Archive August 2008
Connecting Dots
OK, Roscoe and I managed to feed enough fuel to our brain cells to go ahead with our brainstorming session with Steve Coffey of Christar today. Steve and Roscoe know each other from when Steve was in seminary and Roscoe was over the missions department at Liberty University.
What a great time! we were engaged in serious, focused, global conversation all day long. We made another trip or two around the world in our conversation and explored ways in which we can possibly network, partner or whatever God would lead us to do. Many of you know that for the last several years I have spent much time training and motivating Latin American pastors and leaders to engage in God’s global mission by sending missionaries to other cultures and languages among the least reached peoples of the world. I was thrilled today to hear stories of some of the initial fruit of those labors and also of many exciting opportunities for the future! I think this could have major implications for our church in the future as we team up with our brothers and sisters in the Spanish-speaking world to spread the Gospel among those who have never heard.
Roscoe and I am now back in Baltimore where we will spend the night and then head to our respective homes in the morning. It’s been a fruitful time.
Oh My Aching Brain!
Have you ever reached that point where your brain is exhausted? Watching the olymplic athletes I can only imagine how exhuasted many of them must be after giving their all in the competition. I have long passed the age to dream of competing at anything close to that level on a physical basis. But, I think my brain can sometimes feel that it has played the American basketball team all by itself.
I flew into Baltimore today and picked up Roscoe Brewer at the airport. You remember Roscoe. He spoke at our church the last Sunday of July and is the founder and president of Epic International. We rented a car and drove to Reading, PA, talking all the way about God’s mission. I loved every second, but now my brain hurts!
We talked all the way to India and started thousands of house churches. Then, we talked over to Iran and Iraq and envisioned reaching thousands of Kurds. We also talked our way to Syria, Armenia and Turkey where Kurds also live. We spent some time in Africa, predominately along the northern tier, although we did give some notice to Sub-Sahara Africa, too. We talked through Europe from Poland to Spain, France, the Netherlands and the UK. All along the path we introduced each other to friends and key contacts and also discovered we have friends in common of which we were not aware.
We also visited Latin America, of course. We worked our way from northern Mexico, through Central America and down to the furthermost tips of Chile and Argentina. Some of the questions were classic. For example – Who are the top non-western leaders in the church making a genuine impact today? How do we communicate solid principles of hermeneutics and homiletics to people who are barely literate? How can we give people Jesus and the Bible and then get out of the way?
I find it so refreshing and stimulating to engage with people who know the world, know God, have a heart for God’s Kingdom and don’t care who gets the credit. Wow. By the time we got Reading and finished supper, we were both mentally stimulated and exhausted at the same time.
We are here to have a brain storming session with Steve Coffey, president of Christar, tomorrow. I sure hope we have some brain left to storm!
China Wakes Up
Last night Cheryl and I brought home a pizza and settled down to watch the Olympic opening ceremonies. No host country ever has ever had so much on the line in wanting to impress the world. No host country has ever nailed the opening ceremony like China, and it is a legitimate question to ask if anyone will ever come close to equaling in our lifetimes what China pulled off last night. Wow!
Napoleon supposedly said, “Let China sleep, for when China wakes, she will shake the world.” Whether Napoleon actually said that or not, whoever said it some 200 years ago was vividly prophetic. China not only put the world on notice that she is awake, she has smelled the coffee. Did you know that Starbucks projects that within two years there will be more Starbucks in China than the United States?
You may not be interested in Olympic games, but what is happening during these two and half weeks in China ought to capture the attention of anyone who is a follower of Jesus Christ and interested in taking the good news of Christ to the ends of the world. Watch and listen carefully, and you will see that the world is not the same world in which you were born — even you are a twenty-something.
Indian-born, U.S. citizen Fareed Zakaria is international editor of Newsweek magazine. Earlier this year he published a book called The Post-American World. This is not a book about the decline of the United States, but about the rise of the rest of the world. Zakaria is quick to point out that he is a U.S. citizen of choice. But, he is also very concerned that most Americans still live several decades in the past and have no clue about the reality of the world in which we live. Let me quote just one paragraph from this “must read” book.
Look around. The tallest building in the world is now in Taipei, and it will soon be overtaken by one being built in Dubai. The world’s richest man is Mexican, and its largest publicly traded corporation is Chinese. The world’s biggest plane is built in Russia and Ukraine, its leading refinery is under construction in India, and its largest factories are all in China. By many measures, London is becoming the leading financial center, and the the United Arab Emirates is home to the most richly endowed investment fund. Once quintessentially American icons have been appropriated by foreigners. The world’s largest Ferris wheel is in Singapore. Its number one casino is not in Las Vegas but in Macao, which has also overtaken Las Vegas in annual gambling revenues. The biggest movie industry, in terms of both movies made and tickets sold, is Bollywood, not Hollywood. Even shopping, America’s great sporting activity, has gone global. Of the top ten malls in the world, only one is in the United States; the world’s biggest is in Beijing. Such lists are arbitrary, but it is striking that only ten years ago, America was at the top in many, if not most, of these categories.
Worried? I’m not. As a believer in Jesus Christ my primary focus is to be what God wants me to be, not to compete with other nations or cultures. I am very excited to think that China is beginning to open its doors to the world.
One word of caution. Our reaction to open doors in China (or elsewhere) should not be to immediately dash in armed with our slick, packaged programs of American-style Christianity. This is not a statement that we American Christians have nothing to offer. We do. There are many people still in China who need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. If we stay humble, flexible and teachable, we have much to offer by working in partnership with believers in the rapidly-developing world.
Consider this. Some informed estimates put the number of Christians in China at between 60 and 80 million. Stop. Read that again. Do you remember the population of the United States? Believers in China have been through pressures and experiences that most American Christians have never imagined. While we have much to teach them, I think they probably have much to teach us.
Many other issues from China beg to be discussed – persecution of believers, human rights issues and many others. We’ll pick those up another day. My point in this post is simply to make us aware that there is an elephant in the room.
Two other heart-warming stories came out last night. Have you heard? The nine-year-old boy who accompanied Chinese basketball hero, 7 foot 6 inch Yao Ming, is a survivor of May’s earthquake. Two thirds of his classmates perished. Lin Hao risked his life to pull classmates from the rubble. Asked why he did it, Lin Hao replied that he is a hall monitor and that was his job.
The other story is that of the United State’s flag carrier, Lopez Lomong. Joe Posnanski of the Kansas City Star, one of my favorite writers, had a great front page story this morning that centered on the story of Lopz Lomong. You can read it here.
Plea for Personal Responsibility
Last night in our city a jury delivered a death sentence against a man who had been found guilty of first-degree murder, rape and sexual torture of a woman. The jury knew that this same man had been convicted years ago in another brutal rape and that he had confessed to kidnapping and assaulting a five-year-old girl. The jury wasted little time in rendering their sentence recommendation. Little room was left for reasonable doubt because the jury was shown 90 minutes of video taken by the murderer that included the forced sex, torture and even the scene in which the victim died.
This morning my Bible reading happened to be in Judges 20, the heart of one of the vilest periods of Hebrew history. I couldn’t help but notice some parallels. In the previous chapter, a Levite who should have been a servant of God lives a life of self-gratification. To skirt the legal requirement he marry only a virgin, the Levite takes a concubine. As with most relationships built on mutual selfishness, she sleeps around, moves out and runs home to daddy. The Levite chases her to her father’s house and set out to bring her he back. Looking for a place to spend the night on the way home, they decide to stop in a Benjamite town thinking they would find a better reception than in a Canaanite settlement.
The spiritual and social deterioration of Hebrew society can be seen by what happens next. A man in the Benjamite city meets the levite and his concunbine and advises them it is far too dangerous to spend the night in the town square. Instead, he opens his home to them. Even there they are not safe. In the middle of the night a mob rushes the house demanding to sodomize the Levite. The gutless excuses for men inside the house offer to them instead the homeowner’s daughter and the Levite’s concubine. Apparently these sexual maniacs have no preference for the gender of those they gang rape. The poor women are shoved out the door, and for the next hours are prisoners to the souless men who rape, torture and abuse them.
In the morning the Levite finds the lifeless body of his concubine on the doorstep. Incensed, he hauls her body back home, hacks it into twelve pieces and sends one to each of the twelve tribes as a call to action. He makes no mention, of course, of his own series of horrible decisions and lack of personal responsibility that led to this senseless tragedy. It’s not his fault, but that of those who did this to her after he had thrown her out of the house and into their sex-craved grasp.
From here things escalate quickly. We can just imagine that having a raw body part delivered by UPS would spark some sort of response. Neither justice or diplomacy can be found as representatives of the tribes gather for loud protesting, beating their chests and frothing at the mouths with threats. The men of the city where the crime occurred dig their heels deep into their muddy pride and refuse to deliver up the perpetrators. In face of impending attack by the other tribes, the entire tribe of Benjamin decides that protecting other tribal members is more important than protecting justice, decency and personal responsibility. In a bloody series of exchanges fueled by tribalism, carnality and sin, thousands die and the male population of the entire tribe of Benjamin is all but annihilated.
So ends the one of the most horrible chapters of Israeli history. Thousands of Israelites lay dead and many homes lost fathers and sons. One of the amazing features of the Bible is its brutal honesty in recording such events. Yesterday’s local news was a reminder that the basic operating system software of the human being has never been upgraded. Mankind is still born with sin v.1.0. I used to marvel at how degenerate Israel had become by Judges 20. Then I realized that nothing has changed. This story is in the Bible not to show that Israel is worse than any other people, but rather to show that Israel is a typical representative of every other people. Whatever people and whatever culture in whatever moment of time is capable of whatever sin and the worst perversion imaginable. The common denominator of the human race is sin.
Another lesson of this passage is to show what happens when personal responsibility gets lost and everyone wants to blame everyone else. This remarkable chain of events began when a single levite focused on his personal desire instead of his personal responsibility and no one held him accountable.
Go for Gold!
Most of these Olympians began with a childhood dream and dug in to follow through with years of sacrifice, hard work and dogged determination in order to have a few moments to show the world they are among the very best in their sport. Win or lose, most of these young people have laid a foundation of discipline and hard work that will serve them well through life.
Though Paul refers several times in his writings to a sports motif, there is no evidence that he was an athlete himself. He did, however, understand the type of discipline and hard work necessary to reach the pinnacle. Paul was a disciple of the famous Gamaliel. To be accepted as one of his disciples was almost certainly the result of a process beginning in early childhood. Many historians believe that Paul would had to have begun this pursuit by at least five or six years of age in Jerusalem. Indeed, in Acts 22:3 Paul says that though he was born in Tarsus he was raised in Jerusalem. In all probability his parents moved the family to Jerusalem when Paul was a young child in order to chase the dream of becoming one of the very finest rabbis. Paul obtained his childhood dream.
Paul would, of course, meet the resurrected Jesus and become his faithful follower. He would go on to be a world changer in the name of Christ, setting a level of excellence that no one has ever been able to equal. His early years of sacrifice, discipline, hard work and study laid a solid foundation and his rabbinical studies would continue to serve him well all of his life.
Why would a follower of Jesus Christ ever want to settle for mediocrity? In the Olympics, there are only so many gold medals to be awarded. In the real time Olympics of life, though, we are not in competition with each other, but with our own capabilities and the specific plan God has for each of us.
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2Timothy 4:8
The prize is there for whoever dares to trust God, exercise self-discipline, work hard and be persistent. Why sit in the stands when you can go for the gold? And, you’re never too old!
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14
What is your dream? What is the one area of life where you can ries to the very peak of your ability? Why not go for the gold?