Monday, June 01, 2009

Commissioning Service

My commissioning service will be at First Presbyterian Church, in San Antonio, Texas, on the 9 August 2009, at all four services--8:30AM, 9:30AM, 10:45AM, and 11:05AM.

First Presbyterian Church
404 North Alamo
San Antonio, Texas
78205

Visa

Answered prayer! I officially have my visa to enter the country of Ukraine! This has come just in time, as I leave for C-eh-N-eh-D-eh in 9 more days to visit the family.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Books and other thoughts

Blessing. All but two of the books that I need to have read, have been donated by a very gracious couple, and another generous person! Thank you, guys (technically, guy and two girls)!

One of the books was about becoming incarnate in the culture you are living in. Living incarnationally was always a big Jesus word, or church word, until I read this book. I did not really understand what it meant to live incarnationally. I am going to share what it means.

"The challenges will shape us; the changes will trouble us. Our bodies will get sick, our minds will suffer fatigue, our emotions will sweep us from ecstasy to depression. Yet the love of Christ will sustain us so that we can identify with Paul, who said, "I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings" (1 Corinthians 9:22-23)."

  • Meeting people and loving them through interaction, is the heart of the Great Commission. "We cannot hold office hours for the people to whom Christ has called us to minister."
  • "We must adapt to the time and event properties of the people with whom we work."
  • "The Christian who rejects and maligns a fellow worker because of personal flaws or sins, is taking the matter of judgment into his or her own hands. Such a critical judgmental attitude is a divisive and destructive force in any community."
  • "If Jesus were to go to Ukraine, he would learn to think as the Ukraine think. He would listen to their conversations, observe their society and culture at work, and internalize their world-and-life view. Then he would communicate and teach as the Ukrainians teach, using parables and case studies to illustrate particular truths, sitting with them in discussion, asking them questions, debating the answers, and drawing from their experience, traditions, and beliefs the illustrations and analogies that would open their eyes to God's truth and would challenge their unbelief and resistance to him."

What does all of this mean for me personally?

By serving in Ukraine, I will develop new strategies for living, so that I build up the unity and fellowship of the body of Christ. I will do this through faith in Jesus Christ and living in the Spirit.