The three enemies that the Christian has are the world, the flesh and the devil.

Enemy: The World I John 2:15-17
The Bible is not talking about the mud ball that we live on. It is referring to the philosophy that the world holds. Some people refer to this as a “system.” It is a way of thinking that always points us away from God.

Defense: Faith I John 5:4, 5
We overcome the world through faith.

Helper: God the Father I John 2:15
The more we build a relationship with the Father, the less we can love, or be in agreement with, the world.

Enemy: The Flesh Romans 7:18
This is our sin nature. While we can be saved for eternal life, we still struggle here on earth with the flesh. The flesh attacks different people in different ways. While I don’t struggle with certain sins that may be a constant temptation for you, I still have my battles.

Defense: Walking in the Spirit Galatians 5:16
Walking in the Spirit means allowing the Holy Spirit to control your life.

Helper: God the Spirit Romans 8:8, 9
We can please God and fight against the enemy of the flesh only when we are walking under the control of the Spirit of God.

Enemy: The Devil Matthew 25:41
Satan is the leader of all that is evil.

Defense: The Word of God Matthew 4:1-11
Jesus himself was tempted by the Devil and was able to defend against the Devil by using God’s Word.

Helper: God the Son Genesis 3:15
Since chapter 3 of the Bible we have been promised a conqueror over the Devil. Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise.

I am not much of an outliner, therefore I don’t post many of them. Most of the time I just have 3 or 4 words and a list of verses scattered on a 3X5 card and call that my sermon notes. This is such a rare treat for me to have something so structured that I decided to share it with you.

This book however is much more factual. I know many of my readers would not be familiar as to why there is even a need for books like this. If you are not familiar with the issues it is probably because it does not affect you.

In The History of the Reina-Valera 1960 Spanish Bible Calvin George really does not cover a set of bullet points trying to refute an opposing position. He simply tries to cover one issue well. Many people call into question the accuracy of the 1960 revision of the Spanish Reina-Valera Bible based on the men who made up the revision committee. Particularly as it pertains to Eugene Nida. George details what Nida’s responsibility was in the revision work (practically none) and what his translation principles were. I am as much opposed to many of the things that Nida taught, as most fundamental men would be. But as George points out in the book, those teachings came later in Nida’s life. While I have to agree that the seeds of wrong translation principles were probably present in his thinking during the time of the 1960 revision, it did not come out in his writings or recorded teachings until later. Or, at least according to George’s research.

I was shocked and humbled by some of the back stories of the men who did make up the revision committee. There were some true scholars who worked on that project. I have met a few Biblical scholars in my day, but it would have been an honor to sit and talk with some of these men who had to fight long and hard to just be able to obtain the education they had. I have the means whereby to obtain any type of education I choose if I truly wanted it. These men are testaments to God giving a remarkable education even in unlikely circumstances.

It is not a book for everyone, but if you are studying the continuing debate on this issue, it is worth your time.

The History of the Reina-Valera 1960 Spanish Bible Calvin George, Morris Publishing, 2004, 134 pages.

Another example of philosophy dictating rules, is living godly. Many people look at the Bible or church and only see the “do and don’t,” or the “can and can’t.” When you can capture the concept that living godly means that you live in such a way as to please God with every action and decision, you no longer need to have a big list of rules. This is because every action gets filtered through the philosophy.

Of course, rules are necessary. They are what help define the philosophy. You have to start with a set of rules or you won’t know what defines “pleasing God,” or “living godly.” But once you can capture that set of rules and philosophy, you will be able to make decisions that aren’t dictated, or spelled out in black and white, in the Bible. You often find people wanting a “chapter and verse” reference for everything that we say defines godliness. Those are people who have not matured enough to look past the rules and live by philosophy.

In the Bible Paul deals with this “chapter and verse” thinking. He says that while things may be technically legal and permissible, they are not always helpful to others (1 Corinthians 6:12; 10:23). Paul uses the example of eating meat offered to idols. He asks if the the meat was offered to an idol does it change the fact that it is still meat? The obvious answer is, no. If it is still just meat and nothing inherently wrong with it, then it should be edible. But, he says, though technically it is still just meat and it won’t do any harm in any way to eat it, does it look wrong to others? If so, then don’t eat it. If by eating the meat offered to idols it appears that you are living less godly, then don’t eat the meat. You don’t need chapter and verse for that, you only need to use your brain.

Philosophy will help you build your own set of rules. But rules are a start to helping you define your philosophy. If you focus on the rules, you start to see all the things you can’t do. If you focus on the philosophy you see all the things you are free to do.

I worked for many years at a camp. We had a huge set of rules for the workers. Huge! One thing they required though was that the workers turn in their rule books at the end of the summer. They did not want the rules being taken by others and used at another camp. Seems selfish on the surface of it. But the deal was that they had a philosophy that dictated those rules. Without the proper philosophy, they were just rules. You could implement the rules, but you would only have rules for the sake of having rules. You had to have the philosophy or the rules were cold and harsh. Did we hate working under all the rules? No, because we understood the philosophy and therefore the rules were only there to help polish and define the philosophy.

Does that make sense? Don’t just see rules as rules. Try to find out what the philosophy is that dictates the rules. That may mean that from time to time the rules change, but the direction and thinking do not. One example of that is we were not allowed to wear FAMU t-shirts at camp. Is there anything wrong with Florida A&M University that makes it wicked? No, but the philosophy is whatever you wear needs to have a clear meaning and people should not have to wonder what you are promoting. If FAMU won the national championship in football and everyone in the world became aware that FAMU was a university in Florida, then the rule would change and you would be able to wear the shirts without any problems.

Rules can change based on circumstances, underlying philosophy stays the same.

Philosophy dictates rules; Rules define philosophy.

One of the themes of this week’s prayer time has been that there needs to be a change in certain areas of my life and areas of his. Two totally different areas, but we both see a personal need.

I was struck by what Nolan said. The willingness for change needs to be present, or the prayers are worthless.

However, they did come this week to teach a class in a local church on how to teach children’s classes. It was a great 8 hours worth of classes. I am really glad I was able to attend. The couple who taught the classes have over 40 years of experience in children’s ministry. Not only did they teach “how,” but more importantly they taught “why.” I have always been impressed by people who have a philosophy for what they do. It is not just a set of rules, but guiding principles, that if you keep them in perspective, will help you build your own set of dos and don’ts.

The husband was illustrating how to teach a Bible story and he chose the first part of the life of Moses. The Bible says that Moses “was a goodly child.” My Spanish Bible says he was a beautiful child. The whole idea is that he was a good looking baby.

The missionary telling the story stopped and asked the audience if they had ever seen an ugly baby. Of course, everyone obligingly said “no.” Then he said, “I have seen an ugly baby.” All the men laughed and the women were shocked that he would even say that. Then he continued by saying that his second son was an ugly baby. The women were even more shocked.

I happened to be sitting by the speaker’s wife. I leaned over and made a comment about my sister being the ugliest baby in the world (before you blast me, I don’t have a sister). The wife then laughed and said, “Our son really was an ugly baby!”

He must have really been a sight if even his mother admits that he was ugly. They claim he has grown up to be a handsome man though. Sure, like I believe that.

Today we had a deaf man of 28 years of age get baptized. Eduardo has been coming to our church since the end of August or the first of September. He accepted the Lord as his Savior in September. The other missionary with whom we work spent the month of November explaining baptism to our church and its significance. Eduardo indicated that he wanted to be baptized.

The second person baptized today was our son. It was my privilege, a few years ago, to lead him to a saving knowledge of the Lord. Today I was honored in being able to baptize him as well.

It was a special day at church for all of us. These are steps on the road to spiritual maturity in our ministry.

I was excited about being able to make notes and bookmarks of my own. I don’t use a Bible program on my computer. And I currently have no digital note taking method for my Bible study. I usually just write stuff in the margin of my Bible (which is why I have a wide-margin Bible) if it is just a quick thought. Otherwise it goes into my sermon notes and preparation. The downside is that I would have to know for which sermon I studied a certain passage, otherwise I would never see those notes again. That is what is appealing about eBible to me.

I don’t know that I will use it long term. I just heard about it and decided to give it a shot. I do use Bible Gateway on a very regular basis to look up verses. They have the Spanish version I use.

While going through the registration process at eBible, I got an error that I thought was extremely humorous. This would not be funny, nor have even caught my eye had this not been a religious website.

The highlighted text in the screen shot reads, “3 errors prohibited this user from being saved.”

And I thought Baptists could be judgmental. Here is a website that has never even met me and it is telling me that I cannot be saved!

We have dropped them off and gotten to go do some shopping without putting them (and us) through the hassle. Shopping yesterday consisted of going to Costco and doing some research on a new printer. Then, we sat in the little café out front and ate a frozen yogurt. Today we went to Sam’s and purchased the printer we looked at last week and had pretty much decided on back then. We were just doing comparison shopping to see what else might be available.  We also spent a good bit of time enjoying a frozen cappuccino in their café.

Yesterday we started reading a book together. We continued that today. So far we are 3 chapters into The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I fall into the geek element of human population. My wife has serious leanings that way. This book is supposedly a must read for geeks. I don’t really read much fiction, but am giving it a try. Not too bad so far. Review to follow when it is done.

Jim is a missionary whom I met some time back. Although we have been in a few meetings together through the years, I had not had a chance to really sit down and talk with him until last week. I really enjoyed our conversation.

I mentioned over at Missionary Talks that my conversation with Jim would probably change the direction of my ministry. I have already had one friend call me and wanted to make sure that I was not leaving the ministry that I am in. No, that is not the case at all. But, what I learned from Jim is how to more effectively do the ministry that I feel called to do.

My goal in ministry is to establish Deaf works and churches in Latin America. This would be done through training nationals in a short period of time using the sign language from their area. What I learned from Jim (and you can hear the details in the interview) is that I can do this without spending several months in an area all at once. He usually does 3 trips to an area to get a work started. As he lines it out, it makes a lot of sense to me. I will be advantaged in that when I go I will already know the spoken language of the people. I will not have to work through a translator, which I am sure causes Jim to have to spend more time making things clear.

One advantage that Jim has over me (though I am getting there) is age. One of the basic rules that (current) missionaries live by is that we, as missionaries, are not rulers over the nationals. We are co-workers in the ministry. With this I heartily agree. But there are times that, as the teacher or mentor, you have to take the stand that you are the authority on the subject. You are teaching someone something that they do not know. They will need to look to you as the authority, and you really need to handle that situation as if you are the one in control. Sometimes we missionaries work so hard to make the national our co-laborer, that we forget that someone has to be the teacher.

The reason Jim’s ministry works as well as it does, is he goes into the work with the understanding that he is the teacher…he is the boss. He is not there to control and make demands of the people, yet he does know how the ministry needs to work. He has a limited time to train them in the ministry. Again, I think his age helps with that.

It seems that missionaries today (and I am guilty of this) want to be the co-worker and not be the authority. But, the secular world does not have a problem with this mentality and neither should we as missionaries. A new restaurant opened up here in town recently. It was no surprise to walk in there and see a group of Americans in charge of telling everyone how to do their job. They were there to train the nationals in how to run the restaurant. When we went back a few weeks later, there were no Americans and the locals were in charge of everything. The same scenario can, and should, work in the ministry.

How, then, does this affect me? I still have my same goal in ministry, but how I go about it may be a bit different than what I had imagined. I will now plan shorter trips into areas to prepare the people before I actually get a ministry started.

It changes nothing about our ministry where we are today. The purpose for being here for so long is different than our future ministry. This is still training time for us. But, we are affectively doing the ministry while we are still studying the language and culture.

When we visited before, the church had asked if I would preach last night. I was glad to do so. The service went well.

After we got all packed up and ready to head home, I asked our 9 year old son how his class went. He said that he could not be an honest judge of that since he was the one who taught the class. They had someone in charge of the kids, but the teacher asked James if he would teach the class for the evening. So he did. He taught on the 10 plagues in Egypt. A story he had read earlier that day while reading his Bible.

He said that was the first time that has ever happened. He was a bit nervous.

I guess we are a preaching team now.

If you know for certain your child is lying to you to avoid punishment, you may want to ask him why. Is he afraid of the punishment? If he is, can you consider a different form of punishment? Depending on the infraction, you might even consider offering to relieve punishment altogether if your child will come clean. The idea behind this thought process is that you want your child to tell you the truth. Let him know that lying won’t get him out of the situation, but telling the truth now and in the future, will definitely result in a more positive response from you.

While I agree that a child telling the truth ought to understand that the fact he told the truth was honorable, and, sometimes it might even lessen the severity of the punishment, I do disagree with one point.

The Mighty Mommy states: “Is he afraid of the punishment? If he is, can you consider a different form of punishment?” I should hope he is afraid of the punishment. What good would punishment be if there were no reason to avoid it? Obviously, I am not talking about abuse of a child, but punishment should not be comfortable. If it were, then it would serve no purpose.

As I listened to this podcast this morning, I cringed. The reason people commit crimes is because they have no fear of the punishment. If they did, then they would not do it. That is not to say that people don’t get caught and punished, but that the criminal considers the risk of being punished to be lesser than the benefit of the crime. Of course there is the problem of committing the crime and never having to serve out the full punishment. You know, 15 years in jail, but they got out in 3 for good behavior. That never made sense to me.

Am I equating a little lying to avoid punishment from your Mom or Dad with being a hardened criminal serving time in jail? Yes. Yes, I am. Criminals start somewhere. Most of the time it starts in the home with the ones who love the child. If that child is willing to go against and abuse the people who love him the most, what is to keep that child in check when he goes out into the world of people who have no personal connection or love towards him?

A child learns how to treat the punishment system of a government by what they are taught in the home.

Romans 13 teaches that the government is not a menace to good works, but to the evil. That is exactly the pattern that should be taught in the home.

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences….

Mr. Esler’s point in his post is to show that God can use people to show His love to others.

God gave a perfect example of our relationship with Him. That example is the family. But sin has caused this example to break down. Our earthly fathers are not perfect. Therefore, we sometimes have a hard time understanding the role of our Heavenly Father. But God can, and does, use people to show His love to those who do not see this perfect example in their own families.

Parents, one of the goals you should have is to model God for your family. How are you doing?

Our son thought for a minute and then leaned back to my wife and asked, “Then how did it come to be known as April Fool’s day?”

He has 5 children. The oldest studies in a seminary in the same town we live in, which is 2 hours from the village where he grew up. I think he said the oldest boy is around 25. The baby is in his early teens.

Felipe loves the Lord and dedicated this week to the work. I don’t know if he has been a part of this medical team in the past. He certainly jumped right in like he knew what he was doing.

Yesterday we were riding in the back of a truck headed back to the hotel for the last time to pick up our stuff and leave town. Felipe was with us. I asked him how old he was. His answer was classic.

“Something over 50, I think. Maybe 51 or 52.”