restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

Admitting Our Mistakes

 David Alan Black  

I heard Congressman Ron Paul say recently that our misadventure in Iraq was a mistake. A huge number of his fellow Americans agree with him. Yet have you ever heard anyone apologize? There have been no apologies. Instead we find politicians engaged in the fine art of rationalization.

We, the American people, made an honest mistake. We made a wrong choice. Our judgment was way off base. We were in a hurry, we were afraid, we panicked perhaps, and the result was a very bad blunder. Even if our intentions were good, our nation’s foreign policy has been disastrous. What’s so hard about acknowledging that? The grave and painful manifestations of our miscalculations are all too apparent.

So how do we set things straight? First, I think we have to assess the situation realistically. Mark Twain once said, “Everyone is a moon and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.” That’s true of nations as well as individuals. So we have a dark side. What’s new with that? Let’s admit it and get on with life.

Second, I think we have to correct the problem. Our foreign policy has some huge cracks in its foundation. The floor has buckled. The building has shifted. Permanent damage has resulted. Either we come to terms with this problem now or we’ll regret it later.

When we built Bradford Hall here at the farm, we used oak flooring for the front porches. We figured that oak would be a good, sturdy wood for our decking. We were wrong. After the first major rainstorm, the oak floors buckled. And I mean buckled. There was nothing we could do to repair the damage. So we had to take up all the old flooring and lay down pine in its place, both upstairs and down. That was a ton of work, let me tell you. But we learned from our mistake. We were even able to salvage the oak and built our kitchen cabinetry out of it.

Foreigners don’t hate us but rather the policies of our government. We’ve tried the old approach and look where it’s gotten us. Can we really afford to “act for the good of the world” whether or not other nations understand us and even if they overwhelmingly object? The burning question facing the church in America is whether it has fully faced the consequences of its support for an interventionist foreign policy. The way of the Gospel is not the violent change of existing social or political structures, least of all when our wars are predicated on half-truths and casuistries.

Some time ago I wrote a book called Why I Stopped Listening to Rush: Confessions of a Recovering Neocon. That book pointed out the lack of even a basic understanding of constitutional government by Christians, including evangelicals. Regrettably, the result is a church with a yawning gap between what it says about peacemaking and what it actually does – and in practice even hinders. If we can’t take a cold, hard look at reality, how can we possibly protect ourselves from ourselves?

It might be good to ask ourselves: How much longer will we turn a blind eye to the injustices caused by our national egotism and pride? How much longer can we afford to underwrite with our dollars and blood an ineffectual and self-defeating foreign policy? Isn’t it time we sought to moderate the conditions that breed violence and terrorism by supporting Ron Paul’s conservative policy of free trade and dialogue abroad and a strong national defense at home?

I believe there’s still time to correct our mistakes. But first we have to acknowledge them.

November 6, 2007

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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April 2006 Blog Archives

Sunday, April 30

7:18 AM It’s odd how we would never choose not to celebrate Easter or Christmas or Good Friday, even though everyone knows these “holy days” are arbitrary and have no biblical support whatsoever. The Bible, however, makes a great deal of the weekly gathering of the church and says it was a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Today we tread, therefore, on very holy (and happy) ground indeed. May I wish you, then, a very happy:

Resurrection Sunday

7:12 AM News and notes:

1) Only 18 more days until Becky Lynn and Nathan leave for Africa. Thanks to all who have brought us eyeglasses for the elderly and protein bars for the evangelists. This week Becky will be typing up the final itinerary. I’ll post it later in case you would like to follow their adventure from day to day. We would of course appreciate your intercession while they’re gone.

2) This afternoon the local Episcopal church is having an organ concert. You don’t know how rare such haute culture is in our neck of the woods. Should be good.

3) Tonight four of our local congregations are getting together for a singspiration. Here’s a first: Nathan will be singing a solo. We wish him well.

Saturday, April 29

6:26 PM What a wonderful day. Our guests have just left. Here are a few highlights. Matt Rondeau’s wife Liz came early and helped Becky Lynn set up for dinner. Liz, you were a God-send. Thank you.

One of the first guests to arrive was precious little Abigail, firstborn daughter of Jonathan and Ashley Erdman. What a bundle of joy (she really lives up to the meaning of her Hebrew name.).

Becky and Liz set a beautiful table. Our fare was simple but delicious: chili and cheese over potatoes, accompanied by a fresh garden salad and dessert.

After lunch several of us took a walking tour of the property. Here Nathan is describing the history of Rosewood Farm, including the life and times of the former owner, Anderson Boyd, who is buried here. Mr. Boyd served as a corporal with the 59th Virginia Infantry Regiment during the War Between the States.

Caleb Rondeau was happy to feed the chickens some sweet feed, including everyone’s favorite hen, Brownie.  

Dennis and Connie Myers enjoy petting one of our baby goats. Dennis is the Director of Missions of an association of Baptist churches in and around Petersburg, VA. 

It was a joy getting to know the Surur Yisak family. Surur was imprisoned numerous times for his faith during the Communist regime in Ethiopia, and then was a refugee in Kenya. Since coming to America he and his family have lived in California and Kentucky. He is now completing his Th.M. at Southeastern.  

Surur’s wife Sara brought some Ethiopian food for everyone to sample. Here’s Becky explaining how you go about eating injera and wot with your fingers.  

It’s customary to serve a small handful of food to someone you love and respect. Here Gene Brooks feeds his wife Amanda. Gene, a former missionary to Liberia, is currently shepherding at Amis Chapel Baptist Church, only a few miles away from our farm.  

We thank the Lord Jesus for giving us a beautiful day in which to meet with our students and their families. It was a pleasure and honor to have them in our home. God bless all of you.

10:34 AM A reader just sent this along:

Brother Dave,

Your latest addition to your homepage (Me, a Bible Scholar?) is wonderful. It is especially meaningful to me because this is a matter that hit me squarely between the eyes when I first set foot into seminary. I remember being introduced to subjects for the very first time and being amazed by it.

I grew up in church and spent years in a typical Sunday School system. I remember being taught the same shallow lessons over and over again. When I began seminary I remember thinking, “Why did I have to come to seminary to learn these things? This information is not just for church leaders. This information is for the church.” I remember how I felt that I’d been cheated of the rich depth of God’s Word for all those years.

God used the experience to light in me a passion for the education of the church. I praise Him for it and pray that as time goes by fewer and fewer believers will share my experience because the church will finally began to take seriously the role of making disciples.

Thanks again for your wonderful article.

Sincerely,
C. B.

To which I say, Amen.

9:41 AM The latest addition to our home page is called Every Member a Bible Scholar.

Friday, April 28

6:47 AM This Sunday I will be speaking at my home church and then next Sunday Becky and I will be visiting Clarksville Baptist Church for an Ethiopia presentation. This is one of the oldest congregations in our local Baptist association. Its biography was written by our good friend Warren Turner, who ministers at the local nursing home. If you enjoy Baptist church history, you will enjoy reading it. Go here.  

6:45 AM Ethiopia is in the headlines again. And the news, from a human perspective, is not good. As I write these words the nation continues to be wracked by political instability. And Christians continue to be murdered for their faith. But I am encouraged by an email I just received and I see that God is still very much at work in Ethiopia.

Every Tuesday we have a fast and prayer program. We pray for the church people, for our country and for you…. Let us join hands in prayers. We are continuously praying for you. And would you please pray for us? Our prayer group has four members. Their names are me, A.T., W.T. and G.G.

Imagine! Only four people, but four people who pray. I think we need a refresher course in John chapter 6 to straighten out our warped theology when we measure our churches by quantitative, not qualitative, standards. Will our churches thin out one day when we, too, must face His cross, His obedience, His self-denial?

6:37 AM In Greek class yesterday afternoon we began translating the book of 1 John. This is definitely a “God-thing” for us. I can remember introducing the verb system last August and seeing the glazed-over looks. All the good times and the bad times, the joys and struggles of learning a foreign language, are now reaching fruition in a way that no other course of study can possibly hope to achieve. To read God’s Word in the original!  I am exhilarated with my students’ progress. Thank you, each one, for your diligence, your industry, your conscientiousness, and your faithfulness during these past two semesters. I am very proud of you.

6:33 AM Tomorrow is our Student Day here at Rosewood Farm. We do this every semester. It’s been cold and rainy for several days, but tomorrow promises to be bright and sunny. Either way, come one, come all. Lunch menu: stuffed potatoes, green salad, dessert, tea, and coffee. I even hear that an Ethiopian student and his wife might be bringing some injera and wot. Now that would be a treat. (Below: A pic from last semester’s event.)

6:25 AM It was eight years ago that we began our move from La Mirada, California (where my wife and I had lived for 27 years) to rural Granville County, North Carolina, and thence to Virginia. In some ways it was a difficult move, but I’m glad to say that the satisfactions have far outweighed the stresses, and that we continually praise the Lord for allowing us to live and serve Him where we do. One thing’s for sure: I have learned to trust in the absolute sovereignty of the Holy Spirit. He takes no orders from anyone, least of all from me. For many years I was so in love with my own plans that I failed to bow to His. Today I believe I can honestly say that I am willing to throw my projects into the wastepaper basket if He decrees otherwise. To be Spirit-filled and Spirit-directed – that was the secret of the early church, and that should be our goal today. Despite our failures and weaknesses, we can be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Today, wherever you are, live to the hilt whatever you believe to be the will of God for your life (Jim Elliott).

6:14 AM Sterling College in Sterling, Kansas, announces an opening in Biblical Studies.  

6:12 AM Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, is seeking a visiting professor of New Testament.

Thursday, April 27

6:15 AM Theopedia has struck again, this time posting an article on the so-called Gospel of Judas.

6:12 AM The American Thinker has a good essay on academic arrogance.

6:10 AM Good news! Our spring conference on New Testament textual criticism is now set. Several of my good friends will be joining me as speakers. Here is a preliminary overview. Details to follow:

Conference Title: “The Last Twelve Verses of Mark: Original or Not?”

Dates: Friday and Saturday, April 13-14, 2007.

Place: Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC.

Main Papers: Dan Wallace, Maurice Robinson, Keith Elliott, Dave Black.

Respondent: Darrell Bock.

Tuesday, April 25

6:25 AM The blogging world is astir with the topic of ecclesiastical power. Should we seek it, or should we abhor it? In my judgment, there can only be one scriptural answer to this question.

The church can be victorious only by sacrifice. It is when she is wounded that she wins. It is by her dying with Christ that the life of Christ is made known to the world. He cannot reach the nations except through her, for she is His Body. But she cannot perform her task without Pentecostal power — the limitless resources which she possesses in Christ. The work of the church today is simply this: It is to be Spirit-filled, and thus Christ-filled. The church today is far more concerned about wealth and programs and organization than about the Holy Spirit. Far better to serve as the humblest missionary in the remotest mission field than to vie for the noblest position among men. Our hope is not in our ecclesiastical structures, much less in our man-made Towers of Babel. It is in Christ, the one at the right hand of power, the one elevated by the Father to Lordship, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. This Christ is the one who gathers His people around Him in beauty and strength. He is the absolute Lord in all matters theological, ethical, and political. He is the Supreme Authority before whom every knee shall bow. Our sole business is to know Him and to make Him known — in our lives, in our homes, in our nations, and in our world.

6:20 AM A mega “Mahalo” to the McDermotts of Springfield, MO, for sending my a complimentary copy of their publication, SALT magazine. I read the entire issue in one sitting, it was just that interesting. You can read more here. Thanks, Jim and Cindy, for all you are doing for the kingdom.

Monday, April 24

8:15 AM Is your church designed for preacher function or body function?

If we would take every-member ministry seriously, as was done in the early Christian church, the dull picture of our contemporary churches would be radically altered. Instead of churches designed for “preacher function,” they would intentionally promote “body function.” Formal teaching would be accompanied by informal teaching. Every member would contribute to the success of the Body. Pastor-dependency would be replaced by mutual edification (1 Cor. 14:26). By serving one another in love, we would begin to create satisfying and lasting relationships with each other. And as the Body obeys its Head, Jesus Christ, it “grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its job” (Eph. 4:15-16).

Read more.  

7:32 AM Memorable quote: “If Scripture told me to eat dung, I would do so” (Luther to Zwingli in 1529). 

7:27 AM Only 23 more days.

7:26 AM When the desk clerk at my Richmond hotel mentioned that he was from Bombay, India, I said, “O, you mean Mumbai. I was in India when the name change occurred.” He replied: “Well, over here we still call it Bombay.” Odd, isn’t it, how place names are pronounced differently in different countries. A recent example is Qatar — or is it Gutter?

7:22 AM My esteemed colleague John Davis led the Northeast Piedmont Chorale in a stellar presentation of Mendelssohn’s St. Paul last night at the First Baptist Church of Butner, NC. Nice to see so many old friends there. Becky and I miss singing with all of you. Your performance was impeccable.

7:18 AM Here’s an important article by Patrick Buchanan that you should read. It’s called The Generals’ Revolt. Whatever your stance on the War, it should disturb you that 75 percent of the officers currently serving in Iraq agree with the six retired generals that Rumsfeld should go.

7:12 AM Yesterday morning the good people at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Opie, VA, were our hosts. It was Women on Missions Sunday and the ladies led the entire service, from prayers to song leading to announcements. During the offering, I noted that the ushers averaged about 13 years of age. What a blessing to see so many different saints and different age groups participating. Shock is the only word I can use to describe the look on their faces when we told them about the persecution taking place in Ethiopia. It’s a blessing to see God at work in America raising our consciousness level of what He is doing abroad. We anticipate that this is not the last time we will be asked to share in the missions program of Tabernacle. Becky and I are delighted to partner with folks near and far in the work of the Gospel.

BTW, Opie is the real name of the little bump in the road near the church. At lunch I asked (jokingly) who the “mayor” of the town was. Since no one was mentioned, I went ahead and appointed the major, sheriff, and dog catcher of “Opie, Virginia.” They’re all kinfolk, of course.

Sunday, April 23

6:54 AM Timothy was Paul’s son in the ministry. Paul referred to him as “my son in the Gospel.” He said to him, “I’m passing the torch on to you. Fight the good fight. Hold on to your faith. I thank God as I constantly pray for you.” I’d like you to meet one of my Timothys. Fasil lives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. His life has been far from easy. But he knows and loves the Lord Jesus. He was my assistant when I taught beginning Greek for 6 weeks at the Evangelical Theological College (ETC) in Addis last summer. He translated for me everywhere I went. Fasil also accompanied Becky and me during our 4-week visit to Southern Ethiopia last winter. Fasil loves the Bible and especially his Greek New Testament. He is currently completing his masters degree at the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology, writing a thesis on the transfiguration of Jesus. He has just been hired on to teach Greek and New Testament at ETC, and this summer he will teach his very first Greek course, the same one I taught last year.

Fasil, my son. Like Paul and his Timothy, I long for the joy of seeing you again. I remember your sincere faith. I am anxious that you be the best you can be for Jesus. I want you to set a pattern for your students of faith, love, and truth. I want you to shun youthful passions and aim for such qualities as integrity, peace, and a pure heart. You are beloved to me and to many others. Never forget your worth in the Savior. Serve Him faithfully with all that you are and all that you have. Grace and peace be with you.

Saturday, April 22

8:13 PM News and notes:

1) It rained all day today. And mighty grateful we are. Our main crop is horse-quality hay. You can fertilize, lime, and otherwise tend to your fields, but without rain nothing grows. This is a real blessing from the Lord, and we thank Him publicly for it. I hope to get in one good cutting before Becky and Nathan leave for Ethiopia on May 18.

2) Tomorrow Becky and I are speaking at Tabernacle Baptist Church in South Hill, VA. I’ve been asked to do something I haven’t done in years: give the children’s sermon.

3) Becky spent the past two days baking banana bread for my Greek class (about 65 students) and sewing a dress for our Ethiopian daughter. Industrious is an excellent word to describe her. A Proverbs 31 woman in every way, shape, and form. I am uniquely blessed.

7:20 AM This atlas contains maps of 153 species of fish. Wasn’t it Jerome who, in referring to John 21:11, claimed that Greek zoologists knew of 153 species of fish?

7:16 AM I think there’s wisdom in Darrell Dow’s essay on Christian engagement. Here’s a sample:

The early church did not depend on the Roman civil authorities to meet social needs. Likewise, we see Jesus on the cross with His dying words ensuring that His mother is taken care of by John (John 19:25-27). The modern State has encroached into all these areas that rightly fall under the purview of family government. Strong and stable families, jealously guarding their prerogatives, are the foundation of strong and stable communities, and only these mediating institutions can protect the naked individual from the maniacal, power-hungry State.

You may not agree with me, but I think the extent to which our society has been stolen from us by an inhuman elite is mind-boggling. Deceit and evil always go hand in hand. I agree with Darrell that statism is an open door for a new Utopianism in which the taking of innocent life (e.g., abortion) becomes as commonplace as eating. We must speak out, as Darrell is doing.

7:12 AM A blogger’s version of 1 Corinthians 13.

Friday, April 21

2:43 PM John G. in Australia sent me this kind note:

Dear Dave,

I am continually encouraged to read your pages. I thank our Lord for
allowing me to find them so many months ago….I thank God for moving you to do what you do.

By the way, I was raised on the land, here in the land down under, and appreciate, and am sometimes amused, by the news regarding your learning experiences. I sometimes wish I was there with you, hands on.

John, you are welcome to come to Rosewood Farm anytime. We could use your experience and advice. Meanwhile, here’s a photo just for you. It shows the path we cleared and the wire fencing we put up yesterday for our new pasture. Hope it brings back some happy memories for you. Enjoy.

7:53 AM Just a reminder: I am beginning to revise my beginning grammar. Your suggestions (especially negative criticisms of the book) are welcome.

7:50 AM Only in California.

7:26 AM Have you ever thought about how 1 Cor. 14:3 can apply to the blogosphere? Paul has been contrasting tongues and prophecy and restricts tongues-speaking because it doesn’t edify the Body. Prophecy, on the other hand, “builds people up, encourages them, and consoles (or comforts) them.” That’s always to be the goal of the church, isn’t it? And what better goals for blogging: edification, exhortation, and comfort? In Ephesians Paul puts it this way. We are to speak the truth, control our anger, work honestly, speak carefully, and avoid bitterness, slander, and malice. We’re to be kindhearted, tender, and forgiving. Above all, we’re to walk in love. Let’s serve without grumbling (Phil 2:14). Let’s set our minds (and our cursors) on what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and gracious (Phil 4:5-8). Let’s edify, encourage, and comfort.

7:22 AM Thank God for answered prayer. I asked the Lord that during the semester break I might be allowed to finish fencing in the southern property line and He allowed us to accomplish that and a lot more. Yesterday we finished putting up 850 feet of woven wire that will allow us to open up 30 additional acres for our cattle. God has done “above and beyond,” as He usually does. Thanks be to Him.

7:18 AM Greek students! Ron Fay of TEDS has published some excellent handouts for his Greek courses. Check them out if you can.

Thursday, April 20

8:10 AM The latest addition to our home page is called The God of Ethiopia.

8:05 AM In exactly four weeks from today Becky Lynn will leave for the land of her youth. I know of no more beautiful people.

7:51 AM The Hawaiian housing bubble is about to burst. The average home in Kailua sells for a whopping $780,000. Living in paradise comes at a high price tag.

7:47 AM Trivia: A thoroughbred can run at top speed for only about a quarter of a mile. The jockey’s job is to decide when to apply that power in order to win the race. Timing is crucial in life.

7:44 AM Darrell Bock tells us what Dan Brown didn’t in the Da Vinci Code.

7:41 AM Our son recently took apart two old houses and is now selling the materials. For his ad, click here.

Wednesday, April 19

8:33 AM This email encouraged my heart:

Dear Dave:

Thanks for the good word.  Amazingly, the 21st century church may not be so different from the 1st century church at Corinth.  It appears that “pulpiteering” (polished rhetoric) had won the day (“I’m of Apollos.”  “No. No.  Apollos doesn’t have the flare of Peter.” etc.)  To the Corinthians way of thinking, Paul lacked the necessary “polish.”  They cashed in the Spirit-filled preaching of the Word for self-filled oratory.  The results were tragic for the Corinthians (immorality, law-suits, factions, abuse of Spiritual gifts et al).  As they listened to “self-filled” preaching, they themselves became self-filled in every way, so much so that they would “despise the church of God” at the Lord’s Supper by neglecting the poor among them.  May God have mercy.  The church in America some 20 centuries later reflects the Corinthian’s fascination with the ways of the world.  Pulpit showmanship differs precious little from the self-help pep-talks dominating the business world.  Sad.  Seriously sad.  But thank the Lord for elders whose hearts are being renewed to place all our hope (in belief and practice) in the “foolishness of the cross.”

Blessings.

Looking to Jesus,

J. M. 

8:30 AM She’s back. And mighty glad we are. She was gone for a week but it seemed like a year. You should have heard her speaking Amharic to our Ethiopian waitress last night. Even the natives were amazed.

Tuesday, April 18

4:31 PM The Lord gave us a wonderfully sunny yet cool day to work outdoors. Our current farm project is fencing in about 30 acres for another cattle pasture. Today we cut trees from the back pasture down almost to the creek. Tomorrow or Thursday we’ll start putting up the woven wire. What would we do without our chain saw?

9:55 AM The latest addition to our home page is called Dressing Up the Truth.

6:51 AM Becky Lynn reports that their Ethiopian Evening last night at Grace Bible Church went extremely well. This is the same church family that sent her parents to Ethiopia over 50 years ago. I’ll be picking Becky up at 6:30 this evening then taking her out to an Ethiopian restaurant in Raleigh before heading home.

Monday, April 17

2:10 PM Good news! We just finished the southern property line. We’ve done 4,025 feet of fencing so far. God is good.

Tonight I’ll cook Chinese food (with my secret ingredient) in celebration of this august event.

7:21 AM I’ve finally finished my study of the Book of Acts, which I began during my last trip to Ethiopia. Lessons learned were many. These included:

1) The need to rely totally on the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit was a dynamic, ever-present reality to these early Christians.

2) The need for constant prayer. The New Testament church was a pliant, praying church. The early believers triumphed over adversity through petition and supplication and praise.

3) The need to care for the poor and disadvantaged. I think especially of Barnabas’ generosity (4:37) and Cornelius’ almsgiving (10:4-5). The Lord’s grace toward the needy and the outcast characterized the ministry of early Christians. They had a deep sense of accountability to God for the use of their possessions that led to the actual sharing of those possessions. Their heart was huge.

May God grant me a reliant, pliant, and giant heart.

7:16 AM It looks like we’ll have storms on and off all day today. We’re still going to plow ahead with our fencing if at all possible.

7:14 AM I enjoyed being at Red Bud Baptist Church last Saturday evening teaching about the myth of adolescence. It’s a small world, too — one of the pastors at Red Bud used to live only a few miles from our farm and knew most of my neighbors. My thanks to each of the young men (and older ones too) who attended. I met many strapping teenagers who are eager to be about the Lord’s business. They put a lie to one of the great shibboleths in our society — that youth are unwilling or unable to actively serve the Lord. Many of these young men will be devoting a week of their lives this summer to building homes in New York.

7:10 AM If you live in Dallas and need something to do tonight, might I suggest “An Evening in Ethiopia”? Place and time: Grace Bible Church, 7:00 pm. Becky will be showing slides and video clips of our trips to Ethiopia. The meeting will be held in the Hearthstone Room. Now doesn’t that sound inviting?

Saturday, April 15

1:31 PM Heading off to Castalia. We got a lot of fencing up today, despite the heat. In fact, we’re almost done with the southern property line. Can you believe it?

7:10 AM Corrie has been studying Hebrews, including the warning passage in 6:4-6. The big question is how to translate v. 6 — “since they crucify to themselves…and expose Him to public shame”? Or is it “because…? Perhaps the best explanation is neither. As Keith Elliott of Leeds pointed out years ago in an Expository Times essay, the author’s switch from the five aorist tense participles to the two present tense participles  suggests that the best rendering is “as long as they continue to crucify to themselves the Son of God and expose Him to public shame.” We did something similar to this in the ISV.

6:55 AM Gary DeMar says that hermeneutics ought to be applied to the interpretation of the Constitution’s statement about “welfare.” I agree:

I believe that any person who will read the Constitution with an unbiased mind will conclude that, if our Constitution is to have any meaning at all, there is absolutely no federal authority for welfare programs.

I am astounded by the Bush administration’s bald assertion regarding the capabilities of the federal government to transform human life, including marriage. The state has taken over the role of God. Government employs us, feeds us, regulates us, and now claims to be able to solve our problems, including gambling (is Bill Bennett listening?). For many Americans, the state has become their church, and the federal government has become an idol, stripping individuals and communities of their social responsibilities and engaging in the immoral transfer of wealth. And since the New Deal, a trickle has become a flood.

6:44 AM The latest addition to our home page is called On and Off Christians.

Friday, April 14

6:18 PM News and Notes: Got more fencing up today. Having worked outdoors all winter, I am not at all used to this heat. I wanted to work longer today but ran out of gas. Still, by the grace of God, I am determined to finish fencing in the southern property line by next weekend…. Had a nice talk with Becky in Dallas today. She is having a great time. Tonight for supper we are having a dish she prepared for us before leaving. It’s called Veepa’s Rice — curry and chicken mixed with rice. A delicious meal. Needless to say, this Acquila really misses his Priscilla…. Tomorrow I will be speaking in a place called Castalia, North Carolina. Never been there before. It’s always neat to visit a new location. I do know that the area has many historic homes. Maybe I’ll see some on the drive.

7:53 AM This just confirmed. In October I will have the privilege of speaking for a week at the Dumitru Cornilescu Colloquium in Romania. This is a traveling colloquium that meets with young pastors and Bible scholars throughout the country who need encouragement and instruction. This will be my first trip to Romania, and it’s about time. I am half Romanian (my mother’s family came from Cluj). Better start brushing up on the language.

6:59 AM I have just posted Part 2 of our interview with Maurice Robinson.

6:55 AM I am beginning a study of Ephesians in my personal Bible time. Peter Head of Cambridge University offers an excellent introduction, including hyperlinks to essays, maps, and study tools. And here’s a site that practically takes you to Ephesus via photos.

6:53 AM Southeastern Seminary’s Male Chorale and The Northeast Piedmont Chorale (with which Becky and I once sang) will present Felix Mendelssohn’s “St. Paul” on Friday, May 5 at 8 p.m. in the seminary’s Binkley Chapel. Go here to listen to brief excerpts.

6:50 AM One thing’s for certain: It’s heating up in Southern Virginia. It is supposed to get into the mid-80s today, which is nice weather for working outdoors.

6:43 AM Liz Rondeau sent home with Nathan yesterday a big tub of Lasagna and a bag of Doritos. Both were excellent. Thanks for taking pity on the bachelors, Liz.

6:40 AM This is one of the best collections of original documents relating to the American Civil War that I know of. 

6:36 AM Last night I had a wonderful time at New Life Baptist Church in Youngsville, NC. During our meal time (“while they were eating”) we broke the one loaf and drank from the one cup as we commemorated Jesus’ death and looked forward to the Great Marriage Supper we will enjoy with Him one day. David Henry and others are doing a great job of moving the church toward a more biblical understanding of the Lord’s Supper. After I spoke I met lots of people that either have attended Southeastern’s college or are current students. The people were very attentive as I led them in a brief study of Acts 20:7 — a key text if ever there was one. So it was a good evening seeing many old friends and meeting some new ones.

6:32 AM Because of illness in her sister’s family Becky has canceled her plans to go to Houston. Instead she’s been taking Amharic lessons from her dad, several hours a day in fact. You have to hand it to her — she is persistent. As a child she could speak the language somewhat fluently, but that was decades ago. My father-in-law is concerned that his accent might not be up to snuff. With his huge Texas drawl, he has every right to be worried. But better to try speaking the language with an accent than not trying at all.  I remember when we lived in Basel that the Baslers thought I was from Prussia because of my High German accent, but when I was in Germany the Germans thought I sounded like a Basler. Between hands and feet and German and English I could, however, make myself understood wherever I went, and that was the main thing. Honey, hang in there with your Amharic. You’ll do fine.

Thursday, April 13

6:25 AM In the foreground of this photo is Kailua High School, which I attended from 1967-1970. This morning I was thinking back to those days and regretting the fact that I had not taken any foreign languages during my high school years. None was required in fact. So when I got to Biola College in 1971 I was ill-prepared for the two years of Greek I was required to take as a Bible major. Young people, I encourage you to take a language before you get to college if at all possible. An ancient language like Greek or Latin would be a good choice, but modern languages such as Spanish or German are just as useful. I imagine the experts in pedagogy during my high school days thought they were being smart in making languages optional, but I paid a heavy price for my ignorance when I got to college.

6:20 AM Some are asking what Becky will need when she returns to Ethiopia in only 35 days. We are currently collecting three items:

1) Protein bars. We usually get the Zero Perfect brand with 15-16 g protein, available at Wal-Mart for $.96 each. We give these to the evangelists who need more nutrition, and also to women who are pregnant and borderline nutritionally. 

2) Packages of shiny stars, available in the W-M stationer/office supply dept. for $1.77/pkg. These are used for the Bible Memory Program.

3) And we are always eager to take back more eyeglasses – the nonprescription kind you can get at Dollar Tree for a dollar a pair. The best strengths are 1.75 to 2.50.

If you see a bucket outside my office door, it’s a collection station for these items.

6:17 AM I’ve just posted Part 1 of an interview with textual critic Maurice Robinson. Here’s a brief quote:

I suggest that Occam’s Razor applies, and thus prefer the theory and method that, when consistently applied, appears to possess the least number of problems or complications. Assuming such to have occurred, that theory and method should be followed steadfastly, brooking no exceptions so long as the evidence and conclusions remain commensurate with the principles that characterize that theory (cases remain where any theory will retain some problematic variant units; I do not speak here regarding those). As a result of the consistent application of these principles, I draw a solid conclusion in favor of the Byzantine-priority hypothesis.

6:14 AM Here’s an example of continuous writing, the kind we find in the earliest New Testament manuscripts.

PERHAPSTHISISHARDFORYOUTOREADBUTYOUCOULDGETUSEDTOIT.

6:12 AM A hearty blogosphere welcome to Ed and Leah Payne of Our Payneful Memories.

6:10 AM This seems like a good way to educate our “laypeople” to study the Bible for themselves: Take what you learn in seminary and “pass it on.”

6:08 AM If you speak or read Español, this is a great apologetics website run by a former student of mine in California. It includes essays on Catholicism, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc. Recomendado altamente.

6:07 AM Greek students! In case you haven’t seen this, here’s a parsing guide for the Greek New Testament. No, I don’t mind you using helps like these. As someone once put it, halitosis is better than no breath at all.

6:00 AM Here’s one reason why the Amplified Bible is of questionable worth.

Wednesday, April 12

4:34 PM Stop the presses! We just received the most wonderful news one could ever hear. Our son Bereket’s older sister Ashageru has come to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. I bow my knees in tears of joy and thanksgiving to our wonderful Redeemer God who delights in lifting up the lowly and downtrodden. This is a special, special day. More:

1) Here’s a picture of Ashageru and Becky Lynn. It was taken when we visited Bereket’s sister and mother in their hut last year.

2) The victims of religious persecution in Ethiopia are meeting in the mud after their churches are burned to the ground.

3) In Eritrea, which borders Ethiopia to the north, the number of imprisoned Christians now numbers 2000.

4) For a breakdown of the religious demographics in Ethiopia, including the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, click here.

How can we ever settle down in our comfortable sanctuaries and become Laodicean in our lukewarm contentment when there’s a world to be touched with the love and forgiveness of Jesus.

Tuesday, April 11

6:40 AM The latest addition to our homepage is called Every Lord’s Day Is Resurrection Sunday.

6:38 AM Recently we recovered two boxes full of Reader’s Digest books from a dumpster. They are all in superb condition — a real treasure trove. I’ve already read the Sinking of the Morro Castle and the Flight of the Phoenix. The latter story was phenomenal.

6:34 AM Technorati tracks about 33 million blogs, about half of which are still posting 3 months after they started. Only 9 percent of blogs are updated at least once a week. This essay wonders out loud how many blogs update 3 times a week or more. That’s a good question. In case you’re interested, I had a lot of fun with this topic several months ago in my essay To Blog Or Not To Blog?

6:31 AM Just saw this nice tribute to one of my professors in Basel, Markus Barth (the son of Karl). I’ll never forget his lectures on the Gospel of Mark (including his lengthy discussion of paedo-baptism, which he adamantly opposed) and the warm hospitality I enjoyed with him and his wife in their home in Riehen. I also recall one doctoral seminar with him in which I was the only non smoker in a very small room in Nadelberg. Barth loved his pipe, and cared deeply about his students. I still think his two-volume Anchor Bible commentary on Ephesians is unsurpassed.

Speaking of the Barths, I see that a letter the senior Barth wrote to Francis Schaeffer has just been posted online.

6:27 AM Greek geeks! I’ve found a site where you can get the latest world news written for you in Attic Greek, of all things. Here’s a sampler:

China agrees to rural reform – “Da Vinci” author says he is astounded at allegations.

Amazing.

6:25 AM I recently counseled a student to use the KISS method when speaking in church: Keep it simple, stupid. I think Martin Luther would have agreed:

When I preach I regard neither doctors nor magistrates, of whom I have above forty in my congregation; I have all my eyes on the servant maids and on the children. And if the learned men are not well pleased with what they hear, well, the door is open.

I also speak directly from my Greek New Testament, but nobody knows it. 

6:23 AM The latest from Clay Bennett:

6:20 AM As you know, one half of the Dave and Becky Black Singing Duo is in transit right now. My wife’s enjoying her visit to Dallas. Actually her parents live in Murphy, which is just east of Plano. Murphy used to be “in the country.” Now it’s in the middle of subdivisions. Later in the week Becky will spend a couple of days with her sister’s family in Houston and then visit with the Keith family. Meanwhile, us bachelors have been surviving on dad’s cooking. Hurry back, honey.

Here’s a shot of Becky and my wonderful mother-in-law, Betty Lapsley. Wherever they go in public, people always think they’re sisters. Aren’t they beautiful?

Monday, April 10

4:13 PM I like this from the Stand to Reason Blog: 

A single manuscript of the Gospel of Judas about a secret just isn’t to be taken seriously when compared to the New Testament manuscript evidence of public teachings with corroborating witnesses.

The current debate over the Gospel of Judas raises two points of interest in my opinion. It shows that secular interest in Christianity is not dead. And it shows that some people are very anxious to believe that the Christian Gospels are false. Is the Gospel of Judas that much sought-after thread of “evidence” that will discredit Christianity once and for all? Hardly. But it is a reminder of a very important truth: remove Christ from Christianity and you are left with an empty shell.

4:10 AM New Testament scholars often speak of an amanuensis. Here’s an interesting use of the term in reference to Judith Miller.

Hopefully, Miller’s public pratfall has taught them something. A True Believer, Miller apparently became an amanuensis to neo-conservative dogmatists in the Bush administration intoxicated by their own propaganda and determined to invade Iraq. Five of the six stories touting Saddam Hussein’s imaginary arsenal of WMD for which the Times has apologized carried her byline.

Sunday, April 9

6:46 PM While driving to the local nursing home to sing this afternoon an amazing thing occurred. As we went around a long curve in the road we came across a wild turkey. Rather than flying away from us, however, he began to fly alongside the passenger side windows, going in the same direction we were traveling and about the same speed. For 25 yards or so we were treated to the magnificent view of a bird in flight not 10 feet away from us. I clocked him at 30 MPH.

8:26 AM Fascinating post here on the Gospel of Judas. I do think this document will shed important light on second-century Gnostism. I wish I had taught myself Coptic. I am always a bit wary of translations.

8:23 AM What can I say about my horse riding these days other than it hasn’t been frequent enough. Seems just when I have time for a ride the weather turns sour. I think it’s as hard on Traveler as it is on me. He’s a top class athlete and needs to be ridden frequently or else he gets lazy. In fact, I think he enjoys riding more than I do. I don’t want an automaton but a confident, free-striding and happy horse with whom I can communicate and merge into a perfect partnership. With all of its ups-and-downs, I am still convinced there is no more enjoyable pastime than riding.

In case you’ve never met him, here’s a pic of Trav striking a lovable pose (note tongue). I just have to smile every time I see him.

8:20 AM The top ten hymns of all time. (Here’s a different list from Great Britain.)

8:17 AM One of the nice things Becky is planning on doing with her parents in Dallas is having an “Evening in Ethiopia” get-together at Grace Bible Church, mom and dad’s home congregation. A nice celebration for two very nice people. Becky will be showing pix and video clips of her adventures in the land of her youth.

8:12 AM A big thank-you to our Richmond class, which donated $150 for the church in Ethiopia over the weekend. Our fourth and final class met on Saturday. I enjoyed it immensely. I now have 13 term papers to grade by Tuesday. This is a self-imposed deadline; I don’t like to put things off.

Saturday, April 8

5:59 PM Shiloh and Sheba have a very important message for their good buddy Caleb, who turns 3 today:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

5:22 PM Just unpacked my bags and got caught up on the most important emails that came while I was in Richmond. The house is deserted. I suspect everyone is in Carolina buying newborn calves. This morning the Lord really made my day. I was at IHOP sipping coffee and grading papers when I spoke to my waitress in Amharic. She practically fainted. She is from Addis Ababa. We had a nice talk about Ethiopia. She was surprised to hear I’ve spent 4 and a half of the past 15 months in her home country. I hope she visits DBO and reads our Ethiopia Reports. If you’re reading this, S., I enjoyed meeting you. May the Lord richly bless your stay in America.

Friday, April 7

9:55 AM The latest addition to our homepage is called Yielding Our Unsurrendered Selves. 

9:43 AM This morning while reading my Bible on the front porch I was treated to a nature show: blue birds, red birds, geese flying overhead in perfect formation, crows, a hawk. The crowning glory was a wild turkey who sauntered by not more than 20 yards away.

9:41 AM Midwestern Baptist Seminary announces a Bibles display. I see that the Erasmus Greek/Latin New Testament is also included. I well recall a trip to the subbasement of the Basel Library to see (and handle) this beautiful work. What a remarkable treasure. Below: Erasmus as portrayed by Albrecht Dürer.

9:38 AM Here’s an interesting essay on ancient writing materials and how they were used in the transmission of the New Testament. It’s hard for me to imagine all the work involved in producing even one manuscript of the Greek New Testament. These ancient scribes were something else. Must have been like playing a double-header in suffocating heat.

9:36 AM The Washington Post is running an article on blogging in education called Blackboard Blogging. Educational blogs are skyrocketing. (For a different perspective, go here.)

9:35 AM By the way, did you notice how many bloggers tried to be funny on April 1? Most failed miserably, but I appreciated the attempt.

9:32 AM A big thank-you and shout-out to Intervarsity Press for sending me a complimentary copy of Paul Wegner’s A Student’s Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible. It’s landed at the top of the pile on my bookstand.

9:28 AM I’m packing up for my last trip to Richmond this semester. The students will be presenting their exegesis papers tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to it. Becky Lynn will stay behind in preparation for her week-long trip to the Big D on Monday to visit her mom and dad. Only 41 days until they leave for Ethiopia.

Thursday, April 6

5:58 AM My friend and colleague Maurice Robinson has kindly agreed to answer several questions that were posed by my Greek students about his textual theory. I’ll share his answers with my class next week and then post them here. If you aren’t familiar with his view of Byzantine priority, here’s a good essay for starters.

5:53 AM Here’s a little something for people (like me) who prefer to use the serial comma:

This book is dedicated to my parents, Ayn Rand and God.

Meaning, “This book is dedicated to my parents, to Ayn Rand, and to God.” Of course, if you’re paying the bill, the choice is yours.

5:50 AM Nothing poultry about this post! We should not hold our Lord so cheeply. (Are you crying fowl yet?)

These are just three responses to this great post on chickens.

5:47 AM “We cannot forget the dictates of Islam or of God,” said Maulawi Habibullah Hassam, a religious scholar who heads Kabul’s provincial council. “According to Islam, the punishment for apostasy is death. If a Muslim converts to another religion, he puts 1.5 billion Muslims in danger. They will think, ‘This man was with us, but now he is leaving.'” Read more. Becky and I are committed to sharing the love of Jesus with every Muslim we meet in Ethiopia.

5:45 AM At Wikocracy, you can now rewrite our magnificent United States Constitution. I think they’re underestimating the ability of politicians.

5:42 AM Now here’s a good use for my favorite board game.

5:40 AM Every so often I like to post something about neologisms in English. Even though you can probably figure out its derivation, this name for the latest geological age might surprise you.

Wednesday, April 5

4:37 PM I just heard a superb interview on NPR’s Fresh Air. If you want to know why America has become an object of hatred and opprobrium throughout the world, and why our interventionism from Hawaii to Iraq has opened the hearts of millions to radicalism, click here.

4:32 PM Crichton College in Memphis, TN, announces three positions in Bible and Theology.  

4:30 PM On April 19, Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia will be hosting Dr. Christopher Seitz of Saint Andrews University for a lecture titled, “We are Not Prophets or Apostles: Christian Identification with New Testament Reading of the Old Testament.” For detailed information, go here.

4:26 PM This letter came yesterday:

What does an Hawaiian accent sound like?  Seriously.  Is it Yankee-sounding, Southern-sounding?  Midwestern??

My answer:

You like foh chek dis out.

http://www.une.edu.au/langnet/hce.htm#sounds-hce

Kawika Eleele (Dave Black)

4:22 PM This morning, at two minutes and three seconds after 1 am, the time and date was:

01:02:03 04/05/06.

I’m told this won’t happen again for 100 years.

4:20 PM Dumbing down democracy. The money quote:

In a two-party system, you can get the evils of both parties at the same time. Maybe you voted Republican because you hated the way the Democrats always inch in the general direction of socialism. The joke’s on you! The Republicans start a war and simultaneously accelerate the drive toward socialism.

4:17 PM Pastor Mark Becton’s comment in chapel yesterday may raise hackles with church growth gurus but is spot on: “You take care of the depth, and God will take of the breadth.” Shepherds (or goatherds, like moi) do not make sheep (or goats). Healthy sheep make sheep.

Tuesday, April 4

5:57 AM The latest addition to our homepage is called Raising the Bar.

5:55 AM Was Barnabas the author of Hebrews? 

5:50 AM “You may be from Hawaii if…”

You know what lei day is…

You can correctly pronounce Kalanianaole, Kalakaua and Aiea…

You know what a “huli huli chicken” is…

You give directions using mauka and makai…

You know how to correctly pronounce “Likelike”…

You can walk through Waianae and not get mobbed…

You know that “Kukui nut” is not some mental person…

You call it “saimin” not “Top Ramen”…

You can understand and speak PIDGIN english…

You eat rice every single day…

You’ve been to almost all of the other islands…

You know what “tutu” means…

You learned to play the ukulele in elementary school…

You eat malasadas…

You eat Portuguese sausage, eggs, and rice for breakfast…

And my favorite:

Your mouth waters when you hear the words li-hing mui…

These are so true. I literally cannot say “li-hing mui” without my saliva going bonkers. Being a kamaaina haole (i.e., born and raised in Hawaii) I could even travel through Waianae and not get killed. When I went to California for college my accent was so strong that people had a difficult time understanding me. And now I’m a country hillbilly trying to relive the 1860s. The Lord has a sense of humor.

Below: Kailua Bay, where I grew up. We were one of the first families to build here in 1955. This is where I surfed about 365 days a year. When I was eight I was baptized in a public ceremony at Kailua Beach Park, shown in the lower right hand corner of the photo. For more aerial photos of Windward Oahu, click here.

5:40 AM Today Becky Lynn is meeting with a group of ladies from Bethel Hill Baptist Church to sew eyeglass cases for Ethiopians. You can’t believe the joy on these Ethiopians when they read their Bibles again. According to this report, over a billion people need eyeglasses in developing countries.

5:36 AM Phillip Jenkins discusses The Next Christianity. This paragraph caught my eye (note the mention of Ethiopia at the end):

The growth in Africa has been relentless. In 1900 Africa had just 10 million Christians out of a continental population of 107 million — about nine percent. Today the Christian total stands at 360 million out of 784 million, or 46 percent. And that percentage is likely to continue rising, because Christian African countries have some of the world’s most dramatic rates of population growth. Meanwhile, the advanced industrial countries are experiencing a dramatic birth dearth. Within the next twenty-five years the population of the world’s Christians is expected to grow to 2.6 billion (making Christianity by far the world’s largest faith). By 2025, 50 percent of the Christian population will be in Africa and Latin America, and another 17 percent will be in Asia. Those proportions will grow steadily. By about 2050 the United States will still have the largest single contingent of Christians, but all the other leading nations will be Southern: Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, and the Philippines. By then the proportion of non-Latino whites among the world’s Christians will have fallen to perhaps one in five.

I see the day coming when Ethiopians will send missionaries to America. 

Monday, April 3

6:14 PM Just walked the farm to check up on everyone. The goats are fine.

As are the chicks. These are all incubator babies.

Here are the cedar posts we’ve being cutting for future use in outbuildings, including our new retreat cabin.

Snapped this one 30 minutes ago. The next storm will be here shortly. Time to shut down the computer and cook supper. Talk to you tomorrow.

11:46 AM We just returned, soaking wet, from the back 40. If the rain lets up this afternoon we might give it another whack. The good news: We’ve crossed the creek. I’d say another four or five working days and we should have the southern property line fenced in completely. Isn’t the Lord good?

6:59 AM Do you have a favorite Bible commentary series?

6:50 AM Farm update: 1) We now know how Fudge is getting out. She is simply jumping over the wire fence, all 5 feet of it. I have this on eye-witness testimony. That rascal. Thinks she’s a deer. 2) We had our first thunderstorm of the year this morning. It’s still raining. We were planning on putting up more fencing today. We’ll see.

6:48 AM That pugnacious participle.

6:45 AM Okay, I know this is only for the eccentric among you, but if your culinary desires are radical enough you might want to try your hand at Ethiopian cooking. Becky Lynn has become an expert in no time at all. If you need to decide on just one dish, make it Doro Wat.

6:40 AM Theological Musings offers a brief definition of textual criticism.

6:38 AM Becky is hard at work in preparations for her Ethiopia trip in May. Did you know that she will be meeting with our Ethiopian children the second night she is there? Right now she is sewing matching dresses for herself and Emebet our adopted daughter. I’m expecting this to be a phenomenal evening. I can’t be jealous that I won’t be there — I’ve had 5 dinners with our Ethiopian family in the past 15 months.

6:35 AM Here’s one thing that surprised me about studying textual criticism many years ago. You would think that with so many great minds devoting so much energy to solving the problem there would be greater certainty about the history of the transmission of the New Testament text. But the opposite seems to be true. The next two weeks will be crucial in our textual criticism class, as my students work on their papers and come up with their best shot at a solution. I’ll give a brief wrap-up and then we’ll be turning the class over to these young scholars. Should be great. By the way, one student actually asked me if we could do more collating. I never thought I would hear that request in a Greek class. Phenomenal.

6:30 AM Yesterday at Union Chapel Baptist Church a lady came up to me and said, “You and Becky ought to sing ____ next time you’re here.” I forget the name of the song, but I told her I thought I would stick to teaching. I may need to reconsider, however. Becky would love to do it, and who am I to stand in the way of popular demand — one lady, and one wife?

Sunday, April 2

1:12 PM Today is as beautiful as it gets in Southside Virginia. Although we normally don’t do any farm work on Sunday, Nathan and I will take advantage of the weather to check our fencing in an attempt to keep Fudge in the pasture. I don’t know how or where she is getting out. But leave it to one goat to find a way of escape. Frankly, I’m as befuddled as good old Klink.

1:05 PM This morning Becky Lynn and I were privileged to fellowship with our friends at Union Chapel Baptist Church, not to preach or teach, but simply to say thank you for their generous gift to their Ethiopian brothers and sisters in Christ. These men and women have farmed the area for generations. Their offering will build two meeting halls in Alaba, where Christians are being killed for their faith even today. When Becky visits Alaba in May she will brings greetings and photos from Union Chapel — from rural church to rural church. 

Saturday, April 1

1:43 PM Oahu has just experienced its worst weather in a decade. Even Waikiki was closed down. Raw sewage drained into the Ala Wai Canal for days. What a difference from the view Becky and I had at this same spot 29 years ago on our honeymoon. By the way, I have a photo of my family at Waikiki taken in 1955. It shows us, two hotels (!), and no one else on the entire beach — and the weather was perfect.

1:38 PM Here’s a book I want to read before I teach in Kansas City this summer. My wife’s kin once lived in Clay County, Missouri, where Jesse James and his band of desperados robbed the Savings Bank of $60,000. Question: Does anyone know if the Winston Churchill museum in Fulton is worth a visit? It was the site of Churchill’s famous post-World War II speech in which he mentioned an “iron curtain.”

1:23 PM Last night Becky Lynn prepared some lip-smacking filet mignon for supper. Today I get to return the favor — I’m cooking Chinese food with, of course, my secret ingredient.

1:16 PM Jeff Downs has asked me to be a guest on his talk show. It will air live on May 4.

1:12 PM Today is also the anniversary of the Battle of Five Forks, where Lee’s right was routed.

1:09 PM One of the most important scrolls in the world makes its debut in Cleveland today.

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Ethiopia Report (Part 1): Addis

 Becky Lynn Black 

The first week of our recent mission trip to Ethiopia was spent in the capital city of Addis Ababa. Although this nation is thousands of years old, this city of over 3 million people is the first permanent capital of the country. It was established in 1889 when King Menelik II imported eucalyptus trees from Australia; the fast growth rate of these trees made it possible to have a ready supply of wood for building and fires. Prior to this, the capital was moved every few years as the supply of firewood was exhausted.

Today “Addis” is a city of rapid growth. It resembles a gangly teenager, stuck between the primitive and modern eras. Rules of traffic have little to do with road markings: donkeys, goats, and other animals share the road with people, cars, and trucks. Mud hovels stand next to 4-story apartment complexes with satellite dishes perched on the porches. An open-air slaughtery is within simple walking distance of elaborate embassies. Living complexes are ringed with high walls to deter night thievery; inside the complexes are single-story, 1-2 room living quarters. Most kitchens are in the open air over wood fires, so wood smoke floats freely, mingled with the exhaust of cars and trucks. About 50,000 children (plus countless adults) in the city are homeless; so plastic tarps or corrugated tin lean-tos dot the sidewalks. The best prices are usually found at shops in the “Mercado,” a giant area of small, crowded shops; here the most expert thieves also are found!

Addis has opportunities not found anywhere else in Ethiopia. People flock to Addis, looking for the possibility of an education or a job. The unemployment rate is very high, so social unrest usually starts in Addis, fueled by disillusion and unemployment. Since the election 8 months ago, the peace of Addis has been very delicate.

Mama B, Papa B, and Bereket

After 27 hours of travel, our flight arrived in Addis about 9:30 pm. Our first 3 hours in Ethiopia were spent dealing with the customs authority, while our sons waited patiently beyond the security guard. In the end we paid about $700 for 2 laptops, 1 projector, and 2 DVD players; the next day we paid another $450 for the other projector. They didn’t charge us for the printers, 2 new laptops, 3 cameras, or 3 cassette recorders. We were the last to leave the airport, so they allowed our son Bereket beyond the guard, carrying 1 ½ dozen long-stem red roses for their Mama B. The next Sunday, at our invitation, the customs man was in church service with us!

We spent a week in the city, focused on 3 objectives.

 #1 Logistics…exchange money, secure important documents, open bank account, buy Bibles, etc., etc. The exchange rate is the best it has ever been…9 Ethiopian birr to 1 US Dollar. A week before we left, we were notified that the price of the Bibles had gone up…we needed an additional $600! Within days of our departure, without knowing of the need, our home church here in Virginia took a love offering of $516, and one of Dave’s students gave us a check for $100. Once again, our Lord had provided everything we needed.  

Sons inserting labels in 1000 Bibles

 #2 Family… we spent every waking minute with our Ethiopian sons and daughter. Each has a story of God’s personal mercy. Four of them are fatherless. One comes from a Muslim family; he’s recently changed his name from Ahmed to David. Bereket is sporting a new, clear eye since his corneal transplant; it looks beautiful and his vision is now about 80/20, but is very light-sensitive. Emebet, our daughter, lives in a girls home sponsored by the SIM Mission; she was on the street for 8 years before that, having been thrown out by her step-mother. Only two come from relatively stable Christian homes. Generally speaking, the Ethiopian family is extremely dysfunctional, due in large part to the extreme poverty that saps the energy of parents. From the time they are walking, children are on their own; where they sleep or eat is very fluid. Culture requires hospitality, so beds and meals are freely shared with whoever shows up. As such, parental protection, training, and care are minimal, and children learn early in life how to survive. Unfortunately, they grow up with much emotional damage.  The strong love we’ve extended to our sons and daughter has served to ease that somewhat. I wish you could have heard their testimonies the night we departed…the theme was the same: “I never knew what it was like to have parents until you came into my life.” It is our joy and privilege to love them and to support them in the life God has called them to.

Posing for a family picture

#3 Library CD material…my father is scanning English and Amharic books onto CD. One of our jobs was to survey/evaluate CD#1 and gather Amharic books for CD#2. As computers become more easily accessible, the role of library CDs will increase and will greatly enhance the work of pastors, teachers, and evangelists. We returned with tons of books to be scanned into future CDs.

Father and sons

As I look back on the itinerary and prayer calendar we gave you, my heart is full of praise to our Lord for His wonderful provision. Although spare parts could not be found for Fasil’s car, the Lord kept the car working well the whole trip. And although His providence dictated that we pay customs, He also provided the funds needed, and He gave us grace in the eyes of officials. Our suitcases were packed to the brim, and weight rules were changed at the gate, so we had to put the over-weight charge on our credit card; but even here, they “let go” what they could have noticed. By the end of the first week, we were already tired, but His hand went before us, and blessed each activity in His own special way. We had a keen sense of your prayers, and we thank you for them!

Next Report: Rural ministry in Burji, the end of the world.

January 23, 2006

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Clinic Work in Burji, Ethiopia: May/June, 2009

Becky Lynn Black  

The Galana Clinic is the outreach of the Burji churches. It sits in a Muslim village in the Burji Valley. The area is very poor, with no modern conveniences like electricity, good water, or phone service.

The clinic was started about 25-30 years ago but was abandoned after funding ran out. We reopened it 9 months ago with 2 nurses, a pharmacist, a lab tech, an accountant, a chaplain, 2 guards, and a housecleaner. 

The clinic provides basic medical service, similar to what you would find in your doctor’s office. There is no advanced diagnostic capability (ultrasound, X-ray, etc.), but we are looking for a portable ultrasound machine. 

The clinic is treating about 1000 patients per month, 99 percent of whom are non-Christian.

Every morning Chaplain Solomon and Nurse Birhanu gather the waiting patients, present the Gospel to them (often using flannelgraph or flip charts), and pray for the Lord to bless the day for His purposes.

Also, every morning Solomon leads the clinic staff in devotions and prayer time. So far, over 60 people have come to Christ through the ministry of the clinic. After they embrace the Gospel, Solomon works with a local church to provide spiritual mentoring.

The ministry of the clinic has been so successful that the Muslim leaders have begun a coordinated effort to close the clinic. During a village meeting one of them stood up and said to the people, “This clinic is not helping us! We must close this clinic!” After his speech, the people rose up in one accord and said, “No! This clinic is helping us very much! We want to keep this clinic open!” So then the Muslim leaders decided to open their own clinic a short distance from our Christian clinic. To their surprise, the people refused to go it. So after 2 or 3 months, they had to close their enterprise.

It is no surprise that the Evil One is working hard against the clinic. He hates any work that reflects the Savior. And he despises any effort to introduce people to Jesus. Our prayers for the protection of the staff are critical to the success of the clinic. We must be faithful to pray for each staff person – for their own spiritual life, for protection from discouragement, for inter-personal dynamics and relationships, for administrative wisdom for the church leaders overseeing the clinic, for wisdom in treating illnesses, for grace in obtaining supplies, for protection from sin, etc. There are many points upon which we can pray, and our prayers are a KEY element in the success of the clinic.

So as you gather for your personal and family prayer times, please remember these staff:

Solomon, the chaplain.  He has a wife and 5 children in another village; he sees them on weekends. He is very enthusiastic for evangelism and godly in his lifestyle. He is happy, vivacious, charismatic, loving, and gentle.

Lately, he has been suffering pain in his legs from walking so much; he walks to visit patients in their homes as well as walking around the clinic compound talking with patients.  We have sent funds to buy him a bicycle, and we have given him a library of spiritual books as resource material. Pray for spiritual protection, physical health, and continued enthusiasm for his work. 

Dawit, the senior nurse.  He worked for the government clinic before coming to us. He is married with several children; they live in a village about 10 minutes’ walk from the clinic. He is an elder in the church of that village.

He is a relatively new nurse, so a concern is his medical knowledge. But what he lacks in medical knowledge he makes up for in humility and teachability. His English is fair; it would be good for him to attend English school. We have given them many medical resource books, and he uses them constantly, but we would like to increase medical mentoring with both Ethiopian and American medical personnel.

Pray for wisdom as he treats complicated health situations. The people often suffer from several things    at once – malaria + pregnancy, or typhoid + worms, or infection + malnutrition – so it is difficult to differentiate and know how best to treat. Sometimes the treatment for one condition is contraindicated   for the other condition! Dawit is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the clinic; pray for      wisdom for him as he deals with issues and personality clashes. Any rural medical clinic in Ethiopia is a place of stress, and often that stress shows up in inter-personal dynamics. So far, we are not having any problems, but we must pray diligently against this potential.

Birhanu, the junior nurse. He has worked in the clinic for about 3 years. Formerly, when the clinic was “closed,” he maintained a presence and did what he could for the people. His English is very good. Because of lack of funding he could not complete his nurse’s training for the “senior” certification, but it is our desire to send him back for the last year of training. He is very smart and teachable and has great organizational skills.

He is married and has a large number of children; his family lives in a large village that is about 2 hours’ walk from the clinic. The clinic license requires a nurse to be available at the clinic 24/7, so Birhanu and Dawit alternate time off. This means that sometimes Birhanu does not get to see his family for 2 weeks! This is a strain on him, but until we can get a third nurse, this is the situation. Please pray for him in this regard – for medical wisdom, for good working relationship with Dawit, for physical strength, etc. He lives in a room on the clinic compound and cooks for himself. In addition to providing medical care, Birhanu is responsible for the operation of the Storage Room.

Memiru, the pharmacist.  Memiru is a very small man; he is single, and his family lives a good distance from the clinic, so most of the time he stays on the clinic compound. Like Birhanu, he lives in a room and cooks for himself. Because of Memiru’s license as a pharmacist, we are able to order medicines in Ethiopia. He is a quiet, gentle, happy man, and he is good at his work.

Methodically, he accepts the prescription written by Dawit or Birhanu, he notes that the medicine has been paid for, and then he fills the order, giving careful instructions to the patients. He uses a piece of paper, coiled to make a funnel, as the container for the medicine, and he writes on the outside the name of the medicine. Everything is done by hand from a little table. When he needs more medicine, he goes to the storage room and gets the supply from Birhanu. During our last visit, Memiru was suffering terribly from malaria; he was too weak to get out of bed, and was running a fever. Malaria is rampant in the Burji Valley, especially during rainy season. It is a disease that is transported by mosquitoes; the disease destroys the red blood cells. There are several types of malaria; one of these types will lodge in the brain and kill the patient within a few hours!  Please pray for the protection of the staff from malaria and other diseases like HIV or infections brought by the patients.

Akelulu, the lab tech. Akelulu joined our staff in February, 2009. He is single and a new graduate.

He has been struggling to get all the items needed for a functional laboratory. He was SO excited to see the new microscope we bought, and how it can be joined to a laptop! He draws blood from the patients with a syringe and needle, but he is lacking some of the reagents needed for testing, like gemsa powder.

None is available in Ethiopian medical supply shops! So I search the internet here, order it, and send/take it to the clinic. I have a whole list of things needed by him in order to test for malaria, typhoid, parasites, etc. We have a centrifuge that operates well on our solar power. What a blessing to have dependable electricity at the clinic! Commercial electricity is available only in the “county seat” of Soyama Town. And, like most of Ethiopia, it is off more than it is on. So our little Galana Clinic has electricity that is more reliable than the government electricity! In the sea of darkness, it is WONDERFUL to have lights burning at night. Medical care for emergency cases is so much easier when a simple light switch is flipped! Praise God for the technical ability to have installed this power, and pray for Akelulu as he struggles with operating a lab that is under-supplied. Getting supplies in Ethiopia is a chronic problem: there is no stable source, even in the major towns. Pray for us to have wisdom in how to help them.

Teshoma, the accountant. When patients come for the first time, they pay a Registration Fee. And then each time they come, they pay according to the service they receive. This might involve a Nurse Fee, Pharmacy Fee, or Lab Fee. On average the patients pay about $2.50 total, but it varies depending upon the situation. If a patient cannot pay the fee, they may apply to the church for charity.  We have yet to have a charity case; the fees are within their capability. Our goal is to make the clinic self-sustaining. Currently it is self-sustaining in pharmacy matters, but not in salary. Year by year, we supplement the Nurse Fee to pay the salaries of the staff; for Year #2, we expect to have to supplement about 60-. Each year we will increase the Nurse Fee until it is sufficient for the salaries. In this strategy we are working to make the clinic strong enough to stand by itself. 

Teshoma is married with several children. They live in the same large village as Birhanu, but Teshoma is able to see his family every weekend. Pray for spiritual strength to collect the fees and to resist any temptation for stealing; it requires much spiritual maturity to handle money, and the Evil One delights to tempt in this matter. Pray for a sense of unity with the medical staff.

Mariam, the housecleaner. She is about 17 years old; she is a very small girl with a sweet, gentle, humble disposition.

Every day, either she or one of the guards collects the rented donkey and heads to a distant well to get water for washing and drinking. It is hard work! And every day she sweeps, mops, and washes down the equipment. The earth is reddish, so her work shines only for a few minutes; then new patients track in more red dirt. Until now she has been “mopping” the floors with an old uniform shirt; now we’ve gotten her two good mops (one for washing and one for rinsing) with two good buckets! Also, we’ve supplied sturdy cleaning cloths, gloves, and a uniform top. You can see how even the very basic supplies are difficult to come by! I was trying to find a decent broom in Soyama Town, the “county seat”; only one store carried a broom, but it was far from sturdy. We do what we can do! Mariam attends school half-day (like all Ethiopians), and she works half-day at the clinic. She also washes the uniforms of the medical staff and burns the trash. Pray for her physical strength and diligence in her work.

Woche and Mengistu, the guards. These two men are married and have families. They are from the local village and sleep at home when not on duty.

They alternate day/night shifts. We have installed outside (“security”) lights around the clinic, and we are building a guard house for them. They are unarmed except for a flashlight; I have now gotten them a shrill whistle to help them. During the night they patrol, watching for thieves (which are common in Ethiopia), and during the day they patrol, monitoring for wayward children loitering on the compound or guiding patients in where to wait, or handling drunken patients, etc. They also manage the clinic garden, pick up trash around the compound, and help in getting water on the donkey.

They have requested heavy coats and sturdy shoes to help them in night duty and for chasing thieves. Pray for diligence in their work, that they would be alert and effective, and pray for physical health. Also pray that they will be aware of their work as being a spiritual work, as they interact with patients.

Gate to the clinic:  

The waiting shelter:

Newly refurbished staff housing:

Chaplain Solomon’s house that must be refurbished:

Placing a clock over the door to the clinic:

Chaplain Solomon leads the staff in morning devotions:

Our greatest need (besides prayer) is an ambulance:

July 3, 2009

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Blasphemous Sodomite Governor Thumbs His Nose at God

John M. Leone  

In the postmodern America of 2004, there seems to be a growing consensus that truth is something that is not objective but subjective.  Truth has not become a standard to strive for but something which can be defined individual by individual.  This anarchist take on something that has always been viewed as objective and eternal has led our nation, and much of the civilized world, into moral confusion and chaos.

New Jersey Governor James McGreevey, on August 12, 2004, contributed to this chaos by announcing his future resignation in the now infamous “gay American” speech.  This resignation speech has been widely covered and the usual “man on the street” interviews have been exhaustive and numbingly repetitive.  Below, I will address the Governor’s comments from a Biblical perspective that you will not hear in any of the usual secular media outlets. 

A Christian Perspective on Homosexual Behavior

Now, before I get into the body of the article I wish to point out my personal views on homosexuality.  In the past, I have not written on this issue due to the fact that I do not feel as strongly about opposing homosexuality as I do about opposing abortion or opposing the expansion of the tyrannical federal government.  For the most part, people engaging in consensual homosexual acts in private are only harming themselves, whereas abortionists and an abusive government harm the lives of the innocent.  If people wish to engage in acts of sinful behavior and sodomy, that is a decision that they will have to own up to when they eventually face the sure and righteous judgment of a holy God. 

I do not support efforts to legalize sodomy-based marriages because I believe, according to the Holy Bible, that an all-powerful Creator God has ordained this institution to be between a man and a woman.  I do not support the concept of civil unions, as I believe there is no difference, other than semantic, between civil unions and sodomy-based marriage.  The concept of civil unions is, however, particularly appealing to weak-kneed politicians who want to have their cake and eat it too. 

I oppose homosexual behavior based on only one fact: God opposes this behavior.  I personally know people who engage in homosexual behavior that are otherwise very caring, intelligent, honest, hard working, and genuine. I do not oppose the behavior of these people based on fear or bigotry or misguided hatred.  I oppose their actions because the LORD does.

I believe the Bible is our only source of ultimate truth in today’s upside down world.  I believe that all of Scripture is theopneustos or “God-breathed,” according to the original Greek text of 2 Timothy 3:16.  Based on this belief, I try to live every aspect of my life according to His will, as revealed by Holy Scripture. I try to be, in the words of Pastor Mark Franklin of Hardingville (NJ) Bible Church, a “Bible-living Christian” and not just a Bible-believing Christian. 

God has condemned homosexual behavior in multiple verses in the Inspired Scriptures.  In Leviticus 18:22 (KJV), the Word of God says, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination.”  In verses 24 and 25, the LORD says, “Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:  And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit [bring judgment for] the iniquity thereof upon it; and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.”  (Note: the words in brackets are equivalent translations taken from the Thomas Nelson Publishers King James Study Bible.)

In Leviticus 20:13, the Word of God says, “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”

In Romans 1:26, 27, the Word of God says, “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change [exchange] the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another: men with men working that which is unseemly [shameful], and receiving in themselves that recompense [penalty] of their error which was meet [due].”   God’s Word goes on to say in verse 32 that those “Who knowing the [righteous] judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death…”

In 1 Corinthians 6:9, the Word of God says, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?  Be not deceived: neither fornicators [the sexually immoral], nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate [homosexuals], nor abusers of themselves with mankind…”

Unrepentant Governor Displays Incredible Hubris and Arrogance During Speech

McGreevey stated that he tried to “force” an “acceptable reality” onto himself by engaging in natural relations with women.  He stated that his reality is “layered and layered with all the, quote, good things, and all the, quote, right things of typical adolescent and adult behavior.”  The hubris and arrogance of this unrepentant statement floored me when I heard it. 

Implied in this statement is that McGreevey looks down upon those things which our culture has, historically, embraced as “right” and “good” based upon the tenets of the Christian faith (America was founded as a Christian nation) and thousands of years of acceptable behavior.  Typical of sniffing liberal arrogance, McGreevey looks down his nose at such archaic values and methods of behavior.  Also implied in this statement is that McGreevey believes that he is part of an enlightened class of people who are courageous enough to break out of the conformist mold barbarically imposed on them by a dimwitted culture. 

McGreevey Ignores Scriptural Truths

I listened to the live press conference of the McGreevey resignation/”gay American” speech and was outraged.  I was not outraged that a politician was caught in multiple acts of moral and political corruption because this, unfortunately, is normal behavior for politicians while in office and under the public trust.  I was not outraged that this man deceived the New Jersey electorate when running for office (the Democratic Party would never even have let him run for the governorship had they known of his homosexuality) because nearly all politicians attempt to deceive people (in one form or another) when campaigning.  I was outraged that this lost soul invoked and intertwined the name of the most holy and high God into this shameful mess.

At every turn, McGreevey’s statements belied the fact that he knows little, if any, Scriptural truths, and yet he spoke of his capability to make decisions on a “spiritual level.”  This type of ignorance shows a disdain for God’s sovereign will and a dangerous vanity for self.  The Bible states that the unrepentant and unsaved are spiritually “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).  How can a spiritually dead man make decisions on a “spiritual level”?  The answer is that he cannot.  An unsaved man groping around for a form of “spirituality” will only end up grabbing onto his own darkened intellect or grabbing onto a false religion.  And make no mistake, the apostate and error-filled forms of “Christianity” that are floating around in our churches and culture today are promoting a form of false religion when they do not proclaim the full Gospel message as set forth in Scripture. The apostate Christian denominations may claim the name of Christ but, at every turn, they flee headlong from sound doctrine and from “the faith which was once [and for all] delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3).

McGreevey’s blind attempt to discern “spiritual” matters speaks to his lost condition.  Any such “soul searching” divorced from Scriptural Truth is prone to become deviant. Ephesians 4:17 states that non-Christians “walk…in the vanity [futility] of their mind.”  In verse 18, the Word of God goes on to state that the unsaved have their “understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.” 

Spiritual truth and direction cannot be discerned apart from the diligent study of God’s Word (2 Timothy 2:15), or apart from honest, humble, and belief-filled prayer to the sovereign God (Matthew 21:22). 

McGreevey Dangerously Perverts the Word of God

There is possibly nothing more dangerous in this world than for a man to take the Word of God out of context in order to pervert it to his own agenda.  Yet, Mr. McGreevey did just this in his press conference.  He stated, “I believe that God enables all things to work for the greater good.”  He bases this belief on a critical distortion of what God has revealed in Scripture. 

A closer examination of Romans 8:28-29 reveals that these verses do not apply to an unsaved man like McGreevey.  “And we know that all things work together for good to them who are the called according to his purpose.  For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren.” 

According to these verses, God works all things together for good only to those who are “the called.”  Scripture often refers to Christians as “the called” or “the elect.”  So it logically follows that God works all things together for good for Christians, but not the unsaved.  For McGreevey to stipulate that God is working to facilitate his abominable and sinful behavior (which the LORD has condemned multiple times in both the Old and New Testaments) is blasphemy and implies a schizophrenic and unjust Creator God who would embrace and abhor the same action at the same time. 

Furthermore, if McGreevey believes these verses pertain to him, he also believes that God has predestined him to be conformed to the image of the blessed Christ through a reverse-sanctification process of repeated wicked and perverted acts of sodomy.  This is an unspeakably horrid proposition that defies revealed Truth. 

Many “Unique” Truths?

According to the twisted logic of the Governor, “At a point in every person’s life, one has to look deeply into the mirror of one’s soul and decide one’s unique truth in the world…”  As I have stated above, if a person is unregenerate, and they turn inward to peer at their soul, the Bible tells us that they will only see a deadness and spiritual barrenness.  The height of folly would be to grab onto this darkness for direction.  In complete darkness, no man is capable of finding his way without Guidance. 

This myth of “deciding” what your individual “truth” will be is a very dangerous game to play.  Unfortunately, this type of “soul-searching” is all too common in our “tolerant” and “multi-cultural” society today.  The existence of “many truths” is an attempt to negate the objective fact that there is only one ultimate Truth (albeit with slight variance in the perceptions of this Truth). 

The Scriptures state that there is but One Truth and One Way, not many truths and many ways.  Those who cling to these shadows of rebellion, if they do not turn from these false beliefs and delusory hopes, will ultimately be taken down from their high perches by the righteous One. 

McGreevey Serves the Creature, Not the Creator

The Governor spoke of attempting to craft an “acceptable reality” for himself.  He went on to pose the question, “Which master was I trying to serve?”  I believe the “masters” of which he was speaking were his own wicked and selfish desires versus the desires of his culture and family.  The questions he should have been focusing on all along are, “What does the holy God want from me?” and “What does the LORD desire from me?” 

McGreevey has engaged in the sin that was first committed in the Garden by Adam and Eve.  He has esteemed himself and given in to the appetites of the flesh over the wishes of a righteous and sovereign God (Genesis 3:6).  And because he has esteemed himself and ignored God, he has been given up to uncleanness and disgrace.

Romans 1:21-25 states, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man…Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves:  Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more [rather] than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.  Amen.” 

McGreevey’s vanity is evident in his statements during the speech.  As the Scripture states, he professes himself to be wise according to the “unique truth” of his own depraved intellect.  In giving into his unnatural lusts, he has dishonored his body and served the creature rather than the blessed Creator. 

August 16, 2004

John Leone is a police officer in New Jersey, editor of the Silverback Standard, and a staunch defender of biblical and constitutional government. He may be reached for comment here.

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The Astounding Power of Poverty

 David Alan Black  

Recently in my New Testament class (“Jesus and the Gospels”) I characterized biblical leadership as “bottom-up” authority – an authority that acknowledges Jesus Christ as the sole Head of the church and that always emphasizes servanthood protection of that great truth through the equal priesthood of all believers. This pattern is set forth for us in the mystery of the Triune God, which provides the example of Christian unity – an ontological equality in the midst of great diversity. I hope to develop this theme further in my book Unleashing the Church, especially the way the first man Adam set the stage for the Great Human Tragedy by failing to submit himself to the Trinity and by “grasping” after that which was not rightfully his. (We may contrast Christ’s self-abnegating open-handed submission to the Father in Phil. 2:5-11.)

Of particular interest to me is the Adam-Christ contrast in Paul’s “Last Adam” Christology, a recurrent topic in my lectures. I hope my students do not get bored by the repetition of this theme, as it describes a fundamental truth of New Testament Christianity: believing men and women are to minister to each other within a system of flexible relationships with leaders serving, servants leading, and change and progress always coming from “below” and through the consent of the followers. This is why my New Testament course is nicknamed “Becoming New Covenant Christians,” since the New Testament announces the most radical political thought ever to strike the human mind: the astounding power of spiritual poverty.

As it turns out, we see this theme at the very beginning of the New Testament record, where Matthew offends the patriarchal concepts of his contemporaries by including four “irregular” women in the genealogy of Jesus. In my chapel message last semester on this text (Matt. 1:3-6) I was burdened to show how the idea of universal chosenness works – how Jesus chooses the inadequate, the weak, the poor, the sinner, the outsider – thus illuminating the power of poverty. For unless we become “poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3), our riches become our hell. Thus from the very beginning of Matthew’s Gospel the author breathes impoverished air. To deny our poverty is to deny the Christian faith.

We see this fundamental theme operating also in Paul’s magnificent writings, where weakness becomes strength, down becomes up, and poverty becomes wealth. Look at the way he develops this concept into a major theologoumenon in his letters. For some reason, possibly because of the false accusations of his opponents, Paul elevates poverty of spirit into a badge of honor and the chief evidence of his apostolic authority. The concept of “high love” in Paul (= servant-leadership) is problematic unless we understand that the apostle accepted the hierarchical notions of his day but radically redefined them. There’s an implied contradiction, of course, in saying that leaders are servants, but the painful paradox is precisely what the New Testament teaches and the early church practiced. This mystery was well explained by the late Corrie ten Boom when she stated, “Look inside and be depressed, look outside and be distressed, and look to Him and be at rest.” This intimate assurance that Christ can be trusted is our security. It resolves the dilemma of our insignificance, our mortality, our futility. Gradually we become aware that God takes unimportant nobodies, fills them with His Presence, and empowers them to live lives of unhypocritical love (Rom. 12:9). Our growing awareness of, and confidence in, the adequacy of Christ constitutes the unshaken rock upon which our faith stands.

I certainly have been experiencing this reality more and more in my own life, partly because of the severe mercies God has allowed me to experience in recent years. I realized – and my first book Paul, Apostle of Weakness had prepared me for this realization – that my career had become idolatry, that my deepest inward attitudes belied my outward spiritual composure, and that I had to come to a complete end to myself before God could use me. If the talented Paul of old needed a stake in his flesh (not “thorn”!), how much more did I? I cannot resist a further speculation that had the Adam-life not been broken in my heart I would still be the same proud, self-sufficient “somebody” I once supposed myself to be.

This brings us back to where we started. I don’t know about you, but as for me, I never tire talking about the power of spiritual poverty, though I still have a long way to go in fleshing out this doctrine. However, the very zigzag process – three steps forward, two steps back – has the power to offer us purpose in our pain and even triumph over it.

October 25, 2007

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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Every Member a Bible Scholar

 David Alan Black 

According to Eph. 4:11, the risen Christ has placed teachers in His church, and therefore we are to listen intently and eagerly to what they have to say.

However, it is unfortunately easy for us to distort the scriptural pattern by developing a passive learning-style that makes us dependent on others for our spiritual nourishment. As Paul reminds us in Phil 1:1, the saints are not “under” but “along with” their leaders. No Christian ever need go to God through an earthly mediator. As a kingdom of priests, we all have right of access through the torn veil into the Holiest Place (see Heb. 10:10).

This great New Testament truth is confirmed by the apostle John when he writes, “You all have an anointing from the Holy One… and have no need that any man should teach you” (1 John 2:20, 27). Of course, it was a man who taught us this truth. But his language is a reminder that the priesthood of all believers is an essential part of the biblical idea of the church.

Thus, while teaching is indeed a function required of elders (1 Tim. 3:2), and while the ministry of God’s Word is essential to their shepherding task (Eph. 4:11), this provides no excuse for the kind of pastor-dependence we are witnessing today.

“Every member a Bible scholar” can and must become more than a Christian cliché. Insofar as pastor-teachers deepen our knowledge and understanding of the Word, they serve a good, indeed an indispensable, purpose. The purpose turns sour when being “under the ministry of Dr. So-and-So” is made to mean “living on someone else’s predigested food” and becomes an excuse for dismissing the need and importance of personal Bible study.

April 29, 2006

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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Confessions of a Limping Theologian

 David Alan Black

As I prepare to cast my absentee ballot in this year’s general election, I remain convinced that the task of the church in America today is to recover its faithfulness to Christ.

In this sense, Christianity is a radical thing – it is always seeking to relate everything in life to its biblical and apostolic roots. Although in the past three years the Lord has led me to respond to the present challenge by becoming more involved in the political scene, I do not believe that this has led me away from the central affirmations of Reformed theology, nor from what I regard as the essence of this tradition, namely the Lordship of Christ over every aspect of life and culture.

From the purely statistical point of view, one might say that the evangelical church in America is a politically correct church with some politically incorrect members, rather than the other way around, as commonly perceived. Moreover, the largest segment of evangelicalism – the so-called seeker-sensitive churches – are an intentional accommodation to the culture, a point that has been made by numerous commentators, including Chuck Baldwin, Dave Brownlow, Doug Phillips, Jim Rudd, Lewis Goldberg, and others.

I was and remain grateful for the detailed and helpful comments these men have made on the current crisis. I must not only admit the validity of their criticisms but also point out my gratitude for having shown them to me. We might have different long-term “approaches” to the underlying problem, but we would all agree that God requires more than passivity in the current struggle. He requires radical obedience (i.e., discipleship; see Matt. 28:19). What He requires is, indeed, more demanding than most of us seem ready to adopt. 

I am just as susceptible to succumb to the mindless alternative of status quo Christianity as the next man. Apathy is a cumulative process, not just an isolated deed or event. But if I have tried to assert one point over and over again, it is that the church cannot expect of the state what it cannot realize in its own life. We do well to remember, especially in light of some recent statements made by President Bush, John Galdwin’s warning (“Politics, Providence and the Kingdom,” Churchman, vol. 91 [January, 1977] p. 48):

[T]he Kingdom theme can be a dangerous place from which to begin in thinking through a Christian view on the exercise of power in the present age. It has a tendency towards political idealism and utopianism.

I must keep reminding myself that the United States is not the kingdom; indeed, neither is the church. It is tragic that Christianity among American evangelicals is often misused to escape the realities of this situation. Our religiosity hides our inadequacies, justifies our social irresponsibility, and gives our apathy and indifference a sanctimonious aura. It is rarely even acknowledged. And now, to cap it all off, evangelicals have gladly identified themselves with the New Right. Such disturbing realties are often pushed down into the unconscious. As a result, it seems that few American evangelicals realize just how widespread our nation’s intransigency is.

It is against this dark background that I cast my vote in my ninth presidential election. I am convinced that the church has to be liberated from its ideological and self-interest if America is to recover from her slide down the slippery slope we find ourselves on. Surely we live in a day when the world is on fire. If we truly give our lives into the Lord’s hands, perhaps He would be pleased to use us in the battle that rages throughout the world today and in our country. May the Lord lead us to take that place and make us such men and women for His sake.

October 6, 2004

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. His latest book is Why I Stopped Listening to Rush: Confessions of a Recovering Neocon.

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December 2012 Blog Archives 2

Monday, December 31

6:50 PM I see that the weather will be sunny and nice for tomorrow’s Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena. Yes, we actually spent the night one year on Colorado Blvd. just to watch the floats go by. Crazy.

6:23 PM Well, goodbye, 2012. What a great year you were. I’m especially grateful for family and friends. I couldn’t manage such a complex and pressured life without planting my feet firmly in relationships. Christianity is inescapably relational. None of us understands fully our relationships. But I for one am grateful for each one that I enjoy, beginning with the relationship I have with my Priscilla. I know I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, with all this talk about the priority of deed over word, orthopraxy over orthodoxy. It reminds me of John Peer’s Law of Enough Already: “The more you run over a dead cat, the flatter it gets.” But Jesus didn’t come just to save our souls. He came to give us a brand new way of living. We are immobilized, demeaned, and defeated whenever we think that Christianity is a dead religion of works. True Christianity is a cross-like lifestyle in the midst of all the gook, grit, and grind of life.

So … wherever we go this year, may we live out what we believe in, keeping our eyes on Him.

“Happy Newness Year!” (Rom. 6:4).  

3:40 PM I’ve just completed the schedule for my seminar on hermeneutics for Odessa. I’ll lecturing on 4 topics each day, morning and afternoon. I’m calling my lectures:

Monday, March 25

Why Hermeneutics? (Part 1)

Why Hermeneutics? (Part 2)

Toward a Hermeneutics of Obedience (Part 1: Introduction)

Toward a Hermeneutics of Obedience (Part 2: Following Jesus to Ethiopia)

Tuesday, March 26

The Text of the New Testament: Issues in the Current Debate (Part 1)

The Text of the New Testament: Issues in the Current Debate (Part 2)

New Testament Lexicography: Promises and Pitfalls (Part 1)

New Testament Lexicography: Promises and Pitfalls (Part 2)

Wednesday, March 27

Reading the Gospels Today (Part 1)

Reading the Gospels Today (Part 2)

Syntax and Hermeneutics: What’s Old? What’s New?

The Medium Is the Message: Rhetorical Criticism and the New Testament

Thursday, March 28

Structural Analysis of New Testament Texts (Part 1)

Structural Analysis of New Testament Texts (Part 2)

Discourse Analysis: Getting the Big Picture of Philippians

Sociological Criticism and the Life of Christ: Jesus and the Age Thirty Transition

Friday, March 29

Anonymity and Authorship: Hebrews as Test Case

The New Perspective on Paul: My Take

Shaping a New Testament Sermon: John 21:15-17

Epilogue: Why Hermeneutics Matters

Lots of preparation between now and then. As must be obvious, I am looking forward to this class — with a great deal of fear and trepidation. The students all know that I have been trained in Switzerland and have a dispassionate detachment at which even I marvel at times. Yet I have no doubt I will get very passionate about these topics. I can’t hardly wait for the class to begin.

10:13 AM FromThe Jesus Paradigm:

It seems to me, then, that bearing witness to Christ is absolutely and unavoidably necessary and obligatory for the believer. This conclusion is not based on experience or philosophy. It is based on the totality of God’s missionary mandate.

8:53 AM Looking ahead, this weekend, Lord willing, I will have the privilege of speaking Saturday night and Sunday (am and pm services) atCornerstone Baptist Church in Cleveland, NC, where one of my former students serves. If you live in the ‘hood, why not stop by and introduce yourself? And thank you, Joshua, for the kind invitation.

8:37 AM Years ago, when I lived in Southern California, I taught adjunctively for a small school called Simon Greenleaf University. In those days it was a leading center for the study of apologetics, and they insisted on teaching Greek. I was happy to accommodate them. While there I struck up many enduring friendships, not least with a young man named Alfie Mosse, who now serves the Lord faithfully at the Odessa Theological Seminary. Lord willing, in March of 2013 I will be returning to Odessa to teach a course in Advanced Hermeneutics in their new masters program. I accepted their invitation partly because I will get to spend time with Alfie and his family. I am overwhelmed by the range of knowledge that is required in this vast subject, but, as I told the dean, I will do my best to avoid rash generalities. My goal today is to prepare the syllabus for the course and to send several of my essays to be translated into Russian ahead of time. When I was a student in Basel, I well recall one of my chief intellectual pursuits — aside from my own work in the text — being attending the lectures of some world-famous scholar upon subjects of which I knew little but which seemed to open wide doors. I can never forgot Lochman on Comenius or Schmidt on Augustine. We would cheer our lecturers vociferously when they were done, not knowing that one day we too would be giving lectures before students. My previous two trips to Ukraine were some of the most joyful experiences I have had while traveling, and I look forward to renewing old acquaintances and making many new friends. I find Odessa a fascinating city, what with its ancient buildings and narrow streets. It is a deep relief to me to know that all of my lectures will be translated into Russian, as I know not a word of that language.

Below: Alfie in front of the seminary building.

The school’s motto:

Teaching a group of pastors and their wives in Mykolaiv.

The Russian translation of Using New Testament Greek in Ministry.

7:59 AM Quote of the day (Donald Kraybill):

Leadership is only worthy of allegiance when the led freely grant it to the leader in response to the leader’s servant posture.

Husbands, that goes for us too.

7:50 AM The weather in Jerusalem is currently 61 and sunny. In Nelson, VA, the high today will be 52 with a real feel of 48. Enjoy the beautiful day God has given you, Nigusse!

By the way:

בוקר טוב

(Yes, I am trying to help you with your Hebrew.)

7:34 AM Just snapped this:

7:20 AM “Education as Dispersion: The Migration Outcomes of International Students.” This was the title of a paper I heard this year at the regional ETS meeting at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth. It highlighted the problem of what the presenter called “academic migration.” And the facts are startling. She said that 62 percent of students who come to the U.S. on “temporary” student visas still reside in the U.S. five years after graduation. The highest stay rates are students from China and Iran, she said. In a  Christian context, even evangelical students who pledge to return to their homes after graduation still remain in the U.S. at the rate of about 50 percent.

I say all that to say this:

1) Don’t assume that a Christian student will return home after graduation out of a sense of Christian commitment. That may or may not happen.

2) Be sure that the international student you are sponsoring understands this problem of Gospel drain and affirms the value of keeping his or her word upon graduation.

3) It is equally important that we support national Bible schools and training centers so that more and more students can remain in their contexts for their education. I have said elsewhere that the problems with sending students to the capital or to a foreign country for education is threefold: Extraction (we remove them from their homes and families and local churches for an extended period of time), expense (it is much less expensive to train students in their own villages and towns), and elitism (when students return back home after their training they are often seen as “experts” and no longer as parts of the Body).

I have discovered in my own life that I need a balanced approach to supporting students for higher education. We brought Nigusse here for his M.Div., but most of the students we have supported remained in their home nations. Then too, I make it a point to travel every year to teach foreign nationals on their own soil, coming alongside the local pastors and educators and supplementing the excellent work they are doing. Finally, by sending our personal libraries abroad (where they will probably do more good than sitting on our office shelves) we can help to develop the next generation of national pastors and evangelists.

True education rolls together dependence, faithfulness, cooperation, obedience, humility, submission, and worship. It waits on God to display His grace and mercy. It demands that we keep our word when we make a promise, and that we lay aside our reliance on any human resource to make waiting on God the number one priority in life.

7:03 AM I see that my Ph.D. student Paul Himes has beenworking on a new book. No, it’s not his dissertation. He’s calling it:

Minnesota Mounce and the Participles of Doom

Tell me it ain’t so, Paul. Pleeeeease.

Sunday, December 30

9:42 PM Today, at his always-inspirational blog, John Meunier askedWhat do we mean by ‘Christianity’? He writes:

If our eyes are not opened to God, if we are not aware of our sin, if we do not see with faith, if we do not know pardon and assurance, if we do not grow in grace, if our lives do not bear the marks of these changes, then our church membership and regular attendance and knowledge of theology do not make us Christians.

I quite agree. What did the world see in the first believers? They saw their “Christ-likeness.” I once heard a child refer to this, not as Christianity, but as Christianality. I love that word. Would our neighbors see Christ in us, would they recognize our Christianality? That’s a question I ponder daily here on the farm. In a close-knit community like ours, it’s difficult to fake this sort of thing. People want to see reality. I encourage you to spend some time this year getting reacquainted with the Book of Acts. Perhaps you will conclude, as I have done, that our lifestyles are so far removed from the pattern of the New Testament that it’s time to make some real changes in the new year. This includes the Christian obligation to exercise hospitality toward others – opening our homes freely and graciously to others, and going out of our way to care for the orphans and widows in their need. This is something the Lord has been impressing upon me for several years now, and today I would just as soon open our home to guests as preach a sermon.

In this world of woe there is nothing greater than becoming true disciples of Jesus Christ. We can do this successfully only by exercising relentless faith – faith in the Triune God who saves, keeps, and satisfies as no other can. Then, as He leads us so to do, let us go out into our communities and declare to them – more by our actions, by our “Christianality,” than by our words – that He loves and cares for them too. After all, as Jesus Himself said, this has always been the greatest apologetic for true Christianity (John 13:35).

9:12 PM The church is all about people, people just like you and me, a bit hypocritical maybe, and sinful certainly. You may not remember the Jesus Movement, but I was a card-carrying member back in the 1960s. We left the institutionalized church in droves. After all, who wanted to hang out with all those hypocrites? Know what I discovered when I got to be about 16? That I was as big a hypocrite as all of those folks I left behind in my local church. So what did I do? I went straight back into my local fellowship (First Baptist Church Windward) and plugged in, big time — youth leader, choir director, deacon. At the ripe old age of 16. Preaching, serving, teaching Bible studies, volunteering for all sorts of things. Today I love this Body chosen by God to display His grace in the world.

I remember reading about an evangelical church in North Carolina that believed and practiced age-integration. No youth group, no children’s church, no Sunday School. When they heard about an age-segregated evangelical congregation in their city that needed help with Awana on Wednesday evenings, know what they did? They went over and helped them. Their members went to that church and listened to the Sparkies say their verses. Compromise, or scandalous love? Your answer to that question would tell me a lot about your ecclesiology.

Stay centered in the Lamb,

Dave

9:02 PM As I type, Nigusse (UA 84) has just passed Newfoundland and is heading through the North Atlantic. His flight was delayed but he should make Tel Aviv pretty close to schedule. By now he has had his dinner on board and is settling down for the night. Nigu:

לילה טוב

לישון  טוב

6:05 PM As an exurbanite and a farm owner, I was interested in possibly taking Becky to see Matt Damon’s new flick about fracking (set in rural America), but I think I’ll pass. Reviewers are calling Promised Land “unremarkable” and “hackneyed.” I’ll miss seeing the great actor. Is Damon in good movies because he chooses good movies, or does he make the movies good? I’d guess the latter, but what do I know, and even he apparently struck out this time, as we all do from time to time.

6:00 PM And the winner of our super spectacular subcultural Hawaiian quiz? None other than:

John Rising of Surrey, British Columbia

In case you were wondering, the answers were:

1) There’s a famous kind of meal enjoyed by all local folk in Hawaii. When you order it, you’re often asked “How many scoop rice?” What is this delicious cuisine called?

Plate lunch

2) Ice cream cones are loved in Hawaii, but ________ ice is enjoyed even more. What’s the missing word?

Shave (not shaved)

3) Anyone who grew up in the Islands knows that young people often pick fights with each other. I can’t tell you how many times I was asked “Wanna fight?” In Hawaiian Pidgin, the invitation goes like this: “You like _______ or what?” What is it I’m supposed to “like”?

Beef

4) Finally, this panoramic photo shows the inside of what famous crater?

Diamond Head (of course)

The book goes out in Wednesday’s mail. Congratulations, John!

1:56 PM Missions update:

1) I don’t think I’ve ever introduced you to our precious “daughter” Neeli. We first learned about her through our friends Mammen and Alice Joseph. As I mentioned to you the other day, the Josephs are working in the northeastern corner of India among several unreached people groups. God has giving them a ministry calledPeniel Gospel Team. In 2011, Mammen’s son Moncy, who was then a student at SEBTS, asked if he could bring his parents to the farm so that they could share their vision with us. The answer was an immediate and hearty yes.

This was when we found out about the many activities being carried out by PGT in India, from Gospel teams to a Children’s Home to various educational ministries. God laid upon our hearts to support one of their orphans, and that’s how we got to know Neeli. This is a letter we received from PGT after we began supporting her.

Neeli belongs to an Adhivasi community. She lost her father and her mother. We brought her seven years back and she is studying in tenth grade. We were struggling without a sponsor. Many times we were not able to meet all her needs for school and personal.  We have total 56 children in our home. In the beginning each child had sponsors. But later many lost sponsors and Neeli was one among them. She is very good in her studies and she accepted Christ in her life. She is one of the future missionaries in their community. She is grateful to you both and assured her continuous prayers.  

In a letter addressed to Becky, Neeli wrote, “On 17th November, 2012 there is a singing competition in which I am also involved. I really thank God for giving me this wonderful opportunity to glorify His name. Please do pray for me so that many may be touched with the song and would come to know more about Christ.”

Isn’t that a precious letter! What a compassionate sister in Christ! Will you please join us in praying for Neeli and for the other orphans in northeast India? And I just wonder: How many millions of our Christian homes in America would be able to support a child?

Below: Two blood-bought sisters in Christ. Aren’t they beautiful?

Mammen, Alice, and Moncy — missionaries from southern India to northern India.

2) Our dear Ethiopian sister Aberash (whose story may be foundhere) has just left her home in Alaba to return to her native village, where her aged mother is dying. Please pray for the family as it gathers in Damboya. I am amazed at the dozens of small and large prayer needs that I become aware of on a daily basis. Many of you must experience the same thing. These should spur us on to a life of more prayer and intercession. We have countless opportunities to trust God for the work He is doing in the world and to stand alongside those who are suffering. Aberash — we love you, we miss you, and we are praying for you. Nathan, we love you too!

Thank you, friends, for your kindness to me and Becky in hearing our prayer requests and then acting upon them. I have traveled to scores of nations but have never been to a country where people are so generous as in the United States of America. May God increase our compassion for the nations of the world. Yes, we have our problems here. But take any problem you find here, multiply it a thousand times, and you will begin to understand what other nations like India and Ethiopia experience. To whom much is given much is required. May we all be willing to press forward to greater things in the year to come. Amen?

12:12 PM Down to RDU we went this morning, after feasting on the breakfast of champions.

A vigorous and enthusiastic United Airlines employee met us at the ticket kiosk and got Nigu squared away. We thought he was flying through New York but he’s really going through Newark. Oh well, the words are almost homophones.

After enjoying a cup of Starbuck’s caramel macchiato together, we made Nigusse promise he wouldn’t do anything we wouldn’t do and said our farewells. He will soon experience the place I had idealized since childhood and actually saw for myself in 1986 with Becky. It will mean a much-needed break from his SEBTS studies. Besides, I think the traveling instinct is as much a part of Nigusse’s psyche as it is ours. Fortified with this knowledge, we sent him on his way.

A glimpse back at our own journeys to various and sundry esoteric places got Becky and me to reminiscing with Nigusse about — well, how about the time we got stuck in Luxor without any Egyptian money — or the time we got stranded at the Gar de l’Est in Paris and could not, for the life of us, find our way to the Gar du Nord. (Who knew that Paris had more than one train station?) Those trips to faraway places were the happiest we have ever known. The eye of the most casual sight-seer is caught by the size of the Valley of the Kings or the magnificence of the Tour Eiffel. It was during the latter trip that we visited Basel in quest of a doctoral program, little knowing that we would end up living there as a juvenis ornatissimus. I am absolutely thrilled that Nigusse has this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to walk along the shores of the Sea of Galilee and to visit the excavations at Tel Megiddo. I’m not saying I wish could life again vicariously through my adopted son. Then again — it would be nice to revisit the Holy Land someday.

With Becky, of course.

And this time with local currency.

7:48 AM Am about to cook some traveler’s food for breakfast: Fried ham and eggs with homemade toast. Hearty stuff for a long trip. Tel Aviv, here he comes.

7:32 AM I have been re-reading a book calledMi$$ion$ and Money: Affluence as a Western Missionary Problem.

The author is a Mennonite scholar named Jonathan Bonk who, of all things, grew up in Ethiopia. The book is both exquisite and irritating at the same time — like a good book should be. Jesus provoked controversy wherever He went, and we should not be afraid to do so ourselves. Much of what I am reading in Mi$$ion$ and Moneymeshes well with what I read in the Scriptures. For example, Jesus’ ministry lacked the speed, the efficiency, the mobility, the “success” of all our current missionary strategies. His mission unfolded in weakness, obscurity, and poverty. Contrast, says Bonk, our modern missionary enterprises. Western missionary strategy, he writes, is becoming more and more characterized by dependence on technology. He notes:

• Several levels of well-paid bureaucrats are now needed to support those who are incarnating Christ and doing the actual work of missions

• Our strategies are becoming all about abstract “programs” and “people groups”

• Charts and graphs have become a substitute for identifying with actual people

• Mobility and speed have taken precedence over time-consuming personal relationships

• Wealthy missionaries too often fail to identify with the life situations of the poor to which their message is intended to address

• Rather than attempting to become poor with the poor, many missionaries seek personal and family security, comfort, and material hope

• Western missionaries show no great willingness to lose all things for the sake of Christ (Phil. 3:7-8)

• Material symbols of affluence are still absolutely necessary for the continuation of the mission effort from the West

The book includes this unforgettable quote from M. Gandhi: “I have told my missionary friends, ‘Noble as you are, you have isolated yourselves from the people you want to serve.'”

There is much to think about in this book. Jesus’ method of foreign missions is vastly different from ours. I would hope and pray that we could get back to radical, people-loving, relational, sacrificial, and costly missions. No, you do not need to drive the latest model Land Cruiser. (I see this everywhere I go in Ethiopia.) In fact, you do not even have to own a vehicle. You can always use public transportation or just walk. Eat what the people eat. Live where the people live. Develop relationships that are not necessarily related to your “work” as a missionary. Fund your own ministry if you can. This means that money that would go to pay for your airfare can now be spent on the needy. Work as much as possible from local church to local church. Let’s be like Hudson Taylor (photo) and James Gilmour of the nineteenth century, who were regarded with suspicion by their peers because they refused to insist on Western standards of living. In the New Testament, men like Barnabas, Timothy, Luke, and Paul have shown us that there is an alternative to our blatantly materialist way of living.

My main takeaway from this book is my need again and again to return to the Jesus paradigm in my work as a missionary. How really difficult to do! — especially in a day when anthropologists, theologians, educators, historians, missiologists, and even marketing consultants are deemed indispensable for missions. The thousands of books, journals, articles, symposiums, conferences, seminars, and consultations all devoted to our “missionary strategies” reflect our deep-seated human tendency to supplant the simple wisdom of the Bible with our own insights, which, of course, we deem the indispensable key to more effective missions. Bonk’s work is a reminder that the only missionary model that is truly biblical is the Jesus model of incarnational missions. “As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.”

7:12 AM “Didn’t I tell you that working on the new Greek Portal would drive us both crazy?”

Crazy or not, we launch it on January 1. 

Saturday, December 29

7:28 PM Growing up in Hawaii, there was not a single day that I did not look up at the mountains and sky and say, “Lord, thank you for allowing me to live in such a wonderful place.” I never took the beauty of the Islands for granted. Never. Likewise the farm. I post these pictures (taken on my walk today with the dogs) for no other reason than to say a big “thank you” to the One who made all this possible.

1) The goats enjoying their palace. Sadly, we lost the little one. She was sickly. That’s life — and death.

2) One of several hay barns we built on the farm. We call this the “Pizza Hut” for obvious reasons. We’ve not had to feed a single leaf of hay yet this year, the weather has been so mild.

3) One of my favorite views of Maple Ridge and her outbuildings. We are beginning to make plans for her dedication service. Care to join us?

4) The view that greeted me when I returned to Bradford Hall.

Thank you, Lord, for your goodness to me.

6:02 PM Believe it or not, one DBO reader has already correctlyanswered all 4 questions in our subcultural Hawaii quiz. And the man lives in Canada, of all places. How about you? Want to give it a try? You have until 6:00 pm tomorrow to submit your answers.

5:48 PM Jeremy Myers thinks you ought to usethese Greek cheat sheets. Do I agree? Absolutely. “Halitosis is better than no breath at all,” said one pastor to another. The older we get, the more helps we need to keep up with our Greek. An old geezer like me should know.

5:28 PM This is Nigusse’s last night here in the States before shipping out for Israel in the morning. He’s been working like crazy to finish his map work. The pre-assignments for this course are simply fantastic, as Becky and I can attest personally. Hard to believe that his class starts on Tuesday. Better brush off your Hebrew textbook too, son. You’ll be surprised at how much of it you can use in country. Please join us in praying for safe travels and for eyes to see and ears to hear all of the wonderful things God has in store for him.

Nigusse will be gone for three weeks. Which means that Becky and I will be by ourselves the whole time. Not really: I see our social calendar has just filled up. Never a dull moment at Bradford Hall.

5:20 PM When theRussian ban on adoptions get personal. Truly heartbreaking. Thanks for getting the word out, Kevin. I am wrestling in prayer on their behalf.

Craig and Kim, you know that we love you guys. We will stand with you in prayer. Remember: His character never changes.

2:33 PM It’s Contest Time again! A free copy of my bookNew Testament Textual Criticism to the person who can correctly answering the following questions. This is a cultural quiz, mind you. Well, maybe a “subcultural” quiz. Hawaii has a definite subculture, one that our President knows very well since he, like I, was raised there. I am sure he would know the answers without even having to think. And here are the questions:

1) There’s a famous kind of meal enjoyed by all local folk in Hawaii. When you order it, you’re often asked “How many scoop rice?” What is this delicious cuisine called?

2) Ice cream cones are loved in Hawaii, but ________ ice is enjoyed even more. What’s the missing word?

3) Anyone who grew up in the Islands knows that young people often pick fights with each other. I can’t tell you how many times I was asked “Wanna fight?” In Hawaiian Pidgin, the invitation goes like this: “You like _______ or what?” What is it I’m supposed to “like”?

4) Finally, this panoramic photo shows the inside of what famous crater?

Be sure to send your mailing address when you write me atdblack@sebts.edu. I’ll announce the winner tomorrow night. Islanders are welcome to play along. (Do I even have even readers in the Islands?)

Mahalo and Aloha,

Dave

P.S. Did you know that Hawaii has a company calledMahalo Airlines?

12:55 PM Well, it’s the year end, and rather than listing here my most-read blogs of the past year (or some such nonsense), I think I’ll tell you what my favorite new blog of 2012 was (at least “new” to me):

The M Blog by Guy Muse

Guy is a fulltime professional missionary of the Southern Baptist Convention serving in Ecuador. And boy does he tell it like it is. He’s always honest, sometimes critical, but never disrespectful of the church. Unlike some who have left the institutionalized church and throw rocks at it from the outside, Guy writes as an insider. That takes guts and, in my book, deserves a lot of respect. He’s been serving Jesus faithfully for 25 years as a missionary — plenty of time for opinions to form, don’t you think? In a blogosphere filled with group think, his blog is a breath of fresh air. On my own blog I spend a good deal of time discussing with my friends how church is perceived and what kind of culture it fosters. In this regard, Guy is very much a kindred spirit. He says things the church definitely needs to hear. I can’t wait for his latest blog post to appear and to watch him bare his soul again.

So there you have it: The M Blog. There is no way I can recommend this site…

… enough.

11:52 AM My colleague and friend Alvin Reid postsA few ideas for a more fit 2013. Kudos, brother Alvin. Over-eating and obesity are HUGE problems among Baptists. Why are we so silent about it? And about divorce? A couple of years ago someone posted a proposal to ban divorce. Why, folks, serious social issues do not, repeat do not, include serial polygamy. Repeat after me: Gay marriage and abortion, gay marriage and abortion. Public protest is not allowed when it comes to the most egregious of all sins in evangelicalism. Divorce is AOK in many Religious Belt churches. It’s the Trojan Horse of evangelical ethics. A nation that is half stupefied by groupthink over “grave moral issues” will not even stop to consider how much more subtle the danger of divorce is to the fabric of our society than is gay marriage. Besides, if we go after divorce, who knows, Bible Belt obesity might be next on the list.

So please read Alvin’s comments. And please, let’s all eat and live healthier. Only at one point might I take issue with my friend. He writes, “Weigh once a week, same time, same clothing. Don’t weigh daily as it will drive you mad.” I say, throw away the scales and just look at yourself in the mirror. If you are happy with the way you look and feel, you are probably doing fine. If you’re not, do something about it. But don’t get caught up with numbers. I get my exercise through working on the farm and light weight lifting. That has kept up my metabolism for all these years. I weigh the same today as I did 20 years ago. I know because they weigh me at my annual physical. It’s not the numbers that count.

As Alvin puts it, “the ultimate goal is lifestyle change.” And, judging from the following map, we could all use a bit of that.

11:22 AM Two weeks ago a student asked me, “What was it in your life that changed you so dramatically?” I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. Why? I don’t know. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been avoiding writing. I’m a bit uncertain as to how to share my thoughts with all of you. I’ve lived many lives in my 60 years. I’ve gone through phases struggling to learn what life is all about. After decades of trying to live up to others’ expectations, I picked up my Bible and began to read it like it was something brand new. That’s when I turned to the Lord. Really turned. My decision wasn’t a public one. But I was ready to abandon the religious way of life and simply follow Jesus. Praise God that I have an abundant Christian life today. The wasted years, the wasted opportunities — those are mostly in the past now. The world has nothing to offer. I am free from its demands and expectations. “The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them” (Thomas Merton). I have discovered that being a Christian is not so much inviting Jesus into one’s heart as getting oneself into Christ’s heart. As a result, I have become passionate about how people can find and follow Christ. Gratefully, I belong to a community of Christians who are chewing on the same questions. Like Job, I insist on living in the pain of faith. And like Paul, I want to encourage people to discern what’s actually taught in the Word and not just gloss over the real problems with wishful thinking. So to answer the student’s question: It was an encounter with the Living Word of God that began this change in my life, pure and simple. Nothing profound. Seeing Jesus again for the first time — I believe someone wrote a book with that title or one close to it. Well, that’s the perfect explanation for the transformation that is taking place in my walk with the Lord.

How about you? What is God doing in your life to transform you from who you are to who you want to be?

11:15 AM Today CNN published an opinion piece calledIt’s time for evangelicals to speak up about guns. The author raises an important question: Is there a “Christian position” on political issues? Let me begin my brief answer by referring to the character of God. God defines Himself as hesed — mercy, loving-kindness, faithfulness, etc. Perhaps the most important question in the debate, then, is “Why is God so good to us when we are so evil? Why is He moved by our tears? Why would He enter personally into our suffering?” This morning I read that a 12-year old was accidentally shot and killed while hunting in Wake Forest. It seems that our society is awash in blood. The Christendom paradigm of Christianity says, “Let’s take political action to straighten this mess out.” But there’s a different vision of the kingdom of God. It’s a vision that millions of Christians are waking up to. God does not in any way cause evil. But He does respond to it in ways that further His redemptive purposes in the world. This is a profound truth. It is absolutely mindboggling. That God can take evil and use it for good, and do so without violating our free will — that is nothing less than amazing. That’s why I refuse to allow the kingdom message to get co-opted by politics (whether leftwing or rightwing). I believe the answer to the gun question ultimately lies in my response to the kingdom. My stance against violence means nothing. It becomes culturally relevant only to the degree that I display Calvary-love and service of others, including my worst enemies.

I’m going to pray about what all this means to me practically. In the meantime, I urge all of us to remember that the kingdom of God is radically different from the kingdoms of this world, and so we must always be wary of placing too much trust in any governmental solution to our problems.

8:29 AM Areview of John Stott’s new biography contains this revealing paragraph:

Like Graham, Stott pursued this goal through extensive international travel at a time when flight still incurred considerable costs. Globetrotting conferred prestige in the early years of Stott’s ministry. Today, even junior high evangelicals get their passports stamped in far-flung locales on short-term mission trips. They should thank Stott, who dedicated his last 20 years of ministry to bolstering the global church by making it possible for non-Western pastors and scholars to study in prestigious seminaries. He was uniquely suited for this leadership role from ages 65 to 85: never married, retired from preaching at All Souls Langham Place in London, and unencumbered by a bishop’s responsibilities in the Church of England.

Stott’s visit to Ethiopia is still remembered there with awe and wonder. “Bolstering the global church.” What a worthy goal for this 60-year teacher. It is, in fact, my chief desire these days. John Stott set the pace and raised the bar. I’m thankful for that.

8:15 AM So Thomas Hudgins wants tovisit the birthplace of A. T. Robertson with me. Why not? It’s only 50 miles from the farm. Should be fun.

8:10 AM In the movie The Great Escape, one of the two “halfway houses” in the tunnel was called Piccadilly Circus, a term that reminds me of a very pleasant few days I spent in London shopping in the used bookstores in the famous Circus.

It has by far the finest collection of World War II books in the world — with a dash of smart and affable folk whose only vice was their slight speech impediment (or was it my accent that made them sound so strange?). I also did a certain amount of sightseeing, museums and the like (the British Museum and, of course, Baker Street), but nothing could match the sheer joy of buying good books at very cheap prices. I regret that my flights to Ethiopia do not go through London, because Piccadilly would make a great stopover.

8:05 AM Quote of the day (from Barth the Elder):

Sofern er in ihm auch der Wahrheitsfrage gegenüber verantwortlich ist, ist jeder Christ als solcher auch zum Theologen berufen.

I am suffering agonies at the moment over the appalling truthfulness of this statement. All I can do is hope to go on finding this unreasonable assertion (aspiration?) sufficiently true despite all evidence to the contrary.

7:30 AM Over at the M Blog, Guy Musecrunches the numbers for us — the only numbers that really matter:

6,944,287,685 – Number of people in the above 11,342 people groups.

4,192,663,816 – Number of people in the above 6,422 people groups where Evangelical Christians comprise less than 2- of the total population.

240,245,046 – Population of the 3,133 unreached people groups not engaged by anyone.

96,381,569 – Population of unreached people grooups that are not engaged by anyone, anywhere around the world.

He adds:

So what does all of this mean? For me there are at least three ways to respond:

1) Indifference–not my problem, I’m not going to do anything about it, already have a full plate.
2) Involve myself–as we begin a new year, I am going to intentionally engage in trying to do my share of making sure the Gospel gets to the nations–I am going to inform myself, pray with understanding, give purposefully, and maybe even go myself.
3) Invite the Holy Spirit to speak to me about what He would have me do, and then do it.

Of course, option #1 is no option at all. Involvement is our calling as Christians. There are several ways you can go about this:

1) Become an informed Christian. Here’s a map you can get for free from The Voice of the Martyrs.

Right now, ours is sitting on our library sofa. You can hang it on your kitchen wall or on the frig. We have a larger version of this map on one of the walls at church.

2) Go on brief informational tours of the mission field. This is what Becky and I hope to do this year in northeast India, where neither of us have ever been. A vision tour can be life-changing if it is organized properly.

3) Become a faithful intercessor for the needs of the world. Send out one sentence prayers for the persecuted or other needs you learn about.

4) Finally, get involved personally by either (a) sponsoring missionaries — especially foreign nationals, (b) going to the field as a short-term missionary, (c) arranging a missions conference in your church (Becky and I are always happy to speak about Ethiopia, and we do not charge for our visits), and (d) realizing that you are a fulltime missionary yourself.

Can we finish the task in our generation? It has never been more possible than now. But each of us must play our part if the work is to be done. The world is looking for self-confident people to lead it, but Christ is looking for humble, God-dependent people who will love the nations of the world as He does.

So …Will You Join the Cause of Global Missions?

7:12 AM Quote of the day:

In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum.

These words (“Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit”) were spoken in a loud voice by Felix Manz as his arms and legs were being bound. A few minutes later he would be dead. Standing on the banks of the Limmat River was his mother, whose voice could be heard entreating him to remain true to Christ. And the charge? Manz was sentenced to death

…because contrary to Christian custom and order he had become involved in Anabaptism,…because he confessed having said that he wanted to gather those who also wanted to accept Christ and follow Him, and unite with them through baptism,…so that he and his followers separated themselves from the Christian Church and were about to raise up and prepare a sect of their own….

Manz’s crime was to seek to recover the church of the New Testament. He refused to join himself to the secular rule, as Zwingli had done. He had the audacity to view the church as a body of the saved surrounded by an unregenerate mass. He refused to erase the distinction between Volk and Volk Gottes, a distinction we Americans enjoy today because of our First Amendment. All I can say is, thanks be to God for those who considered freedom of conscience a prized possession.

7:02 AM More on why I love the Anabaptists so much. They believed in:

• serving instead of ruling
• suffering instead of inflicting suffering
• biblical authority instead of ecclesiastical tradition
• brotherhood instead of hierarchy
• the towel instead of the sword
• the headship of Christ instead of that of any pastor
• the way of peace instead of “just war”
• the church as a living organism instead of as a human institution
• the reign of God instead of a political kingdom
• the catholicity of the true church instead of sectarianism
• the power of suffering instead of the cult of power
• the Bible as a book of the church instead of as a book of scholars
• loyalty to their heavenly citizenship instead of to the principalities and powers
• Spirit-orientation instead of forced structures of church life
• being a “light to the nations” instead of a Christian enclave
• faith that works (in both senses) instead of dead orthodoxy
• effectual grace as a living reality instead of as a theological dogma
• every-member ministry instead of clergyism
• baptism into Christ instead of baptism into a denomination
• a unity that is lived instead of a unity that is merely extolled
• welcoming the despised and marginalized instead of ignoring them
• a hermeneutic of obedience instead of a hermeneutic of knowledge
• individual conscience instead of theological conformity
• volunteerism instead of professionalism
• allegiance to Christ instead of allegiance to the state

Adapted from chapter 3 ofThe Jesus Paradigm.  

Friday, December 28

9:10 PM Quote of the day (Conrad Grebel):

We were listeners to Zwingli’s sermons and readers of his writings, but one day we took the Bible itself in hand and were taught better.

This was Grebel’s response when he was asked where he found his new view of the Christian church. I love Zwingli and have studied his life. I have profited from his writings. But the Anabaptists were right: The clear teaching of the New Testament was more important than the teachings of their earthly teacher.

7:32 PM I’m having so much fun revamping the Greek Portal — ripping out the old and putting in the new — that I’m beginning to feel a little guilty.

7:20 PM FromBeing an American and a Missionary at the Same Time:

Believers and churches in the States should be more aware of the difficult situation in which this reality places the missionaries they send out around the world. Trying to communicate to love of Christ in such a setting can be a serious blow to your sense of self-esteem, if it is not firmly grounded in who you are in Christ alone, and not who you are as an American. Those who support missions back at home should also be aware of how political issues in the States can, at times, make the burden that the missionaries they send out have to bear, even heavier. Without compromising on our God-given responsibility to be salt and light in our society, and maintain a prophetic voice in the face of evil and injustice, we should be sensitive as to how our public image affects not only our witness on the home front, but also, more and more, on the international mission field, as well.

Dated but good.

7:13 PM Come Tuesday, we’s gonna have us a hootenanny! The new and improved Greek Portal is a-comin’! 

7:09 PM Rick Morton’s perspective on Russia’s ban on adoptions is well worth reading. A key quote:

I believe that God has been at work in preparing an adoption and foster care movement in Russia (more on that in a moment), and this legal change in Russia may hasten its growth. In reality, international adoption has never been a holistic answer for Russia’s orphan problem. It’s not that I am suggesting that international adoptions from Russia or wrong or should be halted, but I am suggesting that the adopting of Russian children by foreigners is at best one small part of the solution to Russia’s orphan crisis. I count among my closest friends families who have adopted from Russia, and their adoptions are both good and healthy. They don’t get the press simply because their families are not sensational. Most Russian kids who have been adopted by American are loved, well cared for, and are better off, but they are woefully too few in number. Of the 800,000 children living in Russian orphanages, only a small fraction of those children are available for adoption with even fewer available for international adoption. Most Russian orphans are social orphans who have living parents (or other relatives) who retain legal rights to the children but have given them up to orphanages because they cannot support them for reasons of poverty, addiction, and etc. Foster care or reunification are the only legal options for these children. Moreover, the high cost of non-Russians adopting a child from Russia sets a glass ceiling on the numbers of children that can realistically be expected to be adopted by foreigners. Getting more Russians to adopt and foster Russians is the answer. To my eye, any discussion of the welfare of these un-adoptable or unadopted children has been lost in the discussion of the current policy turn by Russia in the media or in the blogosphere.

Please readthe entire essay.

“Getting more Russians to adopt and foster Russians is the answer.” Well said indeed. May God awaken His church in Russia to see this need and act on it. In the meantime, I pray that Putin will allow adoptions that are currently in the pipeline to proceed apace. As I wrote inThe Jesus Paradigm:

Don’t wait for politicians to bring about cultural renewal. Be the hands and feet of Jesus – evangelizing the lost, feeding the hungry, teaching the illiterate, caring for unwed mothers, rebuilding the broken walls of our culture. “The central lesson of the last one hundred years is that the state can disrupt, but it cannot save families,” concludes Allan Carlson. If we want to build a caring society, good deeds speak louder than words. Societal renewal is not ultimately a political task but a spiritual mission. We need to take ownership of the towel and basin Jesus offers us. We must be willing, as Jesus was, to bend over and serve the helpless irrespective of status or social custom. Jesus not only taught but modeled the downward path. He embodied it by being an advocate for the outcasts. He said that we are to love others as He loved us. Isn’t that plain enough?

5:23 PM It has now been eight and a half weeks since Becky’s “event.” The time has been spent in doctors visits and lots of time spent in bed. But her strength is slowly coming back. That, my friends, is a nice serendipity. It turns out that when you’ve come face to face with death you’re a lot more appreciative of life. I can’t explain what I feel about this coming year. Happy New Year Dreaming, everyone. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to travel abroad with Becky again, but just thinking about it is lovely. I am by no means a wise man, but I think I’m beginning to understand what true wealth is. That’s why I’m so excited about the future. Because I am, more than ever, in love with a serendipitous God.

4:57 PM Michelangelo had a motto: “Criticize by creating.” You see something you don’t like? Do something about it. I love seeing lives changed by truth.

4:44 PM “The less I spent on myself and the more I gave to others, the fuller of happiness and blessing did my soul become.” Great words from Hudson Taylor.

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   restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

A Great Commission Marriage (Korean)

 David Alan Black  

결혼을 향한 지상명령  

저는 이미 여러 각도에서 선교에 대한 의미를 결혼한 부부들이 하나님께서 허락해 주신 세상과

신실하게 관계 되어 있다는 것으로 설명한 바 있습니다. 저는 좋은 결혼의 핵심사항이 –

제가 점진적으로 발견하게 된 것에 의하면 – 관계에 있다고 생각하지 않습니다. 물론, 이것도

중요한 요소이지만 말입니다. 또한 감정적인 것에만 치우친 것이 사랑이라고 말한다면 사랑 또한

결혼의 핵심이 될 수 없습니다. 만약에 당신의 결혼생활에서 좋은 관계와 사랑이

있다면 정말로 이상적인 것입니다. 그러나 이러한 것들이 좋은 결혼의 중심이며 핵심이 될

수가 없다라는 것입니다. 제가 볼 때,서로간의 관계 속에서 보다 더 큰 가치를

바라보면서 살아가는 것보다 더 나은 결혼의 가치는 없다고 생각 됩니다.저는 이미 저의

에세이 중에 하나인 “Partners in the Gospel”에 이러한 저의 생각을 많이 담았는데, 이 또한 많은

영향을 줄 수 있다고 생각합니다.

우리가 살고 있는 사회는 결혼 그 자체로써 결말이며, 결혼의 행복이야 말로 모든 비용을

지불해서라도 가져야 하는 목표라고 말을 합니다. 저는 결혼이 행복을 추구하는 것에

대해서 반대하는 입장은 아니지만 만약에 당신이 결혼을 했다면 이것이 당신의 근본적인 목표가

되어서는 안 된다고 생각됩니다. 하나님께서 우리를 만드신 분이시며 우리의 결혼을 통해서

하나님께서 크게 기뻐하셨다는 사실을 명심해야 합니다. 진정한 기쁨이야 말로 그리스도를

통해서 얻어져야 함에도 불구하고 많은 삶의 영역에서뿐만 아니라 우리들의 결혼에서 이러하지

못한 것이 사실인 것 같습니다. 예수 그리스도께서 우리 관계 속에서 점점 중심이 되실 때

이를 통한 그의 “열매”들– 사랑, 희락,화평, 오래 참음, 자비, 양선, 신실함,온유함, 자기절제 –

이 우리들의 삶의 영역에서 두루 경험될 수 있게 될 것입니다.

제가 설명하고 싶은 결혼은 여호수아가 고백한 “나와 내 집은 오직 주님만 섬기리라”라는 고백

으로부터 비롯됩니다. 솔직히 말해서 지금의 세상에서 그리스도께 온전히 향해져 있는 결혼

의 아름다움을 찾아보기란 너무 희박하기도 합니다. 하지만,이것은 아주 귀한 것입니다. 그래서,

저는 이것을 “결혼을 향한 지상명령”이라고 말하고 싶습니다. 이러한 것은 C.S.루이스가

“크리스챤의 결혼”이라는 에세이에서 묘사하고 있는 “새로운 시야”와 “새로운 길”을 수반해야

할 것입니다. 그는 다음과 같이 말합니다.

내가 생각하기에 예수 그리스도가 의미하는 것은 첫 번째로 그것이 먼저 죽어지지 않으면 하나의

생명력이 존재할 수 없다는 것이다. 그것은 단순히 어떠한 스릴을 시도하는 것이 아니고 어쩌면

이것이야 말로 당신이 행해야 할 가장 힘든 것을 의미하는 것이다.일단, 그 스릴을 통해서 죽음

의 시점을 넘기고 그 다음에 찾아오는 행복을 느끼게 되는데, 이때 당신은 항상 그 스릴 안에

있는 당신을 발견하게 될 것이다. 그러나 만약에 당신이 이러한 스릴을 통해서 인위적으로

다이어트 같은 것을 한다면 아마도 당신은 계속해서 약해져 갈 것이며,당신은 계속해서

지루하고 당신의 모든 삶을 허비하는 삶을 사는 사람으로 전락해 버릴 것이다.

한 예로 매우 소수의 중년의 사람들이 자신의 젊었을 시절 새로운 시야와 새로운 길이 그들 앞에

있었음을 알면서도 그것을 놓쳐버렸다는 것을 안다. 

다시 말해서, 결혼이라는 것은 확고한 성경적인 기초를 요구하는 것입니다.

기독교의 결혼관내에서는 남편과 아내가 바로 그들의 창조주에 의해서 함께 조화를

맞추면서 살아가도록 지음을 받았는데, 이러할 때 그들의 연합이 이루어 진다는 것입니다.

그러나 이것은 연합을 이루기 위한 연합이 아닙니다. 예를 들어서, 초대교회 교부였던

터툴리안이 크리스챤 남편과 아내를 묘사하기를 다음과 같이 묘사했습니다.

“그들은 함께 기도하며, 함께 일을 하며, 함께 금식과 가르침을 하며, 함께 훈계를 하고 서로를

지지해 줍니다. 그들은 자원해서 병든 사람들을 방문하며,가난에 처한 사람들을 도와줍니다.

아무런 망설임 없이 희생하며,매일같이 어떠한 장애물 없이 열심으로 살아갑니다”

(Ad Uxorum 2.9).

터툴리안은 성별의 차이가 크리스챤의 결혼생활에서 없어져야 한다고 하지는 않았습니다.

만약에 이렇게 말하는 사람이 있다면 이는 매우 어리석은 사람이라고 생각합니다. 그의

묘사는 단지 남편과 아내 모두에게 있어서 영적인 활동을 같이 하며, 그들의 은사와 사역을 격려해 주고 발전시켜 주는 것에 있는 것입니다.이러한 각각의 활동들은 상호보완적인 면으로 볼 때 상대방을 더욱더 발전시켜 줄 것입니다.이에 따라 진정한 팀워크가 이루어지는 것이며, 하나님의 요구와 소망이 우리들의 것보다 선행되는 진정한 연합이 아울러서 이루어지게 될 것입니다. 그러므로, 크리스챤 부부들은 상대방을 즐겁게 해 주는 것에 노력하는 것뿐만 아니라 그들의 노력과 활동을 통해서 신실하게 하나님의 영광과 은혜가 그들 삶의 전 부분에서 반영되는 것이 그들 삶의 궁극적인 목적이 되어야 할 것 입니다.

제가 생각하기에 현재 우리가 살고 있는 자기중심적인 사회에서 예수 그리스도를 섬기는 것을

부부생활의 중심으로 주장하는 것은 매우 이상스럽게 여겨질 수 있을 것 같습니다.그러나, 제가

이 부분에 대해서 신약을 통해서 연구하고 가르치면서 중요하게 깨달은 것 중에 하나는 초대교회

에서 상당수 많은 부분에서 여자들이 사역에 참여했다라는 것입니다.우리 또한 사도들의 아내들

이 그들의 남편들과 동행하면서 복음적인 사역을 많이 감당했다라는 사실을 알고 있습니다 (고전

9:5). 이 구절을 좀더 인용해 보면, 알렉산드리아의 클레몬트가 결론지으며 말하기를 사도들의

아내들은 “동료 목회자들”이었다라고 합니다. 이 말은 그들의 남편들과 같이 동역을 하면서 여자

들에 대한 사역을 했다는 것입니다. 우리는 또한 초대교회의 많은 여자들이 그들의 집을 제공해

서 교회의 모임이 이루어졌다는 사실 또한 알고 있습니다. (참으로 흥미로운 사실은 성경은

이렇게 여자들의 집에서 교회의 모임이 이루어졌다라는 것을 남자들의 집에서 이루어 진 것들

보다 더욱더 많이 기록하고 있다라는 사실입니다: 참조구절– 행12:12, 16:40 롬 16:3-5, 골 4:15).

게다가 우리는 브리스길라(롬 16:3)가 유오디아와 순두게와 같이 바울의 동역자라는 사실 또한

알고 있습니다. 이후에 바울은 “복음을 전파하는 이유”로 말미암아 많은 어려움을 당했지만

이들이 바울이 당한 고난과 동일한 고난과 반대를 무릅쓰고 열심히 사역했다라는 사실도 알고

있습니다.

성경에는 우리를 더욱더 놀라게 하는 여인이 있습니다. 바울은 뵈뵈를 “나를 포함해

여러 사람의 보호자”(롬 16:2)였다고 묘사하고 있습니다. 더글라스는 이 보호자라는 말의 뜻을

헬라어로 묘사하기를 “다른 사람들,특별히 외국인들을 도와주는 자로 재정적인 것과 방을

제공해 주며 더 나아가서 이들의 권익보호를 자처해서 도와주는 사람”이었다고 설명합니다.

더글라스가 생각할 때 뵈뵈는 분명히 “높은 사회적 위치에 있으며 재력이 있었고, 바울과 같이 기

독교인들의 선교적인 필요를 채워주는 사람이었다”고 설명합니다 (Romans, p. 916). 제가 처음에

더글라스가 뵈뵈에 대해서 묘사한 글을 대했을 때 저는 제 나름대로 생각하기를 “그는 나의 아내

를 설명하는 것이야!”하고 생각했습니다.제 아내인 배키가 간호사로써 벌은 수입의 대부분은

저희 가정이 이디오피아 사역을 하기 위해서 필요한 재정으로 쓰여집니다.이러한 베키

의 삶의 모습이 예수님과 초대교회 사도들이 “개인적인 것들을 이용하여 이들 사역자들을

도왔던” 특별한 여인들의 사역과 비슷한 것이기 때문이 저는 더글라스의 글을 읽고 제 아내를

생각할 수 밖에 없었던 것입니다.

이러한 사실은 제게 있어서 다른 사람들을 돕는 결혼의 기능에 대해서도 설명을 해 줍니다.

배키와 저는 하나의 팀이 되어서 (비록 저희들도 매우 부족한 사람들이지만) 주님께서

저희들에게 허락해 주신 사역을 매우 기쁘게 감당하고 있습니다.우리들은 함께 사역하면서 실제

적으로 필요한 사역의 필요들과 물질적인 필요 이 두 가지를 모두 감당하려고 노력합니다.저희

가정은 또한 교회개척사역에도 함께 동행하며 사역을 하고 있으며,매우 규칙적으로 저희 가정에

사람들을 초대해서 이들을 섬기는 일을 감당하고 있습니다. 저희들 사역의 중심은 함께라는 것

입니다. 다시 말해서 우리는 그리스도를 위해서 사역을 감당하는 동역자들이지 아무런 남성이나

여성의 성별에 연연해서 사역을 하는 사람들이 아니라는 것입니다.

그렇다면, 우리의 결혼생활에 있어서 가장 중요한 역할은 무엇이 되어야 하는 것일까요? 제

생각에 바로 예수 그리스도 그 분 자체가 우리들의 질문에 답을 해 주는 분이 아닌가 생각해

봅니다. 그분 스스로 죽기까지 낮아지시면서 그분의 사역을 감당하셨습니다. 이와 같이 남편은

자신을 온전히 낮추어서 아내의 필요를 채워줄 수 있는 사람이 되어야 합니다.저는 인류

평등주의자가 아닙니다. 제가 생각할 때 남자와 여자의 역할에 대한 것은 하나님의 창조사역을

통해서 이미 결정이 된 것입니다. 이는 아울러서 예수님께서 우리들에게 가르치신 것이기도

합니다. 하지만, 우리는 여기에서 한가지를 더 볼 수 있어야 합니다. 만약에 결혼에 있어서

하나님께서 허락해 주신 신성한 역할이 있다면, 결혼이란 또한 영원한 생명의 은혜를 상속받은

자들의 연합을 의미합니다. 다시 말해서,종속시키는 것이란 더 이상 상호의존 관계를 배척한다는

의미가 아니라는 것입니다. 가정의 리더로써 저는 아내인 베키를 보호해 주고 신체적이고 감정적

인 필요를 공급해야 할 책임이 있습니다. 또한 저는 아내가 가지고 있는 은사를 격려해 주고

이를 통해서 다른 사람들을 섬길 수 있는 기회를 주어야 한다고 생각합니다.이러한 가운데 저는

저희 각자가 우리의 결혼생활 가운데에서 남성과 여성으로써의 역할과 상대방을 위한 섬김과

여전히 함께 하는 여행의 동반자임을 깨닫게 된다고 생각합니다.저는 개인적으로 이렇게 자문

하곤 합니다. “내 자신을 위한 결혼생활이 진실로 죽어졌는가?”이러한 질문은 저로 하여금 제

자신의 개인적인 삶을 죽이는 통로가 되며, 이를 통해서 저와 아내는 서로를 위해서 존재하는

좀더 깊은 의미의 삶의 가치를 결혼생활에 반영하는 것이 어떠한 의미인지 깨닫게 합니다.

다시 말해서, 저는 결혼생활에 있어서 어떠한 흥미나 즐거움을 가지는 것이 부절절하거나 죄라고

생각하지는 않습니다. 제가 의미하는 것은 사랑은 오직 감정만이 아니라는 것과 결혼은 자신의

성취를 위한 매개체가 아니라는 것입니다. 결혼은 보다 넓은 의미로 예수 그리스도를 섬기기

위해서 존재하는 것입니다. 이것은 우리가 기꺼이 우리 자신을 개인적, 공적인 삶 모두에서 성령

님의 소망하심을 쫓아서 섬기는 데에 헌신하는 것을 의미합니다.

결론적으로 말하고 싶은데요. 제가 한번은 한 런던의 교회에 걸려있는 표어에 “오직 예수님

(Only Jesus”이라는 글을 읽은 적이 있습니다. 그런데, 폭풍이 지나간 이후 그 표어가

손상되어서 그 표어가 이렇게 읽혀지는 것입니다. “오직 우리들만(Only us)”

그렇다면, 위의 두 개의 표어 중에서 당신의 결혼생활을 통해서 세상에 보내시고 싶은

메시지는 과연 어떠한 것입니까?      

 March 14, 2008

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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