talking about theology

One of my favorite things is to talk about theology with my wife. We took a walk early one morning this past week through Kufstein. The streets were still vacant. It was quiet and the sun was shining. We walked through the city and along the river.

We talked about the corner that Christians will back themselves into when they insist on a black and white world. They make it impossible to live in the tension of this world. What is needed for example to love these people like David who for whatever reason seem to break our code? Do you first ask if they have some sin or not before you help?

We end up trying so hard to walk the fence, afraid to fall left or right. Worst of all, we end up afraid to error on the side of grace -afraid that we might embrace a sin. We all need help to be lifted out of what is often a faith culturally imprisoned and poisoned.

To get to this place of grace is hard. It takes the right ground and this may take years to prepare. In the end it is a work by God himself. What does this mean for us in the mean time? Do we give in? Do we walk around them? Do we turn our cheek? How do we respond in these situations?

More often than not these people we are called to love will be outside of our boat. They will be on the other side. And as long as they are outside of a relationship with us, it will be easy to judge and to stay at a distance.

helping refugees

In conversation recently with some church leaders here in Austria, they were saying it is difficult to get involved in helping refugees. They said that often the experience is a negative one, and this discourages churches from wanting to help. Usually the bad experience involves some kind of immorality or dishonesty. When this happens, those who have been involved feel burned and say, "never again."

For example, in February, I wrote about David who once asked a church for some help in finding an apartment. Now, from the church's perspective, David had said he was being kicked out of the refugee house, and he urgently needed a place to stay. When the church checked this out, the house director told them this was not the case, that he was leaving on his own accord. Those who were trying to help David, felt they had been lied to, and therefore backed out of their offer to help.

What do we do with this? How do we help reconcile these contradictory sides? Is this a case of cultural misunderstanding or is it intentional deception? I find it often literally impossible to take one side or the other. . Some have looked at me and said, "you don't belong here, because you won't draw a line in the sand…"

It is true. I don't feel like a streak in the sand. I feel more like a weathered tree on a wind blown mountainside.

come join the fun

We discovered that the boy's room has a mildew problem. Here I am working to get rid of it. There's a couple more rooms to do!

We'll give you room and board, if you would like to come and help sometime this year. Let me know.

It's not what I can do

...to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of God and of our saviour Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:1)

After giving a glowing report about a conference like Share, it's easy to come away with the idea that if I follow a certain set of principles then my kids will turn out okay, my marriage will hold together, my faith will last. But in reality, these things are as uncertain as the rest of life. In the end, we are like Job, where there are no guarantees.

Peter reminds us that God's righteousness makes us who we are --and not anything we do. We are so often tempted to think that we succeed in whatever area of life because we are a little bit better than the person next to us. As I learned last summer, this is nothing less than than moral legalism.

I think that the devil learned his lesson in the episode with Job. He learned that it is absolutely impossible to derail God's people through evil, suffering and generally hard times. He has learned instead to deceive us through our blessing. Simply put, we end up thinking that we are blessed and we succeed by doing something. In the end this substitutes God's righteousness with something else. It takes our eyes off of Jesus and puts them on ourselves, and then the battle is lost.

family conference

Last week the family attended the Share educational conference. This is becoming a kind of tradition for us. The kids have their own classes each day while the adults have a range of workshops and seminatrs to choose from.




The theme in the kids classes was the middle ages.

This was the youth group that Tessa was part of. She says, "God is not who we think he is. We can hardly grasp who he is."







Here is Noah's class. He says, "We sang a latin song from the medieval times. I learned that the church windows told stories."




Here is Luke with David Baker. Luke said, "we didn't really talk about God. we just talked about castles and stuff. "





The week is a time for taking stock of how our family -and especially our kids- are doing. It's easy to get caught up in the routine of life and before we know it, we are living like God is not there. This too is a testimony to our kids.

Reinhild said, "we lose sight that God is real. In these times, it is true, you can't see God, but you can lose sight of him." I was challenged to realize again that one of the best ways to build the relationship with my own kids is to strengthen the one with the Lord.