TAK Article: Reading through the Bible, again…

The Importance and Difficulty of Spending Time in the Word

An amazing teacher once told a friend of mine that if he really wanted know what was in the Bible and what it said that then he should read it. He added, “after about the 35th time reading it through it starts to stick.”

That was a rather great challenge to my friend and myself!

Now, I wasn’t actually in on that conversation. I was just listening in, sitting by a nice warm wood stove, all comfortable, and, at the time, thirty-five read throughs didn’t sound all that bad.

I’m just starting my third read through and, to put it simply, that nice warm woodstove is a long ways away.

My last read through of the Bible was spread out over several countries (no less than four to be sure). Before that my first was spent over the course of my teenage years (read as many). This time it will be through busy seasons in multiple states and with the added challenge of knowing I can be a lot more faithful in setting aside time to do so than I have in the past.

Time is funny; it seems like you haso much of it or so little of it or none of it, and yet you have neither more or less of it, ever.

I could use this time for other things, though, I find that when I give some of my time to reading the Bible I find the rest of my time a little more fulfilling. I find it more fulfilling if I actually get to do something with what I’ve read. Applying it to the way I live, sharing it with others, writing about it like this, or journaling about what I think and hear as I read has been very valuable ways to get more out of the time I spend reading.

This time, thus far…

Today I just got into the very first part of Exodus.

I tried something new for Genesis by reading through it generationally; the first part up to Abraham, then Abraham’s story, then Isaac’s, then Jacob/Israel’s, and then on through the end with the sons of Israel.

It is amazing… through so much of this we get to see God interacting with individuals. It’s a story that’s told forward and backward, many stories of family told to the next generations, collected and brought up to together by Moses for the people coming out of Egypt. When we get to Exodus the story jumps from a very large family to a very large nation in just a few verses.

I ask myself, what was it like for all of those people? Families?

There are so many stories told from just the first few generations. Our families work the same way, stories are told, identities are formed, “I was the child of…” I’m sure there are a lot of family stories from the end of Genesis until we see Moses’ family story come into the picture, though, we don’t get to see those in the Bible.

These stories would have shaped the identity of a nation. Stories of how they settled in Goshen, of how the first task masters came, stories of the cities they built.

As all these were being told, God desired to form new stories as well, and so, we pick up the trail with Moses and all that follows.

Getting to Know the Family Story

Do we know our family stories? Do we know the stories that helped form our own families? What has our fathers, grandfathers, uncles, aunts, grandmothers, mothers, and cousins told us about our history?

In the same way, do we know what is there in the Bible? What are its stories? Who does the Bible say that we are?

We have a lot of people in Churches that need to know who God is, what He is like, how to hear His voice, how to obey Him when he speaks. How can we teach these things? Well, I present to you my understanding, I believe we can teach these things through story.

God has given us stories about who He is through the Bible and through the experiences that He has walked us through in life. We need to learn how to share these stories with others so that they will learn about who God is, what He is like, how they can hear His voice, and how they can obey Him too.

This is His story, but it is a story that we are invited into. Each of our stories are unique and each story has similarity.

That is a piece of what makes His story unique! Both the Bible in its stories of God and men, women, families, and nations and in His story among men, women, families, and nations today we something that was written together. The more participants in the story the more clearly we are able to see who He is and and who we are.

So, in the end, the difficulty of spending time in the word is in the spending time. The importance of spending time in the word is the redemption of time, all of it.

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: October 29th, 2013

Well, ok, this is more of an end of October update…

For the last couple of weeks some friends and I have been cutting, hauling, and splitting firewood for our Bible School for the Nations this winter. Just this month alone we’ve been able to gather a little more than nine cords of wood.

According to a couple of websites I found, nine cords should equal 1,152 cubic feet of stacked wood. Most of what we cut up was dry white pine which should add up to around 19,800lbs; give or take some for the black walnut and the red-fir tree that we were given.

All of the wood cutting culminated in a wood splitting and stacking party we held last Saturday. I think we had over twenty-five people, four wood splitting machines, and a couple extra chain saws cut up the last long pieces of wood we hauled down. Now our community building, caboose, and two Mongolian yurts should be nice, warm, and ready for the BSN this winter!

This Bible School for the Nations will be running from January 14th through June 20th, 2014.

Specifically, this is a school that walks you through the Bible chronologically and teaches you how to share the Bible’s stories and principles with others. After the school is finished there will be several outreaches where students will be able to practice what they’ve learned. Outreaches to Mongolia, India, and a stateside outreach are all on the table!

If you are interested, click any of the links to find out more about Bible School for the Nations!

Also, while I was working on the wood stacking, my wife was able to cook up enough food to feed everyone there! That brings us up to 35 meals of hospitality that we’ve given to others inside and outside of our mission this month!

Thanks for all of your support!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: June 15th, 2013

Hello everyone!

Once again it has been a whirlwind of a time since my last update; our school has finished, all our friends have spread out, some of our friends new parents, and we are visiting our family in Michigan.

Well, let’s get started!

The School Of Apostolic Pioneering that we were a part of finished with all students graduating and having excellent projects to pioneer in the next couple years. Some could be seen as very traditional projects, while others were definitely leaning on YWAM’s value of being visionary and doing things in radically new ways!

After the school finished we wrapped up some debrief items and shared plans for promoting the school in the future. 

At once, with really only a day of packing, we through our things in the Jeep that has been lent to us and headed off to Michigan. We started off with four passengers and dropped people off along the way. We were also able to visit several friends. We arrived four days later and for the first time, save for Mom, my family was able to meet our son.

Taking him to the farm was great! My Grandfather immediately swept him up and started showing how to roll pool balls around our pool table just like he used to do with us. We also spent some time shooting our bows at targets, practicing our softball skills for an upcoming tournament, and chased the cows back into the fence. The more our youngster is over there the more he is realizing that cows aren’t actually big dogs that go “wuff” too!

We are planning to spend our time here until just after the 4th of July and then head back to Idaho. We will be spending a lot of time with family, as well as, support raising, making connections, and scouting out the land for future YWAM bases.

Thanks for keeping track of us!

 

Other Updates

– During our time in Michigan we are hoping to do some praying and imagining about what future YWAM locations could look like here. As we do so, we will start putting up small articles on the different cities we go to and would love to hear some of your ideas as we do so too!

– Just yesterday we had our first prayer trip! My brother and I headed up to the highest point in Michigan’s thumb, north of I-69, and prayed for the surrounding cities. You could see several from the top of the mountain and it was a really beautiful place to spend some time in prayer. 

 

Scripture

Just a few days ago I was praying about what to read and it felt like I should read through the new testament during my time in Michigan. I also started reading the book unChristian by David Kinnamen and Gabe Lyons.

In David’s book, through in-depth research, they take a look at how Christianity is viewed by 16-29 year-old’s in the USA. The research, done through the Barna Group, is pretty stark… though not the majority, many of the Americans in that age group who are not already a part of the Church view it in an unfavorable light. What is worse, most of these perceptions come from experiences in churches or among Christians.

After reading this, my first go at reading Mathew brought me to the end of chapter 7, right through what is known as “the sermon on the mount“, a large continuous collection of Jesus’ teachings. The biggest thing I noticed about them was how all of them were concerned with how we live our lives. They have very little to do with pointing out how others live their lives wrongly, they even contain a teaching warning us of it.

Go and see for yourself, it is only two chapters.

This section scripture contains a big  part of the heart behind living our lives as a follower of Jesus and paints a true picture of what Christianity needs to look like.

 

Praise Reports and Prayer Requests

– Praise God that we all made it here in one piece!
– Praise God that my Grandfather is able to play with our son!
– Please pray for my Grandfather, he has several serious health concerns!
– Please pray for the costs we have that go along with delivering a baby! We still have $1,200 dollars to raise by the end of the month!

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

 

 

Weekly Update: April, 23rd, 2013

Weekly Update: Tuesday, 04/23/13

Hello all!

Few! The weeks have been flying by!

We are more than half way through the school now and the visions of our students are getting bigger and bigger! This week our YWAM base founder is back to talk about what really gets things done when our visions get bigger than what we can do by ourselves.

Four things shared yesterday were the principles of having a biblical foundation (are we walking in the promises and paths of scripture), relying on our intimate relationships with Jesus to keep us going through difficult times, continually hearing God’s voice, and visioning with God (seeing what is not yet present). Here’s a quick question, has anyone reading this found any of these principles especially important? Leave a reply in the box below if so!

Another exciting development of our school is that our excellent cook was able to take a couple of weeks off and head down to Bethel in Redding, CA, today. I will be filling in until she gets back and am really looking forward to the opportunity, though, she will be a hard person to fill in for!

Our family has also been able to become more involved with the community here in Cascade too. My wife is going to a “mom and tots” get together, a local Bible study for women, and serving with the emergency pregnancy care center that is just starting up as well. I’m still finding my place among the other people in Cascade, but I’m hoping to make a big impact too.

We pray that this finds you all well and that God blesses you very much!

Thanks for keeping up with us!

Other Updates:

– We’ve had several people visit the Cascade/McCall are recently and they are saying that the place feels different. I’m not sure what this means yet, but we have been praying for the people in the valley and that the place would be a place where God is welcome. The visitors are all bringing good reports.

– One of the local youth is interested in the Bible study idea! I’ll be meeting with him today to talk more about the possibilities of having a Bible study night at our house.

Scripture:

Just this last Sunday, the Pastor at the church we attend gave the announcement that the next series of sermons will be on the book of Ephesians. Upon hearing this I glanced through the book and came upon chapter 4.

In this chapter Paul is bringing together a strong argument that, as followers of Jesus, who were saved by God through His love for us, we should love each other. A character of this love is our unity. It was God who brought us together and in His love he equips us and changes us into new people. As a new people this needs to be our own model as well.

How can we love others in such a way that builds them up and unifies them?

Leave your response in the box below!

Praise & Prayer Report

– Praise God for His provision!

– Praise God for our wonderful friends!

– Please pray for our finances as a family!

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: March 14th, 2013

Weekly Update: Thursday, 03/14/13

Hello from America again!

It’s been a couple weeks since our last update and also the first week of the School Of Apostolic Pioneering in Cascade, Idaho. We’ve just finished the first couple days of orientation and have started working with our first SOAP speaker.

This morning’s lesson has been about what the SOAP project looks like and what are the details that go into it. For an exercise, we read through the first and second chapters of Nehemiah and tried to find information that would be relevant in  SOAP project. We asked questions like, what was Nehemiah’s ministry? Is there any background information included? What are the basic operations that will need to happen in order for the wall to be built?

On the whiteboard in front of me are a lot of answers; Nehemiah’s “ministry” was to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, his friends had told him the “background information” in the very beginning of the chapters, he would have to see that many “basic operations” would be carried out, such as, who  would be in charge of the building supplies?

These are all things that go into a SOAP project, as well as others.

Living in Cascade has been really good for our family. Since we’ve been gone we have friends who have moved into the apartments next to us and below us. It gives us a lot of opportunities to work together, play board games together, and eat dinners or lunches together. We also have high-speed internet at our apartment now, so keeping in contact with our families has become really easy through Skype.

During the last two weeks we’ve worked with our downstairs neighbors to prepare for the SOAP. That means putting in food orders, organizing the welcome dinner, figuring out when people will arrive, reorganizing the furniture at the Depot (our really cool training facility), and writing out ten weeks worth of school assignments. It’s really cool to see all of it come together this week.

Looking forward toward the next three months our days will be pretty ordered around the school schedule. Our son is already fine with taking his afternoon nap here!

We’re looking forward to keeping you all updated!

Thanks for keeping up with us!

Other Updates:

– In the next few weeks several friends and I will be hiking through some of the mountains nearby Cascade. Our goal is to spend the night praying for Cascade, the people living here in the valley, and our ministries that reach out to the people around us. Please be praying for us as we pray about how to do this and get a plan together!

– Another ministry opportunity we are hoping to open up is a Bible study night for young people at our apartment. We are still praying about how to do this, but we are trusting God for the people who will be a part of the Bible study.

Scripture:

Early last week I was praying about what part of the Bible to read and it felt like God asked me to read about Philip, mentioned in the book of Acts. You can read about him in Acts 6:1-7, Acts 8:5-40, and Acts 21:7-14.

He is a character in Acts who was chosen for leadership in a position of service, was willing to be known for Jesus during persecution, was obedient to God’s voice, and was later noted to be a father of several well respected daughters. He isn’t extraordinary, save for God being extraordinary in his life, though, the book of Acts is filled with stories of God being extraordinary in the lives of many ordinary followers of Jesus.

You should read through Philip’s story too!

Perhaps God will do amazing things through your own life as well?

Praise & Prayer Report

– Praise God for our son’s easy transition into the flow of life in Cascade!
– Praise God for our wonderful friends who are on the SOAP team with us! We are really looking forward to working with them over the next several months!
– Please pray for our finances as a family!

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: February 22nd, 2013

Weekly Update: Friday 2/22/2013

Hello again everyone,

Well, if anyone has been following these updates since I left for South Asia last December, that sandwich I ate at the airport in Helsinki was as amazing as it looked. You can probably find them in the big nice looking place to eat about half way through the international terminal, if you’re transiting through the air port in Helsinki, of course.

If you’re interested in all the happenings of what my 9 weeks in South Asia looked like, hang on, I’ll be writing that up in due time.

For now, our family Is getting settled into our nice little apartment here in Cascade, Idaho. It is a very comfortable cold outside and a decently comfortable warm inside. The air is much dryer than either the Netherlands or South Asia, which I am very thankful for; dry cold air helps my health to no small degree. We still have a couple of bags to unpack, some furniture to rearrange and replace, still a little bit more cleaning to do, and with that we should be all settled in.

It has been really exciting to see many of our old friends again! The winter in Idaho isn’t always the easiest time for finding our friends in YWAM. The vast majority are either in Asia or back with family raising support. Still, we’ve been able to visit four out of the five families that are still around.

Within the next couple days we’ll also be ready to get started on the School Of Apostolic Pioneering that will be running from March 10th though May 31st. We are going to have a great line up of speakers, students, and staff (which of course includes us)!

If you know anyone who really wants to start a new ministry or YWAM location, please, let them know about the SOAP!

Thanks for partnering with our family!

Other Updates:

– Our son is an excellent traveler! After a slightly troubled night of sleep in Amsterdam, He managed to sleep half of the time on our flight from Amsterdam to Chicago and lounge around for the rest! From the look on his face it seemed that he found it the lamest thing ever done, though, he wasn’t cranky bout it at all!

After the first flight, he played around in Chicago O’Hare airport for another eight hours; following that, slept through the next flight, the entire night in Boise, and arrived in Cascade without any jet lag at all!

– Last Saturday I was able to talk with my friend in Enschede about the prayer meeting that we had started. It was a fun time, but we won’t be able to continue it. I was a little sad about that, but when I prayed about it I felt that God was saying that seeds were planted in Enschede for another prayer meeting and that the prayers we have prayed for the city will be effective.

Thanks for praying for us!

Scripture:

Since coming to Cascade I have been feeling the need to read the Bible and receive what I need from God through it. It isn’t that unusual, of course, many times after I travel I get off track with reading my Bible and haveing my quiet times with God.

This time, though, the need has been much greater.

After being gone for so long and just returning from my time in South Asia it is easy for me to become withdrawn. I suppose you could say I am a bit culture shocked.

Yesterday, I asked God if there was a book in the Bible that He would like to start revealing Himself to me through and help me through what I was dealing with. It felt like He wanted to go through Psalms with me again and to start with the first psalm.

It was a very special time with God!

The first psalm is about where you set your mind and what you do; do you put your trust in ungodly things? Do you walk in the way of sin? Do you sit around in scornfulness? As I read it I started to see how selfish I was for not looking beyond myself – in a way, scornfulness. It says that the person who is blessed is the person who sets his mind on the law of God. Jesus Himself says that the greatest commands of the law is to love God and to love others.

It helped me to start my day with a new perspective and new confidence.

You all should try it out too!

 

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God for our time in the Netherlands!

– Praise God for my wife’s visa!

– Please pray for our family’s finances and continued support!

– Please pray that our family would adjust well for life and ministry in the United States!

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

TAK Article: Living

TAK Article: Living

It is good to be back in the Netherlands again!

There have been many good things that have happened to us in the last two months, though, I promise I will not share all about them right now. Today, on Valentine’s day, my wife and I are celebrating our three-year relationship anniversary! As of today my wife and I will have been in a relationship for three years!

While the last two months may be quite outstanding with things to share the last three years have been even greater!

During these three years we’ve been able to learn how to live out our lives together in a way that brings glory to God and shares His love with those around us. After all, that is what we do.

Love God and Love Others

What do the greatest commands of the law mean to you?

When a man asked Jesus what was the greatest command was in the entire law (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy of the Bible) He replied that it was to love God through everything that we aspire to do, everything that we think about, everything that we are, and everything that we actually do – as well as showing love to our neighbors as we would wish to be loved.

What do these commands mean to you? Are they on your mind? Do you think about them before you act?

As followers of Jesus Christ we are all called to expand His kingdom. There are no safe zones in our hearts where we may hide from God or off-limit places in the world where His kingdom and His law (the greatest commandments of the law) will not go.

How do we wish to do that? Where do we want to go?

It is far too easy for us to become entangled in cares of this life that do not matter; also, if they are cares that do matter, we spend too much time worrying about them. Everything that we need we can trust God to give us.

I want to see this happen through discipleship.

Over the next while my wife and I will be settling down in Cascade, Idaho. We finally have our visa, which God has made possible in perfect timing, and we can now move back into our apartment. That said, I’m no longer only looking forward to a place to settle down anymore. I don’t care for it and I pray that my heart would not grow overly fond of any comfortable apartment. My heart is fond of Jesus Christ and I wish to turn as many hearts to Him as possible!

Cascade is a good place to do this, I know the language of everybody there for a change and I have a place to live where I can invite people over for dinner with my family. Yes, that may not seem like much, but I am a follower Jesus Christ – He will provide me with anything else I need.

I want to talk with people, I want to encourage friends, I want to meet in groups, I want to discuss the Bible and Jesus’ life, I want to gather around food, etc…

Throughout our history these are the things that God has used to change people from who they were to who God desires them to be – to sum it up, this is living out discipleship with Jesus and others.

We need to realize that the greatest medium of God’s grace is our lives.

Every aspect of our lives is another way in which God can reach somebody who does not know Him yet! Further than that, every aspect of our lives is another way we can encourage each other to love God even more!

Valentine’s Day

Today, many people are celebrating the emotion or feeling of love – I admit that I know very little about this specific holiday, but for my wife and I it reminds us of the day that we began our relationship. It was a very special day for us.

We committed ourselves to love each other and seek out marriage together.

Three years later we are married and have a beautiful little son that is walking around and threatening to tear apart the entire house!

That process has taken a lot of God’s grace and committed love from both of us as well. It is the same way when we consider our relationship with God – He will give us the grace that we need to become the son or daughter that He desires us to be and we need to commit ourselves to loving Him. We do this with our entire lives.

I pray that each of us would reach out to others with our entire lives as well!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: December 4th, 2012

Weekly Update: Tuesday 12/04/2012

 

Hello everyone,

First update from Helsinki, Finland!

Well, I’m in the international section right now, but I did walk on the ground outside of the international section on my arrival, so I’m counting it.

My travels have started out really well; played with our son last night and kissed him goodbye this morning, my wife was able to travel with me to the airport, and the flights so far have been very peaceful. I’m a little hungry, of which anyone with my appetite and wallet will understand if they’ve been to an airport too. All the food on airports is really expensive; however, I just saw the biggest, cheapest, and best looking sandwich I’ve ever saw on an airport – so, if I have time, and they don’t dash my hopes by cutting a sixth of it of it off and serving only that to me, I’m going to go enjoy that after I’m finished writing!

Thanks for partnering with our family!

 

Other Updates:

– We had our second prayer meeting for Enschede last Thursday and had a really good time too. My wife volunteered to set them up while I am in Asia. Keep praying that we run into some more people who would like to lead it in the future!

 

Scripture:

The last bit of scripture that I read was Ezekiel 20-23.

It’s a hard bit of scripture to read and the images it gives are very hard to forget. It’s also loaded with God’s character. It shows everything of what God has to do with sin, what it is like for Him to behold terrible sins and what happens when nobody cares about them anymore.

I would recommend praying a lot before reading it – if it isn’t something that you are ready for God to speak to you then wait until you are ready.

Reading the Bible before we are ready to do what God speaks to our hearts through it isn’t the best idea… we will learn a lot, but that tends to stay in our heads. When the Bible stays in our heads it doesn’t do what God designed it for. When it is received into our hearts then it achieves the purpose that God gave it.

I can’t say what this passage of scripture will do in your hearts, but when I read it my heart is troubled at the severe effect of sin. It takes people from being God’s beloved, not that God stops His love toward us, and turns them into doers of evil. All the gifts God has given us are turned into ways of doing more evil, against ourselves and others.

This is how much of the world operates, almost all of it. However, God promises to come and redeem this world and its people through Jesus, the one “who’s right it is” to receive the diadem.

And, it is in this that we are set about as His followers to do!

I hope that you will find this encouraging!

 

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God for our time in the Netherlands!

– Please continue praying for my wife’s visa application!

– Please pray for our family’s finances and continued support!

– Please pray that our family would receive everything God has for us during these months together in the Netherlands!

 

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: November 21st, 2012

Weekly Update: Wednesday 10/21/2012

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

We pray that God will bless all of you and show you all the things that He has done for you this year!

Our time in the Netherlands is going well.

We have an understanding of how the next couple months will look for us and God is providing for all of our needs to accomplish them. Within the next months we are hoping to see the Enschede Prayer Team continue, we are having a missions fair at our home church here in Enschede, and I will be off to Asia from December to February.

We are looking forward to a very busy and exciting time!

Though, I don’t want to miss what has been happening in the last month since I last updated our weekly update… I see the irony.

My wife is the one heading up the missions fair for our church’s  missionary members, which means she is very busy emailing, writing, and visiting people. She is also sorting things out for the immigrations sale that we will have at the same time.

While my wife works at this, our son likes getting into bookshelves and plants, and cabinets that he shouldn’t – of which there are plenty of each.

I’m reading through my fourth book dealing with early church history and trying to understand the implications it has on us today. It is really important for me to keep learning and sharing what I learn with others. Writing things down here on the blog is one way, talking about them with my father-in-law over coffee several times a day is another that I particularly enjoy.

So, with that, my mind is often caught up in several different places at the same time. What happened at this time, who said what when, Jay Edward trying to pull down a great big potted plant  or playing with his grandpa’s books now, etc.

In all this I am preparing to travel to Asia; I have the opportunity to teach at a discipleship training school, help a couple of outreach teams, and learning/showing how to make water filters out of clay pots, sand, gravel, and water.

Out of those three, doing the research and showing people how to filter water will have the most impact on my time there.

It is a project that comes out of our prayers for Asia.

During my first trip to Asia we learned how terrible the water there can be. As we prayed about what to do we felt that God wanted us to bring water filters, but we never found a way how. Since then, our outreach have been focused on helping people learn about basic hygiene and preventable sicknesses.

Yet, we’ve still had the problem that most people do not have access to clean water.

Earlier  this year I learned of a water filter that may fit our unique demands. On this trip I’ll research them more, see if I get sick when I drink the water, and do my best to share them with my other friends who will be able to share the water filters with even more people.

Be praying for my time away from family, success in the water filter project, and safe travels!

Thanks for partnering with our family!

 

Other Updates:

– We had an update this past week that the National Visa Center, in the US, has all of our documents again. Please pray that the process will go smoothly from here!

– In order to use my time well in the Netherlands, I’ve begun pioneering a prayer team for the various ministries in Enschede. This project is going well and I’ve sent invitations to other ministries to see if more will join the prayer team.

 

Scripture:

The last time I wrote here I had just finished Isaiah and was in Jeremiah, now I’m finished with Jeremiah and am in Ezekiel.

The two books are very similar; it seems that Ezekiel is written even more like a journal than Jeremiah. Ezekiel writes about the amazing visions and experiences he has with God and the strange and very persistent ways that God has him speak to the people who have been taken captive by the Babylonians. They speak at the same time, to the same group of people, about most of the same things, but in completely different places.

Jeremiah speaks from Jerusalem and later from Egypt, Ezekiel speaks from Babylon after being taken there as a captive himself.

You need a really good imagination to see the things that Ezekiel writes about. He writes about God’s throne sitting on towering angels, being spiritually taken to Jerusalem and digging through walls, and hearing God tell him to do dig a hole through his own house’s wall and act like he’s going into exile – just so people will ask and give God an opportunity to speak to them!

It’s an interesting and challenging read!

 

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God for our time in the Netherlands!

– Please continue praying for my wife’s visa application!

– Please pray for our family’s finances and continued support!

– Please pray that our family would receive everything God has for us during these months together in the Netherlands and after we are apart!

 

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: October 30th, 2012

Weekly Update: Tuesday 10/30/2012

Hello everyone,

It’s winter time in the Netherlands!

Well, not winter time, yet, as in the season, but rather winter time as the time that they set all the clocks an hour backwards. We are all still getting used to that…

We are glad to say that we are using the time that we do have quite well! My wife and I are helping my father-in-law with his garden and home, building relationships with our friends, and getting our visa process sorted out. We are thankful for the time to rest, give our son lots of attention, and for being able to do plenty of studying in my father-in-law’s study.

We are not staying here indefinitely, of course, but I am glad to be with our family before heading out of the Netherlands again while we wait for our visa process to finish.

I will need to leave for some amount of time, depending on when our interview is due with the US embassy in Amsterdam, but we are still searching out the options God has for us. Please be praying for our family to receive everything that God has for us!

Thanks for partnering with our family!

 

Other Updates:

– We had a small delay in our visa process last week; we needed a few more signed papers, get a couple new documents, and send it all to our lawyer. Thanks to everyone who helped and thanks to our lawyer who made it a very quick procedure!

– In order to use my time well in the Netherlands, I’ve begun pioneering a prayer team for the various ministries in Enschede. There’s just a couple of us so far, but we get together every month to talk and pray about the various ministry opportunities we’re finding in Enschede. We are also able to show support for each other by praying for each other throughout the week.

My wife and I were able to meet the leader of similar organization today, XiE (Christ in Enschede).

It was an encouraging visit and we are praying that some fruit will come out of it! They will mention us in their meeting the Thursday.

 

Scripture:

Well, by now I’m out of Isaiah and into the book of Jeremiah!

The two books have a lot of similar content, but they are very different in the way that they are written.

Isaiah can feel like a collection of prophecies over various nations, as well as, Israel and Judah, the two kingdom’s of the Israelites. Jeremiah, on the other hand, feels a lot more like a journal of what God told him to say, what to do, and how the people responded to it.

The book of Jeremiah feels more emotional too; it includes many of his prayers and is known for the fact that God tells Jeremiah in the very beginning that nobody will listen to him. It is probably one of the most readable books of the Bible too.

It can be comforting for me to know that even though there are times when our lives are difficult, though not as much as Jeremiah’s in most cases, God has already been through this sort of stuff with others who have followed Him. Seeing Jeremiah’s struggles to keep going help me have the courage to keep going when I feel struggles coming too.

I hope that you find this encouraging!

 

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God for our time in the Netherlands!

– Please continue praying for my wife’s visa application!

– Please pray for our family’s finances and continued support!

– Please pray that our family would receive everything God has for us during these months together in the Netherlands!

 

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom