As a people group probably the only thing more embarrassing than being colonized by another nation for spices would be if you were conquered and colonized by the Dutch. It would seem before the Netherlands became preoccupied with building dikes and windmills they had aspirations of world domination and spicy foods.
While other nations were being conquered by exciting and powerful nations like Great Britain and Spain, Indonesia was colonized by The Netherlands. Other nations were being invaded for things like lumber and gold, Indonesia was dominated for nutmeg.
Indonesia is what is known as an archipelagic country. That’s fancy geographical talk for a bunch of islands that constitute a nation. It’s kind of like a nationalized grand version of Hawaii without the grass skirts. There are technically 17,500 islands that make up Indonesia, only 6,000 of which are inhabited. It’s highly likely that Gilligan and the Skipper as well as the cast of Lose were stranded on one of the other 10,000.
In one day this nation lost 200,000 people when the tsunami hit 5 years ago. It’s a nation that has been wrecked by war, natural disasters, and terrorism. It’s a nation that needs Jesus.
It’s probably just my American arrogance that I know so little about the 4th largest nation on the earth. 237 Million people make up this country that is 86% Muslim. And it’s just like the Lord to provide an opportunity to take me well outside of my comfort zone.
Tomorrow I’ll join my good friends Kevin and Julie Young and Stephanie Waldrop of Compassion International as we journey to the other side of the world. Kevin and Julie have been sponsoring a boy through Compassion for the past few years. They’ll meet this young man face to face this week. What a great expression of God’s ultimate love than a trip around the world for a hug.
It never occurred to me to go to Indonesia. But God is full of surprises. The book of Acts is rife with examples of God telling someone to go somewhere that they had never been, somewhere they maybe hadn’t even thought about, somewhere that God had a specific assignment.
I can’t wait to find out what He has for us there.
There won’t be Conduit on Monday night, please spread the word. If God is moving on your heart at all to be part of feeding our kids in Haiti or finishing the home that we are building there, remember you can do that at www.conduitmission.org.
Philip Peters tells me that we have another trip to Haiti coming up in November. If you’re interested in being part of that trip, email me.
If you should pray for me this week, pray that I can communicate the gospel clearly. Pray that I can be a witness with my life. Pray for my family who is giving up daddy and husband for another week.
Blessings,
Darren
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Conduit Aug 9- Steak House Conduit
A Pastor friend of mine recently said that He didn’t really see it as very exciting to go through the Bible chapter by chapter. That’s quite a statement for a Pastor. Of course, it probably is the opinion of most people. After all it’s really long and there aren’t any pictures.
When you come to chapters like Exodus 21 it seems like that opinion could hold weight. On the surface, what could be more boring than going through the laws that were written 3500 years ago addressing cultures and traditions that have long since passed away.
I don’t own an ox. I don’t know anybody who owns an ox. To my knowledge I don’t know anybody who knows anybody who owns an ox. And yet God included pertinent information for owners of oxen in this passage.
It also forces me to ask hard questions. Did God endorse slavery? It’s easy to shoot from the hip and say of course not but then you see a law addressing treatment of slaves in Exodus 21. How does that reconcile? It definitely seems more appealing to get to the parts about being blessed and healed.
If you agree with Paul that all scripture is “God breathed” then that means every thing in this book is important on one level or another. That means that every page is important. Every page contains pictures of Christ, instructions for living, promises of God, all important enough in Gods mind to include in His book.
The writer of Hebrews differentiated some of the Word of God as milk and other as meat. (Heb 5:12) It's not so much that any of the Word is harder to swallow, it's more a question of whether you and I are mature enough. (Heb 5 again)
It’s fair to say that the next few chapters of Exodus might fall under the “meat of the word” category. They’re not the elementary teachings of Christ that Hebrews 6:1 speaks of. They're not the milk, the baby food. Have you tried baby food lately? It might be nutritious, but it is anything but delicious. It might be food, but it is absolutely not enjoyable. Who wants a jar of Gerber's when Morton's is available?
We’ve always strove to be a bible study that actually studies the bible. These next few chapters are definitely strong meat chapters. In real life I’m very pro meat. I love steak. I think we can cut it up into bite size pieces so that it’s more palatable. We might even break out some A1 and flavor it up, but it’s still meat. It's still good stuff.
What’s the practical use of diving into the meat of the word? Hebrews 5:14 tells us that “by constant use of the Word that the mature train themselves to distinguish between good and evil.”
We live in a society right now where the lines of good and evil are blurred. The Word is what helps us to distinguish between the two in the world around us and in the hearts inside of us.
I encourage you to bring your notebooks, bibles and pens this week. For some of you that means bring your iPhone or laptop and I’m good with that.
Pull up a chair, it’s dinner time.
Monday, 730pm at Journey Church in Building 8 in the Factory. Also webcasting at www.mogulus.com/conduit
See you then.
Darren
If you had 3 meals today and some snacks in between, congratulations. You just ate more in one day than most kids in Haiti will eat all week. If you went to school in your youth you have accomplished what the vast majority of Haitians will never obtain, an education. In Haiti the government doesn’t provide these things. It’s the church, it’s you and I that can make a difference in both this life and the life to come of the kids in Jacmel, Haiti. You can donate any sum large or small. $15 will feed a child for a month. You can also commit to sponsoring an individual child for $32 a month. You can do all this at www.conduitmission.org
check out the blog at www.darrentyler.com
the podcast available at www.darrentyler.podomatic.com
When you come to chapters like Exodus 21 it seems like that opinion could hold weight. On the surface, what could be more boring than going through the laws that were written 3500 years ago addressing cultures and traditions that have long since passed away.
I don’t own an ox. I don’t know anybody who owns an ox. To my knowledge I don’t know anybody who knows anybody who owns an ox. And yet God included pertinent information for owners of oxen in this passage.
It also forces me to ask hard questions. Did God endorse slavery? It’s easy to shoot from the hip and say of course not but then you see a law addressing treatment of slaves in Exodus 21. How does that reconcile? It definitely seems more appealing to get to the parts about being blessed and healed.
If you agree with Paul that all scripture is “God breathed” then that means every thing in this book is important on one level or another. That means that every page is important. Every page contains pictures of Christ, instructions for living, promises of God, all important enough in Gods mind to include in His book.
The writer of Hebrews differentiated some of the Word of God as milk and other as meat. (Heb 5:12) It's not so much that any of the Word is harder to swallow, it's more a question of whether you and I are mature enough. (Heb 5 again)
It’s fair to say that the next few chapters of Exodus might fall under the “meat of the word” category. They’re not the elementary teachings of Christ that Hebrews 6:1 speaks of. They're not the milk, the baby food. Have you tried baby food lately? It might be nutritious, but it is anything but delicious. It might be food, but it is absolutely not enjoyable. Who wants a jar of Gerber's when Morton's is available?
We’ve always strove to be a bible study that actually studies the bible. These next few chapters are definitely strong meat chapters. In real life I’m very pro meat. I love steak. I think we can cut it up into bite size pieces so that it’s more palatable. We might even break out some A1 and flavor it up, but it’s still meat. It's still good stuff.
What’s the practical use of diving into the meat of the word? Hebrews 5:14 tells us that “by constant use of the Word that the mature train themselves to distinguish between good and evil.”
We live in a society right now where the lines of good and evil are blurred. The Word is what helps us to distinguish between the two in the world around us and in the hearts inside of us.
I encourage you to bring your notebooks, bibles and pens this week. For some of you that means bring your iPhone or laptop and I’m good with that.
Pull up a chair, it’s dinner time.
Monday, 730pm at Journey Church in Building 8 in the Factory. Also webcasting at www.mogulus.com/conduit
See you then.
Darren
If you had 3 meals today and some snacks in between, congratulations. You just ate more in one day than most kids in Haiti will eat all week. If you went to school in your youth you have accomplished what the vast majority of Haitians will never obtain, an education. In Haiti the government doesn’t provide these things. It’s the church, it’s you and I that can make a difference in both this life and the life to come of the kids in Jacmel, Haiti. You can donate any sum large or small. $15 will feed a child for a month. You can also commit to sponsoring an individual child for $32 a month. You can do all this at www.conduitmission.org
check out the blog at www.darrentyler.com
the podcast available at www.darrentyler.podomatic.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
