Daily Bible Reading & Middle-East Unrest

Here's a thought I had after reading God's word this morning and the news at noon:

Days of protest in a few cities have turned into weeks of unrest across the major cities of the Middle East.  Some are chanting slogans for economic, political, and domestic reform.  Others are chanting for the death of certain individuals they see as the cause of their hardships.  News commentators are all over the place in terms of predictions and implications of these events.  But when God spoke about the later times by the prophet Zechariah, we know his words are certain, "I will changed the speech of the people to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the LORD and serve him with one accord" (Zech. 3:9 ESV).  For them to call upon the name of Jesus and begin living a life of service to the true King requires God to change their speech.  Join in praying today that these movements of unrest would serve as Kingdom movements of God changing the peoples of the Middle East to praise him with pure speech.

Home Again, Home Again


It felt like spring standing outside my Africa themed guest-room.  Clouds were rolling by from a recent rainstorm and I was watching the pond to see if our neighborhood alligator had been stirred up.  There were five of us from Bethlehem at this conference providing some wonderful community in which to process the sessions together.  The main point of these three days was to discuss how to meaningfully communicate the message of Jesus Christ to Muslims without going too far and thus compromising that message; missiologists call this "contextualization."  We are the recipients of someone else's work of contextualization (i.e.-we don't live and think like 1st Century Middle Eastern Jews) and we should be diligent and faithful laborers to help make the gospel meaningfully understood in all cultures.


Here are just a few of my take-aways from the weekend:


1) God moves in mysterious and wonderful ways to draw people(s) to himself.  We should be ready to rejoice at testimonies of this amazing deeds like the angels in heaven.  We should also be careful not to assume that a miraculous work of God should then become our standard for outreach.


2) God's Word does not tell us what to do in every situation we'll face in life, that's why He also gave us prayer and the Holy Spirit.  But we must not be too quick to assume that God's word has nothing to say about most situations we'll face.  On the contrary, this is why we are to be diligent "Bereans" in God's word ourselves and why we set apart certain people in our congregations (i.e.- elders) to study even more deeply and help us connect the dots our own study may pass over.


3) Islam is a religion that has stipulations for everyday life, for politics, and for relating to other faiths.  Christianity is also a set of beliefs and practices build around the teachings of Jesus and his apostles, affirming and fulfilling the Old Testament writings as well.  But there is something about Islam that forces a certain conformity to a more rigid set of principles (e.g.-dietary laws, patterns of dress, even the precise form of prayer).  Jesus taught his disciples about the content of their prayer but never an exact form.  This is one of the major differences between these two worldviews.  One carries a uniform system around the world seeking outward conformity and the other carries a central message seeking to transform the world from the inside out.


4) Muslims need to know Jesus the Messiah and we must take the initiative to love, serve, and bless them.  If they encounter him in the transformed life of his followers and through his living and active word, they don't need to become "Christians" exactly like we express our faith.  I do believe it is not appropriate for them to continue in the Muslim faith but should certainly seek to retain aspects of their heart-culture.  And we can be confident that since they have taken on a new identity in Christ and having been indwelt by the Holy Spirit and are now governed by the Bible - whether Arab, Afar, Uzbek, Pashtun, or Malay - their expression of faith in Jesus will help form one of the beautiful and distinct aspects of the great throng around the throne of the Lamb from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation (Rev. 5:9, 7:9).


Pray that the leaven of God's Kingdom would truly spread among these communities, that God would call out his sheep from blind wandering, and that the Light of Christ would dispel the darkness, especially in these tumultuous days.

Geeky, I guess...


OK, I'll admit it.  I did just spend the last 45 minutes creating a tool on my computer bible program to be able to search and link to all the map files the came with my ESV atlas - my wife just laughed at me when I tried to show her how sweet it was.  Oh well!


We're all thanking the Lord for better health this week.  It's good to see Benaiah crawling all over the place and up to his daredevil explorations again.  He had an excellent swimming lesson this week and would peacefully float on his back, stare at the fish on the ceiling, and kick those chubby little legs.  Good job buddy!


Next week I'll be heading to a conference in Orlando as part of my internship.  Yep, Orlando - I've been getting grief over that for months now :-)  I guess I'll just have to enjoy being cooped up in air-conditioned buildings for all three of us.  The conference topic is quite controversial these days and should make for some very thought provoking discussion - "can a follow of Jesus who was once a Muslim consider himself a true Muslim and remain within Islam?"  This also makes for a very timely discussion as riots and uncertainty grip much of North Africa and parts of the Muslim world.  May the Peace of Jesus Christ come upon them all!


Thank you for your prayers on our behalf.  Rachel continues to work faithfully as a swim teacher and loves her days as a stay at home mom.  I'm so grateful to be studying the wealth of God's word - going deeper everyday.  And Benaiah enjoys the adventure of every moment...and so do we.