One of the young men who grew up had a single-vehicle motorcycle accident.
Clyde gave Maycon drum lessons back in 2009.
He was Ana’s brother, Ana, who married Douglas and Paula’s daughter. Paula and Ana are on the other side of the casket.
The men laid the casket inside this cement box, at ground level, on top of some thin boards. This is a family burial plot, and the remains eventually fall together at the bottom of a big hole. The man is shoveling cement onto the lid to seal it off.
God wanted to give wisdom to Adam and Eve so they could be His representatives. He started with the admonition to stay away from one tree. They decided to take things into their own hands rather than receive them from God.
The design pattern of taking or receiving runs through the Bible.
1. Cain took matters into his own hands. Not good.
2. Noah was quietly obedient for 100 years until he surprisingly saved humanity—the ultimate training program for the ultimate leadership responsibility.
3. Abraham started well as he followed God into the wilderness, but then he took matters into his own hands. He left God’s chosen wilderness, took Sarah to Egypt, and offered her to the Egyptians to save his own life. When they were expelled from Egypt to return to where God wanted them, the Egyptian king gave them a bunch of stuff and people to get rid of them. Abraham and Sarah continued to vacillate between taking their blessing into their own hands and waiting to receive it from God. Hagar was an Egyptian maid. Thankfully God kept patiently working with them until they eventually received God’s full blessing and became the “father of us all” (Rom. 4:16b).
Notice how each of these servant leaders refused to take leadership. They quietly endured suffering until they received leadership from God. But God does keep working with the willing.
Ultimately, of course, godliness is not about keeping a new set of ethical rules or taking matters into our hands but about learning to hear and obey the Holy Spirit to receive from God.
But is it really a test? What if, hypothetically speaking, one unethical act leads to newly gained power to be a godly leader? Isn’t God interested in results? And I know that Joseph’s dream eventually worked out, but dreams don’t come with guarantees… Can you hear the lisp?
I would love to hear from you.
ReferencesCooper, D., Lohrmann, M. J., George, T., & Manetsch, S. M. (2016). 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles: Old Testament (Vol. V). IVP Academic.
Evans, M. J. (2004). The message of Samuel: Personalities, potential, politics, and power. Inter-Varsity Press.
Green, M. (2001). The message of Matthew: The kingdom of heaven. InterVarsity Press.
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Canada Day, July 1, combined with summer holidays for the neighborhood children. Deanna invited several over to celebrate their report cards. Some parents do not understand the value of report cards and encouraging their children because this was never modeled for them by their parents, and they did not go to school much themselves.
This iguana fell into our patio and got trapped. Rather than chase it through our house, I set up a little stepladder. Later, when I checked again, the iguana had climbed to freedom.
Please pray for Lucas. He was born premature and is struggling for his life. He got pneumonia this week. His parents live downstairs in our house and care for it when we travel.
Vanderli’s Mom, Vanderli’s Aunt, Deanna, Vanderli, Tonhetta
Vanderli has often told me his story, but I never thought I would get to meet his mom because she lives about 2,000 km away, but she came up on a bus for a visit. She used to own a cabaret. One day a prostitute came, gave her a baby boy, and left. She never saw Vanderli’s birth mom again. Since Vanderli’s new mom was busy running the cabaret, she sent Vanderli to her mom’s farm in the bush with her other biological children. Since then, the familhas becomeme Christians. There are church planters and pastors in the mix. Vanderli lives across the street from us, and his wife Tonhetta is one of Deanna’s best friends in Marabá.
Last weekend a church held another Encontro Weekend on the Mission Property.
An Encontro Weekend goes from experiencing God’s love to reflecting on personal brokenness to writing down all the things for which the participant wants forgiveness, to burning the list as an act of leaving the old ways behind, to the celebration, ending with a celebration service at the church, reconciliation of families, and testimonies, and fireworks.
The leaders spend significant time on the recognition of sin piece, explicitly describing things God that people do that are wrong because many people do not know. There are so many ways to justify sin that many find it helpful to see what is in the scriptures. The papers are personal. They don’t show them to anyone. Participants are also taught about reconciliation and making things as right as possible with others too. The fire symbolically represents a point in time when we were forgiven and we’re moving forward.
It is important to teach the leaders about confidentiality and the participants that if they confess serious crimes, the leaders are obligated to tell authorities. The life of sin is so messy it is amazing the devil can keep deceiving people into thinking it is some form of freedom.
Christians and eating good food together is a winning combination.
Jesus shocked the leaders of His day when He told them that relationships are more important than rules.
But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets” (NASB, Mt. 22:34-40).
The summary is exceedingly powerful and disturbing, for it takes the questioner from the area of achievement, which he might conceivably fulfill, to that of attitude, where nobody can boast fulfillment. For people who, like this expert in the law, were strong on ethics and weak on relationships, this strongly relational teaching was a revealing mirror of the heart (Green, 2001, p. 236).
Tim Mackie from the Bible Project explained how favor to latecomers is a recurring theme in the Bible and an ancient test. Some Bible Scholars suggest this may have been the major stumbling block for Lucifer. God’s special angel was created first, and now God is favoring the newly created humans.
Consider the following list of firstborns and latecomers, reflect on what happened, and then imagine how things could have gone differently. What if you were one of the players? Imagine yourself on both sides. How would the best version of you treat the other?
As a latecomer, David passed with flying colors. 10/10. David refused to talk bad about Saul, refused to take justice into his own hands, and received the highest honor from God. ” Saul, the firstborn in this analogy, is completely unreasonable. Why did he not honor David? He would have looked greater himself to be the king of a warrior who was doing exploits like Goliath. Saul failed the ancient temptation.
“After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.’” (Acts 13:22).
Notice that David didn’t lose self to Saul. David didn’t offer himself up to die. David didn’t promise not to take over the kingdom. Etc. David respected and honored Saul and stayed true to his calling and anointing. David continued to serve the same people Saul was serving and did his best to help everything move forward as well as possible.
Later in life, David experienced the same ancient and potentially deadly test again from the other side. This time David was the ruling king, and his son Absolom unjustly does a hostile takeover. David continues to love the other without losing self. David did not offer to give the kingdom to Absolom. David did not surrender himself. But nor did he quit loving the man on the other end of the ancient temptation who was trying to kill him.
The Pharisees were furious because they were God’s chosen leaders, and now God was favoring a newcomer. Jesus continued to love them without losing self. Pay attention to how Jesus loved people without needing to be loved back. Our command from Jesus is to love others, not to get others to love us. Jesus ate in the Pharisee’s homes and talked publicly and privately with them while never compromising his mission or beliefs.
The church in Rome was in conflict. The Jews and Gentiles were trying to worship the same God from different cultural backgrounds. Paul wrote them a long letter explaining how they should love one another.
Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you (Rm. 16:17-20).
1. Watch out for people who only want to argue.
2. They are enslaved to their personal desire more than to godliness.
3. God will use you, His church, to crush Satan’s head under your feet as you love God and love people. The context is loving God and loving people.
Paul refers back to the creation story!
“…He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel” (Ge. 3:15b).
Jesus defeated Satan at the cross, and now His church is walking it out.
Paul had just had a long explanation about how people love one another.
“Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. . . . Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. . . . the God of peace be with you all” (Rm 14-15).
1. It is impossible for us to understand the complexities of another person’s life. Job said, “It’s not fair…”. God agreed but didn’t explain except to say, “Running the world is more complex than you can possibly understand at this time.”
2. The rules are important, but loving God and loving others is more important. What if we have a neighbor whose dad abandoned them, their mom has a series of boyfriends, and things go downhill from there? With the little they know, they love God, and they love people. They give sacrificially when a neighbor is hurt, but no one thinks they are Christians, even though they sometimes post flowery Christian sayings on Instagram.
“In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out. And they will come from east and west and from north and south and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last” (Lk 13:28-30).
3. An ancient temptation is with people who have come after you or with those who have gone before. Maybe we all go through both sides of this well-worn path that leads right by the Tree of Judging Others and on up the hill to the Tree of Life. Are we able to keep loving the other as much as we love God without losing self? Our concern is not to get people to love us. That is another deceptive trap. But, like Jesus, Paul, and David, can we love each other, serve the same people, and not compromise our faith, beliefs, and call of God?
References
Green, M. (2001). The message of Matthew: The kingdom of heaven. InterVarsity Press.
