Serving an Awesome God

This is my second trip to India and hopefully it won't be my last!

There is much that those of us in the USA can learn from this land. People value things differently here. The materialism that we battle in America is not an issue in a land of poverty. I was watching an Indian political talk show in the airport last Saturday and they were discussing the economic plight of this country. One of the hosts stated that out of the 88 poorest countries of the world India ranked 67th. Only 11 other countries were in worse economic shape than India and this is a country that competes with China of having the largest population in the world.

Like last time being here helps me realize what is and is not important.

I had the privilege to teach the MTS classes this past week. We studied Nehemiah and how he applied Biblical leadership to the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, helped bring about spiritual renewal for his country and dealt with economic inequity all wile facing down major political opposition both from within and from without.

It was so exciting to watch their faces as we took the lessons of Nehemiah and applied them to their current spiritual, political, and economic situation. As the light came on in their eyes they seemed to begin to understand how they could address issues both in and out of their pulpit.

We had had about 30 students (20 men and 10 women who were studying the Bible together. An additional unexpected experience were more then 10 pastors who attended these sessions. Some had traveled over 150 k to attend. The icing on the cake was the fact that two of these pastors had been students of mine last year. It was exciting to see how God had been blessing their ministry!

We finished the study of Nehemiah and they asked me to continue to teach. I had been asking God what I should do if I finished early and he had laid on my heart to teach Galatians.

It had been over a year since I had taught this great book but at the prompting of the Lord I launched into the study.

I'm always amazed at how God orchestrates things like this. I was teaching on some of the different Gospels that the Galatians were chasing after. I mentioned the concept of "Dualism" and how it emphasized spiritual things and downplayed the physical. This launched us into a hot topic that the local pastors were currently dealing with. It seems that a local pastor had taken a second wife, now having two wives at the same time. When this pastor was challenged he told his critics that he preaching a spiritual Gospel and didn't have to worry about the physical since it wasn't important.

We were able to discuss this and look at the Scriptures and determine what God had to say about this very relevant subject.

I know I shouldn't be taken by surprise when decided to show up like this and orchestrate events and people so that there are these God Moments, but I still am excited to witness them much less be allowed to participate in them.

Who is like our God?

Serving an awesome God!

Pastor Val

The Legend of Christmas

The past few days I read a number of interesting articles on line. One UK article interviewed the Archbishop of Canterbury who told us that that Christmas was a legend. Well I have to tell you that caught my interest!

As I read the article I realized that the Archbishop was referring to things that the Christians have added over the centuries.

“What additions?” you ask.

Well, we don’t know for sure what animals were in the stable if any. But we can assume that there would be cattle, or oxen, sheep or even a donkey.

We also don’t know how many wise men there were. We do know that they gave gifts of three different substances (gold, frankincense and myrrh).

The wise men didn’t show up at the birth of Christ but probably a couple of years later. The passage in Matthew’s account of the wise men’s visit indicates that Jesus was no longer a baby but a young child. Additionally due to Herod’s order to kill all male children two years of age and under we gain a sense of the outside possible age of Jesus.

What do we know?

Jesus the Christ was born and we have three accounts of His birth. We call those accounts Matthew, Luke and John. These accounts are called gospels (good news).

Matthew looks at Jesus’ birth from the Jewish perspective. Jesus is seen as a direct descendant of David the founder of the dynasty of the nation of Israel (and the subsequent kingdom of Judah). Matthew lists Joseph (who would be Jesus’ “human” father because Joseph was married to Mary when Jesus was born and therefore by law the father of Jesus) genealogy and Jesus lawful right to the throne.

In Luke we have the second account of Jesus birth. This time we see him from the perspective of a man. We also are given His mother’s genealogy. This is important for a couple of reasons: first, we have Jesus’ ancestry that goes back to Adam and establishes His claim to David’s throne through His mother’s line. Second, God promised that one particular King of David’s line would never have a son sit on the throne again and Joseph was from this line. Thus God keeps His promise even while keeping the official line in tack.

In John’s Gospel we have the story of Jesus birth from God’s perspective. The Word who always was and is of the same essence as God the Father becomes flesh to do the Father’s bidding and to redeem all of creation.

Each account of Jesus’ birth gives us the story from a different perspective. Think of the truth of Christ’s birth as a multifaceted jewel. Each time you turn the gem slightly you see the gem and the fire of the gem from a different angle and thus from a different perception.

May the Creator who became the Created in order to redeem His Creation grant you a blessed and joyous Christmas this year!


Peace on earth

Dr. Val