Fire

Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. (Exodus 3:1-3)

God revealed Himself to Moses through a bush that was on fire, but was "not consumed." Fire is often used in Scriptures as a sign of God's judgment and wrath, for example in 2 Peter 3:10:

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

Or in Isaiah 33:14:

The sinners in Zion are terrified;
trembling grips the godless:
"Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire?
Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?"

God promises us that all wickedness, all evil in this world will be destroyed, will be burned up and consumed.

As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:40-42)

And yet, as gold passes through the fire refined and purer than before, there is something that will remain after this terrible judgment. There is a goodness, a purity, a love that cannot be destroyed by the fiercest fire. And God Himself is this goodness, this love. So when He wanted to reveal Himself to Moses, He came in a burning bush--a bush that was ablaze, but not consumed. The fire could not harm the bush, could not change it, no matter how hot it burned. So it is with God's goodness.

And so it is with us, when we trust in Him. When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into the fire in Babylon for refusing to worship the king, their bodies could not be harmed by the fire, for Jesus was with them (Daniel 3:19-29). As God promised those who trust in Him, "When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze" (Isaiah 43:2).

So, in Christ, we need not fear the fire of God's refining power. We need not be as the "sinners in Zion" who tremble in terror. His fire is terrible, awesome, fierce, consuming. "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God" (Deut. 4:24). And if we cling to idols, if we hold onto those things in our life that will one day be destroyed, we can be sure that this fire will consume us as well. But as we lose our lives and find them in Him, when Jesus comes to baptize us with the fire of the Holy Spirit, we will emerge purer, holier and stronger than before.

Jesus longed to set our hearts ablaze with love for Him, and rid the world of wickedness. "I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" (Luke 12:49). He longed with a frightening fury to rid us of that cancer in our lives that prevents us from loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. He considered no cost too high to buy us this freedom of loving God wholly and completely. If it took losing an eye, gouge it out! If it took losing a hand, cut it off! No sacrifice was too great--even if it took Him losing His own life.

Let us consider the price He paid to buy us this pure and holy love, that though ablaze in passion for God is never consumed. Let us bring down the walls we build to keep God from the inner parts of our lives, and in holy, sweet surrender allow His fire to set us ablaze for Him, with all our hearts and all our selves. Even if it costs us our lives, as it cost Him His, let us embrace this baptism by fire that forges us anew in love with our Creator and Redeemer.

Refine us, Lord. Give us the treasure of loving you fully, no matter the cost.

May our words, our thoughts, our deeds and our lives all reflect the blazing glory of the Son of God, whom the fires of hell could not consume, but who rose again in power and majesty, to be worshiped and loved and enjoyed by His people forever.

Joy & Sorrow

This BBC article talks about pregnant Palestinian women having their babies while being stopped at checkpoints. It's very sad. I told some of you while I was in Bethlehem last January the story of the lady in Gaza whose friend was driving her and her husband, and the soldiers fired on the car (they said they didn't stop when ordered), killed the friend and wounded the husband. I read the story the same day my friend at the College drove our friend and her husband (all Americans) across the checkpoint into Bethlehem, where she had her baby healthily (on my birthday!). So the juxtaposition of those two stories was very poignant. This article reminds me of those stories, especially since a good friend of mine's sister just had her baby healthily in the US (praise God), while many of these Palestinian women's babies are dying at the checkpoints (and some of the mothers too). It's true that suicide bombers will sometimes use ambulances, and that women are sometimes suicide bombers, but still this is a terrible thing. It's a terrible thing that these women don't have freedom of movement and access to basic health care, and a terrible thing that a few Palestinians have committed atrocities that make Israelis fear them enough to make these restrictions that hurt the average Palestinian so much.

Ya rub, irHamhum. (Lord, have mercy on them.)

I love my friend Zach

Hey folks,

I was just reading some stuff on my friend Zach Harris' webpage, and I just thought I'd put in a plug for those of you who haven't read some of his stuff (many of you have, I'm sure). Zach has always been a source of personal encouragement and intellectual challenge to me. I wouldn't say he's always right (he himself would say so, and the fact that his ideas change sometimes obviously show it), but he knows the Bible very well and God has gifted him with a lot of clear thinking about important (and often very challenging issues).

Anyway, enough advertisement. I would especially encourage you to read his article on secrecy in missions (http://www.geocities.com/zacharyaustinharris/security.html; there's a longer version of the argument also on the page), on the "marriage incompatibility fallacy" (http://www.geocities.com/zacharyaustinharris/compatibility.html), and on our great need for transformation in order to engage in ministry in Muslim regions (http://www.geocities.com/zacharyaustinharris/secrecy_addendum.html). But by no means feel limited by this particular selection.

One point of my own before I head over to eat lunch prior to my Arab-Israeli Conflict test (y'atini al'aafiye). So much of what it means to follow Christ in the radical way we see pictured in Acts (esp. chs 2-4) involves Christian community. I may want to do crazy things for Jesus, I may want to give up my life and everything I am to serve God, but ultimately, God desires to show us His glory through the whole body of Christ, not just individual crazy hermit-dudes. (Not that I'm really a hermit of any kind.) We need each other; I find myself weaker when I'm on my own. Our American culture is so individualistically oriented, it's crazy to think that we might give up on certain dreams or ideas we have in order to live in community. But I would say that if we want to follow Jesus, and our dreams are focused on Him and the coming of His glorious kingdom on this earth, then we need to keep community as one of our first priorities.

Oh, may the grace of God come down on the Church, that we might open our hearts and homes and lives to each other in service and love and humility! Oh, may my heart be broken for the ways in which I and others fail to love our brothers and sisters in Jesus, fail to think of their needs as of greater importance than my own! May our lives reflect the unity that Jesus desires for His body--the same kind of unity that He has with the Father (so one you can't even explain it!!). Ven, Señor, y danos esta unidad en tí. Transforme nuestros corazones para que podamos amarnos el uno al otro así como nos amaste en la cruz.

For Jesus,

Seth

Poverty in America

This is a very interesting and challenging article on the gospel's implications for the poor in America, worth reading.

http://www.evangelicaloutpost.com/archives/001589.html

"And all these things shall be added unto you as well"

Well, I don't know exactly how well I've been "seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness," but God in grace anyway has given me a permanent place to stay, like officially, like I'll be sleeping there tonight!!! (For those who didn't know, I was promised a room at the Catholic student center here, but for the last almost two weeks now it's been delayed and delayed, and my other options have been closed one by one...so it's really nice to know it's actually come through just in the nick of time.)

So, I'm going to go sleep there now, and enjoy the bounteous riches of God's grace. :) Yipee!!

"Their god is their stomach"

Saludos otra vez,

I've been thinking about some things from the sermon I heard today on Phillipians 3:17-21. In it Paul writes,

For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who...will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

The phrase "their god is their stomach" really struck me in particular. (Now, that may partly be because I happen to be fasting today, but it goes much deeper than that.) We have all these desires--physical desires, emotional desires, dreams and visions and passions. Many of these desires are very legitimate and good in their own right, such as the desire for food, which God gave for our enjoyment and to remind us that He is our provider; or sex, which God again gave for our enjoyment and to reflect the union we have in Him. Others like the desire for friends, for companionship, for people around you who know and love you, are also God-given desires that reflect our desire for intimacy with Him, as well as for community in the body of Christ. (Think about it: God could have just made one person and sent Jesus to die for him/her, but instead He created a whole world of people, with all kinds of gifts and personalities and perspectives.) There are some desires that are never legitimate, such as the desire to hate somebody, or to steal, or to put ourselves above God or other people. But you can see how many of these evil desires in different ways are twisted versions of a good desire (hatred may come from valuing somebody whom this person has hurt, stealing may come from a legitimate desire for food, etc.).

Sometimes, especially when I don't have what I desire, I get frustrated with God and think, "Why did you have to give me this desire in the first place?" Why should my body want food, if there's no food to be had? Why should I desire sex, when God hasn't given me a wife? Why should I desire friendship and companionship, when I'm alone in a new place? Couldn't God somehow just avoid the whole thing?

I think the answer to that question, to that frustration, is that God desires us to desire Him, and He wants to use these other desires He gives us to point us to Him. If we didn't desire food, we might not ever learn what it means that Jesus is the Bread of Life. If we didn't desire sex, we might not understand the kind of intimacy God desires to have with His bride. If we didn't desire companionship, friendship, and people who know and understand us, then we might not realize how great and glorious it is that our God, our Creator, knows us in and out, and desires to be with us every day.

God could have created a sterile world, where we have no desires and therefore need nothing to satisfy those desires. But the want, the lack, the frustration of desires, He wants to use to show us the difference between having our "minds on earthly things" versus recognizing that we belong to heaven, and our citizenship is there. An alien or an immigrant is a foreigner where he is--he doesn't belong. But a citizen belongs in his country. Followers of Jesus don't belong in this world; we belong in heaven. But if we set our minds on earthly things--if we never look past the desire itself to the Creator and Fulfiller of those desires, then we are setting our roots on this earth, and we become corrupt.

For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:32-33)

Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him. (Luke 8:18)

When we have the treasure of knowing Jesus, and we hold onto it at all cost, we will have everything else we need. But if we "don't have"--if we give up this treasure in order to grasp at the ephemeral fulfillment of what our sinful flesh desires, then even what we think we have will be taken from us, and our desires will be left forever unsatisfied. If we live this way, our "destiny is destruction."

God is a good God, and He who did not spare his own Son for us will graciously give us all things. But we have to trust in Him and wait on Him for what we need, or in the end we will have nothing.

I like my church's music

Saludos,

In Tucson I've been attending a church called "Vineyard Christian Community," a lot of the people in my Graduate Christian Fellowship go there. They have great music!! Today we did a Juan Luis Guerra song (in English translation--"No hay nada imposible para tí"), a cool funky gospel song, a Salvador song, a song I hadn't heard since I was in Argentina (I never heard it in English, though I think it was probably English originally), and another translated song by Marcos Witt (Mexican worship leader). I remember the first time I went there they did "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever" with sort of a cantina southwest-style beat (reminded me of "Wasting Away Again in Margaritaville"), plus a cumbia song (¡¡que siga la CUUUUUMBIAAA!!). They've done other songs that remind me of the Doors' "Riders on the Storm" or U2, or Crosby, Stills & Nash. Overall they have a real southwest feel, the kind of songs you'd expect to hear on the border in the desert, driving at night and flipping through the radio channels. It's so great to have an interesting diversity of music, with good musicians too--the bass player and the drummer are both especially good. I actually talked to the bass player afterwards today, turns out he's the one who usually picks the songs, he grew up in Colombia to missionary parents (I could almost hear a Spanish accent in his English), so that's probably why he's acquainted with all this good Spanish worship music. It really lifts me up not only to be able to worship God and be reminded of His goodness and glory, but also do it in a way that reminds me of the cultural diversity of God's people. One really cool couple I met last week is Native American, there's a grad student from Madras, India, and lots of Hispanics. It's a fun place to be. :) (Though, of course, nothing really compares to being home at Indian Peaks.) :)

Peace be with y'all,

Seth

South Asian slums

Dear brothers & sisters in Jesus,

I was looking today at pictures from the devastation of Katrina (a friend of mine's cousin is in New Orleans now, has a blog at gulfsails.blogspot.com). Afterwards I was looking at GFA's webpage at pictures from their slum ministry (http://www.gfa.org/gfa/slum_ministry), and I realized that daily life in the slums of South Asia looks considerably more devastated and impoverished than New Orleans even after a hurricane. (Granted, the ground is dry at least, but a lot of houses that would be considered "damaged beyond repair" in New Orleans would be in very good shape relative to the slums.)

I just want to encourage you all to look at some of the pictures of their slum ministry. The beautiful thing is that, despite the tremendous poverty (and the sickness, unemployment, and hopelessness that goes along with it), God is working to bring hope and joy to people there, through GFA's ministry and others. Jesus was a friend to the beggars and the hopeless--may we be so as well, wherever they are.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Seth

PS I have the opportunity to go to Louisiana this coming weekend with this friend I mentioned to deliver supplies and volunteer to watch over kids in the shelters--I'd be gone Friday afternoon to Monday evening, so I'd miss one day of class. Please pray that God's will would be done, and that if He wants me to go He'd give me favor with my Arabic teacher (which is my only real class on Monday), and also watch over us on the journey.

Totally random

Pierre (I think) took this picture in Lebanon--for those of you who don't read Arabic, the sign says NOTHING at all about birds or girls in Arabic (it says something like "Do not enter, take a different road." My friend here suggested that perhaps they thought, "Well, if we say there's no birds or girls, then all the men will think, 'What's the point of going this way if there are no birds or girls?' So you've pretty much covered everybody."

Dwelling in the House of God

A few verses from Psalm 84 I've been thinking about:

Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you.

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
...
Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere.
(v. 4-5, 10)

As some of you know, I've had an unusual living situation the last few weeks since coming here to Tucson. I decided beforehand that I didn't want a normal "apartment," that I hoped to find a situation where I could live very simply and cheaply, perhaps sleep in a church or something. I have a locker at the rec center, where I can keep my clothes and take showers; a kitchen in my office building; and a TA cubicle with some space for things. I've been sleeping in various places, friends' houses, outside, inside, etc. As of next week, I finally have a stable place to sleep, at the Catholic student center (I'm renting a room there for $100/month).

This experience has caused me to think about some different things in a new light. First, it really struck me that we are blessed when we dwell in the house of the Lord. It doesn't say, "Blessed are they who have really nice apartments" or "Blessed are they who have big houses in Rock Creek" (or some much fancier place). It also doesn't say, "Blessed are those who sleep in homeless shelters and are drunk all the time and leech off society." Rather, dwelling with the Lord, living with Jesus, is what makes us blessed. I do believe that God has blessed my living situation the last few weeks and will continue to do so, in that I'm able to spend less on myself and have greater joy giving to the church ministering to the poor and the lost around the world. But living richly or poorly in itself is nothing--living in the presence of God is what matters.

The other interesting thing is that right after it says, "Blessed are those who dwell in your house," it says, "Blessed are those...who have set their hearts on pilgrimage." The first image is of stability, dwelling in a house. The second is of wandering, a nomadic, pilgrim lifestyle. If we are to dwell in the stability and safety of God's house, it may take us through the desert, up mountains and across valleys. God's house was a tabernacle built for moving, for pilgrimage. So we may settle down for a while in a particular place, but if we want true stability, a true dwelling-place, we will always be ready to pick up everything and go where the Lord takes us--just like Matthew the tax-collector, who, when Jesus called him, "got up, left everything and followed him" (Luke 5:28). And ultimately, we are pilgrims and strangers on this earth, and our true dwelling place is with God in heaven. So we can't get too attached or too concerned with our houses or things we have here--they're tools only, having no value apart from the way God can use them to bless others and ourselves, and reflect the character of Jesus in our lives.

I just want to pray that God would be giving us all a desire to dwell in His house, to abide with Him, live with Him and rest in Him. May the bed that brings us rest be the Lord Jesus Himself. (That has special meaning to me, as it's been some time since I've slept in a bed.) And may we always be willing, whenever He calls us, to get up, leave everything and follow Him if His house starts moving and bringing us out of our familiar surroundings. May the pillar of fire lead us through the desert and into the promised land, the New Jerusalem, where our inheritance lies, "an inheritance that can never spoil, perish or fade" (1 Pet. 1:4). That's a treasure worth chasing after, staying put for, traveling to the ends of the world for, giving up everything for.

May Jesus be your dwelling place today, and may you have the joy of dwelling in His house forever.