Sep
4
Focused prayer for Muslim world
Filed Under Around the Church, Blogging, Culture, Current Events, Evangelism, Islam, Missions, Prayer | Leave a Comment
In our prayer meeting during September we will spend a portion of time praying for the power of the Gospel to reach mightily into the Muslim world. 30-Days International (www.30-days.net) produces the “30-Days of Prayer for the Muslim World” Christian prayer guide coinciding with Ramadan each year.
The origin of this international prayer network came about as a group of Christian leaders were praying during a meeting in the Middle East in April 1992. God put a burden on the hearts of these men and women to call as many Christians as possible to pray for the Muslim world. The annual, worldwide, 30-Days Muslim prayer focus gives Christians the opportunity to learn about Islam and pray for Muslims during Ramadan (Islam’s important annual month of fasting and religious observance). This year’s motto is: “Loving Muslims through Prayer.”
Each year a new prayer guide booklet is published in a number of languages and locations around the world. The booklet is illustrated and contains daily readings with prayer points and informative background articles focusing on the Muslim world. Printed copies of the prayer guide are sold out, but an online daily blog version is available here.
Aug
25
What submission is not
Filed Under Christian Living, Culture, Family, Marriage, Men, Preaching | Leave a Comment
John Piper, from a sermon on 1 Peter 3:1-6 available at Desiring God Ministries, has listed six things that biblical submission is not. Time did not allow me to share these or elaborate on them at all in yesterday’s sermon on 1 Peter 3:1-7. Here they are:
What Submission Is Not
Here are six things it is not, based on 1 Peter 3:1-6.
1. Submission does not mean agreeing with everything your husband says. You can see that in v. one: she is a Christian and he is not. He has one set of ideas about ultimate reality. She has another. Peter calls her to be submissive while assuming she will not submit to his view of the most important thing in the world—God. So submission can’t mean submitting to agree with all her husband thinks.
2. Submission does not mean leaving your brain or your will at the wedding altar. It is not the inability or the unwillingness to think for yourself. Here is a woman who heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. She thought about it. She assessed the truth claims of Jesus. She apprehended in her heart the beauty and worth of Christ and his work, and she chose him. Her husband heard it also. Otherwise, Peter probably wouldn’t say he “disobeyed the word.” He has heard the word, and he has thought about it. And he has not chosen Christ. She thought for herself and she acted. And Peter does not tell her to retreat from that commitment.
3. Submission does not mean avoiding every effort to change a husband. The whole point of this text is to tell a wife how to “win” her husband. V. 1 says, “Be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives.” If you didn’t care about the Bible you might say, “Submission has to mean taking a husband the way he is and not trying to change him.” But if you believe what the Bible says, you conclude that submission, paradoxically, is sometimes a strategy for changing him.
4. Submission does not mean putting the will of the husband before the will of Christ. The text clearly teaches that the wife is a follower of Jesus before and above being a follower of her husband. Submission to Jesus relativizes submission to husbands—and governments and employers and parents. When Sarah called Abraham “lord” in v. 6, it was lord with a lowercase l. It’s like “sir” or “m’lord.” And the obedience she rendered is qualified obedience because her supreme allegiance is to the Lord with a capital L.
5. Submission does not mean that a wife gets her personal, spiritual strength primarily through her husband. A good husband should indeed strengthen and build up and sustain his wife. He should be a source of strength. But what this text shows is that when a husband’s spiritual leadership is lacking, a Christian wife is not bereft of strength. Submission does not mean she is dependent on him to supply her strength of faith and virtue and character. The text, in fact, assumes just the opposite. She is summoned to develop depth and strength and character not from her husband but for her husband. Verse five says that her hope is in God in the hope that her husband will join her there.
6. Finally submission does not mean that a wife is to act out of fear. V. 6b says, “You are her [Sarah’s] children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.” In other words, submission is free, not coerced by fear. The Christian woman is a free woman. When she submits to her husband—whether he is a believer or unbeliever—she does it in freedom, not out of fear.
Apr
10
I don’t see how…
Filed Under Bible, Christian Living, Culture, Family, The Church | Leave a Comment
“I don’t see how a Christian could…
• Vote for a Democrat
• Practice birth control
• Send his children to public school
• Drink beer
• Play along with the Santa Claus myth
• Allow his wife to work for pay outside the home
• Watch TV on Sunday
• Vacation at a Disney theme park
• Use an epidural during childbirth
• Let someone else care for his child more than ___ hours a week
• Listen to secular music
• Take an antidepressant
• Bottle-feed a baby.”
Over the last twenty years I’ve been around fellow Christians who have voiced those exact opinions, and each time a compelling, confident biblical justification followed. I must admit that in the past I have held some of the above opinions with great confidence. In fourteen years as a minister I’ve also had to let go of some of those things and clean up the mess behind those who won’t.
These are the kinds of things the Apostle Paul calls “disputable matters” in Romans 14:1ff. In that setting the issues were voiced as “I don’t see how a Christian can eat meat” or “I don’t see how a Christian can ignore the Jewish calendar.” To this Paul says, Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind…Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another…And in v.19 he says, So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
Even if we have strong convictions about what we think is right, we are to respect the choices that other believers make in them, even if we are convinced on biblical grounds that they are wrong (Rom. 14:1-15:7). Further, we need to come to terms with the reality that we sometimes lack the “clear, biblical evidence” we like to claim. Each one should be convinced in his own mind, Paul teaches us; yet we also must accept one another in order to bring praise to God and not judge our brothers and sisters for whom Christ died.
Did you notice that about half of the items on the list above deal directly with issues regarding women and children? Sadly women are particularly (though not exclusively) prone to divide and despise and devour one another over disputable matters regarding childrearing, work, education and social involvement. My wise wife reminds me, “Women are sensitive creatures. Sensitivity is not a liability; rather, it is an asset for which we should be thankful. It makes us loving moms, daughters, sisters, and friends. Imagine the Church without the love and care of women. Then again, you probably wouldn’t want to do that. What would things be like in time of crisis and celebration if women were not around to carry the load?” The downside of this wonderful sensitivity is that women can live lives full of doubt and anxiety, victim to the opinions of others and threatened when other Christians disagree. Matters of childrearing, work, and social involvement particularly get under our skin.
It reminds me of an incident in Judges 12. In the midst of a civil war, the Gileadites hold the Jordan River, and whenever anyone comes to cross, they ask him to say the word “shibboleth”—a Hebrew word whose meaning is uncertain. The Ephraimites had a distinct dialect in which they can’t pronounce the “sh” in “shibboleth” and say “sibboleth” instead. “Thereupon [the Gileadites] would seize him and slay him.” More than 40,000 Ephraimites fall into this language trap and are killed. (Wouldn’t you think the Ephraimites would have figured this out at some point? They certainly weren’t the brightest of the tribes!)
At those times when modern-day Gileadites whip out their shibboleths, remember Paul’s questions in Romans 14:10: But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Should I judge the Disney vacationing, beer drinking, brother who wears an “Obama for President” t-shirt while listening to “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” on his iPod? Should I despise the brother or sister who has never stood beneath the shadow of Cinderella’s castle and who curses every yellow school bus? The answer to both questions is “no.”
Quarreling over opinions causes division within the church and ignores the immense sacrifice of Christ on the cross in favor of a self-made righteousness. Ladies and gentlemen, we must be very careful about such things, for none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s (Romans 14:5-8).
I don’t see how a Christian could disagree with that.
Feb
26
El Caballo out to pasture
Filed Under Culture, Current Events, Missions | Leave a Comment
Ailing Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has stepped down and handed over power to his brother Raul, and now seems ready to fade into history. The ‘revolution’ was nearly ten years old when I was born, so I know nothing of the Cuba of an older generation, who could travel there and speak first-hand of the beauty of its land and people–the Cuba of Ricky Ricardo and the delectable (albeit now illicit) cigars. The Cuba of my lifetime has been the Cuba of refugees clinging to flimsy boats off the coast of the Florida Keys, of the Soviet communist foothold in the Western Hemisphere, of Elian Gonzalez, of oppression–in short, the Cuba of El Comandante, the bearded supremo in the green fatigues. [Did you know that Forbes estimates that Castro's personal wealth is about twice that of Queen Elizabeth II?]
In 1996 I met a Cuban pastor at a ministers’ conference in Pennsylvania and gained new insight into the condition of the Church in Cuba. In his first two years in power, Castro ordered a confiscation of Bibles that the Cuban government claims resulted in the destruction of more than 100,000 copies. Hundreds of Protestant ministers were imprisoned and shot, and Protestant churches were bricked up or burned down under the pretense that they were CIA “front” organizations. Pope John XXIII excommunicated Castro in 1962.
However, in 1992 Castro eased restrictions on religious practices and welcomed a papal
visit in 1998, even ending a 30-year ban on the celebration of Christmas. Since 1992, there seems to be something of an accordion policy toward religious freedom in Cuba, with restrictions easing then tightening when the government fears that Christianity is flourishing too much, especially in the rural areas, where tens of thousands of house churches continue to thrive and grow.
For years Castro sympathizers have praised the high literacy rate in the Cuba (in reality, it seems to be no higher than it was prior to the 1959 revolution). But that literacy was and is now intended to be a literacy that enables the citizens to read what Castro wants them to read and know. A leading Roman Catholic prelate in Santiago recently commented, “Life in Cuba continues without the greater transformations.” And that is part of the beauty of the gospel. It does not require a particular form of government in order to prosper. It transcends cultural boundaries–and it transforms cultures.
Of course, that has always been part of the rub. The Roman Empire of the 1st century was quite willing to allow the existence of a Jewish reform movement that some were calling ‘The Way.’ Its adherents could say ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and there was no problem. The problem came when those folks would not say, ‘Caesar is Lord’ too. Then they were viewed as rebels who disrupted the unity of the state. For Rome, the goal of any true morality and piety was subordination of all things to the State. The Christian faith presented an alternative order and law and ultimate allegiance that quickly became interpreted as a treasonable faith and a menace to social and political order.
Joe recently reminded us in his opening sermon on 1 Thessalonians that we are on a mission of world conquest, make no mistake about it. It’s just that we are not doing so by force but by the death of discipleship, not for our own utopian dreams but for the worship of Christ Jesus, who is Lord of all, whom we acknowledge and serve everywhere at all times.
On one level, the oppression of the Church in Cuba seems ridiculous. And if Jesus is Lord in some, abstract, upper-story (as Francis Schaeffer would say), ‘religious’ sense, then persecution is silly. But at another, more fundamental level, Castro and dozens of others like him get it right. Cuban Christians confront Havana with the inflexible claim of Christ’s imperial authority. Jesus is God’s only-begotten Son; he is God; he is King; he is Savior. ‘Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him‘ [Psalm 2:10-12].
Back in the 18th century, John Howie wrote The Scots Worthies, a collection of biographical sketches of stalwart Scottish heroes of the Reformation and ‘the killing times’ of the late 17th century. The edition which the Banner of Truth Trust has reprinted does not include part of Howie’s original edition. The omitted section included sketches of some of the chief persecutors and enemies of the gospel, focusing on what painful and shameful deaths they suffered (how wonderfully Celtic!). Will Castro fade out quietly and peacefully, rather than brutally and violently? It does not matter. Will Cuba soon see ‘the greater transformations’? Who knows? There are thousands there who worship Christ and live for him daily. They are our brothers and sisters. They are more than conquerors through Christ. I’ll light a cigar to that, even if it’s ‘just’ a Dominican.
Dec
21
Better for nothing than for a nuisance
Filed Under C.S. Lewis, Christmas, Culture, Family, Reading | Leave a Comment
Here’s a Sweet Dropper Christmas tradition [which, being interpreted, means, 'I posted this last Christmas and can't come up with anything better.']
It’s Friday. There must be another Christmas party to attend–I hosted one last night. There must be another little gift to buy. Who’s going to be so favoured as to receive one of my signature fruitcakes? C.S. Lewis wrote a short essay for the December 1957 edition of the publication, Twentieth Century. Under the heading, ‘What Christmas Means to Me,’ Lewis launches a scathing attack on the ‘commercial racket’ that overwhelms the season–NOT because it isn’t ‘religious,’ but because it drains our energies and undermines the merry-making, and hospitality that ought to characterize the season:
The interchange of presents was a very small ingredient in the older English festivity. Mr. Pickwick took a cod with him to Dingley Dell; the reformed Scrooge ordered a turkey for his clerk; lovers sent love gifts; toys and fruit were given to children. But the idea that not only all friends but even all acquaintances should give one another presents, or at least send one another cards, is quite modern and has been forced upon us by the shopkeepers. Neither of these circumstances is in itself a reason for condemning it. I condemn it on the following grounds.
1. It gives on the whole much more pain than pleasure. You have only to stay over Christmas with a family who seriously try to ‘keep’ it [in the commerical sense] in order to see that the thing is a nightmare. Long before December 25th everyone is worn out—physically worn out by weeks of daily struggle in overcrowded shops, mentally worn out by the effort to remember all the right recipients and to think out suitable gifts for them. They are in no trim for merry-making; much less (if they should want to) to take part in a religious act. They look far more as if there had been a long illness in the house.
2. Most of it is involuntary. The modern rule is that anyone can force you to give him a present by sending you a quite unprovoked present of his own. It is almost a blackmail. Who has not heard the wail of despair, and indeed of resentment, when, at the last moment, just as everyone hoped that the nuisance was over for one more year, the unwanted gift from Mrs. Busy (whom we hardly remember) flops unwelcomed through the letter-box, and back to the dreadful shops one of us has to go?
3. Things are given as presents which no mortal ever bought for himself—gaudy and useless gadgets, ‘novelties’ because no one was ever fool enough to make their like before. Have we really no better use for materials and for human skill and time than to spend them on all this rubbish?
4. The nuisance. For after all, during the racket we still have all our ordinary and necessary shopping to do, and the racket trebles the labour of it. We are told that the whole dreary business must go on because it is good for trade. It is in fact merely one annual symptom of that lunatic condition of our country, and indeed of the world, in which everyone lives by persuading everyone else to buy things. I don’t know the way out. But can it really be my duty to buy and receive masses of junk every winter just to help the shopkeepers? If the worst comes to the worst I’d sooner give them money for nothing and write it off as a charity. For nothing? Why, better for nothing than for a nuisance.
From C.S. Lewis, “What Christmas Means to Me,” in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 304-305.
Dec
4
AIDS and ministry in Ethiopia
Filed Under Culture, Current Events, Evangelism, Missions | 1 Comment
World AIDS Day was designated by someone somewhere as 1 December. The record will note that The Sweet Dropper is three days late in posting in this regard. But, here is a letter we received yesterday from our friend Andy Warren, who works in medical and church planting ministry with Mission to the World in Ethiopia. Andy and his wife Bev are dearly beloved among us here at FPC Kosciusko and were with us in October for our World Mission Conference. Below is the text of Andy’s letter:
Dear Friends,
December 1st is World AIDS Day. For me it is a day to think about the people I know personally that have been, and still are, being affected by this epidemic. In spite of being
thousands of miles from Ethiopia I still see their faces clearly in my mind, and the first ones I see are the children. They are the ones who regularly visit my office, show me
their report cards, beg for candy, scavenge in my desk drawers, and sit in my lap.
I cannot imagine anything in my life being more satisfying than helping these HIV+
children. While it still isn’t clear how long, or what kind of life these children will have,
it is thrilling to see them alive today and thrilling to see them well and going to school
and living normal lives.
We started out treating four children, Selam, Mikias, Leul and Estifo. Today we have at
least twenty children on treatment and another group that we monitor so that they can
start treatment when they are eligible.
Another satisfying part of work this last year was expanding into two new communities. Bole was the first new community and Danny, the manager for this new work, has done an amazing job. I met Danny eleven years ago when he was a 13-year-old boy. He has grown into a mature and talented young man. He recently sent me the story of one of the
new HIV+ women in the Bole community. Lemlem is a young woman who was idnapped as a young girl and held as a slave until she escaped and fled to Addis Ababa. he tells some of her story:
In Addis, I began to work in a grocery store as a cashier. While I as working there I had an affair with a man who was a driver. During he affair, I got pregnant but I aborted it after 7 months. I used traditional medicine to cause the abortion. The traditional medicine hurt me very much.
After this, I stopped working in the grocery because the owner transferred the store to another person as a contract. While I was there I had TB. Then I got a job at a draft house (bar). I still felt sick. I worked for 7 years at the draft house. Then, I got really sick and I wanted to stop working. I asked my boss to give me my salary but she would not give it to
me. I had no money and I was feeling very sick. I suffered a lot. When Selam, Mikias and Leul the grocery lady, who I had worked for before, heard, she called me and began to treat me. When my sickness got worse, Megenbesh, who is one of the project’s beneficiaries, told me to have my blood checked. I did and I found out I was HIV positive. When I heard that, I was shocked and I fainted. The doctors advised me to calm down and not be sad. I stopped working but refused to take any medicine. One day, I was very sick and someone knocked on the door. I was unable to stand up and open the door so I just said “get in.” It was the project staff (Danny).
Now I thank God because I am in a better position in life. I feel like I have been healed from the death. There are people who do not get the opportunity to experience this, but I do. So I am thankful. What matters for me now is my mom. I want to see my mother if she is alive. If she is not, I would like to see my brother. That has been my dream since my childhood.
On World AIDS day, I am thankful for the privilege of serving people like Lemlem,
Selam, Mikias, Leul, and Estifo. I am also thankful for the people who support us in the
many ways that make this possible.
Peace,
Andy Warren
AIDS Care and Treatment
Project Director