Remember how we recently read through the New Testament together? Who wants to read through the Old Testament with me?
Wait, does Moses have horns in that painting? Why yes he does… do you know why? My brilliant wife educated me on this the other day. Ready?
The Vulgate (4th century translation of the bible into Latin done mostly by St. Jerome) had a mistake. In Exodus 34 they translated “radiant” as NIV puts it, to horned.
You can still see it in the Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition which was translated from the Vulgate into English. Click here to see.
Do you know where my wife learned this? Do you think it was in the Bible Course she is doing right now? Nope. In her spare time of doing 30-40 hours of bible study a week, she had time to read a Dan Brown book for leisure. Although she didn’t really enjoy it, she did learn this fact, and now you know it too.
So on to reading through the Old Testament with me. Lets not do the whole thing, how about Joshua through Malachi, and uh, we’re gonna skip the Psalms.
No I don’t think that the Pentateuch (first 5 books of the bible) isn’t valuable, but in my many attempts to read through the bible throughout the years I’ve read through the first 5 books of the bible quite a few times and have a much better grasp on them then I do the rest of the old testament. So… I want to know what happens in the middle! I’ve read some of them randomly, skipping around here and there… but it’s time to sit down and commit to reading them.
I’m skipping the Psalms because… again, not because I think the Psalms aren’t important, but because it actually brings our overall chapter reading each day, down to a reasonable amount, in the time frame I want to do this.
5 chapters a day will get us through the Old Testament by the time 2014 rolls around. (2014?!) Then we can go back and read through the Psalms and the Pentateuch if you want.
Are you in? Comment and let me know you’re in! I think instead of weekly reading summaries, which I feel behind on in on the NT reading, I might do book summaries when I’m done with a book. I say I might because… well… I’m going to leave myself an out on writing, but I am going to do the reading and take notes.
Joshua picks us up with the 40 years of wilderness wandering over, the death of Moses and the Israelites entering the promised land.
Engage: How is your Old Testament knowledge? Do you feel like you have a good overview of what’s happening from Joshua to Malachi? What’s your favorite book in the OT? Let us know in the comments.
August 23 2009  Today Jess and I celebrate 4 years of marriage! Here are some thoughts on this anniversary…
This past year I’ve realized even more, what a gift from God my wife is. In the 4 years we’ve been married we have lived in 4 different states and have packed up all of earthly belongings to move many more times than that. We don’t own a car right now, and we don’t have a giant home, but my wife has forsaken the things of this world for the pursuit and service of Jesus Christ.
Not many women would make that sacrifice. I’m grateful, 5 years ago, God persisted in telling me to pursue her when it made no sense. At the time I didn’t know that this pursuit would be completely in my best interest.
Rick Warren recently tweeted “The easiest way to sabotage God’s intended purpose for your life is to enter into a wrong relationship.”
If you’re not married yet my advice to you is this. Don’t settle!
My friend Jon Barnes who discipled me through out high school gave me this piece of relationship advice about finding “the one.”
“Run as hard and fast as you can after Jesus and see who can keep up.”
Because of who my wife is, her depth of character, and her love of Jesus, I can be free to lead us in continued pursuit of serving Him.
If you are married, INVEST in your marriage. Make it a priority. Husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church. Serve, sacrifice, call forth the things God has created her to be.
Women, respect your husbands as you respect the Lord. Give affirmation, choose to see the good things your husband does and thank him for them.
Know one another’s LOVE LANGUAGES and work to speak them fluently.
A book we read before we got married that I recommend to all of you is Love and Respect. It’s a simple concept based on Ephesians 5. Pick up a copy and read it together!
 
Tonight we are celebrating by taking the bus to Morton’s Steakhouse. We’ve never been to a Morton’s but we both wanted to try it so we’ve been saving up for this extravagant meal. I think we might be the only people that took the bus to get to this high end steakhouse. haha, i love it.
Engage: What is the most helpful relationship advice you’ve ever heard? What can you do TODAY to invest in your marriage? Share it with us in the comments!
The aquaponics system!
Saturday I finally set up my aquaponics system! What’s aquaponics? Great question…
Aquaponics is a closed system where you grow both fish and vegetables. Basically… you grow fish in the tub, feed them daily, then they produce waste, the waste water is pumped up into the beds above (which now have gravel in them) which waters the plants roots and filters the water to send fresh water back down to the fish. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about it.
This system uses bell siphons so that when the water hits a certain level in the beds it sucks out all of the water and flushes it back into the 110 gallon fish tub below giving the roots oxygen as well.
I think I first heard about aquaponics when I was in Kenya. One of our team members struck up a conversation with another westerner in an airport and who was there doing aquaponics. But he might have just been doing hydroponics, now that I think about it, I don’t remember. Anyway, I got really excited about it when I heard that my friend Joby was doing it last year.
When Joby left the island he generously donated his whole set up to me! A huge thank you Joby!
I’ll keep you posted as things progress!
Engage: Do you have a garden? What are you growing? Let us know in the comments!
Hannah, Jess, Di, Ray and Me
Who are these people and why is their photo on your blog?
Happy Aloha Friday!
Quick update.
It’s been a whirlwind weekend.
Saturday Jess and I showed two Australians around the island. It rained most of that morning but they were such a sweet couple, we are really blessed to have met them!
Sunday our friend Hannah from Maryland flew in to visit us!
Tomorrow I’m going to show Hannah around the island and Ray and Diane (The Australians) are going to join us too!
What’d you do this weekend? Let us know in the comments!
Kona 2008
When I was in Kona a few weeks ago, I visited the prayer room at the YWAM campus for a short time. Before that I had a couple of conversations with Dan Baumann and through those talks and time in the prayer room, it led me to want to start an optional time of prayer and worship here on the YWAM Honolulu base….
When I pitched the idea to some others they were all on board. One of the guys even said that he felt God had been speaking the same thing to him recently but that he told God he wouldn’t do it alone.
So for the past few weeks, we’ve been gathering in our prayer room at lunch time to worship and pray. It’s been a really precious time. And more people are on board and its continuing.
Last Thursday was the next to the last day for our committed 3 weeks. During prayer on Thursday, God moved on our hearts to pray for the lost. So instead of sitting in the prayer room the next Friday praying we decided to go out and pray for people on the streets.
I believe that our prayer times should draw us closer to God, which in turn is going to give us a heart for people.
I’ve prayed for people on the street, many times before. I used to even enjoy it I think. For some reason I don’t enjoy it as much as I used to, that’s a whole other can of worms. But crazy things always happen when you step out in faith.
I went with Spencer, who is really passionate about this stuff. He felt like God was leading Him to pray for a woman with a baseball cap on. We walked up to the Manoa market place went into Longs drugs, bought a drink and turned up the next corner. There was a woman sitting right there with a baseball cap on. (She was the only woman we saw with a baseball cap the whole time we were out) She was sitting talking to her son.
Spencer introduced himself and told her that he felt like God had told him earlier in the day that he was to pray for a lady with a baseball cap on. He asked her if there was anything that he could pray for her for. The lady immediately knew what she wanted prayer for, and asked for prayer for her niece. Spencer prayed for her and we went on our way.
Spencer got to pray for a couple of other people. Everyone I asked declined.
We were wrapping up, and were walking through a parking lot. A guy was walking across perpendicular to where we were. I approached him and said “Excuse me sir, we’re out here praying for people, do you need prayer for anything?” And he didn’t make eye contact with me, and kept walking.” My response… “okay then, God bless you sir…” But in a gross sarcastic, offended way.
My God bless you sounded more like a “screw you then.” Which I’m not at all proud of. I was offended, that he didn’t even acknowledge me, and the fact that everyone I had asked for prayer didn’t want prayer. BUT being out on the street praying for people isn’t about ME! I should be more used to being rejected at times like these.
Going out and praying for people on the street is uncomfortable. It’s not natural. I grew up in a place where you don’t really speak to people in public, or make eye contact. I just got back from the grocery store and the lady behind me asked if I lived around here and if I knew where she could get an ipod cord. I’m still not used to people speaking to me in public.
I feel strange completely interrupting someones day to ask them if they want prayer. I told Spencer this, and he responded… “sometimes people need an interruption.” I agree.
I did this with my buddy James in Jamestown NY when I lived there. We went into an autobody shop on 2nd street, and asked the guy working if he wanted prayer. He said he did, and said he needed to kick his drug habit. After we prayed for him, he said that he felt tingling in his body and felt more peaceful than he ever had before. We thought that was a pretty cool time. Then like 3 weeks later we were in the area, and the guy saw us and came out to us. He had cut his hair, and looked a lot healthier and told us that he had been clean for 3 weeks ever since we prayed for him!
I think what makes it even harder is we were going into an area that we frequent a lot. Doing evangelism in an area where you won’t ever be again is a lot easier to be bold. But doing it in your own neighborhood seems a lot harder.
The other thing I feel strange about is, I don’t know how I’d respond if someone asked me if I wanted prayer on the streets. My default would probably be just like the guy did to me in the parking lot, keep walking and ignore… or I hope I’d be able to give a graceful, “no thanks.”
Engage: Have you ever prayed for people in the street? What was your experience? How do you feel about street evangelism? Let us know in the comments.
A Car Accident I saw in Maryland in 2008.
Do you know how to be a good witness. You thought I was talking about a witness for Jesus didn’t you? I think I’ll talk about that on Friday. But since I wrote a post about the domestic dispute I observed, and realized I was a bad witness, here’s some tips from a friend of mine that is a police officer on how to be a good witness…
1. If a crime occurred and there was a vehicle involved, get a tag. And just as important as that, get a description of the driver. If it’s a hit and run or something of that nature, we’re charging the driver, not the car.
2. If someone is fleeing, get a good direction of travel, as well as, a description of what they’re wearing. Look at shoes! People can take off shirts, change pants, take off a hat… but who has an extra pair of shoes?
3. Try not to listen to what other witnesses are saying. This will influence your account of what happened. If you saw a red shirt and other people are saying blue or green or purple, it will start to convince you that it wasn’t red and make you doubt yourself. If all else fails, before the police get there… jot down a few notes to yourself, or on your phone.
4. Speaking of phones, you can take a picture or video of something you see with technology that can be e-mailed to an officer very easily.
5. The most important thing is never put yourself in harms way if it isn’t absolutely necessary. If a crime occurred and you witnessed it and it is over, nothing you can do is going to reverse what happened. You could injure yourself trying to detain someone or something of that nature.
Engage: Have you ever witnessed a crime? Share the story in the comments!
Here’s the blog post I was going to write when I wrote Tropical Storms and Domestic Disputes. Tropical Storm Flossie was no big deal at all by the way. Anyway… onto the story.
Jess and I were walking home from Safeway on a dark path, I was using my small keychain flashlight...
We saw/heard a guy coming behind us on a bike so we moved over to the side, he said he was just walking and he would walk with us. I was a little sketched out, I always try to be pretty aware when we’re on that path at night. We were walking slow because Jess has hurt her knee recently, I expected him to pass us, but he never passed us.
We turned a corner and a car was approaching and stopped in front of us. We stepped again to the side of the path, but the driver said to keep coming because she didn’t want to hit anyone. The biker backed off. I told the driver of the car that there was a biker behind us.
As we got to a clearer part of the path back onto road, and were making a turn into the YWAM base, the biker pulled up next to me and then stopped. I heard his brakes squeak. “Eh ba..” he said (pidgn for ‘hey brah’) I didn’t know what to expect, I didn’t think it was going to be good. It was dark, I was sure he was going to ask me for money.
Then he said “you no gotta use small kine” (you don’t have to use the small one) and handed me his flashlight. I didn’t really know what to do, “thanks” i said, in bewildered tone… and he rode off.
Only in Hawaii do you think you might be in for a sketchy situation, only to find out the guy stopped you, to give YOU something for your well being.
Engage: Have you ever been in a situation that you thought was going to go down badly, but actually went really well? Share your story with us know in the comments.
Aloha August!
It’s a new month what are you recommitting to? Or what goals are you setting?
Let us know in the comments!
Flossie looks pretty intimidating but they say it should slow down
It’s been an interesting weekend. Tropical storm Flossie is on it’s way and I broke up a domestic dispute on our street this morning before going to church. I guess I can’t just leave it at that….
This isn’t the story I was going to tell you but… here are the details.
I didn’t have to get physically involved, but I think my presence helped it from escalating.
I was headed out of my house and heard someone screaming, I thought it was just kids playing, then I heard someone yell call 911 and a lot of expletives followed by get away from me. I walked towards the street and saw a guy and a girl, late teens early twenties. I just stood there and observed, another neighbor was hiding trying not to be seen but I was pretty confident she was on the phone with 911.
A lot of very passionate things were said, it was pretty intense. The guy picked up a pair of jeans up off the street (why were there jeans on the street? she must have been carrying them) and went to swing them at the girls legs, he went to do it hard in anger, then backed down before the actual blow. He walked away, towards the path, which was the setting for the original blog post I was going to write, but I guess that will have to be another time. I don’t know where the two came from or where they were going, I haven’t ever seen them before.
I talked to the girl, after the guy left, I asked her if she was okay, she said she was. I asked her if she wanted me to call 911, she said no she was just trying to scare him away because he wouldn’t stop following her. They obviously knew each other, and were in some sort of relationship. In hindsight maybe I should have talked to her more? I don’t know…
I did a really poor job of being a good witness. (click here to read How To Help The Police At The Scene Of A Crime) I couldn’t describe the guy at all to you. He was local, and skinny, I think he was wearing a black shirt, short hair. I guess that’s better than nothing. She was wearing a red dress and had long brown hair. She walked off in the direction that he walked off in.
The neighbor came and talked to me, and then we both realized that she walked in the direction that he did. So we followed the path and saw her crossing the field. And then crossing the street. We didn’t see him anywhere.
I asked my neighbor if she gave a description of the girl to 911, she said she gave a description of the guy, but didn’t of the girl. So she called back and gave a description of the girl and the direction she was headed and then hung up. For some reason I found it amusing that after she had said what she needed to say she just hung up.
The neighbor said she was on the phone with 911 for a while the first time, and kept having to repeat herself. I think because it’s Hawaii and so many languages are spoken here, they have to staff their 911 call centers with people that speak other languages.
When we returned from the path a police officer had arrived. My neighbor talked to the officer while I could hear over the radio the description of the girl going out.
Jess was waiting for me at the van, we went to go grab some coffee before church, so I drove in the direction that we saw the girl go. But I didn’t see her or the police officer. I don’t think it ever got resolved.
Domestic disputes are gross. We throw around the word “passion” a lot. I’m not sure there is anything much more passionate than a domestic dispute. I’m not even going to repeat some of the things I heard, but I think there was a betrayal, and some really really hurtful things were said. And when people scream “I hate you” at the top of their lungs it makes me sick to my stomach.
Engage: What would you have done in this situation? Or how have you handled a similar situation? Let us know in the comments.
|
by Jim Baker
aw i really enjoyed reading this! i especially loved the rick warren tweet and this, “Run as hard and fast as you can after Jesus and see who can keep up.” So good! I’m stealing those! haha :p
thanks for stopping by and reading!