Grandpa and Grandson Day

Friday afternoon I picked up Titus so we could have a grandpa-grandson day. It is always interesting to spend time with Titus because he mixes theology, video games, his imaginary games and other daily events all together into his conversation. Friday night we headed to the mall to eat frozen yogurt (yes the picture is at the exact same table as the one of Courage in the previous post) and go see the movie Ice Age. Titus enjoyed the movie very much. In fact he gets so into the movie I think he actually becomes a character in it. I enjoyed the movie too, even though I thought it was not as good as numbers 1 and 2 in the series. We stayed to the end of the credits to see what clever thing they would do and now we know how Scrat feels. Titus then spent the night at my house, we ate breakfast burritos the next morning and he headed home for lunch. Another day of good memories….

Sermon John 12

Last Sunday I had another opportunity to preach at Faith Presbyterian and Reformed Church. Since I have been immersing myself in the Gospel of John the last few months, again the sermon came from that book of the Bible. My take is that John 12 summarizes the presentation of Jesus to the nation in chapters 1-11 and introduces the passion story in chapters 13-21. The message of the section is, “Jesus is the King of Israel, Savior of the World, and Son sent from God who glorifies God through His perfect obedience to die as the Passover Lamb. We must respond with full commitment, as His disciples, to his program to have a share in His glory.

Overall Outline

• Right (and Wrong) Response to Jesus Illustrated 1-8
• Mary’s exemplary response of total commitment 1-3
• (contrasted to) Judas’ hypocritical response 4-6
• Jesus’ praise for what Mary has done 7-8
• Inadequate Responses to Presentation of Jesus as King 9-19
• The Crowds “believe” because of Lazarus 9 (Transition)
• Chief Priests oppose – Jews are going to Jesus 10-11
• Crowds Greet Jesus as King 12-13
• Jesus’ Presented as king 14-15
• Disciples  are  Confused  about Jesus’ Kingship  16
• Crowds Testify to Jesus because of  Lazarus 17-18
• Pharisees Oppose– World is going to Jesus 19
• Inadequate Responses to Presentation of Jesus as Son and Savior 20-43  
• Response of the Greeks to Jesus 20-22  (Transition)
• Jesus explains the need for his death and resurrection 23-26
• The glorification of God through Jesus’ obedience 27-28
• Verification to the crowd of Jesus’ successful mission 29-30
• The success of Jesus’ mission as Savior 31-33
• Response of the Crowd (Unbelief) 34
• Crowd objects based on the law 34
• Jesus – The light is with you for a limited time
• Light and Darkness Contrasted
• Command: Believe in the Light
• You become sons of light
• The Crowd’s unbelief was predicted in the Old Testament 37
• Response of the Crowd (Inadequate  Belief) 42-43
• The Right Response to Jesus Explained  44-50

The conclusion of the chapter presents an explanation of the response God desires to the presentation of Jesus in the first 12 chapters of the book…

1. The Right Response to Jesus Explained  44-50
1. Jesus Shouts out – This is important 
1. The proper response: Belief (“Buy In”)  44
2. Content of the Belief   45-46
1. To see Jesus is to see God  45
2. Walk in the light of Jesus 46 (14.6)
1. Receive, Remain, Follow, Eat, Drink  (from chapters 1-11)
2. “Way” – Lifestyle  (John 14.6)
3. “Truth” – Worldview (Relationship with Jesus since truth is a person)
4. “Life” – Meaning, Purpose, Significance
3. Urgency of Belief: Judgment  47-48
1. Basis is our response to Jesus’ “Word”
4. Authority For Belief: The Father 49-50
1. Guarantee: Eternal Life

The beginning of the section uses Mary as an example of the right response to the incarnation of the Son of God and contrasts it with Judas. Mary is the example of a true disciple and the one we should emulate.

1. Response to Jesus of Mary and Judas (Lazarus) 1-8
1. Mary’s exemplary response of total commitment 1-3
1. Discipleship: Mary is always seen at Jesus’ feet
2. Humility: John the Baptist and Jesus
3. Costly: Expensive Perfume
4. Result: Fragrance filled the room
2. Judas hypocritical response 4-6
1. Discipleship: Judas had his own agenda
2. Humility: Judas was concerned about himself
3. Costly: Judas followed Jesus to enrich himself
4. Result: How did having that money work out for him?
3. Jesus’ praise for what Mary has done 7-8
1. Mary has done something that will have lasting results
2. Mary understood the situation better than all the other disciples

Ranch Christian Fellowship

  Last Sunday night Joyce and I were privileged to attend the going away party for Lawrence and Karen Yinolang at the Ranch Christian Fellowship in Yigo. Lawrence founded the fellowship and has been leading it for the last three years since he and Karen were transferred to Guam by the military. They will be heading to North Carolina for their next assignment. Lawrence is from Yap and was one of my students at Emmaus High School in Palau back in the mid-1980’s. After high school he went into the military and worked with a Micronesian church group in San Diego. When he came to Guam, God gave him a vision for building a discipleship ministry with the many Micronesians who live on the north end of Guam. This group has now grown to a large group of young Micronesians (almost all of them 20 and under) who are intent to “not be transformed by their culture, but to be transformed by Christ and then transform their culture.” RCF has already had a real impact on this island and has been a good partner ministry with PIU.

In the going away service Lawrence symbolically passed on the responsibility  for the leadership of the fellowship to a group of five PIU students (2 of them graduated in May) – Matthew Fanoway, Grace Neth, Jesse Hartt, Everly Ngiraikel, and Ceci Pedro. It was an inspiring service and I am looking forward to seeing how we can continue the partnership between RCF and PIU. I was privileged to have just a small part in the service. It is very encouraging to me to see my past, present, and probably future (there were a lot of children there too) students doing well in life and ministry.

Jesse Hartt was the MC for the evening service.

A Week in July

  This last weekend with the Liberation Day Parade and an unusually active Sunday was pretty busy. Last week was a little more normal for a week in the summer. The week started with church on Sunday. Joyce and I have enjoyed the last few months attending at Agana Heights Baptist Church (when I am not preaching or teaching somewhere else) but we also have many opportunities to fellowship at other area churches on Guam. Sunday night we went up to Bayview Baptist for their Sunday night fellowship. We have a lot of friends there and it was a good time to spend some time with the grandkids. During the game time, I got to watch Serenity. She helps me get my exercise. She also likes to get her own lemonade and thinks she should be able to play volleyball with the youth group.

We had an advisory board meeting on campus on Tuesday. The first item of business was to check on the progress of the library renovation. We are very thankful for the local businesspersons on the advisory board who are willing to take some time to help out PIU. As Samantha noted, “We get so many great ideas from them in just a one hour meeting.”

Thursday night is still grandkids night at our house. They stay overnight with us and always get their favorite dinner – mac ‘n’ cheese. While the girls were outside eating Titus and I were inside playing wii. I took a terrible beating in pretty much every game we played.

Friday I needed to do some errands. Courage volunteered to go with me. It couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that we often seem to find the ice cream or frozen yogurt store on these trips, could it? Here Courage shows her enthusiasm for Cookie Dough Frozen Yogurt.

The Owen Family at the Liberation Day Parade

Most PIU events also become an Owen family event as Joyce and I participate with Mike, Samantha (they also posted about the parade here) and the kids. In fact, now that Samantha is the acting director of advancement at PIU she is the one planning a lot of these events. We also enjoyed hanging around with the rest of the PIU family as the whole Collins, Pate, Knapp families with kids were all there with us at the parade too. Here are some pictures for my last post on the parade.

Joyce and Serenity had a good time all day at the PIU HQ at the Guam Lutheran Church

The kids all hustled to get the candy that was thrown/handed out from the floats. Even Joyce was running after it

Courage had her picture taken with the Koko Bird and the Carabao

Joyce got an up-close picture of the Talofofo - God’s Country truck and I took pictures while driving the PIU van

The kids were happy to get their PIU brochure with Dum Dum Lollipop

 

The kids vigilantly wait for someone to bring candy and then make their dash for it

Titus poses with a friendly soldier while everyone else seems to have joined the evil empire

PIU Marches in the Liberation Day Parade

  As I mentioned before PIU entered into the Liberation Day parade as entry number 50, right in the middle of all the groups entered. This is the 2nd time we have entered the parade. The last time was 2010 when I was on the mainland with the VOM team. We had a fun time meeting new people and seeing many of our friends along the parade route. Several times, as we went by, announcers told the crowd who we were and what PIU does. We also passed out 2000 brochures with a half-off coupon for a first class at PIU, and of course candy attached. (right)

We were announced as “PIU and the marching students”

Here our group is queued up and ready to start the parade

We made the 1 1/2 mile route from Adelup to the Paseo Loop

Students and Staff passed out the brochures and candy to the spectators

Many people camped overnight to get a good spot for the parade

We saw students (left) and many kids who wanted candy

Most of the time I drove the van behind the PIU team so the picture on the left was my view of the parade. I took some of the pictures hanging out of the window of the van while driving.

We all got a lot of sun, but it was a productive and fun way to spend a Saturday

Liberation Day Parade

  Here are a few pictures of some of the floats from the parade today. I had no idea the parade was so elaborate. I am glad we finally got down there to see it.

These were near the front of the parade

From the Guam International Airport

Barrigada Veterans Group and Home Depot

I thought the UOG float was one of the more elaborate ones. We thought it was funny that the “Keeping Guam Clean” float threw candy all over the place

These guys were barbecuing a pig on their float

Home Depot again. I think Joyce liked it because of the name on it

Some of the different island ethnic groups

Very elaborate floats

I like the very green decor

Several of the villages had their own floats

I will post some pictures of our family and from the PIU group tomorrow