Wow, time flies. I am nearly finished with the book of Luke and realized I haven't posted anything about Ephesians and Mark.
One of our teachers said that SBS is like trying to take a drink out of a fire hydrant. SO TRUE! Truth and revelation is being blasted at me and I'm trying to soak in what I can, but there is so much!
EPHESIANS:
I love this book, always have. It's like a mouthful of worship in the first chapter. I love how Paul busts out into worship just because he's so overcome in 3:20. One thing we talked about in class was how impressed Paul is with God. I want to be that impressed with God that I spontaneously break out in worship because I can't keep it contained.
I was thinking back to my time in Ephesus in 2004 as I read this book. If you EVER get the opportunity to walk the ruins of Ephesus, it's well worth it. I remember standing in the amphitheater there, closing my eyes and trying to hear this massive crowd chanting "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" and how I would feel as Paul having preached the Gospel and having this confusion and anger all around me and my heart for the people to know Jesus. The Ephesians' culture was pretty intense, steeped in spirituality, magical practices, abundant sexual immorality, and secret cult practices. But Paul addresses these issues telling the Ephesians they have rich inheritance and a new identity and to get out of these practices!!
What greatly impacted me about the book of Ephesians was towards the end of the passage about putting on the armor of God...Paul encourages the Ephesians to pray, and to pray for boldness for him to preach. Sometimes we think that defeating the darkness is to stand up and shout and go through all these intense spiritual warfare practices. There is a time for that I believe, but what defeats the darkness more than anything: PREACHING THE GOSPEL!! It's that simple. This brings people from darkness into light. This is what rescues people from the lies and bondage over their lives, is knowing they have freedom in Christ. For some time, the gospel has felt like sawdust in my mouth, I'm not sure why, but I feel I've lost focus of who it is I preach for and what the good news really is. So, I'm having a fresh revelation of the gospel and there is a stirring in my spirit to share that with others again, praise God!!
MARK
I'm continually in awe at the fact that even though I've read through the Bible in it's entirety numerous times in the past, listened to sermons, studied the Bible on my own, and even took a class on some books, like Mark, that I feel like I'm reading some things for the first time and really SEEING it. I never stopped to think about the context the book of Mark was written in, but it was written during the time of intense persecution to the believers in Rome. Nero, the emperor at the time, was rumored to have set fire to the city of Rome and when people started pointing the finger at him, he in turn blamed it on the Christians. He did the most horrible things to torture and punish them, like turning them into human candles and slowly burning them alive. So, the life of Jesus that Mark portrays is one of urgency for the believers to understand Jesus' authority over all things: disease, the demonic realm, earthly authorities, natural elements, etc. And Jesus was going to suffer and die. He was going to be rejected. Mark is using the gospel of Jesus to tell the believers in Rome that their suffering is worth it because Jesus suffered and gave it all for them.
What I was really struck with in the book of Mark as we went through it was the interaction with the disciples. Oh my gosh, they didn't get it. Jesus says to them: "I will suffer, die and rise again." and they immediately questioned "What does he mean by that?" (i.e. Mark 9:31-32) We have the gift of hindsight, but still, the disciples kept hitting a wall. And oh, the patience of Jesus. And how much patience has Jesus had with me in my life? I believe I am in this SBS because of the patience of Jesus. I tried to a lot in my own strength and wisdom, like Peter, like James and John. Yet, Jesus is patient in my block-headedness.
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Well, that catches you up a bit on just a taste of the revelation blasting out of that fire hydrant. I am very excited to share with you about Luke. God softened my heart in a big way this week. But, I have a lot of homework in that book still yet to finish, so that will come hopefully this weekend.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
A little tour of my life
In the busyness of moving across different continents and countries, I've been very bad at playing "tourist" and taking photos of everything. But a couple of days ago I grabbed my camera and took it along with me throughout a bit of my day.
First, here are some photos from the YWAM 50th celebration we just had this last week. The founders of our organization are traveling around the world this year to 43 locations where there will be gatherings to celebrate what God has done over the last 50 years and to cast vision for what lies ahead. It is an exciting time to be a part of YWAM and I've been blessed to be a part of the celebrations here. I'm sad I'll be missing the one in C.Asia because much of my time in YWAM has been invested there, but celebrating with the YWAM family here has been a blessing.
With friends at the 50th celebration:
Now, welcome to my world here in Taiwan:
This is the apartment building where I live. The apartment is the entire top floor. Believe it or not, I live with 19 other people! We have 7 bedrooms and a big living room (you can see the living room in an earlier post.)
This is the street in front of my place. Motos (scooters) are ubiquitous here.
This is the view from my roof. I come up here to get some quiet, alone time. It's been quite the transition from a big village to a big bustling city!
And here's my bedroom! Yes, there are three bunkbeds here. I have 5 roommates. But, the reality is, I pretty much just sleep here. The rest of my time is pretty full.
This is our classroom. There are 58 students and 19 staff members. It gets pretty full in here. The cool thing about this place is that it used to be a night club and not a reputable place. Now, it's packed full of people learning the word of God. God can redeem anything.
And this is where I will be spending most of my time these next nine months...devouring the word of God, many many hours in the Bible. Bring it on! I'm so thirsty for some refreshing and have already been greatly impacted by what we have been studying.
So, I hope that lets you get a better peek into what I'm doing and what my life is like. It's quite the change from the last 4 years but I believe I'm right where I should be and though there are a lot of unknowns ahead, I have peace and trust that God is holding me and things will unfold in their time.
First, here are some photos from the YWAM 50th celebration we just had this last week. The founders of our organization are traveling around the world this year to 43 locations where there will be gatherings to celebrate what God has done over the last 50 years and to cast vision for what lies ahead. It is an exciting time to be a part of YWAM and I've been blessed to be a part of the celebrations here. I'm sad I'll be missing the one in C.Asia because much of my time in YWAM has been invested there, but celebrating with the YWAM family here has been a blessing.
With friends at the 50th celebration:
Now, welcome to my world here in Taiwan:
This is the apartment building where I live. The apartment is the entire top floor. Believe it or not, I live with 19 other people! We have 7 bedrooms and a big living room (you can see the living room in an earlier post.)
This is the street in front of my place. Motos (scooters) are ubiquitous here.
This is the view from my roof. I come up here to get some quiet, alone time. It's been quite the transition from a big village to a big bustling city!
And here's my bedroom! Yes, there are three bunkbeds here. I have 5 roommates. But, the reality is, I pretty much just sleep here. The rest of my time is pretty full.
This is our classroom. There are 58 students and 19 staff members. It gets pretty full in here. The cool thing about this place is that it used to be a night club and not a reputable place. Now, it's packed full of people learning the word of God. God can redeem anything.
And this is where I will be spending most of my time these next nine months...devouring the word of God, many many hours in the Bible. Bring it on! I'm so thirsty for some refreshing and have already been greatly impacted by what we have been studying.
So, I hope that lets you get a better peek into what I'm doing and what my life is like. It's quite the change from the last 4 years but I believe I'm right where I should be and though there are a lot of unknowns ahead, I have peace and trust that God is holding me and things will unfold in their time.
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Confessions of an SBS student
We just finished the celebrations here in Taiwan for the 50th anniversary of YWAM. It was a fantastic time to hear where we've been and to dream about where we are going. Loren and Darlene Cunningham, the founders of the organization, were here to impart to us. I was impacted by Darlene sharing about some mistakes of the past and times of correction of the Lord. She spoke about being blessed by the intervention of God when they/we had gone astray and thinking about where we would be if he would not have given that correction.
Well, I feel in a season of correction and re-alignment myself. One thing God is shining a light on, a very bright one at that, is my pride. I'm seeing that I am a big reason why I was burning out this year. I thought I was more than I was. A lot of the reasons I said yes to things wasn't so much because I felt called by the Lord to do them, but because I wanted people to be impressed with me. So, I'm confessing this in a public forum. I want to welcome the correction of God on this.
And now SBS (School of Biblical Studies) has begun. Already, as I've mentioned, the Word of God has shown me areas of my wrong understanding of the character of God. And I am struck again at what a privilege it is that I am here, just being refined by the Truth of God, able to spend hours soaking it in.
I have a bit of a rebellious spirit, I must confess. If someone tells me I should do something, I want to run in the opposite direction just to show that I can be right without their advice (uh, hello again Pride!). I have secretly wanted to do an SBS since I joined this organization and gotten really annoyed when people told me I should do one. I thought to myself, I can understand the Bible as well as you without doing the school (ahem, pride). I even have a fancy Bible degree and have spent a lot of time studying the word on my own, even using the inductive method. When people were expressing their positive experience in SBS, I read it as judgment on my own journey with the word of God (and there again, my pride).
However, I must renege on that because I've realized, if I were to quit SBS today, I would never read the Bible the same way again. And I also realized, it's not because the school is better than any other school, or because I've suddenly got "the answers," but it's because I am not allowed to be lazy about studying the Bible any more. The things we are learning are not hidden or unavailable for every person...we are just looking at the text and allowing it to shape us! But, I have no excuse not to know the Word, and not to be impacted by it. Today we looked just at the background of Ephesians...had a little experience of it, and though I have even been to the city of Ephesus, I am reading the book with new eyes, seeing even deeper levels of truth.
So, there it is...pride, rebellion and laziness. But, the beauty of it is: "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight" (Ephesians 1:8) I am loved and accepted in all my rawness and yet God continues to bring me into newness.
Well, I feel in a season of correction and re-alignment myself. One thing God is shining a light on, a very bright one at that, is my pride. I'm seeing that I am a big reason why I was burning out this year. I thought I was more than I was. A lot of the reasons I said yes to things wasn't so much because I felt called by the Lord to do them, but because I wanted people to be impressed with me. So, I'm confessing this in a public forum. I want to welcome the correction of God on this.
And now SBS (School of Biblical Studies) has begun. Already, as I've mentioned, the Word of God has shown me areas of my wrong understanding of the character of God. And I am struck again at what a privilege it is that I am here, just being refined by the Truth of God, able to spend hours soaking it in.
I have a bit of a rebellious spirit, I must confess. If someone tells me I should do something, I want to run in the opposite direction just to show that I can be right without their advice (uh, hello again Pride!). I have secretly wanted to do an SBS since I joined this organization and gotten really annoyed when people told me I should do one. I thought to myself, I can understand the Bible as well as you without doing the school (ahem, pride). I even have a fancy Bible degree and have spent a lot of time studying the word on my own, even using the inductive method. When people were expressing their positive experience in SBS, I read it as judgment on my own journey with the word of God (and there again, my pride).
However, I must renege on that because I've realized, if I were to quit SBS today, I would never read the Bible the same way again. And I also realized, it's not because the school is better than any other school, or because I've suddenly got "the answers," but it's because I am not allowed to be lazy about studying the Bible any more. The things we are learning are not hidden or unavailable for every person...we are just looking at the text and allowing it to shape us! But, I have no excuse not to know the Word, and not to be impacted by it. Today we looked just at the background of Ephesians...had a little experience of it, and though I have even been to the city of Ephesus, I am reading the book with new eyes, seeing even deeper levels of truth.
So, there it is...pride, rebellion and laziness. But, the beauty of it is: "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight" (Ephesians 1:8) I am loved and accepted in all my rawness and yet God continues to bring me into newness.
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Titus and Easter morning!
I turned in the book of Titus yesterday. And while, it didn't find me on my balcony crying my eyes out, there were some great things I got out of the book.
Titus is on the island of Crete (I guess I never really thought too much about that before!) and Paul is asking some big things of him...to appoint elders, to confront the false teachers and to teach. You know, no big deal.
I could really feel for Titus. He had a big task ahead of him, his church members were a little unruly (issues of drunkenness and lack of self-control), and he was young and had to take a stand.
One of the things that struck me, was a statement that Paul makes about rebuking (and normally, I'm not drawn to passages on rebuking!). Titus 1:13 says, "rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith." There were some big issues in the church that needed to be dealt with, and it must have been intimidating for Titus as an outsider to come in and bring correction. But, Paul's heart comes through...it's for their own faith, not for Titus' or Paul's reputation.
Now, I HATE confrontation. I love when things are peaceful and everyone loves one another. But, I also know, that is not always the case. I've also learned in leadership this last year, that often the most loving thing you can do for a person is to confront them, not allow them to continue in their error. I want to keep this motive in mind...that rebuking is for the sake of the faith of the person.
************
on a separate and unrelated note, we had brunch in our apartment this morning and a time of worship. It was so great to celebrate Easter morning with this group of people. I have been blessed by the people in my school already so much. Here are some photos from that time:
Titus is on the island of Crete (I guess I never really thought too much about that before!) and Paul is asking some big things of him...to appoint elders, to confront the false teachers and to teach. You know, no big deal.
I could really feel for Titus. He had a big task ahead of him, his church members were a little unruly (issues of drunkenness and lack of self-control), and he was young and had to take a stand.
One of the things that struck me, was a statement that Paul makes about rebuking (and normally, I'm not drawn to passages on rebuking!). Titus 1:13 says, "rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith." There were some big issues in the church that needed to be dealt with, and it must have been intimidating for Titus as an outsider to come in and bring correction. But, Paul's heart comes through...it's for their own faith, not for Titus' or Paul's reputation.
Now, I HATE confrontation. I love when things are peaceful and everyone loves one another. But, I also know, that is not always the case. I've also learned in leadership this last year, that often the most loving thing you can do for a person is to confront them, not allow them to continue in their error. I want to keep this motive in mind...that rebuking is for the sake of the faith of the person.
************
on a separate and unrelated note, we had brunch in our apartment this morning and a time of worship. It was so great to celebrate Easter morning with this group of people. I have been blessed by the people in my school already so much. Here are some photos from that time:
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