...but I might get to climb the Himalayas.
Howdy fellas. I wanted to update y'all and shamelessly solicit prayers for my possible endeavors this summer, so here goes. God has definitely shut the door on Sri Lanka. MTW has been acting funny about sending me there all along, and now Gary "The" Todd (who pretty much runs the mission scene at Redeemer) has jumped on the Sri-Lanka-is-a-no-go bandwagon, citing the impending civil war. With my church and my church's mission organization against it, I figured God was probably telling me something. Anyway, with that out of the picture, it looks like I might go to Pakistan. Gary just got back from over there, and he's pretty excited about the opportunities he saw. He said about ninety thousand people were killed and another three hundred thousand were affected by the earthquake in October. Hundreds of thousands of people are still living in tents in the foothills of the Himalayas. The crisis has pushed the Islamic government to open its borders to relief workers of any religious background, which was not the case five months ago. With this opportunity on the table, Redeemer is currently working on assembling two or three teams to go on two week trips over there. My team, that was planning on going to Sri Lanka, will probably be the second wave, leaving in mid-May. Also, two RUF guys, Joseph Davis and Mark Vinson, and myself are trying to work out a deal to stay for three months or so. I hope and pray this comes to fruition, because it seems like this thing could be big. Now that Christians can go without hiding our beliefs, we (probably) won't even be arrested if someone asks us why we're there, and we reply, "Because Jesus Christ loved us to death, we're here to love you." Wow, that sounds cheesy. I promise I'll work on a better response to that question before I go. Also, the underground churches that have been operating there for several years will most likely be working with us, which will be an amazing connection to have. I'm rambling, so now for the before-mentioned solicitation: please pray for these trips and for the Pakistanis who are homeless and hopeless right now.
Love,
Tom Hart
P.S. Sorry to be a Blog Hog.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Hello everyone
Hello all. Hope everyone is doing well wherever you are. I am finally back from Europe and in my 2nd week of work. I am really enjoying it thus far. I wanted to give yall my new cell phone number that I have. It is 770-843-2960. Hope to see you all soon.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Saturday, January 21, 2006
The Wonder of the Wonderful Cross
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us..." (1st John 3:16)Have you ever thought about the phrase we often hear and exhort one another with: "Look to the cross"? Have you ever wondered what that really means, what it looks like, what thoughts it conjures, why we would say something like that? Christians are a peculiar people if you think about it. We revel and rest in the marvelous beauty...of a tortuous instrument of execution, a vile Roman cross.
Only the lowest of the low met death by crucifixion. It was the method of capital punishment rolled out only for those the government wished to humiliate in addition to execute. It was a most disgraceful, dreadful, and shameful way to die: hanging nude on a cross while your mother, brothers, sisters, friends, enemies, and arrogant accusers watched and mocked and spat and laughed.
Knowing all this, what is our fascination with the wooden timbers of the cross? Saints throughout the centuries have written and spoken and hymned about the beautiful significance of the cross. Its theological significance is something I have known about for a long time now, but just recently I remembered its sweetness, its gravity, its centrality to all of life. Why say, "Look to the cross"? Because it visually reminds us that regardless of what our fickle emotions tell us, we are at peace with God. His justice is satisfied. His consuming wrath was quenched by divine blood. Our sins have been fully avenged. Christ bore the miserable curse for our aggravated crimes.
So seeing the cross reminds us that Jehovah has done far more than simply tell us about His love. He is not the lover who spends the nights penning romantic sonnets to prove His love. No, His love goes deeper, His love is omnipotent and efficacious. It accomplishes all it intends to. His is the powerful love which conquers the obstinate hearts of His people by submiting to death on a cross in their stead.
The cross is crucial because that is precisely where and when and how our God proved the infinite depth of His love. When we see that cruel image, we are warmed by the reality that there, on that cross the Living God laid His Isaac down that we might be made sons. When a saint ponders His Lord's agonies at Golgatha, he sees the tangible evidence, the visual reminder, the undeniable proof of divine favor. And when a person who doesn't yet believe but "seeks to believe" considers this reality, he should know that the promises of This God can be trusted. This God proved His love to a habitually doubting, rebelling people. And This One, True, Living God is absolutely sincere when He beckons, "All of you who are thirsty, come to Me and I will give you Living Water...and you will never thirst again."
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below,
Praise Him above the Heavenly Host,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
The 2006 Old Man Reunion
Brent, Tom, Roecker, Spiff...we wish y'all would have been here to share in the fun. Maybe next time.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Ten million girls aborted
This is from a recent CBS News report. In case you still don't trust CBS, the story is also being reported by numerous other news sources. The fact that there are still human beings on this planet who claim man is 'inherently good' is substantial proof of how completely sin blinds one to reality. Anyway, here's the sad story: "Based on the natural gender ratio from other countries, they estimated that 13.6 million to 13.8 million girls should have been born in 1997 in India. However, 13.1 million were reported, the study said. "We conservatively estimate that prenatal sex determination and selective abortion accounts for 0.5 million missing girls yearly," the study said. "If this practice has been common for most of the past two decades since access to ultrasound became widespread, then a figure of 10 million missing female births would not be unreasonable," it said."
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Stuff
Hey, Brent! Great to hear from you! And so encouraging. I especially liked your list of influential books. And your encouragement.
A thought for the group: I was reading a passage in the NT where Jesus was telling parable after parable, but He was only explaining it to the disciples. He told them that it was given to them to know the secrets of the kingdom.
What struck me for the first time was that God had no problem disclosing the secrets of the kingdom to Judas, enemy of the kingdom. God invited His betrayer into the inner circle and disclosed the plan for the kingdom to him in plain words. I don't think a single world leader would do the same.
My fear of God increased as I considered God's confidence in Himself, His confidence in His plan. What He has decreed will happen, and not even an invitation to His inner court and full disclosure of the secrets of His plan can affect What Will Be.
I (we) have no reason not to put complete, childlike faith in One Who is like this. There is no one else like Him, so there is no alternative.
Anyway, just a thought I had the other day.
A thought for the group: I was reading a passage in the NT where Jesus was telling parable after parable, but He was only explaining it to the disciples. He told them that it was given to them to know the secrets of the kingdom.
What struck me for the first time was that God had no problem disclosing the secrets of the kingdom to Judas, enemy of the kingdom. God invited His betrayer into the inner circle and disclosed the plan for the kingdom to him in plain words. I don't think a single world leader would do the same.
My fear of God increased as I considered God's confidence in Himself, His confidence in His plan. What He has decreed will happen, and not even an invitation to His inner court and full disclosure of the secrets of His plan can affect What Will Be.
I (we) have no reason not to put complete, childlike faith in One Who is like this. There is no one else like Him, so there is no alternative.
Anyway, just a thought I had the other day.
Monday, January 09, 2006
Monday, January 02, 2006
The Essential Role of the Law in Evangelism
The following quotes about the essential role of the Law in evangelism are food for thought...and prayer and consideration. At this hour, I am too tired to include my own thoughts, so maybe I'll add them in a comment soon. I hope each of you is doing well and that you are presently in prayerful awe that God chose you (of all people)...that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit elected from the foundation of the world to resurrect your corrupt, lifeless soul at immeasurable cost to Himself.
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"Satan, the god of all dissention, stirs up daily new sects...he has raised up a sect such as teach that men should not be terrified by the Law, but greatly exhorted by the preaching of the grace of Christ." -- Martin Luther
"A sinner will never receive grace until he first trembles before a just and holy law." -- C.H. Spurgeon
"The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciouses of millions." -- A.W. Tozer
"A gospel which merely says 'Come to Jesus' and offers Him as a Friend, and offers a marvelous life, without convincing of sin, is not New Testament Evangelism. True evangelism...must always start by preaching the Law." -- Martin Lloyd-Jones
"Preach 90% law and 10% grace." -- John Wesley
"You must preach the Law, for the gospel is a silken thread, and you cannot get into the hearts of men unless you have made a way for it with a sharp needle; the sharp needle of the Law will pull the silken thread of the gospel after it." -- Robbie Flockhart
"The nature of Christ's salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present-day evangelist. He announces a savior from Hell rather than a savior from sin. And that is why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to escape the Lake of Fire who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and worldliness." -- A.W. Pink
"...the Law acts the part of a severe schoolmaster. It drives us by force, rather than draws us by love. And yet love is the spring of all. It is the spirit of love which, by this painful means, tears away our confidence in the flesh, which leaves us no broken reed whereupon to trust, and so constrains the sinner, stripped of all to cry out in the bitterness of his soul or groan in the depth of his heart, 'I give up every plea beside, Lord, I am damned; but thou hast died.'" -- John Wesley
"Never, never let us despise [the Law]. It is the symptom of an ignorant ministry, and unhealthy state of religion, when the Law is lightly esteemed. The true Christian 'delights in God's Law'(Romans 24:10-20)" -- J.C. Ryle
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"Satan, the god of all dissention, stirs up daily new sects...he has raised up a sect such as teach that men should not be terrified by the Law, but greatly exhorted by the preaching of the grace of Christ." -- Martin Luther
"A sinner will never receive grace until he first trembles before a just and holy law." -- C.H. Spurgeon
"The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciouses of millions." -- A.W. Tozer
"A gospel which merely says 'Come to Jesus' and offers Him as a Friend, and offers a marvelous life, without convincing of sin, is not New Testament Evangelism. True evangelism...must always start by preaching the Law." -- Martin Lloyd-Jones
"Preach 90% law and 10% grace." -- John Wesley
"You must preach the Law, for the gospel is a silken thread, and you cannot get into the hearts of men unless you have made a way for it with a sharp needle; the sharp needle of the Law will pull the silken thread of the gospel after it." -- Robbie Flockhart
"The nature of Christ's salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present-day evangelist. He announces a savior from Hell rather than a savior from sin. And that is why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to escape the Lake of Fire who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and worldliness." -- A.W. Pink
"...the Law acts the part of a severe schoolmaster. It drives us by force, rather than draws us by love. And yet love is the spring of all. It is the spirit of love which, by this painful means, tears away our confidence in the flesh, which leaves us no broken reed whereupon to trust, and so constrains the sinner, stripped of all to cry out in the bitterness of his soul or groan in the depth of his heart, 'I give up every plea beside, Lord, I am damned; but thou hast died.'" -- John Wesley
"Never, never let us despise [the Law]. It is the symptom of an ignorant ministry, and unhealthy state of religion, when the Law is lightly esteemed. The true Christian 'delights in God's Law'(Romans 24:10-20)" -- J.C. Ryle