Early Christians and some thoughts.

For my Church History class, I am reading the book Introduction to the History of Christianity edited by Tim Dowley. It's good, but a pretty easy read, with plenty of maps, illustrations, and side-articles to delight my easily-distracted self.

One of the side articles caught my attention because of the beautiful language used to describe Christians in the second century AD. It is anonymously written but addressed to Diognetus. I have no idea who Diognetus is, but regardless, I will share my glee in reading other people's mail and share the excerpt with you:

For Christians are not differentiated from other people by country, language or customs; you see, they do not live in cities of their own, or speak some strange dialect, or have some peculiar lifestyle.

This teaching of theirs has not been contrived by the invention and speculation of inquisitive men; nor are they propagating mere human teaching as some people do. They live in both Greek and foreign cities, wherever chance has put them. They follow local customs in clothing, food and other aspects of life. But at the same time, they demonstrate to us the wonderful and certainly unusual form of their own citizenship.
They live in their own native lands, but as aliens; as citizens, they share all things with others; but like aliens, suffer all things. Every foreign country is to them as their native country, and every native land as a foreign country.

They marry and have children just like everyone else; but they do not kill unwanted babies. They offer a shared table, but not a shared bed. They are at present 'in the flesh' but they do not live 'according to the flesh'. They are passing their days on earth, but are citizens of heaven. They obey the appointed laws, and go beyond the laws in their own lives.
They love everyone, but are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death and gain life. They are poor and yet make many rich. They are short of everything and yet have plenty of all things. They are dishonoured and yet gain glory through dishonour.

Their names are blackened and yet they are cleared. They are mocked and bless in return. They are treated outrageously and behave respectfully to others. When they do good, they are punished as evildoers; when punished, they rejoice as if being given new life. They are atacked by Jews as aliens, and are persecuted by Greeks; yet those who hate them cannot give any reason for their hostility.
To put it simply - the soul is to the body as Christians are to the world. The soul is spread through all parts of the body and Christians through all the cities of the world. The soul is in the body but is not of the body; Christians are in the world but not of the world."

I was party to but didn't neccesarily join in a conversation last night with two good friends of mine, both of whom are as much if not more passionate about the Mission Field as I am. All three of us have struggled with 'finding our place' in our own culture. I used to blame it on the fact that I was homeschooled by a strong-willed Christian woman with two Master's degrees (making me an oddity not only in the 'normal' world where people are educated in classrooms by teachers but also in the homeschool communities where most of my peers had parents with considerably less formal education than my parents). However, in my conversation last night, both my friends were educated in public or private schools, and still felt that alienation and sense of odditivity. (no I don't think that's a 'real' word. However, due to my homeschooled education, I know that Teddy Roosevelt made up his own words on a consistent basis. Since it is always wise for us to pattern ourselves after firstly the Bible and secondly the Greats of history, I find no reason why I shouldn't follow suit in making up elegant sounding words).
I was speaking with my very good friend from India a while ago when I was going through a really hard time with my family. She said to me, "You know, I have such compassion on you. For an American to go through such things is a very big trial. In India it is not so much - we are always experiencing persecution and trials. But here it is such an oddity! Therefore, because you are used to comfort, when that is taken away it is an even greater trial for you."
True that, however last night when I looked at the three of us in the conversation, I realized that the three of us aren't 'normal' americans in that we don't shy away from all types of discomfort. In fact, we relish it. Each in our unique way, of course. There are certain types of discomfort that I really really don't like at all that my one friend could care less about and even pursues, and that my third friend is slightly annoyed by but will endure happily to get to her goal. By the same token, there are types of discomfort that I relish and even look for that those two think I'm daft for even thinking. Point being, our culture looks at any of that and says, "Weird."
However, in Asian cultures - people groups that all three of us have had extensive contact with - discomfort is not a bad thing always. In fact, going through discomfort to discipline the body to the soul's bidding is a huge part of many cultures and religions in the Far East. The early Church understood that there was a neccesary amount of discomfort that had to happen for the Good News to be spread so that God's Kingdom could come again. I envy them a lot not because they were so saintly or whatever but because they had seen Jesus face to face. They had a picture in their mind of Heaven that they were willing to struggle, suffer and die for. I don't have a picture in my mind of what Jesus looked like. I didn't see Him feed 5,000 men and their families. I didn't hear His voice when He said "Let the Children come to Me."

But! I do remember hearing His tones when little Marinella asked for the Missionary Silvana to come so that they could sing Praise and Worship songs together. I remember seeing a shadow of His smile when I carried her to the crackling fire where Silvana was sitting as she earnestly shared the Good News with an older Gypsy woman as the little girls and I sang their favorite Gypsy worship song.
In the same way, I think my one friend could see a glimpse of Jesus as he watched a little girl with Cerebriel Palsey beg on a street in an Asian country and prayed for God to give her a family, and wondered if he could be used by the Lord to give her that family.
I think my other friend could get a taste of what it felt like when God said "Let the children come to me" when she held a tiny boy in Haiti a few years ago.

The thing is that to get these experiences, you have to go through times of intense discomfort. And realize that the discomfort you are going through isn't close to what you may go through eventually - what Christians in parts of the globe are going through. Before you even get on the plane God takes you through some kind of sifting time, seeing if you really mean what you say when you tell Him "I will go."

What we call "The Missionary Mindset" is what all Christians possessed in the first days of the Church. It wasn't reserved for some elect group of people with a crazy adventuresome streak and a tendency to hop as easily out of awkward situations as they hopped into them. It was for everyone who dared to claim Christ as his or her savior.

I was talking with another international friend the other day about marriage. She and her almost-fiance both feel a strong pull towards the Mission field, and she and I were talking about timing on "tying the knot." We were discussing not only our own situations but the situations of others we have observed where the couple either waits forr a while - as in years - or where they marry within a matter of months. A rather girly conversation. But she said something that made me pause and think.
"It is good if you know to marry, because why wait? On the other hand, you have to wait. You have to go slow and to see if he can wait for you. Because you have to see what he is made of. What if you are imprisioned for a few years for the Gospel? Is he going to wait for you then? How will you know that you can trust him if you don't see now when you are dating if he will wait?"
We went from a rather typical girly conversation to a sudden uncomfortable truth about the Christian Life in a Pagan World. What if you are imprisioned for your faith and he has to wait for you? Not something that I as an American would neccesarily have to ask myself in this time. However it is something a Ukrainian would definately have to ask herself not too long ago, and is a constant fear for that people that they might have to start asking themselves again as the distrust for Government continues in that culture.

At least half of my closest, best friends are not American. My one friend in the conversation last night goes so far to say that he isn't American but rather a 'hard-boiled egg'; that is, Asian on the inside whilst American caucasian on the outside. My other friend last night consistantly bemoans the fact that she has green eyes and fair skin, when she should have been made with dark skin and black eyes so she could better melt into whatever southern-hemisphere culture she goes into as a missionary.
I asked myself later why I felt so much more at peace with who I was when I was overseas, why I clung to that identity as a Missionary to Romania and kept that as a sort of shield when going into new places, the same way that I would sort of block myself with my identity as a homeschooler before that.
I wonder if it is that the church as a whole - not just in America but in all parts of the world - is buying into the Westernization concepts of comfort and hominess in this temporal world. We no longer know how to be that strange people group that is not defined by ethnicity or anthropological oddities; but rather by the generosity and gracefullness that leaves a good taste in peoples mouths while still offending the part still loyal to Satan in them as they realize that it is Christ in us.

So all that to say, Church, is Wake Up! Re-read the description of us above by an unbeliever, and ask yourself is this how you are being seen? Is this how your church is seen? Is this how we are all seen? I highly doubt it. Well then what do we need to change to become that again? What do we need to do to make non-believers envy us so much that they both love and hate us so passionately? What do we need to do to fulfill our God-given quest to win the lost to Christ and rattle those won over by Satan out of their comfortable complacency?

Just some thoughts.

~Princess Ouch~

New Testament musings

"But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist,make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith... only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry."
~2 Timothy 4:5-7, 11~

"Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty."
~2 Peter 1:12-16~

I'm taking a New Testament class as a Mid-term (only we call them J-terms here. Other colleges call them "Intensives" which I think is the best description but no one asked me. Pity)
Speaking of NT2, I really should be studying for that test tomorrow... well, wanted to quick bang out some thoughts before I subjected myself to MORE studying.

I have a lot of friends overseas. This is a blessing and a curse, because for the most part they are all cool people with fun perspectives, wacky senses of humor, and bless my socks off, and are thousands of miles away so we can't keep in contact very often.
(this DOES have something to do with the above Bible verses, I promise you.)
I have one friend in particular who has repeatedly told, asked, commanded, exhorted, and requested that I keep in touch consistantly. However this friend is a person of few words so doesn't return the favor as much as I'd like. Which drives me nuts.
A lot of times I think of how unfair it is that God put all these neat people in my life only to assign us to different parts of the world shortly after.
I've met a lot of cool people here at college too, and the constant thought on my mind is that most of my best friends are called to be Missionaries also, but to completely different parts of the world. I'm going to one of the more 'civilized' and 'safe' cultures, to be honest.
One thing that is often on my mind is, how cool is it that there are so many young people excited about God gathered to this one place for training, encouragement, and new friendships. But it is going to be sad and hard when Graduation day comes and we all go our separate ways.
However, we have this wonderful thing called Email, and Facebook, international-phone cards, the loverly accomadation of Skype, etc.

Back in the 'olden days' of the early church, they didn't have any of that.

A lot of times it's easy for me to think of the 'founding fathers of the faith' to be Saintly men who were above normal emotion and who got it perfect (until they didn't, at which time they got a rebuke from Jesus or had a council about it, straightened everything out, and then went back to being perfect) BUT the passages that I put above show that they were men with deep feelings also. It struck me today as we went over these verses how peaceful they talked about their approaching death. A subject that comes up for us going into Missions a lot is persecution and martyrdom. The other Majors think we're a little wacky amd(whatever the name is for those who like to inflict pain upon themselves).
I personally don't like pain. I try to avoid it at all costs. There's more than one reason why I don't have any tatoos.

The writings of the New Testament, especially in Acts, gives a different paradigm on suffering and pain.
"And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name." Acts 6:41

The picture shown us in Acts 2 is so awesome.
"And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daiily such as should be saved."
Acts 2:44-47
Now don't get the wrong idea, I don't believe in Communism. ;-)
But I love how they made sure they all had ENOUGH.
Our society is one of "more more, it's all about me, what MORE can I aim for?"

I have high ambitions but they aren't for MORE. It's for ENOUGH to do what I have been called, which is to go to the 'Least of these' and the 'forgotten' to show Christ's love to them in tangible ways.

So lessons I've been learning through the last week; honor in pain and shame, God's provision for ENOUGH, counting the blessings that He has given, and...
now I have to go study for the test tomorrow on all of this.
*sigh*
My apologies if this email embodies my random global nature. But as I said, this was a MUSING, not a sermon. ;-)Hope it made sense.

~Princess Ouch~

Missions quotes

"To quote that noted football philosopher Vince Lombardi, 'When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.' But that begs the question. How do you get tough? Where do endurance and staying power come from, especially in the Spiritual realm, which calls for a special kind of toughness. We live in a difficult world that is not friendly to the life of a disciple. The Lord was well aware of this, and one of His great concerns was to prepare His followers for life in this hostile world. His people can be resilient and Spiritually tough. However, that resilience is not the product of determination, but of prayer."
~Gary Inrig~

"(Most people's prayers should be)cut off on both ends and set on fire in the middle."
~D.L. Moody~

"Martyrs are holy men of God who fought or stood for truth, even unto death, so that the Word of God may be made known and falsehood and fictions be overcome. Such a sacrifice is offered to God alone, thus the martyr is recieved in heavenly honor. This means that God has rewarded the faith of the martyr with so much grace that death, which seems to be the enemy of life, becomes in reality an ally that helps man enter into life."
~St. Augustine of Hippo~



"Shall we beat a retreat, and turn back from our high calling in Christ Jesus; or dare we advance at God's command, in the face of the impossible?.... Let us remind ourselves that the Great Commission was never qualified by clauses calling for advance only if funds were plentiful and (there is) no hardship or self-denial involved. On the contrary, we are told to expect tribulation and even persecution, but with it Victory in Christ."
~John Stam, Missionary to China and martyred with his wife in 1934~


"It was Christmas Eve and night was descending on the jungle. There was no way I could get back home. Back in Pennsylvania, my folks would have returned from Church and Mother would be getting the turkey ready. Outside the snow would be faling.... In Yarinachcha, six hours away, Nancy and the boys would be sitting at home alone. They knew by now, because I had been able to radio back that I was stuck in the jungle. I would not be with them for Christmas.
"Oh God," I moaned, "I'm in the wrong place."
.... That night, under my mosquito net I had a visitation from God - something like those shepherds must have had on the hills of Bethlehem. There were no angels, and no bright light. But as I lay there on my hammock, desperately homesick, I felt I heard God say:
"My son, this is what Christmas is all about. Jesus left Heaven and on Christmas morning He woke up in the 'wrong place' - a stable in Bethlehem. Christmas means leaving home, not going home. My only begotten Son did not come home for Christmas - He left His home to be with you.""
~Bernie May, Pilot for Wycliff Bible Translators~

"To conclude, therefore, let no man out of weak conceit of sobriety, or in ill applied moderation, think or maintain, that a man can search too far or be too well studied in the book of God's Word, or the book of God's works."
~Sir Francis Bacon~

"The Bible makes plain that there should be effects in Society from the preaching of the Gospel, and voices were raised to emphasize this fact and lives were given to illustrate it."
~Francis Schaeffer~

"The greatest missionary is the Bible in the mother tongue. It never needs a furlough, is never considered a foreigner."
~William Cameron Tonswend, founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators~



"The word 'give up' (in the Greek) describes the temptation to quit in despair when we are tired. Giving up is motivated by weariness that comes from living in a sinful, hostile world, feeling worn out by injustice, mistreatment, misunderstanding, and personal failure.
How do we keep going when we feel like bailing out? The cost of being a disciple tempts us to loose heart. Swimming against the current is tiring - why not go with the flow? It is easier to float than to fight. How tempting is it to drift with the current morally, socially, ethically or spiritually! How do the tough keep going - by determination or positive thinking or strategic retreat from the world?
The Lord's formula is clear and simple: "They should always pray and not give up." The antidote to despair is not determination but dependence, not positive thinking but prayer. And "should always pray" doesn't say it quite strong enough. Prayer is not something we are permitted to do if we please. The word should be translated 'must': "They must always pray and not give up." Prayer is what we are commanded to do as God's will. It is the only sure basis of perseverance, since it is the means God uses to accomplish His will in our lives.
Furthermore, we must not ONLY pray, we must ALWAYS pray ("Pray continually" 1 Thessalonians 5:17) "Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayer and requests." Ephesians 6:18. Does that mean our time must be spent in nothing but prayer? No, but it does mean that we must do nothing WITHOUT prayer."
~Gary Inrig~