Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

Archive for the ‘General’ Category

I read Galatians 5 this morning. Once I got to the fruits of the Spirit, I walked slowly through them in an attempt to see what fruit I have in my life and where issues lie. As I got to patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, I began to see how much my sinfulness pops up even with the Holy Spirit in me. Ugh. The first example of it that came to mind is how I treat Asher. If he dumps his plate on the floor, I’m not patient with him. When I discipline or reprimand him while using a loud, condescending voice, I’m not being kind to him. When he tries to get my attention and I send him away because I’m watching a TV show, I’m not being good to him. When I let him go to bed without praying with him or reading God’s word to him, I’m not being a faithful father. And that’s just the start of it!
You can see the trend to the point I don’t even have to list the other fruits that don’t come forth in me. What is even more humbling is when I back up to earlier in the chapter where the works of the flesh are listed. I discover these are what I see in those example Asher moments: enmity, strife, fits of anger. Horrible I tell ya. May God and Asher forgive me and may God grant me grace and peace by enabling me to walk in the Spirit and produce His fruit in my life more and more. I can only do works of the flesh. Only the Spirit can produce good fruit in me. I pray God sanctifies me more every second and I praise Him for His infinite mercy in forgiving me through Jesus as I sin day in and day out, day in and day out, day in and day out……..

A wretched sinner in the grasp of a gracious God.

The lil boy is 7 weeks old today and a lot of his mama’s characteristics are coming through.  We thought she used to eat erratically because her food was threatened as a very young puppy before we got her but seeing him as a young one eating like she did when he’s had no challenge at all… well… it must be in the blood!

(the video is poor quality to the point of really not being able to see just how fast he is eating.  But, listen to the audio and you’ll be able to tell he’s a little vacuum.

I know.  I recently listened to a sermon by Mark Driscoll.  To be honest, I can’t remember the name of it because I’ve checked out quite a few of his lately.  I like his delivery, conviction and theology.

In this sermon, he asked the question, “What do you see when you think of Jesus?  What does He look like to you?”  Hmmmm.  Good question.  My first picture is the serene, long-haired, bearded man sitting talking to children.  He appears to not be able to out-wrestle a 10-year-old because He preaches a message of love and forgiveness and peace.

“One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch them and bless them…”  (New Living Translation. 1997 (Mk 10:13). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House.)

Isn’t that sweet Jesus, nice Jesus?  It is, on the real, and I’m not in anyway whatsoever discounting Jesus’ earthly ministry.  The things He did and said are great examples from God Himself by which we can learn and live.  But, that was Jesus then.  Where is Jesus now?  Glorified in Heaven sitting in the place of honor and exaltation, the right-hand of God.  What does the glorified, ascended Jesus look like?  John told us in Revelation:

“11 Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. And the one sitting on the horse was named Faithful and True. For he judges fairly and then goes to war. 12 His eyes were bright like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him, and only he knew what it meant. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven, dressed in pure white linen, followed him on white horses. 15 From his mouth came a sharp sword, and with it he struck down the nations. He ruled them with an iron rod, and he trod the winepress of the fierce wrath of almighty God. 16 On his robe and thigh was written this title: King of kings and Lord of lords.”  (New Living Translation. 1997 (Re 19:10). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House.)

Does Jesus love the little children, all the children of the world.  You betcha.  But He is also The Almighty, capable of striking down the nations.  The Jesus we now worship is not the fragile, incarnate Son of Man.  He is the exalted Savior who has been given all authority in Heaven and on earth.

I really want to see Jesus in His curent exaltation, not His former incarnation.  That made it a lot easier for me to understand why he deserves every bit of my worship.

After Dana and I both got some pretty good sleep last night, I got up smiling looking at my wife and newborn.  Content with the day already.

My mom and her mom came down together late morning to spend a few hours with this birthday boy.  McDonald’s jacked up our order but it was still nice having a good ol american cheeseburger, grease-n-all.

After they left, I worked on Asher’s birth announcement.  You like?

Send us a message with your address through the CONTACT section on www.mccalled.com if you’d like a copy mailed to you.

The evening brought a steak dinner with a filet that melted when I stuck it with my fork.  A sweet potato accompanied it as well as lots of satisfaction.

Then, Dana and I took Asher out in his stroller for the first time.  That was nice.  And now we’re getting ready to give the night another go.

Swahili school ran from 8am-1pm M-F. All this was of course challenging and made even harder by loud squawking guineafowl. They are so loud and persistent, they make excited roosters at the crack of dawn seem like introverts. Needless to say, that isn’t a conducive atmosphere for learning a new language.

So, I took it upon myself to… um… rid us of the noise. I wasn’t out to kill them though there were times I regret I didn’t take out at least a couple of them. There were plenty of small and medium sized stones all around the campsite most of which made great projectiles for startling the guineafowl enough to make them shut up and/or run away. My preference being the latter. I wouldn’t throw directly at them, usually to the side of the group opposite of the direction I wanted them to go. It took many-a-rock to accomplish this and to sustain it day after day. I was mostly successful but I ended up conditioning my ownself into having to throw something every time I heard them while we were trying to learn.

After a few months, that conditioning can wreak havoc on shoulder tendons, especially those which are older than 30 years and way out of shape.

That is such an ugly word, especially when you know what caused it wasn’t exactly the wisest action.  The injury is in my right shoulder and has been there since November (was still in Tanzania) and remains even as I type now.  I finally went to the doctor last week which is where I received the diagnosis.  He also gave me a shot of cortizone and prescribed me 400mg ibuprofen 3 times a day for up to one month.  That should help with all the inflammation in it.

Tomorrow, I’ll post exactly how I hurt it.  It has something to do with 8 of these:

On Friday afternoon, we caught a ride with some friends who were driving the 12-hour journey from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya, our future home. We stayed with them until today with the main goal of the trip being to look at one housing option. The house is in Ifisi, a town 30 minutes to the other side of Mbeya. It is very beautiful but also disconnected because of the distance. Also, the layout of the house has the bathroom, kitchen, 4th guest bedroom, & a storage room on the opposite side of a 15-ft wide courtyard. Big turnoff.

We heard earlier in the week that there may be another house available actual in Mbeya the town and even better, only 15 minutes away on foot from the SIL office where I’ll work. Well, we went to look at it late Saturday afternoon and loved it. The rent is higher than the one outside of town but after other expenses like fuel, wear and tear, etc. they nearly leveled out. So, which one did we like more? The one in town by far. I took lots of pictures to show it to you but they are doing a lot of renovations to it at the moment so it is not as pretty as it will be when we’re there.

We visited the landlord (a New Zealand-er) this morning to walk through it one more time before making our decision. We verbally committed to the house and he e-mailed us the lease agreement this afternoon. The housing challenge is now settled. We have somewhere to call home.

More details to come…

Oh yeah, two other great things about today:

1- Dana made the 4-hour bus ride home without vomiting… always a plus…

2- A friend helped me figure out settings on my phone to use it as a wireless modem to access the internet and e-mail (EXTREMELY slowly, of course).  I am blogging from our banda!

We’re off to orientation and will have limited internet access (if at all) for the next few months.  We’ll do the best we can at posting info.  In the meanwhile, pray for us to be able to soak up all we’re taught in orientation and language school.

THANKS!

This is the packing monster as it growls now.  You would not BELIEVE what is in there.  The monster ate more than either of expected it to.  That’s a good thing though.  The stuff in the background to the left (desk, open boxes, blue ottoman) are not part of the monster’s body.  Those are just leftovers.All-in-all, we’ll end up using every inch of the 44″ x 44″ x 44″ pallet box.  We just hope it all makes it to Africa. 

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