Old MacDonald Had a Tiger...

Wednesday night was my night to make dinner for the team.  While I was chopping veggies and browning the mince (ground beef) I had a little troupe of entertainers invade the flat.  Five of the missionary children had come in looking for something to do, and they found a willing audience!  Their mothers were part of the women’s ministry group who were working on their sewing projects that afternoon, so the kids had free roam of the missionary base.  

Since boiling water and baking take forever in Zambia, I had plenty of time to enjoy playing with the kids.  They were singing every song they knew, and I taught them a few English songs too.  We sang “Old MacDonald” and practiced our animal sounds.  I asked them to give me the names of animals that live on a farm.  Joseph blurted out, “Tiger!!” Then Jethro suggested elephants and Banda wanted to sing about zebras.  It seemed really funny at the time, but then I realized that, of course, these are the animals they know living in Africa!  (By the way, it's really hard to imitate the sound a zebra makes.  Go ahead, try it.)

Once they had exhausted their animal sounds and dance moves, the kids moved on to singing worship songs in Bemba.  I’m still learning the words myself, so they were able to teach me some.  I wish I had them singing on video, because it was just too cute for words.  

Whose Are You?

How do you define yourself?  If someone were to ask you who you are, how would you answer that question?  The issue of identity is an important one.  Maybe you define yourself by your job, or maybe your kids are what define you.  Maybe it’s the stuff you have, or the things you aspire to.  But what happens when all those things are taken away?  What happens when all the fluff of our lives melts away and we stand before God alone?  Then the question becomes how does God define you.  Are you his child?  Or have you turned away from him?

Acts 17: 24-28 says, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.  From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.  God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.  For in him we live and move and have our being.” 

The challenge of the week has been for us to know who we are in Christ.  A big part of being part of the kingdom of God is having an understanding that we belong to Christ and find our meaning and definition in him.  First Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”  If you are in Christ, you belong to God, and as you seek his face, you will be transformed more and more into the image of Jesus.  We take on the character of God: his justice, mercy, patience, truthfulness, goodness, kindness, righteousness, life, and love.    

In Genesis 1:7 when God made man it says that he “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”  God didn’t just breathe air into man’s lungs.  He breathed his Holy Spirit, allowing us to not only bear God’s image, but also to have communion with him.  I don’t know about you, but the fact that God loves us enough to allow us to be his image bearers is pretty incredible.  It makes defining myself by the externals seem silly.  Why would I define myself by the things I do or the stuff I have when God himself has already given me definition?  

Musical Memory

You know how sometimes you can do things through muscle memory?  Maybe something that you've done so many times you no longer even have to think about how to do it, your muscles just do it automatically?  I've been thinking a lot lately that this is how my brain works with music.  When I listen to certain songs (ones I'm familiar with of course), I can immediately think of either the first time I heard it or other specific memories associated with that song.  It's kind of cool really.

When I hear anything by Stacie Orrico I’m immediately transported back to my freshmen year of college, and when I listen to early Shawn McDonald I think back to my days of driving from Oxford to Dayton to go to Apex Community Church.  Hearing Tenth Avenue North reminds me of Patrick’s first deployment when we lived in Okinawa, and I remember spending hours at the gym running off the frustration of that time when I hear Rihanna.  When I listen to Paramore or Reliant K I think about marathon training with Elizabeth in Oki, and “Starstruck” by Lady Gaga reminds me of being on that Emriates flight to South Africa.  I hear “Assassin” by John Mayer and think about spending a rainy afternoon in the LPC making nametags for storytime, and anytime “If You’re Happy and You Know It” is played anywhere I think about storytime itself.  When I hear “You Still Have Me” by Gungor I feel like I’m on that 18 hour train ride across India, and JJ Heller makes me think of working jigsaw puzzles in our house in Beaufort.  And even though we have only lived in Louisville for a few weeks, already when Ellie Goulding comes on my iPod I think of running and riding my bike around the neighborhood.

As we were riding the bus that 17 hours to Mpulungu I listened to my iPod most of the way and realized that nearly every song on there contains a memory.  Pretty cool!  I think it’s fascinating how our brains are able to story memories like that.  Recently I saw a short video clip of some research being done with music and dementia patients.  There was a guy on there who never spoke and couldn’t take care of himself in any way.  He didn’t respond at all to family who visited him, yet when they put on some music from his youth he perked right up and sang along with the lyrics! 

It's so incredible how music can play such an important role in our lives.  The fact that memories and music are so closely related has always fascinated me.  And maybe some day we'll discover that music is the key to unlocking the minds of those who have long since forgotten who they are.  So maybe when I’m 85 and can’t remember my own name anymore, someone will find my old iPod and play some of the music from earlier years and all those memories will come flooding back!  

The Flow of Grace

Another incredible teaching we heard this week was about grace.  What’s funny is as soon as I think I really get something, God shows me all over again something brand new that I’ve never thought of before.  So it is with grace.  We think we get it, because we hear about it so often in church.  We hear the word over and over, but somehow it doesn’t seem to seep into our minds and hearts.  As we read scripture upon scripture, a pattern became clear: God doesn’t want us to store up grace just for ourselves, it is something to pass on.

The early church was an excellent example of this.  During the time of Paul’s ministry there was a great famine in Judea.  The church at Macedonia heard about it and rushed to send aid to the people there.  In 2 Corinthians 8:1-4 it says, “And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.  Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.  For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability.  Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.”  It’s clear that the Macedonian believers didn’t have much to begin with, but what they had they gave freely for those who were experiencing even greater trials than they were.  This kind of giving comes from an overflow of grace from God alone. 

The outcome of allowing grace to flow from you is praise.  Second Corinthians 9:12-13 says, “This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.  Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.”  Our natural response to this kind of grace is thanksgiving to God, and this is exactly the picture we see of the early church.

This left me to wonder how I allow grace to flow from me.  God pours out abundant blessings in my life.  Do I hoard them for my own gain, or do I give with open hands and a loving heart?  This question stings my heart sometimes because I can’t always give the answer I want to.  Many times I gather up blessings for myself with tight fists.  But what I’ve realized is that when I do that, the blessings dry up in my hands.  Real joy come from allowing others to experience the richness of God grace the same way I have.

This is a truth the church today can’t afford to miss.  The analogy given was one of a heart pumping blood.  In order to be alive the body must have a constant flow of blood.  If the heart decided to hold onto that blood, the body wouldn’t have love to live.  The same is true for the church.  Galatians 5:6 tells us that, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”  When we allow grace to flow freely through us to others we are giving the ultimate expression of our faith by loving others.  And as we do this we will experience continued blessings from the Lord.    

Knowing Who We Know

This week has been awesome, because we’ve spent 8 hours a day soaking in the Word.  We just finished going through a weeklong course on God’s vision for his people, and my brain literally feels like it’s overflowing.  I can’t even begin to tell you how wonderful it is to have people speaking Truth into my life like this!  I’ve been learning that so much of what I thought I knew was completely upside down.  It’s like my brain is being shaken up and things are finally settling back into place. 

One thing we’ve been looking at this week is the difference between religion and having a relationship with God.  When you look closely at scripture it’s easy to see that God hates religion.  He hates it when people sit idly in church with insincere worship on their lips.  He isn’t looking for more people to fill the pews.  He’s looking for people who want God to fill them with himself.  He wants us to know him, not to have a bunch of doctrines memorized so we can spout them off if anyone asks what we believe. 

I think it’s interesting that whenever Jesus was criticizing anyone, it was usually the religious leaders; the people who thought they were doing all the right things.  He called them whitewashed tombs, because they may have looked good on the outside, but the inside was dead and rotting.  They worked so hard to build up a religious façade, and they missed God’s vision entirely.  Isaiah 29:13 says, "The Lord says, 'These people come hear to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.'"

One verse that has stuck with me this week is Deuteronomy 30:19-20, which says, “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.  For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your Fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” 

It’s so clear that God wants to give us life.  He wants us to choose him.  He says he wants us to hear his voice. In order to hear someone’s voice you have to be listening and attentive.  You have to be in some kind of relationship.  Otherwise it’s just noise. 

I think it’s pretty easy to determine whether or not you have a relationship with God.  As with any relationship, if you are close to someone, they will have some sort of impact on your life.  If Patrick and had made no difference in my life after 5 years of marriage, it would be obvious that we didn’t have much of a relationship.  The same is true with God.  If you really know him, he will change you from the inside out.  He has so much in store for those who choose him!

Second Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”  No one wants to sing praises to someone they don’t know.  In fact, I would say sincere worship of a distant and impersonal god is impossible.  But since we can know God, true worship is possible, and is really the only response we can give!  We belong to God, and he loves us dearly.  He wants us to seek his face and listen to his voice so we can walk ever closer with him.  What an incredible Truth this is!