Missions and Theology

Her Story

2012-02-17T12:03:00.001+07:00

This post was written by my sister Nori one summer when she was here and her family were with us. This is her reflection of what she learned from us and from the children themselves about Tina. Here, she says that Tina is eight years old and still missing her front teeth. She will celebrate her birthday on the 18th of February and we found out she is just turning 7. (Her teeth are finally showing up). Tina is our first “adopted” child and the she is the main reason that makes us believe that part of God’s calling to us here in Mae Sai is to care for the orphans and abandoned children (and yes even cat) . This is her story.

“Ditche, Thyanat had been crying, I do not know what to do.” Dadai’s text messages always had the same thoughts for some days. “Just keep on hugging her… She cannot express herself because she does not know what to express.” That was three years ago. Until now, Thyanat easily cries even at a slightest provocation — a simple word or a slight bump.

Thyanat lost her mother from tuberculosis when she was five … 6 months after that her father died of AIDS. Kuya recalled how thin was Thyanat’s father and how he talked about her … that if ever he would die, he begged Kuya and Narlin to take care of her girl.

Since Thyanat’s father knew of his impending death, he desired to cross the river and go back to Tachilek. Kuya and some other church members tried to do their best to help him. So, they waited for the water level to become very low and they carried him on their back alternately until they can bring him home, but since the police security was very tight, it became totally impossible. He died before making it there, and when that happened the believers panicked. They called the paramedics and when they declared him dead, the Thai police respected the body and allowed the believers to give him a descent burial.

At his death, someone took Thyanat from the Child Care Center. Narlin was so mad when that happened because children without parents are easy prey for human trafficking. Anybody can pretend to be family relative and take advantage of the situation. Narlin and Kuya did everything to find Thyanat again. Narlin went as far as barking at people just to know where Thyanat is kept. With the family’s very limited resources, she proudly asked the person who was claiming Tina as her niece, “can you feed her 3 to 5 times a day, can you send her to school, can you provide her clothes, a good home and a family? if your answer is no, then let me have her, because i can have that and i can do that for her… ” With that, the other person succumbed and gave in Tina.

The family gave Thyanat the name Tina or Tina Pie. Narlin calls her “my own”. Tina is very sensitive and the other children always bully her since she always receive special care. Narlin would say, “you all have families–some have both parents, others have lost either a mom or a dad… but Tina has no one… She is mine. She belongs to us. We are her only family.”

Tina is now 8 years old. Her four front teeth have been missing since she was five. Until now she lisps when pronouncing the “s” sound. We still tease her “All I want for Christmas are my four-front teeth”. The couple knew that Tina needs to have a general check up and let her undergo different medical tests. But they are waiting for her emotional and physical readiness. Such tests can be very stressful for her. They also need a doctor whom they can trust with her case. Plus they need financial back-up. In due time, the Lord will provide all of her needs.

Please remember Tina-how the Lord will continue to assure her that she belongs and that she is loved. Remember her health-both physically and emotionally. Mention her needs — what can a little child in her situation need? Maybe, courage to face the unknown of tomorrows, strength to overcome, parental love for she knew what it meant when she needed it most but has been deprived too soon, hope for a better and brighter future, and most specially faith in God who is the only source of everything.

May God’s grace abound in you as you adopt Tina in your prayer life.

God provides opportunity

2012-02-11T17:39:00.000+07:00

I wrote this quick prayer update to my friends. We were amazed with the testimonies we received about the success of their children’s education to encourage us. We also received a couple of responses expressing desire to help us with our travel expenses. Our hearts are full of joy because God never fails to provide our needs may it be finances or encouragement. We thank the Lord for giving us wonderful friends. Thank you!

Here is the prayer update letter:

Greetings in Christ’s name. God is indeed our great provider and he provides not only for our material needs but also opportunities. One of our biggest concerns as parents is our children’s education. The international schools here although run by missionaries are way beyond our financial capability. We have the same struggle with their home schooling. Truth be told, unlike other missionaries, we are not receiving support specifically intended for our children’s education.

The Lord has answered our prayer regarding this concern. On the 8th of February, we received an email from the Philippine Embassy informing us that it will be adminitering the Alternative Learning System Accreditation and Equivalncy Test (ALSAE) in Bangkok. If they passed the test Jared and Jillian are considered high school graduate and Reuven, elementary. Hence, Jared can go to college in the Philippines and Jillian to a university here in Thailand. Reuven, can continue his home schooling and can go to public high school English Program here in Thailand.

Please help us in prayer:

Jared, Jillian and Reuven are a bit apprehensive. They have been out of school for six years and this is somehing out of their comfort zone.

Pray that God will give them confidence and wisdom (although they are out of school they are well read and well informed). Please pray that they will pass the test.

Pray for financial provision. We need extra money for travel expenses (bus and taxi), overnight stay, food and registration fees.

We believe that God answers the united prayers of his children. You are a huge encouragement to us. We are as we are in God’s harvest field because of God’s answer to your prayers. Thank you so much.

PayPal Donate Button

2012-02-10T14:13:00.000+07:00

My friend suggested that I should setup a PayPal account. According to him, it is the most convenient way to send money. He does need to go to the bank and wait, So I did setup an account. This post is a test if the pasted html code for donate button will work on blogger. I have been trying to do it on WP and it seems that WP is removing the code when the post is published. You could not even put it on the sidebar as text/html widget.

It seems to work here, if you have a paypal account you can donate to our ministry by clicking the button.

Blessings to all!!!

New Perspectives in Missiological Anthropology

2012-02-06T09:36:00.000+07:00

I have not been reading theology books lately. I don't have any desire to read books about mission. Nowadays, I read books for entertainment or to get myself to sleep. So I guess, it is time for me to pick up a book and try to finish it. I'm reading Church and Cultures: New Perspectives in Missiological Anthropology written by Louis J. Luzbetak. He is formerly editor of the international journal Anthropos , studied cultural anthropology of the Universities of Fribourg and Vienna. He received his doctorate in anthropology from Fribourg. He has taught anthropology at the Catholic University of America and linguistic at Georgetown University. Church mission has always been the focal point of his teaching and research. He is at present in the service of the Pontifical Council for Culture Vatican City.

His theology and mission obviously comes from the Catholic perspective. Which is more of a strength rather than otherwise. It is evident that the Catholic Church has more experience and relatively more success than the evangelical mission endeavors.

Here is the summary of the chapters of the book from the preace:

Chapter 1 lays the theological foundation, for missiological anthropology. This explores the solid rock on which the application of anthropology to mission must be based.

Chapter 2 describes in detail is meant by "Missiological Anthropology." He discusses in detail how missiology and anthropology blends. He further states that the scope and purpose of the book is missiological whereas the process and analysis is anthropological.

In chapter 3 he examines the failures and successes of the past. He looks closely at the theory and the history when this theory is applied. At the same time, the theoretical presentation serves as a preview of the theory that is to come. It also serves to clarify some of the terminology that will be used in the chapters to follow.

He entitled chapter 4 as the "Signs of Times," looks at the present and the future of mission to see what challenges await missiological anthropology. It also provides the basic theological parameters within which present-day mission anthropology must be applied.

Chapter 5 examines the recent anthropological developments in regard to the concept of culture. IHe then formulates this knowledge into a working missiological model. In Chapter 6, he looks at culture as a system and in the next chapter, he examines the the dynamic of culture. It should be noted that traditional accomodation generally passed over such important considerations; on the other hand, inculturation (incarnation, contextualization, "evangelization" of cultures--all synonymous) may not do so. Chapters 5,6, and 7 are the heart of inculturational theory. Corresponding missiological application are made throughout these chapters as to illustrate the relevancy of the anthropological theory discussed. Chapter 8 is an epilogue. Here the anthropological theory of the early chapters is synthesized in the light of the nature and misson of the Church.

It looks like an excellent reading for those who are involved in mission. Cross-cultural Christian workers have a lot to learn from this book specifically with regards to making the message of the gospel clearer through understanding the target people culture.

Welcome 2012: A Prayer Update

2012-02-02T18:40:00.001+07:00

Greetingsin Christ name! Happy 2012! Although many people welcome the new year with apprehension, we on theother hand, welcome it with joyful anticipation for what God willdo around us, with us, for us and through us this year.

Allthe nations you have made will come and worship before your, Lord theywill bring glory to your name. For you are great and do marvelous deeds, you alone are God. - Ps. 86:9-10

With your prayers and support you are so much a part of everything thatGod is doing in this part of Thailand. Thank you very much. We want to share with you some of the activity highlights this month.

Ministry to the children of Tachilek (Burma)

Few days before Christmas, we received a call from Angela tellingusthat Samrung, Tilek's brother was sick. She assumed that he was sickbecause he was missing his brother. Sam rung was staying in achildren's home in Tachilek. So she brought Sam Rung to be withhis brother hoping he would get better. But when we saw him, we werecertain that he was very sick. We took him to the clinic and thedoctor said that we should bring him to the hospital at once. There hewas found to be suffering from chronic TB.

Sam Rung is in the isolation room in the hospital
with his room mates being tested for TB three weeks later.

This caused deep concerns for health officers, to prevent a breakoutthey asked us to bring the other children that share the room with SamRung. We brought a total of 16 children to the hospital to be testedand if found positive, and thankfully all of them are found out to benegative. It was in God's timing that a team from Displaced OrphansInternational(DOI) was in town doing medical mission. They kindly extended financialassistance for the children's TB test. We thanks the Lord for hisprovision and the opportunity to minister to these children.

Ministry with Teams

Theyear started with us working with two teams. The other is the 11-personYWAM team from Maddison and medical professionals from DisplacedOrphans International (DOI).

The YWAM team wanted to minister to thehilltribe children so we brought them to the village that is close toour heart, Ban Kok Noi. We drove them to the mountain. Narlin and Ihave the chance to be reacquainted with people we befriended two yearsago when we held our English camp there. We also gave gifts to them. Wetook the opportunity to visit the village leader. They also minister with children home in Tachilek and to our children.

The kids with the YWAM team from Maddison.

We were giving a small gift to Ban Kok Noi village leader when he requested to
be photographed. He invited us to come back and teach English.

Moreover, the Displaced Orphans International (DOI) Foundation was ableto connect with us through a friend of a friend.They told us about their medical mission in Tachilek and their desireto come in our home to bless us and our children. They did medical anddental exams to the children. Narlin and I were treated with the bestdental care in the hotel. We experienced the best missionary care in awhile. We felt so special. Our hearts are full of gratitude to theteams that truly blessed our lives.

Teaching Ministry

We praise the Lord for what He is doing with Narlin's teachingministry. Although, our Bible teaching and discipleship training maytake another year to kick off, Narlin's teaching ministry is gettingmomentum. She is now teaching conversational English to the municipalemployees and teachers at Wat Pohweehan Municipal school. It is a bigblessing to be part of the municipal school family.

The school wants to employ Narlin as fulltime English teacher but webelieve that being a volunteer give her better opportunity to share thegospel in the school and to have more time with the ministry. Moreover,the school is looking for more English teachers and our prayers is thatthe Lord will use our relationship with the school in acommodatingkingdom workers in the future.

Rainbow Children

The children are busy with the school and with learning music. But wetook advantage of the New Year holiday to camped out at Ban Than LuamForest Park. They enjoyed the camp that we decided to continue it toour backyard. Playing and eating out were so much fun.

By theway, the children are really enjoying learning to play violin,guitar and piano. We are short of musical instruments to use forpractice, if you have old violin or guitar, you may consider donatingit to us. =)

Narlin with the kids after hiking to the mountain

Prayer Concerns

We thank the Lord for the opportunity to network and work with othermission organizations and ministries. We pray that thisnetworking would bring more people to a relationship with our LordJesus.

We praise and thank the Lord for his promised provisions that makes usnot to worry about our financial needs. Thank you for your love,prayers and support.

Please continue to pray for our plan to have a Englishlanguage/Discipleship/ Leadership Training and Resource Center. Thiswill also serve as home stay for coming missions teams and Angela'splace (most of the time she is in Burma) in Mae Sai.

Please continue to pray for our children's education. Not only for thefinancial matter but the difficulties and technicalities of homeschooling.

Pray for our "adopted" children's national identity. The schoolrecommends them for Thai ID llast year but it is taking unusually longtime for the approval.

We are expecting a very busy summer with organizing camps, trainingsand teaching. We are also expecting several mission teams to come atabout the same time to help us with these activities. Pray that Godwill use the teams to share the gospel. Pray for wisdom and strength.

Please pray for another year extension of our visa and house stay. Praythat just like the previous years, the process will go on smoothly again.There is so much development in our neighborhood that the owner of ourhouse might be tempted to sell the property.

Once again, we thank you for your untiring support and prayers. Wealways feel your love for us.

King Over the Flood

2011-10-31T15:22:00.000+07:00

As the children were singing one of their favorite songs, we could not help but remember what is happening to Thailand.

When the oceans rise and thunders roar
I will soar with You above the storm
Father you are King over the flood
I will be still and know You are God

The unusually long and heavy rainy season is taking its toll upon Thailand. So far, 60 out of 77 provinces are being affected and over 300 people have died because of the floodings. As of now, in spite of occassional rainshowers, Mae Sai has not been affected yet. Please pray for Thailand.

Once again, we want to thank you for your love and untiring prayers. Also for your financial help to God's ministry here in Mae Sai. We are sharing to you our update and prayer concerns. Through you, we are experiencing God's provisions for all our needs.

Children Ministry
When MaEng and Nuch left, we found ourselves doing all the house works, errands and looking after for the children We have to stop doing other things (for the mean time) and focus on the 11 children that God has put under our care. Our own children step on the plate and help with the work. After more than a month, we gradually adjusted to the situation.

The school term is over and several Christian organizations are holding English camps. Since last year our children are being invited to one or two of these camps. Apparently, their presence helps the teachers to encourage other children to learn speak English.

The children are having music lessons. The older girls are plearning to play the violin and the older boys are learning to play the guitar. Tina is taking piano lessons. They enjoy doing it because they love music.

Moreover, the kids are doing well at the school. One of them was sent to Mae Chan as the school representative in a competition. The school is recommending the children to acquire Thai citizenship. Please continue to pray for this concern.

Teaching Ministry
Narlin will resume volunteer teaching at Wat Poweehan Municipal School in November while Joey occasionally is being invited to teach the Bible in seminars and Christian gatherings.

Wat Poweehan School needs more volunteer English teachers and we are praying that more Christians can come and fill the needs. In relation to this, we are still dreaming of establishing a language learning center that can also be used as theology resource center. We need your prayer for more resources and people to partner with

Evangelism and Church Involvement
At present, we considered Grace Church to be our home church. We attend worship service there and the children are members of its Sunday school. We are involve in some of its activities. On other Sundays, we are worshipping at the Thai church in our neighborhood. The Thai Pastor gives us opportunity to get involved in its ministry like preaching and teaching the choir.

Furthermore, we started an international worship with other Filipino missionaries. We are holding our worship service once a month. As of this time, missionaries from other countries have joined us. We envisioned this fellowship to be a channel of evangelism for those who speak and interested to learn English. Please pray that this fellowship will be used by God to reach out for our target people.

Ministry Vehicle Update
Once again, we thank you for helping us to pray for the ministry vehicle. Narlin is calling it a miracle truck because we could not have it otherwise. Our sincere gratitude for those who contibrute. We will install a song taew (canopy with two rows of seat) on its flatbed as soon as we have the opportunity. Please continue to pray for we still need to pay the balance to our loan to Grace Church amounting to 30,000 baht (approx U$ 1,000).

More Prayer Requests
Narlin will go home in 15 days to get her mother to stay with us. Her mom wants to spend time with us and her granchildren. Pray for traveling mercy and provisions.

Pray for our own children's education. Home schooling is really difficult and they do struggles. Pray for inspiration and provisions.

Pray for everybody's health here. The weather is changing from hot to cold season but the rain is still falling. Everybody at times or anotherare having colds and fever.

Join us in prayer of thanksgiving for people like you whom God uses to provide for His workers and their ministries. Our sincere thanks.

You are beautiful

2011-09-08T17:51:00.001+07:00

This is the another story written by my sister, Nori. She had spent time with the children and they told her their stories. This is her reflections and it is posted as it is.

Dina has complete parents and she is very proud of that. She also has 1 big brother, one younger brother, one big sister, 2 younger sisters, one of which is still baby. Her big brother (most likely in her early teens) is now being trained in the military. Dina and her younger brother escaped the possibility of being recruited for military training that is why both of them ended in children homes. Dina is here in Mae Sai while her Sam Soon is in “My Father’s House” in Tachilek.

If you will ask Dina, “when are you going home?” “My father comes to get me when in Christmas time. So, I just wait for him until he comes back.” Her eyes glistens as she says that. She has full hope that she is coming home very soon. All she has to do is wait for Christmastime. Her stay with the Dela Pazes is just temporary, it is not going to be forever. In fact she proudly says that her father is a saya and her mom is a sayarma (both of them are school teachers in Wa, Burma).

This is the reality of it all. These Dek-deks are here in the care of the Dela Pazes simply to escape the military training that is required of every child that turns 8 years old. This is why parents do everything in order to take their children out of their place–to help them escape their distressing predicament. Maybe, their parents have this hope in their hearts that one day, everything will be fine and they can get their children from their adoptive homes or shelter and they can be reunited to have a better life as a family.

Some of these parents cross the border and work as truck drivers and they bring their children and just drop them off at the gates of a shelter where they believe their children will be taken cared of. others work for some businesses and then bring their children to the (Day Care) and then leave them there for good. It seems heartless but actually, they count it as a better option. What they see within themselves are their limitations and things that they cannot do. They have dreams for their children–they do not want them to end up like their parents. They have high hopes or for some others– they have grown tired of handling much responsibilities but with limited capabilities…

i suddenly realized how much these Dek-dek’s parents are suffering and overcoming all sorts of sorrows in being separated from their kids just to see them enjoy a hopefully much better life than what they can offer. Most of us would think that being together and being there for your children are wonderful things to do–seeing them grow and watching them turn into a beautiful gal or handsome guy are most fulfilling. But for these parents , it is harder and much more complicated.

Dina is an exotic beauty. She is tall and slim. I can see a possible beauty queen or a fashion model, z teacher like her parents, a doctor, a nurse, or even a business woman. I know her parents can see other possibilities for her too. That’s why they can sacrifice being separated from her. It looks like they are giving her up but actually they wanted for her to gain more and to be exposed to a brighter and bigger world.

I believe God has a better dream for her. She needs to recognize that dream. She needs to start learning about the Great God who had made her and had given her big dreams and chances of fulfilling those dreams. Being here in this house where she is being nurtured in the Word of God, in prayer life, church work, and hosting missionaries in their home, contribute to Dina’s life and preparation for the future. How long will she be here? How much more sacrifices can her parents afford? No one knows… but for sure, she has a family and a home to call her own…

Let us pray for Dina and let us share in making all God’s implanted dream for her come true.

I love you forever

2011-08-01T12:41:00.001+07:00

Nori, my younger sister had spent three summers with us. Helping us with the mission works that we could no longer handle during summer. She had spent many hours with the children and she had written her reflections. I just posted as it is. I should have posted this long time ago here but really couldn’t find the time to do so. This is the first installment of several stories.

*********************

I was reading Grace Cho’s God’s Favorite Face and except for Chai, all the other Dek-dek are chattering as they compare their noses, eyebrows, lips, hair… the noise was so deafening that i had to sssshhh! them. Yex Chai was in a very pensive mood… actually, she was sort of melancholic. In a matter of split second, i tried to analyze what was happening to this girl.

Possibility 1. Separation Anxiety. Lola Linda, Auntie Selma, Tita Dadai, and Eb-Eb has left the other day and they have gone back to the Philippines. The AVSTM big brothers had left the day after. The kids have been counting days and we are also going home with Ross.

For some days, the house was full… 28 people plus one dog… Narlin and Joey slept on the living room for two weeks or so. They planned to buy a tent and set it up in the yard, but after the earthquake, the tent available in town were all sold in one day.

Summer is a busy time for missions. A lot of groups come in to spend time with the Dek-dek. The house is practically full. There was too much commotion and each meal is like a feast. MaEng is always busy in the kitchen plus take note of the cleaning, washing, marketing, groceries, etc. and the planning that goes behind each menu. The washing machine is running everyday.

But summer is almost over. Rainy days start to set in. Schools in Thailand will open on the third week of May. The busy-ness will soon end. The visitors are going home group by group.

Possibility 2. Yex Chai is missing her mommy, this is how the Dek-dek explained it. The other day, while waiting for the music to be downloaded for their interpretive dance lesson with Kuya Ross, I read Robert Munsch’s “I love you forever”. It is a story about a mother and her son. Featured in there are the most important yet crucial stages in the life of the child and the way the mother would carry the baby (as a real baby, a toddler, a child, a teenager, an adult, etc) and the song she always sang for him. I tried to put a tune to the song. It does not sound so right, and it is not at all original. I have taken a chorus of some song, but i cannot even remember which one is it.

The lyrics of the song goes like this, “I love you forever, I like you for always… As long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.” Since the song was repeated several times, the children were able to memorize it all at once. They sang it while preparing the table for lunch, while washing the dishes, during their silent moment as they take their nap, as soon as they woke up, and practically every lull moment.Yex Chai proudly told me that she has memorized it and that she can sing it.

Most likely, the children are correct in their diagnosis. Or, it is also possible that all of them started thinking about their parents and their home. Some of them literally felt so homesick afterward. But maybe, Yex Chai felt it more. I suddenly reckon that someone hugged me from behind and asked me, “can I call you mommy?” and i just replied with another question, “Why? do you want to call me mommy like Ycoi?” “Yes!” Others said, “we want to call you mommy too.” But I never heard anyone call me mommy yet…

I stopped reading the story, and i signaled Yex Chai to come closer… She was in tears and was almost sobbing. I felt her forehead, “no fever Yex Chai, but what seems to be the problem”. As she tried to control her sob, I immediately hugged her close… and let her sit on my lap… and as i held her, i cradled her a bit… kept her there… and continued reading the book. Then the Dek-Dek started talking again relentlessly.

That night, after the devotional time, and as we close in prayer, the Dek-dek remembered to pray for Yex Chai and for their own parents back home. All these times that i was with them and that we are having our prayer time, i only hear them pray for Tatay and Nanay (Joey and Narlin). While they were away, i even hear the Dek-Dek prayed for them in their supposedly silent individual prayer before they sleep. But I hope this night as they felt that nagging loneliness may it help them see that their real parents need their prayers too…parents whose hearts miss the little one whom they will love forever, they will like for all time, and whom they will call “baby” for as long as they live.

Responsibility of the Sending Body to its Missionaries

2011-07-31T15:26:00.001+07:00

I found this article written by someone named Dr. Isaac T. Saoshiro and this was presented at the Global Congress on Church Ministry and Missions some time October 2001. This article is about the Sending Body’s responsibility to their missionary. Organizations who wants to send missionaries should read this article. I will present his main points and will give my comments. The article is divided into four responsibilities of sending body to their missionaries namely: (1) Its responsibility to the missionaries in the field; (2)Responsibility to the missionaries during furlough; (3) responsibility to missionary kids and parents; and (4) Responsibility to the supporting churches.

Responsibility to the missionaries in the field

First, the Sending Body (SB) needs to give clear guidance to the missionaries regarding their duties to the home office, expectations in the field, their relationship with other bodies, and their goals. SB should give the missionaries a clear job description.

Second, the SB should have regular correspondence. It is essential for the SB to communicate regularly with the missionaries. Missionaries are required to submit regular ministry reports as well as financial reports. Because of the internet, this correspondence can be done in the most convenient way. SB can know the situation of the missionaries on the field in real time and there is no way to prevent them from extending assistance. Urgent prayer requests can also be communicated in no time at all.

Third, the SB has the responsibility to visit the field. Email communication can limit the understanding of the real situation of the missionaries. The SB should be responsible to visit the field and get a first-hand information and listen to the missionaries about their difficulties, problems, victories and future plans.

Fourth, the SB should provide pastoral care to missionaries. SB should assigned a person most likely an experienced Pastor who can provide spiritual counseling and prayers. The person does not necessarily need to report what transpired in this pastoral sessions. This will help the missionaries to have a healthy outlet concerning their struggles. Moreover, the SB needs to give pastoral care for missionaries by sending movies, audio, missions magazines and books as a way to encourage them spiritually.

Finally, SB should provide physical and psychological care to the missionaries. They must provide a good health care system for missionaries such as periodical health check. SB should provide professional counseling, medical insurance, and health care information through medical books and magazines.

Responsibility to missionaries during furlough

First, SB must provide housing for missionaries during furlough. Usually, when missionaries left their country, they sold everything they possessed. Missionaries do not have a house and have to live with their family and relatives. The SB should provide a rented house, a guest house or a mission house ideally near the airport where the missionaries could stay while they are on furlough.

Second, the SB has the responsibility to receive and send off missionaries. When missionaries come back from their mission fields, they experience an enormous culture shock. They face many adjustments and challenges in the seemingly new lifestyles. Cities do change a lot and missionaries who have gone for a long time may get lost in the city. The SB should extend all the assistance that the missionaries might need when they return to their own country.

Thirdly, the SB should plan for the missionaries deputation schedule. The SB should arranged for the missionaries schedule to speak in churches, conferences and other requesting organizations. Arrange the time and location wisely so that the missionaries do not have to make unnecessary travel. They could arrange also that part of the furlough could be spent on studies related to the missionaries ministries. It is good for the SB to arrange for their missionaries to have rest and retreats.

Responsibility to missionary kids

Schooling for the missionary kids is not an easy matter. This is the greatest concerns of the parents. There are very few schools in the mission fields that can provide good education. International schools are expensive and the SB should do everything they can to extend assistance. Some SB provides tuition fees for the missionary kids until they finish high school and partial scholarship when the kids are in college.

The SB should also take special care for the missionary kids who are returning home from the mission fields for education or work. Their family and relatives may take a big role in this area, however, the SB must provide any assistance needed in the areas such as missionary kids’ residence, job hunting and introduce fellowship groups that would encourage MK to adjust to the culture smoothly.

Responsibility to supporting churches

The SB needs to communicate with supporters and supporting churches effectively by newsletters. The SB should have regular and proper financial reports to the supporters. It also needs to organize mission services and missions’ day of prayer to educate the church about the missions and the missionary they are supporting. SB should be active in raising funds for mission works and continually raise supporters’ interest for mission.

In our situation, we are not send by any sending body (in the real sense of the word). Although, we have been approached by few sending bodies about the possibilities of working with them, we really did not make any steps to be part of any sending body. We have been in the mission field for almost six years and the Lord never failed to provide for our needs. We are totally dependent on God and we are enjoying our independence. Apparently, the SB has huge responsibility to the missionary they are sending, otherwise missionary should reciprocate that responsibility. Any SB should not claim any missionaries as their own if they are not committed to do their responsibilities.

Pitfalls Facing MIssionaries

2011-07-29T09:14:00.002+07:00

Our friend keeps on moving to a new place and she got tired of moving her things around so she put all her books and book shelfs in our house. Of course, I don't mind it at all. But everyday I would browse the shelfs and look for something to read.

I found a photocopy bound compilations of missionary articles. I believe it is a good idea to share some articles here that I think would be very useful to missionaries and theologians.

This article is entitled "Pitfalls Facing Missionaries and Christian Workers" written by Dr. Ken Seino. In his article he presents several pitfalls that missionaries tend to fall. I give my comments in each.

Pitfalls of Pride

He says that missionaries are famous because it is being announced in the denomination or by deputation. They become famous because they are being prayed for by many people in many churches. In my opinion, this is only true if you are a missionary who comes from a big denominations with big churches. He warns that the missionary should not be proud because they are not famous because of their personality but for the kind of job they are doing.

He claims that sometimes the missionaries are given opportunity to serve in large meetings and conventions or interviewed by Christian newspapers. He says, that in certain cases, missionaries are "stars" among fine Christians. And this would cause the missionary to be haughty and arrogant. I could only hope that what he says is always true.

Pitfalls of Hypocrisy

Missionaries have the opportunity to work with wonderful leaders and thus they may belong to a ministry that are able to lead a great numbers of soul to the Lord and construct new church buildings. However, sometimes this accomplishment eclipse one of the most important goals of missions and that is for the believers to experience spiritual growth and that includes the missionaries own growth. Numbers do not necessarily means success.

Pitfall of Martyrdom

Missionaries tend to project themselves as living in a very difficult situation. They present themselves as miserable people who missed everything in their home country. The are tempted to create a story that tells the people back home that they are facing bigger hardships than ordinary Christians. Of course, all of these are true but missionaries have also blessings that ordinary Christians

Pitfalls of Money

The temptation of money is common to missionary. The missionary should be accountable and make a record of incoming and outgoing expenses. Missionaries should be a good steward of the Lord's money. This is most true if a missionary is being supported through a mission organization. Nonetheless, independent missionary should keep everything in orderly record. The ever present of spending the money to something not needed should be avoided.

Pitfalls of Dishonesty

Missionary should never lie for profit. Many missionaries fall into the trap of getting support from different missions organizations and keeping it a secret to them. Missionaries should be transparent. Just be honest about the sources of your support to the people or other missions group that want to help you and your ministry. Simple honesty will go a long way.

The over-simplification or slight exaggeration should be avoided at all times. An intentional misinformation may make for a good challenging story that may motivate people to support missionary works but it is still dishonest and the Lord of the harvest will not be pleased.

Vehicle Project

2011-07-23T17:56:00.001+07:00

We are sincerely grateful for your love and prayers. This week, heavy rains fall continuously and the need for a vehicle hit us more than ever. The older children walk to school with their raincoats and umbrellas and the younger children ride with me on the motorcycle.

Few more friends have been touched by the Lord and generously contributed to our vehicle project. I realized that they don't want their names and the amount they contributed to appear in this email. So what l give you here is the summary info. We need to raise 270,000 Baht to buy a good second hand truck. To date, friends have rallied behind us and contributed 163,700 Baht. THIS IS NOTHING SHORT OF A MIRACLE (PTL!). We still have a long way to go, but we're almost there.

All things are possible with God. He can do anything he wanted in an instant but I believe he is giving us the privilege of being part of the Kingdom work through giving. Your contribution will be a big part of God's mission here in Mae Sai.

Just a quick update

2011-07-08T09:20:00.001+07:00

The Lord gave us the calm assurance of your friendship and you do include us in your prayers. Thank you so much for your love and generosity. Please include us once again in your personal and church prayer time. Here are our immediate prayer concerns.

We thank the Lord for the opportunity he had given to us to be part of the consultation in a conference of well established NGOs, Foundations, and Religious organizations who are doing similar program for women and children. We were able to present our ministry in the conference. The conference were beneficial to us in several ways: (1) We were able to share our ministry and hence gained recognition from like-minded people and organizations. (2) We learned about the rights of the children under our care. The Thai government recognizes the right of the children regardless of ethnicity, citizenship, or economic status. (3) We had the opportunity to expand our network. The organizers talked to us personally and told us to consult them if we are experiencing difficulties in getting our children to school.

We thank the Lord for our fellow missionaries who left their vehicle for us to use while they are home. We are using this vehicle in bringing the children to and from the school. This is convenient for us because of the heavy rains we are experiencing now. It also gives us the chance to have the old van repaired.

Please pray for our need for a new vehicle. The van is very old that the mechanic refused to do a body repair. The roof is pull of holes that the water leaks when it is raining. Narlin and I will do the body work so that we can use it a little bit longer. I will write another story about the fund-raising we are doing for the new vehicle.

Please pray for Ma Eng, our hardworking, kind and reliable helper. She had been staying with us for two years. She was extremely helpful with our ministry with the children. She needs higher salary because she is supporting her mother and sisters in Burma. She was offered a job in Bangkok. We were sad to see her go but she has a big need that we cannot afford to provide. Please pray for her safety and that she will not become a victim of human trafficking.

Pray for our children shelter ministry. We took in another two little girls aged 4 and 5. They are both totally orphaned. We also took in a baby girl of nine months and her mother. The husband got involved with human trafficking and now in jail. They don't have a place so they are staying with us in indefinite period of time.

Pray for our visa and work permit extension in July 14. Pray for provisions and safe travel to Chiang Mai. Please pray also that the process will go on smoothly.

Thank you so much and God bless.

Moltmann Quotes

2011-07-03T16:45:00.003+07:00

Looking for some materials for my dissertation, (Yes, I am still trying to finish my second draft), I stumbled upon insightful Moltmann quotes from this site.

Some quotes from Moltmann’s presentation at Garrett are below:

“Despair can be like an iron band constricting the heart.”–Jurgen Moltmann

“The turn from this end [despair] to a new beginning came from three things. A blooming cherry tree, the unexpected kindness of Scottish workers and their families, and the Bible.”–Jurgen Moltmann, the spark of life when he first left the prisoner of war camp after WWII

“Christ’s own ‘God-forsaken-ness’ on the cross showed me where God is present where God had been present in those nights of deaths in the fire storms in Hamburg and where God would be present in my future whatever may come.”–Jurgen Moltmann

“Imprisoned professors taught imprisoned students free theology.”–Jurgen Moltmann, on studying theology at the POW camp at the Norton Camp in Nottingham, England

“There are various names for this ‘Spirit of Life’ because there are various life experiences.”–Jurgen Moltmann, on the Holy Spirit

“God is not only a divine person who we can address in prayer, but also a wide living space … We human beings are giving each other space for living when we meet each other in love and friendship.”–Jurgen Moltmann

“With every righteous action, we prepare the way for the New Earth on which righteousness will dwell. And bringing justice to those who suffer violence means to bring the light of God’s future to them.”–Jurgen Moltmann, on the future of God

“Americans as no one else in the Old World are looking ahead and are future-minded without the limitations of traditions and can look ahead without the burdens of the past.”–Jurgen Moltmann, on America

“To reinvent your own country you need a great audacity of hope.”–Jurgen Moltmann, on the recurrent desire of American presidents to reinvent America

“[In 1967] The ‘Hope Movement’ replaced the ‘God is Dead’ movement.”–Jurgen Moltmann

“Christian hope does not promise successful days to the rich and the strong, but resurrection and life to those who must exist in the shadows of death. Success is no name of God. Righteousness is.”–Jurgen Moltmann

“There were two different expectations … in this land of the future. On the one hand the the optimistic belief in an unending progress with millenarianistic overtones and on the other hand the doomsday expectation of the final battle of Armageddon. Both are perspectives are uniquely American and both are inter-related.”–Jurgen Moltmann, on the messianic politics of the American founding fathers

“No where else in Christianity does the terrible or heroic name of Armageddon play such role as in America. Not even in the Revelation of John.”–Jurgen Moltmann, on the Left Behind series

Migrant and Stateless Children in Border Areas

2011-07-02T13:10:00.001+07:00

Conferences and meetings occupied most of our days this week. We received an invitation to attend a Conference sponsored by a well-established and large NGO here in Mae Sai. The theme is: “Working Collaboratively for Child Rights Protection Policies for Migrant and Stateless Children in Border Areas.” We did not why we were invited. The only reason we could think of is that this big NGOs are starting to know that we exist.

The participants were divided into groups. NGO, religious group (monks, pastors, and catholic priests), and foundation. At first we were dumped together with the religious group. However, when they realized that our knowledge of Thai is very limited, they put us together with the international group. Apparently, they were expecting more foreigners were coming to the conference. But they didn't came, so Narlin and I were the only people in the international group. They assigned persons who interpreted for us and facilitated us in the discussion.

Nine groups were formed and each group was given the opportunity to present the result of the small group discussions. And since were were the only English speaking person, I ended up presenting what we are doing in our children shelter ministry.

In my impromptu presentation, I told the audience that we are just a small group with very limited resources. However, when I was presenting what we are doing, the audience realized that our experience is extensive. We provide shelter for the migrant and stateless children, we were able to rescue a little girl from child trafficking, we were able to take care of the orphaned children, we had the opportunity to take in child whose parents had died of AIDS/HIV, and we are able to send the children to Thai school.

After my presentation, some people serving from different organizations approached us and expressed appreciation of what we have accomplished for the children. Likewise, we were happy to be part of the conference. Our network has widened, people and organizations are starting to recognize the ministry that we have been doing for the children.

It was my birthday

2011-06-24T21:33:00.004+07:00

June 19, Sunday was my fifth birthday celebration here in Mae Sai. Like the previous celebrations, I was not expecting any fanfare at all. Narlin prepared fruit macaroni and JIllian baked bread and cookies. A simple celebration spent with the family was what really I was looking forward to every year.

It was also Father's day and Pastor Maung asked me to preach that Sunday morning. It was the day when the church appreciated and honored the fathers in the congregation. Unlike most of the churches here, our church actually has almost equal if not equal men to women attendance. The fathers were asked to stand up and were given gifts.

However, our Pastor made a big fuss about my birthday. He prayed with the congregation and requested them to sing the birthday song. As far as I can remember, this was the first time that the church prayed for me during my birthday. After the service, we had lunch at the church as we had customarily doing. While we were enjoying the lunch fellowship, somebody put the birthday cake on the table and once again everybody sang “happy birthday.”

I truly enjoyed the day. I thanked the church for making that day very special. Ultimately, I thank the Lord for another year he has given to me.

The Fatherhood of God: Father's Day Message

2011-06-18T20:49:00.002+07:00

Text: Galatians 4:6-7

Today is “FATHER’S DAY”. This is the day of the year when we remember and honor our earthly fathers. Fo most of us this is a happy day because we have such good relationships and for those whose father are not around any more, we surely have a good memories of them.

Moreover, we all have a common heavenly Father and all of us are brothers and sisters in Christ. We have a Father who cares for us and loves us like no other. When we believe in Christ, we become the children of God and our perfect, intimate relationship with the Father God is restored. Ultimately, we honor God the Father this morning.

We all know that everyone does not have the same experience with the earthly fathers. Some fathers are cruel and abusive. Some fathers ignored and abandoned their children. There are fathers who do not even care to know who are their children.

But there is hope and promise to us this morning. Nobody of us need live without a father. God is our Father. He loves everyone of his children. There is none like him. His fatherly care is not just a replacement for those who do not experience the love of their earthly father. God is our true Father.

This morning we will look at what the Bible says about the fatherhood of God.

First, the Bible tells us that God is by nature is our Father.

Good has the heart of the Father who cares for his children, more so with his creation. We can see this love through his relationship with his creation. God created all thing and continuously sustain them with loving care.

Jesus taught this truth to us. Listen to Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:26-34

Second, God is the model of Fatherhood.

When we think of God as Father, we try to understand it in reverse. We think of God to be like our earthly Father. Instead of modeling our Father to God, we model our God to our father. Evidently, this does not work because many fathers are evil. Some people reject God because if God is like their own father they don't want to have a relationship with God.

But God is not like our father. He is the Father. The Bible tells us that God is model of fatherhood upon which all other fathers are judged. If we want to know God as our father, we should not look at our father or any father in the world however good they are.

If we want to know the goodness of the fatherhood of God, we should read the Bible and see the heart of the Father revealed. He is the model. The one who is: faithful, true, just, merciful, compassionate, slow to anger, loving, providing, patient, kind, etc.

Third, God is our true Father

If you received Christ into your life, then you can be rest assured that you are a child of God in the fullest sense. You have been taken into God's household and you are under the care of the God the Father.

We have received the Spirit of adoption by whom we can cry out, “Abba Father!“ It is like saying Daddy or Khun Pho or A-phe to God. It is a term of affection that signifies a loving relationship with God. If we believe in Christ, we should in anyway have to doubt that.

Conclusion:

Today is Father’s day. We celebrate and appreciate our earthly Father. But most especially we celebrate and honor our true Father.

Blood and prayer

2011-06-17T09:28:00.004+07:00

It was the eve of Narlin's birthday when she received a text message from our friend. It says in effect, ‘the father of our worker is sick and he needs blood.’ Our friend is the director of the agricultural Foundation and he has several workers. This particular worker he was referring too is also our friend.

However, Narlin phone's battery was dead that night and it was only in the morning that she had read the message. She asked me, ‘are you willing to drive to Chiang Rai to donate blood.’ Chiang Rai is about 45 minutes to one hour drive from our home depending on the timing of the traffic lights. If all those traffic lights are green then we'll be there sooner, but if they happened to be all red then it will take an hour or so. But I digress.

Anyway, I agreed to donate my blood. In fact, I already missed doing it. I had been donating blood before that I could no longer remember how many times I have done it. Giving blood is scary. I know many people who are really afraid to give blood and I perfectly understand it. But when you overcome the fear, it is as easy as giving someone a drink, only there is a little pain involved.

So Narlin and I drove to Chiang Rai Hospital. Upon reaching the hospital, we called up our friend on the phone and told him that we arrived and I am ready to bleed. He met us at the lobby of the hospital and brought us to the ward where his sick father was. He introduced us to his father, brothers, sisters and nephews. He told them that I am a Pastor and a missionary here in Thailand. Then he asked me to pray for his father.

I wasn't supposed to do this. I expected to go the laboratory and give my blood and then just move on. At any rate, I had prayed for the sick on a hospital bed many times. And I was happy to do it.

My batting percentage in praying for the sick is very low my wife reminded me. It means many of those whom we prayed for didn't make it out of the hospital alive. Nonetheless, I prayed for him. This kind of prayer is the most fulfilling experience for me. Because I'm not uttering empty words, offering pretentious comfort for the sick and his family. I'm praying and I'm giving my blood and it is the least that I can do.

After the prayer, I uttered some words of encouragement to the sick. I then shook his hand and to my surprise he kissed it. I knew it was to show his appreciation either for praying or for donating my blood. But I surmised because I did both.

Faith without faith is dead. Likewise, prayer without efforts or at least an intention to be part to the answer of the things you are praying for is, for me, an insincere prayer.

The joy of the Lord is our strength

2011-06-07T12:28:00.000+07:00

First of all we want to thank you for untiringly praying for us. God has been faithful in his promise to provide for the needs of his lowly servants. From the bottom of our hearts we sincerely thanks the people who have made big sacrifices for the sake of his kingdom.

Second, the Lord has greatly encouraged with the ministry through his words:
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)
In the moment of discouragement, people encourage us by telling us that what we are doing is really very much needed.

Third, we consider 2011 to be the year of short term missions. We have hosted and coordinated short-term missionaries in the previous years, but this year proved to be the grandest of them all. For January to May, we have been blessed to work with different mission sending organizations. The teams performed various ministries that includes evangelism, medical missions, music camps, English camps, agricultural training, computer training, and children ministry. It was exhausting time but a very blessed fulfilling and meaningful time for all of us.

Fourth, we were blessed and humbled to have been visited by leaders of different missions organizations. We are thankful to the Lord for they have greatly encouraged us to persevere with the orphanage ministry.

Fifth, our ministry is now officially recognized by the Mae Sai municipality through our membership with Network for Women and Children Under the Same Sky (NCWSS). We are hoping to become active member of this organization.

It was a busy and tiring time but we have proved once again that the joy of the Lord is our strength.

Update on Japan Earthquake from BGR

2011-03-28T10:55:00.001+07:00

We experienced 6.9 - 7.0 intensity earthquake here in Mae Sai. The epicenter was located in Tarley, Burma a few kilometers from Mae Sai. There is no serious damage in the Thai side of the border. There is a report that an unfinished construction collapsed and one person died. However, it is different story in Burma, buildings and houses are damaged and 150 people died.

This recent event made us realize how bad the earthquake was in Japan. Here are some of the excerpts from BGR report about the situation in Japan. Continue to pray for the people of Japan and the rescue and relief effort that have been going on. Read here for further details.

This document attempts to summarize the recent events of the past 10 days and can serve as a talking/summary point to where BGR personnel and volunteers are in their efforts to respond to the devastating March 11, 2011 Japan earthquake and resulting tsunami. While the major event was the earthquake (one of the strongest this century) the ensuing tsunami coupled with the disabling of the cooling systems of the Fukushima nuclear power plants, has turned this tragedy into a very complex humanitarian event.

Major event – 9.0 magnitude earthquake (Fifth largest since 1900)
Secondary major event – Resulting tsunami
Tertiary major event – Radiation hazard from damaged nuclear power plants

Statistics/Numbers of interest as of 20 March, 2011:

8,199 people confirmed dead and 12,722 officially missing (total dead + missing = 20,921)
Myagi prefecture hardest hit. Confirmed dead = 4,882 but authorities believe this number will rise above 15,000.
There are currently 367,141 people living in 2,300 evacuation centers. About 10,000 per day are returning to their areas as power/water is being restored.
Already 21,000 people have relocated to other areas of the country living in secondary places such as with family, friends, vacation houses, etc.
Government has initiated rebuilding of 30,000 homes. Standard specs are 30 square meters and about US $30,000 per house.

The Spirit is Love

2011-03-27T21:44:00.001+07:00

The Spirit is Love: "Therefore anyone who enters into love, and through love experiences inextricable suffering and the fatality of death, enters in to the history of the human God, for his forsakeness is lifted away from him in forsakenness of Christ, and in this way he can continue to love, need not look away from the negative and from death, but can sustain death.

Moltmann totally agrees with Hegel:

This is the form which the history of God's manifestation takes for the Church; this history is a divine history, whereby it reaches a consciousness of the truth. It tis that which elates the consciousness, the knowledge, that God is Trinity.

The reconciliation believed in as being in Christ has no meaning if God is not know as Trinity, if it is not recognized that He is but is at the same the Other, the self-differentiating, the Other in the sense that this Other is God Himself and has potentially the divine nature in it, and that the abolishing of this difference, of this otherness, this return, this love, is Spirit.

The of the closed circle Trinity should not be conceived as a closed circle of perfect being in heaven. This was in fact the way in which the immanent Trinity was conceived of in the early church. Barth also uses this figure of the 'closed circle' for God.

In contrast to this, though, one should think of the Trinity as a dialectical even, indeed as the event of the cross and then as eschatologically open history. The Spirit, love, is open to the future for tholw of forsaken humanity; in positive terms for the new creation. The one who believes and loves and loves first experiences an arrabon, an anticipation of this Spirit.
"

(Via .)

The faithful love of the Lord never ends

2011-03-19T13:07:00.001+07:00

The first quarter of the year of our sixth year here in Mae Sai will soon be over. Just as soon as we thought that we have nothing more left to go on, God gives us the calm assurance of his constant presence and provisions.

"The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning." (Lam. 3:22-23)

We are sharing to you few recent interesting ministry developments.

First, we are happy to be invited to join the effort of unifying all Christian churches and ministries in Mae Sai for the sake of the gospel. I was asked to preach at the initial prayer gatherings of the group. It was a gathering to pray for big evangelism project this coming May.

Second, organizing, planning and preparing for the English Camps; Music camps, SEE training and seminars are keeping us busy at the moment.

Third, it has been a privilege for us to work with YWAM teams. Two teams from Madison, WI and Muizenberg, South Africa came one after the other to minister and share God's love to the children and young people in Mae Sai and Burma. We are more than happy to pick up where they left off.

Fourth, we are looking forward to working with SEND-Phils. Their consultations with us has helped them to decide to send a mission team this coming May and eventually a long-term missionary who will do church planting work among the Shan people.

Fifth, after much prayer and lot of thinking, we decided to get our volunteer visa from Hands of Hope Foundation (a.k.a. People to People), a charity arm of Indo-China Missions. We have chosen it because its purpose is very similar to what we are doing, hence, it can provide us legal covering for our orphanage ministry. We are also helping them with their Indo-China Missions Training Center project. Related to this, the officers of the Foundation invited us to join the Conference and Camp on April 3-6. Narlin and I will attend the conference and our children will join the camp. We praise the Lord for this opportunity to have a time of R&R for the whole family after three years.

Sixth, Narlin is invited to attend and share about our ministry here in Thailand to the delegates the Philiipine Women Missionary Union Triennial Meeting in Baguio City this coming April 13-16.

Lastly, we are happy that a family reunion of sort will happen in April. Narlin's mom, sister and nephew will come. Joey's sister with his family and another sister with her friends are also coming to join us this summer.

Pray for Japan

2011-03-12T23:14:00.005+07:00

I received an email about BGRi's effort to help people affected by the disaster in Japan. I asked permission to share this information. If you want to make a donation please visit their site here.

"The Japanese government is very strong and able to respond and is not asking for private help from outsiders," said Jeff Palmer, BGR executive director. "However, BGR working through our Japanese brothers and sisters, we will be able to mount a response that will be effective, meet needs in overlooked areas and help strengthen the witness of Japanese believers to hope in Christ. Please pray for the response. Please pray for wisdom and knowledge as we try and discern how to best help. Most of all, please pray for Japan: physically and spiritually."

"The earthquake has caused major damage in broad areas in northern Japan," Prime Minister Naoto Kan told reporters.

Baptist Global Response has partners in the affected region who are moving to assess the damage, said Ben Wolf, who with his wife, Pam, directs work in the Asia Rim for Baptist Global Response. An initial allocation of $100,000 has been made in preparation for the initial response.

“We hope to have someone on ground tomorrow for an initial assessment and contact with Baptist partners there,” Wolf said. “We have great Baptist partners that we will contact and see how we can initially support them with resources and expertise in the response.”

Concerned individuals are asked to pray for families affected by the disaster and for humanitarian workers who are mobilizing assistance, Wolf said. Prayers should be offered that God would move through these circumstances so people would experience his love and discover the abundant life he wants them to enjoy.

Whether Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers will be needed remains to be seen until the assessment is complete and a relief strategy has been defined, said Jeff Palmer, BGR’s executive director.

Thoughts on Christian unity

2011-03-06T22:43:00.001+07:00

I was asked to speak tomorrow in gathering of Christian leaders from different churches in town. The message will be based on John 17:21-26. Here are some thoughs from my readings:

The Letters of John reveal the existence of deep divisions within the Johannine communities; while there is no hint of reference to them in the prayer it is scarcely conceivable that the Evangelist did not have them in mind as he penned the prayer. Christians from Pentecost on are called to give expression to their unity in Christ, as truly as they are called to give expression to their new life in Christ, and in both cases this has to happen before the eyes of the world.

The re-creation of believers as one Body in Christ should determine their common life. It is a principle which requires us to begin within the life of the local church, then extend outward, both to relations with communities of the same order as ourselves and to fellowships of Christians of other confessions. In the light of the divisions that have arisen between Christian churches through the centuries, it was inevitable that a movement should arise to call the churches to reverse the trends of the centuries and to seek to experience and express anew their unity in Christ.

It was equally natural that this movement should begin within the missionary agencies of the churches (as at Edinburgh, 1910), since the divisions were hindering the carrying out of the missionary task; the nations frequently saw the reconciling power of the gospel less clearly than its divisive power. That the World Council of Churches in process of time has made mistakes, and at times even adopted policies that have alienated Christians rather than brought them closer together, is a reminder that churches are composed of sinners saved by grace, and sometimes the sins are more apparent among them than the grace. For this the churches and their agencies have need to repent—again, and again, and again. But they also have need to listen to the prayer of Jesus—again, and again, and again!

For reflection on the prayer of necessity leads to urgent consideration how the unity which embraces all Christians within one Body can be expressed within their mutual relations, and how it should become a principle of action in the churches’ mission to the world. Perhaps then reflection on the fact that the unity of the Church was the subject of Jesus’ prayer to God rather than exhortation to disciples may drive us to our knees in prayer for grace that his prayer may be answered in us, and in our own churches, that the world may be able to perceive in us the reconciling power of God in Christ.

Source: Word Biblical Commentary (New Testament)

Some words on short-term missions

2011-02-15T22:37:00.002+07:00

Ever since we came in the mission field, we had lost count on how many short-term missionaries both individuals and teams we have received and hosted in our house. Short-term missionaries are huge blessing to us in several ways.

First, they have been a source of encouragement to missionaries on the field. Talking with people who speak the same language and from the same culture is indeed a big encouragement.

Second, they have been a source of encouragement to the national church. National churches on the mission fields are usually small and struggling. They feel alone and isolated. Success stories of big churches from all over the world provide inspiration knowing that the belong to the world wide body of Christ.

Third, short-termers have been able to gain greater vision for the missionary enterprise. Being in the field witnessing how career missionaries are working make them envision the kind of ministry they can do on the field.

Fourth, short-term workers have been able to partner with long-term missionaries in many different kinds of ministries. Short-termers have assisted career missionaries in building projects, evangelism, teaching in Bible schools, agricultural projects, etc.

Although short-term missionaries have been a blessing, there are some things they need to remember.

First, they need to realize that their main purpose in going overseas is not to be tourists. They need to think carefully how to maximize their time doing ministry. They should minimize unnecessary travel time and unlike tourists, they should show authentic love for the locals. They should not criticize the local culture--their language, food and the way they do things.

Second, short termers need to realize that missionaries have their own work to do. Missionaries are not meant to be tour guides, or negotiators for bargains in the local shops and marketplaces. They need to talk with the host about their plans ahead of time so they can arrange their schedule.

Third, they need to realize they are not there to question and argue with the career missionary with regards to the way they do their ministry. They should not assume that they know more than the people on the field just because the have more education and training. They need to remember that the missionaries have been on the field longer than them.

Fifth, they need to realize that most career missionaries have limited financial resources. They should not burden their host to spend for their housing and food. They should share with the expenses they accrued during their stay.

Sixth, they should not act as visitors waiting to be served and entertained by their host. They should also do house chores like cook breakfast, lunch and dinner or help in the cleaning of the house and the ground.

Finally, short-term missionaries need to realize that God may be calling them to long-term missionary service. While more and more people are going on short-term missionary trips, fewer and fewer individuals seem to be accepting the call to enter into career missionary work.

The ideas come from an article in the old periodical entitled Evangelical Missions Quarterly written by Jim Lo.

MOST Training

2011-02-15T14:32:00.004+07:00

I had a meeting with Jethro the other day. Both of us are ministering cross culturally here in Thailand. He is leading an NGO that focus on agriculture and community development. He has an extensive experience training the church and the community about the importance of holistic ministry. He trained church and village leaders how to farm and hence help to support themselves.

My involvement with community development is very little. However, I have enough church leadership and theological education experience. Basically, these are kind of work I have been doing since we came to Thailand five years ago. It is true enough to say that God had used me in starting two Bible training centers. (Continuing to work though is a different story).

Between Jethro and I we have more than 10 years experience in doing training in our respective field in this region. We decided to work together. We will start a training center for church and community leaders. The training will be done within three months with 10-12 people. The projection is that we will have three (3-month) training a year. The venue will be the NGO's agricultural training site since they have dorms, training hall, kitchen and other facilities.

We formulate our goals, mission and vision. Along side this, we create a curriculum that we best think would meet the need of the people we addressed to train. The annual budget will cost U$6,000 a year. Please help us to pray about this project.

History
Mae Sai Out of School Training (MOST) started from the vision of Christian workers ministering in Northern Thailand and Myanmar. MOSt also stands for Mae Sai Outreach School of Theology. They see the needs of the churches and community in both sides of the border. The School is designed to meet these needs by training people who will become competent leaders in both the church and community. It is a joint program of Asia Rural Life Development Foundation (ARLDF) and Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary Education by Extension (PBTS-SEE).

Goal
To assist and facilitate church planting activities in a community where there is no existing church.

Objectives
To train 10-12 church leaders from 5 churches and partners entity annually.
To enable the students to demonstrate and mentor other on what they learn.
To assist at least 10 churches in ministry development.

Mission
To train and equip God-called people to be Christ-like leaders in their church and community.

Vision
Under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit, we envision seeing Christ-like leaders in the church and community.

Subjects

Knowing the Bible (Introduction to the Bible)
How to Understand the Bible (Interpretation)
Teach the Bible Through Story (Chronological Bible Storying)
How to Share the Gospel (Evangelism)
How to Disciple (Follow Jesus Training)
How the Gospel Spread (Condensed World Mission Course)
How to pray (Devotion and prayer)
How to lead like Jesus (Leadership)
How to share the gospel (Evangelism)
How to preach (Homiletics)
How to plant a church (CPM)
How to be a true worshipper (Leading praise and worship)
How to do village farming (ARLDF)
How to do community development (Church and Community Development-CCD)

Any suggestions and help will be highly appreciated.

The old van

2011-02-14T09:19:00.001+07:00

It was 2006 when we came to Mae Sai. We didn’t have any means of transportation so we used our feet. We walked going to the church, market and to the places of ministry. Angela, seeing our predicament lent us a very old motorcycle and we used it for two years. Through friends, God provided us with a brand-new Honda motorcycle. However, my children were growing bigger and obviuosly it would take us several trips to go to the church and other events that require the presence of the whole family.

A fellow Filipino missionary in Chiang Mai had been blessed with new pick-up truck and he had no parking space for his almost thirty-year old van. He tried to sell it but nobody wanted to buy it for a decent price. He thought it would be more useful for the ministry. We received the van with open arms and he was proven right, it is indeed useful to us. Not to mention that later, we had started a children’s home and the van was not only useful for the family but it became indispensable in transporting the children to and from School and to the church.

So, we drove the van from Chiang Mai to Mae Sai for five hours and except for its tendency to overheat the van did well. The whole family worked very hard in cleaning it inside and outside. Making it look newer than it really was. However, when my daughter closed the sliding door, it fell off. We could not restore it so we brought it to the mechanic. We pay almost 2,000 baht just to have the door reinstalled. That was the time when we have our second thoughts. Was the van a blessing or another problem that would siphoned down our already depleted ministry funds for its maintenance?

To make the long story short, we have the van for almost four years. It undergone some major repairs that cost us a lot but overall we are quite happy with its performance. We even thought of having body and upholstery works and have the aircon installed.

However, this week the van broke down twice and this reminds us once again that any upgrade is not worth and that we have to pray harder for a new van. Some friends who had seen its condition had contributed seed money in the fund raising for the new van. Jonathan gave U$ 200 and another friend gave 5,000 baht. We thank the Lord for their contributions. We believe that this “little fund” becomes big when we place it in God’s hands for his kingdom work. Please join us in praying for this need.

Wind of change

2011-02-13T22:28:00.003+07:00

We are waking up up each morning with unusually cold and foggy mornings, it’s funny how weather seems to change every year. It has been said that the only thing constant in this world is change. Missionary work is the same. Our goal remains the same but the means and the opportunities to share the gospel and make disciples change. Only God and his faithfulness remain the same. As the Psalmist says:

In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end. (Ps. 102: 25-27)

Although we have been anticipating big changes since last year, we are still blown away that they are finally happening.

Firstly, it is now certain that we are leaving Mae Sai Church. We had been working with Burmese migrant workers for 5 years now and this church had been the avenue through which we minister to these people. No one could have thought that several years ago the church have no sunday school, no migrant primary school,no nursery, no children’s home and no trained staff. There were very few worshippers especially in the morning. We are happy that we had been part of its growth and to know that our presence is no longer needed. At the same time, we are sad that we are leaving and will have to look for another church to work with.

Secondly, when the English worship was cancelled, Jethro and I among other Filipino Christian workers in Mae Sai decided to gather together once a month for worship and fellowship. It is a simple gathering but we are open to the leading of the Holy Spirit if he wills that a new church will come out from this fellowship. We are praying that it will expand to become a church that is open to all nationalities and tribal groups.

Thirdly, it is now definite that we are leaving The Foundation that is providing us visa. Nonetheless, we praise the Lord for his timely provision. The school Rong Rian Powihan is willing to give Narlin a volunteer visa. In addition to this, Asia Rural Life Development Foundation (ARLDF) is willing to sponsor our visa if the the school arrangement didn’t work out.

Fourthly, our partnership with an agricultural NGO is now official. The NGO will have a regular 3-month (spread through out the year) discipleship and agricultural training. Jethro, the NGO director will teach agriculture and I (Joey) will teach the discipleship part using Seminary Education by Extension curriculum. The training will tentatively start in March.

Finally, we are praying for the probability of working with a charitable Christian organization from Bangkok. People to People Foundation found itself in a very unusual situation. They stumbled upon very cheap properties between Mae Sai and Chiang Saen and they believe that God has planned everything. A team from the USA came, bought the properties and is now financially supporting the construction of the building. They will call it The Indo-China Mission Training Center. The construction will be finished in August. The coordinator of the Foundation is a Filipino who is married to a Thai lady. We came to know him through a local Pastor in Mae Sai. He had a meeting with us and told us that they have the facilities but they are still praying for people who will oversee its daily operation and activities. Since we are already in Mae Sai for five years, he believes that we are God’s answer to their prayers. He had invited us to join their Camp and Conference in Bangkok this coming April in order for us to know the leaderships of the organization.

We are excited with the changes that will happen this year. We are confident in God that we can continue on serving him this year in whatever capacity because you are praying for us.

Clark Pinnock: Mission and the Holy Spirit

2010-10-04T11:35:00.000+07:00

I was kinda get burnout with writing the dissertation last week. My brain abruptly stopped working. I tried to read books but I could not make sense of the words I was seeing on the pages. I started having doubts about what I had written so far. I am also missing home. Suddenly, I wanted to return to Thailand to my family and our adopted children.

It's Monday today and I am hoping I could start anew. I went into the library this morning and looked at the book I that might be helpful to make my brain alive again. I found Clark Pinnock's Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit. It seems like a very good book. Opening a few pages I read this fascinating paragraph:

If Christians are to be effective in mission, they must offer a faith that is vibrant and alive. People who want to meet God and will not be satisfied with religion that only preaches and moralizes. Knowing about God is not the same as knowing God. Christianity was born on the day of Pentecost because a question was asked about a transforming experience: "What does thie means?" (Acts 2:12). Speaking about God is meaningful only if there is an encounter with God back of it. Only by attending to the Spirit are we going to be able to move beyond sterile, rationalistic, powerless religion and recover the intimacy with God our generation longs for.

Biblos.com

2010-10-02T13:26:00.000+07:00

I always use Bible Gateway when looking for particular verses on the Internet. I always go on the site then type the references. If I could not remember the reference, I usually type the word/s on the search bar with Bible Gateway. It is a great Bible tools on the internet right now.

However, today I am kinda lazy to go the Bible Gateway site, so I just googled the phrase from a familiar verse and hoping google will look for the reference for me. But I got better than what I expected. Google brings me to Biblos.com. It's a very good Bible Study tools. Check it out.

Article on Moltmann

2010-09-30T10:21:00.002+07:00

Writing dissertation is difficult at times. At times, your ideas won't come out of your head and flow through your fingers. You have your fingers on your keyboard but they won't press any keys at all. In times like this, I just look around the internet and google some words that are related to what I want to write. Of course, most of the times you find nothing. But there are times I find something I want to keep. I think a blog is a good place to keep the articles that prove to be helpful. I found this article about Moltmann and decided to keep it here.

One of the most influential theologians of his time, Moltmann was Professor of Systematic Theology at Tubingen University (in what was then Western Germany) for more than 25 years. During that time he was strongly influenced by both Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and, in the 1960s and 70s, was involved in the general Christian dialogue of the day with Marxists.

His distinct orientation of theology towards politics moved him later to focus on the European "Peace" and "Green" movements. He also became increasingly open to dialogue with exponents of Roman Catholic, Orthodox and liberation theology.

His theology can be generally classed as dialectical, in that he was concerned with tensions between aspects of Christian doctrine - the Cross and the Resurrection, death and life, an absent God and a present God and so on. All these he related to negative aspects of the world like sin, suffering and death as well as to positive aspects such as what he perceived as God's ongoing act of creation which was to issue in a new order.

Moltmann's extensive theology is, however, blighted by a methodological failing. In his earlier works such as Theology of Hope (1964) he derives his conclusions from the Bible. If in doing so he doesn't give enough credence to what were then well-substantiated doubts about what biblical material is historical and what kerygmatic, his work is nevertheless relatively sound.

His later works display an increasing lack of awareness of the distinction between what Jesus may have thought, taught and lived out and the early Church's interpretation of what they knew about Jesus. Recent work has shown conclusively that the Jesus of history is a relatively shadowy figure. It also indicates strongly that early interpretations of Jesus were strongly influenced by reference to Old Testament theology (Isaiah for instance). He also appears to have little or no understanding of the analogical nature of theology - that is, the degree to which God-talk (theology) consists of image and metaphor.

As a result, Moltmann's theological castles appear today as elaborations built upon suspect foundations. Critics perceive them as somewhat ill-disciplined speculation tied too loosely to sound historical and critical biblical work. In a sense, Moltmann became unconsciously mythological.

Moltmann thought of God as centrally a "community of divine persons" (the Trinity) who interact in and with the world. Because this interaction is ongoing, theology (and therefore teaching) can never be completed. It is essentially "relational" - any standpoint is relative to others in a developing, organic relationship. But he appears to have had little difficulty with the central idea of revelation in relation to the whole body of human knowledge and understanding.
If God interacts with the world then change is natural. Moltmann's orientation was therefore strongly practical. Theology as a discourse aims to change the world (the opposite of stagnation) in order the better to orientate creation towards the coming kingdom of God.

This eschatological strand is common to all Moltmann's work. It's not an "end of all things in clouds of glory" sort of eschatology. Rather, he thought of it as changing the present in the direction of the "future" towards God's kingdom. The Resurrection of Jesus (however one understands it) is the first step. It sets in motion the new order and spells out the eventual end of evil, suffering and death.

Moltmann's practical streak emerges in his approach to the problem of pain and suffering. Why, if God "loves" us does he allow us to suffer so terribly? Moltmann doesn't offer a theoretical solution. Instead, he points to the way in which Jesus identifies with all sufferers through his death on the cross.

If the world of suffering doesn't correspond to our image of God now, we can recognise that there's a promise of a social reality which does. One can't help wondering how much Moltmann was influenced by post-war optimism in his conclusions. Instead of a personal development theory (people as individuals will develop towards perfection) he offers social improvement ending in a "kingdom of God".

Moltmann thinks that the bridge between the present and this wonderful social future is the Church. Because God loves the world, God affects it and is affected by it. (Moltmann rejects the teaching that God can't suffer or change.)

Therefore the Church can't claim to be absolute. It doesn't have access to final truth, nor can it teach that "salvation" is mediated only by Jesus. He goes further: the Church must be open to radical reform and renewal.

In the same way a practical eschatology reinforces and brings about radical changes in society. Humans don't rule nature, but relate to it as part of a whole community of living beings. Moltmann asserts that monotheism tends to legitimate monarchical domination and subjection. In contrast, the loving inter-relationship of the members of the Trinity demand human relationships of freedom and equality, and a recognition of human rights.

The source of the life-giving process in which we are all so deeply involved is, thinks Moltmann, what is usually called the "Spirit": "… the eternal Spirit is the divine wellspring of life - the source of life created, life preserved and life daily renewed, and finally the source of eternal life of all created being" (The Spirit of Life). This emphasis marked Moltmann's break with Barth, who thought of the Spirit as primarily the source of the revelation of God's truth.

Pentecostalization of the traditional churches

2010-09-29T19:58:00.000+07:00

I'm writing my dissertation. I think it is good to post portion of it here. This will be posted here as a series.

Church growth specialists claim that it is the works of the Holy Spirit that produce phenomenal church growth all over the world in the past decades. This remarkable growth of Christianity especially in the third world is can be attributed to the Pentecostal missionary movement. Pentecostal churches constitute the largest family of churches in Christendom after Roman Catholicism. Pentecostalism and its adherents within other denominations are now approaching 250 million. This rapid growth and the pentecostalization of the traditional evangelical churches alarmed the western conservative scholars and published literatures that oppose and attack the Pentecostal and charismatic movements to the extent that their practices especially speaking in tongues are attributed to the work of the devil. This however just proves that it draws undue attention not only from its adherents but also to those who are strongly against it. This extraordinary attention to the theology the Holy Spirit began at the close of the nineteenth century and continues until today.

Donald Bloesch rightly observes that during the first part of the twentieth century, the Holy Spirit seemed to be the missing person of the Trinity. However, within the past several decades, abundance of books on the Holy Spirit has been published and numerous conferences on the Holy Spirit and spirituality had taken place. Citing Joachim of Flora, Bloesch agrees with the statement that “it seems that we are passing from the Age of the Son to the Age of the Spirit.” However, Pentecostal movement is not the only reason for this seemingly excessive fascination with the Holy Spirit. Evidently a more important reason is the undeniable fact that many believers from different denominations claim that they have experienced the reality of the Holy Spirit in their lives in a tangible way.

Erickson sums up the reasons why the study of pneumatology is important for the contemporary church. First, he agrees that the Holy Spirit is the way by which the triune God becomes personal to the individual Christians. Second, churches of today elevate the role of the Holy Spirit more prominently than the other members of the Trinity. Lastly, the current culture emphasizes the experiential and it is through the Holy Spirit’s work that Christians feel God’s presence. Apparently these personal experiences of the works and presence of the Holy Spirit have transformed the structure, programs, ministries and worship practices of several Filipino Southern Baptist churches.

Even though Pentecostal denomination and Charismatic movements have been in existence in the Philippines for decades, it is through the Third Wave Movement of the 80s, embraced and introduced by the younger church leaders into the Southern Baptist congregations that churches begin having Pentecostal-like worship services and activities. “Third Wave” is the term used by Peter Wagner to describe the works of the Holy Spirit in the present century that is preceded by the first and second waves of the Holy Spirit which represent the Pentecostal and the charismatic movements respectively.

Third Wavers are those who strongly believe in the ministry of miraculous healings, deliverance bay casting out demons, and to some extent speaking in tongues. However, their doctrinal position on the baptism of the Holy Spirit as once for all experience paves the way for this movement to be easily accepted in the Southern Baptist circles. Hence when the Third Wave practices are adopted in the ministries, discipleship, and worship services of the traditional Southern Baptist churches, it creates tension among the members, churches, associations, and up to the Convention level.

It's tough to be away

2010-09-24T13:09:00.000+07:00

So much things has been happening to us these last couple of months. And we are thankful for you for helping us through your prayers and support. As I’m writing this, I am sitting down in front of a study table trying very hard to finish writing the dissertation ahead of schedule so that I can go back to Mae Sai sooner and continue on with the ministry there. Narlin is having a tough time working alone.

We need your prayers. Narlin has been struggling financially back home. Our visa expenses and our two trips back to the Philippines have taken its toll with our ministry funds. Yes, people helped us with the airfares and we are immensely grateful for that. However, travel expenses are not only about airplane tickets and bus fares. Narlin emailed me that she suddenly found herself unable to pay the monthly bills and provisions for 15 people in our house. There are only a couple of thousand pesos in our bank.

We completely trust the Lord’s provision for this. We have been in the same situation before and God never failed to provide. Your prayers give us assurance and comfort that we are not alone in this.

Once again, please accept our heartfelt gratitude for your love and prayers.

I am writing the big D

2010-09-23T14:30:00.000+07:00

I am now in Asia Baptist Graduate Theological Seminary campus somewhere in the Asia-Pacific region writing dissertation. After four years of working in the mission field, finding it difficult to think much more to write anything, I was asked to go home and finish it once and for all. I was blessed to have been granted stipend for my travel and for my house and lodging.

I thank the people who believed in me that I could do it, even when I stopped believing in myself that I have what it takes to write something as big as this long time ago. Having said that, I am broke and my family who I left somewhere in the Mekong region for three months. We suddenly found ourselves financially limited. I want to finish this so that I can go back home and resume the mission work as soon as possible. Thanks for your prayers.

I hope to resume theology blogging after this.

Quick update

2010-08-09T22:27:00.001+07:00

We have been preparing for my trip to the Philippines on September 4 to finish my study. Working out the things we need to do before I leave. Talking with Pastor Shin Maung about my extended absence (3-5 months), he volunteered to drive the nine children to and from the school. We do not know how it will work out, but we are glad enough that the church will help us all the way.

We had not thought, however, that Narlin would go home earlier than I do. Her father died last August 3. We thought she would not be able to get out of the country to mourn with her family and friends back home because our visa is still being processed at the immigration and will not be finished until August 19. The Foundation advised us that we could not go out of the country until after that date. Narlin was devastated. We strongly felt that she should be home. We called the Foundation and asked what could be done so that she could go home. We found out that she could go provided she will return before the 19th, the day we need to go to the immigration office. She went to the Philippines last Thursday and will be back on the 17th.

Tatay was brought to his final resting place in Dagupan early today (August 7). He will be best remembered for the good things he had done for the Kingdom. He was a Bible teacher, evangelist and preacher. Many people came to believe in Jesus through his ministry. Incidentally, today is also Nanay Linda’s (Narlin’s mother) birthday. Family and friends have a double celebration, as we know by faith that Tatay is probably now enjoying his face to face moments with Jesus.

Once again, we thank everyone who readily helped. Our church (Mae Sai Grace Church) extended their comfort and assistance. We also thank our fellow Filipino missionaries in Mae Sai and Chiang Rai for being there physically praying for us. We want also to thank our friends back home and on the Internet, thank you for words of comfort and encouragement.

When Narlin return in a week we will go to Chiang Mai for our visa to the Consular Service extended to Chiang Mai by the Philippine Embassy in Bangkok. We will be spending a lot of time preparing for my departure. We need to check and pack our children’s PACEs among other things. My ministries will resume when I return from the Philippines but Narlin’s works will continue and it will be doubly difficult for her in my absence. Pray for her.

Please continue to pray for us. We are assured of God’s provisions but He uses people like you to make it happen. And we can testify how God do this all the time. Everything that we have here is an answered to prayers. Every work that we do happens because of prayers. Thank you for being a channel of God’s blessings to us and consequently to the people we are ministering.

Pray for Nanay Linda (Narlin’s mother), Narlin and her siblings that they could feel God’s comfort and presence as they mourn Tatay’s death.

Continue to pray for our visa extension. It is not over until it’s over (on August 19). =) Praise the Lord for those who obey God’s urging to give for this particular need. Without the visa, we can’t even be here.

On Women's Role in the Church

2010-07-30T08:41:00.001+07:00

I found this excellent essay about the role of the women in the church here. I posted it here because it is a very insightful article and hopefully should help us interpret the Bible in the right direction.

One of the most often used proof-texts is Paul’s statement (apparently) that women should keep silent in the church (I Cor 14:34). [I added the word “apparently” because I think there is reason to suggest that Paul is quoting these words from the Corinthian church’s letter to him (See 1 Cor 7:1) and refuting it in 14:36 with the words, “Has the word of God come to you (men) only?”] The word translated “only” is a masculine plural pronoun in the Greek text.

Whatever their source, these words from 1 Cor 14 settle the issue concerning women’s roles in the church for those of a fundamentalist mentality. It is to be a silent one. For those of this mind set, it is unnecessary to look at other texts to see if a different idea is expressed. In this case, we do not have far to look. All we have to do is go back to 1 Cor 11 to see Paul giving instructions as to how women should dress when they prayed or prophesied. To pray and prophesy and keep silent all at the same time is a pretty good trick. Further, I have often wondered if those who take this position ever consider how many Sunday schools would have to close down if the female teachers were removed! In order to maintain the position that women should keep silent in the church, they would have to make a distinction between Sunday school and church—a highly questionable distinction in my judgment.

I have observed through the years that those who use the proof-texting approach and take the texts literally are highly selective in what they take. A seminary classmate of mine related a story to me that vividly reflects this point. A female preacher was invited to preach at his church on a certain Sunday. After the service an elderly male approached her and very condescendingly said, “Sister Jones (not her real name), how do you handle the Scripture that says women should keep silent in the church?” Without batting an eye she replied, “The same way I handle the one that says ‘Greet the brethren with a holy kiss!’” End of conversation! And, just for the record, Paul wrote the command to greet one another with a holy kiss four times (Rom 16:16, 1 Cor 16:19, 2 Cor 13:12 and 1 Thess 5:26.), whereas the command for women to keep silent (whatever the source of those words) appears only once. The usual response is that the kiss of greeting was just a cultural matter in the first century. Precisely—and so was the command for women to keep silent in the church.

Another favorite passage used to subordinate women is the creation story and the argument that the male was created first, and only the male was made in the image of God. This depends upon which creation story one reads. It will hold up to some degree for the second creation account (Gen 2:4-23) but crumbles under the first (Gen 1:1-2:3). Genesis 1:27 reads “In the image of God he created him, male and female he created them” (emphasis mine).

I will mention just one other passage that is often cited as mandating the submission of women to their husbands, and hence a secondary role in both the home and the church. Ephesians 5:21-23, and particularly the words “Wives, be submissive to your own husbands as unto the Lord,” is often cited as a proof-text that wives are to be under the authority of their husbands. However, the preceding verse gives a very different picture. Verse 21 reads, “Be submissive to one another out of reverence to Christ.” (emphasis mine) Verse 22 is a part of the same sentence. For every Christian to be subject authoritatively to every other Christian would lead to chaos. The submission in this passage is submissiveness to the needs of every other Christian, and submission of wives to husbands is just a sub-category of the submission of all Christians to one another.
Based upon the same passage, the idea of male headship gets a lot of press in fundamentalist circles. However, Bilezikian1 and others have demonstrated that the word arche (“head”) has the basic meaning of “beginning” or “source” and probably does not have the connotation of authority in any of the passages in the New Testament in which it is used. Furthermore, in this passage Christ’s headship of the church is presented in terms of his giving himself for it, not his ruling over it with an iron hand.

A second way in which fundamentalists distort Scripture in regard to women is to ignore or twist to suit their ends evidence from church history as well as Scripture. With regard to the former, Ute Eisen has conclusively demonstrated that in the first three centuries of the Common Era women held every title in the church that men held.2 Her evidence comes primarily from inscriptions on tombstones, city walls, etc. (which, by the way, are notoriously difficult to change!) Then there is the tired old argument that Jesus chose twelve males as his disciples, and thus showed that he wanted to continue the patriarchal system. A Roman Catholic nun of my acquaintance was heard to say, “Jesus chose twelve men to be his disciples, and God Almighty does not make mistakes.” I agree to the truth of both propositions. However, let us press the argument a bit further. Jesus chose twelve Jewish males to be his disciples. If maleness be a qualification, then how does one escape the logic that being Jewish would be one as well? Furthermore, let us not be too hasty in concluding that Jesus had no female disciples. I realize fully that when we examine the biblical text we read more about the twelve male disciples than any others. However, there is one text which calls into question whether the twelve male disciples were the only ones Jesus had. In Luke 8:1-3, we find these words: “And it came about soon afterwards, that he began going about from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God; and the twelve were with Him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses: Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others (emphasis mine) who were contributing to their support out of their private means” (NASB). A careful analysis of this passage clearly shows that Jesus had a number of female disciples who both went around with him and were financially supporting his ministry. Why is it that we hear so little about these disciples? The reason, simply put, is that the society out of which the scriptures came was thoroughly patriarchal. All the biblical writers were male, as far as we can tell. The fact that we get even one brief glimpse into the female disciples of Jesus makes a strong case for divine inspiration, in my judgment. This statement creates the necessity for me to deal in some measure with the issue of divine inspiration, which I take up below.

We Are Soldiers

2010-06-13T00:00:00.000+07:00

Text: 2 Timothy 4:6-8

In the movie ‘We Were Soldiers’ Mel Gibson is the tough battle hardened US Army Captain. He has a mission to complete! However, before his men leave for Viet Nam he promises them and their families that he will be the first one to step on to enemy territory, and the last to step off it. He cannot promise that they will all return alive, but he promises that all 395 men will return, dead or alive. He has a mission, but most importantly he has man to look after with.

In 2 Timothy, Paul told Timothy that Christians are soldiers of Christ and that we should "endure hardship' us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus." Paul himself lived his life like a soldier. And we should follow his example.

A Dedicated Soldier

There was a time when Paul hated Christ and the Cross. He fought against Christianity with zeal. But one day on the Damascus road, Christ saved him and changed his life, and from that day on he became the greatest and most effective soldier Jesus ever had.

When Paul became a Christian, he gave his all to the Savior. He believed that he was dead to the old life and he was living only for Christ. He said that a solder should not entangle himself in the affairs of the world. For if a soldier tied himself to the world he could not his best as a soldier and he could not please his master.

We need to learn this truth this morning. Many of us are entrapped by the things of the world. And for that reason we become powerless and we could not do anything for God. For many of us, when the Pastor ask us to do something for the Lord and be faithful to the church, we made excuses and tell him that we are very busy. We should not be too busy to do things for God. When we are too busy to do something for God, then we are busier that God wants us to be.

Paul also said that a soldier of the Cross must learn to endure hardness. He was certainly a worthy example of this great truth. Have we ever suffered anything for Christ? Have we ever made a sacrifice for Him? Paul did this and calls on us to do the same thing (Romans 12:1).

A Victorious Soldier

“I have fought a good fight,” Paul says. He looks upon life as a battle to be fought, a victory to be won. He said on one occasion that he was not fighting flesh and blood, but the evil hosts of Satan.
Paul had to fight urge of his sinful nature. Writing to the Romans, Paul had said in effect, “I have been saved, but the old sinful nature is still present. I want to be absolutely free of sin, but I am having a desperate fight. There are two natures in me. The flesh and the spirit are both there, and they are always fighting, the one against the other.”

We are just like that. We are fighting a battle against sins and temptations. Temptations surround us. We are surrounded by the enemies. They are on the right of us, the left of us, in front of us, and behind us. We often give in and let the Devil defeat us.

Paul also had to fight the enemies of the Gospel. They knew how faithful he was to Christ, so they tried in every way to hinder him and to block his testimony for the Lord. These enemies are still alive today.

When we Christians set out to make our lives count for Christ, these enemies get busy and try to ruin our testimony (don’t give so much time to the Church; it won’t hurt you to miss prayer meeting; there’s no harm in this, etc.). Let me ask you a question: Have you ever seen anyone who has great influence for God who did not put Christ and His church first, always? No, and you never will!

Paul goes on to say, “I have finished the race.” He looks upon life as a race track: “This is the course that God has picked out for me, and now I have finished my course.” God has a course for you to run, also, and you ought to say, “Lord, what do You want me to do, I’ll go where you want me to go, if You will only go with me.” We do not always choose our course. I did not choose the ministry; God chose me.

An Awarded Soldier

One day they led Paul out to the place of death. He saw the block where his head would lie. He saw the executioner waiting to do his duty. He saw the axe shining in the sun.

But he looked beyond all of this and he saw Jesus waiting for him with something in His hand. What was it? Listen; “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness..”

Forgotten now are all the hardships endured for Christ. Forgotten are the stripes, forgotten are the days and nights in prison, forgotten are the shipwrecks, forgotten are the abuses, forgotten are all the tears that he shed and all the blood that he poured out. This makes up for it all. Christ is waiting to welcome him. The crown is waiting for him. Heaven is waiting for the old soldier.

Are you having a hard time, my friend. Is your body afflicted? Have your friends forsaken you? Do you face many difficulties? Do you have financial worries? Then just keep on. Trust the Lord; do the best you can. He will see you through and bring you home at last.

Conclusion

The Scottish soldiers, forced by their Japanese captors to labour on a jungle railroad, had degenerated to barbarous behavior, but one afternoon something happened. A shovel was missing. The officer in charge became enraged. He demanded that the missing shovel be produced, or else.When nobody in the squadron budged, the officer got his gun and threatened to kill them all on the spot. It was obvious the officer meant what he had said.

Then, finally, one man stepped forward. The officer put away his gun, picked up a shovel, and beat the man to death. When it was over, the survivors picked up the bloody corpse and carried it with them to the second tool check. This time, no shovel was missing. Indeed, there had been a miscount at the first check point. The word spread like wildfire through the whole camp. An innocent man had been willing to die to save the others!

We are soldiers. Are you willing to sacrifice for Christ and for his church?

A little update

2010-06-06T23:46:00.001+07:00

We echo once again the prayer of Paul for the Philippians expressing our gratitude for your untiring partnership.

In all our prayers for all of you, we always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

As of the moment, our mini-orphanage ministry is being sustained because of your prayers.

One morning, as we watched happy children happy and excited preparing for the first day of school, we could not help but thank God for his faithfulness in looking after His children and for connecting us to you as our ministry partner.

Who would have thought that two months ago we almost gave up in getting them to school? One reason is that the Thai schools are giving priority to Thais but because our children are from the Myanmar, they were initially rejected. Another reason is that our support for their education is very limited nonetheless; we experienced how God provided.

God is answering you prayers for us and we can feel it every moment. Thank you very much.

Children’s Camp in Kok Noi

When we were invited to organize a Children’s camp in Kok Noi, we gladly accepted the challenge. Anyway, we already organized two camps in Mae Sai and Tachilek. This one would be easy thinking that the lessons and the materials were already prepared.

However, we were in for a big surprise. We did not know that Kok Noi although located in Chiang Rai is in the middle of the jungle 45 kilometers from the city with no electricity (although solar panels have been provided by the government) and can only be reached by foot or by a four-wheel drive truck.

God provided a way for us to get there. A Good Samaritan we met along the way gave us a ride on our way to the village. And then a 4-wheel drive truck owned by Compassion International brought us back to the city.

It was a wonderful camp with the children learned English and listened to Bible Stories. Some children from the neighboring village walked for couple of hours and joined the camp.
During our ministry there, God gave us a vision of planting churches in the nearby animist villages. We also see the need to provide home for the children from Myanmar who were given shelter by the villagers to study in the village school.

Seminary Education by Extension (SEE) at Grace Home Kindergarten Center

After Jimi taught music through SEE, the students could not wait for another class. When the Lacquian Family left for home, the burden of continuous theological/biblical education for church leaders falls on my battered shoulders.

When the school opened two weeks ago, we did not anticipate how busy it would be for us bringing and picking up the children from and to the school. As parents, we need to attend school meetings, talk to the teachers and bury materials and uniform the children need. Hence, we really don’t have the time to offer another SEE class.

Fortunately, another team from Asia Vision Short-Term Missions came and helped us out. My sister Dadai, came back with two short-term missionaries. Longtree Limtag taught “The Panoramic View of the Bible” and Enjae helped in teaching the children Grace Home Kindergarten Center (GHKC). Incidentally, GHKC hosted SEE for five days. We are thankful to Aye Phet for being a gracious host.
GHKC will host SEE classes in the future.

Narlin Volunteers in Municipal School

Since Aye Phet has been doing a great job at GHKC, Narlin does not need to be around in the center all the time. She now has free time to do other ministries.

Narlin is teaching English at Rong Rian Tesaban 1 every Tuesday and Thursday for two hours each day. This is the same school that our 7 children are studying.

We thank the Lord for this opportunity to be a witness and a blessing to the community.

Prayer Requests

Our visa extension is now being processed at the Rainbow Covenant Foundation. We will receive a phone call anytime now to come to the immigration office. Up to this time, we don’t have specific entity that helps us with our visa expenses. However, God’s provision is always on time.

God has given us the ministry of discipleship and mentoring. We will leave Mae Sai with peace knowing that we were able to train and disciple people to continue the work of the gospel ministry.
Pray for the SEE students. We are making seminary training available to church leaders and workers while they are doing their respective ministries. Please continue to help us to pray for SEE office and training center near the border.

Pray for Narlin as she volunteers to teach in a Thai school. We are expecting to organize more English camps before this year will end.

Pray Jared, Jillian and Reuven’s home schooling. We thank the Lord for School of Tomorrow for making our life easy with our children’s education. But we still have a lot of struggles.

In the last couple of months, God has brought us to different places namely Ban Klang, Mae Salong and a village 14 km from the City of Chiang Rai. God is challenging us to expand our vision. He is summoning us to get involved in children ministries, church planting and discipleship to the hard reached villages. We will train and mentor locals in starting and sustaining these ministries. This can be done on a regular basis at least twice a month.

Help us to pray for resources. Teaching materials, equipment and a vehicle. Pray also for knowledge, wisdom and empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

Diversity in the Church

2010-05-22T23:20:00.002+07:00

I am having similar thoughts lately.

Philip Yancey put it this way in an article in Christianity Today just this last November. He writes, "As I read accounts of the New Testament church, no characteristic stands out more sharply than [diversity]. Beginning with Pentecost, the Christian church dismantled the barriers of gender, race, and social class that had marked Jewish congregations. Paul, who as a rabbi had given thanks daily that he was not born a woman, slave, or Gentile, marveled over the radical change: ’There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.’

"One modern Indian pastor told me, ’Most of what happens in Christian churches, including even miracles, can be duplicated in Hindu and Muslim congregations. But in my area only Christians strive, however ineptly, to mix men and women of different castes, races, and social groups. That’s the real miracle.
Yancey continues, "Diversity complicates rather than simplifies life. Perhaps for this reason we tend to surround ourselves with people of similar age, economic class, and opinion. Church offers a place where infants and grandparents, unemployed and executives, immigrants and blue bloods can come together. Just yesterday," Yancey wrote, "I sat sandwiched between an elderly man hooked up to a tank puffing oxygen and a breastfeeding baby who grunted loudly and contentedly throughout the sermon. Where else can we find that mixture?

"When I walk into a new church," Yancey says, "the more its members resemble each other—-and resemble me-—the more uncomfortable I feel."

Source: Philip Yancey, "Denominational Diagnostics," Christianity Today, November 2008, p. 119.

Complete Commitment

2010-05-16T00:56:00.000+07:00

Text: 1 Timothy 4:1-11

A college man walked into a photography studio with a framed picture of his girlfriend. He wanted the picture duplicated. This involved removing it from the frame. In doing this, the studio owner noticed the inscription on the back of the photograph: “My dearest Tom, I love you with all my heart. I love you more and more each day. I will love you forever and ever. I am yours for all eternity.” It was signed "Helen,” and it contained a P.S.: “If we ever break up, I want this picture back.”

It means that Helen is obviously not completely committed to the relationship.

In this letter to Timothy, Paul mentions about the different teachings that would bring confusions among the believers. In the midst of the confusion created by this spread of false teachings, we must not forget that Christ calls us to a life of commitment. Commitment is to be the mark of our lives. But committed to what? That is the question Paul answered in our text.

I. COMMITTED TO CHRIST (Verse 6)

First, we are to be committed to Jesus Christ. Paul warned Timothy of a time of falling away from the faith and of discouragement for the church. When that happens, this is what Paul suggested in verse 6. Our commitment must go first, not to a certain church or to a certain program or to a certain style of music or to a certain preacher, but our commitment is first of all to Christ. He is to be Lord over our lives.

There's an old story about St Augustine. Early on in his Christian life, he was intensely absorbed in the writings of Cicero. And around this time, he had a dream that he had died. And now he was standing at the pearly gates. And the keeper of the gate said, "Who are you?" And he said, "I'm Augustine." Then the keeper said, "What are you?" Augustine said, "I'm a Christian." The gatekeeper said, "No, you're not a Christian. You're a Ciceronian!" Augustine said, "What are you talking about? I'm a Christian!" And the gatekeeper said this: "All souls on earth are judged by what dominated their interests. In you, Augustine, it was not the Christ of the gospel. It was the Cicero of Roman literature. You are not a Christian. You cannot enter here!"

Augustine was so startled that when he woke up, he resolved then and there to be fully committed to Jesus Christ for the rest of his life and to live for Him.

When we become a Christian, we are no longer our own. We belong body and soul to Jesus Christ. We are completely committed to Christ.

II. COMMITTED TO A CONSECRATED WAY OF LIFE (Verse 7)

This commitment to the person of Christ will lead then to a commitment to a consecrated living. Paul urged Timothy in verse 7. A Christian is committed not only to Christ but also to the way of living Christ laid out for us. That way is one of holiness, purity, and godliness.

The world in which we live in is committed to pleasure and self. Consequently, the life-style of the world is that of immorality and selfishness. That way of living is totally opposite to the life-style commanded by Jesus. On one hand is the world's way. On the other is the way of Jesus Christ. A Christian is committed to the way of Jesus Christ.

Dr. Wilbur Chapman once gave this rule of thumb for determining our way of living. He said: “Anything that dims my vision of Christ, or takes away my taste for Bible study, or cramps my prayer life, or makes Christian work more difficult is wrong for me, and I must, as a Christian, turn away from it.”

So must every true Christian. We cannot call ourselves by Christian and still be free to do our own thing. When we call ourselves by his name, we are committing ourselves to do his thing.

III. COMMITTED TO THE CHURCH (Verses 6, 13)

We are also to be committed to the church of Jesus Christ (vv. 6, 13). Translated into today's terms, Paul said that a Christian is one who spends time with other believers in the study of God's Word in the church.

One of the first and foremost acts of obedience that you and I should perform as Christ-followers is to become a part of a local church body.
As believers, we need to pray together, learn together, serve together, give together, grow together, cry together, repent together, worship together, and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ together!

Man was never intended to hold onto God alone! The church is to be the believer's life-support system, from which strength comes for the living of these days.

IV. COMMITTED TO THE COMMISSION OF CHRIST (Verses 10-11)

A Christian is also to be committed to the great commission. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Verses 10-11 express the same idea in other words and different context. As Christians we should be committed to preaching the gospel, making disciples and teaching Christ's command to the people who will come under our sphere of influence. We should maintain this commitment throughout our life.

Those who drive a car or a motorcycle know the importance of maintenance. As long as we faithfully maintain our vehicle with regular change oil and check up it will last longer if not forever. It is the same with our house, maintaining our house properly involves painting, cleaning, repair of plumbing and electrical, replacing the leaking roof. If we do not do these things then our house will soon broke down and it will not be a good place to live in.

As Christians, we are commanded by Christ to maintain our commitment as his disciple and to maintain our discipleship ministry. Discipleship follows after we accept Christ and this is not a one-time event of being saved. We need to maintain our Spiritual vigor so that we can go on sharing the gospel, making disciple and teaching the Word of Christ. We should have a total commitment to the great commission.

That is a portrait of a Christian. We commit ourselves to Christ. Then, we commit ourselves to a consecrated way of living.

And then we should commit ourselves to the local church in this world to extend his kingdom.

Finally, we commit ourselves to the commission he himself established for making disciples of all nations.

First Quarter Highlights

2010-04-14T12:27:00.000+07:00

It has been a very busy month for us. I really have not been updating this blog as I should. Summer camp is going on now on the other side and we will be preparing for another camp in the mountains of Chiang Rai next week.

The first quarter of 2010 is over. Just like the previous years we are not certain how the year will end but God has shown us how it will look like. He constantly made us aware of His presence, power, protection and provision in our life and ministry. Your constant prayers make all these things possible.
We are sharing to you the first quarter highlights.

A breakthrough happened this year when we were permitted to hold an English Camp in Pamuad School. More than one hundred seventy students heard the Word. Moreover, we have started a good relationship with the School's officers, teachers and staff.
Eight young people are ready to be discipled because of the camp. They are Noot's classmates who helped us to interpret for us. The young people became very close to us and consider us a family.
Grace Home Kindergarten held its closing and recognition program last February 26. As usual the event was well-attended by the parents. Many of the parents are now Christian.
Fourteen Wa Pastors and church leaders came to Mae Sai for a three-day retreat and we were humbled to be invited as one of the resource speakers.
As you are reading this, a PBTS Seminary Education by Extension is going on. Jimi and Nori have come to help us in this ministry. We envision to continuously provide quality training to qualified potential pastors and church leaders both from Myanmar and Northern Thailand.
Mae Sai Grace Church celebrates its sixth anniversary on the 28th of March. We were with them when they were just a young struggling congregation and we are proud to be with them as they are becoming a vibrant and growing community of believers in Mae Sai. It's ministry has expanded to include nursery, migrant primary school, children's home and micro finance for its members. We were flattered when Pastor Maung introduced us to his friends and visitors as the "Best Missionary Friends" of the church. Having said that, Pastor Maung requested Narlin to resume teaching and training the teachers of the primary school. A ministry that we gladly accepted.
This summer many Thai students are flocking to different tutorial centers in the town to study Chinese and English. This strengthen our resolve to start the training center in our house which we have been praying for since the first day we arrived in Mae Sai. However, this is a ministry that we can not do on our own. We need help. We are praying for people to come and commit their lives to this kind of ministry.
Last February, we were surprised to receive an email message from SEND International-Philippines. A team of eight people came to help with the English camp. The director told us that they have been considering North Thailand as one of their target areas and they will send missionaries in the near future. We hope we can be of any assistance to them.
God has given us opportunities to become "receiver" for short term missionaries from different Philippine based missions organizations. We are expecting two teams from the Philippines next month including Asia Vision.

Desperate for rain

2010-03-19T21:44:00.005+07:00

Today I started coughing badly as my lungs are trying to get rid of the smoke that accumulated in there. All of the people in the house were coughing weeks before I did. I think, physically I am stronger but the smoke has been getting heavier each day and even the stronger ones are starting to succumbed to the pollution. We have not seen the sun and the blue sky for two weeks now. And because the sun could not penetrate the thick smog, it is still abnormally cold for supposed to be a hot summer.

The smog came from the farmers in Myanmar and Northern. They are burning the fields on the mountain in preparation for the next planting season. The people in Mae Sai are used to it. This kind of farming is traditionally being practiced for centuries.

We are desperate for rain. A whole day of heavy rain will clear the sky and clean up the air. It rained last night but it was a drizzle which is not enough. However, it is a good sign that rain is coming soon, we are praying that it would be sooner.

Encouragements to Keep Going On (Acts 18:1:11)

2010-03-15T10:22:00.002+07:00

It had been told that Satan's most powerful weapon against Christians is "discouragement". He can use it to work his way into the hearts which otherwise is not accessible. When a person is discouraged, Satan is open to plant anything there that he desire.

Christian workers are always subject to discouragement. There is no shortage of discouragements to hinder the work of God. The Bible is full of stories of men of God who at times became discouraged. You and I get discouraged from time to time.

Looking at Paul's life and ministry in the Bible, we can surmise reasons for his discouragement in the ministry.

Firstly, he had to work very hard. Corinth is one of the most wicked city in Greece. It was the center of the idol worship of the goddess of love. Those who practice sexual immorality went there. There was a lot of work to be done and the largeness of work is sometimes very discouraging.

Secondly, he had to experience failures. Now we can say that it is required of us to be faithful and the success is up to God and that is true, but we all like to see growth and success in the work of the Lord. Paul had been successful in some places, however, he experienced failures and rejection in other places. That was discouraging.

Then finally, he had to work alone. Although there were times when one or two worked along his side, Paul would be more happy and excited to work with more people. Most of the time when we work for the Lord, we find ourselves working alone. It is discouraging.

But we should grateful that while our enemy is active in discouraging us. God is equally if not more active to encourage us. While the devil is trying to drag us down, God is working to lift us up. While the devil aims at getting us to quit, God is working to encourage us to keep up the good fight.

And here we are given “Three Encouragements to Keep Going.”

The Partnership Of Friends (verses 1-5a)

If you want to be encouraged, think of your friends. Friends are one of the greatest God given encouragements. It is always harder if you have to do things alone. But things are a lot easier if we have friends helping us.

Remember Silas and Timothy are still in Macedonia. So God knew that Paul needed someone to help him shoulder the burdens of the work. So what does God do? God sent Priscilla and Aquila out from Rome. It seems that Aquila and Priscilla had a tent making business that they set up in Corinth. Paul just so happened to be a tentmaker and so he began to work with Aquila and Priscilla in their business. This gave him the funds for his support so that he could go into the synagogue every Sabbath and reason with the Jews and Greeks for Jesus Christ. What a blessing Aquila and Priscilla were to Paul. They became his best and closest friends.

Then God sent Silas and Timothy from Macedonia to Corinth to reunite with Paul. So God has not only blessed Paul with two new friends but brought back to him two familiar friends. And their return must have greatly encouraged Paul for the scriptures say that Paul was pressed in his spirit to testify to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.

I think you ought to stand for what is right even if you have to stand-alone. But I want to add, it is a whole lot easier to stand for what is right against the pressure of opposition if there are those who will support, strengthen and stand with you. Thank God for friends who God puts in your path and in your life who will encourage you in the work of the Lord.

As fellow laborers with Christ, we are friends. We are here to be encouraged.

The Positive Results (verses 5b-8)

When Silas and TImothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was greatly encouraged. Not only that, he was able to give all his time to preaching and teaching. He tried his best to persuade the Jews that God had sent Jesus as their Saviour.

However, the Jews rejected Paul and his message. In in effect they actually had rejected Jesus as their messiah. The Message says that "all they did argue contentiously and contradict him in every turn. They insulted him.

Paul totally exasperated finally gave up and shook the dust from his clothes and said, “Your blood is upon your own heads—I am innocent. From now on I will go preach to the other people groups.”

As God's worker, I believe there is no worst situation to be discouraged. Paul was in that situation but he chose not to dwell on it. Instead he went to the Gentiles and shared the gospel to them. The result was that many Gentiles in Corinth became believers and were baptized.

Paul had made a choice not to dwell on his failures and he knew that there must be a positive results in every bad situation.

The choice is ours. We can either dwell on the negative and be discouraged or we can encourage ourselves on the positive results. Look and see even though many don't believe, many don’t grow an inch, some have grown. Many lost people still remain lost, but some trusted in Jesus as their Savior. The church may remain basically the same but then again it may take off like wildfire. Don’t look at what God has not done but dwell on all that God has done.

The Promises Of God (verses 9-11)

While it is true that friends encourage us and positive results encourage us the greatest encouragement of all is the Lord himself. One night in a dream the Lord Jesus spoke to Paul. Jesus said, “Keep it up, and don’t let anyone intimidate or silence you. No matter what happens, I’m with you and no one is going to be able to hurt you. You have no idea how many people I have on my side in this city.”

Here God gives us the the promise of His presence. It is all the encouragement that we need, to know that God is on our side.

Another promise is made, "no matter what happens... no one is going to be able to hurt you. It is not encouraging to know that we have God's protection. Not only will God be present but also he will be there to protect. And they tried. In verses 12-17 they try to come against Paul. But it all came to naught as the matter was dismissed.

There is a third promise here. Not just a promise of presence, and protection, but a promise of power. God says, “for I have much people in this city.” What did that mean? It meant simply that there were those who were lost who under the power of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of Paul would come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. There were those who were to be saved by the power of God.

Friends are great encouragers and results are encouraging but when God comes to you and promises his presence, protection, and power, you have every reason to keep on going forward.

*Based on the outline by Michael Belcher

A truly biblical church

2010-02-23T12:17:00.005+07:00

I will going to speak this coming March in a Pastor's retreat from Myanmar about missions. I'm looking for materials I can use. Browsing some books in my shelf, I found this one.

Patrick Johnstone says this about what it means to be a truly biblical church.

Scripture, theology, the Church, and even Christians would not exist without mission. Therefore, a theology without mission is not a biblical theology, a Church without mission is not longer truly the Church and a Christian without mission is no true disciple. For Christians, mission is not an optional extra for the fanatical few or for the specially anointed, it is a fundamental definitive of who we are in Christ and why we are in Christ.

And Johnstone quotes David Bosch in his book Transforming Mission

Mission... is seen as a movement from God to the world; the Church is viewed as an instrument for that mission. There is a church because there is mission, not vice versa.

Johnstone then challenges the Christians for not understanding this concept and not seeing this vision. He says that it is a failure...

.. they miss God's purpose, God's intimacy and God's blessing. Living for the fulfillment of this vision of the Father is the most noble, most enriching, most meaningful purpose can have in life.

How can any child of God claim to be following Jesus if they have no concern for the lostness and need of the peoples in this world? HOw can they expect the promise of his abiding presence with them, 'I will be with you always,' if they have not been willing to obey the command '...go and make disciples of all peoples...'

Then he goes on to say that any church should not claim to be biblical and a Christian cannot be a true Christian if they do not place at the heart of their ministry agenda--God's heart for a lost world.

The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is defined by mission--for it is composed of those who were won to salvation by mission, and how have the awesome responsibility to win others as their mission. If it is not missionary in its theology, daily life, and commitment, it no longer has the right to claim to be the Church. The viability and health of the the Church and of ourselves, as children of God, cannot be separated from the task of world evangelization.

Holistic pneumatology

2010-02-18T17:04:00.004+07:00

What is holistic pneumatology? As far as the scholarly community in academic theology is concern, Moltmann has earned the honor of introducing the concept of or at least the terminology. Holistic pneumatology has been described as the right kind of pneumatology on the right way. Here, holistic does not mean neither that the soul is separate from body nor individual from society nor human beings from cosmic world. Pneumatology is not limited to individual spiritual salvation. The Holy Spirit is indeed is not limited to the salvation of individuals but he is the one working in the establishing of the kingdom of God.

The Holy Spirit's goal is about the universal fulfillment of cosmic salvation. This salvific activity includes establishing justice and peace on the earth and giving life to the whole creation. Justification and sanctification are indeed important to the ministry of the Holy Spirit but we should start believing that the Holy Spirit is working everywhere and anywhere. Inside the church and outside of it, within Christianity and with other religions. The Holy Spirit's power just like the Father and the Son, is limitless.

Prayer update

2010-02-18T11:10:00.010+07:00

Maybe you are wondering what we have been up lately, I'm posting our latest prayer update in this blog. Our sincere gratitude to all who are praying for us.

We thank the Lord for the opportunity he had given us to go home and enjoy our Christmas at home last year. People are asking us if we could return next year. Nothing is certain and we know that it will take some years before we can come back to the Philippines.

The year 2009 is past and gone but the memories remain in our hearts forever. It was the year that we celebrated Christmas and New Year with our families. It may not happen again for a few years. These were very meaningful to us especially to our children who had not seen their cousins and childhood friends for four years.

We thank all our friends who accommodated and helped during our stay in the Philippines us that made it enjoyable and memorable. We cannot thank you enough.

Recent Events

End of Partnership. As the saying goes: “Some good things never last forever.” This is even true with ministry partnership. Cherry, our Australian friend informed us that she will no longer help us after March 2010. It makes us sad but glad at the same time. The relationship had been strained for some time and the break up gave us freedom to do what God has directed us to do.
This means that Narlin and I will no longer teach and help in Jubilee Bible School although we had committed ourselves to it for about two years. It was a decision we had to make. However, we thank her for all the help she extended to us and for the development she facilitated in developing the children’s home.

Support for Children. Last year in November, an Asian Christian organization came to see our children’s home. They were quite impressed with how we are running the ministry. They departed with a promise to find regular support for the children.

However, after a meeting with the Thai Field Director, they informed us that they would only support the children on the condition that they should go back to Tachilek, Myanmar. They cite the following reasons:

- The children are on stateless status thus they would have problem to study tertiary education.
- Mae Sai is not a refugee location in Thailand thus it is impossible for them to have Thai citizenship.

Yes, there are difficulties but we believe and we know by experience that Myanmar children are allowed to study here and Thai citizenship are awarded to those who finish their university here. In my opinion, the Thai Field Director has reservations in helping children from Myanmar. We really cannot blame him for that decision.
We do not want the children to go but we are placed in a position that only Angela (our local partner) can decide. The organization can provide substantial and long-term support for the children that we can never ever do. Our support is neither substantial nor regular. Nonetheless, we will care for the children as long as we can until they moved them to Myanmar.

GHKC Found a New Home. After dedicating the new place last January (while we were still in the Philippines) Grace Home (the staff and the children) moved last Monday (February 1). It looks like we will be working with Korean volunteers (two elderly couple and a young lady) for a year or so.

It is good working with our brothers and sisters from Korea but their presence creates a little complications in the administration because of the language gap.
Since last year, our Korean friends have been more involved in supporting the day care financially. They were paying the rent and providing for the salary of the staff. This year, they bought the place and allowed GHKC to use it for free.

We praise the Lord for his goodness and provisions. This is a testimony that even though people speak different language, have different culture, we are one in Christ and we can work together for the sake of His Kingdom.

Training and Learning Center

With our shared experience in theological education and children ministry, we believe it is about time to put up a Training and Learning Center for church leaders, youth and children. God spoke to us one day and gave us the vision that our garage will become a place of learning, training and can be use as a resource center for Christians. It is small, bare and perhaps primitive but it definitely will serve the purpose.

The center will be a place for language learning (English, Thai and Burmese), skills development (i.e. computer, playing musical instruments) for children and young people on weekdays and Seminary Education by Extension (SEE) center for discipleship and leadership training on weekends.
Help us in prayer as we start this ministry. We are planning to install a retractable tarpaulin to protect the students from the weather and we are figuring out how many chairs and tables we need. We will acquire the other equipment later. With your prayers, we know that the vision will become a reality.

Rainbows of Hope

Reverend Weerapon and his Foundation has been good to us in providing visa and ready to help us with any problem we had in our four years of stay here in Thailand. If you were living in a foreign country this is very important.

Recently, he gave us the vote of confidence to start a branch of the Foundation in Chiang Rai and Mae Sai. In one of the meetings of the Foundation in Chiang Mai, Rev. Weerapon introduced Rainbows of Hope as one of its five branches. Though we still need to pay the balance and submit documents.

Pray For Us

Please pray for our urgent prayer request. Remember us in your individual prayer time and in your church’s prayer meetings.

Thanksgiving for God’s faithful provisions. He has sustained us for four year and we believe he will sustain us for another decade onwards. Our regular supports are mainly coming from small churches and Women’s Missionary Union. But God has his own way of filling up the gap, provision from unexpected source. Praise is His name.

Pray for wisdom and guidance in making major decisions this year. Guidance we need on several projects like partnership, branching out, helping the orphans and establishing learning and training center in our home.

Pray for the Summer English Camps this year. We are planning to hold three camps this year. We are receiving emails and calls from different organizations that may and participate in the camp. We consider this as a blessing from the Lord; however, we need your prayer that we can coordinate this very well.

Pray for the ministry. Evangelism, discipleship, church planting and leadership training all are being done in partnership with the local church (Mae Sai Grace Church). Pray for harmony and unity among God’s people (nationals and missionaries) in the mission field.
Pray for the payment of our house rent. We need to pay THB 42,000 (approx. U$ 1,300) in March. This the amount for the whole year.

Pray our visa extension. The processing for our visa extension and work permit will start on April, three months before our visa expires. Rainbow Covenant Foundation is providing us visa and work permit for a very minimal fees. However, we need to pay the government as well. We need the amount THB 19,000 for the Foundation and other fees (approx. U$580) before April and THB 13,500 (approx. U$400) for the immigration and Ministry of Labor before July. God’s provisions for our visa never fail every year.

Pray for our children’s education. Jared needs one year more to graduate High School. Reuven and Jillian will graduate elementary and middle school respectively. We went to School of Tomorrow, Living Heritage Academy Campus in Paranaque; Desiree (our children’s academic adviser) told us that if we wanted they could come home in March to join the graduation ceremony. We know, it would be a very special occasion for Jillian and Reuven but we do not have the money to come home. We actually sold our flood-damaged jeep to buy their homeschooling workbooks for this year.

Pray for the fees for the “branching out.” Our three Filipino missionary friends in Chiang Rai are helping us out with the fees. They already contributed THB 10,000 and we need to pay THB 20,000 more as soon as possible.

Pray for our ministry vehicle. Our 26-year old van is falling apart. Need I say more? =)

Pray for the Lacquian Family. My sister Nori and her husband together with their 5-year old son will come here in March. Both of them are teaching in Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary (PBTS). They will come and will teach music and theology. Their coming is significant because it will signal the beginning of SEE in Mae Sai. Pray for traveling mercy and financial provision for this missions trip.

Blog resuscitation

2010-02-17T19:48:00.004+07:00

In spite of inactivity in this blog, this blog's number of visits really never went down. Although it is not really that high. I have also been receiving emails expressing gratitude for the blog. Evidently, some of the posts have been very helpful to theology students. It seems also that some of the stuff I put in the sidebar had helped theology students with their papers and home works.

Furthermore, I received encouraging testimony from missionaries who have similar struggles with regards to contextualization of theology. Also, a student expressed that this blog and some of my experiences posted here had encouraged him to pursue further theological education. It is very encouraging.

This is my first blog and I started it when I came to the mission field and did not know anything about blogging. So it was a "hit and miss" experience for me then. This blog also has my name stamped on it. So I decided to resusucitate this blog and hope I can post more regularly. I also need to update my sidebar and put more resources that will provide materials for both missionaries and theologians.

I'm moving

2009-08-11T18:50:00.003+07:00

After giving it a good think ,I finally decided to move to Wordpress. I have been blogging there for quite sometime but I really do not have the time and energy to fully return to active posting. I already moved all of the posts there and gradually I will move all the contents of the sidebar there. All the theology blog links will be retained except for those who are no longer updating their blogs. The only setback here is that wordpress is not accepting javascript so I'll say goodbye to the sidebar widgets here.

I will be honored greatly if you will follow me there. I know, however, that at this point I already lost most of my regular readers so it doesn't matter anyway. I consider deleting this blog but I see that it is still receiving quite a number of visits and page views each day. I will leave this blog as it is and hope that some people would still find helpful materials. Here is the link to my wordpress blog. God bless to all!

Cheaper by the Dozen

2009-07-26T15:12:00.002+07:00

I haven't been updating this blog for quite a long time. I know for sure that I already lost the handful of people who read this blog. The reason is that our ministry have made a big turn about. Aside from teaching full time, we are not taking care of the 12 children. This took my time away from blogging time to put up a decent theological blog. We are also preparing for a big move this coming months. The day care center we are running will be moving to a new place. In the past two months, we have been moving a lot and had been trying our best to help people who need assistance that Narlin and I can give in our own small ways. I haven't given up blogging yet.

Now for our news update:

Rising tension between the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and Burmese government forces is reported by sources in Shan State and along the Sino-Burmese border. The Burmese army had deployed reinforcements .Wa soldiers in the southern region are stockpiling food and supplies in case armed clashes break out, according to the news agency, Wa soldiers now on leave reportedly have been called back to duty. Wives and children of Wa soldiers have been sent out of potential conflict zones. - Source: Irrawady News

The agreement between Burmese and Wa army had expired last month. The Wa people aware of the impending arm conflict start sending their children across the borders to Thailand for safety. Parents do not even know if they will see their children again.

For lack of better terms I called our ministry a "mini-orphanage" it is because our original intention is to provide a home for a limited number (not more than 8) of orphans and abandoned children. But in the light of the impending crisis, we could not reject children who came to us for shelter. Hence, we end up with twelve children from age four to eight and we know what the phrase "cheaper by the dozen" means.

The question people are asking us now is how are we going to provide for these children's daily needs knowing that we are receiving limited support. Just like George Muller who expected God's miraculous provision on a daily basis running his orphanage. We trust that God will do the same for us.

Presently, we are sending five children to a Thai school and the rest are going to Grace Home Kindergarten Center (GHKC). All of the children speak Wa except for Tina who speaks English, Thai, Burmese, Wa and Tee Lek who knows little Thai and fluent with Burmese and Wa. For the mean time, they serve as our interpreter until they learn to speak English, Thai, Burmese or Tagalog or we learn to speak Wa. Whichever comes first.

We know that it will take a miracle to provide food, shelter, clothing and education for these children but we believe that with your prayers God will accomplish the impossible.

Songkran

2009-04-24T11:07:00.003+07:00

You don’t need to live long in Thailand to know that they are living different year than the Western counterpart. It’s now 2553 here. The Thai new year celebration is also called Songkran. It is celebrated on 13-15 of April. Thai people closely follow the traditional activities during the three days. Although in some provinces the celebration last longer than three days.

The throwing of water is the most fun part of the celebration. It seems everybody in the community should join because people will look at you with disdain for spoiling the fun. Our children and their friends join in this activity. I drove them around the town on the back of a pick-up truck and splash water to every people we came across on the streets. The most fun however, was when two or three pick-up trucks crisscrossed on the street. It was like a war with water as the weapon. There was a lot of cheers and laughter. And since they are all young people and observing them from afar, it was like a hint of friendship was about to start. But of course, a few seconds of fun really don’t amount to anything in terms of relationship. However, a sense of being in one community was stronger at least for that particular moment.

On the following day, the splashing of water should be over and people should visit temples, shrines, monasteries to watch the washing of the statues of Buddha with scented water. It was also the time to offer prayers, gifts, food to the monk. Following this is the releasing of fish to the water and birds to the sky. This believe to bring good luck for everyone. Our house is just two blocks away from the temple and I saw only a handful of people observed this activity. While on the streets, the people were still having fun getting each other wet.

I’m sure for many of the younger generation, the religious significance of the Songkran have been lost. Nonetheless, isn't the fun and the sense of casual friendship and sense of community that the festival brings were enough to reflect on the goodness of God?

Unity is possible through humility

2009-03-13T11:58:00.000+07:00

Have you ever bought something that was an imitation—it looked like the real thing but lacked the quality of the original? Chances are the imitations wore out or broke before too long. There is nothing like the real thing, whether it be a cherished painting, a treasured piece of jewelry, or a precious relationship. Nothing quite meets our expectations except the real thing. But there are times in life when we are supposed to try to imitate someone—times when we want to model ourselves after an ideal or a role model. We don’t expect to be as good or perfect as the ’original,’ but it is in our best interests to try. Why? Because we have a perfect model for all we do in Jesus Christ!

Philippians 2:5-11 is one of the greatest passages ever written about Jesus Christ. It paints the perfect picture of humility—the humility of Jesus Christ. No one has ever come close to humbling himself like Jesus Christ did, and no one ever will. Yet, if the problems of the church and of the world are to ever be solved, we must humble ourselves just as Christ did. The church is too often divided. The only answer is the declaration of this passage: letting the humility of Jesus Christ flow in and out of our minds. The unity of a church depends upon every Christian walking in the humility of Jesus Christ.

I am missing the van so bad

2009-03-09T01:03:00.002+07:00

For the first time in almost four months, I missed my 25-year-old-hands-down Nissan Urvan. The van broke down last year in October and is still in the shop. Holding on for its dear life. The mechanic advised us to change it with a new second-hand engine but Narlin and I are having second thought. We think it’s not worth it. The van’s body has dent, its bronze paint is scratched and cracked, the seats upholstery are are duct taped, the ceiling is falling, the aircon is not working and the steering is not powered. However, it is the only vehicle we have and we love it.

This morning nobody picked up the children going to the church. A co-worker usually does that for us, but not this morning. In the first place, we should not be depending on somebody to bring us to church. So I have to make three trips to the church bringing the children on the motorcycle. Not that I’m complaining, in fact, sometimes I enjoy the ride. But rainy season is fast approaching and I could not do this anymore when the time comes. We need the van so badly.

The van is also being used transporting church members to the church. It is also the church’s school bus. And though I end up as the driver, I am happy that I can help the church and its school in my own small way.

So please help us pray for a new van. Some people learn about this need and express their intention to help. The children home, the church, the Bible school, the Day Care and other ministries need it.

They finished the course

2009-03-07T23:17:00.004+07:00

After six months of intensive training, we had our graduation last Thursday. Eight students were able to finish the course. Within the time that we were together, we come to know them better, their strengths and weaknesses, their great potentials. We do pray for them all the time that after the course their knowledge about the ministry from which God called them would increase by leaps and bounds.

I am hoping that I was able to teach them some practical skills. I didn't do Bible study with them, I taught them how to study and teach the Bible. I didn't interpret the Bible for them but I taught them how to interpret the Bible I didn't teach them theology but I taught them how to do theology. My prayer is that when they are on their own working in the field, they would learn to think for themselves. Other teachers are worried that their students would not be able stand the false teachings that they will encounter, but I am confident that my students know how to defend the fundamentals of their faith, not because of the information I have given to them, but because they had develop the skills to discern what is false and the skills to refute them. These skills with the guidance of the Holy Spirit (who are the real teacher anyway) are the assets they can use in the proclamation of the gospel of the Kingdom in wherever place God called them to be.

Who's Who in Theology: Anselm

2009-02-11T23:29:00.002+07:00

ANSELM OF CANTERBURY (1033–1109)
Archbishop of Canterbury; sometimes described as the founder of Scholasticism

Born in Aosta (northwest Italy) of noble family, Anselm was educated at the abbey of St. Leger, where the classical curriculum trained him for the clarity of expression later characteristic of his writings. Anselm’s father intended him for a political career and opposed his son’s decision to become a monk. In 1057 Anselm left home and traveled in Burgundy (France) and Normandy for two years before settling in a Benedictine monastery at Bec, Normandy, to study under the renowned theologian Lanfranc. Anselm took monastic vows and succeeded his teacher as prior in 1063, a tribute to his intellect and piety. He later became abbot of Bec (1078–1093). Under Anselm’s leadership the monastery and its school became a prominent center of learning. Once when a neighboring abbot complained that he could not improve his boys no matter how much he beat them, Anselm gently responded with what sounds like a twentieth-century question: ‘Have you tried not beating them?’ Although he could be scathing in condemnation of monks who laid up treasure on earth, he showed compassion for ordinary human weakness. His humble faith produced the prayer, ‘Grant that I may taste by love what I apprehend by knowledge, that I may feel in my heart what I touch through the Spirit.’

After the Norman conquest of England in 1066, English lands were granted by William I (‘The Conqueror’) to the monastery of Bec. Because of that property, Anselm paid three visits to England, where he made a favorable impression on the clergy during a period of reorganization in their church. When the archbishopric of Canterbury became vacant on Lanfranc’s death in 1089, the English clergy urged that the abbot of Bec should succeed him. For the gentle monk it was not an inviting prospect. William II (‘Rufus’), who had come to the English throne in 1087, was notably disinclined to appoint someone with strong views about the rights and independence of the church. Indeed, the king was reluctant to appoint anyone at all. A four-year vacancy ensued, much to Rufus’s satisfaction, for the revenues of any vacant diocese went to the Crown. No help came from Rome, since at the time an unseemly squabble was going on between two rival claimants for the papacy.

Then the dilemma was unexpectedly resolved. Anselm, in England on monastic business, was called to hear the confession of the king who had become seriously ill. The apprehensive Rufus, it is related, forced the pastoral staff into Anselm’s clenched hands. The abbot protested, ‘You have yoked an old sheep with an untamed bull to the plough of the church, which ought to be drawn by two strong oxen.’ Anselm refused to be consecrated until Rufus restored certain lands to Canterbury, recognized the archbishop as his spiritual father, and acknowledged Urban II as the rightful pope (a choice forced upon Anselm because of his Norman connections). Rufus agreed, but he recovered and was never one for keeping his promises. The yokefellows did indeed prove incompatible. Again and again Rufus, one of the most evil and rapacious of English sovereigns, thwarted Anselm’s administration of the church and his concern for the spiritual welfare of the nation. The king would not even permit the archbishop to go on a visit to Rome. Anselm would not dilute his Christian principles to satisfy a royal tyrant, but his position gradually became so untenable that he left the country in 1097. He returned only after Rufus had died in mysterious circumstances and his brother Henry I had sent an invitation to the exiled primate (1100).

By that time the Investiture Controversy was at its height, and in keeping with a papal decree of 1099 Anselm declined to pay the expected homage to the new king or to consecrate bishops who had done so. Six unhappy years passed before a compromise was reached. Anselm was never at his best in political affairs, so his early rejection of a career in politics proved to be a wise decision. Only the last two years of his primacy were spent in peace. The papacy made some amends for the halfhearted support given him in England by canonizing him a little less than a half century after his death.

As a scholar, Anselm reintroduced the spirit of Augustine into theology. Much of Anselm’s writing was done during the placid decades at Bec—notably Monologion, De veritate, and Proslogion. Anselm sought to demonstrate the existence and attributes of God by an appeal to reason alone. He spoke of an absolute norm above time and space that could be comprehended by the mind of man. That norm was God, the ultimate standard of perfection. Anselm’s so-called Ontological Argument was that the existence of the idea of God necessarily implied the objective existence of God. He always insisted, however, that faith must precede reason: ‘I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand.’

To him is attributed what became known as the ‘satisfaction theory’ of the atonement, which sees God as the offended party and man as the offender. That view was elaborated in a famous work Cur Deus homo? (Why Did God Become Man?), which Anselm completed in 1098 in Italy. He rejected the view of the Atonement that saw it as the settlement of a lawsuit between God and the devil. Anselm’s hypothesis was that all human beings had sinned in and with Adam. God’s honor demanded that every creature should subject itself to him so that his eternal purposes should be completed. Since finite man could never make satisfaction to the infinite God, ‘no one but one who is God-man can make the satisfaction by which man is saved.’ The voluntary death of the sinless Christ on the cross was the only way and the only acceptable satisfaction.

Acknowledged as the greatest scholar between Augustine and Aquinas, Anselm’s distinctive characteristic was his resort to intellectual reasoning rather than to biblical tests and traditional writings—while still upholding the prime place of faith. His theology has had profound influence on many modern theologians, including Karl Barth.

J. D. Douglas

Source:

WHO’S WHO IN CHRISTIAN HISTORYJ. D. Douglas and Philip W. Comfort,
EditorsDonald Mitchell, Associate Editor
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
WHEATON, ILLINOIS

A response to a modern-day prophecy

2009-02-06T22:59:00.002+07:00

This post is about a response to the modern-day prophecy about the Philippines. A prophecy of almost the same nature but different content for Thailand had been made last year. Lately, I had been witnessing preachers prophesying to people in the congregation. And I agree, most of those prophecies were not really about predicting what will happen in the future but sort of general statement that can always come true whatever the situation is. But I can testify that the prophecies were meant and to encourage.

Here is the email I received from my professor. I deleted some sentence that may cause security problem with those who are ministering in the restricted countries. This does not affect the main thought of this email

Dear Partners in Global Missions,

I appreciate the ‘prophecy‘ below, but there's really nothing new about it! The last time someone gave this kind of ‘prophecy‘ in the Philippines, I heard the ‘prophet‘ ran away with another woman and divorced his wife!

The Bible is clear on how a nation can prosper, and there is no need for a ‘new revelation‘ on this theme. After all, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong became prosperous even without a prophet prophesying about their imminent riches!

The sending of missionaries from the Philippines does not even need a ‘prophecy‘ because the Risen Lord has given this command 2,000 years ago. For one thing, God's covenant people in the Philippines need only to OBEY the Great Commission. Nowhere in the Bible can we find a text that requires a PROPHESY for fulfilling the Great Commission aside from the required OBEDIENCE necessary to fulfill it. For another, churches should promptly obey the Great Commission and enlist, train, commission, send, and support their missionaries across the nation and around the world.

When the Korean Church sent more than 20,000 missionaries to different parts of the world, believers did so out of their OBEDIENCE to the Great Commission. The Church in Myanmar (a much economically deppressed country than the Philippines) has more than 4,000 cross-border missionaries because believers simply obeyed the Great Commission even at the absence of a ‘prophesy.‘

Of course, we do not need ‘prophesy‘ to find oil reserves on our lands and shores because they are a ‘given‘ under GENERAL OR UNIVERSAL REVELATION. Our Filipino engineers only need more time to ‘discover‘ them, depending on the latest technology available. (They may, however, need ‘discernment‘ and ‘wisdom‘ where to find the reserves!)

Speaking of ‘missionaries‘ from the Philippines going to the countries mentioned in the ‘prophesy‘ below, already thousands have gone into those areas. The Philippine government used to call them OCW (Overseas Contract Workers), but we, believers, know them as Overseas Christian Workers!

Do we need ‘prophesy‘ to ‘show‘ us the existence of the PRINCIPALITY OF CORRUPTION across the Philippine archipelago? I think Filipinos are not naive on this one. We simply turn on our TV set to find ourselves watching all forms of corruption, from commercials to telenovelas!

Of course, I believe in genuine biblical prophesy. What we should be extra wary about are the so-called modern-day prophesies that sound like ‘pastoral counseling advices‘ that feature the obvious rather than the mysterious.

Remember the old hymn, ‘Standing on the Promises?‘ That's exactly how God's covenant people should live. We live each passing day according to God's promises (Psalm 119) rather than modern-day prophecies.

Tons of grace,
Terry Casino

Modern-day prophet

2009-02-04T23:04:00.003+07:00

I believe that God can use modern day prophets to reveal his will for individual and for a nation. No doubt, if God used the prophets thousand of years ago, he can still use them today. I have been receiving emails about prophecies for the Philippines and somehow I have doubts this is authentic. Below is the prophecy of Cindy Jacobs for my country. Next time I will post the response of my theology professor about this and modern-day prophecy in general.

THE NEXT TWO YEARS EXTREMELY SIGNIFICANT You know I love you Philippines . I want you to pray, the next two years, the Lord is showing me, are going to be extremely significant for the Philippines . You're kind of on the cusp of re-civilization, I want to say that, either you're gonna go into greatness, it's going to transform the nation, or I see that there's gonna be some troubled times. So PRAY, PRAY, PRAY! I know you're already praying, but this is the time God is gonna pull down the SPIRIT OF CORRUPTION, and God is going to release the Spirit of truth and righteousness into this nation, because 'Righteousness exalts a nation.' The Lord is giving MANY PROMISES for the Philippines . I mean the Philippines is going to be ONE OF THE WEALTHIEST NATIONS on the earth. You know I prophesied that there'll be oil found off the coasts of the Philippines , and there's much more to be found, there's gold, the treasures of darkness are there. I remember prophesying in Baguio City that there's going to be treasures of darkness, and it has not been found, they were saved for the Body of Christ. And remember, they found this treasure, the Japanese had buried them on the ground after World War II. That was a sign. What does God mean to do? The SPIRIT OF POVERTY will be broken. I want to say to you, mothers will be able to feed their children, there is going to be a system put in place. FOR MINDANAO Even in Mindanao, you know, I've prophesied over Mindanao, and I want to say to you again Mindanao , 'Arise, you are the blue-flamed warriors that I talked about, warriors of fire, warriors that God is going to bring with HOLINESS,' and it's gonna happen. I just see literally THOUSANDS OF MISSIONARIES going out of Mindanao , thousands, thousands. I mean to Cambodia , Vietnam , Laos , Bangladesh , even to India , Central Asia -- Kyrgystan , Kazakhstan . The Lord says, 'I'm a just God,' those places where darkness has tried to grip, where it seems there's been so much desolation, so much poverty, so much sorrow. The Lord says, ‘I, the Lion of Judah , am going to rise in those darkest places, and bring justice, and the people who were set in darkness will see a great light. But not only see a great light, but be LIGHT-BEARERS to the ends of the earth,‘ says the Lord. (In view of fighting going on in Mindanao right now) I did not know there was fighting going on in Mindanao right now. I want to say, ‘Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds.‘ You might say like Jeremiah thought in the Book of Lamentations, ‘God, You've abandoned us, where are You?‘ But the Lord say, ‘Do not lose hope and do not lose heart, because the Lord says ' Mindanao will be transformed.'‘

Satan is making a last great stand. Satan has come down with great wrath because he knows his time is short in Mindanao . So RISE UP, even though, you know, it's terrible, and everywhere you look around is devastation, ‘Out of this darkness is going to come a TRANSFORMATION MOVEMENT that will be shown and modeled around the world,‘ says the Lord. NATIONAL FAST FOR THE COMING ELECTIONS You know, the Lord shows me, over the Philippines there is a PRINCIPALITY OF CORRUPTION, and this corruption has been so systemic, and so deep, and this principality thinks it controls the Philippines . But the Lord is showing me that there will be a NATIONAL FAST, praying -- everyone, the north, the south, the east and the west, the whole church, not part of the church, STANDING UP and FASTING and PRAYING. There should not be a day that there isn't fasting going on for the Philippines . And I am calling you, wherever you are, whoever is hearing my voice, whatever pastor is hearing my voice, whatever youth movement, the Lord is saying, 'LOVE YOUR NATION.' This is a strategic nation. Fast for the elections coming up!

Fearful faith

2009-01-31T18:24:00.001+07:00

Many Christians believe that their priority as believers is to defend doctrine and teachings of God not only to the people of other faiths but more so from fellow believers inside the church. I believe though the number one priority for every Christian is to share gospel of reconciliation. Our powerful God through his Holy Spirit is able to defend himself against false teachings.

Moltmann says that if we assume a rigid defensive stance regarding our doctrine, it is actually cowardly.

The decay of faith and its identity, through the a decline into unbelief and a different identity, forms an exact parallel to their decay through a decline into a fearful defensive faith. Faith is fearful and defensive when it begins to die inwardly, struggling to maintain itself and reaching out for security and guarantees. In so doing, it removes itself from the hand of the one who has promised to maintain it, and its own manipulations bring it to ruin. This pusillanimous faith usually occurs in the form of orthodoxy which feels threatened and is therefore more rigid than ever. It occurs wherever, in the face of the immorality of the present age, the gospel of creative love for the abandoned is replaced by the law of what supposed to be Christian morality, and by penal law.

He who is of little faith looks for support and protection for his faith because it is preyed upon by fear. Such faith tries to protect its 'most sacred things', God, Christ, doctrine and morality, because it clearly no longer believes that these are sufficiently powerful to maintain themselves. When the 'religion of fear' finds its way into the Christian church, those who regard themselves as the most vigilant guardians of faith do violence to faith and smother it.

Jurgen Moltmann, The Crucified God, pp. 11-12.

Absolute point of view

2009-01-29T15:52:00.001+07:00

Reading an academic theology book gives you a feeling that very little of the content of the book would be applicable for the ministry or at least to your present situation. You have this inkling that the author would address issues that are relevant only among professional theologians. They are those who write articles, essays and books that the ordinary minister find useless in their own teaching and preaching. For me, it is always a delight to dig up some treasures deeply buried in theological books. Or perhaps it is just me, too slow to find the connection.

It is a joy to find some passages that speak directly to me and somewhat connect to what I am experiencing personally. Moltmann's book The Crucified God (or many of his books for that matter) always does that to me. Although, I believe Moltmann himself have no idea that the words he has written would speak to somebody in Asia doing missionary works.

I am bothered endlessly by the reality that Christians who believe that salvation is by grace through faith alone, that Jesus Christ is the only way to have a loving relationship with God could not have a authentic loving relationship with each other. Sad to say that the hairline crack that ends up in breaking apart is almost always caused by differences in theological preferences, minor doctrinal differences and certain way of interpreting the word of God. This happen when people start believing that their views alone are right and the all the others are wrong. Theirs are the only absolute truth.

Moltmann says ‘that theology must include reflections upon its own point of view... an attempt to adopt an absolute point of view would be equivalent to having no point of view at all. To make one's own point of view absolute would be stupidity. This does not amount to relativism. Anyone who understand the relativity, will see himself as relative to others; but this does not mean giving up one's own position. To see one's own point of view as relative to that of others means to live in concrete relationships and to think out one's own ideas in relationship to the thought of others. To have no relationship would be death.’ (The Crucified God, 10-11).

Who's Who In Christian Theology: Athanasius

2009-01-06T13:50:00.002+07:00

ATHANASIUS (c. 295-373) Bishop of Alexandria (Egypt)

Athanasius did more than anyone else to bring about the triumph of the orthodox Nicene faith over Arianism, a struggle to which he devoted forty-five years and for which he was exiled five times.

Athanasius was born in Alexandria and was trained there as a theologian. He moved up rapidly as reader, deacon, and theological adviser for Bishop Alexander, accompanying him in 325 to the Council of Nicaea (near Constantinople, now Istanbul in modern Turkey). Athanasius succeeded Alexander as bishop upon Alexander’s death in 328.

The conflicts which necessitated the Council of Nicaea began in Alexandria. They existed when Alexander was bishop and continued throughout the life of Athanasius. The first came from a challenge by Melitius of Lycopolis to the authority which the bishop of Alexandria exercised over the whole church of Egypt. Melitius formed a schismatic church in reaction to the lenient treatment Alexander’s predecessor gave to those who had denied the faith during the persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Diocletian. A greater conflict soon to engulf the whole church began when Arius, an Alexandrian presbyter, advocated the view that Christ was not eternal but was created by the Father Arius was condemned by Alexander in 319 at a synod in his city; but Arian views spread rapidly in the East, where prominent bishops held similar views. The Council of Nicaea was called in 325 by the Roman emperor Constantine to settle the Melitian and Arian issues and to bring unity to the church and civic peace to the area.

Condemnation of Arius by the council and even the adoption of the Nicene Creed did not bring the peace and unity which Constantine desired. There was ambiguity in the way the bishops understood the creed they had signed. As a result, Arius eventually signed the creed himself (with a few private additions). The emperor then ordered Athanasius, now bishop of Alexandria, to restore Arius. When the order arrived, Athanasius refused to readmit Arius — whereupon false charges were brought against Athanasius at the synod of Tyre (335), and Constantine exiled him.

The sanction of Arian views by the emperor threatened to turn Christianity into a philosophy mixed with pagan thought. Arians believed in a single supreme God who made contact with the world through lower creatures such as the Son and the Spirit. The Son was a suffering divine hero who was to be worshiped, very much like the hero gods of the Greeks. Since that view was so similar to paganism, Arianism made the monotheism of Christianity acceptable to many who were adopting the religion of the emperor. Athanasius recognized the danger and frequently called the Arians heathens.

As Arianism’s greatest opponent, Athanasius emphasized redemption and the necessity of the Incarnation of the Word (Christ) for man’s salvation (Oration on the Incarnation of the Word). He taught that it was necessary for the Word to be as eternal as God if he was to form the divine image in man. This was also the emphasis of his primary theological work, The Three Orations against the Arians (335 or later). In Three Orations Athanasius taught that since the Scripture describes the Son as “begotten” of the Father, he must be of the same nature as the Father, not a creature of the Father. Christ was generated spiritually, not created. In the second oration Athanasius rejected the Arians’ baptism because they did not baptize in the name of the Trinity as understood in Scripture.

Athanasius’s periods of exile spanned the rule of four emperors: Constantine, Constantius, Julian (a pagan who tried to restore the old gods), and Valens (who exiled Athanasius for only four months). His first exile lasted until Constantine’s death in 337. He returned to Alexandria only to be deposed the same year by a synod of Antioch. From 346, there was relative peace until he was again deposed in 355. The years 361 and 362 saw him back in his bishopric, but emperor Julian exiled him in the fall of the second year. He went back to Alexandria in 363, was deposed in 365, and recalled in 366. Through these trying times Athanasius struggled for the faith without yielding. He made it difficult for emperors to deal with him. At times he would delay appearing before their court, or would escape to appear before the emperor at another time and place — to the surprise of everyone. Throughout the struggles the majority of Christians in Alexandria remained devoted to him. One major benefit resulted from his two exiles in the West: the Latin church came under his influence.

There were, however, many bishops in the East who were not Arians and had no sympathy with the Arian bishops who controlled the Eastern church during the rule of Constantius. At the same time, they did not completely agree with the wording of the Nicene Creed: “the Son of God . . . of one substance with the Father.” The majority of those bishops held that the essence of the Son is “like” that of the Father. For them the creedal phrase did not make a clear distinction between Father and Son. In 359 Athanasius made a great step toward reconciliation with that majority in his Letter Concerning the Synods. He apologized to Basil of Ancyra and said that those who accepted the Nicene Creed but questioned the term “of one substance” should be treated as brothers. Athanasius went further toward reconciliation by calling a synod in Alexandria (362) during his brief return while Julian was emperor. The final step in the triumph of orthodoxy came after the death of Athanasius under the emperor Theodosius at the Council of Constantinople in 381.

In addition to contributing to the defeat of Arianism, Athanasius helped shape the Christian ideal of monasticism. He brought monasticism out of isolation in Egypt with his book, The Life of Antony. Athanasius knew the desert hermit monk personally and through his writing made the pattern of Antony’s life the ideal in the East. The Life of Antony also had an impact on many in the West.--J. Newton

Source:
WHO’S WHO IN CHRISTIAN HISTORY
J. D. Douglas and Philip W. Comfort,
EditorsDonald Mitchell, Associate Editor
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
WHEATON, ILLINOIS

Hoping for a fruitful year

2009-01-03T00:40:00.001+07:00

Hope I could write: "The year 2008 was the busiest year we had here in the mission field. The year 2009 is the beginning of our fourth year here in Thailand. Ministries are starting to take off and the day care is growing. Teaching at the Bible school is taking much of my time. The actual teaching takes two hours but the preparation and making the lessons easy to translate takes a lot of hard work. I prepare the lesson using Powepoint because I find it very helpful if you are teaching with an interpreter. It makes the translation a lot easier.

This year, I have to divide my time in teaching, preaching, writing, working around the house, gardening and driving the school bus plus the fact that I am a husband and a father of three home schooled children.

This year I need to move forward with the paper so I will be reading and write a few sentences each day as I had been doing before the tragedy happened.

I will read The Crucified God by Jurgen Moltmann for a start this year and I am hoping to accomplish something this year. Sigh

Meanwhile here is an interesting quote from Moltmann from CG, page 8.

Fundamentalism fossilizes the Bible into an unquestionable authority. Dogmatism freezes living Christian tradition solid. The habitual conservatism of religion makes the liturgy inflexible, and Christian morality--often against its better knowledge and conscience--becomes a deadening legalism.

Happy New Year

2008-12-28T21:13:00.001+07:00

Last night I took the courage to upgrade my Mac OS X from Panther 10.3.9 to Tiger 10.4.11. The happy results are I was able to install Missingsync 4.04 and the latest version of Journler. Missingsync makes it possible for me to synchronized my Mac with my (actually borrowed) Windows Mobile Toshiba e380. Journler on the other hand makes it possible for me to write my journal and other stuff. This enables me to to post offline which is the usual situation I am in right now.

This year, I need to spend a lot of times writing my paper. Hopefully, I can also blog regularly.

I preached in the church this morning and upon seeing that there were more locals than the internationals who attended the worship service, I requested Isaac (our official translator in the Jubilee Bible School) to translate for me. It has been a while since I preached with translator and I still found it uncomfortable.

Anyways, last night as I was preparing the sermon and I was looking for a good illustration to the introduction. I found this prayer from e-sword illustration tools.

May this be our prayer for the new year as well.

Lord, I confess before You that:

I have had longings and nudges from You which I did not translate into action.

I have made decisions without consulting You, then have blamed You when things went wrong.

I have said that I trusted You, yet have not turned my affairs over to You.
I have been greedy for present delights and pleasures, unwilling to wait for those joys which time and discipline alone can give.

I have often sought the easy way and have consistently drawn back from the road that is hard.

I have been fond of giving myself to dreams of which I am going to do sometime, yet have been so slow in getting started to do them.

Forgive me for all the intentions that were born and somehow never lived.

And now I claim Your promise to change me. Do for me what I cannot do for myself. Lead me into a new tomorrow with a new spirit. Cleanse my heart; create within me new attitudes and new ideas, as only You can. Amen.

Dela Paz November Update

2008-12-02T20:17:00.000+07:00

Here is our latest newsletter. I hope somebody is still reading this blog.

The van broke down

2008-11-28T23:23:00.003+07:00

The van spewed engine oil on the road on my way to the church when I was bringing the people to the church last Sunday. I wasn't aware of it until I picked up some church members on our way and told me that the van was spilling a lot of oil on the road.

I really felt bad about it. First because I still had to bring my family yet to the church and second the spilled oil was fatal for hundreds of motorcycles that pass on the road. I stopped on the red light in a turn and I left a pool of spilled oil there. The police found out about it and they put sand on it.

Maybe ten months ago, I noticed the leak from the engine and asked the mechanic to do something about it. He put new gaskets and oil seal, but after a week the oil started to leak again. I mentioned it to him and he started to reason out about the cylinder being loose. Although I think that a loose piston would not cause oil leaks, I didn't argue. It was hard argue with someone you don't understand and can't understand you. So when I called him last Sunday, he was kinda apologetic for doing a bad job.

Anyways, the van broke and the good side of it is I have a break doing the bus run. And it feels good. When I volunteer to do the bus run for the church's school and the nursery I thought it would be a relaxing drive and therapeutic at times. But the school grew and the number of students doubled within six months. This results to an unexpectedly long drive that took two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. It becomes really a serious difficult work. Not that I am complaining.

The van broke down, but it feels good. I almost praying that the repair will take longer. But again, I have to think about the children being driven dangerously in a motorcycle to the school.

The blogger's word verification and typing the characters you see in the picture to post this still annoys me.

So little time, so much to do

2008-11-18T23:27:00.002+07:00

I'm falling behind with my blogging. The main reason is we have been very busy in the training center. We had hosted a week of church planting seminar and another week of Condensed World Mission Course. These activities did not only involved teaching but lots of errands and food preparations. I hope to catch up with blogging soon. Also I can't post offline using MarsEdit because of blogger's word verification. This is very annoying.

Reading biblical narratives

2008-10-14T20:39:00.003+07:00

Big percentage of the Biblical materials is narrative. Narrative is a literary form characterized by sequential action involving plot, setting and characters. The meaning of the narrative derives primarily from the actions of its characters. Rather than telling us how to live or how not live, stories teach us the same through the actions of the characters.

The purpose of these stories is theological. God uses them to teach us theology. The Bible gives us examples how to teach profound truth through stories and I believe we can use it to teach our people too.

Why did God choose narrative literature to communicate theological truth to us? Why didn't he communicate everything through essays or law? Think for a moment about these questions. Here Duvall and Hays list some of the advantages and disadvantages of using narrative to communicate theological truth.

Advantages of Using Narrative to Communicate Theological Truth

Narratives are interesting, both to children and to adults.
Narratives pull us out into the action of the story.
Narratives usually depicts real life and are thus easy to relate to. We find ourselves asking what we would have done in that situation.
Narratives are easy to remember.
Narratives portray the ambiguities and complexities of life.
God can include himself as one of the characters in the narrative. Thus he can teach us about himself by what he says and does in specific contexts.
Narratives are holistic; we see characters struggle, but we also often see resolution of their struggles. We see the entire character.
Narratives relates short incidents and events to a bigger overall story.

Disadvantages of Using Narrative to Communicate Theological Truth

The meaning of the narrative can be subtle or ambiguous and not clearly stated; the casual reader may miss it altogether.
The reader may get enthralled with the narrative as a story and miss its meaning.
The reader may assume that since literature is narrative, it deals only with history and not theology.
The reader may read too much theology in the narrative (allegorizing).

Here the pros outweigh the cons. The authors of the Bible thought the same. I agree with Duvall and Hays that God chose to use the literary device known as narrative as major way to communicate his big story precisely because the biblical narratives engage us in such a powerful way. They challenge us, interest us, rebuke, puzzle us, and entertain us. They stick in our memory. They make us think and reflect. They involve us emotionally as well as intellectually. They teach us about God and his plan for his people. They teach us about all kinds of people--good ones and bad ones, faithful, obedient ones and mule-headed, disobedient ones. They teach us about life in all its complexities and ambiguities.

Duvall & Hays, Grasping the God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading and Interpreting, and Applying the Bible, pp. 288-294

Interpreting Revelation

2008-10-12T21:46:00.005+07:00

Reading Duvall & Hays' Grasping God's Word has been a fascinating experience for me. The book provides me with the latest method in biblical studies. They are reinforcing the traditional methods that scholars find to be still valid. They also present some of the more effective approach to studying the different literary genres of the books of the Bible.

Here Duvall and Hays suggest specific principles in interpreting Revelation. The following are mostly direct quotes from their book:

Read Revelation with humility. We should resist "Revelation-made easy" approaches. Revelation is not easy. People who must satisfy their curiosity or people who are unwilling to live with any uncertainty are those most likely to read into Revelation things that are not there. Beware of interpreters who appear to have all the answers to even the smallest questions. "Experts who claim absolute knowledge about every minute detail of Revelation should be held in suspicion. Reading with a humble mind means that we are willing to admit that our interpretation could be wrong and to change our view when biblical evidence points in a different direction.

Try to discover the message to the original readers. Discovering the message to the original audience is top priority with any book of the Bible, but especially with this one. When it comes to reading Revelation, the tendency is to ignore the first Christians and jump directly to God's message to us. Some people use today's newspapers as the key to interpreting Revelation. But as Keener notes, this approach does not fit well with a high view of Scripture.

The best place to begin is with the question: What was John trying to communicate to his audience?" If our interpretation makes no sense for original readers, we have probably missed the meaning of the passage. Fee and Stuart remind us of how important it is to discover the message to the original audience: As with the Epistles, the primary meaning of the Revelation is what John intended it to mean, which in turn must also have been something his readers could have understood it to mean.

Don't try to discover a strict chronological map of the future events. Don't look for Revelation to progress in a neat linear fashion. The book is filled prophetic-apocalyptic visions that serve to make a dramatic impact on the reader than to present a precise chronological sequence of future events.

Take Revelation seriously, but don't always take it literally. Some who say we should interpret Scripture symbolically do so in order to deny the reality of scriptural truth or a historical event. When they say that something is figurative or symbolic, they mean that it is not real or that it never happened. That is not the intention of this book. We insist that picture language with its symbols, images, and figures is capable of conveying literal truth and describing literal events. Picture language is just another language vehicle, another way of communicating reality. In our way of thinking, Revelation uses picture language to emphasize historical reality rather than to deny or diminish it.

Pay attention when John identifies an image. When John himself provides a clue to the interpretation of an image, we should take notice. In other words, we should pay close attention when John identifies or defines the images for his readers. We can not assume that images like lampstands would always refer to the churches. John may use the same image to refer to different things.

Look to the Old Testament and historical context when interpreting images and symbols. Revelation uses language at several different levels:

Text level: words written on the page
Vision level: the picture that the words paint
Referent level: what the vision refers to in real life

One of the most difficult aspects of reading Revelation is knowing what the images and symbols refer to. Even when we understand what is happening at the text and vision levels, we may not know what Revelation is saying, but we are often not sure what it is talking about.

The two places to go for answers are to the first-century historical context. Revelation uses much of Old Testament imagery. The book is filled with echoes and allusions to the Old Testament. In fact, Revelation contains more Old Testament references than any other New Testament book, with the Old Testament appearing in almost 70 percent of Revelation's verses. Psalms, Isaiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel make the most important contribution to Revelation.

Above all, focus on the main idea and don't press all the details. This last interpretive guideline is perhaps the most important of all. With most literary genres in the Bible, we begin with the details and build our way toward an understanding of the whole. With revelation, however, we should start with the big picture and work toward an understanding of the details. As we seek to identify the theological principles, we should focus on the main ideas.

The details of any particular section will heighten the impact on the reader but will not change the main idea. Resist the temptation to focus on the details so that you miss the main idea. Don't let the main point of each section or vision fade from view. As has been said, when reading Revelation, the main thing is to make the main thing the main thing.

*The image is from Meta-Logic Cafe'.

Duvall & Hays, Grasping the God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading and Interpreting, and Applying the Bible, pp. 288-294

Common errors in word study

2008-10-12T19:14:00.004+07:00

When we study the Bible, it is necessary for us to do word studies. The aim of word study according to New Testament scholar, Gordon Fee is “to try to understand as precisely as possible what the author was trying to convey by his use of this word in this context.” We as readers should not be the one who determine the meaning of biblical words; instead, we discover what the biblical writer meant when he used a particular word. Duvall and Hays insist that we should always keep in mind the distinction between determining the meaning and discovering the meaning.

Even though we do not know the original biblical languages, Hebrew and Greek, we can still do word studies. The use of exhaustive concordance like the Zondervan NIV Exhaustive Concordance is very helpful. The idea here is to use a concordance that matches the version of the Bible you are using.

Duvall and Hays mention the most common word study fallacies that we tend to make when we do our Bible study.

English-Only Fallacy. We all know that the Bible was not written in English and even though we might think that a particular version is closer to the original, it is not the original. Here are some of the problems that may occur. First, a word in Hebrew or Greek is often translated into English by a number of different English words. The other is that we may not be aware that different words in Hebrew or Greek can be translated into English using the same English word. This error happens when we base our word study on the English word rather than the underlying Greek or Hebrew word, as a result gives us a unreliable or misleading conclusions. Looking up the word in an English dictionary would help us in understanding the word in a passage, but it will not in anyway gives us the right understanding and might lead us to a wrong interpretation. Any Bible teacher should have a working knowledge of the original language or learn to use the Hebrew and Greek tools.

Root Fallacy. We have this idea that the original root of the word determines the meaning of the word. I heard preacher who discussed the root of a word and used that meaning every time that word occurs in his sermon. Think about how silly it is in English to use the root of the word to understand the meaning of a “butterfly.” This is also true in biblical language. Just because we can recognize the root words of a Greek word does not mean we have discovered the “real meaning” of the word. It is true that the individual parts may accurately portray its meaning, but only if the context supports such a meaning. The context should give priority over etymology.

Time-Frame Fallacy. This error occurs when we try to tie a late meaning to the word and read it back to the Bible, or when we insist that an early word meaning still holds when in fact it has since become obsolete. I guess this also happens when we try to assign a very late idea to a related word that the first century Christians would not even had the faintest idea. D.A. Carson gives as an example when translators use the word “dynamite” for the Greek word dynamis to illustrate this kind of fallacy. He says, “I do not know how many times I have heard preachers offer some such rendering of Romans 1:16 as this ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the dynamite”… did Paul think of dynamite when he penned the word?”

Overload Fallacy. We commit this error when we include all the possible meanings a word could have. Any preacher should not take the same words from another book and apply its meaning to the word he is studying. The word may be the same but the context determines the meaning of the word.

Word-count Fallacy. We make this mistake when we insist that a word must have the same meaning every time it occurs. For example, if we are confident that a word carries a certain meaning in seven of its eight occurrences in Scripture, we might assume that it must have the same meaning in its eighth occurrence. Again word meanings are determined by context, not word counts.

Word-Concept Fallacy. We fall in this error when we assume that once we have studied the word, we have studied the entire concept. It would be a mistake to assume that we can know everything about the church just in studying the word “church” (ekklesia). This word study will certainly give us important information but the concept of the church or any concept for that matter is bigger than any one word.

Selective-Evidence Fallacy. When we teach we usually cite verses that supports our favored interpretation and we tend to ignore if not dismissed the passages that seems to argue against our view. This is selective-evidence fallacy. This error is dangerous because we do this mistake intentionally whereas we might commit other fallacies unintentionally. Although we want the Bible to support our convictions in every case, there will be times when its message confronts us for our own good. When that happens, we should be willing to change our view rather than twist or ignore the evidence found in the Scripture.

Duvall & Hays, Grasping the God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading and Interpreting, and Applying the Bible, pp. 133-135

Who's who: Arius

2008-09-29T13:58:00.004+07:00

Arius had been trained at Antioch, with which city Alexandria had long been in dispute, notably about the way Scripture should be handled. About 318 Arius accused Bishop Alexander of Alexandria of subscribing to Sabellianism (the view that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were merely roles or modes assumed in turn by God). Though Alexander had probably been guilty of no more than an incautious use of language, Arius was concerned to emphasize the oneness of God.
Unhappily, he went to the other extreme. If the Father was absolutely one, where did the Son come in? Arius explained it thus: "The Father existed before the Son. There was a time when the Son did not exist. Therefore, the Son was created by the Father. Therefore, although the Son was the highest of all creatures, he was not of the essence of God."

This was no mere exercise in semantics, but an attack on the doctrine of God and a challenge to the very foundation of Christianity, which holds that Jesus is really and truly God. Alexander, who until then had had a high regard for Arius as an expert logician, brought him to meet with some of the diocesan clergy. Alexander himself chaired the discussion. Arius defended his position, but the others (joined belatedly by Alexander) contended that the Son is consubstantial and coeternal with the Father. The bishop commanded Arius to receive this doctrine and to reject his former opinions.

Arius was not prepared to do so, and in 319 he was officially anathematized, as were all others who made "shameless avowal of these heresies." There the matter might have rested, but Arius was cunning and persuasive. The emperor Constantine had been at first inclined to dismiss the theological differences as "of a truly insignificant character," but he was less concerned about the unity of God (which he imperfectly understood) than about the unity of his empire. The churchmen persisted, however, and Constantine convened the first ecumenical council of the Church, held at Nicea in a.d. 325.

Almost three hundred bishops were present, predominantly from the East. Arianism was the major item on the agenda. Arius and his supporters were given every opportunity to make their case and seemed confident of success. To their dismay, both Arianism and a compromise viewpoint were rejected, and the council produced a creed that upheld the orthodox position. Its crucial point was its insistence on Christ's being of the same essence with the Father, rather than of similar essence (a view the Arians would have accepted). The difference in Greek centered around the presence or absence of the letter Greek letter iota (i) ó i.e., whether it should be homoousios (of the same essence) or homoiousios (of similar essence). The orthodox at Nicea, notably the young Athanasius who was an invaluable aide to Bishop Alexander, rightly saw that this was not merely a battle over a letter, but that true Christian doctrine was at stake.

At the end of the council Arius was excommunicated, but within two years he deceived Constantine into thinking he was orthodox at heart. Athanasius, who became bishop of Alexandria in 328, would not have Arius back in the city, and this became a source of unrest, fully exploited by Athanasius' enemies. Even when the exasperated Constantine sent Athanasius into exile, Arius was refused Communion in the diocese and returned to Constantinople, where he soon died. Arianism was not dead, however, but persisted (often among the highly placed) until its final condemnation at the Council of Constantinople in 381.

J. D. Douglas in Who's Who in Christian History. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Presupposition

2008-09-22T23:01:00.005+07:00

Every people group of different cultures brings their preunderstanding to the biblical text they are reading. But we could not help it, it just the way we are. However, we should never allow our culture to dictate the meaning of the Word of God. But if we talk to Christians from different cultures it is evident that their understanding of the scripture varies from one another. We judge the correctness (or the wrongness) of their interpretation from our own culture (more often western which more often than not is also based in our preunderstanding).

Presunderstanding like culture is not inherently bad. But it is a baggage that we bring to the text that causes us to color our interpretation and leads us to the path of misinterpretation. We could not abandon our preunderstanding and throw it into the trash when we encounter biblical passages that contradict it.

Duvall and Hays say that what we do want to do is to submit our preunderstanding, throwing all of our previous encounters with the text, placing it under the text rather than over the text. We must be able to identify our preunderstanding and then be open to changing it in accordance with a true serious study of the text. That is, after we have studied the text thoroughly, we must then evaluate our preunderstanding and modify it appropriately in the light of our current study.

However, nobody can approach bible study in a neutral manner. Total objectivity is impossible when we study the Bible. I remember being taught at the Seminary that we could only have unbiased and truthful interpretation if we approach the text with total objectivity. As Christians we serve the living God and we have the Hoy Spirit living with us. Our relationship with God is the most important aspect when we read the Bible and this relationship is what greatly impacts our interpretation of the text.

Duvall and Hays call this inherent quality among Christians as presuppositions. Presupposition is not something we want to renegotiate as we read the text. It is different from preunderstanding that need to be changed. Presuppositions should not change at all. We have several presuppositions about the Bible itself that develop out of our relationship with Christ.

Several presuppositions about Scriptures that evangelical Christians generally hold are as follows:

First, the Bible is the Word of God. Although God worked through people to produce it, it is nonetheless inspired by the Holy Spirit and is God’s Word to us.

Second, the Bible is trustworthy and true.

Third, God has entered into human history; thus the supernatural does occur.

Finally, the Bible is not contradictory; it is unified, yet diverse. Nevertheless, God is bigger that we are, and he is not always easy to comprehend. Thus the Bible has tension and mystery to it.

Though there are other presuppositions about the Bible that we Christians have. These are the most central ones. And I agree with Duvall and Hays that “these presuppositions have to do with how we view the entire Bible and serve as foundations on which to build our method of study.”

Duvall and Hays, Grasping God's Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible, pp. 94-95.

Which translation is best?

2008-09-15T12:38:00.000+07:00

Duvall and Hays suggest guidelines for choosing a translation. This is a direct quote from their book, Grasping God’s Word, which I find to be readable and practical and at the same time scholarly.

First, choose a translation that uses modern English. The whole point of making a translation is to move the message to the original to a language you can understand. History teaches us that languages change over time, and English is no exception. The English of John Wycliffe’s day or of 1611 is simply not the same as the English of the twenty-first century. There is little to be gained by translating a Greek or Hebrew text into a kind of English that you no longer use and can no longer comprehend. For that reason, we recommend that you choose among the many good translations that have appeared within 50 years.

Second, choose a translation that is based on the standard Hebrew and Greek text. The standard for the Old Testament is the Biblica Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS). For the New Testament the standard text is reflected in the latest edition of the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament (GNT) or the Nestle-Aland’s Novum Testamentum Graece. Along with the majority of scholars, we much prefer an ecletic original text rather than the Textus Receptus used by KJV and the NKJV.

Third, give preference to a translation by a committee over against a translation by individual. Translating requires an enormous amount of knowledge and skill. A group of qualified translators will certainly possess more expertise than any one translator possibly could. In addition, a group of scholars will usually guard against the tendency of individual scholars to read their own personal biases into their translation.

Lastly, choose a translation that is appropriate for your own particular purpose at the time. When you want to read devotionally or read to children, consider a simplified, functional translation such as the New Living Translation or the New Century Version. If you are reading to nontraditional or unchurched people, consider the Contemporary English Version or The Message. If you are reading to people with English as a second language, consider the Good News Bible. If you are reading to a “King –James-only” church, consider the New King James. But for your own personal study, we suggest the New American Standard Bible, the New International Version, Today’s International Version, the New Revised Standard Version, the English Standard Version, the Holman Christian Standard Bible, or the NET Bible.

English-speaking people have rich resources before them to compare different translations and have better opportunity to look at the best possible meaning of a particular passage according to its context. Bible translations in other languages remain limited to one or two translations. Only those who know English could point out the nuances and the discrepancies of the Bible’s translations in their own language. This makes it necessary to teach the students to learn at least English if not Hebrew or Greek. This is one of the many struggles of a Bible teacher trying to teach the local people to interpret the Bible.

King James Only?

2008-09-12T09:54:00.002+07:00

I believe that the King James Version is the only trustworthy English translation. I found this declaration in many statement of faith I browsed in the Internet. They think that other versions of the Bible especially the modern ones are perversion of the word of God. They doggedly hold to this belief that trying to explain to them that KJV translators worked from an inferior Greek text constructed from a few late Old and New Testament manuscripts and that the later versions are based from older manuscripts that more likely reflect the original text would more likely to be ignored.

The irony here is that their fixation with KJV actually violate the intent of the translators who wanted to continue the ongoing ministry of making the Bible understandable to ordinary people.

They themselves expected opposition from those who refused to break with the tradition. They wrote:

For was anything ever undertaken with a touch of newness or improvement about it that didn’t run into storms of argument or opposition?... [King James] was well aware that whoever attempts anything for the public, especially if it has to do with religion or with making the word of God accessible and understandable, sets himself up to be frowned upon by every evil eye, and casts himself headlong on a row of pikes, to be stabbed by every sharp tongue.

So the church should always be ready with translations to avoid the same kind of emergencies [i.e., the inability to understand because of a language barriers.] Translation is what opens the window, to let the light in. It breaks the shell, so that we may eat the kernel. It pulls the curtain aside, so that we may look into the most holy place. It removes the cover from the well, so that we may get to the water…In fact, without a translation in the common language, most people are like the children at Jacob’s well (which was deep) without a bucket or something to draw the water with….

Furthermore, Duval and Hays in their book Grasping God’s Word mention two major obstacles contemporary readers are facing when they are using the KJV.

First as I mentioned earlier is that the translators of the KJV worked from inferior Greek text constructed from a few, late New Testament manuscript. Since the KJV first appeared, many older manuscripts have been discovered, and scholars contend that these older manuscripts are much more likely to reflect the original text. In contrast to the Greek text on which the KJV is based, scholars today are able to translate from a Greek text that draws back on more than five thousand New Testament manuscripts, some dating back to the second century.

Second, KJV is using archaic English words and phrases. In addition to the use of obselete terms such as “aforetime,” must needs,” howbeit,” “holden,” peradventure,” and “whereto,” the KJV is filled with out-of-date expressions that either fail to communicate with contemporary readers or mislead them entirely.

Undoubtedly, KJV was a good translation for the early 1600s because it was written for people during that time. But I think that many people who are using this version know KJV was revision. Everybody would have a hard time understanding even a page of the original 1611 version for its archaic English that used different spelling in our modern day English.

People who are using the 1769 KJV edition are unknowingly admitting the necessity to revise a translation. Thousand of changes had been made between the 1611 and 1769 version that they are literally different Bibles.

Why not continue the process of revision by drawing on the latest in biblical scholarship and using language that today’s readers can understand? Anything less seems to violate the intent of those who translated the original King James Version.

Duvall and Hays, Grasping the Word of God: A Hands On Approach to Reading, Interpreting and Applying the Word of God, 163-64.

True Spirituality

2008-09-10T00:59:00.001+07:00

I joined hands with a friend who is openly Pentecostal in starting a Bible school . I am not a Pentecostal myself but I have had spiritual experiences in my journey of faith. However, as a believers I find realy joy by being quiet and meditative. I am more comfortable when I do enjoy quiet moments with God. And I find myself preferring this than the ecstatic emotional experiences of my friends which I also do have from time to time. I just hope that people would see me as less spirit-filled because of this.

Bloesch rightly says that "true spirituality does not involve aspiring after extraordinary experiences of God or the Spirit. At the same time, we should earnestly pray that fruits of the Spirit might be manifested in our daily walk. If we serve Christ and our neighbor in love and diligently hold up the name of Christ before the world, we can have the assurance that we have indeed been baptized by the Spirit into the service of the kingdom of God. If we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matt. 6:33) even before our own happiness and security, we then have firm grounds for believing that we have indeed been born again from above, that the truth of the Spirit resides within us."

Faith must not be reduced to experience, but faith will entail experience--not only of God in his awesome holiness but also of God in his inexpressible joy and abounding love. Yet faith will always point us beyond our experiences; it will finally take us out ourselves into the service of God in the darkness of the world. The evidence of our new birth by the Spirit of God lies in the depths of our devotion to the gospel of God in our daily lives.

Donald Bloesh, The Holy Spirit: Gifts & Works, 16-7

Who's Who: Peter Abelard (1079-1142)

2008-09-08T23:53:00.000+07:00

Medieval French philosopher, teacher, and theologian

Born in Brittany, Abelard studied with several of the great teachers of his day—including Roscelin (a rebel nominalist), William of Champeaux (an orthodox realist), and Anselm of Laon—at several locations in northern France, including Paris. Abelard first taught at Melun and Corbeil, and later at Paris. A bold and original thinker, he attracted large numbers to his lectures and counted many of the great minds of the twelfth century as his students, including Peter Lombard, John of Salisbury, and Otto of Freising. Many future leaders of Christendom were in attendance: several popes, twenty cardinals, and about fifty bishops.

While in Paris, Abelard lived at the house of Fulbert, who was the canon at Notre Dame. He fell in love with Fulbert’s niece, Heloise, and a son was born to her. Abelard offered to marry her, but she thought it better to enter a convent since marrying would hamper Abelard’s career in the church. Fulbert in retaliation ordered the castration of Abelard, who then retired to the monastery of St. Denis. The lifelong correspondence of Abelard and Heloise, known especially through her published Letters, has made the two of them classic figures among the world’s lovers.

In 1121 Abelard was condemned by the Council of Soissons for heresy and was forced to seek refuge. He found asylum in the remote monastery of St. Gildas in Brittany, where he stayed for ten years and was abbot until the monks forced him to leave. Returning to Paris, he remained popular with students. New charges of heresy from Norbert of Premontre and Bernard of Clairvaux resulted in Abelard’s condemnation by the church at the Council of Sens (1141) and the order to be silent. After a brief stay in a monastery, he began a journey to Rome to appeal his case. He stopped at Cluny where the abbot, Peter the Venerable, regarded Abelard’s case as hopeless and advised him not to continue. Abelard died shortly thereafter and was buried at Troyes; eventually Heloise was buried beside him.

Abelard’s training brought him into contact with two traditions of early scholastic thought, realism and nominalism. Abelard had difficulties with both and suggested an alternative, conceptualism—a meaningful “halfway house” to some, a heretical compromise to others. For Abelard there was reality both in the particular object and in the idea or universal (concept), although for Abelard the concept had reality only in the mind. His idea of reality caused his view of the Trinity to be regarded as heresy.

Further, Abelard had difficulty with church leaders because of his high regard for reason and its critical use in the study of theology and philosophy. Abelard, however, was not the forerunner of modern nationalism and atheism as some have judged. His own words attest that he was truly a Christian: “I do not want to be a philosopher if it means resisting St. Paul; I do not wish to be Aristotle if it must separate me from Christ.” Abelard sought to evaluate and understand his faith in the light of reason. His motto, “I understand so that I might believe,” reversed the order of Augustine of Hippo and Anselm of Canterbury. Abelard stressed the importance of reasoned experience. He also maintained that all persons should be able to read the Scripture and arrive at valid conclusions on their own.

Abelard’s most important contribution was the establishment of a critical methodology for theology. In reaction against the unreasoning pietism of some of his fellow monks, he stressed the value of a more analytical approach to theology, having been pointed in that direction by Anselm of Laon. Abelard lined up conflicting authorities on both sides of 158 theological problems in his controversial work of 1123 entitled Sic et Non (Yes and No). In an approach less dogmatic than Anselm’s rationalism, Abelard cited contrasting texts from both the Bible and the church fathers without harmonizing them. His collection of alternative views, however, was prefaced with rules for resolving such problems by distinguishing various senses of the words used.

Abelard’s disciple, Peter Lombard, continued that procedure in his Sentences, which became a standard textbook. For the next two hundred years, Abelard’s approach influenced the scholastic method of debating alternative positions and citing conflicting arguments, as seen, for example, in the writings of Thomas Aquinas.

Abelard published a more thorough presentation of his theology as Theologica Christiana in 1123 and 1124. He also wrote an autobiography, The Story of My Misfortunes, as well as other theological and philosophical works. - T. O. Kay & A. F. Holmes

J. D. Douglas and Philip W. Comfort, eds,Who's Who in Christian History. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Preunderstanding

2008-08-21T14:44:00.000+07:00

Preunderstanding referes to all of our preconceived notions and understandings that we bring to the text, which have been formulated, both consciously and subconsciously, before we actuall study the text in detail.

Preunderstanding is formed by both good and bad influences, some accurate and some inaccurate. It includes all that we have heard in Sunday School, at church, in Bible Studies, and in our private reading of the Bible. However, preunderstanding of biblical texts are also formed by hymns and other Christian music,pop songs, jokes, art, and nonbiblical literature, both Christian and secular. Likewise, culture constantly creeps in.

It may also comes from our own theological bias. For example, there was a time when theology for me meant Dispensationalism. So it was natural for me to approach the text with Dispensational leanings. Anything that did not fit with the meaning I was looking for, I will just simply skip or ignore. If we want to find out the realy meaning of the Biblical text, we should free ourselves of those preconceived theological views.

The authors go on to say that "preunderstanding including culture (or theological views) is not inherently bad, but it can often skew our understanding of the Bible, leading us down the trail of misinterpretation. We do not want to abandon our preunderstanding, throwing all of our previous encounters with the text in the trash. What we do want to do is to submit our preunderstanding to the text, placing it under the text rather than over the text. We must be able to indentify our preunderstanding and then be open to changing it in accordance with a true serious study of the text."

God Uses Difficult Situations to Proclaim Christ

2008-08-03T00:37:00.000+07:00

Text: Philippians 1:12-26

We, people love to complain. It seems natural for us to see negative things in almost every situation we are in. For example, it has been raining all week here in Mae Sai and we complain about it, we couldn’t help it. But when the sun shines, we also complain of humidity.

Have you heard the story about a man who looked at his house through critical eyes, and every place he looked it seemed that he always found something wrong. So he just decided to sell out and move somewhere else.

So he asked an realtor to help him sell the house. The agent came and they agreed to put out an ad about selling the house. But before the ads were sent out, he asked the owner to read it for editing.

The ad spoke of a good location, a well-maintained house, good grass yards, tall trees, a beautiful pond, good location and a great neighborhood. The man listened carefully, and then said, "Read that to me again, slowly." So the realtor read it to him again. Finally, the man responded, "Don’t put that ad in the paper. I’ve always wanted a place like that. I think I’ll stay right where I am."

I always believe that if we all just exert more effort, we can always find positive things in every situation even in the tragic ones.

In his letter to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul adopted this kind of attitude (which is obviously not so with his other letters). The Apostle gives us some great advice in Philippians 4:8. Here is what he says:

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."

Now we all need to commit that verse to memory, because what so many of us do is the exact opposite - dwelling on negative, things that are untrue and wrong and impure. People focus so much on the negative that the media seldom bothers to feature positive news items because people just won’t listen to it.

We can break this pattern and we can start doing that today. Let us look at the Apostle Paul as he focuses on the positive.

In Philippians 1:12-26, Paul does mention some very negative things that are going on in his life - unpleasant circumstances, unreasonable people, and his uncertain future. But Paul goes on to show that God was able to use those negative things in a very positive way.

God Uses Unpleasant Circumstances to Advance the Gospel

A. Paul begins by talking about unpleasant circumstances. In vs. 12 he says, "Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel."

We think we have troubles, don’t we? But how does your list compare to that of the apostle Paul? How many times have you been shipwrecked? How many times have you been beaten near unto death? Or how many times have you been arrested and imprisoned and chained up 24 hours a day?

Yet Paul says, "I look at all these things, and I see that they have served to advance the gospel."

Now the word translated "advance" here has an interesting history. It originally was used of "wood-cutters who go before an army, clearing a way through the underbrush so that the army can march forward unimpeded."

Paul is saying, "All these things that have happened to me have resulted in clearing the way so that the gospel might be preached more effectively."

The imprisonment was positively crucial because the gospel was able to penetrate the ranks of the Roman military even the royal house.

These were the positive development that under normal circumstances would have been closed to the gospel.

In vs. 13, he says, "As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ."

Now here is the situation. For 24 hours a day Paul is chained to Roman soldiers, each serving a 6-hour shift. So every 6 hours a new soldier comes in and chains himself to Paul. The soldier was doing his duty, making sure the prisoner wasn’t going to escape.

But Paul saw this as a wonderful opportunity to tell the soldier about Jesus. There was no way that the soldier could escape. And it worked, for in the closing chapter of this letter, vs. 22, Paul writes, "All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household."

Now that tells me that some of these soldiers became Christians, and the gospel made its way even into the pagan household of Caesar - all because Paul was in prison.

There was a second positive result. In vs. 14 he says, "Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly."

Paul is saying, "Because of my hardships, because of the things that have happened to me, other Christians have been encouraged. They have seen how God has protected me through difficult situations, and encouraged me, and given me strength beyond my own power."

"Now they’re facing difficult circumstances, too. But because of what they have seen, they’re convinced that God will take care of them, also."

You see, God can take the most negative things that happen to us in life, and make them positive, if we’ll just focus on the positive that is there.

So what are the unpleasant circumstance you have this morning? Are you chained to declining health? Are chained to a very difficult job, and you can’t make ends meet? Are you chained to a job that has no future? Are you chained to loneliness or grief or despair? Then you need to stop and ask, "How can God use this to advance the gospel?"

God Uses Unreasonable People to Proclaim Christ

Secondly, Paul talks about unreasonable people. In vs. 15 he says, "It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of good will." What Paul is saying is this, "There are some people who are envious of me, who see themselves as rivals, competitors in preaching the gospel."

Apparently, those who were preaching from envy and strife were not heretics. But they were jealous of the attention Paul was receiving and they were determined to sow seeds of dissension in order to give him trouble.

The motives of these believers were not good. Those who proclaim Christ whose motivation was selfish ambition implies that they did not preach to honor God or to help Paul but rather to gain applause and followers for themselves. They were not acting in pure motives.

Paul was convinced that these preachers actually desired to cause him additional problems while he was in prison.

What difference does it make? Paul asked. In essence he was saying, their motives are between them and God. Whether the preaching was done for false motives or pure, whether for show or for the sake of what was right, Paul was genuinely pleased that the gospel was being spread.

Now vs. 18 is one of the most incredible verses in the Bible. Paul says, "But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice."

Now, only if many Christians could take Paul’s attitude the body of Christ would really look good and attractive to the unbelievers. Paul could have fought back and said something nasty things to these people who were opposing him but he did not.
It is sad that many Christians think that their main ministry is to criticize other individuals or ministries just because their methods and focus are different from them. Just like the Apostle Paul we should rejoice that we are all together, united in our main reason to be here and that is to proclaim the gospel of our Lord and God Jesus Christ.

Let us make our fellow Christians look good. Let us make the body of Christ look good. Let us pray for each other, let us pray for our fellow missionaries, let us help one another to proclaim the gospel... because it is our great joy whether in pretense or in truth, that Christ is being proclaimed. Amen!

God Uses Uncertainty to Exalt Christ*

Finally, Paul mentions his uncertain future. In vs. 19 he says, "I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance."

Paul is facing trial in Rome. If he is found innocent, he’ll be freed to preach some more. If he’s found guilty, he’ll be executed. He knew he was either going to live, or he was going to die, depending upon the results of the trial.

So he writes in vs. 20: "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death."

Here is what he is saying: "My concern is, when I stand before a pagan judge in a pagan court, that I won’t do or say anything to embarrass Christ Jesus, my Lord. My only concern is that I will have enough courage to stand up in their midst and by what I say and do that Jesus Christ will be exalted. Whether I die or whether I live doesn’t matter. All I want to do is exalt Jesus."

Vs. 21 is a very familiar verse. You probably have memorized it at one time or another. Paul says, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."

If you were going to write that verse, and truthfully describe your feelings, what would you say? "For me to live is money, and to die is to leave it behind." "For me to live is family, and to die is leave them alone." "For me to live is pleasure, and to die is to miss all the fun." "For me to live is fame, and to die is to be quickly forgotten." "For me to live is power and influence, and to die is to become insignificant."

The Living Bible paraphrases it this way: "To me, living means opportunity for Christ, and dying, that’s even better!"

In vs’s 22-24 Paul says, "If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far;"

Kenneth Dodge tells about an 8-year-old boy named Frank. Frank had a date with his father to go fishing on Saturday. They were going to fish the whole day. On Friday night he had everything laid out. He was ready to go.

But on Saturday morning he awoke to discover that it was raining cats and dogs, and they couldn’t go fishing. So 8-year-old Frank grumbled and griped and complained all morning long. He kicked the furniture, the dog, the cat. Nothing was right. "Why does it have to rain today?"

His father tried to explain to him that the farmers needed the rain. But that didn’t satisfy Frank. "Why does it have to rain today?" he said. About noon the clouds broke and the sun came out. His dad said, "Well, we can’t go fishing all day, but at least we can fish this afternoon. Let’s go." So they jumped into the truck, went to the lake and fished all afternoon, and caught more fish than they had ever caught before. The baskets were full, and they had the time of their lives.

They came home, and mom cooked some of the fish for supper. As they were sitting down to eat, Frank’s dad looked at him and asked, "Would you ask the blessing?" Eight-year-old Frank prayed this prayer: "God, if I sounded a little grumpy earlier today, it was because I couldn’t see far enough ahead."

That’s the problem, isn’t it? We’re so caught up in the circumstances and people and things that surround us, that we just can’t see far enough ahead.

But when you take time to look, people, you’ll begin to focus more and more on the positive, because in Christ we have a wonderful future. It may seem uncertain right now, but we have a certain destiny in God. And one day we’re going to see Him face to face and be with Him for all eternity.

*The last point and illustrations are adapted from Melvin Newland's sermon

O nasty bug

2008-08-03T00:31:00.000+07:00

It has been relentlessly raining here in Mae Sai for how long, I couldn’t remember anymore. The sun was able peek out of the thick clouds for a few hours in a given day. But boy, when it was out, it was hot and humid.

I was down with a nasty bug for almost a week. Shivering coldly at night and gritting my teeth trying to resist the excruciating headache, joint and muscle pains. It was a consolation that in the family, more often I was the one worst hit by the bug. Narlin wiggled out of it with just a little discomfort. Reuven is fighting it out with the bug today. He has fever and terrible headaches as well. We hope that it will be over tomorrow.

Lamin Sanneh on expansion of Christianiy

2008-07-21T22:15:00.005+07:00

In the 70's prophets of doom predicted that Christianity will experience a steady decline and its adherents would be greatly reduced. This is confounded with the resurgence of Islam. This fact seems to put the nail in the coffin.

However, by the year 2002 the continuous growth of Christianity in Asia and Africa come as a surprise to many. It could not be denied though that a decline is happening in its counterpart in the West.

According to Lamin Sanneh, “it had become clear that a major expansion of Christianity had been under way in Asia and Africa in spite of prevailing pessimism. In Africa in 1985, there were about 16,500 conversions a day. In the same period, some 4,300 people were leaving the church on daily basis in Europe and North America.

Many people, however, are skeptical about this growth not only because this comes from Africa but also because many Christians believe that these African Christians have abandoned the Christian exlucivism and instead become tolerant and inclusivist.

Nonetheless, the facts of the expansion of Christianity cannot be disputed. Lamin Sanneh offers an explanation and cites four major factors.

First, the expansion happened after the era of colonialism and during the period of national awakening. It can be assume that colonialism is a big hindrance to the growth of Christianity.

Second is the result of the Bible translations in local languages, in this case African languages. With the vernacular translation went cultural renewal that encouraged Africans to view Christianity in favorable light.

Third is that the locals stepped forward to lead the church. Young people especially women, were given a role in the church.

The last factor is a theological one: “Christian expansion was virtually limited to those societies whose people had preserved the indigenous name for God. That was a surprising discovery, because of the general feeling that Christianity was incompatible with the indigenous ideas of religion.”

Centrist evangelical

2008-07-11T22:47:00.002+07:00

Most of the missionaries I work with, I reckoned are fundamentalist, in the sense that they hold to the essential fundamentals of the Christian faith. I admire and love them for that. Except that sometimes, I could not help but feel bad when we have the tendency to looked down on other Christians because they believe differently from them in some issues.

I have to meet yet a liberal in the true sense of the world. Liberal after the mold of Albert Schweitzer or John Spong. Today, people like them would not be sent by any denominational mission agency because of their "bad theology." But of course, they can always go on their own.

I meet a few who can be classified as moderates and progressive. But to most people who don't know the what theological liberalism is all about, they are easily classified as one.

Bloesch statements is a good reminder that we don't have to remain in both extreme sides of the balance.

My theological stance could be designated as centrist evangelical in the sense of remaining in continuity with the message of Holy Scripture and the wisdom of scared tradition. Being centrist must not be confused with taking the middle road between fundamentalism and liberalism. It embraces the truth in both camps and negates the untruth in these positions as well. Being a centrist evangelical means building upon the center or core of faith--the gospel of God's reconciling act in Jesus Christ attested in Holy Scripture and clarified by the fathers and teachers of the faith through the ages. But whereas the fathers and teachers are fallible, the Word of God in Holy Scripture is infallible. Yet this Word is not in propositional formula at human disposal but the reaching out of the hand of God upon the human heart and conscience.

Donald G. Bloesch, God the Almighty: Power, Wisdom, Holiness, Love. Down Grove, Illinois: IVP Academic, p 12.

Year two and thanks to Ben!

2008-07-09T11:36:00.001+07:00

This month, this blog turns two. I would say that the best thing that happened to this it being linked to Faith & Theology and it resulted to being linked to other theology blogs and actually visited by more readers. For some time this blog was also linked by Jim when I was still have the time and energy to write sensible posts.

Interestingly, this blog is linked with other from missionary blogs. Some of them became our friends and one of them; Jonathan actually came to work with us after learning about our location and ministry from this blog. He is still here teaching in the Bible School and doing street evangelism.

Ben has done something special not only to this blog but also to me personally. His friendly appeal solicited incredible response that I now have a good collection in my library. In addition, Megan (our fellow missionary who went home to the States last July) left her bookcase to us upon when she saw those good books.

A “passing post” about a need for a spare laptop after I had a disastrous computer crashes. I admit I have not recovered emotionally since then after losing half of my dissertation. However, the good news is somebody gave me a PowerBook G4 Mac Laptop. My theology professor in the seminary sent it to me. The laptop which apparently was donated by somebody whom I don’t know personally. I don’t even have an idea if that person is reading F&T but just the same I feel I need to thank Ben for that.

Reconnected and it feels so good!

2008-07-09T10:37:00.001+07:00

Our Internet was reconnected last week (support money finally came). I might be able to post more regularly now. However, our hands are still full preparing the facilities for the Bible School. We hope to start classes on second week of August. YWAM (Youth With A Mission) volunteers are helping us in painting the dormitories. Four of the students from Myanmar came to help. Three of them are staying in our house.

The children’s home is ready to be occupied. We are praying for 8 children that God will give to us. We still need a lot of furniture like beds, tables, chairs and if possible a couch. The house is still bare at the moment but we know that God will use people to fill up these needs.

I had been spending a lot of time with my sons lately (one of the benefits of not having Internet). We played a lot of basketball last week. This is not possible to do in the last two weeks because of constant raining.

We are going to Chiang Mai again this month for our visa extension. The visa is costing us a lot of money. Nonetheless, God is proving himself to be the great provider.

Of cyclones and typhoons

2008-05-22T01:23:00.004+07:00

I received two emails lately and I will share them with you. First is an email from a fellow worker whom I had the privilege of meeting here in Mae Sai last year. Here is part of his email.

Greetings from Bangkok, I fly back to Yangon early tomorrow morning for the second time in week. Please pray for me and numerous workers who are feeling a little bit tired from all this. I hope to rent a cell phone when I arrive. It's only $3000 to purchase a sim card there. I know you are thinking...wow, what a deal!! The 86 Nissam Salone [sic] that I rented last year was priced at $18,000. Insanity?! That's life under a military government whose Generals have absolute control over Myanmar's 52 million.

Our friend, home village was destroyed but PTL they are all okay. She was just there two weeks before the Cyclone struck sharing the gospel of Jesus to her friends in the Buddhist monastery. She told us of our there were many crocodile farms down there and now all the crocs are free. Our friend plans to wrestle the crocs to protect his daughter and niece. He's 73 now and still is in good shape!

Even though there is incredibly terrific news coming out of Myanmar in the past few months, it is horrifying to hear that 90% of the 200k that have died were children and elderly. They couldn't swim and the tidal surge was 12 ft high along the coast.

Here is another email I received from my sister who is living in the northern the Philippines.

It was a rainy Saturday morning of May 17. Mar and I, along with a couple we are trying to help workout their marriage, were traveling to Dagupan--I would go to my masteral class and the three to Baguio for the counseling. After sending the couple to the counselor and showing them their housing, Mar immediately returned to Dagupan and texted me in my class that we had to go home because the weather was getting worse. I excused myself from the class at 4 pm and rushed to the terminal where he was waiting. As soon as I arrived, the passenger van went.

And then, happened one of the most terrifying experiences in our lives. We were caught in the middle of a strong storm. Roofs were flying all over, huts and small houses were being carried by the wind, trees were uprooted and electrical posts fell across the street and tricycles blown to the field. I thought, the van we were in will be blown to the cliff. Mar and I were praying. The wind was so low and strong with heavy rains. Then I sang, "I will soar with you above the storm. Father you are king over the floods and I will be still and know you are God."

The usual travel of 4 hours has become 12 long hours of agony in fear. We were stranded at the town before Alaminos. At 2 in the morning, when the rain stopped, we decided to start walking home. I had goose bumps as I saw all the destruction. We had to jump over and crawl under the trees and grope in the dark. But God is so good. Pastor Jay brought his motorcycle and meet us along the way. 3 big persons riding on a small motorcycle. At 5 in the morning, we reached home.

The next morning, we saw the church's school without roof. The library was empty as the young people tried to save some of the books from the rain. The office was wet all over.

It is another experience that calls us to trust in the Lord. In less than 3 weeks the school is about to open. The authorities said it will take about 10 days before the electricity will resume. We need your prayer.

Long silence

2008-05-22T01:03:00.000+07:00

I know it has been a while since my last post here. However, many things have been happening to our family and us lately.

Nanay Linda (Narlin’s mom) came about a month ago. It has been a joyous day for us especially to our children. It has been more than two years the last time they saw their Lola (grandmother). We are now enjoying good Filipino foods that taste right. Thai food is great but after a while, you starting to miss the dishes you use to eat. Nanay Linda also bought for us a satellite disk. She was bored watching TV shows that she could not understand. Now we can watch programs from back home also with HBO, ESPN, CNN, among others. I just do not know if it is good or bad in the end. You see, before the satellite, we do not watch TV at all.

We had a one-week English Camp. 32 young people participated from Burma and from here in Thailand. However, a rumor that the Myanmar government would close the border on May 9 because of the plebiscite we ended the camp abruptly on Friday afternoon. The government deliberately sowed confusion and planted fear to the Burmese people living in Mae Sai so that they all should go back to vote in the plebiscite. They eventually did not close the border.

Most of our waking hours are spent in repairing, painting and cleaning the house we are moving to next month. Narlin and I together with our kids and friend have been doing the work of a carpenter, painter, electrician and janitor. The house is in such a bad shape that we have to work in it full time or we might risk moving to the house that is unsafe to live in. Now, this is the reason that my time online has been very limited.

Moreover, we have been affected indirectly with the Cyclone that occurred in Burma. No, we experienced neither physical discomfort or weather disturbance but the emotional and spiritual anguish we feel for the people of Myanmar have been very intense. Some of our friends whom we have been working just few months ago are in Yangon. They went home to take care of some personal concerns. The cyclone caught up with them and they could not come back here sooner. Our Pastor whose family is in Yangon also went there for a relief mission. Many of us desire to go there to help in anyway but were not allowed by the government. Please continue to pray for the Myanmar people.

We are also hearing about the strong typhoon that passed over the northern part of the Philippines. Narlin’s family are directly affected so are mine. Although fewer lives are lost compared to Myanmar, the devastation is almost the same. Houses are destroyed. Properties are lost. Normal lives are disrupted. Love ones are lost.

Regular posting will resume soon.

Songkran festival and others

2008-04-16T22:19:00.002+07:00

Songkran is finally over. Mae Sai celebrated the water festival longer than Bangkok or Chiang Mai. It was an ingenious way to beat the oppressive summer heat. It was a lot of fun indeed. My family really enjoyed this Thai New Year celebration every year. However, Songkran is not only about having fun. Although I guess, most of the younger generations think that this is what it all about. Nonetheless, the sense of community is stronger during the festival. The religious significance had been obscured.

Songkran Festival is the traditional Thai New Year. This is the time for Thais to pay homage to Buddha images, clean their houses, and sprinkle water on their elders in a show of respect. Anyone who ventures out on the streets is likely to get a thorough dousing of water, all in good fun, but also quite welcome at the peak of the hot season.

And the others:

It has been tough to be left alone to take care of four children, one dog. In addition, I have to look after three houses and lately a duplex.

A team from Chiang Mai consists of four people (Indonesian, Korean and Danish couple) arrived last Monday. They are in Thailand for three-month training with Vineyard. They went to Burma for ministry exposure. Moreover, they decided to help us in improving the children’s home. They had been cleaning and painting the house. I supervised them with the project. And since they are leaving tomorrow, I will continue the job tomorrow with my children. It will be fun.

Furthermore, our Pastor asked me (on a short notice) to teach in our summer Bible camp for two days for three hours. Because of the Songkran Festival, most of our members found themselves with nothing to do for the more than a week. Thus our Pastor decided to go on with the summer Bible camp for church members. This camp is a tradition that we started last year and I hope it will continue.

I find it strange that some people enjoy teaching or talking for long hours. I find long talk exhausting. One hour of teaching is good enough for me. I am very tired and my throat is painful. I am glad that it is over and I am going to have a break tomorrow (at least from talking).

My younger sister is coming this Saturday with two short-term missionaries. She is the coordinator for the Asia Vision Short Term Mission in the Philippines. And we are part of the ministry that will host missionaries every year. They will work with us for a month in the nursery and will help us teach English in the community.

Narlin is coming back soon on April 25. It is just a few days of waiting but it seems forever. Life is doubly difficult when your other half is missing.

Theological Word of the Day: Monophysitism

2008-04-11T11:09:00.000+07:00

Reclaiming the Mind Ministries has started a blog called Theological Word of the Day. And for me whose understanding of big theological words is (still) very limited, I find this very helpful. I appreciate the effort people put in this project. I put the widget on the sidebar, however, for my own benefit I am reposting the words here as well.

Monophysitism
noun (Greek mono-, one- + Greek phusis, nature)
The heretical belief that the two natures of Christ came together in the incarnation to make one new nature. Condemned in 451 at the council of Chalcedon. Chalcedon held that the two nature of Christ, human and divine, remain completely in tact in one person.

Temperature theology

2008-04-11T01:34:00.001+07:00

Summer heat come in full force this year. The weather is oppressive and the humidity is punishing. And those are understatements.

To beat the hot season, the people here in Mae Sai begin the water festival earlier. Children and young people are starting to pour cold water towards the people passing by. And in spite of inconvenience of getting wet in your best clothes, I guess it is a good way to beat the oppressive heat.

Anyway around the blogosphere, many discussions are going on about the greatness and influence of modern theologians from different traditions. However, I think theologians are great only to those who find their writings meaningful and that is to those who share their basic presuppositions. For Asian Christians, western theology is extremely theoretical —lot of speculations but no spiritual implications. I cannot blame them though; they write theology primarily for the analytical mindset of the West.

Thus relating temperature with theology, Klaus Klostermaeir says,

Theology at 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade seems after all, different from theology at 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Theology accompanied by tough chapattis and smoky tea seems different from theology with roast chicken and a glass of wine. Now, what is different, theos or theologian? The theologian at 70 degrees Fahrenheit is in a good position presumes God to be happy and contended, well-fed and rested, without needs of any kind. The theologian at 120 degrees Fahrenheit tries to imagine a God who is hungry and thirsty, who suffers and is sad, who sheds perspiration and knows despair.

Klaus Klostermaier, Hindu and Christian in Vrindahan (London: SCM, 1970), p. 40

Cool change

2008-04-10T01:55:00.001+07:00

If you are a regular reader, perhaps you notice the change in the design of this blog. My son helped me in changing it (and I am impressed). The content has been changing a lot as well. My intent, at first, was to blog primarily about my personal theological reflections related to mission works. But as I find myself most of the time away from the computer, I thought I could not sustain it.

I actually created another blog about our family’s personal updates, stories and testimonies for our family and friends back home. However, the longer I do it the more I realized that it is pointless and cumbersome to run two blogs. I closed the other one a few months ago and decided to do the personal and family blogging also in here, which I have been doing a lot anyway lately.

It is also a joy to know that many of my “real” (as opposed to virtual) friends and co-workers are now finding their way here. A couple of my readers came to Thailand and I had the chance to meet them personally and in that case, virtual friends became real. I am praying that what you read here will be a blessing. I know we will have disagreements but I hope that it will be an opportunity to learn from one another, just leave your comments in the comment section and I will wrestle with the answers.

Missional basis of the Bible

2008-04-10T00:11:00.001+07:00

For some time, I have been meaning to pick up and read Chris Wright’s The Mission of God. However, I had been cramming a lot lately (I still am) that I have to set aside reading for a while. Last night, the children went to bed early and Narlin being away, I surprisingly found time to read myself to sleep.

The book is about interpreting the Bible from a missional perspective. Wright argues that although the Scripture provides the biblical basis for mission it is more correct to think on the idea of a missional basis of the Bible. “The entire Bible is generated by and is all about God’s mission."

However, that concept is not new to me. I heard about this in one of the mission courses I attended, I believe though that many of the ideas taught in that course came from this book.

I like what I have been reading. Since I do not have the time to do any book reviews (had not done many in the past and not in the near future). I point you to an excellent review over at εν εφέσω.

Here are some interesting thoughts:

Slowly but inexorably the world of Western academic theology is becoming aware of the rest of the world. The impact of missiology has brought to the attention of the theological community in the West the wealth of theological and hermeneutical perspectives that are, in some cases at least, the product of the success of mission over the past centuries.. Mission has transformed the map of global Christianity. From situation at the beginning of the twentieth century when approximately 90 percent of all the world’s Christians lived in the West or North (i.e. predominantly Europe and North America), the beginning of the twenty-first century finds at least 75 percent of the world’s Christians in the continents of the South and East—Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia and the Pacific. The whole center of gravity of world Christianity has moved south—a phenomenon described, not entirely felicitously, as “the next Christendom.” Others prefer terms such as the “The Global South” or “The Majority World.” (p. 38)

Wright believes that Western Academic theology if it wants to be relevant in contemporary and more so in the future Christianity should be engaged in doing theology with “The Majority World.” Failure to do so will mean that Western academic theology would find itself in the margins.

He also believes that Western Protestant could no longer assert that their method of interpretation of the Scripture is the only valid method. We should accept the fact that different culture read and understand the Bible differently from us (although I am Asian, the methods I learned are western). As Wright says,

We live in a world of a multinational church and multidirectional mission. And appropriately we now live with multicultural hermeneutics. People will insist on reading the Bible for themselves, you see. There is a great irony that the Western Protestant theological academy, which has its roots precisely in a hermeneutical revolution (the Reformation), led by people who claimed the right to read Scripture independently from prevailing hegemony of medieval Catholic scholasticism, has been slow to give ear to those of other cultures who choose to read the Scriptures through their own eyes, though the situation is undoubtedly improving. (p. 39)

Cramming

2008-04-08T13:15:00.003+07:00

Last week before Narlin left, I did a lot of cramming. I prepared brochures, newsletter update and a presentation movie. Just in time, I finished checking Jared’s home schooling test papers, thirty minutes before Narlin took the bus to Chiang Mai. She needs to bring those to the school in Manila. I did those for most of the days of last week, until three o’clock in the morning and now I feel sick.

Now, I am alone here taking care of the four children and three houses. We are moving but not yet, so as of now we still have two houses. Our friend will leave for Burma and she asked us to look after her house and her dog. Let me think again... 4 children, three houses and a dog. (sigh)

Thin Yannat had a little fever last night. Perhaps it was because she “helped” us out washing and hanging the clothes and missed her afternoon nap. Today I forced her to take her regular nap. Jillian (my 12-year old daughter) woke up this morning not feeling well. Why is it that every one gets sick when the wife is not at home?

Monday was a holiday here in Thailand; however, I did not realize it until I went to the electric company to pay our bill. Why the hell, it is close? I just understand that my job as a bus driver does not follow the holiday. I woke in the morning and did what I usually do, pick up the kids from their homes and bring them to the church’s primary school. Why oh why, the church’s school is not taking on a holiday?

Now I thought I could relax… until Pastor told Sunday night that he wants me to teach the whole week on our Songkran Bible Camp next week. Now I have to go and prepare my lessons. I am cramming again.

*We are moving to the house in May.

Moltmann on purgatory

2008-03-18T11:58:00.000+07:00

The real basis for the doctrine of purgatory is neither scripture nor tradition, but the 'church's practice of prayer and penance'. Since the beginning--so argument runs--there have been in the church prayers for the dead, good works, almsgiving, personal penitential practices, and the acquisition of indulgences, vicariously applicable to the dead, which free them from punishments for sin. The Letter of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Certain Questions of Eschatology (17 May 1979) puts it event more clearly: 'The church rejects all ways of thinking and speaking through which its prayers, the burial rites and the cult of the dead would lose their meaning and become incomprehensible: for all this is in substance a locus theologicus.' But that means in plai term that theology is there in order to justify the existing practice of the church. Once this method is followed, there is no possible way of examining particular ecclesiastical and devotional practices for their conformity to scripture and gospel.

Jurgen Moltmann, The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology, 99.

A glimpse... whatever

2008-03-14T11:57:00.000+07:00

Narlin will go home to the Philippines for three weeks. She will attend the Philippine Women Missionary Union (PWMU) Triennial Meeting. I was hoping all of us could go but the airfare for five persons costs too much. This means I will stay alone with the children for three weeks. I cannot imagine life with out her. She does many things for the children and me. I will have a tough time filling her shoes.

For this reason, I am writing brochures promoting our ministries to the churches here back home. Hoping that what we are doing here can stir up enough attention for women to get involved in missions. I will also try to create a video presentation. Our prayer is that we can mobilize churches to support missions. My hands are full within the weeks.

We also have to spend time finishing up checking our children’s homes schooling tests. Narlin will bring these answered exam sheets to the School of Tomorrow. She will pick up the books we ordered online at the main school in Paranaque. The total cost for the workbooks is huge. Nonetheless, I am confident that God will provide.

I do not have the time to write (dissertation) anything this week. Writing is a bit tricky on me. If I decided to work on my dissertation, I can do it continuously if I there are no interruptions and distractions. Nonetheless, I really have not stop reading. I take a book with me wherever I go and my clipboard and take notes when I find something that I think would be useful for my research. I can read while when I paused to wait on the children when I am taking them home. I can read while driving and while sleeping (haha!) Ideas are forming in the back of my head, hoping that when I sit down to write my ideas will just flow out from my brain to my hands.

I am also trying to make the laptop usable again. I start saving money for the hard drive. Perhaps a few months from now I can buy it. I asked around how much it will cost us to replace the cracked LCD. If the shop will do it, it costs a lot and it is not practical to have it repaired. However, when I look at ebay at the prices of the LCD for Toshiba A75 Satellite, it is cheaper (though still expensive for me). It costs U$150. I have to work on having a credit card or paypal account so I can do purchase online. I can do the repair myself and perhaps I can again use the laptop for another five years.

When Megan learned about what happened to my laptop she generously gave us hers so that she and Narlin can continuously communicate about the ministry of Grace Home when she is gon. The only glitch is that the LCD is not working as well. However, when I look closely I can see blunt images on the screen. Therefore, I know that either the inverter or the back light has gone bad. Nevertheless we can use the laptop fine with an external CRT. I think it would be great if I can make the LCD works. I checked over at ebay and found out that the inverter cost U$18. It is affordable enough. However, I do not know if they are shipping to Thailand.

Within two months, we will be moving to another house. We love our present house. It is the most comfortable house that we ever had as a family. We live in an unfinished house almost all our lives together. Our present house is God's provision for us when we come here in Thailand. Most houses for rent here are bare, not a furniture. This house comes with beds, bedsheets, pillows, closet, everything that a nomad family would need is here.

So it is with a heavy heart we are leaving this house. We need to move on to another house. This house will be used for children home and hostel. The need for this kind of ministry here is just too immense for us to ignore. Pray for us.

Rambo in Burma

2008-03-11T13:13:00.003+07:00

The most talked about Hollywood movie here right now is Rambo 4. Our Burmese friends love it so much. And they were amazed to know that Stallone speaks Burmese. Our co-worker wants us to watch the movie so badly that he rented a CD copy for us. When I slid the CD into the player and watched, I began to wonder how they were able to manage watching the movie much more finish it.

The opening scene is a clipping from an unknown journalist and I assumed that because it is a clipping, the picture would naturally be blurred and the sound incomprehensible. I thought the movie would become better as it went on. But to my disappointment, it got worst. The rented CD was filmed inside a movie house with a handy cam. I refused to watch it further because it was giving me a terrible migraine.

If my understanding is right, the movie is ban in Burma. But we are living in the border with thousands of Burmese migrant workers. The movie actually made them happy and jokingly told us that Rambo is the only solution to the relentless political problem in Burma.

In spite of Hollywood distortions there are grains of truth we can learn from the movie. For example, the continuous war and genocide of the Burmese junta against the Karen tribes is true. So are the missionaries who are risking their lives to help the internally displaced people.And of course, the tyrannies of the military agains the tribal people who oppose the government.

At Irrawaddy, the Burmese online news magazine, James Rose, an Australia-based media and policy advisor currently assisting various Burmese pro-democracy groups in Asia and the US, write in the opinion section about it.

The high levels of excitement over an aging Hollywood star, hacking and mumbling his way through Burma, may be odd to some, but it attests to the power of American cultural hegemony. This is a reality that even diehard anti-American hotheads must accept.
So, given the news spreading globally over the lavish red carpet openings and the musings of Rambo’s hulking front man, Burmese activists are given an opportunity to focus that spotlight so blurrily cast by Rambo.

Doing so is no easy task. The reasons are both generic and specific to Burma’s current media profile.

First, the generic problems.

Rambo is, of course, a product of the Hollywood entertainment machine. That word “entertainment” should not be forgotten. Most of those in the West who may turn out to view Rambo’s blood-spattered Burmese Days will be entering a sort of “switch-off-and-escape” mindset that makes movie-going such a popular phenomenon the world over.
Few would approach the Rambo experience as an opportunity to really learn much about Burma. Sly Stallone is not noted for his documentaries. Whatever is learnt will be of little real value, other than perhaps making people similarly seek the kind of cartoonish vengeance characteristic of the Rambo franchise.

As such, for the all the arguments that Rambo in Burma shows it how it is and depicts the savage reality of life under a heinous regime, such messages will be largely lost to the largely switched-off viewers and wasted on the smattering of earnest movie-goers eager to “feel” Burma’s tragedy.

Another angle on the generic shortfalls of a pro-Rambo media strategy is that this movie, like any other out of Hollywood, is about making money. More the point, it’s about making a small minority of rich people richer.

The extent to which this dynamic aids the cause of a free Burma is questionable. As soon as a cause is identified as “commercial” as appears to be the case with Burma, it tends to lose its shape and those who may have previously been able to influence the strategic culture will be marginalized as new profit-oriented methodologies are introduced.

Now to the specific problems related to Burma media strategies and Rambo.
The nature of the Burma demonstrations, to date via the world’s media, has been one of peaceful protest. The cry of metta (“loving kindness”) sent out into the Burmese air by the marching monks has become the banner under which the world has tended to view the current situation in Burma.

As such, introducing a snarling, blood-soaked, murderous Rambo into the media landscape and you have a classical case of what is known, in media terms, as a “mixed message”. The combination of two such diametrically opposed approaches to dealing with Burma’s dire circumstances tangles the whole Burma issue and removes some of the pillars of the bridge of clear communication to the world.

“Is Burma about peaceful change or is it about civil war?” once media consumers begin asking such questions, the answer is already more or less unimportant. By now, many tracking Burma via the world’s media coverage have already expressed their confusion and have begun the fatal process of moving on.

Media consumers in advanced economies like their causes simple and clear-cut. Few are inclined to take the time to assess and analyze a given situation. They want clean lines of entry. Confusion is the death-knell for any campaign seeking to gain public attention and support.
The latest Rambo movie does indeed offer opportunities for Burma activists. But, it must be along the lines of providing clarity to Rambo’s murky and simplistic critique of contemporary Burma and must make clear where Rambo sits in the overall anti-military movement. Wherever that position may be, it should not be on top or all-encompassing. For media purposes, the Burma democracy movement must ensure that it is a case of Burma using Rambo, rather than Rambo using Burma.

The Bible: not a textbook in theology

2008-03-08T03:26:00.003+07:00

Jason pointed out a fascinating essay by Knud Jørgensen, the director of the Areopagos Foundation in Norway/Denmark and assistant professor at the Norwegian School of Theology. He is also a member of the Lausanne Theology Working Group. You can read the entire post here. For the meantime here is the interesting excerpts:

The New Testament narratives are the prime examples of this. The Bible was not intended to be a textbook in theology, but to be a casebook about mission—God’s mission and our mission. The Bible includes narratives about the God who acts to our salvation and therefore equips his people to be sent to the world. Theology is therefore meant to be “an accompanying manifestation of the Christian mission and not a luxury of the world-dominating Church.”

The Gospels are clearly written to witness about Jesus Christ to diverse target groups in the Greco-Roman world, and all the epistles have grown out of the pastoral needs of the new congregations in a mission situation. There was hardly time and space for the theological research of today. Rather, the scriptures of the New Testament came into being “in the context of an emergency situation, of a church which, because of its missionary encounter with the world, was forced to theologize.”

The biblical texts do not suit the unengaged theology of the enlightenment. For the same reason, the missiology of the Global South resonates most closely with the biblical texts. A major problem, however, is that it is most often the Western, unengaged theology that has been exported to the rest of the world as part of the missionary period from the end of the eighteenth century.

This theology has become largely speculative, and often irrelevant to the mission and pastoral concerns of the Church in the Global South and in the West. It represents a blind alley and should not be regarded as the norm of Christian theology. This implies that we, together with the younger churches in the Global South, must protest against this theology; it is inadequate as a model for an engaged theology. It is a blind alley also in light of the Christian understanding and tradition as we find it in scripture, in the early Church and in the Reformation.

Moreover, this is not limited to academic theology. I think this includes the way we read and interpret the Bible. We have the tendency to belittle the way local culture read and interpret the Scripture. Everything that does not conform the way we have been taught, we judged it as inadequate and wrong.