You can see from the list that we like adventure, magic, and especially books in a series.

All The Mad Scientists Club books by Bertrand Brinley

All the Redwall books by Brian Jacques (20 out of the 21; the next one is on our list).

All the Septimus Heap books by Angie Sage (six and counting).

Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes by Frank Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. With eight kids in our own family, this is especially appealing. We also liked Ten P’s in a Pod by Arnold Pent III.

The Ranger’s Apprentice books by John Flanagan (we’ve read 7 of the 9).

Peter and the Starcatchers series by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. We haven’t read The Sword of Mercy; the older girls read it and said it was a little too scary for the littles.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard Atwater (Brenda read this one).

Savvy by Ingrid Law.

The Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander.

The Brill and the Dragators series by Peggy Downing (Brenda read this series, too).

I’ll add more as I think of them.

The baptism was held at a local park which has a large lake. It was a great setting, and about a dozen 20somethings were being baptized, with a hundred more of us standing on the beach to watch. As each person was baptized, their friends gathered around them in the water to pray and rejoice. It was excellent…until it got goofy.

When one young man came up out of the water, someone in the group around him started chanting his name (“Jamie! Jamie!”), and the crowd in the water picked up on it. You know what it reminded me of? It seemed EXACTLY like a frat party, where Jamie would be trying to down as much beer as he could at one go.

This display became contagious, and was repeated after every other person being baptized. (“Lacey! “Lacey!”)

I couldn’t decide whether I was feeling like:

1. an old fogey who didn’t understand today’s youth
2. a tolerant dad watching his kids do their best
3. a disappointed prophet watching an immature display by people who don’t know any better.

Actually, it reminded me of how Moses might have felt when he came down from the mountain and saw the children of Israel dancing around the golden calf. Were they really all that much to blame? As far as I can tell, here’s what happened: Moses went up on the mountain and received the 10 commandments. He came down, wrote them in a book and read them to the people. They agreed to obey, and Moses threw blood on them. (Glad we haven’t kept THAT ritual around.) Then Moses went back up the mountain to talk to God again.

What I didn’t see is him hanging around to give the people guidance on how to follow the commandments, or even explanation of what they mean. So with a list of commands but no leadership or guidance, should we really have been surprised at the result?

So, back to the beach. Am I an old fogey? Am I a benevolent dad? Am I a disgruntled prophet? Yeah, maybe a little of each.

She always greeted our family when she saw us in church; she seemed to make it her job to welcome us every week. She was amazingly consistent: always with a smile, always with a kind word to say.

My strongest memory of Mrs. Pugh was, ironically enough, when I withdrew my membership from the church. I had graduated from college and wasn’t attending there anymore; I thought that telling them would be the right thing to do. The church had over 7,000 members at the time, so I figured one more or less wouldn’t make much of a difference, but I went ahead and did it anyway.

The next time I saw Mrs. Pugh, I was visiting the church with my parents. She made a beeline to me and said she noticed that I was no longer a member. 7,000 people on the roll and she sought me out! She said she was sorry to see me go, but understood that I was moving on, and that I’d always be welcome. She said she’d miss me! Thousands of people walk through those doors every week, and yet she’d miss me.

That was over 20 years ago, and I saw her occasionally since that time, as I’d visit the church with my parents, or bring my own kids to the annual ice cream social. She was always so welcoming, so glad to see me.

Mrs. Pugh passed away last week, finally losing her battle with cancer. Her obituary (here) doesn’t do her justice. She taught me the power of saying hello, and also the power of saying good-bye.

I said good-bye to her on that day 20 years ago, but I knew that I’d see her again, and that she would welcome me. Today is no different. Today I’ll attend her memorial service. I’ll say good-bye to Mrs. Pugh, but I know I’ll see her again. And I know I’ll be welcome.

Actually, it was the end of a long, long road that started when the woman, whose name is Aracely, was arrested for driving a car without a license. She didn’t have a license because she wasn’t in the country legally. Aracely’s mother works for Brenda’s sister, who asked Brenda to help out.

Aracely entered the country before her second birthday, when her mother sneaked over the US-Mexico border with her in tow. Being born in Mexico, she was of course not a US citizen, and spent the next twenty years of her life under the radar. It wasn’t until she was stopped for a traffic violation that things turned sour.

Brenda did a lot of legwork, found a lawyer, navigated the bureaucracy of the INS, counseled and supported Aracely, and in the end succeeded. Why did she do it? Not because Aracely was a pillar in the community. No, she worked an hourly job with a false Social Security number. Not because Aracely had the highest moral standards; at 21 years old, Aracely is the single mother of a 6-year-old girl.

Brenda tells me she did it because it’s the kind of work God does. The pointed to a passage in the Old Testament, which says this: “When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” God’s command to the children of Israel starts with “do not do him wrong”. That’s easy enough, I suppose. However, God then commands us to love the alien as much as we love ourselves, and that’s where it gets tougher.

There’s a lot of political talk about how we should treat the illegal aliens among us. Much of that talk has been done by folks who claim to follow Jesus. Maybe these folks could start checking out what the Bible says about how we should treat these very aliens. It’s a good read.

Here at the mission trip I’m on, we heard from a man who has been on the mission field for many years. He told story after story of things that happened to him. The stories were wild and miraculous, but something didn’t sound right. For a while, I had trouble figuring out just what was I didn’t like about what he was saying. Then it hit me: he’s the hero of his own story.

A couple of nights later, another missionary spoke to us. His story was the exact opposite — not in wild or miraculous events, but in who exactly the hero was. Every story started and ended with a statement like this: “I didn’t know what I was doing, but God did something great anyway.”

Now, the first fellow talked for almost two hours (TWO HOURS!), and I don’t recall a time where he gave God the credit for what happened. It was, “God told me to do this, and I did it.” That got old long before the two hours were up (did I mention it went on for TWO HOURS?). I got tired of hearing yet another story of how well he obeyed God. Honest, I did.

Get this: I have heard the second guy’s story nine times before. Nine times — I counted. But I’m always willing to hear it again, and now I know why. In his story, he’s just an extra — Jesus is the hero.

If you’re going to tell your testimony, remember to make Jesus the hero. That’s a good lesson to learn, no matter how long you’ve been on the mission field.

We, the undersigned, protest the bill that the Senate voted on recently which would allow illegal aliens to access our Social Security. We demand that you and all Congressional representatives require citizenship as a pre-requisite for social services in the United States …

We further demand that there not be any amnesty given to illegal aliens, NO free services, no funding, no payments to and for illegal immigrants.

Maybe you received a similar email. Its arrival was timely for me, as I had just been studying “aliens” in the Bible. I did a search for all verses where all the words alien, fatherless, and widow occur. Here they are:

1. Deuteronomy 10:18
He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.

2. Deuteronomy 14:28-29
At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

3. Deuteronomy 16:11
And rejoice before the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you.

4. Deuteronomy 16:14
Be joyful at your Feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns.

5. Deuteronomy 24:17
Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.

6. Deuteronomy 24:19-21
When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow.

7. Deuteronomy 26:12
When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.

8. Deuteronomy 26:13
Then say to the LORD your God: “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands nor have I forgotten any of them.

The upshot is that God appears to view aliens in the same category as widows and orphans. Also, God has a history of taking land AWAY from the legals and giving it to the illegals: Gen 17.8 says, “The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”

I notice that God didn’t say in the above passages, “Help out the alien as long as it doesn’t affect your pocketbook”, or “Be nice to aliens but you don’t have to give them anything.” No, he’s pretty explicit that he intends us to be affected personally and financially. That part about not harvesting every single olive, or being sure to invite aliens to our parties — there’s no getting around that.

We seem to be pretty high-and-mighty when we protest that our aliens are illegal — as if that somehow makes it right to treat them poorly. However, didn’t Jesus condemn the Pharisees for this very thing — creating rules that allowed them not to support those in need? (See Mk. 7.9-13)

There seems to be a trend among the evangelical Christian community to parrot some of the politically conservative voices on the internet and talk radio regarding this issue. Shouldn’t we instead be parroting God?

Here’s a typical line:

Had giving been at an average of 10 percent in 2005 rather than 2.58 percent, there would have been at least an additional $168 billion available for the overseas and domestic mission work of churches.

The assumption is, of course, that if churches only had more money, they could do more mission work. But what I’ve seen is the opposite. When churches get a lot of money, they don’t ship it out the doors. Instead, they tend to build huge, multi-million-dollar campuses. The stated purpose is to reach the neighboring community, and sure, that’s a good idea. However, millions of dollars to build a place just so people can have meetings….

So if suddenly everyone started tithing and churches had all the money they could ever use, would we see an increase in giving money away? Sure, the total dollars would go up, but I doubt the percentage would increase. Use yourself as an example: when you got your last raise, did you increase the percentage you gave away, or just the total amount — or maybe neither?

Churches are the same as people. We (American churches) only give 3% of our money to non-Christians; the majority stays in the building. I doubt it will change just because we have more.

The articles are here, here, and here.

Mark defines this spiritual gift as “the ability to research, remember, and make effective use of a variety of information on a number of diverse subjects”. He then gives examples of where he sees this gift in operation in various Bible characters, including Jesus.

Mark points out that Jesus studied and memorized the Old Testament, saying this is an example of the gift of knowledge in operation. If this is the case, though, then didn’t the majority of Jesus’ peers also have this gift? The memorization of the Torah was a common feat among the scribes and Pharisees of his day, and even his own disciples had memorized large portions of Scripture. To say that memorizing a huge text is an example of this gift seems to be a reading into the phrase “word of knowledge”. (Oh, and did Jesus have knowledge of “a number of diverse subjects”, as in Mark’s definition? If so, he apparently kept it to himself, and focused on a few narrow subjects, namely Israel and his own role.)

Mark had a couple of other examples in the Bible. He points out Timothy because of a line in Paul’s letter to him (2 Tim 2.15). To state that “rightly handling the word of truth” is an example of the spiritual gift of knowledge is a stretch I cannot make.

The alternative definition of this gift is something like this: information revealed to a person by the Holy Spirit, which the person would not otherwise know. This is more palatable to me for a couple of reasons. The first is that Paul is describing spiritual gifts, which I take to be abilities given by the Holy Spirit. They aren’t enhanced natural abilities, and they aren’t commonly seen in people who do not have the Spirit. (Again, if the ability to memorize and make use of large amounts of Scripture is indicative of this gift, then my atheist religion professors in college were all gifted by the Holy Spirit.)

The second reason I prefer this definition is that it helps explain what we already have seen in the Bible. There are a number of times when Jesus or someone else knows things that they have no earthly way of knowing (Jn 1.47-48, Lk 11.17, Acts 8.20-23, etc).

The third reason I prefer this definition is it makes more sense with the rest of the gifts listed in the Corinthian letter. If we go with Mark’s definition, for consistency it would seem to me that the gifts of healing that Paul mentions must refer to physicians, and tongues must mean those who excel in learning foreign languages.

Not to knock the people who love knowledge, researching, learning and sharing new things (I am one of them), but this desire and ability doesn’t strike me as a spiritual gift…at least not the one mentioned by Paul.

Hey Darren!

I’ve been sending this email to some people asking them to help us out… let me know what you think!

My friend Chris and I are trying to compile a 56 day devotional for a challenge we are giving the 5th and 6th graders in March and April. The whole thing is centered on connecting with God. So we are trying to get 56 days worth of people’s short stories on their experiences with God. These are really short (less than 300 words) and only take a little time (I’ve already done 3). But I know our kids will grow a ton from them. Then if you have a Bible passage and some questions about it for the kids, that would be awesome!

Let me know if you can help! I know it would be way more beneficial for the kids to hear a lot of different people’s perspectives, rather than just 15 of mine, and 15 or Chris’s. Can you also tell me if your story will relate to one of the 8 weekly themes listed below? Feel free to just send it in Word, or in an email. We can worry about formatting.

Your devotional should relate to the mission of 56 Connect:
For the next 56 days, try to stay in a continuous, honest conversation with God, willing to do whatever he wants you to do moment by moment.

Your personal story, along with the Bible passage should go along with one of these weekly themes:

1. Surrendering and God’s Will
2. Reading the Bible & Memorizing Scripture
3. Silence & Prayer
4. Community & Accountability
5. Worship
6. Solitude & Places of Holiness
7. Forgiveness & Grace
8. Great Commandments, Great Commission, & Serving

Here’s my reply.

My brother Kevin has a beehive in his the corner of his back yard, and has harvested honey for several years. One fall, a bunch of leaves were accidently piled up against the beehive entrance. The bees were trapped inside the hive, and they all died. When my brother opened the hive in the Spring, it was full of dead bees, bugs, and rotting honey. Ugh! He cleared away the leaves, but left the hive just as it was, wondering what to do with it.

The next season, he looked again and saw that there were bees flying in and out of the hive! He opened it up and saw that new bees had moved in. They had cleaned out all the bugs and bee carcases, and had begun making new honey!

When Kevin told me that story, I heard God speaking to me. My life is like that old hive. The junk and sin in my life had trapped and killed the life inside. Jesus, however, set up house inside me. He cleaned out the junk and began creating something new.

Unfortunately, it seems that I still end up piling leaves on my hive on a regular basis. I need Jesus to clean me up and make something useful out of me – every day.

Kevin made up a jar of that honey and gave it to me. On the label was the name “Heavenly Honey”. When I pour it over a homemade roll, I remember that those bees took something useless like that dirty old hive and created out of it something wonderful, something that adds flavor to to life.

– Darren

2 Cor 5.17 says: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

1 John 1.9 says: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Questions:

1.Some people think they’ve done things that are too bad to be forgiven. Jesus says he can forgive us no matter what we’ve done. What do you think?
2.Sometimes we pile up the “leaves” around our lives that start to kill us. Sometimes it’s other people or circumstances that do it. What can we do when either of these things happen?
3.Does Jesus ever get tired of forgiving us for the same thing over and over?
4.What does it mean to “confess” our sins? To whom do we confess?

I immediately thought of a friend who lost his sister to cancer recently. The challenges for her children and family could well be described as the fight of their lives.

Perhaps my company’s executive meant, “the fight of our corporate lives”, or something like that. I have a hard time thinking that my company’s competitive pressure compares with the dramatic life struggles going on all around us.