Words from the Wards

Tell Your Children "No" - and Yourself.

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 16:04:00 +0000

When my kids were little I used to tell them, "no," just because I thought they needed to be told no sometimes. I used to tell them that it was so they'd better appreciate it when I told them "yes." Now I have a more biblical basis for the suffering I inflicted on them (although it wasn't much suffering, but still a denial of the flesh). 1 Peter 4:1-2 says that we should suffer in the flesh "so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God."

In today's society we're so focused on gratifying the flesh - the lusts of men - that we make living for the will of God an afterthought or something to be done on Sundays. Let us be willing to join in the fellowship of His suffering (Phil 3:10). Let us die to the flesh (Gal 2:20), no longer gratifying our selfish desires or demanding that we be constantly entertained. Rather, may we have Christ live in us and live for the will of God (Phil 4:2).

How To Measure Maturity as a Disciple

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 22:00:00 +0000

How to Measure Progress/Maturity/Growth as a Disciple

Lately, I’ve been thinking about how you can really measure spiritual maturity. To me there’s several Philippians 2:4-8, where we’re told: 1) Christ didn’t regard equality with God as something to be grasped; 2) Christ emptied himself/ became a servant/ lowered himself to the form of man; 3) Christ humbled Himself; and 4) Christ became obedient to the point of death. So obviously we want to see humility and obedience and exaltation of God (not self) in a disciple. The other measure of Christlikeness that really stands out to me is that Christ was a disciple maker and He definitely called all of us to make disciples. How then can we be considered a mature disciple if we aren’t ourselves making humble obedient disciple making disciples?

I’ve also been reading a book called “Deeper Experiences of Famous Christians” One of the things that has really stood out to me is the death to self that has to occur before someone really experiences depth in their relationship with Christ. This isn’t another measure but a description of “emptying yourself” as Christ did. Are you willing to give up your comfort, your feelings of happiness, joy, and everything important to you and rely wholly on faith? (It's not that God doesn't want us to have joy, but that he doesn't want us to exalt feelings over Him, or the gift over the Giver.) When you come to this point, you’ve achieved a new measure of maturity.

These are some of my first thoughts on measures of maturity. I’m planning to think more and write more, but in the mean time, tell me your thoughts. How would you measure spiritual maturity/progress/growth as a disciple of Christ? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

If I were to write a book...

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 11:06:00 +0000

... I wonder if anyone would read it. I'll develop my thoughts on my blog and see if anyone is interested. If any of the topics below interest you or if you'd be interested in my thoughts on them, comment or drop me a line and I'll elaborate in another post. (I'll likely elaborate anyway as I play with these thoughts, but it might be a while before I get to the one you're most interested in.) These are some of the topics I'd want to address:

The primacy of making disciples and how it fits with God’s penultimate goal of glorifying Himself.
What is a disciple?
How making disciples (the basic building block of the church) is set aside for rapid church reproduction, a/k/a church multiplication, a/k/a most modern attempts at CPM. Might entertain the question of whether God ever intended for us to try to go fast in church planting.
Would Jesus make disciples using a workbook? If not, how would he do it?
Do you have to know how to read to be a disciple?
In order to make a disciples what must people know? i.e. when Jesus said, “teaching them to obey all that I have commanded” what did He mean? Is it possible to obey all he commanded? How do we teach people to obey? Is telling them to obey the same as teaching them to obey? Is there something implied there regarding training? How do you train people to obey? Doesn’t that imply changing their heart? How do we change people’s hearts? How can we make them mature spiritually? How can we equip them for service?
How do we measure spiritual maturity? Isn’t by someone’s outward actions – their obedience to Christ?
How this focus on obedience can become problematic (lead to works based theology or create Pharisees) and often causes people to become cultural christians or religious with no real spiritual life.
In order to not create Pharisees- spiritually dead church members, we should focus on developing faith (which will necessarily result in obedience).
We don’t teach people to have faith by focusing on faith, but by focusing on the object of faith, which inspires faith. (a/k/a faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God).
What are the best methods to hear the word of God? What practices should be developed? What disciplines should be practiced?
The importance of the gospel being shared to believers – it is the power of God to salvation. Are we completely saved from sin and it’s destructive force the minute we put faith in Christ or do we need continual salvation?

Some of the ideas that will come out in some of these topics are the need for teaching the old testament as we really see God revealing himself in it and the law as it is a tutor to lead us to Christ. We also see the importance of faith throughout the old testament and the theme of remembering what God has done as something which inspires our trust in Him. We’ll also see that those who had faith acted. There is no such thing as faith without action (although waiting or restraining oneself might be the actions of faith). Those who have greater faith are the more mature in Christ. Can you have great faith without having great love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self control? Or can you have great faith and not walk in the spirit? If you believe God’s way is best (that’s faith) then the action will be to follow his way. What we believe matters – it affects our actions.

Bulging Disc Leads to Writing and Tweeting

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:17:00 +0000

MRI showing bulge pressing on my nerve.

I've got a bulging disc in my spine which is pressing against the nerve root. So my sciatic nerve causes severe pain to shoot down my leg when I get up or down from a sitting or laying position. I'm going for daily treatment by a local physical therapist and praying that my back heals. Right now, getting in and out of a car is difficult and I can't lift anything over 1 kilogram. That makes my work tough.

So, after doing stretches and exercises, I put some ointment on my back and was laying around and thinking. I talked to someone today who's planning to write a book on discipleship. I thought I might have some things to say that others would be interested in on the topic. So I think I'll write some of my thoughts out on a blog and see if they develop enough that I could make a book out of it. What I'd really like to do is see how much interest there would be in my thoughts. So, I'm going to see what kind of feedback I get.

In order to get feedback, I want to let people know what I'm writing and when I've written some. So I've set up a twitter account. In fact I've set up a hootsuite account. (I figure if John Piper's using it that I can try it too.) That way, I can post to facebook, twitter and linked in all at once.

So follow me on twitter. My twitter account is @jeffinindia. Click Follow @jeffinindia
.

Jumping on a Moving Train

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff, Trish and Victoria) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 04:50:00 +0000

Last week, I caught a train to Patna from Siliguri with the Johnsons, a couple moving to Siliguri to work with us. We had an amazing experience I wanted to share with you.

We showed up in the train station in the afternoon at about 1:40 for our 1:50 train. Of course we sat around the platform for over an hour and a half, since the train was late. We were supposed to arrive in Patna at 4:00 AM. I'd made arrangements with my friend, "V" that I'd call him from the station before Patna Junction to let him know when we were getting close. Since I knew the train was running late, I set my alarm for 4AM just in case the train made up some time.

So at 4 AM, I woke up and found the train stopped. I asked someone how long until we get to Patna. They said we were 2 hours away. I asked where we were and they named the place, but it wasn't on the list of scheduled stops. Maybe I should have suspected something because of that, but sometimes when a train is late, it has to stop at other stations to allow another train to pass. So, I went back to sleep, setting my clock for 5, just in case the fellow told me wrong.

I woke up at 5 AM to people discussing the fact that the engine had broken down. People were beginning to flee the train. I asked someone what to do and they said to get on another train. I didn't know for sure that they were right, so I decided to go and look to see if I could find someone who worked for the railways to find out for sure what to do. First I told the Johnsons where I was going, When I started to climb down from the train, I saw that our coach wasn't next to the platform because it's a very small station with a small platform and we were on a long train. When there's no platform, you have to climb down a ladder to the gravel bed beside the tracks. So I climbed down and started walking to the platform which was a couple of hundred yards ahead. There I found an engineer.

He said that the engine had broken down.

I asked, "is another engine coming."

He said in Hindi, "It will take a long time."

When an Indian tells you, it will take a long time, that means it will be an eternity, so I knew we had to figure out another way to get to Patna or we might be sitting there for 12 hours or more. So I asked him, "What can we do?"

He said, "See that train that's coming, get on it."

"Do I need a ticket?"

"Do you have a ticket for this train?"

"Yes."

"Then just sit in the same coach," he said.

Not knowing how long the train was stopping there, I started walking as fast as I could in my flip flops back to the coach where the Johnsons were and my suitcase was. As I'm quickly walking, I called them on the phone to inform them to get their stuff together quickly so that we could switch trains. Then I got on the train, got my stuff, and we all climbed down the ladder from the train to the ground. We started walking on the railway bed, which is covered with gravel down towards the Air Conditioned Car. Then the train blew it's whistle and started moving.

I told the Johnsons, we have to get on the train quickly. We aborted our journey forward towards the Air Conditioned car and started climbing up the ladder onto the non-air conditioned sleeper class car, which was very crowded, but was the nearest entry point to the train. I saw that with the two of them climbing up and hoisting their luggage up that there was no way I was going to be able to board the train as it was picking up speed and would be moving too fast by the time they got up the ladder. So I went to the next coach and started to climb up only to find the door was locked. I asked the people to open the door, but they didn't open it.

Then I waited for the next door to come as the train was moving and starting to move pretty fast. I was actually running beside the train trying to hoist my small bag up onto the train (about 6 or 7 feet up) while I was running alongside the train. I called out, "Moojay mudud deejeeay!" ("Help me!)

Fortunately the people grabbed my bag for me. Then I was trying to grab onto the rail on the ladder and get my feet up on the rungs of the ladder while running alongside the train. I felt like what it must have felt like to be in an old western movie galloping next to a moving train and jumping on it to rob it. Finally, I got up on the train.

It was packed and there wasn't any place to sit. I moved towards the doorway that had been locked and stood in the walkway. The Johnsons started navigating their way down the aisle towards me. Meanwhile a policeman came and scolded me for getting on the train. I told him I had a ticket for the other train and the engineer had told me to get on this train. He then told me that getting on a moving train will result in an accident. I told him that my friends had already boarded and I couldn't leave them and begged his forgiveness and he moved along.

The Johnsons and I stood there in that doorway for the duration of the journey, which was about 2 hours.

I told Trish what had happened and she told me how dangerous it was. Looking back, it was crazy to try to get on a train moving that fast, but in the moment I wasn't thinking about the danger, just that we had to get on that train. It was an experience I hope to never have again, but what an adventure it was!

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.