I've been on the run again the past few weeks. I was in Phoenix last week and I'm actually writing this from my hotel room in Farmington, New York. I'm representing Shepherd's Staff at the pastor's conference held here at CC Finger Lakes. I head back to Philly tomorrow afternoon and then back to Vegas on Saturday morning.
God has revealed what He would have us do regarding the incredible need of the Karen refugees now living in Phoenix--we'll be moving to Phoenix a couple of days after Christmas. If you've been seeing the news at all about what's happening in Myanmar, (which is the country of Burma,) you're seeing why the Karen are now refugees in our country. The Karen's homeland is Burma, (Myanmar,) and the same government that you're now seeing deal with protesters is the government that has been trying to exterminate the Karen and other minorities for many years. Please keep the situation there in prayer.
I'll share much more detail later, but for now, please keep us in prayer as we need to step into "missionary status" to take this step. More on that later too. And I will continue sharing my thoughts on life and light once I'm back to a normal schedule next week.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
Meanderings on LIFE, part 4
I concluded last time with John 1:4, where the apostle John says that in Jesus "was life". He's already said in the previous verse that everything that was created was created by Jesus--or to say it another way, without Him, nothing was made that was made...which would include all LIVING things. And now in verse 4, He makes clear that LIFE itself is in JESUS...implying that Jesus IS LIFE--has it as part of His essence and that He is then the source or originator of everything else that is alive.
Now think of the burning bush incident recorded in Exodus 3:1-14. What caught Moses attention wasn't just a bush on fire, it was the fact that the fire was burning, but the bush was not being consumed. For fire to exist--to be alive--as with every other thing that's alive, it must have an interaction and exchange with something outside of itself. In other words, fire must consume fuel, just like everything other living thing. This bush was on fire, but the fire wasn't consuming it. It gave off light, it surely did illuminate it's surroundings, but the main issue was: it didn't need anything external to itself to be what it was...sort of like it...had LIFE in itself.
From the midst of that fire, God begins a conversation with Moses. A few verses later, Moses asks God what he should say to Israel when they ask him what the name of the God of their fathers is. When they ask, "What is His name?" Moses wants to know what he should say.
God's response is: "I AM WHO I AM" and then God summarizes by telling Moses that he should say to them "I AM" is the one who sent him to them. What does "I AM" declare? That He is the one who exists, who has always existed, who has LIFE in Himself. The fire that Moses stands before, a fire that needs nothing outside of itself for its continued existence, is a visual proclamation of the reality that God has LIFE in Himself, that He is self-existent. What the Creator has permitted us to discover about LIFE apparently doesn't apply to Him. We were certainly created in His image and according to His likeness--like Him in so many ways, yet clearly unlike Him in others.
Enough for now....
Now think of the burning bush incident recorded in Exodus 3:1-14. What caught Moses attention wasn't just a bush on fire, it was the fact that the fire was burning, but the bush was not being consumed. For fire to exist--to be alive--as with every other thing that's alive, it must have an interaction and exchange with something outside of itself. In other words, fire must consume fuel, just like everything other living thing. This bush was on fire, but the fire wasn't consuming it. It gave off light, it surely did illuminate it's surroundings, but the main issue was: it didn't need anything external to itself to be what it was...sort of like it...had LIFE in itself.
From the midst of that fire, God begins a conversation with Moses. A few verses later, Moses asks God what he should say to Israel when they ask him what the name of the God of their fathers is. When they ask, "What is His name?" Moses wants to know what he should say.
God's response is: "I AM WHO I AM" and then God summarizes by telling Moses that he should say to them "I AM" is the one who sent him to them. What does "I AM" declare? That He is the one who exists, who has always existed, who has LIFE in Himself. The fire that Moses stands before, a fire that needs nothing outside of itself for its continued existence, is a visual proclamation of the reality that God has LIFE in Himself, that He is self-existent. What the Creator has permitted us to discover about LIFE apparently doesn't apply to Him. We were certainly created in His image and according to His likeness--like Him in so many ways, yet clearly unlike Him in others.
Enough for now....
Friday, September 7, 2007
Meanderings on LIFE part 3 (LIGHT)
In pursuit of obtaining a biblical definition of LIFE, you inevitably run into an obvious connection with LIGHT. From the description of creation in Gen. 1 forward, LIGHT and LIFE seem to intersect regularly. In fact, LIGHT is created first and it appears to be almost a pre-requisite to LIFE...like without LIGHT there really can't be LIFE. And guess what? That is true. In the realm of physical LIFE alone, LIGHT is crucial in a myriad of ways.
So I studied LIGHT. Here's the mind-boggling conclusion I came to that was so obvious I had never seen it before: Yes--LIGHT does illuminate, reveal, manifest, make known--it does those things for sure. But is that the ultimate purpose of light? I had never forced myself to think it through further than that. This time I did. And I discovered that the main purpose of LIGHT is to MAKE PROPER INTERACTION AND EXCHANGE POSSIBLE!
LIGHT provides the possibility of proper interaction with that which is external to us...which is why it is so tightly connected with LIFE! Without LIGHT, that which is really there, outside of ourselves, although perhaps needful, is potentially dangerous to us. If there is no LIGHT, we can't see it for what it really is or where it's really at and so our interaction with it can be dangerous, (think of walking through the woods with no flashlight on a moon-less night--holes, trees branches, bushes--the external environment is dangerous in ways it isn't in daylight or if you have a light.) Proper interaction and exchange are made possible by LIGHT.
The Apostle John says of Jesus in: John 1:4 In Him was life and the life was the light of men.
To be continued....
So I studied LIGHT. Here's the mind-boggling conclusion I came to that was so obvious I had never seen it before: Yes--LIGHT does illuminate, reveal, manifest, make known--it does those things for sure. But is that the ultimate purpose of light? I had never forced myself to think it through further than that. This time I did. And I discovered that the main purpose of LIGHT is to MAKE PROPER INTERACTION AND EXCHANGE POSSIBLE!
LIGHT provides the possibility of proper interaction with that which is external to us...which is why it is so tightly connected with LIFE! Without LIGHT, that which is really there, outside of ourselves, although perhaps needful, is potentially dangerous to us. If there is no LIGHT, we can't see it for what it really is or where it's really at and so our interaction with it can be dangerous, (think of walking through the woods with no flashlight on a moon-less night--holes, trees branches, bushes--the external environment is dangerous in ways it isn't in daylight or if you have a light.) Proper interaction and exchange are made possible by LIGHT.
The Apostle John says of Jesus in: John 1:4 In Him was life and the life was the light of men.
To be continued....
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Please pray regarding Phoenix
As I write, it's 112 degrees here in lovely Mesquite, NV. I saw that Phoenix broke a record this summer by having 32 days where the mercury was over 110--and I'm guessing that we have had even more than that. Needless to say, I'm ready for some cool weather.
And speaking of Phoenix, Helen and I are now in the midst of serious prayer regarding actually making a move to Phoenix in order to serve the Karen refugee community and the church they are attending. These are the brothers and sisters I mentioned a while back--the ones who have suffered so much at the hands of the Burmese military and who have spent many years living in refugee camps inside Thailand. There are now close to 200 of them, most having arrived from the camps within the last year, that are attending a small baptist church and trying to learn how to live life here in America.
I'll write more later, but I'd appreciate your prayer for the meetings we'll have with the Karen leaders and the church leaders on September 20.
And speaking of Phoenix, Helen and I are now in the midst of serious prayer regarding actually making a move to Phoenix in order to serve the Karen refugee community and the church they are attending. These are the brothers and sisters I mentioned a while back--the ones who have suffered so much at the hands of the Burmese military and who have spent many years living in refugee camps inside Thailand. There are now close to 200 of them, most having arrived from the camps within the last year, that are attending a small baptist church and trying to learn how to live life here in America.
I'll write more later, but I'd appreciate your prayer for the meetings we'll have with the Karen leaders and the church leaders on September 20.
Meanderings about LIFE, part 2
Once I wrapped my mind around the basic idea of life being "interaction and exchange with that which is external", it forced me to look a little deeper at what God said to Adam regarding the consequence of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, (Gen. 2:17.) Before that act of disobedience, Adam and Eve were certainly alive physically, but they were also interacting and exchanging with God relationally through communication and intimacy as He designed it to be. He said they would "die" the day they disobeyed and ate and obviously, many things at many levels changed as a result of their disobedience. But I believe the KEY consequence was that they no longer were interacting and exchanging, (through intimate communication,) with their Creator as they were designed to do and as they were doing previous to their disobedience. They no longer had LIFE at all the levels they were designed to have it--the most crucial level of LIFE ceased, they really did die.
And so, as is obvious to anyone even fairly observant, from then until today, the majority of mankind has LIFE at the basic physical and emotional level, but no true life at the most crucial level--no intimate interaction and exchange with the one who created them.
And this is where Jesus comes in.
And so, as is obvious to anyone even fairly observant, from then until today, the majority of mankind has LIFE at the basic physical and emotional level, but no true life at the most crucial level--no intimate interaction and exchange with the one who created them.
And this is where Jesus comes in.
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