First things first

This past spring, I read a biography of Hudson Taylor. It was extremely helpful in how it turned my attention to Jesus Christ's sufficiency in all circumstances, and I highly recommend it as worthwhile reading. Today I was reminded of a few passages from that book that feel extremely relevant to me these days. My prayer is that I can put them into practice rather than simply recall that I read them! I hope that you too will find this selection of quotes from and about Hudson Taylor a great encouragement.

God came first in Hudson Taylor’s life—not the work, not the needs of China or of the mission, not his own experiences. He knew that the promise was true, “Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”

From a practical standpoint, he knew the truth of Oswald Chambers’ statement: “God does not give us overcoming life; He gives us life as we overcome.” And to Hudson Taylor, the secret of overcoming lay in daily, hourly fellowship with God. This, he learned, could only be maintained by personal prayer and faithful meditation on God’s Word.

With the life he lived, and its demands on his time and energy, finding opportunity for his own spiritual maintenance wasn’t easy.  But he made it a priority…

...The hardest part of a missionary career, Hudson Taylor admitted, was to maintain regular, prayerful Bible study. “Satan will always find you something to do,” he would say, “when you ought to be occupied about that, if it is only arranging a window blind.”

So he would have fully agreed with the words of Andrew Murray who wrote: “Take time. Give God time to reveal Himself to you. Give yourself time to be silent and quiet before Him, waiting to receive, through the Spirit, the assurance of His presence with you, His power working in you. Take time to read His Word as in His presence, that from it you may know what He asks of you and what He promises you. Let the Word create around you, create within you a holy atmosphere, a holy heavenly light, in which your soul will be refreshed and strengthened for the work of daily life.”

That’s just what Hudson Taylor did. Even in the midst of many difficulties.

...Are you in a hurry, flurried, distressed? Look up! See the Man in the glory! Let the face of Jesus shine upon you—the wonderful face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is He worried or distressed? There is no care on His brow, no least shade of anxiety. Yet the affairs we are concerned about are His as much as ours...

Flesh and heart often fail:  let them fail!  He faileth not!

© 2010 by Ken Peters

Looking through the right lenses

I'm reading a book called Discipleship on the Edge by Darrell W. Johnson. Johnson describes the book as an expository journey through the Book of Revelation. If you're looking for an uplifting book that unpacks how applicable the apocalypse is to our everyday lives, try this one! I was greatly encouraged today as I read what he had gleaned from Revelation, chapter 4. Here's a sample that I hope will turn you gaze upward and place God in the center of your vision and at the center of your world!

Scripture never promises that the visible circumstances of life will proclaim the sovereignty of God. The visible circumstances often call the sovereignty of God into question. That is when we need to put on Revelation 4 glasses!...

"From the throne proceed flashes of lightening and rumblings and peals of thunder"... The imagery tells us that we are, after all, dealing with Someone terribly awesome. The God who calls us into his presence, who calls us to himself, who invites us into tender intimacy is, after all, bigger than the whole universe, more massively powerful than anything we have ever known. And the imagery tells us why we must pay attention. The imagery tells us why we dare not play games with God. We are dealing with sheer greatness...

"And there was a rainbow around the throne"... The rainbow is the symbol of God's mercy and faithfulness. We need it to be there after seeing [the thunder and lightening that] comes from the throne! The rainbow declares that the holy One welcomes the unholy -- it is "safe to come." The rainbow declares that we can trust the living One when he judges. His judgments are merciful and his mercy is just. The rainbow declares that we can dare to dream of a new creation, for the One who promises keeps his promise...

Looking through the lenses of Revelation 4 we realize that the great end of life is knowing, and loving, and serving, and enjoying the great King... ...The single, most reliable indication that our vision is clear is that we are a worshipping people. People who worship with their lips and hearts, with their minds and bodies. People who worship with their words and deeds. People who surrender everything to the One who sits on the throne.

© 2009 by Ken Peters

We are not alone... (and a video to prove it!)

I love maps. I just put a world map up in my home office. It's made by National Geographic in beautiful antique tones, and is mounted on wood with braces on the back so that it appears to float about an inch from the wall. It truly looks like a work of art.

Every Christian's home should have a world map up on a wall somewhere. They're beautiful, colourful reminders of the many wonderful peoples and cultures that this world consists of and that God wants us to share His love with. God wants us to see beyond ourselves, and a map is a simple way to help us do so. I love what Jesus said in John 4:35 -- "...lift up your eyes and look..." And then He pointed us to vast fields representing the myriads of people who need Him! Combine that with what John said he saw in Revelation 7:9, and the implications are amazing: "After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb..."

God loves the nations, and He's going to reach them! But He wants to use His people to do so. He wants us to go to every nation to share the good news of Jesus so that there will be people from every tribe and language enjoying Him forever in heaven. In fact, this is so important to Jesus that He said that His return would not occur until every single ethnic group heard the Gospel (Matthew 24:14).

That's why I love having maps up in my house. There's one above our kids' computer in the family room and now there's one in my office. They help me to remember that I'm not on this earth by myself or for myself. And they remind me of the many beautiful people I share this world with. People who desperately need the hope and power of Jesus. People who are desperate for food in refugee camps of Darfur and eastern Chad. People who are desperate for peace in Palestine and eastern Congo. People who are desperate for freedom from tyranny in North Korea and Zimbabwe. Maps keep all of this before me, and ought to cause me to both pray and to act on those prayers.

How about you? Go for it! Put up a map in your home. And let God touch your heart regarding the precious people beyond our horizons. And if you need a little something to spark your interest in geography, check out the following video. I know it's fairly dated, which means quite a few countries aren't mentioned, but it's a really enjoyable way to get a feel for how many people we share this world with. Take a look, and enjoy!



© 2009 by Ken Peters

Why I've chosen to read the ESV

Do you want to guess what had me excited in 2008 as 2009 drew near? I had bought an ESV Study Bible (which, by the way, is an amazing resource for any student of God's Word), and I was excited about the thought of reading the English Standard Version of the Bible this year! I haven't changed the translation of the Bible I've been reading for 29 years, and was wondering if reading the Bible in a different translation would help me to catch some fresh insights. So since January 1, I've been reading the ESV.

Prior to 2009, I'd been reading the New American Standard Bible (NASB) since I was 16 years old. My parents gave me my first copy on my 16th birthday, January 24, 1980. That was the year (in early spring) I really began seeking to live for God rather than for myself, and I made good use of that new blue, bonded leather Bible. It's pretty beat up now, with a few loose pages and lots of personal notes written in the margins (some of which reflect my very first exposure to various passages). I don't suppose it would have mattered what translation I was using in those days, as long as it was English. I just loved reading God's Word, and found that God spoke to me as I did so.

We live in a time in which a multitude of wonderful English translations of the Bible are available, all of which help us to get to know God and to see His beauty as we read them. I don't care what translation you read as much as I care about whether you read one or not. The key is that we feast on God's Word in any translation rather than filling ourselves up on the the junk food of lesser things.

But that being said, I can't help but have a preference for the Bible translation I read, and to have reasons for it. The main reason for the translation I choose is the method of translation used to write it. I want a translation that shows me, as closely as possible, what the original writers wrote rather than what someone thought they meant.

There are two main methods of translating texts from one language to another: the literal method (NASB, NKJV, ESV) and the dynamic equivalent method (NIV, NLT). Simply put, the literal method translates word for word or phrase for phrase as much as possible, and the dynamic equivalent translates idea for idea or thought for thought, taking larger blocks of words at a time, translating the essence of what writers meant without worrying about the words and phrases all being as close to the original as possible. The result is that the dynamic equivalent translations are more readable while the literal translations are more stiff and wooden in their style. But another result is that the dynamic equivalent translations make ample use of paraphrase and offer far more interpretation (a text explained) than I like to see in a translation (a text in a new language). So I prefer literal translations.

But dynamic equivalent translations have proven to be enormously popular because of their readability. And that is actually the reason I chose the ESV for 2009. It's a literal translation that flows better and is more readable than the NASB. It feels as though I may have found a translation that I'll be happy with for another 29 years! As John Piper writes, "I do not claim that the ESV is without its own level of 'paraphrasing.' Some will always be necessary. And there will always be disagreements about how much is necessary. I am simply arguing that the ESV is the best balance available of readability and literalness."

So if you've been reading the same translation of the Bible for quite awhile now, I encourage you to consider a change. Look at God's Word in a fresh way with a translation you're not so used to. And if you choose to do so, consider the ESV. The ESV Study Bible is well worth the investment!

© 2009 by Ken Peters

Three Simple Steps

Why have I been going on and on about numbers and consumerism and more numbers? C’mon! Lighten up, right? What’s so important about how many cups we use as a society anyway? From all those pictures in my previous posting, one might think that all I’m concerned about is how much ends up in our landfills. Though that might be a valid concern, it’s not something I think about much.

I don’t get stirred up about consumerism for ecological reasons. In fact, my primary concern about consumerism isn’t even about excess. That’s because the Bible isn’t against wealth. In fact, it says that wealth is from God. My primary concern about consumerism is about needs – desperate needs. We as Westerners have so much to share, and can easily do so with little impact on our comfortable Western lifestyles. And if we actually do want to impact our lifestyles, there are people in this world who truly need the help we can offer.

All it takes is a little investigating, a little thought, and then a decision or two.

Investigating is easy. For example, just try doing a Google search on the Democratic Republic of Congo. The UN has recently declared it to be the worst place in the world to be a child. If you really want to know, keep reading and you’ll discover that earlier this year, a UNICEF report declared that the DRC was one of 11 countries where 20% of children die before the age of five. According to other news clips you’ll find, at the beginning of 2008, 45,000 people were dying each month, nearly half of them children, and the fighting has recently intensified!

If you want to know details, the Guardian in the UK reported that “The International Rescue Committee said preventable diseases and starvation aggravated by conflict have claimed 5.4 million lives since the beginning of the second Congo war in 1998, equivalent to the population of Denmark. Although the war officially ended in 2002, malaria, diarrhoea, pneumonia and malnutrition continue to claim thousands of lives. The study of 14,000 households across Congo between January 2006 and April 2007 found that nearly half of all the deaths were of children under the age of five, who make up only 19% of the population.” This is why many people don’t take this first step – the truth is too awful to know, the images too hard to see.

But if you get that far, the next thing you’ll want to investigate is who’s offering meaningful help? I tend to check Samaritan’s Purse first, and I generally find that they’re involved in the area I’m concerned about. But another Google search will reveal many agencies helping in any significant crisis.

If you’ve taken the time to investigate a situation like that, you’re already way ahead of your average Western consumer. Way to go! Now step 2 is to simply think a little. Think about whether you want to give once in awhile to needs like these, or on a routine basis. If you only want to do it once in awhile, just think about how much you can spare right now – how much money do you have to give? That’s what most people do. They give occasionally as situations arise. Giving routinely is simply unaffordable to many because their budget is maxed out with too many other monthly bills and payments.

This is where my concerns with consumerism arise, and this is where it’s worth thinking about what we can do without in order to give more generously to desperately needy people. It’s this kind of regular giving that makes a huge difference to those trying to feed the hungry, but it’s also the kind that requires sacrifice from a people who are used to having what they want when they want it.

And that brings us to step 3: a decision or two. What regular expense will I give up so that I can afford to give regularly to those who need my help? Will it be a few of those 410,000 coffee cups that are used every 15 minutes? Or will it be a few of those 2 million plastic beverage bottles that are used every 5 minutes? Once you get used to thinking this way, you may consider giving up things of even more value in your life, like instead of buying as many CDs or DVDs, I’ll give to others instead. Or maybe, spend less on sports or leisure activities. For us, this is a primary reason we gave up cable TV at our house.

The challenge for us all is to match our Western lifestyles with the compassion and convictions of our hearts. What can you do? Investigate. Think a little about your consumer lifestyle. Then, make a decision or two. If we all do that, those three simple steps will make a huge difference in a world of need!

© 2009 by Ken Peters

Clean Water is meant for Everyone

Amid the myriad of very real physical needs we are aware of in this world, why would safe drinking water be the need one chooses to financially help with? I believe the reason is that safe water goes beyond saving lives — it improves communities. And when there’s water for everyone, it even strengthens nations! When safe, clean water is provided as a part of proper community development programs, it has the potential to improve the health of a community to such a degree that people are able to work or attend school more consistently, uninterrupted by diseases caused by unsafe water. This means that entire communities will have greater opportunity to escape the cycle of poverty that prevents them from pursuing a more hopeful future. In this way, safe, clean water releases hope as well as quenching thirst.

The situation is critical. As many as 1 billion people in the world must drink unsafe drinking water (ISERP, Columbia University, Spring 2005). Diarrhea, which is caused by unclean water and by inadequate sanitation 88% of the time (WHO, World Health Report 2002), is responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.8 million people worldwide each year, 1.6 million (90%) of which are children under five – even though children under 5 constitute just 10% of the world’s population (World Resources Institute, EarthTrends, September 2005)! That’s approximately 4,400 children dying from a preventable disease everyday... one child every 20 seconds.

Good health is among the most valuable assets the poor possess, but it’s the poor who suffer the most health problems associated with unsafe water. Those earning less than $1/day —which happens to be about 1.1 billion people (World Resources Institute, EarthTrends, December 2005) – are nearly 10 times more likely to have health problems related to unsafe water than those earning a mere $2/day in much of the developing world. And experts estimate that nearly half (46%) of workplace productivity lost to ill health in the developing world is attributable to unsafe water and hygiene (World Resources Institute, EarthTrends, September 2005). “Having a household member fall ill can destroy a poor family’s standard of living. Household and village-level studies show that the illness of a key income-earner is one of the leading causes of a household's decline into abiding poverty... The immediate loss of income is only the start: health bills can mount quickly and create an urgent need for cash, and since the poor possess few liquid assets that can be used for such emergencies, they may have to sell land or items central to sustaining their livelihoods… One common coping strategy is to pull children out of school and send them to work, depriving them of training they will need in the future to keep themselves out of poverty” (World Resources Institute, EarthTrends, September 2005).

It’s encouraging to know though, that health improvements “from a 50% reduction in the number of people without access to safe drinking water would result in an extra 272 million school attendance days and 320 million productive work days each year in the developing world – resulting in major economic and social benefits” (WHO UNICEF, 2005 (from “Turn on the Tap” literature, Samaritan’s Purse)).

Many relief and community development agencies are working with water filter technology that is sustainable in the developing world, and they are gradually giving more and more people access to safe drinking water. They simply need the funds to continue this work. One that I heartily recommend is Samaritan's Purse and their "Turn on the Tap" program.

© 2008 by Ken Peters

"God is the Gospel" by John Piper, 179 pages

This is certainly my favourite Piper book and I highly recommend it. It defines the Gospel in the context of a culture obsessed with self -- a fixation I have not been immune to. Even my Christian theology has been decorated with the fragile ornaments of self, leaving my view of the Gospel often more about me than about Jesus: about MY sins being forgiven, about ME being a new creation, about MY purpose in life, about ME going to heaven. But as I’ve focused on me and mine, it has never left me satisfied for long.

As Piper combats this self-absorption that has greatly affected many people's theology, he focuses the spotlight of the Gospel directly on God Himself. John Piper calls this “biblical God-centeredness” and he describes “the acid test of the biblical God-centeredness” as this: “Do you feel more loved because God makes much of you, or because, at the cost of his Son, he enables you to enjoy making much of him forever?” (p.11)

John Piper begins this book at full throttle and never lets up in his attack against our “man-centered view of love” and our idolatry of heaven. Piper stresses that “The Gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. It’s a way of overcoming every obstacle to everlasting joy in God. If we don’t want God above all things, we have not been converted by the gospel” (p.47). Wow. It’s a hard-hitting book, but it’s the kind of hurt that feel good, like a massage that pounds the aching knots from our weary souls. Piper’s point in this small but powerful book is that “Propitiation, redemption, forgiveness, imputation, sanctification, liberation, healing, heaven – none of these is good news except for one reason: they bring us to God for our everlasting enjoyment of him” (p.47). All these gifts are wonderful and are not to be minimized, for Christ paid for them with his life, but “not one Gospel blessing will be enjoyed by anyone for whom the gospel’s greatest gift was not the Lord himself” (p.12).

When Piper says that “God is the Gospel", he means “that the highest, best, final, decisive good of the gospel, without which no other gifts would be good, is the glory of God in the face of Christ revealed for our everlasting enjoyment” (p.13).

This book is not an easy devotional read, though it’s highly satisfying for those who are unsatisfied and weary with the shallowness of a self-centered Gospel. Piper digs deep into various passages that revolve around what salvation and grace and suffering and missions and the glory of God really mean in the context of a God-centered Gospel. It’s as though John Piper wants to analyze the gospel from as many angles as possible, each time coming to the same conclusion, each time putting a nail in the reader’s self-centered gospel.

But as deeply theological as this book is, Piper’s writing style is personally engaging and at times, richly poetic. One can’t help but be stirred by the following description: “But the climax of the glory of his [Jesus’] life on earth was the way it ended. It was as if all the darker colors in the spectrum of glory came together in the most beautiful sunset on Good Friday, with the crucified Christ as the blood-red sun in the crimson sky. And it was as if all the brighter colors in the spectrum of glory came together in the most beautiful sunrise on Easter morning, with the risen Christ as the golden sun shining in full strength. Both the glory of the sunset and the glory of the sunrise shone on the horizon of a lifetime of incomparably beautiful love” (p.65).

John Piper’s goal in writing this book was certainly that his readers would find deep and lasting satisfaction in a life focused on Jesus Christ. But his heart is obviously also for those not ready to pick up such a book as he writes, “The world needs nothing more than to see the worth of Christ in the work ands words of his God-besotted people. This will come to pass when the church awakens to the truth that the saving love of God is the gift of himself, and that God himself is the gospel” (p.17).

Click here to view the text of this entire book online!

© 2008 by Ken Peters