I would like to introduce you to an orphanage that is very close to where the Tsunamis hit in India: Hebron Orphanage.

Richard Swannell, the man behind who is driving the support for this ministry has set up a unique program to help those who are orphaned by the disaster that struck India recently. The aim is to take care of these orphans, educate them and skill them until they are old enough to help themselves so that they can go out and make a difference in their world. It is an awesome vision, and I invite you to check out the Swannell Foundation, the Hebron Orphanage and the Tsunami Disaster Rescue. You can donate through this link.

This ministry has been entirely supported by the one man, through his business links. I happen to be on his mailing list, and in fact, I would like to share with you the e-mail I received today because he made a passionate plea through it, and his words would probably be much more effective than mine:

Hello (to everyone on my personal email list)

(I would normally write to each of you individually, but there is simply no time…)

You have seen the pictures on the news. You have heard the stories. You have followed the unfolding disaster in stunned disbelief.

And if you are like me, you have asked yourself: "What in the world can I do to help?"

Here’s your answer:

Help us help them. Now; before it is too late.

I have a team on the ground right now in Andhra Pradesh, India, searching and rescuing children newly orphaned by the recent tsunami disaster.

But we need your help - urgently.

(If you are able to donate, please go immediately to the end of this email for instructions.)

As you may know, we operate and fund an orphanage for 200 children just 20 miles inland from the coast in Andhra Pradesh, Southern India - close enough to the disaster zone to be of assistance, but far enough away to retain full infrastructure, access to medical supplies and uninhibited ability to provide life-saving support.

I have personally co-managed and funded this orphanage for the past five years. See www.hebronorphanage.org, www.swannellfoundation.org, and
www.elliottician.com/showpage.asp?p=206 for more details.

The location and situation of our orphanage is absolutely perfect for us to save the maximum number of newly orphaned children.

In addition, we have recently purchased an additional 2.5 acres of land - tripling what we currently have - so that we can protect, house and educate hundreds of additional children.

Maybe it was meant to be…

DIRE URGENT NEED: Countless children are strewn along the coast of India who have lost everything - even their parents have been killed. They have nowhere to go, no safe water, no food, no shelter, and no one to protect them. In most cases, aid agencies are nowhere near.

DIRE URGENT NEED: Many of these children have injuries that have not been treated. They lie under the tropical sun amidst the devastation without medical aid of any type. Each passing hour sees treatable injuries become life threatening as they fester and become gangrene.

DIRE URGENT NEED: Unless these children are immediately given urgent medical attention and evacuated from the affected areas, many - if not most - will die of diseases caused by contaminated water and rotting bodies.

My team, on the ground right now in southern India, is searching for and rescuing these children. We are providing emergency medical assistance and shelter. And in the long term, we will support and educate them until adulthood.

As I mentioned above, we are perfectly positioned in Andhra Pradesh. My people speak the local language, Telegu. We are near enough to the disaster zone to get in and out quickly (20 miles), but far enough away to have full access to medical and other facilities. We have the land to put up temporary shelters and have the infrastructure to take on hundreds of children if necessary - and keep them indefinitely until adulthood.

The desperate need is not just the immediate emergency; it is the long term problem of no support. What are these children going to do with no parents, no shelter and no education?

With your support, we can help.

We can help now, but time is against us.

As I write this, children are dying right now because of injuries that are not been attended to. More children are about to die because of contaminated water, disease, and lack of food. We are sending in teams from our orphanage - today and in the weeks to come - to rescue these precious children in desperate need.

Your donation will make a huge difference.

The many aid agencies around the world are doing a fantastic job. But their limitation is that they are foreigners working in a foreign land - they don’t speak the local language, don’t understand local customs or have local knowledge. They are unable to provide long term shelter and facilities. And they have nowhere to send the multitude of people who have no homes and no support.

In contrast, we are able to help - albeit in a small way - by taking orphaned children right now, right out of the disaster zone, give them quality shelter, and access to full medical supplies.

I have personally donated $10,000 to commence our initial rescue efforts, and arrange temporary shelters on our grounds at Hebron Orphanage.

What can you do to help?

In a word; Donate.

It doesn’t matter whether you can donate a large or small amount. Whatever you are able to give will make a direct and immediate impact on the rescue efforts.

If you are able to help, please do so today. Don’t delay. The money will be delivered to our rescue team at the orphanage within hours, and used to immediately rescue children who are in the most astounding and life-threatening situation.

What YOU can do NOW:

You can make a donation directly at our web site, at
www.elliottician.com/donation. You can also email me personally at orphans@elliottician.com, and make a donation. Email or fax your credit card details, or send me your phone number and we will call you to arrange a donation by credit card over the phone. Alternatively, call us anytime - 24 hours a day (weekdays) - on our toll free number: +1 888 565 9283 and make a donation. We can also arrange bank to bank transfers, but it takes longer than a credit card donation - and time is short. Very short.

Your money is not going to get lost in a giant aid agency’s infrastructure. It will immediately be used to fund the rescue of children this week while they are still amongst the living. It will then fund the ongoing support and education of these children until they are old enough to leave school and support themselves.

100% of the money will be used to rescue children from the disaster area. Absolutely no infrastructure costs will be deducted.

I will send you pictures. I will keep you in contact with progress. I am going to India myself within a few weeks from now to support the rescue effort personally. You may even wish to visit the area sometime in the future with us.

Please don’t ignore this plea. Lives literally depend on YOU acting TODAY.

With dire urgency, like I have never written before.

Rich Swannell

PS. Latest tsunami pictures near Hebron Orphanage, at
www.swannellfoundation.org/tsunami.asp

PPS. Help our team rescue newly orphaned children today. You can make a donation directly at our web site, at www.elliottician.com/donation. You can also email me personally at orphans@elliottician.com, and make a donation.
Email or fax your credit card details, or send me your phone number and we will call you to arrange a donation by credit card over the phone. Alternatively, call us anytime - 24 hours a day (weekdays) - on our toll free number: +1 888 565 9283 and make a donation. We can also arrange bank to bank transfers, but it takes longer than a credit card donation - and time is short. Very short.

Make contact today on:

Email: orphans@elliottician.com
Toll Free: +1 888 565 9283 (24 hours a day, weekdays)
Phone: +1 212 354 2324
Fax: +1 888 565 0990

If you prefer to give to a charity that you know, I urge you to do so either via Amazon to the Red Cross or to something like World Vision. But if I urge you not to dismiss this plea, until you have checked them out. Thank you.

From the Desk of Jeff King comes a thoughtful follow-up to my own reflection on John Chapter 11 in light of the tragedy unfolding around the Indian Ocean, Jesus Wept, a beautifully written post of the same title. Jeff King concludes his study with these poignant words:

Thousands, if not millions, of people worldwide are crushed and agonizing over the deadly tsunamis. Many are like the Jews at Lazarus’ funeral, wondering aloud why God didn’t intervene to prevent suffering and death. We may never get that answer on this side of eternity. But I believe Jesus is weeping with us. He shares our grief over the staggering death toll. And His anguish is multiplied by the fact that most of humanity fails to recognize and receive Him as the resurrection and the life. They fail to see that Christ defeated death, our last enemy.

Indeed.

"Lord, as we continue to deal with the devastation, death, and destitution, we ask for your forgiveness. Forgive us for our arrogance, for assuming that we have the power within us to conquer the forces of nature and the forces of irrationality that is this world. May we acknowledge not just your love, but also your compassion and your strength, power and mercy to enable all of us not just to rebuild and recover from the destruction, but also to renew and heal from the brokenness and the pain. Thank you for doing your work right now through your creatures and we ask for continued mercy that we can all catch a glimpse of your insurmountable love and grace. Amen."

It is unfortunate that CNN, and other US news media, choose to drum up the "stingy" comments made by UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs Jan Eglund as a direct attack against the US.

The fact is that those comments were made as a criticism of "Western countries." Perhaps people read between the lines and saw it as a veiled attack on the US. But I don’t get it. Why don’t everyone just stop the political point scoring and get on with the work that is so urgently needed.

There was no need for the US to take the criticism personally. Perhaps the US should let its actions be louder than words. I see a chorus of voices in the media that is so unnecessary. Already, the UN’s statement was not, in the first place, a direct attack against the US alone. It was an attack of someone who said, "we" and "western countries." So, the critic identified with those he criticized. He was merely trying to urge all of us wealthier nations to be more generous. Perhaps, he was too quick on the draw with the criticism as most nations were probably initially unaware of the magnitude of the disaster. But, he was quick to come out with an explanation (or excuse, if you like) that he was misquoted and misunderstood. So, why doesn’t we give him grace and let’s leave well enough alone?

Yet the media continue to drum up the controversy and continue to report that the US has been criticized for being stingy. They bring it up at every opportunity, each day! And they insinuate that the US is not seen by the world as generous! There is no justifications for such insinuations absolutely none. In the world arena, there is no such perception, I don’t believe.

Around blogosphere as well, I hear a chorus of voices of various responses, including what I think is terribly shameful, the call for a boycott of help. Reasons brought up to justify this insane suggestion range from the people belonged to countries who perished were suspect in their support for America to the fact that they might have celebrated after 9/11(?!).

If we are to lead the world as a superpower, we must not lead only in military, or economic might. We must lead also in compassion and generosity, and perhaps, more important, in mercy, humility and grace (and I do not just mean the religious meaning of these words). The greatness of a people is not measured by the size of its guns or bank account, but by the size of its heart. It is no prize to be the largest donor, although we may have already lost that claim - although I must ask, does it really matter? Further, if we were to measure the amount donated on a per-capita basis, some other countries which are much smaller and less wealthy than the US, have donated proportionately much more. And, by the way, it is not about who gives more! So, let’s just forget it! It is about getting help to those in need in the most effective, most efficient manner and as quickly as possible!

In case some people are vindictive about the events of the past few years in relation to the "War Against Terror," let me say that just because we were stranded by our "Allies" in that "War" we cannot use this opportunity for a "tit-for-tat." It will back fire on us! We are still going to have to live with the rest of the world community. Let us forget about any political point scoring, ideological wrangling and let’s get the job done!

And, there is no need to rattle off how much we do give! "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing" (Matt. 6:33). I know some people might be wary of basing governmental decisions or policies on Biblical principles, but let me assure everyone that this is quite a sound and practical principle.

So a word to the media and my fellow bloggers: Stop the Stingy debate Already! Puh-lease!

UPDATE: Here for some ideas on how to be un-stingy!

In an extended passage in Romans (12:3 to 14:13), a passage that is filled with instructions on what spiritual transformation looks like, Paul teaches that Christians are to demonstrate love quintessentially in every aspect of life.

One way a Christian’s love is shown to his neighbor is by compassion and empathy:

Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. (12: 15)

I used to think that this injunction only applies to having empathy for others in the body of Christ. While that is taught in another passage of Scripture (1 Cor. 12), I believe here in Romans, Paul’s teaching here is much more inclusive than I had thought. The context shows that he is describing our behavior before the world. In the previous verse, he exhorts Christians to "bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse." Although the next verse tells us to "live in harmony with one another" (does it merely mean living in harmony within the Christian community?), the following verses address our attitudes and behavior towards everybody, within or without the faith community: humility, meekness, acceptance, endurance and peaceable, etc.

So, Paul appears to suggest that empathy is characteristic of the transformed life. We are to rejoice with others when they rejoice and also to mourn with them when they mourn. In other words, rather than focus on our own emotional response we need to feel what it is like to be the other person. In that spirit, the Malaysian government has really demonstrated genuine care, compassion and love. Messy Christian reports that they have cancelled New Year’s celebrations in compassionate empathy with those who have suffered so much in the tragic event the full horror of which is still unfolding by the minute. It is awesome for an entire nation’s government to show such enthusiastic embrace of the suffering community. Imagine that they cancel the dropping of the ball at Time’s Square! Unimaginable, right?

In contrast, here is a conversation I had with my colleague, whose wife is from Thailand, earlier today:

TheBloke (TB): "This must have been the worst tragedy to hit the world in recent times."

Husband of Thai Wife (HTW): "Yes, it has already surpassed twice the number of Americans who perished during the Vietnam War."

TB: "Wow"

HTW: "I am just glad that my wife’s relatives were not among those who died."

TB: (after a pause): "You mean you were relieved that they did not die."

HTW: "No, I am glad! I am not glad for those who died. I am glad my wife’s relatives did not die."

TB: (silence - trying to process the difference).

HTW, (continuing): "I am glad that my wife didn’t have to go back to Thailand to attend any funerals or anything. That would suck, because we are suppose to go to Florida for our vacation next week. If she had to go then, it would be bad. That’s why I am glad!"

TB: (dumbfounded)…

Now, I can understand my colleague’s sentiments and I really don’t blame him. It would really suck for me too if I was looking forward to a family vacation, and at the last minute my wife had to be somewhere else. Yet, I am much troubled by the underlining feelings and thinking patterns that produces such self-centered responses. I remember feeling similar mixed feelings at a Church fellowship meeting many, many years ago. Someone had just described a horrific highway accident in which both parents in the family were killed. A woman shared that she and her husband were supposed to travel on that same highway at about the same time that very day but their trip was delayed for some reason. We were saddened by the news of the unfortunate children who were left orphans as a result of the tragedy.

"Thank God that that wasn’t us!" she quipped.

I remember feeling very uneasy by her response, and the "Amens" that echoed around the group. When something tragic happens and we have escaped it, or when that event does not directly impact anyone close to us, the reflex response almost always is gratefulness and thankfulness. However, somehow I am queasy that we should express it that way, and I have been feeling this way for a long time.

I think one reason why we respond the way we do to tragedy (or to having escaped one, however remote the "escape" is construed), is because of our false assumptions. We need to come to terms with what kind world we live in. This is a fallen, imperfect, broken and damaged world. It is a world in which accidents, disasters, pain and suffering are rampant. When we only express thankfulness when we have escaped a tragedy, it seems that we are responding to the unspoken assumption that we live in an almost perfect world that is marred by the occasional accident. In fact, the opposite is true. Rather than be surprised by tragedy we need to be surprised by joy, and be thankful each day of our lives when we have another pain-free, trouble-free day.

Another false assumption that we might carry with us is that the world, and indeed God, owe us a problem-free existence. We get annoyed at trouble and pain. We say it is unfair that we have been stricken. We cry, we whine, we bring our complaints to God’s doorsteps, shake our fists and say, "Fix this, and I mean Now!" We fail to see that this whole mess belongs to us from the start. Back in the garden of Eden when the First Adam sinned, he broke the perfection that was created by God, and the repercussions and chain reactions has affected all of creation. Which is why Paul says, all creation has been groaning (Romans 8:22) in expectant emancipation when the new world is recreated at the Resurrection.

Meanwhile, our job in this world, is in part, to reclaim the Eden that was lost. In order to do that we must first restore our broken relationship with God. Perhaps, that is why the Apostle Paul says that we need to present ourselves as living sacrifices, so that our minds might be renewed, and our lives might be transformed. As living sacrifices, our own safety and comfort would not be more important to us than the safety and comfort of the people around us. We will then be free to empathize with them and to be moved to respond in positive action to help alleviate the pain and suffering around us. Our "empathy meters" will be more sensitive than our "thankful-that-I-wasn’t-the-unfortunate-soul meters".

I am not saying that it is wrong to be thankful when we escape danger. It is arguably a normal human response, but I am saying we need to balance that response with a more empathic and a more inclusive thinking. We need to realize that we all are fellow sojourners in this dangerous world of ours and we are part of one community. Perhaps what is needed is a thorough spiritual renewal and transformation where we are finally able to respond empathetically so that our self-centered thankfulness for having escaped is insignificant compared to the shared grief we have for those who suffer.

As Christians, we may not be "of the world" but we are still "in the world" and Paul in the Romans passage is admonishing us to be identified with our fellow human beings, to share with them, to live in peace with them, and to love them. As we do that, we will be able to demonstrate what it means to worship God (verse 2), and we will realize what it means to be transformed by the renewal of our minds. And, as we dedicate ourselves to that task, we can be assured and hopeful that He is working alongside us to accomplish this. As I often say, He is indeed a great, merciful and gracious God.

NOTE: In previous posts, I have provided links to how you might help with the situation in Asia. Please go here and here.

UPDATE: Australians will pause for a minute’s silence admist the upcoming New Year’s celebrations.

In my last post, I reflected on the different responses to disaster and I suggested that the Gospel of John, chapter 11 teaches us about how different people might respond to suffering and pain. One of the responses is prayer.

I encourage you to pray for a fresh glimpse of God’s vision so that we can see with His eyes, and we can resonate with His heartbeat to feel with Him, to weep with Him. Most of all, so we can be moved by Him to act as He would have us act.Often, when we pray, we might be tempted to pray away the pain, or to pray away the problem, but that usually is not what God intends in prayer. When those who sent word to Jesus to ask Him to go to Lazarus because he was sick, instead of acting, Jesus stayed a little longer where He was. They probably didn’t get why He took his time and did not sense the urgency.

They tried to be as persuasive as possible, "The one you love is sick."

Come quickly, Lord!

Yet, He lingered. Then a few days later, He decided it was time for Him to go to Lazarus.

As I was talking to my wife about the recent devastation unfolding in Asia the last couple of days, my wife mentioned to me that over the last few years she has learned something about God: His time is not our time. Yet, He always, but always, comes through. How he showed that truth in this Gospel incident!

His disciples did not get it. He had to explain His mission. Martha did not seem to get it. He needed to reveal Himself to her. Even Mary seemed not to get it. All He did was to weep. Perhaps, as we quietly reflect on His grief, let us pray that we get it. Pray that we get what He is about.

But, as I have said before, prayer is not all about getting on our knees and merely pleading with God. It is about getting up off our knees and rolling up our sleeves and letting His Spirit move us to act in His name. So, pray that He reveals that clearly to us and pray for courage to act. And having done so, go forth boldly in the name of the Lord!

If you would like to start by praying, Messy Christian has appropriately opened a virtual prayer room for the disaster. I encourage you to go there to join with those who are going before the throne of God’s grace to intercede for the suffering.

Note: Around blogosphere, different bloggers are asking questions about the recent tragedy unfolding in Asia. Messy Christian has a few posts in this regard, notably, God’s fault/judgement/anger, so does Feeble Knees. Wesley Blog encourages positive compassionate action and then there is the question posed by Jason Clark, "Where is God?"

As I agonized over the events surrounding the tsunami caused by the earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, and reading, hearing and seeing the tragic loss of life and the devastation unfolding throughout Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Indonesia and the entire region, some of my personal thoughts and reflections went to an intimate story of loss, grief and suffering in the gospel of John…

The story of Lazarus often puzzles me. Here is a man who is, reportedly, one of His closest friends. Whether he was a disciple, I am not sure, but His sisters definitely were close friends and disciples. He most obviously was close to Jesus and was probably a disciple later on, but before the events of John 11, I don’t think that it was that conclusive that he was one.

What we do know is that some of those who were assisting the sisters in their time of trouble went to Jesus with the word that "the one You love is sick."

When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

But wait, Lazarus actually did die! However, as far as Jesus was concerned Lazarus had merely fallen asleep (verse 11): “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

I wonder why there was such a fuss about Lazarus’ death. I wonder if it was because Lazarus had died before he had put his personal faith in the Lord. Perhaps that was why it was written that he was the one that Jesus loved, as He also loved the rich young ruler. So, his sisters were distraught. Of course, this is pure speculation on my part, but it certainly helps to explain a few of the more enigmatic aspects of this story. But, as usual, I digress…

What is instructive about this story - a story of personal and communal grief, suffering and pain - is the way different people responded to the event.

The disciples appeared to be more interested in "the ministry" than in the lives of people around them. They most probably understood the personal relationship that Jesus had with the family of the stricken, and they should know about the news, yet when Jesus decided to go down to Judea, their concern were more with the danger to their cause than to the real focus of their ministry - the revelation of the God’s Personhood in the lives of His people and the deepening of the relationship between them (verses 7 - 16).

The community were quick to respond. They gathered around the afflicted family in sympathetic compassion. Some rushed to the Lord in intercessory pleas for help. The sisters’ responses were both direct and personal.

Martha, the more outspoken, and perhaps more impetuous, of the sisters, was blunt and accusatory: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!" Her subsequent declaration of faith seemed inconspicuous in light of her apparent censorious tone.

Mary’s words to the Lord were no different, apparently curt and resigned: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Mary’s words were apparently indicative of her wavering faith. While Martha were shaking her fists, albeit tentatively, at the Lord, Mary apparently was shaken in her faith.

The text tells us that when Jesus saw her weeping, and the people around also weeping, He was greatly moved and troubled in the spirit.

Jesus wept.

In light of the tragic event still unfolding in Asia, with reverberations throughout the entire region and indeed, around the world, similar responses are repeated. Many are acting in compassionate care and relief - the right thing to do in times such as these. Many are going to the Lord in prayer. Some are taking care of "the ministry" and unfortunately, some might be more concerned about "ministry" than about care and relationship. Worse, some might try to score political points in the midst of the current chaos, grief and shock. Then there are those who shake their fists at God, and others whose faith are shaken instead. Whatever our response, we need to see God’s own response.

Jesus wept. Jesus is crying now. He cries with us. He cries with the child who is left stranded. He cries with the parents who have lost their children. He cries with those in pain and those who agonize. What is more important to realize is that He doesn’t just cry because of such disasters.

He cries daily. He cries as He sees that we are typically more concerned for personal comfort, safety and convenience than compassion, peace and love. When things are going "smoothly," we fail to reach out to our neighbors and love them as ourselves. Most of all, when we seemingly do not need Him, we fail to relate to God and worship. We take no notice of Him and forget that we are created by Him.

When things go wrong, we either blame Him or we ask Him, "Why?" We cry but we fail to see with His eyes. We shed tears, but we fail to weep with Him. We need to see beyond the mundane. We need to see with His eyes.

When we get on our knees, let’s pray not just for miracles to change things around us, but let’s pray for changes in our hearts so that we can see Him for Who He is, and so that we can be restored in our relationship with Him.

As we wrestle with what is happening around the world, and as we empathize with those who suffer, as we feel their loss, their anguish, their agony, let us not forget that God agonizes everyday that we live our lives in utter disregard for our Creator, His creation and the reason He created us in the first place.

May God open our eyes, and may we not wait for another such tragedy to be awaken out of our stupor. May we return to Him and learn to enjoy solitude and connection with our Creator in the midst of the noise and veneer of what we call "real life" so that we might see Reality, touch Him and be touched by the One who is Real.

AFTERTHOUGHT: I pray that we will all respond in kind as we are able. Let’s ask the God of all compassion move us to act. Please go to this site (scroll down to the bottom) or this site, and try to help, if you can. If you would like to keep abreast of the situation, my previous post has a link to a site that has links to differnt sites.

I am numb.

As I listened, watched and read the news of people thrown about by the fury of one of nature’s worst, I can’t help but feel overwhelmed, powerless and horrified. Reading about the loss, the anguish and the destruction brought tears to my eyes. The mother agonizing about the child, the father, who was grasping at what he thought was his baby only to find out that all he was clinging on to were merely the baby’s clothes, and another father who lost five of his children in a moment of terror. It is just too much!

If you don’t yet know about this blog-site, I would like to share it with you. I ask that you pray for those affected, and give if you can:

The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami

Over the past day or so, I have just been lost for words amidst so much suffering and pain.

I was surfing a little bit on BlogExplosion, and found a blog post (I closed it too quickly and forgot where it was from) about a mother who had to wait for her boys outside the Men’s Restroom, and remembered my experience as a father of young girls. I had this strong view about young ladies and Public Men’s Restrooms. I was in the Mall with one of my young princesses, and she had to go to the bathroom. She did not want to go by herself, and besides, she needed assistance inside the Restroom.

So, what did I do?

I bravely marched into the women’s Restroom with her and helped her into a stall Read the rest of this entry »

I found this interesting story from the latest entry on Messy Christian’s blog. It seems the State government of Terengganu, a predominantly Islamic state, is going to consider issuing a parcel of land for the Anglican Church to build a Church building. What is interesting about this is that the State of Terengganu is very staunchly Islamic, one that, for instance, have their weekly day of rest on Friday to coincide with the Muslim day of corporate worship. This has forced some Christian churches to hold their weekly services also on Friday, while others to have their weekly corporate worship services on Sunday evenings. I alluded to this state of affairs in a recent post about the Sabbath.

Apparently, there are only nine churches in Kuala Terengganu, the capital of the state, and none of those churches have their own purpose-built buildings. They meet on the second or third floor of "shophouses," and although the Anglican church has applied for land over the past half a century, it has been turned down, the government citing various reasons for doing so. It is interesting that the government is going to look into the matter and at least consider the application.

If the government were to give the church the land, it would not have been the first time that an Islamic government in Malaysia have been involved in assisting the building of churches in Malaysia.

In 1980, as I was traveling in Sarawak on a short term mission trip, I was intrigued by the observation that at every longhouse village up and down the Miri River, there was one new building, usually brightly painted, and located prominently in the middle of the village. It was noticeable that these buildings were the local church building, so I made a comment to my host that I noticed the church buildings in every single village was the largest, newest and most well kept building of the village. My host’s comments to me were enlightening: "Oh, that is because in the last elections, when the government was soliciting for their votes, they asked them what was the most critical needs of the community, and promised to build new hospitals, schools or even roads. But all they requested for were new church buildings. So, after the election, the government (which is Islamic), kept their promises and built them all new churches."

Incredible.

I wonder what would happen if this happens here in the US? Would the ACLU cry foul? And, what would happen if the government were to assist in building Buddhist temples and other religious houses on worship based on the same reasons? Would Christians decry the subversion of the gospel by our governmental leaders? (Think about Bush’s faith-based programs and how Christians react to stories of the program benefiting organizations not particularly "Christian").

Note: In this post, I reflect on some thoughts that came out of a weekend retreat I took with my church this weekend. It so happens that the reflection fits right in with a series of posts in which I have been meditating on the commandments. See the last one here, where you can also find links to the rest of the series.

When the teachers of the law asked Jesus to identify the Greatest of the commandments, Jesus answered by giving not one but two commandments.

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

The writer of the gospel of Matthewsays that Jesus added, "All the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments."

This past weekend, I spent a couple of days with my church at the Rancho Las Palmas Marriot Resort and Spa in Palm Springs, CA at an all church retreat. The speaker for the weekend was Lon Allison, the director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, IL. Lon preached a very powerful yet simple message from Mark 12:28-31. He says that this is the number one goal for the Christian. Quoting Dallas Willard’s Renovation of the Heart, he says the Greatest Commandment is in two parts. Part one is about Loving God with all of my heart and soul, all of my mind and strength. That part is about the will (heart), the rational and the emotional (mind) and the body (strength). In other words, it is about all of me. It is about spiritual discipline. He says for years he thought this meant to increase his devotions, memorize scripture, pray, and generally be more holy. That was easy to love God. However, he missed something about what the verse says and what Willard brought it out in his book, and that is the phrase "all your soul." He says the soul is about the relational aspect of the person. It is about what makes up your identity. It is about the extra-personal factors, the interpresonal, the social and relationship aspects of the person. Until you love God with all of your soul, you haven’t actually loved him.

The second part of the Greatest Commandment, "Love your neighbor as yourself" actually completes the Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

Another aspect of the verse is about this word, "Love." Allison said the verse did not say, "Like" but "Love." It is not about an emotional feeling. It is about commitment.

As I listened to the sermon, I felt really convicted.

You see, at the first meeting of the weekend, our lead pastor had asked us to be vulnerable and share with one another in our small groups. We were asked to share about was how we got connected to the church. My wife and I were open to our group and we shared how after three years, most of my family had not connected with the church.

In fact, we shared, how we felt that we were socially, economically and culturally quite alien to our church, and we had found it hard to fit in. Although the church calls itself a church for misfits, we found ourselves misfits among the misfits. Earlier, when we were going through our struggles with being jobless, with the difficulties with our finances, and our strive with our rebellious children, we just felt no one truly understood us. We found that it was difficult to share with our friends at church. It appeared to us that they would rather that we not share our pains and just rather that we be happy, praised God and thanked Him for everything. It was hard for us to be vulnerable and to open up because people appeared to "tire" of our pain, our sufferings and our struggles.

While I was still without a job, it was ok, and people were feeling sorry for us, or at least they reached out to us and genuinely wanted to help us. Shortly after I found a job, people would come to us and say, "You guys were struggling for a while back there weren’t you?" When I would look them in the eye and say, "We still are," that is when we feel they would shrink away, as if to say, "Oh, no not again." Or, "You ungrateful brat!" Or, "You just like to be needy don’t you?" Or some such. Maybe they didn’t really feel that way, but that was how we felt was happening to their responses to us. So, we would just kept our troubles to ourselves.

As time went on, we stopped going to our small group fellowship, and stopped telling people that we are struggling. Struggling with two oldest daughter’s losing interest and faith in God and the church. Struggling with our balances our finances and repaying our debt (money that we had borrowed while I was out of a job). Struggling with what God really wants to do with our lives. Struggling with many questions of faith, life and commmitments.

It seemed to us that as long as we answered their "How are you’s" with "Great!" we did not get the withdrawing or shrinking-away responses.

That was what we shared with this small group at the start of the retreat. We said, the only reason why we were there is because we still believed that God wants to connect us to Himself and that He wants us to be part of a faith community. Plus, our two youngest children were connected to their children’s and junior high ministries. We were losing the older two, we did not want to lose the younger two. So, we stayed, and we have come to the retreat because we wanted to draw closer to God, to be spiritually renewed and refreshed.

Immediately after that sharing time, our lead pastor led us in a session where he shared that he hoped we as a church will persevere in our running of the race. Someone asked him what is the purpose of this race? He said, "It is the race to love God and to love our neighbor." He said, "We are called not to like our neighbor, but to love our neighbor. It is about commitment, not an emotional feeling."

Ping! The penny dropped.

I realized that God has called me to love. In fact, I recalled that Jesus said to His disciples, "A new commmandment I give unto you…" I bet Peter was fishing out his notebooks.

Oh boy! For the rest of the crowd, they have the two greatest commandments upon which the entire Law and Prophets hang. We are special. We get to have a new commandment. Can’t wait to hear what it is! "Love one another as I have loved you."

Wow! Is it really that simple?

Later as I listened to Lon, it hit home even more.

Loving God is incomplete unless we love our neighbor. It is as simple as that. If I say I love God, and yet hate my brother, I lie and I am still dead in my sin, and I am walking in darkness. That was what John the disciple whom Jesus loved said.

And, for the disciples of Christ, our special commandment is to love one another as He has loved us. Love.

I know what it means for me now. I had started the retreat by sharing and opening up confessing my wife’s and my, uneasiness about other Christians in our Church. About the fact that Christians tend to not feel comfortable when one of their own opens up and share their vulnerability, suffering and pain. About the fact that we felt like we had been judged and our pains and suffering were not taken seriously by others in the body of Christ.

So, what did we do?

We withdrew ourselves. We felt since we had been misunderstood we shrunk from their fellowship. Instead of seeking them out and loving them, we decided that it was too difficult, too painful, too inconvenient, for us to be vulnerable with our fellow Christians.

Yet, our Lord has commanded us to love them. It is not our responsibility to change their minds about us. It is not our responsibility to make them understand our perspective, or understand our struggles. Our responsibility is to love them. We say we were hurt, or we were in pain. Rather than retreat and try to heal by ourselves, we need to practice what it means to heal spiritually, and that is to heal the Body of Christ. To heal as we share with the community. The only way we can experience full healing, is for us to open up to the community of faith and to share the Spirit of Christ as the balm to heal the wounds, the hurts and the pains that is harming the body. Because if we are hurting, then the body is hurting and the healing must be within the community. As the body heals, then we heal. Rather than look at people, especially the people who "should have known better," who often disappoint us by their callousness, by their judgmental spirits, and by their critical spirits, we are to run the race, "looking unto Jesus." We are to let the Spirit work in the Body of Christ, to heal the Body of Christ. Maybe that is what the "one another" commands of the epistles are all about.

So, my wife and I left the retreat with one simple pledge: We will get connected immediately with a small group and we will commit ourselves to love - to love God, to love our small group, and to love the body of Christ, and in so doing fulfill our commandment to God and to love our neighbor.

I bet the reason that the Lord gave a specific "new" commandment to the disciples not because it was "new" necessarily. I believe one might be able to argue that the new commandment for the disciples was already embedded in the two — especially the second of the — greatest commandments, upon which hung all the Law and Prophets. But, he gave them a "new" commandment because He knew they wouldn’t get it unless he reiterated it to them. They needed to hear it again, and they needed to have it spelt out to them, and finally they also needed to practice it because the Lord knew how messed up they were.

In a sense, it would have been easy to love those who are without Christ and those who have not yet responded to the gospel. Also it would be quite easy to misunderstand that the work of the gospel is to love the unchurched. To go out there to preach the gospel in the name of love. To be a martyr for Christ in the name of love. To be "suffer for the faith" and to "suffer oppression" and to "suffer rejection" in the name of love.

He wanted to underscore the real work of the gospel - to love one another. To love my brother and love my sister in Christ. To love those who are of the family of God. To love them - to be committed to them - and in that way, to do the work of the gospel since "by this all men will know that you are my disciples." That is the real work of the gospel. It is when we love one another as disciples that the work of the gospel is being carried out more than any overtly evangelistic campaigns. I used to think that loving one another is about edification - building the body of Chrsit, while loving the unchurched is about evangelism - loving them to the body of Christ. Now, I understand it: loving one another is evangelism! And, evangelism is building the body of Christ!

Oh wow! I pray that by God’s grace, mercy and strength that we will be able to carry out this commitment - this new Commandment, that really is part of the Greatest Commandment.

Christian Carnival XLVIII is up, and Jeremy “Parableman” Pierce has done an admirable job interweaving all the submissions into a sci-fi fantasy story. Go have a look, there’s a lot there, and you will really need to hunt down the gems!

My own submission is there too, and Jeremy made the point that he doesn’t really know why it is important to note that the Fourth Commandment, Remember the Sabbath, ought to be considered as part of the second, rather than the first, of the greatest commandments. Point duly taken. My post probably did not make that point clear, and I actually have begun putting together thoughts on where we have been so far with my series on the ten commandments.

Will post it up soon…

Anyway, so much about me, go have a look at the Christian Carnival at the parableman’s…

So far I have posted my meditations on the first three commandments (see the first one here, second, here and the third, here). I prefaced this series of posts with what I called the heart of the commandments. In reflecting on the fourth commandment, I would like to return to some of the ideas I shared there.

If you remember your Moses story from Sunday School or from Cecil de Mille, you will remember the scene when Moses brought down the two tablets of stones from the Mount. We often imagined that God wrote five four commandments on one and five six on the other.

I am beginning to think that perhaps this was not the case.

You see, Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is like the first, and it is to love our neighbor as ourselves. So, it just might have been the case that perhaps right from the beginning, God emphasized the priority of those two greatest commandments. As I pointed out before, the words, "ten commandments" were not specifiically used in the Bible. In fact, in both the passages where these commandments were enumerated(Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5), there are actually more than just ten. Further, in other passages, more commandments were given that were either elaborations of the core, or additional injunctions relating to specific ritual and ceremonial aspects of Old Testament Religion. However, in this series of meditations, I am using the traditional Protestant formulation of the Ten Commandments.

Let’s come back to think about the greatest commandments, the two tablets and what I think they stood for. I believe that rather than think that there were five commandments written on one each tablet, perhaps, it is quite appropriate to think that on one of the tablets were written the first of the greatest commandments and on the other, the second of the greatest commandments.

Or, perhaps, the first two were spelt out on one tablet and the third through the tenth were spelt out on the the second. If each commandment were spelt out on the stone tablets, and the stone tablets were organized by the two greatest commandments, then perhaps the fourth commandment was found on the second stone tablet, not the first.

Why do I say that?

Regardless of which stone tablet the fourth commandment was written it is important to note that the fourth commandment, says Jesus, was for man, not man for the Sabbath. In and of itself, the Sabbath, is not holy. It is holy only in the sense that it was given to man to be kept as a separate, sacred day.

When I was a spunky, fiesty, youth, I used to argue with the Seventh-Day Adventists, and anyone else who was in the least interested and bothered to argue with me, about which day we were supposed to keep the Lord’s Day. I argued that although in the Old Testament, the Sabbath (or Saturday) was separated as the holy day, in the New, Sunday, was supposed to be the Christian day since it is the Lord’s day - the Day He rose from the dead. I smugly felt more spiritual that the church I went to kept Sunday as the Day of rememberance, and rested on Sunday, while the Adventists were "legalistic" in keeping the Old Testament day - Saturday. Then of course, in some states in Malaysia, the Islamic state governments made everyone go to work on Sunday and rested only on Friday, so that Churches had to change their Day of Rememberance to Fridays. Some die-hard Christians continued to meet on Sundays in observance of the Lord’s Day, but had to change their meetings to the evenings, and of course our Adventist friends met on Saturdays. The churches that met on Fridays? Well, we assumed they were backsliders, lovers of the world and capitulating to the world’s standards. So we prayed for them.

Looking back from the vantage point of where God was proclaiming the commandments, and understanding the commandments from the standpoint of Christ’s two greatest commandments, however, reveal a few things:

(1) The commandment to keep the Sabbath holy was given for man’s sake - as part of the "loving yourself" part of the second greatest commandment.

(2) In fact, the second set of commandments began at the third commandment, where the emphasis is living a life that is worthy of our high calling (Eph 4: )

(3) We follow the spirit of the fourth commandment, if we remember to take time off for rest - spiritual, emotional, physical, relational, financial, and in fact, in all areas of our lives.

(4) It doesn’t matter when the day is, as long as there was a regular day for the church to get together, and to rest, to worship and to connect.

Applying (3) relates to the need for us to go on fasts - fasting from food, fasting from our physical desires and fasting from our daily routine (or taking a vacation). It also relates to the need to have solitude (daily devotional times as well as extended times of retreat in order to re-calibrate, rejuvenate and refresh.

Living in this fast paced, drive-through, everything-to-go world of hours, sometimes, we forget to stop and check our pulse, rest awhile, and re-charge our batteries. Even in terms of work, career and interpersonal relationships there are times when we need to step aside to re-evaluate, re-think and re-structure our priorities, our strategies and our habits.

Most important of all, the call for remembering the Sabbath is a call to remember that we are not our own. We are stewards of our bodies, our time, our lives. We have to take time out to take stock of how we are going precisely because we are to ensure that our lives are lived according to the mission that our Creator has planted within us. So, there is a time for corporate re-synchronization where we take time to be with community and re-establish our connection with God by connecting with each other. There is also the need to remove ourselves from the crowd to the recalibration of our soul and to allow God to touch us all over again.

The Sabbath Day is more than just a day. It is a holy time to be set aside with the Holy One. So it is a day to celebrate our relationship with our Creator, to refocus that the center of life is relationship, beginning with the Relationship with our Creator, to our Relationship with ourselves and our Relationship with our community, and the world about us.