Invincible

Every Thursday we host a Bible study for high-school boys here at the church. Normally we eat lunch, have a Bible lesson, and then play Halo for a couple of hours before everyone goes home for the evening. This week was different. The weather has gotten warm and so the boys went outside. The boys decided to wrestle in the yard. For the next hour my yard was turned into a wrestling ring. We had one on one matches, team fights, random acts of violence, body slams, kicks, punches, you name it. It was really entertaining.

Throughout the festivities, as the testosterone began to flow, teen aged boy would come my way and challenge me to spar or wrestle. I always politely declined. I was wearing clean clothes and didn't want to get them dirty and there were some big athletic boys in attendance and I didn't want to risk getting my butt kicked in my own back yard.

As everyone was leaving one of the young men, Boulos Shakkour, stepped up to me and made one final challenge. "Come on man, fight me", he said.

I said, "that's alright."

But then something different happened. Boulos said, "You're scared." Normally I would have just blown that off and said something like, "of you??? Right.." But my son, Andrew had walked up and before I could talk he said, "My daddy's not afraid."

"Yeah he is.", Boulos said.

"No he's not", said Andrew.

Listening to this exchange something welled up inside of me. My boy thinks I'm invincible. I like that he thinks that. I know that some day he will see through the illusion and realize that I'm human, but everything inside of me screamed, "NOT ON THIS DAY!" I had to validate my little boy's brags on my behalf. And Boulos would have to suffer the consequences.

"Let's fight", I said.

We quickly outlined the rules. We were going to box but no blows to the head. Fifteen young men and one five year old boy gathered around to watch the bout. There was lots of hooting and cheering and when they said "go", I unleashed 34 years and 240 pounds of fatherly pride on Boulos (and I might add one really wicked left hook). After about one minute of solid beating, Boulos threw in the towel. I was happy. My boy was happy, and for now, he still thinks I'm invincible.

Strange as it may seem, it only took about three minutes for me to start thinking about the whole incident in spiritual terms. The Bible calls God our father over and over again. It also calls him a shepherd, a bridegroom, a warrior, and a lot of other things. These are all metaphors of course, ways that the Word can communicate some aspect of God's character to us. Father, however, is far and away the most common thing that God is likened to. These last five years, I have begun my journey through fatherhood and I always look at events like this and think, "How is this like God's relationship to me?"

Two things strike me. One is that if I would be stirred into action, even action I wouldn't normally have taken, just to please my son and validate his boasts on my behalf, how much more God? The Bible says that God delights in us. How many things happen in our lives for no other reason than the fact that God wants to bless us. And, maybe if we would brag about God more we would see him do more.

The other thing that strikes me is a difference. The fact of the matter is that I can't whip everybody. I don't know everything. And I can't solve every problem. One day Andrew will figure this all out. One day he will be bigger and stronger than me. And, I'm not going to get any younger. In that way God is totally different than us. He does know everything. He can whip anyone, and He can solve any problem. He will also never age or wane.

How encouraging it is to know that our Father can do anything and that all of the resources and power in the universe is is owned by One who wants desperately to bless us.

Labels

I remember being a little kid and getting into an argument on the playground. Some kid got insulted and in response he said, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus thought that words were so important that he said (Matthew 12:36-37) "I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." If words can send you to Heaven or Hell then they must be pretty important and they must have real consequences.

In Matthew chapter 12, there is a very specific series of events that led Jesus to make that statement. Matthew 12 is a long dispute between Jesus and the Pharisees. In verse 22 Jesus cast out a demon from a man and also restored his sight and his voice. The Pharisees saw all of this and said that Jesus had done the miracle by the power of Satan. Jesus responded to what they said in verses 25-37. He first basically told them that what they were saying was foolish. This part of his response contains the famous statement that "a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand." He then, in verses 31 and 32 went on to talk about "the unpardonable sin" of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

It seems obvious to me from the flow of the narrative that the Pharisees had just committed the sin or possibly they were very close to it and he was warning them. So what had they done wrong? When Jesus was here on Earth, I believe that he accessed supernatural power the same way that we do- by praying, fasting, and being in the will of God. The actual source of the power, the supernaturally active agent, was the Holy Spirit. So Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit had just healed this man and cast out a demon. The Pharisees called the work demonic. Their sin was labeling the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit as evil.

You see, labeling is important to God. If you call good things evil or evil things good, it really bothers Him. In Romans chapter one, Paul outlines a long downward spiral of sin. I don't have time to go through the whole thing, but the last sentence, the bottom of the spiral says this, "Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." When people begin sinning they feel guilty about it but by the end they have seared their conscience so badly that they no longer recognize it as sin. In fact, they approve of it.

I'm writing this because I'm becoming more and more frightened for America and for Western culture in general. There have always been certain sins in our society, but they were usually not generally approved of and they were recognized as sin. We now call homosexuality an alternative lifestyle. We call abortion choice. We call pornography and profanity art or free speech. And the list goes on and on. It seems that we are at a point where we are parading our sins and glorying in them.

But we aren't just calling bad things good, we are calling good things bad. We call young men and women who are waiting for marriage to have sex prudish or out of touch. We call men and women of faith fools. The church is seen as backward and an impediment to society. We call people who stand up for morals and standards mean-spirited, and we call people who say Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation exclusive bigots.

What is the church to do in the face of this assault on our values and morals? We do what Jesus said. We act as salt and light. No matter what is said or what the consequences, we must illuminate the dark. We have to insist that evil is evil. Abortion isn't choice-it's murder. Homosexuality is an abomination. We also have to defend the Truth. We have to let people know that they can't get to Heaven by just being good. They have to know that Jesus is THE way, not a way.

Standing in the face of society isn't easy. At the least it will get you ridiculed. In worse circumstances, it might cause you to lose a job or a position. It might make you an outcast from your family. It could result in violence against you, and in extreme cases even death. What we have to realize is that God will not always tolerate sin. He is very patient, sometimes so patient that people think He will never judge or that He isn't even there. But, in the face of the current level of sin, there are only two possible outcomes- either America will repent, or God's wrath will come. Maybe it's already started.

If we want God's wrath to be averted or lessened we must stand up for the Truth. Or, in the worst case scenario, if God does pour out his wrath, then when it's over and people have seen their folly and are ready to repent, we have to be there holding out Truth and hope to them.

Up North

Earlier this year, we started a discipleship ministry. The purpose of the ministry is to bring students over to spend an academic year studying and volunteering in ministries. The idea is that the students will grow through their studies and through their experiences here and that the students will have a real impact now through their ministry work here. God blessed us with three great students and the program has been going really well.

A big part of the program is the opportunity to learn about the Bible here in the land at the places where the events occurred. As a part of that we went to the Galilee for three days earlier this month. Israel is a pretty dry country, but the Galilee catches a good bit more rain than the rest of the country. Because of this it is a beautiful land of green mountains, springs, and streams. It is also where Jesus spent the vast majority of his ministry years.

We saw a number of amazing places. We saw Gadara, where Jesus cast the demons into the swine. Gamla (pictured), where the Roman legions assaulted a Jewish town during the rebellion in 67 AD. Caesarea Phillipi, where Peter proclaimed Jesus to be the Christ. Mt. Tabor, where Deborah gathered her troops. And, Mt. Carmel, where Elijah called down fire amongst many others.

The possible highlight of the trip was seeing Capernaum. Capernaum was Jesus's hometown throughout his ministry years. It has been well preserved. The synagogue where Jesus taught was renovated later but is still there. You can stand in the middle of the room where Jesus taught. One of the other amazing things at Capernaum is that you can actually see Peter's house. There are ancient Greek texts that said the ancient Christians built an octagonal church on the remnants of Peter's house. When archaeologists started digging around in Capernaum they found foundations from a house that had foundations of an octagonal church on top of them. The foundations combined with the texts are very convincing.

The amazing thing about traveling through the and with a Bible and a map is that the land supports the Bible in every way. If the Bible says that David and Goliath fought in a valley with a stream and that David could have walked there then all of those things are there. You go to Gadara and there is a cliff from which the pigs could have jumped into the lake. Every story you read is confirmed by the land. At the end you realize how foolish it is to think that the Bible was somehow modified or faked later. No forger outside of the country could have gotten every single detail of the geography right.

In the end we had a great time and our faith was built.

Thoughts on Christmas

For all of my childhood Christmas meant a trip to Aunt Jan's house. It was the same every year. I would walk into her house on Christmas eve and it was like walking into a Christmas wonderland. She had a giant tree in every room of her house. Every tree was themed differently. I would explore each room and marvel at the trees. Her main tree, in the living room, always had these lights that were liquid filled and bubbled as they got hot. To a child the light looked "really cool" as it shone through the bubbling colored water. There was more though. The whole house was decorated. There were stockings hung and already bulging with gifts that we couldn't look at yet. There were mountains of desserts and baked goods. My mouth still waters just thinking about cherry tarts, sausage balls, and all of the other goodies.

After exploring the house and eating my fill of Christmas food, I would then go outside. I have no way of guessing how many thousands of lights my Aunt Jan strung every year. The whole house was covered. The trees and bushes were lit. The Gazebo was decorated. Santa and the reindeer were on the lawn.

On Christmas morning we had a routine. My Uncle Cecil decreed that there would be breakfast before the presents and so I looked longingly at the piles of gifts beneath the tree (really all over the living room) as we ate breakfast. It wasn't really torture though because breakfast was amazing. We had a full spread in the finest Southern tradition, bacon, eggs, sausages, gravy, biscuits, grits. It probably wasn't very healthy but it sure was good.

After breakfast we moved on to gifts. I have no idea how many people Aunt Jan bought gifts for but she bought all of the children in the family several. I always liked remote control cars and electronic games and I always got something great. Then we opened stockings and they had wonderful things in them.

After gifts we would play the rest of the morning before having an amazing lunch and leaving to visit my mom's family that evening.

Now, I'm a father and a minister so it's my turn to make Christmas happen for my kids and others. I spent weeks arranging to have gifts brought here from the States for my kids. Kelli and I worked for days to prepare our home and the food, The last three days were honestly exhausting. We hosted about 25 people for Christmas lunch (There are a lot of American and European ministry workers floating around the country. They are away from their families and need a place to go. As a way of giving to the community and ministering to other ministers we open our home on both Thanksgiving and Christmas.). During all of the cooking, cleaning, decorating, and gift wrapping, I thought of Aunt Jan and how she worked all those years to make Christmas happen for me.

Aunt Jan died just a few days before Christmas. In one of her last conversations with me, I talked to her about how I remembered Christmases. She brightened when I mentioned it and said, "Jamie, that's how we want to live. We want to live so that people have good memories." My aunt Jan left me with amazing magical memories.

I just hope that I have learned the lessons of hospitality and giving that my Aunt Jan taught. I hope that I can give people the same kinds of magical memories that she gave me.

Why Palestinians?

I was teaching a class one day during the build up to the most recent Gulf War. It was an American History class and so the conversation turned to America's actions regarding Iraq. I've been teaching classes to Arab kids on a volunteer basis for years now. It's a great way to give to the community and get to know people. I'm used to it, but it's still a bit difficult trying to explain America's actions to people who view America as an aggressor and their enemy. I try to explain why things happen without getting into who's right and who's wrong. But, sometimes your personal opinions creep through.

One of the students in the class was a very bright young lady. She is now at an Ivy League university on a full scholarship. She's also an amazingly kind and good girl and one of my all-time most prized students. She piped up and said, "Well, maybe France will help us." At that point I just couldn't keep my thoughts to myself. I scoffed at her and said, "Do you really think that? They're not going to do anything for you. They just talk like they like Arabs to keep their Arab minority happy. They're never actually going to do anything for you."

As I was finishing that sentence, I looked to the back of the room and the young woman who had spoken was crying - hard. "What's wrong?", I asked.

I'll never forget her tearful answer. "Nobody loves us.", she said "Nobody loves us."

She was right. Americans think of the Palestinians as terrorists. Europeans have the same view. Other Arabs see them as trouble makers and as failures who lost their country. Israelis, of course, see them as the great enemy. There are few people groups on Earth with so few friends.

As Christians, I believe that we have two primary obligations. One is the Great Commandment, to love God and love others. The other is the Great Commission, to bring others closer to Jesus so that they can share in that love. As western Christians we cannot let our political views keep us from sharing the love of God with people. Jesus didn't.

What she said broke my heart. It's not the fault of a fifteen year old girl that there are one hundred year old conflicts here. How can we as Christians justify letting our political opinions about old fights keep us from sharing the love of Jesus with people? On that day, I resolved to do everything I could to let the Arabs of this country, the Palestinians, know that Jesus loves them. That's why we stay here and that's why the majority of our ministries serve the Palestinians.

Teaching

My wife Kelli and I are both certified school teachers. She's an elementary teacher and I am certified in high school social studies. Because of this we have always used education as a gateway into the community here. We teach English, History, Religion, or whatever as a service to the people here. My ministry, here in Jerusalem, has always revolved around students and schools. We now have a team of interns here at the church and so I, naturally, have them doing a lot of work in local schools.

Mondays and Wednesdays are our long days. On Mondays and Wednesdays we leave the house at seven and drive an hour to a little West Bank village called Aboud. Aboud is one of the few remaining villages here that is largely Christian. The Church of God has a school there. (I detailed their struggles in a previous post.) We are there for three hours, from 8-11, teaching English. We leave there and go to Jerusalem school where we teach Bible classes and aid teachers for three more hours. When that is over, I send the interns to Ramallah to teach another English class, this time to University students. I stay in Jerusalem and coach basketball. The Ramallah classes end at six and the interns get home a seven, just in time on Wednesday for Bible study.

It sounds, from reading this, like I'm a slave driver. And, honestly running full-speed from seven to seven can be taxing, but it's worth it because we encounter a different segment of the population at each stop. In the village, we are trying to be a blessing to village dwelling Christian Arabs. At Jerusalem School, we are working with secularized, Westernized, wealthy Arabs. And, at Ramallah we are working with a more "normal" segment of the population. I guess you would call them city Muslims.

Educationally, I think that it's important to understand that the Arab world is not homogeneous. There are great variations between different regions and people groups. My students are exposed to this by interacting with some of the different segments of the society. I also think that it's important for ministry. By getting to know all of these different people, we get a chance to be witnesses to them. All of this work is paying off. Thursday night, we had about thirty people here for our youth might. The vast majority of them were kids we know from Jerusalem school.

I would ask you to pray for us on Mondays and Wednesdays. They are long hard days, but they are also when we do most of our relationship building. Pray that God will put the right people in front of us and that He will give us the right words to say to them. We don't want to work just to do something. We want to impact the land and society here for the Kingdom of God.

Learning the Land: Caesarea

Now that we have students here at the discipleship center part of what we are doing with them is teaching them the land of Israel and how it relates to their Bibles. This past Friday, we took them to the Mediterranean coast to see Ceasarea. I was a history teacher before I became a pastor and the historian in me gets excited to go to the places where important events happened.

Caesarea was Herod's capitol city. He built it in Greco-Roman style with aqueducts, bath houses, and theatres. The city, which has a very limited natural supply of fresh water, was made possible by Roman engineering. They built an aqueduct that brought water from Mt. Carmel, over 70 miles away.

The Romans also invented hydraulic concrete, concrete that hardens under water. Herod made extensive use of this substance in Caesarea. He built two giant piers that extend out into the ocean and create an artificial harbor to facilitate shipping. He also built a palace that extended out into the ocean. One of its many luxuries was a swimming pool that was bordered by the sea on three sides. Herod built his palace extending into the sea because it was beautiful, but also because he was paranoid. He kept a boat docked at the end of the palace at all times. The boat was there so that he could escape if he needed to.

The palace was later taken over by the Roman governors. I wondered as I walked there Friday, just where Paul stood before Felix and Festus. The Bible says that Paul was sent for, so probably somewhere in the palace. It's pretty cool to walk around thinking "maybe Paul stood here" and trying to imagine the scene.

Caesarea is also important in recent Biblical archeology. For years, critics of the Bible complained that there was no extra-Biblical source naming Pontius Pilate. They pointed out that the Romans were great record keepers and that there should be some document somewhere with his name on it. They used the absence of such a document as evidence against the Bible.

When Israeli archaeologists began to excavate Caesarea they made an interesting find. The found a cornerstone for one of the buildings there. The cornerstone had an inscription. In Latin it said roughly, " built under Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea." It's funny how the truth defends itself.

As the weeks go by, and as we visit more of the country's sites, I'll keep you posted on what we see and learn.