“This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.”” Isaiah 30:15

I remember those times as a tile layer. Moments of inner anguish when I realized that I had started out incorrectly, and would have to start over. At the beginning, it seems like it happened every day. I would get started laying tile in a bathroom, or kitchen floor, and despite all my best planning and prep, I would get about a third of the way into it and realize that something in the layout was wrong, or perhaps one of the tiles that I laid early on was out of line throwing everything else off. The only way to right the wrong was to take up all the tiles I had laid, scrape off the thinset, and start over.

But that’s often not what is done. When confronted with a mistake it’s easier to shrug it off with a “it’ll be ok”. But those little mistakes ignored often result in headache and trouble down the road. So it is with tile. If you start off wrong in the layout, it only gets worse the farther you get. If you fail to cement the tile correctly, it’s going to come off later and be a much more difficult fix.

What I find stunning about the Isaiah 30:15, is that he pairs the words repentance with rest. Repentance means to turn around, or in the world of tile, to start over. To recognize something was wrong and go back to the where the mistake was made. When people shrug off their mistakes, it’s because repentance seems to hard. When I would realize that I had done something wrong, it was so easy to want to just ignore it. But what I found from experience is that if I would just go ahead and acknowledge the problem, and do what was needed to fix it then and there, it was usually much easier than I expected. Tiles come up easy while the thin set is still wet. And they can be relaid just as easy. So much easier than waiting until they are hard and set and then bringing in a hammer and chisel.

 So do you see mistakes you’ve made in your life? Don’t put off turning around and doing the right thing. Make the hard decision with the easy outcome instead of the easy decision with the harder outcome.  

Trip to Azerbaijan. January 26th through February 8th, 2017

Dawn over Shamakhi. 

Traditional cups of tea. 

Light painting!

Lots and lots of construction in Baku. 

We got to visit Gobustan, where there are hundreds of ancient rock drawings. 

A desert flower. 

Mud volcanoes!

Sploosh. 

The kind of person.

The following excerpt is taken from page 205 from "Living Stones" by Helen Roseveare.  In it she relates a talk given by a Pastor from Japan at a conference in 1978.

     "At a recent meeting in Japan", Pastor Ruichi Nakazawa spoke thoughtfully, yet with an infectious smile lighting up his face, "the missionaries spoke of the kind of gifts that new workers should have, whereas we Japanese spoke of the kind of person we need." 

      He was speaking on the subject of the needed qualifications of a modern-day missionary, at the Kilcgreggan Conference, and he carefully and quietly enumerated certain essential characteristics. 

     "We need missionaries who can show us what we must do, and then lead us to do that work.  We ourselves need to be more involved in God's work, not having it all done for us. 

     "When I look over the history of evangelism in Japan," he said, "I see that, more than the work of leading many people to Christ, the training of a few pastors, evangelists, church elders and laymen has been the more fruitful.  The groups who put their efforts into producing leaders were not very outstanding in the beginning, but now they are the ones who are growing and bearing fruit.

     "For this type of work, we need people with a deep spirituality and a life of prayer.  The ministry is work that brings to birth and gives life.  It is spiritual warfare.  It is therefore reasonable that the worker be a man who is moved by God through prayer, and not one who runs round in his own strength.

     "Then he needs a heart to nurture and train others.  It is important to have a parent heart rather than a teacher heart, a heart that loves God's children, that desires their growth and that counts it a joy to make whatever sacrifice is necessary for that growth.  The man who has the aptitude not only to manage and control his own gifts, but also to supervise, lead, discipline and train the gifts of the flock, is the man who will be greatly used.

   "A leader has to be someone who proves himself worthy of another's trust and confidence.  A talented speaker and special gifts draw an audience but unless a worker can win confidence in special relationships, there will be no disciples.  The ministry is not attracting spectators, but making disciples of Christ.

     "Then, it is essential that a worker be a good example.  Japanese are great copiers.  They borrow ideas from the West and in no time they produce something peculiarly Japanese for export on the world market.  

     "With regard to the spread of the gospel, this is how Japanese need to be touched.  Japanese business men are much more interested in being shown a sample than in receiving an instruction booklet or listening to a lecture.  Though it is good to distribute literature and have foreign speakers give good messages, it is much more profitable to have a missionary sent to us as a living example of a servant and a witness of God.  I don't mean to say that we are waiting for perfect saints to arrive.  If they'll invite us to be honest about them, to please God and not to be discouraged, to make the Cross of Christ their resting place, to be patient in hardship, to believe, to love, to serve - it is this attitude that has a tremendous power of influence.

     "Finally, may I remind you that Paul spoke of Timothy about his attitudes, not about his gifts, when he said: 'Set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." 

sharing in the grace of life

  Sometimes, something you read nails it.  I just read the chapter on "speaking woman" from Stu Weber's book, "Tender Warrior".  At the end of the chapter he gives this exhortation.  It's a long, but most good things are.

  "Men, we need to make the effort, take the risk, and speak the language ('woman').  A woman needs honoring and cherishing and nourishing.  She needs to know she is the top priority in her man's life.  In the early years of our marriage, I tended to look at my wife as my "partner."  I sang bass, she sang soprano.  I was playing right guard, she was playing tackle.  She was my executive assistant.  She was my fellow worker.  She was my fellow soldier.  She was my wing man.  But a woman doesn't want to be a wing man.  She doesn't want to be a tackle.  She doesn't even want to be a junior "partner" in all your endeavors.
   She wants to be in your heart and soul.  She wants to hear it from you and see it in you.
   Do you remember when your first child was born?  Do you remember what that day felt like?  Do you remember those emotions of tenderness you felt towards this lady who had just borne you that little son or daughter?  I'll never forget it.  I was walking down the hallway in that hospital with my chest expanded about three shirt sizes, eyes alert for somebody to broadcast my story to.  What I wanted to broadcast was, "Hey world, this is my wife, this is my woman, this is my miracle worker.  Look what she has done!"
  Do you remember that feeling?  Well, bottle it.  Bottle that feeling of pride and cherishing and treasuring and nourishing and honoring.  And once you've bottled it, slap a liberal dose on both cheeks every morning.
  Some of you by the providence of God have not been able to have those children.  Your task is even more profound.  You find pride and put it on five times a day.  Do battle with hell itself for the sake of your woman and your marriage.  Polish the treasure where you live and forget the mythical one at the end of Hollywood's rainbow.  All you need is under your own roof if you'll only acknowledge it and cherish it.
  That's how to live with a woman.  That's how to speak her language.  Down through the long years it is an effort that will chase loneliness our of dark corners and paint joyful murals on the hallways of your life."

the candle problem and the church

Tonight I heard a program featuring Daniel Pink, who gave a TED talk about money and how and whether it motivates us. Hear the whole thing here. The illustration is how people solved the "candle problem"; those offered money incentive completed it in a longer time than those who were not. In a nutshell, he says that psychology studies over the last forty years consistently show when money is offered as incentive to jobs which require more right-brained, creative thinking (which are the majority in the States with much physical labor's being automated or outsourced), it does not increase productivity but rather slows it down and blocks creativity.

He wonders why businesses are not catching on to this science, with bosses giving more of a "I'm here to facilitate your doing your best at what only you can do and I'll provide your income while you're at it" kind of mentality to employees, freeing them to engage their creativity without the pressure of constant performance.

That would be a pretty radical kind of employer, wouldn't it? His authority would look more like making a nurturing, stimulating environment in which employees could thrive than dangling carrots or prodding with sticks (offering bonuses or threatening pay cuts). He would have to trust that his employees have something valuable to contribute even if they're not constantly giving output...and not balk at still paying up in the slow times.

It's making me think of church leadership. So often, authority is taken as the right to tell people what to do and to control what they get. But that is putting an external pressure or motivator on us. Usually ends up frustrating the people under it (wishing they could be free) and the ones on top (wishing the masses had better attitudes or self-motivation).

I think of how God arranged for our salvation--that it was not from the external motivator of the rules of the law, but in His glorious plan, ended up coming as a free gift. The free gift also promised this incredible inheritance, coming to us by no effort of our own, like having our salary guaranteed for life.

Now that we're in the fulltime (lifetime!) employment of the Lord Jesus, where is the motivation for our work? How in the world do us concerned leaders get regular everyday people to be motivated to serve God, serve each other, be passionate about reaching the lost and all the other things we are passionate about? If Christian leaders revert to the old way of "if you do this, then you'll get this" or essentially, "please try harder and faster!", I think science, let alone theology, will prove them ineffective.

So that's bad authority. What's the alternative? I heard our pastor define authority as the responsibility to make for that situation wherein others will thrive (or something close to that). That's not the same as controlling what people do. It's more like overseeing (oh funny, isn't "overseer" the real word we translate "elder"?). There's that trust factor again. You have to be able to trust that they have something valuable in themselves that can be tapped into given the right environment. In a believer's case, that something is the Holy Spirit, who give gifts uniquely to every believer.

My personal challenge remains, then, to trust the Holy Spirit to work in others the things I want desperately to see flourishing in them and to work REALLY HARD at making an environment in which they can thrive and practice their gifts, undergirded with the unconditional support of them as people even if I'm not seeing the results at present. This is such a huge unknown for me as I consider making disciples of all the nations. How I want to empower and raise up everyday people to their full potential in the Body--but not by pushing more information and more of MY passion down their throats! Even science is telling us that the way to get others up is to get under them. May the Lord give us the creativity and patience to make for the growth of others.

Dad's plans are worth doing!

  When I was a little boy, my dad would often do amazing things with me and my siblings.  He would say things like "Come on kids, let's go build a giant kite!", and we would!  We spent most of a morning building a frame out of bamboo, then stretching polyurethane sheeting over it, and duct taping it all together.  We then got out dad's surf-caster fishing rod and reel, hooked it up and took it out to the ball field for a fly.  That thing was amazing!  It was so big, that when the wind was strong, I could hold on that surf-caster with all my might, take a big jump, and it would pick me up and make me soar through the air! 
   Then another time, dad said something like, "Come on kids, let's go build an underground house!"  And we did!  Sadly, the soil behind our house was not the best for underground houses, it didn't drain.  So our underground house became an underground muddy hot tub the first time it rained.  Still, for a while there we had a hole in the ground big enough for us all to fit in!
  A couple of times we did things that too this day defy belief, like the time we made a house in a hollow tree, and then spent the night in it.  Or the time we made a catapult worthy of a siege on Rome.  Or the time we skinned a road kill raccoon and made a hat.  Or the time we went spear fishing for lobster and nearly didn't make it back to shore.
  As I got older, I tried at times to emulate the adventures we would have with dad on my own.  Needless to say, they left me somewhat disappointed.  My kite didn't pick me up and send me soaring, it wouldn't even fly.
  I am grateful for a dad who was so ready to invite us to do adventurous things with him, because it prepared me for the kind of plans my Heavenly Father comes up with.  He invites me to do things that I could never dream of doing on my own, things that leave me shaky with adrenaline, and breathless with delight.
  Like the time he invited me to visit a prison inmate, and share the gospel through bullet proof glass, and the guy gave his life to the Lord!  Or the time He sent me to talk with a Chinese student, who had never heard the good news, and he also believed!  Or the time He broke my car, and then fixed it again so that a dude with "thug life" tattooed on his knuckles could understand that He is real.
  At times I try to do adventurous things on my own, but they never are nearly as good as when I'm doing the things that my Father has in mind.
      
...So Father, here I am, along with my family, we are totally at your disposal.
              Amen. 

"If not for Jesus, I'd be undone,
Love of the Father, death of the Son.
If not for Jesus, God come in flesh
to bear my sin, and my wretchedness.

      These words came to me as a student at CIU during a philosophy 101 class in which we were debating human suffering.  As we discussed this heavy topic, the thought came to me that most people see God as far removed from our human suffering.  As if he were a sadistic cop, God stands behind the one way glass of an interrogation cell, witnessing our misery but doing nothing to help.  This is not what history tells us at all.  Jesus was not standing behind any sort of buffer to our misery when he was crucified.  He received in himself the fullness of human suffering, that the undeserving might receive the fullness of heavenly life.
      In human pride we can be quick to demand an accounting of God for suffering in the world, but only if we close our eyes to the cross.  What can we really say to God once we have seen the suffering servant?  We can say, truthfully, if not for Jesus I'd be undone