Who Needs to Count Sheep…?

Howdy, y’all!

So I read Psalm 4 today and I was blessed so I figured I would put it here today and maybe it would bless some of you!

Psalm 4 has many similarities with Psalm 3.  Additionally, Psalm 3 is sometimes referred to at the morning psalm while Psalm 4 is referred to as the evening psalm.  So it would be good for you to read Psalm 3 before reading Psalm 4…but for the sake of brevity, I shall only provide the text of Psalm 4 here for today!

Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
You have relieved me in my distress;
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.

² O sons of men, how long will my honor become a reproach?
How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception? Selah.

³ But know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for Himself;
The Lord hears when I call to Him.

⁴ Tremble, and do not sin;
Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.

⁵ Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,
And trust in the Lord.

⁶ Many are saying, “Who will show us any good?”
Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, O Lord!

⁷ You have put gladness in my heart,
More than when their grain and new wine abound.

⁸ In peace I will both lie down and sleep,
For You alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety.

Hopefully you just read it straight through.  I could just leave it at that…but I wanted to focus on just a couple of things today before I leave.  Specifically, verses 4 and 8.  But again, make sure to read the whole thing!  It’s only 8 verses…and it’s all good!

Verse 4 says for us to “Tremble, and do not sin.”  Tremble, here, is the Hebrew word רָגַז or ragaz, and means to tremble, quake, rage, quiver, be agitated, be excited, be perturbed.

So let’s think on the context for a bit.  Remember above I said that Psalms 3 and 4 are similar and can even be considered book-end psalms with 3 being of the morning and 4 being of the evening.  If you take a look at at Psalm 3, David is beset with difficulties and surrounded by enemies and even begs of God to “Arise, O LORD, save me, O my God,” as a battle cry for God to engage the enemies.

So now, looking to the evening psalm of Psalm 4 we pick up verse 4 again with “Tremble, and do not sin.”  So this means the sort of trembling, shaking, in fear/awe of the LORD that leads one to NOT sin!  Additionally, look to the rest of verse 4, “Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still.”  We’re in Psalm 4, so we’ve made it through the day with God rising up in battle against the enemies (Psalm 3) without any strength of our own, and now here we are at the end of our long day beset with obstacles and enemies on all sides that only God can vanquish and we are told to fear God, do not sin, meditate, and be still!

So in the midst of all the chaos that can be our lives, we get into bed (notice that we are not lying down as of yet) and in awe of God almighty for getting us through the previous day filled with enemies and troubles, we pray…and we are still…

Only after we get into bed, and pray, and are therefore stilled does verse 8 occur… “In peace I will both lie down and sleep, For You alone, O LORD, make me to dwell in safety.”

So brothers and sisters in Christ, after you have acknowledged your obstacles and weakness in your self and prayed in battle cry fashion for God’s help to get through the day, then you climb into bed, weary from doing battle with God against your enemies, and you pray…and you are still…

Who needs to count sheep when you can count your blessings and rest in the protective care of your loving Father?

Not that this is some formulaic device for sleep, mind you, but the attitude presented in Psalms 3 and 4 are crucial.  Indeed, this isn’t some formula for WHEN you should pray either…2x per day is all right?  No no no…Pray at all various times and in all various situations!  This is merely 2 book-end times to pray.  In the morning to acknowledge your obstacles and need for God to get you through, and in the evening to thank Him and to still you from your day and provide the sleep needed to do it again!

Well…that’s all for today!  I thank you guys a bunch for reading, and I hope you go back and read both Psalms 3 and 4 straight through and are blessed!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Transition time…

Hello all!

Here in Panama the local schools operate under a February to December calendar.  Sounds weird to us initially, but it’s really GENIUS for the area!

Under the Panamanian schedule the students get all of Christmas off…and Christmas marks the ending of a grade and when you return to school in February it marks the beginning of a new grade.  Kind of cool.

Additionally, from maybe late December through, say, April, it is the Panamanian dry season, or La estación seca, which the locals call verano, meaning summer.  So they get to be OFF from school during the high tourist season where there is little to no rain for months and nice cool breezes out of the North (we’ve had our windows open 24/7 since January…it’s been AMAZING!

Anyway, with all that aside, our school runs on a typical North American August to June calendar.  That means that, yes, we get a month off during Christmas, but we’re in school when the rest of the country is out of school.  Which is great for traffic purposes.

But the calendar for us is long and arduous during the 2nd semester.  We run straight through every day for about 5 weeks before having a week off for Carnaval (Latin America’s version of Mardi Gras).

Then we run straight through for 5/6 weeks until Semana Santa (Holy Week) when we get the week off for the end of the 3rd quarter and Easter…which is nice.

And then comes 4th quarter…No breaks whatsoever!  It just is what it is.

Additionally, and on a personal side, I’m now in the midst of three transitional people in the Pill household.  Let’s begin with the youngest and work our way up, shall we?

Drew…

Drew will be turning 14 in 5 days!  What?!  Those of you that know us will be shocked and amazed and maybe a bit appalled at how old YOU have become with that statement!  Yes, Drew will, Lord willing, pass 8th grade and matriculate to HIGH SCHOOL next year!  Crazy…my baby’s all growed up…He is maturing rapidly and that’s a good thing.  Unfortunately, for those of you that know us well, that just means he brings a tear of pride to my eyes more often that previously with his ability to ARGUE about ANY topic whatsoever and then to toss out some esoteric sarcastic comment at the most inappropriate time.  That’s my boy!

But he’s coming along.  He actually took a decent online career test and since the interwebs said he should be an engineer, well then, gosh golly it must be true!  So he’s at least been talking about engineering lately.  He’s also been chosen by his Social Studies teach, the great Laura Diaz, to be one of the lucky students to attend, this coming Wednesday, a technology competition whereby he will demonstrate the uses of green screen technology in the realms of education and how students could and should be using this!  Pretty cool stuff.  Ms. Diaz assures us all that he’s been really helpful in class with all of his creative ideas about how to use the green screen technology…I just hope that’s not code word for “oh dear Lord please make it stop!”  Anyway…so we are definitely in the midst of transition on that end!

Next, Drew’s also dealing with some transition in the all too soon future of losing his favorite toy…His favorite toy is Pepper…always has been!  Since Drew was little he only and always wanted to play with Pepper.  We’re such bad parents we had to, from time to time, threaten to disallow him to play with his older brother if his attitude didn’t change or he didn’t clean his room, or whatever.

But anyway…Pepper has been accepted to all the colleges he has applied to…so that’s way cool!  He took an amazing trip for 2 weeks over Carnaval with his grandparents up to visit Liberty University and Mid-Atlantic Christian University.  In the case of the former, Liberty is the largest Protestant college on the face of the planet and has some 20,000 + residential students.  In the case of the latter, MACU has some 200 residential students!  So he got to see the wide range of Christian post-secondary (tertiary?) institutions!

His scholarship weekend to Bryan College got cancelled due to snow/ice so he didn’t get to visit them, although they were going to make the attempt right up until the last moment.  And Moody Bible Institute is in Chicago so he wasn’t going to visit them.

Being accepted to Moody is awesome because they have a wonderful Applied Linguistics program and by merely being accepted one is granted free tuition.  They operate under a “tuition paid” model.  They require you to fill out the FAFSA and whatever the government awards gets applied to tuition, and then the Moody donors cover the rest.  So all that’s left is room/board/books/fees.  Still not cheap for many folks, but much more do-able than if tuition were required as well!

Mid-Atlantic all but demanded that Pepper apply for the Presidential 252 Scholarship.  It’s a full tuition scholarship offered by the school to whomever and whenever and to however many folks they deem worthy.  An essay and two letters of recommendation are required and we went ahead and got that done well before the due date.  So we’re hoping for that to come through.

Bottom line is this:  I believe Pepper fell in  love with Mid-Atlantic Christian University after visiting and he’s really hoping for this scholarship to come through so he can attend.  They have a wonderful Applied Linguistics program culminating with finishing your degree at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics in Dallax, TX and being a mere 10 months or so away from a Masters Degree, as well as a double major and SIL certification…field ready for missions translation if he decides for sure to go that route, but still very well qualified and experienced if he chooses to stay in translation in a different arena.

And that brings us to Allison.  Certainly Pepper’s eventual departure, physically, from our presence is weighing on her mind as the eldest youngin’ leaps headlong from the nest with every confidence that his wings will unfurl and capture the air and wind not only keeping him from plummeting to the ground but in propelling him forwards and upwards as he tests different turns and adjustments…but enough with the birdie discussion…

Allison is also experiencing what I like to call the “Oh crap I’m actually about to finish my first year of teaching and I didn’t think I’d make it through the first day of school and now looking back I realize how badly I sucked as a teacher and there’s so much more I want to do and no time to get it done for next year and I just pray that I haven’t scarred any students with my screw-ups” syndrome.

But I think the syndrome is a good thing.  It shows that the teacher knows and understands the gravity of what they are taking on as educators…especially as educators in a Christian setting where we acknowledge that knowledge and wisdom come from Christ and that we are teaching from a Biblical Worldview standpoint and are in a battle of worldviews with much of the rest of the world.

So Ali’s having to come to grips with some of that as well.  She’s got great ideas and plans for what she wants to keep the same and what she wants to change…Great place to be as a teacher!  Getting ready to wrap up (one more quarter left!) her first year of teaching is exciting.

There’s a lot going on here in Panama…And I love it here!  I wish all of you could visit!  Of course, if you live in Panama you can…but if you don’t, well, it is difficult! But if you ever find yourself with a chunk of time for vacation and you’d like to mix a bit of ministry with a bit of tourism…I think we could point you in the right direction!

Anyway, I’m going to “transition” on outta here…I just wanted to bring everybody up to date on what’s going on with the Panama Pills.  See y’all later!

Soli Deo Gloria

?…Ham on Nye…?

Hello!  I’m going to write a bit about the debate from last night between Bill Nye and Ken Ham.

My first thought was this:  Well, that was very typical of Mr. Nye…too bad I wasted my time sitting through this.  However, the more I have thought about the debate and the more that I thought about Mr. Ham’s answers and the model he put forward, the more I am saying that Mr. Ham totally won the debate, hands down.  And the more I realized that the manner with which Nye debated showed me that we need to debate the viability of worldviews and not just things like fossils and starlight.

Mr. Ham did a fabulous job of actually sticking to the topic which was, in question form, “Is creation a viable model of origins in today’s modern scientific era?”  Mr. Nye, on the other hand, immediately went to the very typical mantra of ridicule, condescension, straw manning, and refusing to come to grips with the reality of particular definitions.

Anyway, Nye kept saying that this was “Ken Ham’s model.”  This is clearly NOT the case.  In fact, Ham was so well prepared that he had a cadre of Ph.D. scientists giving snippets during his presentation about how it was also a model to which they adhered…but alas and alak, Nye was not as prepared as I thought that he was and as such he just jumped right into his prepared presentation without tweaking it to accommodate the fact that this was NOT just Ken Ham’s model.  This was simply very poor taste…but it was typical of atheists coming to debates with Creationists unprepared and unwilling to move from what they believe is their silver bullet apologetic.

Mr. Nye also went so far as to say that somehow Noah must have had super powers in order to build a 500 foot long wooden boat because “modern” expert ship builders kept having problems with building wooden boats much smaller.  The argument being that the “modern” humans were much obviously much more skilled than Noah and even they can’t build a wooden boat that big without it twisting in all 3 x, y, and z planes.  I guess ALIENS must be a better explanation for the Egyptian pyramids, then, because we haven’t been able to reproduce anything like them…oh well…I could simply go on and on and on about the ludicrous statements from Mr. Nye and how easily refutable each and every claim of his is…but that would take a lot of words; and I’m sure someone else will do it!

So enough about Mr. Nye…he is what I would call a hardened, militant, proselytizing atheist adherent to evolution…it really only matters as to whether or not what Mr. Ham said could be viable…given the title of the debate.

Mr. Ham said there is a fundamental difference between doing science on that which you can directly observe and doing science on that which you cannot directly observe.  More specifically, it was about time.  Mr. Ham made the distinction between empirical/observational/operational science and the science of origins (figuring out the unobserved/unobservable origin of something).  Mr. Nye simply dismisses the distinction without ANY argumentation all.  So really it was quite early on that Mr. Nye lost the debate because he refused to comment on the fact that there are actually differences in methodology involved and how it’s applied with respect to science in the “here and now” as compared to historical science.  Unfortunately, I find this to be one of the MAJOR problems with evolutionists and atheists; they do NOT realize this fundamental difference between observing in the here and now and talking about origins.  It’s sad, really.

The other major problem is they tend to NOT understand the very nature of evidence…that evidence just IS and requires interpretation.  It’s been my experience that evolutionists/atheists simply do not understand this.

So, knowing that it’s simply a fact that the origin of the universe and solar system and planet and life and humans was unobserved, there is a different sort of science involved because we are dealing with the unobserved!  This is simply a fact…Mr. Nye’s denial of it just makes him irrational and absurd.  But given that is simply is a fact, we are left with presuppositions in dealing with how to interpret data.  Clearly, everybody has all the same data and evidence…we all have the same DNA to look at, the same Grand Canyon, the same earth, the same animals, etc.  And Lord knows we won’t commit the fallacy of reification where we say something like “follow the evidence” because we know that evidence/data simply IS and cannot lead anyone anywhere.  So we are left with interpreting the data.  And in regards to the debate over origins, this boils down to a debate over worldviews.  In particular, this debate is over presuppositional worldview beliefs.  One of the worldviews present in last night’s debate was that the Bible is true from cover to cover when read “literally.”  I put that in quotes to bring notice to it.  Mr. Ham defined “literal” as “naturally.”  I like to say it this way…

• Literally, parts of the Bible were written as historical narrative and should be interpreted that way.
• Literally, parts of the Bible were written as poetry and should be interpreted that way.
• Literally, parts of the Bible were written as idiom/figure of speech and should be interpreted that way.
• Literally, parts of the Bible were written as prophecy and should be interpreted that way.

In other words, given the context and the grammar and the audience of the time, we should be able to figure out which sort of writing is happening, and then interpret it that way.

This has NOTHING to do with the Bible being translated into “American English” as Mr. Nye so often claimed.  Many people call this sort of “literal” interpretation a grammatical/historical hermeneutic (a hermeneutic is one’s method for interpreting a text).

So, when I read Genesis, I read it as the grammar demands and read it as historical narrative.  This has much to do with the format of the Hebrew writing itself and not based upon some whims of my own.

When I read Psalms, I read it as the grammar demands and read it as poetry.  This has much to do with the format of the Hebrew writing itself and not based upon some whims of my own.

When I read text passages that say something is LIKE something else, I read it as the grammar demands it and interpret it as figurative.

Get the point?  Clearly Nye did not.

The other worldview present in last night’s debate was materialistic/naturalistic atheistic scientism.  When asked what overarching belief grounds their worldviews, Nye answered that it was “science.”  Nye has effectively made an idol out of “science” and worshipped it as Creator.

Anyway, this debate wasn’t over fossils or DNA sequences or jet planes or cell phones or geological strata, but over worldviews.  And I believe last night made that clear as a bell.

It’s time to start turning up the heat and debating worldviews.  But of course that would involve participation from the atheist crowd who routinely turn down offers for debate from Creationists.

Well, maybe someday I’ll get my wish…

Soli Deo Gloria

Plans…pencil/ink…

God is good, all the time…all the time, God is good!

God is smart.  No, seriously!

It’s amazing to me that I continually find new ways how smart God is.  God isn’t only smart, but He’s a wonderful planner!  I know, right?!

I have a saying, sort of, and it comes out in a bunch of different ways, but the bottom line is I like to tell people that planning is a good thing…but to remember to write their plans in pencil for God’s plans are so much better!  So why am I blabbering on about this?

Ok, in high school I was an ok student and an ok baseball player.  I got “A”s and “B”s and the occasional “C” if the class was really hard (like 12th grade chemistry, for example).  I shot for the stars when it came to grades but accepted the ceiling fan of my room and studied just enough to be slightly above average…whatever that means.

Anyway, I hadn’t really figured out what I wanted to do with my life, nor was I a Christian other than in name only (I was a cultural Christian…I mean, I wasn’t Muslim or Buddhist or Hindu so I was Christian, right?) and possibly, likely, even “atheist” from time to time if it suited me to be so.  But anyway, I hadn’t really any idea what I wanted to do after high school.

I liked science and I liked history and I liked baseball.  I already had a pretty good idea that baseball wasn’t going to be my thing professionally because I wasn’t THAT good.  Also, I had a pretty good idea that I didn’t want the lifestyle of a baseball player.  Now, for all my nominal Christianity and quasi-atheism I really wanted a family.  And I had an idea that baseball as a career for someone like myself would be bad…batting around (pun intended) in single A ball for an entire career doesn’t really promote “family” know what I mean?  But I loved the game and I loved what I was taught because of it and my involvement with it.  So I figured coaching might be the way to go for me and I was good enough to play in college…so I had a plan!

I graduated with 5.0 science credits and 5.0 history credits and a sense of where I wanted to go career-wise after college…I believed I wanted to be a teacher and a baseball coach; high school of course.  So off I went to college!  Sort of.

In high school I used to help people out with their classes whenever I could.  I just loved the spark, the glint, in someone’s eyes as I explained something to them and it made sense.  Ok, not really, that never happened…I just wanted to teach because I wanted to coach!  But it’s the thought that counts, right?  No?  Sue me.

By the middle of my Spring semester of my senior year I had nowhere to go to college.  Oh, word got out that I was going to the University of North Carolina on a baseball scholarship, that’s for sure…unfortunately, it wasn’t true!  I did speak with the college…once…and I guess that’s all it took!  Because of that some schools simply crossed me off their recruiting lists.

And then the word got back to me by way of congratulations that I had signed a baseball scholarship with the University of Tennessee!  Yep…things were looking up for a shortstop from a high school in Jacksonville.  Unfortunately, that particular shortstop wasn’t me either!  Apparently my friends that congratulated me on going to college on baseball scholarship confused the 5 foot 11 inch white guy with long blonde hair with the 5 foot 8 inch black shortstop from a different school.  Oh well…

An again, apparently this was so rampant that other schools simply crossed me off their recruiting lists!  Coolio!

Oh yes, and then there’s the one local university that actually DID OFFER me a scholarship!  I turned it down.  It was a private school in the area and even though the scholarship was 50%, there was just no way I could justify having my parents pay the other 50% of the cost.  I think, if I remember correctly, that I came up with some cockamamie excuse about the coach or something…I really don’t remember all the reasons I gave for turning it down, but deep within me it was really the cost; I didn’t want to put my parents through that!

One of the reasons I gave for turning down the scholarship was that simultaneously I got a phone call from another university in town (actually I think I made the call first, but whatever) who was confused that I was even available to pick up as a player!  And they invited me to “walk-on” to the team.  Basically, a walk-on is a player who is on the team but is not on scholarship.  So I was told I’d be on the team just not getting any money for it.  But that was ok because it was lots and lots cheaper than even the 50% remaining after the other scholarship offer!  So I was good to go!

I’ll skip all the baseball talk and save that for another post, maybe, and get to my point!

As I sat entered college the assistant coach had already chosen my classes for me.  That didn’t really sit well with me so I made an appointment with the guidance counselor that I was required to have as an athlete.  And boy am I glad I did!

I basically chose Biology as my major and I wanted to minor in Education…but it wasn’t allowed.  However, being in the College of Arts and Sciences I was required to have a minor.  I took a few classes here and there but ended up minoring in Psychology.  I also spoke with the College of Education to figure out what would be needed to get certified to teach and I took those courses as well!

Eventually, I earned an athletic scholarship…nice, right?  Sort of…Because all of my College of Education courses DID NOT COUNT for my hours which kept me eligible for scholarship…bummer.  So I took classes every single summer 4 years!  Zoinkes!

Anyway, Biology it was!  And baseball it was!  And education is was!

I got married in college, and that’s another story as well, and had 2 more years to play ball and attend classes before graduation…so that’s what I did.

Anyway, I graduated and began my coaching career while working property preparation for a company in town.

After 1 year of that I got a job at the school I was coaching baseball for…I got to teach Dropout Prevention English!  Yes boys and girls I taught English for an entire year!  DOH!  Good thing it was Dropout Prevention!

Anyway, I then moved from DOP English to taking over the Anatomy/Physiology and Biology courses for the long time A&P teacher who was loved by everybody…you get the point.

I then moved to Chemistry and AP Biology and Biology while then also getting a Master’s Degree in Teaching and Learning.  Now, I’d like to tell you that the ultimate reason for my obtaining this Master’s Degree was that I really wanted to pursue being the best possible classroom teacher I could be…but alas and alak that was NOT the ultimate reason.  No, the ultimate reason was that I really wanted to be a college head baseball coach at some point in time and a Master’s degree is usually required for that position.

Interestingly enough God gave me the desire of my heart and I got to coach college baseball as an assistant in a local college for 3 years.  Three of the most wonderful and worst years of my life!  I’ll just let Allison explain that comment to you…

Now, don’t get me wrong…I LOVED LOVED LOVED teaching!  And I took it seriously.  And I pushed the kids academically and started the AP Biology program at my first school and really pushed that aspect of education…pushing kids in the area of college prep and academic rigor.  I could have slacked off and just taught via worksheets, but it wasn’t in me to do that!  So even though the ULTIMATE reason for my getting my Master’s degree wasn’t exactly noble, I did indeed, secondarily, wish to further myself as an educator.

Four years later (after my earning my Master’s degree in Teaching and Learning) and 2 schools later (again, a long and wonderful story that I can tell you at some point in time…just not today) I earned another Master’s degree!

Now, what kind of idiot must one be to earn 2 Master’s degrees?  Well, you have to be a Pilliod, I suppose.  This degree was in Educational Leadership.  I’d already made the move from public schools to private schools…specifically private Christian schools…and there were opportunities to “advance” my career in education by working as an administrator, or at least use my leadership skills and training in the field of education that I loved…yes, I loved it!

Oh, and did I tell you that I left the college baseball coaching scene?  Well, I did.  I went from coaching college baseball to high school varsity.  After that I coached J.V.  After that I coached middle school baseball for 3 years and added football.  After that I dropped baseball completely and my coaching career finished with coaching middle school football…go figure!

In the education field I ended up being the unofficial liaison between the high school staff and the administration.  I even had an unofficial title of Assistant High School Principal and was over the high school discipline while teaching 6 out of 7 periods in the school day…it was busy!

Then on to Panama after a year of teaching online high school science…a wonderful experience itself where I did influence some students and even some educators…which was cool.

So what’s the point?  Well…God is good, all the time.  All the time, God is good!

I’m now in the perfect position for such a time as this!

I’m scheduled to teach 3 science classes, all at the highest levels, next year while supervising the online physics classes and promoting the online learning environment in my school (Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning).

Also, I’m working as the high school coordinator (like a high school Principal)…so I get to work with other high school teachers, with the school discipline plan, with accreditation, with other administrators, with new plans, with curriculum, etc. (Master of Education in Educational Leadership).

So God has been preparing me for such a long time for this time in history.  I only got my first Master’s degree because of some silly idea of being a college baseball coach…He had better plans for me.  I got my second Master’s degree in Ed. Leadership because, hey, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em!  But again, God had better plans for me.

I have no idea what’s coming next.  I sort of know the near future plan…I mentioned it above…but that can change at a moment’s notice as well.  And what I have learned over the years, mostly the last 3 or 4, is to roll with the changes because God is in absolute control over everything!  There is no such thing as coincidence.  There is no such thing as accident.  There is God’s divine sovereignty and God’s divine providence and God’s divine love.  And who am I to make plans in permanent ink when it’s much better for me to make plans in pencil and let God erase them and nudge me to re-write them in pencil on a daily basis.

I’m rambling on (and on and on and on and on…), but I’ve had a great time tossing this out to you!  My prayer is that you not only learned a little bit about me by this brief history of all things Pill, but that also if you are frustrated with circumstances from time to time, to just know that God is in control!  Just like God had this day in mind when He created me and guided me to 2 Master’s degrees and moved me to this position where I’m actually using both of them simultaneously (which answers the question of what sort of idiot would get 2 Master’s degrees).  And how might I be being currently prepared for something else in the future?  Good question!  I guess we’ll find out as we go, eh?

Soli Deo Gloria

Roads Go Ever On And On-by Jamie Hughes

Howdy, y’all!

Tonight’s blog is written NOT BY ME!  

Tonight I’m sending you to The Tousled Apostle.  Her name is Jamie Hughes.  I taught with Jamie in Jacksonville, Florida at a Christian school.  I’m going to include a link to her blog for her most recent post.

The link:
http://tousledapostle.wordpress.com/2013/03/03/roads-go-ever-on-and-on/

I thought about copying/pasting the text as well, but I’d rather you give her blog a gander and read a bunch of other stuff she’s written as well!

So, off you go!  Enjoy…

Soli Deo Gloria

Shiphrah and Puah and Sadie

Y’all know the story…Joseph ends up in Egypt as the number 2 guy to the head honcho (Japanese origin of that word, right Mami?) and 70 or more Hebrews end up moving to Egypt and being blessed and being a blessing.  And then in Exodus 1 and verse 8,

Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

The term “arose” bears the connotation that one rose up against.  So this sounds like a hostile take-over.  Was this the Hyksos peoples that ruled the region?  Could this be why they did not know Joseph?  Supposedly the origin of the term “Hyksos” comes from Egyptian as “rulers of foreign lands.”  That would fit nicely, wouldn’t it…seeing as how they were foreigners to Egypt they would not know Joseph or likely even care if they were told of him.  There is debate, of course, as to whether or not there even was a Hyksos invasion.  Some believe that the Hyksos simply migrated to the area over time and since Egypt was falling into disarray due to famine and plague they merely took over.  At any rate, the term “quwm” for “arose” still fits, for this was a foreign take-over.

Oh, and don’t forget that the Hyksos brought interesting new technology and weapons to the area like the composite bow and, yes, the horse-drawn chariot.  But I digress…

The foreign ruler then said in verses 9-10,

He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we.  Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land.”

Well of course he was scared!  The Hyksos either invaded and took over the Egyptians or the Egyptians were fractioned and on their way out anyway and so the minimal Hyksos peoples took over to find out that, oops, there’s an entire nation of people living within the borders of their new country!  As such, verse 11,

So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor.  And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses.

And so the miraculous nation of Israel falls into slavery.  But make no mistake about it, the promise to Abraham to make his descendants into a nation was already true and was still working!  God miraculously kept increasing the Hebrew numbers even while under the oppressive thumb of this new ruler.  Verses 11-14,

 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel.  The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously; and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them.

God was faithful.  God is awesome!  God kept increasing Israel and kept increasing the Hebrew numbers not just despite their harsh treatment, but it seems BECAUSE OF their harsh treatment! (verse 12)

And then it turns nasty!  I’ll simply post the rest of the passage below so we can read it all together and then discuss it below…(verses 15-21),

Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other was named Puah; and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”  But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live.  So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?”  The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.”  So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and became very mighty.  Because the midwives feared God, He established households for them.

And again, God is working miraculously here with the nation of Israel.  By the way, all the way back up in verse 9, the Hyksos ruler is the first person to refer to the Hebrews as ” ‘am”.  That means “nation”.  Notice in verse 9 he speaks to his own nation and says the Hebrew nation is more and mightier!

Now, I say all that as a way of introduction to talking about Shiphrah and Puah and the miracle of childbirth and how much more miraculous it was during this particular time as God was very specifically miracle-ing the Hebrew nation to greater and greater numbers.

According to the Biblical text above, Shiphrah and Puah were Hebrew midwives.  Were they the ONLY 2 midwives in all of the Hebrew nation?  I doubt it, because of the fact that there were PLENTY of Hebrews and they were growing in numbers…but I’m not going to be dogmatic about it.

Anyway, the midwives were told to kill the babies that were males.  So when the midwives were called upon to help deliver the babies, they were to kill the ones that were males.

I’m trying to hit this home with you because the King was very specific about WHEN the killing was to be done…when the  midwives WERE HELPING the ladies deliver the babies…that’s when!

Now, what transpired from there?  I do not really know…but one thing is for sure…the midwives did NOT do it.  Their excuse?

“Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.”

Was it a lie?  I don’t know.  The text doesn’t make that clear.  And I’m not going to be the one to assume that they lied.  So if we take their word at face value, then God was miraculously making it such that the Hebrew women would have quick deliveries before the midwives could get there.  Are there other options?  I’m sure there are.  Maybe they just ignored the command of the king.  Maybe they told all the women of Israel to not even bother calling for the midwife until after the baby was already delivered.  I don’t know.  But taking their words at face value, it would seem that God was miraculously causing the population of Israel to explode by making labor and delivery a much simpler process amongst the Hebrew women.

And the names of these midwife women, Shiphrah and Puah, will forever be enshrined in God’s revealed Word!  How awesome is that?!

The Hebrews did not kowtow to the culture of the foreign rulers.  They did not succumb to the unrighteous behavior of the rest of the world.  They understood that life was precious and important and should be protected.  They did  not abort unborn babies or kill young babies.

This all leads into the story of Moses’ birth in Exodus chapter 2.  This occurred soon after the decree in chapter 1 and verse 22 to kill all baby boys that were born.

Anyway, Moses’ mother did NOT kill Moses.  Again, this shows us that the Hebrews did not kowtow to the whims of foreign culture and did not lower their standard for the sanctity of life.  In fact, this brings up a very important topic…the topic of authorities placed above us and whether or not it’s ok to defy that authority.

To make a long explanation short, I say you should do everything that you can to obey the laws and decrees of the governing authorities above you except for 2 types of instances…(1) if the governing authority commands that you do something that runs counter to what the Bible states…like killing babies…(2) if the governing authority commands that you do NOT do something that the Bible commands that you do…like in Daniel they were commanded to NOT pray.

In those instances, it’s totally ok to go against what the governing authority has to say.  Of course you must be prepared to pay the worldly consequence like possibly getting eaten by a lion or burned in a furnace (granted in those 2 instances they were delivered from those consequences, but that won’t always be the case).

Ok, so we have Hebrew midwives who refuse to abort the babies before they are born or just after they are born, and we have the Hebrews refusing to kill babies just because they happen to be males.

And that brings me to another story.  But to tell it, I need to bring you back a couple years…back to roughly the turn of the 20th century.  This is a story about a young girl named Sadie.  Sadie was a modern day Shiphrah…or maybe a Puah…although not a midwife!

This is also a story about a man.  Whenever he would walk to work, he would pass up an orphanage on his way.  And as he would pass the orphanage he happened to catch the eye of a young girl named Sadie who was an orphan.  Day after day after day he would walk by the orphanage and see young Sadie…and he fell in love with her…and she fell in love with him.

Eventually, the man married young Sadie right out of the orphanage!  How cool is that?!

It came to pass that Sadie became pregnant.  Unfortunately, she also contracted tuberculosis.  The doctors were adamant that in her weakened condition, due to the tuberculosis, if she continued with the pregnancy and attempted to deliver this child, that she would die.  They tried time and time again to convince her to abort the baby and save her own life.

Sadie would not budge.

Sadie would not kill her child to save her own skin.

She went through the entire pregnancy and delivered her son into this world.  In an attempt to keep from passing the tuberculosis on to her baby boy, Eddie, she remained in quarantine behind glass and never once held him…not even out of the womb.

Day by day the nurses would bring Eddie to the window so she could see him, until he went home with his father.  After that, Sadie’s husband would bring their son to the window so she could lay her eyes upon him…although NEVER touching him.  This went on for 18 months before Sadie finally succumbed to tuberculosis and died.

Sadie understood the sanctity of life.  Sadie did not take the advice of her doctors and simply abort her child to save her own life.  Sadie laid down her life to save the life of her son.

Sadie was my great grandmother.

She laid down her life for me…and Allison…and Pepper…and Drew…

She did not know me.  She did not have any idea that I would even be around, but she understood legacy.  It is because of my great grandmother, Sadie, that my grandfather, Eddie, was born.  Eddie eventually got married and her wife bore him a daughter named JoAnn.  JoAnn eventually got married to a man named Jim and bore him 3 children…all boys…the youngest of whom was named Michael Anthony.

I understand, now, what legacy is about.  It’s about planting a slow growing wonderful shade tree by seed and not being able to enjoy its shade for yourself, but tending it just the same so your descendants can enjoy it down the road.

And it’s about doing the right thing for the future even though it may cost you everything.  The decisions we make today do indeed echo into the future.

Father God, make me the kind of man that thinks about legacy in the decisions he makes…not for selfish purposes, not for my own gain, nor for the approval of man, but for the future of my children and their children and their children until you so choose to end this world as it is and re-create it anew for your own glory.  And let me reflect back upon the rich heritage of wonderful saints in my past that made decision after decision that they never realized would benefit me personally, but made those proper decisions anyway.

Soli Deo Gloria

No Regrets

I’d like to tell you that I have no regrets…but I can’t.  I can tell you, however, that I have less regrets today than I had, say, 5 years ago or 10 years ago.  My thoughts on regrets have changed over time as my view of God’s sovereignty has climbed and climbed.  Let me explain briefly.

In the past, I could look backwards to previous events and previous decisions made and I would feel guilty for being so stupid, feel bad for doing what I did, and have regrets for whatever situation was upon me.  But things began to change the more I read the Bible because the more I read the Bible the more I began to understand that God was proactive and not reactive.

I used to think that I made my bed and so I had to sleep in it…and to some degree it is true as there are consequences for sin.  However, my thoughts have changed over time.  I began a relationship with God and began reading His Word.  I learned that “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).  Clearly, God must love me because I chose to love Him and He was reactionary in giving me love and in taking my stupid, sinful, corrupt, childish, idiotic actions and somehow re-working what I had done such that it was for my benefit and that I might learn from it and grow from it and become a better man and better Christian because of it.  (sorry for the long sentence)  But then I read Job.

In reading Job I learned that Satan and God talk to one another!  How crazy is that?  I thought they were these arch-nemeses like Superman and Lex Luthor who were always battling for the souls of mankind and sometimes the pendulum swung towards God and sometimes the pendulum swung towards Satan.  But then I read the Bible some more.

And after reading some more I learned that God created Satan.  I don’t recall Superman creating Lex Luthor.  How could a created thing be better than or even on par with the Creator?  Easy answer…it cannot!  So I was tossed into a theological and philosophical tailspin as I attempted to remove the reality of God from the comic book fantasy of it that I had formulated in my own imagination.  I began to see Satan, from reading Job, as being like every other created thing in that Satan can only do what God allows him to do.  Just go read the first chapter of Job right quick and and you’ll see what I mean.  You’ll see God’s hand of suppression doing the work of keeping sin down.  He doesn’t allow Satan to kill Job but He does allow Satan to perform his free will of nastiness upon Job, yes?  And Satan has a field day!  But keep reading through the whole book.  Job is da bomb!

So my thoughts on my own failures began to change.  My regrets seemed almost ridiculous as I noticed that I was regretting something that, in the end, made me a better man and a better Christian.  I began to see that God arranges things before they happen such that the experience that I learn, even in my failures, can bring me to the point where I am today.  I would be a different person today if it were not for the situations where I failed miserably in the past…or the situations where I succeeded in the past. The book of James tells us to “Consider it all joy…when you encounter various trials.”  Notice there ain’t no ifs ands or buts about it!  “When” you face various trials!  Christian, the trials are a comin’, you can be well assured of that!  And God knows exactly why.  I don’t know why.  And if you ask me why I’m going to tell you to ask God about it because all I can do is quote Romans 8:28 back to you and that’s not what you want to hear from me at that moment, right?!  I know it’s not what I want to hear!

But if our past failures and successes were driven by God to specifically mold us into the men and women we are today such that we can do a mighty work for the Lord and for the Kingdom, then should we regret them?  I don’t know.  Maybe some of them.  But I’m noticing that over the years my regrets have decreased and my thankfulness for my stupidness in the past has increased as I’m less of a spiritual dolt today because of my God-driven past.  Thank you, Lord, for putting me through the past so I can be useful in the present and I promise, Lord, that I won’t attempt to steal your glory!

And I promise you this…If you’re a Christian, and you’re going through some tough times, and you come to me for whatever reason, I promise to do my best to NOT be to you what Job’s “friends” were to him (or even his wife).  We’re supposed to “Bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2) and not add to the list of burdens.  I don’t know how to bear your burden unless you give it to me or I take it from you, and that’s a scary proposition for all parties involved, right?  For some reason, we like our own burdens.  We don’t want to give up our burdens.  It was my wife’s grandmother, Nanny, who said, “If everybody threw all their problems out in the middle of the road, we’d all run out and grab our own” (paraphrasing).  There’s truth to that.  Our own burdens are somehow…comfortable…

So anyway, I’d like to “fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2) by bearing your burdens.  Heck, maybe you can bear mine!  Let’s toss our problems out into the street of Christian community and pick up someone else’s problem and help out. If we go pick up our own problems it won’t get fixed.  We have proven that every time we attempt to fix our own problems, amen?  So it’s time to obey God and do 2 things…Ask for help.  And be a help.  That keeps us from being focused on our selves, even in the midst of problems, as we entrust one anther with our burdens and help one another to bear said burdens.

So, Christian, as the problems and burdens and situations arise in your life that just aren’t no dadgummed fun, understand that we still have joy, that we need to ask others for help and be in relationships with fellow Christians that are deep enough for us to ask for help, and that we need to be a help and not an additional burden.

Father, let us not be Job’s friends.  Let us not heap extra burdens upon those that are heavy laden.  But let us, in love, attend to those that are hurting.  Remind us on a consistent basis where we get our strength…that we are weak in ourselves and we get strength from you.  Help us to understand that guilt and regret ties us down to a godless past without the hope of the future of Heaven.  Let us remain in our joy even in the midst of trials and allow us to bear one another’s burdens to fulfill the law of Christ to love one another.  Thank you, Lord, for your provision.  Thank you for the refining fire and for the removing of the dross of our lives.  Thank you for placing me in a community where I can be a burden bearer and others can help bear mine.  I love you.  We love you.

Soli Deo Gloria

Addendum:
The above is not to be a license to continue in your sin, not at all!  It’s just a glimpse into my journey of understanding God’s sovereignty and how He allows us to go through certain situations because you will be a better soldier in His army because of it.  You will be a better, more well trained, well seasoned, experienced battler against sin and for God!

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,  knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;  for he who has died is freed from sin.”-Romans 6:1-7

…but our sufficiency is from God…

Hello all!

Please note the title of tonight’s blog post…but our sufficiency is from God…this is taken from 2 Corinthians 3:5.

Our sufficiency does NOT come from:

• men
• women
• human reason
• logic
• human resources
• nature
• science
• money
• careers
• preachers
• pastors
• theologians
• drugs
• alcohol
• food
• stuff
• good works
• the media
• praises of men
• religion
• books
• knowledge
• comfort
• intelligence
• self reliance
• government

I’m sure this list could on and on and on ad nauseum, but this is merely the short, partial list that Drew, Pepper, Ali and I came up with off the top of our collective head.

Our sufficiency is from God.  What does that mean?  To quote John MacArthur from the 17th of February, 2003, he said, “That means our capability of living life in God’s plan to the maximum is from Him.”

Catch that?  Our actual CAPABILITY of living life in GOD’S PLAN to the maximum is from HIM!  It’s still all about God, isn’t it?  If we have a problem, we do NOT believe it cannot be handled.  Why?  Because it can be handled by God.  It will be handled by God.

2 Corinthians 9:8 states, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.”

Catch that?  all grace, always having all sufficiency, in everything, an abundance, every good deed

God can and will provide the resources for us for our sufficiency is from God.  God has a plan and will provide the resources necessary for us to fulfill His plan to the maximum.  One of the resources is the Holy Spirit.

As Christians we have God actually living inside of us.  The Holy Spirit indwells the believer and we live by the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is sufficient.

And God’s Word exists as revealed in the form of the Bible through the Holy Spirit working in human authors.  This is another important resource for us given to us by God who is our sufficiency.

God is sufficient.  God the Father is all powerful.  Jesus Christ is God.  The Holy Spirit is God.  And the revealed Word of God is available to us in Scriptures.

Scripture, therefore, is sufficient for us.  All we need for salvation is contained in the Word…the Bible.  We do not need NEW teachings.  We do not need to sit under the supposed authorities of the learned (pronounced learn-ed, of course) to expound upon the mysteries of Holy Writ, as though mere peasants as us cannot comprehend God’s Word.

No, we should let Scripture interpret Scripture.

Students, this is where I need your help.  Many times it’s easier for me to simply answer a question that you might have instead of doing what I should be doing…pointing you to other Scriptures such that Scripture can interpret Scripture and you get exposed to even more Scripture.  Please make a concerted effort to demand this of me lest you become dependent upon the interpretations of others and I become full of myself and my ability to give quick answers!  On the flip side…understand that the “easy answer” will NOT be forthcoming very often anymore.

Read read read read read the Bible.  Then when faced with questions about the meaning of certain texts, you may be reminded of other sections you have already ready read which describe the issue more clearly to your mind.  And if you cannot find that section of Scripture, yes, you can ask me and I shall most assuredly attempt to give you places to search or answer you with other questions such that you can see the sufficiency of Scripture itself for you!

Is every single issue stated within the words of Scripture?  No, of course not.  But all issues are dealt with, of course.  Does the Bible speak of DNA?  Not directly.  But DNA is clearly a created thing, and the Bible speaks of the created things and as such we can make some statements about DNA…it was once perfect…it did not have mutations (detrimental ones)…death due to genetic disorders occurred only after the Fall of man…etc.  So Scripture is sufficient.

Scripture is sufficient for God is our sufficiency.

I believe Scripture is sufficient for authority as well.  Since Scripture is God’s revelation of Himself in written form, and we have the Holy Spirit indwelt (a different kind of revelation of God), what more do we need?  What higher authority is there?  Let me simply copy/paste the list from the beginning of this blog and paste it below with a different title to the list.

We do not give authority to:

• men
• women
• human reason
• logic
• human resources
• nature
• science
• money
• careers
• preachers
• pastors
• theologians
• drugs
• alcohol
• food
• stuff
• good works
• the media
• praises of men
• religion
• books
• knowledge
• comfort
• intelligence
• self reliance
• government

None of these things should be held to equal or higher authority than God…and that includes being held to equal or higher authority than Scripture.  Not science, not religion, not good works…none of it.

I’m a science guy.  I love science.  But science is not to be held to the same authority as Scripture…Period…End of sentence.

Science changes, but God’s Word certainly does not.  I will always read the Bible first and use that as my presupposition of truth.  And then I shall interpret what I see in the world/universe through that lens of Scripture.

So students and parents, please hold me accountable to not just give the easy answer to a question on interpretation.  Hold me accountable to answer questions with questions that force students to act like the Bereans and study and read and allow for them to find places in Scripture where Scripture can interpret Scripture.  And let us all dispense with the notion that our sufficiency is from anything but God!

Soli Deo Gloria

A Sense of Urgency

Howdy, y’all!

Just a quick note…

It seems that the longer I am a Christian, the more my heart is drawn to those that are not.  There are so many people out there in need of Christ and for some reason, God, in His infinite wisdom and sovereignty, has decided that He will bring them to Himself through the free will actions of humans.  It’s amazing to me to sit and dwell on how God is totally sovereign in all things, and yet, He uses the free choices of people like you and me to bring about His ultimate plan.

With that said, I don’t know why God doesn’t just “ZAP” people and regenerate their hearts…He has so chosen to bring about heart change through the fallible proclamation of the Gospel by completely unworthy folks such as your’s truly!  I don’t get it!  And because He has chosen to do so, I continually feel an increasing sense of urgency because you’re talking about a guy who likes his  process!  I mean, changing a light bulb is a process that could take 6 or 8 months for me…Imagine how long it will take for me to build relationships and proclaim the Good News to people!  Zoinkes!

Anyway…

I’m not making a claim for a near future rapture or anything like that, just that I’m beginning to feel a bit of what is expressed in the Bible about the harvest being great and the workers being few…there was a sense of urgency back in Jesus’ day, and there should be a sense of urgency now as well.

Go to Matthew chapter 9 verses 35-38 with me, would you?

Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.

What I find interesting is that not only did Jesus command his disciples to pray for God to send out workers into the harvest field, but those very same pray-ers were at least a partial answer to said prayers!  I guess that means we should be careful what we pray for because God might answer the request for workers with something like, “Yes, let’s see…Hmmm…How about, oh I don’t know…YOU!”

Focus with me on the phrase “send out” with me for a bit.  Here’s where we get urgency and a bunch of other stuff too.

The phrase “send out” is the Greek term, ἐκβάλλω.  Isn’t that amazing?!!

The end.

Just kidding.  That term, ἐκβάλλω, or ekballō, for those of us who think that merely looked Greek to us, means the following:

to cast out, drive out, to send out

…and can be used with connotations with or without violence.  Geesh!  Here’s some more of what the definition says:

to drive out (cast out)

to cast out

to compel one to depart

to bid one depart, in stern though not violent language

to command or cause one to depart in haste

to cause a thing to move straight on its intended goal

Wow!  So Jesus tells his disciples that the harvest is great but the workers are few and to pray to God to compel, cause, command, and drive out workers into the harvest field!  Awesome!  Doesn’t that sound just……..plucky?!

Well, anyway…God most certainly did that with us.  As we began to study prayer we found ourselves praying for the lost and drawn to the lost.  Then we found ourselves researching mission schools overseas.  Then we found ourselves in Panama teaching and working in the office not only in support of missionaries who had their kids in our care 8 hours per day, but on the “front line,” so to speak with students and/or parents who maybe aren’t believers but come to our school for a variety of reasons.

We also found ourselves attending PAAM training (Panameños Alcanzando Al Mundo)…missionary training for Panamanians to be sent, or ekballō, elsewhere. And we are learning a lot about ourselves and about Christianity and about humanity and about God in the process.  Where does it all lead?

I don’t know.  But if I’ve learned anything from God and from my elders it has to be this: write your plans in pencil…they’re going to change!  I’m also just going to go ahead and give my pencil and my stationary to God since He’s constantly saying, “No…that’s not right…erase that…write this…no no no, Pill…now erase that part about being a professional baseball player and a college baseball coach…and now you can insert the part about teaching middle school; yes, you…and now erase that part about being People Magazine’s sexiest man alive because it just ain’t gonna happen!”

And, yes, God says “ain’t”…deal with it.

So I say all that to say this…

We’re working hard.  We’re struggling in some places and breezing through in other places.  Sounds like your life, doesn’t it?  That’s right!  Life is life.  We live in/on a fallen and cursed universe/earth, and times will be both good and then bad.  But God is good all the time.

Right there where you are you can find lost people all around you!  There goes a man driving to work who needs Christ.  There goes a young teen-aged girl to high school.  There’s a school teacher who needs Christ.  There’s the doctor.  There’s your neighbor.  We are all surrounded by folks who need Christ.

I pray tonight, Lord, that you don’t give us the hardened atheist who merely wants to attempt to trample your Word with his false wisdom and religion of supposed “reason.”  I pray, Lord, that you put someone in front of us tonight, tomorrow, the next day, who is ready…but merely needs to hear the Good News from us.  You so chose to bring people to Yourself through the work of mere men and women…I pray that you put someone in our path that just needs to hear from us.

How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who ^[i]bring good news of good things!”-Romans 10:14-15

I pray that you make our feet beautiful, Lord, as workers sent into the plentiful harvest.

Soli Deo Gloria

God’s Sovereignty and Human Responsibility…The Great Commission…and Other Stuff, I suppose.

Hello all!

I’m not too sure how much I will actually write tonight…but I’m sure I have some YouTube posts that I want to link here.  They are lengthy so please please please pace yourself over the next week or two and block out some time to watch/listen to these when you get the chance…they speak, in different ways, of basically who I am and why I’m here in Panama and not in Florida with my parents where my children’s grandparents can be close by.

Here is the first…

It’s Dr. John MacArthur discussing the sovereignty of God and human responsibility.  I’m deeply humbled by the sovereignty of God.  I don’t understand why God does what He does and I ask Him on a periodic basis.  Sometimes He gives me reasons.  Sometimes He gives me peace.  Sometimes He lets me stew in it for a bit.  This is a serious bit of Biblical exegesis and it takes a bit to follow.

The next one is here…

This one is Francis Chan talking basically about The Great Commission.  I’m saddened by the amount of lost people there are in the world.  There are so many people groups on the earth that haven’t even heard the name of Jesus…that speaks ILL of us as Christians.  I sense urgency to spread the Good News, and yet at times I feel like I’m as stagnant in my order to spread the Word of God as any hardened atheist!  This video is around 40-ish minutes long so plan accordingly!

Sometimes I wonder why God intended for us Pilliods to be in Panama.  Sometimes I flounder in my work and in my walk.  Sometimes I believe I’m the worst of worst missionaries ever who had the ill-conceived idea to leave his/her homeland and work for the Lord overseas.  Sometimes.  Sometimes.

And then there’s tonight (yes, tonight!)…

• I’m banging away on my computer and I see the name of one of my students taped to the screen and I realize that my wife and I have been a blessing in various ways to her…and she has blessed us beyond measure.
• I see on my Outlook a recurring event that both jokingly and literally celebrates the maturation of yet another student.
• I remember how my eldest son went on a mission trip, as a child, to Peru without really knowing the language and came back a man with a spark for learning all sorts of linguistics for the propagation of the Gospel.
• I recall conversations with one of our Spanish instructors who practically begged me to begin a new high school Bible study at our house because she sees the difference that it makes in her son.
• I remember that there are even young people outside of the school that I need to speak with and have spoken with about their trials and triumphs in all things great and small.
• I click on my Facebook inbox history and read through the theological discussions with students that I’ve had.
• I recall how we Pilliods have been forced to throw away our brand of materialism/lifestyle that we used to live/have and now instead have time to focus on others instead of ourselves.

And like God constantly, constantly, constantly says to His people, I REMEMBER!

Because of the sovereignty of God I’m drawn to remembering and discussing a woman by the name of Sadie.  Sadie was my Great Grandmother.  Sadie was pregnant with my Grandfather but had Tuberculosis.  The doctors advised her to abort the child and save her own life.  She steadfastly REFUSED!  Sadie gave birth to my Grandfather and was subsequently held in quarantine never to physically touch her child.  The nurses used to bring my Grandfather to the window for her to see and she died some months later.

My Grandfather eventually gave birth to my Mother.  My Mother eventually gave birth to me!  Talk about the sovereignty and decree and will of God Almighty!  Thank God for His ultimate plan.

I was born in 1973.  I like to say that I’m a Roe vs. Wade survivor.  No, not that my Mother was ever going to abort me, but that Roe vs. Wade became law in 1973…the same year that I was born!  So I’m a Roe vs. Wade survivor.

Interestingly enough Crossroads Bible Church-Panama obtained land in 1973 (their current location) and obtained their new name!  Coincidence?  There is no such thing, for God is sovereign!  The year 1973 is interesting to me for it brought me here to earth and brought me here to CBC to work with youth and work with some of the most amazing students I’ve ever been around!

So I struggle with how God can pre-ordain everything to include my own steps, and yet can also instill in my a desire to bring the Word of God to those that have not ever heard of Him!  And lo and behold I’m now in the midst of Panamanian missionary training!  Go figure.

I love this country.  I love the people.  I love my students.  I love my own kids.  I love my wife.  People tell me that I’m being of service here and they point out many things…But when it comes down to it, I really believe that God is so smart that He can use me in His service and simultaneously cause me to benefit even more-so by being blessed by others here including an increased deep relationship with my wife, new conversations and circumstances involving my own children, the talents of the students I have the privilege to teach as well as seeing them mature in their walk with God, and with increased training in The Great Commission, and with a humbling/reducing of self as I become more cognizant of the magnification of God.

So what does all this mean?  I don’t know.  Work with me, here, I’m trying to figure it all out as well!  But this much I know…I’m in the right place at the right time for the right reasons.  How it all works out is up to God.  I’m going to MOVE and let God steer me.  He’s a pretty good driver…

Soli Deo Gloria