Words from the Wards

God’s Building His Church

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 06:59:00 +0000

One of the things that has been amazing in our journey here in India is seeing how God works. We once thought that teaching doctrine to uneducated pastors and church leaders was a daunting task. We knew that first we needed to lay a solid understanding of who God is and of the need for faith in Him. We decided to do this through chronological Bible story telling. The amazing thing is that through what we thought was foundation laying, we’ve seen God teach people deep theological truth.

Pastor Charles Kujur

Recently, Charles, a pastor we’ve been training, said, “Joseph passed by many temptations and he did not even commit sin against God. He abides in the Word of God. God blesses us in our lives abundantly, and His blessings are a light which is lifted up that others can glorify God and have respect for God’s people.” It’s amazing that through Bible storytelling, which we sometimes call oral inductive Bible study, Charles understands the preeminence of God and His glory. He understands that God’s blessings are given so that we might glorify Him. This is an example of the kind of observations many church leaders are now making.

We go chronologically through 49 Bible stories to help them clearly see God’s redemptive story. We use an interactive method where we go through the story 3 times. Then we dig into the story to find the spiritual truths. Finally, we make practical and personal application from the story and the spiritual truths.

The results in the last few months are that many of the participants are digging deeper into God’s word. They understand deep concepts like the sovereignty of God, His faithfulness, the way He plans and accomplishes His plans, His mercy, and the way He foreshadows or gives examples of things to come. One student observed that just as there was only one door onto Noah’s ark by which men could be saved from destruction, there is also only one way to be saved from the penalty of our sins – entering into God’s salvation through Jesus Christ. Another realized that the tar that covered the inside and outside of the ark provided covering and protection. In the same way Christ’s blood provides us protection and covering. These aren’t lessons we taught them. We simply taught them how to meditate on scripture and ask the right questions and they came to know the truth by meditation and revelation of the Spirit of God. This is exciting to us, because they are learning to feed themselves, a necessary step towards being able to teach others to do the same.

Just as Charles said, God blesses as people abide in His Word. The result is that the church is built up. God is building His church. Through the people who are His church God is exalting Himself. We praise God for the opportunity to be a part of this. We also thank Him for all who are participating in making this possible.

Lessons From The Quest for Authentic Manhood

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 08:04:00 +0000

Today we started the first of a 24 week series called Men's Fraternity: The Quest for Authentic Manhood at our office. From the first lesson there's a few truths I want to share.

First off he shared what it's going to take to get through the 24 weeks. I think 2 of these are essential for success in any endeavor worth doing:

• toughness - to stick to it and see it through
• courage - to examine yourself & adjust
• vulnerability - willingness to be real with others

The third you can say is necessary for personal growth, which is always accelerated in the context of relationship.

The other lesson comes from the two statements, "Manhood is in a state of confusion," and "Confused men create major problems." Isn't it always true that problems result from confusion or a lack of knowledge or belief in the truth? Think about it and you'll see that every major problem derives from this.

Good Videos - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 09:55:00 +0000

Here's another video I wanted to share:

If you took time to watch this or the previous video, would you mind also taking a moment to pray that our Father would raise up more laborers. We're fervently praying for help.

Good Videos - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 08:47:00 +0000

I've had a nice relaxing day, reading some blogs and looking at some videos. I want to share a couple with you. Here's the first:

Sikkim Trip and World Cup

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 11:28:00 +0000

For our anniversary, Trish wanted to go away for a couple of days, so Jeff booked a hotel for the weekend in Gangtok, Sikkim.

This is the helicopter we flew on to get to Sikkim. Victoria was terrified to fly in it, but she survived. She says she'd do it again.

We were there while India was playing for the World Championship in Cricket. The fans were rabid.


Victoria and Jeff got in on the patriotic fervor.

The great thing was India won the world cup! Now Trish is a cricket fan. The not so great thing was I got really sick and they called a bandh (a strike where all the businesses are shut and no one can drive) for the day we were supposed to come home, so we had to cut the trip short a day.

Twentieth Anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 11:21:00 +0000

On March 9th, we celebrated twenty years of being married!

House Church

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 11:19:00 +0000

One sunny day, we decided to have our house church meeting outside. We vary between 2 and 7 families every week.

Another Snake Killed

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 11:18:00 +0000

One night our 2 dogs were barking up a storm. Trish had me go out and see what was going on. Turns out there was a snake. I killed it by throwing a big rock on its head. Turns out it was over six feet long. Because of the way it reared up, we thought it was a cobra. However, after it was dead, we determined it was a rat snake.

Transforming Discipleship book Review

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:04:00 +0000

Making disciples is one of the things I'm most passionate about. Therefore, when I saw that Mission Frontiers had an offer to send you for one of 3 books if you'd do a review of it, I gladly accepted and chose the book titled "Transforming Discipleship" by Greg Ogden.

Ogden's book is a treatise on making "self-initiating, reproducing, fully devoted followers of Christ." He takes the reader through a period of evaluation of the current state of discipleship in the Church, some of the reasons for the dire state and then proceeds to make a great case for discipleship being more about relationship than programs, something that I think is often not reflected in the practice of churches and believers. Finally, he gives practical how to's for changing the situation and actually making "self-initiating, reproducing, fully devoted followers of Christ"

Chapters one and two looked at the current state of the church. Specifically it focused to what extent believers are or are not: proactive ministers, disciplined in their way of life, affected by discipleship in their entire life, a counter cultural force, essential chosen organisms, Biblically informed, and people who share their faith. An honest review paints a sad picture of our current situation. He then lays out some of the causes of this situation: a diversion from the primary calling of making disciples, an emphasis on programs instead of relationships, reducing the Christian life from one of taking up our cross and following Jesus to cheap grace, and others. This first part of the book really dragged for me. Of course, to Ogden's credit, he mentioned in the introduction, that many don't need to be convinced of the need for discipleship and may want to skip the first part. I guess I fall in that camp, but since I'd promised to review the book, felt as if I should read its entirety.

The second part of the book focuses on Jesus and Paul as models of disciplers. His thesis is that Jesus met people where they were at and adjusted his leadership style to the needs of his disciples. This is basically the Biblical basis for what he's proposing.

The third section of the book is really the meat of the matter. It's where he lays out a process of discipleship, which he defines as, "An intentional relationship in which we walk alongside other disciples in order to encourage, equip, and challenge one another in love to grow toward maturity in Christ. This includes equipping the disciple to teach others as well." Ogden makes a compelling case that our churches try to take too many short-cuts to get quick results among the masses. He quotes Robert Coleman a couple of times, who said, "One must decide where he wants his ministry to count - applause of popular recognition or in the reproduction of his life in a few chosen ones who will carry on his work after he is gone. Really it is a question of which generation are we living for."

Ogden strongly urges people to make disciples in "triads." His experience seems to be the overwhelming support for this, and he certainly didn't give any Biblical rationale for it. He did mention that the larger the group, the less likely there will be for transparency and true accountability. His reasons for having a group of 3 rather than one on one are all reasonable, but I kept finding myself asking, "Why not four or five?" He says there are three necessary ingredients in these small discipleship groups: transparency, God's Word and accountability. He promotes that these groups go on for about one year before each member starts a new triad. One of the benefits he extols regarding triads is that it seems less like a teacher-student relationship and more like three people coming alongside one another. This makes the reproduction easier and is even helped my allowing a rotation of leading the meetings for the first year.

In short, Ogden's book promotes a very practical approach to making disciples. It's not flashy. It's not fast. It's slow and methodical - just as I believe Jesus intended discipleship to be and most of all it's effective. We're all on a journey to spiritual maturity that will last our entire life. If more of us would adopt Ogden's approach in "Transforming Discipleship" we'd see believers slowly, but surely growing into maturity and over years, we would see churches being transformed into the radiant bride of Christ.

Ten things you can do today to express appreciation to your team

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 11:33:00 +0000

Today I stayed home (except for the hour I was out going to the ATM and by the office to go over some stuff with Salvi and Awor) to try to recover from a cold. I couldn't sleep, so was surfing the web. Here's an interesting blog I found:

Ten things you can do today to express appreciation to your team

A Book Review of “So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore: An Unexpected Journey”

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 10:24:00 +0000

My life has been forever altered by reading Jake Colsen’s book, “So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore: An Unexpected Journey.” Most simply said, it’s a book about relationship with Jesus. This is placed in contrast with a religious system that has cropped up and often crowds out walking daily in relationship with him. Some might think the book is anti-church. It’s not, but it definitely promotes of a proper definition of church.

Mr. Colsen uses a fictional story about an associate pastor named Jake whose world is turned upside down after a chance meeting with a man named John. Jake wonders whether this John could be the disciple Jesus loved. His first encounter with Jake was watching him come up to a crowd who was arguing about Christians and ask, “You really have no idea what Jesus was like, do you?” He proceeded to explain to them who Jesus really was, breaking all of their preconceived notions.

Over the course of the next few years, the reader follows Jake’s life journey and is exposed to several major events. These include frustration and disillusionment with the daily grind of “Christian life” as a minister, a falling out with the other staff in his church, moral dilemmas, losing his job, struggling financially, having his daughter nearly die from asthma, confronting an old friend regarding immorality, starting a new house fellowship, and then trying to pass on what he’d learned in all of this to another minister. Throughout all of these experiences, Jake’s encounters served to move him away from a system of religion and deeper into relationship with Jesus Christ. As I read, it had the same affect on me.

The first major event Jake faced was frustration and disillusionment with the daily grind as an associate minister in a large church. His first encounter with John had caused him a greater hunger for the relationship with Christ that John appeared to have. Unable to relieve this nagging hunger, Jake poured himself into his work. The result was disillusionment as volunteers called in to back out of their Sunday morning duties, people came to complain that the church wasn’t friendly enough, a couple informed him they were joining another church which had a better youth group, and finally the pastor cancelled a meeting at the last minute that Jake had worked three weeks to arrange. Under the weight of all of this, Jake went to the park to take a break. There he met John, who asked him, “Are you experiencing God’s life to the degree you desire it?” He went on to talk about being filled with the love of Jesus like the day we first believed in Him. He talked about the fullness, freedom, joy and peace. He then reminded Jake that many people end up distracted by all of the work that they are doing and leave their first love, just like the writer John wrote to the church in Ephesus in Revelation. Jake’s response was, “That’s me!... You are talking about me.” Reading the book, I too found myself saying, “That’s me! You are talking about me.”

As I read on, there were many other experiences that Jake had that I could relate to. Around every corner John was there asking penetrating questions and challenging Jake to consider whether his actions and beliefs were based on truth or tradition. Ultimately he was challenging Jake to not let anything come before Christ in his life. He also demonstrated that many of the things we do in our church and Christian life don’t substantially contribute to your desire to know God more. Even attending church can become a duty and drudgery rather than an outflow of our love for God, the Father.

Even my zeal for God sometimes results in me working so hard for Him, that I’m not abiding in Him. My motives are right, but the outcome isn’t. John even addressed this as he mentioned that even Eve’s motives were right. She succumbed to Satan’s temptation that eating the fruit would make her like God. Eve desiring to be like God wasn’t bad, since He created us in His image. Yet, in our desire to accomplish something that God also wants, we forget that God never intended for us to do anything apart from Him. Jake confesses at one point in the book, “In fact, it seems like the harder I try the emptier and more frustrated I feel.” John’s response is that he’s learned something valuable.

One of the main points of the book is that Jesus didn’t come to abolish the Jewish religion and replace it with a Christian religion, but to give us a relationship. John said, “He wanted his disciples to know that the rules and traditions of men get in the way of the power and life of his Father.” He told John that religion is a system that tries to manipulate and control people so that they do the right things. It largely uses shame, guilt and fear. We ourselves have succumbed to this system and it causes us to do things out of obligation. We feel guilty if we don’t attend church, tithe, volunteer or say, “yes,” when someone asks us to do something. Jesus came to free us from this system, to give us relationship based not on what we’ve done, but on what he did. “The key is not found in how much you love him, but how much he loves you. It begins in him.”

As I read on, I realized that a lot of what I do is based on shame, guilt and fear. I fear that God won’t approve if I don’t do this or that. Alternatively, if I do something I shouldn’t, he won’t approve – maybe He’ll love me less. However, as I meditated on John’s words to Jake, I realized that God loves me fully. He can’t love me any more than He does and He will never love me any less. He is love and He forever proved His love by becoming sin on my behalf and dying on the cross. I don’t need to fear Him for He is fully aware of my sin and still loves me. Still, I allow myself to be sucked into the system of works. Perhaps, it’s because I take my eye off the ball, and perhaps it’s because our Christian religious system has done like Eve and taken something that was born out of a pure motive and missed the mark.

The book definitely touched on how most of our churches exploit shame, guilt and fear to try to lead people to do the right thing. Even the modern emphasis on accountability focuses more on what you do than on how your relationship with Christ is and whether you are believing and trusting Him fully. I bristled at this point as I myself have been a strong proponent of accountability. Yet, I have to admit that often I’ve been guilty in my accountability of promoting this religious system. I ask questions like, “Have you been having a daily quiet time, faithful in tithing, faithful in church attendance, maintaining a pure thought life?” After reading this book, I’m more inclined to ask, “Are you walking in faith, trusting Christ, loving Him with all of your being, resting in Him, abiding in Him, allowing Him to be your all in all?” I’m not saying that there shouldn’t be works, nor do I think the author is. Faith should be the emphasis. Works will naturally flow out of faith. However, works can also be manufactured apart from faith. When we put emphasis on the works, manufactured works are often the ultimate outcome.

When this happens, Christianity becomes self-righteousness. And there’s no freedom in self-righteousness. Only by trusting in what Christ did can anyone really experience freedom. Some people teach that we have to be free of sin to draw near to God. Yet, it’s the actual turning to God that frees us from sin, not the other way around.

The biggest downfall of the book is that some may see it as railing against The Church. Indeed he does make several strong statements against the institution of the Church. One of the problems is the definition of the church. Many people consider church as somewhere you attend or a building or a group. However, people are the church. The writer is not anti-church at all. In fact, towards the end of the book, John meets a pastor who’s starting to understand his own bondage to the religious system and the freedom found in relationship with Christ. He tells him not to leave the institution. The author advocates that the church should be a people who are in relationship with Jesus Christ and naturally fellowship with one another, love one another, encourage one another, teach one another, and challenge one another to continually rely on Christ and nurture relationship with Him. He comments that life doesn’t flow from the church to the people, but people in relationship with Christ bring life to any gathering of believers. If anything he brings a biblical view back to what church is supposed to be.

This book has drastically changed my perspective. My desire for the approval of man has decreased. My focus has returned to my first love, Jesus Christ. I’m not trying to do anything to gain his favor, but am resting in the fact that I’m completely loved by Him and I’m enjoying abiding in Him. I highly encourage you to read this book as I expect it might have a similar affect on your life. If you can’t find the book, at least visit the author’s website www.lifestream.org. There’s you’ll find similar concepts taught in articles, videos, audio teachings and podcasts, which will challenge you to experience a deep relationship with Jesus Christ.

The Demonstrated Love of Christ Draws People to Him

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 04:52:00 +0000

This past week I was in Banda, Uttar Pradesh, here in India, an area where there is less than .1% Christians. There were lots of amazing things including a couple of put delivered from demons. We had a medical clinic and one of the pastors said that they had lots of reports that within two days many people experienced healing (whether God worked apart from or through the medicine, we don't know - but either way He worked). The gospel was proclaimed to over 3000 people. Several local pastors said that within a couple of days people were calling and asking where they were meeting this week so that they could attend church.

There were many stories to share, but let me share this one:

Al Wilson, our team leader was in a village on Tuesday and some people brought a young lady named Suman to a platform in the center of the village. Suman was partially paralyzed. They asked Al to pray for her and about 50 people gathered around. He was praying and asking God what to do or say. He was hoping God would say something about what he should say or do so that she would be healed. He became very emotionally invested. After about 10 minutes of waiting on God, God gave him a word to share with the villagers. As he began to share he started crying. Then he shared that he thought God wanted them to know that this young girl should be the most beloved in the village. The girl responded as they were leaving with great difficulty that she just wanted to die.

On Wednesday we had the medical camp in that same area. The young girl came to the medical camp. Al was able to sit and share the gospel with her with the help of a translator. It's difficult for her to speak, but everything that they said, she repeated. When they shared how to pray a prayer again she repeated everything.

Al thought, if she's repeating everything, maybe she doesn't really understand. So they asked her what she thought. She said, "Jesus is Lord. Hallelujah!"

He said that her countenance was totally changed and he told her that her life wasn't meaningless. She can pray and her heavenly father would hear her and work. Then the interpreter had to go and he sat and held her hand for a little while. When he let go and went to grab her bag again she reached to grab his hands.

The doctors saw her and talked to her family who actually brought some films. It turns out that she has a tumor at the base of her brain. The American doctor was telling Al and I at dinner that night that her prognosis wasn't very good. I reminded them that after today, her eternal prognosis was great.

On Thursday night the pastor for that area said that because of the love shown to their daughter, the parents too have now put their faith in Christ and are now followers of Jesus!

dreams and visions

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 17:26:00 +0000

Jeff is out in Uttar Pradesh this week joining a group from the US in medicals camps, evangelism and planning in how to reach the Indians in that area. Amazing things have been going on out there. Below is a story from one of the men that is apart of the group.

Scott Russell, one of the staff from E3 Partners led a trip in Andhra Pradesh and then took a train here. On the train they were sitting near a young lady who's a Brahmin and an aeronautical engineering student. They were joking around and laughing and having a good time. He started sharing the gospel using an evangecube. Her eyes good real big and she said, "My life is about to change in a big way." She explained that before they got on the train, she'd been on there for 10 hours and that 2 hours before they got on she'd had a dream that white people would come and share something with her on that train which would change her life. She had told her mom who was riding with her. As he shared the gospel, he turned to a panel that depicted Jesus on the cross. Her eyes got even bigger. She told them that as a small child she'd seen a vision of that exact image. Then she saw the same man dressed in a white robe offering her bread. She put her faith in Christ. They asked about her mother who had been laying down behind the curtain listening from a distance. The young lady said that she was a high caste Brahmin and probably wouldn't be interested. Still they shared the gospel and she too put her faith in Christ. Isn't it amazing how God worked things out ahead.

11 Getting Baptized this Week

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 16:55:00 +0000

One of our leaders told me today that he recently decided to teach some believers how simple people could use story telling to start new house churches. He said most of the Chrisitans in his area are illiterate or barely literate and he wanted to equip them to share the gospel and start house churches using storytelling.

He told them 6 stories, creation, the creation of spirits, the fall of man and a couple more and ended with the ten commandments. He then told them how they could use those stories to explain to others the man's need for Christ.

He was excited when three of the believers he shared with came back soon after and had implemented what he said. The result is that there will be a baptism this week for 11 new believers! One of the three, a young man named Roman shared with his father and the rest of his family who were not believers. They not only put their faith in Christ, but donated land to the church. Praise God for what he's doing!

Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:57:00 +0000

I know, I know, Thanksgiving was almost 2 weeks ago. Better late than never I guess. We really do have a lot to be thankful for and had an awesome thanksgiving celebration. Trish got home on Thursday from the appendectomy she had on Tuesday, so we postponed it a day and celebrated on Friday.

We had about 30 people over for a feast. Here's the leftovers:

We baked 4 chickens, had sweet potato casserole, corn, biriyani, rice, dahl, chutney, a spicy shrimp curry, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, fruit salad, green beans and of course lots of desserts.

Victoria's teacher Megan went to a lot of effort to decorate for thanksgiving. It was really nice. What I like most about what she did was her thanksgiving turkey. She put up a picture of a turkey and had cut feathers out of construction paper and had markers for people to write what they were thankful for and then they taped them to the turkey. Here's a picture when the turkey was about half filled with feathers (I didn't get a picture of it complete):

Some of the things people were thankful for include:

I'm thankful Trish is home without her appendix.
I'm thankful for the good food.
I'm thankful for God sending his son to die for me.
I'm thankful to be born as a human being (written by a buddhist friend)
God's perfect timing, confirming my calling in Calcutta
I'm thankful that God is helping me always

We had a great time which was followed by a flour bomb war. I've made a facebook photo album which you can view here.

Caution, Danger

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:32:00 +0000

Trish and I were waiting at the Metro Station in Delhi today on the way back from a doctor's appointment and saw a man sitting on the ledge next to this pole which has a sign in Hindi with a skull and cross-bones. Someone told him something and he got up looking rather frightened. I then read the sign. It's written in Hindi and it's translation is "Caution, Danger 25,000 volts. Don't touch."

Trish's comment was that she's surprised it's not written in English as well.

Victoria's Leading a Small Group

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 17:29:00 +0000

I'm really proud of my daughter. She was asked by one of the ladies in our house fellowship if she'd consider leading a small group for the teenagers and pre-teens. Victoria very seriously prayed about it and enlisted prayer from several friends and family members before answering. She was really considering carefully whether she was qualified or able and whether this was what God was calling her to do.

After a week or so, she agreed to lead the group. This week, they had their first small group meeting. They talked about encouragement, wisdom and looked at Scripture regarding how God has used young people. They are all starting to keep journals and will be meeting weekly. Their parents report that they all really enjoyed it and are looking forward to meeting again next week. Victoria seems to have her own little discipleship group now.

It's exciting to see Victoria use her gifts to serve the Lord in this way.

Lessons from Joseph - Saving

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 17:19:00 +0000

Last week Pastor Rajesh Hans was sharing with me something that God has been teaching him from the life of Joseph. He said that Joseph stored up during the years of plenty so that there was enough during the years of famine. He said that he realized he too needed to save for when there's not enough.

Rajesh, like many pastors really struggles to get by on the meager offerings of his church members. Many of the church members earn less than $3 per day. We've hired him to record some Bible stories and now to oversee some of our small groups. This helps out financially, but he says now that he's earning some, he's really got to be disciplined like Joseph in order to have enough when lean times come.

Pray for Rajesh and other pastors to be good stewards of the resources God entrusts to them and to save for the years of famine.

Building the Church vs. Building the Church

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:02:00 +0000

The church building in Malhati fell down as a result of a cyclone that passed through in April. (Above is a picture of the building at its inauguration, which I attended.) Today the pastor, Emmanuel, came to visit me to tell me of their plight. They need 20,000 Indian Rupees (about $425) to rebuild their church building.

It was a great opportunity to talk about building the church. We talked about the fact that it is God's church, and that He promised to build His church (Matthew 16:18). Of course His church isn't the building (although, He owns that too according to Psalm 24:1), but the people.

We talked about the fact that so many of the churches in this region have financial difficulties and how that is a result of people not giving, which is a sign of lack of faith. We read Exodus 35:20-29 and 36:4-7, where the people gave willingly and in such abundance that they had to be commanded to stop giving. We read Luke 21:1-4, where the widow gave her last pennies. We read 2 Corinthians 8:1-5, where from poverty and affliction they overflowed with joy in their generous giving. We talked about how it takes a miracle for people to give out of their lack. It's like water coming from a rock. Yet, it's possible with God.

Emmanuel left committed to pray for a miracle. He's praying that God would show him if there's any areas in his life where he can be more faithful and a better steward. He's praying that the 19 families that make up the church would be built up - growing in their faith and that they will give. He's going to share the stories we looked at together and ask them how they can apply them in their lives. He's praying for God to build His church and for God to provide to build His church building.

I'm praying that God would do as He promised and build His church, the people who are living stones (1 Peter 2:5). As they grow in their faith, I'm praying that their building would be repaired as well. Will you pray with me?

Delighting in His Law

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 07:54:00 +0000

"His delight is in the Law of the Lord and in the Law, he meditates day and night."

This is part of Psalm 1, which I'm teaching on in our home fellowship this Sunday. I memorized the Psalm and have been meditating on it quite a bit. I also have listened to 4 sermons on Psalm 1 in the last 3 days.

I thought I would share some of my musings with you.

Psalm 1 is full of contrasts: There's the wicked vs. the righteous. There's those that are firmly rooted vs. those blown away by the wind. There's the path of the righteous vs. the path of the sinner. There's the path that is known (approved and preserved) vs. the path that perishes. There's delight in the Law (instruction) vs. the counsel of the wicked.

There's the question of who is righteous. Many will so, none are righteous (Ro 3:9-10). Yet, in the Psalms and elsewhere in scripture, there's a clear distinction between righteous and unrighteous and between godly and ungodly. In Romans 3, Paul is obviously talking about the fact that there is no one righteous apart from Christ. However, in Christ we are made righteous.

There seems to be a progression of sin, where you go from moving in sin to standing in sin to sitting in sin. The progression is towards being more stuck or fixed in sin.

That raises the question of being fixed or firmly planted. Even though someone is fixed in sin, they are like chaff which is blown away by the wind and they will not be able to stand in judgment. Whereas, the righteous man - the man who delights in the law, will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water. That man will be firmly fixed and the implication is that he'll be able to withstand judgment.

Sometimes people think that living a sinful life is more free than the Christian life which is filled with rules and regulations. The fact is that there is life in the tree that is firmly planted. It yields fruit, it's leaf doesn't wither (read into that a person who is full of life even in a dry period) and it prospers. The one that is "free" is blown about. They are subject to their environment and therefore less free than the one who is firmly planted.

Finally, let's look at Delighting in the Law. This I think is the key to the passage and the thing I'm still meditating on and wrestling with. What does it mean to delight in the law other than that it includes meditating on it? How does one come to the place of delighting in the law?

So far, for the second question the two things that strike me are that prayer is one way to delight in the law and that actually spending time with the law is key to seeing its value and beauty which will result in delight. Psalm 119:18 is an example of someone praying this very thing.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on these two questions, this chapter or on delighting in God's Word.

Drunk, Delirious or Demonized?

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 07:41:00 +0000

"Welcome to India," spoken with an Indian accent is something we often say to each other when we experience something really weird here. Well we've been back in India for a week and last night I had my "Welcome to India" moment.

I was driving home late at night (around 10:30). It was drizzling. It was very difficult to see. I hate driving at night here because my windows always fog up (part of the poor design of my Indian made Bolero), people don't know how or simply refuse to dim their lights and there's always huge pot holes or other obstacles in the road. These obstacles usually take the form of a bicycle, rickshaw, cow or a pedestrian.

Last night's obstacle was a bit unusual, even for India. I was driving along, squinting, trying to make sure I didn't kill anyone. All of the sudden I see a man walking in the road. This man wasn't walking on the side of the road as is common, but in the middle of my lane. What was really unusual was that he was buck naked.

I was so shocked, I didn't really know what to think about him. I did manage to swerve around him. As I drove on, I was left thinking, "What on earth would possess a man to do that?" I finally decided either he was drunk, delirious or demonized.

Someone asked, "Did you stop?" The answer is no. I guess I'm not the good Samaritan. I did take time to pray for him - knowing that whether he was drunk, delirious or demonized, there's not much I could do for him other than pray for his deliverance. If God moves you to do the same, I hope you'll pray not only for him, but for the countless like him.

Police Action Averted

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Fri, 14 May 2010 10:09:00 +0000

Yesterday I had the privelege of meeting with Bisho Tigga (pictured above). She's one of our students and group leaders. She leads two small discipleship groups. Both are currently going through Foundational Bible Storytelling, using the Simply the Story method. She had a great testimony of how God has transformed her.

Bisho said that recently she's spent a lot of money for Purmila's wedding (Purmila is her daughter in the Lord) and for fixing her dilapidated house. As a result of the blessings God has provided her to be able to do these things, Bisho's sister became very jealous and began accusing her of stealing. Bisho's sister forced herself into Bisho's house and began searching for things that she said Bisho had stolen, including some clothing.

Bisho said had this happened before, her response to her sister would have been so severe that the police would likely have had to be called. However, she said that she just remembered the story that she had recently told of God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 12. She said in that story we learn that God said, "I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you." Bisho said because of this promise and the knowledge that God would act on her behalf, she was able to just sit quietly and peacefully. She said her sister found nothing and left. Bisho said that she's been changed by the truth of God's Word which she has learned in the discipleship class she attended with us.

Eavesdropping on Bible Stories

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Sat, 01 May 2010 16:22:00 +0000

Today I went with James to observe him lead a small group in storytelling. He was telling the story of Noah.

His storytelling was so good that 3 children climbed on an auto rickshaw that was sitting outside the house to look into the room and see what was going on. I snapped a picture through the window.

When outsiders are eavesdropping on your storytelling, it's always a good sign. James was so animated, that 2 men who were visiting form out of town also came in and sat in the group after he got started.

Our family is smaller

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 10:05:00 +0000

Some of you see the title and think, "did someone die?" It's not that, but for the past 3 weeks, we had 2 more sons, Gougou and Mamang, 2 boys from Manipur. Our friends, Jodi and Nelson have a small children's home and had to run to the states for 3 weeks and so loaned us 2 of their 6 kids. 3 others went to 2 different places and their adopted daughter, Esther went with them to the states.

Anyway, for the last 3 weeks, we've enjoyed the boys, playing praise and worship on the guitar, Gougou feeding my fish in my aquaponics project, Mamang showing off his muscles, teaching them to play spades, playing soccer and watching them try to kill birds with the slingshot. They also joined in on disecting a frog

Alas, Jodi and Nelson returned yesterday and took them back. Our house is a bit quieter now.

A taste of heaven on earth

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 05:15:00 +0000

Yesterday was one of the most amazing experiences of my life! I attended New Life Fellowship Association Church in Andheri West, Mumbai. There were about 800 people singing, shouting, dancing, clapping and praising God with their whole hearts.

Tears of joy filled my heart as we worshipped the only worthy one, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I was so excited that He was receiving the offerings of praise that He so deserves. There was celebration and chanting of the name of Jesus. This singing and then giving went on for one hour and forty-five minutes, yet had it gone on all day, I don't think many would have left. Better is one day in presence of our Lord than thousands elsewhere!

Shyju Mathew (www.shyjumathew.com) was the guest speaker. he really captured my heart when He stood up and read Psalm 76:1 and shared that in Judah God is known. He shared that it was through praise like what we had just experienced that God is known. He said that there is no other place that he would have rather been. I wholeheartedly agree. He even said that he is getting married this Tuesday and now wants to come to New Life Fellowship Lokhandwala for his honeymoon. He said that he could see God in heaven relishing in the worship and saying to the angels, "Shhh, angels. Shut up. Don't you hear them down there worshipping me?"

Christ is risen and we have reason to celebrate. He is great and has done great things. One day, we'll stand before His throne and worship Him for all eternity. That worship doesn't have to start then. We can start now and have a little taste of heaven on earth.