Today being Easter Sunday gave me a chance to reflect a bit more deeply about the work of Christ on the cross. I read the resurrection accounts of the gospels and then turned to Paul's letters for his wisdom on why the cross means anything for us today. I read through Ephesians when a verse caught my eye. Paul writes in Ephesians 4:32, "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." Now I'm not trying to downplay the first part of this verse, nor the context of unity among God's people, but reading "God in Christ forgave you" had a profound refocusing effect upon how I viewed the cross, Jesus and the forgiveness of sins.
I know countless times in my life I have sinned and sinned greatly and have come to Christ for forgiveness. Yet I think many more times that it should be, I went to Christ more to not feel guilt or shame anymore. I sought the byproducts of forgiveness, rather than true forgiveness itself. Forgiveness is in its fullest meaning a relational term. I think we tend to forget that forgiveness requires a forgiver when we don't understand the full scope of what Christ did for us on the cross 2000 years ago.
Take Ephesians 1:7 for example - "In [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace." Without deep reflection into who is forgiving us and why we're being forgiven, we will fall into the terrible habit of understanding forgiveness as some abstract status or universal stain remover upon our souls (albeit, "in Him" or "in Christ"). I've trespassed some universal abstract principle which causes me to feel bad for myself and through Jesus (don't really know how, maybe just praying to him), I can feel better about myself and move on with my life.
No wonder why our generation views Christianity as "moralistic therapeutic deism." Christianity is just about doing right or wrong, and if one does do wrong, one can feel better by pressing the right buttons on a deified mechanism that disperses nice feelings we call "grace."
Forgive me Father, for I have sinned against You and You alone.
Why does Ephesians 4:32 say that "God in Christ forgave you?" God forgave? Doesn't that mean that He's been offended in some manner or way? If I rack up thousands of dollars of credit debt, can some arbitrary person come along and tell me my debt is forgiven? Only the credit card company has the power to absolve my debt. So if God is the one forgiving me, there must be some debt which I owe to Him.
Thus all my sins - every impure and immoral thought, every selfish and thoughtless action against my fellow man, every building up of my own glory and status, every looking to the things of this world to give me the pleasure and satisfaction only God can afford - have not just been detrimental to myself but have offended a infinitely holy God. This offense is only punishable by blood and death.
One thing I've learned from life is if you take a jab (verbal or physical) of a physically bigger bully, he will bring the smackdown. That's how a bully operates - with his own sense of inflated honor or ego having been lessened, there must be a retaliation to recoup the loss of honor. Yet they don't deserve any more respect or honor than a weaker person. But God being good and holy is absolutely deserving of all glory and honor and praise. And He is absolutely just to punish those who have failed to give what is due to Him. And my friends, we are all guilty.
Yet we know that God in Christ forgave us. God saved us from Himself through the love and justice shown on the cross. God in his holiness and justice knew we were absolutely deserving to be shed of blood and put to death, yet He in His grace and love chose not to. Who would be the one to take our punishment? Praise be to God for Jesus Christ, our passover lamb, our substitution, our sacrifice. In Christ and on the cross we find our full and satisfactory payment for our debt of sin - not just to make us feel better about ourselves, not just to take away guilty and shameful feelings, but to bring us into reconciliation with the forgiver.
God did not send His Son to die so we could stop feeling bad about ourselves, but to rid us of our sinful corruption so that we could be in His glorious presence and commune with a living, personal God.
Forgiveness in its truest form is not a clean and easy thing, it's a dirty and painful process. Remember back to anytime someone hurt you deeply and painfully. There are so many times when I would say I forgave someone in word, yet my soul was raging for recompense, for revenge. It wasn't some nice and easy trick like saying the right words and thinking the right thoughts - I literally had to take upon myself the rage and pain that I felt was due on the other person. I had to realize that forgiveness, although free for the forgiven, is not free for the forgiver. If there's anytime that you've truly forgiven someone or even tried to forgive someone for a terrible hurt or trespass against you, you just might understand a tiny fraction of what it takes for God to forgive us.
So praise God not just that in Christ we are forgiven, but that in Christ, God has forgiven you. And the next time you go to God, go to meet the forgiver and not just to receive forgiveness.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Eric's Book Corner - 3/16/2010
Students are on break and things are dreadfully boring here. I know book reviews may not sound like fun for any readers out there, but I just need to write. I've had a lot of time to read some good books recently so if any of these books sound interesting to you, run out and get them!
Surprised By Hope - N.T. Wright
My Rating: 4.5/5
First off, I'd like to thank Karen Park for sending me this book. I know it was hardcover and expensive and the shipping probably cost the same amount as the book, but I had a great time reading it. Thanks for being such a great supporter and encourager!
In the Pauline theological world, there's a lot of debate over N.T. Wright's New Perspective on Paul and what it means for justification and all that. The first books I read by Wright were about these issues so I had no idea what his books for the normal reader was like. Wright, in Surprised by Hope, attempts to bring back the biblical meaning of "resurrection" and the hope that it brings to us as believers today.
Christians tend to think about this life, and life-after-death, but Wright calls his readers to look beyond to "life-after-life-after-death." Everyone knows that those who are in Christ will "go to heaven" but what about the resurrection of the body? It seems like that doctrine is always tacked on at the end and it has no significant meaning to us. Most people when they think of heaven lack the biblical worldview of resurrection and therefore have no tools to think about what the new heavens and the new earth will look like. Our secular worldview has conditioned us to think about clouds and golden gates.
"Life-after-life-after-death" means that we're not just sitting here on this earth as it goes to gutter waiting for Jesus to come back. It's a realization that when Jesus does come back, the new heavens and the new earth will be the very one we're on right now! (Restored and redeemed of course). Wright has further opinions how this has significance in our lives today in terms of world politics and economics and things but you can take that part with a grain of salt.
This book will radically change your worldview on what the resurrection and Jesus being its firstfruit means in our lives today!
Next Evangelicalism - Soong Chan Rah
My Rating: 4.5/5
Pastor Daniel recommended this book to me and man did it challenge me and change my perspectives! Rah comes out with guns blazing against the "white cultural captivity" of the American or Western church. He calls Christians to look for the Spirit moving in World Christianity and not designating the growing power of ethnic churches around the world and in America into side-categories.
All the arguments against white cultural captivity aside (which is quite fascinating), Rah challenged me personally as a second-generation Korean American. Are there any other second-gen kids of immigrant families out there that wonder why they only feel comfortable with people just like us? Rah states that we are in a state of liminality between two cultures having to constantly balance the values and beliefs of two worldviews. However, he encourages people like us to become the bridge for multi-ethnic fellowship in America.
He also challenged me to question the cultural values that are contrary to the gospel. He calls Christians to recover the theology of suffering in our personal lives. Rather than getting that education, getting a nice job, settling in the suburbs and going out to our nice megachurch in the name of God, Rah challenges Christians to find honor not from moving out into the suburbs, but by moving towards the hurt, marginalized, and needy of society. Helping out the needy on weekends is good, but it will never give us the full picture of suffering and daily life of the needy. Rah's picture of incarnational ministry is compelling and absolutely needed in the church today.
A definite must read for my fellow second-generation Korean American friends!
Gospel-Driven Life - Michael Horton
My Rating: 3.5/5
I couldn't put this book down when I first started it, but somewhere in the middle it just took me forever to finish. This book almost single-handedly convinced me to go to a Reformed seminary like Westminster. And Horton's ever persistent focus upon the gospel, gospel, gospel alone really shaped my thinking for a couple months. This book is a great example of the strengths of Reformed theology (or whatever I think I know of it). Horton is able to draw out these metaphors and archetypes and man I don't know how to describe it but he just makes one huge compelling story and biblical narrative that continually points to Christ.
Horton's main point in this book is to reveal that a gospel-driven life is not one that is set about "doing" with programs and events, but rather hearing and receiving and being changed. Like that one picture of the soldier kissing a random nurse on Victory Day in Times Square, Horton argues that when the gospel is presented as the good news that it is, life transformation is automatically responsive and changes the way we look at life, community, religion, etc.
If you want a taste of true Reformed perspective on Christian life, give this book a try.
Pagan Christianity - Frank Viola and George Barna
My Rating: 3.0/5
Had I not read this book with a well-informed critique by The Resurgence blog, I think I would have been majorly screwed. This book really messed with my paradigm of how church should do church. The main thesis of this book is that the modern institutional church is more a product of pagan influence down the centuries than of the Bible. Viola argues for the organic church - a house-based, non-hierarchical, open-participatory fellowship of Christians - as the true New Testament church model. (I actually want to go to an organic church once to see what it's like now.)
This book was compelling because it uses historical analysis to trace the roots of things like the modern pastor, sermon, conception of church, division of clergy/laity. I like history so it was just interesting to read from that point of view. However the critique at the Resurgence seems to give good historical evidence for the opposing side so I am at some sort of judgmental standstill (with a preference towards what I know and love of course).
I'd recommend the first two books over this one but if it sounds interesting at all, I'd suggest reading it with the critique at the Resurgence.
Happy reading!
Surprised By Hope - N.T. Wright
My Rating: 4.5/5
First off, I'd like to thank Karen Park for sending me this book. I know it was hardcover and expensive and the shipping probably cost the same amount as the book, but I had a great time reading it. Thanks for being such a great supporter and encourager!
In the Pauline theological world, there's a lot of debate over N.T. Wright's New Perspective on Paul and what it means for justification and all that. The first books I read by Wright were about these issues so I had no idea what his books for the normal reader was like. Wright, in Surprised by Hope, attempts to bring back the biblical meaning of "resurrection" and the hope that it brings to us as believers today.
Christians tend to think about this life, and life-after-death, but Wright calls his readers to look beyond to "life-after-life-after-death." Everyone knows that those who are in Christ will "go to heaven" but what about the resurrection of the body? It seems like that doctrine is always tacked on at the end and it has no significant meaning to us. Most people when they think of heaven lack the biblical worldview of resurrection and therefore have no tools to think about what the new heavens and the new earth will look like. Our secular worldview has conditioned us to think about clouds and golden gates.
"Life-after-life-after-death" means that we're not just sitting here on this earth as it goes to gutter waiting for Jesus to come back. It's a realization that when Jesus does come back, the new heavens and the new earth will be the very one we're on right now! (Restored and redeemed of course). Wright has further opinions how this has significance in our lives today in terms of world politics and economics and things but you can take that part with a grain of salt.
This book will radically change your worldview on what the resurrection and Jesus being its firstfruit means in our lives today!
Next Evangelicalism - Soong Chan Rah
My Rating: 4.5/5
Pastor Daniel recommended this book to me and man did it challenge me and change my perspectives! Rah comes out with guns blazing against the "white cultural captivity" of the American or Western church. He calls Christians to look for the Spirit moving in World Christianity and not designating the growing power of ethnic churches around the world and in America into side-categories.
All the arguments against white cultural captivity aside (which is quite fascinating), Rah challenged me personally as a second-generation Korean American. Are there any other second-gen kids of immigrant families out there that wonder why they only feel comfortable with people just like us? Rah states that we are in a state of liminality between two cultures having to constantly balance the values and beliefs of two worldviews. However, he encourages people like us to become the bridge for multi-ethnic fellowship in America.
He also challenged me to question the cultural values that are contrary to the gospel. He calls Christians to recover the theology of suffering in our personal lives. Rather than getting that education, getting a nice job, settling in the suburbs and going out to our nice megachurch in the name of God, Rah challenges Christians to find honor not from moving out into the suburbs, but by moving towards the hurt, marginalized, and needy of society. Helping out the needy on weekends is good, but it will never give us the full picture of suffering and daily life of the needy. Rah's picture of incarnational ministry is compelling and absolutely needed in the church today.
A definite must read for my fellow second-generation Korean American friends!
Gospel-Driven Life - Michael Horton
My Rating: 3.5/5
I couldn't put this book down when I first started it, but somewhere in the middle it just took me forever to finish. This book almost single-handedly convinced me to go to a Reformed seminary like Westminster. And Horton's ever persistent focus upon the gospel, gospel, gospel alone really shaped my thinking for a couple months. This book is a great example of the strengths of Reformed theology (or whatever I think I know of it). Horton is able to draw out these metaphors and archetypes and man I don't know how to describe it but he just makes one huge compelling story and biblical narrative that continually points to Christ.
Horton's main point in this book is to reveal that a gospel-driven life is not one that is set about "doing" with programs and events, but rather hearing and receiving and being changed. Like that one picture of the soldier kissing a random nurse on Victory Day in Times Square, Horton argues that when the gospel is presented as the good news that it is, life transformation is automatically responsive and changes the way we look at life, community, religion, etc.
If you want a taste of true Reformed perspective on Christian life, give this book a try.
Pagan Christianity - Frank Viola and George Barna
My Rating: 3.0/5
Had I not read this book with a well-informed critique by The Resurgence blog, I think I would have been majorly screwed. This book really messed with my paradigm of how church should do church. The main thesis of this book is that the modern institutional church is more a product of pagan influence down the centuries than of the Bible. Viola argues for the organic church - a house-based, non-hierarchical, open-participatory fellowship of Christians - as the true New Testament church model. (I actually want to go to an organic church once to see what it's like now.)
This book was compelling because it uses historical analysis to trace the roots of things like the modern pastor, sermon, conception of church, division of clergy/laity. I like history so it was just interesting to read from that point of view. However the critique at the Resurgence seems to give good historical evidence for the opposing side so I am at some sort of judgmental standstill (with a preference towards what I know and love of course).
I'd recommend the first two books over this one but if it sounds interesting at all, I'd suggest reading it with the critique at the Resurgence.
Happy reading!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Language and Listening
I know what you all are thinking:
"Wait, another post about language? When will he get bored of it?"
Yes, another post about language or learning language. I tend to think about one subject and just squeeze out as many different possibilities and applicable points until it runs dry. (If you don't believe me, ask Pastor Jonas about when I first learned about Calvinism - that's all I wanted to talk about for months). ((Do periods go inside or outside of a closing parenthesis?)) As learning language is something that I am aware of everyday, different thoughts and points of application run through my mind. I hope this will be my last one, and it's not long - just something short I thought about today.
But onto the post.
Language and Listening
My Thai teacher commented today that I was pretty good at speaking Thai but my listening comprehension was terrible. She also pointed out how the other short-term missionary from Korea (who came two months after me) was really good at listening and understanding, but not so at speaking. Now I usually take my compliments gluttonously and my criticisms like poison , but this was true so I accepted her comment and thought about it.
The Korean short-termer (Youngrae) has gotten pretty good in her Thai language acquisition in less time and less experience in Thai language than I have. (I almost put "than me" but props to Iris for always correcting my grammatical mistakes - parrallel structure!) I never knew how good she had gotten until one day one of the Thai students said something to me and while I was struggling to understand or asking the student to repeat, Youngrae just blurted out the meaning. There had been no real way of gauging her respective language level before because she rarely spoke Thai. Youngrae lives and stays at Baan Joy most of her time and just sits and listens to the students carrying on with their daily routine. But just like that my perspective on her level changed, and I noticed that her Thai was pretty dang good.
I see two valuable lessons I have learned about myself or life. (I'm also trying a point-by-point style writing so I can stay more focused while I write instead of wandering off into tangents - there's always good old parentheses to wander off into random thoughts right?)
1. I realized that the fact that my speaking skills were good and my listening skills were bad and that Youngrae's listening skills were good and her speaking skills were bad revealed my own personality deficiency. My first instinct was to write off this observation to something inherent in culture. (And one big weakness in being interested in cultural or social influences is you tend to write off all your weaknesses and blame some outside influence that you had no control over. I just have to realize that I'm to blame sometimes.) There may be some truth into the culture insight - Koreans tend not to speak a new language until they feel they're at a point where they can speak to some measure of success, whereas Americans have a very confident, learn-by-mistake mentality in how they approach language. (But Americans also do expect the rest of the world to speak English, haha) (So much for point-by-point, look how much I've wandered off already.)
Anyway, I realized that the reason that I spoke better than I comprehended was none other than my close friend and enemy - pride. Oh pride, you insidious creature! You'll never leave me alone will you? For what brings more attention and honor and glory - people hearing you speak Thai with perfect tones and grammatical structure or people knowing you can understand them? I remember now that the times I put effort into learning a new structure or new vocabulary were motivated by my desire to see the Thai students impressed by my progression. And that one time when they said they thought I had learned Thai better than other missionaries they've seen before? Pure gold poison into my heart. The delight I felt as I saw the looks of approval on people's faces when I was able to share on Sunday for the first time what I was thankful for in the Thai language was all pride! PRIDE!
When it came down to it, I never really liked to listen to people. This is true not only in Thailand but in the entirety of my life. In conversations, my favorite thing to do was not to absorb the wisdom of others but to give the final word - my superior, more-educated, more-well-thought-out, more-logical, more-impressive opinion. And looking back, I see why I felt so hampered in the beginning of my ministry here in Thailand. I love to teach and I feel it is a gift God has given me. But now I see how my sinful nature can warp even my most prized gift. Teaching requires one to speak and put ideas into communicable words. I couldn't do this with my lack of Thai language and so I felt useless. I felt like my gift was being wasted. But now I see that even when gift is utilized, even for good purposes, there's that evil part of me stealing the glory as I see people impressed by the words that come out of my mouth.
And in the beginning I never liked sitting in a room where people would be talking and I had no idea what was going on, so I would just stay in my room rather than put myself out there. (And I don't think it's all bad because being in those environments is quite draining. Introverts need time to rest sometimes.) But when my Thai got better and I could converse with the students and even give some witty retorts, spending time with the students got more fun. But that thread of pride being woven through all my experiences in learning Thai is quite visible now. My sinful nature craves that attention and approval I receive when I speak.
"When I want to do right, evil lies close at hand." - Romans 7:21
So that's point one, just kind of another realization and understanding of the ever-so pervasive nature of my sinful heart. "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
2. I realize more than ever that listening is a gift. This world prizes the gifted speakers. Great preachers receive all the attention and have the most visited blogsites (why else would you go?). Great speakers become presidents and leaders and obtain all sorts of positions of power. There is great power in speaking and the art of communication to sway the minds, attitudes, and beliefs of listeners. It's quite natural we place such a high value on that gift.
But I devote space to the under-appreciated art and gift of listening. I am really impressed by the way Youngrae sits day in and day out in the common room at Grace Fellowship as students carry on their daily routine. Like I said before, I just could never do this and here's my fruit of several months of avoiding passive listening - I can't comprehend people when I listen. Youngrae will never get the status points for speaking but she'll always be a reliable ear for anyone who needs it.
I remember hearing a sermon example by a pastor about how when his wife came to him with his problems he would always try to respond with his pastoral and theological advice. But one day his wife told him, "I need you to stop being a pastor and just listen." Pastors talk and talk and we listen because they do have very important advice. But a huge part in being a pastor (or any loving Christian) has to be listening to people.
People want to be heard. People don't want to hear another cookie-cutter solution to a complex problem. There's great release in just being able to express every emotion, feeling, and thought to someone who truly cares about every word you're saying, rather than just waiting for an opportunity to say something profound.
I hope that this little insight into my own weakness will prepare me to be a better husband, friend, brother, son or minister. I pray that God will give me the gift of listening. And this being my more practical point, I hope that any reader would also see the value of listening and seek to be a dependable ear as a way of showing love to those around.
"Wait, another post about language? When will he get bored of it?"
Yes, another post about language or learning language. I tend to think about one subject and just squeeze out as many different possibilities and applicable points until it runs dry. (If you don't believe me, ask Pastor Jonas about when I first learned about Calvinism - that's all I wanted to talk about for months). ((Do periods go inside or outside of a closing parenthesis?)) As learning language is something that I am aware of everyday, different thoughts and points of application run through my mind. I hope this will be my last one, and it's not long - just something short I thought about today.
But onto the post.
Language and Listening
My Thai teacher commented today that I was pretty good at speaking Thai but my listening comprehension was terrible. She also pointed out how the other short-term missionary from Korea (who came two months after me) was really good at listening and understanding, but not so at speaking. Now I usually take my compliments gluttonously and my criticisms like poison , but this was true so I accepted her comment and thought about it.
The Korean short-termer (Youngrae) has gotten pretty good in her Thai language acquisition in less time and less experience in Thai language than I have. (I almost put "than me" but props to Iris for always correcting my grammatical mistakes - parrallel structure!) I never knew how good she had gotten until one day one of the Thai students said something to me and while I was struggling to understand or asking the student to repeat, Youngrae just blurted out the meaning. There had been no real way of gauging her respective language level before because she rarely spoke Thai. Youngrae lives and stays at Baan Joy most of her time and just sits and listens to the students carrying on with their daily routine. But just like that my perspective on her level changed, and I noticed that her Thai was pretty dang good.
I see two valuable lessons I have learned about myself or life. (I'm also trying a point-by-point style writing so I can stay more focused while I write instead of wandering off into tangents - there's always good old parentheses to wander off into random thoughts right?)
1. I realized that the fact that my speaking skills were good and my listening skills were bad and that Youngrae's listening skills were good and her speaking skills were bad revealed my own personality deficiency. My first instinct was to write off this observation to something inherent in culture. (And one big weakness in being interested in cultural or social influences is you tend to write off all your weaknesses and blame some outside influence that you had no control over. I just have to realize that I'm to blame sometimes.) There may be some truth into the culture insight - Koreans tend not to speak a new language until they feel they're at a point where they can speak to some measure of success, whereas Americans have a very confident, learn-by-mistake mentality in how they approach language. (But Americans also do expect the rest of the world to speak English, haha) (So much for point-by-point, look how much I've wandered off already.)
Anyway, I realized that the reason that I spoke better than I comprehended was none other than my close friend and enemy - pride. Oh pride, you insidious creature! You'll never leave me alone will you? For what brings more attention and honor and glory - people hearing you speak Thai with perfect tones and grammatical structure or people knowing you can understand them? I remember now that the times I put effort into learning a new structure or new vocabulary were motivated by my desire to see the Thai students impressed by my progression. And that one time when they said they thought I had learned Thai better than other missionaries they've seen before? Pure gold poison into my heart. The delight I felt as I saw the looks of approval on people's faces when I was able to share on Sunday for the first time what I was thankful for in the Thai language was all pride! PRIDE!
When it came down to it, I never really liked to listen to people. This is true not only in Thailand but in the entirety of my life. In conversations, my favorite thing to do was not to absorb the wisdom of others but to give the final word - my superior, more-educated, more-well-thought-out, more-logical, more-impressive opinion. And looking back, I see why I felt so hampered in the beginning of my ministry here in Thailand. I love to teach and I feel it is a gift God has given me. But now I see how my sinful nature can warp even my most prized gift. Teaching requires one to speak and put ideas into communicable words. I couldn't do this with my lack of Thai language and so I felt useless. I felt like my gift was being wasted. But now I see that even when gift is utilized, even for good purposes, there's that evil part of me stealing the glory as I see people impressed by the words that come out of my mouth.
And in the beginning I never liked sitting in a room where people would be talking and I had no idea what was going on, so I would just stay in my room rather than put myself out there. (And I don't think it's all bad because being in those environments is quite draining. Introverts need time to rest sometimes.) But when my Thai got better and I could converse with the students and even give some witty retorts, spending time with the students got more fun. But that thread of pride being woven through all my experiences in learning Thai is quite visible now. My sinful nature craves that attention and approval I receive when I speak.
"When I want to do right, evil lies close at hand." - Romans 7:21
So that's point one, just kind of another realization and understanding of the ever-so pervasive nature of my sinful heart. "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
2. I realize more than ever that listening is a gift. This world prizes the gifted speakers. Great preachers receive all the attention and have the most visited blogsites (why else would you go?). Great speakers become presidents and leaders and obtain all sorts of positions of power. There is great power in speaking and the art of communication to sway the minds, attitudes, and beliefs of listeners. It's quite natural we place such a high value on that gift.
But I devote space to the under-appreciated art and gift of listening. I am really impressed by the way Youngrae sits day in and day out in the common room at Grace Fellowship as students carry on their daily routine. Like I said before, I just could never do this and here's my fruit of several months of avoiding passive listening - I can't comprehend people when I listen. Youngrae will never get the status points for speaking but she'll always be a reliable ear for anyone who needs it.
I remember hearing a sermon example by a pastor about how when his wife came to him with his problems he would always try to respond with his pastoral and theological advice. But one day his wife told him, "I need you to stop being a pastor and just listen." Pastors talk and talk and we listen because they do have very important advice. But a huge part in being a pastor (or any loving Christian) has to be listening to people.
People want to be heard. People don't want to hear another cookie-cutter solution to a complex problem. There's great release in just being able to express every emotion, feeling, and thought to someone who truly cares about every word you're saying, rather than just waiting for an opportunity to say something profound.
I hope that this little insight into my own weakness will prepare me to be a better husband, friend, brother, son or minister. I pray that God will give me the gift of listening. And this being my more practical point, I hope that any reader would also see the value of listening and seek to be a dependable ear as a way of showing love to those around.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Language and Christian Life
One of the interesting things about language acquisition is that the student will soak in the vocabulary, accents and inflections of the teacher. When I have a conversation with one of the students that is helping me with Thai, I understand and speak at an optimal level. Put me out on the streets with some stranger and all of a sudden I can understand barely half of what they are saying. On another point, my fellow co-workers in Sankampaeng and Hangdong teach children at elementary schools for their main ministries. Dealing with mostly adolescent children, their range of vocabulary and grammar is perfect for commands (like sit down, pay attention, clean up) and words pertaining to school related things (scissors, glue, ruler). On the other hand as I work in a university level Christian setting, helping with praise and worship and sitting through sermons and prayer times, I am exposed to and soak up all the Thai Christian-ese (words like worship, praise, prayer and phrases like "i feel thankful for..." or "praise God for..."). So when I'm placed in a children ministry setting, I'll do alright, but I'm not in my comfort zone with the particular phrases and vocabulary suited for such things.
On Sundays before worship, we go around the community of believers (church) and share things that we're thankful to God for. The couple times I did raise my hand to share something, the Thai students pushed me to share in Thai. When I did, I was amazed at the ease certain phrases came out or vocabulary that I thought I didn't know. The first couple times I was like, "Whoa, it's God! He just put the words in my mouth!" Not saying that's not true to a certain extent, but now that I think back, I see that much of what came out of my mouth was due to what I was absorbing in my surroundings.
Those long hours of cryptic Thai sermons and Bible studies that I had to pinch myself to get through? It actually did something. Missionary Daniel talks about how important it is just to sit and listen and soak in all the tones and inflections and words even if you don't understand any of it. I now see why he put me throughneedless needful torture. One day things start clicking and you try to do things on your own and it just comes out.
The point is that our Christian life and walk is no different. We humans as societal creatures naturally soak up the things in our surrounding culture - attitudes, behavior, values, and worldview. Where else do we get all of our cool sayings, hip clothing styles, and time-passing fads? (before I left it was break-dancing, would someone like to inform me what's cool to do in the Korean American community now?) Anyway, it should be pretty obvious why our walk with God stays superficial and shallow and the fruit we bear is meager and nominal when all we take in are the values and beliefs of our secular surroundings. The world screams at us that every moment needs to be lived in the here and now, in pleasure, and in fun and entertainment. A lot of people think that the Christian religion is all about denying yourself and they make fun of a belief system that denies "natural" desires in favor of a dry and stuffy moralistic lifestyle. And we as Christians buy what the world tells us what Christianity is. Thus we can't seem to bear Christ-like fruit in our lives because all we're trying to do is to negate the desires of our flesh. We're not actually focused on abiding in Christ and remaining in the vine so that we can take in from Him all the values and beliefs and worldviews and attitudes that will really satisfy us and bear fruit that will glorify God.
In all of our fighting and running away from the flesh, we also need to be running toward something, that is, a personal living God in Christ Jesus. In Romans 12, Paul calls us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. He says in Philippians 4:8-9, "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." Our daily walk has to be about surrounding, immersing and soaking our minds and hearts in Christ and the things of Christ. Only then we can really start putting into practice all that we have learned and received and heard.
A fruitful walk with God also calls for us to have good teachers and a good surrounding community of people. There's a reason I don't teach Korean here. It's what Jesus called the blind leading the blind. I also don't learn my Thai from my American friends. In the same way a student of language needs a teacher comfortable and fluent in the usage and theory of language, a disciple of Christ needs a shepherd, role-model, or leader who is consistent in his or her walk and grounded in his or her beliefs. Sometimes (okay a lot of times) I make mistakes as I try to speak Thai. People around me laugh but in the end I know they are genuinely invested in my improvement. I think a lot of times we're afraid to have someone further along in his or her life as a Christian discipling us because we think we may be judged, but in the end they're looking out for our interests in our own spiritual maturity. A good discipler produces a good disciple. We can't learn these things on our own. I don't think anyone can get Thai tones on their own. There's a reason why Paul continually exhorts his churches to be imitators of him as he imitates Christ.
The community add its own dimension to both language learning and spiritual maturity. I have one main Thai teacher, but everyone expresses language in their own unique way. The Thai I learn from one person may not be useful with another. My teacher takes the time to speak slowly and use simple words but not everyone's going to talk to me like a 3rd grade Thai student. Only going around and speaking with all types of people will I be able to better grasp the full expression and nuances of the Thai language. As Christians we learn from everyone in the body as God has gifted each one of us to mutually encourage one another towards maturity in faith. As an underclassman I learned about the rich beauty of praise and the true meaning of worship from Sam Kang, but I also soaked in the intellectually awe-inspiring value of theology and foundations of faith from Jonas Lee (now Pastor Jonas, haha...wait is Sam a pastor too? Worship Pastor Sam? I don't know). As an upperclassman I was humbled by my own weaknesses as I tried to lead others. In the end, we absorb the rich diversity of gifts and functions within the community of Christ to further understand Christian life and worship of God.
So take heed with what you surround yourself with, what you feed your mind and heart with. Let your soul feed upon the unsearchable riches of God's grace and feast at the banqueting table of God. Let your heart assent with all its emotion that it has tasted that the Lord is good. Find leaders you admire and wish to be like and learn from them. Imitate the strengths God has gifted them with. Interact within a community of like-minded believers and run the race together. Bear each others burdens and encourage one another.
And one day, you willspeak Thai be a faithful disciple and a light to the world.
On Sundays before worship, we go around the community of believers (church) and share things that we're thankful to God for. The couple times I did raise my hand to share something, the Thai students pushed me to share in Thai. When I did, I was amazed at the ease certain phrases came out or vocabulary that I thought I didn't know. The first couple times I was like, "Whoa, it's God! He just put the words in my mouth!" Not saying that's not true to a certain extent, but now that I think back, I see that much of what came out of my mouth was due to what I was absorbing in my surroundings.
Those long hours of cryptic Thai sermons and Bible studies that I had to pinch myself to get through? It actually did something. Missionary Daniel talks about how important it is just to sit and listen and soak in all the tones and inflections and words even if you don't understand any of it. I now see why he put me through
The point is that our Christian life and walk is no different. We humans as societal creatures naturally soak up the things in our surrounding culture - attitudes, behavior, values, and worldview. Where else do we get all of our cool sayings, hip clothing styles, and time-passing fads? (before I left it was break-dancing, would someone like to inform me what's cool to do in the Korean American community now?) Anyway, it should be pretty obvious why our walk with God stays superficial and shallow and the fruit we bear is meager and nominal when all we take in are the values and beliefs of our secular surroundings. The world screams at us that every moment needs to be lived in the here and now, in pleasure, and in fun and entertainment. A lot of people think that the Christian religion is all about denying yourself and they make fun of a belief system that denies "natural" desires in favor of a dry and stuffy moralistic lifestyle. And we as Christians buy what the world tells us what Christianity is. Thus we can't seem to bear Christ-like fruit in our lives because all we're trying to do is to negate the desires of our flesh. We're not actually focused on abiding in Christ and remaining in the vine so that we can take in from Him all the values and beliefs and worldviews and attitudes that will really satisfy us and bear fruit that will glorify God.
In all of our fighting and running away from the flesh, we also need to be running toward something, that is, a personal living God in Christ Jesus. In Romans 12, Paul calls us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. He says in Philippians 4:8-9, "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." Our daily walk has to be about surrounding, immersing and soaking our minds and hearts in Christ and the things of Christ. Only then we can really start putting into practice all that we have learned and received and heard.
A fruitful walk with God also calls for us to have good teachers and a good surrounding community of people. There's a reason I don't teach Korean here. It's what Jesus called the blind leading the blind. I also don't learn my Thai from my American friends. In the same way a student of language needs a teacher comfortable and fluent in the usage and theory of language, a disciple of Christ needs a shepherd, role-model, or leader who is consistent in his or her walk and grounded in his or her beliefs. Sometimes (okay a lot of times) I make mistakes as I try to speak Thai. People around me laugh but in the end I know they are genuinely invested in my improvement. I think a lot of times we're afraid to have someone further along in his or her life as a Christian discipling us because we think we may be judged, but in the end they're looking out for our interests in our own spiritual maturity. A good discipler produces a good disciple. We can't learn these things on our own. I don't think anyone can get Thai tones on their own. There's a reason why Paul continually exhorts his churches to be imitators of him as he imitates Christ.
The community add its own dimension to both language learning and spiritual maturity. I have one main Thai teacher, but everyone expresses language in their own unique way. The Thai I learn from one person may not be useful with another. My teacher takes the time to speak slowly and use simple words but not everyone's going to talk to me like a 3rd grade Thai student. Only going around and speaking with all types of people will I be able to better grasp the full expression and nuances of the Thai language. As Christians we learn from everyone in the body as God has gifted each one of us to mutually encourage one another towards maturity in faith. As an underclassman I learned about the rich beauty of praise and the true meaning of worship from Sam Kang, but I also soaked in the intellectually awe-inspiring value of theology and foundations of faith from Jonas Lee (now Pastor Jonas, haha...wait is Sam a pastor too? Worship Pastor Sam? I don't know). As an upperclassman I was humbled by my own weaknesses as I tried to lead others. In the end, we absorb the rich diversity of gifts and functions within the community of Christ to further understand Christian life and worship of God.
So take heed with what you surround yourself with, what you feed your mind and heart with. Let your soul feed upon the unsearchable riches of God's grace and feast at the banqueting table of God. Let your heart assent with all its emotion that it has tasted that the Lord is good. Find leaders you admire and wish to be like and learn from them. Imitate the strengths God has gifted them with. Interact within a community of like-minded believers and run the race together. Bear each others burdens and encourage one another.
And one day, you will
Thursday, February 4, 2010
A Morning Devotion
Lamentations 3:22-23 - "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."
I don't know about other people, but whenever I think about God's mercy during a morning QT, this verse always rings in my head. God's mercies are new every morning. Wow. Forget about all your failings and mistakes of the previous day because God has made his mercies anew. Come to His fountain of living water and drink, all who are thirsty and parched.
This verse has always brought me great solace and comfort after the sorrow that tarries through the night, but I realized today, why does God's mercy need only be taken in a passive sense? Why must we only come to this promise of fresh mercies after periods of struggle, failure, and darkness? If we've been doing particularly well with our walk or have been more loving in our lives today, does this mean the mercies of God are not needed tomorrow?
Then it seems to me that whether we are bogged in the miry clay or soaring on wings like eagles, the mercies of God that are new every morning are meant to be taken, received and enjoyed every morning. Like the manna from heaven, God's grace and mercy is meant to be taken one day at a time. Some theologian that I read somewhere pointed out that the reason why Jesus says do not worry about tomorrow is that the grace God has given us is meant to be used this day.
This is a lesson I'm learning painfully in Thailand. I know everyone understands how God's mercy works when we have fallen and God picks us up again, but are we to live the entirety of the Christian life by cheapening the grace of God? God wants me to come to His throne every, every, every morning to be filled by His grace, strengthened by His mercy for the day ahead of me. He wants me to grow in holiness and in sanctification. So if yesterday I've been a particularly "good" Christian, who cares? If I use yesterday as my motivation for today, I'm actually being fueled by my success yesterday rather God's mercy and grace available today.
Thus we must forget what lies behind, yesterday's failures and successes, and strain forward to what lies ahead, that is the mercies of God ready and available to us every morning. In light of this, let us press onward toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14).
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my father!
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not:
As thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
Great is Thy faithfulness, Great is Thy faithfulness,
Morning by morning new mercies I see:
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth.
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."
I don't know about other people, but whenever I think about God's mercy during a morning QT, this verse always rings in my head. God's mercies are new every morning. Wow. Forget about all your failings and mistakes of the previous day because God has made his mercies anew. Come to His fountain of living water and drink, all who are thirsty and parched.
This verse has always brought me great solace and comfort after the sorrow that tarries through the night, but I realized today, why does God's mercy need only be taken in a passive sense? Why must we only come to this promise of fresh mercies after periods of struggle, failure, and darkness? If we've been doing particularly well with our walk or have been more loving in our lives today, does this mean the mercies of God are not needed tomorrow?
Then it seems to me that whether we are bogged in the miry clay or soaring on wings like eagles, the mercies of God that are new every morning are meant to be taken, received and enjoyed every morning. Like the manna from heaven, God's grace and mercy is meant to be taken one day at a time. Some theologian that I read somewhere pointed out that the reason why Jesus says do not worry about tomorrow is that the grace God has given us is meant to be used this day.
This is a lesson I'm learning painfully in Thailand. I know everyone understands how God's mercy works when we have fallen and God picks us up again, but are we to live the entirety of the Christian life by cheapening the grace of God? God wants me to come to His throne every, every, every morning to be filled by His grace, strengthened by His mercy for the day ahead of me. He wants me to grow in holiness and in sanctification. So if yesterday I've been a particularly "good" Christian, who cares? If I use yesterday as my motivation for today, I'm actually being fueled by my success yesterday rather God's mercy and grace available today.
Thus we must forget what lies behind, yesterday's failures and successes, and strain forward to what lies ahead, that is the mercies of God ready and available to us every morning. In light of this, let us press onward toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14).
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my father!
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not:
As thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
Great is Thy faithfulness, Great is Thy faithfulness,
Morning by morning new mercies I see:
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth.
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Language and God
So the other day I helped P'Phung translate "With All I Am" by Reuben Morgan into Thai. Probably because I'm such a nerd, I find language fascinating. Or maybe just words - how they're used, developed, original meanings, etc. (I just looked it up on wikipedia - it's called morphology) In any case, I wish I had studied some of this at UCLA. So here are some interesting things to think about.
1. Again, noting that I have no prior experience studying linguistics, I think it's safe to say that language itself is a cultural expression and its usage in different communities or societies reflect different values or beliefs of that community or society. Anyway, assuming that most of the readership are Korean-Americans, it's interesting to see how the hierarchical or honorific forms that exist in Korean reflect the societal values of hierarchy and honor, while English really has no such thing built into the language itself which reflects its very egalitarian values.
(People thinking about very high liturgical churches might think about the "thee" "thy" "thou" language as an expression of some type of holiness or honor, but it was used during the old old days to express intimacy and familiarity. "You" was actually used in formal situations. So all those hymns and songs that we sing that we think is using archaic and non-"God is my friend" language really does imply that personal and intimate relationship with God, seen in its proper context of course.)
Thai also has honorific language built into the language itself but unlike the Korean language which for the most part uses honorific conjugations (I could be wrong, I only studied up to Korean 5), the Thai language uses different words for higher beings - kings and gods/God. So all the nice conversational words I learned and memorized are pretty useless when I read the Bible because Jesus does all his verbs in the honorific form.
Anyway, my simplistic conclusion to that one is that Americans and our "Jesus is my homeboy" Christianity do not have the built-in language values to describe the holiness and transcendence of God. Or is it the language which is the expression of our cultural values that creates our Jesus Homeboy Christianity. I don't know, did the chicken or the egg come first? And Thai's would feel uncomfortable talking about God in too much of a colloquial language because God is supposed to be high and beyond us.
Yet God is amazingly both! Here's one of my favorite verses about this from Isaiah 57:15, "For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite." God is fearsome, bigger than the universe, transcendent, holy, set apart, all-powerful, yet He calls us friend, we are adopted into His sonship, and we can cry to Him "Abba, Father." Too bad human language can't seem to capture this.
2. One of my favorite Thai words is glap jai which means "to repent." Glap is used in phrases like glap baan which means "return home" or glap rot which means "u-turn" and jai means "heart or mind." Its literal meaning is returning your heart or turning your heart around. Now that's a great definition of repent, like the original Greek word metanoeo which means to change one's mind. Yet the primary definition of the English word "repent" is to feel sorry. (I guess if you study that word in Latin it means something like "do penitence again" but what does that even mean for us 21st century folk?) And that seems to carry over into American Christianity where if we sin, repenting just means we feel sorry about it and God forgives us and everything is good and dandy. The Thai and Greek word carries the full meaning of repentance which is not merely feeling sorry, but changing or turning your heart around, that is towards God. It's more of an action than it is an emotion. We turn away from our sins, not just feel sorry about them.
3. Coming in at a close second is the Thai word santi suk which means "peace". This word is really cool because it's a word created by Christians because the original Thai word for peace is santi which comes from the Buddhist conception of peace, namely a peace that comes from the absence of everything. In the Buddhist worldview is the point of life is to remove oneself from all desire then peace is empty. I think the world that is under pervading influence of Buddhism has this conception of peace. Have you seen those "coexist" or "peace" bumper stickers with all the symbols of world religions? Is peace really an ideal that's so simplistic that all these different religions with different worldviews are going to somehow retract some of their conflicting beliefs for this false sense of peace? You believe what you want and I'll believe what I want, let's just not step on each other's toes and we'll call it peace.
But no sir, that is not the Christian peace, santi suk. The Thai word suk means joy and you put that with santi and bam! you got santi suk which would mean something like a joy filled peace. Now that's on track with the biblical definition of peace which comes from the Hebrew word shalom which the ESV Study Bible describes as "where a person's life with God and with everything else is in ordered harmony, both physically and spiritually, and “all is well.”" Real peace is not the merely the absence of conflict or a withdrawal from the enemy but it is full-force unrelenting march toward the enemy with love. Real peace is not passive, but is active in bringing about joy and love and harmony in all things.
4. The last word I like is the Thai phrase for saying sorry, khoe thoot. It literally means "I ask for your punishment." I wonder what kind of cultural value that denotes hahaha jk. It's just funny.
Hope that was interesting, and if not, too bad I'm a nerd. =)
1. Again, noting that I have no prior experience studying linguistics, I think it's safe to say that language itself is a cultural expression and its usage in different communities or societies reflect different values or beliefs of that community or society. Anyway, assuming that most of the readership are Korean-Americans, it's interesting to see how the hierarchical or honorific forms that exist in Korean reflect the societal values of hierarchy and honor, while English really has no such thing built into the language itself which reflects its very egalitarian values.
(People thinking about very high liturgical churches might think about the "thee" "thy" "thou" language as an expression of some type of holiness or honor, but it was used during the old old days to express intimacy and familiarity. "You" was actually used in formal situations. So all those hymns and songs that we sing that we think is using archaic and non-"God is my friend" language really does imply that personal and intimate relationship with God, seen in its proper context of course.)
Thai also has honorific language built into the language itself but unlike the Korean language which for the most part uses honorific conjugations (I could be wrong, I only studied up to Korean 5), the Thai language uses different words for higher beings - kings and gods/God. So all the nice conversational words I learned and memorized are pretty useless when I read the Bible because Jesus does all his verbs in the honorific form.
Anyway, my simplistic conclusion to that one is that Americans and our "Jesus is my homeboy" Christianity do not have the built-in language values to describe the holiness and transcendence of God. Or is it the language which is the expression of our cultural values that creates our Jesus Homeboy Christianity. I don't know, did the chicken or the egg come first? And Thai's would feel uncomfortable talking about God in too much of a colloquial language because God is supposed to be high and beyond us.
Yet God is amazingly both! Here's one of my favorite verses about this from Isaiah 57:15, "For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite." God is fearsome, bigger than the universe, transcendent, holy, set apart, all-powerful, yet He calls us friend, we are adopted into His sonship, and we can cry to Him "Abba, Father." Too bad human language can't seem to capture this.
2. One of my favorite Thai words is glap jai which means "to repent." Glap is used in phrases like glap baan which means "return home" or glap rot which means "u-turn" and jai means "heart or mind." Its literal meaning is returning your heart or turning your heart around. Now that's a great definition of repent, like the original Greek word metanoeo which means to change one's mind. Yet the primary definition of the English word "repent" is to feel sorry. (I guess if you study that word in Latin it means something like "do penitence again" but what does that even mean for us 21st century folk?) And that seems to carry over into American Christianity where if we sin, repenting just means we feel sorry about it and God forgives us and everything is good and dandy. The Thai and Greek word carries the full meaning of repentance which is not merely feeling sorry, but changing or turning your heart around, that is towards God. It's more of an action than it is an emotion. We turn away from our sins, not just feel sorry about them.
3. Coming in at a close second is the Thai word santi suk which means "peace". This word is really cool because it's a word created by Christians because the original Thai word for peace is santi which comes from the Buddhist conception of peace, namely a peace that comes from the absence of everything. In the Buddhist worldview is the point of life is to remove oneself from all desire then peace is empty. I think the world that is under pervading influence of Buddhism has this conception of peace. Have you seen those "coexist" or "peace" bumper stickers with all the symbols of world religions? Is peace really an ideal that's so simplistic that all these different religions with different worldviews are going to somehow retract some of their conflicting beliefs for this false sense of peace? You believe what you want and I'll believe what I want, let's just not step on each other's toes and we'll call it peace.
But no sir, that is not the Christian peace, santi suk. The Thai word suk means joy and you put that with santi and bam! you got santi suk which would mean something like a joy filled peace. Now that's on track with the biblical definition of peace which comes from the Hebrew word shalom which the ESV Study Bible describes as "where a person's life with God and with everything else is in ordered harmony, both physically and spiritually, and “all is well.”" Real peace is not the merely the absence of conflict or a withdrawal from the enemy but it is full-force unrelenting march toward the enemy with love. Real peace is not passive, but is active in bringing about joy and love and harmony in all things.
4. The last word I like is the Thai phrase for saying sorry, khoe thoot. It literally means "I ask for your punishment." I wonder what kind of cultural value that denotes hahaha jk. It's just funny.
Hope that was interesting, and if not, too bad I'm a nerd. =)
Sunday, January 31, 2010
The Joys of New Christians
There's a section on seminary applications that asks you when you became Christian or accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. I keep dreading that question because I really have no idea when I became Christian. I don't even have a specific experience of personalization (a fancy term I learned at UCLA as a Religion major meaning the act of taking and making the faith of one's parents into one's own personal faith). I just always went to church (as if church is just a building right?) and God became more evident in His existence and sovereignty in my life.
As a result, I don't really even have a "first love" experience or memory. Whenever I read Revelations and think about my first love, I usually just go back to previous "moments" - the kind where you are so in awe and consumed by God's love and grace. It's probably the same thing right? (This is probably why my personal theology on salvation centers not around a decisive moment but rather a life of continual sanctification and obedience to God...but this is not to de-emphasize that singular, important moment of justification...but I digress).
Regardless, whether your story is like mine or you have a more decisive salvation story, the fact is we as humans are quite forgetful, especially of the love and grace of God. Sometimes we just get into the grind of life, work, school, and ministry and forget the reason why we decided to do everything in the first place. We may be faithful in terms of what we do, but our heart and motive behind it has become hazy and unclear.
On the mission field, I have found no better first love reminder than seeing and witness to the first love of new Christians. God is like that shiny new toy that we loved and played with and got bored of, but when someone new comes and is having fun with the toy again, you suddenly want it back. But with God, there's enough to go around for everyone!
I bring this up because in the past two weeks we've had two new believers put their faith in Jesus Christ. The kind of joy in the air and the excitement in their eyes can't be replicated by other circumstances. If I remember correctly, John Piper's father once told him, "There's no greater joy than winning souls." I truly do believe this because as new believers learn about God, share their experiences and testimonies, I see God reviving joy in the hearts of all the other members. Both of the staff members here cry every time they hear someone's testimony. I see friends of new believers with tears of joy that their friend has entered into and are now enjoying the great community of God.
Back when I was in college (that is...seven months ago...), I got to experience the kind of joy and love of teaching and sharing Christ with younger believers. This brought me great joy as other students moved from the socialization of Christianity (growing up in a faith or tradition) to personalization of faith, but I regret that I never saw one complete non-believer come to Christ. And this is my fault because I never bothered to go outside the bounds of church.
I mean if you really think about a complete non-believer putting their faith into Christ, it's really an amazing thing. And I'm not just talking about the amazing theology behind it - God by his grace regenerating children of wrath, and calling rebellious beings into the adoption of sonship through the obedience and suffering of Jesus Christ. I think about all the practical things behind conversion like the fact that someone is giving up a worldview that they've grown up with, with its attached cultural and behavioral values and customs. Christian kids know the Christian law, values, and behavior before they accept the Christian gospel, but when they put faith in Christ, the worldview of Christianity is more or less there. But growing up Buddhist for twenty years, believing in the power of merit from all sorts of rituals, then leaving all those things behind to follow a daresay foreign God? I mean Buddhism technically doesn't even have a God in its belief system.
But these new believers have found something worth throwing away twenty years of what previously gave them worth and value in their life. They're willing to face being shunned or shamed by family members and friends. And on top of that, they're just filled with this infectious joy that's overflowing from their first love.
I would love for brothers and sisters back home to be able to experience this kind of joy, and they CAN. We just need to step outside our four walls and turn to a neighbor or a classmate. But more on my thoughts of how that can happen later.
For now, please pray for Kazuko and Jubjib, the new sisters in Christ, that their joy would only continue to grow as they come to know and be known by the living God.
God is moving!
As a result, I don't really even have a "first love" experience or memory. Whenever I read Revelations and think about my first love, I usually just go back to previous "moments" - the kind where you are so in awe and consumed by God's love and grace. It's probably the same thing right? (This is probably why my personal theology on salvation centers not around a decisive moment but rather a life of continual sanctification and obedience to God...but this is not to de-emphasize that singular, important moment of justification...but I digress).
Regardless, whether your story is like mine or you have a more decisive salvation story, the fact is we as humans are quite forgetful, especially of the love and grace of God. Sometimes we just get into the grind of life, work, school, and ministry and forget the reason why we decided to do everything in the first place. We may be faithful in terms of what we do, but our heart and motive behind it has become hazy and unclear.
On the mission field, I have found no better first love reminder than seeing and witness to the first love of new Christians. God is like that shiny new toy that we loved and played with and got bored of, but when someone new comes and is having fun with the toy again, you suddenly want it back. But with God, there's enough to go around for everyone!
I bring this up because in the past two weeks we've had two new believers put their faith in Jesus Christ. The kind of joy in the air and the excitement in their eyes can't be replicated by other circumstances. If I remember correctly, John Piper's father once told him, "There's no greater joy than winning souls." I truly do believe this because as new believers learn about God, share their experiences and testimonies, I see God reviving joy in the hearts of all the other members. Both of the staff members here cry every time they hear someone's testimony. I see friends of new believers with tears of joy that their friend has entered into and are now enjoying the great community of God.
Back when I was in college (that is...seven months ago...), I got to experience the kind of joy and love of teaching and sharing Christ with younger believers. This brought me great joy as other students moved from the socialization of Christianity (growing up in a faith or tradition) to personalization of faith, but I regret that I never saw one complete non-believer come to Christ. And this is my fault because I never bothered to go outside the bounds of church.
I mean if you really think about a complete non-believer putting their faith into Christ, it's really an amazing thing. And I'm not just talking about the amazing theology behind it - God by his grace regenerating children of wrath, and calling rebellious beings into the adoption of sonship through the obedience and suffering of Jesus Christ. I think about all the practical things behind conversion like the fact that someone is giving up a worldview that they've grown up with, with its attached cultural and behavioral values and customs. Christian kids know the Christian law, values, and behavior before they accept the Christian gospel, but when they put faith in Christ, the worldview of Christianity is more or less there. But growing up Buddhist for twenty years, believing in the power of merit from all sorts of rituals, then leaving all those things behind to follow a daresay foreign God? I mean Buddhism technically doesn't even have a God in its belief system.
But these new believers have found something worth throwing away twenty years of what previously gave them worth and value in their life. They're willing to face being shunned or shamed by family members and friends. And on top of that, they're just filled with this infectious joy that's overflowing from their first love.
I would love for brothers and sisters back home to be able to experience this kind of joy, and they CAN. We just need to step outside our four walls and turn to a neighbor or a classmate. But more on my thoughts of how that can happen later.
For now, please pray for Kazuko and Jubjib, the new sisters in Christ, that their joy would only continue to grow as they come to know and be known by the living God.
God is moving!
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