Schools, jobs, etc. (ie, normal American life)

Hello all,

I'm back in Colorado again, staying at my family's house in Louisville. I've spent a lot of the last couple weeks working on graduate school stuff, figuring out where I'll be going. My decision is mainly down to either George Washington University in DC or the University of Arizona in Tucson. Arizona is offering me a very good financial deal, and it's a good school; GW is somewhat better for what I want to study (more broadly focused, with more economics, development and practical stuff). If the Lord provides a way for me to pay for GW, I'll go there; otherwise I'd be very happy at Arizona. So, it's a good situation. I'll be visiting both places in April, have to decide two days after I get back from DC.

I haven't started working yet, since I haven't found a job. It doesn't look like People's Clinic will have anything available, so I'm looking in various places. May God make that happen when and how He desires. I hope I can find something relatively nearby.

This Sunday I'll be giving a short presentation on my time in Palestine/Israel; pray that God would speak through me. I'm excited to share some of my stories, pictures, etc. I believe the Lord already has His hand in it, so I'm happy to share about the people in the region, and the struggles they face to deal with each other and their own sin, as well as the ways that God has brought redemption to people's lives.

Keep on praying for the believers in Palestine, Israel, Lebanon and elsewhere, that they would cling to the word of God, never repaying wrong for wrong, and rejoicing in the great blessings that God has given us in Christ.

Love,
Seth

Heaven is Our Home!

Praise God!

I'm in Boston now, and tonight will be flying back to Colorado to my "home." And without in any way belittling the excitement and joy I have in thinking about seeing my friends and family again, I'm reminded of the beautiful and amazing truth that we who renounce the world for the sake of the Messiah Jesus are simply pilgrims and strangers in this world, sojourners whose citizenship is not with the world, but with our Lord Jesus. Our riches cannot be touched by moth or by thief (a beautiful reality which God graciously gave me first-hand experience of in Istanbul). Our land is not made of mere dust, but of alabaster and gold. The world can have our homes, our land, our citizenship, our rights, our EVERYTHING, and we would still be richer than all of them. Oh, may our eyes be open to this glorious, holy and mind-boggling truth!

I was so encouraged on this theme by my dear brother Georges, who wrote a very good post on this blog. He's writing from Lebanon, and if any place right now would have the temptation to get caught up in nationalistic fervor and revolutionary excitement, this would be it. And certainly, the desire for freedom and self-determination are not entirely evil--they can reflect pure and holy desires for justice, peace and the building up of God's kingdom. But even so, there are great dangers in such times, which is why I am so encouraged to see my brother's awareness of these pitfalls. May the Lord guide His church in Lebanon to be salt and light in the midst of changes and tumult, and may the cross be their ark that carries them through the storm.

Pray for the church in Lebanon, and in Palestine/Israel, Turkey, Kosova, Bosnia and everywhere else. May our eyes be more opened to God's glory, and our hearts more captivated by His grace and beauty in Christ Jesus.

Coming home soon,

Seth

of national zeal and the believer

There was a time when I was the most passionately zealous lebanese nationalist of all, bar none. There is a violence of emotion, a certain turbulence of spirit that is concomittant with such alienating zeal.
Today, 2 things have changed. The country for which mine heart beats, and the quality of my love. Jesus Christ has given me a peace that the countries and causes of the world cannot offer. I am in love with the King of a country called heaven. His peace is shed over my soul and I am liberated from the enthrallment of worldly ideals, wherein dwells no true nobility, no innocence, no true love, no redeeming fellowship.

I write even as I watch live coverage of the biggest protest in Lebanon's ancient and eventful history. I know the scene well. The pulse is apounding and the blood is aboiling, and the clamours of hundreds of thousands, written into the triumphant music of liberational politics, roar and rip the air. I am today fond of Lebanon the way one would be fond of the country of his sojourn, having dwelt therein for a number of years. Surely mine affections are wired as I wish the land freedom for all, that peace may reign.
But it is only a question of lesser evil. This world system is hopelessly corrupt, and is condemned. Humanists can implode their lungs in denial; until He whose name is Righteousness reigneth in visible glory, the world will have no peace. Kindly revise the history of the Middle East for example. I have empirical data written with the blood of countless human beings felled in the battlefield for the kindgoms and ideologies of this fallen world; data ablaze with the fires of innumerable wars.
I am a realist, but with more of a hope and future in Christ than the most unabated optimist. Beware, believers, that the "prince of this world" (John 14:30), the one unto whom all earthly kingdoms are delivered, which he gives to whomsoever he wills (Luke 4:6) usurp not your allegiance to Christ and the energetic zeal of your youth.
Beware beware beware. Our heavenly allegiance is our only one, not our first one.
This is especially important to grasp given the nature of the coming world order under the anti-christ, which once was under Roman rule. The Romans did not mind that those they ruled had their own national gods. They wisely, (satan is full of wisdom, Ezekiel 28:12) allowed the peoples to worship their divinities, under one condition:
that first allegiance and worship was owed unto Caesar. But that, as many believers understood, compromised the absolute sovereignty of Jesus over their lives. They suffered death.

It is here useful to be reminded that we are nevertheless to be obedient to the authorities, whomever they may be in everything except that which would compromise our Biblical walk with Jesus our God, and to lift them up in prayer for they are set up to punish the evildoers and reward those that do well, never having a bad word or even thought against their person (Ecclesiastes 10:20, Romans 13:1-7, Titus 3:1, 1Timothy 2:1-3, 1Peter 2:13-18, 2Peter 2:10, Jude 8-9) for in this manner, we, as David concerning Saul, express reverence to the authority of God who remains Sovereign King in the affairs of men, despite satan's authority, setting up and bringing down governments as He well pleases (Daniel 4:17)

We remain sojourners, strangers, pilgrims in this world (1Peter 2:11). If we believe that we are not of it, let us live likewise. In Jeremiah 38:17-18, God ordered and blessed those that went out into the hand of the foreign power, cursing those who trusted yet in their land and their own. So if we are sojourners, we are not any closer to those rulers of our earhtly country than to those that rule our neighbour. Though, as previously admitted, bonds of affection are inevitably formed, and good may they well be, in the sense that they teach us what must be felt towards our heavenly abode, that they churn our bowels for the salvation of our countrymen and their peace. We are concerned over which kind of state rules over us in as far as we want free course for the Word of God, and peace.(2Thessalonians 3:1-3)

By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. Hebrews 11:8-10, 13-16

Lastly, beware of the leaven of Herod (Matthew 8:15) which is politics. Divide the Word of Truth, and understand that the power of Christ is not that of the state. Only at His second return as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, will Jesus rule both as Son of God and Son of Man.

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. John 18:36

Note the "now"in the last part. It is not spoken in vain. Any person, organization, institution that abides not by these words, witnesses against its own divine origin. What is not of God is of the devil.

Wilkommen in Bayern

Hi all,

Just wanted to drop a quick note, say I'm alive and happy. I had a good time visiting in Istabul; unfortunately I got robbed (wallet and passport) on my way out, but that meant I got to spend an extra couple days with my friends there, so it wasn't all bad. I had a really wonderful time in Prishtina and then in Sarajevo, very encouraged by my dear friends there. Now I'm in Munich, with my two brothers and my parents, enjoying Bavarian food, music (ie, drinking songs), art, etc. I also went today to Dachau, the first main Nazi concentration camp. Pretty tough. It made everything more real to me, to see this place in actuality.

God bless you all, look forward to seeing those of you in Boulder.

Seth