This handout is for a meeting with the Mt Juliet congregation's missions committee, 5 Sep 2013.
Heard Nick Fowler, missionary to Belém, Brazil, sponsored by the Mt Juliet TN congregation, teach class tonight. Enjoyed his dynamic discussion about the gospel and decisions on what it takes to be a missionary. His wife Amy taught a ladies class, says The Missus. We enjoyed meeting Nick at Polishing the Pulpit last week and getting to visit a bit with him.
• Seems more complicated getting appointments set up with churches this time around, is most certainly my dullness or slowness.
• Come be with us for the Preachers Files Lectures in Middleton, Tenn., Sept. 6-8. I speak Saturday on "You can be sure of the power of the gospel." I'm still seeing how we're going to get from here to there.
• The Concise Bible Commentary I bought real cheap (about $2 or so) is very concise. Especially in the Psalms, where I've been reading of late. Overall, I wonder if it is too much so to be of much use. Stay tuned.
• Tomorrow night, a meet with the Mt Juliet missions committee, at their request; at least, that's the word I got.
• One suggestion, among many good ones, given tonight in Nick's class on what's necessary to be a missionary: "Have faith." Sounds simplistic, but it's one of the basic ones. If you don't really believe that it's the Lord's will that the gospel be taken to all peoples in all places, you'll stay home. If you really believe it, you will go. Have faith, will travel.
A mid-afternoon pause in our first day, first time, at Polishing the Pulpit, in Sevierville, TN. Have seen quite a few old and new friends. Good sessions by Todd Clippard, on motivations for evangelism, and Phil Sanders, on evangelistic studies.
We got in quite late last night so we went straight to the hotel. We registered at PTP this morning after a good breakfast at a local shop just down the street.
Great lunch with Stephen Bradd family. Thanks for the treat, guys! Their five sons are a hoot. All boy, those boys.
A great blessing after such a short start.
Studying Christian attitudes both on Wed. nights at our house, in what I call our "Bible readings," and on Sunday afternoons, in our Taubaté Bible studies.
Tonight, Acts 4 on courage. The trait shown and prayed for. We hit verse 12 hard, within its context, as a message to the Jewish rulers. And how that hits us hard today as well, in a world where everything is relative. Which reminds me of some news I heard yesterday or today.
The Missus is off to a women's event in the capital, with three other ladies. She's one of two speakers, her slot this afternoon. She must have been so relieved to get shut of me that she forgot to text me on arrival, so I'd know she made it safely.
Justice was not done today by Psalm 93, in my devotional. "Solid Truth for a Shaken Humanity." But that is true of all treatments of Scripture, is it not?
Just back from lunch at the Emporium, down on the avenue, a nice five-minute stroll from the house. Great food, varied buffet, fresh, tasty, not a bad price. Since a couple of the ladies may have to wait here at the house a bit for their rides after arrival from the capital, I bought a coconut loaf (which The Missus likes muchly) and a chocolate-covered carrot cake. I might just get a taste of the latter before offering it to the ladies. To make sure it's good, of course.
Another group of folk from Taubaté were going to the capital as well, so the idea was to rent a van and everyone go together. That fell through at the minute, so The Missus wound up taking our car. She wasn't happy about that, but no way around it. So I'm working from home today.
The women's event is held annually by one of the larger congregations. I do believe this is The Missus's second time to speak there. (There are other similar events held by other congregations, too, and she has spoken at some of them as well.)
Tomorrow and the Sunday after, I'm teaching the SJC Bible class for Jorge, who is on vacation. We're in Philippians 3. Join us?
At Taubaté, we're studying Christian attitudes. Last week, compassion. Tomorrow, self-denial. The UnSelf. (Remember the old 7-Up commercial?) No way to translate that, by the way. Just came to me, in English.
People seemed to like this four-liner, "Procrastination." You might, too.
It's warming up today after the cold snap, partly cloudy skies. Very Nice Day.
And very quiet around here. With no one to bug, I might just take an after-lunch nap. Since the eyelids are getting heavy ...
One more exam of the second round done this morning, the little internal organ showed up as OK on the B&W screen. Come back in a year and drop some more money, says the nice doc with the clipped phrases. So how much of my fee went for the cute little stars on the ceiling that change colors?
Can't access sites on our paid server this morning. Have buzzed the Guy Who Cares for All Things Virtual.
Is the GA out yet? Any subscribers got their copy in the mail? Get our your highlighter pen, since you'll need it for my article. Even though it'll look strange with the whole article in yellow (or pink, whatever the color you use) highlight. My copy will likely take a while to arrive down here.
Ideas popping last night. Methinks most got jotted down. Now to see how many are practical.
Aunt Doris's condition improved yesterday, says a cousin. She's being treated for pneumonia. Waiting on more word.
No cold weather yet, but rain is in the forecast for Tues-Thurs. Yesterday morning on the way to church we had rain and sunshine at the same time. So the wipers were working while I wore my sunglasses. Strange sensation.
Probably not a bad metaphor for life, is it?
My Aunt Doris is hospitalized in Jonesboro AR, not well at all. Please pray for her.
Just back from Netinho's birthday party. I feel a bit responsible for the tyke, since I performed his parents' marriage ceremony.
I figured since the Posthaven folk gave me the beta feature of email posting, that I ought to use it ...
Watch FB for friends' photos of me in my cap tonight. Many people said they were seeing me in it for the first time. I know I've worn it in some party or other around here somewhere.
Same two pages of our Sunday bulletin for tomorrow, but it seems to have more substantial content in this issue than in most others.
Supposed to turn off cold here soon, they told me tonight. Pull out the extra blankets.
This from my old blog, ten years back, bears repeating:
"It is quite true that the Greek word comes from two roots which mean literally 'called out.' Many preachers have made use of this fact to point out helpful spiritual implications, and yet by New Testament times the word carried no such denotation as 'called out.' It was simply the word for 'assembly' or 'congregation.' It so happened that in the Greek city-states an assembly of the citizenry resulted from the people being called out of their city and summoned from their farms to participate in such gatherings. Even though the etymology of the word remains, its real meaning is just 'assembly,' and a Greek-speaking person of New Testament times would be no more inclined to understand ekklesia in its original etymological value of 'called out' than we today would recognize 'God be with you' in 'good-by,' which, as we may learn from the dictionary, was derived from the longer phrase."
—Eugene A. Nida, God's Word in Man's Language [1952]
I do believe I transcribed it myself from my copy of the book.
The posthaven.com site has released their email posting in beta and have set me up with it. This will be a great help. There may be a few bugs, but they'll get ironed out, I'm confident.
I'm living life in 15-minute intervals (now, there's an idea for an article!) for the next 24 hours, after getting hooked up to a blood-pressure monitor, so the cardiologist can find something, anything wrong with me. So excuse me while I grumble a bit. This experience is going to raise my blood pressure, methinks.
Let's see if tags are going to work through the email posting: #experiment #email (update: not that way, anyway).
So here we go, and let's see what happens!
Today:
• Talked with my business associate and ministry coworker, Barbara Ann Oliver, who is in Costa Rica working with the church. First time we've chatted in a while. Caught up with her and shared a bit of news from here. We touched on an idea for October.
• Translated a poem into Portuguese — not mine — "Gaining Through Losing," and posted it on the congregational website.
• Spent some time trying to get my online-links Twitter account to post to my FB author's page. Am finally getting it to FB, I think, but not to the page. I use the Twitter option on my regular account for posting to FB, so I'm having to use a workaround.
• The Missus has set me up tomorrow with the 24-hour blood pressure mapping. Can I sleep through it? Grrrr. The stuff these med people come up with to make life uncomfortable. The cardiologist is determined to find something wrong with me.
• The Maiden got the job. She starts at Embraer's Nashville facility on Monday, about 10-15 minutes to the airport from where she lives. We're very thankful for this opportunity for her.
• I wrote on the Brazilian church twitter earlier that we expect palliative measures to satisfy us, and we always come away disappointed. Let's learn to seek Him who satisfies.