1 Pet. 2:20ff
"For what glory is it, if when ye be buffeted for
your faults, ye shall take it patiently, but if when ye do well, and
suffer for it, ye take it patiently; this is acceptable with God.
For even hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps:
who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
who when he was reviled, reviled not again,
when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness:
by whose stripes ye were healed."
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Jesus is the Light
Volcano eruption in Chile.
John 1:3-5
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
4In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
-----------------------
Everything was made through Jesus. Nothing was made without Him. This, of course, shows that Jesus Himself is not a created being. How could He be created through Himself?
The easiest thing is to think that He was not created, but rather is God Himself. He is the Creator, and He didn't create Himself.
Of course it makes sense that He has life in Him. He didn't get life from somewhere else. Life belongs to Him. It is His because of who He is. He is God.
It is not a life that is only for Himself. It is life that is shared with people. His coming to earth as a man was like a light to us. People actually saw God walking around in a body. It's not that He had some weird glow coming out of Him. That's not how He showed His light. Rather, people could see how He lived; what He did; where He went; how He reacted to people; what was important to Him; and most of all, how He died on the cross, bearing our sins in His own body.
When we believe in Him, we have His life in us.
The darkness doesn't understand it. Who or what is the darkness? Well, for one thing, it is Satan and his demons. They never understood Jesus. If they had, they never would have killed Him. They would have protected Him from death, since His death sealed their doom.
The darkness is also a reference to unbelievers. They can't figure Jesus out. They might think He was a good man. They might think He was a kook. They might have religious feelings about Him - as well as Buddha, Krishna, and Mohammed. They don't know who He is, though.
Jesus knew who He was. The darkness couldn't destroy Him. He destroyed the darkness.
How did He destroy it? Again, by being who He was and doing what He did.
Please consider the words of the Bible. Ask Jesus, who is the Light, to shine in your darkness. Read the book of John in the New Testament. Ask God to help you understand. You won't be sorry.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Good News About Injustice
Good News About Injustice: A Witness of Courage in a Hurting World (Current Issues, Missions)
by Intervarsity Press
If you are involved at all in cross-cultural missions in any way, you really must read this book. Haugen was sent to Rwanda in 1994 as the director of the UN genocide investigation in Rwanda. After Haugen returned from there, his life was never the same again. His suburban lifestyle had been shaken up for good after he found himself, "standing in the middle of several thousand corpses in a muddy mass grave in a tiny African country called Rwanda?" (p. 21)
Instead of becoming bitter and pessimistic about the horrible conditions in the world and the terrible injustices, He started The International Justice Mission.
This is not an agenda-driven, politically correct organization that is concerned only with the injustices done to one class of people. Their work helps anyone they are able to help. They work through the legal systems, defending cases in the courts of the countries where their clients live. These are not your stereotypical attorneys, but are men and women who fight for justice on a case by case basis.
Their only agenda is justice for the oppressed while showing Christlike compassion.
Here are some quotes to give you the idea of what this man and his mission are about.
From chapter 1 - The Rage in Rwanda - A Suburban Christian Confronts Genocide
ASCENSION: COMING BACK FROM A HELL ON EARTH
Here Haugen compares some of his experiences in third world situations to Christ's Ascension from the earth, full of sinfulness, to Heaven.
"I have traveled from the slippery mud and corpses of mass graves in Rwanda to my usual seat at the right hand of my neighbor on our dependably boring and climate-controlled bus ride to my office in Washington, D.C. I remember reclining on a comfortable living-room couch, among friends and family in California, talking about soaring real estate values in Orange county when only days before I had been exhuming the remains of a woman raped and butchered by soldiers in the Philippines. Similarly, I recall watching from my train window as a low summer sun cast a Norman Rockwell glow across Little League fields in Connecticut when only days before I had been in a country where boys of a similar age but of a different color were being beaten like animals by the South African police."
He says that he felt the urge to make an announcement to his fellow commuters about what was happening in Rwanda. This urge, "came not from a desire to shock them but from a desire to somehow affirm for myself the human reality and relevance of my own experience. Could it really be true, and could it really have anything to do with me...?" (p. 23)
I have never been in such extreme situations as the aftermath of the Rwanda genocide, but I can relate to this kind of "ascension" from the mission field back to the US. It is surreal, and no one can really know what you are talking about. It's not just that you understand that it really has nothing to do with them. It is also that you are not sure it had anything to do with you, and if it did, what do you do about it?
What Haugen did about it was found The International Justice Mission.
Haugen is truly spiritual, deeply thoughtful, and firmly Biblical in what he does.
Please read it. It is well written and fairly easy to read, even though it will challenge you.
One more quote:
"For the little Filipino girl abducted into prostitution, for the Pakistani boy chained to a weaving loom, for the Latin American widow pushed off her land and even for the African father rotting in his prison cell without a charge or a trial, we share Christ's saving love on the cross and the servant love of our hands. As it was in days of old, 'it will be a sign and witness to the LORD Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them." (Isaiah 19:20).
"Here I am, Lord. Send me!'"
(p36)
God will show us what it has to do with you and me if we make ourselves available to Him.
by Intervarsity Press
If you are involved at all in cross-cultural missions in any way, you really must read this book. Haugen was sent to Rwanda in 1994 as the director of the UN genocide investigation in Rwanda. After Haugen returned from there, his life was never the same again. His suburban lifestyle had been shaken up for good after he found himself, "standing in the middle of several thousand corpses in a muddy mass grave in a tiny African country called Rwanda?" (p. 21)
Instead of becoming bitter and pessimistic about the horrible conditions in the world and the terrible injustices, He started The International Justice Mission.
This is not an agenda-driven, politically correct organization that is concerned only with the injustices done to one class of people. Their work helps anyone they are able to help. They work through the legal systems, defending cases in the courts of the countries where their clients live. These are not your stereotypical attorneys, but are men and women who fight for justice on a case by case basis.
Their only agenda is justice for the oppressed while showing Christlike compassion.
Here are some quotes to give you the idea of what this man and his mission are about.
From chapter 1 - The Rage in Rwanda - A Suburban Christian Confronts Genocide
ASCENSION: COMING BACK FROM A HELL ON EARTH
Here Haugen compares some of his experiences in third world situations to Christ's Ascension from the earth, full of sinfulness, to Heaven.
"I have traveled from the slippery mud and corpses of mass graves in Rwanda to my usual seat at the right hand of my neighbor on our dependably boring and climate-controlled bus ride to my office in Washington, D.C. I remember reclining on a comfortable living-room couch, among friends and family in California, talking about soaring real estate values in Orange county when only days before I had been exhuming the remains of a woman raped and butchered by soldiers in the Philippines. Similarly, I recall watching from my train window as a low summer sun cast a Norman Rockwell glow across Little League fields in Connecticut when only days before I had been in a country where boys of a similar age but of a different color were being beaten like animals by the South African police."
He says that he felt the urge to make an announcement to his fellow commuters about what was happening in Rwanda. This urge, "came not from a desire to shock them but from a desire to somehow affirm for myself the human reality and relevance of my own experience. Could it really be true, and could it really have anything to do with me...?" (p. 23)
I have never been in such extreme situations as the aftermath of the Rwanda genocide, but I can relate to this kind of "ascension" from the mission field back to the US. It is surreal, and no one can really know what you are talking about. It's not just that you understand that it really has nothing to do with them. It is also that you are not sure it had anything to do with you, and if it did, what do you do about it?
What Haugen did about it was found The International Justice Mission.
Haugen is truly spiritual, deeply thoughtful, and firmly Biblical in what he does.
Please read it. It is well written and fairly easy to read, even though it will challenge you.
One more quote:
"For the little Filipino girl abducted into prostitution, for the Pakistani boy chained to a weaving loom, for the Latin American widow pushed off her land and even for the African father rotting in his prison cell without a charge or a trial, we share Christ's saving love on the cross and the servant love of our hands. As it was in days of old, 'it will be a sign and witness to the LORD Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them." (Isaiah 19:20).
"Here I am, Lord. Send me!'"
(p36)
God will show us what it has to do with you and me if we make ourselves available to Him.
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