Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Very humbling post

The following is from a post by John Piper on raising children:

The most fundamental task of a mother and father is to show God to the children. Children know their parents before they know God. This is a huge responsibility and should cause every parent to be desperate for God-like transformation. The children will have years of exposure to what the universe is like before they know there is a universe. They will experience the kind of authority there is in the universe and the kind of justice there is in the universe and the kind of love there is in the universe before they meet the God of authority and justice and love who created and rules of the universe. Children are absorbing from dad his strength and leadership and protection and justice and love; and they are absorbing from mother her care and nurture and warmth and intimacy and justice and love—and, of course, all these overlap.

And all this is happening before the child knows anything about God, but it is profoundly all about God. Will the child be able to recognize God for who he really is in his authority and love and justice because mom and dad have together shown the child what God is like. The chief task of parenting is to know God for who he is in his many attributes, and then to live in such a way with our children that we help them see and know this multi-faceted God. And, of course, that will involve directing them always to the infallible portrait of God in the Bible.


Oh good, that's all we have to do - great. Seriously though, this is good in one sense in that it points me in the right direction as a parent. But in another sense it is very overwhelming to read as it makes me think about my responsibility. The weight is such that I know we (Beth and I) can't carry it by ourselves. It is only by God's sustaining daily grace and mercy that he have hope.

-jonathan

Childlike Faith

This may become a reoccurring theme in my posts. God uses children to speak to us in profound ways. Obviously for me, it is most often my wonderful daughter. There have been many times that God shows me something about my relationship with him through my relationship with Caroline. The most recent lesson he has taught me is one about trust.

Caroline likes to play, whether it is with her Disney figurines or taking stuff (and by stuff I mean a wide variety of things from medicine droppers to socks) and putting it into and taking it out of various containers. She plays "Where'd she go?" (our version of peek-a-boo), "Daddy's gonna getcha", and many other games. In "Daddy's gonna getcha" she runs to and from Daddy and many times the games ends with her running to Daddy and throwing her self at me. I catch her and she then arches her back and throws her head back. This is a little scary, because recently she has started just throwing her self back when I am carrying her. Every time, I catch her and then she bursts into laughter.

As I was thinking about her this morning, it dawned on me how much trust she has. It is complete trust that says, "I will totally surrender control of myself." And why not? Daddy catches her every time. She hasn't ever been dropped.

I am sure you know where I am going with this, but here goes: Why do I find it so hard to trust my heavenly Father in this way? Why don't I surrender control of myself to him? Sure, I have had pain and bad experiences in my life, but God has never dropped me. He catches me every time. I hope that I can learn to be more like Caroline.

-jonathan

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Gospel Definitions

The following was orginally posted by Trevin Wax at his blog Kingdom People.

Like so many Bible terms, the word GOSPEL has been given various definitions contrary to its original and proper meaning.

The word has its origin “in Christ before the foundation of the world.” This was contained in the “promise” God made before the foundation of the world. (Tit. 1:2) The “gospel,” the “good news” or “good tidings” is the declared fulfilment of that promise.

In Isaiah 61:1-3 is found the outstanding proclamation made by the Sum and Substance of the good tidings, — Jesus Christ Himself:

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the meek, He has sent Me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn. To appoint to them that mourn in Zion, to give to them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.”

The Redeemer repeated this same proclamation of Himself in the synagogue.

While this prophetical statement is often quoted, its full significance is rarely understood. In this one sweeping declaration, there is encouched - not the beginning of the gospel, not a part of its fulfilment, - the grand total of what the Son of Man declared on the cross: “IT IS FINISHED”!

The Greek word “evanggelion” is translated “gospel” in the King James Version. This word, together with its rendering of “good tidings,” glad tidings” and “preach the gospel” occurs some one hundred and eight times in the New Testament, none of which intimate anything less than “finished redemption” in Christ.

- Gilbert Beebe, 1846

Missional Shift (part 2)

Here is a video that helps explain some of what is going on in my head. (Warning: this video is almost 18 minutes long!)

Friday, April 18, 2008

Comparative Hunger

It is 10:30 and Caroline woke up 15 minutes ago. Today she is having surgery to unclog her tear ducts. The procedure is apparently not that complicated, but as is often the case, the preparation is the hardest part. She now past the point of no return and cannot eat or drink anything until 1:15 pm. I am not sure how she will do and we are a little anxious about the coming hours. However, I am reminded of how blessed my family is when I think about the current situation in Haiti (and various other parts of the world!) Caroline can't eat or drink for 4 more hours. Many children in Haiti go more than 24 hours with out a meal! So if you see this and remember to pray for us, thanks, but also take 5 minutes to pray for those around the world who don't know where their next meal is coming from.

-jonathan

Friday, April 11, 2008

charity: water

I am a big fan of scott harrison and his work. here is the a video by charity: water that ran during Idol gives back last week:



After you watch, take 2 minutes and see how you can get involved.

-jonathan

Missional Shift

Okay so it is late, but I cant go to bed right now, my head is spinning with ideas and I figured why not use this time write them down (and what better way than on my new blog. so here goes...

I have been going thru a bit of a shift in my thinking about mission. Mission is something that I spent a lot of time on when I worked with students. We spend countless hours (probably way too much) on thinking thru our mission, purpose, values, etc. (remember you have to have the ladder on the right wall before you start climbing!) All that to say, there has been some shifting going on in my head. And while I dont think are 180 degree changes, it is a fairly major shift.



I will still operate with making, being, and unleashing fully devoted followers of Christ (FDFC). However, I think the shift comes with understanding what it means to be a FDFC.

I am an engineer. I like lists. Deal with it.

Before
Emphasis on Great Commission
Emphasis (or Priority) on Proclamation
FDFC Characteristics:
Has Quiet Times (Reading Word, Praying, etc.)
Attends Church
Invites People to Church
Serves in the Church
Give to the Church
May eventually teach in the Church
Social Justice, Orphan Widow Care, etc. is Secondary
(or at least a means to an end)
(with the end being proclamation)

After
Emphasis on Great Commandment (Love God, Love People)
Emphasis on Proclamation and Demonstration
FDFC Characteristics:
Has Quiet Times (Reading Word, Praying, etc.)
Involved in local Church
Views life missionally*
Serves in AND outside of Church Walls
Gives Generously to Expantion of Christ's Kingdom
Sees Spiritual Growth as a means to pour themselves out to the world
Social Justice, Orphan/Widow Care, Prison Ministry, Creation Care, Development, Relief, etc. are all viewed as Kingdom work alongside Evangelism

Another way to briefly sum it up is from an experience I recently had when I listened to the Gospel of Matthew. After going thru it in a fairly short time (less than a 24 hour period), I had a new perspective when I reached the Great Commission. Jesus says (my paraphrase) Go make disciples! And then he explains, these are the types of disciples I want you to make: Fully devoted ones that understand and live out everything I have taught. Even more specifically, everything that Jesus taught the disciples within in the book of Matthew. I think I got this before, but the emphasis was always on the making of the disciples rather than the content of which the disciples were to be made of. Yet Matthew devotes many more words to what Jesus taught than to sending the disciples.

There is much more to say on this and much more clarity to be had, but it is now getting later and I and I am starting to get tired! I would love to know if any of this makes sense to anyone else (it is all still swimming around in my head!). So leave me a comment or send me an email.

-jonathan

Friday, April 4, 2008

April Fool's

Three years ago i pulled a prank on Kevin McKay for April Fool's day. This was a really fun time. It all started when i read about a prank that the BBC had done in 1976. They announced that all the planets were aligning for approximately 13-minute window. And that during this window scientists were reporting that it would be possible for us to feel a slight change in the gravitational pull for a few moments. Not enough of a change to cause damage, but one that we could feel.

I decided to tell someone about this and Kevin was the first one. In the process of telling him, i got the impression that he thought i was saying this was really going to happen. So i just went with it. I acted as thought this was supposed to happen some time between 11:45am - 12:00pm on Friday (which of course was April 1st). He was excited and had a great idea. He looked and me and said, "Maybe i could dunk! I have always wanted to and i can come fairly close, but maybe this is my chance." I thought sure, why not let's see where this might go. He then suggested that we get the whole thing on video and again i thought that it was a great idea!

We did have a minor setback when i realized that i had a prior commitment during that time. So I called Kevin and told him that i was mistake about the tim - it was actually going to happen between 7:47am-8:00am (a much more convenient time for myself). He was so excited about the prospect of being able to dance that he easily accepted the change. We decided the easiest place was West High School gym (due to his connection with the basketball team).

The morning of the 1st i started to get scared. I was sure that he would have heard it was April Fools Day somewhere (e.g. radio) and turn and pull another prank on me. I got to the gym with the camera and to my shock and surprise, he had told several students at West about it and they were all gathered together ready to try to dunk as well.

Here is the video:



my favorite parts are when he is holding the ball out in the air waiting for a sign for the loss of gravity and when he says that he thinks that we might have missed it because he thinks it might have felt it on the way over.

fun times,
-js

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Back in Black

well actually i am not wearing any black today, but anyways. I am going to try and start putting out some of my thoughts. this is just a place for writing whatever i am thinking. or at least whatever i want you think that i am thinking. woo hoo. now we are getting deep. here is my post for today....

I was reading The Law of Rewards (check out the link over there on the right) and the following stuck out to me:

Luke 16:10 ¶ “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

God continually tests us in little things. (If a child can't be trusted to spend his father's money and return the change, neither can he be trusted to stay overnight alone at a friend’s house.)
This invalidates all of our “if onlys,” such as, “If only I had a million dollars, then i’d give it to my church or missions.” If I'm dishonest or selfish in my use of a few dollars, I would be dishonest or selfish in my use of a million dollars. The issue is not what i would do with a million dollars if i had it, but what i am doing with the ten thousand, one thousand, one hundred, or ten dollars, i do have. If we are not being faithful with what God has entrusted to us, why should he entrust us with any more?
This thought raises a sobering question: What opportunities are we currently missing because we've failed to use our money and our lives wisely in light of eternity?

After discussing this quote with a friend this morning - it got me thinking. I think we might miss a lot that God has in store for us in this regard.

And then something else happened...I was driving to work about 8:25am and i saw a kid walking down the road. My first thought was "I wonder if he needs help? Does he need a ride? School starts in 5 minutes. He wont make it at the rate that he is walking now. should i stop?" I determined that he was pleased with himself, walking very calmly and listening to his iPod. Then it hit me that i was carrying with me a rather weighty assumption. I was assuming that he was trying to get to school. This may not seem like a big deal to most people, especially here in the States. He looked about 15 or 16, and we all know those crazy youths should be in school. But with all i have been learning about Haiti, this is truly amazing. We take so much for granted. Education (regardless of what you think of our system) is a huge advantage. There are countless children in Haiti that everyday have unrealized dreams for a chance to one day go to school.

And then everything connected...While we might argue that we have been given only a little, more than 90% of the world would see us as extremely rich. Our calling to be faithful with the "little" that we have is huge.

-js