thetinymite.com

Travis and Jeremy pondering which ‘Cream of…’ soup to buy at H-E-B.

From “Beyond Bosch: The Early Church and the Christendom Shift” by Alan Kreider
Printed in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research Vol. 29, No. 2, April 2005 p. 59-64

Yes, it has been a few months since the last e-mail. So let’s briefly catch up. Most of you knew I spent the summer in ‘East Asia’ aka China. In a sentence, we learned how to live out the book of Acts. As for present things, we’ve now all moved in to the house. This ‘we’ being Joe, Nathan, Cal, RA, and Travis and this ‘house’ is better known as the First Lady (none of us are quite sure why either). Triathlon training will begin shortly. Enrolling in a swim class may eventually fix my freestyle, but as of now all it has taught me is that I am unable to survival float. Finally, I have launched a new website to host all these e-mails along with all the pictures, quotes, and other writings that aren’t intended for these e-mail. The site? http://www.thetinymite.com. (credit Fitz for the nickname given to me 10 years ago during YMCA football). The Maroon Bombers will never die. There’s more going on around here, but I’ll update you on that as time goes on.

Spending the summer overseas put most of my life on hold. So once I set foot in the DFW Airport, the combination of reality mixed with a very slight taste of culture shock just didn’t sit well in my stomach. The part that I found so hard to swallow wasn’t the fast-paced American materialistic life. No, my love for our country grew stronger – Communism can do that. One of the more difficult things for me to grasp was this awful fact that each day brings me closer to life on my own. Lately, these thoughts of graduation are consuming my mind. Choosing the right career (or avoiding one altogether), being financially independent, and leaving all my good friends in College Station is of no concern compared to this verse in Proverbs 14: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but ends in destruction”. Keep reading and it doesn’t get better…

13 Even in laughter the heart may sorrow,
And the end of joy may be grief.
14 The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways,

That’s really frightening. As I seek to know which steps to take next, I can’t help but wonder if I’m already heading down the wrong path. These mind games I always lose. So what can I do? For one, be obedient to the last thing God told me. And listen — listen long — long enough to know which voice is actually speaking to me; long enough to hear the still, quiet whispers of my God who is inexhaustibly wise, true, and sovereign. Remember “the preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD” (Proverbs 16:1). What then? Dare to do live out those whispers that call to something so impossible that it would be doomed to fail if God’s hand did not see it through from conception to completion. Verse 14 ends, “But a good man will be satisfied with his [way],” lest we think this endeavor lead to unparalleled misery, unwanted celibacy, and every other unpleasant thought misapplied to full devotion to God. I leave you with this quote by CS Lewis:

“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

The Favorites

Music: Did you know that if you have a home network and iTunes you can share music legally? We can play songs from any one of my 5 roommates computer without downloading it on to each computer. Point being is that I have a load of new music to listen to, including Ross King.

Books: The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eli Goldratt. It’s required reading for my Intro to Production Systems class, but it’s really good! I never knew a book about manufacturing could be so interesting. Also I’ve been visiting JR Vassar’s blog (http://manhattanpastor.blogspot.com/) and reading some online stuff by John Piper (http://www.desiringgod.org).

Moment: So many honorable mentions: FOCUS, particularly Sunday morning at the Fort Worth Stockyards with Brian and Brett, hiking the Great Wall (don’t believe me, check out the pictures), Tyler Tag, dropping Jennifer off at OU, seeing my family after 10 weeks apart and only two phone calls. But there can only be one winner and it has to be Ivey and Sean’s wedding; every single part of it, but the reception was one to remember forever. The rumor about me dancing is a complete lie! If you see any video that says otherwise, please destroy the phony version of the wedding. Alas, too many stories, jokes, and memories generated from 4 days that I will stop now.

Sports: Beating SMU soundly makes coming home much easier.

One of the hardest parts of Jesus’ life for me to grasp is His perfect, endless, tender mercy for all people. In the Gospel of Matthew, this theme of mercy is very prevalent. Two times Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6,

For I desire mercy and not sacrifice,
And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. (see Mt 9:13 and 12:7)

Many people seeking Jesus’ healing hand, came shouting, “Have mercy Son of David” (see Mt 9:27; 15:22; 20:30, 31). Such repetition must be significant. Showing mercy is not what my heart naturally leans against. It would rather disengage because to truly show mercy might mean listening intently or even worse bearing another’s burdens. Showing mercy is exhausting, and I simply can’t handle more than 15 minutes of it. Showing mercy reveals how much my heart does not forgive, how disinterested and unmoved I am over the eternal consequences of sin. To show true mercy reveals the need for God’s tender heart to replace my own — maybe more than another other affection. It is in showing compassion, forgiving one another that I must die. Places I avoid, but for Holy Spirit to quicken sanctification, then it is in places of brokenness that I shall dwell. Oh God, please transform me into an Ephesians 4:32 man who is “kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” May this heart not be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, but encourage my brothers and sisters daily (Heb 3:13). Teach me O God, Your heavenly mercies; remind me of your tenderness and compassion on such a fool that it would stir in me a longing to proclaim Your great kindness to all people.

Should all Western missionaries pull out of Asia forever? Of course not. God still sovereignly calls Western missionaries to do unique and special tasks in Asia. But we must understand that when it comes to in which Western missionaries are no longer able to do church planting as past eras allowed, the priority must then be to support efforts of indigenous mission works through financial aid and intercessory prayer….

“There are times in history,” writes Dennis E. Clark in The Third World and Mission , “when however gifted a person may be, he can no longer effectively proclaim the Gospel to those of another culture. A German could not have done so in Britain in 1941 nor could an Indian in Pakistan during the war of 1967, and it will be extremely difficult for Americans to do so in the Third World of the 1980s and 1990s.” This is much more true — and the situation is even worse — today….

The principle I argue for is this: We believe the most effective way now to win Asia for Christ is through prayer and financial support for the native missionary force that God is raising up in the Two-Thirds World. As a general rule, for the following reasons I believe it wiser to support native missionaries in their own lands than to send Western missionaries.

One, it is wise stewardship. According to Bob Granholm, forever executive director of Frontiers in Canada, it costs between $25,000 to $30,000 per year to support a missionary on the mission field. Although this may be true for ministries like Frontiers, Operation Mobilization, Youth With A Mission, and a few other organizations, in my research with more traditional agencies, the cost may be much higher. One mission organization estimates it costs between $80,000 per yar to keep a missionary couple in India. With even a modest inflation rate of three percent, this cost will exceed $100,000 in less than 10 years….

In India, for only the cost of flying an American from New York to Bombay, a native missionary already on the field can minister for years!…

Two, in many places the presence of Western missionaries perpetuates the myth that Christianity is the religion of the West. Bob Granholm states, “While the current internationalization of the missionary task force is a very encouraging development, it is often wiser to not have a western face on the efforts to extend the Kingdom.”…

A friend of mine who heads a missionary organization similar to ours recently told me the story of a conversation he had with some African church leaders.

“We want to evangelize our people,” they said,” but we can’t do it so long as the white missionaries remain. Our people won’t listen to us. The communists and the Muslims tell them all white missionaries are spies sent out by our government as agents for the capitalistic imperialists. We know it isn’t true, but newspapers reports tell of how some missionaries are getting funds from the CIA. We love the American missionaries in the Lord. We wish they could stay, but our only hope for us to evangelize our own country is for all the white missionaries to leave.”…

Three, Western missionaries, and the money they bring, compromise the natural growth and independence of the national Church…

(taken from Revolution in World Missions, Chapter 18, A Global Vision by K.P. Yohannan. Visit the website at Gospel for Asia .)