Going to Kherson (and dacha photos)

Tomorrow we're leaving for a little over a week. We'll be visiting a mission called Agape that works with orphans. I actually first read about them in a Christian newspaper soon after we moved to Ukraine (as usual, I love to see how little our children were a few years ago!) and have been interested ever since. Last month Will went to a training session that they had in Khmelnitsky. Now we're going all together to visit them in Kherson. On Monday Agape is putting on a special day for children from local orphanages that we can help with. The rest of the time we hope to spend time together and get to know them and their mission. Please pray for safe, smooth travel, good fellowship and lots of wisdom to know if these are the people we should be working with next. Thanks!

And then, for no reason at all, here are photos from Saturday at our dacha:

In our grape vines

Working hard

Watering

"To your health!"

With friends

Most of the youth are out of town, but we invited the few who were here out for dinner and s'mores and had a great time together.

And that's all for now. You probably won't hear from us until next month (unless Will already has a post scheduled to go while we're away?).

A book about Americans, part 5

Last time I wrote about this book, I thought that Bogdan had done something to my notes and highlights. He had just hidden them, so they're back now.

The two sections that were really the highlights of the book for me were the one about babushki and babysitters and another about education. I noticed that the review or two that I could find in English focused on the babushka-babysitter part, too.

So, of babushki and babysitters:

The main problem of new American parents is that the country has practically no social institution such as babushki and dedushki - in the Russian understanding of their role. Of course, there are grandparents, but in most cases they live separately, often in other cities and states. They very rarely live with the young parents, who had happily left the parental home, and certainly they do not live with their grandchildren.

And, of course, there are wonderfully involved American grandparents (like ours!) But it's true, it's a whole different world.

A little further on in the same chapter:

They would never take upon themselves the upbringing of their grandchildren, as, in fact, it would never cross the parents' mind to ask them to. It is not in the tradition of America.

We actually have a friend here who will be bringing her toddler granddaughter from the other side of the country back to spend the summer with her, because the little girl "needs to learn how to behave." The young mother called for advice, and that's the solution they came up with.

And then the chapter goes on to explain the idea of babysitters in great detail. To the Russian mind, leaving small children with a teenager could sound crazy.

И русские читатели: разве есть такое слово "бебиситтерство"?

Of Ovis aries and Capra aegagrus...

“...it is a mistake to reduce every decision about Christian living to a "Heaven-or-Hell issue."

David K. Bernard.

Grace is so counter-intuitive, so hard for our pride to accept, that we can take almost any passage in the Bible and make it justify our desire to prove our significance and worth through ‘good deeds.’ We can even twist almost any passage to make our eternal destiny be the result our own faithfulness, with Christ basically being the ‘enabler,’ at best.

“Grace surprises us - amazes us - because it is absolutely free and totally undeserved. It is not the justice we expect, or some vague divine mercy we hope for. It is a full and complete pardon from the guilt of our sins, and a new relationship to God that He has made possible.

 It surprises us because it is not fair. 

We who deserve eternal death are saved by the One who did not deserve death at all.” Charles C. Bing 

I recently heard two different preachers from two different denominations, from two different cities preach on Matt.25:31-46, in the space of one hour:

 "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world...
He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels..." Matt. 25:31-46

This is a passage I’ve heard preached on a good bit... not actually involving expository teaching with sound interpretation, but more as a good source of scary one-liners that can be used to springboard into preaching against (or for) one kind of behavior or another that will determine our eternal destiny.

This is a summary of the aforementioned sermons:
“We aren’t saved by our good works, but as we all know, ‘faith without works is dead, so neither are we saved apart from good works. What it comes down to is works are an absolute must to be saved. They are what give us, as Christians, the chance to end up standing on the right hand of Christ, as His sheep.” 

 

Hmmm...

A couple of questions that are not usually addressed when this kind of teaching is being espoused:

-Is there no conflict here with the emphasis of the majority of the New Testament on eternal salvation being the gift of God, by His grace, completely apart from our ‘good works?’

-Should this be our main motivation to do good, to love and serve - so as to avoid ‘departing into eternal fire?’

In short - Yes, there is conflict; and No, this is not our motivation.

We can very quickly and clearly address the main concerns raised by such a misuse of this passage.

1. Jesus’ sheep are HIS, their nature is not revealed at the judgement.
(Jn. 10:24-30)

2. A believer is NOT judged to determine his eternal destiny.

(Jn. 5:24, 1 Cor. 3:11-15, 11:32)

3.We are saved, reborn and Created in Christ FOR (a life of) good works, not BY them!

(Eph. 2:8-10)

Obviously, the most basic ideas of context and interpretive norms are ignored by those eager to use this passage to scare Christians into ‘Christ-likeness.’ Ignoring the greater context and the repeated message of the New Testament that Christ alone is the one and only guarantor of eternal life is one thing. I know that there is much in the NT that can lend to a theology of “Christ Plus,” and many sincere, godly people hold to this in one form of this or another, seeing this as God’s way to produce holiness in His children.

I understand that. I acknowledge the need for holiness.

This is the far more serious question that I have been pondering as I hear Matt.25 and other passages repeatedly used to ‘motivate to holiness and good works’:

Why do we so desperately want God’s acceptance of us, our worth as Christians, and our very eternal destiny to depend more upon what we do for Christ than what HE has done and is doing for us, in us and with us?

That’s what the bottom line is, after all. 
 

Christ is not enough. 
 

God’s promises to us in Christ are not enough. 

I must ‘do my part’ to earn eternal salvation. 
 

I have often wished that this, the essence of a works-based, man-centered ‘christianity’ would be clearly preached in churches that repeatedly make the same statement in slightly less clear terms. Then I could walk out and wash my hands of them in all good conscience.

I don’t want to be a part of an organization invested in moral reformation and behavior modification of basically good people through constant threats of eternal damnation.

I don’t want to be a part of a showpiece demonstration of ‘godliness in every aspect of life through complete separation from the world’.

I don’t want my acts of kindness towards others to be motivated by the promise of Hellfire if I act in any other way.

“My only hope on the Day of Judgement for any positive outcome is the finished work of Jesus Christ. If God has welcomed me into His family by Grace, if He is ‘happy’ with me, it will be because of Jesus and what He did for me... plus nothing else.

On that basis and on that basis alone, there will be no condemnation on that day. Nor will there be any regret. Jesus will not frown at me and chasten me for wasting my life. At that moment, it will all be about Him sacrificing His life for me and taking it up again.

Period.

It will be about His zeal to complete the work the Father gave Him, not mine. It will be about the faithfulness by which He followed through all the way to the cross for me, the ever-faithless one. His love will be celebrated, not mine. His obedience, not mine. The Good News of what He did for me, not any story of anything I have done for Him.”
Michael Spencer

 

"God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great Love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ...For by Grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the Gift of God,  not of works, lest anyone should boast."
Eph. 2:4-9

Easter photos (lots!)

I was going to post this yesterday afternoon. That has become my "blog time." If I can get a few posts written and scheduled on Sunday afternoon, then you'll have something to read that week. Otherwise, I don't really find much time to work on it anymore. However, after church here yesterday Will and Jaan went with the choir to another church, for another Easter service, so I was busy. But I'm grabbing some time now to write....

So, last Sunday I woke everyone up with "Christ is Risen!" and loud Easter music. Jaan said that he thought the building was on fire. Take a look at his face in the picture below:

Prettiest Easter cake we've ever had.

Will had to be at church really early, so he didn't get to share Easter breakfast with us (), but the rest of us had a fun and special meal. We get enough kulich/paska from other sources, so I don't labor over that. I do make a quick coffee cake every year. Remember how plain it was, with the closed tomb? By Sunday morning it was decorated and with an open, empty tomb. Over cake and juice, we all retold the resurrection story to Bogdan. And we told each other that "Christ is Risen" while breaking red eggs:

No, he wasn't trying to hurt her!

Bogdan's butterfly from the cake

Where is the butterfly, Bogdan?

After breakfast we got dressed and headed to church, stopping for photos on the way.

Easter 2013

Children singing at church

Quick tea afterwards

Then we went with a group to visit a tiny village church.

Headed out to village

Beautiful flowers there!

From a distance, they even looked like dogwood, much bigger than they show up in the photos I took. In my photos, they pretty much just look like apple blossoms, but in real life they didn't. The tint was purplish, instead of apple pink. Katya and I guessed that they're айва, and it looks like we were right.

Bogdan was tired of sitting and just plain tired--it was nap time--so he and I did more wandering around the village than anything else. He was determined to find a "moo," but was satisfied with lots of goats, chickens, birds, butterflies and other bugs. Going for a walk felt like a great way to celebrate, and the church babushki were happy to see him before and after. Plus, the older children got to sing for everyone:

Children singing in the village

Tea again

I loved the yellow fields on the way there and back!
(It's too early for sunflowers yet; this is rapeseed. Maybe even prettier?)

Done in!

DIRTY dacha day

Bogdan was initiated into the joys of mud today. I realized that at this time last year, he wasn't even walking. He enjoyed our dacha then, but couldn't really get involved like he is this year. Asya carefully mud painted him all over, and he loved it. He kept signing for me to sit in the basin with him, but I'm afraid that I didn't oblige him in that one.

The dacha chairman came by while there were wallowing and commented on how "original" these children are. We often laugh about how our neighbor drives his grandchildren out and carries them from the car to the hammock. They sit and read or play quietly, and then he carries them back and drives off. Their feet don't ever even touch the ground. And our children greet him painted black and yelling, "Grandfather, we're Africans!"

С днём победы!

We just got back from a little Victory Day excursion. We congratulated some of the veterans, visited the war monument, listened to a concert, and carefully examined every inch of the city museum.

(Easter photos are still coming soon.)

A Christ-Centered Easter...?

“Christ is the head of the Church...that He may in all things have preeminence.”

Col. 1:14-18

As we’ve been approaching Easter here, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on how the theology of a particular church is reflected in the understanding of the Christian Life displayed by its members. Man-centered theology leads people into bondage to legalism, while Christ-centered theology glorifies Christ Himself above rules and traditions, holding Him up as more important than anything and everything else.

What is the message of the Resurrection that a visitor might hear on Easter Day if they were to wander in and quietly sit down in the back of our small-town church...?

The preacher standing behind the simple homemade pulpit proclaims the simplicity of the gospel... as he understands it:“Christ died for us, and rose again to pay the price for our sins so that we can now live for him. We must reject our sins, repent before God and man, begin going to church and 'bringing forth Fruits Worthy of Repentance.' As we continue in a life of church-going and service, confession and holiness, we can have that sacred hope of one day making it heaven...

if we can keep our hearts pure and don’t fall away!”

Then the choir gets up and sings “Christ rose again to give us the hope of attaining eternal life...”

Pretty clear, one would think, even to someone who wasn’t used to church. The main point of this whole Easter business is that God has finally given mankind an actual, guaranteed chance of making it to heaven through a life of good works.

It makes me shudder, quite honestly.

The problem quite simply is, as John MacArthur says, "a supplemented Christ is a supplanted Christ."

How can we ever repair this myopic, self-centered and egotistical focus of Man-centered Theology when it is pervasive enough to turn even the Celebration of The Resurrection upside down and inside out??

"In Christ, as a great storehouse, lie all the riches of spiritual wisdom, the massive ingots of solid gold which when coined into creeds and doctrines are the wealth of the Church. All which we can know concerning God and man, concerning sin and righteousness and duty, concerning another life, is in Him Who is the home and deep mine where truth is stored... The central fact of the universe and the perfect encyclopedia of all moral and spiritual truth is in Christ, the Incarnate Word, the Lamb slain, the ascended King." (Alexander MacLaren)

A Christ-centered theology and practice of the Christian life is the only thing that can save us from ourselves, our self-focus and self-reliance. A Christ-centered theology is an absolute necessity to keep us from falling away from grace into a system of self-reliant, performance-based Christianity that is essentially a New Testament version of the Old Testament Law.

It really doesn’t matter what we call it; ‘Right Living,’ ‘Requirements for a Committed Life,’ 'Living by God’s Non-Optional Principles,’ ‘Keeping the 49 Commands of Christ’... the fact is, even if we say that it’s not for salvation, the effect is the same.

Self-focused rule following cannot bring about sanctification in us any more than it can give salvation to us. It only brings condemnation.

In his letter to the church in Galatia, Paul couldn’t have said it much more clearly, “You idiots! What are you thinking!!?? Having accepted the gift of eternal life by faith, through the working of the Holy Spirit, you think that now you can live the Christian life and ‘make it to heaven’ by your own efforts?? Has someone brainwashed you, cast a spell on you, or what??” No one who is trying to be righteous before God through law-keeping can do it... in fact anyone who is relying on their works through law-keeping are under a curse!

(Gal.3:2-3,10-13)

Christ himself must be the foundation, the center and the focus of our daily Christian life.

If we have trusted Christ to be our Savior, we have come to depend upon him as the only one who can give eternal life and forgiveness of sins. We have acknowledged that HE is the only one who can make (and has made) us righteous before God - the only one who can (and has) saved us from the righteous wrath of God, taking our punishment upon himself.

If this is true of us, then Christ in fact has become the One Foundation and Center of our life. He is the central reality of our life - HE promises to do all that we cannot do in and through us, if we only will entrust ourselves to him by faith, rejecting our own efforts to deserve anything at all before God.

At Easter, we are reminded once again of this, of Christ Jesus himself, his life, death and resurrection - the central reality of our very existence as Christians.

No church, denomination, or tradition can replace Christ as the Foundation; no Celebrity Pastor, ‘Christian Cause’ or popular teaching can take the place of The Resurrection at the center and core of Christianity. When we allow these things to take precedent over Christ Himself, his death and resurrection, we give ourselves over to an understanding of Christianity that has become more Man-centered than Christ-centered.

Christ is our Hope. Christ is our Anchor. He is the Guarantor of eternal life, and He is the source of our holiness.

May we speak more and more of Him, and less of ourselves, our churches, our dogma.

Wishing to save the world, O Sunrise of the East, Thou didst come to the dark Occident of our nature, and didst humble Thyself even to the point of death. Therefore Thy Name is exalted above every name, and from all the tribes of earth and heaven, Thou dost hear: Alleluia!

Being both below and above, Thou didst never falter, O Thou immeasurable One, when Thou didst voluntarily suffer for us, and by Thy death our death didst put to death, and by Thy Resurrection didst grant life to those who sing:

Jesus, Sweetness of the heart!


Jesus, Strength of the body!


Jesus, Purity of the soul!


Jesus, Brightness of the mind!


Jesus, Gladness of the conscience!


Jesus, Sure Hope!


Jesus, High Praise!


Jesus, my most exalted Glory!

Jesus, my Shepherd, recover me!

Jesus, my Saviour, save me!

Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me!

(Akathist to Our Sweetest Lord Jesus Christ)