Culture and Conviction

'Culture disorientation' has caused me to ask some searching questions over the last few months. The struggle of living in a culture that is so different to what I'm used to, and at times longing for home. I have grappled with how to deal with these feelings. How should I feel? Why do I feel like I feel? Where should I send my thoughts when I am feeling like this?

It's been a much needed wake-up call because it has made me question some of the foundations my life is built on. When I long to be in the UK simply because it is easier to live in a culture I am familiar with, I know that I am starting to treasure comfort over Christ. This is the first warning sign.

And when I think about the future and ask myself - where would I like to live? What would I like to do? I betray the fact that I value culture over conviction.

What I mean by this is that I judge my contentment and my ability to work with certain people by how well I can understand their culture and feel at ease in it. If I don't feel at ease I see this as something that needs to be overcome. I feel that I need to in some way love the culture I am in, in order to minister to the people. Now of course seeing positives in any culture I find myself in is a good thing, and no doubt helpful!

But what I have been realising, as I've struggled with this culture and as my heart has been torn between wanting to be at home and knowing that if I was at home I would want to be here (!!!), is that I am not about culture. We are not called to love a culture, but to love God, to love the gospel, and to love people. I don't want any of my life choices to be built on vague ideas like 'i like those kinds of people...I'll work with them'; 'I like that place...I'll work there'; 'I fit in well in that culture...I'll go there'. I want my choices to stem from deep convictions about who God is, who we are in light of who God is, and the unchanging truths of the Bible, of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We may end up falling in love with the culture/country we work in along the way, but that is not to be what drives us.

When my eyes turn to earthly comforts, and I feel like I would be happier if only I was with people that understood me, or in a country where I could wear jumpers and coats and have a big thick duvet at night and have a hot bath, where I could understand what was going on in church and where I wouldn't offend people all the time accidentally on account of not knowing the cultural cues...

...that's when I know that my convictions are built on culture and comfort instead of on Christ.

So where should I send my thoughts when I am longing for home? Lingering on thoughts of earthly comforts certainly do not satisfy! Instead I should send my thoughts to God, the God of all comforts, to my Saviour, to the cross and resurrection of Jesus, where my eternal salvation was bought and secured. To my home in heaven which is where my only lasting possessions are, which anyway is my only REAL home.

My prayer is that God would use all these experiences to build deep conviction in me. Praise Him for already starting this process, I know He will finish it.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ Name.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

- Edward Mote 1834

"For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." - Philippians 3:18-21

My first Thai song! (sort of)

I wrote the following song, for immediate translation (by my friend Nam), as the official 'Camp Song', on the theme of the camp, for our time up in the mountains last week. Though I wrote it in English, it has only ever been sung in Thai. It was so wonderful to hear the kids singing it in their beautiful voices, and a definite highlight for me was hearing kids outside practicing the song one night while I was cleaning my teeth. I pray that the truths in it might sink deep and God would use them to lead children to know Him.

You Are Special
คุณเป็นคนพิเศษ (นะ)

Chorus:
You are special because God made you and God loves you
คุณรู้ไหมว่าคุณเป็นคนพิเศษ เพราะว่าพระเจ้าสร้างคุณ และเพราะพระองค์รักคุณ
It doesn't matter what people say, or what people think
ไม่ต้องสนใจว่าใครจะพูดอย่างไร หรือว่าจะคิดอย่างไร
You are special to God
เพราะว่าคุณเป็นคนพิเศษของพระองค์

Verse 1:
You might ask me how I can be so sure
คุณอาจจะถาม แล้วฉันจะแน่ใจได้อย่างไร
I'll show you God's son Jesus, who died for us
ฉันบอกให้รู้เพราะพระเยซูทรงตายเพื่อเรา

(Chorus)

Verse 2:
Even thought we don't deserve His love
ถึงแม้ว่าเราไม่สมควรจะรับรักของพระองค์
We can be God's friends through Jesus' death on a cross
แต่เรายังสามารถที่จะเป็นเพื่อนกับพระเยซู

Mae Jan, April 21-25: Kids Camps with Karen Tribe Children [In Words!]

After 10 hours of travelling, and 1,219 bends in the mountain road (so I’m told...before you ask, I didn't count them!), fellow missionary Julia Birkett and I, a Thai student worker, and a mixture of 4 Thai students and recent graduates, arrived in the Karen village of Mae Jan, which is right on the border with Burma.

For the next 3 days we ran a camp for 90 kids, all of whom are supported by the organisation Compassion, with the theme ‘You are Special’. With a mixture of games, crafts, drama, songs, testimonies, (and at one point a full scale waterfight!) we sought to communicate the message that the only opinion of us that matters is God’s.

It was amazing to be in the mountains in N. West Thailand. I loved sleeping on the floor under a mosquito net in a wooden hut and sitting on the porch in the evenings reading by candlelight. I loved hearing 90 kids singing about Jesus in Thai as well as their own tribal language, with the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. I loved eating rice for breakfast. I loved seeing the most majestic and beautiful scenery I have ever seen on the way home. I loved seeing students have their first taste of cross-cultural mission (even if it was in their own country!) And most of all I loved getting a glimpse of how God is working in people’s lives – ushering some into the first steps of following Jesus, and others into deeper, darker waters; yet with the promise to be the guide and light for all who keep walking with Him.

It was a brief, but incredibly encouraging experience. Praise God!

Mae Jan, April 21-25: Kids Camps with Karen Tribe Children [In Pictures!]

beholding the light of sunrise...

Peace!?

" 'Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because of your false words and lying visions, I am against you, declares the Sovereign LORD. My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will not belong to the council of my people or be listed in the records of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign LORD.

" 'Because they lead my people astray, saying, "Peace," when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash, therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall. Rain will come in torrents, and I will send hailstones hurtling down, and violent winds will burst forth. When the wall collapses, will people not ask you, "Where is the whitewash you covered it with?"

" 'Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: In my wrath I will unleash a violent wind, and in my anger hailstones and torrents of rain will fall with destructive fury. I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that I am the LORD. So I will spend my wrath against the wall and against those who covered it with whitewash. I will say to you, "The wall is gone and so are those who whitewashed it, those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her when there was no peace, declares the Sovereign LORD." '
Ezekiel 13:8-16

Written so long ago, but oh how relevant for today. How familiar are those comforting but ultimately false words: 'peace, peace', when there is no peace. Because when we reduce the gospel to a simple 'God loves you', that is in effect what we are saying. We're saying 'sin isn't a problem, you don't really need to change anything to be made right with God, his love covers everything and you're ok as you are. You just need to believe you have peace with God already and then you will have it'.

This belittles both God and people. It belittles God because it does not do justice to the true Holy love of God that demands justice but makes our rescue possible by punishing sin in Jesus on the cross. And it belittles people because it is false hope. It isn’t even good news; it just lures people into a trap. It is exactly like building that flimsy wall described in Ezekiel above, and whitewashing it over, hoping no-one will see the holes. But it will not stand. It may fool people for a while but on the day of the Lord it will NOT STAND.

Not to go into too many details, or go off on a rant (which isn't really my thing) I believe this false 'peace, peace' theology is ultimately the message of the book The Shack, and I am very concerned about this, especially because of the way it has been embraced by many people.
"...they lead my people astray, saying, "Peace," when there is no peace." Declaring peace when there is no peace is not good news. It is a death trap.

So if we're not to preach false peace, what are we to preach? What is the good news?

“We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20-21

The good news is that although we are separated from God because of our sin, we can be reconciled to Him, because Jesus became sin instead of us, bearing the wrath we deserve and crediting God’s righteousness to us instead. It is with urgency that we must make this appeal to be reconciled to God, not simply announcing that everyone is already reconciled. If we announce such a message I believe we are just like those false prophets in Ezekiel 13.

Words

No words today...

Hiding, scattered all over the place.

Oh the words are there...they just don't want to co-operate right now.

If they did get their act together they'd probably want to share about the current experience of passing in and out of murky dusk and hazy sunrise, and the thoughts and feelings familiar with each state.

But I know what they're like, my words.

They've got an unhealthy pre-occupation with Alison Joy Young.

Even if they did get their act together and say something, they'd probably want to talk about me and not at all about the source of the light gleaned in either the dusk or the sunrise. They'd take every shimmer, both the shadowy ones and the shiny ones, and turn them to myself.

And what an utter waste of words that would be, when the Source is so wonderful and so glorious. The Source doesn't just give the light, He IS the light. The One whose light is beclouded in the muddy greyness of dusk is the same One whose rays dance and sparkle in the warm haze of sunrise. There is beauty to behold in both places. Whether bright and obvious, or filtered through to straining, smarting eyes.

It's a beauty that needs to be beheld with eyes, mind, heart, soul and strength.

beheld, loved and praised.

...and the only master of our words.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world." John 1:1-9

May I never seek to be my own light, or the light by which others live. Let me point always and only to the Source of all light, Jesus Christ.