Passport Circus

We received our passports!!!  Yay!  All 6 of them.  We're ready to get on a plane for Tanzania.

But it wasn't a simple process.  Here's the drama...(get ready to laugh!)

First, we needed passport photos.  So we went to a local drugstore that advertised "passport photos" but they informed us that we would have to remove our glasses.  We think that's silly since we wear our glasses all the time.  AND we each had passport photos taken years ago with our glasses on.

So we found another drug store and they said, "oh yeah, whatever you want, that will be fine."  After lots of dollars we received very pretty photos.

Then we scheduled an appointment with the post office to submit our applications.  We juggled around my class schedule and the kids' nap schedule to find a block of time for 6 applications.  The appointment was scheduled three weeks in advance.

Then we filled out the 6 applications that were each 3 pages long.

Finally, it was the big day.  We walked into the post office with our four children and....the person who processes the applications was out sick, for the whole week, and they didn't call us.  The next available appointment was not for three weeks.  However, there was another post office 20 minutes away that accepted walk-ins.

So back in the car, drove to the other post office, stood in line (with our four children), finally reached the counter and the agent sighed, "these photos are terrible!  All of them are unacceptable.  I can't process your applications.  You need your glasses OFF."  Oops.

Here are the rejected mug shots:

We couldn't go back to the original photo place because it was 20 minutes away.  Therefore we found another location of the same franchise and explained our situation.  They gladly retook our photos and sent us back to the post office.  Unfortunately, it was almost time for Ben's class so after waiting in line for 15 minutes, we had to leave.

Later that evening, we received a phone message from the post office informing us that our applications would be cancelled because we did not finish them on the same day we started them.  AAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

Day 2:
We went to the post office first thing in the morning with our new photos, expecting to fill in brand new applications.  Thankfully, the applications were still in queue!  BUT, three of the new photos were still unacceptable.

AARRRGGGG!

Back to the drugstore for the third time.  You'll never guess what we heard, "Oh, I'm sorry, we can't find our camera today."

WHAT!?!!??

So we found yet another drugstore of the same franchise in another city and retook the photos, again.

We walked back into the post office a little slower this time, wondering what else could possibly go wrong.  But, miraculously, everything was accepted, the applications were submitted and we should receive our passports in six weeks.

Well, miraculously, they arrived in two weeks and they look fantastic.

But as we reflect on that circus, the most profound miracle of God's grace was that Jeannette and I never cried, we never yelled at anybody (although I got a little forceful with the post office agent), and Jeannette and I didn't fight.  We just laughed in shock and wonder and hugged each other.

It was a great opportunity to share with our children that God is sovereign.  God knew where that camera was, God knew that the first guy would be out sick, God knew that our applications would be held overnight.  God knows everything.  God is in control.  God is wise.  God is with us.

We pray that our attitude will be the same when we encounter this same circus in Tanzania.

If it hurts, it isn't love

So I was browsing through the local library the other day and I discovered the "religious" section.....one shelf.  I noticed several self-help, I-am-my-own-best-friend type novels and then my eye caught this title: If it Hurts, It Isn't Love.

Curious.

My first reaction to a new book is to flip it over and read the bio of the author.  I want to know if he or she is credible or not.  The author is Chuck Spezzano and he is a PhD (in what??) who leads seminars and workshops.  Oh yeah, and he lives in Hawaii.

MmmmHmmmmm.

After skimming the introduction and a couple chapters, I found this passage:

If it hurts, it is not love.  Only our needs hurt; only not getting what we want hurts.  Love cannot hurt, because it is a feeling of contact that brings joy.  When we do not get our needs met, it hurts. (204)

Really?

But what about John 11.

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.  It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill.  So the sisters sent to him, saying, "Lord, he whom you love is ill."  But when Jesus heard it he said, "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it."  Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Therefore, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Ouch!  That hurts!  Mary and Martha cry out to Jesus but Jesus lingers.  Jesus' good friend Lazarus is sick and dying but Jesus stands still.  Ouch!  But look...Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus.  Notice the progression: Jesus loved his friends, therefore he waited.  It was an act of love.

How?  Jesus waited until Lazarus was dead for four days.  That way, when Jesus raised him up it would be undeniable that Jesus was sovereign, all-powerful, wise, good, loving GOD.  Therefore, the waiting caused his glory to shine even brighter.  The waiting caused his power to be seen even clearer.  The waiting caused Mary and Martha and the disciples to trust Jesus even more deeply and treasure him more supremely.

That's LOVE!

The Raising of Lazarus 1310 Duccio di Buoninsegna

John Piper has said, "love does not mean making much of us or making life easy. It means making us able to enjoy making much of him forever—no matter what it costs." (Don't Waste Your Life)

Or consider Paul. (II Cor 12)

a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Ouch!  That hurts!  Paul was in pain: physically, emotionally, spiritually.  But Jesus refuses to remove the pain.  Because Paul's weakness caused him to trust Jesus even more deeply and treasure Jesus more supremely.

That's LOVE!

Finally, what about Romans 5:8, "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  Ouch!  That hurts!  The most horrific, painful, agonizing torture was an expression and result of love.  The only way for us to be able to enjoy making much of God was for God to remove our bent toward self-worship and self-destruction.  This is what he accomplished when Jesus took our sin and died.  And now that Jesus is the Risen King we can be forgiven of our sins, we have no fear of death, and we are free to worship Jesus and delight in Jesus and pursue Jesus.

That's LOVE!
I pray that Dr. Spezzano will be stunned by the magnitude of Christ's painful, life-giving love for him and that he will surrender to Jesus as Rescuer, King and Treasure.

"I know the plans I have against you," says the Lord, "plans for disaster!"

I just finished reading the book of Jeremiah.  Whoa!

The Prophet Jeremiah by Michelangelo ~1508

Everybody loves the hope and comfort of Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." 

But have you ever considered the promise of Jeremiah 18:11, "Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you."

Huh?!

Jeremiah was proclaiming Yahweh's word to the people of Judah (the southern kingdom) in the years 640-586 B.C.  The northern kingdom of Israel had already been taken into exile by the Assyrians because of the wickedness and rebellion of Yahweh's people.  Now, Jeremiah is warning the rest of Yahweh's people to beware the wrath of Yahweh which will be poured out on them because of their sin.

Jeremiah Lamenting by Rembrandt 1630

Here's what Yahweh's people were doing.  This was the condition of their hearts.

Read it carefully, asking the Holy Spirit to examine your heart and expose any of these sins in your heart.

they have forsaken Yahweh  1:16, 16:11
they followed idols  2:5 
they played the harlot with other gods  2:20 
they have forgotten Yahweh  2:32, 13:25, 18:15 
they were rebellious  4:17 
they did not fear Yahweh  5:22 
they did not plead the cause of the fatherless or defend the needy  5:28 
they did not delight in Yahweh's Word  6:10 
they were covetous  6:13, 22:17 
they were not ashamed of their sin  6:15
they rejected Yahweh's Word  6:19
they oppressed the fatherless and the widow  7:6
they followed the stubborn imaginations of their own evil hearts  7:24, 13:10, 11:8, 16:12, 18:12
truth has perished  7:28
they burned their children as sacrifices to Molech  7:31
they worshipped the sun, moon and stars  8:2
they have bent their tongues for lies  9:3, 23:14
they proceed from evil to evil  9:3
they love to wander  14:10
their hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked  17:9
they have forsaken the covenant  22:9
they do not know the LORD  9:3

Are you guilty?  I'm guilty.

So what do we deserve?

"Therefore, Yahweh will surely bring calamity on them which they will not be able to escape, and though they cry out, Yahweh will not listen to them" 11:11.  "Yahweh will appoint over them four forms of destruction: the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy" 15:3.

Is there any hope?  Can we be saved?  Who will rescue us?

"Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS."  23:5-6

Jesus is our Rescuer!  Jesus is our king!  Jesus became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

"Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah- not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."  31:31-34

Jesus died and rose again to forgive our sins and make us Yahweh's new covenant people.

"They shall be My people, and I will be their God; And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me. Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good."  32:38-41

We will dwell with Jesus in joy and delight forever.

So how should we respond to such grace and mercy?  How should we respond to Jesus?

"If you return, says Yahweh, then I will bring you back.  For I am with you to save you and deliver you.  I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible" 15:19-21.

"Return now every one from his evil way" 18:11.

"In those days and in that time," says the LORD, "The children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; With continual weeping they shall come, and seek the LORD their God. They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces toward it, saying, 'Come and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that will not be forgotten."  50:4-5

Our only response must be REPENT!  Turn to Jesus!  Trust Jesus as Rescuer!  Follow Jesus as King!  Pursue Jesus as Treasure!

February Newsletter

Hi friends,

Please check out our recent newsletter to find out how God has provided in amazing ways.

Click here:

http://gallery.mailchimp.com/0ba3d8ba746dc365a376250d8/files/family_letter_feb_2012_for_email.pdf

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Thanks,
Ben and Jeannette

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