Whirlwind Update

Some stuff about our Pennsylvania-Alaska trip:

We have been averaging about 10 hours a day, and after driving for just over a week, we arrived in Alaska late last night.  We are currently in Anchorage.  

Highlights of the trip include:  

-- Seeing tons of beautiful scenery in Canada.

-- Seeing the NORTHERN LIGHTS!  That's definitely a bucket list item.  We didn't think that we would see them at all on this trip (due to the fact that it doesn't really get dark around here), but then on our second night in Canada, we saw it!  :-)

-- Seeing moose and mountain goats.

-- Seeing beautiful mountains outside of Anchorage (Mt. St. Elias range?)

-- Some much-needed nights of rest (a nice hotel after 40 hours of driving, a couple of consecutive nights in Whitehorse, the capital of the lovely Yukon Territory).  Camping out in a gas station parking lot when we ran out of gas was less than the ideal situation.  Why doesn't Canada have 24-hour gas stations??  Why??  WHY!?

-- Returning to the land of 24-hour gas stations.  ;-)

-- Family bonding time.  Lots of chances to spend time in the siblings car ... and one-on-one times in the parent car.  At our camping stops, we have also had fun opportunities to take walks together, bump a volleyball, juggle a soccer ball and throw a frisbee.  This is such welcome exercise after spending so much time in the cars!

Ok, well, that was even less whirlwind than I had intended to be ... but it's hopefully at least a start for you all.  I will try to post more later.

Isaiah, the Messiah, and Missions

Isaiah has been termed “the Fifth Gospel” because it presents a clear picture of the messiah, probably more so than any other Old Testament book. I want to take this post to illustrate a couple of the places that are obviously messianic, but, as you are probably sick of hearing me say – please study this book on your own! Count the number of references to Christ. Consider how you would share Christ with a Jewish person using just this book.

Chapter 53 is one of the most well-known passages dealing with the Messiah in the Old Testament. This description of the Suffering Servant is a clear passage about Christ! I would say that you could teach the Gospel from this passage… but don’t take my word for it! Acts 8:26-39 tells the story of how Philip did just that! God sent him to an Ethiopian eunuch who was reading through Isaiah – specifically, chapter 53 – and “Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:35). Could you share the good news about Jesus starting with Isaiah 53?

In a discussion about the inclusion of the Gentiles in God’s blessing, we see in 56:1-8 a theme that Jesus picks up: The temple will be called a “House of prayer for all nations.” This also fills the criteria of being both messianic and missions-minded. The reason that these overlaps are so important? Because without a messiah, there would be no room for the inclusion of the Gentiles in God’s plan! He made peace for those who were far off and those who were near, tearing down the dividing wall of hostility.

An excellent plan of further study in this fascinating book would be to read Isaiah alongside Romans and Hebrews, two New Testament books that interpret the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies in Christ.

Isaiah

Of all of the prophetic books that I studied, Isaiah might be the one that I found with the most applications for missions. That being said, time still will not allow me to develop all of them. I commend this rich book to your further study and hope that the few insights I can share with you will be profitable. (Get it, prophets, profitable? Haha, seminary joke.)

Isaiah: The Call

Many people have addressed the subject of Isaiah’s call and, indeed, Isaiah 6 is a popular text on missions. I am sure that I will not fully do the subject justice in this post, but encourage you to look to other authors if you want to study this passage more extensively (or more intensively, for that matter!). My goal in this post is simply to outline some general observations from this passage to get the wheels turning in regards to missions.

1. Isaiah’s call started with a vision of God’s holiness. (Is. 6:1-4) Seeing God for who He is must be the foundation of our ministry. As we saw with Jonah, unless we understand God’s character aright and submit to it, we will be hard-pressed to minister well. After all, sharing the Gospel is fundamentally sharing with others about God. If our view of God isn’t correct, how can we accurately share about Him with others?

2. Isaiah’s vision of God led to an overwhelming sense of conviction and despair over his own sin and that of his people. (Is. 6:5-7) Before we can humbly go to others with a message of warning and salvation, we must realize our essential sinfulness and out utter need to be cleansed by God ourselves. Especially as full-time ministry workers, it can be easy to think of ourselves as somehow in that position by our own merit. God, spare us from that mindset! If the prophet Isaiah was a “man of unclean lips,” guess what? So are you! Thank the Lord, though, that He takes it upon Himself to cleanse us and make us fit for His service! May that knowledge fill us with humble gratitude!

3. When Isaiah has seen God’s holiness and been cleansed of his sin, he responded eagerly to God’s call. (Is. 6:8) Our response should be similar. Because of who God is and what He has done for us, we should eagerly respond to His call to go and preach His message.

4. Just a teaser for further study: The remainder of this beautiful chapter (Is. 6:9-13) is honestly somewhat of a downer! What was the message that Isaiah was to proclaim? Destruction! I invite you to wrestle through this on your own and realize that many gems such as this are bordered on both sides by the wrath of God. We must be careful to look at the context of a passage, even if it makes us uncomfortable. Happy studying!

Jeremiah: the Call

The book of Jeremiah, the “prophet to the nations,” is understandably full of application for missionaries. However, I will not be able to address everything it holds, due to the limited scope of this blog series… and merely the fact that I have barely scratched the surface of this book myself! As with Jonah, and all of the other books that I mention, I invite you to study them for yourself and see what you come up with!

God chose Jeremiah. (Jeremiah 1:5) A theme throughout the prophets is that God chose them. This statement may seem simplistic at first, but it truly is profound when you see the implications of it. If God chose Jeremiah (as He chose Jonah and the other prophets) then He is bound to share His message whether He likes it or not! However, as we will see later, being chosen by God also means that He will accomplish His purposes in and through us, against all odds.

God prepared Jeremiah. He declared that Jeremiah was not too young to serve Him (Jer. 1:7-8). Also, as with Isaiah’s call and commissioning, God purified Jeremiah’s mouth (Jer. 1:9). God appointed this young man to have power over nations, using language similar to Jesus’ commissioning of Peter. (Jer. 1:10)

God sustained Jeremiah. (Jer. 1: 17-19) Though Jeremiah will have trouble and be hated, God will give him strength. Later in the book, we see that God was true to His word and did preserve Jeremiah’s life and ministry, despite great attacks. (Jer. 15:10; Jer. 20)

Jonah: The Challenge

Having given a little bit of background as to the factors that were at work in the story of Jonah, here are two warnings and pitfalls that I have found to be especially relevant to missionaries. 

1. Sometimes as missionaries, it can be easy to love “plants” (comfort, status quo) more than people.  May God give us eyes to see His purpose in His mission… and may He also fill us with compassion for people.  I have heard the phrase “We are meant to love people and use things, not use people and love things.”  That is so true!  Jonah is a reminder of how quickly we can fall into that selfish, unloving cycle.  May God in His grace spare us from thinking like that!

2. It is possible to make an orthodox confession, and yet still be running from God.  When the sailors asked Jonah about the storm, who he was and who His god was, Jonah replied, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” (Jonah 1:9)  He also gives a remarkable testimony in chapter 4, in the midst of actually complaining to God about His character: “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.”  (Jonah 4:2)  For all of these truths that Jonah possessed, though, it appears that deep down, He didn’t understand God.  May God spare us from saying all the right things, and then turning around and acting rebelliously!

Concluding Thoughts and Challenges:  Are you running from God in his call on your life?  He will have His way.  As we have seen in Jonah, God will be glorified, whether through our obedience or disobedience, our rise or fall.  This story should make us recognize God’s love and compassion that is way beyond what we extend to others or even understand.  May God shape us more into His character as we respond to His call on our lives!  May we see others as He sees them.  

Of Prophets and Missions

Over the summer, I will be posting reflections on missions based on some of the prophetic books that I studied this semester. These will range from observations about God’s heart for the nations all the way through to practical steps that we can learn (both good and bad!) from the example of the prophets.  There is so much that these books say about missions that it would be impossible to cover it all in an intensive summer course, let alone a series of blog posts.  That being said, I hope that these whet your appetite to study the prophetic books more and to see how God has always had a heart for missions -- that wasn't a phenomenon that developed in the New Testament.  So, without further ado, let's begin with a look at missions through the book of Jonah.

Jonah: The Characters 

For being a small book – only four chapters long! – Jonah has a vast number of applications for missionaries. I am sorry that I will only be sharing my observations in two posts, but I hope that you will continue to investigate the book further on your own. Also, since, especially with this book, I am fairly confident that you are familiar with the story of Jonah, I will not summarize it here, but rather jump in with my observations. I invite you to read the short book along with this post as well, to see firsthand what I’m talking about.

God’s heart for the nations. God’s heart for nations other than Israel can be seen in some way, shape, or form (often in judgment!) throughout all of the prophetic books. However, Jonah is unique in that God sent him to deliver a message of grace to a ruthless nation that Jonah hated. Jonah’s response was basically: I wasn’t seeking this, therefore it’s not my problem. He preached the message because he had to and then sat down and waited for the people to be destroyed. God, by contrast, kept trying to show Jonah that he should care more for the lost sinners than for his own comfort, as is illustrated by the plant episode in chapter 4.

Jonah and the Ninevites. A clear message from the book of Jonah is that if we don’t understand grace, we won’t convey it! Jonah didn’t understand what grace meant for him. Even though, in his mind, he clearly understood God’s character, we find that the “pagans” around him embraced God much more than he did, when the rubber met the road. The sailors gave glory to God, and the Ninevites repented, from the king on down to the animals! Jonah, on the other hand, remained stubborn throughout the entirety of the book, running at the beginning, criticizing and dragging his feet in the middle, and pouting at the end! Never underestimate the work that God can do in “sinners” and the grief that “believers” can give Him!

If You're Happy and You Know It... Sing a Psalm!

"Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms." James 5:13

I used to assume that the above verse was just simply referring to the believer's expression of joy, but after having tried this practice yesterday, I realized more about why we are to sing psalms, or "songs of praise" to the Lord.

1) To direct and focus our happiness on what is important; namely, what God has done! Praise focuses us on God's works of Creation, Redemption, and, one day, full consummation!

2) Related to the above point, singing psalms involves retraining our minds to focus on what God says should make us most happy. Jesus similarly challenged the disciples when they were rejoicing (even in a ministry context!): "Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven!" (Luke 10:20)

3) Focusing our minds on Christ when we are happy also helps to curb any wrong happiness! If we are excited over the progress of a bad relationship, a witty insult, ill-gotten gain, or any other sinful thing, singing to and about God will be a means of conviction.

4) Singing psalms is a way of reminding ourselves that "every good and perfect gift comes from above" (James 1:17). When we are feeling particularly happy with our circumstances, it is appropriate to thank God! All blessings are from Him!

5) Singing psalms helps us to remember those suffering and in sin, so that we may not be merely unbalanced escapists in our happiness. Instead, we train our hearts and minds to be sober and considerate of others, even in the midst of any great excitement that we might feel.


I'm sure that many other benefits may be gleaned from a study on the subject, but I just thought that I'd share some of my initial observations. So here is my challenge you:

The next time that you are happy, don't just stand there: sing!

Updates

Well, updates have never been my strong point, but I'm back into the swing of trying.  I have taken a bit of a sabbatical, going way off the grid, and allowing all updates to pretty much disappear.  But I'm back now.

I think.

I hope.

I am the midst of learning how to balance being a student, but also being ministry- and missions-minded.  I realize that a part of that latter role requires updating the people who surround me; showering me with love, prayers, and financial support; and making my work possible!

Thank you to all of you for your patience with my long silence.  Please bear with my weaknesses as I attempt to start this path again!