[dogfood]

whats it like doing "mission" in your own country?

and all those snakes and spiders, man that sounds like fun.

[OiBoyz]

Aren't we all doing mission in our own country?

[dogfood]

Originally Posted by OiBoyz

Aren't we all doing mission in our own country?

not always, i myslf tend to go overseas during times that i personally set for mission.
but i can not say that im always focused on doing mission in my own country. some people find it easier to talk to people they dont know rather than people they spend a lot of time with.

[AlphaSigma]

Originally Posted by dogfood

whats it like doing "mission" in your own country?

and all those snakes and spiders, man that sounds like fun.

Quite different than home actually. I'm orginally from the Saint Paul/Minneapolis area and to be in Oklahoma (roughly 1000 south-westish) of where I've always been is actually quite different. I've seen a few tarantulas about the size of my hand (which we don't have in MN) and a black snake (which I'm told is not poisonous) Other than that, I'm told there are Rattlesnakes and Copperheads, both of which are deadly poisonous, but have not seen one since moving here May 31st.

Originally Posted by OiBoyz

Aren't we all doing mission in our own country?

I would hope so, but people's definition of missions are different. If you mean testifying to the gospel? i'd say yes, but going out into other countries? Maybe not.

Originally Posted by dogfood

not always, i myslf tend to go overseas during times that i personally set for mission.
but i can not say that im always focused on doing mission in my own country. some people find it easier to talk to people they dont know rather than people they spend a lot of time with.

And I believe there is a place for both in the church. My perspective as long as your bringing the kingdom of God and being obedient to Him, then you're golden.

[beanbag]

Originally Posted by AlphaSigma

It's true and most of my professors for my undergrad. were fairly good about praying before class, but most of our classroom was an atmosphere of cold intellect. It wasn't so much about the devotional aspect, or what was driving the paper to be written or the ideas to form in our minds, but rather the conclusions we drew from our readings and study. Why can't we just start out class by singing 1-2 worship songs?

I had a couple of professors who did that. one would ask different students each day to bring their guitars to the next session and lead worship. another would bring his guitar and lead us in worship before lecturing. each would pray before class as well.

I had some professors who were very interested in the heart aspect of our research and works, and wanted us to do very creative projects. in my psalms class, we had to write a couple of exegeses on psalms that we chose, and one of the options was to write an informal exegesis like a letter. we also had to read the psalms in 30 days (5 psalms a day) and then journal about our reactions to them daily. in another class, we had to write a research paper during the middle of the semester, and then turn in a "heart" project at the end, about some aspect of the class. there were other creative projects as well, but that's just an example of how the more dry work was balanced out with creativity.

[AlphaSigma]

Yesterday was are last day of shopping (Praise the Lord!) and while I was out at Walmart I was standing line at the check out when a certain magazine caught my attention. It's was TIME's A User Guide to the Human Mind. It's truly been captivating my attention and just browsing through a few articles, I Knew I had to buy it. I've only read three so far, but one of the articles touches on something that I've always been curious about, Here's an excerpt:

The Riddle of Knowing You're Here
You know what it feels like to be conscious--to observe the world from beyond you eyes. Now just try explaining how that works

It shouldn't be surprising that research on consciousness is alternatively exhilarating and disturbing. No other topic is like it. As Rene Descartes noted, our own consciousness is the most indubitable thing there is. The major religions locate it in a soul that survives the body's death to receive it's just reward or punishment or to meld into a global mind. For each of us, consciousness is life itself...And the conviction that other people can suffer and flourish as each of us does is the essence of empathy and the foundation of morality.

...Consciousness does not reside in an ethereal soul that uses the brain like a PDA; consciousness is the activity of the brain The brain, like it or not, is a machine. Scientists have come to that conclusion not because they are mechanic killjoys but because they have amassed evidence that every aspect of consciousness can be tied to the brain...

Very interesting article and magazine. Questions have been brewing in my head especially in regards to what Hebrews 4:12 says:

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

My question is if the soul and spirit can be distinguished, what will our experience of the after life be apart from the only experience we've ever had to judge by? I know the question is unanswerable, but such topics make me think about what it means to see without eyes, and hear without ears, and experience without mind.

Just a few random thoughts.

[OiBoyz]

Originally Posted by AlphaSigma

TIME's A User Guide to the Human Mind. It's truly been captivating my attention and just browsing through a few articles, I Knew I had to buy it.

Sounds interesting. The only specials on our ONE magazine rack in our ONE grocery store (I live in a podunk little town) are still the Michael Jackson issues. I don't know if I'll get a chance to see the Time... Human Mind one, but I'll be looking for it.

[AlphaSigma]

Originally Posted by OiBoyz

Sounds interesting. The only specials on our ONE magazine rack in our ONE grocery store (I live in a podunk little town) are still the Michael Jackson issues. I don't know if I'll get a chance to see the Time... Human Mind one, but I'll be looking for it.

I would say that it is definitely worth it. I'm about halfway through now and want to finish it before the end of the week because otherwise I won't just because of work, moving, etc.

[AlphaSigma]

I thought since I posted my first mission update earlier that I would post my second one as well just in case anyone had a desire to read what my summer has been in the last month.

Enjoy.

Hello Folks,
This is the first time that I've been able to be on facebook since my last note. The school that we're staying at in Pawhuska (Indian Camp) has internet with filters that blocks many social websites including Facebook. On top of the fact that I don't have a laptop with me, I am at the mercy of my staff in terms of borrowing their computer on weekends.

Anyways, I thought I would give a mid-summer update on how God's ministry has been moving in the Osage nation. It's hard to believe that we are past the halfway point of the summer and we've just finished our third week of actual programming. I want to highlight a few stories from our first three weeks.

One of our friends that we've gotten a chance to know is a recent resident of Pawhuska. Well call her Susan (for confidentiality reasons) and she is a single mom of four young kids. She had just moved into terrible living situation that she had no control over. She needed a place for her kids so she bought a run-down trailer for $200. One of my staff Christine had been the first to get in contact with her. Susan's trailer is only a mile away from our housing site. Over the course of the week, we were blessed to have adults with construction, plumbing, and electrical experience. To give you an idea of our bad her trailer was: She didn't have a stove, hot water, a refrigerator, a microwave, or a way of locking the plywood doors of her trailer. The floors had gaping holes up to a foot in diameter and the roof leaked leaving water damage and mold growing through out the trailer. Windows were smashed and other things as well. Our second group came in and was able to fix all of those items, in order to provide a sustainable living environment for her and her kids. We wanted to give glory to God for several reasons. The first being the fact that normally we do not have the capabilities of providing for families in these situations because teenagers are usually not certified or skilled in areas of electrical work, plumbing, gas lines, and carpentry. Secondly, the group pulled together and donated many basic materials that she did not have in the house such as dishes and silverware and beds for Susan's kids to sleep on. They all had been sleeping on one couch in the living room. Thirdly, my work projects' manager Christine did an excellent job of working with the local Presbyterian church, who in turn donated $500 in materials towards this project. Our work project budget for the entire summer is $750. Several items (such as trailer doors) had to be purchased at Lowe's and Lowe's ended up giving us 50% off of our entire order out of the kindness of their hearts. So as you can see under normal circumstances, we would not have been able to provide for this needy family, but God provided in multiple ways through out the week and for that we give Him all the Praise and Honor and Glory for what he allowed us to do for Susan and her family.

God has blessed our site with great Church group times. I had the privileged of praying with a student who just found out [while he was on site] that his uncle has terminal cancer. As we were conducting our weekly foot washing service, he pulled me aside and he just grabbed me in the biggest hug in the world and just broke down. I was about loosing it myself. So many times, I see people bottle up emotions and not talk about the things on their hearts. They don't talk about the circumstances that bring them deep grief. For a long time, I've been waiting for someone to just open up and have the privilege of praying and encouraging them in the stuff that really kills us. It was a powerful moment for me to be able to know how much this student was hurting and how much he needed Christ's intervention. I'm praying that Christ heals his uncle and that he holds him close and never lets him go.

It's been a lot more difficult to be away from Minnesota than I thought it was going to be. It's hot and humid here most days (100-105). The weather changes rapidly without much warning, which is a frustration for planning. I can seriously look at the radar @ 9:00 and it be clear skies, but by 11:00 a major thunderstorm in pouring rain on us. I guess weather doesn't come to Oklahoma; it's made in Oklahoma.

I have been so blessed by my staff. We've had our moments of frustrations and being exhausted, but we've stayed committed to getting along as best as possible, even when we loose patience and the days get long. They all have been doing an good job and all of them are continuing to improve and work harder at their jobs. I could not have asked for a better group of people to spend this summer with.

From here, we have two more weeks of participants that we host at the elementary school. From their we pick up and move everything to the First Baptist Church (6th street) for our remaining two weeks of program. Pray for energy as the days are long and over these next few weeks, we're going to need all the energy we can get. Pray against injury and illness. Pray for continued transformation of me, my staff, our participants, and community members. And overall pray for God's spirit to continue to move in Osage now and after we're gone.

I miss all of you and I pray for many of you everyday. Please keep me in your prayers. I hope to do one more update near the end of the summer.

-Tait Norman Hoglund-

[beanbag]

praise God for His provision for that family! that is amazing!

someone mentioned once that God is able to provide the most when we have the absolute least, because we are completely helpless without Him, and it kind of forces us to rely on Him for everything. what you wrote about really embodies that need for God's blessing and intervention. it's amazing who He can bring together at once and what can be accomplished when He is placed in charge.

[AlphaSigma]

Originally Posted by beanbag

praise God for His provision for that family! that is amazing!

someone mentioned once that God is able to provide the most when we have the absolute least, because we are completely helpless without Him, and it kind of forces us to rely on Him for everything. what you wrote about really embodies that need for God's blessing and intervention. it's amazing who He can bring together at once and what can be accomplished when He is placed in charge.

Yeah the phrase, "God doesn't call the equipped. He equips the called." Sometimes He just wants us to be "willing" to be His hands and feet. Praise be to Him.

I'm thinking of using my journal as a way of quasi-publishing some of my theological inklings maybe start tonight? The first topic, which has been on my mind a lot lately has been the problem of evil. It has been the topic of much discussion in theology lately and I thought I would create my understanding of it. Although any solution(s) are ultimately fallible hopefully I can bring my perspective which may allow others to in their understanding.

More to come.

[dogfood]

Originally Posted by AlphaSigma

Yeah the phrase, "God doesn't call the equipped. He equips the called." Sometimes He just wants us to be "willing" to be His hands and feet. Praise be to Him.

I'm thinking of using my journal as a way of quasi-publishing some of my theological inklings maybe start tonight? The first topic, which has been on my mind a lot lately has been the problem of evil. It has been the topic of much discussion in theology lately and I thought I would create my understanding of it. Although any solution(s) are ultimately fallible hopefully I can bring my perspective which may allow others to in their understanding.

More to come.

i use my journal for everything .

[AlphaSigma]

What Should We Think of Evil?

Why are such things as cancer and automobile accidents allowed to happen? Many of us often ask ourselves, why does God choose to intervene in some circumstances and not others? Some aspects of what we may call evil are the natural result of choices that we choose to make (i.e. the chain smoker who ends up with lung cancer), but even then sometimes life-long smokers can be found without cancer and many who choose not to smoke are not exempt from being affected by cancer. Cancer and automobile accidents are just small examples of a world that has clearly been devastated post-Genesis 3. (i.e. Malaria, AIDS, Parasites, Ecoli, Mudslides, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, etc.) Often times when nature goes awry, there are not designated human choices that can plausibly be blamed on it. Although this does not often stop televangelists from proclaiming the judgment of God on those who have "inherited their just reward".

Humans certainly have their responsibility to bear for the existence of natural evil. But all evil cannot only be asserted to the choices that human beings make. Scripture makes clear that all of creation has been affected post-Genesis 3 and cries for salvation (Romans 8:19-21). For example, There exists a certain wasp that injects it’s larvae into a caterpillar. The larvae knows what to eat within the caterpillar to keep it alive for the longest possible time (as much as two weeks) as it is consumed from the inside out, inflicting the most amount of pain as possible. This is one example that is present through nature and people are left to wonder, why would an “all-loving” benevolent God create such an arrangement?

On a minor level, there seems to be a certain level of arbitrariness regarding evil and/or God’s effectiveness to intervene within creation. On another level, the bible shows that God is certainly bigger than evil and has the capacity to overcome and intercede on behalf of His people (See Moses and the Israelite Exodus Story). Thus, what should we understand regarding the nature of evil and why God allows such terrible things to happen for no unspoken reason?

One major point of emphasis on what Scripture says regarding natural evil: Humans are not the only beings created with free will. In fact, the entire cosmos is occupied with spiritual free-willed agents. Most major cultures throughout the known history of time has assumed this to be true with the exception of the modern west. The universe is inhabited by spiritual beings who have some “say-so” (like humans) on a physical plane. (Read Job, Genesis 1, Daniel). Just like humans have influence and dictation under aspects of reality that are under our responsibility. They (angelic beings) also have say-so to effect things that are under their responsibility. Some of that being aspects of nature. For instance Satan is referred to as the Lord of Death (Hebrews 2:14). Death from our natural perspective is an out-working of the laws of nature. Everything tends towards decay. Everything dies. Yet the bible ascribes death to the polluting influence of a major principality and power-Satan. Thus, I believe the bible is saying that nature as it exists now is not nature as God created it. Rather, it’s nature under the influence of the “powers”. Now this is not to suggest that there is a demon behind every earthquake, tornado, hurricane, or every particular cancer. But at the very least, there are demonic forces that are corrupting the world, which often times have just as much, if not more influence on physical events as humans do. But all too often this is ignored.

Think of when Jesus heals people in the gospels often times (most of the time) he is coming against demonic powers. There doesn’t need to be a human agent that is responsible for catastrophes.

Now I want to take our discussion of natural evil into a discussion of God’s grace. Why does God grace choose to save some and not others? One prayer heals a person while another prayer seemingly un-effects another. People pray for safe travels and yet still die in horrendous car wrecks, while others are granted safe passage. Is YHWH not powerful enough to handle both situations? Then why spare one and not the other? This is an unanswerable question, but the reality we have to deal with is this: that some are causalities of chaos-events that have little rhyme, reason, justification, or explanation. It’s important to start there. This idea which is someone empty in western theological circles and churches is not vacant in scripture. Look at David’s cry in the Psalms, “How can the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer?”, or the book of Ecclesiastes, which is full of unanswered lament for the chaos and evil that occurs in our reality.

Several areas of study have much to say on addressing this issue. (i.e. Chaos Theory, Entanglement, etc.). In a fallen world that contains trillions (or more) free agents who’s actions have the potential to adversely affect one another, someone/something is going to get hurt. Think of dropping rocks in a pond and how the ripples affect each other. We exist in a very large preverbal pond each one of us creating ripples of our own, which intersect with many other free-agents beings (animals, and angelic beings alike). These ripples aren’t only being made now, but many have an entire world history in the making. (That’s a whole lot of influences behind even our choices today). Still today we are affected by Adam and Eve’s decision to turn from relationship with YHWH. Thus anything that happens (including present day natural and non-natural evil) requires an infallible knowledge of all the proceeding decisions that have influenced, or created said event to take place. Why am I wearing a blue shirt? Well because I chose to. Simple enough, right? Well, in order to arrive at a point where I was able to choose the blue shirt, it had to have been given to me, but even that decision was contingent on whether the clothing manufacturer decided to make the shirt in the first place, which was determined by the marketing team at said company, which was decided by Al from marketing, who would’ve chosen blue except for the fact that he found it to be the perfect shirt color back when he was studying marketing in college, which would’ve happened if he hadn’t been rejected to Medical School at Harvard. Etc. Every action since creation has a potential myriad of “ripples” influencing the outcome that can be as much as an entire eternity in the making, which encompasses the choices of humans, angelic beings, the will of God all combined. Why is why we shouldn’t be surprised that the world is absolutely arbitrary and chaotic. That is not to say that the world is arbitrary because God dictates it to be so, but rather the world is arbitrary because there are many variables that effect everything that comes to pass.

God does not posture himself in heaven by saying:

"You can rape her, but not her.”
“You can put the Jews in the gas chamber, but not the Muslims.”
“I’ll let your children die in this car wreck and spare yours.”

In fact, God's greatest intervention of all involved Him becoming Man to lay down His life for us. The very actions of Jesus Christ on the cross come against this arbitrariness. So then what are we left with? What can we assert regarding God's intervention in this chaotic world?

We must always remember that God is never the one “pulling the strings” of evil. He is always the force of good and even though He is always working within an incredible complex universe of free-agents, He always is in the business of bringing life to his people in the midst of a cosmic war. The war has been won through Jesus Christ, but has yet to be fully manifested until He comes again.

If we can have the utmost confidence in a God who sacrificially intervened on our behalf 2000 years ago, we certainly can have confidence that He is faithful today.

[OiBoyz]

Originally Posted by AlphaSigma

I would say that it is definitely worth it. I'm about halfway through now and want to finish it before the end of the week because otherwise I won't just because of work, moving, etc.

I found this in my local grocery store. It's quite interesting. Thanks for suggesting it.

[OiBoyz]

Originally Posted by AlphaSigma

I'm thinking of using my journal as a way of quasi-publishing some of my theological inklings maybe start tonight? The first topic, which has been on my mind a lot lately has been the problem of evil. It has been the topic of much discussion in theology lately and I thought I would create my understanding of it. Although any solution(s) are ultimately fallible hopefully I can bring my perspective which may allow others to in their understanding.

More to come.

Great idea. I'm very interested in your point of view.