The most popular posts here at Finding direction from the past 90 days. Thanks for reading! These are in chronological order, the most popular post in bold, as usual. I combined the three posts regarding my Dad into one, to add a bit more variety.
Happy Reformation Day! For those who don’t know, Reformation Day is a holiday that has been celebrated in October since the mid 1500s, to various degrees in various places, to remember the revival that took place during the Protestant Reformation.
Anyway, recently I was reading about Patrick Hamilton. My favourite Patrick is the one who was a missionary to Ireland, but this Patrick is pretty amazing too – and he was Scottish. Patrick Hamilton is believed to be the first martyr in Scotland during the Reformation. He was burned at the stake in St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1528.
I thought this quote from Hamilton was quite interesting. He’s talking about the error that some people make, thinking that the Old Testament is all “Law” while the New Testament is all “Gospel”. Check it out:
Many there be, who, reading the book of the New Testament, do take and understand whatsoever they see contained in the said book to be only and merely the voice of the gospel: and contrariwise, whatsoever is contained in the compass of the Old Testament (that is, within the law, histories, psalms, and prophets),to be only and merely the word and voice of the law. Wherein many are deceived; for the preaching of the law, and the preaching of the gospel, are mixed together in both the Testaments, as well the Old as the New; neither is the order of these two doctrines to be distinguished by books and leaves, but by the diversity of God’s spirit speaking unto us.
For sometimes in the Old Testament God doth comfort, as he comforted Adam, with the voice of the gospel. Sometimes also in the New Testament he doth threaten and terrify, as when Christ threatened the Pharisees. In some places again, Moses and the prophets play the Evangelists; insomuch that Jerome doubteth whether he should call Isaiah a prophet or an evangelist. In some places likewise Christ and the apostles supply the part of Moses; as Christ himself, until his death, was under the law (which law he came not to break, but to fulfil), so his sermons made to the Jews, run all for the most part, upon the perfect doctrine and works of the law, showing and teaching what we ought to do by the right law of justice, and what danger ensued in not performing the same: all which places, though they be contained in the book of the New Testament, yet are they to be referred to the doctrine of the law, ever having them included a privy exception of repentance and faith in Christ Jesus. …
Many publicans and sinners were unkind, unmerciful, and hard hearted to their fellow servants; and yet many of them repented, and by faith were saved, etc. The grace of Christ Jesus work in us earnest repentance, and faith in him unfeigned. Amen!
Patrick Hamilton
I’ve written quite a bit about the Day(s) of the Dead (DÃa de Muertos), and I’ll link to some of those posts below. There’s good reason – the celebration is a huge part of Mexican culture. But it has been remarkable to see its continued evolution during the time we’ve been in Mexico.
For those that don’t know, the days of the dead is a time when the dead are believed to return to the earth. Altars are set up with offerings to the dead, to help them on their journey through the underworld (see Retro: Elements of the Offering). The indigenous celebration has been mixed with Roman Catholicism, leading to the addition of prayers to Mary to help give merit to the dead. Here’s more on the holiday from 2007: Festival of colour, mockery and family
Then came Halloween. It came as an exotic foreign addition to the Day of the Dead, threatening to overcome the native tradition. But instead, it simply lengthened and expanded the celebration of death, solidly adding the 31st of October to the 1st and 2nd of November. You can see some examples in my post Hallowe’en In Mexico (like never before) from 2013.
As I wrote then, “And not only is November 1&2 influenced by Hallowe’en, Hallowe’en is influenced by November 1&2. Here in Mexico, the fun costumes are rare. The emphasis is on the dark, the dead, the occultic.” Witchcraft and the worship of the dead are not fun scares in horror movies here, they are very real and shockingly common. This time is a high worship time for Santa Muerte, Saint Death.
But the days of the dead were not satisfied with swallowing up Halloween. In 2018 I wrote about The Insatiable Appetite of the Days of the Dead, and the new popularity of Hindu worship practices – especially worship of the Hindu god of death. In 2016, of course, the Day of the Dead parade was introduced. This year, the Zombie parade on the 19th of October, because one parade is not enough.
Of course in 2017 came Coco, and the holiday became even more entrenched and popular outside of Mexico, with the commercial additions of t-shirts and skull decorations and even the day of the dead Barbie doll. Many perhaps forget that for many in Mexico, this is not fantasy but something with a basis in reality. You can read more at The Day of the Dead, Coco, and the Bible. This year, in an all Mexican production, DÃa de Muertos is back as a new similarly animated movie, alongside the required horror and dark movies of the season.
When our children were young elementary students, we would hear Mexicans lamenting how Mexico so easily absorbed foreign holidays. People were encouraged not to celebrate Halloween – not because of its origins, but because it was not a “Mexican holiday”. All of a sudden, it seemed that the days of the dead were on the decline, and Halloween would become king. An ad agency measured the mention of Halloween as opposed to Day of the Dead in 2014, finding that Halloween was more commonly mentioned in Mexico.
But quite the reverse has started to happen. In 2018, the same ad agency found that the Day of the Dead was the clear winner, mentioned 9.5% more of the time. It is taking the darkest parts of Halloween, and the money of commercialism, and the traditions of the Aztecs and the Roman Catholics and other religions and cultic practices, and snowballing them all together. And the celebration has broken through borders, and is expanding rapidly around the world.
This is not to say that it’s all about religion. For many, the whole party has become very secularized, although death clearly remains the focus. Even years ago, the days of the dead were marked by family time and heavy drinking, not simply bowing to the altar of the dead. And now, yes, there’s a theme park in Mexico dedicated to the days of the dead, which is planning new sites in the years ahead – both in the USA and in Spain!
At the same time, movies like Coco and the many traditions and beliefs of this time of year continue to give false hope to millions, giving them a way to confront death without recognizing its reality and what truly lies beyond it.
For us, this time of year is not about seeing creatively carved pumpkins and clever costumes, or even the thrill of a quick scare. Walking through the community we see altars that people will bow to, images of Saint Death that people will give offerings to, and children who are told that doing this or praying that will help dead relatives on their journey. Just the right ritual or good work is enough to give peace to our dearly departed. But – is it?
And the strange evolution of the days of the dead continues.
Well, that was different. When we arrived at the venue to set up for the Sunday service, on the place where we put our “stage” was – a tent. With people sleeping in it.
So, we swept the floor around them, started setting up sound equipment around them, and eventually they “took up their beds (and tent) and walked”. They should have stayed for the service – they could have had a comfortable place from which to hear God’s Word! 😀
Well, anyway, apart from that surprise, the service went fairly well. We had the first spiritual discernment study, laying some important foundations for the topic. Our friend Oscar preached on the first part of Hebrews 13, and did a good job (yes, Hebrews 13! – can you believe it? – we’re nearing the end of the book!).
The only glitch was a computer problem, which meant no PowerPoint. But we made do.
Speaking of camping out, we have our annual Mexico field conference this week, for missionaries in our mission… in Mexico. Now, we usually stay in what you would call a hotel – but these are more rustic and basic than most you’ve probably stayed in (in Canada or the USA). Which is usually fine.
But this year the place we were going to stay in is undergoing renovations – which means they’ve moved us to their fancier newer hotel. So we won’t exactly be roughing it this year, as far as I can tell. But since we don’t have to pay any extra, we won’t complain!
Apart from a time for fellowship, worship, and Bible teaching, there will be another benefit to this year’s conference. This is our first conference as Avant missionaries. And so we’ll be meeting some new members of the family this time – Avant people from other parts of the world.
Since we’re at our conference from Tuesday to Friday, it was rather amusing to see the weather report for the area:
But we’re not complaining. After all, every one of those numbers is an improvement over Calgary’s weather. 😀
On Saturday we’re looking forward to our next hermeneutics class too. So we’re hoping for a good week!
This Thanksgiving we certainly had a lot to be thankful for, as always. Let me catch you up on some of the church related things from October that we’re thankful for.
Here’s a picture from our annual joint service of Bible churches in our area, which was on the 6th of October. Our churches in Ixtapaluca had a high level of participation this year. Pastor MartÃn preached (about angels). Musicians from all three Ixtapaluca churches led the worship music (I played the keyboard). About 330 people attended (for various reasons not all churches could make it this year, so numbers were a little down).
The service was held a 45 minute drive up to a higher altitude toward the volcanoes, out in the forest, as you can see. A generator kept the sound system going.
As always, the service was a great time to worship together, learn together, take communion together, and have a time of fellowship. You can read more about the service on Rod’s blog here: United Service (Culto Unido) 2019
This past Saturday the church in Santa Bárbara hosted our first hermeneutics class of the fall. Men and women from four local churches attended. There will be 40 hours of training over the fall, no small thing. And yet you can see the large numbers of people who came to learn about how to understand the Bible for themselves.
We are tremendously encouraged to see the interest in this course – many people needing to try to find time off work in order to take it. And hearing the interaction and discussion during the class was also encouraging, as local believers really try to apply God’s Word to real life and urgent problems in our own communities.
As with the joint service, many people helped to make this possible, including the teachers John and Frank from Texas (our teachers), the Frys, the church in Santa Barbara, and the people who cooked and cleaned up. The next class is on the 26th, Lord willing!
Many thanks to those of you who prayed for me especially on Sunday. When I started talking for our Sunday school class, my throat did indeed hurt – but thankfully did not get much worse throughout the day.
So, in Sunday school we finally finished our 10 Commandments study, with an overview and a look at how to use God’s Law today. I had a good talk with one brother who is trying to share God’s Word with a friend, who does indeed seem to be confused about Christianity and Judaism and the Law and so on – so it was good to know that these are very relevant topics. At the end of the class we meditated on how our Lord Jesus is the perfect example of loving God and neighbour through the Law.
Rod also recently finished the Defending the Faith Sunday school series (we were switching off, doing both themes over the past few months), which was also a practical help to many, if the discussion was any measure. So, having finished those two themes, we also started a new series with Sunday’s sermon – Spiritual Discernment.
Overall, throughout the month so far, it’s been so encouraging to see people participating, interested. To see people applying God’s Word to their lives. God’s Spirit is working, in spite of many challenges and difficulties. In fact, it is often through those things that we really see God’s supernatural power, right?
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,†has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
2 Corinthians 4:6-10
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
There are some times in life where everything seems to be happening at once. Well, this coming weekend is looking kind of like that. We’re going to be getting into a whole lot of serious study, let me put it that way.
On Saturday, we have guests from the USA who will be coming to teach people from four local Bible churches. We’re starting our 40 hour hermeneutics course – that is, a study of how to interpret the Bible. It looks like over 50 people will be coming. So we’re very excited about this critical teaching which will strengthen people’s lives and the lives of our churches. You can read more about this course here.
It just so happened that Sunday is a rather interesting day for teaching as well. It’s the final week of the 10 Commandments study in Sunday school, for one thing. We’ll be summing up what we’ve learned over the past – let’s see – 13 studies, I guess it would be (14 in all). And we’ll be discussing how to use God’s Law today.
And since we’re finishing that study, we’ll be starting a new one next time. Except that part 1 is a sermon – which means we’re also introducing the next topic in Sunday’s sermon. This is Spiritual Discernment, something very important for today’s believers, as always. It will be a four part Sunday school study – 5 parts if you include the sermon.
So yes, three very different (though very related) and very challenging topics this weekend! I hope we can handle it! We have some pretty gung-ho people in our church, but this may stretch even some of them. 🙂
So hopefully my head won’t explode with all this concentrated study.
Wednesday night I also apparently started to get sick – some seasonal bug, no doubt. So pain and congestion may also make my head explode. Please do pray that I will be able to get the rest I need, and that my voice will survive through the whole service on Sunday.
Other than the limitations of the body, I’m looking forward to the weekend! Thanks for your prayers!
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