May 27th, 2009
I’m waiting for a meeting to start with our team that is doing a conference in a Muslim country this fall…so its a chance to write a couple of quick thoughts.
In the last six months, at almost every seminar I’ve done I’ve mentioned B. B. Warfield’s description of the Christian life in his sermon, “Imitating the Incarnation” as, “Instead of living one life, you live a thousand lives.” It has struck me as a perfect description the Christian life. If you were to describe the outer shell of a follower of Jesus that would be it. 1,000 lives.
Why? You are, like Jesus, constantly incarnating into the lives of the people around you. So you aren’t living your life as you are entering into the lives of others. I think our culture has taken the idea of “find oneself” to absolutely unheard of heights. So with death at the center of the Christian life–Jesus’ death as well as our own–then the new life that forms in me is the life of the other.
Several times in the last few months when I’ve been discipling someone, I’ll explain what it is to follow Jesus by taking them through my life and the lives I’m living in others. I don’t mean anything mystical; I simply mean that you are not just being attentive to others, but moving into their lives, letting their burdens come on you so that you begin to live their life in some small way. So you begin to live not one life but a thousand lives!
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May 6th, 2009
Here’s some misc pictures I’ve taken from my camera phone over the last couple of months.
This is my favorite. The lady who trims our two donkeys feet said that the donkeys were chewing on the barn because they were bored. So since we can’t teach them soduko Jill thought we should take them for a Sunday walk!
My sister Roseann and I are taking our grandkids ice skating. Max is on the right and Claire is on the left. This was Claire’s first time…so two cones.
I’m visting Emily at Cedarville where she goes to college. We are at the local Super Walmart and I’m making fun of Emily because she loves to eat. She is selecting breakfast for her discipleship group.
This is about three weeks ago. I’m taking Claire to see the guy who won the Ididerod (big Alaskan dog race). Claire is getting his autograph.
I was up in NH last weekend with a men’s group from the 1st Congregational Church of Hamiliton, Mass. It’s on Boston’s North Shore, right by Gordon College. This is trout that that David Rox caught. David teaches music at Gordon. We had a wonderful time doing Person of Jesus studies all weekend. Real Men, Real Jesus, Real Change was our title.
I took this photo last night of Emily taking a photo of our dog Hessid (Hebrew for “coveanant love”) from Jill’s new cell phone. Jill’s old cell phone died after 13 months. The guy at the counter said it had been under water. I asked Jill how that happened. She wasn’t sure. I told the guy at the counter that once Jill had run over her cell phone in the middle of the driveway, which prompts several questions!
These still might be there. It is not too late. I took the photo last Saturday. Used motel mattresses near our retreat center at the southern end of Lake Winnepaski of “What About Bob?” fame in NH.
My grandson Max using his wheelbarrow to make his bike ramp steeper.
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