Monthly Archives: May 2010

Here is a great poem written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  He wrote this while he was in Tegel Prison.  It is in his new biography written by Eric Metaxas.  If you get a chance to read the book, it will be well worth your time.  It is incredible!

Who am I?  They often tell me
I stepped from my cell’s confinement
Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
Like a squire from his country-house.
Who am I?  They often tell me
I used to speak to my warder
Freely and friendly and clearly,
As though it were mine to command.
Who am I?  They also tell me
I bore the days of misfortune
Equally, smilingly, proudly,
Like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really all that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I myself know of myself
Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
Struggling for breath, as though hands were
Compressing my throat,
Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
Tossing in expectation of great events,
Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?

Who am I?  This or the other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once?  A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine!

Love Truth

Vernon

I was just reading a BRILLIANT article by David Powlison called Making All Things New.  The article is about bringing joy to the “sexually broken”.  If you are about to stop reading because you think this entire post is going in the “sexual broken” direction, keep reading.  It is so much more!  Here is one of the takeaways.

One of my biggest enemies has been the lack of trusting that God is truly with me.  Powlison points this out in a huge way!  A game changer way!

To the degree that you remember that your Lord is with you, then what those other voices have to say will sound devious, tawdry, hostile to your welfare. How did they ever sound so appealing?! The contrast, the battle of wills, the battle between good and evil, will be more evident. Your immediate choice – which voice will I listen to? – will become stark. Remembering what’s true does not chalk up automatic victory. It’s not magic. It’s life. It’s not easy. Your battle will heat up. But we only do secretive things when we’re kidding ourselves. Every time you remember that you are out in public, then you live an out-in-public life. “I AM WITH YOU” means you’re always out in public. In order to sin, you’ll have to drown out the voice of reality, put your fingers in your ears, and switch channels to the fantasy channel, the lie channel, the death channel. And even if you switch channels and sin by high-handed choice, you will still be in broad daylight before God’s searching eyes. You can shut your eyes and plug your ears, He’s still right here. You’ll never get away. And you only have to open your eyes, listen, and turn around in order to find help. After all, He who loves you says, “I am with you,” mainly to encourage you… Sin can’t stand to be out in public where everybody knows and everybody’s watching. “I am with you” means that the person who can help you right now knows and is watching. In fact, He is watching over you to protect you.
Love Truth
Vernon

I have been rereading Tim Keller’s Prodigal God…amazing book.  It is based on the parable of the prodigal son’s

One of the things he points out, is how we quite quickly look past the “good son” who stayed home and concentrate only on the “bad son” who took his dad’s inheritance and spoiled it on crazy living.

The idea that hit me a bunch today was how the “good son” was trying to control the father by his obedience!  What looked like something so good externally was totally hellish.  Have you ever been there?  “God!  I have done so much!  Now I deserve…” or “God!  I have done so much!  Why are you punishing me with…type of suffering.”  This heart disposition is idolatry.  Idolatry is when we put ANYTHING in front of God.

You see, I have had this problem of trying to control God by obeying.  I have tried to make Him be indebted to me.  I have tried to get Him to see all I have done and then blame Him when things go wrong.

I thank the Lord this is not what true abundant Life in Him is all about.  He has called me and you to trust Him in such a way that He promises to express obedience through us as a lifestyle of thanksgiving, not a way to try and earn His love.

Love Truth
Vernon

Michael Horton wrote a book called Christless Christianity.  His opening paragraphs are quite interesting.

What would things look like if Satan really took control of a city?  Over a half century ago, Presbyterian minister Donald Grey Barnhouse offered his own scenario in his weekly sermon…If Satan took over Philadelphia, all of the bars would be closed, pornography banished, and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other.  There would be no swearing.  The children would say, “Yes, sir” and “No, ma’am,” and the churches would be full every Sunday…where Christ is not preached.

It is easy to become distracted from Christ as the only hope for sinners…If we are good people who have lost our way but with the proper instructions and motivation can become a better person, we need only a life coach, not a Redeemer.

Barnhouse is not throwing everyone under the bus, but I have found this to be a good set of “testing paragraphs” to see if I am aligning with this in any way.  It is not that being polite is sinful or that it would be bad for porn to be eradicated.  The problem is that when these become the ultimate end to life we just look “more acceptable” to the world on our way to hell.

I pray Christ would be so captivating in our lives that He is the reason we abstain from certain things and also participate in others.  I pray we would have pure motives that would show “sacrifice” is never the point, but He is.

Are you distracted today?

Love Truth
Vernon

I have been rereading a book called Heaven by Randy Alcorn.  If you have not read it, you should.  Here are a few thoughts Alcorn documented of C.S. Lewis.

All your life and unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond your grasp of your consciousness.  The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it, or else, that it was within your reach and you have lost it forever.

I have met no people who fully disbelieved in Hell and also had a living and life-giving belief in Heaven.

The hills and valleys of Heaven will be to those you now experience not as a copy to an original, nor as a substitute is to the genuine article, but as the flower to the root, or the diamond to the coal

I have found that I often forget about Heaven and the New Earth or I have an improper view.  Charles Spurgeon once said that people who cast their minds on eternal realities will never be lethargic.  I don’t want to be lethargic.  More importantly, I want to see God face to face.

Have you ever found your self bored of the possibility of Heaven?

What do you think Heaven and the New Earth will be like?

Why do you think many Christians so abstractly about Heaven and the New Earth?

Love Truth
Vernon

Watch out, people, I have been ranting up a storm over at the ol’ moedidde blog.  But I’ve been trying to stop blogging about the elections, because I find myself just saying the same things over and over again.  Instead, I’ve been plotting a post that Vernon suggested to me–an overview of Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).  In fact, he suggested I do a video blog, which I thought was a fantastic idea! But, my camera that records video was recently loaned to a friend..and I’ve been waiting and waiting to get it back for said video blog.  The fact that you’re reading my writing instead of hearing and seeing me now is a clear sign that said friend still has said camera.  So there’s an exciting tidbit of my life that has led to my recent stall in blog posts here at His Voice, and is now leading to my just-going-ahead-and-writing-the-post. Feel free to suggest another topic that I can video post on in the future.

So. The CPA.  Whew. Take a deep breath, everyone! Here goes….

The CPA, also known as the “Naivasha Agreement”  was signed between North & South Sudan in 2005, after a 22-year long civil war that killed 2 million people and displaced 4 million.  The CPA outlined for six years of Southern semi-autonomy, after which a referendum would come to vote, giving Southern Sudan the opportunity to secede from Sudan, becoming a fully-autonomous nation (which, as of now, is on course for 2011).

The main points within the CPA include:

• The Machakos Protocol – implements the 6-year period during which Southern Sudan rules itself as a semi-autonomous region, forming their own government and yet continuing to “report” to Northern Sudan.  It is after this 6-year period (ending in 2011) that Southern Sudan will have the right to vote in a referendum for unity with Sudan or full secession. Halfway through this period, there shall be national elections (the ones that just took place in April 2010 were originally meant to have occurred in 2008, which would have allowed for a more reasonable amount of time to prepare for the Southern secession referendum).
• Power Sharing – Both North and South Sudan members will be represented in the national government (70/30 with NCP holding majority), including members of the newly formed Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS). Meanwhile, more power shall be given to individual states.
• Wealth Sharing – 2% of the oil revenue will go to oil producing states of Southern Sudan with the remaining revenue divided among the two governments. This section also has protocol for banking and currency in Sudan.
• Resolution of the Abyei Conflict – Abyei, one of the most protested areas of Sudan due to its mass of oil wealth and central location, will be granted special administrative status.  At the end of the 6-year period, Abyei will vote to either maintain this status within Northern Sudan, or become an official part of Southern Sudan. Oil revenues for Abyei should be split (50/42) with NCP holding the majority and the remaining percentage going to local states).
• Resolution of the Conflict in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile – This is a similar situation to the Abyei issue–these regions are centrally located, technically part of Northern Sudan, but ethnically more similar with the South, so it creates a bit of a debacle as to which region they should be a part of. This resolution contains similar protocol for oil shares and borders in these two regions as in Abyei. (FYI Nuba Mountains is in Southern Kordofan.)
• Security Arrangements – Equal numbers of soldiers from both Southern & Northern armies will be combined to form the Joint Integrated Unit (JIU) to provide safety and security in the region (read: to hassle people unnecessarily whenever they want. But that’s just my take on it.) Really, though, as peacekeepers.  While there’s been a lot of small-scale violence, I suppose in general the peace has been kept.
• Permanent Ceasefire – ‘Nuff said.

These are the main points of the CPA.  So what’s the big deal? Seems straightforward enough.

How much of the world perceives the North's treatment of the CPA.

But nothing that involves international politics and conflict is ever very straightforward. The main discrepancies with the CPA have involved the oil revenues which have not been provided to the South as the CPA outlines for them to be, and the Darfur conflict which obviously is the opposite of a ceasefire and has implications throughout the country. While the CPA makes it glaringly clear who should get what oil revenues, the NCP has hesitated to fulfill those contracts because it means less money for them. And while the conflict in Darfur is not a North/South conflict, so technically falls outside of the

constraints of the CPA, it is still preventing the country from overall stability.

So when you hear things in the news about Sudan’s government violating the CPA or the events in the country threatening to not fulfill it, hopefully this gives you an idea of what they’re talking about. At this point in time, the main issue up for discussion is keeping everything in tact and peaceful for the 2011 referendum.

If you want to go more in depth, here is the CPA itself.  And here is a paper I wrote called “Challenges to Peacemaking” that gives more detail specific to the Nuba Mountains region (note: this paper was a collaboration, the portion I wrote on Sudan is the second section).

I know there are a myriad amount of ways to get distracted.  I seem to have found many of them.  In fact, when I am at my weirdest times I seek out distractions.  It is a control problem.

I am using the word distraction as anything or anyone that you allow to take your focus away from Christ.

I am not trying to propose that we should try to cut every person and everything out of our life and somehow this will allow us to be “undistracted”.  The problem is this only takes things away, instead of focusing on the Triune God and then trusting that He will show me how to have properly informed relationships, work, hobbies, etc.

I say all of this because I was in a discussion yesterday on Ps. 23.  We were talking about “He restores my soul”.  We talked about possible distractions in understanding this reality.  I want to give you two specific distractions we talked about

My friend John Ryan said, “There is a danger in worshiping your wounds and there is a danger in worshiping your healing.”  What he meant is that many people define themselves by their “issues”.  Whether it is a healing or hurt.  It is not that these things should not be recognized, but when they are how we identify ourselves, we are distracted.

The second distraction from understanding that God not only is the One who restores our soul, but that He actually has a strong desire to restore us, is a struggle that I personally have.  Many times in the midst of struggle I do what can be perceived as good, yet it produces yet another distraction.  I go read my Bible.

Let me explain.

Many times I have run to my Bible, read a promise from the Word, and then said it over and over, trying to “speak some type of change in my life (I guess)”.  The problem is that I am the center of that pursuit, instead of the Triune God.  I am not saying we should not run to the Bible, but if the Bible does not lead us to Him then it is not a minor miss.  It is a distraction.

In fact, Jesus warned against this in John 5:39-40. “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”

Therefore, I believe this should lead us to even dig deeper in the Word because we will soon come to the realization that the Word brings us to The Word (Jn. 1).  He is the great restorer of our soul.  He restores by relationship with Him, not “I can prove it to you God” types of relationships or actions.  He is calling all of us to become much less distracted.  He is call us to be captivated by Him and Him alone, trusting that He will properly inform every area of our life.

What are some of the ways you have become distracted?

What are some practical implementations to overcome some of these distractions?

Love Truth

Vernon

I am reading a book by Gregory Koukl called Tactics.  In the first part of the book one of the thoughts he has is towards “loving or reasoning” people into the kingdom.  Here are a few of his thoughts…

When people say you can’t argue anyone into the kingdom, they usually have an alternative approach in mind.  They might be thinking that a genuine expression of love, kindness, and acceptance, coupled with a simple presentation of the Gospel, is a more biblical approach.

If you are tempted to think this way, let me say something that may shock you: You cannot love someone into the kingdom. It can’t be done.  In fact, the simple Gospel itself is not even adequate to do the job.

How do I know?  Because many people who were treated with sacrificial love and kindness by Christians never surrendered to the Savior.  Many who have heard a clear explanation of God’s gift in Christ never put their trust in Him…

According to Jesus, then, two things are true.  First, there is a particular work of God that is necessary to bring someone into the kingdom.  Second, when present, this work cannot fail to accomplish its goal.  Without the work of the Spirit, no argument – no matter how persuasive – will be effective.  But neither will any act of love nor any simple presentation of the Gospel.  Add the Spirit, though, and the equation changes dramatically.

Here’s the key principle: Without God’s work, nothing else works; but with God’s work, many things work. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, love persuades.  By the power of God, the Gospel transforms.  An with Jesus at work, arguments convince.  God is happy to use each of these methods.

Why do you think God is just as pleased to use a good argument as a warm expression of love?  Because both love and reason are consistent with God’s own character.  The same God who is the essence of love also gave the invitation, “Come now, let us reason together.”  Therefore, both approaches honor Him.

Would this change how you approach unbelievers?

Do you agree with his thoughts?

Love Truth
Vernon

One of the things that Vernon and I noticed during our time in India was the prevalence of suicide.  It seemed like almost every building that had a scenic view of the city or access to a rooftop had been closed to the public because someone had used it to commit suicide.

A couple of days ago I ran across an article in the New York Times discussing this very topic.  It cites various examples to show the many reasons proposed for the troubling epidemic. Although I wouldn’t describe the story as graphic it does give a detailed account of each of the instances that it references so read at your discretion.

Regardless of whether or not you read the article I hope that you will continue to join us in prayer for India and how God would have His Voice participate in the establishing of His Kingdom there.

Link to Story

Justin