2 for 1

Part I

Imma about to tell you something. Normally my posts are fairly organized but tonight, I came home from church, semi-discouraged about something. Seems to be the norm these days that there's something to tell my roommate about at the end of the day that is "wrong."

Why are churches just bad at being churches? Or loving people, rather?? That was my thought. And before I could keep going with reasons, God stopped me in my tracks and said: because it's made up of sinners. Listo. That's all I needed to hear. No church is perfect. Not in Buenos Aires, not in Tennessee, not in Missouri. We're all broken people and as long as we're on this earth, the Church - the church- is going to have issues. And that is a fact you can take to the bank. We'll remain that way until Christ returns, to make us WHOLE.

I so can't wait for that day. I so need Jesus. Don't you??

Part II

So I have to tell you about another thing I read this morning in my Bible that has just so convicted me for our world. Second Kings 22 we read about Josiah who has come to reign at such a young age and praise God, he doesn't follow his father's footsteps, but he chooses to seek God and restore the temple. (Why and how, I honestly don't know. If you read his family's messed up past, there's no reason apart than evidence that GOD calls people to himself.)

In verse 8 something interesting happens here, and the high priest finds the Law of Moses, or the Scriptures, which had been hidden away for years (because I'm telling you, MESSED UP family history rid the land of God's word. ¡Ojo!) When King Josiah finds out about God's law for the first time, it says he tore his clothes! He was living in a time so sinful and apart from God's law that he knew they were far from what God demanded of His people. He found a prophetess to call upon the Lord and find out will happen to them because they have so veered from what the Book says. He has a truly repentant heart. And the Lord hears that because in verses 19-20 the Lord tells him his eyes won't see the disaster to come.

When I read this passage today, I just wept for our generation, the world we live in. I fear that people don't appreciate the Bible for the living word that it is, while yet there are people and nations waiting for it to come in their own language. I live in one of the most literate cities of the world, and yet I can't get people - believers - to get together and study this incredible tool, gift we've been given.

I fear we're going to get to the point of Josiah where generations down, children won't even know the Word of God because parents didn't teach it to them. If only the Israelites had remembered. If only they had taken to heart Deuteronomy 6:5-7:

⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.⁶ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Dear friends, please don't let us get that way. I'm not going to ask you to read your Bible because it's the "Christian thing" to do, I tried that for many years and it's tiring. Don't read it out of guilt, either. Definitely don't read it because you're bored.

I ask you to experience God through His word, prayerfully, and see what He wants to show you. You'll never walk away the same. But please, let us not be like the man James warns against, saying "for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like" (1:24). 

With my nose in a book....

Reading overseas is always an interesting topic. There's this thing called my iPad where I occasionally get Kindle crazy at the start of the month and buy all the $3.99 books I can find of interest to me. But, then I'm limited to only reading it in house because I don't like taking it out in public on the buses and subway. Pretty sure I've only finished one book on my iPad, ever.

Then there's the more-precious-than-gold paper books in English. I have to clarify English because that means they got here a) in my suitcase, b)were left behind by the last girls, or c) were brought as gifts by some visitors.

Lately I've read so many good books y'all my mind is so excited about it and I wanted to share with you so that this Christmas time you could snuggle up to the fire and read something of value.

A while ago, I read The Insanity of Obedience by Nik Ripken and it was on my iPad, which not lying, I struggle to get through books on there. But I could not get through this fast enough. Hearing Nik's stories about persecuted believes and their unshakable faith was an encouragement to me and without a doubt will be to you. At the moment, I am reading The Insanity of God by you guessed it, Nik Ripken, also on my iPad. This is also a good story (more his testimony). I can't give a fair assessment, but I will tell you I read the other one quicker.

Today, I also picked up a new book to take with me out the door since I was going to be on the book. I'm ashamed to say this, but I bought it over a year ago and never started it because it wasn't appealing, or thought it was going to be boring. Ready for it? Share Jesus Without Fear by William Fay. Y'all I am over halfway done with the book already! It's so good! I think it's the Bill Hybels Contagious Christian book that I couldn't finish. Anyway, Fay's book seems to be practical and is full of questions for you and leaves you with ways to get out there and SHARE!

I read the lovely Elisabeth Elliot love story Passion and Purity. I wasn't really sure what to expect from it... a bunch of love letters?? It was described to me as the long distance relationship between Elisabeth and her husband George who at one point told her he loved her but he wasn't going to marry her because he had to be a single missionary in the jungle. Well, the story is a lot better than my words, but they have a happy ending for a little while. Ever heard of the movie The End of the Spear? [Just for fun - It took Crystal 7 months to finish this book, while I read it in 3 days. Nothing against the book though...]

I almost left out a really educational book on Muslims that I got in the DR. It's called A Wind in the House of Islam. It was a summary of the Muslim to Christ movements in 9 different Eastern parts of the world, showing what methods worked best for them. It was interesting to see how, obviously, not one thing works in all parts of the world and you have to adapt to your audience. I loved reading the testimonies of the workers, the believers, and knowing how we can pray for them. If you're in to the Church, Muslim Background Believers, and generally knowing how to pray for others, I recommend this book!

I think the last of my most recent's is what Crystal called a "controversial book," lol, is A Woman After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George.  I saved this for last because it probably got the most reaction out of me but also one of the most learning books I've read in a while. Ok, so this so called controversial part was the small section on husbands/wives. Clearly, if you take two single girls and tell them that they need to make their husbands their number one human priority.... well, we're just not ready to hear that yet! We seriously thought this book was written was 1950, but it was 1997. Things like telling us to be sure to change our clothes, putting on fresh lipstick, and wearing perfume for the husband before he came home from work sounded straight from Leave it to Beaver! BUT. The farther away from this chapter I was [yes, I kept reading about motherhood, maintaining the home,  spiritual health etc.....] I couldn't stop thinking about why that chapter bothered me so much. Was it not Biblical? What did God make woman for but to be a helper to man? Yes, she has so much more potential than that, but I think in our feminist, equal opportunity society, maybe we have taken away from God's design in the family. Is that so wrong to say? Sorry future husband though if I don't bring out the fresh lipstick at your homecoming. You read that here first.

Ok, so there ends the latest of my reading list. I want to know what you've read! Tell me what's good!

Go.

In "Radical," David Platt writes:

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    In Romans 1:14-15, Paul talks about being a debtor to the nations. He literally says, "I am in debt to the Jews and Gentiles." The language is profound. Pail is saying that he owes a debt to every person on the face of the planet. Because he is owned by Christ, he owes Christ to the world.  
    Every saved person this side of heaven owes the gospel to every lost person this side of hell. We owe Christ to the world-to the least person and to the greatest person, to the richest person and to the poorest person, to the best person and to the worst person. We are in debt to the nations. Encompassed with this debt, though, in our contemporary approach to missions, we have subtly taken ourselves out from under the weight of a lost and dying world, wrung our hands in pious concern, and said, "I'm sorry. I'm just not called to that."
    The result is tragic. A majority of individuals supposedly saved from eternal damnation by the gospel are now sitting back and making excused for not sharing that gospel with the rest of the world.
    But what if we don't need to sit back and wait for a call to foreign missions? What if the very reason we have breath is because we have been saved for a global mission? And what if anything less than passionate involvement in global mission is actually selling God short by frustrating the very purpose for which he created us? 
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 What strikes me most about this passage is 2 things:

 1. This debt we owe the world as children of God, as saved ones this side of heaven, to every lost person this side of hell.  What a burden and yet what a privilege to be a child of God. 

 2. This concept that we are still here because we've been saved for a global mission. I think this goes back to that question/concept people have sometimes about why we don't go straight to heaven when we start a personal relationship with Christ.  I think of that verse in 2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance."  

Now please don't see this post as a preachy Go! Yes, I am here in Argentina, that was my way to go, but I encourage each of us to interpret the "go" as God calls it fitting to your life. You are to be obedient as God call you to be. For me -a single person with no strings attached- it was moving overseas, but with families, persons with large debt, it can look different. 

Maybe we can't all physically go, maybe we can't all financially give, but we all can pray for global missions.

Diving Deep

I read this little bit in a book last night and it was too good not to share:

What, then, would the effect be if we were to dive even more deeply into Jesus's teaching and life and work? What if we were to be so immersed in his promises and summonses, his counsels and encouragements, that they dominated our inner life, capturing our imagination, and simply bubbled out spontaneously when we faced some challenge? How would we live if we instinctively, almost unconsciously, knew Jesus's mind and heart regarding things that confronted us? When you received criticism, you would never be crushed, because Jesus's love and acceptance of you is so deeply "in there." When you gave criticism, you would be gentle and patient, because your whole inner world would be saturated by a sense of Jesus's loving patience and gentleness with you.

>>>>Taken from Timothy Keller's "The Meaning of Marriage."