Lessons from great Christian thinkers

I saw this the other day on the blog between two worlds and thought I'd post it here because it is kind of interesting to see how over the centuries different theologians have shaped the way we think today. It is from a blog post by James Spiegel.

1. Augustine (5th century): Remember that you are a citizen of another kingdom.
   
2. Martin Luther (16th century): Expect politicians to be corrupt.
3. Thomas Aquinas (13th century): God has made himself known in nature.
4. John Calvin (16th century): God is sovereign over all, including our suffering.
5. Jonathan Edwards (18th century): God is beautiful, and all beauty is divine.
6. Thomas a’Kempis (15th century): Practice self-denial with a passion.
7. John Wesley (18th century): Be disciplined and make the best use of your time.
   
8. Fyodor Dostoevsky (19th century): God’s grace can reach anyone.
9. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (20th century): Beware of cheap grace.
10. Alvin Plantinga (21st century): Moral virtue is crucial for intellectual health.

Easter 2009

Our church celebrated Easter today and after the service we had a picnic in the church's backyard. If you can call it a picnic. I say if there are tables and chairs involved it is not a picnic. But I'm one voice. It was a beautiful day for picnic – spring is here at last.



I helped Yura bbq chicken which made the picnic into a cookout and a lot more smoky.

This year I thought we should give decorating eggs a try. So I bought the little plastic wrappers and then Liese did it. I missed out on the "bang your egg against mine to see whose is stronger" traditional Ukrainian Easter game because I was cooking. But Jeremy Claycamp ate enough eggs for both of us. The kid put away 6 eggs along with the rest of his lunch.

For Jessica

And as I knelt beside the brook
To drink eternal life, I took
A glance across the golden grass,
And saw my dog, old Blackie, fast
As she could come. She leaped the stream-
Almost - and what a happy gleam
Was in her eye. I knelt to drink,
And knew that I was on the brink
Of endless joy. And everywhere
I turned I saw a wonder there.
A big man running on the lawn:
That's old John Younge with both legs on.
The blind can see a bird on wing,
The dumb can lift their voice and sing.
The diabetic eats at will,
The coronary runs uphill.
The lame can walk, the deaf can hear,
The cancer-ridden bone is clear.
Arthritic joints are lithe and free,
And every pain has ceased to be.
And every sorrow deep within,
And every trace of lingering sin
Is gone. And all that's left is joy,
And endless ages to employ
The mind and heart, and understand,
And love the sovereign Lord who planned
That it should take eternity
To lavish all his grace on me.

O, God of wonder, God of might,
Grant us some elevated sight,
Of endless days. And let us see
The joy of what is yet to be.
And may your future make us free,
And guard us by the hope that we,
Through grace on lands that you restore,
Are justified forevermore.

This timely poem from Future Grace brought a smile to my face today.
Wishing I could be with you all in Mesa today.

Youth Gathering

A couple months ago a few of the young ladies in our church approached me about organizing a youth gathering at our church for the youth groups of some churches in our region. They wanted the event to be mainly about fellowship but also have teaching and worship. They began planning everything, invited a guest speaker, invited various youth groups, and got everybody involved.

We hosted the event this last Saturday and it went really well. Jake Knotts came from Chernigov as the guest speaker and gave two concise messages on God's calling us to fellowship with Him and serve Him with our whole lives. Liese and I were both on in the worship band and I got to play bass. Kids from all over showed up and everybody had a good time.

Home groups and being a better preacher

People say that teachers and preachers should listen to themselves so that they can learn how to teach, preach, and communicate better. I've found something else that is helpful, and humbling for any teacher/preacher; going to a home group where the group discusses your sermon.

Each week at our home group Yura leads us in a discussion of Sunday's sermon for about half an hour and then I lead a bible study. As I preach every other week it turns out that every other home group is about my sermon and I have to sit and listen to what people got out of it, what they understood it to be about, what stood out the most, and how God spoke to them through it. Let me just say it is a very humbling experience when the room is silent after being asked "what was the sermon about?". But it is also encouraging to hear people share what God spoke to them, and very helpful for me to learn how to better communicate.

Pictures of last week's home group:

Thoughts about God's strength

This morning I was thinking about Isaiah 40:29-31 (which are some of my favorite verses in the bible) and I was really encouraged so I thought I'd share my thoughts as they are few and short.

Isaiah 40:29-31 (KJV) He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

God gives power to the weary. When we are tired, when we are worn out, God is there offering us His strength.

God increases the strength of the weak. We do not have to be strong – we have to look to God who is strong. It doesn't matter how strong we are because God gives power and if we are weak and come to God He increases our strength. God doesn't require us to be strong, He desires to make us strong in Him.

God's strength is not merely enough. It is not merely enough strength so that we don't fall, or merely enough to keep us plodding along. It is enough for us to run. It is enough to give us wings like eagles so that we fly instead of fall.

I saw Jesus in his face

A while back I read a book by Shane Claiborne called "The Irresistible Revolution" (I even blogged about it a couple times). In one section of the book Claiborne talks about being in Calcutta and helping people who lived in poverty and seeing Jesus in their faces as he helped them. The point was that Jesus said when you did these acts of service to the least of my brethren you did it to me and that Claiborne felt like Jesus was there as he was giving and helping these people.

I was reminded of this on Friday when I was in Kiev picking up our passports because on the way to the US consulate I passed a young man begging as I ascended from an underground pedestrian crossing. I noticed him because he was young, probably about 25 and sitting motionless. I thought to myself that if he is still there when I came back I should buy him something to eat because he is probably hungry and kept walking. I don't like giving money to beggars or bums, instead I will usually buy them something to eat. So as I walked, I thought about this guy and what his problems might be and how to help him and realized how utterly incapable I was of actually helping him. All I could do was buy him a sandwich or a hot dog or something.

On the way back he was still there so I went to a kiosk and looked to see what they had. I ended up going for a pastry (apple) because I noticed that the kiosk also sold hot tea and the guy looked like he was cold and could use a hot cup of tea. When I took the tea and pastry back to the guy his face lit up. It was one of those expressions that will probably stick with me for a long time. And it made me feel good...about myself. As I walked away I thought about his expression and about Shane Claiborne. And my heart. And D.A. Carson.

Liese and I had listened to a sermon by Carson about waiting for Christ's return and he talked about the verses in Matthew when Jesus said "when you did this for the least of these by brethren you did it for me". One of the things Carson said was that these people didn't realize they were doing this for Jesus, they were serving Him unself-consciously. They were just loving people. They had to ask Jesus "when did we visit you in prison?" because they didn't do it as unto him, they did it out of love for the person in prison.

When I first saw the guy I knew that I should do something to help him because he was in need. I thought about all I could do and decided buying some food as the only practical help. But it wasn't until I bought the tea for the guy that I actually started thinking about him as a person. I realized that up till that point I was thinking about helping him out of a sense of duty, not because I cared about him.

I think sometimes we think that to do something as unto Jesus is to do what we would do for Jesus for other people because we wouldn't normally treat these people that way. We use this idea to motivate ourselves to do things we don't really want to do. Sometimes that is helpful but I think it is missing the point and the point is love. The point isn't about seeing Jesus manifested in poor people as we help them, it is about loving people.

I notice another subtle thing about my heart and that is that I felt really good when when this guy smiled. It gave me a sense of satisfaction in doing something good. But I realized right away that I felt good because of myself. I wasn't thinking about the man begging any more, I was congratulating myself for bringing joy to his face. It is easy to help people because it makes us feel good and not because we love them, to give because we like to see the joy on people's faces when they receive. It is easy to do good selfishly.

Jesus told people that they had served him without even knowing it and I think when we do actually serve Jesus our mind is not on ourselves but on the other person. Instead of feeling good for doing something, we are still thinking about what else we can do, what more we can do, and what deeper needs the person has. Whereas if we say "I'm doing this as unto Jesus" then we are basically saying "you are not worth this effort, but Jesus is". That is not caring about the person, seeking the person's best, or wanting good for that person. It is not really loving them. It is not really serving them. It is thinking about yourself and the limits of what you want to do.

All these thoughts have been rattling around in my head for the last few days so I thought I'd write them down and make some sense out of them.

Cooking and Cleaning are manly

Sunday night our men's bible study group hosted a special evening for the ladies in our church. We had been studying about the life of David and the idea of giving and serving and I had the brilliant idea to put it into practice by cooking a meal for the ladies and then cleaning up afterward (two things men in Ukraine don't normally do).

The guys took the idea and ran with it, pitching in money to buy the ingredients to make greek salad, paella, fish and carrot cake. They even prepared some entertainment in the form of songs and poems. Then we left the ladies alone to enjoy their food and talk.

I think everyone had a good time and the ladies were all really happy that the guys cooked and cleaned up after themselves. Here are some pictures:

The guys from the rehab center chopping veggies for the greek salad.


Sasha and Oles doing dishes



Preparing fish with Andre and Yura


Yura making paella

One of the carrot cakes that didn't turn out


Yura explaining to me the theory of plural soy sauces


the ladies enjoying the entertainment