The King

This was an observation from a while ago that I thought I’d share.

It is Friday, the 20th of May. I started the day reading the history of Maghreb. From the Pagans, to the Romans, to the Christian influence, on to the Arab Conquest. Noon-time I leave for cous cous. As I return on Avenue Mohamed 5 I see more guards than I’ve ever seen surrounding a Mosque. TV trucks outside of it. I walk around to the front and see more guards more fences, more people waiting, more men in the traditional Maghreb religious clothing. I realize this is the Mosque the king goes to and all of the expectation is for the arrival of the king. The Royal guard calmly mills around the entrance. The crowd waits in expectation. Some of the police pass out Moroccan flags and pictures of the King to the crowd. Red carpet is spread from the entrance to the point where the car of the King will stop. Anticipation grows, a number of black cars make a number of sweeping passes. The guard aligns into two precise rows on either side of the carpet. The other prestigious men that will join the King later in the Mosque wait at near the beginning of the red carpet for the king. Finally from a block away, commotion and a little bit of cheering begins and around comes 4 motorcycles escorting the King. The Mercedes stop right at the red carpet. The king gets out and waves to the crowd, walks down the red carpet with the Royal guard on each side and up the steps to the Mosque. The crowd of men ready in the proper clothing for the day follow him into the meeting. From one hour of waiting the arrival lasts only a minute. But it was the minute that will stay in my memory.

I saw the King.

Reflections:
This was a Friday, this is the day of prayer and yet all of the anticipation I saw was for the King of a country. Who was glorified today and is that really how it should be or how it will be in the time to come?

Universalism vs. particularism (What is more important, rules or relationships?)

From Fons Trompenaars, post number one in a series looking at different cultures and a Biblical worldview.

The Universalist attaches great importance to the observance of rules. The behavior tends to be abstract. In universalist, rule-based societies there are certain absolutes that apply across the board. They apply regardless of circumstances or particular situations. What is right is always right in every situation and for everybody. A Universalist tries to apply the same rules in all situations. To remain fair a universalist will not make differences between people from the narrow environment, such as family, friends or members of the so-called ingroup and the wider community, such as strangers and members of the outgroup. Wherever possible, personal feelings and emotions are put aside and the Universalist prefer to look objectively at the situation. To remain always fair everyone is equal as there are no differences. Finally, rule-based behavior refers to the tendency that exceptions in the rule construct could lead to weaknesses. It is feared that once exceptions are approved, could be a door down the system.

The Particularist assesses more the specific circumstances or the personal backgrounds. In particularism societies in any situation behave depends on the circumstances. What is right in one situation may not be right in another. A Particularist must therefore sustain, protect or discount this person no matter what the rules say. People in such societies treat their family, friends and members of their ingroup as best they can. The other people around them are on their own. Their ingroup will take care of them. The in- or outgroups are clearly distinguished. A particularist always differences between individuals. No one is seen as the same, everyone is treated as unique. Personal feelings are down here, in contrast to the Universalist, not aside, but as a support. In practice both kinds of judgment is used. In most situations it is encountered that they reinforce each other.

Countries who can be seen as universalism societies: USA, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, Belgium. Countries who can be seen as particularism societies: Brazil, France, Japan, Singapore, Argentina, Mexico and Thailand.

Is the Father a universalist or a particularist. Both, the laws and justice of the Father is universal. The sin of man is universal and stands in complete opposition to relationship with Him. This seperation is universal. His invitation is universal to all. Matthew 22 shows the universalist and particularist Father. His invitation is sent to all who will hear. “Come eat and drink at the table of the Lord.” But when they came he with great particularity let some stay and others were found lacking and rejected. “Many are called but few are chosen.” There is certainly much precident for those he has chosen to have a seperate inheritance than that of the others. The God of the bible is grieved by the pain of the whole world but His ingroup is certainly sitting in different standing than those who are in the outgroup.

Typical cultural reactions to the outgroup are different than the biblical reaction in this age. The typical reaction to the outgroup is isolation, distain or atleast apathy. The reaction shown by the Jesus and thus the Father is one that is different than that response. It is pursuit and compassion. Parables like the 99 sheep and pursuing the lost and the broad invitation to the Wedding feast are an example of a loving, compasionate and opeen response to all is shown as the character of how the Father and Jesus are. Also, we see that Jesus broke into the “out-group” with the lady at the well, the leporous colony, the tax collectors, many more. In fact Jesus condemned those who were seemingly on the “in-group” for not reaching out and extending love to those around them.

What do we do?
The universalist must be reminded that not everyone is the same. There is and ingroup and an outgroup in the Kingdom. The judgment of that group is not for us but to God but those groups exist. Denying that denies that God judges each uniquely and individually. There is an inheritance for the ingroup and there is eternal punishment for the outgroup. This core biblical concept is hard for a staunch universalist to accept when they adimantly believe that “all men are greated equally”. Though that may be true, not all men make the same decisions or have the same eternal inheritance.

The particularist must be reminded that the word of the Father is true and unchanging and all laws, perceptions and desires will be broken if they stand in opposition to the word of God. The word of God is absloute and not subjective. They also, need to be reminded that even though there is an ingroup that group is not based on inheritance, family line or entitlement but only on the admission of God’s absolute word and His gift of a sacrafice for our sin through Jesus Christ. That absoulte rule allows what they inherently know as an ingroup. The other reminder of for the particularist is that, “many are invited.” Your inheritance and promise of being on the ingroup only encourages you more to reach out to the outgroup. This is counter to the typical culture of a particularist culture but is completely biblical.

If you have thoughts please comment or link to another blog post!

God’s Word and Fons Trompenaar’s 7 Dimensions of Culture

I recently was pointed to a wikipedia page that described a breakdown of different cultures based on seven criteria. My friend asked me to comment on my home culture and on a culture I have lived in outside of my home culture. Then to comment on what parts of culture have been hard to bridge in relation to moving from “home culture” to “other culture”. As I pondered for a bit I realized that I really don’t want to bring my home culture to stand as a barrier to any new culture I go to. Likewise, I have now desire to passively take on a new culture with out putting some thought into it. The culture I want to know, live and see is a biblical culture. I am quite convinced that a biblical culture is not purely American or European or Asian or Middle-Eastern or African. It is not tied to geography but to the word of God. The culture shock that I want to experience is not longing for my home culture but for instead longing for a biblical culture. Starbucks you are cool and all but you don’t matter in place of love, justice and an invitation to eternal inheritance. There are seven dimensions of culture and I figure that calls for seven posts where I hope to struggle between two different expressions of culture and I hope to see where a balanced biblical expression is.

The page for this idea comes from the link below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fons_Trompenaars

Everything you need to know you learned in kindergarten.

We’ve all heard this and we chuckle when we hear it but the reality of it is the reason it continually gets used. I know that I didn’t know calculus or world history at that point but there are somethings we knew so clearly and vividly as children that could have a refresher on now. I had this experience this past week.

I was with some friends and we were simply praising the Lord. There was a break in the music and an number of people were praying for each-other and responding to anything they felt the Lord was saying. One person that I had met this week simply came up to me and asked if he could pray for my foot. It was a simple question but it quickly took me back 20 years and reminded me of what having “faith as a child” meant.

If you have known me for long you probably know that I don’t have any toes on my right foot. There are a few stories circulating about the cause, ranging from shark attack, to frost bite, to skin eating disease but the truth is simply a lawn mower accident when I was 6. I have nicknamed it “stubby” and he’s been running around for 20 years now. When the accident happened there was a community that rallied around me and my family in prayer and support and my two weeks in the hospital went as well as they could. The doctor was able to save the foot, where they were afraid they may have to remove more from infection. For many reasons the whole experience was a miracle already. I was a six year old on crutches and in physical therapy but that quickly turned into a seven year old running around the yard playing whatever game we could dream up. Prayers had been answered and I was and am not limited by the accident. Praise the Lord!

As an adult I would and have said, “praise God” and prayed into other things thanking God for the work that he did for my pulling me through the operation. It was just that simple question this week that brought me straight back to a time when I was seven and I chose a different response. I was on a family reunion with me family and we had 20 cousins or so with us in the hills of West Virginia. Some of the parents were going to a prayer meeting in town and for some reason I thought that it sounded like a fun idea. I think it may have been me my parents and my aunt and uncle that went. The message may have been good but I couldn’t tell you the three main points. What I can tell you is the sentence at the end from the person up front. “If you have a sickness or medical issue please come up front I want to pray for you.” Well a seven year old that has no toes can call it like it is and I realized that I had a medical issue that God could heal. I went up and received prayer. [Please put religious preconceptions on hold for a second and listen to the seven year-old tell a story] We circled around and when she prayed for me she simply reached out her hand a few feet from me and prayed for healing. There was something real that happened because with no one touching me I felt a strong warmth come over me and then I couldn’t stand. Luckliy there was a man behind me that caught me but as I rested on the floor I felt the love of God on me and a warmth that could only come from His Spirit. My toes were not healed but as I talked to the man after he mentioned that he’d heard of legs growing out later on after a prayer meeting. I returned to my seat and then later to the camp with my cousins and everything seemed like a normal night with a prayer meeting, all except God reached out that night and showed me his Spirit in a very real way!. Can I leave that time saying God is not a loving God because when I asked he didn’t heal? NO! If I had never gone up there or even gone up there with out the faith of a seven year old I may have reasoned my way out of God being able to show me Himself that night. Not with healing my foot but with a very real demonstration of his love and his power. These two attributes are the very two things that seem to mark the character of God and stand in opposition to our reason!

Faith was attributed to those who prayed with out seeing results. Faith is leaning on God with our problems that are bigger than ourselves. We prayed again last Friday for my toes but Stubby still is there and I still only have to cut five toenails. Yet, as I sat there last week in prayer I felt that same presence of God and I was reminded of the faith of a seven year-old which does not consult medical journals to see how God moves (though I still think medical journals have much worth in this day in age) but through faith is able to believe that the God of power and love through the whole Old and New Testament is the same God that cares for our problems today. I don’t know when or how or even if He will move in all of our issues of life but I am challenged that God loves the faith filled hearts of seven year-olds. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few seven year-olds will have Hebrews 11:39-40 said of them by God, “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”  Let’s run back to having faith as a child because it truly is the child that can fully trust their father with everything and our heavenly Father CAN be trusted with everything!

Paul’s priority and the power of the message

There are a few phrases that Paul said that really impact me. Take Acts 20:24 “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” Then again in 1Cor 9:19-23, it says,” For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though myself not being under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but being under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”
Paul in both of these statements takes great joy in the blessings of the gospel and a deep desire to share it for the sake of others, and a disregard for his own pride, identity and desires. So in sharing myself I must look to the joy of the message and it’s power in every culture. I mentioned it in the past, but being in a culture that is in contrast to the gospel message has brought the truth of it out even more.

The reflection on forgiveness

Things become clearer as you step.  Walls that you did not know were there you quickly find when you step into them.  It is easier to address cultural walls when they are visible and not hidden in the shadows.  Here are a few reflections I have while sharing about the power of the cross and the need for a Savior who has bridged the gap between an all loving but all pure God and us (who do have sin and in ourselves can not approach the Heavenly Father on our own.)  A few of the reactions are this: “I don’t have sin”, “I don’t need to be forgiven because I’ve done good works to make up for my bad ones” or “it’s ok I’m mostly good so God will let me in.”  Many of my neighbors believe that there is a tally and the good balances out with the bad and if you have more good than you have bad then you will enter paradise when you die.  This sounds logical, except it is completely unbiblical and completely contrary to the character of God.

Here is why.  Islam states that there is no need to pay for a sin, no need for a sacrifice to completely pay for sin.  There is no problem with bad being in paradise, it just matters that you’re mostly good.  There is no perceived need for a savior who takes us where we are right now and says, “I have paid the price and in my blood you are covered and pure.”  The person sitting in the puddle of mud thinks that by doing more work in the puddle they will eventually be clean but they reject the person on the side saying, “Come over here.  I have a hose and I want to clean you off.  Will you let me help you?”  Having a road to Heaven that is based on works is a road that is based on prideful selfishness.

In this selfish view that says we can do it on our own, we also devalue who the Heavenly Father is.  We reject the love that he showed by giving his Son to cover our sins.  We reject the purity that is needed.  We reject the wonderful work of love that we see in that pivotal moment of forgiveness when Jesus took all of our sins.  Thus, at the end we have something that is logical (weigh out the good and the bad and measure which is more) but is devoid of the divine love, forgiveness, purity, and freedom that we find in the power of the cross.  A view that God is One, and is great is as G.K. Chesterton says, “so huge a truth that it is hard to see it was a half-truth”.  This view is so true almost all want to run to the truth and rally behind it in unity.  The problem lies in the fact that it is still a half-truth.  It is does not covey the love that God has shown by providing a path of forgiveness through the work that Jesus did on the cross.  It does not show that we in our power can not approach that one God but in His love He has made a way that we can approach him through the work on the cross.

I mention this to share the backdrop for forgiveness.  When a culture rejects the forgiveness given by God and instead says, “Through our works we will be pleasing in God’s sight,” they have no understanding of receiving forgiveness and thus giving forgiveness.  I am hesitant to say this as a broad statement, but I have had a number of friends here that have this core belief in their lives and the lack of forgiveness simply breeds the detrimental 1 for 1, eye for an eye mentality.   Jesus said things like, “when someone hits you on one cheek turn and give him the other” only because he was giving up ALL of his rights to be the sacrificial lamb for us.  He called us higher by being the example.   He showed us a greater view of love by showing it through forgiveness.  He then called us to a greater means of love by giving it through forgiveness.

There is often a wall in these situations; there are barriers to giving forgiveness because we’ve never truly received it.  Other times people can’t receive forgiveness from someone because they themselves have not given it to themselves and others.  Luckily, Jesus showed the ultimate act of forgiveness, when we receive that for ourselves we can finally forgive others ourselves.

The Leaders of the World and the Soverignty of God – Jeremiah and Daniel

A tiny scripture in Jeremiah loaded with prophecy that is directly confirmed in Daniel.

Now I will hand all you countries over to my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; I will make even the wild animals subject to him.  All nations will serve him and his son and his grandson until the time for his land comes, then many nations and great kings will subjugate him.  Jeremiah 27:6-7

What is said there?

• God will elevate people to high positions that he has not even included in his covenant promise (Lev 26 or originally Gen 12:1-3)
• God will use secular means to reach spiritual implications.  The sins of the Isrealites had to be punished but through the provision of a good ruler outside the covanent, the remnant that left Jerusalem was preserved.
• There is a time and a place for everything.  There was a preordained time for the nation of Babylon to rule.  When they were defeated by other nations, though a secular event, God had foretold it and planned it.
• God’s plans allow for more of God’s plans to be established.

Let’s look at it.  It looks bad.  Isreal is to be taken into captivity and God himself is saying I have removed your leadership nation of Isreal and you must submit to a secular leadership.  I can hear the response, and if you read more of Jeremiah you will also hear the response.  What about the promise! We are the chosen people!  We are the people that must possess this land.  In that time the word of God went forth not from a place of power but from a place of poverty, from the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah.  A word that was rejected,  a word that forced Jeremiah to be persecuted and ridiculed and ultimately a word that was true.  I reminder that the generation of that time did not want to hear was that the covanent came with both blessings and curses.

So, to both punish Israel and to provide for Isreal, he ordained for Nebuchadnezzar to come to great power and to bring have the remnant of God’s chosen people come to Babylon.  To see the seamless transition I leave you with Daniel 1:1-8.  More will come.

In the third year of the reign of Jehoaikim the king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.  And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god.

Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring in some of the Isrealites for the royal family and the nobility – young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace.  He was to teach them the language and the literature of the Babylonians.  The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table.  They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service.

Among these were some from Judah; Daniel, Hannaniah, Misheal and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names;  to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach, to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abendego.

The story continues and should be explored more but we shall conclude now with a few points.  Even as God lifts up the rulers of this world he will post watchmen in places where he needs them.  God sovereignly placed Nebuchadnezzar in power for the time that he did but immediately after  he placed people like Daniel in places where God’s glory and might could be shown to a whole new culture.  In fact the final part of the blessing to Abraham in Gen 12:3 is fulfilled, in part, by this scattering and dissemination into the Babylonian culture, “and all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.” In this instance the Babylonians are blessed by God sending or scattering the Jewish nation throughout Babylonia.  Daniel and the others, set a standard for the nation and in fear of God and not man the turned the whole course of the strongest world nation of that age.

That would not have happened if God had not sent the Jews out from Jerusalem.  God is sovereign.

The four men that God chose for that time did not know the tasks they would be asked to do or the stances they would have to make.  Yet,  they did know they were called to love and fear God in everything.  That made all the difference.

Feel free to read the rest of Daniel for that.  I may blog about it soon.

The Dinner Party

I am not a connoisseur of food,  nor can I really describe a meal I’ve eaten in exquisite detail to the point of making a person’s mouth water.  But, some can and I can respect that.  Some meals help capture the the culture, the time and the bond that we have through relationships.  I just read an article in Savuer by Carolyn Forche from Oct. 2010 and thought you may enjoy.

In late January 1984, my husband and I received an invitation to a dinner party in West Beriut, Lebanon, instructing us to come whether or not there was a lull in the fighting, which meant something like “rain or shine.”  We were to follow the lighted votives set along a certain street until they stopped at out hosts’ building,  whereupon more votives would be flickering on the stairs to lead us to the right apartment.  Our hosts were native Beirutis who wanted to sho us an evening of legendary hospitality in a city once known as “the Paris of the Middle East.”  We were with the press corps, as were many of the other guests.  The dinner would be held after curfew, but we had press passes, and those who didn’t were willing to venture out though the darkened streets in order to experience the joie de vivre and home-cooked cuisine of the Labanese.

That night, the sky was crusted with stars and the red lights of tracer rounds.  There had been fighting in and around the city for days or weeks or months or years, depending on whom you asked: shell fire, mortar fire, and street-tostreet combat.  It may seem odd to imagine going out to dinner under those circumstances, but the Beiruti desire is to live fully despite everything was contagious.  Tonight, “to live” meant to throw a festive dinner.  On days when there was even a fleeting respite from the fighting, the streets would fill with marketgoers; umbrellas would snap open over carts piled with tangerines, dates, lemons, and spices, and the street cooks would set kebabs roasting on their grills.

This is how we found ourselves seated on cushoins around a table made deom carved wooden doors, very wide and long and lighted by dozens of candles.  A traditional spread of mazas, or small plates, was set befor us; cumin-dusted cauliflower served with tahini sauce, lentils in garlic and herbs, skewered lamb that was charred on the outside and pink within, pita bread hot from the griddle, hummus laced with sumac, purees of roasted eggplant and fava beans, and sardines crisped over the fire.  Standing among the candles were bottles of Lebanese wine and, later, anise-flavored arak to be poured over water and ice.  As the little plates were emptied, they were taken away and replaced by still more dishes.  For dessert, we ate custard resembling an orange-scented cloud.

Throughout the meal there was laughter and conversation, broken by silent, appreciative tastes, and there were also explosions, at first far away, and then nearer to the building.  One of the guests raised her glass and pronounced that if the building was struck, she wanted to die very quickly, never knowing what had hit her, to which a Beiruti responded: “Do you not wish to feel everything?  Even your own death?”  There was a chiming of glasses touched together, more nervous laughter, and when the explosions stopped, we descended the stairwells, again by candlelight, and made our way back into the darkness.

- Carolyn Forche, Author of Blue Hour (Harper Collins,2003)

Do you not wish to feel everything?  Even a meal can capture the essence of that question!

Songs that Glorify Him

Jars of Clay – Love song for a savior

The cost of being a disciple.

The call and response.
– To Peter and Andrew, Jesus said, “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men”. At once they left there nets and followed him. (Matt 4:19)
– Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and IMMEDIATELY they left the boat and their father and followed him. (Matt 4:21-22)
–As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collectors booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. (Matt 9:9)

The appointment.
– He appointed twelve-designating them apostles- that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. (Mark 3:13-15)

–These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey excepta staff-no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra tunic. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them.”
They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
(Mark 6:12-13)

The Reward:
(Response of the 72 and of Jesus)
–The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” (Luke 10:17)
–”However do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the son is except the Father, and no one knows whom the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Luke 10:20-22)

The summary:

–The call

–The simple obedience

–The commissioning and sending out (notice the obedience to discipleship came before the sending)

–The reward of truly being a fisher of men
knowing the Father through revelation of the Son.

A tangent:
For those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those her justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:30)

Is this not the call of discipleship. Is being justified not a continued walk of active obedience. Is being glorified not living out the kingdom by being a true fisher of men that is send out and is setting those free around them by “preaching and to having authority to drive out demons.”

Source of these thoughts: The Cost of Discipleship by Deitrich Bonhoeffer