tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55556600904158852362024-03-13T15:08:06.499-04:00Him We ProclaimThoughts on Missions, MKs, and TheologyJonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.comBlogger123125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-39484741898261791632022-10-31T16:40:00.003-04:002022-10-31T16:43:12.930-04:00Reformation Day and Deathworks<div data-draftjs-conductor-fragment="{"blocks":[{"key":"do7b3","text":"On Saturday we visited St Andrews Castle. It lays in ruins, with the occasional structure in tact. A room in the tower gate where pedestrians would have entered still remains, as does the room housing the dungeon - a circular opening into which prisoners were lowered into a larger room underneath. Practically medieval. The ruins tell a story of the fall of the Roman Catholic church, the death of Caridinal Beaty (who fathered over 20 illegitimate children) at the hands of reformers, and the eventual capture of the castle by French Catholic reinforcements who captured and enslaved John Knox for two years before his eventual release.","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"v45a","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"8fjqs","text":"But it is not all that is in ruins. Nor is it all that tells a story. Before exiting the gift shop where tickets are sold, one has the chance to walk through a brief series of displays telling illustrating the castle's story. Towards the end, a statue of John Knox, the famous Scottish Reformer, leans over the pulpit in the middle of an earnest sermon. The ruins and story are here. For Knox is covered in spiders and spiderwebs, 'decorations' for Halloween. Someone has, perhaps inadvertently, crafted a deathwork. ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"43r91","text":"\nThe late sociologist Phillip Rieff coined the term - a deathwork is an assault on objects of culture's admiration. Carl Trueman remarks on Rieff's deathworks saying, ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"2laer","text":"\"A deathwork... represents an attack on established cultural art forms in a manner designed to undo the deeper moral structure of society... Deathworks make the old values look ridiculous. They represent not so much arguments against the old order as subversions of it. They aim at changing the aesthetic tastes and sympathies of society so as to undermine the commands on which that society was based\" ","type":"blockquote","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"15loq","text":"(Truman, Rise and Triumph, 96-97).","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"5nm9a","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"6d9bq","text":"Two days before reformation day, nothing tells the story of ruins of a culture like spiders and cobwebs hanging from the preaching figure of a prominent reformer. The arguments need not be articulated - a picture is worth a thousand words. ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"e77vn","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"669n","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"4s63b","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"27rp4","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}}],"entityMap":{},"VERSION":"9.2.8"}" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="foo-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="foo-0-0"><span data-offset-key="foo-0-0">On Saturday we visited St Andrews Castle. It lays in ruins, with the occasional structure intact. A room in the tower gate where pedestrians would have entered still remains, as does the room housing the dungeon - a circular opening into which prisoners were lowered into a larger room underneath. Practically medieval. The ruins tell a story of the fall of the Roman Catholic church, the death of Cardinal Beaty (who fathered over 20 illegitimate children) at the hands of reformers, and the eventual capture of the castle by French Catholic reinforcements who captured and enslaved John Knox for two years before his eventual release.</span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="25jmp-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="25jmp-0-0"><span data-offset-key="25jmp-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="c4ob6-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="c4ob6-0-0"><span data-offset-key="c4ob6-0-0">But it is not all that is in ruins. Nor is it all that tells a story. Before exiting the gift shop where tickets are sold, one has the chance to walk through a brief series of displays telling illustrating the castle's story. Towards the end, a statue of John Knox, the famous Scottish Reformer, leans over the pulpit in the middle of an earnest sermon. The ruins and story are here. For Knox is covered in spiders and spiderwebs, 'decorations' for Halloween. Someone has, perhaps inadvertently, crafted a deathwork. </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="fe9au-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fe9au-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fe9au-0-0">
The late sociologist Phillip Rieff coined the term - a deathwork is an assault on objects of culture's admiration. Carl Trueman summarizes Rieff's deathworks saying, </span></div></div><blockquote class="_1zcTE _3CTXq evzbx public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="u173-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="u173-0-0"><span data-offset-key="u173-0-0">"A deathwork... represents an attack on established cultural art forms in a manner designed to undo the deeper moral structure of society... Deathworks make the old values look ridiculous. They represent not so much arguments against the old order as subversions of it. They aim at changing the aesthetic tastes and sympathies of society so as to undermine the commands on which that society was based" </span></div></blockquote><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="8ua79-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8ua79-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8ua79-0-0">(Trueman, Rise and Triumph, 96-97).</span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="9pvkf-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9pvkf-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9pvkf-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="90lor-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="90lor-0-0"><span data-offset-key="90lor-0-0">Two days before reformation day, nothing tells the story of ruins of a culture like spiders and cobwebs hanging from the preaching figure of a prominent reformer. The arguments need not be articulated - a picture is worth a thousand words. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw1J2HSU36dB9StgryARLaNv6oOsypPcFfk3-qXSvHDi_GBI8IgCrvzjAdrUAX8a934oXC6J0pUOxhR8Qcx1w0cP5qRo4NI-vHyDbDJ9b3r55DahusL9dt3ywIEEGZ-taOzi-6GwNitqzlSBJXeEJAlsVm0FGV5O5Rlu6s0pstZksaasf4SAq5SOFN/s4608/knox.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4608" data-original-width="3456" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw1J2HSU36dB9StgryARLaNv6oOsypPcFfk3-qXSvHDi_GBI8IgCrvzjAdrUAX8a934oXC6J0pUOxhR8Qcx1w0cP5qRo4NI-vHyDbDJ9b3r55DahusL9dt3ywIEEGZ-taOzi-6GwNitqzlSBJXeEJAlsVm0FGV5O5Rlu6s0pstZksaasf4SAq5SOFN/w300-h400/knox.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="dk493-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="dk493-0-0"><span data-offset-key="dk493-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="dntmp-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="dntmp-0-0"><span data-offset-key="dntmp-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="ajsck-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ajsck-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ajsck-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="dur2j-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="dur2j-0-0"><span data-offset-key="dur2j-0-0"></span></div></div></div><p> </p>Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-64918335952471862832022-05-02T22:19:00.005-04:002022-05-04T09:11:36.117-04:00The Big 15... part 1<p> This is my final week studying at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. I will walk May 14, but my last assignment gets turned in this Thursday. The end of this 5-year journey brings a nostalgic reflection of these formative years. I will probably write several posts about this in the coming month or two. </p><p>I thought I would kick it off with 15 books that were influential for my growth. Some were required reading (R) and some were not required reading (NR). I found that as I studied, I learned to choose better books to read on my own time. These often integrated quite well with other things I was learning over the semester. These are not all of the top books I read - for example, I chose to leave out books that did not deal with Christianty in some way. For example, I recently read a couple of books on economics that I found immensely useful and practical even for Christian ministry. But they are not included in this list. I provide the author, title, year publishes, whether it was required reading (R) or not (NR), a brief comment on the book, and a quote to provide a brief taste. </p><p>So, if I woke up one morning and started a seminary, these books, <i>in no particular order</i>, would be required reading. </p><p><br /></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">1. Irenaeus, <i>Against Heresies (c. 250). </i>R. (<i>Historical Theology</i>)</span></b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiygQG0vdG6ZnADhIL2ImpVP_hEvnr4B0C5HUW-1iBK3yxXMw_L_e72-qtXaBVCNZBHv_6LmJ742suussq-boJ1eDIZb49_FzZrpF9L288sSn290beB9-RR7yyTJp3vk4ylhBlhe-sC1LFTlVyQOFdfim94agUai1nVCjJ7bzJGNdO7NLdMmYYGWV-2" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="264" data-original-width="181" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiygQG0vdG6ZnADhIL2ImpVP_hEvnr4B0C5HUW-1iBK3yxXMw_L_e72-qtXaBVCNZBHv_6LmJ742suussq-boJ1eDIZb49_FzZrpF9L288sSn290beB9-RR7yyTJp3vk4ylhBlhe-sC1LFTlVyQOFdfim94agUai1nVCjJ7bzJGNdO7NLdMmYYGWV-2" width="165" /></a></div><span> I read a thoughtfully abridged version that cut out some of the technical Gnostic jargon in books 1-3 </span>while retaining its teaching on Christianity. It is a gem of theology and Patristic thought. This is one for every Christian, not just seminarians; but sorrowful is the seminarian who graduates without having read this monumental Christian text. <p></p><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><p style="text-align: left;"><i>It is better and more beneficial to be classed with the simple and illiterate, but to be near God in love, than to imagine yourself learned and insightful but be numbered with those who blaspheme him, conjuring up a superior god to be the father.</i></p></div></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>2. Christopher Wright, <i>The Mission of God (2006)</i>. NR. (<i>Biblical Theology</i>)</b></span></p><p><span> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgB7MLxtsSZFZ0nDNO1ir6ff6lkFpaZ0tlNQZTMkjRNVWokJRseDznttkfPWvGxGAeIhnSJJS_oxCeFcMDm2ZPU6hn1X6eDKNgot2UiPOqla2MU6vuXX5WFY_LJMW9gB0kYD5EI_z_43hcWzSIA2zNhzCsgcwNa3urxQW76eF1vdFutXWuUhZQaM8Ko" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="253" data-original-width="170" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgB7MLxtsSZFZ0nDNO1ir6ff6lkFpaZ0tlNQZTMkjRNVWokJRseDznttkfPWvGxGAeIhnSJJS_oxCeFcMDm2ZPU6hn1X6eDKNgot2UiPOqla2MU6vuXX5WFY_LJMW9gB0kYD5EI_z_43hcWzSIA2zNhzCsgcwNa3urxQW76eF1vdFutXWuUhZQaM8Ko" width="161" /></a></div><br /> This book was considered "extra credit" in my NT Survey course, and boy am I glad I read it. Chris Wright's Biblical Theology of Mission draws out the unified narrative of the Old and New Testaments in light of God's mission of self-revelation to all the nations through Jesus. This is a bit technical and dense, but it is worth every ounce of effort!<br /><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><p style="text-align: left;"><i>It will be through Jesus that God will be known to the nations. And in knowing Jesus, they will know the living God. Jesus, in other words, fulfills the mission of the God of Israel. Or to put it the other way round: the God of Israel, whose declared mission was to make himself known to the nations through Israel, now wills to be known to the nations through the Messiah, the one who embodies Israel in his own person and fulfills the mission of Israel to the nations.</i></p></div></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">3. Eugene Peterson, <i>Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness (1992).</i> NR <span> </span>(<i>Pastoral Theology</i>)</span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhk8U3jaiZJqhkjHStYbUIPFgN5_y1-8VCkzWi8zab7krmonFt5TA_5-m4u61JcfgaXRbd92Rv5S5YliTRh48CbZ6DQcLo_nTEv8xYhne2Bk_rV7gnnNt_rjExbOjrQ9E6eEAxlUenskie7fu3kE2zdBskLKmpgAfjaw5cstS8yja9PZRtGQ41isve0" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="199" data-original-width="128" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhk8U3jaiZJqhkjHStYbUIPFgN5_y1-8VCkzWi8zab7krmonFt5TA_5-m4u61JcfgaXRbd92Rv5S5YliTRh48CbZ6DQcLo_nTEv8xYhne2Bk_rV7gnnNt_rjExbOjrQ9E6eEAxlUenskie7fu3kE2zdBskLKmpgAfjaw5cstS8yja9PZRtGQ41isve0" width="154" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span> Really, I would group all of Peterson's Pastoral Theology books here, but to choose one of the four, I would have to choose this. There are</span> elements of Peterson's theology that I certainly disagree with (his conversations on mysticism often go sideways), but these are a powerful corrective to what the "Evangelical Machine" presents mainstream pastoral ministry to be. I learned much from Peterson and would have every person who approaches anything remotely close to pastoral ministry read his books. As well as any layperson who loves their church. This particular book is gold at the beginning and the end, but feel free to breeze through some of the mysticism in the middle. </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i> But it is both possible and common to develop deep personal pieties that coexist alongside vocational idolatries without anyone noticing anything amiss. If the pastor is devout, it is assumed that the work is also devout. The assumption is unwarranted. Sincerity in a carpenter does not ensure an even saw cut. Neither does piety in a pastor guarantee true pastoral work. My impression is that the majority of pastors are truly good, well intentioned, even godly. But their goodness does not inevitably penetrate their vocations. </i></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">4. Donald Fairbairn, <i>Life in the Trinity. </i>R. (<i>Trinitarian/Historical Theology</i>)</span></b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjAdemdts7cXyVhCkLoDCYKFnbgWlnofj4fur-xMqYWGuUTWXiMTNFDuUVagCE9Ya2MfO7Z7nmU8oCP90ZFEK1banCNEN1Zb9Koo4tsXyGGeT1nEM1-XQ_DiEsROG0Q7F3xUeF8TACtaUdAM-zNNIiCpZDE8hnltB7KOk77HI9sK4jZJIUJkWY1zs9e" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="197" data-original-width="133" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjAdemdts7cXyVhCkLoDCYKFnbgWlnofj4fur-xMqYWGuUTWXiMTNFDuUVagCE9Ya2MfO7Z7nmU8oCP90ZFEK1banCNEN1Zb9Koo4tsXyGGeT1nEM1-XQ_DiEsROG0Q7F3xUeF8TACtaUdAM-zNNIiCpZDE8hnltB7KOk77HI9sK4jZJIUJkWY1zs9e" width="162" /></a></div><span> </span>My courses with Dr. Fairbairn were the best courses I took at Gordon-Conwell. It is difficult to overstate how much of an impact Dr. Fairbairn's courses had on me. If you pick up a copy of <i>Life in the Trinity</i>, you'll see why. Here is where Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox theology meet - firm belief in the trinitarian Godhead. Much of Protestant theology has grown anemic when it comes to Trinitarian Theology, and I highly recommend this very accessible book. Again, one for every seminarian and every layperson. <p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Doctrines are statements designed to point us to God; they are not meant as objects of faith themselves.</span></span></i></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>5. D.A. Carson, <i>Exegetical Fallacies (1996). </i>R. (<i>Exegesis/logic</i>)</b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi-_Gi3iM_SKnuyT6wYvqLp1XKUOMyqiVtr7kXzUIaOTEoArGsnvfjAfz936dfzIfOdSkk55daLaESaGMK7DYn9EMH6JPjqtBG-eRp9POsKDqg6JUOmDtvYB1qjpTA3yovZdlVfLbppzmH0LNtQ75JhtT1n0EIb8hyGb06kgo2oZLwxatCZNyBaMcnb" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="262" data-original-width="172" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi-_Gi3iM_SKnuyT6wYvqLp1XKUOMyqiVtr7kXzUIaOTEoArGsnvfjAfz936dfzIfOdSkk55daLaESaGMK7DYn9EMH6JPjqtBG-eRp9POsKDqg6JUOmDtvYB1qjpTA3yovZdlVfLbppzmH0LNtQ75JhtT1n0EIb8hyGb06kgo2oZLwxatCZNyBaMcnb" width="158" /></a></div><p></p><p><span> This book is certainly more for seminarians than for the layperson, but it is still accessible since Carson provides translations for Greek and Hebrew examples he uses. It suffers from being a dry read, which is why many don't get very far. But the importance of the content can hardly be overstated. </span><br /></p><p>I have heard people say that the theological conclusion of teaching is more important than the road travel to get there. I disagree. Building a bad case for a theological truth is hardly honoring to God, and it lays a foundation for people to be misled by someone with lesser theological moorings. I witness accomplished scholars make exegetical fallacious claims. Nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes, but being able to recognize them <i>and </i>avoid them is critical for the Christian minister. In my opinion, this is one of the most important extra-biblical books for teachers of the Bible. Seminarians in my imaginary school would virtually commit this book to memory. </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Semantic anachronism </i></p></div></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><p style="text-align: left;"><i>This fallacy occurs when a late use of a word is read back into earlier literature. At the simplest level, it occurs within the same language, as when the Greek early church fathers use a word in a manner not demonstrably envisaged by the New Testament writers. It is not obvious, for instance, that their use of ἐπίσκοπος (episkopos, bishop) to designate a church leader who has oversight over several local churches has any New Testament warrant. But the problem has a second face when we also add a change of language. Our word dynamite is etymologically derived from δύναμις (dynamis, power, or even miracle). I do not know how many times I have heard preachers offer some such rendering of Romans 1:16 as this: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the dynamite of God unto salvation for everyone who believes”—often with a knowing tilt of the head, as if something profound or even esoteric has been uttered. This is not just the old root fallacy revisited. It is worse: it is an appeal to a kind of reverse etymology, the root fallacy compounded by anachronism. Did Paul think of dynamite when he penned this word?</i></p></div></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-86997889978470048902020-05-11T17:44:00.003-04:002020-05-11T17:50:33.107-04:00Three Things I'd Like to Tell Myself Ten Years Ago (Before Going Into Ministry...)<br />
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Subject: From 2020 </div>
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Dear Jonathan, <o:p></o:p></div>
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Don’t freak out – I am writing to you from the future. This week you will graduate from college! That’s quite an achievement! Ok, the truth? (You
should hear it from me) It isn't <i>that</i> much of an achievement. Over the
next ten years you’ll find that it was one of the easier things you did in life.
Trust me, in about 9 months you’ll be in the hospital encouraging Maggie while
she is having your first... never mind. You’ll cross that bridge when you get
to it. That is not why I’m writing.<br />
<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Look, the year is 2020, we’re in the middle of a… thing… and
it sparked a bit of introspection. I know you are excited to really get to work
and start the path towards full-time vocational ministry. Before you start, there
are some things that I really wish I had known in 2010. I know you hate reading
right now, so here are the top three: <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfZMO-t3j4W2U7x9GDa8LnFA1YkyPj2kLhS811MPhzEJtha1XIBUi0U7iTpB-Qrbv8Uvg2V__ZyPAV-xwTBu0uZ_jAApggV1GjdWrURNeoj5t-TuJua4ZUJLJpY1BPrE8iZgyeCh06xxQ/s1600/IMG_1896.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfZMO-t3j4W2U7x9GDa8LnFA1YkyPj2kLhS811MPhzEJtha1XIBUi0U7iTpB-Qrbv8Uvg2V__ZyPAV-xwTBu0uZ_jAApggV1GjdWrURNeoj5t-TuJua4ZUJLJpY1BPrE8iZgyeCh06xxQ/s320/IMG_1896.JPG" width="240" /></a><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">1. </b><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Talk less, listen
more.</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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First, when you start talking, you stop listening. I know
you hold your convictions strongly, as you should. I know that you care greatly
about ministry, the Word, and the work of the Kingdom, as is fitting. But for
now, keep those strong opinions to yourself. Why? Because you really do not know
as much as you think you do. And if you dominate conversations, two things
happen: First, you miss out on the valuable thoughts of others, and second, what
little currency your opinions have is severely weakened. Listening to others is
invaluable, for many reasons. What you have to offer is not. General rule of
thumb here – when people ask what you think, share. Otherwise, keep it to
yourself. You will figure this out on your own in about seven years or so but
please don’t wait that long. So, shut up and listen up now, before it is too
late. </div>
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Consider this verse from Proverbs:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">keeps himself out of trouble. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span></sup></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Scoffer”
is the name of the arrogant, haughty man (Pr 21:23-24)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">2. <span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></b><span dir="LTR" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"></span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Learn the Languages.</b></div>
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I know, you do not see the point. You think the languages
are difficult. Our English translations are sufficient, you say. How do you
know? Have you earnestly tried? Do you not love the Scriptures? Do you not
delight in meditating upon them? Then why in pretense of knowledge and in
laziness do you deprive yourself of the delight, the access, the holy gift of
reading Scripture in its own language? People will try and tell you that all
you need is, at most, a little understanding of the grammar so you can use the
Bible programs. Don’t you believe it one second. You can no more read a whitewater
river run off of Google maps than you track the flow of thought of the author
in Logos by hovering over words. You can no more choose the freshest fruits and
vegetables over a grainy video call. You might as well develop your
relationship with your wife in tweets of 140 characters or less, or claim to
understand Shakespeare using only a 1st grade vocabulary list as your dictionary.
Neither can you really exegete a text without a firm grasp of the languages. You
don’t need to just look up the meaning of a word, you need to trace the flow of
thought of the author, plumb the depths of concepts laid bare, and wrestle with
difficult portions of scripture that English translations gloss right over. And
as much as the church needs exegetes in the pews as well as the pulpits, we have
precious few of either. It is not yours to judge the decisions of others - not every Christian should learn the languages – but as
one who will devote your life to the ministry of the word, you are without
excuse. You would never support career missions relying solely on translators,
so why do insist on relying on them when it comes to the Scriptures?</div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
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<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">3. Practice self-control.</b></div>
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Self-control is fruit of the Spirit. Why is it so far from
you? Your life patterns are characterized by what feels good at the time. You arise
from bed only when you must, you return to bed only when your body rebels. You
spend your free time in whatever seems most fun. You don’t clean up after
yourself. You pray only when you must. You laugh out loud at the idea of
reading. <i>Control yourself</i>. Bring your body and your mind – your passions,
as Paul would say – under your own control. If you cannot do this with the help
of God in the small things like making yourself wash the dishes, clean the
bathroom, or wash the car, then why do you expect to resist temptation or even
grow in prayer? Why should you think to endure any trials at all? (And trust me, you have no idea the things coming at you.) If by the
Spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live! Get your head in
the game. Exercise self-control in small areas of life so that when it really
counts, your passions are accustomed to submission. Besides, it would be easier
for me to do so now if you start today. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I know that you wouldn't hear these even if I were there in
person explaining them to you. The process is as much a part of the journey as
the outcome. But oh, how I would change how slow we’ve been to learn. Anyways,
I have to go now - I just got a weird looking email with the subject line “From 2030”.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Grace be with you, <br />
Jonathan<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<br />
PS, pick up some stock in Amazon. I hear it's gonna go places beyond used books.Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-967367889815766742020-01-01T21:38:00.000-05:002020-01-01T21:38:01.403-05:00My Prayer for 2020<br />
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Saints,</div>
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<br /></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Each new year feels in some way like a fresh start, giving
the option of a second chance at something failed. I think perhaps that is why New
Year’s resolutions are made.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I have a few personal resolutions of my own, but instead of
sharing those, I thought I’d share some specific prayers I will be praying for
me and for the whole flock of God around the world. I thought I would share in case
you echo them, and we can together lift our voices. Fight the good fight,
running the race, all for the King. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Lord, help us be learners, not leaders. </i><o:p></o:p></div>
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Our churches, businesses, ministries, and communities are saturated
with people trying to raise up an enterprise in the name of Jesus. But often
these degrade into human endeavors in search of personal success. O, the shame –
O, the tears. Look on your people with mercy, and teach us your ways which are
not like ours. May we count all gains and successes as loss for the sake of
knowing you. May we shun the praise and applause and opt instead for sharing in
sufferings with Christ Jesus. Open our eyes to our human endeavors we think are
divine, and give us eyes to see where you are at work, that in some small way
we throw our frail human shoulders into the load that you are already carrying
- not because you need our help in any way, but because it is what you created
us to do. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>May we be lovers of your word!<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmIAQPgp4dkH-uoFIs36UbaJKinkeq-MnVEP3RJsqSEqKAeg612G8mViuUOERW9xCbhfrukxhl6ZDesXMFplCRCE3kkYX27ieEzYhftegnOgYE3buxcqekaZMvhakoJLNd5Ko9IZNMtsM/s1600/IMG_20160309_085808655+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmIAQPgp4dkH-uoFIs36UbaJKinkeq-MnVEP3RJsqSEqKAeg612G8mViuUOERW9xCbhfrukxhl6ZDesXMFplCRCE3kkYX27ieEzYhftegnOgYE3buxcqekaZMvhakoJLNd5Ko9IZNMtsM/s320/IMG_20160309_085808655+%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a>Too often we think we know enough, Father. That because your
Spirit indwells us, we have all we need. But throughout the corridors of time,
your people have been devoted to your learning and studying words in the
Scriptures, that they might honor and obey you all the more, O King. Because we
love you, we love the words you have spoken and treasure them. Let them be the
center of our thoughts throughout the day, in reading, speaking, singing, and
memorization. May we too, like the saints of old, like Jesus himself, be a <i>People
of the Book</i>. We ask your mercy and forgiveness for every misuse, every time
we twist your words as if we ourselves are speaking them. Let your Scriptures
inform and critique our doctrine and our singing, and not the other way around.
Give us eyes to see and humility to be corrected, admonished, and rebuked and
brought to the end of ourselves – to poorness of spirit.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Would you raise up men and women who are willing to give up
their personal rights and agendas for you and your kingdom?</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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We live in a world that demands that we demand our rights.
But you have told us that we find life in giving it away and that we find
freedom in giving up our freedom. Lord, you see how filled with pride we really
are, how our interests always seem to sneak into first place. Too often we find
ourselves wanting to be the center of the change. Even as I write this, O Lord,
I want the ‘likes’ and the nods of agreement. Kill this at the root. Cut off my
ties to self and cauterize my fear of what others think so as to speak and act
boldly without regard to what others think. Cut off my need for comfort, break
off my need to be heard, stifle my need to make a difference. Rather, help me give
up all things I think I deserve. Kill the idea of personal rights. And raise up
other people all around, that we feel neither lonely nor elite. But if the
feeling of loneliness is the cost of giving up rights, then help me embrace it
with courage and faith. Help me rejoice not because of success nor significance
of my work, but because my name is written in the book of life.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br /><br />
<br />
All for the honor of Christ.<br />
<br />
AmenJonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-10973754229344535962019-12-07T14:50:00.000-05:002019-12-07T14:50:34.057-05:00Advent 2 - Meditations from Jeremiah<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><u><b>Read</b></u></span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> Jeremiah 11:1-8; 16:10-15</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b><i><u>Consider</u></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
indictments against the chosen people only intensify after chapter Jeremiah
chapter two. Their evil has long enough been a stain not only on the earth, but
against God whose name they bear. God will be faithful to his word, and there
will be no escaping the promised judgments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In today’s
world, the word ‘faith’ has become a harmless word, stripped strength and substance.
When something goes wrong, we ‘have faith’ that things will turn out right. But
why? What basis is there for such a claim? <i>Faith</i> is a word that demands
a foundation. If my wife tells me she will buy milk at the store on her way
home, I can have faith that she will – because she has proven herself
trustworthy and has given me something in which to trust (the words she spoke).
If she did <i>not</i> say anything about buying milk, I would have no grounds
to trust that she will buy anything whatsoever, regardless of how trustworthy
she is – because she has not given me a proposition in which to trust. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Faith is a
conviction of things not seen (Heb 11:1). Faith is the confidence that <i>what God</i>
<i>says</i> is <i>true</i>. And in Jeremiah 11, God will stay true to what he
said in his covenant. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The covenant
mentioned in Jeremiah 11 was the agreement, the contract made at Mt. Sinai
after God freed his people from slavery in Egypt. Covenants were common
agreements in the ancient world, often made between a powerful entity (or ‘overlord’)
and a party of weaker entities, (or ‘vassals’). Among other things, covenants
contained <i>stipulations</i> (laws) as well as blessings and curses. If the
stipulations were followed, blessings would follow (see Deut. 28:1-14). And if
the stipulations were broken, curses would come. This may sound like a
legalistic, works-based relationship but consider this – Israel was rescued by
God from Egypt having done nothing to deserve or earn His grace and salvation.
Obedience came after grace – not to earn grace, but in response to the God who
extended it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Of special
interest to us are the covenant curses mentioned in Deut. 28:47-63. These curses
describe the people being removed from their country, scattered among the
nations, and serving their enemies: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><u style="font-style: italic;">Because you did not
serve the Lord</u><i> your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of
the abundance of all things, therefore </i><u style="font-style: italic;">you shall serve your enemies</u><i> whom
the Lord will send against you. </i>(Deut. 28:</span><span style="font-size: 16px;">47-48)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>And
the Lord will scatter you from one end of the earth to the other…</i> (Deut 28:64)<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This exile is
the promise referred to in Jeremiah 11:8. But the people did not believe it.
Where faith should have been found, there was only a hollow echo. God would
keep his promise, and as much as Jeremiah’s voice clamored from the people to
hear and be warned, it fell only on deaf ears. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><i>For I
solemnly warned your fathers when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt,
warning them persistently even to this day saying, ‘Obey my voice.’ Yet they
did not obey… </i>(Jer 11:7)<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Our passage
in chapter 16 parallels the same curse. Verse 13, for example: “Therefore, I
will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers
have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show
you no favor.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">At this
point, it is worth stopping to ponder, how much faith do we really put in
Jesus’ words. Are his promises of blessing and curse (and yes – there are
both!) a fact to be reckoned with? Or will these too fall on deaf ears? His
warnings are to be heeded as closely the promises which we remember so well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In his depth
of wisdom, even as the Lord promises to fulfill the covenant curses, he makes
another promise of salvation. Read again 16:14-15. Yes, he will hurl his people
out of the land – but he will also bring them back. The promise of return helped
give Daniel and other God-fearing exiles strength to be faithful to God even in
a foreign rule and opposition, much like we trust in the promise of Jesus to
return. Today we remember and celebrate how true faith characterizes those who
truly belong to God. God greatly honored Joseph and Mary’s faith – God himself
was brought up in their family. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">When Mary was visited by Gabriel, her she responded in faith: <i>“Behold, I am
the servant of the Lord”</i> (Lk 1:38). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Joseph’s response to the angel of the Lord also contrasts Israel’s historic
unbelief</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">: <i>“When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord
commanded him”</i> (Mt 1:24)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And Jesus himself demonstrated his faith and trust in the Father, <i>though
he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be
grasped,<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup> </sup></b>but emptied
himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.</i>
<i>And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to
the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil 2:6-8)<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><b><u>Sing</u></b> </span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz4LBjysReA">Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent</a></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b><u>Pray</u></b></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Oh Father, keeper of covenants, both old and new, loyal to your people;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love – <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Have mercy on me and my lack of faith. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">For flesh is weak, and I need your Spirit to renew my heart and my mind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Make me ever more aware of what draws my mind and affections, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">That would compete in any way with allegiance to your word, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And love for your ways. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">When you see me, see only the righteousness of Christ which he has given
me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Lord I believe, help my unbelief. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-68136329531959062182019-11-30T16:26:00.001-05:002019-11-30T16:26:46.924-05:00Advent - Meditations from Jeremiah<h2 style="text-align: center;">
1. Reminder: Why We Hope</h2>
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(Jeremiah 2:5-13)</div>
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Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake your God... (Jer 2:19a)</div>
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When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the people of God were waiting for God’s promised savior. They were ruled by foreign powers who were unsympathetic to them and the worship of God. There was the haunting recollection that their God had brought them into a land to rule themselves, to be a kingdom of priests before God in the world.<br />
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But darkness had come upon the land and the kingdom of priests reveled in evil and wickedness. God thrust them into the captivity and punishment which had been promised since Sinai, and so patiently delayed for centuries. They never ruled the land again like they had at first.<br />
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They were looking for a savior, a rescuer, someone to lead the charge against the Romans like Moses against the Egyptians, Joshua against the Canaanites, or David against the Philistines. They expected God to fix the problem of Roman rule. But that’s not what happened. God himself descended to rescue them from the same root problem which plagued them since the beginning of time: the hell-bent problem of sin (Mt 1:21), rebellion against God, and to establish his own kingdom that transcends human ones.<br />
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Traditionally, on the first Sunday of Advent, we ponder the hope of that coming Messiah. Scripture is read and songs are sung to remember this hope, to re-ignite it once again. But I am struck by the fact that hope is only necessary when something is wrong. What need is there for hope if nothing is wrong?<br />
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So, let us revisit the ancient darkness that brought God to take his people to their knees before their enemies. Let us heighten our awareness of our troubled state in order to evoke greater hope for the Messiah, for the light shines brightest when the darkness is blackest. Let us then peer into the darkness that we may search for the radiance of the light all the more fervently.<br />
The prophet Jeremiah was born on the brink of the disaster, Israel’s defeat by the Babylonians. Jeremiah is sometimes called the weeping prophet. He watched the decay of the people, the rejection of God, and was there during the final siege of Jerusalem.<br />
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Jeremiah’s role as prophet is in fact so hard that God gives him a unique call (1:5), telling him that he was chosen by God in his mother’s womb for this job. His is to be a long and unfulfilling life in service to God and there will be no second-guessing his calling.<br />
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I encourage you to read all of Jeremiah before Christmas, but for now, before proceeding, read Jeremiah 2:4-13. ‘Thus says the Lord’... These are God’s words to the people spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah.<br />
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I hope when you read this you feel the gut-wrenching emotion in these words. The faithlessness of the people is likened to that of a faithless spouse (3:1-3).<br />
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What wrong was found in God that they should turn their love elsewhere? The abandonment wasn’t an isolated event. Verse 8 shows the totality priests, scholars of scripture, kings (shepherd is the frequent metaphor for a king), and even the prophets. The turning from God was complete. Every person that was supposed to remind and point people to God was leading them away. What did he ever do to lose their trust? Has he not built enough trust with them?<br />
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But their abandoning God has nothing to do with his character and everything to do with theirs. The question in 10-11 highlights just how insane this really is – not even pagan nations worshiping false gods switch the god they worship. How can it be that the very chosen and rescued ones would exchange the living God for emptiness? He has only ever been true. How can they so casually switch their allegiance? “Be appalled, O heavens”, says the Lord, “be shocked, be utterly desolate.” Creation itself is called in to bear witness. This a preposterous thing that cannot be hyperbolized.<br />
Verse 13 throws down the gauntlet. Here is the darkness, here is the evil.<br />
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...My people have committed two evils:<br />
they have forsaken me,<br />
the fountain of living waters,<br />
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,<br />
broken cisterns that can hold no water.<br />
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These are the two evils. The first is the forsaking, the abandoning, the turning from God. The second is committing themselves to another – to any other.<br />
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It is a strange thing as Christians that today we might consider sins against God less grave than sins against humanity, or even against the planet itself.<br />
Jeremiah roots the evil of the people as first forsaking God. Do we orient our thoughts of evil in relation to God?<br />
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Why carve cisterns? Why choose stale water that sits in the dirty earth? Why work hours carving, hewing, scraping out caverns in the earth? Why abandon a bubbling spring, cold, fresh and clean – then that dirty sweat-filled cistern cannot hold any water in the first place? It is the act of a madman. But there is no thought, no logic or reason behind the choice; only desire passion. Doing what feels good at the time, what seems right in the moment. That is why they are later likened to a wild donkey in heat roaming the wilderness overcome with lust (2:24), or a prostitute waiting for lovers (3:2b). Be shocked. Be utterly desolate. Of all the people on the earth, they have been chosen by the majestic, awesome, creating, rescuing God – to be his own people whom he will guard and protect, for whom he will provide and grow. But, no. They party around the empty cistern, dying of thirst, and pretending it is full. Let the despair slowly sink in.<br />
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And yet, as I look around today, the words of Jeremiah are eerily descriptive of our time. Even now people flock to temples to mammon and consumerism, to give devotion to and receive worth from plastic, wood, screens, and virtual or alternate realities. In our lusts and passions are we not liable to switch our allegiance to whatever suits our current feelings? Even when Jesus walked this earth, “he came to his own, but his own people did not receive him.” Among those who did receive him are those who represent the thorns in the parable of the sower (Lk 8:4-14). “As for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.” Any voice that we serve other than the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is an empty promise, filled with dust and not water. What scares me is that I know I am easily swayed by my own desires and passions. What scares me is that I might value feeling like I’m following Christ more than honoring God in obedience to the Son. If I can check the right boxes, I can go back to my cistern guilt-free. Be shocked. Be utterly appalled.<br />
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Looking into the darkness, into the weakness and absurdity of Israel – and ours today as Christians - we are again made aware of how dire the situation, and how much we need – and hope for - Messiah Jesus.<br />
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Prayer<br />
O Lord our Father, as we go about daily tasks and as we prepare for the Christmas season in all of the ways which are unique to our families and cultures,<br />
Grant us O Lord to be filled with the emptiness that will accompany anything that we devote ourselves to without first being devoted to the Son,<br />
Lest we find ourselves governed by our passions and not Christ.<br />
Let your Spirit reveal in us where we wander and stray, that we might turn from the heart to the Hope of all nations.<br />
O Christ Jesus, let our wait be not much longer. As we remember your first coming, we anxiously await the second. Tarry not, O King.<br />
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Sing: O Come O Come Emmanuel, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus<br />
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<br />Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-26487631644413583962019-05-21T23:12:00.001-04:002019-11-26T14:03:16.092-05:00Love The Glory That Comes From God: Commencement Address, Class of 2019<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">May 11, 2019 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Dear Ashley, Libby, Sam, and Sienna -<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Congratulations. I hope you know how proud
everyone here is of you. Your parents have treasured you from the moment they
knew you were coming. They changed your diapers, held your hands as you learned
to walk, and tenderly washed scraped knees. Countless sleepless nights and long
days were poured into nurturing and guiding and teaching. Today's ceremony
marks both a celebration and a loss. Even as you still have to finish some
coursework, today we also celebrate your readiness to enter the world: the hope
and dread of every parent who still sees in your eyes the same baby they held
in their arms when you first arrived. Take to heart the words of scripture:
honor your father and your mother.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">It is customary in such commencement speeches
to share words of inspiration and motivation. But, for those of you who have
read Winnie the Pooh, I'm afraid I'm more of an Eeyore than a Piglet. What I
bring for you is a sentence - breathed out by God - that amplifies a silent
struggle inside us all. And it is my prayer that this sentence would be branded
into your mind as you turn your face to the horizon for life's next sunrise. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Here it is. </span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"><b>"For they loved the glory that comes
from man more than the glory that comes from God.</b>"</span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Right after the triumphal entry, and right
before Jesus meets privately with his disciples in the upper room we find this
short yet striking comment by John on the belief of the people…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">"Though he had done so many signs before them,
they still did not believe in him, 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet
Isaiah might be fulfilled:" [</span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">and then John quotes two prophecies from Isaiah that are
fulfilled in the unbelief of the people. But despite that, he writes, there was
some belief.] "<i>42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities
believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that
they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 <b>for they loved the glory
that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.</b>" (John 12)</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">They loved the glory that comes from man more
than the glory that comes from God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">And just like that we get straight to the
bottom of the mess. They were afraid of the rejection. They were afraid of the
loss of prestige. They were afraid of the shame of be being different. They
couldn't bear the thought of publicly being put out of the synagogue - like
being excommunicated from church, marched out on a Sunday morning in front of Sunday school
teachers, friends, and people they’ve come to respect. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">And the reason for the fear, John tells us,
is that they loved the glory - the praise - that comes from other people, more
than the glory that comes from God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">And someone might get up and lecture on how
foolish these men were, because God's glory is supremely better than man's. How
man's glory is fleeting, and God's glory is eternal. How praise from mankind is
deceitful and praise from God is honest. How you <i>should</i> love one, and how they picked the <b>wrong </b>one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">But I wonder if John didn't put this here,
didn't word this in such a way, that when we think of these authorities, we find
ourselves looking into a mirror. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"><i>They loved the glory that comes from man more
than the glory that comes from God. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">It's a bit too honest, isn't it? A bit too
abrupt. It doesn't make a nice sermon - it makes a terrible graduation speech! But for someone who believes, and who really wants to love God, it makes us
pause. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">What I love about Scripture is that honesty overshadows idealism. And
that gives me freedom to be honest with myself. But it makes me terrified to
answer the question hidden in that phrase. Because the question isn't whether I believe or do not believe -- the belief is a sure thing. The question is that
- <i>believing</i> - which do I love more? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"><i>They loved the glory that comes from man,
more than the glory that comes from God. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">The four of you are in ministry through Youth
Group's student leadership, if not in other areas as well, and I would just say to you that ministry is a dangerous and deceptive road. Because the waters of whom we
serve easily become muddied. Much of society around us honors us rather than
rejects us for the time and ministry we do. It feels good when people like and
appreciate us. And the danger is we can grow accustomed to this, and it becomes
an essential part of our diet. And we start trying to find ways to get more of
it. But when it comes time to confront someone, or to speak out about sin, or
to criticize cultural values that are not godly - when the message or direction
from the Lord is unpopular, we find ourselves in a tough spot. Will we embrace the rejection, or will we silently duck under the wave so as not to disrupt being
liked? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">The men in this passage chose to remain
silent. They loved the glory that comes from man, more than the glory that comes from God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Have you ever swam in the ocean, and a big,
rough wave is thundering towards you - and you duck under the wave so that the
turbulence passes over you, but underneath the wave it is calm and safe. And
when you pop up, the wave has passed - and so has the rough water. That’s what
these Pharisees were doing. If they just kept silent, maybe the whole thing
would pass by just like that wave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">For fear of the Pharisees they did not
confess him… for they loved the glory that comes from man, more than the glory
that comes from God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Jesus was the antithesis of this, wasn't he?
Contrary to popular opinion, I would argue that Jesus was not very influential -
not by today's standards. His message was too demanding. Every time a large
crowd would follow him, he would up the ante and say something crazy, and
almost everyone would leave. His family thought he was going mad, the Jewish
authorities thought he was a lawless blasphemer, and the Romans thought he
wasn't much more than a fly on a wall, harmless and maybe a little senile. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">But
Jesus didn’t come to be influential – he came to honor the Father. And he was
met with frequent rejection. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">But Jesus
says, right before our story, that the person who serves him will be honored by
the Father. It’s right here in John 12:25-26: “Whoever loves his life loses
it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If
any one serves me, he must follow me and where I am there will my servant be
also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Do you want to be
honored by the Father? Then serve the Son! But don’t forget the context of the
verse. If anyone would serve me – he must follow me. There is a cost. The
rejection of the world is harsh, unless we pad it with the acceptance of man. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">It brings to
mind an old poem by a woman who was missionary in India for 55 years. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Hast thou no
scar?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">No hidden
scar on foot, or side, or hand?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">I hear thee
sung as mighty in the land,<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">I hear them
hail thy bright ascendant star,<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Hast thou no
scar?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Hast thou no
wound?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Yet, I was
wounded by the archers, spent.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Leaned me
against the tree to die, and rent<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">By ravening
beasts that compassed me, I swooned:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Hast thou no
wound?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">No wound? No
scar?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Yet as the
Master shall the servant be,<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">And pierced
are the feet that follow Me;<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">But thine
are whole. Can he have followed far<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Who has no wound nor scar?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">In Matthew 16, Jesus had asked Peter who
people say that he was. Some were saying John the Baptist, others Elijah, and
some said the prophet Jeremiah. None of these men were popular. All three of
them confronted governments and kings, prophesying judgment upon sin. Each of
them had been given a task by God and were rejected by men.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Each of them certainly loved the glory that
comes from God rather than the glory that comes from man. But it cost them
dearly. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Elijah was often exhausted. Some speculate that he suffered from
depression. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet because of the tears he
shed for his people at the coming judgment – if they would only return to the
Lord! Yet they would not listen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">John the Baptist was beheaded by Herod. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Jesus died on the most shameful execution
rack known to the Roman world at the hands of the Jews, the very chosen people of
God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Hast thou no wound? Or do you love the glory
that comes from men more than the glory that comes from God?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Remember Peters words about Jesus - a living
stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">"If you are insulted for the name of Christ," Peter says, "you are blessed". "I have given them your word," Jesus says when
praying to the father, "and the world has hated them because they are not of the
world, just as I am not of the world."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">After Jesus ascends into heaven, his
followers continue his message. The same leaders who had sentenced Jesus to
death, the highest court of the Jews, drag Peter and John into the courtroom, and
they charge them not to speak or teach at all in the name of jesus. And Peter
and John are severely threatened. And when they get out, incredibly they don’t
ask for the persecution to stop. They ask for more boldness: “And now Lord,
look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your
word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and
wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” (Acts
4:29-30).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">But those people who were afraid of the
Pharisees… they loved the glory that comes from man, more than the glory that
comes from God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">So I hope this sentence burns itself into
your minds. I hope that your stomach churns and your mouth goes dry. I hope
that I keep you up at night. Because I hope the tension is real. And hope that
our devotion to Christ will find us one day honored by the Father. And that
until that day, that the Lord would grant us all to speak truth boldly to this
broken world – even if they hate us for it. Because I hope we love the glory
that comes from God more than the glory that comes from man.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">I am so proud of you. You have made it so far, and you have so much ahead of you. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Honor your parents. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Honor the Father.<br />And serve the Son!</span></div>
<br />Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-9175989264323123902019-04-20T13:50:00.000-04:002019-04-20T13:50:06.586-04:00The Victory of the Cross - Reflections on Good Friday<br />
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I count it an immense blessing to live in a country where Good Friday is a national holiday. Yesterday, a parade went by our home. Pontius Pilate led the way with his wife, followed by Caiaphas the high priest, a large group of Roman guards, and finally Jesus carrying the cross.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We protestants often don’t think too much about Good Friday. But it was the climax of Jesus’ life on earth up to the resurrection. It is in his arrest, trial, and execution that Jesus is seems to be defeated. And yet it is here that the Gospel writers find him victorious.<o:p></o:p></div>
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John records the deep irony of Jesus’ trial with Pilate. There are three main characters: Jesus, Pilate, and “the Jews.” (It is important to understand that “the Jews” is John’s way of talking about the Jewish authorities, not just a random group of Jews.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jesus had been arrested and brought before a local council of Jewish leaders. There were no credible witnesses against them, but they still wanted him dead. They brought him to Pilate apparently with the charge of insurrection, rebellion against Rome (remember the crowds shouting earlier that week “blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">even the King of Israel! </i>Jn 12:13) But John does not record that they have any credible accusation against Jesus. So, Pilate takes Jesus inside the house to question him. But as Pilate is interrogating Jesus, he finds no guilt in him. And so he goes in and out six times reasoning with the Jews, and questioning Jesus. But there are seven scenes, not six: the middle scene is in 19:1-3, rendered well by the NRSV:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.<sup> </sup>And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. They kept coming up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and striking him on the face.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">It is no coincidence that this lies in at the center of the trial. It is one way that John highlights this part of the story. Here Jesus, Pilate, and the Jews are all silent. It is the mocking soldiers who unknowingly testify to the truth. Here is the suffering-servant-king. He is not king in spite of suffering – but in light of it!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Having questioned Jesus, Pilate goes out to the Jews declaring that he has found no guilt in Jesus. The Jews bring a new charge against Jesus – he has claimed to be the Son of God. As it turns out, though Jesus is apparently on trial, it is really the Jews who are on trial as Jesus pronounces the guilt of the high priest: “The one who delivered me to you has a greater sin [than Pilate]” (vs 11).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Finally, the Jews corner Pilate into pronouncing a guilty verdict on Jesus (v.12). John describes in great detail the place, the day, and the time that the verdict is delivered. It is the same day (and some argue the same time) that the Passover lambs are slaughtered. Between breaths, one can almost hear the pronouncement of John the Baptist – behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! But what Pilate says next is neither this nor guilty verdict the Jews expect:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">“Behold your king!”</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">The crowd, enraged, demands his crucifixion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">And bringing down guilt and condemnation on their heads, they scream at Pilate –<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">“We have no king but Caesar.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Through the roar of the crowd, we can hear echoes of God’s response to Samuel at the people’s demand for a king – ‘they have rejected me as their king.’ Do not miss that this is precisely what is happening.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">This rejection of the identity of God as their king, and of Jesus who is presented to them <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">as their king</i> by the most powerful Roman representative in the land sucks the breath out of the observant reader who remembers the words that were written in the beginning of the book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup> </sup></b>He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">We must see Jesus as King not in spite of the cross – but in light of it. The cross characterizes and defines not only his kingship but his kingdom and all those who belong to it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Littleness as opposed to leadership. Humility as opposed to hubris. Sacrifice as opposed to self-preservation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">It only appears as if this world is run by the visible powers. Underneath the chaos, the power of God is at work in the quiet, in the invisible, in the subversive. In Jesus’ apparent failure - crushed beneath the Roman war machine, rejected by his own people – the power of God was at work in the most glorious way the world would ever know. And the desperation of the rejection is staved off by this brilliant hope:<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><o:p></o:p></sup></i></b></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-34310445896902789702018-10-23T00:22:00.001-04:002018-10-23T00:22:15.209-04:00How Eugene Peterson Changed My Life - a Tribute<div class="MsoNormal">
Today (Monday the 22nd), Eugene Peterson breathed his last breath in this life and his first in the next. </div>
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Eugene Peterson was perhaps best known for his lesser accomplishment: The Message. If you see any tributes to his life, you may read about his meekness and quiet nature; but his tongue could fire arrows off faster than the legendary elf-prince, Legolas. His target? The American church and the American Pastor. He would critique himself before any other but never pulled any punches when it counted. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I cannot overstate the influence Peterson has had on me and our ministry. He has four books on pastoral leadership: Five Smooth Stones, The Contemplative Pastor, Working the Angles, and Under the Unpredictable Plant. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Too many times have I found myself been gasping for breath as the prophetic words of this gentle man tore at my worldly outlook on ministry, as Aslan tore the dragon-flesh from Eustace. I read his books slowly so that the sting of the words could sink deep enough to brand my mind before moving on. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I can hear an objection forming – shouldn’t the Bible be the most important book in your life? Undoubtedly. And by God’s grace, it is. But Peterson has caught on to the fact that much of what we do in Christian ministry has but paid lip service to the sacred Scriptures. And he exposed where my devotion to God and His Word ended, and where the lip service began.<o:p></o:p></div>
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“Why do pastors have such a difficult time being pastors? Because we are awash in idolatry. Where two or three are gathered together and the name of God comes up, a committee is formed for making an idol. We want gods that are not gods so we can ‘be as gods’…<o:p></o:p></div>
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“Personal holiness, the lifelong process by which our hearts and minds and bodies are conformed to Christ, is more often addressed. But it is both possible and common to develop deep personal pieties that coexist alongside vocational idolatries without anyone knowing anything amiss. If the pastor is devout, it is assumed that the work is also devout. The assumption is unwarranted. Sincerity in a carpenter does not ensure an even saw cut…<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdegzobWrC64gt7TWlSaFbaJh5xBIu4wffHgx9DPQX5TUV3oQYSikVoX7snBTWFzEktl0jRis4MDZDuqZqoTXh2YQ3ppmEW5Y44u78yACSVIFZl6gbVbtN6jMYT50pTm-eMOYMmVSEhhs/s1600/EugenePeterson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdegzobWrC64gt7TWlSaFbaJh5xBIu4wffHgx9DPQX5TUV3oQYSikVoX7snBTWFzEktl0jRis4MDZDuqZqoTXh2YQ3ppmEW5Y44u78yACSVIFZl6gbVbtN6jMYT50pTm-eMOYMmVSEhhs/s1600/EugenePeterson.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image taken from somewhere on the internet</td></tr>
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“The pastoral vocation in America is embarrassingly banal. It is banal because it is pursued under the canons of job efficiency and career management. It is banal because it is reduced to the dimensions of a job description. It is banal because it is an idol – a call from God exchanged for an offer by the devil for work that can be measured and manipulated at the convenience of the worker. Holiness is not banal. Holiness is blazing.”<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?rinli=1&pli=1&blogID=5555660090415885236#_ftn1" title="">[1]</a></span></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?rinli=1&pli=1&blogID=5555660090415885236#_ftn1" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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‘Pastor,’ is easily replaced with ‘youth worker’ or ‘missionary’. In the midst of voices such as Rick Warren’s, Andy Stanley’s, and John Maxwell’s, Peterson’s words are succinctly drowned out. Because if we’re honest, we’d rather have formulas for success than God. God is unpredictable. God may not have my success as anywhere in his plan. God means embracing sacrifice. </div>
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But the wisdom of this age is attractive, filling our bellies and newsletters like those delicious casseroles at a church potlucks – so satisfying, so delicious. (Or, to catch up with the times, that frothy latte served in the back of the sanctuary as we walk to our carefully selected assortment of seating choices.) <o:p></o:p></div>
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“The people in our congregations are, in fact, out shopping for idols. They enter our churches with the same mind-set in which they go to the shopping mall, to get something that will please them or satisfy an appetite or need. John Calvin saw the human heart as a relentlessly efficient factory for producing idols. Congregations commonly see the pastor as the quality-control engineer in the factory. The moment we accept the position, though, we defect from our vocation. The people who gather in our congregations want help through a difficult time; they want meaning and significance in their venture. They want God, in a way, but certainly not a ‘jealous God,’ not the ‘God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Mostly they want to be their own god and stay in control but have ancillary idol assistance for the hard parts, which the pastor can show them how to get…<o:p></o:p></div>
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“Living in golden calf country as we do, it is both easy and attractive to become a successful pastor like Aaron.” <span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?rinli=1&pli=1&blogID=5555660090415885236#_ftn2" title="">[2]</a></span></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?rinli=1&pli=1&blogID=5555660090415885236#_ftn2" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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What do our churches/ministries need for growth? What component can we provide that to clinch the deal? Bigger building? Bigger parking lot? Better visuals? Peterson writes that after he had planted his church and they had finished funding and building their church building, attendance dropped. He reached out to his denomination for advice: <o:p></o:p></div>
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“I was advised by my denominational supervisors to start new projects immediately – recapture the people’s enthusiasm with something ‘they could get their hands on.’ I respectfully declined their counsel, for I had suddenly awakened to the fact that what we can get our hands on is idols…<o:p></o:p></div>
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“It turned out that far more people than I would have guessed had helped develop and build the new church because it was a religious project, and idol that gave meaning and focus in the context of something worthwhile and suggestive of transcendence. They were not interested in God. Worshipping God was not emotionally exciting. Loving neighbors was not ego-satisfying.”<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?rinli=1&pli=1&blogID=5555660090415885236#_ftn3" title="">[3]</a></span></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?rinli=1&pli=1&blogID=5555660090415885236#_ftn3" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Peterson calls to account the entire enterprise of American Christianity. And what a bloated enterprise we are. We actually have companies that come in and evaluate a church’s attendance increase or decrease, plug in their formula, offer guaranteed results with x-number of steps, and viola – results! More attendance, more money, more ministries, more staff, and we’re back to needing to fund the staff and ministries. All in the name of ‘ministry’ and ‘worship.’ </div>
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How have we stooped so low? The money itself that we spend on ourselves on our buildings, sound systems, ambiance lighting, and short-term mission trips so that we can satisfy the need to <i>feel</i> engaged in global missions stands as our accuser.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m certain that Peterson was not the only one writing about these things. But his four books on pastoral leadership (well, the three that I’ve read so far – I read them slowly, remember?) have revolutionized the way that I see ministry - that I see the faith as a whole. </div>
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Of all that he wrote in this life, this set of four books is certainly his greatest work – even when we pretend like it’s not there. I am certain that outside of the Bible, no author has influenced me more. Thank you, pastor Eugene, for your public rebuke of my prideful wanderings. God has used your words to bring my understanding of church and ministry back from the brink of prideful self-destruction as I endeavor to live my life in long obedience in the same direction. Enjoy your rest. Praise be to the Son.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?rinli=1&pli=1&blogID=5555660090415885236#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Peterson, <i>Under The Unpredictable Plant</i>, 4-5<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?rinli=1&pli=1&blogID=5555660090415885236#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <i>Ibid</i>, 81-82<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?rinli=1&pli=1&blogID=5555660090415885236#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <i>Ibid</i>, 84-85<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-18316708194208316272018-05-08T15:53:00.002-04:002019-05-05T23:21:33.535-04:00Commencement Address, Homeschool Graduating Class of 2018 - San Jose, Costa RicaApril 28, 2018<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Good afternoon – for those who do not know me, my name is Jonathan Hunter. I have had the honor of knowing these young men and women through their high school years as their youth pastor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Jaci mentioned that everyone prefers funny speeches for graduations. She’s probably right. But, to your disappointment (I’m sure), I don’t have that luxury. You see, I have been given a responsibility toward these wonderful young men and women that I take very seriously A responsibility to continuously remind and point them to faith, to assurance in God and his promises. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">For years we have gathered in this room and we have opened these pages to eat from the Scriptures. And as I began to prepare for this speech, I realized that for you four, this is my last chance to stand here to impart to you the Word of God. For my last words, I would leave you with one final warning. It is basic. So basic that might seem insignificant: like bringing a pencil to taking the SAT or wearing a bathing suit at the beach – you don’t think of the foundation that was laid under your house until it crumbles. So, the final warning I give is this: beware of forsaking Yahweh for something that feels more fulfilling – you will lose every time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">When God called Jeremiah, it was not to a life of fulfillment and comfort. There was no sweet spot for Jeremiah. There were no mass conversions – no revivals, no fruit of his ministry-unless you count number attempts on his life. Jeremiah is often described as the “weeping prophet”. He was the target of continuous judgment and persecution externally, and internally he was both haunted by the Lord’s hatred toward sin around and agony of what was to come: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Oh the walls of my heart! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> My heart is beating wildly; <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I cannot keep silent, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> for I hear the sound of the trumpet, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the alarm of war. (Jer 4:19)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And finally, in 586 BC, Jerusalem fell. Jeremiah’s book of Lamentations details the horrors that were burned into his mind in those final years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In Jeremiah chapter two, the weeping prophet receives from the word of the Lord – here is the basic, foundational thing that thrust an entire nation into chaos and destruction. Jeremiah 2:10-13<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">or send to Kedar and examine with care; <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">see if there has been such a thing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><b><sup><span style="font-size: 12pt;">11 </span></sup></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Has a nation changed its gods, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">even though they are no gods? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> But my people have changed their glory <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">for that which does not profit. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><b><sup><span style="font-size: 12pt;">12 </span></sup></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Be appalled, O heavens, at this; <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">be shocked, be utterly desolate, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">declares the <span style="font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span>, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><b><sup><span style="font-size: 12pt;">13 </span></sup></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> for my people have committed two evils: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> they have forsaken me, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the fountain of living waters, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and hewed out cisterns for themselves, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">broken cisterns that can hold no water.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Has a nation changed its gods? All the pagan nations around keep their gods. The idea of anyone else switching gods was incomprehensible. It would never happen – even though they’re a bunch of phonies. And he says in verse 13 my people have committed two evils: Number One - they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters and, TWO, hewed out broken cisterns for themselves that can hold no water.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY1MlbnTPs-5DZFwR0Uy9tljACUvL8ip8uytKUzDa4L30nmWV6e53kXUnKBEUkatxsnCSMCP0Vh0tr0dGcTrS-uCRZlf6isH-znMPsXqJdWwQfiN4B7J-YrSVNEn3h6SXJeLmJdvInIZA/s1600/hewn-cistern1-272x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY1MlbnTPs-5DZFwR0Uy9tljACUvL8ip8uytKUzDa4L30nmWV6e53kXUnKBEUkatxsnCSMCP0Vh0tr0dGcTrS-uCRZlf6isH-znMPsXqJdWwQfiN4B7J-YrSVNEn3h6SXJeLmJdvInIZA/s1600/hewn-cistern1-272x300.jpg" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Do you catch the irony in the imagery? What are they thinking? Have they gone mad? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It’s not too far off from what we might find here in Costa Rica. We know what it’s like to have water shortages in San Francisco – what person in their right mind would shut off their own water saying, “I’d rather use this water tank – I made it myself from old coke bottles and milk jugs! It is rife with holes and leaks, but I would much rather use this.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Do not forsake Yahweh, the LORD Your God – do not hew out cisterns for yourselves, for they cannot hold water! When the nights grow long, when the homesickness sucks the air out of your gut, when you’re lying sick in bed and nobody is there to take care of you, or when things are more dangerous and you have straight A’s, good friends, and find stability – do not forsake the LORD and turn to find fulfillment in broken cisterns. Beware especially of Money, Marriage and Ministry. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Oh, Money can give you a rush. Money knows how to make a person feel valuable. Immediate, tangible results are what money offers – you want to know how much we like you, look at what we’ll pay you. Making money is exciting it’s an adrenaline rush. Money will give you great food, comfortable living, the best technology, and even plane tickets to come back to visit Costa Rica. But you cannot serve two masters, you cannot serve God and Money. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And if your life here has taught you anything it is that you do not belong here. This world is not home. You will never belong here. Don’t you ever try and make it home. Do not forsake the Lord for money. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">But marriage, you say, is an institution ordained by God himself. But do not let it become your god. Everything that batters our senses promises fulfillment and purpose in a romantic and sexual encounter. But do not make marriage your God. The LORD, who brought you out of slavery and bondage to sin, he is your God. A boyfriend or girlfriend, an intimate encounter of any kind will offer fulfillment and pleasure, but it is yet another empty cistern. And like money, marriage won’t last. You do not belong here. Do not forsake the Lord to chase marriage and intimacy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Finally, do not look for life in ministry. I imagine a wail among the angels when a servant of the Most High God turns from God to the work of their own hands to find their meaning and life. God would not have you serve something you make and create – he would have you serve HIM! When ministry becomes your god, your prayer life wanes, your never at home with your family, and crossing church off the checklist begets a sigh of relief. This is subtle and almost undetectable, until everything crumbles. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Like a bad dream when you look down and realize you forgot to put on your swim trunks. Like finishing the SAT having answered all the questions correctly, but not filled in any bubbles because you didn’t have a pencil. I have watched in agony as families have been destroyed because ministry had become their god and the foundation of their house crumbles. I have had to fall on my own face in repentance – ministry is a dry and crusty cistern – it is God alone who gives life! Do not forsake the Lord Your God who brought you up out of slavery in sin and death for a crusty broken cistern like ministry. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I think that the apostle Paul agonized like the Jeremiah. But unlike Jeremiah, who came to preach the news of Judgment, Paul was sent to preach the good news of Christ. And in his last letter, he writes to Timothy and says… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, </span><b><sup><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></sup></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. (2 Tim 2:1-7).</span></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And Paul, who is known for his pages upon pages argumentation and logical progression, leaves his exhortation at this: The Lord will give you understanding. So take these words with you. May they be your companion in the years to come, and may the Lord give you ever more understanding of them.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-60969011920245557182017-12-10T18:20:00.001-05:002017-12-10T18:21:38.341-05:00Second Sunday of Advent: Peace<div class="MsoNormal">
Scripture Reading: Luke 2:8-16</div>
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While Simeon watched the sun go down in Jerusalem (remember the story from last week?), little Benjamin huddled close to the fire. As soon as the sun had slipped below the horizon, the wind started. It was a cold, biting wind and Benjamin quickly grabbed his cloak. His father, James, looked across the fire at Benjamin: “Getting cold, son?” he asked. <o:p></o:p></div>
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James was a rugged man. His hair was tossed and his beard tangled. And he smelled like sheep. But Benjamin didn’t notice—his dad always smelled like sheep… or did the sheep smell like his dad? “Benjamin,” his dad called again, “are you dreaming already?” <o:p></o:p></div>
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Benjamin shrugged his shoulders. “Just a little cold,” he said. His father nodded. “It looks as if it will be a cold night tonight. Why don’t you go look for more firewood? We’ll be out here until the sun comes back.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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“Ok.” Benjamin said quietly. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Have you ever been in a dark place where the wind howls and there are no electric lights? Benjamin hated the dark. There were coyotes out there, and maybe even wolves. His friend Simon, the son of another shepherd, even saw a bear one time. Benjamin did not go far, picking up dry twigs and sticks from the shrubs in the field. He wished he wasn’t so afraid all the time. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Benjamin was afraid of spiders, ants, flying bugs, and big fish. He was afraid of being in tight spaces, swimming, and being alone in the dark. But most of all Benjamin was afraid of the Romans. Big soldiers with huge swords and tall helmets. They weren’t very nice to his people, especially a shepherd’s kid like himself. One time he was taking food out to his dad in the field and a soldier took it away from him. Another time he was laughing on the road with his friends and a drunk soldier got angry and started throwing rocks at them. One of the rocks had hit him and knocked him to the ground. He touched his shoulder where the bruise still smarted. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Benjamin was pretty sure he had enough wood now—maybe one more stick. His back was to the fire, and he bent down to pick up one last big one. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But just when he was bending down, his shadow grew long, and he could see everywhere. Something bad was happening. He wanted to run to his dad. His dad always knew what to do. But if he turned around, he’d have to see what was making the light. He could hardly breathe – he turned to run. He saw two things at once. The first thing he saw was his dad on the ground covering his face, and second, a huge person in shining armor with a huge sword on his back was somehow floating in the air. Benjamin couldn’t breathe. He could feel the fear in the tips of his fingers and the bottoms of his toes. He heard his heart pounding in his ears. And just when he thought he could take a breath, a voice boomed across the field with a voice so loud he could feel it in his chest…<o:p></o:p></div>
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“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,<o:p></o:p></div>
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“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”<br />
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And then, as suddenly as they had come – they were gone. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Discussion Questions: <o:p></o:p></div>
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What is something you are afraid of? What is something you worry about? (fear and worry are close friends!) <o:p></o:p></div>
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What do you do when you’re scared and/or worried?<o:p></o:p></div>
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The angels brought a message and a blessing: what was the message? And what was the blessing? <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Messiah was to be the Prince of Peace. Peace from violence and evil, but also peace from fear, worry, and anxiety. What do you think our Prince of Peace wants us to do when we’re afraid? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Song: Angels We Have Heard On High<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-25682042963457006572017-12-03T15:08:00.000-05:002017-12-05T01:56:05.150-05:00Hoping and Waiting - First Sunday of Advent<div class="MsoTitle" style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Scripture Reading: Isaiah 7:14; 9:2-7; Luke 2:25-26<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Simeon was young when the Romans had come. But even now in his old age, he could still hear the pounding of feet on the street, the ringing of the swords; the shouts of the guard;, the groans of the wounded. And the smell of blood--oh how he wished he could forget. His people was a conquered people. For a hundred years they had scratched out freedom, but it was short-lived. Now even as he walked through the city some forty years later, Simeon could feel the eyes of the Roman guard boring into his back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Simeon loved this city. Once the seat of glory and conquest, now a symbol of resilience and of the faithfulness of God. It refused to be permanently destroyed. They would always keep on rebuilding. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Oh, his knees. They creaked with every step Why so many stairs? Slowly, one at a time, up, up, up to the temple. When he was a boy he used to run up these steps – sometimes two or three at a time – always with his mother calling for him to slow down--it was, after all, the house of God! The great temple that had been erected while the Persians ruled them. Babylonians. Persians. Greeks. Romans. They all blended together now. And somehow, even after 500 years of being back Jerusalem, it still felt like they were not yet home. When would God really bring back the kingdom? Like the days of the David the Great: Slaying giants, routing thieving marauders, keeping those pesky Philistines in check. Those must have been the days! Could you imagine the celebrations of King Solomon the Wise? Banners fluttering in the breeze, music laughing through the air, wine flowing freely, people worshiping Yahweh without the sneers and snickers of the Romans. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Suddenly Simeon realized that he had reached the top of the steps. There he was, lost in thought again. Maybe today would be the day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Peace, Simeon.” It was Caiaphas, the young priest. “Coming to watch again?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Peace, Caiaphas. God has promised that I shall see him with my own eyes. I will not stop coming until I see his face.” <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“If you say so. Do you think he could really overthrow the Romans?” Caiaphas’ voice lowered to a whisper. The Romans did not tolerate insurrection. Caiphas’ friend Simon had been tied to a post and whipped only last week just for rolling his eyes at the guards. He couldn’t be too careful.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Need I remind you of the great escape from Egypt?” Simeon wasn’t as quiet as Caiaphas would have liked. “Pharaoh’s army was the strongest in the world. Nothing stood in his way. And our people were only slaves. The whole world saw that day that nothing is impossible for God. My young boy, with God, anything is possible. Never forget to whom you offer sacrifices, my child. Even under Roman rule, the LORD is God, and we are his people. He will not forget us. He will be true to his word. I just hope he comes soon”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">That night, after another long day of waiting, Simeon watched the sun dip below the horizon - fiery clouds lighting up the sky in a fearsome display. “God of Abraham and my Fathers. Do not be far off. Do not wait forever. I put my trust in your promise, my hope in your goodness”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Discussion: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What was the promise given to Simeon? What was he waiting for?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What did Simeon do (something what God’s people often do in Scripture) when Caiaphas questioned God to Simeon?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What is it that we, as the people of God, wait for today?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Do you sometimes doubt or question God?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What things can we remember in history to remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness and power?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">How has God shown his faithfulness and power to our family? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Just as the Jews waited for the Messiah to come, we too wait only now for his second coming. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Sing together: O Come, O Come Emmanuel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-83988122641379304432017-07-04T12:38:00.001-04:002017-07-04T12:43:28.200-04:00Commencement Speech for Silas, June 11, 2017<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Guard the deposit entrusted to you”</b></div>
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We’re here to celebrate Silas’s graduation. But Silas, you haven’t accomplished much. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In a fact, everything we’re celebrating today is a gift that has been given to you. There have been sleepless nights devoted to your arrival at this moment. Thousands and thousands of dollars spent. You love to read. But that didn’t come from you. It came from hours and hours of books upon books being read to you. You love to learn and love knowing things. But that love of knowledge and learning was imparted to you from someone other than yourself. <o:p></o:p></div>
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You have not scaled an impassible wall, nor have you swum the breadth of the ocean. You have actually accomplished little in the grand scheme of things. You were simply given a gift. You have been entrusted with an upbringing and an education that had at its climax, this ceremony: which signifies an end not only to your secondary education, but to your childhood. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But your upbringing and education is not all that has been entrusted to you. You have been given a gift much more valuable than this. You have been given adoption papers, an inheritance of kings.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And now you must finally address the question: who are you going to be. Not what, but who. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Silas, you might be one of the smartest people I know. But being smart doesn’t ensure success. Nor does wisdom, with all its virtue. Even the wisdom of Solomon in all its splendor was not enough: “For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.” (1 Kings 11:4)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Silas, You have been entrusted with much more than an education towards knowledge and wisdom—you have been entrusted with the treasure of knowing Christ. In addition to the two pillars in your life, there have been many others cheering you on in your race pointing you towards the finish line. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Run, Silas, run! Run your race with wholeness of heart! Run with character and integrity! Run forgetting what lies behind. Run without a word of complaint. What more would we expect than that the road be filled with danger?<o:p></o:p></div>
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In his final letter to his dear friend Timothy, Paul writes a phrase which I leave with you:<br />
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"By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you." (2 Tim 1:14)<o:p></o:p></div>
Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-9557558095448826642016-09-27T23:04:00.002-04:002018-03-06T16:57:28.401-05:00What Does It Profit The Kingdom If You Build A Great Ministry But Forfeit Your Children?<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
The missionary home is a breeding ground for unhealthy levels of stress. Here are ten <u>suggestions </u>to help mitigate the effect of stress on your MKs. These are things you probably already know. Consider them reminders in the middle of the craziness of life</div>
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<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> 1. </span></span><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><b>Develop routines and traditions</b>: Friday pizza night, Waffle Wednesday, Afternoons at the park, whatever fits your family. Adults and students alike function better when they have an idea of what to expect. And try your hardest to keep traditions you had before moving. Guard these with everything you’ve got! <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"> 2.</span>.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]--><b>Always take a deep breath before reacting responding in anger or frustration.</b> Always good to do—but crucial in these moments. Are your kids acting up out of rebellion, or a call for attention? Many kids don’t know how to process what’s going on around them and the unprocessed stress results in behavioral outbreaks. One day just try and offer them a hug and help them find the words. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">3.</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]--><b>If you’re in Language School, stay out of ministry that demands responsibility.</b> Everyone hates this. Really. But your family needs you more than XYZ ministry. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"> 4.</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Realted to that, <b>don’t fill up your plate.</b> Every time you say ‘yes’ to one thing, you say ‘no’ to something else. In the heat of transition stress, you need time to process and debrief. Every. Single. Day. No matter what you were used to. And your family needs you more. Every. Single. Day. Make it your ambition to live your first year abroad as un-busy as possible.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> 5.</span> </span><!--[endif]--><b>Take your Sabbath</b> as if it were commanded by God (Oh, wait…). Few missionaries do this well. Turn off your phone. Don’t touch the laptop. No ministry. No emails. No meetings. No homework. God, Rest, and Family. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioo-yi5l9G6_uk5sVNxccykEZhAShdNWSg_50pivN9Ar5ijorepIxP_oX60ztp2W2sidVqkGOhN12Ma3qWKPXmXNgCSBMrOuyWqBKfhlTlsLiMKjCYA0rZ_7-7rByxsUVEwILeyX9URMI/s1600/o-SLEEPY-TEEN-facebook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioo-yi5l9G6_uk5sVNxccykEZhAShdNWSg_50pivN9Ar5ijorepIxP_oX60ztp2W2sidVqkGOhN12Ma3qWKPXmXNgCSBMrOuyWqBKfhlTlsLiMKjCYA0rZ_7-7rByxsUVEwILeyX9URMI/s320/o-SLEEPY-TEEN-facebook.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from Huffington Post</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: x-large; text-indent: -0.25in;"> 6</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">.</span> </span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Do not have a ‘Discussion’ in front of your kids.</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> You and your spouse have mountains of things to talk about. Trouble with finances, trouble with the sending organization, trouble with other missionaries, trouble with the family, trouble with ministry, trouble with friends or family back home. DO NOT have these conversations in front of your kids, whether they’re 2 or 18. They don’t need to carry that. Even infants pick up on parental stress. Go for a walk, go on a date, wait until after bedtime—FIND A WAY TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN! You can worry about modeling how to fight well later.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> 7.</span> </span><!--[endif]--><b>Find situations that are OK for them to control, and give them the freedom to make as many decisions as possible.</b> These don’t have to be big (although the bigger the better). But kids of all ages in transition are completely out of control. Like you. At least you were the one who decided to move and where to go. Give them two or three options of what to eat for dinner, let them pick the family game or the movie, give them the option of picking the next family activity let them decorate parts of the house... anything to give them the feeling of not being absolutely out of control. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"> 8.</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]--><b>Schedule in family play time during the week</b>. Your kids need you. Even if they’re ready to graduate. Give them time during the week, not just on your day off. Don’t be on your phone at the dinner table, and don’t study the hour before bedtime—both things I have been guilty of, by the way. Sometimes I have to <b>schedule it on my calendar</b> to make sure it doesn’t get moved. In our society, the calendar is sacred, and nobody challenges a calendar appointment! (Although it might be different in the culture you live in now!) What makes you all laugh? Do THAT. Laughter, Biblically and scientifically, is proven to lower stress.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"> 9.</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]--><b>Try and bring your kids into the loop whenever possible.</b> At the end of the day, debrief it with your kids, and then go over the following days’ events so they have a chance to process the day and know what to expect. All of us adults know how hard ambiguity is to live with, and we forget that kids live with 10 times as much as us!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large; text-indent: -0.25in;"> 10.</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Keep Christ the center of your life.</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> Not just theoretically, or doctrinally, but pragmatically. Guard your time in alone with the Lord. The demands of the family are loud. Ministry is so needy, will eat your soul if you let it. You can only be as good a parent and as good a minister as you are a disciple. How are you </span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">really </i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">doing? Your kids know whether or not you’re spending time in the Word and in prayer. Invite them to join you sometime. </span></div>
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BONUS: <b>Don't yell at your kids.</b> Everything that needs to be said can be said softly. </div>
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Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-11851847903107828122016-09-14T15:46:00.000-04:002016-09-14T15:46:18.304-04:00Commencement Speech for Suzi's Graduation<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I am much honored to be asked to share some thoughts as we celebrate Suzi’s graduation today. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Suzi has been an instrumental part of Youth Group. Ever since we moved here almost 3 years ago, we’ve been friends. Suzi joined our student leadership two years ago, and her dedication, focus, and hard work have been an example not only for other youth group students but also for me. She would bring focus back to our student leaders meetings when the rest of us would be running off on rabbit trails. She would leave little room for complacency among her friends. Suzi is a passionate person. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I can honestly say, I don’t know what I’ll do without you. If any of you are familiar with the AMCA International Youth Group, you know that things tend to change often. In the midst of the comings and goings, all the hellos and goodbyes, Suzi has been a constant factor, not just in Youth Group, but in my family’s life. Suzi I want to say Thank You for touching me and my family. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">One of the qualities that is most important in a person is that of a moldable and teachable spirit. To realize that there is knowledge and understanding far beyond what we have achieved, and to <i>learn</i> both from your own experiences and from others. A love of learning will get you far in life. The willingness to learn is strengthened when kept in place by firmly grounded convictions. Not blind opinions or prejudices, but calculated, well-thought-out convictions. And the more embedded in the Word of God these convictions lie, the stronger you can hold to them. Biblical convictions will last longer, and carry you farther. Convictions anchor us in the chaotic sea of relativity. They keep us from learning and adopting wild and ridiculous notions. If a teachable spirit is like a river rushing you forward, your convictions are like the banks of that river, giving it boundaries and direction, and distinguishing river from marsh. We learn and accept truth within the boundaries of biblical truths and convictions. Suzi, over the last two years, I watched you walk this tension of being teachable, yet holding fast to the authority we find in Scripture. We’ve had many discussions and conversations over the years. We’ve sat by campfires, rivers, waterfalls, and pools, in this room, and in forests. And now as you graduate and fly into a new adventure I appeal to your teachable spirit one last time; allow me to leave you with two last thoughts that the Spirit has laid on my heart for you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In ancient times, a King named Asa ruled the land. He was a young king who had inherited the throne from his Father. The land he ruled was plentiful and he had a kingly duty to protect it from those who would seek to come and conquer the land and enslave his people. So he built strongholds in the land, and he raised up an army of strong and brave men. Half with large shields and spears, and the other half of bowmen. His mighty army was 600,000 strong. A deadly force to be reckoned with. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But there arose out of Ethiopia an even greater army. An army of one million soldiers with resolve to take the land out from under the young King, to enslave the people and plunder the land. No fortified city could stay the surging sea of this massive force. It would be like a sand castle on the tide line as the ocean comes in. One moment it’s there in all its glory. The next, it’s washed away, leaving no trace that it had ever existed. And the ancient chronicles tell us that Asa, King of the southern Kingdom of Judah cried out to the Lord and said: <b>O <span style="font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span>, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O <span style="font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span> our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude.<sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><b><sup><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/jonhu/Dropbox/Commencement%20Speach%20for%20Suzi's%20graduation.docx#_ftn1" title="">[1]</a></span></sup></b><a href="file:///C:/Users/jonhu/Dropbox/Commencement%20Speach%20for%20Suzi's%20graduation.docx#_ftn1" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></sup><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And the Lord honored his cry. And the men of Judah <i>crushed</i> the Ethiopian horde. And they chased them down and filled the treasury of the temple with the gold and silver they plundered.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And the young King grew into his role. He took courage and destroyed idols of all kinds, even dethroning his own mother from being queen when she began worshiping a false goddess. Here was a man sold out for the LORD. Someone who was making a difference. And for a long time there was peace. But after a time, after Asa had ruled for 36 years, the king of the Northern Kingdom of Isarel crossed the border with an army and began building a stronghold to control a large part of Judah. He held many hostage, no one could get out, no one could get in. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Asa by now was a seasoned King. He had experienced much of life. He had ruled a nation for decades. Gone was the inexperienced baby face. Now his face aged by war, impossible decisions, and the burdens of safety, economics, international relations, and internal politics. Think of how the president of the United States has aged in the last eight years, and add another 30 years on top of that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So the king made a brilliant decision drawn from his experience and wisdom. He made a treaty with another king, the king of Syria, and sent him a vast sum of money to attack Israel. That way Israel would have to move its army out of Asa’s land, and he could move his forces in. Asa not only won the battle without spilling a drop of his people’s blood, but he removed all of the stones and wood that had been used to build the stronghold, and used it to build <i>two</i> other cities in his kingdom! What a move! What a king!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Why then did Asa hear the footsteps down the corridor? Why did the court start whispering? Why was the <b>prophet</b> coming to see him?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Because you relied on the king of Syria, and did not rely on the <span style="font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span> your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you. Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the <span style="font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span>, he gave them into your hand. For the eyes of the <span style="font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span> run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.” <a href="file:///C:/Users/jonhu/Dropbox/Commencement%20Speach%20for%20Suzi's%20graduation.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><b><sup><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></sup></b><!--[endif]--></sup></a> <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And like that, after 36 years of glorious reign, the king began a downward spiral. Asa died a bitter old man.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I tell this story to share two things: The first is a warning. Just because you are walking with the Lord and God is using you for great things does not guarantee that this will always be true. <b><i>If you do not place your trust and reliance on the Lord, you will be trusting and relying on something else</i></b>. In Asa’s case, he used money dedicated to the Lord (probably acquired during his earlier famous conquest) and relied on one of his enemies, the king of Syria, instead of the Lord. The Lord would have given Asa another glorious victory over both Israel’s king AND Syria’s. But somehow Asa stopped trusting primarily in the Lord. Strategy, methods, wisdom, council, these are all valuable things. But if you rely on any of these in your time of need rather than on the Lord, you will be sorely disappointed. It is easier to trust the Lord when you know little and are in trouble. But what about when you have everything under control? The church today is in grave danger of this with all of their balanced budgets, strategic plans, qualified staff, and leadership development. How easy it would be to depend on these rather than on our King! Let Asa’s story serve as a warning to you, Suzi. You’re heading off to college with everything going for you. You’ve got a wonderful family and proud parents, a great scholarship, you’re bi-lingual, you study well, you are personable and people like you, you’re a thinker and a learner. Don’t rely on these things to get you through. I beg you, put your trust in the LORD. Declare to yourself and to him over and over how much you need him—I need thee, O I need thee, every hour I need thee! He will do so much with you Suzi if you can bring yourself to lose your independence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The final thought I leave you with is one of comfort. It’s found in the prophet’s rebuke of the king from our story. 1 Chronicles 16:9 says, <i>For the eyes of the <span style="font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span> run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The prophet’s point was this—why did you go looking for help elsewhere? <i>The eyes of the <span style="font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span> run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless, or, completely his. Whose heart is fully devoted to Him. </i> This isn’t even a promise directed at a specific or general audience, it’s a description of a truth that is found throughout the Scriptures:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength they shall run and not grow weary; Ask and you shall receive; cast all your cares upon Him because he cares for you; be anxious about nothing, but in everything with prayer and petition present your requests to God. The hope of this truth is that if you seek him with your whole heart, a committed heart, He will find you. An He will support and strengthen you. I believe with all my heart that God is sovereign. And I believe with all my heart that your actions have consequences. Because of this I urge you with all my heart to add to your river bank of convictions these truths, for they will guard your steps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Suzi, it is my dream that you would go farther in life and in faith than I have ever gone or could ever go. You can be certain that my thoughts are prayers will be with you wherever you go. May God make his face to shine on you, and may you ever rest in dependence on your King.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/jonhu/Dropbox/Commencement%20Speach%20for%20Suzi's%20graduation.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a> <i>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version</i>. (2001). (2 Ch 14:11). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/jonhu/Dropbox/Commencement%20Speach%20for%20Suzi's%20graduation.docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a> <i>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version</i>. (2001). (2 Ch 16:7–9). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-5147320107293405092015-10-27T15:47:00.000-04:002015-10-27T15:47:32.450-04:00Who Sends The Missionary?In response to <u><a href="http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/mission-agencies-send-no-one" target="_blank">Missions Agencies Send No One</a></u>, posted yesterday on The Gospel Coalition, career missionary Ross Hunter (my dad) wrote these thoughts. Now I love Training Leaders International, (the author of the TGC post is their president), and I <i>think</i> Darren Carlson was writing toward a vision of what should be, not what is currently. So read the article, and then entertain an alternative perspective:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Who Sends?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">by</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Ross Hunter</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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"Missions agencies send no one." </div>
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Practically speaking, in my experience it is not quite so
simple. There is an interesting dynamic going on in the missionary sending
process of this century. God is using the universal church (in many cases "churches", "individuals", and "sending agencies" of whom many rely upon Bible Schools and Seminaries outside the church for training), to send out his missionaries. Exceptions are recognized. </div>
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The mission agency essentially sends the missionary, through
the recommendation of an individual church who provide minimal support in
relation to the overall support package, trusting individuals or other churches
to provide the majority of their support.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Churches often work through a plurality of priorities and
goals that vary from other churches, agencies and individuals who are involved,
often times putting an emphasis on personal relationships. I believe agencies
and churches try hard to work together, yet from the seat of this individual
missionary, there is simply not the resources available or philosophy of
sending, that enables a local body to send individual missionaries efficiently
and quickly to the field.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It is a sobering fact that without the individual missionary
enduring to raise support (in faith missions) the mission agency nor the
sending part of the local church would exist, outside of international
partnerships, which require similar funding. The missionary often enters a
1-3yr journey of life to sustain his physical needs while to seeking the
provision to live overseas. While this may seem depressing to some, it actually
works to strengthen the missionary's faith and test their endurance that one
day will be tested on the field. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The wide sources of giving help missionaries soften
disruptions in giving patterns when some have to withdraw their support. I
think all this leads to one fact for today's church: <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>It is God</b> <b>who sends</b> the missionary through the
sending agency (which sometimes is the local church itself), or independently,
and the [local] church's role has become one of affirmation and commissioning
where they recognize, set apart and support in some fashion, missionaries for
this calling. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>It is also God</b> <b>who burdens</b> the hearts of people to
pray and give to the missionary. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>And it is God</b> <b>who prepares</b> the soil for people to
hear the gospel. <o:p></o:p></div>
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How God uses the church is up to Him…<o:p></o:p></div>
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Yet on the other hand, it is man who limits their resources
towards missions which affect the missionary's source of support, the people
he/she is sent to reach, and the richness of their own faith when they do not
obey and engage in God's heart for mission. In addition churches focused
heavily on internal ministry do not have a missionary to encourage them and
keep alive what God is doing overseas! <o:p></o:p></div>
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I often wondered what our church would look like if their
staff and pastors were asked to raise their support from individuals and other
churches in the same way they ask their missionaries to. In turn I often wonder
what the mission field would look like if the church supported their
missionaries like they do their staff and pastors! <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />I have mixed reactions to the article. My conclusion is that we should take a balanced approach, encourage the church
to engage, and look to God for the resources and direction in our journey to
and on the field. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Ross and Mary Hunter are career missionaries with <a href="http://www.pioneers.org/" target="_blank">Pioneers</a>. They moved to Ecuador in 1994 and have served the Quichua people in Ecuador since then through discipleship and pastoral training. For more information on Ross and Mary's missionary service, visit <a href="http://www.evministry.org/" target="_blank">www.EVministry.org</a><br /></i></div>
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Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-89191528791544635242015-09-21T19:04:00.001-04:002015-09-21T19:09:08.259-04:00We Cannot Afford to Lose Our Missionary Heroes<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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Three missionary friends I greatly respect, who do not know each other,
recently shared <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/september/farewell-to-missionary-hero.html?start=2" target="_blank">Amy Peterson’s “Farewell to the Missionary Hero”</a>, published in
Christianity Today on September 14<sup>th</sup>, 2015. I encourage you to read it. She has some great thoughts such as this one: <br />
<br />
<i>We need to hear stories about the real struggles and joys of missions work. These kinds of stories have the power to improve our missiology; unless we are honest about the challenges missionaries face, we won’t find realistic solutions. But if we are forthright about what the job requires, we’ll stand a better chance of attracting the right people and preparing them adequately for long-term service, rather than sending them home early, disillusioned and depressed.</i><br />
<br />
In the article the
author praises writings such as the following saying, “In unedited and
unmediated forms, missionaries can tell their stories directly to a wider
audience than ever before.” I hope to provide an alternative perspective than
the one Peterson offers concerning missionary heroes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">Introduction</span><o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
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The “Mighty Mo” (USS Missouri) dominates Pearl Harbor in
Honolulu, Hawaii. I had never been on a battle ship before, and the feeling of
standing next to the chains alone that secure the ship to the wharf makes one
feel small. Very, very small. This is an historic ship. It was commissioned in
June of 1944, and on September 2, 1945, the Japanese forces formally surrendered
aboard the Mighty Mo. She was decommissioned in 1955 only to be commissioned a
second time in 1986. She carried men into battle, carried president Truman and
his family on two occasions, fought in the 2<sup>nd</sup> world war, provided
support in the Korean war and the First Persian Gulf war, and was finally
decommissioned for the second and final time in 1992, where she sits in Pearl
Harbor today, a heroic reminder of the cost of war, and the bravery of the
sailors who manned her station. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But she is not without her scars. Not without her
casualties. A charred burn pattern plainly visible from the main deck has survived
these 60 years, left from kamikaze pilot who flew his plane into the side of the
boat. But she did not go under.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEX5agNMOpXlaP_5oqkp47AX54xW0gN5rS0xqBZ1NRxYR6y_trOhsiqQQLxZrIMWZ6OpAR1tTjNqrV44mqhB3IDLqPPA03aGxKItTrNUfFfEDSQvNne3cYVSrssCn6D-N5segZJs6M43Q/s1600/mighty+Mo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEX5agNMOpXlaP_5oqkp47AX54xW0gN5rS0xqBZ1NRxYR6y_trOhsiqQQLxZrIMWZ6OpAR1tTjNqrV44mqhB3IDLqPPA03aGxKItTrNUfFfEDSQvNne3cYVSrssCn6D-N5segZJs6M43Q/s320/mighty+Mo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(photo found at ussmissouri.org)</span></div>
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I know of no heroic figure without their scars or failures. In
fact, it seems to me that without some sense of scarring, one can scarcely be
called a hero. For what is a hero, but someone who has stood up to
insurmountable odds when others would faint away? One who has sacrificed much
for the sake of others? I take issue with the key idea that Peterson presents.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I write because I believe one spiritual battle at stake with
missions is one of ideas. The internet is filled with personal ideas, those
worth listening to and those worth throwing out. The reader can decide what to
do with this author’s. But the overwhelming majority of voices coming out of
the mission field are ones like those heard by Peterson. I wish to propose
several things, and one of them is that those who shout the loudest are heard
the most. If you have a contingent, however large or small, of missionary individuals
crying out louder than others, their voice is given credence as speaking for
many. The same thing has happened in politics with the gay rights movement
these last several years, and in the case of the recall of Wisconsin Governor
Scott Walker back in 2012: crowds of angry citizens called for the end of
Walker’s career, but in the end he was re-elected by more votes than he had
back in 2010 when he was then elected into office! But the media attention was
centered on the voices of the few, because they yelled louder than those who
didn’t feel like yelling. The battle is one of ideas, and there are those who
are comfortable and confident in missions, who look to missionaries who have
lasted decades on the field and finished well as a visible picture of God’s
faithfulness, will not be those to speak up because they’ve seen others make it
through, and their hope is in the promises of God. Meanwhile in the American
church we’re calling for the destructuralization of missions. I write for the
church, who cannot afford to lose the heroes of faith we’ve found in overseas
missionaries. Because when we’re all equal, and no one is great, what then are
we to do other than be lost in our own mediocrity? I wish to propose two ideas
in defense of the missionary hero. First, that it is short term missions which
have created false expectations for many today—not missionary biographies, and second
that a life filled with heartache, struggles, failure, and conflict doesn’t
detract from heroics in Christianity. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Romanticizing Missions: Where does it come from?<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
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For most Christians living in the United States, the
missions experience is a romanticized one. But I would propose that Short Term
Missions (STMs) trips, not missionary biographies, have re-defined the very
essence of what missions means and what it means to be a missionary. One
acquaintance asked us, “You’re long term missionaries? So how many trips do you
take a year?” She was visibly shocked when we explained that we live in Costa
Rica all year round. We met a woman at the mall here in San Jose—“it’s so good
to hear English! I miss hearing English SO much! By the way, why are you here
in Costa Rica?” “We’re missionaries here.” “Oh great! I am too! We’re here for
eight days to pass out tracts in the park!” An eight day missionary, passing
out tracts (in English-to Spanish speakers). Something has been missed. Or
imagine our shock when a friend shared with us that they’re going into long
term missions… for 12-15 months. I don’t want to get into a discussion about whether
STMs are effective or not. Regardless, people who go on STMs trips actually
never feel culture shock, because they never leave the honeymoon stage. </div>
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STMs
has promoted, I would argue, a romanticized view of missions far greater than
any missionary biography. And if we lose our missionary heroes, who will we
have left to point us to something greater, something longer, something
requiring more endurance? Do we want to change the way that that we talk about
missions, as Peterson says, reflecting Charmicael’s vision? I’m on board- but we
should not start with dismissing those missionaries who are our heroes, rather
with the way that we educate our brothers and sisters about missions. </div>
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Every time someone gets on a plane for a week, or a month, or a year (yes, a
year is still short term), they learn <i>something</i>
about missions, be it true or not. Once we as a church have lived our own
romanticized version of STMs, which is catered to the needs and life change of
the goers, rather than the serving and building up of the national church, why
then are we long term missionaries surprised that we must, as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YwScBFTb_M" target="_blank">Michael Oh so aptly describes,</a> "try to put on a good face, try to make
a great powerpoint, tell great stories—those are our marching orders when we
walk into your church—‘impress us or we might drop you!’” <o:p></o:p></div>
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STMs can give us a vacating mindset. Now it is common to
hear someone who is going to ABC location, to accomplish a set task, “for three
years”. It is easy to come and go. It is hard to stay when leaving is so easy.
The attrition rate among missionaries is abysmal. In my organization, “long-term” is considered
two years or more. Two years. Two. One has to learn the language, the cultural
dynamics, and more. What can we expect to actually accomplish in two years? We tend to spend at least that raising support to get to the field! One thing we should have learned from missionary
biographies is that time is one sacrifice involved with the many others. Why
are we so surprised that it seems like nothing is done in two, three, or four
years? </div>
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My parents have ministered among the Quichua (not Quechua. The reader
will forgive the personal importance—in Ecuador, there are no Quechua; the
Quichua do not have that ‘e’ sound in their dialect, and it is important to
distinguish between the languages, and therefore people groups) in the
Ecuadorian highlands for twenty-one years and running. And they’ll attest that
it took at least ten of those to really begin to learn the culture. Most who have spent a decade or more with a people group will say they are still learning. And yet, we have fields
flooded with people expecting to arrive, accomplish a task, and leave, thinking
that they’ll have the language and culture down sixth months to a year, or
worse, that they don’t need those two things to accomplish that task. Anyone
who has worked in a Latin, African, or Asian culture could attest to the negative impact
that this in-and-out attitude has in the culture. This pressing need to see what missionary
work can accomplish, I would argue, comes more from STMs today than missionary
stories from fifty years ago. My heroes are people who started fifty years ago
and who have pushed through these barriers for their love of God and love of
the people they’d come to serve, and who laid down their lives for them, perhaps
not in martyrdom, but in a lifetime of ministry to one people group. People
like Bub and Bobby Borman who spent decades translating the Bible into Kofan, a
people group of only several thousand, or Duane and Lois Holmes, who spent a
lifetime in area of the jungle not accessible by bus or boat. Or Frank and
Marie Drown whose mission to then prominent headhunters in Ecuador put their
safety on the line day in and day out. All of these I personally met and whose lives are a great encouragement to
me. Why do we rob others of this encouragement? <o:p></o:p></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Scars Don’t Disqualify Heroes<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
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Over the last couple years I’ve noticed the increasing trend
of blogs and articles like, “10 Things a Missionary Will Never Tell You”. Increasingly,
missionaries journal on their blogs sharing their hardships and struggles. I
appreciate this, because many of these shared struggles are real in my life as
well. It’s almost as if there’s one desperate voice calling out from the field
to churches back ‘home’. It is a voice that the US church needs to hear,
legitimize, and respond to in love. A call for transparency as we want people
to try and understand what’s happening in our lives. But I wonder if sometimes
we’ve taken it too far. Unless you’ve lived abroad, you just won’t understand.
Period. Anyone who has lived abroad, on their own, for any significant period
of time will agree. Before our deployment to Costa Rica, I had coffee with a
gentleman who had lived in Western Europe for several years working for his
business. “It’s a full time job just living,” he warned me, “Just to get
through day to day life, and you haven’t even factored in the actual job yet.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>But why are we more
focused on toppling pedestals because we feel guilty and humble rather than
spurring on others in faith? </b>In the <a href="http://www.alifeoverseas.com/why-i-will-not-say-i-never-made-a-sacrifice/" target="_blank">post</a> Peterson references by Rachel Pieh
Jones, Jones writes: <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>One of the problems
with saying ‘it is no sacrifice’ is that it leads people to put international
workers on pedestals. Have you ever had someone say something like:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>“You are so holy
because you don’t care when your hair falls out from the brackish water and
searing heat.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>“You are so much more
spiritual because you don’t struggle when you aren’t able to attend your
grandfather’s funeral.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>“I could never do what
you are doing because I couldn’t send my kids to boarding school.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>No and NO! We are not
all so different, we simply live in different time zones. I cry when I see
handfuls of hair in the drain and when I watched my grandfather’s funeral three
months later on a DVD and I weep with a physical pain in my chest over the
miles between here and my kids at school. I am not more holy or spiritual or
stronger than anyone, I feel the sacrifice.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Yes Ms. Jones, acknowledge it’s a sacrifice, but don’t shy
away from the opportunity to share that you follow in obedience; and <i>that </i>is the
essence of faith! Everyone needs an example, someone to look up to in something,
and every person they look up to, apart from Christ, is going to be a sinner; is going
to be someone who struggles; is going to be someone who fails today and will
fail tomorrow. </div>
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I lead an international youth group. One of the biggest burdens
I carry is having a crowd of teenagers look up to me. How can I use that to
challenge their walk with God? How can that influence be used to speak truth
into their lives? Of course I’m not perfect, and I fight with my wife, and I
yell at my kids, and there are stores I cannot go into because the way they
function makes me furious at the culture and I’m afraid of what I’ll say if I frequent
them again. But this honesty, these mess-ups, my scars don’t disqualify my
students from looking up to other things in my life. </div>
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People <u>see</u> that
there is a step of faith that a missionary takes when they raise support and
move abroad that they’re afraid they couldn’t take. It disrupts family, shocks
church communities, it breaks apart friendships. If you’re on the receiving end
of these well-intentioned comments about how much holier you are then they, it’s your primary job to point them to
Christ. It’s not about the pedestal. If you can do it, they can do it. If Christ
can do it in you, He can do it in them. That’s what draws us to heroes. If they
can do it, maybe I can do it too. If they can have the courage to step out in
faith and treasure Christ over life itself, maybe I can one day too. If God
supplied for them, maybe he’ll supply for me. What Jim Elliot said, ‘he is no
fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose’ takes on another
dimension because he <i>lived </i>this. Sure
he fought with Betty, sure he struggled with cultural disappointment and I
guarantee there was mission stress. But do those things take away from the
example he set? <o:p></o:p></div>
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It strikes me how the book of Judges is filled with failures.
People who did great things for God, like Samson and Gideon, but then had so
much of their own failures to contend with. And many people today are quick to
point out that these weren’t godly people. That they’re not the heroes we
pretended they were in Sunday school. But I was struck last night when I turned
to Hebrews chapter 11, and sure enough, there they are. Heroes because of their
faith. The list in Hebrews 11 is astonishing. We remember the failures of
Moses, Noah, Rahab and all of these people. But they are commended for their faith
nonetheless. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Scars do not disqualify our heroes. They defined them. Because
walking in faith seems to inevitably leave scars. Amy Carmichael understood
this better than most. She wrote: <br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
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<i>Hast thou no scar?<br />
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?<br />
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;<br />
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.<br />
Hast thou no scar?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Hast thou no wound?<br />
Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,<br />
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent<br />
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.<br />
Hast thou no wound?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>No wound? No scar?<br />
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,<br />
And piercèd are the feet that follow Me.<br />
But thine are whole; can he have followed far<br />
Who hast no wound or scar?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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I do not wish this to come across as an attack on Ms.
Peterson. I would never do that. I have not even met her. I greatly respect
Taylor University, and I have friends who teach English in Southeast Asia. I
can tell from her writing that she has a love for truth and a love for
missions. While I encourage the dialogue of taking short term missions off a
pedestal and replacing it with reality, I believe that if we topple the proven heroes
of the church in found visibly in missions, we will find ourselves in a despondent
state with fewer, if not void of examples or inspiration. And we just cannot afford to do that.<o:p></o:p></div>
Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-1737487716944682012015-06-11T12:31:00.005-04:002015-06-11T12:31:49.960-04:00Sojourn Academy Commencement Address, Class of 2015<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<em><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">This thing all things devours;</span></em><i><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br style="outline: 0px;" />
<em>Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;</em><br style="outline: 0px;" />
<em>Gnaws iron, bites steel;</em><br style="outline: 0px;" />
<em>Grinds hard stones to meal;</em><br style="outline: 0px;" />
<em>Slays king, ruins town,</em><br style="outline: 0px;" />
<em>And beats mountain down.<o:p></o:p></em></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We divide
time into three clear categories-past, present, and future. And I think that
there are three types of people here today, each relating with one of these:
The Dreamer, the Reminiscent, and the Reactor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’ve been
each of these. In much of high school I was the Dreamer. I lived in the future.
Dreaming of the mountains I would climb, the day I could drive on my own, what
it would be like to have a girlfriend, and what I was going to do with my life.
I would memorize entire outdoor catalogs and knew the order of the gear I would
one day buy for my hobby. I dreamed about what life on my own would finally
look like. What life would be like in college, and figuring where I would live
afterwards. I was homeschooled, but I would spend an embarrassingly long time
dreaming. My mom could never understand how I could just sit and stare at the blank
wall above my desk for so long. I’m pretty sure she conducted social
experiments on how long I’d sit there before she said anything!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But the
future is vastly uncertain. For example, what was the first thing you ever
wanted to be when you grew up? For me it was an astronaut! I wanted to fly through the stars and walk on
the moon! How was I supposed to know that something as inconsequential (yet
daunting) as math would stand in the way of all of my flight plans? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">No one really
knows what the future holds. In James chapter 4, James calls people who plan
their future with utter certainty arrogant, because they don’t factor in the
variable of almighty God. The rich man in Luke 12 stored up grain and had plans
for the rest of his life. But that night, Jesus says, his soul was required of
him. He is called a fool because he relied on wealth to keep him alive. But
just like that man, we have no idea when our souls will be required of us. We
might make it to a ripe old age of 97. Or we might not make it past this year.
The future is so uncertain. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But the uncertainty
makes the future exciting! The future is an untainted canvas where <i>anything</i> can happen, and, aside from the
laws of physics, your imagination is the limit! I get dreamers. I love to
dream. I dream still today. But dreamers are rarely content with today, because
it’s tomorrow that holds excitement, intrigue, danger, and the ever-present
hope that “tomorrow is gonna be better”. The dreamer lives in the future, not in
the present or the past.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ironically
when I got to college, I abandonded dreaming and became the Reminiscint. I had
just spent four years dreaming about
being done with high school, and now all I could think of was how much I missed
being back home. So I lived out my first year of college with my thoughts in a
different hemisphere. I would dwell both in my achievements and in my regrets. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Funny things,
regrets. And how I can regret spending so much time thinking of past regrets.
Don’t drown yourself in your past regrets. The only thing that can be done was
finished 2000 years ago by someone much more powerful than you or I. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I stayed in touch with old friends via skype and instant
messenger—anyone remember what that was? We’re talking back when facebook was only
for college students. I would skype my friends, or call those who had come back
to the US. I would lie in bed hours into the night just remembering and wishing
with my whole being that I could go back and do it all over again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s tempting
to live in the past because it’s safe. It’s comfortable. And, as time moves on,
we naturally begin to forget some of the difficulties in life, and so if it’s
not regrets you’re dwelling in it’s a long list of good things. Safe and
familiar things. <b>Often, the past feels
more like home than the present ever can be.</b> But then a year later, when we
move on, we find ourselves quite ironically thinking back to where we just had
been and how much we loved it. It’s as if we can only find familiarity and
comfort in the rear view mirror, in spite of the fact that we had just finish
living the reality of that reflections. And during reality, we were too focused
on looking at the previous reality, and so it is a cruel game we play with
ourselves! I so get Reminiscents. I’ve lost myself in a world of memories
against the backdrop of photographs and 90s songs. I’ve scoured the facial
expressions in those photos, recalling the temperature, the emotions, and the
security of it all. If you live in the past, you’ll never find a home, a place
you belong. If you spend all your time keeping up with old friends you’ll never
make new ones. We hate saying ‘goodbye’s, and only like saying ‘see you later’s.
But if some connections aren’t severed, new ones can never be made. You’re not
responsible for keeping up with every friend you’ve ever had. And you’re not
letting them down by saying goodbye. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When life
gets busy, and we ignore the past and the future, we face the danger of becoming the
Reactor. The Reactor is constantly only reacting to the present, reacting to life
as its happening. Like playing dodgeball without seeing who threw the ball; we
only see the ball when it’s about to hit us—barely in time to leap out of the
way. And usually this reacting is filled with mundane routine. Go to school, go
to work, write a report, do chores, pay bills, toil through the day and sleep
at night. The same routine every week. The sun comes up, and goes down, up,
down, up, down. The rains come, and the rains leave. Birthdays and holidays come
and go. Discomfort, uncertainty, stress of the to-do list, pressure from work,
family, school, until we escape into slumber, only to awaken to all this the
next morning. That isn’t living. It’s simply reacting. And I say this to myself
before I say it about anyone else: <b>He or
she who lives in the present with no regard for past and no direction towards
the future is an aimless fool.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Past,
present, and future. To live in the past or furture, and only react to the present is to cheat yourself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I think
people tend towards one pendulum or the other—dreamer or reminiscent, future or
the past. <b>But my challenge to you</b> <b>is to <u>live today</u></b>. Don’t react,
live. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Today is the only time to effect one or the other. Today is the only time
we can make memories. If you don’t get out and live, you’ll wind up reminiscing
about the day would you think back to the good old days! “I remember my life in
Costa Rica, when all I would think about was how good life was in the US. When I
was there, I had a great time remembering what life was like back in Ecuador.
Ahhh the good old days!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Today is
also the only time you can work towards your dream in the future. If all you do
is plan and dream and plan and dream, you’ll wake up one day and find that all
that planning and dreaming got you no closer to achieving your dream than running on a treadmill gets you closer to the finish line of the marathon. You might have a great technique and endurance, but if you never get off the treamill, you'll never get anywhere.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br />
The present is the only time that you can make decisions that direct the
future. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Hear Me: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">History has much to teach us</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">. And Proverbs tells us that only the
fool refuses to remember. Our past, our memories, shape who we have become. Hold
your memories dearly, but don’t live in the past.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Dreaming into the future gives
direction and purpose</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">.
It is where ideas, innovations, and progress originates. It is where passion
and hope are found. Dream big and daring dreams. Don’t let the realists and the
pessimists stomp them out. But don’t live in the future, don’t live in your
dreams—live your dream.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But today is
the only time to act. The decisions we make today count. And every decision you
make is made once—time only moves forwards. We only get one shot at this life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So learn
from your past. Aim for the future. And seize today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-12353616738942394802015-05-13T16:15:00.002-04:002015-05-13T16:15:39.217-04:0010 Ways To Encourage MKs In CollegeDo you know any MKs in college? I'm thinking especially of those whose parents are still serving abroad. They're in a fairly unique position--and so are you. Here are 10 ways to encourage and bless MKs in college, and by extension, their families also who continue to serve the Lord abroad:<br />
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1. <b><u>Discipleship.</u></b> Live near the college? How about inviting them out for coffee every now and then and just talking about life. Invite them into your home for dinner. Just the simple act of sharing moments of life and being a stable friend is a huge encouragement. Maybe you don't live near the college, but near where they spend the winter break: no problem. try and connect once a week for the three weeks they're off. The impact might be greater than you think!<br />
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2. <b><u>Adopt an MK for Holidays.</u></b> Holidays can be very uncomfortable for MKs. Often times, they have nowhere to go, especially for shorter holidays, like Thanksgiving. Everybody is asking where everyone is spending the summer/winter/holiday... it can be hard to <i>have nowhere to go</i>. Maybe you know the missionary family, or maybe your son or daughter are friends are classmates/roommates with an MK. Ask them to join you for a holiday. They might already have somewhere to go... or you might catch the huge sigh of relief in their eyes when you ask.<br />
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3. <b><u>Give Them Responsibilities In Church.</u></b> Most MKs are no strangers to ministry. But many feel uncomfortable about the idea of serving in their church, because they still feel so out of place. Approach them and invite, nay, challenge them to get involved in a specific area or two. Make sure to give them some responsibilities for continued growth. This could be anything from helping with the children/youth, to greeting people as they come in, to folding bulletins, to being a part of the missions committee.<br />
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4. <u><b>Offer Them A Job.</b></u> MKs usually haven't had the chance to work on the mission field. Either visas don't permit, they pay is not worth the time (I was offered a job at somewhere around .50 an hour in high school), or its not an option for other reasons. Offer them a job mowing lawns, gardening, doing house chores, or if you own a business offer them a job doing small things around the shop. I worked for an elder in my church when I got back to the US who offered me a job mowing lawns at his rental properties. The responsibility was really good for me, and the money helped me get on my feet before school started.<br />
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5. <b><u>Invite them on a family vacation.</u></b> This takes #2 to a new level. It was so encouraging to go on a family vacation with family friends my first summer in school. With my family all abroad, they just adopted me as their fourth kid for the week and we road-tripped to New England!<br />
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6. An alternative to the above is to <u><b>give them some airline miles.</b></u> They can either fly to friends or maybe even home for a holiday. I was able to visit a good high school friend due to a close family friend giving me some airline miles one summer. What an enormous blessing came out of this gesture.<br />
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7. <u><b>Store their stuff.</b></u> One of the awkward MK moments is when you arrive on campus with more stuff than anyone else. In the summer there's nowhere to put it. The truth is that I couldn't leave stuff at home, or at my grandparents. Granted, some of it needs to be purged, but for MKs this can be a process; stuff can be what ties them to 'home'. If you have an empty closet, or a corner in your unfinished basement consider asking an MK if they need a place to store anything.<br />
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8. <u><b>Send a care package.</b></u> It doesn't have to be elaborate or fancy. Maybe it's just a box of homemade chocolate cookies, or a book you enjoyed. Maybe it's just a hand-written letter of encouragement (<i>anyone </i>would benefit from that!). When their parents live abroad, they're not expecting anything in the mail. So anything that shows you thought about them is a big deal!<br />
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9. <u><b>Help orient them to taxes.</b></u> I was up for two nights my first tax season trying to fill out a 1040, then switching to a 1040EZ. Then I panicked when my numbers said that needed to send in a thousand dollars!? No, more reading and googling got me the right numbers and I found out that the government actually owed me a hundred bucks. If you can help walk them through a 1040EZ (instead of just sending it to H&R block) it gives them a good intro into the world of taxes.<br />
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10. <b><u>Listen to their stories.</u></b> It important for any MK at any life stage in every geographical location. Ask, and listen. Then ask to see picture. They might get teary eyed looking at them. Their sense of home is lost (if it was ever there). That's OK. Just ask to see more.<br />
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<br />Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-69719818621572302732014-11-06T12:35:00.000-05:002014-11-07T14:54:37.616-05:0010 Ways To Encourage MKs On Furlough I recently read a great article full of practical advice on The Gospel Coalition's website, entitled <u><a href="http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2014/11/04/20-ways-to-refresh-the-hearts-of-the-missionary-saints-on-furlough/" target="_blank">20 Ways To Refresh The Hearts of Missionary Saints On Furlough</a></u>. Included in the article are some very practical, doable, and meaningful tips. When I was growing up my family experienced some of these -- such as people loaning us a car, storing some of our earthly possessions, and even a dentist who was an old friend of my folks who gave us free dental care. Not only were we blessed, but we felt very supported and valued by these things.<br />
<br />
Today we work with a lot of MKs (children of missionaries) who go on furlough (itineration, home ministry assignment, however you've heard it) with their parents, and others who have returned to the States without the intention of returning to the field. We actually have a a few MKs on furlough now- shout out to Emma, Meghan, and Katie! Before we moved to Costa Rica, we had a number of questions on how churches can support their missionaries and MKs. I thought I would complement Jason Carters' post with some practical ways of caring for MKs on Furlough.<br />
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1. <u><b>Ask them about their 'home'</b></u>. For most MKs, "Coming home to furlough" has no meaning--it's an oxymoron. Many of them spend the majority of their lives outside of the US (or passport country) and <i>they left home when their parents came home</i>. Asking "do you miss home yet?" is a breath of fresh air to an MK in the midst of all the well-meaning "welcome home!"s.<br />
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2. <u><b>Ask them questions in order to hear their stories... and <i>really </i>listen.</b></u> Be prepared to listen for a long time. We MKs generally know and acknowledge the importance of what it is our parent's are doing in ministry. We're used to people wanting to hear about the latest trip to the indigenous community, and we're used to sitting silently and listening to the same stories for the 39th time. When around peers who can't relate to our experiences, we find there is often no interest in listening to our stories. Often, MKs feel bottled up because there's no one who cares to relate to us.<br />
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3. <b><u>Take them to do something fun.</u></b> In his article Carter suggests friends watching the children of missionaries to enable them to have a date. This is a huge double win, because small acts of kindness towards MKs makes them feel <i>really </i>valued. When I was 11, a student at Northwestern University in Illinois took me--not my family, not my sisters and I, just me-- to one of the university's small rec centers. He bought me a slice of pizza and we played pool (for my first time) and then I went home. Total hang-out time: maybe an hour, hour and a half. Recall time: 15 years and counting. It made a huge impression on me, that someone cared enough to do this with me. I was a person, not just the student of missionaries his church supported.<br />
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3. <u><b>Take extra measures to make them feel like they <i>belong </i>in your community.</b></u> Call them up and invite them personally to a youth event, tell them you've missed in their absence, have things for them to do when they arrive to help them fit in and belong from the beginning. If lead a bible study, invite them to the study; if you coach a sports team, invite them to practice; if you have a hobby, ask them to join you. This often takes consistency and preparation, but it can have some big payoffs.<br />
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4. If you have kids around the age of the MKs, <u><b>invite them to do things with your family</b></u>. Sports activities, picnics, concerts, etc.<br />
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5. Keep in mind that a fair number of MKs don't know the rules to many sports. Without making them feel dumb about the fact they don't know them, <b><u>offer to teach them the rules to a sport you enjoy</u></b>. Help them learn what a batting average is and what it means, or invite them to your fantasy football league and offer to guide them through it.<br />
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6. <b style="text-decoration: underline;">Work on a project together.</b> This could be a ministry you're already involved in (Steven, would you like to help me run sound for worship practice on Saturday?), changing the oil in your car, starting a scrapbook, work in the garden, etc. <br />
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7. Once you get to know the MK, <b style="text-decoration: underline;">ask them to teach you something.</b> It could be a hands on instruction (cook something, make a craft), or a hypothetical instruction (if I were to get on public transportation in your country, how would I avoid getting robbed?) It doesn't have to be specific to a foreign culture or ministry, just to their story.<br />
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8. <b><u>Find out something they miss from their home (the field) and visit an international supermarket or hunt it down to surprise them!</u></b> You'd be surprised what you can find if you look hard enough--especially if you live near an international community.<br />
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9. <u><b>Send them a note or a care package as they travel.</b></u> Or hand something off to their parents to give to them at a later time to avoid postage and timing. Extra hint: American candy is often coveted! (skittles, m&ms, snickers, milky way bars, nerds, twizzlers, etc.)<br />
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10. <b><u>Don't let the brevity of time deter you.</u></b> Trust me, MKs are used to making friends on short notice. It's a second nature survival skill that comes with the territory. If an MK is only at your church for the weekend, see how much time you can devote to spending with them and do it! But don't be discouraged if they've had their fill of saying goodbyes and aren't interested. It's not you they're rejecting, it's the pain of saying goodbye to friends over and over again that they're having to work through.<br />
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<i>Next up: 10 ways to encourage MKs who have returned from the field (for good).</i><br />
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<br />Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-32955645306472155212014-08-19T23:26:00.002-04:002014-08-19T23:26:52.376-04:00CorreoToday we celebrated our first year in Costa Rica. While we're getting use to things taking longer than expected (the biggest adaptation thus far), there are some things that still baffle us. For example...<br />
<br />
I went to pick up a package today at the post office. Home delivery rarely happens and is challenging when your address literally translates to this: "San Francisco de Dos Rios, From the pharmacy La Pacifica, 400m east, 10m south. The garage is grey". That's great except the pharmacy is now a bread store and has been for 8 months. Somehow telling a taxi driver this always gets me home.<br />
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Anyways, this is the process for getting our package once at the post office:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>sign with passport at the guard shack with written proof of receiving a package</li>
<li>receive a lanyard badge</li>
<li>go to the back of the post office</li>
<li>go to counter 1</li>
<ul>
<li>give letter telling you have a package</li>
<li>show passport</li>
<li>receive a stamp on letter with your signature and passport number</li>
</ul>
<li>go to counter 2</li>
<ul>
<li>show stamped letter</li>
<li>acknowledge what is in the package</li>
<li>again, stamp, passport number, and signature</li>
<li>(the person has retrieved your package, but you cannot touch it)</li>
</ul>
<li>go to counter 3</li>
<ul>
<li>give stamped letter</li>
<li>pay a handling fee and/or customs (it was about $3)</li>
<li>receive a receipt that is stamped</li>
</ul>
<li>go to counter 4</li>
<ul>
<li>show receipt</li>
<li>wait to retrieve your package (it got moved from counter 2 to 4)</li>
<li>show receipt again to receive package</li>
</ul>
<li>check in again at guard shack to confirm that it is your package</li>
<li>return badge</li>
</ul>
<div>
Some days you really question your effectiveness with how little you can accomplish each day. Then you realize it's just life here. Pura Vida!</div>
Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17584531161809626563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-21882550161369884652014-07-22T14:28:00.001-04:002014-07-22T14:28:08.742-04:00Different Beliefs, One BibleOne Bible question I often get is, how can so many Christians who have the Spirit living inside of them read the Bible and come up with differing doctrines? If you ask this question, maybe this will help:<br />
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
"Some would challenge the call to humility in reading the Scripture by arguing that the Spirit shows us what the text means. He is our teacher. But when two "Spirit-instructed interpreters" argue for mutually exclusive positions, a problem arises. Who brings the correct message taught by the Spirit and how do we decide? We would argue that this question emphasizes the Spirit's teaching work at the wrong place, by stressing understanding of content. John 14-16 describes the work of the [Spirit] as a ministry of convicting the world and instructing the saints through encouragement. In other words, the Spirit works in our hearts to convict us of the truth of what we read in Scripture and to encourage us with regard to how we apply what is said. There is a difference between understanding what the Gospel says, and <i>accepting</i> it. Those who crucified Jesus understood His claims, but they rejected Him as not being from God. Our contention would be that the Spirit is primarily concerned with our responsiveness." </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Craig A Blaising and Darrel L Bock.</div>
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<br /><br />Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-13983850504720983722014-07-07T14:50:00.002-04:002014-07-07T14:50:26.757-04:00Patrick's Morning Adventure<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Today to kick off our family morning, Patrick practiced his climbing skills in the back yard! He did great climbing our mango tree, and went up 3 times! It was pretty exposed, so it gave me a good excuse to break out our rope and harnesses!</div>
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<br />Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-85296006005092496642014-07-01T15:52:00.001-04:002014-07-01T15:52:42.991-04:00Disspelling the "Missional" MythIn the last 5 years, a new buzzword came into play in the evangelical church in the USA: "Missional"<br />
<br />
It was an adjective to describe being "On Mission". This new phraseology carries a strong, yet vague sense of purpose. We are "on mission"--we have have a job to do! We all have a mission--are you on your mission? But since this mission is the same across the church, we just did away with the article (on <u>a</u> mission, on <u>the</u> mission) and new power language was born: <i>On Mission!</i> When I saw this trending, I was concerned with the vague concept with which it so strongly thrust forth for three reasons:<br />
<br />
1. I've said it twice, I'll say it again--it's vague... What does it mean? Well, I think the best way to articulate it is the following: Be always ever focused on making disciples via the strategy of multiplication no matter where you are... I think... The strength of this vague concept is that church members were challenged to be 'on mission' in their schools and jobs all the time, not just at church or church outreaches. I strongly agree with the spirit of the saying (be a Christian everywhere), but think we could have maybe not made up our own word so that nobody really knows what we're talking about unless you've sat through a bunch of sermons and read a book or a couple hip Christian blogs.<br />
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2. 'On mission' blurs the line even further between traditional "missions" and everyday living out the love of Christ. Perhaps it came from the etymology of the word missionary: "Sent on a mission (1640)". But the origin of mission is: "a sending abroad" originally used by Jesuits. Having grown up in traditional 'missions' I've always been opposed to the blurring of this line because I think it hurts more than helps the advancement of the Gospel. The song "Be a missionary every day" which I so loudly belted out at age 7 in Sunday school with a bunch of strangers in every supporting church, did/does the same thing: blurs the line by suggesting everyone is a missionary, or missions consists of witnessing in the school you attend every day, or in your neighborhood or city. Certainly, these things are all essential and we should be doing them. But traditional missions* requires much training and sacrifice, and depends on the church for it's existence. One would not want me representing them in court as a lawyer, nor performing a check up as a doctor, nor operating a large crane (or any size crane) without proper training. Missions is the same way. To blur these lines is a) just false, b) setting potential missionaries up for failure and burnout because there is this mantra that everyone already is a missionary so 1. it must be easy and 2. who needs any training!? and c) weakening the entire base for on which missions exists in the first place--on the conviction of the church that men and women must be sent abroad for the spread of the gospel where those church members are not. It breeds the idea that the church can take part in "mission" in their own town and that be a sufficient reason not to send people abroad. (short term missions can also have this terrible effect).<br /><br />3. The previous two points could be written off as opinions, and I would not be offended. But perhaps the primary reason for writing against the "missional" phraseology, is that being ON MISSION should NOT be our primary goal or purpose. Before you scream 'heretic' and cite the great commission, remember Ecclesiastes. The author experimented with every kind of hedonistic pleasure, and found it all meaningless. At the end of his conclusion of meaninglessness, he writes: <span style="background-color: white; color: #363030; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22.464000701904297px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #363030; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22.464000701904297px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #363030; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22.464000701904297px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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(Ecclesiastes 12:13 ESV)</div>
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</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 22.464000701904297px; white-space: pre-wrap;">And it is this that is the whole duty of mankind, not 'be missional'. I fear that we have, ever so softly, rolled away from the biblical mandate in order to focus on mobilizing churchgoers. And we must beware lest those new to the church who cannot see the evolution (of which I agree with the heart behind) miss this altogether. Jesus said the first two commandments are to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as your self. Certainly </span></span><span style="line-height: 22.464000701904297px; white-space: pre-wrap;">disciple-making</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 22.464000701904297px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is included. But beware not to change your purpose from that prescribed by God himself, and teachers who are judged more strictly (James 3) should take heed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 22.464000701904297px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22.464000701904297px; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=mission&searchmode=none</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22.464000701904297px; white-space: pre-wrap;">*Traditional missions crosses 2 of 3 barriers: language, culture, country borders.</span></div>
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</span></span>Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5555660090415885236.post-87434353689189298602014-06-12T16:00:00.003-04:002014-06-12T16:02:04.478-04:00Sojourn Commencement Address 2014<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Sojourn Academy Class of
2014 Commencement Address. <br />
Written and delivered by Jonathan Hunter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">When I stepped into the icy
snow-ladened wind, I stopped and caught my breath. It was 1 AM. <i>What have I gotten myself into?</i> But the
person in front of me moved on, and there was someone waiting behind me. So I
took a step further out of the doorway and felt the full power of the wind hit
me. I could hear the bits of snow and ice on my hood, as they were hurled at my
body through the gusty night. I took another step. What was I thinking? Why did
I leave my bed, oh warm sweet, comfortable, warm, dry, warm sleeping bag. But
still I stepped forward. Again, and again, and again. My feet were heavy. Aside
from the wind on my hood, the only thing to be heard was the clanking of our
ice axes on the rocks, like dull bells warning the mountain of our approach. We
trudged up the path, muffled lighting peering out of our headlamps. I realized
that I was trembling, though from excitement, cold, or terror, I could not
distinguish. Probably all three. So I gripped my ice axe tighter, put my head
down, and focused on taking another step.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">After my first attempt at
the snowcapped 19,000 ft giant, nicknamed, “the neck of the moon”, nightmares
flash before my eyes every time I shut them. I didn’t even have to be asleep. I
saw myself trip and fall, and felt again the panic of sliding down the steep,
icy slope, repeatedly jabbing the point of my ice axe in the ice and snow to
stop my fall. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">No one ever achieved
anything significant by lying on the couch, playing it safe and easy. Faith is
hard to come by from the comfort of your pillow. Go out and do something
dangerous, something that has high stakes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">In one of my favorite
stories in the Bible, the king and his men are defenseless. They only have two
swords for their six hundred men. They have no power to stop the enemy who was
raiding towns all around them. What will they do? The son of the king had one
of the only two swords, and he says to his servant, let’s leave secretly and go
to the enemy’s camp. ‘It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can
hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few.’ And his servant says, let’s do
it. And they attack the camp! And the King sees them fighting off in the
distance, and takes his men into battle. And those who were hiding in the hills
in caves, came out to chase down the Philistines. The prince was a hero and was
well loved in the land. <i>It may be that
the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many
or by few.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Reserve action for things
that are worth doing; dangerous things. Those where the stakes are high, and
you have a lot to gain or lose. The kind that forces you to have faith. I could
never climb a 19,000 ft volcano in a sleeping bag, and Jonathan, prince of
Israel, would have never had become a great leader if he was too nervous to act
on the faith he had in God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Risk is not encouraged by
our insurance-hyped, liability-crazed, wellness-infused society. When I was 21
I walked into a jewelry shop to buy a diamond ring. There were several older
men in the store. “Don’t do it!” they cautioned! “There’s still time to back
out!” Although the Jeweler himself was quiet—he wanted my business—our society
cringes at the idea of someone getting married so young, and taking such a big
risk. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Do not quit; never
surrender.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">And that leads me to my
second point… Get married before you turn 20. <br />
Just kidding, that’s not my second point </span><span style="background: white; font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">J</span><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><br />
For real though, the other side of risk: Don’t just take a risk and turn around
and quit at the first sign of trouble. You have to be committed to follow
through, don’t quit, never surrender.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">In College I read this
story: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Growing up on the
Oregon coast, I watched the Seaside Marathon from my house each year. Runners
of all shapes, sizes, and speeds would come by over a five-hour span. The
winner each year would complete the race in less than two and one-half hours.
The rest of the field would string out for several more hours. One year, I
remember the very last runner to finish the race came in so long after everyone
else that the runner's banquet was over before he crossed the finish line.This
last runner took more than eight hours to cover the twenty-six-mile distance!</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">I watched when he came by my house at the twenty
mile mark, all alone with dusk settling, his pace little more than a shuffle.
Grit and determination showed in his single focus of putting one foot in front
of the other. No matter that there was a celebratory banquet going on someplace
else with food and comfort. No matter the finish-line banner had been taken
down already. He knew his goal and he wouldn't be satisfied until he achieved
it. And he did, crossing the finish line some three hours after every other
racer had showered and eaten dinner. I don't remember the name of that <i>eighty-year-old runner</i>, but his
perseverance left a lasting impression. He was running a marathon when many of
his peers were confined to walkers and wheelchairs..</span></span><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">The one thing we’re assured
of in Scripture is that if we follow Christ, our life will be marked with
suffering. The book of Hebrews describes life as a race that has been put
before us. And we are challenged to run that race with endurance. Don’t quit.
Keep going. Never surrender.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">But it hurts not to quit.
Sometimes people laugh. Sometimes, people get angry and lash out. Sometimes
life gets unbearable. It is only on the faithful and the loyal that receive
scars, because they didn’t give in when the pain began. Bear your scars with
honor, knowing that you are no greater than your master. Scars and wounds are,
in fact, the mark of a faithful Christ-follower. In one of my favorite poems,
Jesus questions he who walks without a wound or scar:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Hast thou no scar?<o:p></o:p></div>
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No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?<o:p></o:p></div>
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I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;<o:p></o:p></div>
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I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Hast thou no scar?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Hast thou no wound?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent<o:p></o:p></div>
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By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Hast thou no wound?<o:p></o:p></div>
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No wound? No scar?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,<o:p></o:p></div>
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And piercèd are the feet that follow Me.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But thine are whole; can he have followed far<o:p></o:p></div>
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Who hast no wound or scar?<br />
(Poem by Amy Carmichael)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Don’t quit on God when He seems so distant, or when injustice calls on you, and
the heavens are silent. Never surrender. Don’t quit on church when you realize
that it’s full of sinners like me and you. Be a person who is known for his
daring acts and constant endurance. Don’t quit on a promise or commitment just
because you get busy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I didn’t make it to the top of 19,347ft Cotopaxi. We were
turned back by some really bad weather. So I tried again. This time, we were on
the glacial ice when a lightning storm hit, and we ran for our lives through
the dark to get off the ice. That night being the scariest moment of my life as
the thundered deafened us, and the lightening was blinding. But as of today
I’ve stood on the summit of that volcano 3 different times. Don’t quit. Never
surrender.<o:p></o:p></div>
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What you might not realize is that following Christ is
possibly the Riskiest thing you’ll ever do, in the eyes of the world. God
promises adversity. Homes have been burned, people hunted and beaten,
imprisoned, mocked, shunned, and laughed at. In addition to what other might do
to you, you run the risk of following Christ <i>wherever he calls you</i>. Just look at all the people here, in this
room, who have left all the comfort of familiarity and family. They stand as
witnesses to the great risk and reward of the faithfulness of God. And <i>now</i>, as you leave the safety and comfort
of your pillow and home and venture out into the dark, howling, unknown, the
stakes just got higher. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So I charge you: Since you are surrounded by so great a
cloud of witnesses, run with endurance the race that is set before you, looking
to Jesus, the founder and perfector of your faith. Remember what Christ endured
from sinners against himself, that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<o:p>Benediction:</o:p></div>
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<o:p>Sojourn Academy 2014 Graduates:</o:p></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">May the road rise to meet you,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">may the wind be ever at your back.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br />
<span style="background: white;">May the sun shine warm upon your face,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br />
<span style="background: white;">and the rains fall soft upon your fields.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br />
<span style="background: white;">And until we meet again,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br />
<span style="background: white;">may God hold you in the palm of his hand.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background: white;">Family, Teachers, Friends:</span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">The LORD bless you and keep
you;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be
gracious to you;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give
you peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jonathan Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064193585633551011noreply@blogger.com0