Thursday, December 23, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
What are you doing to battle materialism in your heart?
Last week I retweeted this C.S. Lewis quote from @CSLewisDaily:
This is something I've been thinking about for a while now, especially as relates to those in ministry and the material things of this world.
Something I've noticed about people who are in positions of authority, who have a lot of responsibility and need to use their time and resources effectively, is that they tend to not question spending money on things that make their lives easier. I'm not against that, I think that we should be wise with our time and money and use both for God's glory. But after listening to various leaders of huge churches, going to big national conferences, following people on twitter, and watching online videos of this and that, I've started to wonder "are these guys really good at not valuing all the material things they've surrounded themselves with, or have they let down their guard and not even paid attention to it?"
Are we finding our place in the material things of this world or are they finding their place in us?
For me the temptation is when I see something that would make what I do easier (new computer, new cell phone, dishwasher, new refrigerator, new tools) and I start to talk myself into why it would be a good idea to buy it. This is a temptation is because we have been on a tight budget to get our remodel done and in that tight budget I've been praying that God would help me to be more generous. God has also been showing Liese and I that our giving needs to be more sacrificial.
It is so easy to just spend money on myriad of things that will free me up to be more productive in ministry and yet never stop and ask God if that is the best use of the money He has given. We have to be careful not to make productivity an idol, or even to put it ahead of generosity in our priorities. Especially when it comes to material things of this world that look so good and seem so useful, and yet so easily find a place in our hearts.
It is easy to let the things of this world have a place in my heart instead of looking to how to use the prosperity that God has given as an opportunity to give, to be more Christlike, to un-knit my soul from this world.
Again, I'm not against material things or their place in our lives. I just find it a battle for me to not let the things of this world have a place in my heart. I think this is something we need to battle in our hearts and unfortunately I hear very few voices reminding us of this and many telling us about next best thing.
"Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels he's finding his place in it, while really it is finding its place in him."
This is something I've been thinking about for a while now, especially as relates to those in ministry and the material things of this world.
Something I've noticed about people who are in positions of authority, who have a lot of responsibility and need to use their time and resources effectively, is that they tend to not question spending money on things that make their lives easier. I'm not against that, I think that we should be wise with our time and money and use both for God's glory. But after listening to various leaders of huge churches, going to big national conferences, following people on twitter, and watching online videos of this and that, I've started to wonder "are these guys really good at not valuing all the material things they've surrounded themselves with, or have they let down their guard and not even paid attention to it?"
Are we finding our place in the material things of this world or are they finding their place in us?
For me the temptation is when I see something that would make what I do easier (new computer, new cell phone, dishwasher, new refrigerator, new tools) and I start to talk myself into why it would be a good idea to buy it. This is a temptation is because we have been on a tight budget to get our remodel done and in that tight budget I've been praying that God would help me to be more generous. God has also been showing Liese and I that our giving needs to be more sacrificial.
It is so easy to just spend money on myriad of things that will free me up to be more productive in ministry and yet never stop and ask God if that is the best use of the money He has given. We have to be careful not to make productivity an idol, or even to put it ahead of generosity in our priorities. Especially when it comes to material things of this world that look so good and seem so useful, and yet so easily find a place in our hearts.
It is easy to let the things of this world have a place in my heart instead of looking to how to use the prosperity that God has given as an opportunity to give, to be more Christlike, to un-knit my soul from this world.
Again, I'm not against material things or their place in our lives. I just find it a battle for me to not let the things of this world have a place in my heart. I think this is something we need to battle in our hearts and unfortunately I hear very few voices reminding us of this and many telling us about next best thing.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Copyright laws and music in the church
Upon finding out that USA copyright laws restrict churches from being able to freely use worship songs I've thought that there has to be a better way for Christians to minister to the Church with their music. Last week Tim Smith from Mars Hill wrote a blog post on The Resurgence about this topic and I thought his conclusions were a good step forward:
You can read the rest of the blog here.
I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on this, especially if you write worship songs.
....I do challenge you to prayerfully consider the destination and purpose of your songs and create legal, licensing, distribution, and marketing decisions based on the larger mission of your church, not the other way around.
Do you really want to put your music out in a way that gives the church no legal way to record a demo for its band or even a rough recording to help the congregation learn your song? Do you really need someone to pay you off every time they display the lyrics of your song or play it at something besides an official worship service?
Don’t be passively conformed to the pattern of the world. We use musical instruments, styles, and sounds that have a lot in common with the world around us, but we use these things for a very different purpose. Take the time, know your options, and make sure your means of licensing and distribution reflect the same purpose as our music: the glory of God though building his church.
You can read the rest of the blog here.
I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on this, especially if you write worship songs.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
A Fox blog
My friend Tim Fox has been blogging some interesting quotes and thoughts about history, culture, and morality.
Here is one of his posts that has got me thinking about my reaction to the decadence of society:
If something is morally true because God made it that way then it will endure despite what popular culture thinks about it. This should, I think give us hope that standing up for what is right will not always be a losing battle and also help us to not be so pessimistic toward the society we live.
What do you think?
(Oh, and check out Mr. Fox's blog for more interesting thoughts)
Here is one of his posts that has got me thinking about my reaction to the decadence of society:
"John Mark Reynolds (from Biola) writes about recent polls showing that more and more Americans are finding marriage outdated and irrelevant. I was particularly struck by his observation that future generations will look back in horror on our trampling of one woman-one man marriage, since moral facts are unchangeable.Values endure, but fashions change. Recent surveys showing growing numbers of Americans are not that into marriage tell us something interesting about us, but nothing about love and marriage.Survey says: we are becoming decadent. Morality says: it will not endure. Moral facts are no more fragile than physical facts. It is any given civilization that is fragile. Americans may reject romance, but love will endure, because Americans can no more harm marriage than they can loot Heaven. We can damn ourselves, but future humanity likely will shake their heads at our folly and use us as a moral lesson.Marriage will endure, because it is the only worthy response to real romantic love. Romantic love is spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical. It is what happens when a woman or man discovers that there are other humans, equally people, but different from self. This other “side” of humanity seems designed to complement our souls.It is the deepest form of sexism to believe that women or men could be replaced in such a relationship. Whatever the survey says at the moment, men and women complete each other in a unique way. Call a social contract or any other kind of love “marriage” and the romantics amongst us will simply invent a new word to describe this particular and powerful union."
If something is morally true because God made it that way then it will endure despite what popular culture thinks about it. This should, I think give us hope that standing up for what is right will not always be a losing battle and also help us to not be so pessimistic toward the society we live.
What do you think?
(Oh, and check out Mr. Fox's blog for more interesting thoughts)
Thursday, December 16, 2010
In Lumine Media: Giving away books
This week In Lumine shipped over a 100 copies of Don't Waste Your Life to be given away at a youth conference in Kiev. We are praying this book would be a great blessing to everyone who attends "That They Know You" conference!
[photo from Olya Velichko]
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Life in a small town
Living in Kaharlyk I am faced weekly, if not daily, with a very interruptive and inefficient way of life. You plan for one thing and three things get in your way and postpone that thing. You think a trip to the hardware store will take 10 minutes and then you spend an hour and a half going around to all the hardware stores. Life and schedules get delayed by weather, infrastructure problems, unannounced guests, and randomly closed stores. Last week a few things happened that helped me realize that these interruptions in life often put me in a place where I can build relationships with people instead of just getting things done.
Three examples from the last couple weeks:
Tuesday I had a meeting with a couple of people about an outreach team that is coming soon. When I went to the Claycamp's house to catch a ride with Micah to the meeting, I found out their electricity was out due to a problem with their circuit breakers. They had called an electrician who, unexpectedly, was on his way. We decided to postpone our meeting until the electricity was fixed. While the electrician was trouble-shooting the problem I got to hang out with the Claycamps, plan a bit of the details of an upcoming outreach, and help translate what the electrician was saying. Then we went to the hardware store and I got to know the electrician a bit. All this ended up taking more than an hour but the Claycamps got their power fixed and we proceeded on to our meeting. The person we were meeting with understood that getting the power back on in the middle of winter is very important and wasn't even phased that we were 1.5 hours late to the meeting.
Thursday I went to buy a couple panes of glass for our entryway and when I got to the place where the glass cutter works it was all locked up. So I asked around at the other shops if the guy had gone home early, they replied that he had gone to deliver some glass to a bar and would be back any minute. Bars and "be back any minute" don't seem to go hand in hand, but I decided to risk it and wait. While waiting I ran some other errands and after about 15 minutes the guy returned. I had to wait while he cut some glass for another guy and as I waited my neighbor, who works nearby, came in to ask if the glass cutter could give her a ride home. I offered and the three of us started about America (everyone wants to talk about America when they realize my accent isn't Belorussian) and life in Ukraine and different standards of living. The older generation is always very confused as to why we would want to live here when everyone here is trying to get to America (both the glass cutter and my neighbor are in their 60's). So I talked with them first about God's calling being what brings fulfillment and how material comfort is not what is important in life. We are living in Ukraine because we value something different, we value God. I didn't get to go much into the gospel because of people coming and going but because of having to wait around for the shop to open I was able to start a conversation with my neighbor that will continue in other strange places and times.
Switching out winter/summer tires in Kagy isn't the easiest thing to do if you wait until it gets icy. There are only two places in town that do it and about 3,000 cars. So you have to either be really lucky and show up at just the right time of day or get in line at 7:30 am and wait until they open at 8:00. I usually try for the first, but as jet lag had been waking me up early decided to give the second a shot. So I grabbed my bible and a book and went to the tire repair shop where I was third in line at 7:30. I waited a full two hours in line and by the time the mechanic got to me everyone else had either thrown in the towel for the day or left to try their luck later. I'm usually really bad at small talk and when there are a lot of people around I end up not saying much, especially as I don't want the conversation to turn to me being American, which it always does. But as it was just the mechanic and I there we struck up a conversation and got to talking about work and life and weather (it was -10°C that morning).
I find that though I am often frustrated by the inefficiency of life in Kaharlyk (only two tire shops, people closing up shop for an undetermined amount of time, having to postpone and cancel things because of electric problems); that very inefficiency leads to being able to get to know people, talk about life, and talk about God.
Three examples from the last couple weeks:
Tuesday I had a meeting with a couple of people about an outreach team that is coming soon. When I went to the Claycamp's house to catch a ride with Micah to the meeting, I found out their electricity was out due to a problem with their circuit breakers. They had called an electrician who, unexpectedly, was on his way. We decided to postpone our meeting until the electricity was fixed. While the electrician was trouble-shooting the problem I got to hang out with the Claycamps, plan a bit of the details of an upcoming outreach, and help translate what the electrician was saying. Then we went to the hardware store and I got to know the electrician a bit. All this ended up taking more than an hour but the Claycamps got their power fixed and we proceeded on to our meeting. The person we were meeting with understood that getting the power back on in the middle of winter is very important and wasn't even phased that we were 1.5 hours late to the meeting.
Thursday I went to buy a couple panes of glass for our entryway and when I got to the place where the glass cutter works it was all locked up. So I asked around at the other shops if the guy had gone home early, they replied that he had gone to deliver some glass to a bar and would be back any minute. Bars and "be back any minute" don't seem to go hand in hand, but I decided to risk it and wait. While waiting I ran some other errands and after about 15 minutes the guy returned. I had to wait while he cut some glass for another guy and as I waited my neighbor, who works nearby, came in to ask if the glass cutter could give her a ride home. I offered and the three of us started about America (everyone wants to talk about America when they realize my accent isn't Belorussian) and life in Ukraine and different standards of living. The older generation is always very confused as to why we would want to live here when everyone here is trying to get to America (both the glass cutter and my neighbor are in their 60's). So I talked with them first about God's calling being what brings fulfillment and how material comfort is not what is important in life. We are living in Ukraine because we value something different, we value God. I didn't get to go much into the gospel because of people coming and going but because of having to wait around for the shop to open I was able to start a conversation with my neighbor that will continue in other strange places and times.
Switching out winter/summer tires in Kagy isn't the easiest thing to do if you wait until it gets icy. There are only two places in town that do it and about 3,000 cars. So you have to either be really lucky and show up at just the right time of day or get in line at 7:30 am and wait until they open at 8:00. I usually try for the first, but as jet lag had been waking me up early decided to give the second a shot. So I grabbed my bible and a book and went to the tire repair shop where I was third in line at 7:30. I waited a full two hours in line and by the time the mechanic got to me everyone else had either thrown in the towel for the day or left to try their luck later. I'm usually really bad at small talk and when there are a lot of people around I end up not saying much, especially as I don't want the conversation to turn to me being American, which it always does. But as it was just the mechanic and I there we struck up a conversation and got to talking about work and life and weather (it was -10°C that morning).
I find that though I am often frustrated by the inefficiency of life in Kaharlyk (only two tire shops, people closing up shop for an undetermined amount of time, having to postpone and cancel things because of electric problems); that very inefficiency leads to being able to get to know people, talk about life, and talk about God.
Monday, December 06, 2010
The beginnings of winter
When we were in California people kept asking us what the weather is like here in Ukraine. Well, right now it is cold. I went to the hardware store today and this is what my car's thermometer read after driving around:
That is 15°F in case you didn't want to find a conversion chart. The sun has been out which turns everything from a dull grey into a vivid white which is something I'm starting to love about winter. This is downtown Kaharlyk and a tree covered in frost.
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