In another post I said I would work on this one, so here it is.  It is a tough one though, so be warned.

God gave you everything, without Him, you would have nothing.  I do not think that should be too hard to accept.

Living here has taught me that a lot of things I thought I needed, I do not really need.  Not that we have it hard at all, but life is not the same.

So, what I mean to say is, “You do not need it.”  Seriously.  Start listing some things in your head that you need…

If you get past water and food, only occasionally, you have gone too far.

So all that stuff you have, that you do not need, God wants you to use it for Him.

We are made in God’s image, His name is on us (sermon notes on the subject).  Render unto God what is God’s.

The whole purpose of life is serving God. I just finished a morning devotion here at AIM-IS on the subject, and it is amazing how woven through the bible the subject is, but it receives very little attention.

Genesis 2:15 God put man in the Garden to serve, the curse broke this relationship.

Exodus 8:1 The purpose for freeing the Israelites was so that they might serve God. The passover accomplished this.

We are supposed to “wait on” the Lord.

Wait on:  to perform the duties of an attendant or servant for.

Luke 1:74 The reason for God sending a savior was so that we would be restored to a right relationship with God, to serve Him.

Hebrews 9:14 The reason for Christ’s death was so that we could once again serve God.

Revelation 22:3 Once the curse is gone, we shall serve God for eternity.

If that is our purpose for being here, then everything we are, everything we have, is meant to serve Him.  If the stuff you have, the time you are spending, is not serving God, then it is a misappropriation of His resources.  You are stealing from God.  So get busy using it for Him, or get rid of it.

I have been officially initiated into Nairobi traffic life.  On Friday I was in a car accident.  I am praising God that the boys were not with me at the time.  A big school bus hit the side of my vehicle, impacting the door behind the driver seat - the place that our oldest boy, Petr sits.  The impact caused the window to shatter and glass covered both of the boys car seats.  Upon impact, the car started to spin in the opposite direction of traffic…but I was able to correct it and safely pull over.  You can imagine my relief when I realized that the car had been hit where my two precious boys are usually sitting.  I was perfectly fine, a little shaken up, but fine.  Then I noticed that the bus driver was approaching me with another guy, the bus monitor, saying the accident was my fault.  I clearly stated it wasn’t and that HE hit me.  However, it was two against one.  I started to get nervous I was going to be the one blamed. Not sure of how everything is handled here in Africa, I pictured myself being hauled to the police station.  I quickly called Paul but could’t get through because he was in a leadership conference.  Thankfully, I was able to contact someone who sent word out to missionaries nearby who could come and be with me.  Waldo, who just happens to be our mentor (along with his wife), showed up on his motorcycle moments before the police man walked up to the car.  His motorcycle enabled him to get through the heavy traffic and come to my rescue.  I was relieved to have a man present.  Waldo has been here for many years and knows how the law works in Africa. Paul arrived shortly after with his motorcycle (the only way to get to the scene of an accident quickly - I am very thankful for those motorcycles!).

I was not hauled to the police station that day.  The evidence was clear.  God showed me favor as the police man looked at the sight of the accident. The positioning of the broken glass in the lane, along with the point of contact, proved it was the bus driver’s fault.  Then the policeman told us to wait for another police man to come and take our statements.  He left before the other policeman came.  I was pleased to find that the next policeman agreed with the first.  The bus driver was hoping to make a deal with us instead of reporting the accident to the insurance companies.  We informed him that we had to go through insurance.  He went on to talk about how he was going to be fired and would be unable to feed his children.  It was a hard situation for us.  We knew that he was most likely going to be fired and it would be difficult to find another business that would employ him as a driver.  I told him that if the damage to the car was only cosmetic, we would be fine with driving a bad looking car.  But you can’t drive a car with a broken window and a door that won’t open or close.  It was hard to walk away from the man as he realized that there was no other way.  I continue to pray for him.  There are times in life when it is hard to see why a situation is the way it is.  I can only trust in the Lord and lean on His understanding.  I am glad I serve a God that is in control of every situation, One who knows best, has a plan and a purpose for it all.  I know that I learned things that day.

The entire incident was over in about an hour and a half.  I drove the car, nervously to say the least, to Paul’s work as he followed with his motorcycle.  We were greeted by guys who work with Paul.  They cleaned the glass and patched up the window with duck tape (got to love that stuff!).  We got home and hugged our sweet boys who were graciously sparred!

Oh, and the next day I had to drive through the same traffic circle…this time the boys were in the car.  I thank God for His protection!!!

I am at a leadership conference for AIM this week.  We have been talking about a lot of really great stuff, most of which I know I am not disciplined enough to write here.

One thing I found very useful was the time spent thinking about change. Here are some of my thoughts on the subject.  Some of it reaches back to some of the stuff I wrote quite a while back.

You are not the man or woman God wants you to be.  You have to change.

How is God moving you now?  Are you resisting? Why?

What can you learn from the answers to those questions?

What do you have to do that you do not like?  Why do you not like it?  If God is moving you to do something you do not like, it is probably not because you are the best one to do it.  There is almost always someone better at something than you are.  That means that the purpose in having you do it is not to have it done the best, but to have you do it.  God knows you, He knows your gifts.  He also loves you, and He wants you to learn and to grow.

I have written about it before, but there is something I hear often, and I really like it.

God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.  Because that is His nature.

Often it is done as a response, that is, one person will say, “God is good,”  to which the other will respond, “All the time,” and so on.  I even get to hear it in other languages.

Mungu ni mwema, wakati wote. (Swahili)

Ngai ni mwega (all I remember of Kikuyu)

I do not know where it came from, maybe the Anglican church brought it, but I really like it, espcially since it engages the other person into saying and understanding it.

Do you believe God is good, all the time?  How about today, is God being good to you? What does it mean to you that “God is good?” Is that really what He thinks is good?

He is being good, that is His nature. If you cannot see or understand that right now, it is not because of anything He has failed to do.

I was going to write about this in another post, but I think it is appropriate here.  God wants us to grow up. We are all a bunch of self absorbed whiners, who cannot see the “big picture.”  When any one of our little useless plans gets botched, we go whining to God, “How could you do this to me?”  Yes, I mean that, and I do not care how important your plans were.

We have God’s response to that kind of whining, and it came from a man who would seem to have every right to complain. Read Job 39-41. I know you will probably not read it all, so let me highlight it:

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.

Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, Or loose the belt of Orion?

Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it.

God is being good to you right now. Let us all grow up a bit today.

I have been thinking about this for a long time, and meant to write it here, but I never got around to it.  A friend emailed me recently and I wrote him a reply, the significant portions I have reproduced here.

God really does want us to abandon all and serve Him with everything in our being.  However, many people go off the deep end in a direction that He would not have them go.  I see some of those here.  The key is to figure out what He is saying.  John 10:4 has been really help for me, because I often wonder, “What would God have me do?”

“And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” NKJV

It is our job as sheep to know His voice. Before we go anywhere, we need to learn how He talks to us.  Every day, every moment, where is the shepherd?  I often feel like the lost sheep, but He promises to go after us.

It has been a real joy living here.  At first the prospect of living in the midst of such poverty was a bit scary.  I knew, living so close to Kibera, that people were going to be coming by all the time asking for money.  I hate that.  I used to hate that.  On the advice of another missionary, I see each of those circumstances a chance to see “where the shepherd is.” I try to understand what the Holy Spirit is telling me to do, just at that time.  Should I give a job, food, milk, money, or not?  Eventually that kind of thinking starts to invade (in a good way) the rest of your life.  God is always there, we just act like we have to go somewhere to see Him.

Abandon all and follow the Shepherd.  You will not regret it.  I cannot give you that guarantee, but then it would not mean anything coming from me.  Take it from Him.

Three times a week, at Chai time, we have devotions at the hangar.  As our staff pastor was talking about Isaiah something hit me.  We serve and awesome God.

Think about that for a moment…

He is the creator of all the universe. He is great beyond measure, beyond description.  And He loves you beyond as well.

That should change everything in your life. You should be willing to do anything for Him. If you are not excited to serve Him, you do not know Him well enough.

I came to this conclusion over the weekend, and it is important.  I am not a volunteer, I am a servant.  I am not doing God a favor by being here, by serving Him. I am simply obeying. A servant does not get kudos for doing his job, he does what he is told and that is the end of it. God does not need you.

Having said that, know that God is love.  He knows what is best.  He will take care of His children.

I am being taken care of better now than when I had a “real” job.  I have less of what I want, but more of what I need.

What do you want,  easy or good?  Once you realize that God’s way is the best, you do not miss the conveniences of life.

Life here is very different.  I cannot explain it in a blog post, I am not even sure I can explain it at all.

As humans we tend to like to simplify things.  So coming here, the idea that life in Africa is slower is an easy one to get your head around.  Some things are slower, much slower.  It is true that everything moves at a different speed, but it is not uniformly different.  Some things actually move faster (including, but not limited to, public transportation).

We finally have a fuel cylinder for our stove.  We purchased a stove that is half electric, half gas.  This give us the flexibility to cook if we have no gas, or if there is no power.  Everyday for about 2 weeks I went to a grocery store on my way home.  Each day he assured me they would bring it tomorrow.  Eventually, he was right.  That is just a little story to set the stage for what I want to say.

When everything changes, your basis for what is normal, and what is acceptable begins to float.  It has no anchor.  It is going to take a while to even understand what is normal and acceptable here.  When I am driving, sometimes I feel like I’ve really angered someone and they do not seem to even notice.  Other times I will do something I think is normal and get lots of honks and hands waving.

All of this points to more of the same cultural things that I have been thinking about and what we talked about extensively at ABO.  But it is not just about culture, it is about what you think is normal, or acceptable.  Much of what we think is not informed by God, but by our experience.  Not that all experience is bad, but we need to be careful about how we construct our normal and what we accept.

It boils down to, “What does the Bible really say?” And since that is a very complicated question, it would behoove us all to spend more time figuring it out, and for every context in which we find ourselves.

I finished off my first week at work last week and it was an interesting time.  I have not been to “work” for over 2 months and it felt nice to sit at a computer and hammer out some things. IT is completely different now.  Not only am I in Africa where many things work differently, but I am working for a missions organization where there is no profit motive.  That changes everything around.  It is going to take me a while to figure it all out, not technically, but spiritually.

We finished off the week by going back up to Harvesters in Karuri where I was priviledged to preach.  I guess I am getting more accustomed to being here, I did not even have a watch or a clock and no one commented on how short it was (anything under 75 minutes is considered a short message, especially  outside Nairobi). I had been preparing a message, but Saturday night it did not seem to be the right one.  So I started with a different one sort of feeling lost, but after worship and hearing from the visitors to the church I knew God had given me the right one.

After church we were able to have lunch with the translator and his wife and the wife of another Pastor who was preaching at Umoja.  It was a special time because the house we ate in was partly paid for by the sale of our house in La Mesa over a year ago.

Mungu ni mwema, wakati wote. (God is good all the time)

We have been in a lot of transition in the last two months. We have not had a place to call home. It has not been a big problem, but it has been a little tough for the boys.
I put the boys down for a nap and after they were asleep headed out to work on some papers. After a while I heard a voice and went to check. Andrej had woken up. I asked if he needed anything, and he said, “I want someone to stay with us.”
As a parent, I thought about what that means for my heavenly Father. He is always there. Nothing happens to me that He is unaware. I can “sleep” with confidence no matter where I am. I can live in His peace where ever He puts me.