Last month (December 2011), Mary Carole and I took a little excursion south of the border to attend a conference of Mexican church planters throughout the entire National Presbyterian Church of Mexico (INPM). During the week, we also had the opportunity to visit schools for the kids (find out prices, best time to enroll them...) and visit language school options for Mary Carole. However, the most exciting meeting I had was with the new Director of ITEM (my future boss, Jorge Aleman). Over Mexican-style hamburgers, he laid out for me the new vision for MTW's Theological Institute of Ministry (ITEM). It consists of a shift from being a self-contained center for accredited theological education, similar to our institutional seminary, to that of a center for continued education to those who are already in some capacity ministering in the local church. Another seminary has started in Monterrey and instead of competing with this new endeavor, MTW will seek to assist and compliment their work by providing classes that are recognized and needed for their program. Also, ITEM will then be freed to focus more on the church-planting movement of northern Mexico by providing more tailored classes to the local church. For example, when I arrive I'll be teaching a class on Old and New Testament survey to those who desire to be ordained as elders and deacons in the INPM (or for anyone else who's interested). Another class we've considered offering would be on the Westminster Confession of Faith. The point however is that we will be coming alongside the local body to build up leadership for spiritual growth and development in the practical context of the local congregation. Our desire and goal is that this will lead to greater and deeper multiplication of churches (as well as sufficient leaders) throughout all of northern Mexico.
If things remain the same, I can’t expect change. We’re three weeks into the new year, how are the resolutions coming? Did any of you not make any specifically because you didn’t want to disappoint yourself by not keeping them? That’s what I did last year. And this is what I learned: if things remain the same, I can’t expect change. The year before that I was running, exercising, and eating healthy...last year, not so much. Hence, the twenty pound weight gain to the midsection. Now this year, if I want to lose that and get back into shape, I have to change my eating habits and be much more active. I can’t let my incredibly soft comfy bed win the argument every morning about whether of not I should get up and go to the gym. If things remain the same, I can’t expect change. And in this case, the change I keep expecting is away from lethargy and steady adipose tissue amassment, toward cardiovascular vigor and lean, strong sinews.
This all seems pretty obvious, right? So why do we not make the same logical connections in the political arena? Why do you think Obama won last term? He promised change. Was it the same change that he ultimately gave us...I'll leave that debate to the political pundits. But about this time every election season, there is an underlying assumption by politicians, media, and water-cooler convo’s that we need a change. We need to get “things back to the [fictitious] way they used to be”!
In words that most will understand (otherwise infomercials wouldn’t be so popular, let alone successful), we want to get back to that 20-something body we had in college. So we jump on board the latest diet craze...(dot com, housing, rhodium, the expanding use of leverage, i.e., debt, sub-prime mortgage trading), which seem to work for a while before the bubble bursts and we realize we can’t sustain the harmful blowbacks. Like a shot of adrenaline these work in the short run (corporate bailouts, raising the debt ceiling) but they just delay the inevitable. I can starve today and weigh less tomorrow, but that isn’t addressing the issue or the goal. I want to live healthy, not die lighter.
So what do I have to do? If things remain the same, I can’t expect change. I have to make systematic changes to the way I live. I have to eat smaller portions of the right foods (refusing to further raise the debt ceiling so politicians can no longer spend recklessly, opposing all unfunded mandates and unnecessary regulations on small businesses and entrepreneurs); I have to be active, which will in turn give me more energy and allow me to be even more active (with my kids, mentally, socially, relationally, emotionally). I am not saying you have to be like Chris Traeger, but something has to give (Only send our military into conflict with a clear mission and all the tools they need to complete the job – and then bring them home).
We are a consumer nation that needs to make dramatic changes to our modus operandi if we expect to have a healthy economy. Personally, I think over-eating and over-spending point to a similar problem. Eat whatever you want and still lose weight, doesn’t work. I’ve eaten whatever I wanted, when I wanted and I did not get thinner. If things remain the same, I can’t expect change.
Maybe I am just overly cynical with a touch of apathy; however, all but one of the current presidential candidates (the incumbent included) sound like one of those psychologically slick infomercials that play to what I want by promising me what I am too lazy to work for through self-control and austerity. The one who doesn’t sound that way is Dr. Ron Paul. He has a proven track record for voting consistently with his stated views. He has promised to make the hard decisions to decrease spending (which may hurt in the short run) that will make us a healthier country in the long run. He has a foreign policy that does not assume that because we have the power to destroy other countries, then we also have the power to build them back up again. Who better to weigh in on the healthcare issues than a man who was a practicing medical doctor for twenty years! Granted that I do not agree with him on everything. But right now he is the only option that will bring anything resembling the change that everyone is always clamoring they want. If things remain the same, you can’t expect change.
¿Qué es lo que yo (o usted) realmente quieren cuando se le pide a Dios que bendiga a usted oa otros? ¿Es sólo algo que decir después de estornudar a alguien? O antes de comer?
Honestamente, todos tenemos una idea preconcebida de lo que es "mejor" para nosotros y los demás. Cuando oramos, o pedirle a Dios que bendiga a algo o alguien, que generalmente se le pedía que trabajar de acuerdo con nuestra idea de lo que es mejor. Teniendo en cuenta la raíz de la palabra hebrea para bendición (rodilla, arrodillarse, hacer de rodillas), una afirmación fuerte puede hacer que la sumisión es un componente clave de un concepto bíblico de la bendición de Dios. Por lo tanto, vemos una progresión del pensamiento de su mandato, "Sed fecundos y multiplicaos" a formas mucho más específica de vivir y ser en comunidad con los hombres y aceptable a Dios cuando Israel era una nación-estado. La bendición de Dios se hizo cada vez más ligado a funcionar correctamente dentro de esta relación de pacto con Dios. Si uno espera la bendición material (los niños, las cosechas, rebaños, casas, vino, etc) o espiritual (oraciones contestadas, la sabiduría, la felicidad, el carácter, etc), entonces una sincera devoción a la ley de Dios sería el fin. Es en este contexto de una posición correcta delante de Dios en una vida sometida a la instrucción que se podría esperar ser una bendición y recibir la bendición del Señor.
Y permítanme mencionar aquí, a pesar de los abusos abundante de centrar su devoción a Dios en torno a la "prosperidad," pidiendo o anticipando un que Dios bendiga a física o materialmente era esperado por todos en el Antiguo Testamento. Claro, como con casi todo, la responsabilidad también se esperaba (Proverbios 11:24-28), así como el sufrimiento (Sal. 73). Pero tenemos que asegurarnos de que no se conviertan en gnóstico en nuestra comprensión de cómo Dios trata con nosotros, porque esto es lo que significa "sed fecundos y multiplicaos."
Normalmente, cuando le pido a Dios que bendiga a mí oa otras personas me lo han pedido que intervenga por Dios en una situación de modo que él está trabajando directamente para la promoción de su nombre, gloria y propósitos, por lo general en respuesta a una promesa anterior. De esta manera, entiendo que el medio por el cual Él puede escoger hacer lo que no necesariamente se corresponden con mis propias expectativas (Santiago 4:13-16). Por lo tanto, presento mi voluntad a la suya, sabiendo que "para aquellos que aman a Dios todas las cosas obran para bien, para aquellos que son llamados conforme a su propósito. (Ro. 8:28)." Además, hay ambos una expectativa entendido y declarado de la obediencia (en qué grado o medida es un punto de gran debate entre los cristianos) en la parte de nosotros como seguidores de Cristo, si hemos de esperar que Dios nos bendiga (hacer nosotros una bendición a los demás) en el máximo, el sentido más rico de la comprensión.
El deseo de Dios es para nosotros para llegar a nuestra potencialidad de lo que significa ser un ser humano (Ef. 4:13) y esto es en última instancia, logrado en Cristo. Pero a medida que aprendemos en la vida de Cristo: hay cosas que sólo pueden aprenderse a través de las lágrimas (Hebreos 2:10,18). Por eso, cuando oramos por la bendición de Dios sobre nosotros y los demás (los planes, esfuerzos), vamos a presentar a los caminos de Dios, su tiempo, y el resultado, y al hacerlo nos hará una bendición para otros.
What do I (or you) really want when asking God to bless you or others? Is it just something you say after someone sneezes? Or before you eat?
Honestly, we all have a preconceived notion to what is “best” for us and others. When we pray or ask God to bless something or someone, we are usually asking him to work according to our idea of what is best. Given the root of the Hebrew word for blessing (knee, kneel, make kneel), a strong assertion may be made that submission is a key component to a biblical concept of blessing from God. Therefore we see a progression of thought from the mandate, "Be fruitful and multiply" to much more specific ways to live and be in acceptable community with men and God when Israel was a nation-state. The blessing of God became evermore tied to operating correctly within this covenantal relationship with God. If one expected blessing materially (children, crops, flocks, houses, wine, etc) or spiritually (prayers answered, wisdom, happiness, character, etc) then a heart-felt devotion to God’s law would be in order. It is within this context of a right standing before God in a life lived submitted to his instruction that one could anticipate being a blessing and receiving blessing from the Lord.
And let me just mention here, despite the abundant abuses of centering one's devotion on God around prosperity, asking or anticipating God to bless one physically or materially was expected by all under the OT. Sure, with most everything responsibility was also expected (Pro. 11:24-28), as was suffering (Ps. 73). But we need to make sure that we do not become gnostic in our understanding of how God deals with us, because this is what it means to "be fruitful, and multiply."
Normally, when I ask God to bless me or others I am asking Him to divinely intervene in a situation so that he is directly working for the advancement of his name, glory, and purposes, usually in response to a previous promise. By doing so, I understand that the means by which He may chose to do so will not necessarily correspond to my own expectations (James 4:13-16). Therefore I submit my will to His, knowing that "for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Ro. 8:28)." Also, there is both an understood and stated expectation of obedience (to what degree or extent is a point of much debate among Christians) on the part of us as followers of Christ if we are to expect God to bless us (make us a blessing to others) in the fullest, richest sense of the understanding.
God's desire is for us to reach our full potentiality of what it means to be human (Eph. 4:13) and this is ultimately achieved in Christ. But as we learn in Christ's life: there are things that can only be learned through tears. (Heb 2:10,18). So when we pray for God's blessing on others and ourselves (plans, endeavors), let us submit to God's ways, timing, and outcome, and in doing so He will make us a blessing to others.
Many of my friends are becoming quite prolific with their blogs recently. Or maybe I'm just noticing because I only recently figured out how to use RSS feeds (I know, I'm riding the wave of cutting technology). So I'm discovering some really funny, insightful, and thought-provoking musings by people from various backgrounds and disciplines. All of which has engendered my own desire to share with the world how funny, insightful, and thought-provoking I can be...or prove the reverse. Anyways, as I thought about this today, I looked down on my desk at my work and wondered if this is what I am focused on all day how should I expect to come up with anything interesting?
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 1:02PM 
