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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.