During this next school year, I'm on an adventure of a lifetime traveling to college campuses across America to share the love of Jesus and help to start student churches. It's been great so far.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=JZKEmol08Pg&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fuser%2FtheANAK%23p%2Fu%2F0%2FJZKEmol08Pg#!
This past week, my cousin Daniel and I had the opportunity to perform a spoken word piece at the Golden Key International Summit. The piece is called "Is the Sun Rising or Setting?"
Special thanks to Ben Sanders and Charles Seyffer for helping us out with the research for the piece.
Update on my life for the month of march:
Finished defending my honors thesis (sigh of relief....more on this later)
Finished my Teach For America interview (thought it went pretty well; re-ignited my passion for education)
To Do List:
Sleep.... alot
On a more serious note, 24 hour prayer started off tonight! Woot! Watch out for what comes out of the desert. There is a new sense of excitment and expentancy on the campus as students gear up for nonstop day and night prayer. There is a sense of identity being restored as the body of Christ steps into their destiny as sons and daughters of God. It's on!
Now Serving: more Jesus for everyone!
Last night, I was reading through Wolfgang Simson's Houses that Change the World. As I read, I was really moved by this excerpt which talks about relating to cultures that are different from our own:
Confusing culture with spiritual realities
Some young Christians from the USA were reporting in the Asian church about some outreach they were doing in Calcutta. They had genuine brokenness in their eyes as they talked about the people worshipping dead idols in temples, and yet these young people did not recognise the endless hours of TV in their country as worshipping living idols of sport, music or film.
They had broken hearts over the abject material poverty in Calcutta, and did not see the spiritual and emotional poverty of countless millions suffering from loneliness and meaninglessness in their home country. They could not believe that people sacrifice flowers and even animals to their gods, overlooking that it is quite normal to sacrifice even children and whole families on the holy altar of success back home. They marvelled at the smoke and incense-offerings "those pagans do to their gods," and did not see for one moment the smog caused by every individualist jamming the roads with their own car, industry polluting the atmosphere, and cigarette smokers polluting the rooms. They said, "These children here are so dirty!", and yet they did not realize that most children in their own country do not obey their parents and have unbelievably dirty language, harbouring fantasies most children in Asia or the Middle East would simply abhor.
In short, they saw and judged the outside, not the inside. They were shocked by the culture, not by the spirit behind it, and they failed to see that it is no better at home than in Asia. Fallenness and sinfulness only looks different on the outside; its quality is essentially the same everywhere (229-230).
I thought this excerpt was a really interesting and convicting read. It has challenged me to think of what it means to really follow Jesus. Jesus loved people for who they were on the inside and not what he saw or experienced them as being on the outside. He recognized the deeper realities of the human condition and didn't judge people based on external layers or circumstances. What would it look like if we saw people, not as objects or projects to be worked on, but as people with whom we all share common characteristics and qualities? How does this change our perceptions of what it means to love? Even more so, how would this affect the way we respond to Jesus' command to "love our enemies"?
Here are something interesting excerpts I found while reading the book Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen. Magellan has been known for some pretty bad things. He had his dark moments and his forced conversions. But, he also had some interesting interactions with the Filipino natives. Check it out:
Magellan inquired about the islanders' religious beliefs. "They replied that they worshiped nothing, but that they raised their clasped hands and their faces to the sky; and that they called their god 'Abba.'" Magellan indicated that their god sounded reassuringly familiar, "And, seeing that, the first king raised his hands to the sky, and said that he wished it were possible for him to make the Captain General see his love for him (Bergreen 252).
Magellan was troubled by signs that the conversions were incomplete and might be undone. Despite his orders,for example, they had failed to burn their idols; in fact, they continued to make sacrifices to them... In their defense, the islanders explained that they were propitiating the gods to aid a sick man; he was so sick that he had been unable to speak for four days. He was not just any man, he was the prince's brother, considered the "bravest and wisest" on the entire island. But Christianity could not help him, for he had not been baptized.
Magellan seized on the illness to demonstrate the healing power of Christian faith. Burn your idols he commanded, believe in Christ, and only Christ, and if the sick man is baptized, "he would quickly recover." Magellan was so adamant that if the sick man failed to recover, he would allow Humabon to "behead him, then and there." ... Magellan was convinced that his life depended on the outcome of the baptism, and it did. If the sick man failed to recover, the cause of Christianity would lose all credibility, and Magellan, undone by his fanaticism, would likely lose his head.
He prepared carefully for the ordeal, relying on a show of power and a display of ritual to preserve the sick man's life... "we baptized him and his two wives, and ten girls. Then the Captain General [Magellan] asked him how he felt. he spoke immediately and said that by the grace of our Lord he felt very well. That was a most manifest miracle... Before five days the sick man began to walk. He had an idol that certain old women had concealed in this house burned in the presence of the king and all the people... (Bergreen 274)"
Just thought some of these things were pretty interesting. Despite all the craziness and havoc that Magellan wreaked in the Philippines, he did plant the first cross there and apparently saw some crazy miracles. I'm not really sure what to think, but Magellan's coming to the Philippines was definitely a very influential date in Philippines history. The presence of God showed up in a profound way despite the fact that the name of Christianity was misused at times. This year has been 490 years since Magellan first arrived in the Philippines. I pray that God would turn all things for good and redeem his healing power amongst the Filipinos once again. I pray that this would be a year in which revival and reformation sweeps through the Philippines ending corruption and establishing righteousness in the government.
Tonight was a really cool night for me. I got to go to a mosque for the first time ever. I went to the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix for the "Love Your Neighbor Dinner." The "Love Your Neighbor Dinner" is really cool because basically it is a growing partnership between the Vineyard Community Church in Gilbert and the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix where members of each community get to come together and get to know one another. It was an awesome opportunity for Muslims and Christians to come together and dialogue about what it means to love your neighbor.
To be honest, if I did this a year ago, I would probably have been super nervous, afraid, and judgmental because of the misconceptions I have had of the Muslim community that have been heavily influenced by society and the media. But as I have learned more about Islam and more about Christianity, specifically Jesus, I was actually pretty excited to go and actually get to meet some Muslim friends.
From the beginning, I was struck by the hospitality and kindness of our Muslim hosts. They welcomed us cheerfully and went out of their way to serve us in any way they could. The whole night was about recognizing the similarities that Islam and Christianity have specifically around the topic of loving your neighbor. So at first, we got to hear Imam Mahmoud talk about what it means to love your neighbor from a Muslim perspective. Then, we got to hear Pastor Jack from Vineyard Church talk about what it means to love your neighbor from a Christian perspective. It was crazy to hear how similar both traditions were in talking about the importance of loving your neighbor. From the Islamic perspective, it was so interesting to hear the hadiths, or the Prophet Muhammad's sayings about loving your neighbor. It was essentially this idea that we were to go out of our way to serve our neighbor and treat them as we would want to be treated. There were many striking similarities to what we learn in Christianity.
After, the messages from both the Christian and Islamic perspective. We observed the prayer time and then we had dinner together. The Muslim members served us first and allowed us to get food first. The food was delicious! Then, we got to sit around tables and talk with everyone. I got to talk with Ahmed. He works with an organization that helps to re-settle refugees and help them in the adjust process. I really had a great conversation with him, and I felt like we connected pretty well. We exchanged information, and he gave me his business card so we could stay in contact and possibly go volunteer with the organization he is part of. It was so cool because Ahmed told me about how his organization is open to going and talking to others about different cultures and bringing awareness to them. I have been looking to establish connections with different communities, and it was so crazy that I was able to meet someone who was doing work in areas that I am very passionate about.
What was also really cool about the night is that many of my friends my simple church got to go the mosque together. There was 8 of us who were able to go, meet new friends, and get a better understanding of what Islam is really about and not just the perceptions we get in the media. Afterward, we were able to all get together and talk about our experiences. It was cool to see different peoples thoughts and experiences. It was a great learning experience for us all that really opened up our eyes to understanding our Muslim brothers and sisters. I am really excited to see what God is doing in our community as we are getting a chance to really get a glimpse of His heart and His love for all people. I am so thankful for the guidance and mentorship of Auntie Pei and Rick Love. They have been phenomenal in encouraging and supporting our community to keep digging deeper into the things God has in store for us.
It is so crazy because I probably would not be writing like this or being so excited about an experience like this in the past. Like I said, I probably would be scared, afraid, and confused. If you are reading this and thinking I am crazy, let me explain a little. Muslims and Christians have often been seen as having this fear and distrust for one another. But when you really get to know one another, you recognize that there are a lot of similarities, and you realize that they are real people. Muslims are real people who laugh and smile and joke and have fun. I had a great time getting to know some new Muslim friends and finding out that there are a lot of similarities between us. Now, there are obviously some big differences too. And as a Christian, I am not there to compromise my beliefs. But, I am looking for ways to find commonalities and find peace. There is a difference between compromise and peace-keeping.
I found it interesting that in answering the question about establishing peace, Imam Mahmoud stated that if the Jews, Christians, and Muslims would just read and follow their book, there would be peace. How telling is it that, we are all seeking peace. There are so many similarities with one another, but we choose to see the divides, and although they are significant in the eyes of many people. I am reminded of what Jesus said in Mark 9:
38.John said to Jesus, "Teacher, we saw a man using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he isn't one of our group."
39."Don't stop him!" Jesus said. "No one who performs miracles in my name will soon be able to speak evil of me.
40.Anyone who is not against us is for us.
41. If anyone gives you even a cup of water because you belong to the Messiah, I assure you, that person will be rewarded.
Did you catch verse 40? Jesus says, "Anyone who is not against us is for us?" Does that seem odd to you? I never caught this until it was pointed out to me. But this phrase goes contrary to everything we are taught many times as Christians and as Americans. See many of us are familiar with the phrase "If they are not for us, they are against us."
But Jesus is saying the complete opposite of what we know. He is saying if they are not against you...then they are for you. Think of what that means in terms of peace-making and building bridges. If people are not against you, they are for you. For Muslims and Christians, they are not against each other in many significant issues - loving your neighbor and making peace are a few of them. Now, not all Christians or Muslims adhere to all they are taught, which is a different issue. But if you look at the core teachings of both traditions, you will find similarities.
Jesus was all about establishing relationships and finding common ground in being able reach people and build relationships. Jesus didn't compromise who he was about. But he demonstrated that in finding commonalities, he could build bridges as a way to demonstrate His love. This is something that I really want to learn how to do. I want to be able to connect and relate to people, and like Jesus, be able find connections in which to build bridges that point back to him and show His love.
