I was playing a little before the keyboard class tonight and was reminded of this hymn – in Spanish Oh Verbo Encarnado. Here it is in English … a great missionary hymn when you think about it…
O Word of God incarnate, O Wisdom from on high, O Truth unchanged, unchanging, O Light of our dark sky: We praise You for the radiance that from the hallowed page, A lantern to our footsteps, shines on from age to age.
The Church from her dear Master, received the gift divine, And still that light is lifted o’er all the earth to shine. It is the sacred vessel where gems of truth are stored; It is the Heav’n drawn picture of Christ, the living Word.
The Scripture is a banner before God’s host unfurled; It is a shining beacon above the darkling world. It is the chart and compass that over life’s surging tide, Mid mists and rocks and quicksands, to You, O Christ, will guide.
O make your Church, dear Saviour, a lamp of purest gold, To bear before the nations Your true light as of old. O teach your wandering pilgrims by this their path to trace, Till, clouds and darkness ended, they see You face to face.
When we moved to Mexico, Facebook had just opened its doors to everyone. Still, it wasn’t a big thing in Mexico until quite a while later.
But today, when a short term missionary comes to Mexico, they connect with new friends on Facebook and their friendships and ministry can continue even when they leave. Facebook even allows users to translate posts easily, so that today whether we post in English or Spanish people from all over the world can read what we say.
This rapid change in communication is continuing. Check out this remarkable video from Skype, as a student in Mexico City speaks with a student in Seattle – each in their own language.
Technology like this continues to change the way we think of both short term and long term missions. May we use the means God has given us to carry the Gospel around the world, and disciple the many people who are moving from everywhere in the world to everywhere in the world!
The classes at the community centre at Las Palmas are going quite well. There have been about 33 scheduled classes so far this year. They average a handful of students, with people dropping by all the time to ask questions and get the schedule.
I had two enthusiastic students at my keyboard class this past week, where we worked on two Mexican classics РLas Ma̱anitas (a song typically sung for birthdays), and Mexico Lindo y Querido.
English classes, country dance, guitar classes, and craft classes are also in full swing.
Last night Shari dropped by with some home-made cookies – a little preview of what’s going to be happening at the baking class next week. The recipe is, I believe, galletas flores de cacahuate. I’ll leave it to you to figure out what that may be!
Later this month some of our team members will be starting up a kids’ club and Bible study in another area of Las Palmas.
Classes also continue at the other community centre in Jesús MarÃa, with a few at other locations as well.
Please keep praying as we network within the community and try to provide quality, useful classes, while at the same time sharing the love and truth of God.
It’s about time I gave you an update on the “memorize the Gospel of John” project!
The bad news is that I have fallen behind – only having memorized about half of what my goal was.
The irony is that I’ve actually found John easier so far than Philippians – I’m thinking it’s because so far the verse length is shorter.
Anyway, I’m carrying on and would like to catch up, but for the time being I’m just trying to keep up with a normal schedule.
The Prologue of John is a masterpiece of literature, describing eternal truths and God’s invasion of light into a dark world with expert skill.
Unfortunately, a lot of the discussion of John 1 has been highjacked by the decision of the Watchtower Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses) to render John 1:1 as “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.”
If you bring up the topic with a Jehovah’s Witness, you’re likely to hear a long speech about why the Greek supports adding “a” before the word “god”.
But you don’t need to go to the Greek to be suspicious (to say the least) of such claims, never mind that Greek scholars from around the world would disagree with this highly unusual version of the verse.
Earlier this month this chapter was mentioned in passing in a Sunday service as we learned about the Biblical teaching on the Father, Son and Spirit. Standing on the foundation of the monotheism of the Old Testament, it’s reasonable to ask – is the Word (Jesus – see John 1:14) a false god or a true God (1Thess 1:9; Jer 10:10)?
It’s clear that John doesn’t think Jesus is a false god. And as every good Jew, he would know how many true gods there are (count them on 1 finger).
The Father, Son and Spirit cannot be three gods – they are one God. One Being, three Persons.
The context of the passage and the Bible as a whole overwhelmingly support this conclusion as well – and the correct translation of John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Recently I read an article pointing to verse three: All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
This of course points to Jesus as Creator with the Father (remembering that God created the world by Himself – see Isaiah 44:24). But someone might say,”Oh, that just means the Word was created first, and then everything else was made.”
But this is not a possible explanation, if you take a moment (or a few minutes, in my case!) to wrap your mind around the language. I’ll let you read the article yourself rather than explaining further.
The Greek is important, but it’s not necessary to know Greek to realize that John was claiming that the Word-made-flesh was God Himself.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are ubiquitous here. As light shone into the world when Jesus came, may light shine into their hearts, and the hearts of many who do not yet worship the One True God.
JWs by their literature stand talking to passersby today in our neighbourhood.
All right, so I haven’t been tweeting or blogging very much lately. I’ll try to do better, really. For now, here are the tweets from the last little while.
And they went out and fled from the tomb. . . and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Mark 16:8 ow.ly/EdnxR (19 January 2015)
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the (cont) tl.gd/n_1sk4nof (19 January 2015)
Mexico returns to the Open Doors “Watch List” of countries where Christians are most persecuted, #38 on the list. ow.ly/HvLw9 (20 January 2015)
Still many people in Mexico and around the world with no Bible … “God, When Will You Speak in My Tongue?” ow.ly/DFFfV (21 January 2015)
But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. ~Luke 22:26~ (26 January 2015)
I had two enthusiastic students at my keyboard class this past week, where we worked on two Mexican classics РLas Ma̱anitas (a song typically sung for birthdays), and 