Yesterday I went to church at Skyline, one of the mega Churches near where I'm staying in California. The preacher was the son-in-law of one of the pastors, and this young man is planting a church in East Chula Vista, a town south of San Diego, which is one of the most rapidly growing places in the country. In the course of message, on the parable of the sower, he talked about putting one's faith into action, and how important this is when trying to reach unchurched people. He described some of the things that they were doing to serve the community in which they are working.
First, on the day after Thanksgiving, "Black Friday", Wal-Mart was scheduled to open at 5:00 a.m. and people evidently started lining up at midnight. At 4:00 a.m. the church planting team showed up at Wal-Mart with 50 some gallons of Starbucks' Coffee and as many dozen donuts to serve to the people waiting in line, and to introduce the new church they are planting. Well, that is a way of meeting people where they are!
They are holding their services in the brand new high school in the area, and to build good relations with the community, they attend all the home football games. What's more, the church planting team volunteers to clean up the stadium after the each game. Wow! Talk about gaining the support of the custodial staff! I would imagine that this stands them in good stead for help on Sunday mornings.
I admire the creativity of these people in living out the gospel and making contact with people in the community that they are trying to reach with the gospel. I was reminded of the work of our own young people's group, Maranatha, who did some serious clean up in the community where they were working the last couple of summers. How much they seem to understand that we have to do more than preach the gospel, we need to live it out in very practical terms that really minister to people. A number of years ago Joe Aldrich explained his approach to evangelism: "Love people until they ask you why." Not a bad approach, I'd say.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
The Dead Sea Scrolls
One of my sister's Christmas gifts to me was a ticket to the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Museum of Natural History today. Since it was the day after Christmas and since the exhibit is nearing the end of its time here, there was a huge crowd at the exhibit. I'd like to think that at least some of them were interested in the transmission of Scripture. The man in line ahead of us with a T shirt with John 3:16 printed out on it, probably was.
The exhibit is very comprehensive, covering history,geography, geology, the flora and fauna and water supply of the Qumran area, the social and policical history, the history of the finding of the scrolls, the social attitudes of the Israelis and the Bedouins, the sale and verification of the scrolls and the scholarship that has surrounded their interpretation, translation and preservation. Mostly this was achieved by magnificently done photographs, printed in color in big enlargements. The audio tour, available in both English and Spanish, explains the story behind the story.
Finally, in the last half of the exhibit, which is on a different floor than the first half, one can see the actual scrolls themselves, on loan from the Israeli government. Some of the scrolls are secular documents, others are portions of Genesis, Isaiah and a couple of the minor prophets. Although I don't read Hebrew, I was struck as I looked at these hand written documents, not just at the beauty of the calligraphy, but at one point where the name of God would have been written--and ancient Jews neither wrote or spoke that name--there were four dots....
It was a bit overwhelming to see these very ancient scrolls, most of which are fragments, but others are complete scrolls. One of the things that struck me was the size: these are really small scrolls, witten in a tiny writing. In God's providence, they were stored for about two millenia in a hot, dry climate, mostly in sealed pottery jars, where they would be preserved almost intact. It reminded me that God's Word endures, not just in written form, but the message has been handed down both orally and in written and translated form for all these generations.
"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the LORD abides forever."
"Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away."
The exhibit is very comprehensive, covering history,geography, geology, the flora and fauna and water supply of the Qumran area, the social and policical history, the history of the finding of the scrolls, the social attitudes of the Israelis and the Bedouins, the sale and verification of the scrolls and the scholarship that has surrounded their interpretation, translation and preservation. Mostly this was achieved by magnificently done photographs, printed in color in big enlargements. The audio tour, available in both English and Spanish, explains the story behind the story.
Finally, in the last half of the exhibit, which is on a different floor than the first half, one can see the actual scrolls themselves, on loan from the Israeli government. Some of the scrolls are secular documents, others are portions of Genesis, Isaiah and a couple of the minor prophets. Although I don't read Hebrew, I was struck as I looked at these hand written documents, not just at the beauty of the calligraphy, but at one point where the name of God would have been written--and ancient Jews neither wrote or spoke that name--there were four dots....
It was a bit overwhelming to see these very ancient scrolls, most of which are fragments, but others are complete scrolls. One of the things that struck me was the size: these are really small scrolls, witten in a tiny writing. In God's providence, they were stored for about two millenia in a hot, dry climate, mostly in sealed pottery jars, where they would be preserved almost intact. It reminded me that God's Word endures, not just in written form, but the message has been handed down both orally and in written and translated form for all these generations.
"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the LORD abides forever."
"Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away."
Christmas in San Diego
The oddyssy has begun. I left Philadelphia on Christmas Eve with a change of planes in Las Vegas (where they have banks of slot machines in the waiting area of the airport!) and arrived in San Diego.
In San Diego I stepped outside the airport into the bright sunshine, stood under a palm tree and said, "Yes! I have indeed arrived in San Diego!" Unlike the hazy, diffused light of Philadelphia, light here where the humidity is low and the air clear, is intensely bright (unless the area happens to be on fire, as happened recently) and the temperatures at the warmest part of the day reach the 70's. It's beautiful!
On Christmas day we took a short hike through an area that had been burned in the fire. One can see where the fire came over the hillside and burned here and there as the winds gusted. The earth and the trees and grass have been blackened, but in the weeks since the fire they have received an extraordinary 2 inches of rain (this area is, after all, dessert) and new grass is growing amid the ashes. It's like spring! It reminds me of God's promise to give us "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning." In the very short time since fire raged through this area, fanned by the Santa Ana winds, God has already begun the process of renewal.
In my devotions on Christmas I read the section on the Incarnation in Jim Boice's book, Foundations of the Christian Faith and was reminded that the whole purpose of Christ's becoming a man was to be the atonement for our sins. "You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." Dr. Boice reminds of Anselm of Canterbury's explanation, basically that since mankind sinned, a human being needed to be involved in the atonement. However since we are the ones who messed up in the first place, we weren't sufficient to atone for our sin. Since only God was good enough to be the atonement, the one making atonement had to be both God and man, therefore Jesus had to come as God and as a human being, the God man. There the chief focus of Christmas is not just the manger in Bethlehem, but the cross of Calvary.
In San Diego I stepped outside the airport into the bright sunshine, stood under a palm tree and said, "Yes! I have indeed arrived in San Diego!" Unlike the hazy, diffused light of Philadelphia, light here where the humidity is low and the air clear, is intensely bright (unless the area happens to be on fire, as happened recently) and the temperatures at the warmest part of the day reach the 70's. It's beautiful!
On Christmas day we took a short hike through an area that had been burned in the fire. One can see where the fire came over the hillside and burned here and there as the winds gusted. The earth and the trees and grass have been blackened, but in the weeks since the fire they have received an extraordinary 2 inches of rain (this area is, after all, dessert) and new grass is growing amid the ashes. It's like spring! It reminds me of God's promise to give us "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning." In the very short time since fire raged through this area, fanned by the Santa Ana winds, God has already begun the process of renewal.
In my devotions on Christmas I read the section on the Incarnation in Jim Boice's book, Foundations of the Christian Faith and was reminded that the whole purpose of Christ's becoming a man was to be the atonement for our sins. "You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." Dr. Boice reminds of Anselm of Canterbury's explanation, basically that since mankind sinned, a human being needed to be involved in the atonement. However since we are the ones who messed up in the first place, we weren't sufficient to atone for our sin. Since only God was good enough to be the atonement, the one making atonement had to be both God and man, therefore Jesus had to come as God and as a human being, the God man. There the chief focus of Christmas is not just the manger in Bethlehem, but the cross of Calvary.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Before we begin
| Since I am beginning this blog before I even leave home, let me say that getting ready for three months' absence from work has been very stressful. I am very grateful to all of you who have taken on extra responsibilities while I'm gone. I'm looking forward to staying in touch with all of you as I travel to new places. Where I go will depend on the success that my travel agent has in obtaining a "Circle Pacific Fare" from the Star Alliance airline association. It looked like a good thing on their website, but has been harder to ticket than I'd expected. My first stop will be San Diego, California on December 24, so I can spend Christmas with my sister, Terri and her new husband, John McClure and a few other assorted friends. The next posting ought to come from California. |
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