David & Lee Hall

2010-11-04T15:43:00.006-04:00

Operation World is birthed!

The new Operation World, the 970 page prayer guide for the nations is now out. This missions defining prayer guide has been written by WEC missionary Jason Mandryk, aided by a number of team members that we saw raised up from the USA Sending Base. The list price is $25.00 but it is available through us at WEC for only $12.00 + shipping. Please write me for your orders.

The reason for writing this update NOW is to inform you that there will be an OPERATION WORLD INTERNET STREAMING EVENT on TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9 at 12:00 noon and 7:00 pm. You can go to www.operationworld.org for more details. I have attached a flyer to this email.

This book has been enormously influential in significant, strategic prayer for the nations. For example, I believe that this book has a significant impact on the dramatic turnaround of Albania, from being an atheistic state which severely persecuted any religious activity in the late 1980s to now having religious liberty. It has had a significant impact on our personal prayer and missions orientation. Often this book has spoken to others about going themselves as an answer to their own prayers to the difficult places in missionary service. Read it with care!

Speaking of Births

Still no news. Lydia (our daughter) is great with child, living in the DC area. Her due date is also… November 9!

Goings and Comings

The last three previous weeks were busy with travels to Chicago (Moody), Boston (Gordon College & Gordon Conwell Seminary) and upstate New York (Houghton College). The next weeks I will be at Nyack College (11/10), Lancaster Bible College (11/11) and Liberty University (11/15-17).

We will have the Right-Hand of Fellowship event at WEC on Friday, Dec. 3 at 7:00 pm where our 13 candidates will become official WEC Missionaries. If you would like to attend, please let us know.

Thanksgiving will be a very special time as we plan to have the entire family with Lydia, Guillaume, new arrival as well as Chansonette and Christian.

Discovery Team Trips on the WEB

This is just a note to let you know that information about the Discovery Team Trips are available on the web at www.wec-usa.org/discovery.

A Typical Day at WEC (Lee)

1 Praise the LORD, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!
2 For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD! Psalm 117:1-2

Where does time go? I (Lee) looked back over yesterday --- it flew by. The whirlwind began with community prayer time from 8-9:30am, two hours of teaching conflict management to the candidate class, a quickly grabbed- lunch with David, and a meeting with a couple (candidates preparing to go to the field) for counseling from 1:30-3:00pm. The entire candidate class of 15 people came for break time to see our lovely apartment (3-3:45pm), after which I reviewed and prayed for my evening class and ate dinner in the dining room at 5:30pm. (We eat our evening meals together.) After drying dishes as part of the dish crew, I rushed over to the classroom in the office building to teach a parenting class from 7-8:30pm that includes counseling and mentoring others. Afterwards, I talked with the couple again until 9:30pm, and then returned to our apartment and called David to say I was home. Our arrangement is that he can go to the office two evenings a week as I teach. His work load is tremendous as Director of Mobilization. He could spend, as he has in the past, every evening in the office. David not only gives direction and encouragement via conference skype calls to our mobilizers who are scattered on the West and East Coast, helps produce needed materials, brings furloughing missionaries up to speed, and follows up students he has met on campuses but he also travels to college campuses for an average of five weeks every fall and spring.

It is a pleasure and privilege to use and to share our experience of preparing, going and ministering in Ivory Coast. All that we do now (teaching, sharing, encouraging) is based on what we have lived out and seen with our own eyes. God is faithful and uses the weak to confound the wise. Paoli Presbyterian has a big part of making our time in Africa possible--- from the very beginning. Now you are touching lives that will be sent out all over the world! Your influence is multiplying.

Time does fly. To think 20 years ago we were heading off to Africa. Five years ago the Lord brought us back to headquarters at Fort Washington. Within two weeks we will be grandparents! Thank you for standing with us.

Elections in the Ivory Coast

I meant to write you earlier asking for prayer for this one. The Ivory Coast had their first presidential elections in TEN YEARS last Sunday (Oct. 31) with 14 candidates on the slate. Praise God, the election day was a peaceful day, with 80% of the country’s eligible voters coming out to vote. Even more notable was the peaceful reaction to the announcement of the results yesterday. The current President, Laurent Gbagbo (received 38% of the votes), will run-off on in an election with the former Prime Minister, Alassane Ouattara (received 32%), on November 28. To see more, you can go to BBC at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11681134 or the New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/world/africa/01ivorycoast.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=Ivory%20Coast&st=cse. If you know French, you can also go to www.abidjan.net.

Blessings,

David and Lee

GOINGS AND COMINGS June – July, 2009

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Ali Arhab – June 23

One of the most remarkable WEC missionaries I have met is Ali Arhab, an Algerian who came to faith in Christ through a vision of Jesus. He now directs a satellite TV ministry (CNA ministry - www.cna-sat.org) that broadcasts the gospel out of France into North Africa in indigenous languages. When I found out that he would be in the US for meetings, I arranged a morning event with missions leaders in the Washington, DC area at Vienna Presbyterian Church. It is wonderful to see people’s reaction to news of how hundreds of thousands of Muslims are turning to faith in Jesus.

Ali speaking at the meeting

The Journey Deepens Retreat – June 26-28 (WEC Headquarters)

It started summer 2008 in Dallas when I bumped into John McVay, a friend of WEC who founded this retreat ministry. It is basically conceived as a follow-up from something like a Perspectives Course where people feel called to do something with missions but are not sure of the next step. The Journey Deepens has retreats all over the US (CA, GA, IL, TX, etc) EXCEPT for the Northeast, so John and I worked through the proposal to host it at WEC’s headquarters. This took some doing since there are not too many times of the year where we can host an extra 50 people!

So after much sweat and preparation, WEC hosted this retreat with 41 participants and 13 missionary mentors. The schedule was like the following: Large group meeting listening to a message, followed by a half an hour of private time with the Lord to process the message, then small groups that were led by two seasoned missionaries who guided sharing and worked through any questions the 8-10 people had. This was repeated Saturday morning and evening and Sunday morning! Saturday afternoon was free to make appointments, to chat or to rest. I had the joy of talking with several people. God was so good to put all of us together.

The Journey Deepens – group photo

One of the small groups which met at our apartment

(Lee) My journey with God was deepened, too! I was incredibly blessed to listen to some of these precious people who want to give themselves to whatever God wanted- to go, to stay (pray and support) or to mobilize others to get involved! To have played a small part of this weekend was a joy and a privilege.

I (David) dealt with many of the organization aspects. None of the musically gifted staff at WEC were available for leading music, but a wonderful young worship leader from a local church did a great job (with French Horn, of course). Even the food was a cross-cultural experience with Kore

an food for lunch from a local church. Supper featured the real deal Philly cheesesteak. The WEC staff did a terrific job of helping out with many seemingly “little” jobs that made a big difference.

The participants were incredibly diverse – ages ranged from 19 to 62, coming from Massachusetts to Georgia to Colorado and an equally diverse ethnic background. Yes, we plan to do it again next year. You can find out more about this ministry at www.thejourneydeepens.com. A number of people have since expressed an interest in serving with WEC.

WEC Canada conference – July 1-8

Hamilton, Ontario (Lee)

Every year, the annual WEC Canada conference has a representative from the US Sending base. For a number of reasons, we were asked to go this time. What a blessing to get to know more of our WEC family. There were about 40 i

n attendance and most of them I had never met before. However there was one gal who was our field leader in Ivory Coast and a family who had spent 4 months at Camp Hill three years ago. It was great to catch up with them.

I had the privilege of giving a 6 hour seminar on Managing Conflict on Multicultural Teams. I asked the Lord to give me some creative ways to share the information. Six hours of listening is neither fun nor productive. I asked for their participation on different issues, we broke up into groups and had time with the Lord individually and collectively. If you care to have an insight into other cultural mindsets read the book: The wolf shall dwell with the lamb by Eric Law (Chinese American). It’s short and practical!

Sunday afternoon was a free time so we were taken to Niagara Falls which was only 45 minutes away from Hamilton. I got to use my new telephoto lens that someone gave me! I was able to get close ups of the terrific powerful water falling over the cliffs.

David also made some presentations about WEC USA and worked with the Canadian mobilization team. One thing he loved about the Canadian staff is that they have 3 very good pianists which made worship very refreshing. He participated every morning.

ETHNOMUSICOLOWHAT?

Wake Forest, NC July 20-29 (David)

We are talking about ethnomusicology (how different peoples do music). Life has its funny turns. I have a master’s in both music and theology, but have never put the two together. WEC International is a large organization – over 1,800 workers – and among the many things we do is music and missions, or in my favorite words, worship in the heart music of a people.

One WEC ‘product’ that has had high appreciation is our audio CD of indigenous worship mu

sic entitled ‘Many Voices One Song.’ I would estimate that we have given out 5,000 copies of this CD. We are now with a new and improved version with more user-friendly data interface with materials about the songs (translations, information about the country of origin) as well as information on WEC. The CD will be at the same time an audio CD of worship music. (Yes, they are FREE and should be available at the end of August.)

As I have noticed a significant amount of interest in indigenous worship among students all over the US, I started looking into how WEC USA can offer opportunities in this discipline. As I discussed this with the international level leaders of this ministry, it became apparent that someone on this side of the pond would have to develop skills in ethnomusicology. I have already scheduled my leading a ethnomusicological team to do research on worship in Senegal for June, 2010.

All of this is to say that for the next 10 days, I will be taking a course in ethnomusicology at Southeastern Seminary. It was unbelievable that this course fell at a time when my schedule was clear. To find out more about the course, go to http://www.sebts.edu/news-resources/conferences/ethnodox.aspx. Lee will stay up at the WEC headquarters during this time.

Antananarivo, Madagascar – February 2010

I believe that we mentioned that Lydia has also joined the Foreign Service. She found out last June that she will serve in Madagascar starting in February. She is currently taking courses for her diplomatic services and will then study French for 6 months before she leaves next February. By the way, Chansonette has been in Venezuela for about two months and is getting settled in. She should have all of her shipped goods by now.

2008-12-04T20:02:00.000-05:00

David Hall: Workshop Topics

Evangelism as done in West Africa – the film, The Solution

A Window into African Animism

This is a presentation is using an evangelistic video that I frequently projected in Africa. It presents the challenges for a typical family of the Ivory Coast who uses occultic methods to “protect” themselves from malefic spiritual forces. We see the reality of the power of the Gospel which results in the conversion of an entire village. This presentation allows students to understand the animistic mindset in a powerful and unique way, making one aware of challenges for a missionary to communicate the gospel. Excellent for missions courses, anthropology courses or advanced French courses. The presentation can be given in English or French

BAM (Business as Mission) – A new paradigm in missional business

A healthy bottom line and kingdom advancement – are both possible? Today’s globalized economy has created new opportunities where profitable, well-run companies who treat their employees with respect are at the same time being unabashedly Christian in their purposes. These companies contribute to the economic health of their immediate community and also provide avenues for both spiritual and physical ministry. Learn about the many opportunities and challenges afforded by BAM.

The News that CNN Misses

How is the global Christian movement doing? Are we gaining or losing? Data for this presentation is based on statistical data from Operation World’s Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk. It will show how God’s Spirit has been moving in a remarkable way as the church has shown amazing growth in Africa, , Latin America and China and as well as some unlikely places. Learn also how prayer has made a major impact on the world Christian movement as well as learning about the current challenges for missions initiatives.

Third World Missions Comes of Age – no longer the West to the Rest

From the West to the Rest to everybody ministering to everyone everywhere. The beautiful feet who proclaim the Good News are now multicolor; the developing world church has come of age as there are as many Asian missionaries as Western workers. See what implications that has as we are still be partners in the harvest in full partnership with talented cross-cultural workers from all over the world. Hear from a mission where there are missionaries from over 40 non-Western countries.

The Missional Implications of the Jubilee

The Manifesto of Jesus’ ministry is laden with the Jubilee proclamation of freedom and restoration. What are the implications of this radical social equalizer to today’s flat earth? What does this say about third-world debt, slavery and how the church is to be salt and light? We can include a module on wealth inequality which speaks to our current financial chaos.

Other possibilities: African Urban Church Planting, Publishing in the African context

The Jubilee, the Bell and Wall Street

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Introduction

What is our national icon in Philadelphia? At least everyone in Philly knows that it is the Liberty Bell. Did you know that there is a Bible verse on the bell? It is a significant verse – Leviticus 25:10: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof." It is taken from the chapter on the Jubilee.

The bell was commissioned in honor of the 50th anniversary of William Penn’s 1701 Charter of Pennsylvania. The Bible verse inscribed on the bell holds a special significance in that the verse preceding the verse quoted mentions to hallow the 50th year. The bell was ordered in 1751. On July 8, 1776, the bell, which was then hanging in the tower of what is now known as Independence Hall, was rang to summon the townsfolk to hear Colonel John Nixon read the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence. This is possibly the single most well known event that was associated with the bell.

The bell was not given the term Liberty Bell until the 1830’s. The term Liberty Bell was used along with a rendering of the bell in the abolitionist’s papers. The abolitionists adopted the bell as their symbol for the movement based upon the words inscribed on the bell. The bell is often now considered an icon for liberty and freedom.

One could argue that this old dusty law that seemingly was never applied in the life of Israel according to either the Bible or other historical records is irrelevant. Yet, the story of the Liberty Bell shows that this verse played a significant role in the shaping of this nation. Furthermore, we must add that this was not some speculation received by Moses, but rather this was the Word of God received by Moses on Mount Sinai. Its concepts are still valid for today.

I. Understanding the Jubilee

The Sabbath Principle

When we look at the large amount of attention given to the Sabbath particularly in the Ten Commandments as well as the entire Pentateuch, we see that it was very important to God for many reasons. It is not just a day of rest, but it is to honor the Lord as the Lord of Creation. Chapter 25 of Leviticus takes the principle of the Sabbath day a step further to the Sabbath year. As we had a day’s rest on the Sabbath day, so we are to have a year’s rest on the Sabbath year. In this case there is particular attention paid to the importance of the Land, and we are made very aware this sabbatical year is to both Honor the Lord and also to be a Sabbath for the Land – notice this particular phrase: but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD (Lev 25.4)The land takes is personalized – not an ‘it’ but a ‘he’.

The Jubilee

Now the concept of the sabbatical year is taken one further. We saw the principle of the Sabbath year is again taken to yet a “super-Sabbath” - after the seventh seven year cycle – we gave the 49^th year which is the Jubilee. What are the two great features of the Jubilee?

First of all, it is the moment to free all Hebrew slaves without exception. They could no longer be held because of debt.

Secondly, it provided for restoration of land to families compelled to sell their land because of economic hardship. In order to protect this system of kinship distribution, family land was made inalienable – it could not be bought and sold as a commercial asset. An example is Naboth’s refusal to sell his patrimony to King Ahab (1 Kings 21). As was already mentioned, we see that under this system a sale of land is really a lease to be able to harvest the crops until the next Jubilee as we saw with verses 13-17. This reveals some important biblical attitudes:

II. Biblical Truths from the Jubilee

Equitable distribution.

The Jubilee existed to protect a form of land tenure based on an equitable and widespread distribution of the land, and to prevent the accumulation of ownership in the hands of a wealthy few. This echoes the creation principle that the whole earth is given by God to all humanity, who act as co-stewards of its resources.(page 207 - OT Ethics for the People of God Christopher J H Wright). In Israel the initial division of the land was explicitly to the clans and households with the tribes, under the general rubric that each should receive land according to size and need (see Numbers 26 and Joshua 13-21)

Practical Concern for the Family Unit

The jubilee embodied practical concern for the family unit. In Israel’s case this meant the extended family, the ‘father’s house’, which was a sizeable group of related nuclear families descended from a living progenitor. (p. 207). It also kept the families from being broken up by slavery and the like. Both of these features were a radical departure from what was seen by the Canaanite kings who preceded Israelites on this land, so we can’t say that this idea came from them.

Theological underpinning of the Jubilee

Why did Jehovah have the right to have those who owned land to give it up to allow all the people to revert to their original inheritance? The key principle is that the Land belongs to Jehovah, and the Israelites were tenants: “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.” (Lev. 25:23). We see this alien theme again in both 1 Peter 2.11 and Heb. 11.13 being applied to Christians today.

The second truth is at the end of the chapter and is equally fundamental: “For the Israelites belong to me (Jehovah) as servants. They are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” (Lev. 25:51). That is, one did not have the right to be ruthless with Israelite slaves because all Israelites were servants of Jehovah.

Radical Principles - Kindness, fear of God

Ultimately, we find that it was very, very hard for us selfish humans to voluntarily give up comfort, wealth and power. And this is what the Jubilee requires us to do. There are two striking words found in Leviticus 25: Fear of God (17, 36, 43), and Ruthlessly (43, 46, 53).

The word, fear, is only found in Leviticus 5 times – and three of those times are found in this chapter. The only “guard” to assure that this law is respected is the fear of God as we see with verse 17:” You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the LORD your God.” It is also the principle to assure that we release the slaves, that we are fair to those who have sold themselves into slavery (v 43): “You shall not rule over him(an Israelite slave) ruthlessly but shall fear your God.” If God is truly sovereign, then this law implies that there should be a limit to land ownership, to debt, to interest earned.

III. What are the implications of the Jubilee for Today?

The jubilee existed to protect a form of land tenure based on an equitable and widespread distribution of the land, and to prevent the accumulation of ownership in the hands of a wealthy few.

Therefore this is God’s desire for humanity: a broadly equitable distribution of the resources of the earth, especially with land.

It also stands against large-scale forms of collectivism or nationalization that destroy any meaningful sense of personal or family ownership. The jubilee embodies practical concern for the family unit. For Israel, this meant the extended family”

1. Wealth Inequality

A glimpse: perhaps one of the reasons for God’s blessing on the USA over the years is the principle of distribution of land on a fair basis – equal chances. When we think of the opportunities afforded to many, the protection of the family unit, we can see that the quote of Lev. 25.10 was providential. Yet, when we look at what has been happening with wealth inequality in the US over the last 30 years, we see a dramatic change for the worse that is alarming.

Wealth inequality in the US: You have a fairly continuous downward trend after 1929 until the mid-1970s keeping a relatively high

. Since then, things have dramatically reversed. The following chart shows how the top 1% of the population had way too much wealth leading up to the crash of 1929, then government leaders such as Roosevelt and Eisenhower worked hard to keep down wealth inequality. (chart from a PPT presentation from extremeinequality.org).

Up until the early 1970s, the U.S. actually had lower wealth inequality than Great Britain, and even than a country like Sweden. But things have dramatically changed over the last 25 or 30 years. In fact, a lot of countries have experienced lessening wealth inequality over time. The U.S. is atypical in that inequality has risen so sharply over the last 25 or 30 years. Look at these two charts to see how this is grown.

Share of capital income earned by top 1% and bottom 80%, 1979-2003 (From Shapiro & Friedman, 2006.)

The gross inequality of CEO salaries has been a subject of much criticism over the last weeks. Look at this chart that compares CEO salaries to the average worker's pay. Notice that at one point the CEO is paid more that 500 times an average worker.

When we compare the wealth equality in the US with the same just before the Great Depression, we see a scary similarity:

2. Global Wealth Inequality

When we look at wealth distribution worldwide, the inequality is even more scary. The richest 1% of adults owned 40% of the world’s total assets in the year 2000. The richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of total assets. The bottom half of the world adult population owned 1% of global wealth. (Source: World Institute for Development Economics Research, The World Distribution of Household Wealth, 2006). The poverty on the other hand a staggering: 1.2 billion earn less than a dollar a day; 4.5 billion of the world population earns less that 1,500 a year. We face a challenge of both global and spiritual proportions.

Meanwhile, the prices of staple foods worldwide have jumped 80 percent during the last three years. The global food crisis is widely viewed as a failure of international planning and leadership, involving consumption outstripping production; diversion of significant areas of food acreage in the United States to produce bio-fuels such as ethanol; and government policies that keep farmers from growing crops in poor countries, among other factors. (Stan Guthrie | posted 8/19/2008 09:51AM)

The cost of rice is up 165 percent over the last year. According to the World Bank, wheat has hit a 28-year high and is nearly twice the average price of the last quarter-century. Robert Zoellick, the agency's leader, says the crisis could force 100 million people deeper into poverty. High prices have sparked riots in several countries, and the bank says 33 nations face potential social unrest. The United Nations estimates that adequately responding to the crisis will cost the developed world $30 billion annually.

When we consider this travesty contrasted with the clear principles laid out by the Word of God for fairness and justice, should we be surprised as the recent turn of events in the world financial markets?

Conclusion

What can we do? Here are a few suggestions:

If you go to www.extremeinequality.org, you will find much more information about wealth inequality (especially under resources).

One web site where you could actually make microloans to people in the two-thirds world is www.kiva.org.

Why not become more radical with your wealth? I know of one successful businessman who pays a “reverse tithe.” What I mean by that is that he gives 90% of his income to the Lord’s word (that is right – ninety percent!) and lives off 10%. I don’t know what your personal income is, but this question of lavish generosity is between you and the Spirit of God.

Lastly, in much of the world, the worst thing you could do to rectify wealth inequality is to simply throw money at a poor country. Yes, help is needed, but first of all, there must be relationships. You need to be involved in people’s lives, to network with ministries, churches who can provide a context for helping. You can contact me (through this blog) to see about how you could be involved with helping doing you part to help rectify wealth inequality.

The Jublilee is a radical solution to man’s selfish heart. Let us take up God’s challenge to be radical for His kingdom.

Prayers from the past

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Written prayers can be stiff and artificial, and perhaps the memory of such prayers in a liturgical style of church service has led us to dismiss its effectiveness. However, written prayers can be a great source of blessing, being a window to the thoughts, aspirations and the intimate walk of devout men and women throughout the 2000 years of the Christian faith. It can enable us to share their rich spiritual heritage, aiding us to partake of their deeper walk.

I have found such a blessing with the book, The Valley of Vision, a collection of puritan prayers edited by Arthur Bennett (The Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA). This collection of close to 200 prayers of such Puritan notables as Jonathan Edwards and Charles Spurgeon combines deep spirituality with theological understanding. Here is one sample prayer:

Man’s Great End

Lord of all being,

There is one thing that deserves my greatest care,

that calls forth my ardent desires,

That is, that I may answer the great end for which I am made —

to glorify thee who hast given me being,

and to do all the good I can for my fellow men;

Verily, life is not worth having if it be not improved for this noble purpose.

Yet, Lord, how little is this the thought of mankind!

Most men seem to live for themselves,

without much or any regard for thy glory,

or for the good of others;

They earnestly desire and eagerly pursue the riches, honours, pleasures of this life,

as if they supposed that wealth, greatness, merriment, could make their immortal souls happy;

But, alas, what false delusive dreams are these!

And how miserable ere long will those be that sleep in them,

for all our happiness consists in loving thee, and in being holy as thou art holy.

O may I never fall into the tempers and vanities, the sensuality and folly of this present world!

It is a place of inexpressible sorrow, a vast empty nothingness;

Time is a moment, a vapour, and all its enjoyments are empty bubbles, fleeting blasts of wind, from which nothings satisfactory can be derived;

Give me grace always to keep in covenant with thee, and to reject as delusion a great name here or hereafter, together with all sinful pleasures or profits.

Help me to know continually that there can be not true happiness,

No fulfilling of thy purpose for me,

Apart from a life lived in and for the Son of thy love. (pages 22-23)

Gas at $9.00 a gallon in 1990

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That was the price that Lee and I paid for gas in the Ivory Coast when we arrived there in 1990. Believe me, it did make us think real hard before taking the car out – we had to use a number of creative solutions. We were also fortunate enough to have a number of public transportation options - bus, taxis and mini buses. Taking public transportation provided a great opportunity to get to know the culture as well as to interact with average people going to and from work. But since there were few cars at that time so that my providing transportation for our church leaders with our car was a great service. My driving to a meeting could enable church leaders to hold a critical meeting and to be able to return after public transportation options are closed. It also provided opportunities for fellowship. We just had to trust that our needs would be met – and they were!

We can so easily forget that we depend on the Lord for our daily sustenance, whether it is to provide our food, our house payments or fuel for our transportation. May we look to Him to meet our needs in these challenging times. Remember that many missionaries still have much higher gas prices than what we are now paying! Let’s remember them.

Exodus 16 - a Theologically Profound Chapter

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I have always seen this chapter as being very relevant to how to practically live the Christian life. At this point in the journey of the nation of Israel in Exodus 16, the entire population was completely dependent upon God for their subsistence since they were in the middle of the wilderness. We see that for their entire time in the wilderness, they were constantly provided for in a most remarkable way.

First of all, notice that although they were provided for in a supernatural way, they still had to work for their sustenance. EVERY MORNING they had to go out and harvest the manna. Not only did they have to harvest it every morning, but they had to do it early in the morning, since “when the sun grew hot, it melted” (Ex. 16:21). Everyone gathered about 2 quarts (an omer) every day, the amount necessary to feed one person. They could not store up manna; they were explicitly commanded to not to keep it until the next day (v19) as it would become putrid overnight.

These principles have profound implications on our personal walk with the Lord. After all, Jesus did say that although Moses gave the Jews bread (manna) from heaven, the Father gives us the true bread - the true manna - from heaven, Jesus Christ (John 6:32). It is imperative that we make the effort to seek Him EVERY day. I do realize that there are those who do quiet time at night, but it is noteworthy that time with the Lord is best before the day gets busy and our ‘manna melts.’ The other truth is that the Lord gives us just what we need when we need it. We leak and we can’t put away God’s blessings in a spiritual freezer, therefore we need fresh blessings, fresh encounters with the Lord every day.

But the manna principle goes deeper. The one exception on storing and collecting manna was on Friday and Saturday. Friday was exceptional, first of all, because they had twice the amount of manna available to harvest that morning. Secondly, the manna did not go bad on Friday night – Friday’s manna was still good on Saturday morning. Thirdly, there was no manna available to harvest on Saturday morning. All of this was to show the peculiar importance of the day of solemn rest, the holy Sabbath to the Lord (Ex. 16:23). God explicitly stated that these laws were to test his people to see whether they would walk in his law or not (v4).

When we look at the big picture of the law, we see that the Sabbath principle permeates so many aspects of daily Jewish life, some with major faith challenges. There was the sabbatical year where fields were to remain fallow every seventh year. Then we have the Jubilee where there were to be two consecutive fallow years as well as a reverting of the entire property system to the original tribal allocations as well as the freeing of all Jewish slaves. To be able to have the faith to obey these laws, people would have to be very sure of the reality of God’s blessings. Unfortunately, this appeared not be the case most of the time in the course of Israel’s history (for example, see 2 Chron 36:21). It seems like the purpose of having the nation of Israel walk in the manna principle was to teach them more than just keeping the Sabbath day, but it was to learning about walking in faith, walking in obedience and trusting in God’s blessings.

Again all this has implications on our lives today. First of all, we cannot put God in a box, assuming that He will always work with us in the same way as He did for us in the past. It is much more important that we walk in daily obedience rather that resting on past “successes.” We see that same principle at work in how David fought the battles with the Philistines, walking in careful consultation and obedience to the Lord with each battle (see 2 Sam. 5:17-25). The overriding principle is that in all that we do is to seek to glorify God, to be obedient not matter what the cost

I also believe that the principle of the Christian Sabbath comes to bear here. I know that this principle has virtually been ignored by so much of Christianity today, but I believe that setting aside a day to be Holy to the Lord is valid for Christians today. Again, the Christian Sabbath is part of our faith walk, with our believing that it is way to honor God and to trust in His blessings. Maybe I can further elaborate on another occasion.

Lastly, we need to see ourselves like the Israelites, as being completely dependent on the Lord for our sustenance. What an adventure for the Israelites to be totally dependent on the Lord day after day, year after year, for over forty years. What a remarkable testimony for the Lord’s faithfulness. I suggest that we should see the request in the Lord’s Prayer, “give us this day our daily bread” in light of this chapter. It is spiritually true, it is financially true. As we all walk through these challenging times we are becoming increasingly aware how dependant we are on God’s daily provision in all these areas.

Lee and I have been on a faith journey where we have experienced God’s financial manna sustaining us in a most remarkable way over the last 18 months. I can’t even explain how we have been sustained. All we know is that God’s manna has been out there every morning. His faithfulness - in His way, for His glory.

The manna principle is true for all of us, whether times are good or hard. We are dependent on receiving our Manna from Heaven, Jesus Christ. May we be faithful in collecting our daily manna, in living by faith, and in experiencing God’s blessings.

One of my favorite Philly things

2008-07-26T13:57:00.000-04:00

Today, July 26, was a lovely day, so I decided that it would be a great idea to take the ten mile hike that I love to do – from the Academy of Art in center city Philly up to the other end of the Wissahickon Trail. Half the distance of this hike is along the part of the Schuylkill River which is famous for its longboat races, so I was almost overrun by bicyclers and joggers as well as long boaters preparing for their races. However as I went up the Wissahickon river and the day got hotter, the joggers petered out. I know the part of the trail nearer the end much better, so the last several miles I took the off-the-beaten-path trails that were less traveled and gloriously beautiful. It is such a blessing to be near such easily accessible beauty. For a map of the Wissahickon Park, see http://wissahickontrailclassic.org/pics/wtc-map-large.jpg.

Central America Rocks! by Chansonette

2008-06-23T21:11:00.001-04:00

Hello everyone,

I am finally sending a long overdue update on my adventures on the road, AKA World Wedding Tour extraordinaire. Firstly here is a link for photos from the first part of my trip in California and Arizona:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2560586&l=24e5c&id=9365549

So far things have been amazing, though more eventful than I planned.

While I arrived in Guatemala City, Delta Airlines felt it was appropriate to send my bag in Jamaica and finally give it to me five days later. I sent them an email saying that I deserved the same treatment they gave my bag, therefore a free round trip ticket to Jamaica would be in line as compensation. They seem less convinced, and we are still negotiating exactly what compensation I will get. I ended up buying toiletries and such in the market as soon as I realized that it would not take a day for them to get my bag, as they had initially claimed.

My first big activity was to climb volcano Pacaya, which remains an active volcano. I have never climbed over hot lava, nor have I ever hiked before in an environment where I was concerned my jeans would catch on fire. Law suite liabilities are hardly prevalent here, so you are welcome to engage in activities that are completely banned in the US. For example, when I went caving in Semuc Champey, Katrina (my friend who I traveled with for the first three weeks) and I went through the caves with one guide and nothing for light but a candle a piece. With no lights and no dry land, you swim through among the rocks with bats overhead, and climb through holes to get to the next caverns. The point in time where I thought imminent death was the most probable was when the guide told us to crawl through a hole down a waterfall... I couldn't see where it went because there was so much gushing water, and the non-English speaking guide was giving me very precise directions about how to climb through in Spanish.... Spanish 1, my only Spanish training, did not include cave climbing vocabulary so I was very relieved when I managed to follow his directions correctly and landed in a pool of water safely at the bottom.

My biggest faux pas in the cave was that I punched my tour guide in the face. He was a very nice, but mischievous spirited person, who thought it was a good idea to sneak up on my in the dark. He only did this once. When you are swimming through a dark cave with water where 95% is free of animals according to the guide (which makes you wonder about the other 5%), with a single friend and a small candle each and someone jumps out at you from the dark you are prone to react with some form of self defense.... It was simple a reflex, and I didn't realize I had hit him until Katrina told me I had done so I turned to see him rubbing his face. I wanted to ask if he was ok, and searching a way to say this in Spanish I settled on asking "tiene dolor de cabeza?" to ask if his head hurt. I then mixed up the word for beer

(cerbeza) and head (cabeza), thus in short I punched the man and then asked him how his beer was. He looked confused and said that he didn't have a beer, but now he wanted one...

The most unsettling thing about punching the guide was that he was actually a nice person. Were I to be given a premise where I had to punch a tour guide, I would allocate it to someone else. I am quite certain that my tour guide in Tikal would have made a much better candidate, not only because he lacked communication and time management skills, which are inherently important to the job, but because he was the most unhelpful person imaginable in cases of medical emergency. I will try and post whatever pictures of the trip I can get, however given that I fell down one of the Mayan pyramids camera in hand, there will be no more photos from my camera.

Apparently royalty used to walk up and down the stairs in front of their Mayan kingdoms as part of societal tradition... I will assume they did it more gracefully than I, who did so by skidding down on my back, smashing both my hand and camera. My tour guide responded by claiming there was no medical center on sight. He then admitted there was one but said it was too far, then admitted it was nearby but claimed they had no medicine. By that point Katrina and I disregarded him and went to the medical center on our own. That is the flip side of the absence of law suite liabilities, that tour guides are free to try to inhibit you seeking medical help upon injury if it means they will get home to their family 15 minutes later than planned. My hand was swollen and losing motion... a problem that would later give me reason to get to know the Central American medical system. This exploration started with a visit to a Mayan doctor out the back of a corner boutique who charged 80 cents for a visit and ended at a Catholic charity medical clinic. It turns out it was never fractured, and after some proper medicine it has healed almost completely.

I am now in Utila, Honduras. I became a certified scuba diver yesterday, wohoo! I was able to accomplish this despite unprecidented difficulty with compas navigation, and a strange tendency to buoy to the surface accidentally, which fortunately I didn't do on the final course dive. I was able to avoid my instructor getting overly frustrated with me by catching onto other skills a bit quicker than normal. I have been learning one on one, because the only other girl who signed up for the same time slot didn't made it out of the bars on time to make it to any of the classes. This made the coursework somewhat boring but meant I could go through the water skills really quickly and was able to do the dives with just myself and the instructor. I have been able to see a number of rarer animals over the last couple days, which my instructor has been bragging about to the other dive masters (so I know I have been unusually fortunate...).

These animals include an octopus, a sea turtle, squid, and white tipped oceanic shark and a whale shark. The latter two were seen from the boat, but they came right up to us! I have been promised sea horses this afternoon....

That's all for now folks, more to come!

Chansonette

Four Eyes

2008-05-06T16:32:00.001-04:00

When I was a computer programmer I took the expression to heart, “It takes four eyes to find a (programming) bug.” So often I found it to be true. Sometimes just explaining the problem would unearth the solution. Other times just walking through the problem with another person helped. Usually I found the problem wasn’t that I wasn’t looking hard enough, but rather I was looking in the wrong place or asking the wrong questions.

It seems like today when then Church is confronted with major cultural shifts in American, and we see a disconnect between the PCUSA and American society, we need to be checking out our observations with others and asking questions, sometimes in outside the box ways. We need four eyes. One striking example of this is found in Jim & Casper Go to Church. Jim Henderson, veteran Christian and director of Off the Map, hired atheist Matt Casper to visit twelve American churches from Rich Warren’s Saddleback to Joel Osteen’s Lakewood with some Pentecostal, emergent and even house churches. Jim figured that if companies would hire a ‘mystery shopper’ to test out a store’s quality of service, why not hire out non-Christians to attend a church service to get their impressions. The honesty of Henderson and Casper are unarming. What follows are a number of Casper’s observations.

“Light shows, fog machines, worship bands, offering plates – is this what Jesus intended?”

One of the most touching churches was a small group that meets in the house of Jason, a drummer friend of Casper. “And even though I don’t share Jason’s beliefs, I really respect and enjoy the guy– his friends, too….Jason doesn’t have a big church or a million bucks or ten trips to Africa under his belt, but I see first hand – almost every time we speak or get together – that he walks the walk.

“He helps African immigrants find their way around town. He and his wife teach English as a second language. He helps people build their homes….He regularly opens his home to others. And he does it all because of his belief that Jesus is his Lord, and for him, this is what Jesus would have done.” (Henderson, 76).

When asked about an inner-city church in Chicago, he stated, “What was bothering me at those (big) churches was the amount of money that was clearly being spent on technology and equipment, which I see as vain at best, hypocritical at worst. How are you helping others by spending your offering money on a Hollywood stage show?

“But more that that, it’s the massive disconnect between the words on the PowerPoint projection and the stuff I saw in the church. That woman at Willow (Creek) smiling as she sang, ‘This world holds nothing for me,’ will be stuck in my head forever.

“And at Saddleback, when you’re basically at ground zero for American wealth and prosperity, the words on the PowerPoint ‘Don’t give up’ just made no sense. “ Then Casper makes a contrast with this inner-city church: “But these folks are singing these words with abandon, real feeling. And I think that if you do worship God and you are in the literal act of worshipping God, you are giving yourself over to a higher power which, in my opinion, should be done with abandon” (Henderson, 67-68).

This book is truly a four eyes experience. Jim Henderson has a number of simple practical suggestions that could help your church better understand how ‘outsiders’ perceive that church thing we do.
David Hall