singer, and another man playing the guitar, and another playing the mandolin. And as they were playing I could hear an accordion playing, but I couldn’t pin point where it was coming from. And when I finally found it, it was someone in the same room just playing along with the songs, and he wasn’t a part of the band. So the guys invited him up to play with them and it turned out they knew each other from like 10 years ago. It was neat to see how they just rolled with the punches.
On Wednesday of our trip we took a 4 hour bus ride to Cork. This drive was great to see some of the rolling hills and countryside of Ireland. We basically had two days in Cork, and one of them was used to sleep in and rest up a little bit. The other was just walking all around the city. Trying to find cool places. We found a huge cathedral, and some nice parks. Also, Blarney is not too far from Cork, so we went and kissed the Blarney Stone. It is a piece of stone on the top of Blarney Castle the myth promises to those who kiss it upside down, eloquence of speech. So we all kissed it and I guess we’ll see if the promise holds true.
And then on Saturday we got the same bus ride back to Dublin. We had the afternoon to do last minute shopping and relaxing in the city. And that night we spent it in the airport because our flight left early in the morning.
So we made all of our flights and we are back at the Moshav safely.
I learned so many things about leadership on this trip. So many things that I wouldn’t have learned anywhere else. It was such a good trip. I am glad I went and I am glad that God kept us safe with whatever we were doing. I will never forget the lessons I learned and the grace of God manifested in this trip.
Our “Jewish Thought and Culture” professor, Ariel, has a special relationship with Ireland and some of the people there. And when he heard that we were going to Ireland he perked up and got really excited. He gave us many good suggestions and recommendations of where to stay and eat.
Our trip started off on Thursday, November 8 with a taxi ride to the airport. All five of us had all we needed for 10 days on our backs, and we were filled with excitement and uncertainty about the week to come. As you can imagine, Israeli airports are not a place that one can get into easily. I’m talking about all of the security. We got there 3 hours early and it was just enough time to get everything settled so we could get on the plane. We got questioned by security more leaving the country than coming into the country, which was surprising to me.
But once we got our boarding passes we found our gate. Our gate was situated right where one of those people movers, or the flat escalators, started. And as the gate opened for boarding we all stood in line. Now when I said that we all had our stuff on our backs, that isn’t totally true. Garrett had all of his stuff in a trash bag so he could carry it on. And as we were standing in line Garrett had the bright idea of sitting on the handrail of the people mover, and it sort of grabbed his jeans and lifted him up, but he was able to jump off quickly. It was a close call. But he didn’t learn his lesson. He was leaning up on it again and this time he wasn’t so lucky. The rubber handrail stuck like Velcro to his pants and lifted him off the ground and was taking him down the people mover. So he panicked and jumped off but didn’t land on his feet, rather his face. And he almost kicked a lady in the face who was sitting on the outside of the mover. So with about 50 other people around, we all were laughing. And the people behind us noticed that we had American passports, so they asked us where we were from. And its hard to answer that question in a foreign country because you can’t be super specific. So we said obviously the U.S. and from there, California, then Los Angeles, then Santa Clarita, then The Master’s College. Most times when we tell people where we are from it stops at L.A. but the people we were talking with were actually from the same area. The woman went to Master’s and knew my sister. And she went to my rival in high school. So after we met each other and talked, we got on the plane headed for Manchester.
We arrived in Manchester and it was about 7 degrees Celsius and 1:30 in the morning. We didn’t have a place to stay and our flight didn’t leave until 11:10pm November 9. So we walked around the airport looking for the train into the city. And we got a free ride into the city. Which was so nice because they use the British pound there, and our dollar is not strong there at all. Two American dollars is worth 1 pound. So we walked around and got something to eat, and tried to find a place to sleep for the night. We found a 24 hour café and ordered some coffee. But they weren’t too keen on us sleeping in there booths. So we just decided to sleep in the bus station.
And at 6:30am we got the treat of the semester. I drank my first Starbucks that I’ve had since August. And it was amazing.
That day we just walked around Manchester waiting for our flight to Dublin. And when we finally got on our RyanAir flight, there were 6 drunk ladies in front of us. Mind you, this is midnight, and we just slept in a bus station. As you can imagine, we were not too happy. Or at least I wasn’t. But nonetheless, we made it to Dublin. And that night we slept in the airport, because we didn’t think it was worth spending the money for a full night if we were only going to be at a hotel or hostel for a couple hours of the night.
So the next morning started our adventure in Dublin. This was a total shock to us coming from a Middle Eastern country where it is a harsh language, and culturally rude people (rude to Americans), and a pretty dirty country. The city was beautiful, clean, and the people were great. It was nice to be in a place where you don’t have to worry about people not understanding English to communicate. Even though some of the accents were thick, it was nice to know that we were speaking the same language.
We had a total of 5 days in Dublin, and we did a lot. One day we went to Trinity College which houses the Book of Kells, which was basically 5th century gospel tracts. It was a copy of the New Testament that monks would slip into people’s travel sacks. This was amazing to see because of how many countless hours of work went into making these hand written copies. And the artwork was unbelievably detailed and small. It was incredible. Other days we just walked around in the parks, and fed the birds. One day we took the train up to a city named Howth. This was a small fishing town and it was probably the highlight of the trip. We took a hike along the cliffs and it was just beautiful.
Most of the pubs there in Ireland you can sit down and have a meal. And that’s what we did most of the time if we needed to eat. And we got to a particular one named The Pale, just as some people were setting up to perform some music. This was another high point of the trip. There was a man in his late 60’s who was the lead singer, and another man playing the guitar, and another playing the mandolin. And as they were playing I could hear an accordion playing, but I couldn’t pin point where it was coming from. And when I finally found it, it was someone in the same room just playing along with the songs, and he wasn’t a part of the band. So the guys invited him up to play with them and it turned out they knew each other from like 10 years ago. It was neat to see how they just rolled with the punches.
On Wednesday of our trip we took a 4 hour bus ride to Cork. This drive was great to see some of the rolling hills and countryside of Ireland. We basically had two days in Cork, and one of them was used to sleep in and rest up a little bit. The other was just walking all around the city. Trying to find cool places. We found a huge cathedral, and some nice parks. Also, Blarney is not too far from Cork, so we went and kissed the Blarney Stone. It is a piece of stone on the top of Blarney Castle the myth promises to those who kiss it upside down, eloquence of speech. So we all kissed it and I guess we’ll see if the promise holds true.
And then on Saturday we got the same bus ride back to Dublin. We had the afternoon to do last minute shopping and relaxing in the city. And that night we spent it in the airport because our flight left early in the morning.
So we made all of our flights and we are back at the Moshav safely.
I learned so many things about leadership on this trip. So many things that I wouldn’t have learned anywhere else. It was such a good trip. I am glad I went and I am glad that God kept us safe with whatever we were doing. I will never forget the lessons I learned and the grace of God manifested in this trip.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Top of the Morning!!!
Well, Land and Bible class is over, so there won't be any more field report being posted. I ended up with an 87% in the class, which is pretty good. The final was easy and I only missed one. So that was an encouragement. Now it is time for a travel study break. Theo, Garrett, Ashley, Jackie, and I are leaving for Ireland today. We will be there for the next 10 days. I will be blogging when I get back about our time. So off we go!!
Monday, October 22, 2007
Running to the Word of God...
How important is discernment? Is it worth studying the Bible so that we can detect what is false? I would argue yes. Whenever we read anything, or watch a video, we need to know what is wrong and why it is wrong! Abner Chou, my Life of Christ professor here in Israel, took the time today to teach a lesson that we need to be running to the scriptures all the time.
There is a movement in western churches, called the “seeker sensitive” movement. The church that is spear heading this is called Willow Creek, in Chicago. What is a “seeker sensitive” church? Well, by their own definition it is a church that has the goal of taking people that are far from God, bringing them into the church and getting them involved in services, small groups, Sunday school, etc., and soon enough they’ll be disciples of God.
Greg Hawkins, Executive Pastor at Willow Creek, has a video that we watched in class, and it was scary. He starts out the video explaining how he is so distracted in church. First off, he gets so distracted by the amount of people that are sitting next to him and behind him and in front of him. He’s watching how many people should be at the church. If there are a lot of people he starts to feel good, and if not, his mind starts racing in a hundred different directions on why people aren’t coming to his church. A church that is supposed to be bringing the people in, not keeping them away. By his own confession, he isn’t even engaged in the service once it’s started because he’s so preoccupied about the demographics of the people at church. So after he has “realigned” himself to the right mindset, it just gets pushed off kilter again, because of the offering. Now, his concern with the offering is probably a good one. He is wondering if the funds that are given (and at Willow Creek, it’s a multi-million dollar church) are being used correctly and the best way possible. This is a legitimate concern. Are they spending the money rightly?
He wasn’t so sure that they were. So, in 2004 Greg wanted to get to the bottom of it. He wanted to know what was working and what wasn’t working in the church. So, instead of running to the scriptures to find out what was going wrong in the church, and what the Bible says about people spiritual lives, he decided to poll the audience. Greg made a church wide survey. And evidently the results were astonishing. These questions were designed to communicate what was helping the congregation grow spiritually and what wasn’t. Basically how they “do” church.
In the video he goes on to explain what Willow Creek is trying to do, which is to bring people who are far from God to disciples of Christ. This is done through programs, services, classes, small groups, care, etc. and all of these give the opportunity for people (i.e. “seekers”) to serve. Now there should be about 37 red flags going up in your mind right now and you should have some questions about what is going on. For example, we need to know what the purpose of the Church is, we need to know what the Church is, what is a seeker? what does participation in activities have to do with what is produced? I will try to answer those and some more.
It is clear in the Word of God that there are two types of people in this world: alive and dead. One who is alive has been brought to life through salvation. The dead remain dead because they can not do anything. Something that is dead has no use. Something that is dead can not do anything. That is just the nature of death. Ephesians 2:1, “You were dead in the trespasses and sin,” and once you have been made alive there is no hope for the dead. There is no such thing as a “seeker”. Greg Hawkins describes the “seeker” as someone who believes that there is a God, but just hasn’t moved into the, and I quote, “Jesus thing.” It is clear in scripture that a person who does not have a relationship with Christ, and who has not repented from their sins, and is not living a holy life, that person is damned.
This is a scary thing if these are the kinds of people that Greg Hawkins wants to be involved in serving others on a weekly basis at his church. This leads to great problems. If we start blurring the line between Christians and non Christians it will be catastrophic. The Church will be infected. Sin affects other people. Brothers and sisters in Christ can confront and resolve sin. There are some church functions that will be tough to carry out because we can not tell who is saved and who is not. For instance, Church discipline (Matthew 18) and communion (I Corinthians 11). We can not discipline a non Christian for doing non Christian things. And it is not good to present and approve of non Christians taking part in the Lord’s supper, because they will be judged for it.
Greg goes on to explain the results of the surveys. He says that they learned that the level of participation in church activities does not enhance their spiritual growth. What he says they discovered was a spiritual continuum made up of 5 groups. 1-“Explorers” 2-“New Christians” 3-
Close to Christ” 4- “Centered on Christ” 5- “Stalled”. He says that each one had different needs, which is true! And his church was more geared for the first two groups, the “seekers” and the new Christians. But what about the more mature Christians? They are disappointed with the church, they are discouraged, and they are the ones who are thinking about leaving the church. Why is that?
It is because the seeker friendly movement is too focused on how the Bible can be used for them. They are focused on what they can get out of the Christian life. They want the Bible to conform to them and their lifestyle. That is bogus. We need to be asking not how can the Bible apply to me, as if the Bible can change to fit our lives, but we need to ask what we need to do that our lives fit what the Bible says.
Why isn’t the current strategies working to make better disciples of God in the “seeker sensitive” movement? It is because of the lack of focus on the scriptures. This is where it needs to be. There is nothing better than the Word of God. II Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” The Word of God is enough for any situation. This is what is going to help a church grow. This is what is going to make disciples of God. Teach the scriptures, nothing more, nothing less. Teach it with passion and conviction. This is what will convict people. This is what will pierce the heart: the Word of God.
The Senior Pastor, Bill Hybels, gave a talk at a leadership summit in October reviewing the same things that Greg, his executive pastor, went over. This video was even more disturbing and frustrating. Basically all of the statistics that came in was evidence that all of Bill’s work over the past years have been detrimental to peoples spiritual lives. He goes over the statistics and results of how people from those first four people groups in the church. The first group, the “seekers”, out of 10, he says, put them at a 9. And he said that, that was good news! That is not good news. He is saying that at church, the non believers needs are being met! How is this possible, if the message of the Cross is foolishness to men (I Corinthians 2). How is it that Jesus says that people will hate Christians (Matthew 10)? Why are non believers in the church any way? The Church is rightly named the body of CHRIST. Each member identifies with Christ. The Church is here to encourage and edify believers. That is not to say that when non believers come to church you kick them out by any means. But the church is for believers, and our evangelism should not be asking people to come to church. On the contrary, we need to be going out and sharing the good news with non believers.
The next group, the new Christians, rated the church a little lower, but still pretty high in the area of meeting their needs. And as the stats came in the group most disappointed with the way the church was helping them… or the lack of help they were giving, was the “Mature” Christians. Bill says that it was disappointing for him because he couldn’t understand what more they wanted. And this is what he said they said, “We’re not being fed.” “That they want more meat of the word of God.” “They want more serious minded scripture being taught to them.” “They wanted to be challenged more.” Bill had a surprising response. It was one that was more of a lashing out to the people who wanted to be fed. He says with an attitude, “I’ll feed those people, I’ll get some seminary prof. who’ll feed them till they barf.” What is so wrong with that? If people want to grow, why are we stopping it? I do not understand why that is such a bad thing to Bill.
Instead of Bill changing what is taught to what is scriptural, and repenting from his ways of not caring for the flock of Christ, he shifts all of the blame onto the ones who want to grow. He says that if they wanted to grow they should have learned how to do that and then do it on their own. There is some truth to that… a Christian should know how to study the bible. But with Bill’s thinking there is not a reason for them to still be in the church. And I think that there in lies the truth of the whole “seeker sensitive” movement: it is just a ploy to get people in the church and then out of the church. Because it is all of the mature Christians who want to learn, or even because they have been teaching themselves, they understand that they are not getting fed so they have to leave in order to find that shepherding.
There is a lot of danger in asking what they people think. As humans we are deceitfully wicked, and there are even sins that we have no clue that we struggle with. How do we even know what would be better for our spiritual walk. The way that we know is by careful evaluation and study of the Scriptures. What we need is for faithful men to rise up and study faithfully, preach faithfully, and train faithfully. We do not need surveys and questionnaires.
I hope that this is encouraging to you to study the Word.
These are the links to the two videos:
Greg Hawkins : http://revealnow.com/story.asp?storyid=48
Bill Hybels: http://revealnow.com/story.asp?storyid=49
There is a movement in western churches, called the “seeker sensitive” movement. The church that is spear heading this is called Willow Creek, in Chicago. What is a “seeker sensitive” church? Well, by their own definition it is a church that has the goal of taking people that are far from God, bringing them into the church and getting them involved in services, small groups, Sunday school, etc., and soon enough they’ll be disciples of God.
Greg Hawkins, Executive Pastor at Willow Creek, has a video that we watched in class, and it was scary. He starts out the video explaining how he is so distracted in church. First off, he gets so distracted by the amount of people that are sitting next to him and behind him and in front of him. He’s watching how many people should be at the church. If there are a lot of people he starts to feel good, and if not, his mind starts racing in a hundred different directions on why people aren’t coming to his church. A church that is supposed to be bringing the people in, not keeping them away. By his own confession, he isn’t even engaged in the service once it’s started because he’s so preoccupied about the demographics of the people at church. So after he has “realigned” himself to the right mindset, it just gets pushed off kilter again, because of the offering. Now, his concern with the offering is probably a good one. He is wondering if the funds that are given (and at Willow Creek, it’s a multi-million dollar church) are being used correctly and the best way possible. This is a legitimate concern. Are they spending the money rightly?
He wasn’t so sure that they were. So, in 2004 Greg wanted to get to the bottom of it. He wanted to know what was working and what wasn’t working in the church. So, instead of running to the scriptures to find out what was going wrong in the church, and what the Bible says about people spiritual lives, he decided to poll the audience. Greg made a church wide survey. And evidently the results were astonishing. These questions were designed to communicate what was helping the congregation grow spiritually and what wasn’t. Basically how they “do” church.
In the video he goes on to explain what Willow Creek is trying to do, which is to bring people who are far from God to disciples of Christ. This is done through programs, services, classes, small groups, care, etc. and all of these give the opportunity for people (i.e. “seekers”) to serve. Now there should be about 37 red flags going up in your mind right now and you should have some questions about what is going on. For example, we need to know what the purpose of the Church is, we need to know what the Church is, what is a seeker? what does participation in activities have to do with what is produced? I will try to answer those and some more.
It is clear in the Word of God that there are two types of people in this world: alive and dead. One who is alive has been brought to life through salvation. The dead remain dead because they can not do anything. Something that is dead has no use. Something that is dead can not do anything. That is just the nature of death. Ephesians 2:1, “You were dead in the trespasses and sin,” and once you have been made alive there is no hope for the dead. There is no such thing as a “seeker”. Greg Hawkins describes the “seeker” as someone who believes that there is a God, but just hasn’t moved into the, and I quote, “Jesus thing.” It is clear in scripture that a person who does not have a relationship with Christ, and who has not repented from their sins, and is not living a holy life, that person is damned.
This is a scary thing if these are the kinds of people that Greg Hawkins wants to be involved in serving others on a weekly basis at his church. This leads to great problems. If we start blurring the line between Christians and non Christians it will be catastrophic. The Church will be infected. Sin affects other people. Brothers and sisters in Christ can confront and resolve sin. There are some church functions that will be tough to carry out because we can not tell who is saved and who is not. For instance, Church discipline (Matthew 18) and communion (I Corinthians 11). We can not discipline a non Christian for doing non Christian things. And it is not good to present and approve of non Christians taking part in the Lord’s supper, because they will be judged for it.
Greg goes on to explain the results of the surveys. He says that they learned that the level of participation in church activities does not enhance their spiritual growth. What he says they discovered was a spiritual continuum made up of 5 groups. 1-“Explorers” 2-“New Christians” 3-
Close to Christ” 4- “Centered on Christ” 5- “Stalled”. He says that each one had different needs, which is true! And his church was more geared for the first two groups, the “seekers” and the new Christians. But what about the more mature Christians? They are disappointed with the church, they are discouraged, and they are the ones who are thinking about leaving the church. Why is that?
It is because the seeker friendly movement is too focused on how the Bible can be used for them. They are focused on what they can get out of the Christian life. They want the Bible to conform to them and their lifestyle. That is bogus. We need to be asking not how can the Bible apply to me, as if the Bible can change to fit our lives, but we need to ask what we need to do that our lives fit what the Bible says.
Why isn’t the current strategies working to make better disciples of God in the “seeker sensitive” movement? It is because of the lack of focus on the scriptures. This is where it needs to be. There is nothing better than the Word of God. II Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” The Word of God is enough for any situation. This is what is going to help a church grow. This is what is going to make disciples of God. Teach the scriptures, nothing more, nothing less. Teach it with passion and conviction. This is what will convict people. This is what will pierce the heart: the Word of God.
The Senior Pastor, Bill Hybels, gave a talk at a leadership summit in October reviewing the same things that Greg, his executive pastor, went over. This video was even more disturbing and frustrating. Basically all of the statistics that came in was evidence that all of Bill’s work over the past years have been detrimental to peoples spiritual lives. He goes over the statistics and results of how people from those first four people groups in the church. The first group, the “seekers”, out of 10, he says, put them at a 9. And he said that, that was good news! That is not good news. He is saying that at church, the non believers needs are being met! How is this possible, if the message of the Cross is foolishness to men (I Corinthians 2). How is it that Jesus says that people will hate Christians (Matthew 10)? Why are non believers in the church any way? The Church is rightly named the body of CHRIST. Each member identifies with Christ. The Church is here to encourage and edify believers. That is not to say that when non believers come to church you kick them out by any means. But the church is for believers, and our evangelism should not be asking people to come to church. On the contrary, we need to be going out and sharing the good news with non believers.
The next group, the new Christians, rated the church a little lower, but still pretty high in the area of meeting their needs. And as the stats came in the group most disappointed with the way the church was helping them… or the lack of help they were giving, was the “Mature” Christians. Bill says that it was disappointing for him because he couldn’t understand what more they wanted. And this is what he said they said, “We’re not being fed.” “That they want more meat of the word of God.” “They want more serious minded scripture being taught to them.” “They wanted to be challenged more.” Bill had a surprising response. It was one that was more of a lashing out to the people who wanted to be fed. He says with an attitude, “I’ll feed those people, I’ll get some seminary prof. who’ll feed them till they barf.” What is so wrong with that? If people want to grow, why are we stopping it? I do not understand why that is such a bad thing to Bill.
Instead of Bill changing what is taught to what is scriptural, and repenting from his ways of not caring for the flock of Christ, he shifts all of the blame onto the ones who want to grow. He says that if they wanted to grow they should have learned how to do that and then do it on their own. There is some truth to that… a Christian should know how to study the bible. But with Bill’s thinking there is not a reason for them to still be in the church. And I think that there in lies the truth of the whole “seeker sensitive” movement: it is just a ploy to get people in the church and then out of the church. Because it is all of the mature Christians who want to learn, or even because they have been teaching themselves, they understand that they are not getting fed so they have to leave in order to find that shepherding.
There is a lot of danger in asking what they people think. As humans we are deceitfully wicked, and there are even sins that we have no clue that we struggle with. How do we even know what would be better for our spiritual walk. The way that we know is by careful evaluation and study of the Scriptures. What we need is for faithful men to rise up and study faithfully, preach faithfully, and train faithfully. We do not need surveys and questionnaires.
I hope that this is encouraging to you to study the Word.
These are the links to the two videos:
Greg Hawkins : http://revealnow.com/story.asp?storyid=48
Bill Hybels: http://revealnow.com/story.asp?storyid=49
Monday, October 15, 2007
SEA OF G
After the awe of the initial view of the Sea of Galilee, we had the chance to explore the cities around it. It is amazing to actually see what we have been learning about. The whole day was saturated with and events from the life of our Messiah. We went from Capernaum, Hepta Pagon, Tiberius, Ginnosar, Tell Bethsaida, and the Upper Jordan River.
One of the first stops that we made was in between Capernaum and Hepta Pagon. This was no official spot where Jesus ministered or anything, but we stopped there so that Bill could make a point. If we look at the gospel of Mark, in chapter four Jesus was teaching beside the Sea of Galilee, and a very large crowd gathered about Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea and the whole crowd was on the beach listening. With such a great number of people listening in on Jesus’ teaching, Christ must have had a strong voice. But what really helped was the natural theater type affect that the bank of the sea made. There is not a lot of effort needed to make yourself heard. So Bill had someone read Mark 4:1-9, the parable of the sower, and he was about 75 yards away, and with a quick synchronization with the passing traffic, we could all hear the parable clearly. When Jesus told the parable He didn’t have to contest with automobiles, airplanes, or motor boats, so there would be no problem with having a huge crowd on the beach listening to His teaching.
Next place we hit was up to Capernaum to the traditional site of Peter’s house. This has a octagonal shaped church built on top of it, with a synagogue right next to it. This synagogue can be dated to the Roman times. It was built with limestone, a distinctly white stone, on top of all of the basalt, which is a black rock. Capernaum was the site where the Centurion, who asked Jesus to heal his son, help fund the building of the synagogue. We know that the Centurion had great faith because he was at least a days walk from his son, and Jesus recognizes it, and He tells the people around that there is no greater faith in the land than this Centurion. This causes a rejection of Christ because they were Jews and they didn’t have more faith than a Gentile? Unbelievable!
In between Tavgha and Capernaum is the Catholic site for the Sermon on the Mount. This monastery was built by Mussolini in 1939 and is a late tradition, but the site was probably closer to Bethsaida. We learn again that the “disagreement” in the gospels between Matthew and Luke, concerning the place of the Sermon on the Mount can easily be solved. In Luke, he says that they were on a flat place, but in Matthew says that it is on a mount. This can be solved by saying that there was a flat place on the mountain. This works but there is another possibility: Jesus wanted some privacy with His disciples, so He talked to them first on the flat place, and then moved to the masses on the mountain. We know that the Bible is the word of God and that it can not lie, because His word is true, so there must be an explanation.
We then went to Ginnosar, the place where there is a boat from the days of Jesus. This was amazing to see for a couple of different reasons. First off was the amazing amount of work that went into preserving this. It took 14 years for it to be on display. It was discovered in the 80’s and in 2000 it was put on display. They are not sure if it was a fishing boat or a transport boat, but either way it was amazing to see. And not coincidently the capacity of the boat is 12-13 people, so it can be presumed that this was the type of boat that Jesus and His disciples traveled in when they were on the Sea of Galilee.
After a long day, we had a lot of fun floating in inner tubes down the Upper Jordan River. All of us floated down probably for 45 minutes down the river enjoying the cool water and it was refreshing. It was the perfect way to end a great day of reviewing the Life of Christ. To actually think about where these miracles actually took place still blows my mind every time I think about it.
One of the first stops that we made was in between Capernaum and Hepta Pagon. This was no official spot where Jesus ministered or anything, but we stopped there so that Bill could make a point. If we look at the gospel of Mark, in chapter four Jesus was teaching beside the Sea of Galilee, and a very large crowd gathered about Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea and the whole crowd was on the beach listening. With such a great number of people listening in on Jesus’ teaching, Christ must have had a strong voice. But what really helped was the natural theater type affect that the bank of the sea made. There is not a lot of effort needed to make yourself heard. So Bill had someone read Mark 4:1-9, the parable of the sower, and he was about 75 yards away, and with a quick synchronization with the passing traffic, we could all hear the parable clearly. When Jesus told the parable He didn’t have to contest with automobiles, airplanes, or motor boats, so there would be no problem with having a huge crowd on the beach listening to His teaching.
Next place we hit was up to Capernaum to the traditional site of Peter’s house. This has a octagonal shaped church built on top of it, with a synagogue right next to it. This synagogue can be dated to the Roman times. It was built with limestone, a distinctly white stone, on top of all of the basalt, which is a black rock. Capernaum was the site where the Centurion, who asked Jesus to heal his son, help fund the building of the synagogue. We know that the Centurion had great faith because he was at least a days walk from his son, and Jesus recognizes it, and He tells the people around that there is no greater faith in the land than this Centurion. This causes a rejection of Christ because they were Jews and they didn’t have more faith than a Gentile? Unbelievable!
In between Tavgha and Capernaum is the Catholic site for the Sermon on the Mount. This monastery was built by Mussolini in 1939 and is a late tradition, but the site was probably closer to Bethsaida. We learn again that the “disagreement” in the gospels between Matthew and Luke, concerning the place of the Sermon on the Mount can easily be solved. In Luke, he says that they were on a flat place, but in Matthew says that it is on a mount. This can be solved by saying that there was a flat place on the mountain. This works but there is another possibility: Jesus wanted some privacy with His disciples, so He talked to them first on the flat place, and then moved to the masses on the mountain. We know that the Bible is the word of God and that it can not lie, because His word is true, so there must be an explanation.
We then went to Ginnosar, the place where there is a boat from the days of Jesus. This was amazing to see for a couple of different reasons. First off was the amazing amount of work that went into preserving this. It took 14 years for it to be on display. It was discovered in the 80’s and in 2000 it was put on display. They are not sure if it was a fishing boat or a transport boat, but either way it was amazing to see. And not coincidently the capacity of the boat is 12-13 people, so it can be presumed that this was the type of boat that Jesus and His disciples traveled in when they were on the Sea of Galilee.
After a long day, we had a lot of fun floating in inner tubes down the Upper Jordan River. All of us floated down probably for 45 minutes down the river enjoying the cool water and it was refreshing. It was the perfect way to end a great day of reviewing the Life of Christ. To actually think about where these miracles actually took place still blows my mind every time I think about it.
Service
As you know we visited the Jezreel Valley today, but there is so many things that happen that I cannot communicate everything. So I thought maybe today in addition to the field report I’d fill you in with a little bit of the more personal side of things.
Every week we go on a field trip. We sit in class on Friday and take a quiz over Wednesday’s field trip for the first half of class. Then we get a preview of the next weeks field trip. Monday comes around and we learn more about the theoretical side of the places that we are going to see on Wednesday. Then the real fun comes on Wednesday.
On any given Wednesday, Becky (one of the IBEX workers who is awesome), has made us all sack lunches, filled with the bountiful booty of the land. Such as pretzels, home made cookies/desserts, apple sauce, PB&J’s, turkey sandwiches, etc. We all have to have our lunch by 7:59 am in order to leave the Moshav by 8:00.
Today was no different. We left and spent the day just as I described it in the previous blog. But since this is the first night of the Galilee field trip, we spent the night in Nazareth at a Catholic convent. This convent has an amazing chapel and after dinner we all gathered into the chapel to sing. We have had awesome times singing in chapels in the past and why should this time be any different? Well let me tell you that it wasn’t different at all and it was an amazing time praising our Messiah, with my brothers and sisters.
When I say brothers and sisters I really mean it. Of course I can not know every person in the group with the depth that would like, but the people I do know and from what I’ve learned of every person, it is a privilege to worship with them. Every note that is sung by all the other 39 IBEX-ers is a blessing to my own soul. In Ephesians 1:4-6 it says, “In love He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.” And in verse 11 it says, “In Him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” Notice the US and the WE of these verses. This Christian life is not a solo thing. This Christian life is a “team effort” so to say. There is to be some sort of Christian community. We are all here for each other. And in being here for each other that means that we serve one another. Whatever the task is that falls under the umbrella of serving, that is what we need to do for one another. Not because we get something out of it, but because God calls us to do it.
A lot of the time I think that others should be serving me because I deserve it. What a load! I deserve nothing, which should make me want to serve even more. And the only reason that I was saved in the first place was to be given to Christ as a perfect bride, but not just me, the whole church. That is my brothers and sisters. That is my pastor and the children in Sunday school. Every person who has been saved, has been saved for one purpose only. And that is to glorify God, nothing else. Glorify God. And how do we do that? Colossians 3:17 “Whatever you do whether in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him”
So I just wanted to thank all of my brothers and sisters for serving me tonight in a way that Colossians tells us to: sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, admonishing one another in wisdom. This is what Christian community should be doing. And I am thankful to be in a place that serves God by serving others.
Every week we go on a field trip. We sit in class on Friday and take a quiz over Wednesday’s field trip for the first half of class. Then we get a preview of the next weeks field trip. Monday comes around and we learn more about the theoretical side of the places that we are going to see on Wednesday. Then the real fun comes on Wednesday.
On any given Wednesday, Becky (one of the IBEX workers who is awesome), has made us all sack lunches, filled with the bountiful booty of the land. Such as pretzels, home made cookies/desserts, apple sauce, PB&J’s, turkey sandwiches, etc. We all have to have our lunch by 7:59 am in order to leave the Moshav by 8:00.
Today was no different. We left and spent the day just as I described it in the previous blog. But since this is the first night of the Galilee field trip, we spent the night in Nazareth at a Catholic convent. This convent has an amazing chapel and after dinner we all gathered into the chapel to sing. We have had awesome times singing in chapels in the past and why should this time be any different? Well let me tell you that it wasn’t different at all and it was an amazing time praising our Messiah, with my brothers and sisters.
When I say brothers and sisters I really mean it. Of course I can not know every person in the group with the depth that would like, but the people I do know and from what I’ve learned of every person, it is a privilege to worship with them. Every note that is sung by all the other 39 IBEX-ers is a blessing to my own soul. In Ephesians 1:4-6 it says, “In love He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.” And in verse 11 it says, “In Him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” Notice the US and the WE of these verses. This Christian life is not a solo thing. This Christian life is a “team effort” so to say. There is to be some sort of Christian community. We are all here for each other. And in being here for each other that means that we serve one another. Whatever the task is that falls under the umbrella of serving, that is what we need to do for one another. Not because we get something out of it, but because God calls us to do it.
A lot of the time I think that others should be serving me because I deserve it. What a load! I deserve nothing, which should make me want to serve even more. And the only reason that I was saved in the first place was to be given to Christ as a perfect bride, but not just me, the whole church. That is my brothers and sisters. That is my pastor and the children in Sunday school. Every person who has been saved, has been saved for one purpose only. And that is to glorify God, nothing else. Glorify God. And how do we do that? Colossians 3:17 “Whatever you do whether in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him”
So I just wanted to thank all of my brothers and sisters for serving me tonight in a way that Colossians tells us to: sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, admonishing one another in wisdom. This is what Christian community should be doing. And I am thankful to be in a place that serves God by serving others.
Are you for REEL?
The most lush and beautiful part of Israel so far has been the Jezreel Valley. This is in the northern part of Israel, and there are several routes that we reviewed both in class and on the field. One big obstacle in traveling north to south and vice versa is Mt. Carmel. There are three different routes that you can take. And each one played a significant role in the history of Israel. The three passes are Jokneam, Megiddo, and Dothan.
The first place that we stopped was at the Megiddo pass. There was a lot of conflict that happened here at the site. We know some of the times because of biblical records. For instance in the time of Deborah and Barak in 1230 B.C. We read in Judges 4:14 that Barak went down from Mt Tabor with 10,000 men and fought the Canaanites who came from the Megiddo pass.
One other significant Event that happened here was involving Thutmose III. In effort to conquer the land, Thutmose was working his way north from Egypt, and he stopped in Yaham to have a war council. The rational for the meeting was to decide which route the Egyptians should take, for they had three: Jokneam, Megiddo, and Dothan. Because of the narrow opening to the Megiddo Pass the counselors told Thutmose to go anywhere but the Megiddo Pass. So, Thutmose sent out two decoy battalions, one up the Dothan Pass, and the other up the Jokneam Pass, and at the same time the Egyptians went up the Megiddo Pass and conquered Megiddo. This is an important site for the city because like any important cities in Israel, it controls the traffic.
The importance of the city can be seen in the archeology. There has been more than twenty inhabited layers found in archeological excavations. Some dating back to the middle bronze age, Solomon built this city up with great gates and palaces, but the funny thing is, there is none of the glory that remains. It really makes me think about where my treasure is going now on this earth, and to really think about where is what I’m investing in on this earth going to be in 300 years. There will be no remnant of it!
We then saw a rolling stone tomb that dated to 135 A.D. but was probably the same model as the one Jesus was buried in. This was great because we harmonized the gospel accounts of the resurrection by acting out the whole ordeal. Some people find it very difficult to account for everything that happened in the Gospels, but we did because we were flexible and allowed for humanity to play a role. There were probably at least 5 people who visited Jesus’ tomb that morning, all from different social status’ and different backgrounds. And the ladies told different things because they all witnessed different things all at different times. We must not forget that even though things might not line up exactly as we would think, there is no contradiction or lie in the Bible.
One of the great places that we stopped was Mt. Carmel. This was the mountain where Elijah, in I Kings 18, defeats the prophets of Baal. But more importantly Yahweh defeats Baal. This again brings to attention that it is not man who is fighting the battles, but God. Another great story about that exact thing is in Judges 7. This is where 32,000 men were gathered to fight the Midianites. But the Lord told Gideon that he had to many men for Him to deliver them into Gideon’s hand. So Gideon told the men that if they wanted to, they could go home, and 22,000 men left, leaving 10,000 men. But the Lord said that was too many. So at the Harod Spring, where we visited, Gideon had them drink and the Lord said to keep the men who lapped the water like a dog. And that was 300 men. This was exactly what the Lord wanted. Yahweh is fighting the battle. God did not want the Israelites to say that it was on account of their number and strength that the Midianites were defeated, the glory was to be to God.
There are many other stories and events that happened here in the Jezreel Valley, but these are the ones that stuck out to me today. All of these events clearly show the faithfulness of God. His mercies are new every morning and we can never end praising His name!
The first place that we stopped was at the Megiddo pass. There was a lot of conflict that happened here at the site. We know some of the times because of biblical records. For instance in the time of Deborah and Barak in 1230 B.C. We read in Judges 4:14 that Barak went down from Mt Tabor with 10,000 men and fought the Canaanites who came from the Megiddo pass.
One other significant Event that happened here was involving Thutmose III. In effort to conquer the land, Thutmose was working his way north from Egypt, and he stopped in Yaham to have a war council. The rational for the meeting was to decide which route the Egyptians should take, for they had three: Jokneam, Megiddo, and Dothan. Because of the narrow opening to the Megiddo Pass the counselors told Thutmose to go anywhere but the Megiddo Pass. So, Thutmose sent out two decoy battalions, one up the Dothan Pass, and the other up the Jokneam Pass, and at the same time the Egyptians went up the Megiddo Pass and conquered Megiddo. This is an important site for the city because like any important cities in Israel, it controls the traffic.
The importance of the city can be seen in the archeology. There has been more than twenty inhabited layers found in archeological excavations. Some dating back to the middle bronze age, Solomon built this city up with great gates and palaces, but the funny thing is, there is none of the glory that remains. It really makes me think about where my treasure is going now on this earth, and to really think about where is what I’m investing in on this earth going to be in 300 years. There will be no remnant of it!
We then saw a rolling stone tomb that dated to 135 A.D. but was probably the same model as the one Jesus was buried in. This was great because we harmonized the gospel accounts of the resurrection by acting out the whole ordeal. Some people find it very difficult to account for everything that happened in the Gospels, but we did because we were flexible and allowed for humanity to play a role. There were probably at least 5 people who visited Jesus’ tomb that morning, all from different social status’ and different backgrounds. And the ladies told different things because they all witnessed different things all at different times. We must not forget that even though things might not line up exactly as we would think, there is no contradiction or lie in the Bible.
One of the great places that we stopped was Mt. Carmel. This was the mountain where Elijah, in I Kings 18, defeats the prophets of Baal. But more importantly Yahweh defeats Baal. This again brings to attention that it is not man who is fighting the battles, but God. Another great story about that exact thing is in Judges 7. This is where 32,000 men were gathered to fight the Midianites. But the Lord told Gideon that he had to many men for Him to deliver them into Gideon’s hand. So Gideon told the men that if they wanted to, they could go home, and 22,000 men left, leaving 10,000 men. But the Lord said that was too many. So at the Harod Spring, where we visited, Gideon had them drink and the Lord said to keep the men who lapped the water like a dog. And that was 300 men. This was exactly what the Lord wanted. Yahweh is fighting the battle. God did not want the Israelites to say that it was on account of their number and strength that the Midianites were defeated, the glory was to be to God.
There are many other stories and events that happened here in the Jezreel Valley, but these are the ones that stuck out to me today. All of these events clearly show the faithfulness of God. His mercies are new every morning and we can never end praising His name!
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