Hey, Just in case you did not hear, I moved my blog site here. Come check it out!!
http://journeysofadisciple.wordpress.com/
God Bless
Life in Tasmania
Sunday 17 June 2012
Thursday 19 April 2012
Life Continues
Well I have been quiet recently, and honestly that has a lot to do with trying to process through the recent events in my life. Through this all, God is speaking loud and clear into my life. "Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." The truth of His word, truly has life. Anyway things stay the same here. Going to class, writing papers, doing duties, and finding ways to restore my sanity every weekend. Recently, in one of my classes I needed to write a meta-narrative of the Biblical Story, and I would like to share it with you all. So here it is. Let me know what you think.
“In
the beginning, God…”1
The focal point of this story is, remains, and will always be God
and the exaltation of his glory. God, eternally existent, explodes
into the scene of time with the creation of a sphere teeming with
life, bursting with potential. One by one, he brings forth beauty out
of nothing. Breaking fundamental scientific laws, matter bursts
forth; being placed in ever increasing order. He reaches the climax
of this spectacular display with the creation of man, his very image
bearers among the created order. Reaching down, Yahweh digs deep
into the dirt. Molding and shaping, he forms a being to be his
representation and authority among the created beasts and vegetation,
like a potter shapes his masterpiece. God infuses his breath of life
into humankind and anoints them as priests in the land, to tend,
subdue, cultivate, and reflect the glory of creator God throughout
the whole earth.
This
scene does not last. Fast forward years in this garden, and evil
comes onto the scene through one of the Almighty’s fallen angels.
Mankind is deceived, and moves to extend their own glory, in their
attempt to be like God, they shatter the perfect bond enjoyed between
mankind and the Creator. The human race from this point on, became
infected with a disease; a disease that spreads throughout each
generation in the seed of man. This evil is seen in every cry of
pain, every death, every killing, in both the human and animal race.
God, in an act of grace banishes Adam and Eve from the garden,
sparing them from living forever in this fallen state.
From
this point on, the world degenerates where evil is so pervasively
threaded into the fabric of mankind, that every waking thought of man
was evil, similar to how poison spreads through the entire host. This
greatly grieves the Lord until he regrets his act of creating these
beings. At this point, God graciously bestows favor on one man, Noah,
in hopes of redemption. In a swift act of judgment, God consumes the
whole world in a massive flood.
The
flood subsides and Noah’s family line lives as the only humans
left; mankind flourishes, evil corrupts at the tower of Babel, and
the Lord disperses humanity, confusing the languages. God interacts
with several people from this point on, to establish a people for his
own possession and glory. He confronts an idol-worshiper named Abram
and through him God blesses all the nations of the earth.
Through
this line, God seeks the restoration of people for his name’s sake
and eternal glory. He steps into the scene through the person of
Jesus, born of a virgin, born without the seed of man, lacking the
curse of evil, and having the nature of the Divine. This man was God
with us; Deity in flesh. Jesus lived a spotless life, became the
subject of the wrath of God for the redemption of humanity on the
cross, and salvation to the nations when he rose three days later.
Coming is his eternal supreme kingdom. One in which he will sit on
the throne eternally, reigning with the saints from the previous age.
Evil will be vanquished and God will rule triumphantly throughout
eternity. There we will glorify God by enjoying him forever.
1
Genesis 1 English Standard Version, Good News Publishers, Wheaton,
IL 2001
Grace and Peace to you all .
-Dan
Tuesday 13 March 2012
Peace
“and the peace that passes all understanding will guard your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
I was thinking about peace the other day. I have truly not
experienced peace as such I am experiencing now.
Peace is a funny thing actually, so abstract and seemingly fleeting and unattainable, yet when experienced even in the most temporary sense, is an overwhelming force that can either calm any chaos life throws at you, strengthen you with courage, and spur you on, or crush you in the emptiness of its absence. Like many of us I have experience both of these extremes, but this is the first time where peace has been put to the real test in my life. While I am not going to sit here and pretend that moving fifteen thousand six hundred and fifty-six miles away from my family, friends, and everything else that I had known about life to start a virtually new life has not had me slightly stressed at moments, it has not been overwhelming in even the slightest sense of the word. You see, the Lord told me to come here; quite clearly, he laid this before my heart and tugged my stubborn soul along to it. And because of this simple fact, I have been able to rest in peace that only can have one source. I see that being the case for lots of people here. It is a cool place, actually, almost of the people here just have a great story of how they got here and how the Lord has been there every step of the way.
Peace is a funny thing actually, so abstract and seemingly fleeting and unattainable, yet when experienced even in the most temporary sense, is an overwhelming force that can either calm any chaos life throws at you, strengthen you with courage, and spur you on, or crush you in the emptiness of its absence. Like many of us I have experience both of these extremes, but this is the first time where peace has been put to the real test in my life. While I am not going to sit here and pretend that moving fifteen thousand six hundred and fifty-six miles away from my family, friends, and everything else that I had known about life to start a virtually new life has not had me slightly stressed at moments, it has not been overwhelming in even the slightest sense of the word. You see, the Lord told me to come here; quite clearly, he laid this before my heart and tugged my stubborn soul along to it. And because of this simple fact, I have been able to rest in peace that only can have one source. I see that being the case for lots of people here. It is a cool place, actually, almost of the people here just have a great story of how they got here and how the Lord has been there every step of the way.
I am
starting to think that this may be one of the first lessons that God is showing
me, the power of simply resting in his peace. The peace that passes all
understanding: a peace that tells you
that things are most certainly out of your control, yet entirely in His, a
peace that does not blind you to the circumstances, but points your eyes to the
one who holds the world in His hands, a peace that is not conjured up by music,
or warm-fuzzies, but one that anchors the soul steady on the Rock of Ages.
Tuesday 6 March 2012
Time is flying
Yea, it’s been awhile since I have been able to post, and
quite honestly, so much has happened since. So let’s take it one step at a
time.
I took a life the other day; it tasted pretty good, after it
was cooked. Yea, I got to kill a
chicken. It was kind of a weird thing to
do; I wouldn’t say I necessarily enjoyed it, but not like I am going to need to
see a therapist either. I’ll leave some of the more graphic details out for
now. I grabbed the chicken and it
willingly laid its head down on the stump.
My first swing wasn’t so good, and consequently it slipped away from me,
so I needed an extra set of hands to help me out a bit. I got it on the third swing. I will say,
though, that I got a bit of insight into why many tribes respect the life of
animals especially in death. It’s
something that I don’t really notice when I am eating meat, but life is
sacrificed for our eating. Now, I am not
going to become a vegetarian or something, but I think it adds a certain amount
of thankfulness for my food and leaves me less likely to waste.
A
couple weekends ago we took a trip and it was incredible. I got the opportunity to head out on a
camping trip to Cradle Mountain and then Stanley Beach. We set out after dinner on Friday, donned in
our sick 2 dollar camping hats that we found at Kmart, and drove till we
reached a place called the Promised Land, figuring that was a good place to set
camp for the night. So we drove a bit
into the forest, down a winding path that led to a lake at the bottom. We
couldn’t really find a good spot by the lake so we drove back up the road and
set up camp on the shoulder of the road.
It was an abnormally large shoulder so it worked well for camping. We put the car between us and the road and
set up a sick nasty camp site, cooked some sausages, listened to Bob Marley,
and overall just had a good time.
We made
it out to Cradle Mountain next. That
place was absolutely beautiful. The mountain
rose above a crystal clear, pristine lake, set in a cloudless sky. I think it was about 31 degrees, so
absolutely gorgeous day. The trek wasn’t
too bad, only taking three hours to get to the top, but us being the men that
we are decided to take on the manly challenge of not having any water till we
reached the top, and succeeded. It got tricky at some points, where we had to wip out our awesome tomb raiding skills, to jump crevices and slip through cracks. Getting to the top was so rewarding, I stood on
top of the world, 1590 meters high, and had to scream, “I’m king of the world”
(a little Office reference). We then feasted
on PB&J and water. Mmmmm. Being on top of a mountain is a humbling
experience. I was awed at the
magnificence of God and made so much more aware of my own insignificance
That
night we made the drive out to Stanley to camp out on the beach. This is an experience everyone should
have. Camping on a beach is so chill;
the sound of the ocean, the clear starry ceiling, the soft sand, and just the
amazing fresh air. Usually penguins can
be found on this beach. Yea penguins, and we were completely ready to hunt one
of them suckers down and have a great dinner, but no penguins were there this
time. During the night, the tide came up.
Very far. A lot farther than we had imagined when we set camp. Imagine waking up to the sound of crashing
waves at your feet, looking up and seeing the ocean that was once a good three
hundred feet away, was now about to crash at your feet. Thankfully it only got about a meter or so
from us. The sunrise though had to be one of my favorite parts of this camping
spot. We were on the eastern coast, and
seeing the sun come up out of the ocean is indescribable.
Hopefully
I can get the video of the weekend up and some pictures, but I have limited
internet usage so no promises. Try this link https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3134580795876 if it works, its the video. The picture of the spider was the product of a prank on me from some "good" friends. It was put in my bed...
Pray for me over the next few months. I have been reading a lot about prayer lately
and have become rather discontent with traditional prayer routines I have
followed. Lately I have felt that something needs to change for me to go
further with God, and the Spirit has alerted me to this, so I am going on a
prayer journey with God. I’m excited to see where this leads me. Pray that I will
persevere and that I would be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit.
Peace.
II Corinthians 12:9-10
Tuesday 21 February 2012
And so it begins
Well Monday was the first day of classes. It was a typical first day of classes, with boring introductory lectures, which consequently led to me nodding off every five or so minutes. We only had a half-day of lectures, so not so bad I guess. The course set up here is in modules. So basically we do one module at a time, covering a year’s worth of material in about four weeks. So 144 hours of lectures, assessment,reading, and professional practice for this first four weeks. All I could think is, “when am I allowed to sleep”. This first module should be interesting…
After class Monday some guys and I went down to the river at the bottom of the farm to go for a quick swim. It was such a nice day here. Like mid 20’s! I was a little hesitant to jump in at first (because to the best of my knowledge, all of Australia is croc territory mixed with evil snakes). So like the good friends that my buddies here are, about five or so minutes after we get in they start screaming,“Snake!” , followed by sliding their feet by me, to give the illusion of a snake coming in for the kill…I should have kept my mouth shut about the snake phobia.
After that I got to try my hand at driving a motorcycle…not a pretty sight. I got it started without stalling on the first try, but turned the accelerator a little too far… shot off through the paddock weaving left and right, screaming the whole way. I stopped for a second to catch myself, but it stalled out of course. I got it set back up and took off, in the direction of the electric fence…weaved away after my friend Joe alerted me to it,swerving instead towards a concrete trough. As I got closer I was able to turn a bit and kick my foot of it to keep away a bit, get it stopped and manage to fall off while it was standing still. Let’s just say I am learning humility a bit so far.
On a side note: I got placed on the Church planting ministry team!!! Pumped!! There are several ministry teams here with the student body, most of them doing different ministries throughout the area, then there is the Church planting team and I was assigned to it. Pray for me during this new experience; that the Spirit of God would work through me and strengthen me for however he may have me serve, that he would kill what is detrimental to my sanctification and would mold me into his servant.
Sunday 19 February 2012
Last days before class
The last few days were relatively uneventful. The weather wasn’t so nice this weekend so we
weren’t able to going camping in the mountains, but hopefully we can this
coming weekend. I did try teaching the
Australians and Koreans here how to play a game of knockout… but that was quite
unsuccessful, in-spite of one person having seen it played in a movie once….
I would say one of my top embarrassing moments occurred this
weekend though. It was Friday after
dinner, and a bunch of us were shooting around at the hoop outside of the
dining hall. I had foolishly chosen to wear cargo shorts…I deked my man and
went for a layup, a little bit overzealous on my approach. I left the ground
and all I heard was a rip. Yea, it was
my shorts….right up the crotch…which was followed by a very long walk back to
my flat.
I drove home from church today!! It was ridiculous. I hopped behind the wheel, super eager to go,
flipped the switch to signal that I’m pulling out…and the windshield wipers
turn on. Yea that’s on the other side
too. I got to my first turn and apparently forgot about staying on the left and
had to veer across the oncoming lanes, to the chorus of screams coming from the
back of the vehicle. It was pretty
smooth sailing from that point, but definitely is different enough to mess with
ya.
I ended my day with learning to play ping-pong Korean
style. I’m not too bad at it actually.
Now were about to put together a worship session tonight for some people on
campus. So yea, relatively uneventful,
but it is always good to have a chill weekend before the start of classes.
Here's a couple pictures of part of the gang having dinner
tonight. Dennis (the guy with the long
hair) and I cooked it up. It was curry
rice with eggs and parsley. The reason
it is all in one bowl is that it was the night for the guys to do the dishes….(this is also evidence that I have made friends, to all those who think i make this stuff up....*ehhm..cassie...ehhm*)
Oh, we also talked about the presence of miraculous signs
and gifts among believers till like 2 AM this morning. It sure was awesome to
hear all these different cultural viewpoints on the topic. How does the Spirit of God move among His
people? It’s hard for me to take a more conservative view on this just because
it doesn’t seem that if such an amazing God exists, that he wouldn’t miraculously
move among his followers. God is
supernatural, why should I be so hesitant to believe in supernatural happenings
amidst his church? Wouldn’t he express his presence in supernatural ways?
Anyway, really just something to think about.
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