PIU K2 Retreat #2

As I said yesterday, I have a lot of pictures of the K2 retreat which took place last weekend. I picked up several more pictures from Hartmut Scherer last night, which are way better than the ones I took, so I want to incorporate some of them as well. Most of the pictures in this post will come from the Friday events. I missed a lot on Friday because I was jetlagging so bad I ended up sleeping about 12 hours that day. Friday began with an on campus breakfast, followed by a community service event in which we helped “clean and green” the neighborhood around PIU. After Pizza Hut for lunch, the students and staff went to Merizo for some swimming. That evening we returned to the Lutheran Church for another service and stayed the night there.

Clean and Green followed by Fun and Sun

As you can see from my zombielike appearance I needed the sleep. The campus people look considerably better.

Friday night dinner at the Lutheran Church of Guam

K2 Retreat #1

I have many pictures of the PIU K2 Student Retreat that took place last weekend. Some of them I took, but most of the good ones were taken by students and staff. This year most of the retreat took place at the Lutheran Church of Guam, with some of it at the campus, and a swimming afternoon at Merizo. This year’s speaker was Rick Bee (right) from Biola University. His focus was on “contented living.” I think the students all enjoyed the retreat. It was good for all of us to take a couple days away from the classroom and reflect on spiritual things.

 

The sessions provided some time to listen to the word and discuss it

Also some time for corporate prayer and worship..

For students, faculty and staff

Sunday Reading: The Big Picture: Building Blocks of a Christian World View

Over the next few weeks I will be reading through the book, The Big Picture: Building Blocks of a Christian World View, by Brian Harris. I will be posting some quotes on my Facebook page and you are welcome to discuss the posts there. (The numbers after the quotes are Kindle locations not page numbers)

Harris sets out his goal with this book in the preface…

The Big Picture explores the big building blocks of a Christian world view, hopefully helping to correct the shallow understanding of faith that is so widespread. 220-221

Harris’ approach is a bit different than most books I have read on building a Christian world view. As Dr. David Crutchley says in the foreword,

For Harris, the contours of a Christian world view are not some restrictive straitjacket, but rather broad lines of faith where the Christian ought to live with nurture, love, faith and hope amidst the messiness of life. Harris’s world view is earthed in Scripture and the life of Christ.

The book is organized so that it focuses just as much on orthopraxy as orthodoxy and seems to me to be a more practical approach to the issue of Christian world view. He begins by asking the question about why Western Christianity is having so little impact on the culture and then proposing 15 orienting biblical passages and then discusses how these are applied to cultural issues. The second section applies the passages to the major building blocks of Christian faith: creation, humanity, grace, Trinity, and eschatology. The final section discusses world view and Christian practice with chapters on hospitality and work.

The faith is far too rich and profound to neatly tuck it away into a few tidy boxes that purport to capture all that Christianity is about. 173-174

A firm understanding of our own faith is our greatest asset when we enter a world of differing beliefs and perspectives.  181

My plan is to tackle a couple chapters a week. You are welcome to join me as I read through the book.

Reading in Exodus This Week #4 (21-24)

I am now back home on Guam and continuing my discussion on Exodus, while reading through the commentary, Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory, by Philip Graham Ryken, The next section of Exodus is called the “Book of the Covenant” because it explains how the 10 commandments should be lived out practically by the Israelites within their covenant agreement with God, and concludes with a covenant ratification ceremony that binds them into relationship together. I have been posting quotes from the book on my Facebook page on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday (NT is Mon-Wed-Fri) and we can discuss comments and questions about the passage there. As usual, quotes from the commentary are in blue below…

Chapter 21 begins the Book of the Covenant, which explains how the 10 commandments were to be applied in the daily life of the nation of Israel. They show us that the leaders of Israel were to be faithful to the eternal principles contained in the commandments, but creative in applying them to new situations. These laws are keyed to each of the commandments. First, the covenant dealt with idolatry. Israel was to be careful to maintain their exclusive loyalty to and worship of God despite the enticements of the world around them. They were to worship God in the way he showed them and not misrepresent him.

God is not the kind of deity who can be adequately represented in the form of an idol. He is the God who speaks from Heaven. The Israelites met him on the mountain in fire and smoke. They experienced his splendor and glory. How can anything we are tempted to look at—no matter how precious it is, or how shiny, or how well made—ever compare with the real beauty and majesty of God? The things of earth cannot compete with the glories of Heaven. Exodus 20.22-26, 691

Divine principles of justice were very practical. People were to take responsibility for their own actions and were to treat others as they wanted to be treated: with grace, love and mercy.

The Bible can help. It does not give us a complete code with regulations for every situation that might arise in every culture. However, it does provide a set of cases to help us understand the basic principles of divine justice. Exodus 21, 708–709

Legal liability is a thoroughly Biblical principle, even in the case of an accident. God expects us to take full responsibility for our actions, whether we intended to damage someone else’s property or not. Exodus 22, 724

The purpose of the law was to teach people what God is like so that they can properly represent him as the image of God. It was the outworking of an already existing relationship with God, not a code of abstract statutes.

The law does something else that is very exciting: It reveals God’s character. This makes the Old Testament law different from any law code or book of court decisions. The law reveals the Lawgiver. We do not study it to find out what we have to do, but to know our God. And as we study and apply his law, we are conformed to his character. Exodus 22.16-31, 732–733

The covenant code showed people how they could be blessed within the God's covenants with Israel. Obedience brought blessing while disobedience brought its own consequences, one of which would be the loss of God's relational protection and blessing. God was working with his people to show them what kind of life he wanted them to live and what kind of life would lead to their blessing (shalom).

We tend to be overconfident about the accuracy of our judgments concerning others. We also tend to put too much confidence in what we heard about who said what to whom. Therefore, it is very easy for us to spread false reports, sometimes without even fully realizing what we are doing. Exodus 23.1-13, 747

The Israelites missed out on God’s blessing because they compromised with the Canaanites. This warns us of the danger of settling for a partial victory that stops short of full obedience to Christ. God is winning the victory—usually little by little—but if we compromise with sin, our victory will turn into defeat. Exodus 23.20-33, 774

The Book of the Covenant ended with a covenant ceremony, in which the God of the universe proclaimed his his adherence to the covenant by eating in relationship with the leaders of Israel. God had committed himself to this relationship.

This is what worship is: meeting with God. And this is why God saved the Israelites—so they could worship him. Exodus 24 is a fulfillment of that promise. In order to confirm the covenant, God’s people gathered for a solemn assembly. They met at the mountain to worship God and behold his glory. Exodus 24.1-18, 779

Jesus came down so that one day we could be lifted up. What happened to Moses is a picture of what will happen to everyone who comes to God through faith in Jesus Christ. Glory is in our destiny...We will go farther up and farther in. Like Moses, we will be surrounded by the radiance of God’s glory. Exodus 24.9-18, 799

Back Home on Guam

After a 3 1/2 week trip to the US Mainland, I arrived back home on Guam last night. I flew back with PIU student Mayson Red, after our presentation at Gateway Bible Church on Sunday, and with Rick Bee, our K2 student retreat speaker from Biola University. It was nice to have a big group waiting for our arrival and to receive a proper singing Micronesian welcome. I am looking forward to jumping right back into the 2nd half of the semester. Please be in prayer for our student retreat this weekend. Often many students make serious commitments to Christ during this time. It is nice to be back on Guam!!

On the Road–San Francisco

Well I made it to the last day of my Fall trip. Mayson and I will be boarding the plane tomorrow morning and heading back to Guam, through Hawaii, and will be back Wednesday night. We drove up to Jim and Kay Sawyer’s house last night and made it just in time for Jim’s 64th birthday. Then today we decided to take advantage of a nice day to show Mayson a little of San Francisco. We went to Fisherman’s Wharf (got some clam chowder in a bread bowl), cruised down Lombard street and went up to Coit Tower. It has been a while since I have been there. We are now back at the Sawyer’s and resting up for the long trip that will begin early tomorrow morning. It has been a productive trip but I am more than ready to get home to Guam.

Do we look a little cold? I needed the bread bowl to warm up

A nice view of the city skyline and the sea lions from Pier 39

Mayson took a couple pictures as drove down Lombard Street

A couple pictures from Coit Tower. I don’t think I have been there since I was in high school

On the Road at Gateway Bible Church

The next to last stop on my Fall trip was Gateway Bible Church in Scotts Valley California. This was the church I grew up in and one of the churches that sent Joyce and I out to Palau in 1984. I have been there many times but this time was a special one. Gateway scholarships some PIU students and they invited one of these students, Mayson Red, to participate in the service. In addition a group came from the Susanville Palauan church which is pastored by Jacob Ngirablosch, who was one of my students in Palau in 1984 and with whom I have been involved in several ministry endeavors since then. The three of us were interviewed by Nate Hennes and Eric Kvamme. The Palauan group led the worship in island style and we enjoyed fellowship afterward. It was great to have some time on Saturday to hang out with the Palauans and thanks to missions pastor Dan Bowman who housed Mayson and I. We are very thankful for the long-time partnership of Gateway with us as we minister in Micronesia.

The Palauan youth led the worship and did some worship dance