Dead Tired

Yep, I'm Tired

I am a bit tired, but I am going to take a crack at this anyways.

5AM Thursday, July 30th
I had a great 24 hour day yesterday. Shortly after the five O' Clock AM prayer meetings, we drove to the airport and picked up our director. From there we had a short time of thanksgiving and debriefing.

1PM Thursday
Got in some good reading and much needed prayer.

4PM Thursday
Later in the afternoon, the director asked me if I wanted to go with him to the 5th anniversary meeting at a church five hours drive South of here. I accepted his offer and we left at 4Pm. Thankfully we drove at only a moderate speed, even then we narrowly escaping death with each passing moment. Check out Peaceful Insanity to get a faint idea of the experience.

9PM Thursday
By the time we reached the meeting it was 9PM, and I had a smashing headache. And yet in spite of a three day journey across the world, the director still looked very much at the top of his game. (The meeting had been going on for a few hours by the time we arrived)

We walked from the car past the meeting into the house where we were served delicious fried snacks that tasted something like a doughnuts with a sweet honey filling. (Sorry no pics)

9:30PM Thursday
Beyond all my wildest expectations the director produced a type of headache relief pill from his briefcase. Amazingly, it didn't seem to help at all. I was not able to feel one ounce of relief the whole night . "There must be a design in this headache" I thought to myself.

About this time, our director joined the meeting, and I went out and sat down with the crowd. I whipped out my camera and took this video.



Sadly, that would be the first and last video/picture I would take. The freshly overnight-charged battery was dead after a few seconds. I reminded myself that God was in control, and thankfully my spirit remained at peace.

11:15 Thursday
The meeting was over and the believers dispersed for dinner. For some unknown reason my energy level was well depleted by this point.

Since the meeting was over we walked over to the parsonage... hm, before I go on, I should mention something about the meeting ground. It was situated on a plot of ground in the middle of a rice patty bog and was about 150 yards long by 75 yards wide and thankfully was raised up about a foot and a half above the bog that it was situated on.

I estimate conservatively that the surrounding rice field held just shy one million croaking frogs that night.

These little guys croaked up a storm

They fed us a delicious meal of fish, chicken, rice, curd and chilled monkey brains. I opted for just the rice and curd. I was surprised to see the director still going on strong after a three day round the world trip + a five hour drive + speaking for more than an hour at this meeting.

Dinner is Served

(just kidding about the monkey brains, to this day I have never encountered anything of the type)

12:00AM Friday
After finishing dinner, our merry band hopped in the car and we raced back to home base narrowly avoiding death every five minutes or so.

2:00AM Friday
After driving for some time it became apparent that our rent-a-car driver was having a hard time staying awake. This came to my attention after I noticed that he would stop the car every fifteen to thirty minutes to get out walk around and then come back and sit in the car and sleep for five minute power naps. I really wish I had been able to take a video of this. It was one of the more notably odd experiences I have had. Anyhow because of all the stops our homeward progress slowed to a crawl even though the roads were almost completely empty.

Somewhere about this time our director fell into a peaceful slumber.

5:00AM Friday

Hooray! By five in the morning we had made it safely back to home base and I silently gave a prayer of gratitude for our safety.

5:30AM Friday

I took a short nap and then woke up to write this blog post.

I'm out folks.

Grace and Peace

Luther on Salvation

Martin Luther elegantly answers the trillion dollar question in a single sentence.

He-Man Versus Jesus

Contender #1: He-Man of Eternia (Special Ability: Incredible Strength)

False Idols Vs. The King of kings

As I was growing up, like everyone else born in the last five decades I experienced several waves of super-hero cartoons that hit the networks. As a kid I discovered that my peers were enamored with them and could name off all the characters, their sidekicks, and their special abilities and powers. While there are different heroes on the networks today, at one time He-Man was the one who was revered by American children to be the most powerful being in the universe. As they saw it in their imagination, not even Jesus rivaled his power.

Why is Jesus thought to be a weakling?

Maybe because he is often portrayed as one.

One of the reasons Jesus appears weak to the masses is because of the way the church has portrayed him. This in part has to do with the fact that we believe in the incarnation of Jesus. But sometimes the church has gone too far with the incarnation and portrayed him solely in light of his human nature, particularly human frailty. It is brilliantly shown in Isaiah 53.

As important as the incarnation is, we must also take care not to forget the exaltation of Jesus. But more on that later.

Is this Jesus?

An Adult's World

Cartoon fantasy aside, we live in a world where we are faced with wave after wave of local and world leaders who are portrayed as having the power (or ability) to give a peace to the nations. People place their hope in them, in many ways they serve to replace the heroes of childhood.

Contender #2: Next Gen Politician (Special Ability: Tongue of an Asp)

I am reminded that all power and ability is given from God. Not even the secretary general of the united nations can lift a finger apart from the power which God has placed in his hands.

". . .For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God."
Romans 13:1

Interestingly enough, even if they accomplished all their promises for a happy life, they could not stop death. The statistic is true, 10 out of 10 people born die, no leader in his right mind would dare to attempt to promise eternal life. No leader could promise that, except Jesus.

Feathered Hair Model Jesus: This is really sad

The Power of The Risen and Exalted King

Forget the two photos of Jesus you just saw, lets see what scripture says about Him.

"Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Mat 28:18

"Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;" Heb 1:3

"In Him all things live and move and have their being" Paul: Mars Hill (Acts 17:28)

After Jesus accomplished his mission of redemption, the bible teaches us that he ascended into heaven where he is now seated at the right hand of God ruling in power. (Ac 7:55, Ro 8:34, Eph 1:20-22, 1Pe 3:22) This is Jesus in His exalted state. I can't show you a picture of the exalted Jesus. In fact no one is capable of drawing a picture of of Him in His magnificence.

God knew this, and He allowed men like John in the bible to record majesty of Christ in heaven by the written word. Since we don't have accurate pictures the only place for us to get a vision of the majesty of God is to read about it in the text. It really helps us to read passages like Isaiah 6, (He is holy) Revelation 5 (Heavenly worship) and Revelation 19. (The Word is mighty in Battle) If the Spirit doesn't illuminate your soul after that, all I can suggest is to pray for some faith and a new set of eyes.

The real hope for a better life doesn't come from cartoon heroes or world leaders, it comes from Jesus and His gospel of peace. Not only does the gospel give hope, but it compels us to forsake this life and serve God in light of the hope of a better life to come - Your Best Life Later.

The Power of Jesus' Message

The gospel is powerful, it has to do with huge, earth-shaking, life-changing things. In fact it is the central, unifying message of the bible. At the center of the gospel we see Christ and the justice, power, love and wisdom of God displayed with unparalleled clarity.

Not only do we see the power of God to save sinners, but we see the power of God to continue to change the lives of believers. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul states that of everything he taught, the gospel is the thing of first importance. Our lives must be lived in light of the good news.

We can never move away from the gospel. Its the main issue at hand for everyone, and if I'm not mistaken, something is wrong when we make secondary issues the main issues.

Jerry Bridges puts it well when he states;

"The gospel is not the most important message in history; it is the only essential message in all of history. Yet we allow thousands of professing Christians to live their entire lives without clearly understanding it and experiencing the joy of living their lives by it."

Lets work on preaching the gospel to ourselves. Every day we are in serious danger of taking our eyes off Christ. We need to remind ourselves that we are still sinners in need of a savior. We need Jesus as much today as the day we first believed - We will never reach a point in our lives where the saving blood of Jesus is no longer needed. In the end after all we have done for the Lord it's only Jesus who can present us faultless before the throne of God.

Contender #3: God (Special Ability: All Power in Heaven and Earth)

Recap

Well that's it, I hope and pray that we will spend more time seeing and savoring the savior in the text; Meditating on both His incarnation and His exaltation. May we truly treasure Christ and the Gospel of peace we have been entrusted with.

Please feel free to add to this. I am searching for some comments on this one. I actually turned comment moderation off in hope to get some discussion going.

Soli Deo Gloria

Josh

Reform Your Life And Doctrine, Meet With God In The Text

[HT: Resurgence]

Lyrical Theology

Shai Linne

Another dose of lyrical theology is due. In our last helping, I featured Shai Linne's catchy Q&A catechism. This time around I am going lay down a few more lyrical morsels for us to chew on together.

Since I mentioned Shai Linne, lets start with him.

The Atonement: In Adam All Die (Shai Linne)

We’re cursed from our birth, sinning from the beginning
The womb to the tomb, depraved to the grave
Astray every day, every breath brings death
In Adam all die, In Adam all die

Rebel: Go Hard (Lecrae)

Lord kill me If I don't preach the gospel

Running from my trials thinking everything's groovy
If the Cross don't move me, then I don't wanna breath no more
If I ain't seeing Christ partner, I don't wanna see no more"

Identity Crisis: Make War! (Tedashii)

Persistently attacking me - they're even in the back of me
It's either fight or loose my life and I can't take this passively
So what you think I'm bout to do - I'm bout to do what I can do
Trust the ONE who got me through - and fight like it was after school
Never giving up - steady, standing on the battle field
Feet firm to the ground like I stepped on Chappel Hill

I MAKE WAR! - Cause sin never sleeps
It's got me in a trance - you can see it in my dreams
I MAKE WAR! - Man I beat my flesh
To the death - every breath - like I beat my chest
I MAKE WAR - sun up
I MAKE WAR - sun down
I MAKE WAR - time in
I MAKE WAR - time out
I MAKE WAR - against lust
Against pride - against me - until I die

Any thoughts?

An Indian Wedding: A Brief Photo Journey

Jeevan and Paulina Gorantla

Many Peoples, Yet One People

One of my desires for the use of this blog is to bring at least two worlds together. Though we are one body in Christ, believers all across the world are still very much separated from each other both geographically and culturally.

While our unity is in Christ, His word and the truth it contains, (things we hopefully have come to terms with) we could all do better to understand the contexts in which Christian ethnic groups all around the world live the Christian life.

In a small way I will contribute by utilizing this blog for that purpose. It should also be fun and exciting while informing us and bringing about a better understanding of God's world.

Today I am posting some photos from a good friend's wedding which took place last month.

Brief Background Bios

Jeevan has been based in Sweden working for ST-Ericsson for the last few years and has a strong desire to support ministries back in India. He is a really fun guy who loves the Lord, and it has been my privilege to be his friend. Paulina comes from a strong Christian family that has been involved in gospel ministry for several years. She also has a desire for ministry.

The Bride: Paulina

The Groom: Jeevan

The Message

Exchanging Rings

The Rings (Accidentally smaller than the ring finger)

The Obligatory Showering

First Cake

Music On The Mountain

This video represents three week's effort on the part of Steve McGarvey and myself back in the summer of 2006. Neither of us were very familiar with the process of creating a quality music video. Nevertheless we took a crack at it and armed with a guitar and a 3 CCD camera we crawled up the mountain, fought hoards of army ants, wild goats, strange bees, thorns and the blistering heat.

The filming turned out to be the easy part. After climbing down the mountain we spent an hour or two every day for the next three weeks in the recording studio working on the audio. In the end the sound was satisfactory, but still needed some work.

The video was originally filmed in the PAL format. I recently recoding it to match Google's NTSC format so it's a little choppy now, but definitely viewable.

Goats: Nuff Said

A Deuce of Goats Stand Defiantly on Our Baptism Pool

Bad News

A goat herd took up residency in our garden late yesterday evening.

While much of the damage occurred in the night, this video reveals the continuing demise of our luscious garden as it is beset by the herd today. Everything green will be gone in the next few hours. (Take careful notice of the master goat waggling his ears menacingly at me.)

The Ballad of Tyler Bell

Today I feel compelled to post a little something about my good friend Tyler Bell. He has been faithfully serving the Lord in Ponca, Nebraska as a full time worship leader since June this year. It was six years ago now that as we were jogging together on one of those breezy summer evenings he relayed to me that famous statement,

"God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him."

and also

"The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever."

That was a radical concept to me at the time. Although I was familiar enough with the Westminster catechism to know that the chief end of man was "to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever", this "new" idea of glorifying God by enjoying Him took some time to understand. As I recall, I think I spent several months wrestling over it before I started to see the truth in it by God's grace.

The Westminster Standards

So I thank God for that timely introduction to a great truth, and for the wonderful fellowship I have with Tyler, and for the continuing work of God in his life. By the grace of God that little conversation six years ago ultimately made a considerable impact on my soul.

Tyler and Joana will be getting married in a few weeks

Wrapping It Up

Here is a clip where Tyler plays one of his favorite Phill Wickham songs by the light of a campfire along the Missouri river several miles up North from the Ponca landing. Sounds pretty good huh!

Give The Gospel Not Gimmicks

Get it? [Click to Enlarge]

Oh no, Not another Polemic!

Here goes... this is a serious subject, but I will try to make it as winsome as possible. A few years ago I listened to Keith Green's message, What's Wrong With The Gospel? The message was a response to the average evangelical "gospel" message. As you may know, Keith was not on target everywhere (imputation in particular) but he made an excellent thrust in the right direction with it. Keith's point basically boiled down to this; the pure gospel has been perverted, and now has both missing parts and added parts.

Keith Green preached Christ

There is nothing wrong with the true Gospel in its purity, and so there is no need to water it down or sugar it up, it is the power of God unto salvation... Romans 1:16

However in spite of this truth, we often hear the "gospel"portrayed as;

"Let (or ask) Jesus into your heart."
"Make Jesus the Lord of your life."

...or even more blasphemously, "Put Jesus on the throne of your life"

So What Is The Gospel Then?

It's good to mention this again, the gospel is good news, not good advice. That is one of the key distinctions in which Christianity differs from every other religion. The pure gospel is not about something, or anything that we must do.

The gospel is about what God has done in Jesus for us, not what we must do for Him. It is amazing that while in our time of relative ease people feel it isn't good enough Paul said in his day of affliction that he was not ashamed of it.

The gospel consists in the narrative of the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus as recorded in the four New Testament gospels. This is good news beyond all we could ever hope for - even though we are undeserving, God had mercy on us. He did this for forgiveness and removal of sin, satisfaction of the justice of God and declaration of righteousness for a right standing with God for those who believe in Him. All this as Peter put it, that He might bring us to God. (1 Peter 3:18)

"Having made peace through the blood of his cross... in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight. If you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel." Colossians 1:20-23

By God's grace lets stand unashamed and uncompromising for the gospel in this age of subtle reconstruction of the truth.

Soli Deo Gloria

Josh

Reform Your Life And Doctrine, Meet With God In The Text.

Hallelujah! All I Have Is Christ

Today I am posting a music video clip from this year's NEXT conference. I thank God that songs like this are still being written!

The Next conference featured excellent speakers including; Joshua Harris, Kevin DeYoung, D.A. Carson and Sinclair Ferguson amongst others. Messages dealt with foundational topics such as The Preeminence of Christ, Christ's Life, Death, Resurrection and Return, and Just Do Something. (knowing the will of God, very helpful) You can browse and download the messages here.

I recommend that you read these powerful lyrics. They are worth meditating on.

ALL I HAVE IS CHRIST

I once was lost in darkest night
Yet thought I knew the way
The sin that promised joy and life
Had led me to the grave
I had no hope that You would own
A rebel to Your will
And if You had not loved me first
I would refuse You still

But as I ran my hell-bound race
Indifferent to the cost
You looked upon my helpless state
And led me to the cross
And I beheld God’s love displayed
You suffered in my place
You bore the wrath reserved for me
Now all I know is grace

Hallelujah! All I have is Christ
Hallelujah! Jesus is my life

Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone
And live so all might see
The strength to follow Your commands
Could never come from me
Oh Father, use my ransomed life
In any way You choose
And let my song forever be
My only boast is You

© 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI), by Jordan Kauflin

[HT: BKauflin, GWyoming]

The Earth: A Visual Aid To Understanding the Glory of God

First Earthrise sighting, Apollo 11 Mission

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. In a recent article, Buzz Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon recently commented on the significance of the historic event;

"The pictures we and our fellow lunar astronauts took of the moon and the Earth changed forever our concept of our place in the universe. We saw the Earth as alone, fragile and in need of protecting and preserving. Those images helped give birth to the environmental movement."

Lunar Module Pilot, Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr.

Wouldn't it have been great if that historic moment had instead given birth to a widespread movement of man towards God? If we were as 'enlightened' as we think we are in our free-thinking society then I am certain we would have. Alas, Adam's posterity is as spiritually blind as ever. Only a move of God could give birth to such a thing.

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork. (Psalms 19:1)

The heavens are provided by God as a visual aid to help us apprehend His glory. That is one place to start in apprehending the majesty of an infinite God.

Issac Watts said the following in his treatise on Logic,

"If finite beings are not adequately known by us, much less the things infinite: for it is of the nature of a finite mind not to be able to comprehend what is infinite"

Watts also points out that while we cannot comprehend God in the sense that we can't wrap our minds around Him comprehensively, we can apprehend what truth is revealed about God in scripture. So we should not say that God is an ineffable mystery, that is, He is too mysterious to be expressed or described in words. (oddly enough, the word "ineffable" is a word used to describe things which can't be described with words) While as great and mysterious the Godhead is, we can and do describe God with words, and this is okay, because He describes Himself in great detail with words in His word.

Particularly we know God best as seen in the incarnation and exaltation of Jesus, He is the best visual representation of God, He is God.

I do wonder sometimes if the human mind in it's current state of frailty and weakness prefers to believe in what it can comprehend. Buzz Aldrin was right. "Earth worship" has become increasingly popular since people first saw in full color how small the earth really is. Suddenly the earth was larger than just the neighborhood, city, state or country one was living in, it was a planet in its entirety. It could be comprehended as a whole, yet today we are still having a hard time comprehending all its parts.

And here's the shocker, even if we could, we could never concentrate on all the parts comprehensively in any one given moment of thought. Amazingly, God can.

Space exploration comes up from time to time in conversations. So I am resolved by God's grace to use the opportunity to demonstrate that the wonders of creation (such as outer space) serve to point us to the Creator.

"For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." Romans 1:20 ESV

Soli Deo Gloria

Josh

Reform Your Life And Doctrine, Meet With God In The Text.

Serving Christ in Orissa

Pastor T.K. Raju

Today I am introducing Pastor T. K. Raju, a Children's evangelist and pastor from Orissa. T.K Raju hold a Bachelors of Arts from a school in Orissa, and a Master of Divinity from ICCS (International College of Cultural Studies, Operation Mobilization)


Serving Christ in the North

While T.K. Raju pastors a small church, he is also working with the I.E.T (Indian Evangelical Team) in children ministry. Each week he visits an average of two churches, training Sunday school teachers with a goal of bringing children into a saving knowledge of Christ. By the grace of God he has trained teachers in all thirty districts of Orissa. This year they held 130 children camps around the region teaching about 15,000 children.

He says his vision is to someday build a home for children and drug addicts.

Brief testimony of persecution

Last year one night as he was sleeping peacefully at his home in Orissa, a mob of around 4000 (many drunk and armed with pistols) stormed into a nearby village and began to destroy Christian property and to search for believers. Raju and many from his village managed to escape into the mountains, but some did not make it and died for their faith.

In the youtube version of the interview TK Raju answers most of the ten previously asked questions. All the questions are treated in the mp3 version.

I trust everyone has benefited from this interview series. It has assisted me personally as I search for answers and pray for understanding. And not only that, but by God's grace the nature of the questions has sparked some serious thinking amongst those who are participating, including those who are behind the scenes.

Click here to Download the Interview Mp3 Audio!

"My Grandfather Was A Headhunter" Part 2

Black and white photographs taken by R.G. Woodthorpe, c.1873-1875 Tangkhul Nagas photographs Tangkhul Woodthorpe/ R.G.(1873-1875). Pitt Rivers Museum Archive, Oxford AL.62.1.4

As promised, here is the complete interview with Professor Shitio in audio format. All the questions are treated here as well as additional impromptu questions which show up sporadically.

MP3 DOWNLOAD

Click this link to download the mp3.

"My Grandfather Was A Headhunter"

Professor Nchumbemo Shitio

As crazy as it seems, I have already arrived at my second Sunday in India since leaving the States. That said, I am going to use today's post to return to our Indian leader/pastor interview series. Today I am introducing professor Nchumbemo Shitio, a seminary lecturer from Nagaland. He is quick to point out that his name is difficult to pronounce, and so he simply goes by Shitio.

He has a special burden to return to his state and strengthen his people in the Lord by preaching, conducting seminars, and raising up Christian schools. His native state of Nagaland is home to an hard working people who seriously took up the evangelism of their own tribes. While the Nagas previously consisted of several tribes of fierce headhunters, including Shitio's grandfather, today by God's grace at least 95% of the people in the state claim Christianity as their religion.

However with Christian apathy, humanist philosophy and secularism on the rise in Nagaland, Shitio often stresses, "I feel like a Jonah running from where God wants me." "I should clean my own house before attempting to clean my neighbor's." His humble plea to the West is to remember the too often overlooked Christian states in their prayers and support.

The original interview was 35+ minutes, and it was painful to trim it down to fit Youtube's ten minute time constraint. So sadly, for brevity's sake I left out some important points. I will be posting them in either video or audio form (maybe both) in the near future.

Questions treated in this condensed version of the interview;

1.) Tell us about yourself, how you came into the ministry, and what you are doing now.

2.) What are the greatest lessons God has taught you in the last year?

3.) What is the main motive for your ministry?

4.) Is there anything on your heart that you like to share with the church in the West?



The full list of questions asked in the original interview:

1.) What has the Lord done in your life?

2.) What are the greatest lessons you have learned?

3.) How have you observed Christ building his church in India?

4.) What is your greatest motivation for ministry?

5.) What is your vision for ministry?

6.) What are the main dangers facing the Indian church from without and within?

7.) How does an Indian evangelist reach his people with the gospel?

8.) Can you give me an example of a typical gospel proclamation in a village, street corner or city?

9.) What are you reading these days and have you learned anything important for your life?

10.) Do you have any special goals for growth this year?

11.) Is there anything on your heart that you would especially like to share with the church in the West?

Reflections on the First Week

This is my new friend Fluffy, or was it Scruffy?

From Blog External Photos

Well this is amazing. My first week in India has passed and it seemed to last for only a moment. Here are the highlights;

1.) Great reunion with the family, staff and children.

2.) Very much needed time to reflect on my life and lessons learned this year, and especially time to spend in unhurried communion with God.

3.) I'm back in action on the front lines.

4.) Lots of feasting (This is serious business now, we had three back to back functions this week, so lots of good food)

5.) Met this year's DTC class and got to know some of them a little bit.

6.) Simply fantastic fellowship with some brothers from Nagaland.

7.) This blog! By God's grace I found time and motive to blog a little bit in the morning before I start the day. That's pretty cool.

8.) Yesterday was Isaac Watt's birthday. It's still 'today' for all of you living in the past on the other side of the world. He is the father of English Hymnody. God used him at great pain to his own life to move the Church in England away from solely reciting the psalms in their worship services.

Check out this excellent mini-documentary of his life if you haven't seen it yet.



Thank you for your prayers, please be encouraged to keep them up.



Soli Deo Gloria

Josh

Reform your life and doctrine, meet with God in the text

Tochimong's Testimony

Every now and then I will post some videos featuring interaction with Indian pastors and leaders. Some will be from local areas, others will be from different states. In particular, I am planning a series of interviews that may shed more light on the current state of Christianity in India.

Today I am posting a five minute clip featuring selections from yesterday's interview which I held with a young pastor from Nagaland, India who is just setting out on the mission field.

For the sake of brevity I have condensed this interview down to three questions out of the original ten.

Questions treated essentially consist of;

1.) What has the Lord done in your life?

2.) What are some important lessons you have learned?

3.) Is there anything on your heart that you would especially like to share with the church in the West?

To assist some or most of you who may perchance have difficulty understanding his accent, I am posting the transcript of the interview below.



[Joshua]
Okay, so I am here with Tochimong who has just completed his bachelors of theology. And he is originally from Nagaland - born and raised in Nagaland. And ah - why don't you just start by telling us a little bit about yourself - where you were born, what kind of environment it was, and how God brought you into the ministry - Just a short five minutes or less summary.

[Tochimong]

Okay, let me tell something about my life, how I came to study theology.

I was born in a Christian family. Even though I was born in a Christian family, most of the time I used to go to church and I used to lead the children and the young people, I never committed fully my life to God. Because when I was studying at high school I did not learn fully about Jesus. At one time I thought to study theology, but because of some financial problem I could not study theology. But one time God called me and showed me in my vision to go and tell whatever he speaks to me. Then I committed fully my life to Jesus.

One time I got sickness. At that time I was praying for healing but at that time I did not commit my life fully to Jesus so He didn't heal me. I was praying... but at last I committed my life fully to Jesus. And after three days I took fasting and then God healed my sickness completely. And then I committed my life fully to Jesus and I started to study theology.
. . .

[Joshua]
Are there any particular lessons in your life which God has taught you, that are important to you?
. . .

[Tochimong]
Yeah. Even though I was born in a Christian family I never did good things for the Lord, though God has done great things through my life. Many times God saved me from the grave.

. . .

And once, the great thing in my life. One vehicle came and hit my body recently. But a very amazing thing happened to me, even though the big vehicle came and hit on my back I did not feel pain on that day and the vehicle owner came and asked me what happened. Then I told the vehicle owner, because I didn't feel anything even though with a broken kidney. So I told that vehicle owner, 'no problem, you don't worry, but you drive carefully, if you hit another person, he will die.'

On that day when the vehicle came and hit me, the sound also came. "Thud" But it never hurt - my life. So God has done great things in my life. Even though I don't have a mother and father, I lack nothing. Every time whatever I need, God provides everything.

[Joshua]

So the final question and this is the one that is probably the most important question and - the least amount of pressure. Is there anything on your heart that you would especially like to share with the church in the West? Anything that is just burning on your heart that you think would be of service to Christians around the world? From your life - from your knowledge of God - anything?

[Tochimong]

Yeah, anytime I am thinking about the Westerner's life, even though I never visited their village - place. I have seen on the television how the Western lifestyle is. Even my people also, they used to imitate how the Westerners are using the phones and speaking. And most of the people they used to imitate the style of speaking, so I want to encourage the Western people to improve their spiritual life and how they are growing their spiritual life. And I want them to come and share their spiritual life.

[Joshua]

Excellent. Well thank you Tochimong for sharing with us. And may God bless you in ministry.

Creative Culture

Well here goes nothing. Today I am posting a 2 minute clip featuring one of our school's musicals. Now before you perchance dismiss this as yet another school program, let me assure you that it is anything but ordinary. I am fairly confident that you will be shocked when you witness the high energy on display. Michael Flatley eat your heart out, these kids rock!

It's programs like this one coupled with an ambition for excellence that sets our school above the local competition. Private education is very competitive here in India. But by God's grace our principal Sunitha has done a great job in transforming a small school into a quality institution that generates revenue and provides a place for the education of the children staying in the children's home.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Peaceful Insanity

Okay, so a few posts ago you saw the city from the air. Now lets zoom in and take a closer look. This clip shows the view from the back of a Tata Sumo which we rented. We were driving on a small section of the National highway that runs from near Calcutta (Kolkata) all the way down the East coast to Madras (Chennai). It's a relatively peaceful stretch of road, so I don't think you will find yourself getting queasy whilst watching it.

One important thing to keep in mind is that there is a method to the madness. You may have noticed that those motorcyclists who were weaving through traffic appear quite calm. However it's still quite a hair raising experience for first timers.

God has been especially gracious to me in that He has not subjected me to any major accidents. Up to this point it has only been the occasional fender-bender. Most of the time the drivers that Providence has appointed are easy-going and willing to follow the pace of traffic. However I have experienced some rides in India where the drivers thought that driving is a Nascar style sport and therefore we must fly though traffic and livestock at speeds just shy that of light.

"Run little goats, run for your lives" passes through my thoughts during those times.

I will post some more extreme driving clips in the posts to come.

Guitars and the Gospel

This spring I began learning to play guitar. Progress has been moderately slow at best, but I have thoroughly enjoyed every step of the journey.

Every step that is except the one that required I submit my precious Seagull S6 to check-in luggage in order to bring it with me to India.

Prior to arriving at that step I had been emailed Phil Johnson's disturbingly interesting article on the very subject of baggage handlers.

I had also witnessed this odd ritual with my own eyes on a few occasions. And now and then I assume the solemn duty of sorting the intact from the un-intact luggage after long flights.

Then today I saw this,



Up to this day I had considered that I might be guilty of being overly cautious. After all many artists travel the world with their guitars. But that takes guts. I left the S6 at home in favor of traveling lighter and picking up a cheaper, more replaceable guitar in India. And so I found myself the proud owner of a quality Jimm guitar. (See guitar on right, left is my S6)

So now that I have made much of guitars I need to shift focus on over to the gospel. While I have been nitpicking at hard working luggage handlers for the last few paragraphs the truth is that the gospel is for everyone. It's not just for guitar breakers, it's for law breakers. All of us are sinners in need of a savior.

While luggage handlers may at times mishandle the luggage we entrust to their care, how much more miserably have we mishandled the glorious gospel which we have been entrusted with? Ouch!

That said, our understanding of the gospel is very important. The gospel is not good advice, it is good news. The gospel is not "stop breaking God's laws!" it is, "you are guilty of breaking God's laws and the one you have most offended has taken the initiative and sent His Son to take the penalty for your lawbreaking and credit his righteousness to your account."

Payment made for my sin! Righteousness credited to my account! That's really good news! That's the gospel.

In conclusion, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15: 1 -4

"Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you. . . For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried and raised on the third day . . ."

Informative, Interesting, Inspirational...

Every now and then I will re-surface some of my multimedia content from India for your enjoyment. Whether it be an old video or collection of photos or some other like content.

Today I am posting the original LnC informational video. It runs nearly 13 minutes and features the highlights of the ministry. Look for more great clips in the future!

Back in India

God was especially gracious and the 44 hour trip back to India seemed to fly by. It literally did, no pun intended. I'll save you all the details, but to raise your curiosity I have provided an interesting clip featuring a flyover of the city. The aircraft passed over the city and then out over the ocean several miles so that we could make the landing from that direction. Presumably because the wind would be more favorable.

The clip shows the East Indian coast approaching, and then as we reach the coastline you can see the city until we pass over it.

Enjoy!

Shai Linne Q & A

Check out this well thought out doctrinal Q & A rap song from Shai Linne. As a supplement to Shai Linne's brilliant version of a Christian catechism, I have supplied the lyrics set to animation in an animated version of the song. Simply packed with doctrine!