place of nathan.

This past weekend I was privileged to spend some quality time with a missionary. He talked about his life and showed me photographs of his daughters–teenagers, and he was away from them for most of the year. And then it hit me: This guy is away from his wife and kids more than he is in the same country!

Talk about dedication. Seven months of the year, he is in a different continent. The five months he’s in the same country, he travels the country. Talk about dedication and commitment.

So I wondered about myself: Would I be willing to make such a commitment, leaving my wife for months at a time, in order to follow God’s call?

Man…that one hurts!

How would you answer that?

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My church, New Hope, has spent the last nine years investing in an unreached peoples group, The Berani, in Indonesia. To the best of our knowledge, this tribe has NEVER had a single Christian among them. They were a 100% Muslim tribe.

Within the past year, we have seen a lot of movement in Indonesia. We finally have multiple (native Indonesian) teams in place and building relationships. One guy is a soccer ’star’ and all the kids admire his soccer abilities–He has even organized inter-village soccer games. He is a celebrity! How cool!

We just received word yesterday that “Tana” has converted to Christianity! That’s right, this 100% Muslim tribe is now 99.9% Muslim! Woohoo! Our previously unreached peoples group has been penetrated, and there are NO signs of slowing down.

This is a really, really incredible thing! We are making an eternal difference!

If you or your church would be interested in learning more about how you can support the effort to reach the Berani, or if you are interested in participating in a short-term trip to The Berani the spring of 2008, let me know, and I’ll get you in touch with the people you need to talk to.

FYI, for security, neither Berani nor Tana are real names. They have been made up to protect our field workers living with The Berani and also Tana. Please continue to pray for our teams, Tana, Tana’s family and The Berani.

We are getting there! God is faithful!

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The astonishing thing is that people can become religious without being converted. That is, they join churches and start reading the Bible and doing religious things with no change in the foundation of their happiness: It is still themselves. They are the ground of their joy -John Piper.

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Is today’s ‘church’ too girly?

Watch Mark Driscoll’s take on The Chick-i-fied Church:

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If you have ever heard of the ‘Emerging Church’, you may be interested in hearing Mark Driscoll talk about the different groupings (of which Emergent is one such group) which make up the Emerging Church as a whole.

I think Driscoll is quite balanced, and although I don’t agree with him completely doctrinally, he is very much a Biblical man, and think he’s really on the ball.

Note Driscoll is closely tied with John Piper, who is certainly not Gen-Xer.

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Have you ever heard of being slain in the spirit?

As wikipedia puts it, slain in the spirit is “a religious phenomenon in which a person enters a state with loss of all motor control over their body and falls to the floor during an event perceived as a personal encounter with God’s glory and power, usually associated with occasions of public prayer ministry when the laying on of hands is practiced.”

When I was a junior or senior in high school, I went to youth group in Fort Wayne with my best friend. There were about 300 teens there. After service, there was a prayer line, and people were getting slain in the spirit right down the line. I was so excited to experience more of what God had for me. I wanted all God had for me–not just part of it.
As the guy praying–I’ll call him Billy–came to me, he place his hand on my forehead. He prayed for me, and I stood there, ready for an awesome encounter with God. When I didn’t go down, he lightly pushed on my forehead. I realized he was pushing on me, and I didn’t go down, because I wanted God to knock me out, not Billy to push me over. So Billy pushed a little harder. At this point, I was like, ‘What the heck is going on?’ He then stopped pushing and kept praying for me, before he moved on to the next person.
Talk about disappointment!

Notice the wikipedia description said, ‘public prayer ministry’ and ‘laying on of hands’.
my thoughts: 1. why wouldn’t such an intimate experience happen during one-on-one time? 2. why when ‘laying on of hands?’

So then I went to the Bible. I wanted to find evidence of being slain in the spirit. There is pretty much nothing. When there is, it is face-down, not face-up, or it’s a conscious choice to lay down–no references to an uncontrollable loss of motor function when someone touches you in a public setting.
Please take a moment and look at these verses: (note: this is NOT an exhaustive listing) Genesis 17:3, Joshua 5:14, Judges 13:20, 1 Kings 8:10, 11, Ezekiel 1:28, Matthew 17:6, Matthew 28:4, Mark 3:11, Mark 9:20, John 18:6, Acts 9:4-8, Revelation 1:17

I would note that at the time of my experience of not being slain in the spirit, I truly believed it was of God and was biblical. I’m honestly not sure why I believed this, as I’m quite certain my dad (my pastor) never taught me it was, so I’m not sure what gave me the impression it was Godly and biblical.

That’s not to say God couldn’t knock me out if he wanted to, because I am very, very confident God could slay me (or you) in the spirit (or physically) any time He wanted. I just haven’t been able to scripturally support our modern ’slain in the spirit’ ritual.

Thoughts on this?
Do you have any similar experiences to what I experienced in high school?
Have a missed a key scripture indicating a scriptural precedent for being slain in the spirit?

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Tonight at the convention, Pastor Paul shared briefly about the difference between conviction and preference.

He noted that convictions should be as short as possible, and rooted in the Bible. And your convictions are just that–yours. Don’t force your convictions (like, you won’t wear a tie, or you won’t do this, or that) onto everyone else. If God told you, that means he told you.

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I was just telling Adam earlier this week that I’m not really much on blogging lyrics, but here are some lyrics out of the Gadsby Hymnal that I just love. It really has hit home for me over the past several months, so I thought I would share a portion of the lyrics here. (Thanks Guy for turning me on to this song and other Gadsby songs. I love it!)

Christ, Or Else I Die
(Gadsby Hymnal, #737)
William Hammond, 1719-1783

Wealth and honor I disdain,
Earthly comforts, Lord are vain;
These can never satisfy:
Give me Christ, or else I die.

All unholy and unclean,
I am nothing else but sin;
On thy mercy I rely;
Give me Christ or else I die.

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Today I added a new link to my blogroll.

My brother in law and his son have a very cool discussion blog. It’s interesting to read the discussions between dad and six-year old son.

I encourage you to swing over and read the neat format of the blog.

And, if you ever get a chance to meet Guy and Guy, I think you’d like them both, as well as wife/mom Rachel (Emily’s sister).

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Today Perry Noble said this:

The world is watching…and when Christians cause Christians to get mad at other Christians…somehow I just don’t believe God is pleased.

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