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| One of the all time favorite questions of people who have trouble believing there is a God is “Why do bad things happen to good people?” The answer to the question is actually quite simple: sin. Turn to Genesis chapter 2 if you don’t believe me. We often try to say that it isn’t fair that the sins of someone else have an effect on us, as if we were innocent ourselves. We came from Adam, therefore we sin. The earth is cursed because of Adam, therefore we suffer from flooding, hurricanes, fires, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, and a multitude of other tragedies that make us cry out “NOT FAIR!” But what did we really lose when Adam and Eve made the choice to disobey God? God is a perfectly fair God, and he ALWAYS keeps his word. He told Adam and Eve they would die if they ate the fruit of this tree, they knew it. Eve even repeated the promise of God back to the serpent when he was tempting her. Seriously, though, if I might take a detour for a moment, why, if you were perfectly created and had a perfect love relationship with your creator, would you suddenly suspect the One who has given you all good things of lying to you? Wouldn’t it make more sense to go to God and say, “You know, the serpent said this to me. Is that true?” Eve had to make a place in her heart for sin. The seed of suspicion and doubt was planted and it grew, not into a search for the truth, but into a disbelief of God. A search for the truth would have wanted to hear all the sides of the story to try to make sense of it, not just assuming that one side would lie. Not to mention, aside from what the serpent just did, lying had not yet been invented!! Why was there such a suspicion of God in this woman? I know why, because God wanted to prove, via the gift of choice, how much He loved us, and how far He was willing to go to get us back when we made the wrong choice. So, the moment came, Eve ate, Adam, who was evidently passive while Eve was being tempted, also ate. They realized they were naked and tried to hide behind some sown fig leaves. You have to wonder at this point how good the quality was of the “clothes” they tried to make. I don’t know about you, but I’ve torn apart leaves in my day and I know how easily they fall apart. Not only did their covering not do the trick, but it only served to point to and emphasize that they had disobeyed God. Then God comes and they play the blame game: Adam blaming his sin first on God and then on Eve. Eve blaming her sin on the serpent. You notice that none of us were spared in the punishment. Yahweh our friend became God the judge. He who once walked with us in the garden became the one we try to pray to through the iron ceilings over our houses. The One present became the One who feels so far away. Serpent was set against everyone. Woman was given more pain in childbirth, but really more importantly than that, the explanation for all of the oppression of women is given here. “Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you.” Still women struggle under this, desiring to be on equal ground with man, or better than man, and constantly being oppressed by man. On Man’s behalf, all of the earth was cursed. He sinned through eating, he will now earn his living by trying to convince a broken earth to produce food. It doesn’t matter what kind of job you have, still you must struggle through it to get the food you need to survive until you go back to the dust you came from. Was it overkill for God to put us all under these curses? No. Consider your heart. If you are sitting there right now thinking, “I could have done a better job.” that is proof in and of itself that you would have fallen into the trap of pride just as well as Eve did. God knew there was no way we could stand up against the temptation of sin. That is why the Lamb was slain before He created the world. Praise God, for now we don’t have to struggle under the weight of sin any longer! Freedom from the curse is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord! | | |
| Well, guys, I've been away from Xanga for a while, and I can't foresee how long I'm going to be back on it, but for today I will grace you with my thoughts.  I got back to Champaign from OIL 2008 in Montrose, PA witih Natalie's church, Covenant Fellowship Church (CFC), on Sunday at 4am. We had just driven for 13 hours, I slept for 4 at Natalie's house and then drove to HighPointe Community Church to worship with my church. Granted, 4hrs of sleep is not enough, but it was about average for the time I had been at OIL, and I felt that one more day with 4hrs wouldn't kill me. I am young and healthy after all! It was SO refreshing to be at OIL, despite the bitterly cold temperatures and lack of sleep. I was completely seperated from Natalie for most of the week, but I made some fantastic new friends, whom I love dearly, and had alot of random God-ordained conversations with people that I sat next to on a van ride for, like, 20 minutes. God was good. I was really convicted while I was there that my prayer life was not what it should be. I know why that is. I've been a little afraid of what might be lurking in the corners of my heart due to a recent betrayal that hurt me alot more then I was thinking it would. However, what I found was not what I expected. As one of the pastors at OIL said, once we have been chosen to be saved, the cleansing of our sins from our life is something that God WILL do. We don't have to worry that He will let one of our sins slip by and then we won't make it into heaven, and you can't get away with anything with God. So, I asked Him to clean me and fill me and what I found is that I needed to be praying more. Go figure... I also went to a seminar on how to read the Bible. It wasn't what I was expecting either. I was expecting a rather eclectic smattering of different Bible study habits. Instead I got an in depth look at one particular way to read the Bible called Narrative Criticism. Yes, this is a literary tool, and being that the Bible is a fantastic peice of literature, it makes sence that you would use a literary tool to see the beauty of the Word. What I'm hoping is that, over the next few days, I am able to put something together about the passage I'm reading that I can post here. I've already run across several gems in the passage I'm reading now. We will see what God has in store for the near future. Stay tuned.... | | |
| It seems to be a recurring question among Cs: How do I hear the voice of Gd? And underlying that question is usually a bit of doubt whispering in the back of your mind: What if He won’t speak to me? What if I’m not really His?
Psalm 25
I really love the Psalms. Sometimes I find it hard to teach on them because the emotions that they articulate seem to be so personal…but, because we serve an amazing Gd, they also apply to everyone. They are so deep and rich with what it means to be human relating to an infinite, powerful, loving, gracious, amazing Gd. David grasps the (often bipolar) nature of our feelings about the circumstances we find ourselves in and how those circumstances make us relate to our Father. And if anyone was fallible and human, it was David. J He makes some interesting observations about the way of Gd.
Vs. 8-15
It is quite common for David to remind Gd why He should answer David’s request prior to making a petition. (ie. vs2, in You I trust, vs3, no one whose hope is in You will ever be put to shame, vs6, remember Your mercy and love, ect.) His next step in this particular Psalm is to proclaim the characteristics of Gd to us, and here is where we learn about the ways of Gd.
Who?
All too often we think we have to be “good” to hear the voice of Gd, whatever that means. Well, right here it says “He instructs snnrs in His ways (vs8).” Nice. I don’t know about you, but I think I can handle that criteria. However, we know that all have snnd, so does that mean that Gd shows His ways to all people? Well, there might be some argument on this point, but let’s stick with what David has to say. In vs 9 we get humble people, and in vs12 and 14 we get people who fear the Lrd. In summary, to have Gd instruct you in His way, you should be humble snnr who has fear of the Lrd.
What?
Now that we know what characteristics the person with whom Gd will share His ways has, David give us some idea of what those ways will be like. They will be right, loving and faithful (if you keep His covenant), it will be a path chosen for you, prosperity, and the covenant will be made known to you. A lot of questions pop out at me from this particular list of things. First, what is prosperity in this passage? Second, why is there a caveat on “loving and faithful”? Because I believe that Paul says, “What if some do not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify Gd’s faithfulness? Not at all! Let Gd be true and every man a liar. (Rom 3:3-4a)”. Third, what is the covenant He will reveal to us?
I’m not going to answer these questions here, but I encourage you to pursue them if they are something you want to know. You will learn a lot more trying to find the answers for yourself than you would if I told you the answers anyway! J
Why?
Vs16-21 give us an idea of why David is telling us about the ways of Gd. He is lonely and afflicted. The troubles of his heart have multiplied. His enemies hate him. Can anyone out there identify with David? I thought so. David was good at this (and we can take this lesson from him): he reminds himself (and us) of the goodness of Gd, even when in dire circumstances. Even when his heart is being torn in two, when he is pursued by enemies of the body and soul, still he remembers the truth about Gd.
Recount Gd’s goodness in your life today. | | |
| I just got this e-mail from VOM today. I included the map so you could see where that is in relation to where Nat is. If you don't remember where Nat is, leave a comment and I will remind you! 
(China Aid Association)
May 27th and 28th, 2006, 30 house-club leaders from Langzhong City, Sichuan Province were arrested and forced to pay fines. Eyewitnesses and family members of the victims reported that the arrests happened from 11 a.m. on May 27th until 9 a.m. on the 28th during a fellowship meeting. Fifteen members of the Public Security Bureau in six police vehicles raided the meeting. Eyewitnesses say that during the arrests and interrogations, Cs were abused inhumanely by constant heavy beatings. Though some of those arrested were released on the 28th, on morning of the 29th, 14 house club leaders received criminal detention notices.
Shepherds Li Ming, Wang Yuan, Li Jinbo and Jin Jiyun are major leaders of the Chinese House Club Alliance which was established in 2004. It is made up of approximately 300,000 members from various house club movements scattered across 21 provinces. CAA also learned that in recent weeks a number of house clubs from Beijing, Shangdong and Guangdong were forced by the local authorities to close. Polite letters of protest and concern may be sent to the Chinese Embassy.
Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong,
Embassy of the People's Republic of China 2300 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC 20008
TEL: 202-7456743
Fax: 202- 588-0032; 202-7457473
Pr J will draw close to the prisoners with His loving comfort. Pr Gd will protect them from further beatings. Pr their f@ithflnss to J will inspire Cs everywhere to seek a closer walk with our S@vr and Friend.
(Compass Direct)
Chinese officials have expressed "strong dissatisfaction" with a resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on June 12th condemning rising prsctn of rlgus believers in China. The resolution came after U.S. President George W. Bush invited three members of China's house-club network to the White House on May 11th--author Yu Jie, law professor Wang Yi and legal scholar Li Baiguang. Yu, 33, attends Ark Club, an unregistered Prtstnt house club that has had to change locations six times to escape harassment. When Yu was asked to visit the White House, secret police in Beijing immediately called his wife, Liu Min, at her office in downtown Beijing. "They bluntly asked me to stop attending Ark Club, assuming that if I stopped going, the others would also scatter," she said. When she replied that she could not obey the order, the police said they would spread rumors to damage her husband's reputation. Police also advised her to divorce Yu.
Give thanks to Gd that information about the lack of rlgus freedom in China is being made public. Ask Gd to protect the house club representatives who were willing to suffer the consequences of reporting to President Bush. Pr all those who are threatened by the Chinese authorities will continue to stand up for J. | | |
| “My dear chap!” he said, “My dear chap! My dear, dear chap! What was I saying?”
“Er, you were saying ‘My dear chap.’”
“Yes, but I feel sure it was a prelude to something. A sort of short toccata on the theme of what a splendid fellow you are prior to introducing the main subject of my discourse, the nature of which I currently forget. You have no idea what I was about to say?”
“No.”
"Oh. Well, I suppose I should be pleased. if everyone knew exactly what I was going to say, then there would be no point in my saying it, would there?"
I rest my case.
Pg 35 of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. | | |
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