Journey Outside the Camp

Ee-Taow!

Over the Hari Raya Haji weekend, my wife and I conducted a two-day seminar. We taught the Bible chronologically. Based on the book, Stranger on the Road to Emmaus, we brought 30 participants through the gospel message, beginning with Genesis all the way through to Jesus' resurrection. The participants were all youth leaders (or youth leaders to be) as well as several Sunday School teachers from other churches.

As always, teaching for my wife and me, has been a time of worship. Though we were familiar with the material, we were both moved in our spirits as we taught God's truth. And the Holy Spirit really moved—not only our hearts—but the hearts of the participants too. We saw their eyes light up with fresh understanding; we saw the participants coming to a deeper understanding of how amazing God is and how the familiar Bible narratives actually add up to one single gospel message. We saw people weep.

We were deeply affected by the work that the Holy Spirit was doing. From the questions that the group asked, it was clear that in their minds, the truth of God's word was clicking together and they were thinking a lot about what they were learning. Deep, theological questions sprang from their new-found understanding of the gospel. For example:

Where do babies go when they die? They never had a chance to hear the gospel so what happens to them?

Why did God choose to let Satan roam the earth if he knew the havoc he was going to cause?

If God knows who will believe and be saved, why doesn't he do anything with those who will not believe?

With questions like these, we knew the participants were thinking hard and thinking through the gospel.

At the end of the second day, we wrapped up by showing them both videos of Ee-Taow! The participants were moved by the faith of the Mouk people. Many of them were inspired by the Mouk people to cherish God's truth all the more.

Despite the raspy throat I got by the end of the second day, I was glad that I had the chance to teach the Stranger once more. Each time we teach, my own faith is strengthened as my understanding of the gospel grows. All I want to do is join the Mouk people in proclaiming "Ee-taow! (It is good! It is true!). I can still picture the spontaneous dancing and celebration the Mouk broke out in as they rejoiced in their salvation. They were so happy with God and were so full of joy. How many of us can say we have that joy? Well, it comes from understanding the gospel properly.

If you want to learn the gosel chronologically, check out the online video course from Goodseed.com.

NLTInterlinear.com

Tyndale Publishing House just released the NLT Interlinear online. Essentially, it's an online interlinear Bible and concordance that allows users to see the Greek New Testament lined up against the text of the NLT Bible.

One of the best features is being able to look at the Greek words in the Greek-English Concordance of the New Testament and see all the English nuances of the original Greek. I think it will help me expand my understanding of Scripture when I see how various English expressions actually have the same Greek root word.

While my main Bible is the ESV, I do refer to the NLT from time to time. But since this interlinear Bible is available online (for free!), I'll definitely be using it. Thank God for blessings such as these.

Read more about the NLT Interlinear on the NLT Study Bible blog.

Who's in the driver's seat?

My wife was speaking to a friend who had trouble letting God take charge in her life. This friend said that she was the kind of person who liked to be in the driver’s seat, and she found it very difficult to relinquish control. My wife gave her the following analogy which I found to be very useful.

Suppose the designer of the car wanted to drive you to the destination. The designer knows the car very well since he created it. He knows every nuance of the vehicle: how it turns, how it handles in wet weather, what speeds are optimal, etc. He can handle the car in any situation. He’s also a very good driver, always alert and never tired.

In addition, the designer also knows the way by heart. He knows all the points of interest, where the fuel stops are, the scenic spots and the dangers. He also knows what you like and can take you to interesting stops along the way. What’s more, he actually created the roads and highways too so he knows all the road conditions and he will never get lost.

In such a case, wouldn’t you like the designer to take the wheel and drive you to the destination? It would be such a pleasant drive. You can focus on the scenery and on the conversation.

God is that designer. He wants to take the wheel of our lives because he knows us better than we know ourselves. Why won’t we relinquish control of the steering wheel to such a person?

Parents are the primary spiritual trainers

My wife and I had the honour and privilege to address the fine folks at All Saints' Church this afternoon. We spoke for a little over two hours about how to cultivate piritual habits in children. (The content was very similar to what we taught at the Spiritual Habits seminar. In fact, one of the staff from All Saints' had attended that one and invited us to deliver something similar at her church.)

We emphasised the role of parents as the primary spiritual teachers of their children. After the session was over, one of the Sunday School teachers chatted with us and she lamented that in her experience, many parents had come up to her to complain that Sunday School had not done a good job instilling a spiritual life in their children. This teacher was so shocked that parents were expecting the Sunday School teachers to do the heavy lifting on forming a spiritual life in the children. What was worse, many parents did not have their own spiritual lives but recognised that it was something important that they wanted their children to have. But instead of developing their own spiritual lives and then teaching their children how to do likewise, they pushed the responsibility to Sunday School.

This is sad. As Sunday School teachers, we only have 1 or 1.5 hours a week with the kids. Multiply that by about 30 available teaching Sundays, we only have 30 to 45 hours in the entire year to influence and guide a child. That's a drop in the bucket compared to the time that the parents have with their own children. As parents, we already farm out the responsibility of education to the schools. And when that's not adequate, we supplement with tutors. When our children need to learn how to ride a bike or how to swim, we farm those tasks out to trainers. When we want our children to know God, we put the burden on the church.

What do we do with our children then? Just feed and clothe them? (And some of us have domestic helpers to help with those tasks!) In Deuteronomy 6:6–7 God says,

"And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."

God commands parents to teach their children diligently about him. The key word is diligently. Parents are not supposed to teach their children about God once in a while, nor to teach their kids something about God when the mood strikes them, nor to farm out their God-appointed responsibility to someone else. That would be being disobedient.

And when should parents teach their children about God? The same verses have the answer: when we wake up, when we go to bed, when we're walking outside, when we're at home. In other words, teach your children about God all the time.

I'll write more about how to teach. For now, the important thing to remember is that we are responsible for our children's spiritual training. Yes, ultimately, it is the work of the Holy Spirit. But God has ordained that we work in partnership with him. He commands us to teach him to our children. We must not be disobedient.

Direction, not perfection

One of the misconceptions about being a Christian is that we are goody two-shoes. People, including Christians themselves, think that once they believe on Jesus, they can become good people overnight.

How I wish that were true. It is true that believing on Jesus justifies us. This means that the punishment we deserve for sin we have (and for future sin we may commit) is paid for completely by Jesus. We can stand before God and be counted as righteous. That is what we call justification (see for example Romans 4:22–5:1).

That doesn't mean we gain perfection. That will only come with our resurrected bodies. In the meantime, together with God's help, we work on the process of sanctification. Romans 6:1–14 tells us that we need to fight to keep sin away from our bodies. Verse 12 says, "Do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies." Reign is the keyword here. The word reign conjures up images of rulers and slaves, kings and soldiers. Make no mistake, the process of sanctification is not a walk in the park. It is a daily battle of surrendering our body and mind to God, in order that we can be armed to fight sin in every area of our lives. Like the character of  Christian in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, we are on a journey, heading towards God's heavenly city. Galatians 5:16–24 reminds us to walk by the Spirit and we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. That to me is a clear indication that though we have been justified, the old sin nature still lurks beneath the surface. It is no surprise then, when it rears its ugly head and we by natural instinct obey its lusts. We are by no means perfect. But we are to use the Spirit and kill our sinful inclinations and keep marching on towards God.

This process we will never finish. We will always have more sin inside us to kill. But the promise of God is that "he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:6). We will see perfection on the day of Jesus Christ. What a promise. So having faith and being justified is only the beginning. That work is God's alone. Sanctification is God's Spirit working in us as we direct our lives toward God himself. Justification brings direction, not perfection.