Hideaway

Greetings!  It has been a while.  I hope you are well, prospering from the overflow of your soul.
I am attempting to create a new area wherein we can think together.  I'd like to open with a reflection from a recent opportunity I had to spend learning about God, and how he sees us.  What I learned during those days, I thought I had already known.  Now, though, I have the experience to deepen my knowledge, and a resultant conviction to share this with you.  I hope that from this, you will be encouraged, and strengthened to approach God, who has always been waiting for you, and wanting you closer to himself.

This is part of a lengthy essay, which I'll shorten for the sake of the post.  It may be helpful to break it up into several shorter posts.  The first segment is here.  I will include some of the references from which I have learned.

From Monday, January 20 through Friday, January 24, 2014, I had the privilege of going to The Hideaway, a retreat center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  A combination of lectures, book and article readings, spiritual practices, small group times, and individual interactions were at my disposal for acquiring much knowledge about Soul Care.  More than this, though, God taught me about Himself.  He shifted some of my previous understandings about His character, and gave me a newer, deeper experience of His disposition toward me.

Since the earliest days of my own mindfulness in the Christian faith, I tended to believe that the way God views me is just like I believed my earthly father views me.  Therefore I have always respected and loved God, and we were mutually amiable, sure, but there existed between us a hierarchy in which he was more of my Master and I was his servant.  I was his child, too, but mostly a servant.  I had no problems with this frame of reference, as I also believed that our relationship was supposed to exist in this way.  God is the Creator of all that is, and I am one of his creatures after all; working for him like a son/employee was quite natural to me.  I served faithfully, and of course God remained faithful.  I took care of God’s business, and he took care of mine.  We were, I thought, excellent business partners.

I did not consider us to be friends who shared the same spirit.  I had previously assumed that our relationship worked based on four premises:  God is powerful.  I am weak.  God empowers me.  I work for him.  The logic seemed foolproof.  I enjoyed spiritual growth, and was confident that life would continue on unhindered by upsets or setbacks so long as I ‘stuck to the script.’  How wrong I was!  High school friends and then college relationships challenged the ways in which I viewed the character and nature of God.  From this class/retreat, I have had a chance to begin reflecting on the words of Dallas Willard, from his book entitled Hearing God.  “Scripture is a communication that establishes communion and opens the way to union, all in a way that is perfectly understandable once we begin to have experience of it.”[1]

So I recognize now that I had not yet appropriated union with God, because I did not yet grasp the significance of communion with him.  In fact, I was aiming to thrive solely from the communication of God through the Scriptures.  To me, the highest aim was unflinching belief in what God has revealed to us in the Scriptures (never mind that he tells us he wants both communion and union with us!).  From that pinnacle, all of life would flow on without much trouble at all, and any problems I encountered could be easily remedied with a reaffirmation of belief in God through his written Word.  Little did I realize that there was more to life than intellectual assent.  God wanted to engage my mind as well as my heart.

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[1] Dallas Willard, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God, updated and expanded / by jan johnson. ed. (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Books, 2012), 210.

You are What You Worship

For the record, I missed Saturday because I actually had no credit. Internet access is prepaid here, and I had used up my data before Saturday. How legit is that? Very.


2 Kings 17:15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified unto them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the nations that were round about them, concerning whom Jehovah had charged them that they should not do like them.

It is one thing to live as I see fit, and still come out at the end having preserved the basic substance of life, i.e. identity and purpose. Quite another matter arises if I should realize the emptiness of all my efforts in that respect. That is to say, it would be a sad day indeed to find out that my source of identity and purpose is empty like an abandoned, leaky cistern.

...and they followed vanity.

Just as grave as missing this fundamental need to worship, worshipping in vain affects the innermost layers of existence itself. When two people spend much time together, friends or roommates for instance, they begin to adopt each others behavioral patterns, even to the extent that they breathe with similar rhythms when asleep. Worship has the same effects on the worshipper. I derive a large sense of personal value from my object of worship. If my object of worship is of actual worth comparable or greater to that which I ascribe to it/him/her/them, then I wager that I would maintain a higher sense of self-worth. If I decide worship something/someone that is not actually worthy or the worth I give, negative effects are a result. This is because worship is impossible without relationship. If I am to worship authentically, I must get closer to my object of worship relationally. There is no other way. As I come closer, our rhythms, whatever they may be, will become increasingly similar. So you see this line of reasoning: if my god (for what we worship, we have deified to the best of our understanding) is not really worthy of worship, then I become more "hollow," so to speak, until giving my all matches the actual worth of my obect of worship. The opposite is true for a truly worthy deity; I rather become fulfilled, and even more completely so with the deepening relationship.

...and they followed vanity, and became vain.

The point: Worship only what is most worthy. Anything less, and you will destroy yourself.

posted from Bloggeroid

This Ministry's Purpose

of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Paul's ministry is about making the gospel of Jesus the Christ fully known, so that he might present everyone mature in Christ. Is that true for every one of God's ministers?

Today, we were on the road again from Accra, where we spent not-quite-two- days buying necessary groceries, dog food, and plants, back to Nkwanta, our home. The journey will be around 6 hours in duration. It could be shorter, if the rain has not damaged the last hour-long stretch of road too badly, or if no large trucks have gotten stuck on the road, effectively impeding progress and raising stress levels for all travellers. It could be shorter if, after the paved road ends, the dirt road has been grated and only slightly dampened by rain; or if the Chinese contractors have paved the road completely, so that the whole journey will pass over tarred (paved) road. But, of course, we're in the rainy season and, while it is dry in Accra, Nkwanta and its surrounding areas are making up for the capital's lack. It'll be longer.

Remember, your identity is found in relation to someone(s) or something(s)...unless you are source of all the somethings and someones, in which case, if you're reading this, I am grateful and greatly humbled and welcome all of your input on...everything. If you are not, then I would thank you to read on. Without what(s) or whom(s) would your life be less than satisfied or satisfactory? Mind you, I do not intend to imply a scale as our teachers may have in grade school, from Failing to Satisfactory to Excellent. Rather, I intend to denote the difference between satisfied and not satisfied, simply. If _ were not a part of my life, I would have no reason to live, no purpose in living. As an attempt at greater clarity without confusion, if you could make allowance for _'s absence, then you need to keep searching. I mean, without ___, you would lose your sense of self. I hope that's clear.

Now, if you have no point of reference for such a source for your sense of self, then I would urge you to both begin and continue the search. By the conclusion of these thoughts, I hope you understand the importance of your identity. I know that many may not know where to start, and might not have even given this topic a first, let alone second, thought. To you, then, what follows is a case for identity. To you who are searching and who meet with mixed success, encouragement and exhortation are my goals. To those who encourage and exhort in this area, I pray that this is helpful as you help others grow, and as you find nourishment for your souls. To all of you and everyone, may your source prove just and benevolent and, perhaps above all, present.

posted from Bloggeroid

God, and What You're Gonna Do About It

My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,

and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,

when I remember you upon my bed,

and meditate on you in the watches of the night;

for you have been my help,

and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.


Satisfaction, then, is directly related to my memory, and to God's identity, and is an element which can lead to an outward expression of my joy. Everything points to the Lord having been my help, grammatically. If, as a result of who God is, I will sing for joy, then my joyful song is worship--appropriate response to who God is.

There's some basic study for you.

Today, I got to use a pickaxe! So exciting. That may be the highlight of the day. What's more, I broke a piece of rock as I went. I'm trying to continue irrigating the area around our garden, because the rain brings in a copious amount of rocky silt from the land adjacent to ours. Once we finish the southwest wall and put up the other house, the problem will be solved. For the time being, though, it is not solved....

In other news, also a highlight today, my dad told me that I was going to teach the book of Colossians to a group of pastors in couple of weeks. Colossians!!! If you are reading this and you don't know it already, my passion concerns identity in Christ: what it means and why it matters. So, yeah, you should ask me if you don't have a clue about yours. That's why I asked you those questions a little over a month ago. Thus also my excitement about teaching Colossians. Read it sometime, but only if you wanna know who God is, who you are in him, and how you should live as a result. :) Yippee

Who are you? So what?

That is all for now, almost. If you haven't already, click on that big picture at the top of the page.

If you already have, click on that big picture at the top of that page. Stay informed. Live in Love. (Psst...God is love.)

posted from Bloggeroid

Life's Aul

Haven't we been changed by the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ? What is there to be said concerning the presence, power, and promises of God Almighty? Are they ineffectual? Is the Divine Love in vain? Where is the change in my life? In yours?

Or is it the appropriation of this God's life onto, into, around, through our own existence? Is it propositional knowledge, or is it relationship? The difference between the two is worth noting. On the one hand, the intellect reigns, without solid footing; mindless speculation abounds, leading to high-sonding nonsense and "ownership" of the infinite. On the other, intellect is fed by experience; hope is not seen, but the evidence of said unseen awaits to enwrap us all in an unforseen-yet-expected. A serendipitous embrace. O, that I might attain unto the loftiness of the plans for me by my Infinite Benevolent.

Today, we worked. I would upload a photo of our progress but, alas and alack, I reside in Nkwanta, Ghana, where picutres swallow bandwidths whole. Perhaps you could keep up with the progress by clicking on the picture of the sky at the top of the page. To keep you updated, we have begun to fill the first part of the Nkwanta Leasership Empowerment Center. Jeremy, David (my cousin), Evans, and I all worked together to shovel sand into the first of many holes, and mark the beginning of the foundation-filling journey. Worked about 5 hours, and I've actually just woken up from a nap [that I will be resuming soon enough, and with great pleasure] to fill you in (get it?) on what's happening with WorldVenture Ghana. To add the cherry ont top of an already sumptuous pretty please, we have our own truck! I know, you're like, "Yay," in that uncertain-of-what's-going-on kind of way. With the truck, we can cut down on the cost of transporting goods (eggs en masse, dirt, etc), which means that we can put more money directly towards the ministry with less heartache! God has provided yet again; feel free to get in on the action if you aren't in already. How? Click on that big picture at the top of the screen. It is so cool.

I have also been given the privilege of teaching one of the local Youth groups tomorrow evening. The topic is "The Renewal of the Mind," Which spans passages in Philippians chapter 2, Ephesians 2 and 4, and Romans chapter 12. I'm always excited to speak to Youth, and this is another time when I will get to incorporate my passion, Identity in Christ, into the lesson. I plan to teach no longer than 30 minutes, and then to field questions, as per the pastor's request. I hope and pray that all goes well, and that I treat the Word of God appropriately.

Keep answering those questions put forth in the "To Begin" blog and following. Who are you? Why does it matter? What does it mean? Write down the reason that God has placed you on this planet. Take your time. Pray. Again. and Again. Live in Love.

posted from Bloggeroid

A Chance to Proclaim

Sunday, I had the privilege of speaking God's word to some the saints in Odumase. I shared with them from the book of Luke, chapter 5, verses 1-11. The theme for the day and for the preceding week was "Stepping Up Your Effort for Divine Intervention," so I urged those present to prepare themselves with three advices:
Divine Intervention does not always happen in the way you might expect it.
Divine Intervention is not only God becoming a part of your life; it is also the invitation from God to become a part of God's life.
Divine Intervention has already begun. Know the Lord, and trust in his promises for your life.

So, we were all encouraged. My friend and peer, Evans, was also with me to translate the sermon into Twi. Justice, whom I hope to call my friend soon, translated from Twi to Konkomba (sp?). Praise God for his word!!

As I type, it is time to relax from the day's travails. I even got to drive a stick shift today!! ...didn't stall one time, but I did shift from 2nd to 5th to 1st again, consecutively.

Remember this: Blessings that God wants to give you (on top of what he has already given, mind you) can be realized only after you obey the word that God has given you to do. Jesus told Simon to go out into the deep water and let down his net. Despite having fished all night without success, Simon obeyed. After the obedience was made reality, the blessing came. God knew Simon's need, and provide in God's own way. The same with you. Don't limit what God can do, and don't limit the way by which God can do it.

Continue writing with your lessons: Who are you? Why does it matter? What has to change in your life because of your identity? Who you are affects what you do, you know. It should, at any rate.

posted from Bloggeroid