Natural Disasters

The Myanmar cyclone has claimed more than 30,000 lives, in part due to the (in)action of the Junta.
Today, an earthquake in China killed more than 10,000 and many more are missing.

The presence of personal evils in the world, the suffering inflicted upon persons by other persons, is understandable. But the natural disasters of the world, or natural evil, is difficult to stomach.

Just this past Sunday I taught a class as part of a series on the so-called "Problem of Evil." How can there be evil in this world if there is a loving, all-knowning, all-powerful God?

A defense is one thing; I think I can speak with someone who wants to argue that God does not exist based upon the argument that bad things happen. The mere existence of bad things does not mean God doesn't exist. But explaining why God would allow bad things, a theodicy, would be more satisfactory.

Perhaps I should post the work that my friend and I have done for this class (it's mostly his stuff). But what I want is to be able to explain why, or failing that to explain why I cannot give the reason but still be convincing to others when I say that God is good, loving, wise and powerful. *sigh* That will be a lot of work.

Clyde Cook

Not many of those who read this blog will have had to privilege of meeting Dr. Clyde Cook. Nonetheless, his passing is both a sad and glorious thing. Biola has a tribute site for Dr. Cook.

I graduated from Talbot in 2000 and 2008. Biola found me in 1991 and I began attending in 1992. Dr. Clyde Cook was there for my entire Biola and Talbot experience. I was very pleased to hear he was retiring and it gave me joy to think that this wonder servant of God spending well-earned time with family and friends.

I heard about his passage into glory the day after; good friends and fellow Biolans told me. Strangely, while I felt sorrow for Anna Belle Cook, I smiled with the realization that Dr. Cook was received in celebrated in heaven.

"Well done, good and faithful servant." If I have known any man about whom I could confidently assert would hear these words upon meeting our Lord and Savior, it is Clyde Cook.

God provides some things through us

I can't complain about my lot in life. We have much and plenty.

On Saturday, as we left a grocery store, a man and an old woman approached our car, begging for money. He said he was trying to feed his family and his mom. We didn't have much cash to give them, so he only got $3.00 from us. As he guided his mom to another car, I started to pull away but decided to stop. We went back to the man and his mom; we offered to buy him a meal or some groceries and he took us up on it.

His name is Robert. I went into the grocery store with Robert while Cathy stayed outside and chatted with his mom. His family moved here from Philadelphia. He does auto body work and thought he could find a job here easily, like back home. Unfortunately, he can't find work and lives day-to-day. We got a modest basket of food because he does not have refrigeration; I paid and we joined Robert's mom and Cathy.

Cathy had been chatting with Robert's mom and prayed with her. Robert's mom is a Christian, and was very glad for the company and prayer. She's blind (we don't know why) and Robert is the son trying to take care of the family. She thinks her other son, who comes by and follows them around harassing them, may be demonicly influenced. They have it pretty rough.

We left Robert and his mom at the grocery store, heading home with their daily bread.

While it was good to do something for Robert and his mom, it hurt that we have such limitations. But just as we trust God for our daily needs, I have to trust that God will watch over His other children, too. It is not for me to try to do it all, but we'll try to do all that He asks of us, when He asks it.

So, if you would, ask God to watch over Robert and his mom. Thanks.

Don't boycott The Golden Compass

I'm not boycotting The Golden Compass, and neither should you. Please, don't draw any more attention to Pullman, his books, or the movie.

I have already read the book, and it is a very well-written and subtle, but effective, attempt to plant negative ideas about God in the reader's mind. The other books only promise to get more explicit in the attack on young minds who would read this series.

Rather than drawing attention to it, however, we should let it die quietly, and engage in conversation with people who express an interest in the movie and the books.

As Marc T. Newman of MovieMinistry says:

I want to make it clear at the outset that this series of articles is not designed to be a call to boycott The Golden Compass. Any attention Christians bring to The Golden Compass by yelling, screaming, offering to pay for the prints to burn them (as I remember a televangelist saying at a rally denouncing The Last Temptation of Christ) will only fuel the curiosity factor. You would think that Christians would have learned that lesson. The hype around The DaVinci Code turned a boring film into a box-office juggernaut, earning it six times its production budget and guaranteeing that Dan Brown’s other book, Angels and Demons, would get the green light (it is tentatively scheduled for a Christmas 2008 release).

Besides, it won’t work. The Golden Compass has become the “must see” film of the Christmas season. Every time the trailer for the film comes on the audience reaction is positive. They are positioning this as a family film filled with adventure and excitement. A Christian boycott will not stop this film from being a blockbuster. And there is a better way to approach this movie.

The method we find used in the Scriptures to confront the accusations of non-believers, or pagans, is not threats, but persuasion. In Acts 17 and 19 we read of Paul speaking to the Athenians, or hear of his tactics among the pagan people throughout Asia. He moved them with arguments. Paul was well-versed in the mythologies of his time, and, when he had the opportunity, he used that knowledge to question, confront, and make opposing claims. His goal was not to win some temporal culture war, but the battle for his immediate hearers’ souls. We should have the same aim in mind.

Christians can successfully use popular culture as a means of starting conversations about morality, ethics, and the Gospel. I have received numerous emails from people describing how they used Bible studies and FilmTalk cards created by MovieMinistry to bridge the gap between entertainment and evangelism. As distasteful as it may seem, The Golden Compass represents an opportunity for Christians to engage lies with the truth. The first step to understanding how that dialogue can take place is realizing that movies are not monologues.

Free Water for Africans, Free Music for You

Visit HopeAmp, sign up and receive a free song download (from Matthew Smith; I like "All I Owe"), and help Blood:Water Mission (founded by Jars of Clay) provide clean blood and clean water in Africa.

The Gift of Worship

Backing Up Into Cars

This past Sunday we backed into another car on Sunday, at church.

I was at church early, and Cathy came a little late. Parking is scarce at church, so I told her to meet me in front, and I would park the car while she got a seat. She thought she saw a parking spot in the alley next to the church, which led to the events in which we hit another car.

I say "we" because Cathy although was driving, she thought I was guiding her, and I don't blame her for thinking so. She could not park in the alley and began to back out between the wall and the other cars. At one point, I warned her that she was getting close to the wall, and she thought I was guiding her the rest of the way out. At the end of the alley, we hit a red car.

So, we hit a red car parked at a bend at the end of the alley. It wasn't too bad, but it was a light scrape. I put a note on the car, sent Cathy inside, and parked the car. While I was waiting for a spot, I prayed with an elder, and on my way down the hall to the sanctuary I prayed with another elder. By the time I was in my seat, I was finally O.K. with it.

After the service, we waiting around for someone to call. Unfortunately, there was a lunch event associated with our missions events. Asking around, the senior pastor said, "I think that's Jim's car."

This Jim, as it turns out, is the man I report to for my IT stuff at church. Sure enough, I found him at the lunch and confirmed it is, in fact, his car. He said he'd look at it and call later. I offered to pay for the damage and went home.

Honestly, we don't have the extra money, what with the impending mortgage crisis. It was a real blessing, then, when Jim called and left me a voicemail indicating, "never mind, fergetaboutit." He indicated he was parked illegally anyway, and it wasn't too bad, it'll be unnoticeable after a car wash.

Thank God, and thanks to Jim. That was very gracious of him.

Nice weekend

We had a very nice weekend. OK, it was also a busy weekend, and Cathy felt that I had over-committed myself, but it was a good weekend, nonetheless.

On Saturday, I got up and worked on the computer a bit, and Cathy woke a little later and kept me company. We lounged around the house until I had to leave for the church to do tech work for a Luau and concert.

The Luau and concert was great. We had somewhere between 200~240 people attend, with five responses from first-time guests to our church requesting a follow-up. The music provided during the worship was fantastic, led by Imua Garza (YouTube videos), his wife Tiffa, and his brother-in-law Eric. They were great! As a request from our youth pastor, he did his Super Mario guitar solo (embedded below). That guy is really good! They also played Sunday morning and evening (when we had the youth event).

On Sunday, along with the Hawaii-themed worship, we heard from Dr. Eric Theonnes, a pastor from another EV Free and a professor at Biola. He spoke on the glory of God and how it should impact our lives and missionary work. It was truly fantastic, with a cogent message, good delivery, and a consistent, coherent theology firmly grounded in the Bible. One thing that struck me deeply was his reference to Isaiah seeing the Lord enthroned (in chapter 5), and he was undone. I pray for such an undoing of my self.

That evening, my loving wife convinced me to find someone else to cover the worship service and spend time with her. She was right; I was spending too much time away from family, even for such a good cause.

This night (Monday) we attended a missionary appreciation dinner at the Disneyland Hotel sushi restaurant, Yamabuki. Each table got to sit with one of our missionaries and spent quality, quantity time with them. The couple we sat with have been involved in L.A. inner city missions since 1981 and has a similar target at Cathy's dad's church. I was already asked by a pastor to visit his ministry to help out, and this conversation confirmed so much more. I am looking forward to my first visit.

Well... it is late, and I have a Hebrew test tomorrow, and I am having difficulty staying awake...

Team Work, Tithes, and Responsibility

Did you ever have a teacher who made you work in teams, and everybody gets the same grade? This is the "one-for-all" approach that is supposed to foster team work and be effective in the workplace. By extension, this should be true in churches, as well.

I have a philosophy about working in a church (and sometimes for the church). Ideally, each person understands that our work is more than a job function; it is a work unto the Lord. As such, working on a team in a church should be easier, since we're trying to please one and the same Lord, instead of advancing ourselves or our own agendas.

Therein lies the struggle for me; on the one hand, I have been contracted to organize and set policy for technology at my church, so I have an obligation to do it to the best of my ability, both as a Christian and as a job requirement. On the other hand, there are objectives and goals to be reached, and each person or ministry has their priorities. Some of these are complimentary, some are are contradictory.

Budgeting, however, has been an issue for me. Some people are understanding, others push for what they want me to buy for them, regardless of need. It bothers me when other staff purchase computer accessories or software without shopping around. This is because every dollar we don't save, when we could have saved it, is spent wastefully, no longer available for other purposes. I feel like I am spending God's people's money.

With every laptop or monitor I buy, I spend someone's gift to God, or tithe. It is a large responsibility, being responsible with God's money.

I wish I would feel that way about my time, my talents, and my thoughts.

Sacred, Secular, Shelby?

I've noted that information seems to be a primary need at our church, as well as a great source of frustration. We bought a product from Shelby Systems which should resolve the issue. The functions of Shelby, however, were portioned out to three individuals, and apparently one person is gone. Unfortunately, nobody had a grasp of the system at this point, at least well enough to leverage it against our present challenges.

My paid responsibilities involve IT, so I must learn Shelby. My intern responsibilities involve the gathering, distributing, and using of information -- which should involve Shelby. Given that my heart lies in making ministry happen, I find this rare opportunity to combine my secular talents with my spiritual passions.

I am truly looking forward to making IT work for ministry. How energizing!

The Love of God for Sinners Like Me

Nicole posted a reflection on sin. Part of what she said is as follows:

...So often, even though I'll recognize my sin, I want to say, "Well, it's because so-and-so is acting like that" or I'll try to justify it by saying that it's because "I had a bad day" or that my actions/attitudes are just one of my "personality traits," "weaknesses," or "struggles." When the bottom line really is that it's, plain and simple, SIN. The sooner I admit that and repent, the sooner the joy and rejoicing will come. :)

I have an additional problem. I, too, justify sin in my heart. However, I tend to admit my sin quickly and pray for God's help. My problem is that I get in my own way when it comes to repentance.

Too often, my tendency is to avoid going to God with my sin. I do admit it, and I go to Him in prayer. But instead of asking God to deal with the sin in my heart, I try to do it myself. I have a tendency to attempt to stand in my own ability. Too often, I don't let God fix my brokenness. Instead, I try to deal with sin in my life, in my own ability, before telling God about it.

As if He didn't already know. He is my Creator, I am the creature. He knows what is broken in me. And there is very little that I can fix myself, and those are cosmetic.

Fundamentally, I avoid God with my broken self, my sin, due to believing a lie. It may be a belief that God doesn't love me as I am. I have long been afraid that I am simply not good enough as I am. And it is true, I am not good enough as I am to earn God's love. I cannot earn God's love.

Fortunately, I don't have to earn His love. God already loves me, broken as I am.

The notion that "God loves me" is the reason we can go to God and tell Him, "Father, this is broken. Would can You fix it?" God probably responds the say parents do when children asks them to do something. God, our my heavenly Father, responds in love.

God responds out of love to our sin.

We can go to God with our sin. He knows, He loves us anyway. And only He can fix what is broken within us. And God is willing.

Oh God, what a wonderful God You are!

Jesus Christ: Superman?

Spoiler Alert: if you intend on seeing "Superman Returns,"
read no further.

So Cathy & I saw "Superman Returns." The movie was 2.5 hours long, yet we did not notice the passing of the time. We really enjoyed it, and I felt like there are numerous Christological references in the movie. Some were subtle, some were apparent, and I am convinced that the writer/producer intended for this effect.

I am sure I am not the first to make these observations, and there may be more, but here's a quick list of things that occurred to me:

• Superman falls into his mother's arms like Michelangelo's Pietà
• Superman has a deceased earthly father
• Superman has a wilderness experience
• Superman was sent as an only son (see below)
• Superman refers to himself as a savior
• Superman is beaten and stabbed in the side
• Superman saves the world and falls with his arms and legs in the shape of a cross
  

Superman the only son: Superman recalls his father saying, "They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. It is for this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you—my only son."

Superman the savior: Superman is flying with Lois over the city, and he asks her, "What do you hear?" Lois replies, "Nothing. It's quiet." Superman says, "I hear everything. You wrote that the world doesn't need a savior. But everyday I hear people crying out for one."

Superman's cross: Superman saves the world and falls with his arms and legs in the shape of a cross as he is falls back to Earth from the exosphere.

A quick Google search turned up this article entitled "The Spiritual Side of Superman Returns." It looks like the impression was quite deliberate. Interesting...

Side note: I prefer DC comics over Marvel. My favorite comic book characters are Spiderman, Batman, and Superman, usually in that order.

Christmas Messages from Max Lucado

Max Lucado is offering six messages on the meaning of Christmas from his UpWords site. Download the MP3 files from http://www.maxlucado.com/christmas/. There's plenty of other material on the site as well.

Trusting God

So, last week I was thinking about trusting God. I've got a lot going on, between work, school, marriage, and remodeling, not to mention my church internship. I had felt, in the past weeks, an increasing persistent sense of dread.

That is to say, I had begun to worry.

I have thought about Jesus' words in Matthew chapter 6. You know, the "do not worry" part? And I have also been reading Larry Crabb's "Connecting" for class. I'm not sure exactly what I was reading, but at one point something connected inside me, and I began to think I was asking God for the wrong things.

The next morning, as I was struggling to pray, it finally became clear to me that I did not need to pray for more time, or more energy, or more skill, not even more wisdom. The problem for me was that I was working hard to accomplish all that is on my plate. And the more I faced, the harder I struggled to get it all done. And I had begun to worry. What I needed to pray for (it came to me suddenly) was to ask God to help me to trust Him.

I'm not saying this is what Jesus meant when He said to "seek first His kingdom and His righteouness" but I think it is the same idea. All the tasks which lay before me are still there, even now, and they must be done. But a year from now, Thanksgiving will still be around the corner and this year will have become history.

God will see me through it. And it isn't about being empowered to do it all (though I think He will do so), it is about trusting Him in the middle of all of this.

So, I prayed that morning for God to help me to trust Him. And I think God spoke to me that morning, and I heard Him. And now the problems are there, but it is somehow O.K.

So, if you've been feeling like me, perhaps you should consider praying for trust in God. :-)

Three Point Two Four (3.24) Billion

This is a first-person contemporary narrative sermon I gave during my second homiletics class. I got an "A" for this one! I would probably preach this as "34 Million" next time instead of "3.24 Billion"... you'll see why.

Podcast: Christians & Death

Cathy and I have been talking about death a lot recently. Actually, we've been talking about wanting to live together for several more decades, say... three score?

This is a conversation Cathy & I recorded after church on 09/10/2006. We had just lost one young man to a traffic accident and one old man to cancer. Cathy herself may be dying from liver disease (tests are still out).

Perhaps if we, as Christians, better understood the reality of death and heaven we would have a different response to death.

What is the proper response to death? to fear? to illness? How about to sudden death? We explore these thoughts in this podcast.


powered by ODEO

Perhaps heaven is like Hawaii... if it is truly such a great place, why do we mourn those who precede us there? It seems that the answer is, "we shouldn't", but I still have to work out why we feel sorrow, and the role of pain in our lives.

Hey, our first podcast!

What is the Great Commission?

Note: This is an assigment I have for a class. I'm posting in case any body else has a good insight as well as for future reference.

What is the Great Commission? The Great Commission is to “make disciples of all nations” by baptizing and discipling. Jesus’ words include both the target and the overall method. The book of Revelation indicates that every members “from every nation, tribe, people and language” will be before the throne of Christ, so I would argue that the scope is universal, as I take “all nations” (παντα τα εθνη) to mean “all people everywhere” rather than “nations states” or “ethnic groups” or “language groups.” Both baptism and discipleship of people everywhere would include language study to effectively bring people to faith and to tell them all that Jesus did and taught.

Certainly, we must understand the language. However, it would seem that merely having the language down would be insufficient. Although Jesus does not specifically say so, it seems to me that a prerequisite for fulfilling the Great Commission is love. I have a friend and brother in the Lord who is in Haiti. Learning languages does not come easily for him, but he has learned Haitian Créole in order to serve the Haitians better. What good would I be if I took language classes, graduated from seminary, then joined my brother in Haiti if I did not love the people? If I do not love the Haitian people, I cannot respect their culture, understand and accept their ways and wisdom, nor could I model Jesus Christ to them. Similarly, I think love for a people would also be important in translation work. The closer we can identify and love a people, the closer we can communicate the heart of God in transferring the Word of God into a people’s cultural context.

Indeed, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Romans 10:14 NIV) But how can they listen to a preacher who looks down upon them and fails to understand and appreciate them? So, while language is required to fulfill the Great Commission, love is essential in answering the call of Jesus Christ. Without love, any preaching I do would be just so much noise.

Words of love seem empty to use if they are not paired with corresponding actions. Along the same lines, if I love a person, I do not merely wish them to be well and stay warm; instead, I would provide for a person’s needs if it were within my power to do so. However, it is not enough to merely provide for a person’s physical needs. What good is it for us to save the body but ignore the soul? It does seem clear, however, that we cannot ignore a person’s needs and offer them only the Gospel if we are able to meet their needs.

One final point: Americans in general tend to behave as though we know better than the rest of the world. This tendency, plus a bleeding-heart social mentality that merely masks our need to appease our consciences predisposes us to meet the needs of people that we think are important. However, while we attempt to minister to other people, we must genuinely love them, appreciate them, and find out from them what they feel are their needs. The felt needs of a people are far more important than the needs we feel need to be met, and (I surmise) far less convenient to fulfill.

Done Reviewing Van Kampen

I finished reviewing "The Rapture Question Answered: Plain and Simple" by Robert Van Kampen. You can read the comments for more details, but here is my take in a nutshell: don't waste your time with this book.

The Da Vinci Code Movie - Big Deal

Yes, I read the book; who hasn't? When I first heard that The Da Vinci Code was "highly controversial" I knew that mean it would contain some kind of factual error regarding Christianity, and that this would be a central point. Still, I figured, "big deal" and ignored it.

Frankly, the written version wasn't all that wonderful, and I doubt it would have sold as many copies if people hadn't made such a fuss about it. Ever heard of the Streisand Effect?

Regarding "What is the big deal, anyway?", the problem isn't The Da Vinci Code but how some people react to lousy history as though their faith depended upon a novel. If you are a Christian and you are reading this, do me a favor (in fact, do Christ a favor): don't get too worked up. Yes, read the book. Yes, make sure you know where it is wrong and know how to answer it. But don't have a cow.

Sure, Dan Brown actually believes what he writes in the book is true, but he does terrible research for his books; Cathy is reading Angels and Demons and Brown has American Indian beliefs all wrong. The sheer amount of bad and confused history in TDVC actually gave me a headache. He gets dates, places, and events mixed up and conflated, and he does bad math on top of that. Is it too much to ask for people to do a little homework? To quote Tom Hank's goofiest line of the movie, "I've got to get to a library -- fast." I only wish Dan Brown had spent more time in one.

In hearing and reading the movie's reviews, it seems that the critics find the movie version a yawner. Even the positive reviews sound weak, and I found one clearly negative review so funny that I couldn't finish reading it out loud to Cathy.

For the record, I'm going to wait for the DVD version. I don't see the point in spending the money to see a movie nobody recommends and the plot of which follows the book religiously (haha). I didn't like the book enough to pay to be bored by it on screen.

"The Rapture Question Answered: Plain and Simple" by Robert Van Kampen

I read a lot of books, almost entirely of the non-fiction, technology, theology or philosophy genre. Currently, I am reading several books on welcoming people to church, but for my leisure reading I am going through "The Rapture Question Answered: Plain and Simple" by Robert Van Kampen.

Based on what little I have read, I think Van Kampen believes in a "Pre-Wrath" rapture. I read The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church by Marvin J. Rosenthal and I'm not sure I agree with Van Kampen at this point. Nonetheless, I think this read will help me clarify my own position as I just have not taken a stand on eschatology just yet.

As I finish chapters I'll post a comment here to continue my thoughts. This will be an interesting experiment in using my blog for more than static postings.