April 24th- He Has Risen!

April 22nd- It's Friday

Isaiah 53

¹ Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by others,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
⁹ He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
¹¹ After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

April 19th- God Almighty (Dios Todopoderoso)

What I have been learning recently comes directly from my struggles. Certain things seem to be crashing down around me, and the temptation is to respond with despair, or with worry. Praise God that he has used this to bring me closer to Him, and to shape me for his service.

The other day I was waiting for my friend to meet me near a walking bridge, and got there about 15 minutes early, so I had some time to think, and to mull over the events of the past week. As I thought about some things that were troubling me, the song Eres Todopoderoso kept on playing in the background of my mind (This is one of those songs that everyone who has spent any moderately long time in South America has probably heard. A very popular song here. The video is below if you want to listen to it.). The chorus of the song is:

Tú eres todopoderoso
Eres grande y majestuoso,
Eres fuerte, invencible
y no hay nadie como tú

Which roughly translates to:
You are all-powerful
You are large and Majestic
You are strong and invincible
And there is no one like you.

These lyrics ran through my mind, and though my struggles were still there, I was able to truly find peace in knowing that our God is El-Shaddai; God Almighty; Dios Todopoderoso. I was still just as weak, my problems were just as present, but I was able to find peace in knowing that He is so much bigger than everything that can come against me. I have heard people talk about resting in His strength a lot, but many times when troubles came, I was confused because this knowledge didn't make my problems feel any less difficult, or any less imposing. I think I understand it a bit better now, and I'll do my best to explain my thoughts concisely.

I know that I am weak, and that there are many things that can harm me--but the one who I am spending myself for is invincible. I have put all of my eggs in one basket, and there is no one, and there is nothing, that can damage Him. This realization doesn't make my problems disappear or become less difficult. It does however give me strength to endure all of them. I know that the King that I serve, and the Kingdom that I labor to bring to this earth, are both strong and indestructible. Therefore I am able, in all of my weakness, to find peace in His strength.

Have a blessed Holy Week,

-Jon

This is song I was talking about, Eres Todopoderoso.

April 14th- Why Are Christians So Mean

Matthew 7:3-4 ³ “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? ⁴ How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?

I started thinking about this subject recently (that is, the subject of Christians being mean) after reading an article online. It's not important what the article was about. What really made me think was the way that people responded to the article in comments. There were a ton of people that completely discounted what the author said, and focused on how he made one point by using a Greek translation instead of a Hebrew translation. People were arguing, and tearing each other apart over an issue of translation!

I'm sure you have been in similar situations. You go to a bible study and find people vehemently arguing over one or two words, and what they "really" mean. This isn't always a bad thing, but I believe that it is a symptom of something else. Many Christians like being right, more than they like to love one another. I have heard "non-denominational" believers say that all Catholics aren't followers of Christ, I've heard Lutherans say that Pentacostals aren't believers, Pentacostals have told me that I don't know Jesus unless I have spoken in tongues, Baptists will say that you aren't following Christ unless you were baptized the right way, after you hit the magical age when you you are aware enough to receive God's grace, Orthodox Christians have refused me from partaking in communion with them, and I have heard Catholics say that all protestants preach heresy.

All of this stems from our desire to be right being stronger than our love for our brothers and sisters in faith. If you disagree with that statement, then I suggest that you ask yourself to think of the times when you had a conflict of faith with someone. Did you spend more energy in the interaction trying to prove yourself, or did you spend more energy in praying for them, asking God to correct the error in their perspective? Oswald Chambers says that God never gives us discernment about another person for the purpose of judgment, but so that we can lift them up in prayer. This is part of what I think Jesus was talking about in Matthew 7 (The scripture above). We spend ourselves so fervently on proving ourselves right that we forget the purpose of the freedom that we have in Christ; Galatians 5:13b "Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love."

Another Scripture that I love is:
1 Corinthians 8:1b "But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church."
also Romans 14:4 "Who are you to condemn someone else’s servants? They are responsible to the Lord, so let him judge whether they are right or wrong. And with the Lord’s help, they will do what is right and will receive his approval."

I'm not against discussing what God commands us to do in the Bible. Lets just try to do it with genuine love.

-Jon

P.S. Today I decided to get a break from Peruvian food and to eat some fried chicken. I found a place that was selling chicken strips for 5 soles ($1.80). I made the fatal mistake of just looking at the picture and going with it. I wrongfully thought that mollejitas was just a fancy name for chicken fingers. I get my food and notice that it's kid of grey, and completely different than any other part of the chicken I have ever had. I rush home and look it up in my Spanish dictionary. Turns out I ate some deep fried Chicken gizzards. Yum...

Some Pictures

Here are some pictures of Arequipa and the surrounding area.

April 8th- Storms

Mark 4:39-41 When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!”

The disciples feared for their lives when the storm first came, but they were left with an entirely different kind of fear when they got a glimpse of who Jesus really was. Notice the scripture says, "The disciples were absolutely terrified." The very same thing will happen in our lives that happened in the lives of the disciples. When we are in our fiercest storm, we will hear the voice of Christ. We will watch as the waves subside, and the wind dies down. For a moment we will see who Jesus really is, and like the disciples, we will be terrified. The key is to remember this moment, and to know that His glory is greater than our troubles, so that we will never again have to hear him say, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?"

April 3rd- Sorry to All of My Friends Who Had Guinea Pigs as Pets.

Today I went with some of my friends to eat a Peruvian Delicacy-Cuy. Cuy is the Spanish word for Guinea Pig. They are called Cuy because of the sound that they are supposed to make (something that I got to hear personally today).

Here are the Before and After shots.

Before

After

After finishing the Cuy, we were invited into the kitchen, where we met the owner. She started the restaurant over 70 years ago, and she is still there overlooking the chefs.

The Kitchen itself was a bit of an adventure. The Cuy were walking around the floor in the kitchen, along with a dog that would run in and out, and a chicken that was biding it's time before it became someone's dinner. The food was excellent, and the people who owned the restaurant were extremely nice. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in Arequipa.

When we finished dinner we went to the top of a tower and took some pictures of the city.

All in all it was a pretty awesome day.

-Jon