As the New Year begins to come around again I have embarked on the painful introspection and self assessment that comes with setting a New Years Resolution. The following 10 character traits of a knight (1) pose some character traits that are worth a little introspection and contemplation. If one of these traits does not leave a person feeling at least a tinge of inadequacy, they probably need to spend a little more time defrosting their heart by the fire. Any time you read the word knight, insert your name instead. It will make it a little more real.

1. Prowess: To seek excellence in all endeavors expected of a knight, martial and otherwise, seeking strength to be used in the service of justice, rather than in personal aggrandizement.

2. Justice: Seek always the path of right, unencumbered by bias or personal interest. If the right you see rings true with others, and you seek it out without bending to the temptation for expediency, then you will earn renown beyond measure.

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Ever since Greg Stier spoke at the National Youth Workers Convention, I've been thinking about something he said. He read the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 19), about how the prophets of Baal prayed and begged their god for hours and hours for a single spark of fire on their alter. When none came, they prayed even more earnestly, even mutilating their own bodies in desperation, but still there was no answer from Baal. Finally at the end of the day it was Elijah's turn. He calmly prepared the sacrifice, drenched everything with water and simply prayed,

"O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again." (1 Kings 18:36-37)

The idea in scripture is that God IMMEDIATELY answered his prayer by sending down fire from heaven that not only burned the sacrificed bull, but also consumed the entire alter, stones, water and everything! WOW!!

Man, I pray like a wuss!

• When I pray I like to remain somewhat reserved and not pray for things that are too radical so I don't unnecessarily get my hopes up.

• I like to pray for things I feel like I can still keep some kind of control over in case I need to help God out.

• I like to pray with 50/50 faith: "Maybe God will answer, maybe He won't. Who knows? Let's see what happens."

In comparison, I observe a couple things about Elijah.

• He risked his life to be in public. He was a wanted man for being a prophet of God (1 Kings 18:9-14). There was a death wish on his head, so for him to come out from hiding was a very bold and risky action.

• He obeyed God with such confidence that he was willing to put his neck and God's reputation on the line.

• Because of his obedience, he could boldly pray according to the will of God.

• He had no control over the outcome of his prayer or his obedience to God. For all he knew, God would use this situation to prove something else or nothing at all. He had great faith to proceed.

Here's the number one thing I learn from Elijah's example: Maybe I don't always experience the power of God in my life because I rarely give Him the opportunity to do so.

I go to James 5:16 in the New Testament, a verse I memorized for the community aspect of praying for each other. However, I often overlook the second half that says, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." If I want to have a prayer life that is "powerful and effective," apparently the key ingredient to the recipe is righteousness. The obvious question I then ask myself is, "What is righteousness?" and "Do I have it?"

The Message puts it this way: "The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with."

That's what I want, to be like Elijah and live right with God. I want my prayer life to be something that's powerful to be reckoned with. I want to live a life for Him that's bold, risky, confident, obedient and is right smack in the middle of His will.

Whew! Easier said than done.

One of the most hotly contested and most prognosticated subjects of our time is about the nature of God. Even among varying Christian religions the view of God and His nature changes quite a bit. Some religions rely on legalistic interpretation of God and His promise of justice and of dealing with those who transgress His laws. Others lean more toward the view of God as merciful and gracious, loving of all no matter what circumstance. In the end, both are correct. God is a God of justice and He is also a God of peace and forgiveness. Part of being an apologist for Christianity is being able to correctly articulate what God is, and more importantly, what God is not. We will take a very brief look at the nature of God in this paper. It is partially based on Chapter 4 titled The Nature of God in Handbook of Christian Apologetics by Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli.

God is the source of all existence. He is alone in that He is the sole creator of all things. All things work to the Glory of God. God is the source of His own existence. You and I in our finite bodies need to be created to come into this world. We need a mother and a father to come together as one and create us. God is not temporally limited in that manner. He draws on himself for His own existence. If God was dependent on something or someone else for his existence he would not be the Almighty God. He would be the product of something else, and that something else would be greater than Him, and therefore more worthy of our adoration, praise and worship. It would also beg the question “If there is a being that created God, who created the being that created God?” It is an endless loop of guessing and not ever knowing.

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One cannot go visit a zoo or aquarium anymore without being inundated by certain political messages. A particular message that was repeated to my husband and I throughout our recent visit to San Diego (which included both the Zoo and the Wild Animal Park) was, "Poaching is bad."

Variations on this theme were repeated to us constantly. We were often informed that such-and-such an animal was endangered and that there were "less than 1000" left in "The Wild."

Annihilating a Species is Bad
Though I believe that humans have the right to kill animals and eat them and use other parts of them to make tools or clothing, I also believe it is inappropriate to annihilate a species.

We Americans tend to romanticize tribal cultures as some sort of simpler, "back-to-nature" sort of existence. But all cultures are not created equal. It is my conviction that a culture is "good" to the extent that it reflects God's vision for society. Each culture will have details where they vary (musical styles, dress, overall personality, etc.), but God has given instructions to which each culture is obligated to conform.

When one studies Genesis, especially the first four chapters, one sees that God did not begin history with what we typically think of as a tribal culture. The description was more one of gardening/farming than anything else. It was not until after the Deluge (during which God chose a family to preserve not only humanity but animal life as well) that man was specifically given meat to eat. At that time, God put the fear of man into the animals (Genesis 9:2-5). I presume that putting fear into the animals was a way of making sure that man did not obliterate them. It is, after all, quite simple to butcher a domesticated animal.

As early as Genesis 4 is the idea of a man having a flock mentioned. When one puts together the idea of tending a flock of sheep with the gardening and cultivation of the land mentioned in the prior three chapters of the book, the picture is one of sustainable food sources.

Man is not called to be a locust upon the earth, consuming whatever is before him and leaving a path of destruction behind. And yet, this is precisely the lifestyle of some tribal cultures (including some past Native American cultures). The tribes hunt until there are no more animals to eat. They migrate and "gather" food much in the way an elephant does (an elephant herd, we learned, can destroy an entire forest in a short amount of time)--until there is nothing left.

The Problem of Africa
It is hard to isolate the various problems of Africa, because many of them stem from a refusal to bow the knee to the Creator. The area of poaching is just such a problem. The poachers see potential value in the animals--their skins, their tusks, their meat (for food known as Bushmeat). But they do not follow the Creator's guide. They often do not cultivate the ground and tend a herd. They kill and kill until the animal population drops into what many call the "endangered" level.

So then the governments, often pressured by Americans, steps in to "save the animals." And we were astounded by the "most effective" way this has been done. We were told this by a tour guide, and I am assuming this is true. Some African governments hire poachers, arm them, and pay them to kill other poachers. That's right. Africa has chosen not to elevate man back to his position of steward of the land and life, but rather turn him on himself. And now there is a situation where a dead poacher is more valuable than a dead animal.

Problem solved, in the opinion of Africa. And the San Diego Zoological Society seems to also accept this solution. After all, they exist not to put creation back together again, but to preserve animals in the name of preserving animals. So, San Diego breeds endangered animals, ships them back to Africa, repopulates the land with fresh meat, and gets comfortable with the idea that the animals won't be killed, but the hunters will be.

And it is believed all is right with the world, when it is in fact turned upon its very head!

Shalom from Israel!

We have just completed our first two days of the journey here. I am studying with Ray Vander Laan from That the World May Know Ministry. We are walking in the footsteps of our Rabbi Jesus by following Ray to various locations with connections in the story of the Bible.

Among all the areas we visited today was Gath which enters the story of David and Goliath. We discussed the need for community and how David found himself with community behind him at some points and nowhere near him at others. This was juxtaposed with the story of Samson which we explored from the perspective on Samson's tendency to be a loner.

God has blessed us greatly with weather that is cooler than expected. It is still around 100 degrees Farenheit but we have been enjoying some breezes which bring much needed refreshment in the heat.

If you would like to view more pictures from our trip, please visit our photo page.

UPDATE: Five people on our trip from Riverside Community Church are doing a much better job than I could hope to do of updating on the daily activity of our trip.

There is a saying recorded in the Mishnah, a collection of sayings from ancient sages, that says, “May you be covered in your Rabbi’s dust and may you thirstily drink his words.” This paints a beautiful word picture of how closely a disciple wanted to follow his rabbi—so closely that he would be covered in the dust of his rabbi. In September of 2005, I experienced what it meant to be covered in the dust of the rabbi as I traveled with Ray Vander Laan, founder of That the World May Know Ministries, and a group of 49 other people to Israel and Turkey to study the Bible, or as we referred to it, the “Text,” in its cultural, geographic and historic context. As we traveled throughout the Galilee where Jesus called His disciples and later went to Turkey, where many of His disciples were sent, we entered the world of Jesus and the Text.

As Jesus entered the world of first-century Palestine, He was at the right place and the right time to partake in a very particular practice that had originally developed in Babylon during captivity. What was this? The rabbinical schools and more particularly rabbis who had disciples. It was in this world that Jesus chose His disciples and called them to follow Him.

What did it mean to be a disciple? Often in Western culture we think of a disciple as synonymous with a student. In other words, we think of a disciple as someone who knows what the rabbi knows. This is part of it but doesn’t tell the whole story. A disciple is someone who wants to be, in his walk with God, what the rabbi is. Sure, the disciple and the rabbi may have different personalities or a different taste in this or that, but the disciple has a fiery passion within his soul to be, in His walk with God, who the rabbi is.

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I have so much to say, but I don't know where to start. I’ve written down so many verses and quotes and thoughts over the past few days. and I wanted to sit down and make them into some organized idea that I could present to you, hoping to pull off for another week the illusion that the things in this world of Africa don't eat away at my brain and my heart. here I am, exposing the growing reality that I don't know what to do with Africa.

I just finished a book called "Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa." Keith B. Richburg was the US Bureau Chief for the Washington Post during some of Africa’s most recently formative years: during the Rwandan genocide, various ongoing conflicts in Somalia, the Congo, Uganda, Liberia, and Zaire. This man, a African American from Detroit, came to Africa expecting to connect to some ancestral bond awaiting him on this soil, only to find that Africa alluded him, rejected him, devalued his work and sacrifice, and left him feeling thankful for the results of slavery which landed him In America, rather than at the base of a waterfall with many other African bodies who had been thrown into the river. He continually says, "In Africa, you don't count the bodies."

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Ah, glorious April! Is there a touch of the Transcendent in the carpets of daffodils and singing of the birds? Do we have glimpses of God’s glory as the mountains produce hundreds of shades of green and the trees awaken to their new season of growth?

Yes, and yet… how the Transcendent gets trashed by the mundane in April! Is there ever a month so packed with activities that there isn’t time to breathe? I remember when I was a college student I bemoaned the presence of final exams and other closing of the year madness in a month when I just wanted to smell the roses. Someday, I reasoned, after those degrees were completed, I could enjoy the month for what it should be- an exercise in worship.

Not so. It just gets worse. Every good cause has a banquet, a retreat, a “walk”, or a picnic in April. Sunday- that wonderful Sabbath of rest and delight in the Lord- becomes clogged with extra luncheons, closing productions, and omnipresent meetings. Somehow worship becomes squeezed into a plethora of other activities. We get too busy to meditate, pray, or study God’s Word. People begin dropping out of their Bible studies and prayer groups in order to meet the demands of their garden, their lawn, and their tax forms.
Wise people say that in times like this we are too busy not to pray. How do we say ‘no’ to good things? How do we order our days that the priority of ‘God first’ is maintained?

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Can sun exposure cause skin cancer? Absolutely. However, appropriate sunlight actually prevents cancer. Exposure to the sun provides many benefits such as promoting the formation of vitamin D. (Dr. Joseph Mercola)

I don't put sunscreen on my kids. At least, not with any regularity. I think I put it on them twice a year, for the 4th of July and Labor Day, both of which involve celebrations where the children will be out in the sun longer than they are accustomed. I tend to avoid talking about sunscreen with other mothers because there are a lot of opinions about it and I prefer not to cause a stir.

Oh, but I do love to think about things, and so, in honor of the warm sun that is outside my window after a week or more of rain (yes, we basked in its glory without sunblock for a good thirty minutes yesterday afternoon--gasp!), I thought I'd analyze sunblock a bit, just for fun.

I must give the disclaimer that though I have recently read some research that supports me in my aversion to sunscreen, it was not research that originally influenced this behavior.

Sunscreen, and the excessive societal pressure to use it, bothers me a bit because it contradicts what God said about His own creation. On the fourth day of creation, God made the great lights, with the greater light (the sun) to rule over the day. He saw that it was good.

And it is amazing to see this play out within creation as we learn more about how things work. God created man, and when man worked in the garden (in the sun) the sunlight interacted with his skin to produce Vitamin D3. Vitamin D3 is not the same as what you find in fortified milk and cereals (that is D2, a synthetic vitamin, much harder to break down into a usable form).

When Vitamin D3 is broken down and transformed by the liver and then the kidneys it becomes 25-hydroxyvitamin D. And this fancy word symbolizes much that is good: natural protection again cancer (especially female cancers), depression, fatigue, infertility, osteoporosis, some autoimmune disorders, multiple sclerosis, and the list goes on.

When God says something is good, He means it! Now this doesn't mean we should spend excessive amounts of time in the direct sunlight. (Sometimes I think sunscreen was invented as an attempt to avoid the consequences of two behaviors: immodesty and excess.)

And we do know a man who is allergic to the sun, and so the sun doesn't seem to be good for him. But a person being allergic to peanuts doesn't mean that peanuts are actually bad, and the fact that our friend gets a rash from the sun doesn't make the sun bad, either. Sunlight is a good thing.

It is always interesting to me that we can glorify God in literally every square inch of our lives. Sometimes it is as simple as rejecting society's assumption that something is inherently bad when Scripture explicitly says it is good.

God's call for radical transformation to occur on YOUR life.

While bouncing around this morning on some of my favorite Christian blog spots I heard God talking to me in a unique way. He spoke loud and clear when he said, "Carl, do you know that most of my people, my followers, are Oppressed, Depressed or Repressed?" God has a clear calling for his children to rise above the repression of totalitarian regimes, to follow the call of God and to quit living a life in conformity with the patterns of this world. A verse that is familiar to the church is Romans 12:2 which states "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect".

OPPRESSION

I am not going to shoot a lot of statistics here as to how much of the Christian church is being oppressed today. I find a lot of the statistics that are commonly available are usually politically motivated in nature. I am not writing this to discuss politics, I am writing this to provide insight and vision for the church today. I write as a person who has walked a mile in the shoes of young men in India who are persecuted for the faith they have received. I write as a person who has stood in the midst of the orphanages of Ukraine and seen the faces of children who are hopeless, who feel that they are abandoned by society, and ultimately by God. A child who grows up feeling hopeless, helpless and unable to do anything but be an orphan is yes indeed, oppressed.

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Repent for the Kingdom for God is here!

As we hiked out into the desert on that hot September day, we did not know where we were going. We were like the Israelites wandering but for us it had only been 40 minutes not 40 years. As we continued to walk, we heard the rush of the water. It was a violent yet soothing sound in the hot desert.

When we arrived at the water's edge, our Rabbi, RVL stepped in. He wait for everyone to gather at the edge of the water and began proclaiming the Kingdom.

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Like me, you undoubtedly know Christians who have publicly disclosed their faith, only to later disgrace themselves with some foolish word or deed. Perhaps that person was you. It certainly has been me from time to time.

I suspect the world and the devil derive much pleasure from watching Christians play the lead role of hypocrite. An off-color remark, an evil gaze, a cruel deed, a lazy hand – all these are commonplace and tolerable among non-Christians. But when perpetrated by a known Christian, the world stops, stares and scorns the fallen witness of a shamed follower of Christ.

In their Jesus Freak album, the band DC Talk begins the song “What If I Stumble” with the following statement:

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

Indeed, a religion whose God is allegedly holy yet whose followers are clearly unholy will not readily appeal to pagan observers. But what an unbelieving world will find believable is a Christian whose lifestyle corresponds to the message he speaks and the God he serves. The reason: Consistency is key to persuasion.

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I saw the racing epic "Grand Prix" in 1966, and ever since I've wanted to be a race car driver. However, Reality and Responsibilities interfered-so I've settled for driving high performance cars really fast. Not on the street, mind you- but on various road courses. What we Car Geeks call "High Performance Driving Events". The Track Bug bit me so hard that I now instruct other drivers. I enjoy instructing and I usually get a couple of hours of free track time as part of the package. I eventually noticed that many of my fellow instructors were also fooling around with motorcycles, so I just HAD to add an old Triumph bike to my garage. Being dumb but not stupid, I also signed up for a Beginning Riders Course. I soon discovered that several high performance driving methods also apply to bikes.

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Somehow it seems inane to set one’s self up for failure by jumping through the New Year’s Resolutions hoop: lose 10 pounds, clean closets, learn to speak Spanish, never lose temper, etc. In addition, the focus in on the self, the wrong place to be. So, how should a Christian view a new year?

This year for me seems different, and should be. Two friends in my church have recently learned of the aggressive cancer consuming their cells that will insure (humanly speaking) that they will not live to see the end of 2006. Another friend didn’t make it through the last year- he had no idea on the first of January 2005 that he wouldn’t live to see 2006. Events like this do keep us from taking the gift of life for granted.

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My workplace is staffed mostly by co-workers of my peer group: young females still getting established in their lives and careers. Because of the nature of the nursing work we do, many situations arise in which we are dealing with physical and emotional trauma. This requires teamwork, and occasionally offers an opportunity to be an example of the strength of Jesus living in His people.

This past week I was working with a co-worker who I’ll call Cara. Cara and I were splitting a patient assignment, and worked closely together for 2 days, caring for some sick children. During those 2 work days, Cara experienced 2 traumatic events. The first was finding out that her boyfriend, who had dropped out of sight for 3 days, and wasn’t returning phone calls, had actually cheated on her with another girl during the weekend. She received a phone call with this news in the middle of the shift, and promptly burst into tears at the nurses’ station, but of course had to pull herself together to continue caring for patients. The second day of working together, Cara had to transfer a patient to the ICU, as she became progressively sicker during the course of our 12 hour shift, nearly to the point of requiring intubation and mechanical ventilation. Cara burst into tears again after returning from the rush to get this sick child into the intensive care unit.

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And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. - John 1:14 (NAS95)

It’s time to begin all that “Christmas stuff” again.

I admit that I am one of many believers who each year struggles to grasp the wonderful truth of the Incarnation. How do we see His glory in the midst of all the perennial fuss? Every year we decry once again the fact that we seem to become less focused on His glory and more immersed in “getting it all done.” Every year we note our tendency to abandon the disciplines of prayer and Bible study in exchange for making lists and checking them twice. Every year all the books we’re reading and community life we’re enjoying and ministry we have been called to seem to get placed neatly on the shelf for the month or more of preparation for a day that consistently falls short of “seeing His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

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I sit down to pen a Thanksgiving letter to our extended family. Let’s see, what great things have happened this year for which we are thankful? Hmmm- no ‘great’ things… no ‘things’ in terms of trips abroad, new ‘toys’, awards, new jobs. No marriages, births, graduations. In general, a pretty unexciting year.

Well, how about the crises we have encountered and have come through because of the Lord’s help? Well, no. No deaths, no divorces, no serious illnesses or surgeries, only minor disappointments.
So, was it just a boring year? Maybe we should forego the letter because there just wasn’t much to be thankful for?

Absolutely not.

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Zealous for God

On our second day in Israel, we traveled to Gamla. In the first century, Gamla was a zealot stronghold. Isolated from much of the rest of the Galilee in the rift valley between the triangle of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernahum and the Decapolis. The Jews that lived in Gamla had moved back into the land from Babylonian captivity as early as 150 B.C. These Jews wanted to live righteous lives before God in opposition to the Romans and all they stood for.

Just the location of Gamla tells you something about the people that lived there. This rugged mountain in the middle of a valley removed from relatively easy living near the Galilee where the rest of the population was stood out for all to see. The zealots who lived here were quickly recognized as being different.

Bought with a Price

The setting is 1st Century Galilee. The small community of Chorazin lives in what the Romans called "insula." It was within the setting of this tightly knit community that a story between Ruben and Rachel's family unfolds.

You see, Ruben has reached marrying age and some discussion has begun among his insula. The family is all working in the insula one day when the topic comes up.

Ruben's mother says, "Who will my Ruben have for his wife?"

The rest of the insula is stirring with suggestions of the girls in the community. Several names are spouted off, "Sarah" or "Rebecca" or "Zipporah" or "Rachel." Yes, this was the name Ruben was hping would be mentioned, "Rachel." He grinned as her name was mentioned and Grandpa saw the look in his eyes.

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The Coastal Plain, The Shephelah, and the Culture

As we landed in Israel after traveling from Turkey and before that Chicago, I was eager for what lay ahead. Our plans for the day we a mystery to all of the group. We were told to be ready for hiking but that was all the detail we were given. After we collected our bags, we headed onto the bus for a drive north.

On our way north, Ray VanderLaan (RVL) began to teach us in Rabbinic fashion, as we were going. He had already told us that it is often not about the destination but rather about the journey. To the left as we drove was the coastal plain, the somewhat flat area between the Mediterrean and the foothills of the Judea mountains. This coastal plain had the main trade route and was the place where the culture was influences.

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