A "God Moment" in Ecuador

One of the great missionary stories in modern history is retold in the book "Through Gates of Splendor" (1957) and in the movie "End of the Spear" (2005). Last year, I was in a group that was able to experience a small part of that incredible story. Here's what happened...

On our mission/service trip to Ecuador, we were informed that a plane would be flying into the jungle to visit "Terminal City." We jumped at the opportunity.

It was in 1956 that five missionary men (Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, Peter Fleming, Ed McCully & Roger Youderian) left their wives and flew into that area. Nate and Steve had spent the previous weeks familiarizing themselves with the lay of the land from their plane. They had also dropped many gifts into the jungle village to try to make friends with the savage inhabitants. These missionaries wanted to share the Gospel with the Waodoni tribe before either the Ecuadorian government killed them or they savagely killed themselves.

I took this picture of the Curaray River
after our visit to "Terminal City."

The day came when they determined they would try to make contact with the tribe from the ground. They landed their plane on the banks of the Curaray River. After a prolonged period of time, two Waodoni women and one warrior exited the jungle and met with the missionaries. The men were apparently filled with excitement that their plan had succeeded. However, their ecstatic joy would soon be turned to sheer terror.

 from "End of the Spear"

The account of what happened shortly thereafter is retold in the movie and book I referenced above. On January 8, 1956, all 5 missionaries were speared by the very tribe they were trying to reach with the Gospel.

But the story didn't end there. Jim Elliot's wife (Elizabeth) and Nate Saint's sister (Rachel) went to that same tribe and shared the Gospel with them. They told them of Jesus' love and sacrificial death for the forgiveness of their sins.

As we visited "Terminal City" last year, we mingled with the children and grandchildren of those warriors. Most of the tribespeople are now Christians. In fact, shortly after we left, they were going to have a Christian training seminar for many of their neighboring tribes. They planned to show other tribes how to share the Gospel in their individual contexts. Incredible!

I took this picture of the Nate Saint House
from the airport across the street

Back in Shell, we were able to visit the Nate Saint House that was experiencing a much needed renovation. This was the home that Nate Saint lived in and the one that the other missionaries and their wives frequented. In fact, the picture of the moment that the five missionary wives were told of their husband's fate (Life Magazine) was taken in the kitchen of this house.

One incredible part of the story that we were able to experience was that just a few days before our visit to the Nate Saint House, Mincaye and two of the other Waodoni men who were in the spearing party had visited the house. One of their grandsons is a construction worker at the house and acted as an interpreter for them.

Here's the video of the retelling of that moment in the radio room. Watch this video and then read my final comments below.
 

  

The significance of this room? It was the room where Marj (Nate Saint's wife) and Steve (Nate's son) kept in contact with Nate while he was flying over the Amazon jungle. It was in this room that Nate first yelled over the radio that he had seen the Waodoni for the first time. It was in this room that Steve tried to contact his father as the Waodoni had just taken his life.

How incredible that it was in this room that three of those Waodoni warriors would lift up their hearts and voices to the Lord in prayer! Incredible!

I visited "Terminal City" and took pictures of the flight over and back. You can access those pictures by clicking here.

"Slaves for Christ" by John MacArthur

This sermon will revolutionize the way you look at your life in Christ. It takes about an hour to watch but is worth every minute.

The first half of the sermon is a bit technical but is necessary for an understanding that brings the second part of the sermon alive.

(If the embedded video doesn't work, you can watch the sermon at: http://www.gty.org/Resources/Videos/V8280-321)

Enjoy!

Attributes of greatness

Our trip to NASA was one for the record books. As Kim, our boys and I spent yesterday trekking around the Visitor’s Complex at the Kennedy Space Center, I could not help but become awestruck at our nation’s space program.

We sat in an IMAX theater and donned 3D glasses to watch breathtaking pictures that the Hubble telescope captured of our cosmos billions of light years away. We watched another incredible 3D movie about the International Space Station. We observed a remaking of the Apollo 11 launch from a control room that contained the original computers used in that launch. We read storyboard after storyboard of NASA’s rich history, its failures, its accomplishments and its heroes (the astronauts and those on the ground who made it possible).

STS-135 (Space Shuttle Atlantis) sitting on the launch pad.
It would be the last Shuttle to take the ride into space.

But as incredible as all of those attractions were, the ultimate reason for NASA’s greatness was sitting on launch pad 39A. STS-135 (Space Shuttle Atlantis) is scheduled to launch on July 8, 2011 and will be the final shuttle mission. It was an incredible sight!

As I stood on the observation deck, I mentally compiled a list of things that must have been true for that incredible machine to be sitting on the launch pad. The space shuttle, NASA's greatest accomplishment to date, exposes some incredible truths about the space program. Here are some of those truths about the people who made NASA great:

Joseph with the Space Shuttle Atlantis in the background.



· They were vision driven. They had a goal and aimed at it.

· They were committed to excellence. Everything they did was performed with exacting precision.

· They were industrious. They worked tirelessly and gave their tasks everything they had.

· They were focused on the future. While they celebrated victories, they did not spend much time doing so. There were always more exciting challenges ahead to keep their attention.

· They were operating in their area of skill. They found satisfaction in performing the tasks they had been trained to do. They were then able to watch the launch, knowing that they were a part of its success.

· They were couragious. They knew that safety and progress do not mix. They had a passion "to go where no man has gone before" and where not afraid to do so. (Yes, there was a Star Trek exhibit in the IMAX theater.) 

The assembly building. It's a LOT bigger than it looks.
The stripes on the American flag are wide enough
 for a tour bus to drive down each one.

These are just a few of the traits that must have been true of those who worked to make NASA great.

Here's a thought: What would it look like if a believer and/or church had these same characteristics? As we stand in awe of what an organization has done (that claims no official relationship to God), should we think that Christians and churches will do less? Or is our God so incredible that He desires to bring glory to Himself by what He can do through His people?

"For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to show Himself strong for those whose hearts are completely His..." (2 Chronicles 16:9).

Is confession really necessary?

There is a wonderful promise found in Proverbs 28:13. "The one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy." Speaking from experience, the issue in this verse is not whether or not we will sin. It is a foregone conclusion that we will stray from God’s commands each day. The issue addressed in this verse is whether or not we will acknowledge our shortcomings, confess them and turn from them.


But isn’t it within human nature to try and conceal our sins? Rather than face the immediate consequences of our failures, we would rather deny our shortcomings and hope that we won’t be found out. Yet, God’s Word is clear when it says in Numbers 32:23 - "...you may be sure that your sin will find you out."


One such illustration is found in 2 Samuel 11-12. In chapter 11, we read about how King David lazily stayed home from battle while his army was out fighting. One evening, he went for a walk on the roof of his palace and saw a woman taking a bath. Instead of immediately turning away, he gawked and lusted.


Sin is never satisfied. It is like a cancer that is not content unless it grows and spreads. As he lusted, his heart began to race. His sexual engine began to throttle up. Simultaneously, his logic and his desire for holiness was shut down. His racing passions were begging to find expression and so he abused his power and sent for the woman.


That evening, he took what didn’t belong to him. He grossly abused his position as a leader and violated a woman that was not his to claim. And when he was done with her, with only regard for his own personal passions and desires, he sent her back to her home.


But sin is like a cancer. It grows. It spreads. When he found out that Bathsheba was pregnant with his baby, he realized that he left some tracks that needed to be covered. He called for her husband, Uriah, who was loyally fighting for David on the battlefield. He encouraged Uriah to spend some “time” with his wife. If that happened, David surmised, Uriah would think that the baby was his. The only ones who would know the truth were David … and Bathsheba who may have been plagued with guilt with the secret she withheld from her husband.


But sin is like a cancer. It grows. It spreads. Uriah refused to go home and enjoy his wife. He knew that he had left his comrades on the battle field who did not have such a privilege. It wouldn’t be fair for him to enjoy what his men could not. So David sent Uriah back to the battlefield.


But David did something unimaginable. He sent Uriah with an unopened note that guaranteed his death. David orchestrated a plan in which Uriah would be killed on the battlefield. The plan succeeded and an innocent man died because he did not participate in the cover-up of David’s sin. 


David continued to obstinately sit on the sin and refused to make it right. He had lusted, committed adultery with Bathsheba, tried to cover it up, planned and carried out Uriah’s death … and still he refused to acknowledge it.


All the while, 2 Samuel 11:27 says, “…the Lord considered what David had done to be evil.” (That may not sound too bad. Yet Joshua 7 recounts a story of how God’s anger burned against the whole nation of Israel because of one man’s sin.) We can only imagine who was being hurt by David’s sin and his subsequent refusal to acknowledge, confess and forsake it and then take the consequences.


In 2 Samuel 12, God sent a man to David. David was living a lie and so God moved to expose it. Listen to 2 Samuel 12:1-9:


“So the Lord sent Nathan to David. When he arrived, he said to him: ‘There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. It lived and grew up with him and his children. It shared his meager food and drank from his cup; it slept in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man could not bring himself to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.’ David was infuriated with the man and said to Nathan: ‘As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! Because he has done this thing and shown no pity, he must pay four lambs for that lamb.’ Nathan replied to David, ‘You are the man! This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more. Why then have you despised the command of the Lord by doing what I consider evil? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife – you murdered him with the Ammonite’s sword.’”


If you continue to read the chapter, you realize that because of David’s sin and refusal to acknowledge it, God was going to bring dire consequences into David’s life. What David had dreaded came upon him anyway. He learned firsthand the principle found in Numbers 32:23 - "...you may be sure that your sin will find you out."


We all fail. While some offenses are greater than others, we all sin. God’s message is clear. He will not bless us when we fail to acknowledge our sin and refuse to repent. In fact, He will come after us until we make it right (Hebrews 12:5-6).


One final thought: Christians are quite capable of concealing sin – for a period of time. Yet, if we live a lie and take measures to conceal our sin and never acknowledge it, we may be evidencing fruit that testifies to the fact that we were never a Christ-follower after all. In that case, the Lord would say on the day of judgment: "Depart from Me, I never knew you." An unimaginably horrific thought!


The following verse is pretty abrasive but it was no less abrasive when Jesus spoke it. John 8:44 “You are of your father the Devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of liars.”


David experienced consequences for his sin but he also enjoyed renewed fellowship with the Lord as he was moved to acknowledge and confess his sins. That renewed fellowship is yours to enjoy. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).


What is your response?

Sean's birthday - a day we'll never forget!

As the cake bakes and the ice cream gets ready to be devoured, Kim and I can’t help but remember the day that God blessed us with our second son. Everyone has a few days in their life that, for various reasons, stand out above the rest. Those days may even be remembered with vivid detail until death comes. Well, that day (exactly 10 years ago today) is one of ours. Here’s the story:

Kim woke me up at about 1:30 in the morning. For me, 1:30 only comes one time a day and it takes place just past lunch time. However, the announcement of Zach’s arrival had come at the same time two years earlier and so I came to realize that an inconvenient pattern was beginning to develop. But, hey, this was the day that my second son was to be born and so I jumped out of bed and got moving.

Our 2-year-old Zach was sound asleep in his room down the hall but that wasn’t a problem. We had worked out a plan if Sean’s arrival came during the night. However, it didn’t quite turn out as we had planned.

We had previously talked with my sister and brother-in-law who lived about a mile away. Should Sean decide to come at night, one of them would come over to our house and stay with Zach while we went to the hospital. I picked up the phone and dialed the phone number a few times but no avail. They were sound asleep. But it was 1:30am, after all. Ordinarily, I’d be sleeping soundly, too.

I raced out the door to exercise “plan B.” I arrived at their home a few minutes later and began to have second thoughts about ringing their door bell. They had two young girls that where asleep inside that house. If I rang the doorbell, I would probably wake up my nieces while my son lay asleep at home. That didn’t seem fair. So I went to “plan C.”

I brainstormed and came up with a stupid idea. I found a couple of empty coke bottles in my car and started throwing them at my sister’s upstairs window. The first one missed. I threw a second one just as the front of the house lit up. It wasn’t coming from the front porch. It was coming from a car that had  pulled up behind me. It was a state trooper.

Now, if you were that state trooper and you saw someone throwing coke bottles at the second story window of a residence at 2 in the morning, what would you think? Naturally, he wanted to know what I was doing. He may have been reaching for a breathalyzer.

After a crazy explanation, he volunteered to ring the doorbell for me but I decided that I would go to “plan D.” I went back home and Kim called some other friends of ours who took a sleeping Zach from us as we headed to the hospital.

We ended up at a training hospital because Kim’s regularly OBGYN was out of town hunting moose. That created a little bit of anxiety for Kim until she heard the last name of the doctor who would deliver our second son, Dr. Zachman. In fact, Zach’s nickname around our house at that time was “Zach man.” We found comfort in knowing that God was working out the details.

Kim was prepped for the c-section (she had previously had an emergency c-section and was encouraged to have another one because of potential risks). The painkiller was administered and I was ushered to her side. The surgery began.

Because of the previous c-section, there was a lot of scar tissue which made the procedure take longer … definitely longer than the anesthetist had allowed for. The anesthetist, as I understood it, was doing his residency while his mentor was stepping in and out of the surgery room.

After what seemed like an hour, Sean was born. I had the privilege of taking him in my arms and following a nurse out of the surgery room, down a hallway and into the room where he would get cleaned up, have a few tests run, get his foot print on his certificate of birth, etc.

However, my heart wasn’t in it. I loved my new son but wanted, in fact felt compelled to get back to the surgery room. Kim had been complaining of pain much more so than during Zach’s birth. As I retook my place beside her, the doctors were still doing a lot of work on her. Cleaning, stitches, etc.

That’s when the nightmare happened. She had started complaining much earlier that she could feel her feet. That wasn’t good because the epidural was supposed to block all feeling below the chest. She was also saying that she could feel them working on her abdomen. The anesthetist in training assured her that it was just pressure. He gently encouraged her to just relax and everything would be fine.

Soon, Kim said that she could feel her lower legs and eventually her upper legs. She began to cry and moan from the pain she said that she was experiencing as the doctors continued to work.

Finally, as the doctor’s neared the end of the surgery and began to do some pushing, Kim screamed and almost jumped off the table. One of the doctor’s whispered below her breath, “What’s going on?!”

As Kim’s cries and obvious signs of pain could no longer be denied, I’ll never forget the look one of the doctors gave me. She had a mask and hat that covered everything but her eyes. As she looked at me, there was horror in her eyes. We both knew that the epidural had been allowed to run out. The anesthetist in training had failed to allow for the extra time the c-section would take because of scar tissue left from the previous surgery.

I was immediately ushered away from Kim’s side to a room across the hall where I was left alone. Doctors and nurses were barging in and out of the surgery room doors. As those doors flew open, I was able to watch in horror as Kim continued to cry out. I felt utterly helpless and scared.

The next ten minutes seemed like an eternity but the newly administered sedation took affect and Kim’s surgery was completed.

About 30 minutes later, Kim was back in the post-op room. They brought Sean, our new pride and joy into the room. He was bundled tightly in a blanket and the pride I felt mimicked what I had experienced 2 years earlier at the birth of my first son. As Sean was placed in Kim’s arms, with all of the pain and trauma she had just experienced, she still had “that” look … the look a new mother has for her child.

As I think back on that day, I cannot help but reflect on the significance of the name we gave our second son. We gave him the name “Sean” because it means “God is gracious.” Even as we went through the ordeal of that day, we realized that God, in His grace, had entrusted us with a healthy son and Kim had no lasting problems from the ordeal.

But we were also reminded that God’s grace does not guarantee that life will always go well. If life was easy, why would we need God’s grace, right? But it is in those time of trial that God’s grace shows up in all of its beauty.

We continue to enjoy God’s gracious gift that He gave to us that memorable day ten years ago. We also look forward to how God will continue to shine His grace upon us and Sean as he grows into the godly man God is preparing him to be.

Private sins - do they exist?

As I write this, the news cycles and talking radio heads are rehashing Congressman Anthony Weiner’s confession and his actions that required such a confession.

There are many principles we could draw from his confession but for the purpose of this post, let’s focus on why it is necessary to acknowledge our wrongdoings and make restitution where necessary when offenses have taken place.

Let’s begin with a passage from Joshua 22:20 - “Didn’t divine anger fall on the entire community of Israel when Achan, a member of the clan of Zerah, sinned by stealing the things set apart for the Lord? He was not the only one who died because of his sin.” (New Living Translation)

The tone in which those words were spoken may have been marked by fear, anger and disbelief. The 2½ tribes of Israel (that settled the land east of the Jordan River) had built an altar in the Jordan Valley. When the Israelites (that claimed the land west of the Jordan River) heard of this, they “assembled at Shiloh to go to war against them” (Joshua 22:12).

They assumed that the 2½ tribes were setting up a place of worship that would rival the tabernacle. If this was their motive (which it wasn’t), it would be a serious sin against Almighty God.

So why did the Israelites care about this matter at all? It was a simple altar and it wasn’t hurting anyone, right? Besides, it could even be argued that it was none of the Israelite’s business, right? Wrong.

The answer is found in Joshua 22:20. “Didn’t divine anger fall on the entire community of Israel when Achan, a member of the clan of Zerah, sinned by stealing the things set apart for the Lord? He was not the only one who died because of his sin.”

One sin, committed by one person, could bring divine judgment upon others in the group. It had happened when Achan committed a “small”, private sin and thirty six men died in battle as a result.

The Israelites were convinced that God would probably do the same thing again if this questionable altar in the Jordan Valley wasn’t destroyed. God may move to kill more people.

This doesn’t seem fair, does it? In fact, it seems to cut right at the root of God’s justice. If God is fair and completely just in His actions, why would He bring harm to those around me if my sin is private and isn’t hurting anyone?

And what do you do with Ezekiel 18:20? “The person who sins is the one who will die. A son won’t suffer punishment for the father’s iniquity, and a father won’t suffer punishment for the son’s iniquity. The righteousness of the righteous person will be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked person will be on him.”

Let’s suppose that I commit some sin (a “small”, private sin) that brings displeasure with God. According to Hebrews 12:6, “…the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and punishes every son whom He receives.” The Lord will discipline me in some way that is fitting but according to Ezekiel 18:20, He won’t discipline my wife or children. He won’t “spank” one of my boys for a sin that I have committed.

So, what’s Joshua 22:20 talking about? Let me answer that with an illustration.

Last year, I went on a trip to Ecuador. We landed in Quito and then took a long bus ride over the Andes Mountains to Shell on the edge of the Amazon jungle. For those of us who remained awake during that trip, we vividly remember how frightening it was to look out our window at times and see the 1,000+/- foot drop to the valley floor.

Suppose the bus driver wanted to get us to Shell as quickly as possible and so he broke the speed limit on those mountain passes. Let’s further suppose that as he entered one of those dangerous turns, he realized too late that he was traveling too quickly to navigate the turn. As a result, we all went over the edge of the cliff and plunged to our deaths.

Let me ask a question: Who was the one who sinned? Not me! I was sitting quietly in my seat reading a great book. Others on the bus were sleeping. How can you sin while you’re sleeping?

Possibly, the only one sinning was the bus driver. But who experienced the consequences of that sin? All of us! We were all a part of the group that was on the bus.

Suppose that bus driver had a close friend on the bus. Maybe he even had a child on board that he loved dearly. Would they have been spared the fate the rest of us experienced simply because the bus driver cared about them? Of course not. The fact is that the sin of speeding committed by the bus driver caused all of us in that bus to experience the consequences of that sin.

The fact is that while we were riding the bus, we happened to be a part of the group that included the bus driver. If he sinned and it brought on consequences, any of us in that group may have experienced those consequences … even if we were completely unaware of the offense.

So, did those 36 men in Joshua 7 lose their lives because God was punishing them for Achan’s sin? No. But Achan’s “private” sin removed God’s hand of blessing from the group he was a part of. It was because of Achan’s private offense that consequences directed at Achan’s group happened to land on 36 unsuspecting, innocent bystanders.

None of us lives in a vacuum, especially in regard to our pursuit of holiness. If you or I are engaged in sin or haven’t confessed and made amends for previous wrongdoings, we may be responsible for harm that comes to those we love.

There is no such thing as a “private” sin.