Saturday Musings

Saturdays . . . normally begin with an early trip to the market where we stock up on a week's worth of home grown produce (though the earliness of the trip is no longer as early since we moved our youth meetings to Friday nights). Cauliflower, broccoli (if we get there soon enough) lettuce, fresh tomatoes, onions and carrots, pinhões (if we want to splurge and extra R$3), green onions, apples, bergamotas (tangerines), homemade butter and a variety of other seasonal items. Then of course we usually pick up a loaf of fresh cuca and this week a gluten-free rosca too.
. . . an hour of futebol with a group of guys in Campo Bom makes for good exercise and we hope good relationships.
. . . family time, prep for Sunday's activities, an occasional English class and whatever church event is happening in the evening.

A Fledgling Church Organizes in Campo Bom
Igreja Batista Bíblica Vida Nova (or IBBVN for short, yes Brazilians like long names but this one got a little cumbersome) held our first meetings as a church and celebrated our official beginning with a Thanksgiving
Service last Saturday (see invitation below). We are fragile, a loose group of believers with a variety of church backgrounds and expectations dictating what each one thinks/wants a church to look like or how it should function. Planting a church with mature believers has its pluses and minuses. Pray for us. Pray that God would save people in Campo Bom.

The Story of Hope
This Sunday I start teaching my first Sunday School classes in Português. We will be putting an evangelism tool into the hands of our church people called "The Story of Hope." As an evangelism tool, I highly recommend it. It is a very condensed version of the Firm Foundation Series. Actually there is no comparison with Firm Foundations except that they both believe that a proper understanding of the gospel is only possible by a proper understanding of God's Word. (Duh!) I am still a little nervous about the whole idea of teaching but I'm excited for the material and ready to meet the challenge. Pray for me.

Baby
There are few more exciting things that I have experienced in my life than hearing my baby's heartbeat for the first time. That finally happened with our second last Thursday. We are very thankful for our doctor and his wife. I have never heard him say, "Babies that we deliver . . . " But he has always said, "In the births that we assist . . . " Which is a seismic difference. He is a fascinating man and we are thankful that we get to witness to him and his wife over the next several months. 

Glory
"Awake my soul, prepare an entrance for your glory. And let my heart become a throne for You to dwell . . ." I've sung that song dozens of times. But this morning I stopped and thought about it. What would it actually be like to be in the throne room of God? The throne room of God in the Bible is a terrifying, wonderful, exhilarating place that normally leaves those who glimpse it flat on their faces in terror. I desire God's glory to be evident in my life but I'm afraid it is a long ways from what it should be. God's glory was on display at Mt. Sinai but God's people preferred an image. Sometimes I think I would rather have an image. Moses asked, in his unique opportunity, to see the glory of God and God stuck him away in the mountain and covered him up so he wouldn't die. He still left the moment different than when he started. I wonder what I would ask for if I got the chance. And God's glory? What if I actually got a glimpse of it? What if God's glory actually got a hold of me? Chances are I wouldn't care what I ate for lunch. Or how much gas is in my car. Or how many GBs of memory my computer holds. Or even that I have a computer, or a car, or lunch. If my heart was truly prepared to host the glory of God and to seat Christ on its throne I don't think I would be the same man I am today. I wouldn't love the same things I love. I wouldn't harbor the same resentments that I harbor. I would forgive. I would speak more freely. I would value eternity. I would love. I would live grace. I would show mercy. I would weep. I would worship. I would be satisfied with Christ. 

May it be so. "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory."