thoughts from west Africa trip

I have so many thoughts in my head from Africa i do not even know where to start. I guess first is it was amazing there hungry for the gospel. They could not get enough and there was no distractions to study and church. Yes life is hard and days are long, but being unplugged was refreshing and very nice. You could actually sit and listen and not be drawn away to a meeting, email, text, tweet, or whatever you can put in that space. 

Second was the beauty of the country and massiveness of the stars at night. i never knew there where so many stars in all my life. There was nothing better to remind me of who I am, than to look in the Africa sky and see the majesty the Lord created.

Third the peoples willingness to share and give all that they had to anyone. As i have returned to the Christmas (greed season) in America, it has hit me hard how much they shared and truly lived in a biblical community whether they where aware of it or not. My first moment back to american culture was a Grandma taking my seat on the plane, stealing my headphones, and also taking my blanket as well as Karen’s. She returned to her seat, but we where out of luck in the terms of the blanket. We have so much and we think we are entitled to all and even more. In Catel they have nothing and share even that with others. 

These are all my thoughts for today I will share more tomorrow and the weeks to come.

We got it backwards

I recently heard David Platt speak on slavery from 1 Timothy 6 this is a quote he gave during the sermon "Christianity is not primarily aimed at social reform. Christianity is aimed primarily at personal redemption ~ David Platt sermon on 10-2-11".
As someone who works in a Mennonite church this statement needs to be heard by all Mennonites. We have flipped that around, we have elevated social justice and reform over Christ. Our life is about personal redemption, plain and simple. Everything we do is about serving him, worshiping him, and obeying him. None of our life is ever suppose to be about us and what we can do. Instead it is about  reforming ourselves to be more Christ like, so than Christ can use us for the good works he prepared in advance for us.
We need to focus more on our personal redemption and reform and then through that see what God may have us do for society. Instead of always focusing on the easy feel good work, let us begin to work on the hard difficult work of inward focus and change. Let God chisel you today.

30 pieces of silver

How interesting that in the old testament you bought a slave for 30 pieces of silver. Christ was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver and for a brief moment in time became a slave to man and sin. The ransom was paid and we were redeemed. It is neat how much of the law was actually fulfilled by Christ, even something as simple as the price of a slave.

great post

The gospel is not good advice from man; it's good news from God. Only God would provide such a message. Marvel at it.~ Tony Merida
I loved this post today on twitter by Tony I spent some time just reflecting on it and I would encourage you to do the same.

some things never change

You have let go of the commands of God and are holding onto the traditions of men. ~ Mark 7:8 

Jesus told the pharisees this and they didn't get it and here we are 2,000 year later struggling with the same issues. It is true as the Bible says nothing is new under the sun.

prayer for the day

"O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins" Psalms 130:7-8 Replace Israel with your name and your churches name, let that be your prayer today.

quote for the day

I have two of them they were both great.
"Faith is not merely a journey for the feet, but it is a journey for the heart." AW Tozer

"Jesus died to make us not just the people He created us to be, but to make us the MEN and WOMEN He created us to be."~David Platt

Also check out these sermons by Platt on 1 Timothy excellent preaching of the word of God 

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