TEACH International

This week I (B.J.) was able to participate in something called TEACH International; it's the E.C. denomination's gathering of our international leaders to hear what God is doing in their national churches and what their needs and growth areas are. It was truly amazing to hear the stories of rapid, dynamic growth in India, the faithful endurance of believers in Japan, the courage (and even martyrdom) of our brothers and sisters in Liberia, and the joy and energy of the Mexicans and Costa Ricans. It was encouraging to us American delegates to see how the E.C. Church is an international denomination and how God is moving in all the nations; in many ways, it was challenging for us as we so often grow complacent or weary in our culture of luxury and self-gratification. Above you can see a photo of all the delegates involved in the conference; below are photos of a couple new friends.

This is Dennis Henry, the only delegate out of five from Liberia who was granted a visa to leave their country for the conference. Liberia is a nation torn by civil war from about 1993-2003; many church buildings were destroyed and believers martyred during the war. It was impressive to hear Dennis's heart for his people and nation; God is at work there slowly restoring order and peace, not through the UN or the government, necessarily, but through His people, the Church.

This is Elias Martinez, one of our Mexican delegates. I had some broken conversations with him, and I think we more or less understood each other. He is the energetic leader of a Bible institute in Mexico that trains pastors and church leaders for ministry, not to mention that he's quite a character!

Gratitude.

Over the past few weeks, we have been extremely busy. Moving into a new house (only a block away but still quite a chore!), the E.C. National Conference, working, speaking in churches, and the like. But as I reflect, I have a few things to mention that I'm thankful to God for:

I'm thankful for Jesus, His Presence with us, and His work in and through us. It was really good to celebrate the Lord's Supper at the E.C. National Conference last week.

I'm grateful to God for Godly leadership in our denomination. Our new bishop was consecrated last week at Conference, and we have commented over and over how thankful to God we are that the Godliness of our denomination's leadership is hardly a question for us.

My car. It's not much to look at, the paint's flaking off, and the head gasket is leaking. But God has kept the Neon going well beyond our expectancy for it, and it got me to and from Conference safely and without incident.

A washer and dryer. As we moved into our new temporary house, we knew it lacked laundry facilities, and we thought we would be buying a washer and dryer for a few months' use. But our need was mentioned to the pastor at one of the churches we visited--Dennis Snyder--and he happened to have a spare washer and dryer. God provided one of our needs (or conveniences) through Dennis, and we are deeply grateful for His provision.

Last, and certainly not least, second to Christ I'm most thankful for a beautiful, faithful, strong even in weakness, amazing wife. She has been an incredible instrument of God's love, correction, and salvation in my life.

Graduation!

Last Saturday closed a four year chapter in our life: I graduated from seminary! It was a great time of celebration for us, especially as my parents came up from Missouri and my sister and nephew came from Kentucky. We are grateful for the work that God has done in us and through us here, but we are also eager to move on to the ministry He's prepared us for. Above is a picture presentation of a few photos from graduation.

The Muslim Jesus

Well, I handed in the final paper of my seminary career on Saturday--quite relieving and bewildering all at the same time. Anyhow, the paper was for my Islam course, and I wrote on the Muslim view of Jesus, or 'Isa, as He is known to Muslims. It was quite an interesting study. According to the Qur'an, Jesus was born of a virgin but not divine, not the Savior, and was rescued by Allah before being crucified on the cross (Allah could not allow one of his prophets to be shamed so deeply). Instead, Muslims see Jesus as a great prophet who came to teach and lead his people back to the straight path of Allah. The Qur'an even goes so far as to call Jesus the "Word of God," the "Masih" (Messiah, though it doesn't mean the same thing for Muslims) and an "Apostle from God," but he could never be the Son of God; such thinking is blasphemous. He is not the suffering Savior of the world because the problem of humanity is not really sin and relational separation from our Creator for Muslims; we are simply ignorant and sometimes led astray, which is why we only need prophets to guide us back to the right ways from time to time.

As I reflect upon my study, I have just one observation: the Muslim 'Isa pales in comparison to the Jesus of the Gospels. The Gospels give such profound, rich insight into Jesus' humanity and divinity that the Qur'an hardly alludes to (the divinity of Christ, of course, is attacked by Muhammad). Literally, the Muslim 'Isa is paler than the Biblical Jesus, as well; Muslim tradition says that 'Isa was fair skinned and had red hair and freckles. An Iranian movie of the Muslim Jesus, called "The Messiah," is coming out in Iran sometime this year (a poster for it is above). It should be interesting to see what the reaction or response to it will be, as well as if and how God uses it to draw people to Himself through His Son Jesus.