Writing on Writing: A Ministry Venture

As an oversees missionary it’s both humbling and encouraging to see the effect that God has through the things I write.  It’s humbling because it often seems that God does just as much with the little I write as he does through my face-to-face influence.  It’s encouraging for nearly the same reason.

I don’t currently write a great deal.  I do a monthly update, and normally a few posts per month on this blog.  It’s a personal blog, hosted at wordpress’s site, so needless to say, it’s not meant for a large audience nor could it really even attract one.  However, I’ve been truly shocked at the number of readers I have from time to time.  Last January through March or April I was faithfully updating and writing on serious biblical issues.  Through the wonder of the interconnectedness of the internet, I had people from many different countries reading and finding encouragement.  That’s since dropped off as I haven’t been as consistent in frequently writing edifying and biblically challenging material, but nonetheless it continues.

Other reports come back to me regarding the number of people that read my ministry updates.  I have my list of 200~, but I hear more and more after every update about how so and so forwarded my update to a list of 20 people and so on.  It’s amazing how far it goes simply through email.  It’s awesome to see that my writing is blessing people that I’ve never met nor ever will meet.

It’s not that I have much free time here (there’s that self-asserting pride assuring you that I work hard,) but I think I could use it more effectively.  *I know I could.  At one point or another haven’t we all done the math as to how many hours we have in a week? 168 hours total -56 for sleep (ideally,) 40-50 for work, -x for commute, x for meals, x for exercise, devotions, talking to loved ones, etc.  We normally come up between 25-50 free hours still left over.  It is those hours that we will be held most accountable for.

I have begun to ponder an idea.  I have many ideas, as I’m sure many of you do.  Many are whimsical, or strike after a cup of coffee.  I get really excited while buzzed on caffeine, then realize the absurdity of the idea later.  There are some ideas however that don’t fade, but only grow stronger.

Pondering the influence of even the sparse writing that I’ve done has led me to consider venturing something.  Nothing would change here in Spain, I would just need to be more disciplined with my free time in order to carve out 10 hours a week (most likely in the mornings,) to undertake this idea.  The goal would be to create a professional website/blog focusing on informing and encouraging those that feel the biblical calling of church planting and mission work, at home or away.  It would also be informative for those that would find encouragement in reading about the state of missions and church planting worldwide.  There are many missions organizations, but all focus on their own ministries.  I haven’t found anything like this and that’s why I think it could work.

Cross-cultural missions is still a subject that is mostly imaginary in readers’ minds.  It still is in mine!  How’s that for irony?  People think of themselves in their local first-world church, then we think of the missionary in the hut in the ubiquitously used “Africa,” -never mind naming one of the 54 countries, we’ll just say the continent… We think of the martyred Jim Elliot or a Hudson Taylor in some sort of river-network, inland Chinese wonderland toting a tackle box of medical supplies, and that’s where it ends.

I would like to bridge that gap.  There are many Christians who are a part of great organizations and they can pursue missions through them.  Think of Campus Crusade or Navigators, my ministry GCM, or certain denominations.  They have a streamlined process for going into missions and church planting. There are many however that do not have this option, and have no idea where to start. For lack of information and a constant rekindling of the desire, the vision fades.

In order to reach these needs, different days within the week could be dedicated to certain things on the website.  One day could be devoted to giving concrete steps to follow in pursuing missions -things like learning languages, reaching out to the foreign sociolinguistic and ethnic groups in your own community, international outreach, church planting methods, getting out of debt in order to be free to go, etc.  Other days could be used for encouragement and a home base for what is going on in the world of missions.  Most people have yet to learn  about the 10/40 window, the Two-Thirds world, or the shift of Christianity to the Global South.  Many don’t know that there are 50,000 new believers per day in China.  There are revivals happening all over Latin America.  Wycliffe is on track to having a New Testament language translation started in every language group by somewhere between 2025 and 2035.  Many do not know that we’re seeing faster growth now than in any period since the early church.  Many don’t know these things, but there is a hunger for this heart-changing information.  I believe these kinds of articles alone would encourage and inform many to take furthering steps in church planting and mission work, at home and abroad.

It’s still something I’m considering.  Part of me says, “Jordan, don’t bite off more than you can chew.” Another part says, “What are you waiting for? It’s now or never.”  What do you think dear reader?

Please comment or write me at jordanmonson@gmail.com

-Until the Whole World Hears,

Jordan

Did You Know That Wasn’t True? Exegesis and Hermeneutics

I wonder how many readers I lost by adding those last three words to the title?  I would leave them off, but I don’t want to be one of those “Shock and Awe” title-givers that misleads the reader.

I’m reading the book, “How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth.” The lack of the apostrophe in “Its” is purposely intended as a wordplay, so no worries.

That said, it is a great intro into good Bible study.  They bring light to the fact that in overcorrecting for those ivory tower seminary types that sit around and only talk about ideas (Acts 17:21,) many people have totally written off the “experts,” and even have a hidden agenda that seminary is a hindrance to good Bible reading.  I’ve seen this attitude point blank.

The book talks much of exegesis and hermeneutics.  Exegesis is the first step in good Bible reading and study.  It is precisely, “What did the text mean to the original audience?” Hermeneutics is, “What does this mean now for us?”   What did it mean and what does it mean, respectively.  The only safe control for applying the scripture to today, Hermeneutics, is good Exegesis. (Fee and Stuart 29)  All cults come about by the application of poor Hermeneutics, because they didn’t have the control of good exegesis.

Many people steamroll the Bible and take any verse out of context as if it applies to them.  The first example that comes to mind is one of the most often misquoted favorite verses or life verses.  Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (NIV)

Many use this as if it were God’s personal promise to them.  It’s not necessarily wrong to find hope in this, but it’s not God’s promise to you.  It’s his promise to the exiled Israel in Babylon, 2,500 some years ago.  The “you” is plural.  The problem comes when you hope in this verse and then it’s not fulfilled.  God didn’t promise this to you, so he doesn’t have to fulfill it, but if you believe he did make this promise, and then doesn’t come through, then you’ll have a problem in your basic beliefs about him.  Thus a “small” misunderstanding of scripture becomes a major worldview/Godview problem that weakens your faith, all because of a misapplication of scripture.

You see, the verse right before this verse is “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.” (Jer 29:10) So, Israel is captive in Babylon.  Some day Israel will be restored, but all of the hearers of that prophecy will be dead by the time it comes to pass.  Israel’s lineage will continue.  Israel will be blessed someday.  God says in this prophecy, “I will keep working through her to bring about my purposes… but you won’t see it.  You’ll die a slave in Babylon.  That’s what the verse meant to the original hearers.  IT was a collective hope for their people, but not an individual hope for their own prosperity.  That’s just one example of misapplying scripture without proper concern for who the audience actually was –improper exegesis.

What’s written above is very important, but not the original reason I decided to write a post today.  I’m writing because I was blown away by something I read in the first chapters.  The authors mention the importance of using good sources, and not secondary sources quoting from other secondary sources.  Below is a story that contradicts something that I’d heard many times and took to be true, simply because secondary sources have kept the lie running for 1,000 years.

“For example, in Mark 10:24 (Matt 19:23; Luke 18:24,) at the conclusion of the story of the rich young man, Jesus says, ‘How hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!’ He then adds: ‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ Your will sometimes hear it said that there was a gate in Jerusalem known as the ‘Needle’s Eye,’ which camels could go through only by kneeling, and with great difficulty.  The point of this ‘interpretation’ is that a camel could in fact go through the ‘Needle’s Eye.’ The trouble with this ‘exegesis,’ however, is that it is simply not true.  There never was such a gate in Jerusalem at any time in its history.  The earliest known ‘evidence’ for this idea is found in the eleventh century in a commentary by a Greek churchman named Theophylact, who had the same difficulty with the text that we do.  After all, it is impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, and that was precisely Jesus’ point.  It is impossible for one who trusts in riches to enter the kingdom.  It takes a miracle for a rich person to get saved, which is quite the point of what follows: “All things are possible with God.” (Fee and Stuart 25)

So, I encourage all of us to do better exegesis! And now the next time your hear that camel nonsense, you can gently correct the speaker.

Fee, Gordon D., and Douglas Stuart. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. 3^rd ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003.

How do we Respond to Offense?

Much modern Christian “wisdom” tells us to bring up our conflicts with every small offender for the sake of unity. We basically encourage people to be offended, as long as we don’t conceal it.

We approach this from the wrong direction. It’s a compromise of morality. We think, “Well, they’re going to hold on to their pride and sense of entitlement no matter what, so at least it’s the lesser of two evils to get it out in the open rather than let it explode in the pressure cooker of bottled up emotions.”

What does the Word say?

“Good sense make one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense. ” Proverbs 19:11

Let us seek to overlook offenses.

True Worship Depends Not on Circumstances

“God and the devil are fighting … and the battlefield is the heart of man.” -Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Today I started reading Job.  I remember his heroic faith, but some of the details had faded.  Upon reading it again I was blown away, so to speak. In an age where the sickness of the prosperity gospel is growing in its influence, I am very comforted to see this.

The story goes that The Lord shows Satan how righteous Job is: “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” (Job 1:8) Satan then answers, and I paraphrase, “That’s because you’ve given him everything -every blessing, every possession.  Take them away and he will curse you to your face.” The Lord then says, paraphrased again, “You’re on, I give you permission to do whatever you wish with him, only you cannot kill him.”

Then Satan takes everything from him in a single moment.  Messengers from different parts of Job’s vast property sprint with terrible news, each cutting the other off with their news yet worse than the message before it.  One by one they tell him that all of his servants have been killed, animals killed and stolen, properties burned, and a house had collapsed on his children, killing all of them.

This follows: “Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.” (Job 1:20) He worshiped God right then.  We’re very quick to yell at God and we dare to question him.  In the name of “Trying to be real with God,” we judge him, and do not worship.  We scoff at him and reveal to him through our discontentment that he’s not enough for us, but that we need to have pleasant circumstances as well to truly love him.  It shows a lack of faith.  Our hearts are in the wrong place.

Then, Job said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.’” (Job 1:20-21) This might be one of the strongest paragraphs in the Bible against the Prosperity Gospel and for the true worship of God.

Job falls and worships God even in utter destruction.  His worship does not depend on his prosperity.  It does not depend on his circumstances, but depends on the glorious name of the Lord, which is never-changing.

This below is probably the most encouraging message I’ve heard against the prosperity Gospel.  It seems there are not many who speak so adamantly against it.  I was very blessed to hear this sermon, and a small part of it just so happens to be made into a special video.  I hope it encourages you as well.

If you’d like to read the chapter and/or continue in Job, click this: Job 1

You Owe God 8 Billion Dollars!

Have you ever done the math in in Matthew 18:23-35? I did once, and it blew me away.  It took the story to another level for me, and I was able to understand it on a much grander scale.

The short Jordan paraphrase of the story goes like this:

A man owes the king 10,000 talents and cannot pay.  The king orders the man’s wife and family sold, but the man pleads for forgiveness, and the king grants it.  The debtor later goes out, sees a man that owes him just 100 denari, and begins to choke him and demand payment.  This man also pleads forgiveness, but the man that was recently forgiven the larger debt doesn’t grant it, and instead throws him into prison until he can pay it.  The king is informed, and he fetches the first man again, the unforgiving debtor, and challenges him.  “And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?”  He then hands this man over to the “jailers,” or the literal Greek “torturers/tormentors,” (wow, there’s an image) till he can pay.  The same will be of us if we do not forgive our brothers from the heart.

For the full story click here

I originally saw just the surface meaning of this.  One dude owed a lot, and was shown mercy.  He later showed no mercy to one that owed him little, so the King threw him in jail for not responding in kind with others.  God shows us forgiveness, we ought to show others.

Two simple things drastically deepened my understanding of this:

1. The Greek word for jailers is “torturers,” or “tormentors.” (βασανισταῖς which is the dative case of βασανιστής)

2. I did the math.  I will represent it here.

First guy owes 10,000 talents.  One talent equals 20 years labor for the average laborer (according to the notes at the bottom of the Biblical text.)  To use a pretty standard figure, I’ll choose $20.00/hour which with a 40 hour week at 50 weeks per year (two weeks vacation,) works out conveniently to $40,000 per year.

His total? In today’s money, he owes 8 billion dollars.  Or, $8,000,000,000.00

The other guy that owes 100 denarii? A denarius was one day’s wage for a laborer. So, he owed 100 days at $20/hour, using today’s figure of 8 hour days, he would owe $16,000 dollars. If you divide 8 billion by 16 thousand, you get 500,000.  i.e. The first man owed 500,000 times more than the second man.  Or, he owed $500,000.00 for every dollar that the second man owed him.

I always thought this boiled down to one guy owing $100,000 and the other owing a petty $2,000.  I had no idea that the first guy owed more than 5,000 lifetimes of full time labor, and the second only 100 days.

Notice how this makes such a difference in the eternal significance of this passage. This doesn’t have to do with just right and wrong, but with salvation itself. “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (-Jesus, in Matthew 6:14-15)

We have sinned against God (the king) around 500,000 times more than others have sinned against us.  Yet, he has graciously forgiven us.  If we hold on to anger against those who have done us wrong, and don’t forgive them, even in they are incredibly annoying, we won’t just go to jail for a bit till we’ve learned our lesson; we’ll have to spend 5,000 lifetimes – i.e. eternity – with tormentors (hell.)  What a crock to not forgive others when God has forgiven us of a debt half a million times larger!  If you spit in the face of his mercy, and do not show it to others, you will not be forgiven!  This isn’t very popular in our cheap-grace evangelicalism.  Take it up with the Author of life if you have a problem.
-Jordan

A Walk Through Jeremiah 6-7

I enjoy reading a bit of Jeremiah for a wake-up call against sin.  We’re so desensitized to sin since we see it so often in our society, and even more often in ourselves. I wanted to share a few verses I’d underlined along with a few thoughts.

“The word of the LORD is to them an object of scorn;” v 10. – sinful Jerusalem, they wouldn’t nor couldn’t hear rebuke, because even the word of God was an object of scorn to them.

“Therefore I am full of the wrath of the LORD;
I am weary of holding it in.” – 6:11a -Jeremiah was truly full of God’s wrath and judgment.  He got weary of holding it in, so he didn’t.  He wrote a whole book rebuking sinful Jerusalem.

“For from the least to the greatest of them,
everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
and from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.” -6:13 – This is just plain true. It’s why we need Christ. No matter our level of righteousness, we’re still “filthy rags.”

“For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.” 7:5-7 -This shows the difference between forgiveness and repentance.  God will forgive them if they walk away from their former ways.  Repentance is what leads to salvation, (2 Cor 7:10) and requires a walking away from former sins. See John 8:1-11 for more. “Go and sin no more.”

“…I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer…” 7:13 – This is us.

But this command I gave them: “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you,’ why? ‘That it may be well with you.’” 7:23 italics added.

I find Jeremiah to be a breath of fresh air.