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)