Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"From everyone who has been given much, much will be required." Luke 12:48 (NAS)
"Democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." Thomas Jefferson
"From each according to work, to each according to need" （Anlao Fenpei 按劳分配). Mao Zedong, Dec. 1929
A couple months ago, over half a million people in the U.S. were laid off in one week. With Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner, imagine the fear as people scanned the sack list for their names. But also imagine the relief and quiet confidence of those with good guanxi (Chinese for "connections").
Better yet, what if your Father owned the company, and you were a member of a family business? Now that would be comforting--but even then, if your Father knew what was good for both the company and you, he'd expect you to pull your weight, or sack you along with everyone else (though take you back once you'd learned your lesson).
The Family Business Fortunately, our Father does own the "company." In fact, he owns the entire planet--though that does not mean he hands us everything on a silver platter. Even in the Garden of Eden we had to work. Imagine Adam trying to fulfill his task of naming and caring for every creature on the planet (Genesis 2:19); I found it hard enough to name two sons, much less everything from aardvarks to zebras.
Family Promotions My Father does own the family business, and he promises that I shall inherit it, but he expects me to work my way up. Although I cannot work my way into the family (He adopted me, not the other way around), Christ said that my position within the family depends upon me, because the Kingdom of Heaven is built upon sound business principles (Luke 12:48). The better I manage what I have, the more I will be given. If I manage poorly or squander what I have, it will be taken away and given to a better steward. It can't get much simpler than that--though many Christians live as if they expect life to be a Christian Iron Rice Bowl.
China's Iron Rice Bowl. When we came to Xiamen in 1988, most State-owned firms were in the Red (pun intended). Workers in the Iron Rice Bowl had no incentive to work; poor workers received the same as good workers. Even in the 1980s, some companies tried such reforms as productivity bonuses, but these were attacked as "capitalist," but as I teach my MBA students at Xiamen University, not even Socialism was ever intended to reward people who did nothing.
UnSocialism In December, 1929, fully 20 years before Liberation, Mao Zedong wrote "Against Absolute Equalitarianism" to refute the idea that in a Socialist China, everyone would do the same and receive the same. Mao refuted this with his famous line, "From each according to work, to each according to need" （Anlao Fenpei 按劳分配). But somewhere down the line, China forgot the "according to work" part, with disastrous results. Fortunately, in the early 1990s Deng Xiao Ping silenced the arguments of whether elbow grease was Capitalist or Socialist with his famous line, "It does not matter whether the cat is black or white as long as it catches mice."
Iron Rice Bowls just don't work, whether under Socialism or Capitalism, whether on earth or in Heaven.
All Things? Philippians 4:12 is a favorite promise verse: "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." (ISV). But those who quote it like a Christian magic mantra forget two things about it:
1. Do Comes Before Have Phil. 4:13 says "do" all things, not "have" all things. We must seek before we receive.
2. Contentment Precedes Power Verse 4:13 is preceded by 4:11, 12, which reads, "...for I have learned to be content in whatever situation I am in. I know how to be humble and how to prosper. In each and every situation have learned the secret of being full and of going hungry, of having too much and of having too little." (ISV)
Why Contentment? Contentment comes from objectivity. It means that we have not inflated our estimation of ourselves, or our contributions, and that we acknowledge our Father's fairness towards us. And when when we can be objective about both ourselves and our Father, we can be trusted with more--but not until then.
2008 has been a financial disaster for many people, and I've no idea of what 2009 will hold. But I do know who owns the Family Business, and that I'm part of the Family. Now I just need to get down to business.
www.amoymagic.com
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Monday, December 29, 2008
Miraculous Old Vegetable Truck
Bill Brown ... Xiamen UniversityBilly Sunday's visit to Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1924, had a big influence on the locals, and ten years later, in May, 1934, as the nation struggled through the Great Depression, a group of locals, mostly businessmen, decided to meet in a pasture for a day of fasting and prayer. One man, Vernon Patterson, prayed that "out of Charlotte God would raise up someone to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth." That someone was the 16-year-old son of the pasture's owner--though he would not have believed it. When he saw the men praying in his father's field, he told his friends, "Oh, I guess they are just some fanatics who talked Dad into letting them use the place."
Later that year, those same businessmen build a tent and invisted Mordecai Ham (1877-1961) to preach.
Mordecai Flower Ham was a controversial character, loved by his followers and hated by his enemies. Many had attempted to kill him because of his ardent opposition of gambling, drinking and corruption. He was loved by many, hated by many. After his wife died, the 30-year-old widower married a beautiful 15-year-old, which only added fuel to the enemy's fire (the marriage lasted over 50 years). He also angered people with his occasional racist and ant-Semitic remarks, or comments such as "vote for that Roman Catholic and you're going straight to hell!" Still, he pressed on, and had over 300,000 converts--his most famous one being in Charlotte...
In the summer of 1934, 24-year-old Albert McMakin was converted at one of Ham's meetings. From then on, every night he filled his beat-
up old vegetable truck full of blacks and whites, and one night he took the 16-year-old who had seen the "fanatics" praying in his father's field. After attending many times, the youth became a Christian, though it did not seem to make much of a change in him at the time. He later said, "I didn't have any tears. I didn't have any emotion...I didn't hear any thunder, there was no lightning. I saw a lady standing next to me and she had tears in her eyes and I thought there was something wrong with me because I didn't feel worked up. But right there, I made my decision for Christ. It was as simple as that, and as conclusive."His conversion did not impress others. He tried to join a youth group, the Life Service Band, but they rejected him as "too worldly". So he became a Fuller Brush salesmen, went to a couple colleges, and became an evangelist--though his first sermon was a disaster.
He prepared notes for four forty-five minute sermons, but was so nervous that he went through all four sermons in less than 8 minutes. He later said "Nobody has ever failed more ignominiously." But he persevered, and today Billy Graham, "the Protestant Pope," is not only the most famous evangelist but also consistently rated as one of the most admired and respected men in the world, by Christians and nonChristians alike (even as of last week).
What a strange chain led to Graham's conversion! What if one person had not done their part? What if Mordecai Ham had given up his work after the devastation of his first wife's death? What if Vernon Patterson had not prayed for someone to come out of Charlotte? What if Albert McMakin had not bee
n willing to serve with his beat up old vegetable truck? And what if young Billy Graham, after giving four forty-five minute sermons in less than eight minutes, had given up and gone back to selling Fuller Brushes?A long chain of circumstances led to Graham's conversion, as well as his subsequent success--and not one was inconsequential. No wonder Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 12:14-19 "For the body does not consist of only one part but many....Now if all of it were one part, there wouldn't be a body, would there?" And in verse 22, "..those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are in fact indispensable."
Not all things are good. The death of Ham's first wife was not good; the Great Depression that led to the prayer in the pasture was not good. But all things can work together for good (Rom. 8:28), and we can choose to be a part of it--or not.
Who have been the Albert McMakins in your life? And whom can you be an Albert McMakin to? Whether you have a fortune or a widow's mite, a talent or a beat-up old vegetable truck, use it.
www.amoymagic.com
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Bob Pierce, World Vision, and his Jephthah Vow
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
In 1947, a Xiamen missionary,Tena Holkeboer, of the Amoy Mission, met an American at Xiamen University, which was his last stop on a speaking tour of China. She asked him to talk to her 400 young students, so he spent 4 days with them, and encouraged those who became Christians to share their new faith with their parents.
The next day he went to say goodbye to Tena and she met him at the door, distraught, holding little White Jade in her arms. She had been beaten and was covered in blood. "What happened?" the young American asked.
"White Jade did just what you asked," Tena said, "...Look what it cost her! Her father screamed that she had dishonored her ancestors and threw her out of the house." Tena thrust White Jade into his arms and said, "Now what are you going to do about it? I already have six other children sharing my rice bowl."
The man said, "All I have is five dollars."Tena told him, "That's fine.
When you get home, send me five dollars every month. I promise you I'll take care of this child." She kept her promise, and he kept his. The young man, a worker with Youth for Christ, was Bob Pierce, and this incident in Xiamen led him to found World Vision International, which has touched the lives of millions (Susan Marie worked for World Vision when I met her, and was on her way to Somalia but married me instead).
World Vision is one of the finest organizations of its kind, and has changed the lives of millions. But Pierce paid a much greater price than $5 a month. He sacrificed not only himself but his family upon the altar of humanitarian service. I won't ask if it was worth it. But I will ask, "Was it necessary?" Could Pierce have achieved his "mission" with Gideon's strategy instead of Jephthah's?
A Broken Heart Breaks Hearts Bob Pierce's daughter, Marilee Pierce Dunker, wrote "My father went to China a young man in search of adventure. He came home a man with a mission."
Pierce, wrote, "Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God." Pierce was certainly a man of compassion, and his heart was indeed broken, but the man with a broken heart also broke hearts, including his own, and perhaps God's as well, perhaps because he attempted God's mission in Pier
ce's strength, not God's.
Pierce's Price By 1963, Pierce had suffered a nervous breakdown, traveled the world alone rather than return to his family, and in 1967 resigned from World Vision, bitter and disillusioned with those running it. In 1968, while he was in Asia, his daughter Sharon phoned and asked if he could come home, but he wanted to stay longer. His wife returned, but not before Sharon had attempted suicide. She tried again later that year, and succeeded. After a year in a Swiss hospital, Pierce took over what became Samaritan's Purse. In 1970, Pierce legally separated from his wife. He met only once again with his family, in September 1978, and died four days later.
Pierce's Jephthah Agreement. Pierce wrote, "I've made an agreement with God that I'll take care of his helpless little lambs overseas if he'll take care of mine at home." His "agreement" reminds me of Jephthah's rash vow, over which Israeli women mourned for centuries.
Judges 11:30, 31 (NAS): "Jephthah made a vow to the LORD and said, "If You will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand, then it shall be that whatever comes out of the door
s of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, it shall be the LORD'S, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering." And to his dismay, he was met by his daughter, his only child, and because of his oath sacrificed her.
Jephthah Sacrifice or Gideon Obedience? God gave Gideon's tiny army of 300 a victory over a vastly greater enemy because, unlike Jephthah, Gideon fought in God's strength, not his own. Gideon started out with 32,000 troops to fight a combined army that had filled the valley as thickly as locusts, and had more camels than "sands on the seashore." Victory seemed impossible, but God still whittled Gideon's vastly outnumbered army from 32,000 down to 300. In Judges 7:2, 3(NIV), "The Lord said to Gideon, 'You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her her own strength has saved her, announce now to the people, 'Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.' So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained." And God then pared the army down to 300 men, and primised victory.
Obedience, not Sacrifice, Gives Victory Each of us has our own mission, our own Ammon to defeat, but God made it clear that the battle is not ours but His, and to be fought in His way, not ours. God repeatedly told Israel that he wanted obedience, not sacrifice. And one of God's greatest commandments is to care for our families. Paul did not mince words when, in 1 Timothy 5:8, he wrote, "If anyone does not take care of his own relatives, especially his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."
Half of Americans are Jephthahs? It is sobering that 1/2 of Americans divorce; worse yet, the statistics are the same for Christian families. Perhaps that is because their are too many Jephthahs and not enough Gideons. They may have a valid mission and sincerely believe they are serving God, but such are not being led but driven. They are sacrificing their families, and themselves, upon the altar of achievement (whether spiritual or secular) when God is perfectly able and willing to fight for us if we all Him, and trust Him.
God the Father. God is, above all else, our Father. And if He made us fathers and mothers, it is our job, not His, to care for our children--no matter what we are called to do. This is scriptural; this is logical; this is right.
I am excited that World Vision grew out of an incident that happened here in Xiamen. But we should learn from Pierce's Price that when on a mission for God, we should not shirk from that mission, but be careful to use God's methods and God's priorities, not our own. Above all, we should not sacrifice upon altars that we, not God, have erected.
In closing... Billy Graham's life is instructive! He too is a man with a mission, and like Pierce started out with Youth for Christ, was not overly sensitive to the needs of wife and family in early years, and could have followed the same path as Bob Pierce. Graham's family could have easily ended up another casualty. Fortunately, Graham was 1) teachable, and 2) accountable. Yet even Billy Graham has said that one regret was that he did not spend more time with his family. An amazing man...but that is for another Daily Noodle....
Visit Samaritan's Purse Website
Visit World Vision Website
Sources:
World Vision Philippines Site
Kwantes, Anne, "She has Done a Beautiful Thing," OMF Literature Publishers, 2005, pp. 192, 193
Stafford, Tim, "An Imperfect Instrument--World Vision's founder led a tragic and inspiring life," Christianity Today, December 20, 2008
www.amoymagic.com
In 1947, a Xiamen missionary,Tena Holkeboer, of the Amoy Mission, met an American at Xiamen University, which was his last stop on a speaking tour of China. She asked him to talk to her 400 young students, so he spent 4 days with them, and encouraged those who became Christians to share their new faith with their parents.
The next day he went to say goodbye to Tena and she met him at the door, distraught, holding little White Jade in her arms. She had been beaten and was covered in blood. "What happened?" the young American asked.
"White Jade did just what you asked," Tena said, "...Look what it cost her! Her father screamed that she had dishonored her ancestors and threw her out of the house." Tena thrust White Jade into his arms and said, "Now what are you going to do about it? I already have six other children sharing my rice bowl."
The man said, "All I have is five dollars."Tena told him, "That's fine.
When you get home, send me five dollars every month. I promise you I'll take care of this child." She kept her promise, and he kept his. The young man, a worker with Youth for Christ, was Bob Pierce, and this incident in Xiamen led him to found World Vision International, which has touched the lives of millions (Susan Marie worked for World Vision when I met her, and was on her way to Somalia but married me instead). World Vision is one of the finest organizations of its kind, and has changed the lives of millions. But Pierce paid a much greater price than $5 a month. He sacrificed not only himself but his family upon the altar of humanitarian service. I won't ask if it was worth it. But I will ask, "Was it necessary?" Could Pierce have achieved his "mission" with Gideon's strategy instead of Jephthah's?
A Broken Heart Breaks Hearts Bob Pierce's daughter, Marilee Pierce Dunker, wrote "My father went to China a young man in search of adventure. He came home a man with a mission."
Pierce, wrote, "Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God." Pierce was certainly a man of compassion, and his heart was indeed broken, but the man with a broken heart also broke hearts, including his own, and perhaps God's as well, perhaps because he attempted God's mission in Pier
ce's strength, not God's.Pierce's Price By 1963, Pierce had suffered a nervous breakdown, traveled the world alone rather than return to his family, and in 1967 resigned from World Vision, bitter and disillusioned with those running it. In 1968, while he was in Asia, his daughter Sharon phoned and asked if he could come home, but he wanted to stay longer. His wife returned, but not before Sharon had attempted suicide. She tried again later that year, and succeeded. After a year in a Swiss hospital, Pierce took over what became Samaritan's Purse. In 1970, Pierce legally separated from his wife. He met only once again with his family, in September 1978, and died four days later.
Pierce's Jephthah Agreement. Pierce wrote, "I've made an agreement with God that I'll take care of his helpless little lambs overseas if he'll take care of mine at home." His "agreement" reminds me of Jephthah's rash vow, over which Israeli women mourned for centuries.
Judges 11:30, 31 (NAS): "Jephthah made a vow to the LORD and said, "If You will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand, then it shall be that whatever comes out of the door
s of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, it shall be the LORD'S, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering." And to his dismay, he was met by his daughter, his only child, and because of his oath sacrificed her.Jephthah Sacrifice or Gideon Obedience? God gave Gideon's tiny army of 300 a victory over a vastly greater enemy because, unlike Jephthah, Gideon fought in God's strength, not his own. Gideon started out with 32,000 troops to fight a combined army that had filled the valley as thickly as locusts, and had more camels than "sands on the seashore." Victory seemed impossible, but God still whittled Gideon's vastly outnumbered army from 32,000 down to 300. In Judges 7:2, 3(NIV), "The Lord said to Gideon, 'You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her her own strength has saved her, announce now to the people, 'Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.' So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained." And God then pared the army down to 300 men, and primised victory.
Obedience, not Sacrifice, Gives Victory Each of us has our own mission, our own Ammon to defeat, but God made it clear that the battle is not ours but His, and to be fought in His way, not ours. God repeatedly told Israel that he wanted obedience, not sacrifice. And one of God's greatest commandments is to care for our families. Paul did not mince words when, in 1 Timothy 5:8, he wrote, "If anyone does not take care of his own relatives, especially his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."
Half of Americans are Jephthahs? It is sobering that 1/2 of Americans divorce; worse yet, the statistics are the same for Christian families. Perhaps that is because their are too many Jephthahs and not enough Gideons. They may have a valid mission and sincerely believe they are serving God, but such are not being led but driven. They are sacrificing their families, and themselves, upon the altar of achievement (whether spiritual or secular) when God is perfectly able and willing to fight for us if we all Him, and trust Him.
God the Father. God is, above all else, our Father. And if He made us fathers and mothers, it is our job, not His, to care for our children--no matter what we are called to do. This is scriptural; this is logical; this is right.
I am excited that World Vision grew out of an incident that happened here in Xiamen. But we should learn from Pierce's Price that when on a mission for God, we should not shirk from that mission, but be careful to use God's methods and God's priorities, not our own. Above all, we should not sacrifice upon altars that we, not God, have erected.
In closing... Billy Graham's life is instructive! He too is a man with a mission, and like Pierce started out with Youth for Christ, was not overly sensitive to the needs of wife and family in early years, and could have followed the same path as Bob Pierce. Graham's family could have easily ended up another casualty. Fortunately, Graham was 1) teachable, and 2) accountable. Yet even Billy Graham has said that one regret was that he did not spend more time with his family. An amazing man...but that is for another Daily Noodle....
Visit Samaritan's Purse Website
Visit World Vision Website
Sources:
World Vision Philippines Site
Kwantes, Anne, "She has Done a Beautiful Thing," OMF Literature Publishers, 2005, pp. 192, 193
Stafford, Tim, "An Imperfect Instrument--World Vision's founder led a tragic and inspiring life," Christianity Today, December 20, 2008
www.amoymagic.com
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Merry, Mary or Martha Christmas?
Bill Brown Xiamen University
"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed." Luke 11:41,42
My "Daily" noodles has missed a few days because I heeded the wise words of my friend Scott White (LACC), who e-mailed me to say,"May your Christmas be more Mary and less Martha-like!" Well put, Scott. There is far too much Martha Christmas than Mary Christmas for my liking--and in China, like the rest of the world, the percentage of Marthas is growing annually.
The Type A Epidemic in China
In my organizational behavior classes at Xiamen University, I teach students about Type A and Type B personality. Simply, Type B people are usually more relaxed, easy-going, and methodical, and Type A tend to be high-achievers, workaholics, "stress junkies." This is tough on their mental and emotional health, and body; research suggests that by age 65 most Type A people will have stress related diseases such as cancer, and 100% will have some heart problems! Worse, they dish this stress out to those around them (road rage is one result; read "Unsent E-mail Therapy). And this epidemic is growing in China as well.
I marvel at Chinese' patience. Yes, they get angry, but they usually keep it in check, and not just outwardly. And in the early 1990s, I gave the Type A/B test to my MBA students, and most were type B, or low Type A. But personality is shaped by environment, and as China's environment improved, opportunities increased, competition intensified, life got faster, and personalities changed.
The pace of life in Xiamen today is worlds apart from the island atmosphere of twenty years ago, when we made three phone calls in two years and did not worry when only one out of three got through. But each year, the percentage of students testing out as Type A got higher and higher. In my last semester, about 250 of 260 grad students were Type A! We're not as bad as Hong Kong, the most stressful city on the planet, but we'll get there if we don't take stock of the situation, and slow down, and start doing things in our Father's time, and our Father's strength, instead of ours.
I've written about this in other blogs, but given Scott White's e-mail, let's learn some lessons from Mary and Martha.
Martha Takes Charge
When we talk of Mary and Martha, we usually look at the story in Luke 10:38-42, where Martha bustles about and is upset that Mary is not helping. And Jesus reply, that Mary has "chosen what is better," goes against the grain of us Type A folks. Yeah, we can sit at Jesus feet--but who works in the kitchen? But before we look at Luke, let's look at Mary and Martha in John 11.
In John 11:20, Jesus is visiting the family of Lazarus after his death, and "When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home." It may have been polite to go out to meet him (she was older), but it was also typical of her personality. Jesus had purposefully waited until Lazarus died to come. He was coming in His timing; Mary knew He was coming, and waited. Martha went out not just to greet him but to accuse him. Verse 21, "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Interpretation: "It is your fault Lazarus died." Verse 22: "But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." Interpretation: "You can fix your mistake if "even now" (don't delay again) you get your act together."
V.23 Jesus, as usual, drew her out. He said "Your brother will rise again." Martha replied in v.24, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Interpretation: "I did not say "even now" God will hear you if I wanted to wait for the last day! Do something here, now!"
V.25 Jesus now comes to the point and asks if she believe he is the resurrection and the life, and in v. 27, Martha shows that, in spite of her faults, she does believe. "I believe that you are the Christ..."
v.28"And after she had said this, she went back and caller her sister Mary aside. "The teacher is here," she said, and is asking for you." V. 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him."
Mary "got up quickly", but only when she had beeen called. She waited for her Lord's timing, patiently, because she knew that He was coming, and would do things in His way and His time. But verse 31 noted that even the Jews were surprised at how quickly Mary got up, and they followed her. And Mary fell at Jesus feet weeping, an also said that he could have prevented Lazarus from dying--but she did not ask or even suggest he do anything about it. And it was Mary's weeping that led Jesus to weep in John 11:35, the shortest verse of the Bible: "Jesus wept."
Now Jesus goes to raise Lazarus but in John 11.29, Martha explains to the man she has just said is the Christ but who is, evidently, a little dense, "But Lord, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."
Martha just said Jesus could do anything; now she explains forensics to him. And in Jn. 11:40 Jesus comes to the point and says, "Did I not tell you that if you believed..." And Jesus raised Lazarus.
Only One Thing is Needed Now we've seen Martha and Mary in action--or, perhaps, Martha in action and Mary in inaction. Now let's look at Luke 10:38-42. Jesus visited the two sisters, and Mary "sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!'
'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'"
Type As can all sympathize with Martha! But notice what is really being said. Jesus did not really mean only one thing is needed, anymore than he really meant to "take no thought" for what we wear (he did not mean for us to talk about naked). Obviously someone also has to cook if we are to eat. What he was saying is that we need priorities, and timing.
Distracted: Mixes Priorities. Martha was "distracted" by the preparations. Here she had the Son of God himself in her home, and she was more concerned that she had the finest cloth on the table, and the best foods. Mary was listening to Jesus, sitting at his feet like a disciple, but Martha was working, in her own timing and her own strength, doing things for Jesus he did not need or ask for. If I had the Lord of the Universe in my home, teaching, I'd call a caterer and then sit at his feet and take lots of notes!
Manipulative Martha. Jesus pointed out that Martha was not just worried and upset about preparing for Jesus but "many things." This was her typical disposition. She was a worrier, a controller, even a manipulator, as she showed when she accused Jesus (not Mary), saying, "Lord, don't you care that my sister Mary is doing nothing!" And after Lazarus' death ("God can do anything you ask, Lord, if you're smart enough to ask"). Type A people take control, and manage and manipulate, to make sure things are done right, and done now. But ironically enough, this often fails in life, as well as in the spiritual realm.
Failed Type As. Research has shown that Type A people usually "feel" more successful ("We do things; type B people just talk about doing things"), but Type Bs are often better CEOS because, with many responsibilities, they think before they act. They may be slower, but they are less likely to rush into things and make mistakes. They listen, think, and then act.
When to Act? Mary may have indeed been wrong in not helping Martha, but Jesus' defense of Mary was not really directed at the specific situation but the general attitude of the two women. One, Martha does not appreciate the opportunity she has of learning from Jesus. Two, she accuses Jesus himself ("Don't you care?")
What Did Jesus Do? Jesus could have agreed with Martha, or defended Mary, or done the "servant bit" and cooked dinner himself and told Martha to take a rest. But Jesus defended Mary--not because Martha was wrong in what she was doing but because of her attitude towards what she was doing, and why, and her lack of balance. She was serving (which is good and necessary) but not feeding herself spiritually, and as a result had become a busy, controlling, even manipulative person.
Jesus was not saying "Do not do all these things!" He was saying to have priorities. You cannot serve others in the proper spirit, with the proper motives, if you do not nourish your soul first.
Martha was doing many good things--but in her own timing, in her own way, in her own strength. These kinds of people can indeed get a lot done, but often at a price that our Father never demanded. Consider the price that Bob Pierce paid to start World Vision International. It began with an incident right her in Xiamen, with an abused child and Tene Holkeboer, and this ministry, where Susan Marie worked when I met her, has reached millions of people, but Bob was "on a mission for God" (as a daughter put it), and did it largely in his own strength, not God's, and while he built a great ministry, in the end he lost his ministry, lost his physical and emotional health, lost his family, and died. But that story is for another day....
Martha's Vision; God's Vision
"Don't you care?" Martha asked Jesus. She asked this because she could not see that she was not the only one with a plan. Jesus did care--much more than Martha, and about many more things. But He had clear priorities, and a broader and more eternal perspective.
We need to work like Martha--but first we need to listen like Mary so we will know where to work, and when, and what to do. And then perhaps we can overcome some of the Type A behavior that leads to anger and road rage (unless, of course, you are driving in China, for which there may be no cure this side of paradise).
Suggestion: Start with taking Sundays off--not out of legalism or religious intent, but for your physical and mental health! Jesus said "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." You'll rest physically and emotionally, and this in turn will give you a bit of balance to help with spiritual growth. Best of all, you will find, as I have, that you can get much more done in six days than in seven!
Click Here for "3 Reasons 6 > 7"
Suggestion: Search Google for an online Type A Type B Personality Test
www.amoymagic.com
"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed." Luke 11:41,42
My "Daily" noodles has missed a few days because I heeded the wise words of my friend Scott White (LACC), who e-mailed me to say,"May your Christmas be more Mary and less Martha-like!" Well put, Scott. There is far too much Martha Christmas than Mary Christmas for my liking--and in China, like the rest of the world, the percentage of Marthas is growing annually.
The Type A Epidemic in China
In my organizational behavior classes at Xiamen University, I teach students about Type A and Type B personality. Simply, Type B people are usually more relaxed, easy-going, and methodical, and Type A tend to be high-achievers, workaholics, "stress junkies." This is tough on their mental and emotional health, and body; research suggests that by age 65 most Type A people will have stress related diseases such as cancer, and 100% will have some heart problems! Worse, they dish this stress out to those around them (road rage is one result; read "Unsent E-mail Therapy). And this epidemic is growing in China as well.
I marvel at Chinese' patience. Yes, they get angry, but they usually keep it in check, and not just outwardly. And in the early 1990s, I gave the Type A/B test to my MBA students, and most were type B, or low Type A. But personality is shaped by environment, and as China's environment improved, opportunities increased, competition intensified, life got faster, and personalities changed.
The pace of life in Xiamen today is worlds apart from the island atmosphere of twenty years ago, when we made three phone calls in two years and did not worry when only one out of three got through. But each year, the percentage of students testing out as Type A got higher and higher. In my last semester, about 250 of 260 grad students were Type A! We're not as bad as Hong Kong, the most stressful city on the planet, but we'll get there if we don't take stock of the situation, and slow down, and start doing things in our Father's time, and our Father's strength, instead of ours.
I've written about this in other blogs, but given Scott White's e-mail, let's learn some lessons from Mary and Martha.
Martha Takes Charge
When we talk of Mary and Martha, we usually look at the story in Luke 10:38-42, where Martha bustles about and is upset that Mary is not helping. And Jesus reply, that Mary has "chosen what is better," goes against the grain of us Type A folks. Yeah, we can sit at Jesus feet--but who works in the kitchen? But before we look at Luke, let's look at Mary and Martha in John 11.
In John 11:20, Jesus is visiting the family of Lazarus after his death, and "When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home." It may have been polite to go out to meet him (she was older), but it was also typical of her personality. Jesus had purposefully waited until Lazarus died to come. He was coming in His timing; Mary knew He was coming, and waited. Martha went out not just to greet him but to accuse him. Verse 21, "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Interpretation: "It is your fault Lazarus died." Verse 22: "But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." Interpretation: "You can fix your mistake if "even now" (don't delay again) you get your act together."
V.23 Jesus, as usual, drew her out. He said "Your brother will rise again." Martha replied in v.24, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Interpretation: "I did not say "even now" God will hear you if I wanted to wait for the last day! Do something here, now!"
V.25 Jesus now comes to the point and asks if she believe he is the resurrection and the life, and in v. 27, Martha shows that, in spite of her faults, she does believe. "I believe that you are the Christ..."
v.28"And after she had said this, she went back and caller her sister Mary aside. "The teacher is here," she said, and is asking for you." V. 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him."
Mary "got up quickly", but only when she had beeen called. She waited for her Lord's timing, patiently, because she knew that He was coming, and would do things in His way and His time. But verse 31 noted that even the Jews were surprised at how quickly Mary got up, and they followed her. And Mary fell at Jesus feet weeping, an also said that he could have prevented Lazarus from dying--but she did not ask or even suggest he do anything about it. And it was Mary's weeping that led Jesus to weep in John 11:35, the shortest verse of the Bible: "Jesus wept."
Now Jesus goes to raise Lazarus but in John 11.29, Martha explains to the man she has just said is the Christ but who is, evidently, a little dense, "But Lord, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."
Martha just said Jesus could do anything; now she explains forensics to him. And in Jn. 11:40 Jesus comes to the point and says, "Did I not tell you that if you believed..." And Jesus raised Lazarus.
Only One Thing is Needed Now we've seen Martha and Mary in action--or, perhaps, Martha in action and Mary in inaction. Now let's look at Luke 10:38-42. Jesus visited the two sisters, and Mary "sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!'
'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'"
Type As can all sympathize with Martha! But notice what is really being said. Jesus did not really mean only one thing is needed, anymore than he really meant to "take no thought" for what we wear (he did not mean for us to talk about naked). Obviously someone also has to cook if we are to eat. What he was saying is that we need priorities, and timing.
Distracted: Mixes Priorities. Martha was "distracted" by the preparations. Here she had the Son of God himself in her home, and she was more concerned that she had the finest cloth on the table, and the best foods. Mary was listening to Jesus, sitting at his feet like a disciple, but Martha was working, in her own timing and her own strength, doing things for Jesus he did not need or ask for. If I had the Lord of the Universe in my home, teaching, I'd call a caterer and then sit at his feet and take lots of notes!
Manipulative Martha. Jesus pointed out that Martha was not just worried and upset about preparing for Jesus but "many things." This was her typical disposition. She was a worrier, a controller, even a manipulator, as she showed when she accused Jesus (not Mary), saying, "Lord, don't you care that my sister Mary is doing nothing!" And after Lazarus' death ("God can do anything you ask, Lord, if you're smart enough to ask"). Type A people take control, and manage and manipulate, to make sure things are done right, and done now. But ironically enough, this often fails in life, as well as in the spiritual realm.
Failed Type As. Research has shown that Type A people usually "feel" more successful ("We do things; type B people just talk about doing things"), but Type Bs are often better CEOS because, with many responsibilities, they think before they act. They may be slower, but they are less likely to rush into things and make mistakes. They listen, think, and then act.
When to Act? Mary may have indeed been wrong in not helping Martha, but Jesus' defense of Mary was not really directed at the specific situation but the general attitude of the two women. One, Martha does not appreciate the opportunity she has of learning from Jesus. Two, she accuses Jesus himself ("Don't you care?")
What Did Jesus Do? Jesus could have agreed with Martha, or defended Mary, or done the "servant bit" and cooked dinner himself and told Martha to take a rest. But Jesus defended Mary--not because Martha was wrong in what she was doing but because of her attitude towards what she was doing, and why, and her lack of balance. She was serving (which is good and necessary) but not feeding herself spiritually, and as a result had become a busy, controlling, even manipulative person.
Jesus was not saying "Do not do all these things!" He was saying to have priorities. You cannot serve others in the proper spirit, with the proper motives, if you do not nourish your soul first.
Martha was doing many good things--but in her own timing, in her own way, in her own strength. These kinds of people can indeed get a lot done, but often at a price that our Father never demanded. Consider the price that Bob Pierce paid to start World Vision International. It began with an incident right her in Xiamen, with an abused child and Tene Holkeboer, and this ministry, where Susan Marie worked when I met her, has reached millions of people, but Bob was "on a mission for God" (as a daughter put it), and did it largely in his own strength, not God's, and while he built a great ministry, in the end he lost his ministry, lost his physical and emotional health, lost his family, and died. But that story is for another day....
Martha's Vision; God's Vision
"Don't you care?" Martha asked Jesus. She asked this because she could not see that she was not the only one with a plan. Jesus did care--much more than Martha, and about many more things. But He had clear priorities, and a broader and more eternal perspective.
We need to work like Martha--but first we need to listen like Mary so we will know where to work, and when, and what to do. And then perhaps we can overcome some of the Type A behavior that leads to anger and road rage (unless, of course, you are driving in China, for which there may be no cure this side of paradise).
Suggestion: Start with taking Sundays off--not out of legalism or religious intent, but for your physical and mental health! Jesus said "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." You'll rest physically and emotionally, and this in turn will give you a bit of balance to help with spiritual growth. Best of all, you will find, as I have, that you can get much more done in six days than in seven!
Click Here for "3 Reasons 6 > 7"
Suggestion: Search Google for an online Type A Type B Personality Test
www.amoymagic.com
Sunday, December 21, 2008
In Memory of Steve C.--Sown in China
Bill Brown .... Xiamen University"No one shows greater love than when he lays down his life for his friends." John 15:13 NAS
"He presented another parable to them, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.'" Matt. 13:24 ISV
[See end to give to Steve's Memorial Fund]
Steve and Esther Cochran came to Xiamen to teach English a couple years ago, and their infectious good humor and optimism touched the hearts and lives of Chinese and foreigners alike. But shortly after arriving in Xiamen, Steve was diagnosed with terminal skin cancer and given less than a year to live. After checking with doctors in the U.S., Steve decided to spend his last year where it would do the most good--back in Xiamen.
Steve's body slowly weakened but his spirit did not, and he and Esther kept teaching and reaching out to others until the pain forced Steve to return to the U.S. for his last few weeks. On his last Sunday at XICF a few weeks ago, he spoke to the fellowship, upbeat as always, and said, "Don't feel sorry for me. We are all terminal. We are all going to die. What is important is what we do with the time remaining to us."
On the day that Steve passed away last week, he did not ask for prayer for healing, or even relief of the agony, but that our Father would send more teachers to China.
It seems a waste to send someone like Steve to China for only two years, but as I see how many lives he touched, and consider the influence they in turn will have, I trust that Steve was a seed sown at just the right place, at the right time--not planted on rocky ground or amidst the weeds but in good soil (Luke 8:8). I can only imagine what fruit we shall reap from Steve's life, because a seed strategically sown yields infinitely more than a seed simply cast to the winds.
From Wheat Seed to Computer? Amazingly, until about 500 years ago, European farmers just tossed their seeds into the fields and hoped for the best. It was only after Dutch traders introduced the seed drills and plows used in China for 2000 years that we started planting crops in rows, and methodically planting seeds where they'd do the most good. This led to the agricultural revolution, which in turn allowed the industrial revolution, which led to the modern technology that eventually created the computer I am typing on--all because we quit tossing seed to the wind and planted it where it would reap the best harvest.
The Seed's Journey Seeds have an astounding number of ways to get about, and each has advantages and disadvantages:
Flying seeds are light; some, like maple seeds, even have wings. They can soar for miles, but they go only where the wind blows them.
Floating seeds, like coconuts, can float for a thousand miles, but go only where the current takes them; they never go against the f
low.Clinging seeds stick to animal furs, or our clothes, or the mud on our shoes. There is no limit to how far they can travel, but they can only follow the crowd.
Exploding seeds, like the squirting cucumber, have sacks that shoot out seeds at over 60km. an hour. They're fast, but they have no direction.
Sown Seeds are planted carefully, lovingly, strategically in rows, carefully spaced, in good soil, and nurtured with adequate nutrients, water and sunlight.
You and I can be blown about, follow the current, or cling to the crowds--or we can be sown strategically in good soil, and nurtured with living water, and Light. Unlike other seeds, we have a choice.
Bible Roulette In 1999, while in a Hong Kong hospital for two months undergoing cancer surgeries, I became so downcast that I resorted, for the first time in my life, to Bible Roulette. I prayed for an encouraging verse, opened my Bible to a random page, pointed, and read 1 Cor. 15:36, "You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies." That was not the verse I was hoping for.
Not so Good News? I hastily shut the Bible, prayed again, opened it at random again, and my fingertip fell like a lead weight upon John 12:24: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit."
I was astonished--and dismayed. With over 2,000 pages, and over 31,000 verses, what were the odds I'd hit upon the two verses about dying seeds? I considered a third go, but instead just closed my Bible and accepted the obvious. My time was up. So I sent up a feeble thanks for the many good years I'd had--and to my surprise I felt a warm wave of relief wash over me. The problems didn't go away, but I felt a peace during the rest of my stay in the hospital because I knew my life was in my Father's hands, not mine. And since that experience my life has been much more meaningful because I faced the stark reality of Steve Cochran's "We are all terminal. Use the time wisely."
Good Seed, Good Field In Matt. 13:24 Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like a man sowing good seed in his field. We are "good" seed, and because he has sown me in the right soil with even greater care than an ancient Chinese farmer, I know I shall bear much fruit until the day I reach the Terminal. Fortunately, the Terminal is not a condition, or even a Tom Hanks movie, but a destination; not an end but a beginning. But while I'm waiting to visit the Terminal, as my Father cultivates me, I need to cultivate patience.
Pulling Rice Shoots: In ancient China, a farmer hard up for money decided to gently pull on his rice shoots each night so they would grow faster. Unfortunately, his tugging of the rice plants loosened the roots and they all withered and died. Ever since, Chinese have used the phrase "tugging rice shoots" to urge people to be patient.
We can choose to be scattered or sown, but the harvest is in our Father's timing, not ours.
Give to Steve Cochran Memorial Fund Make checks payable to CEF, with Memo: "For Taiwan," and attach a note, "For Steve Cochran Memorial Fund. For tax deductible receipt, send to the U.S. or Canada. If not tax receipt needed, send directly to Taiwan:
CEFAttach note: "For Steve Cochran Memorial Fund"
1753 Cabrillo Ave.
Torrance, CA 90501-3697
USA
*Check pay to: CEF MEMO: For Taiwan (This is a Must!) Attach note: "For Steve Cochran Memorial Fund"
CCEF
Suite 718, 5863 Lslie St,Toronto,
ON. M2H 1J8,
If NO tax deductible receipt, pls send check to:
CEF
P.O. BOX 13-144,
Taipei,TAIWAN
Web www.cef.org.tw
Attach Note: "For Steve Cochran Memorial Fund."
Esther Cochran's E-mail: kuanren@psmail.netAdditional.... Earlier Seeds in Amoy.
100 years ago, the average lifespan of a European serving in China was only seven years, and Xiamen was known as the "White Man's Graveyard." The little foreign cemetery on Gulangyu filled far too quickly.
Grieving at the Wedding Mary Doty, who was born in Xiamen on Gulangyu Islet in the early 1850s and lived here until she was nine, wrote in her memoirs of her mother Eleanor's wedding to Elihu Doty before coming to Xiamen in 1848: "A solemn, sad ceremony, listened to by friends and kindred from far and near, was performed. For the going into this Service [missionary work in China] was looked upon as about equivalent to death, certainly to all kinds of distresses; and to witness the ceremony that was to bind her to this life, was enough to fill everyone with sadness, that a beautiful young woman of their community was about to enter upon, and separate herself from them all in doing it. (And her mother did die just a few years after Mary was born; Elihu Doty had two wives die in Xiamen, and Elihu died on a voyage to visit his children in the U.S.--only 4 days from shore).
Read the Doty's Story.
A Seed Planted in 1939 (Walter DeVelder, in his unpublished memoirs, "A Missionary Journey Over Nine Decades):
"The Autumn was a beautiful time in Chang Chow and we were looking for the baby's coming in early January. We went down to be with Clarence and Ruth Holleman for Christmas, 1939. Margaret went into Hope and Wilhelmina Hospital with some bleeding, but th
ings looked optimistic and we kept cheerful. On January four it was decided to do a Caeserian section for placenta previa. Margaret died on the operating table. The whole Chinese and foreign community was shocked, as were the friends in the United States. I could not believe the sun would ever shine again. The funeral was held in Union Church with the Rev. Edwin Koeppe taking the service. Margaret was laid to rest in the Three Missions Cemetery beside her father's grave. Margaret died at age 34, her father Dr. John Otte at fifty.
Read: Dr. John Otte's Last Days
Read: Chuck Saunders (Founder of Asia Evangelical Mission, "Died with his boot on in China"1995)
Read: The Missionary Cemetery of Fuh-Chau (Fuzhou) by Rev. J.W. Wiley, M.D.
Acknowledgment: Coconut Photo by Wmpearl on Wikipedia (Common Domain)
www.amoymagic.com
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Lost Goats, Found Lambs
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. Psalm 119:105
How Not to Get the Goat
歧路亡羊 [Qi Lu Wang Yang: "Forked Road Lost Goat"]
A famous scholar, Yang Zu, who lived in China during the Warring States period (475-221 B.C.) asked a neighbor why he gathered such a large crowd to find his lost goat. The farmer said, "I need all the help I can get because there are so many twisting and turning paths. The goat could be anywhere." The crowd searched long and hard but never found the goat. [I guess someone "got his goat."]
A few days later, a student saw Yang Zu looking pre-occupied and said, "Master, surely you are not still worrying about the lost goat?"
Yang Zu said, "I'm not thinking about the goat but about the haphazard way they looked for it. They all had good intentions, but they just wandered onto any path they came upon, hoping to blunder into the goat. Before starting out they should hav
e staked out every inch and methodically searched the fields. They never had any hope of finding it."
And so for 2400 years, the saying "Forked Road Lost Goat" has been used to exhort Chinese about to start a venture to have 1) a clear goal, 2) a good plan, and 3) careful execution.
Searching for our Goats Too many lives are lived as aimlessly as the farmer searching for his goat. How often we shred our shoes on rocky ground and snag our clothes on briars and brambles when if we listened to that small voice or read the Word, our Father would point out a clear path straight to the goal--which is not a search for a lost goat but a race towards the Lamb.
1. Clear Goal. There is more to life than just eating, sleeping, working, retiring, and dying. Our Father had a clear goal in creating us. He created us for a purpose--for good works prepared long before our birth, and long before the goat was even lost. Ephesians 3:10 (NAS): "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." The goal, of course, determines our path ("so that we should walk in them.") So what are your goals?
Do What Needs to be Done. I have always been very goal-oriented. Even when I was very young I taped goals to my bedroom wall. But I learned early on that my Father's goals are far more fruitful, and satisfying than anything I could come up with myself. And so I switched gears and decided to "take no thought for tomorrow" (Matt. 6:34). I now follow a simple daily goal: "do what needs to be done, here and now."
This is smarter than it sounds, because I don't think my Father plays games with me. If I am obedient, my Father gives me opportunities to do good right where I am, and if I do them well, He gives me more, and sometimes bigger, things to do. As Jesus said in Matthew 25:23, "You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things."
I'm now 52 and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but I don't worry it because I know that if I do well what is in front of me today, my Father will use it to prepare me for more things tomorrow.
2. A Good Plan I have blundered down so many wayward paths seeking that elusive goat, and yet in retrospect I can marvel at how my Father really has worked everything for good. Not everything was good, of course, but He did work everything for my good. No experience is wasted; each thing I've done, whether good or bad, has taught me, and been used for my good (Romans 8:28)--though some lessons were more painful than others. How often I have wished that the school of hard knocks could be taken by correspondence.
What a plan our Father must have if He can weave all of the tangled loose ends of my life into a seamless design! But how much easier it would be on me if I followed the plan, which his Spirit and Word will reveal to me if I look to Him instead of my own ingenious stratagems.
3. Careful execution. I must not only serve but do so with the right attitude and purpose. If I do good works out of self-serving pride rather than love of God or others, I may do more harm than good. Romans 8:28 says "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God..." And Jesus said in Mark 12:30,31 that we must "love others as ourselves." So as I execute my Father's plan, I must be careful that I do it all in love--for God, and for others.
Not a Goat but a Lamb. Fortunately, we are not searching blindly for a lost goat because we have already been blessed with a Lamb. We are engaged not in a search but in a race, and that great cloud of witnesses is watching to see whom we seek to honor: our Father or ourselves, the Lamb or the goat.
Happily for us, race courses are usually laid out clearly, lest we run off the track or try to take short cuts to the prize--and our Father's course is no exception. We have a beginning and an end, and rules on how to run it. We don't know how long the race will be, but we do know how to run it: unencumbered, and with endurance. As Paul wrote in Hebrews 12:1, "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."
So let's stop searching for the goat and run the race for the Lamb!
The Chinese painting of Jesus is from: "The Life of Christ by Chinese Artists," The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. 15 Tufton Street, Westminster, S.W.1 1940 Distributing Agents for the U.S.A., Krug Chinese Imports, 2227 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.
www.amoymagic.com
Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. Psalm 119:105
How Not to Get the Goat
歧路亡羊 [Qi Lu Wang Yang: "Forked Road Lost Goat"]
A famous scholar, Yang Zu, who lived in China during the Warring States period (475-221 B.C.) asked a neighbor why he gathered such a large crowd to find his lost goat. The farmer said, "I need all the help I can get because there are so many twisting and turning paths. The goat could be anywhere." The crowd searched long and hard but never found the goat. [I guess someone "got his goat."]
A few days later, a student saw Yang Zu looking pre-occupied and said, "Master, surely you are not still worrying about the lost goat?"
Yang Zu said, "I'm not thinking about the goat but about the haphazard way they looked for it. They all had good intentions, but they just wandered onto any path they came upon, hoping to blunder into the goat. Before starting out they should hav
e staked out every inch and methodically searched the fields. They never had any hope of finding it."And so for 2400 years, the saying "Forked Road Lost Goat" has been used to exhort Chinese about to start a venture to have 1) a clear goal, 2) a good plan, and 3) careful execution.
Searching for our Goats Too many lives are lived as aimlessly as the farmer searching for his goat. How often we shred our shoes on rocky ground and snag our clothes on briars and brambles when if we listened to that small voice or read the Word, our Father would point out a clear path straight to the goal--which is not a search for a lost goat but a race towards the Lamb.
1. Clear Goal. There is more to life than just eating, sleeping, working, retiring, and dying. Our Father had a clear goal in creating us. He created us for a purpose--for good works prepared long before our birth, and long before the goat was even lost. Ephesians 3:10 (NAS): "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." The goal, of course, determines our path ("so that we should walk in them.") So what are your goals?
Do What Needs to be Done. I have always been very goal-oriented. Even when I was very young I taped goals to my bedroom wall. But I learned early on that my Father's goals are far more fruitful, and satisfying than anything I could come up with myself. And so I switched gears and decided to "take no thought for tomorrow" (Matt. 6:34). I now follow a simple daily goal: "do what needs to be done, here and now."
This is smarter than it sounds, because I don't think my Father plays games with me. If I am obedient, my Father gives me opportunities to do good right where I am, and if I do them well, He gives me more, and sometimes bigger, things to do. As Jesus said in Matthew 25:23, "You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things."
I'm now 52 and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but I don't worry it because I know that if I do well what is in front of me today, my Father will use it to prepare me for more things tomorrow.
2. A Good Plan I have blundered down so many wayward paths seeking that elusive goat, and yet in retrospect I can marvel at how my Father really has worked everything for good. Not everything was good, of course, but He did work everything for my good. No experience is wasted; each thing I've done, whether good or bad, has taught me, and been used for my good (Romans 8:28)--though some lessons were more painful than others. How often I have wished that the school of hard knocks could be taken by correspondence.
What a plan our Father must have if He can weave all of the tangled loose ends of my life into a seamless design! But how much easier it would be on me if I followed the plan, which his Spirit and Word will reveal to me if I look to Him instead of my own ingenious stratagems.
3. Careful execution. I must not only serve but do so with the right attitude and purpose. If I do good works out of self-serving pride rather than love of God or others, I may do more harm than good. Romans 8:28 says "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God..." And Jesus said in Mark 12:30,31 that we must "love others as ourselves." So as I execute my Father's plan, I must be careful that I do it all in love--for God, and for others.
Not a Goat but a Lamb. Fortunately, we are not searching blindly for a lost goat because we have already been blessed with a Lamb. We are engaged not in a search but in a race, and that great cloud of witnesses is watching to see whom we seek to honor: our Father or ourselves, the Lamb or the goat.
Happily for us, race courses are usually laid out clearly, lest we run off the track or try to take short cuts to the prize--and our Father's course is no exception. We have a beginning and an end, and rules on how to run it. We don't know how long the race will be, but we do know how to run it: unencumbered, and with endurance. As Paul wrote in Hebrews 12:1, "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."
So let's stop searching for the goat and run the race for the Lamb!
The Chinese painting of Jesus is from: "The Life of Christ by Chinese Artists," The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. 15 Tufton Street, Westminster, S.W.1 1940 Distributing Agents for the U.S.A., Krug Chinese Imports, 2227 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.
www.amoymagic.com
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Water from a Chinese Rock ("X" marks the well!)
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University"He opened the rock and water flowed out; It ran in the dry places like a river." Psalm 105:41
"The wise find pleasure in water" (知者楽水) Confucius
True Story of the "The Prayer Well"
This miraculous true story about a Chinese Christian College during the 1930s underscores the need today for faith, as well as hard work and perseverance as we press forward with a "Millionaire's Heart" (Adapted from "24 Missionary Stories from China," by Basil Miller, 1948):
During the Japanese invasion of China, both Christian and secular colleges retreated west into the mountains. Waves of students and faculty marched thousands of miles into remote areas, literally carrying their college on their backs--books, clothes, even furniture. During the trek many were reduced to eating leaves, or bark off of trees. The sites they
chose were often the poorest available (Xiamen University moved into an old temple in Changting).Principal Hsiung moved his Christian college to the west of China in a village near Chungking (Chongqing). The conditions were appalling but they made too. But one serious problem was the lack of clean water; all of the water was filthy and contaminated, even by local standards. He tried many times to dig a well, without success. But as he later told a friend, Rev. E.P. Ashcraft, "I felt that God had the key to our need, and after much prayer I was led to go out in the schoolyard to a certain sport and draw a circle several feet in diamter. In the center of this I made a cross to mark the place for the well."
Locals laughed and mocked him, because it was well known that below the surface there was nothing but rock. Several people dug for four weeks, with no water; more and more people mocked, but no one encouraged Hsiung. Finally, after 4 months, the people complained that it was useless. But Hsiung said "No, I believe this is the place God told me to dig. In faith let us keep digging. Dig on until we strike the water."
By the end of the 7th month they'd gone down another 30 feet, but not even a hint of moisture. As the people complained, Hsiung knelt in prayer, begged God for water--and felt confident his prayer would soon be answered. And one morning, just as they were gathering for worship, a workman accidentally struck the side of the well up some distance from where he'd been working. So much water gushed out that the workers had to abandon their tools and be hauled out rapidly lest they drown.
This well provided not only enough pure water for the school but for the entire village. No matter how much was drawn out, it never lowered. When drought his the area and other wells dried up, this well continued to flow, and locals called it "The Prayer Well."
The "Prayer Well" suggests several lessons for today's troubled times:
1. Pray--but also plow. We should confirm everything with prayer, but sometimes the answer is just common sense. When the Japanese started bombing, Christian colleges headed for the mountains, just like the secular colleges. They did not stay put, bare their chests, and say "God will protect us." This would have been testing God, which even Jesus refused to do when tempted in the wilderness. We have to pray, but we also have to use our own brains, and our feet and hands.
2. Plow, but with direction. While the Christians beat a strategic retreat like everyone else, they did not do so blindly. Their Father led them to a specific village. But angels did not carry them; they walked every painful mile.
Once in the village, they were thirsty. They didn't just pray for God to give them water, and a cup, and to pour it down their throat. They looked for water. But when they realized there was no good water, and they had done all they could, they prayed to their Father for water, and He led them to mark an "X" right in the middle of the schoolyard, where all the locals knew there was nothing but rock! So why did God let them dig for seven months?
3. Delay is not Denial but Testing The villagers mocked Hsiu, but had he found water quickly, they may have dismissed it with, "Well, so there was water after all." But there wasn't water and Hsiu dug anyway, in faith. He didn't dig a month and move elsewhere, but kept digging in that one impossible spot--and the derision and mockery grew louder and louder. And this made it all more amazing when Hsiu not only found water, but found enough to care for the very villagers who had mocked him!
One of Hsiu's first sermons was of course about the water of life. I'm sure he also preached on Luke 11:11-13: "What father among you, if his son asks for bread, would give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, would give him a snake instead of the fish?...So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who keep asking him!"
4, Delay proves character. After Hsiu found water, the villagers saw that not only was Hsiu right all along but also that he was a man not just of faith but of character and determination. He believed firmly in his God, and after dirtying his knees in prayer he dirtied his hands with the shovel until the water flowed.
5. Delay brings delight. Had they found water right off the bat, even Hsiu might have taken it for granted. But water is sweetest to the thirstiest, and by the seventh month even the Christians rejoiced in finally finding water. The delay tested them, taught them, and eventually delighted them. This is a good lesson for today, when we demand instant gratification (which is the biggest reason for family debt).
Today we are in economic turmoil, but at least we are not being strafed by foreign bombers, as Hsiu was. We don't have to flee for the hills as Hsiu did. We are not, at least yet, struggling for even water. We are far better off than Hsiu and his little Christian college. If God could meet his needs, He can meet ours.
Thirsty? Then pray, mark an "X", and trust our Father, whom Isaiah quoted in 41:18 (NAS), "I will open rivers on the bare heights And springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water And the dry land fountains of water."
Related Blog: "A Millionaire's Heart"
The Chinese painting of Jesus is from: "The Life of Christ by Chinese Artists," The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. 15 Tufton Street, Westminster, S.W.1 1940 Distributing Agents for the U.S.A., Krug Chinese Imports, 2227 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.
www.amoymagic.com
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
A Millionaire's Heart (not owners but stewards)
Bill Brown .... Xiamen University
"To him who has much, much will be given." Matthew 25:29
"And God said, "Let us make man in our image...and let them rule..." Genesis 1:26
"It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours." Harry S. Truman
The present economic crises may appear chaotic to many, but I am thankful that examples from the bible, and even from more recent history, show that our Creator can use even chaos for His purposes--as we see in this excerpt from a story by Dale Carnegie...
"On April 14,1902, a young man with five hundred dollars in cash and a million dollars in determination opened a dry goods store in Kemmerer, Wyoming--a little mining town of a thousand people...That young man and his wife lived in a half-storey attic above the store, using a large empty dry-goods box for a table and smaller boxes for chairs...Today, the largest chain of dry-goods stores in the world bears that man's name: the J.C. Penney stores--over sixteen hundred of them covering every state in the Union. I recently had dinner with Mr. Penney, and he told me about the most dramatic moment of his life."
[Penney says]: "Years ago, I passed through a most trying experience. I was worried and desperate. MY worries were not connected in any way whatever with the J.C. Penney Company. That business was solid and thriving; but I personally had made some unwise commitments prior to the crash of 1929. Like many other men, I was blamed for conditions for which I was in no way responsible. I was so harassed with worries that I couldn't sleep, and developed an extremely painful ailment known as shingles....nothing helped. I got weaker day by day. I was broken nervously and physically, filled with despair, unable to see even a ray of hope. I had nothing to live for. I felt I hadn't a friend left in the world, that even my family had turned against me...."
Penney literally thought he was dying, and wrote farewell letters to his family one night...and was surprised to wake the next day and hear people singing, "God will take care of you." He said "I can only call it a miracle. I felt as if I had been instantly lifted out of the darkness of a dungeon into warm, brilliant sunlight. I felt as if I had been transported from hell to paradise. I felt the power of God as I had never felt it before. I realized then that I alone was responsible for all my troubles. I knew that God with His love was there to help me. From that day to this, my life has been free from worry. I am seventy-one years old, and the most dramatic and glorious twenty minutes of my life were those I spent in that chapel that morning."
Was Penney Responsible? Penney said he alone was responsible for his problems, but he did not personally cause the Great Depression any more than you or I are caused the present economic crises. Yet Penney was responsible for his attitude. As one of the world's richest men, he had forgotten that he was not an owner but a steward, and he took upon himself more responsibility, and blame, than our Father ever intended for him.
The Millionaire's Attitude I am thankful that I own as much as a Penney or as little as a pauper because I don't own anything! I am only a steward, and when my time comes, I will leave everything behind. Someone asked a grieving relative how much the deceased left behind in his will and the relative said, "Everything." My Father, however, owns everything! And a constant theme of Jesus' parables was stewardship, because our Father is constantly seeking people who, during their brief tenancy on planet earth, will wisely steward His resources and then pass them on to the next tenant.
I'm quite happy to be a steward and not an owner because this leaves the ultimate responsibility with my Father. But I also know that to him who has much, much will be given, and to him who has little, even the little he has will be taken away. This was the reason that Sue and I did not fear leaving business to teach in China for almost 1oo times less income. We knew that our Sources was neither the business nor the university but our Father, and he will provide no matter where we are, as long as we are wisely stewarding what He has given us (which, in our case, was our lives, as we left behind everything else).
Be a Steward, not an Owner, and have the peace that comes with knowing that our Father will indeed give us all that we ask--if we can do with it what He asks.
Still, I know these are stressful times, so here are a few tips I've used over the years for dealing with stress:
Eight Tips for Handling Financial Stress
1. Pray with Thankfulness. Remember that we are stewards, not owners, and our Father will care for us if we allow Him to--and if we are wise stewards. God's promise is two-edged: "to him who has much, much will be given, but to him who has little, even the little he has will be taken away (Matthew 25:29). But if we are obedient, we can "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, with prayer and supplication, and thanksgiving, make your requests known to God..." (Philippians 4:6).
2. Tithe, or Pockets with Holes? I tithe my week with the Sabbath because I can do much more in six days than in seven (Click Here for "Why 6 > 7") In the same way, I tithe my money not because we are commanded to but because "it is more blessed to give than to receive." Because giving is blessed, I can do more with 90% of my income than with 100%.
No one makes too little to tithe. In fact, it is the poor who often give the most. Even in high school, I tithed the 38 cents an hour I earned part-time, and was blessed. And 10% is just a start. People like J.C. Penney tithed 90%, unlike many wealthy people who hoard the wealth that they mistakenly think they own. Haggai (1:6) warned that by not giving, we are putting our wealth into holes with pockets, and will never have enough. And Malachi wrote:
Malachi 3:8-10 "Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! 'How have we robbed you?' In tithes and offerings..."Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse...and test Me now in this," says the Lord of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows."
3. Set financial goals. I often joke that Chinese immigrants in America make $3,000 per month and save $3,300, whereas other Americans make $3,300 per month and spend $3,300 (or more). But I'm not entirely joking! It is a fact that most Americans cannot handle their finances, no matter how much they make. How can we be good stewards if we have no idea what we've been given or how we are using it? Again, "to him who has much, much will be given..."
4. Save! Put aside 10% right off the top after tithes, invest it wisely (which nowadays may be a mattress), and get used to living on the remaining 80%. A little here, a little there (home-brewed coffee in a nice mug instead of a $5 Starbucks) and you'll find you can live better off 80% than 100% because you'll also have the joy of knowing you are obedient and wise in your stewardship.
5. Keep active outside the home. This is the time for your family's couch potatoes to escape the TV and news, get some fresh air and exercise, and enjoy the many free activities with which we are blessed: parks, libraries, social centers, church activities. Exercise is good for mind as well as body, and is one of the best cures for stress and depression.
6. Reach out. You can't save someone if they won't grasp the lifeline, but today many people are struggling for hope and Answers. This is the time to reach out, because if you think times are bad for you, they are much worse for many around you. Help yourself by helping others. And this is the perfect time for churches to organize more group activities for both members and nonmembers.
7. Control Internet, e-mail and TV. We are not emotionally, mentally or physically capable of handling all of the world's problems. Even Jesus escaped the crowds for peace, solitude and recreation with his inner twelve. Limit your exposure to electronic media. It does not help you in your own life and calling to know that a bus with 71 people drove over a bridge in Bangladesh or that dynamite was found in a Paris department store. Being informed is good; being obsessively informed about everything is another. 100 years ago, you'd have not known about 90% of the world's woes. Today, you don't need to know, instantly, about everything everywhere in the world. Catch up on news once a day, and if it's not something you can do anything about, pray about it. Of course, with all the news hitting us, no one can pray for everything everyday; there isn't enough time in the day. But that also doesn't mean to ignore everything afar, as Ginny O. of JAARS wrote today:
" I remember Ken Boa or one of the speakers we had this year at JAARS saying that he gets his prayer list from the evening news, so that was another good reminder that we are to be bringing EVERYTHING and even the (humanly) impossible issues to our Father who can do all things."
8. Balance. In good times and bad, some folks just have a messiah complex in which they feel they need to reach the world. The fact is, even Jesus did not try to reach the whole world. He could not, because he chose to be born a man, with a man's limitations. He hungered, thirsted, and tired. So he worked within the small sphere within which he was born, and discipled others to go beyond that. And Jesus was very careful that, while he reached out to others, he reached within to his Father. Our light cannot shine if we run out of Oil.
Stewards, not Owners. These are indeed stressful times, but they are also times to put into practice the trust and belief that we so easily preach about in good times. We do not know tomorrow, or how much or little we will have, but we do know that our Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills and seeks out faithful stewards--and rewards them.
J.C. Penney's story was adapted from Dale Carnegie's book, "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living."
JAARS, at www.jaars.org "Partners in Bible Translation", offers high quality technical support services to Wycliffe translators.
www.amoymagic.com
"To him who has much, much will be given." Matthew 25:29
"And God said, "Let us make man in our image...and let them rule..." Genesis 1:26
"It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours." Harry S. Truman
The present economic crises may appear chaotic to many, but I am thankful that examples from the bible, and even from more recent history, show that our Creator can use even chaos for His purposes--as we see in this excerpt from a story by Dale Carnegie...
"On April 14,1902, a young man with five hundred dollars in cash and a million dollars in determination opened a dry goods store in Kemmerer, Wyoming--a little mining town of a thousand people...That young man and his wife lived in a half-storey attic above the store, using a large empty dry-goods box for a table and smaller boxes for chairs...Today, the largest chain of dry-goods stores in the world bears that man's name: the J.C. Penney stores--over sixteen hundred of them covering every state in the Union. I recently had dinner with Mr. Penney, and he told me about the most dramatic moment of his life."
[Penney says]: "Years ago, I passed through a most trying experience. I was worried and desperate. MY worries were not connected in any way whatever with the J.C. Penney Company. That business was solid and thriving; but I personally had made some unwise commitments prior to the crash of 1929. Like many other men, I was blamed for conditions for which I was in no way responsible. I was so harassed with worries that I couldn't sleep, and developed an extremely painful ailment known as shingles....nothing helped. I got weaker day by day. I was broken nervously and physically, filled with despair, unable to see even a ray of hope. I had nothing to live for. I felt I hadn't a friend left in the world, that even my family had turned against me...."
Penney literally thought he was dying, and wrote farewell letters to his family one night...and was surprised to wake the next day and hear people singing, "God will take care of you." He said "I can only call it a miracle. I felt as if I had been instantly lifted out of the darkness of a dungeon into warm, brilliant sunlight. I felt as if I had been transported from hell to paradise. I felt the power of God as I had never felt it before. I realized then that I alone was responsible for all my troubles. I knew that God with His love was there to help me. From that day to this, my life has been free from worry. I am seventy-one years old, and the most dramatic and glorious twenty minutes of my life were those I spent in that chapel that morning."
Was Penney Responsible? Penney said he alone was responsible for his problems, but he did not personally cause the Great Depression any more than you or I are caused the present economic crises. Yet Penney was responsible for his attitude. As one of the world's richest men, he had forgotten that he was not an owner but a steward, and he took upon himself more responsibility, and blame, than our Father ever intended for him.
The Millionaire's Attitude I am thankful that I own as much as a Penney or as little as a pauper because I don't own anything! I am only a steward, and when my time comes, I will leave everything behind. Someone asked a grieving relative how much the deceased left behind in his will and the relative said, "Everything." My Father, however, owns everything! And a constant theme of Jesus' parables was stewardship, because our Father is constantly seeking people who, during their brief tenancy on planet earth, will wisely steward His resources and then pass them on to the next tenant.
I'm quite happy to be a steward and not an owner because this leaves the ultimate responsibility with my Father. But I also know that to him who has much, much will be given, and to him who has little, even the little he has will be taken away. This was the reason that Sue and I did not fear leaving business to teach in China for almost 1oo times less income. We knew that our Sources was neither the business nor the university but our Father, and he will provide no matter where we are, as long as we are wisely stewarding what He has given us (which, in our case, was our lives, as we left behind everything else).
Be a Steward, not an Owner, and have the peace that comes with knowing that our Father will indeed give us all that we ask--if we can do with it what He asks.
Still, I know these are stressful times, so here are a few tips I've used over the years for dealing with stress:
Eight Tips for Handling Financial Stress
1. Pray with Thankfulness. Remember that we are stewards, not owners, and our Father will care for us if we allow Him to--and if we are wise stewards. God's promise is two-edged: "to him who has much, much will be given, but to him who has little, even the little he has will be taken away (Matthew 25:29). But if we are obedient, we can "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, with prayer and supplication, and thanksgiving, make your requests known to God..." (Philippians 4:6).
2. Tithe, or Pockets with Holes? I tithe my week with the Sabbath because I can do much more in six days than in seven (Click Here for "Why 6 > 7") In the same way, I tithe my money not because we are commanded to but because "it is more blessed to give than to receive." Because giving is blessed, I can do more with 90% of my income than with 100%.
No one makes too little to tithe. In fact, it is the poor who often give the most. Even in high school, I tithed the 38 cents an hour I earned part-time, and was blessed. And 10% is just a start. People like J.C. Penney tithed 90%, unlike many wealthy people who hoard the wealth that they mistakenly think they own. Haggai (1:6) warned that by not giving, we are putting our wealth into holes with pockets, and will never have enough. And Malachi wrote:
Malachi 3:8-10 "Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! 'How have we robbed you?' In tithes and offerings..."Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse...and test Me now in this," says the Lord of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows."
3. Set financial goals. I often joke that Chinese immigrants in America make $3,000 per month and save $3,300, whereas other Americans make $3,300 per month and spend $3,300 (or more). But I'm not entirely joking! It is a fact that most Americans cannot handle their finances, no matter how much they make. How can we be good stewards if we have no idea what we've been given or how we are using it? Again, "to him who has much, much will be given..."
4. Save! Put aside 10% right off the top after tithes, invest it wisely (which nowadays may be a mattress), and get used to living on the remaining 80%. A little here, a little there (home-brewed coffee in a nice mug instead of a $5 Starbucks) and you'll find you can live better off 80% than 100% because you'll also have the joy of knowing you are obedient and wise in your stewardship.
5. Keep active outside the home. This is the time for your family's couch potatoes to escape the TV and news, get some fresh air and exercise, and enjoy the many free activities with which we are blessed: parks, libraries, social centers, church activities. Exercise is good for mind as well as body, and is one of the best cures for stress and depression.
6. Reach out. You can't save someone if they won't grasp the lifeline, but today many people are struggling for hope and Answers. This is the time to reach out, because if you think times are bad for you, they are much worse for many around you. Help yourself by helping others. And this is the perfect time for churches to organize more group activities for both members and nonmembers.
7. Control Internet, e-mail and TV. We are not emotionally, mentally or physically capable of handling all of the world's problems. Even Jesus escaped the crowds for peace, solitude and recreation with his inner twelve. Limit your exposure to electronic media. It does not help you in your own life and calling to know that a bus with 71 people drove over a bridge in Bangladesh or that dynamite was found in a Paris department store. Being informed is good; being obsessively informed about everything is another. 100 years ago, you'd have not known about 90% of the world's woes. Today, you don't need to know, instantly, about everything everywhere in the world. Catch up on news once a day, and if it's not something you can do anything about, pray about it. Of course, with all the news hitting us, no one can pray for everything everyday; there isn't enough time in the day. But that also doesn't mean to ignore everything afar, as Ginny O. of JAARS wrote today:
" I remember Ken Boa or one of the speakers we had this year at JAARS saying that he gets his prayer list from the evening news, so that was another good reminder that we are to be bringing EVERYTHING and even the (humanly) impossible issues to our Father who can do all things."
8. Balance. In good times and bad, some folks just have a messiah complex in which they feel they need to reach the world. The fact is, even Jesus did not try to reach the whole world. He could not, because he chose to be born a man, with a man's limitations. He hungered, thirsted, and tired. So he worked within the small sphere within which he was born, and discipled others to go beyond that. And Jesus was very careful that, while he reached out to others, he reached within to his Father. Our light cannot shine if we run out of Oil.
Stewards, not Owners. These are indeed stressful times, but they are also times to put into practice the trust and belief that we so easily preach about in good times. We do not know tomorrow, or how much or little we will have, but we do know that our Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills and seeks out faithful stewards--and rewards them.
J.C. Penney's story was adapted from Dale Carnegie's book, "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living."
JAARS, at www.jaars.org "Partners in Bible Translation", offers high quality technical support services to Wycliffe translators.
www.amoymagic.com
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
"Preach or be beaten!" (Instant lives & lips")
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University"Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season." 2 Timothy 4:2
"Neither do men light a candle and put it under a basket." Matthew 5:15
In "China and Formosa (1898, p. 102), Johnston wrote about an incident in the Amoy Mission that now seems amusing, but at the time must have terrified the young, uneducated Chinese who was caught by a mob and told to either "preach or be beaten!" Johnston wrote,
"One of the Peh-chuia converts was caught by the villagers who were at feud with it. He was too poor to be fined and was sentenced to be beaten. He pleaded that as a Christian he never took part in these feuds. The plea was admitted as valid, but
how were they to know that he was a real Christian? This was solved by the test of preaching. The poor man pled inability, as he was only a common Christian and not a preacher, but the plea was set aside by the axiom, "All Christians can preach," and "You must either preach or be beaten.""Driven to this alternative, the poor man got up and preached to his very hostile audience. Whether he saved the souls of his hearers we know not, but we know that he saved his own back from the bamboo, which was no small mercy: he was allowed to go free.
"It were well that our Christians at home had this reputation for preaching, though there is happily no fear of its being put to such a test.
"Another trait in the genuine converts is their regard for truth..."
The Amoy Mission not only produced China's first church but also the strongest mission in China for three main reasons:
1. Unity. The missionaries of different denominations overcame their differences and cooperated instead of competing (in Shanghai, missionaries made the headlines of the newspaper even in their arguments over how to use an empty bedroom!).
2. Propagate, not Transplant. Early Xiamen missionaries were careful to not just transplant a Western church to China but propagate a truly indigenous Chinese church (Christianity, after all, did not originate in the West but in Asia). By the end of the 1840s, the Amoy Mission had already begun what eventually became the "3 self" movement that Beijing now follows today: self-administration, self-support, self-propagation. This helped create a strong church, and strong Christians.
3. Strong Chinese Christians. Just from Johnston's story above we see that Chinese Christians in Xiamen had:
a. reputations for preaching
b. reputations for being truthful
c. respect of nonChristians
The "Rice Christian" myth. Some critics of Chinese missions claimed that many Chinese were "rice Christians" who converted to receive benefits from foreigners. I'm sure this did happen (Gutzlaff's fiasco, for instance), but it must have been rare, because Chinese who converted were, in fact, bitterly persecuted by family and fellow villagers. This happened even in the late 1980s to Lixi, our helper (click here for "Half the Sky"). I doubt many become "rice Christians" if it means losing family and land.
But those who stuck to their faith won the grudging admiration and respect of those around them for 1) their humility, 2) their patience, 3) their truthfulness. And because they were respected, they propensity for preaching was accepted and respected. But it was the sermon from their lives, not their lips, that first earned them the respect that opened others' ears, as well as hearts.
Instant Lives and Lips? Like Xiamen's early Christians, we should apply Paul's "be instant in and out of season" to our lives as well as our lips. Daily we have countless opportunities to "preach" by tackling obstacles and difficulties with integrity and patience, or accepting opportunities with humility, thankfulness, and a servant's heart.
160 Years! It was 160 years ago that China's first church was opened here in Xiamen. If those 160 years have flown, how much faster will our threescore and ten pass us by. Seize the day. Be instant in season and out, with lives first, and then lips.
http://www.amoymagic.com/Amoymission1.htm
www.amoymagic.com
Monday, December 15, 2008
King David and the Chinese Pig Whisperer
Bill Brown .... Xiamen University
"Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to my integrity." Psalm 7:8
"Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers." Confucius
The Chinese Judge and the Pig Whisperer In 1912, John MacGowan, of the Amoy Mission, wrote an amusing story of how a Chinese judge ingeniously solved a crime by using a temple goddess' help! (Click Here to read the full story, "Pig Whisperer").
A man returned from a long journey, and whispered to his wife that he had hidden gold beneath the temple idol. But as MacGowan wrote, "A Chinese does not seem to know how to whisper. He can shout and bawl and howl, but the art of speaking quietly into another’s ear is a lost one in China. The expression 'in a pig’s whisper' would be utterly misunderstood in this land." [You have to live here to appreciate this; just try carrying on a conversation in a Chinese restaurant!]
The next-door neighbor heard the whisper, stole the gold, was accused, and of course protested his innocence. The judge was certain of his guilt, so he called in the idol as a witness, threatened her with beatings for contempt of court when she refused to talk, adjourned--and the next day the idol indeed solved the case! (Again, see how in "Pig Whisperer").
King David's protests of innocence in Psalm 7:8 reminds me of the "innocent"Chinese thief. What audacity David had to demand that God judge him according to David's righteousness and integrity! David was not only an adulterer but a murderer. Yet David did make this claim, and God honored it--because God had forgiven him for his past and, in this particular matter at least, he was innocent. And in spite of his problems, he was wholehearted in his service to God.
Integrity, F.B.Meyers says, is from the Latin word "integer," meaning whole. David, for all his failings, wholeheartedly served God. And after God chose this youngest son of an insignificant family of a small tribe to be King, David waited patiently for God to work things out in His way in His time. When Saul tried repeatedly to kill him, David refused to retaliate. "I will not touch the Lord's anointed," David said, even when his men argued that God himself had put Saul's life in his hands. It seemed logical enough to his men, but David was taking no chances.
Slippery Descent David wholeheartedly served God, but once he became a king he made the slippery descent from "God's friend" to adulterer and murderer so gradually that he never noticed the slide, rather like a frog in slowly heating water who contentedly boils to death.
Losing the Edge It is ironic that David acted like a king before assuming the throne, living with honor and integrity and fighting for his country. But after he became king, and had power and wealth and respect, he ceased being a king! He sent his men out to fight his battles, and lazed at home in comfort. He lost the edge that God had carefully honed over the decades to make him fit for battle--and while resting at home while his armies fought for him, he saw Bathsheba, was overpowered by hormones, committed adultery, had her husband murdered...and you know the rest of the story.
David--a man of integrity? Yes, he was! He was still wholehearted. His failure was not in heart but hormones, and bad judgment--and then he responded like a rat in a trap, because he was human. But once his sin was pointed out to him by Nathan's ingenious parable (2 Sam. 12:1-13), David quickly confessed "I have sinned." (Unlike later kings, who expelled or killed the prophets of God). Nathan replied, "The Lord has taken away your sin." David still paid the consequence, but his relationship with God was restored.
Slap on the wrist? It seems David got off pretty easily! But then again, given the amazing life he had lived, his unparalleled integrity and faithfulness to God, friend and enemy alike, I am encouraged that he was not abandoned because of this one lapse in character. After all, has anyone else, you and I included, every come even close to David's integrity?
Our Righteousness is as... It only takes one murder to make one a murderer, one lie to make one a liar. No wonder Isaiah wrote in 64:6 "For all of us have become like one who is unclean. And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment" (NAS). David was a murderer, and a liar--but he was forgiven, and his past was put behind him. It is encouraging that we can do the same, and we have a great advantage over David because we have Jesus, a man of perfect integrity and righteous.
But...are we living, as best we can, a life of integrity?
F.B. Meyer ("Our Daily Homily," London, 1894) wrote of Psalm 7:8
SPECIFIC charges were ever being made against David, of which he knew himself to be absolutely innocent. He would not have dared to challenge God thus, if the whole of his life were passing under review. In that case there would have been no hesitation in confessing that, taken generally, he was a sinful man. Similarly, God's children are often accused of wrongs of which they are absolutely innocent. In such case they have a right to declare their innocence before their fellows; then if this avail not to procure their acquittal, they must turn to God, and ask Him to interpose.
But what a question this suggests! Are you able, child of God, to declare that, as far as you have the light, you are living righteously, soberly, godly, in this present world? Is your life right-wise--that is, four-square with the demands of God's law, able to bear the test of his line and plummet? Can you assert your integrity? Integrity is derived from the Latin integer, a whole, a number unbroken by fractions. Are you whole-hearted? or, to use the grand old word, is your heart perfect before God? If it be, it matters very little what men shall say of your character. If a man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but glorify God on this behalf. What is said is aimed rather at the Master than the servant. God becomes responsible for your vindication. He will arise and show Himself strong, putting to silence the enemy and avenger. Trust your reputation with God, and, in the meanwhile, go on doing his will. There is no harm in calmly and temperately attesting your innocence; but if this avails not to stay the storm, bend before it. Do not appeal to law, God will vindicate you.
Reference, John MacGowan, "Men and Manners of Modern China" (1912, p. 164-60).
www.amoymagic.com
"Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to my integrity." Psalm 7:8
"Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers." Confucius
The Chinese Judge and the Pig Whisperer In 1912, John MacGowan, of the Amoy Mission, wrote an amusing story of how a Chinese judge ingeniously solved a crime by using a temple goddess' help! (Click Here to read the full story, "Pig Whisperer").
A man returned from a long journey, and whispered to his wife that he had hidden gold beneath the temple idol. But as MacGowan wrote, "A Chinese does not seem to know how to whisper. He can shout and bawl and howl, but the art of speaking quietly into another’s ear is a lost one in China. The expression 'in a pig’s whisper' would be utterly misunderstood in this land." [You have to live here to appreciate this; just try carrying on a conversation in a Chinese restaurant!]
The next-door neighbor heard the whisper, stole the gold, was accused, and of course protested his innocence. The judge was certain of his guilt, so he called in the idol as a witness, threatened her with beatings for contempt of court when she refused to talk, adjourned--and the next day the idol indeed solved the case! (Again, see how in "Pig Whisperer").
King David's protests of innocence in Psalm 7:8 reminds me of the "innocent"Chinese thief. What audacity David had to demand that God judge him according to David's righteousness and integrity! David was not only an adulterer but a murderer. Yet David did make this claim, and God honored it--because God had forgiven him for his past and, in this particular matter at least, he was innocent. And in spite of his problems, he was wholehearted in his service to God.
Integrity, F.B.Meyers says, is from the Latin word "integer," meaning whole. David, for all his failings, wholeheartedly served God. And after God chose this youngest son of an insignificant family of a small tribe to be King, David waited patiently for God to work things out in His way in His time. When Saul tried repeatedly to kill him, David refused to retaliate. "I will not touch the Lord's anointed," David said, even when his men argued that God himself had put Saul's life in his hands. It seemed logical enough to his men, but David was taking no chances.
Slippery Descent David wholeheartedly served God, but once he became a king he made the slippery descent from "God's friend" to adulterer and murderer so gradually that he never noticed the slide, rather like a frog in slowly heating water who contentedly boils to death.
Losing the Edge It is ironic that David acted like a king before assuming the throne, living with honor and integrity and fighting for his country. But after he became king, and had power and wealth and respect, he ceased being a king! He sent his men out to fight his battles, and lazed at home in comfort. He lost the edge that God had carefully honed over the decades to make him fit for battle--and while resting at home while his armies fought for him, he saw Bathsheba, was overpowered by hormones, committed adultery, had her husband murdered...and you know the rest of the story.
David--a man of integrity? Yes, he was! He was still wholehearted. His failure was not in heart but hormones, and bad judgment--and then he responded like a rat in a trap, because he was human. But once his sin was pointed out to him by Nathan's ingenious parable (2 Sam. 12:1-13), David quickly confessed "I have sinned." (Unlike later kings, who expelled or killed the prophets of God). Nathan replied, "The Lord has taken away your sin." David still paid the consequence, but his relationship with God was restored.
Slap on the wrist? It seems David got off pretty easily! But then again, given the amazing life he had lived, his unparalleled integrity and faithfulness to God, friend and enemy alike, I am encouraged that he was not abandoned because of this one lapse in character. After all, has anyone else, you and I included, every come even close to David's integrity?
Our Righteousness is as... It only takes one murder to make one a murderer, one lie to make one a liar. No wonder Isaiah wrote in 64:6 "For all of us have become like one who is unclean. And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment" (NAS). David was a murderer, and a liar--but he was forgiven, and his past was put behind him. It is encouraging that we can do the same, and we have a great advantage over David because we have Jesus, a man of perfect integrity and righteous.
But...are we living, as best we can, a life of integrity?
F.B. Meyer ("Our Daily Homily," London, 1894) wrote of Psalm 7:8
SPECIFIC charges were ever being made against David, of which he knew himself to be absolutely innocent. He would not have dared to challenge God thus, if the whole of his life were passing under review. In that case there would have been no hesitation in confessing that, taken generally, he was a sinful man. Similarly, God's children are often accused of wrongs of which they are absolutely innocent. In such case they have a right to declare their innocence before their fellows; then if this avail not to procure their acquittal, they must turn to God, and ask Him to interpose.
But what a question this suggests! Are you able, child of God, to declare that, as far as you have the light, you are living righteously, soberly, godly, in this present world? Is your life right-wise--that is, four-square with the demands of God's law, able to bear the test of his line and plummet? Can you assert your integrity? Integrity is derived from the Latin integer, a whole, a number unbroken by fractions. Are you whole-hearted? or, to use the grand old word, is your heart perfect before God? If it be, it matters very little what men shall say of your character. If a man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but glorify God on this behalf. What is said is aimed rather at the Master than the servant. God becomes responsible for your vindication. He will arise and show Himself strong, putting to silence the enemy and avenger. Trust your reputation with God, and, in the meanwhile, go on doing his will. There is no harm in calmly and temperately attesting your innocence; but if this avails not to stay the storm, bend before it. Do not appeal to law, God will vindicate you.
Reference, John MacGowan, "Men and Manners of Modern China" (1912, p. 164-60).
www.amoymagic.com
Sunday, December 14, 2008
The Unsent E-mail Anger Therapy
Bill Brown .... Xiamen University
"Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger." Ephesians 4:26 NAS
"The angry man is never right." Confucius
"Confucius never drove a car in China." Bill Brown [See "Darwinian Driving in China"]
It is ironic that Kipling wrote that "if you can keep your head when all about your are losing theirs and blaming it on you...Yours is the earth and everything that's in it." Kipling lost his beautiful Vermont home because of a feud over a hay field with his brother-in-law and best friend. It made international headlines, including The New York Times (May 11, 1896).
After Kipling married he built a home in Brattleboro, Vermont, and bought land from Beatty Balestier, his brother-in-law and his best friend, but promised Beatty he could cut hay from it each season, so imagine Beatty's surprise when Kipling planted flowers on the hay field! They were furious with each other, and a few days later, Beatty drove his wagon in Kipling's path, deliberately causing him to fall off his bicycle. Kipling had him arrested for threatening his life, a lawsuit followed that settled nothing, and Kipling ended up abandoning his beautiful Vermont home and moving abroad-all over some hay.
One things I've come to appreciate about the Chinese is how they keep their cool--especially when engaged in Darwinian Driving (survival of the fastest). It is literally "every man for himself," but although they lay on the horns at each other, they rarely erupt in Road Rage, which has become so endemic in America. Though times may be changing. Over the past two decades, I've performed psychological tests on thousands of Chinese MBA students. They say our personality changes with the environment, and it appears Chinese are changing. In the early 1990s, most were Type B (slower, more patient, more methodical). Today, most are, by far, Type A--fast-paced, driven, impatient, competitive, quicker to anger. (Take an online test to see which type you are).
In our increasingly hectic world, it is hard to heed the injunction "be slow to anger," but we need to find ways to do it. It is not only the right thing spiritually but also better for our bodies and health, and much easier on our family and friends.
1. Be angry. I have no problem obeying those two words! Fortunately, anger itself is not sin; the sin arises in how we act on our anger. If anger were sin, God could not be angry, and Jesus could not have been "exceedingly angry" at the money changers in the temple. So contrary to Confucius' claim that anger is never right, anger can be healthy--as long as it moves us to appropriate action, and not aggression.
2. But sin not. We must control the anger, not let anger control us. 1 Cor. 9:25, "Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things.(NAS). We use self-control by resolving the inner issues before acting outwardly.
3. Be slow to anger (James 1:19; Proverbs 14:29). We cannot be an emotional vacuum, so the only way to become slow to anger is to replace our natural disposition to anger with something else--such as the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-24) love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control..." Of course, this takes time, and spiritual maturity. I haven't reached that stage in 52 years, and don't know if another 52 would help. Fortunately, I have found ways to delay my response to anger.
4. Slow to respond to anger. This is easier than being slow to anger. Some people count to ten. Others, like me, may have to count to one hundred. But during recent years I've starting using unsent e-mails...
The Unsent E-mail Therapy I write an e-mail to work through the issues, and as an outlet for my anger--and then I don't send it. A few hours later, I reread, think about it, and edit it. By the next day I have usually calmed down enough that I see that, even if I am in the right, I would still be in the wrong to address the issue in such a way, and I either radically edit the e-mail again, or delete it. If I still feel I should act, at least I am acting out of anger, not retaliation. But I've learned the hard way to not put an e-mail address in such letters, because I accidentally sent one! Fortunately, the recipient was much more mature than I, and was amused by my "e-mail therapy" and thought it a healthy way to safely vent frustration.
5. Distinguish between righteous and unrighteous anger. Writing my unsent e-mail gives me time to discern if my anger is justified or not. Paul's anger at the Jews for forcing new Christians to be circumcised was rightenous anger. Saul's anger with David was unjustified. Jesus was, with good reason, "exceedingly angry" when he saw the temple being turned into a "den of thieves." Balaam was wrong in beating his donkey, who turned out to be smarter than Balaam.
6. Don't let anger become aggression. I tend to hold things in until they boil over, and then I get very angry over trifles, and say things that cannot be unsaid. That is verbal aggression, which is as damaging as physical aggression. The only ways I've found to avoid this are 1) prayer, 2) counsel [my wife has a much cooler head about things--at least if it's something that hasn't made her angry herself!], and 3) delayed response (the unsent e-mail helps).
7. Let not the sun do down. Anger is healthy when it drives you to act--but you can't act while you're sleeping. Transform the anger into resolve, and a plan to deal with it, and then sleep in peace. And it might well be that, while you sleep, our Father fights the battle for you.
8. Pick Your Battles I suspect that Jesus encountered enough injustice to make him "exceedingly angry" every day, but it would have been hard on him, and everyone around him, if he spent his entire ministry angry. But Jesus did not go out of his way to seek battles; in fact, he avoided many! He sidestepped some issues (such as paying taxes to Caesar) because His Father had given him his own battles to fight.
If Jesus set limits on himself, how much more do we need limits? If we find ourselves daily at war with the world, no matter how righteous our causes, we may be fighting battles that our Father intended for others. We need to make sure we are in our Father's will, and exercising the fruits of the spirit, which include patience, gentleness, and self-control.
9. Don't provoke anger in others (Colossians 3:21 Proverbs 15:1) "A soft answer turneth away wrath." I learned in business, and here in China, that if we are careful, we can address problems without angering people, which only serves to raise their defenses.
10. Blessed are the peacemakers. There are many opportunities, daily, for righteous anger, but there are also ways to resolve injustice peacefully. And if not--remember that we are called to forgive. When I was in business, I was cheated by several people. I forgave them, and in the end I prospered anyway, but one who cheated me royally came to me later asking for my help! I prayed about it, and did help him. It wasn't enough; he was bankrupt a year later. Which showed me that, truly, "vengeance is mine, saith the Lord." [Though sometimes I wish he'd delegate!]
www.amoymagic.com
"Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger." Ephesians 4:26 NAS
"The angry man is never right." Confucius
"Confucius never drove a car in China." Bill Brown [See "Darwinian Driving in China"]
It is ironic that Kipling wrote that "if you can keep your head when all about your are losing theirs and blaming it on you...Yours is the earth and everything that's in it." Kipling lost his beautiful Vermont home because of a feud over a hay field with his brother-in-law and best friend. It made international headlines, including The New York Times (May 11, 1896).
After Kipling married he built a home in Brattleboro, Vermont, and bought land from Beatty Balestier, his brother-in-law and his best friend, but promised Beatty he could cut hay from it each season, so imagine Beatty's surprise when Kipling planted flowers on the hay field! They were furious with each other, and a few days later, Beatty drove his wagon in Kipling's path, deliberately causing him to fall off his bicycle. Kipling had him arrested for threatening his life, a lawsuit followed that settled nothing, and Kipling ended up abandoning his beautiful Vermont home and moving abroad-all over some hay.
One things I've come to appreciate about the Chinese is how they keep their cool--especially when engaged in Darwinian Driving (survival of the fastest). It is literally "every man for himself," but although they lay on the horns at each other, they rarely erupt in Road Rage, which has become so endemic in America. Though times may be changing. Over the past two decades, I've performed psychological tests on thousands of Chinese MBA students. They say our personality changes with the environment, and it appears Chinese are changing. In the early 1990s, most were Type B (slower, more patient, more methodical). Today, most are, by far, Type A--fast-paced, driven, impatient, competitive, quicker to anger. (Take an online test to see which type you are).
In our increasingly hectic world, it is hard to heed the injunction "be slow to anger," but we need to find ways to do it. It is not only the right thing spiritually but also better for our bodies and health, and much easier on our family and friends.
1. Be angry. I have no problem obeying those two words! Fortunately, anger itself is not sin; the sin arises in how we act on our anger. If anger were sin, God could not be angry, and Jesus could not have been "exceedingly angry" at the money changers in the temple. So contrary to Confucius' claim that anger is never right, anger can be healthy--as long as it moves us to appropriate action, and not aggression.
2. But sin not. We must control the anger, not let anger control us. 1 Cor. 9:25, "Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things.(NAS). We use self-control by resolving the inner issues before acting outwardly.
3. Be slow to anger (James 1:19; Proverbs 14:29). We cannot be an emotional vacuum, so the only way to become slow to anger is to replace our natural disposition to anger with something else--such as the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-24) love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control..." Of course, this takes time, and spiritual maturity. I haven't reached that stage in 52 years, and don't know if another 52 would help. Fortunately, I have found ways to delay my response to anger.
4. Slow to respond to anger. This is easier than being slow to anger. Some people count to ten. Others, like me, may have to count to one hundred. But during recent years I've starting using unsent e-mails...
The Unsent E-mail Therapy I write an e-mail to work through the issues, and as an outlet for my anger--and then I don't send it. A few hours later, I reread, think about it, and edit it. By the next day I have usually calmed down enough that I see that, even if I am in the right, I would still be in the wrong to address the issue in such a way, and I either radically edit the e-mail again, or delete it. If I still feel I should act, at least I am acting out of anger, not retaliation. But I've learned the hard way to not put an e-mail address in such letters, because I accidentally sent one! Fortunately, the recipient was much more mature than I, and was amused by my "e-mail therapy" and thought it a healthy way to safely vent frustration.
5. Distinguish between righteous and unrighteous anger. Writing my unsent e-mail gives me time to discern if my anger is justified or not. Paul's anger at the Jews for forcing new Christians to be circumcised was rightenous anger. Saul's anger with David was unjustified. Jesus was, with good reason, "exceedingly angry" when he saw the temple being turned into a "den of thieves." Balaam was wrong in beating his donkey, who turned out to be smarter than Balaam.
6. Don't let anger become aggression. I tend to hold things in until they boil over, and then I get very angry over trifles, and say things that cannot be unsaid. That is verbal aggression, which is as damaging as physical aggression. The only ways I've found to avoid this are 1) prayer, 2) counsel [my wife has a much cooler head about things--at least if it's something that hasn't made her angry herself!], and 3) delayed response (the unsent e-mail helps).
7. Let not the sun do down. Anger is healthy when it drives you to act--but you can't act while you're sleeping. Transform the anger into resolve, and a plan to deal with it, and then sleep in peace. And it might well be that, while you sleep, our Father fights the battle for you.
8. Pick Your Battles I suspect that Jesus encountered enough injustice to make him "exceedingly angry" every day, but it would have been hard on him, and everyone around him, if he spent his entire ministry angry. But Jesus did not go out of his way to seek battles; in fact, he avoided many! He sidestepped some issues (such as paying taxes to Caesar) because His Father had given him his own battles to fight.
If Jesus set limits on himself, how much more do we need limits? If we find ourselves daily at war with the world, no matter how righteous our causes, we may be fighting battles that our Father intended for others. We need to make sure we are in our Father's will, and exercising the fruits of the spirit, which include patience, gentleness, and self-control.
9. Don't provoke anger in others (Colossians 3:21 Proverbs 15:1) "A soft answer turneth away wrath." I learned in business, and here in China, that if we are careful, we can address problems without angering people, which only serves to raise their defenses.
10. Blessed are the peacemakers. There are many opportunities, daily, for righteous anger, but there are also ways to resolve injustice peacefully. And if not--remember that we are called to forgive. When I was in business, I was cheated by several people. I forgave them, and in the end I prospered anyway, but one who cheated me royally came to me later asking for my help! I prayed about it, and did help him. It wasn't enough; he was bankrupt a year later. Which showed me that, truly, "vengeance is mine, saith the Lord." [Though sometimes I wish he'd delegate!]
www.amoymagic.com
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