I just got home from my 28-day trip to South Africa. It was a thrilling experience and the Lord certainly did a lot of great things. I’ll be able to post more in the coming days as I get adjusted to being back home.
grace and peace,
james
I’ll be on my way to Denver at 5 am tomorrow. Thursday morning, I’ll be on a 7:30 am flight to New York, followed by a 5 pm flight from New York to Johannesburg, South Africa. I should be in Pretoria by 7 pm local tim on Friday, July 4. Being in a foreign country on our nation’s holidy will be interesting. It’ll be nice to miss the fireworks and drinking, though.
I will have scarce access to internet (as far as I know), while in Pretoria, so that’ll make blogging difficult. I hope to post updates once a week. Thank you to all who read and stop by the site. I’m humbled that God would use this to be a resource of truth, grace, and encouragement to people all over the world. Thank you for allowing me to be a blessing and know that I’m blessed by all of you!
When I started this post (just a few seconds ago), I wanted to include some last-minute thoughts. However, I’m drawing blanks and can only just praise God for what he has done and is doing in my life. The Lord is incredible, indescribable, and inexhaustible. I’m amazed just to know him! So, instead of my own thoughts, here are some verses that my heart has been clinging to in the past few months as this trip has been approaching
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment…The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
- Revelation 21:5-6; 22:17The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.
- Psalm 12:6How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
- Psalm 119:9-11Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.
- Luke 18:29-30For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
- Romans 11:36
And to that I sing, “Amen.”
Dad and I sit and sway ‘til mother wants
me home. She scolds my dad if we are late,
whining “You are gonna get that boy sick!”
“Oh, Woman,” he says mumbling away.
Each day after work we walk to the park and
watch the purple and orange velvet clouds fade
into night and wait for each street light to start
their graveyard shift; watch the squirrels scramble
to gather last minute groceries for the holidays.
Every so often a black bird lands in front
of me, fearfully scouting the area while my feet
zoom by its hollow head, barely nicking its beak.
A cool breeze reddens my cheeks and my breath
swims in the brisk air. The rusty bolts
hold my weight and softly creak as I kick
the pokey wood chips into the air, tracking each
flip and spin, landing helplessly amidst their
friends. Some nights Dad never says a word.
Gazing at the cars thumping over the cobblestone,
a tear tumbles off his cheek. I pretend not to notice
as he turns his head and wipes his nose.
“We better get you home, before your mother worries.”
I hop off, land hands and knees in the tack-like chips.
I squeeze his fingers as we walk down my street.
Already dark and the coldest night of the year,
mother is pacing in the kitchen, fiddling her thumbs,
but she doesn’t say a word. “Good night, Dad!”
I yell, blowing him a kiss. “Same time tomorrow?”
“Same time,” he says walking away. “Same time.”
Two weekends ago, I visited my future brother-in-law Ben in the Great White North of America (aka, the Twin Cities). During the first day of our getaway, Ben’s dad took us boating on Lake Minnetonka. It was relaxing, refreshing, and very humorous, as Ben watched two young boys that he “nannies.” (I would come up with another name for that, but it’s not my job.)
Lake Minnetonka is large and gorgeous. We made it around half the lake in 2 hours. Throughout the tour, Ben’s dad kept telling us what celebrity lived in that house or this house. He’d tell us how much some of these lake homes cost. Some were above $500,000; others, upwards of $5 million. The opulence and material excess saddended me greatly. As I watched very large boats all around (not ours — though it’s new, I’m told it was bought a reasonable price and it is rather humble looking), I couldn’t help but hear John Piper’s words echo in my mind: “You get to the end of your life and you stand before the Creator of the Universe and say, ‘Look at my boat God!’” So many people, literally thousands in a small area, put their hope in a million dollar home, a two-story boat, long weekends, early retirement, and an easy, risk-free life.
As we passed under one of the channels, we drove slowly by another boater. He stood at the head of the boat, smiled, waved, and said, “Living the dream.” I sort of rolled my eyes and thought, “Wrong dream, dude.” I pray he’s not the one who stands before God Almighty on the last day and says, “But…look at my boat, God!”
There’s nothing wrong with taking a ride on a lake in a boat. Perhaps even, there’s nothing wrong with owning a boat. There might not even be anything wrong with living in an expensive house on the lake. But is that what God calls us to? Does he call us to monetary and material wealth, alongside suntans, margaritas, and a stress-free life? God calls us to treasure himself above all things. Being rich isn’t wrong. But I would contend that living like you are rich, and certainly putting your hope in riches, is.
Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf.
- Proverbs 11:28For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also…No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
- Matthew 6:21, 24And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
- Luke 12:15But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
- 1 Timothy 6:9-10Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
- Hebrews 13:5
Don’t trust in riches. Don’t boast in your boat or lakehouse. Don’t boast in your job or income or SUV or anything else you own. For “the earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therin” (Ps. 24:1). Don’t live the American dream. Live the true dream: the rich, abundant spiritual life in Christ (Jn. 10:10). Remember that if you are in Christ your riches are spiritual and they are given by and grounded in Christ (Rom. 10:12; Eph. 1:3, 18; 2:7). “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverity might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9).
