Must our teachers and heroes be Christians?

A little informal poll:  I’m interested in what my friends think about the idea that the teachers and heroes of a Christian ought to be Christians.  Don’t be shy.  You can go to the comments and read my thoughts, but I’m really interested in yours.

Success in shiny eyes

Ben Zander, who conducts the Boston Philharmonic, authors books, and inspires countless people, says he measures success by how many shiny eyes he has around him.  If he could have seen my eyes yesterday afternoon after watching one of his lectures he would have felt very successful indeed.  I like Ben’s measure of success because it cuts to the quick of what’s important and reveals God’s fingerprint on human nature.

Shiny eyes happen when the beauty of the invisible God and his Kingdom breaks through into the natural world.   Whether it’s the harmony and passion of a Beethoven Symphony, the tender touch of a friend, or the wonder of a good story, those things are all – at the heart – mere visible reflections of the passion, tenderness and wonder of the invisible God.

Abba wired us for shiny eyes and for all the things that cause them to shine.  It’s one of His ways of courting us and inviting us into his Kingdom.   When a man discovers a treasure in a field or a pearl of great price, his eyes will shine like diamonds in the sun – so much so that the Son told us, “YOU are the light of the world, a city on a hill cannot be hid.” (Matt. 5:14)

I’m living this month in a city, (Sarajevo), where masses of people live in a dim, colorless world.  Lets pray that the eyes of many will fall again upon the Pearl of Great Price, and will begin to shine with the wonder of the Kingdom.

“Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body.  If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light.” – Matt. 5:14

They’re giving me hope

I’ve just returned from the most amazing four days in the fog-shrouded mountains of Bosnia with ten home-schooled missionary kids.  I wasn’t sure how fourteen to seventeen year-olds would connect with worldview and the kingdom, but these guys blew me out of the water with their hunger and insight. What to say about high-school kids who ask for “more, if you’ve got it” rather than taking time for a break?

It’s as if the younger generation is perfectly attuned to their “kingdom DNA” and just waiting for something to connect the dots.  God “… has set eternity in their hearts” and they’re ready to live it in ways my generation never dared to imagine.

With headlines like today’s, I’m needing a good dose of hope.

Let’s pray for Iran

Let’s pray for Iran.  The events unfolding among the brave people of that nation have the potential to be as history-shaping as the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1989.  My Persian friends have been telling me for years how the common people of Iran detest the death-hold of the Mullahs.  This could be the time of their liberation, and we don’t want to miss the opportunity to stand with them in our prayers.

The kingdom of God means setting at liberty those who are oppressed, (Luke 4:18), and each time we pray “thy kingdom come” we would do well to remember our friends who are suffering under the yoke of religious bondage.

I’m no preacher…

Today I’m told the Romanian church celebrates Pentecost, and after a week in a classroom of young students ranging from orphans and illiterates to journalists and university students here in Targu Mures, (almost sounds like the original disciples!), I’ve been handed the opportunity to “preach” in a nearby Pentecostal church.   Preaching isn’t something I’m especially good at, but I’m excited to see what Abba has in store.  Some of the young people in this church have been students in the past, so this could be a good chance to encourage them and underscore the role of the Holy Spirit in building His Kingdom .

Tomorrow we’ll start with fresh group of students in Medias, a small town in the center of the country.  My friend Zak James, from my home church in Florence, South Carolina, is with me for three weeks, and he’s been a handy helper and encouragement along the way.  Thanks for whatever prayers you can spare.

Hymn to the Godhead

Song to the Godhead

Father of mercy,
Author of life;
Lord of creation,
Refuge in strife;
Broken your heart
From Adam’s dark sin;
Determined in passion
To bring us back in.

Jesus our brother
Sent from the throne
Revealing the Father,
Calling us home.
Offering your utmost
To break the dark curse;
To raise us to heaven
And show us our worth.

Sweet Holy Spirit
Come open our eyes;
Bind us together,
Break off the lies.
You are our Comfort,
The Spirit of Truth
Lift us, adopt us
And make us anew.

Don Stephens
6/3/09

The seeds of Auschwitz…

Almost two weeks down the road I’m still thinking about Auschwitz and what led up to the gas chambers of Birkenau.  Ideas have consequences.  They are the cultural seeds that grow into movements which either build or destroy the civilizations of the world.  The seed-ideas of Democracy, the Reformation and the Enlightenment quite naturally gave us the Modern world just as surely as the seeds of Darwin led to the Holocaust.

The evolutionists have been teaching us for 150 years that human beings have no special value.  Evolved from nothingness into a quivering mass of organs and blood, we’re merely animals of the highest order.  And among the children of primates are some, (in the case of Nazi Germany it was the Aryans), who are more highly evolved that others.  Nazism at its root was a demonic device to speed evolution along by exterminating the inferior races.  What could be more logical or more inevitable?   Hitler was a great fan of Darwin.

The horrifying thing, of course, is that those same ideas are fueling another holocaust of terrifying proportions: to date, over fifty million unborn children, (one third of an entire generation), have been aborted in America alone.

Genesis confers mankind with honor, dignity and purpose while evolution strips away human value until we’re left on equal footing with the animals.  Auschwitz was a wake up call for me: It’s time we in the church learn better to counter the ideologies of death with the simple, articulate Truth that leads to life.

Words and warfare

For the past month I’ve been living “up close and personal” with eleven other friends on this outreach through the Balkans.  Typically we’re together every waking moment in cars, hostels, outreach activities, and meals.  For all practical purposes the only time I’m not with the team is when I’m asleep or in the restroom!

The whole experience has been an exercise in sanctification as we’ve worked through the challenges of living together in “cramped community.”   And in these conditions I’ve been noticing how crucial a few words of encouragement can be to another person.  It’s so important, I believe, that it’s actually a form of spiritual warfare.

We humans often drift through our days to the devil’s dirge of accusation and inadequacy: “I’m not good enough.  I’m too fat, too skinny, too plain, too uneducated, too clumsy, too old to have what it takes.” But the voice of Jesus offers a different story: “You can do all things through Christ.”  (Phil 4:13); “You are the light of the world.” (Matt. 5:14)  “You are my beloved” (1 Cor. 15:58);  “You are more than a conqueror…” (Rom. 8:37)   and a thousand other encouraging words to the ones who are joined to Him.

I’ve gotten a bit hooked this trip on watching the faces of my friends light up by a few simple words of encouragement.  And I’ve become convinced that it’s neither a game nor just a good thing to do. Encouragement is a direct strike at the heart of the devil’s kingdom, taking out the lies that drag us down to the the grave.

“So then, encourage one another and build each other up, as you are doing.“
-1 Thess. 5:11

Edo the pen-seller

Edo is a delightful older man who works the streets of Sarajevo smiling, shaking people’s hands and selling pens.  He greets me like an old friend each time I see him, and invariably I buy one of his inexpensive pens whether I need it or not.  (In my book he gets credit for being an entrapreneur, rather than simply begging).

Last week I bumped into him while I was out walking with Sunam and Rebekka.  He was smiling, but moving a bit slower than normal.   “How are you, Edo?” I asked. “Not good.  I have diabetes” he answered.  So we prayed for him there on the street, the kind of casual prayer where you talk to Abba as if He were standing next to you, and since we were on the street we kept it short: “God… we know you love Edo.  Will you please bless him, strengthen his body, and even heal him?” And then we squeezed his hand and moved on.

A day or so later we met again on the street, grabbing a quick handshake as we passed in opposite directions.  Then he turned and called after me.  The doctor, it seems, gave him a good report on his insulin levels, and he was all smiles and thumbs-up wanting me to know the good news.   I can’t say if whether or not Edo is healed.  Diabetes isn’t the kind of thing you know right away, nor the type of thing you mess with.  But he saw God take notice of him and answer a prayer for his health.  It reminded me that the Kingdom comes with power, and unless we gather our courage and step out in faith we’ll never see His healing hand at work in the crowd.

Auschwitz

Today we visited the Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps and saw first hand the final solution of Hitler’s Nazi Experiment.   Well over a million men, women and children were exterminated in the gas chambers of these two camps.   One room contained two tons of human hair that was being processed into fabric for lining winter coats.  Another room contained over 20,000 shoes of all shapes and sizes.  Both were just a tiny fraction of what was collected from the corpses.   We stood in the gas chamber, looked into the furnaces and peered into the ash pits where countless human beings – created in the image of God – were snuffed out and erased from human history.  I have neither the words nor the emotional equipment to categorize my experience here.

Tonight we stay in Krakow.  Prior to the final solution Poland had a Jewish population of over three million.  Today there are fewer than a thousand.   May God have mercy on us.

“We know that a man can read Goethe or Rilke in the evening, that he can play Bach and Schubert, and go to his day’s work at Auschwitz in the morning.” -George Steiner