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Controversial passage in the Bible

Today in church, I led the Bible reading, and I read Ps. 46.

I struck by this part in a way I have never been struck before:


The Bible says,
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the chariots with fire.

And after that, it says,
Be still, and know that I am God.

Now, that is the stuff of political controversy! What is the future of weapons programs?

My comments at Mom's Memorial

This is an attempt to sum up the meaning of my Mom's life.  During those last few days that she was with us, I began to think about these verses from I John that help unlock the meaning of my Mom's life.

Do not love the world, or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world--the desires of he flesh, the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world.  And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

You all knew my Mom.   

1.  Mom was an influencer.  

• The people that she prayed for.
• The people she taught the Bible  =  At Bible Study fellowship.
• The people with whom she argued.
• The people for whom she made things.
• The people she introduced to each other.

2.  Mom created beauty.  

• That beauty did not come without a price:  Dumptser diving!  You may hear about the indignity of it from my sisters or me, but the fact was that so much of the beauty she was able to create was made with things that other people threw away.  How did she do that.
• It wasn't just things.  It was experiences.  She was good at creating special and memorable experiences.  
  • Picnics on the lawn.
  • Party themes.
  • Her Christmas cards weren't cards.  They were an experience!
• Creative gifts

3.  Mom gave herself to her family!

• As a mom, she took us many places -- museums, parks, friends.
• She presided over well-planned, fun birthday parties.  Pin the tail on the donkey, spaceship cakes, etc.
• She made us a part of her ministry to High School and college kids.  They were always in our home.  They were our friends, too.
• She let me, as a 16 year old, go to boarding school in Guatemala, a country that was moving into what would become a brutal civil war.
• She was an incredible grandmother, creating memories, and providing a place where our kids could come, from Brazil or Guatemala and find a place that was familiar and safe.  

So here we are today, "celebrating" the life of Pat Halls, even though her life has ended.  We are all richer because of her life, but poorer today because she is no longer with us.  We are celebrating the memory of her life and mourning her passing.  

Before I go on with trying to figure out for myself the meaning of the memories we are celebrating, I think it is important to think about her passing.  One cannot avoid the awful reality that both she and my dad, the love of her life, though deserving of honor and respect, were disrespected the effects of Parkinson's Disease.  They were taken from us little by little until finally they were gone and in a very undignified way.  The effects of the disease was so evil, and it stole so much from them--things they earned and treasured and deserved , that had it been possible to name someone who had taken so much from them, we could have had that person locked up!  Parkinson's is a terrible scourge and it seems unfair that they both had to go through it.  

One of the amazing things about my Mom was the way she faced her Parkinson's and the indignity of it all.  She hoped for a day when she would be all put back together and incorruptible, this time.  More importantly, she applied her magic to the people around her.  She was conscious that God kept her in the Health Center at Plymouth Village, precisely for the people around her--and she tried to live that way.  It must have been frustrating though because toward the end it became more difficult for her to add beauty to the place--perhaps because they didn't let her near the dumpster.  She must have done the right thing with her family, because her family was always coming to spend time with her. 

The defining characteristic of her life, was really not any of these things.  The things I have told you about are just a few of the ways she got into our lives. What shaped all of us, through her influence, was rooted her undying (and that is an interesting word to use at a memorial service!), her undying love of God and of the Bible.  

Her commitments to God were more than simply something for her.  It would not work to say:  she had her commitments and passions, and I have mine.  Her love and commitment to God, and to the Bible as the Word of God, produced what she produced in our lives.  The result of her commitment to God is that meaningfulness of our own lives was increased.  For her, the important, and lasting impact of her life on us was not about her, but about Him!    

So, lets go back to those verses, this time in my own words:

Don't love the world or the things in the world. 

If anyone loves the world, they don't love the Father (that is God).

The problem with the world is that it is made up of the things you want, the things you want to acquire, and that excitement that comes when you get them.  If you want the world, you are not wanting the Father, and the problem is that the world is passing away, along with the things you desire.  

BUT whoever orients their life around what God wants goes on forever.  

Mom redirected her desires, her acquisitions, her excitement and her pride to God.

We all know that it's not like she didn't enjoy this world! Life for her was fun. There were lots of fun things to do and she did them.  Things were to be appreciated. Her home was something she took pride in.   But this world was not where she found her hand-hold.  It was not what she grabbed onto.  

What Mom wanted, and what Mom got was something lasting, not something that will die, and disappear.  She wanted God.  She did what she did so that she and we would get something that won't pass away. 

In this, she was more than simply a good example of a godly person.  She engaged with each of us to give us something lasting.  

You could tell that her love of God was greater than her love of the world in these last years.  She loved it when we read the Bible with her, and sang hymns with her.    That's why, even when her mind was not working well, she often would turn to me and ask me how I was doing with God, how you were doing with God, and whether each of us was grabbing onto what really matters, what lasts, what does not pass away.    

The impact of her life is measured in the answers to her prayers. She prayed quietly for many people.  Some of us were lucky enough to notice how her prayers were answered in their lives.  The impact of her life was in the people that she helped reorient their own lives around God and around the Bible.  That is why, in these last few weeks, when people who her and mentioned her of her commitment to God, she would smile and glow. She would wake up and get more lucid.   What got her going was when you and me would see God and choose to value Him above things we might want, buy or take pride in.  

I want to tell you a story.  Just about two years ago, we got that dreaded phone call, "It's time to come if you still want to see Mom alive." So the four kids and others rushed to her side.  And she was not doing well.  She couldn't talk to us, and seemed to be going downhill fast.  We sang hymns, read scripture, all the things that brought joy to Dad.  But she was pretty unresponsive, as I recall.  As we wondered what to do, we asked other people more experienced in the process of the end of life.  They suggested we gather and pray for Mom, thank God for her life, say our good-byes and generally let her know that things would be OK.   That we would carry on without her and that she had done her work well.  

So we went to her room and each of us prayed for her, through tears.  It is important for you to know that she hadn't spoken to us for a couple of days.  When the last of us had prayed, she sat up in bed and said, "I want to pray, too!"   And she prayed for each of us.  She told stories about us, and encouraged us to keep close to God.  And she lived another 2 years!

She was more than simply a good example of a godly person.  She engaged with each of us to give us something lasting. 

Her love of God and commitment to Him is why everyone of us in this room has anything to say about her--that's one important way that she goes on forever.  It's not simply that we can envision her in heaven.  The Bible doesn't actually say some of the things we try to imagine about her today--being reunited to Dad, no more wheelchair--etc.  We imagine those things based on the hope of resurrection.  

But we don't have to imagine what we can see:  the permanence of her life is visible to us in the effects of her life on each of us.  What we got from her that is of value came to us through her love of God and her commitment to Him--as we were drawn to permanence by the things she did:  influence, beauty, family and friends and Jesus Christ

What she constantly wanted us to recognize is that our lives can go in one of two directions.   We can pass away along with the world, or we can latch onto God and last, as He does.  She didn't just give us an example, but actively involved herself in giving us the only thing that will last--love for God.  

This celebration is not about her passing, but about the world's passing.  

Brazil Trip

I leave tonight for Brazil.   I would appreciate you accompanying me with your prayers.

I am going to introduce a broad spectrum of church leaders there to the President of LAM and to two Board Members.  We are going to listen and to ask about the role of a 100 year old mission that was born to evangelize Latin America.  


What is our role in a Latin America that, increasingly is evangelizing the World?  


Brazil is a good place to explore this.  I have felt carried along by the Spirit and by the experiences and relations that God has given me since the first time Lake sent me to Brazil in 1970 and then as a new missionary couple in 1977. There is a pay off for having been at this so long.

The reason we are taking this trip is to better see a) the work that God has been doing in Brasil, b) the way the advance of the gospel in Brazil is producing leaders and c) what the mission of evangelicals in Brazil means for the world we live in.

We are motivated by these three purposes: 

1.  We understand that the Sports events of 2014 and 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, will implicate the gospel in Brasil in several ways--it will give continuity to the process by which Brazilian evangelicals think about (and act)  more and more intentionally in relation to the world outside of Brasil.  One of  the things that the world might possibly learn about Brazil will be how extensive has been the move of God in Brazil and some of the impressive commitments His people have made (or maybe they won't see it!) for improving the world we live in.  As a mission agency, in LAMwe are involved, in a small way, in the initiative of Brazilian evangelicals along these lines.  We are participating in a small way by providing personnel to the "Campaign against child and teen sexual tourism in Brazil" project.  Our perspective is international and, traditionally, this has meant international from the perspective of the North toward Latin America.  Now, it is meaning, increasingly, together with Latin America toward the rest of the world.  We want to follow the events related to 2014/16 as they unfold with the participation of Brazilian evangelicals so that we can better understand how God will open the world up to the Brazilian church and the Brazilian church to the world, and come to know whether we have a role to fulfill in that. 

2.  LAM was born, and has served, for nearly 100 years in a flow from North to South.  The gospel was in the North and the need was in the South.  Now things are not that way, and part of the development of a new reality is tied up in the developments in Brazil.  We are wanting to re-orient ourselves to continue to follow in the Lord's footsteps as he leads us forward.  I am hoping that this trip, with LAM leaders, will help us capture a better idea of what God is doing in Brazil, the place of evangelicals in what He is doing, and take note of the level/quality of leaders that have been produced by this move of God.  We want to understand how these new realities will lead LAM to be different in the future.  

3.  The role of Brazil in Latin America.  Brazil has never been a major area of efforts by LAM.  But with each day that goes by, the evangelicals of Brazil are participating more in the gospel in the rest of Latin America.  At times with the same kind of imperialism as the US, and at other times as companions, some times receiving from Spanish speaking Latin America, sometimes sending, and sometimes working side by side.  We understand that Brazil, and the leadership of Brazilians, has something to do with our future, and we are trying to understand what role Brazilians play in it. 

Mom went to be with her Lord.

I am an orphan!  That's kind of a tough thought to incorporate into my being, especially within a month of turning 60.  It's like life is already getting short.  Just when it was getting fun.

I am an orphan because on February 27 my Mom joined my Dad in death.  Having followed Jesus as His disciples, they passed on to us the hope that they would also follow Jesus in his resurrection.  But we are sad they are gone, devastated by the way bodies wear out and finally quit on us.   Beyond just looking forward to eventual resurrection, we also want to live like they did.  I cannot believe all the stories of how my mom inspired people to live close to God, to be creative, and to enjoy life.  Even better are the stories of how she loved and prayed for people around her, all the time, and with great effect.  I think I am only now becoming aware of the extent of the impact of her prayers.  Her life goes on because in the lives of the rest of us, in life, her prayers and actions were a constant in our lives.  That's why I like this picture of her with Parker and Angela.  

My sisters and I invite you to celebrate her life with us in Redlands, CA on March 24. 

Christmas Greetings

The birth of Jesus is about promises God kept.

God continues to keep His promises to provide a way out for people, like each of us, who have trouble keeping ours.

Humankind is in kind of a mess right now, but God keeps on fulfilling His promises.

During this year, we have seen him keep promises to our family, and we look expectantly to him to see how He will make good on his promise to bless all of mankind.

May Christmas be a time in which you see God at work, actively fulfilling promises to do good to all those who need and depend on Him.

Tim & Lois

Greetings from New Zealand where we are visiting Emily and Erlo right now.

2011 Family News at Christmas

Lois and I are in New Zealand for Christmas.  We will spend Christmas with our daughter Emily who lives in Auckland.












Emily met Erlo Jones when they were both teaching English in Korea, and they got married this last April in Koh Samui, Thailand.

Erlo is a Kiwi (a New Zealand citizen, born in South Africa), and they both found jobs here in New Zealand.  Our first few days here with them have been a wonderful time for us to learn about their lives, and to discover some of the beauty of this lovely country.  We will spend Christmas with them, and with Erlo's parents in Rotorua.

Before we left, we celebrated Christmas with our daughter Angela, son-in-law Shaun and little Parker.  They live close by in San Jose, California and we enjoy visiting them regularly and getting grandparent time with Parker.




We will miss spending Christmas with Marian, this year.  She will be coming to California from Madison, WI, where she is working on her dissertation, but we will only catch one day with her.   She leaves just one day after we get home.

But we did have a great time with her at Thanksgiving.  Some friends loaned us their cabin in Arnold, CA, for us to spend a week with the family.  Lois' mom, Eleanore Holderman, joined us for the whole week.
Tim's mom, Pat Halls, continues living at Plymouth Village in Redlands, CA.  He gets down to visit her every month or so.  Just before we left for New Zealand he went there to deliver a gift that Lois made, and that made her very happy!

One more very important thing.  We celebrated 35 years of marriage this last summer, with a visit to Montana.  In addition to Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, we visited four universities in Montana.

We are grateful for God's incredible and abundant generosity and mercy toward us.

And we are grateful to all of you who are part of our lives and for your prayers and support.

WEA Mission Commission conducts 11th Global Consultation

The first two weeks of November I was in Germany.  Take a look at the pictures on my Facebook site.  I really enjoyed spending time with colleagues, and long-time friends from various parts of the world.  I also enjoyed thinking with them and others about the way God works in our world, and how he gets some people to live for the good of the World, and encourage people to follow Jesus.

Perhaps I will get a moment to blog about that.  But I didn't want to put off any longer what I could have done in this last week or so:  give you the press release from the consultation.

From: World Evangelical Alliance

Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011

Subject: WEA Mission Commission conducts 11th Global Consultation

News Release

November 18, 2011

The Mission Commission of the WEA, conducted its 11th Global Consultation, from November 6 to 11, with 203 mission practitioners from 42 countries at Schönblick Conference Center near Stuttgart, Germany.  The theme, God’s Disturbing Mission, emphasized the developing complexity and diversity in the practice of global mission today.  At the same time it recognized that mission belongs to God (Missio Dei).  The thought that God himself might be behind disturbances in the mission agenda proved to be an invitation to seek God, read His word, strengthen relationships across diversity, and bow in worship

The reality of constantly renewing leadership was enacted as younger leaders led the Consultation from the platform.  Their perspective drew attention to what is next.  Speakers from India, Lithuania, Russia, Brazil, USA, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, Kenya, S. Korea, Sri Lanka, South Africa and the UK took part, reflecting the broad range of global perspectives.

Table groups met all week to discuss, pray and commit to paths of obedience as God spoke a fresh to move forward in mission. Afternoon “post-it” sessions identified and focused on shared concerns and explored ways of cooperation in mission practice.  The event ended around the Lord’s Table, an enactment of the global missional community gathered by Jesus from every nation, generation by generation, and sent out as the fruit of His sacrifice.  

Certain themes emerged: the challenge of developing adequate mission practice in and from contexts of complexity, uncertainty and change; and the reality of multiple approaches to mission and its practice.  

A palpable sense of mutuality and interdependence reminded all that any redefinition of ourselves and our mission must take place in a context of discipleship--of following Christ together.

The consultation was designed to shape the future of the MC itself.  The MC is governed by the Global Leadership Council (GLC), formed from its constituency.  Peter Tarantal of South Africa was elected as the new Chair. The GLC will meet in May 2012 and consider implications from the consultation for what comes next. Whatever the outcome, the consultation stands as a reminder that mission depends on God’s initiative and that he will use new and old senders to shape the future of Christian mission.  Bertil Ekström, Executive Director of the MC, looks to the future in this way: “We are on a journey together.”  

================

The WEA Mission Commission responds to the needs of national and regional mission movements around the globe. For the past 24 years, the MC has dedicated its energies to strengthening these continental and national entities, and promoting movements in nations that currently are not a significant part taking the Gospel from every nation to every nation. The MC is the only global platform that serves this important function.

The WEA is the most comprehensive and representative Evangelical body in the world today.  Established in 1846, the WEA is a movement of growing influence in the early 21st century by equipping, connecting and speaking on behalf of its global constituency.  WEA serves 129 national evangelical alliances, hundreds of associate member alliances, totaling over 600 million evangelical Christians, uniting all to transform the nations.

Novermber 2011: I am not a very good blogger!

So, I started blogging again in October, and now it is December, and no posts!

Well, it's not like I have been sitting around on my hands during November and December.   I will try to put some things up here for you to see: about COMHINA, WEA Missions Commission in Germany, Perspectives Class at Trinity Pres in Santa Ana, Thanksgiving with the Family, working on my research project, and now, Christmas and our family.

Blessings!

Moneyball: "you are solving the wrong problem".

Last Saturday, Lois and I went to see the movie Moneyball.  We highly recommend it.  We went mainly because we are Oakland A's fans who happened to be at the Oakland Coliseum the night that the A's won their 20th consecutive game.   We can still recall the exciting emotions of that night.  The A's record winning streak was at the center of the story that the movie.

The most unprecedented thing about this movie might be that I am thinking of going to see it again.  I can't remember when I watched a movie twice (my ADD won't tolerate it).

If I do go to see it again, it will be to learn more from how Billy Bean confronts a broken system. His managers are stuck.  They try, over and over again, to solve the wrong problem.  It doesn't help that, in the past, they actually had been successful.  They don't recognize that the world in which the A's must compete is no longer the same and the old strategies will no longer produce wins.

Over and over, I have found myself in broken systems, much like the one that leads Beane to quote Thomas Paine "a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right."

Billy Beane changes the A's strategy only after coming up with a new understanding the problem.   The painful and emotionally shocking language he uses to deliver it to his managers doesn't change the managers, but it frees him to begin to make the changes that transform the strategy and produce wins:
"The problem we're trying to solve is that there are rich teams, and there are poor teams. Then there's 50 feet of crap. And then there's us. It's an unfair game."


I am linked to 3 or 4 organizations and movements whose successful and fruitful histories of serving God and others show that they can produce good things.   But right now, they need to change how they are doing what they do.  The playing field has changed and they need to change their strategy.  How to see the problem in new light?

My thoughts about being a missionary

Over the last 35 years, I have been a missionary. During that time, I have learned not to lead from my missionary identity!  “Missionary” has always seemed full of possibilities for being misunderstood. 

This is why I like what we will be doing at the WEA Mission Commission (MC) Global Consultation in Swäbisch Gmünd, Germany, November 6-11. There, we will think about the missionary task while, at the same time, recognizing that missionaries ourselves might not fully understand God’s mission.  The name of the consultation--God’s Disturbing Mission--imagines God himself surprising missionaries, as we go about our business, with the question “Am I disturbing you?”  As God goes about His mission, it should be no surprise that he disrupts us and “our mission.”

This global consultation is a good place to recognize God behind the disruptions.  In part, the nature of the Mission Commission (MC) itself makes this possible. It is a global network of networks that focuses on “mission from” perhaps more than “missions to”. 

In the popular imagination, European and European-American missionaries have been the ones who go “overseas” to promote Christianity as a tool of the civilizational project.  But the MC’s “mission from” perspective informs a different imagining. It is a perspective that cannot ignore the huge shift in the geography of Christian belief during the twentieth century.  To Europeans, Christianity may seems like a religion of the past with prospects of further decline.  But, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Christianity is a young and growing faith, made up primarily of Africans, Latin Americans and Asians who look forward to a vital future.  

This simple fact means that Christianity is starting to spread from new sites, with different agendas. This is a huge disturbance to traditional missionary practice and thinking.  Now missionaries come from multiple sites and show a remarkable diversity in their way of imagining what missionaries do.  The shift is so radical that even the most creative new missionary initiatives, if they draw from the traditional sources of personnel and finances may prove to be of marginal importance. The same practices, if done with new technologies, better promotion and broader mobilization to more places are simply ploys to mask the bankruptcy of the where the practices come from.  

The “missions to” perspective is the one I started out from 35 years ago. On the one hand we thought of missions as from just a few places, to many.  The practices, programmes and ideas that we implemented were often produced around an image of a world that was guided from the “Global North.” That image placed people like me at the center of global power and influence, not just geopolitically, but in our missionary efforts as well.  Missions was about where we could go, and changes we could produce.  A kind of arrogance was hidden behind the thought that we already knew what other people needed and that all we needed was better methods to deliver it. 

Since God wants to call attention to Jesus, rather than to us, it makes sense that he would to disturb what we thought we were doing.  He would want us to “get over” the idea that we in the global north should shape how missions is done and decide what fruit it should produce.  

Don’t get me wrong.  We are not reaching the end of the missionary responsibility of Christians in the global north.  It just means that those of us who are from the north can now learn to follow others just as we have attempted to lead them.  As we discover, in practical ways, that it is God’s Mission we can also learn about following him from people and sites other than our own.  

A consultation like this might help me get over the complications of my own missionary identity.  I think it would be great if, at this consultation, some of us can adjust to the disturbance of being pushed aside.  And if the consultation results in new definitions of “missionary” shaped in new alliances between leaders far from so-called center, I think it will open many new paths for service in which all of us can follow, for the good of the world.  Then maybe all of us would misunderstand God--himself a missionary--a little less. 

The MC Consultation is a time and space to think about how God is disturbing our traditional ways of doing mission so that His mission can be fulfilled. 

Jeremiah 14:14  The prophets (missionaries) are prophesying lies (promoting failed mission programs) in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying (promoting) to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. 

What kind of place is Oakland?

Oakland has a reputation as a violent place.   It is interesting to stop to think about how Oakland has become associated with violence.  The label covers over lot's of other realities about that place.  There are lots of Oakland residents who are peaceable people.   The "bad" neighborhoods are also full of peacemakers, like my student whose story I tell below.  In Oakland, as in so many places and times the lives of the poor are threatened by the violence.  At the same time the well-to-do in the hills see themselves as the victims of the violence of the flatlands.  Even though some neighborhoods seem calm, the "good" neighborhoods also have their share of people who live off the violence.

Last month I taught a class in an Oakland church, in the part where people are identified as poor (and "illegal") and where the streets are identified as violent.  We studied together about Evangelism (good news) and Missions (reaching out, with God to change the world).  When we got to the practical part, my students helped me remember what I keep forgetting.  They amazed me! Most of them did not have much stuff, but they were rich in grace.  Their spirituality is shaped by a place that is labeled violent.   I would not have been surprised if their prayers were for God to help them survive there.  But every one of my students went beyond that simple prayer and eagerly looked for God to help them bring bring real and lasting change that would save others.  Oakland should deserve a reputation as a place of grace, courage and love!

I was particularly moved today when I read what one of my students wrote.  This version is translated from Spanish--an important language to know in Oakland--and shortened:

"I moved here 12 years ago from Central America.  At first I lived full of fear because I had heard about the crime.  I told my husband we would only stay here a short time until we could move somewhere less violent.  That all changed as I got to know my neighbors.  I have African-American, Arab, Korean, Anglo and Hispanic friends with whom I share life.

"When I looked at my city, I did see many homeless and abandoned people on the streets, gangs killing each other over colors that people wear or neighborhoods where they don't belong, young people injecting drugs on the street, single parents trying to raise their kids as best they can while working extra hours to provide them food, kids who observe daily domestic violence, and parents who drink irresponsibly and fail in their responsibilities to their kids.

"I began to ask myself, if there are so many churches here why have they not done anything to stop this?  Why don't the people look for help in the churches?

"Then I asked myself what was I doing for my community.  Was my comfort more important to me?  So I asked God to guide me and one day my pastor asked me if I would work with the young people.  So I started working with 8 in a Bible Study.  Now there are 30.  It was a challenge, but their enthusiasm, and God's help, have kept me going.

"This year I want to reach more, so I am planning to recruit 5 young people to help me by being mentors to the others, and grow the group.

"I see the need daily when I see how many kids die each day.  Almost everyday little memorials, with candles, appear on a street corner to memorialize another young person who has died.  I was greatly impacted by something I saw two months ago.  On the corner by my house, they killed a 13 year old boy, and the next week they shot two young boys--12 and 13 years old.

"These scenes are in my memory, and all that week I thought of my own boy, who is the same age, and of all the young people who are trying to survive on the streets.  Many of them think that if they get to 18 years old, they have made it.  This is the reality our neighbors live.

"God will be with me when I share the good news with these people about God's power and love.  The Bible says, "the harvest is great and the workers are few.  Pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send out workers into the harvest" (Mt. 9:37-38)

They will be called oaks of righteousness,
   a planting of the LORD
   for the display of his splendor 

So I say, is Oakland a violent place or a place of grace.  Violence may be growing in our land, but so is grace, and people like this student of mine, come from places like Central America to and face the violence in creative ways and depending on God to make it possible and successful.

She also wrote,

"There are lots of needs, and true Christians should be people of action, not just words.  My dream is to see Christians re-establish themselves in urban areas where so many have abandoned needy people.  Those of us who already live here need to stay, no matter how difficult it might seem.  Our people need us.  They are made by God just as we are.

"On that day when we stand before God, He will ask us to give account about what we have done for our fellow man and how we have used the gifts He has given."

When I think about it, I realize that nearly all my students came to Oakland from some other country.  Though some of them don't even have the legal papers they need to be able to drive and get jobs here, they all face the violence they found here with grace, for the good of those of us who were here before them.  Someday, I would like to think more deeply about where Oakland's violence comes from and where Oakland's grace comes from.  What kind of change is is God invested in when it comes to America's (and the world's) violence?  How does he do it?

Eid holidays

This week is a special time for your Muslim neighbors.  If you get a chance, it is a great time to learn about their heritage.

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Bay-Area-Muslims-to-Mark-End-of-Ramadan-with-Prayers.html?soid=1101295800375&aid=KXnPOet0t34

My last two blog posts: there is a connection

I forgot to mention a connection between my last two blogs--one about Emily and Erlo and the other in which I try to notice some of the global connections in a small one block radius of Mi Oficina Computer Café I often go for meetings or to do other work.

The most concrete connection is this.  The bakery at Mi Oficina made the Tres Leches cake that we served at Emily and Erlo's Wedding Reception in Oakland California.  And it was delicious!  I am posting pictures of the cake here so you can admire it.  But you can also see it on Mi Oficina's Facebook page, or if you have a meeting with me at Mi Oficina, you will notice the picture of my daughter's cake cycles up every few minutes on their digital displays of their products.



  We decided on this cake the day that Emily and Erlo took us to Korean BBQ Plus, right across the street from Mi Oficina. It gets great reviews, and it did not disappoint.  Emily and Erlo were able to introduce us to some of their favorite Korean dishes.  When we were done, we walked out of a Korean space, across a California street and into a very Latino space at Mi Oficina.    I was amazed to see how the next generation of my family felt at home in both spaces.






Before I get off the topic of connections, I think it is interesting that Mi Oficina is both active and passive in its facilitation of connections.

Regarding the active facilitation of connections this linked article recalls how someone at Mi Oficina was able to help Juan connect through chat with his mother whom he had not seen for a year.   Whenever I go there, I see how the computers they have set up there are used by their clients to connected with family and friends, many of whom presumably are somewhere in Latin America.  Those connections cross borders between nation-states, the conflicts around some of which are in the news nearly daily.

But the passive connections are interesting to watch, too.  I see friends reconnect there.  Meetings take place that bring people together with common political, social, and business interests and usually the language of the connection is Spanish, and it is over a cup of coffee.  I believe that it is without entirely realizing it, but Mi Oficina facilitates passively some interesting connections between Christians of different persuasions.  Since it is not their own place, Christians there are free to focus on following Christ.  It is not a place to promote their own programs and ministries, though there is a bulletin board and a literature table where religious and non-religious alike promote their wares.  What I especially have liked to notice has been when Catholics and Evangelicals meet each other there in the space between the tables where they have their own meetings.   Often the introductions don't need to identify each other according to party lines.  They can talk instead about serving the community.  Some do their service in secular agencies, motivated by the love of Christ, others are part of specific movements or organizations.  It is cool is to watch them notice each other and eventually meet and share stories.  I expect that the next step might be that they will make plans together.

Emily and Erlo

Our youngest daughter, Emily, lives in New Zealand with her husband, Erlo.   Here is my version of their story.

For the last two years I have watched as my daughter met, fell in love with and married the man of her dreams.  We first heard of Erlo, practically on the day they met in Seoul, Korea, while we were on vacation in Alaska.  Interestingly, we met a couple from New Zealand on that trip, and I remember how the fact that Emily had met and liked a young man from New Zealand came up often as we spent time with our new friends.  

Later that summer, Emily came home to California on her way to her best friend Bethany’s wedding in Mexico.  She told us then that she had met, in Erlo, someone very special.   And he was waiting for her  at the airport when she returned.  In December, when Emily came home from Korea for Christmas, she brought Erlo with her, and we learned to love him from the very start.  We took this picture when we took a family hike on January 1, 2010. 

Emily came to our family vacation in Hawaii, in summer 2010 without Erlo.  But the vacation was marked by talk of an upcoming wedding.  Erlo and Emily came back to California when their contracts were over in Korea and lived with us for several weeks as they prepared to go to Thailand for their wedding.  Technically, though, they got married in our living room, in our presence and in the presence of Erlo’s parents who joined us from New Zealand via Skype on March 25, 2011.   It was a very special occasion in which we and Erlo’s parents told stories to Emily and Erlo about how and when we first recognized their love for each other and we toasted to their future. 

While Erlo was here he helped me with several important landscaping tasks on our property.   Since we were blessed only with daughters, it was pretty special to me to have a son around the house for several weeks.  We all traveled to Koh Samui, Thailand during the first week of April for their wedding on the beach.  That is where we met our new extended family and developed new friendships that will last the rest of our lives.  

Emily and Erlo came back with us to California, to get their things, and for a reception for their US friends in Oakland, California on April 30.  We said goodbye as they moved to New Zealand on May 5.  We miss them very much, but we have enjoyed visiting with them by Skype and we plan to travel to New Zealand to spend their first Christmas as a married couple with them and with Erlo’s parents.  

We are looking forward to that!  Like I said above, we have learned to love Erlo and consider him just as much a part of our family as we do Emily.

Globally connected

I have been using Mi Oficina as, well, "mi oficina." It's a great place to study, stay connected with part of the Latino community in Concord, and to have meetings with people.

Mi Oficina is in a strip mall that may be only a few miles from Walnut Creek, but life here could not be more different. The food is obviously different. Lots of corn meal, and the cokes come from Mexico. More rice. Less potatoes. Lots of beans and pork. Well, no pork at the Afghan grocery store. But the freshly baked Afghan bread is to die for. The Korean Restaurant across the street arguably has spicier food than the Mexicans on this side. But it is all good!

The people and what they eat is definitely one clear indication of the international connections active in this place. In Mi Oficina, the row of computers against the back wall is often filled with people who are making video calls to all parts of Mexico and to other parts of Latin America.

On the back side of Mi Oficina there is a store that just ships packages, or remits money orders, to international destinations. The list of banks and countries that is posted on the window indicates some of the banks and where you can send money or stuff. It must have over 100 entries in two columns. I always thought that the banks on the list were banks in Latin America. Today, I noticed that two of the banks are in the Philippines. The destination bank in some Latin American countries included HSBC which once stood for Hong Kong and Singapore Bank Corporation. Today it markets itself at the "World's Local Bank." No use trying to untangle those links!

Next door to that store, they sell Ice Cream from Mexico. And next to that, they sell cheap household and party goods from China. Many of the customers are day laborers from Mexico and Central America. If you happen to have a cell phone from Mexico, you can recharge the SIM card there and pay in U$. And you can mail your purchases (of Chinese goods) to friends and family in any country of the world.

Down the way there is a Latino grocery store that sells local milk, vegetables and meat, but many of the products on the shelves are from Mexico, Central America and other parts of the world. It's not so surprising that we can get our favorite canned black beans from Guatemala, or enchilada sauce from Mexico. More surprising is that the local laundry detergent that we used to avoid when we lived in Guatemala, preferring imported Tide or All, is for sale here.

The Latino grocery store has a bakery and, clearly, the recipes are imported! Next door is the Afghan grocery store and bakery that also has imported recipes, but from the other side of the globe! Do you think they might buy their flour from the same local vendor? Does the same delivery truck stop for both shops? What language does the driver speak?

More surprising is that the Afghan grocery store, alongside the freshly baked bread, has a freezer offering "Helados Guadalajara" -- some of the best popsicles from Mexico, with flavors you probably would never find at Safeway (I might have said, "you won't find them in the United States", but this is the United States!). But the connection between the Afghan grocery store and the surrounding Latino community produced an even more interesting offer. A stand of books in Spanish. Not simply in Spanish, but books by evangelical and pentecostal authors, some Latin Americans and some Anglo Americans translated into Spanish. And published by Editorial Betania Caribe, the Latin American publisher acquired by a Bible publisher in the US. Many of the books are actually printed in Colombia by missionaries originally sent by CLC to print evangelistic literature for South America.  And they are being sold by Muslims from Afghanistan!

There are global religious connections here, too. One Mexican shopkeeper was recently converted in the Iglesia Universal del Reino de Dios, a major Brazilian church that promotes practices that many of the more established churches and denominations consider to be more pagan than Christian. A young man who walked across the border from Mexico found Jesus here, and works in a shop where you can often hear English praise music. When he is off work, you might find him studying the Bible in Spanish with people who are not from his country. Perhaps they met through a Guatemalan pastor who is employed by an Anglo church. Is this American Christianity or Latin American?

Speaking of "displaced" religious practice. When I visited Turkey, for the first time it was during the month of Ramadán, when Muslims are expected to fast all day long, and only eat after sundown and before sunrise. Now I am more aware that Ramadán is practiced by Muslim in the United States. Since this year Ramadan corresponds more or less directly with our month of August, Afghans and other Muslims in this shopping center selling and buying food and gifts for Iftar (fast-breaking after sundown). There are also Arabs here who who sell beer to the Mexican day laborers. I think they are fasting--not even drinking water--during the day. One of them is married to a Mexican. Would she also be fasting? I don't know how they manage to fast without water when the day is so hot and long and the door to their liquor store is open all day. But I suppose they know how to resist, since they sell alcohol all day every day, and they seem to resist drinking it themselves.  I suppose they would not have this problem if they were in a Muslim majority  country.

What is the influence of all this connectedness on the future of this community? What interactions take place and produce new ways of living? How do you observe connections with God?

Where is Tim?

I will be away from home and the office from February 23 to March 13.  Ouch! 

If you need to contact me, the best way is to send me an e-mail. 

It is actually possible to phone me, but it costs me a lot to get your call.  You also need to adjust for the time difference.

 

If my phone is off, I will be checking my voice mail messages at the office.  You can leave me a message at +1(925)935-7640 and I should get it within a day or two. 

 

Here is where I will be.

 

Guatemala

February 24: In Guatemala visiting friends.  Ricardo and Elisa Hernández (Guatemalan serving in Senegal), Ciria Yela (fomerly PMI-USA, now living in San Cristobal, Alta Verapaz), Gerber López (Director of Agencia Misionera América Latina and sender of missionaries), David and Dora Amalia Ruiz (President of COMIBAM), Jorge Mario Ramirez (Administrator of the Church of God Center (IDEC) ).  Sleep at the home of Pedro Samuc from Santiago, Atitlán who promotes the use of the Scriptures in Mayan languages.

 

Costa Rica

February 25:  Fly to Costa Rica in the morning for a week with a short-term mission team from Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church who will be working at Roblealto Bible Home (for children), founded by the Strachans (founders of our mission, LAM) 75 years ago

February 26:  Preach at Iglesia Bíblica Nazareth in San José in the morning, Lunch with Cliff and Linda Holland, and preach at Iglesia Bautisa El Bosque in Zapote in the evening.

February 27 & 28:  Work with the Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church team at the Children's Home

March 1:  Visit ESEPA and possibly teach a Perspectives Course.  Visit friends Pablo Mauger, Olman Montero

March 2:  Spend the Day at Roblealto.  Carlos & Yamileth Abarca (Latin America Coordinator for PMI) and Stan Jeter (CBN News/Mundo Cristiano www.MundoCristiano.tv) should be joining us for lunch.

March 3:  Visit San José with WCPC team.

March 4:  Debriefing and departure for Guatamala 

 

Guatemala

March 4:  I spend the night at Hugo and Rhoda Morales' home. 

March 5:  Travel to Granada, Spain via LAX and London.

 

Los Angeles

March 5:  Spend the day with Carlos España between flights.

 

London

March 6:  Arrive 12 noon at Heathrow and leave 16:15 from Stansted.  Arrive Granada around 8pm

 

Granada, Spain

March 7-9  Executive leadership team of PM Internacional, led by Allan Matamoros. 

March 10  Meetings with PMI friends and colleagues for discussing a variety of shared tasks.

March 11  Travel to London

 

London

March 11-12  Weekend with my friend Bertil Ekstrom, (World Evangelical Fellowship--WEA--Missions Commission and former President of COMIBAM), who is working on his doctorate at All Nations Christian College.

 

HOME!!!!!

March 13 Fly home from London to San Francisco.  Finally!

 

 

 

Pipes or Piper? Jesus and the response to Muslim outrage

I love this article by John Piper. His comments about Jesus can point us to the way ahead in a world that is in grave danger of dramatically increased violence and of a great reduction in human hope about the future.

Whenever more news comes out about a new and more violent reaction by some Muslims against the West, I worry some will use the news to justify a violent response of our own. We say, "they are closed. They leave no room for dialogue. They hate us. It's either kill or be killed," etc.

When we look inside Western values for something to help us face the Islamic challenge and assure a better future than constant war, we get stuck. The geopolitical option soon looks like the only way out of the mess we are in. But the geopolitical option has serious trade offs (war, loss of freedoms, the risk of increasing alienation between the West and Islam, etc.).

Attempting to preserve the Western value of toleration, some suggest dialogue will help. A first reading of Daniel Pipes' most recent article "How the cartoon protests harm Muslims" seems, at first, to recommend this option.

He begins by outlining how Muslims and the West are increasingly "disengaging" in many of the areas important to maintaining geopolitical relations: commerce, investments, intergovernmental relations, tourism, immigration, foreign aid, education, etc.

There is a serious "wall of separation" separating Muslims from Christians. While I don't always agree with Daniel Pipes , I agree with his premise that the path the world is taking will lead to greater disengagement. The Islamic world will increasingly disengage (with some hostility) from the West and the West will disengage (also with hostility) from the Islamic World.

He would probably agree that disengagement between Islam and the West can be harmful for the future of humankind.

Nonetheless, we have to ask ourselves some questions:

• What good will dialogue do?
• Why should we expect that exposing more Muslims to Western ways will cause those Muslims to appreciate Western ways. This is a big leap especially when intellectual foundations radical Islam were laid by Muslim clerics and others who have lived in the West and been exposed to "the best the West has to offer." Why would we expect the same sort of contact to produce different results in the future?
• Do we really think that increased contact between Westerners and Muslims will change Westerners and make them more open to Islam?

I question whether Pipes is offering dialogue at all when he writes: "For everyone's sake, it is important that Muslims begin more successfully to negotiate their path to modernity, not to isolation." This is not dialogue. It is a one-way conversation. In this conversation, the West offers the solution and Muslims are "free to take it or leave it".

Would it ever be possible to get all the parties to agree to rules of dialogue like those offered by Daniel Dennett (clearly from a western perspective)? What reasons would any of them have to do it his way?

If you think about it, it is next to impossible for the secular West to offer true dialogue. It isn't open to changing itself. The West would just not be the West any longer, if it bowed to Islamic demands.

In spite of the failures of dialogue, I do think Christians should actively and intentionally break down the barriers keeping Muslims and Christians from knowing each other. Why? Do I think it will work? Won't increased violence between Muslims and Christians be taken as proof that breaking down barriers didn't work? Will this, like all the failures in the relationship of Islam and the West over the last 1300 years, be just another reason to lead the West to defend its interests by using political, economic and military power?

Christians should seek out Muslims and accept their friendship. I believe God Himself wants to take an active part in such friendships. He is actively making himself known when people meet and get to know each other. He is actively at work when people follow in the steps of Jesus.

Piper's article tells us why Jesus changes the rules of the game. There is danger in John Piper's article, though. Christians can use John Piper's arguement to say "Jesus is better than Mohammed, so you should be a Christian." It does not follow that Christians are thus better than Muslims. Muslim resistance to Christian arrogance is not persecution. Under the circumstances, Christians should be careful not to blame Muslim for "resisting" the gospel. The true problem is not resistance, but lack of contact. The vast majority of Muslims have never met a Christian. It would require time, intentionality and effort for them to meet and understand the rare Christian who is willing to bear insults for their sake like their Master did.

If Christians read Piper's article and choose to live as Jesus did, leaving their comfort and privilege to go and to live out their discipleship in Muslim communities, God will make Himself known to all of us. Both Christians and Muslims will get to know Him better. This should motivate Christians. We will know God better only when we are willing to follow Him and bear insults in Jesus' name, even to the point of wasting our lives through the kind death that can follow the insults.

"End of the Spear" and the struggle between Islam and the West

I went to see The End of the Spear today. Wow!

Go to the site and click on Behind the Spear and read it.

You dare not miss the first lines of the narration of the movie. It poses the question, can mankind, from different cultures, ever hope to get along? Can we live together without killing each other? The true story of the movie, though painfully violent, left me hopeful.

I am less hopeful about the current violent reaction to the cartoons that were published in Denmark insulting Islam and the Prophet. I don't think freedom of speech should give license to people so that they can insult and blaspheme.

On the other hand, the reaction that the media says is going on in the Muslim World is incredible. For those who have no hope in Jesus, and whose hope is that the West will prevail, this reaction should be frightening. Just look at the pictures in the link above. This could well be used to justify more war against Muslims. People in the West would be justified to think that their way of life is threatened by these attitudes.

The confusion among Western leaders about how to react to this is incredible. Religion just seems to throw us all into a tizzy. We don't understand it.

I read an article by Daniel Pipes in which he thinks outloud about what this means. Is this the clash of civilizations that Huntington was talking about?

Perhaps this will serve to remind us that the Kingdom of God is represented neither by the imposition of Western ways nor by the victory of Radical Islam.

The statement in the Pipes' last paragraph

It is a tragic mistake to lump all Muslims with the forces of darkness. Moderate, enlightened, free-thinking Muslims do exist. Hounded in their own circles, they look to the West for succor and upport. And, however weak they may presently be, they eventually will have a crucial role in modernizing the Muslim world.

contains a sub-text implying that "modernizing" the Muslim world is the path to peace. If we all just shared the same presuppositions of the Modern world, then all would be well and mankind could live at peace.

There is debate about whether moderate Islam is even possible or acceptable in Islam. I do not know. I am not a Muslim scholar. I do suspect, though, that modernization is not the hope of humanity.

At best, modernization is just one step along the path of humanity's violent history. Though it is a step that has been pretty comfortable to me, it may actually lead to the death of humanity (read CS Lewis, especially the science fiction).

Fortunately we know the end of the story. Anything that leads to death will be destroyed and replaced with the New Jerusalem (Rev 20,21).

This is what we are working and praying for. Keep praying.

Did you ever think how important it is to have a boss?

I have been working with my Latin American friends to organize PMI's ministry in the USA for about 4 years now. Just like in the American Express commercial about startups, starting a US version of a ministry created and led by Latin Americans can be a lonely business.

In spite of living 20 years in Latin America and having adopted many Latin American ways, I am still a gringo and I live in the midst of Gringos (echo Isa 6). I get to "visit" Latin America and sometimes experience it right here in the USA among my new immigrant friends.

Setting up an organization and a ministry that is relevant to Anglos, Hispanics, Brazilians as well Muslims, to immigrants in the USA, to residents and to people who have never been here, is a huge challenge. To set up an organization that honors them and honors God, one that is based on obedience to God and challenges other people to hear God's voice and obey Him, this is an additional challenge!

There is a group of people who stand with me in a special way as I do this.

What they do for me is so very important. They listen, they pray, they support, and they tell me how to do my job. If I didn't have them, I might be floundering.

Having a good boss is so important! And I have two sets of them.

One set of my bosses are the Latin Americans who run PM Internacional from Spain. I love working for them and with them.

My other boss is the Board of Directors of the US organization of PM Internacional (we call it PMI-USA for short). This last weekend they spoke clearly and honestly into my life. If I can do what they said, I will be more effective in ministry and more balanced as a person. If it works, I imagine Lois will be grateful!

This group of people sacrifices time and money and works hard so that Latino Christians can become friends with Muslims and they pray for the Spirit of God to make Himself known in those friendships!

That kind of commitment is humbling. I am grateful. I need what they do for me and for the rest of the family of PMI around the world. But I never feel like I deserve it.

What do Muslims think of us? revised 1.23.06

Yesterday a friend asked me if I would help him in a presentation he is making, by answering the question: What do Muslims think of us?

I agree that it is important for each of us to listen well enough to know the answer to this question, but I am not sure that I am the person people should be listening to.

Ideally, we should be listening to Muslim friends and that what we think of each other is part of a real friendship. But, given the realities of the barriers between Muslims and Christians, barriers that limit both the instances and depth of personal relationships between Christians and Muslims, this question, and its counter question, what do we think of Muslims?, we cannot come up with accurate answers very easily.

Before I get into some possible answers to the question, it is also worth noting that the question itself is highly reductionistic. Think about the following:

• How can one dare think of an answer that would work for all 1.3 billion Muslims in the world today? Do all Muslims think alike? Do some Muslims like Christians and hate Westerners?
• When we ask what they think of "us", who is "us"?
• Are we asking what they think of Christians or what they think of Westerners?
• Is there a difference between a Westerner and a Christian (I think there is!!!)?
• Is there a difference "in the Muslim mind" (I beg forgiveness for even using that expression) between Christians and Muslims?
• How can one dare think that it is possible to discover the answer that the 1.1 billion Muslims would give when they don't have a friendship with a Christian? Who is going to ask them?

Assuming the question is what do Muslims think of Christians? might help us focus on the real issue: If the 1.1 billion Muslims who do not have a friendship with a Christian have an opinion about Christians, what is it based on?

It is a common thing for Christian missionaries to say that Muslims consider the terms "Christian" and "Westerner" to refer to the same people and values. So that they think that the sex and violence in Hollywood movies is a reflection of Christianity, or to conclude too quickly that Westerners who visit their countries are Christians and that their behavior reflects Christian values, or even to say that the West's "war on terrorism" is a continuation of the Crusades and a reflection of Christianity's hatred or fear of Islam.

If Muslims do not know Christians (or, more importantly than those who are Christian in name, they may never have met people who seek to be followers of Jesus) it could be easy enough to think that Western Culture is Christian Culture, just as we think Middle Eastern Culture is Muslim Culture when in fact there are many Arab Christians and, in fact, most Muslims are not Arabs.

I could go on. The point I want to make, though, is that Muslims are probably as ignorant of Christians as real human beings as Christians are of Muslims. Our impressions of each other are formed through different means and are part of the great wall of separation and hostility that has characterized Muslim/Christian/Western relations for 12 centuries.

It might be important for us to understand where Muslims can draw from to form an opinion about Christians or about Westerners.

• Islam has a place, in its holy book (in the Koran) and in its theology, a place for Jesus, the founder of Christianity. Muslims are forced to answer for themselves the questions, who is Jesus? Is the Bible accurate?
• The opposite is not true. Mohammed is not in the Bible and most theologians, unless they specialize in comparative religion or in the encounter of Christianity with other religions, do not have to worry about the meaning of Mohammed's life and religious claims or even about the Koran.
• Mohammed was married to a woman from a Christian background and Mohammed lived among pagans, Christians and Jews. Though most Christians today would consider the forms of Christianity he encountered heretical, Muslims have an understanding that their version of monotheism is better than Christian or Judaism. In fact, for them, it is based on God's corrective and final revelation of His Word, the Koran.

Getting to an answer to the question...

Words in Islam that refer to Christians:

• people of the book recognizes the revelation about Jesus that was entrusted to Christians. The Injil (New Testament) is a true revelation, though Christians are accused of changing it to promote deceptions they made up after Jesus died (such as that he is God). Nonetheless, this description is positive.
• infidels describes Christians as NOT believing the truth about God as revealed by Mohammed and expressed in the Koran.
• dhimmis is the name for Christians who, in Islamic society, are allowed to continue to follow their Christian faith.

Christians are both tolerated and protected by Islamic law. This creates an interesting situation. Muslims can legitimately claim that they are more tolerant toward Christians than Christians are toward Muslims. At the same time Christians can rightly argue that Islamic freedom of religion does not include freedom for Muslims to become Christians.

Why the double standard? Perhaps it is related to the belief held by many Muslims that as each country, region or people group submits to Islamic law, the world gets closer to a world that will finally be in harmony with God's design. The forward march of Islam can be seen by some Muslims as an irreversible sign of the grace of God. Under such a vision, it is easy to understand how there might be freedom to become a Muslim, but none to stop being one!

So, having made this long discourse, can we find a one sentence answer for the question: what do Muslims think of us?

Here are some one sentence answers:

The western system has come to an end primarily because it is deprived of those life-giving values which enabled it to be the leader of mankind.

--Sayyid Qutb in Milestones, p8, 11

Why do you not acknowledge our prophet?

--man on the street, Morocco

Why won't you allow us into western society?

--immigrants from the Middle East

You Christians are better Muslims than we are!

--a frequent comment by local Muslims to Christian humanitarian workers in their communities

many Muslims view the West
as the source of colonialism, racism, and immorality while Islam
is viewed as the fount of equality, justice, and godly civilization

--Bernard Adeney-Risakotta in SojoMail Nov 13 2002

I began to think to myself, how could such a man be condemned to hell [for not being a Muslim]

--Mehdi Abedi in Debating Muslims: Cultural Dialogues in Postmodernity and Tradition

So...

I think finding an answer to the question can be a fruitful endeavor, but I hope we can do it with careful attention to our own motives and methods:

• I know this was not my friend's intention when he asked the question, but it is important that when we ask what Muslims think of us that we do so honestly. If our answer will be an excuse to either love them, or hate them, we will have forgotten God's proactive stance toward humans and we will be reaction.
• If we are asking the questions so as to merely study about them (to enter into the debate about the legitimacy of orientalism), we should be careful that we not do this as an alternative to actually meeting, knowing and engaging individual Muslims about the things that are important to us and to them.
• Our biggest challenge is to break down the walls of separation that keep us from knowing Muslims and them from knowing us. These walls keep us from knowing our Muslim neighbors and from accepting them into our lives. These walls keep us from being a bridge over which the Holy Spirit can make the living Jesus we follow known to Muslims.

The peace of our world today is directly affected by geographic and social barriers that keep Muslims and Christians from knowing each other at the personal level. Most Muslims go through life without meaningful contact with the few Christians who live among them and Christians are unaffected by the few Muslims in their part of the world. Muslims who know no Christians and Christians who know no Muslims make our world more dangerous.

By avoiding each other, we do nothing to reduce the violence inherent in both the West's war on terrorism and in Jihad, fighting in the way of Islam for the world to submit to God.

But, breaking down the barriers is not a panacea. Getting people together can cause clashes as much as it can cause reconciliation. It is, however an essential first step if we are going to be experience the fulfilling of God's goal to reconcile all humanity in Jesus, make His good gifts available to all peoples and put an end to injustice. That happens when Jesus followers and Holy Spirit carriers live in close contact with people who haven't been introduced to Jesus yet or touched by God's Holy Spirit.

Perhaps the most important question I can ask myself: what do I think of Muslims? Is what I think of Muslims in line with what God thinks of Muslims? Am I willing to go out of my way to be a friend to Muslims here and around the world?

Summary:

What to Muslims think of us? Ask a Muslim.

What do we think of Muslims? We need to ask ourselves the hard questions.

As for what God thinks of Muslims. Maybe we need to ask Him!