THANKS SO MUCH FOR A GREAT FATHER'S DAY especially since i don't really deserve to be recognized as such...you are all very gracious kids..must get that from mom! nate, saw your h.f.d. card on my eating desk as i was running out to the library so thanks in advance of reading..well finally worked through email and details and got 8.5 hours in today on my first interior job since january. GOD IS GOOD! this is painting the interior of a house and then God has provided two more jobs that are waiting. GOD IS GOOD! God has showed me i am a wretch in need of Him and has revealed Himself to me as the One who saved me!!! GOD IS GOOOOD!!!
i am trying to get dearborn on 'paper' before it disappears from the mind..but writing you guys is first. i'm so filled up with God's goodness. i couldn't begin to describe what He and i have going on but i just hope i never wake up till its His eyes i'm looking into.
since reaching people with the gospel is currently on the brain would like to sharet the following which i got out of a small paper called 'glimpses of christian history'. ~'it was july 1706. the people of tranquebar, a small danish trading station on the coast of southeastern india, rejoiced to see the danish ship sophia anchoring in the deep waters. tamil boatmen rushed to offload the cargo. the captain who oversaw the transfer of goods became impatient and mercilessly whipped the boatmen. but one of the passengers, a 23 yr old german named bartholomaeus ziegenbalg (1683-1719), objected. "do not whip! they are people." to this the captain replied, "no, they are malabarians (ie. beasts)'. zeig had come for the express purpose of letting all people, high or low, know their privileges,rights and responsibilities before God. his deep respect for the tamil people, their culture and their traditions left an enduring impact on south india.. william carey, the celebrated english baptist missionary, is often called the 'father of the modern missionary movement, but he arrived in india in 1793. almost every method he later developed had already been tried by a pietist lutheran in tranquebar. pietism in germany was the fountainhead. in the late 1600's august hermann francke taught that evangelism and education went hand in hand. every person should be able to read the Bible in his language and learn some useful skill...by 1706 tranquebar (literally, village of dancing waves) was a mostly hindu population. zieg, trying to bridge the gap between europeans and indians learned to speak tamil, read tamil lit, carefully studied the ideas and practices of the people. in 1708 he confessed that his knowledge of the local culture had 'converted' him. he no longer viewed the tamil as uncivilized. he treated them as friends and earned their trust. he was committed to tamil christian converts practicing their faith within their own cultural setting. he was convinced that the gospel does not destroy culture, but transforms it from within. once a tamil medical doctor asked him, "should converted christians give up their culture and social status"? zeig replied, "no, converted tamils should not become europeans! conversion does not mean a change of outward appearance; rather it requires a change of mind and results in a transformed life". a prayer attributed to him is..'we must acknowledge that prayer was our all-important assistance to begin our high and weighty emplyment with courage, without fear of trouble and danger. for as we had no human being near us of whom we could ask advice as to how this or that should be begun, we went always to our dear Father in heaven and laid everything before Him in prayer and we were heard and supported by Him both in advice and in deed'.
this was one of the first things i read when arriving home from dearborn and made a deep impression. while out there immersed in contacts with many muslims originally from many middle east countries a certain warmth of a curious sort rose up in my heart toward them. it's not that i had what might be called 'good' experiences with them. i was clearly considered a stranger and an outsider...one of low standing in their eyes..as it appeared. nevertheless the warmth. i appreciate their passion and impulsiveness, their talkativeness, their openness to discuss and share their thoughts, their respect for others, their tender hearts sometimes showing through. if they converted it would be a tragedy if they were to become different than who God made them. i like them the way they are.
in the last while here i have written down so many things i want to share with you..much more than i am able. so i'll just share a few i jotted down while painting today. God has kept me from masturbating for a while. yesterday, upon arriving home there were the normal 'motions' of the evil spirit in my soul..things he usually does to 'soften me up' for the fall. i started to cry out to the Lord knowing that usually times of great positive things are followed by not so positive..the ups followed by the downs. and the thot came to mind about the great cloud of witness..the next thot was my mom and dad and i was encouraged to invite them into my bedroom with me when i got to the top of the stairs so they could watch me masturbate. i went in, laid down, went to sleep even though under heavy temptation for i had encountered a great host of externally (ravishingly!!!) beautiful women out in dearborn. (i would have never believed so many arab-type women were that externally beautiful). i think i'll try that the next time i have strong temptation. just looked up the verse here in the library...hebrews 12.1f 'wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses (all the people who are noted in chapter 11 for doing things 'by faith'), let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us...looking unto Jesus...' mommie come in and watch me. daddy come in too....
this came into my mind when i was painting the ceiling..when we, who call ourselves the church, refuse to confess our sins to one another and think of ourselves as 'good' (had a brother out in dearborn strongly react against my description of my inner (hidden) wretchedness which i find as very common in the church) and even go about condemning others for things we ourselves regularly do we reduce the church to a bunch of bland, insipid 'all-bran'-and-no-wheat flakes.
my Father is awesome in His love as seen in His discipline. last night got another emergency thing about what the central government is doing to our freedom to eat the food we want. when i tried to relay a call to action by PICFA against current legislation the computer immediately went kaflooe and bound me up so that i could not do anything and when i finally, in frustration, was able to actually log off..i couldn't get back on!! this has been happening more and more whenever i try to do anything political . its as if He is saying, steve, I told you I don't want you to be involved in that. so He loves me! He won't let me do what i want but spanks me. i must have been a half hour in conniptions.
i regularly do two things. first, i tend to bump my head. did that on the ceiling today. boy did that hurt because i usually bump it right on the little button on top the painter baseball cap. second, i tend to not think about what i am doing. this leads to bumping my head (cause, i guess, i'm thinking of something else instead of watching where i'm going), losing things, having to retrace my steps over and over again because i have to go back again and again for things i need. i've thot a bit about this and sense that these two things may be spiritual metaphors for 1) being headstrong and not moldable and yielded and sensitive to God's will 2) not being focused on what i am doing from a spiritual point of view. like approaching a situation thotfully before God rather than just diving into it with no thot. thinking about what i am saying..what impression am i giving..what impression am i giving by what i do (a brother out there is struggling with gluttony. i noticed it early on by some things he did when we were eating together. then we were in a restaurant where everyone got huge platters and he systematically cleaned up one after another...i started noticing that what he was doing was being silently watched by others. it was like watching a movie of myself at THE TABLE..unfortunately i didn't have enough of Jesus' love to talk with him about it). so everytime i forget something or do something mindlessly or bump my head i am being reminded by my Father to come to Him and seek His help to change. may He help me so to do.
gotta go. hope you have a good week. love, dad
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment