Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
With the Pope’s visit to Brazil, the news media have actually begun to focus on the extraordinary growth of the Christian Faith in so-called third world countries over the last decade. We are living today in the greatest time of growth of Christianity in the history of the Church. God is working mightily and is inspiring millions around the world. The main question today for Christians in the United States is: will we be a part of what God is doing in the world or will we just become irrelevant? Consider this:
· Kenyan scholar John Mbiti has observed, “the centers of the Church’s universality are no longer in Geneva, Rome, Athens, Paris, London, New York, but Kinshasa, Buenos Aires, Addis Ababa, and Manila.”
· Today, in the Ethiopian Christian Church alone there are 25 million members – roughly the equivalent of Southern Baptists and United Methodists -- the two largest Protestant Denominations in the United States -- combined.
· A recent study by the Chinese Government estimates that there may be as many as three times the previously thought number of 70 million underground Christian worshippers.
· In South Korea, the Kwang Lim Methodist church reported 150 members in 1971 and 85,000 by the end of the century.
· By 2025, the estimated leading continents of Christianity will be Africa with 633 million Christians and Latin America with 640 million Christians.
These facts should not alarm us but make us excited to be living in a time when God is moving so purposefully in the world. We must begin to think more globally about our faith and look for ways to partner together with Christians in order to participate in God’s Kingdom building work in the world right now. Selah.
In Christ,
Steve
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
The Knowledge of God
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Do you ever wonder why we should ever bother to study about God? Surely, we can never fully understand the mysteries of God. The Bible tells us, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9). The Apostle Paul counseled the Roman church, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?" (Romans 11:33-34). Therefore, any study of God is bound to end in futility if our eventual goal is complete knowledge. At this point, many persons put aside seeking to grow in knowledge of God as impractical and irrelevant to their daily lives. Several years ago Microsoft founder and CEO Bill Gates remarked to TIME magazine that "Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There’s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning." Maybe you have thought something similar to this at some point in your life. This is a tragic mistake.
God has created us to thirst for knowledge and has created knowledge as a way of transformation. There is no greater knowledge than to seek the One who has created you for a purpose and has given meaning to your existence. In his very next point after speaking of the “unsearchability” of God, the Apostle Paul wrote this interesting advice, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2). Although, we will never attain full knowledge of God in this life, it is in the seeking that we will be transformed and renewed into mature Christians with greater and greater wisdom. This is a life-long process of growth and God really is in the details. C.S. Lewis once observed that knowledge of God is analogous to the Sun – we may not be able to stare directly into the Sun but as it shines brighter in our lives we begin to see everything else more clearly by its light. We may never understand the fullness of God, but as He shines more brightly in our lives and minds we can understand everything else more clearly by His light. Selah.
In Christ,
Steve
Do you ever wonder why we should ever bother to study about God? Surely, we can never fully understand the mysteries of God. The Bible tells us, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9). The Apostle Paul counseled the Roman church, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?" (Romans 11:33-34). Therefore, any study of God is bound to end in futility if our eventual goal is complete knowledge. At this point, many persons put aside seeking to grow in knowledge of God as impractical and irrelevant to their daily lives. Several years ago Microsoft founder and CEO Bill Gates remarked to TIME magazine that "Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There’s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning." Maybe you have thought something similar to this at some point in your life. This is a tragic mistake.
God has created us to thirst for knowledge and has created knowledge as a way of transformation. There is no greater knowledge than to seek the One who has created you for a purpose and has given meaning to your existence. In his very next point after speaking of the “unsearchability” of God, the Apostle Paul wrote this interesting advice, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2). Although, we will never attain full knowledge of God in this life, it is in the seeking that we will be transformed and renewed into mature Christians with greater and greater wisdom. This is a life-long process of growth and God really is in the details. C.S. Lewis once observed that knowledge of God is analogous to the Sun – we may not be able to stare directly into the Sun but as it shines brighter in our lives we begin to see everything else more clearly by its light. We may never understand the fullness of God, but as He shines more brightly in our lives and minds we can understand everything else more clearly by His light. Selah.
In Christ,
Steve
Newsletter Article May 2, 2007
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Here are some random thoughts to digest this week:
- If Jesus spoke more about the Kingdom of God than any other subject, why is it that we hear so little discussion about what it is?
- Spring always reminds me that I can’t always trust my senses. It always seems to me as if the flora and fauna explode into bloom overnight and I never see it coming . . . I think God sometimes works this way in my life.
- I wonder why my prayer life is always in disarray – some weeks I pray long and often and others I just don’t find the time. I would love to be as disciplined as Martin Luther who said that the busier he became the more hours he prayed everyday (yes, you read that correctly - “hours”).
- I am enjoying reading the stories from the Bible to my 5-year olde daughter Faith, because the questions she asks and the delight she shows for the stories have rekindled the memories of awe that I had for the stories as a child. It is a great gift God gives us to reencounter the joys of our childhood in the eyes of our children.
- For centuries the primary impulse for creating great art was God. Today, it seems as if the Christian world and the Art world are two worlds apart; that doesn’t make sense to me. I agree with Dorothy Sayars that one of the ways in which we are made in God’s image is our ability to be creative, and I fear that we in the Church stifle that creative ability sometimes . . .
- It heartens me to know that God loves me, even on my worst day . . .
- Finally, the older I get, the more I see the hand of God in everyday life. As a youth, I saw God primarily as a Judge, as a young man I saw God primarily as Inspiration to Shake Up the World, and now I am beginning to appreciate that God is Savior, Lord, Friend and Artist and has given us a beautiful life and world to enjoy. William Blake said that when you can see the work of God in a blade of grass, you are beginning to understand . . . Selah
In Christ,
Steve
Here are some random thoughts to digest this week:
- If Jesus spoke more about the Kingdom of God than any other subject, why is it that we hear so little discussion about what it is?
- Spring always reminds me that I can’t always trust my senses. It always seems to me as if the flora and fauna explode into bloom overnight and I never see it coming . . . I think God sometimes works this way in my life.
- I wonder why my prayer life is always in disarray – some weeks I pray long and often and others I just don’t find the time. I would love to be as disciplined as Martin Luther who said that the busier he became the more hours he prayed everyday (yes, you read that correctly - “hours”).
- I am enjoying reading the stories from the Bible to my 5-year olde daughter Faith, because the questions she asks and the delight she shows for the stories have rekindled the memories of awe that I had for the stories as a child. It is a great gift God gives us to reencounter the joys of our childhood in the eyes of our children.
- For centuries the primary impulse for creating great art was God. Today, it seems as if the Christian world and the Art world are two worlds apart; that doesn’t make sense to me. I agree with Dorothy Sayars that one of the ways in which we are made in God’s image is our ability to be creative, and I fear that we in the Church stifle that creative ability sometimes . . .
- It heartens me to know that God loves me, even on my worst day . . .
- Finally, the older I get, the more I see the hand of God in everyday life. As a youth, I saw God primarily as a Judge, as a young man I saw God primarily as Inspiration to Shake Up the World, and now I am beginning to appreciate that God is Savior, Lord, Friend and Artist and has given us a beautiful life and world to enjoy. William Blake said that when you can see the work of God in a blade of grass, you are beginning to understand . . . Selah
In Christ,
Steve
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
