Dear Friends,
In the last couple of weeks we have received both our visas and our ID cards so after what felt like a very long 7 months we finally escaped the city and spent a long weekend enjoying the cleaner air and beautiful views of lake Titicaca. Earlier this month we also had the privilege of celebrating Alana’s 8th birthday and enjoyed a fun afternoon of games and much laughter with friends.
Back in July Ed started an internet course with other members of FH called Coram Deo (Latin for ‘Before the face of God’). The promotion video begins with an interesting and challenging question. ‘Do we see more and more of the Kingdom of God coming into our communities and our nations, or do we see more and more of our societies coming into our Churches?’ How would you answer the question?
The reality I think is that for a large part we see more of the church influenced by society rather than society influenced by the church. However, there are places where we can see this happening in reverse, where individuals and communities of Christians are living out biblical truth in the situations where they find themselves, which often is nothing more complicated than being a good neighbour or genuine friend to those around them, who through their words and actions are able to share the truth about God’s love and saving grace.
The 12 lesson course challenges people to remove the glasses (worldview or paradigms) through which they see the world and to read the Bible, asking the following:
- Are we seeing the world and the Bible as God wants to see it or just as we want to see it?
- Are we using the whole Bible to understand life and how we are living it or just a part of it?
They are difficult questions to answer because our worldviews are such an intrinsic part of our subconscious, formed from childhood and influenced by the cultures in which we live.
Darrow Miller, the course presenter gave an example of the effects of worldview from his own life. He was a born again Christian for 13 years before he realized that he was reading and interpreting the Bible from a materialistic and atheistic worldview that his culture had brought him up believing. His heart had been born again, but his mind had not. He had not taken off the glasses through which he saw the world. He had never questioned why he did the things that he did, or if what he did was glorifying God? If we then consider that if the chief aim of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever, then how important is it to be asking ourselves these same questions. Our minds are very powerful and determine what we can and cannot do. In Romans 12:2 it talks about how important it is for us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Therefore, we need to be putting our minds into action as well as our hearts.
So as we move forward into the later part of the year we have much to be thinking about and chewing over as we try to take off our own tinted glasses.
Praise for:
- Visas and ID cards :o)
- A fun and restful holiday at the lake
- Improvements to attitudes towards homeschool
- Really great kindergarten report for Isaiah
Pray for:
- Swift and easy renewal of passports
- For Ed as he plans his work for the next fiscal year with FH Bolivia
- New Global president of FH that he’ll settle into his role quickly and be able to hear God’s will.
Ed, Sarah, Alana, Isaiah and Lucas
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2
