I'm Back.

It's a good thing no one has been holding their breath waiting for me to update again. Phew. But I am happy to report that I will be back into the swing of things shortly. I have much to write about, including observations from and thoughts provoked by my experience at Urbana over Christmas break. Be watching this week...

That's a Wrap...for now.

I am sorry to report that severemercy.blogspot.com will be taking a break for an indefinite period of time. Hopefully, it will be back up and running soon.

Home is Where....

Earlier in this semester, I was missing the mountains and rolling plains of Montana, and the familiarity of home. I was lamenting the fact that it is uncertain when I will spend any extended period of time there again, noting how short the summers even seem. At this stage in college, the possibilities are endless. (*If any of you grew up in Montana, or have been there, you would know how easily one can fall in love with the place.) But in thinking about these things, I also considered what my attitudes have been in the years previous to college regarding my home. So often on vacations and travel, I ventured off into the unknown fearlessly. My one thought was to get as much out of the new experiences as I could. I did not pine for home because it would be there when I got back and I had the certainty that my journey would end far too soon. I had to use the time I had away from home the best I could. Sitting in a hotel room weeping over being away from home when I could be at a beach in Florida would just be silly. And it was those times away from home that made me appreciate what I really had when I got back.

All of this talk of home encouraged me to think about the one true home that Christians have in heaven and what our attitude should be toward it. It is our home and the place where we shall be heirs with Christ to enjoy his glorious majesty throughout all eternity. Sometimes our view of heaven overshadows our responsibilities in this life. We get so caught up in visions of glory that we are not mindful of the present. Because you suffer in a fallen world, you may yearn deeply for the peace of Christ in heaven. You are not alone in this. But we must not allow this yearning to hinder our journey here on earth. Know that if Christ is your king, then your kingdom is secure and you will have an "inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you." (1 Peter 1:4) It is sure, certain, constant, eternal. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ that has set us free, "neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation." (Romans 8:38-39) As did Christ, we have "a joy set before us" in heaven. Our present trials rightfully prevent us from becoming too attatched to the things of this world.

But while we long for that heavenly state, let us rejoice that God is faithful and that our home is secure, and let us not allow our longing overshadow this life. For we are still in the world and are part of God's plan. He has called us to glorify him in this life as he has in the next. So let us live like our home is secure and in the confidence that we will be with God when the time is right. Let us live with reckless abandon for Christ with his banner flying ever before us. "Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." (Hebrews 12:1) We know that even death will not separate us from Christ, so what is there to fear but failing to honor Christ? Let us abandon our sin, ourselves, and any other thing that prevents us from a life lived in submission to Christ. Don't become too comfortable in this world! It will all fade away. Instead, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:20), for home is where.... If your heart is with Christ, then you may rest in his promises and may rise up in battle for him. Lose your life to save it. (Mark 8:35)

Reality Check

Tonight, since I am on break, I caught a little bit of TV while laying aside my homework for awhile. I happened to catch an episode of "Survivor." Now, I have seen a couple episodes of this show over the past couple years and it can be entertaining at times, I'll admit. But tonight, it really disgusted me, and not because they had to eat worms or anything. It struck me in a really hard way. First, we are supposed to feel bad for these people when they are hungry or thirsty or have blisters or sunburn or what have you. But it's a game show and they chose to be on there- all for the sake of money! And there are real people in the world suffering from real situations who don't get money out of it. (I think we have all come to grips with the fact that "reality TV" is far from reality...I hope.) So I don't really feel too sympathetic for these people. Well, let me take that back. I have sympathy on them for another reason. I think that this show exemplifies, brilliantly exposes, the total depravity of man. In other words, man is unable to do good apart from the grace of God...he only sins. (Romans 3:10) These people go on this show to win the million dollars- at any cost. As the show progresses there is all manner of deceit and lying and backstabbing and foul play. At the bottom is the selfishness and pride that is at the root of sinfulness. They do everything for their own gain. This is very pitiable to me. But there is something perhaps worse. It involves all you viewers out there. We sit in our comfy homes and watch this "reality TV" and criticize these people for the way they are acting. But we wonder what we would do in the same situation and perhaps applaud the strategic moves of our favorite players. But look at these people! When you see them monkeying around on TV with their lies and shouting matches, doesn't it all look very sick and childish? When magnified on a TV, don't we scoff at them? But how similar are our lives to theirs. And how often do we pursue selfish gain over smaller sums than a million dollars. And I guess it really made me ask, "As Christians, what are we really striving for? What is our end?" Don't answer too quickly. Because we may answer correctly in our Christian lingo that Jesus Christ is our be all and end all, but what do our lives say? Your life speaks your theology much louder than your words ever could. What is precious in our lives? What would we die to have? Is it Christ? Are we taking up our crosses daily for Christ? Is our hope in him or in the world? I guess, I don't have a lot to say today. It's just a challenge to myself and to you to examine what your life tells about the goal for which you are competing.

Saturday Book Club

Today, I recommend the book, Through Gates of Spendor by Elisabeth Eliot. It tells the story of the five young men who gave their lives in order to reach the Auca tribe in Ecuador in 1955. Eliott weaves her narrative around the letters and journal entries of the five men. This book has inspired and continues to inspire mission endeavors across the globe, but may have some people wondering, "Wasn't that a waste of five young, intelligent, engergetic lives?" After reading the testimonies of the men and of the wives whom they left behind, you'll know that these men lived and died in service to Christ and for the glory of God. They willingly laid down their lives for their belief and in complete reliance upon God. This book has challenged me, asking, "Do I conduct my life as if 'to live is Christ, and to die is gain?'" (Phil. 1:21) If you have listened to Stephen Curtiss Chapman's song, "There is No Greater Love," one of the Auca tribesman sings at the end of the song in his own language to God. He was one of the Auca who killed the missionaries. Their lives opened the door to these people for the gospel of Christ.

Fast Facts

Number of Pages: 274
ISBN Number: 0842371524
Publisher: Tyndale House
Where to get it: Amazon.com; Discerning Reader
Times I've read it: 1
Other books by Elisabeth Elliot: Passion and Purity; Savage My Kinsmen; Shadow of the Almighty; The Mark of a Man

Quotations from the Book:

"I have one desire now- to live a life of reckless abandon for the Lord, putting all my energy and strength into it. Maybe he'll send me to a place where the name of Jesus Christ is unknown. Jim, I'm taking the Lord at his word, and I'm trusting him to prove his word. It's kind of like putting all your eggs in one basket, but we've already put our trust in him for salvation, so why not do it as far as our life is concerned? If there's nothing to this business of eternal life we might as well lose everything in one crack and throw our present life away with our life hereafter. But if there is something to it, then everything else the Lord says must hold true likewise." - Ed McCully


"I would gladly give my life for that tribe (Aucas) if only to see an assembly of those proud, clever, smart people gathering around a table to honor the Son- gladly, gladly, gladly! What more could be given to a life?" - Pete Fleming

"During the last war we were taught to recognize that, in order to obtain our objective, we had to be expendable...This very afternoon thousands of soldiers are known by their serial numbers as men who are expendable...We know there is only one answer to our country's demand for freedom. Yet, when the Lord Jesus asks us to pay the price for world evangelization, we often answer without a word. We cannot go. We say it costs too much.

God himself laid down the law when He built the universe. He knew when He made it what the price was going to be. God didn't hold back His only Son, but gave Him up to pay the price for our failure and sin.

Missionaries constantly face expendability. Jesus said, 'There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my sake and the Gospel's but shall receive an hundred fold now in this time and in the world to come eternal life.'" - Nate Saint

"Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God." - Jim Elliot

Praise Him Still

"The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God..." Acts 16:22-25

Tonight, at an InterVarsity meeting, the mime team performed this story of Paul and Silas in prison and the background music echoed the words, "I will praise the Lord, no matter what tomorrow brings or what life has in store..." And the story struck me deeply. After being beaten and mocked and thrown in prison, these men were praising God! It also reminded me of a quotation by Margaret Clarkson:

"The sovereignty of God is the one impregnable rock to which the suffering human heart must cling. The circumstances surrounding our lives are no accident: they may be the work of evil, but that evil is held firmly within the might hand of our Sovereign Lord...All evil is subject to him, and evil cannot touch his children unless he permits it. God is the Lord of human history and of the personal history of each member of his redeemed family."

God is not the author of evil, and yet he holds dominion over all things. And he has extended his gracious love to us, not only in drawing us to him that we might in the future live in his kingdom, but he is now active in every part of our lives. "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28) Christ is are only reason, our only truth, our only strength. "Why are you downcast, O my soul, why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God for I wil yet praise him, my Saviour and my God!" (Psalm 42:11)

I will praise Him, still
By Fernando Ortega

When the morning falls on the farthest hill
I will sing His Name, I will praise Him still

When dark trials come, and my heart is filled
with the weight of doubt, I will praise Him still

For the Lord our God, He is strong to save
from the arms of death, from the deepest grave

And He gave us life in His Perfect Will
I will sing His Name, I will praise Him still.

Passion for Prayer, and Prayer for Passion

In case you didn't know, Mel Gibson will be releasing a new film in the spring called The Passion of Christ, which depicts the last twelve hours of Jesus' life. The film, starring James Caviezel of The Count of Monte Cristo as Jesus, will be entirely in Latin, Aramaic and Hebrew, possibly with subtitles. The ultimate goal is, then, to let the picture of Christ's death speak for itself.

John Piper, pastor and Christian author, has begun writing a book in conjunction with Crossway Books that will accompany the release of this movie.

Be looking for both the movie and the book. But above all, be praying that God might use these in a mighty way to further his kingdom and reach unbelievers.