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Firm Foundation

At the end of Christ's sermon in Matthew 5-7, Jesus closes out his words by saying, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock." Every time I see a building built here in Kabiye land, I think about this passage. The importance of a strong and solid foundation cannot be overstated. On February 17th, the church in Ewede will be laying the foundation for their new church building. They have spent a great deal of energy preparing to lay the foundation by walking and searching for a large number of large rocks. Now that the collection is complete, it is time to lay the foundation and then construct their building. If the foundation is well built, their building should stand for a good many years and be a blessing to their current church family and to many other who will come to know Jesus in the years ahead. Of course, the construction of a building and it's foundation is of minor importance compared to what Jesus is really eluding to in this passage. If the Ewede Christians do not have Christ as the foundation of who they are, then their very lives will crumble around them and the building won't really matter at all. I ask that you please be praying for the church in Ewede. There is a wonderful Christian family there and I ask that you pray for God to help them build their lives on the foundation of Christ. Even as they construct the foundation of their church building on the 17th, let our prayer be that their minds will recall this teaching of Jesus and be committed to having a firm foundation.

Elijah the Builder-Can He Fix It?

My oldest son is so wonderful. Already at a young age he gets so excited about working with dad. Particularly if something is being built. A few days ago, Amalao (our day guardian) and I were working to get the kids swings set into cement and Elijah just had to help. So he got out the small folding shovel from the car and went to work putting the wet cement into the holes. He takes it so seriously and part of me has to chuckle remembering that in a few more years he may not be so eager to get in there and do the hard work. Ah well, I'll enjoy it while it last and perhaps some good habits are being laid down for the future.

You Have Heard Your Father Say...

How do you break long standing habits? One habit I have had continually since childhood is the habit of biting my fingernails. My parents tried to break the habit a number of different ways. The one that really sticks in my mind is the dipping of the fingertips into hot pepper sauce. Good idea but obviously it did not work. Too easy to go and wash the hands. How about putting plastic bags over one’s hands? Perhaps, but a little bit impractical unless you are planning on being a hand model and also want to protect the lovely complexion. I have heard that it takes a certain number of weeks to break a habit. If I could just manage to resist the temptation to bite for ten weeks then the habit would be broken and I would never bite again! It seems to me that none of these things work to break habits because they rely on human power alone. Perhaps some of you are saying, “Hey it worked for me!” Congratulations! However, unfortunately we are not always talking about something as benign as biting the nails. Spiritually we can have a number of things in our lives that we struggle with and just can’t seem to conquer on our own. Recently, as I have been teaching through the Sermon on the Mount, the struggle to break free of long existing ways of thinking has been a prominent subject. Jesus says over and over again in his sermon, “You have heard that it was said….” Who said these things? It was their fathers before them who had interpreted the Law over and over again and now had arrived at a certain understanding of what it meant and what affect it should have on their lives. Then Jesus comes along and takes all of those interpretations and flips them on their heads. Take note however that he did not do away with them. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Matthew 5:17 I really like the ERV’s translation of this passage where it says, “I have not come to destroy their teachings but to give full meaning to them.” The full meaning comes when the laws are written on the heart. They are no longer something we are trying to follow, but something we are living. Even in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 God was encouraging the Israelites to live them. The Jewish fathers missed the message of the Law and now Jesus comes along to show how to walk in God’s path. Jesus is fighting an uphill battle. He is teaching against hundreds of years of tradition and teaching. It is difficult to change old ways or habits. In the Kabiye translation of the above text it says, “You have heard it said to our fathers that….” The parallels here are almost uncanny. As I read the sermon, I continually hear the people saying, “Uh-huh, uh-huh, yes.” This was communicating to them! But the original question remains. How do you break bad or old habits? Teachings that are ingrained into the mind and heart are difficult to weed out so that new teachings can be planted in their place. So I want to ask you to pray. God has blessed the work here and there are eighteen churches planted. However, I can not say that these churches are all thriving. There is a need for the truths of God to be written on hearts. Pray for the truths of God to take root deep in the hearts of the people. Pray for the ways of their fathers before them to be replaced by the path of God and pray that the people can walk down that new path in full faith.

Kingdom Living

Over the past few weeks during my time out in different villages, my teaching has been focusing on the idea of Kingdom living. I have been recently working through a wonderful book by Dallas Willard entitled “The Divine Conspiracy” and it has turned me inside out with every turn of the page. In this book, Willard focuses primarily on the idea of living in the presence of God. This presence of God is found within his Kingdom and that Kingdom envelopes everything we see and experience. In his book, Willard spends a great deal of time sharing some new ways of looking at the Sermon on the Mount that have really challenged my walk with God. He states that the purpose of this sermon is to give us everything we need to exist rightly in the Kingdom of God. The sermon is not a list of rules, as Jesus makes painfully clear, but it is a holistic, heart-changing dialogue offered by Christ the master to each of us. Even in the Beatitudes, we do not find a how to list so that we can qualify ourselves for the Kingdom. They are Christ’s way of saying to His audience that everyone is welcome to partake of his Kingdom. Looking at the sermon in this light should change our perspective of our relationship with God. He is not far off watching from above waiting to see if we get it all right and then perhaps he will let us into the club. If we have placed our belief and faith in Him alone and have died spiritually in the grave of baptism then we are living in his Kingdom right now! He is striving with us to make the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount a reality in our lives. Through his power we become blessed Kingdom people. I have begun delivering this message in the Kabiye churches and it has been received with such eagerness because it is so different from what they have often heard. So many of the messages they hear preach the idea that perhaps one day we will be able to be in God’s Kingdom (i.e. heaven) but first we must prove ourselves and live by these rules and regulations. Rules and regulations breed hypocrisy. Living in the presence of God and unfolding our lives before him opens us up to his power and plants his laws and desires deep in our hearts. Lives are truly changed and the Kingdom of God is seen for what it truly is. Not a religious organization but God himself living and moving among us. Oh what joy to be in such proximity with our Lord and friend! Please write me your comments and let me hear you thoughts.

Choking on Your Teeth?

I simply wanted to offer anyone help in retrieving their teeth from the back of their throat because of the overwhelming suprise that might have hit them because of my blog post. Surprise!!! I have received too many emails compelling me to write so I am going to respond to the nudging and do a little better. LOL. Keep watching and you never know...

Hands and Feet

I have never had much trouble speaking. Probably my favorite classes in school were my 7th, 8th and 9th grade speech and drama classes. Maybe part of the reason was that my father was the teacher, but more than that I simply enjoyed public speaking. I enjoyed preparing for it and I enjoyed the delivery. To hold the attention of an audience and know that they were listening to what you had to say was very fascinating to me. Now that my subject matter is primarily about God and his love for us, my motivations have changed as well as my reason for speaking. When I spoke in speech class, it was often for a grade or a competition for which I could really get fired up about. Now, I feel a different kind of burning. This is a burning from deep within to share the truth about God and who we are in relation to Him. However, as great as it is to speak truth and to share the Good News with others, it is probably more important to live that message in the presence of those who also need to hear it. I can never stop speaking. But maybe I need to do a little more serving as well. Perhaps I need to learn to speak with my hands and feet. Over these past six year in Togo, I have had many opportunities to speak. I have also had many opportunities to serve. I am ashamed to say that my learning curve has been considerably bent. Not until recently have I begun to understand and reach out to those in need here in Kabiye land. I have given out a lot of spare change during these past six years, but I cannot count many times that I have poured Jesus into them. He lives in me and I am filled daily to overflowing with his presence and power. So why have I waited so long? What has held me back? The answer is fear and pride. I have really struggled with these two monsters over the past few years but have finally begun to break free from them and the other side is much more free and fresh. I have intended for some time now to teach a lesson on servant hood and use John 13 where Jesus washes his disciple’s feet. As a part of the lesson I wanted to wash the feet of my listeners as an illustration of exactly what Jesus did. Have you seen Kabiye feet? Pedicure shops are few and far between! Sandals, dust and the dry season make for some dirty, stinky, dry and cracked feet. Quite frankly, I avoided this lesson because I did not want to touch their feet! Recently, however, something inside me changed (miracles still exist) and I felt compelled to illustrate Christ’s example of servant hood and kingdom living. One particular afternoon in the village of Ajadaa, I was washing the feet of one of the Christian young women and came across a large abscess on the back of her heal. Before I could react and pull my hand away, the abscess burst and I won’t go into the rest. I am not easily disgusted by things like this, but at that moment my gag reflex went into overdrive and I just knew that I was going to vomit right there on the spot. I believe it was by God’s grace that I did not but instead held on to her foot and continued to clean. She winced and I apologized and I cleaned out the wound explaining that she needed to keep it clean and bandaged and then moved on to the next pair of feet. That moment and that image have remained burned onto the back of my skull and through it, and many other pairs of feet, God has taught me a great deal about what it means to have hands and feet for God. I thought immediately of Jesus touching the leper and of how many countless poor, dirty, sick and lonely people he touched in a meaningful way. He took time and expended energy not just throwing them some chump change, but he really reached into their lives and gave them a piece of himself. That is what we are called to do. Regardless of our station in life we are called to touch and love people. Instead of just tossing some change to the beggar, I need touch his or her hand, look into their eyes and ask them how they are doing. Take the time and expend the spiritual energy necessary to touch and maybe even change a life. That has been a big challenge for me. However, God’s grace and power is helping me be more like the Christ who washed his disciple’s feet, cleansed the lepers and healed and loved countless others. What an impact we could all have in this world if we didn’t try to make our Christianity antiseptic. Jesus never said anything about being squeaky clean followers of him. We need to be the hands and feet of Christ that are willing do anything to give someone a glimpse of who Jesus really is and what it means to be his children.