Friday, December 19, 2008

climate-based missiology?

ha, there's a term for ya. ...deciding where to go for missions based on preferable climate, lol. 'gee, Lord, i'll go anywhere for ya, as long as it ain't cold....'

i'm just being cheeky. :D

anyways, what i was just thinking... i'm rather liking this weather. the briskness, the severety, the outright noise of it.... mind you, i don't feel very well-prepared for 'cold-weather survival'... the thought of the power going out makes me want to go buy 10 emergency blankets and extra batteries! ... but cold-weather survival/coping/living skills *can* be learned....

...i've always been fascinated with cold climates. i read about 30 feet of snow in stewart, and i think, *kewl*. i read about how in the summer some roads thaw out and become too soggy for vehicular traffic... and i'm fascinated.

but most of all, i think of the people, how far away from city-centers they can be (and we think *we're* isolated? ha!...)... and i wonder, how far has the gospel gone into those places? how many lives have been radically changed by coming into contact with Jesus? ... and how many *haven't* had that yet?.....

it seems like everyone is game to go into the, what is it called - the 10/30(?) window or some such - where there are billions of unreached people around the equator.... but few seem to want to go find the *one* who needs Jesus. people seem to think, go where the numbers are, reach as many as possible.... where i seem to think, where is that *one* person that God has healing for?

right now, my mission field is *here* - largely *within* the body of Christ, but also to certain circles that i am in touch with. if God were to change that call, and call me to a hot location, fine, i'll deal with it, God will make me able to handle the heat.... but i tend to think He has placed in me a heart for the north, northern, isolated people, the singular individuals in their singular situations...

... maybe because i relate to being *isolated* (emotionally, not externally - i don't see this town as being very isolated, probably because i've never lived anywhere else... i see it more as a busy little hub... hubbub... lol). i understand to a large degree, aloneness. i can parallel rather severe external living conditions with severe emotional/mental living conditions... the need for Light in the darkness, Hope in hopelessness....

... which makes me think of the other population i have a huge heart for... the mentally ill. been there, done that... am there, doing that. when i read about some of the horrible living conditions and maltreatment of mentally ill people, my heart rends. talk about cold, severe living situations, life situations. where so many people see the severely mentally ill as a *problem* to be dealt with, i see each individual as having worth and value and something they contribute to this world - a non-typical contribution, perhaps, but extremely valuable nonetheless. Jesus loves each one so much... and He created/ordained each to have a specific kind of journey in life... and it's to prosper them and not to harm them!!!... and i have *vision* for that.... at the moment it does not equate to much external action on my part, i am too much in the throes of it myself at the moment... but what one has gone through and is currently going through is for a purpose and has eternal value .....so He is taking me 'somewhere' with this, it's just that where, as of yet, i don't know.

...but i have a feeling it will have to do with the more extreme 'climate' of living/life situations... in one way or another.

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Outcast, Adopted.

THIS BLOG IS IN NEED OF AN OVERHAUL. there are posts from years back i would not be able to post in good conscience now. i plan to overhaul the blog, and either delete or add a disclaimer to those posts. but that is gonna take time....

The Radical Summons: "
Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come." Hebrews 13:13.

"The Spirit never loosens where the Word binds; the Spirit never justifies where the Word condemns; the Spirit never approves where the Word disapproves; the Spirit never blesses where the Word curses." —Thomas Brooks

‎"God receives none but those who are forsaken, restores health to none but those who are sick, gives sight to none but the blind, and life to none but the dead. He does not give saintliness to any but sinners, nor wisdom to any but fools. In short: He has mercy on none but the wretched and gives grace to none but those who are in disgrace. Therefore no arrogant saint, or just or wise man can be material for God, neither can he do the work of God, but he remains confined within his own work and makes of himself a fictitious, ostensible, false, and deceitful saint, that is, a hypocrite." --Martin Luther (W.A. 1.183ff)

i will not let You go: "Jacob's sense of his total debility and utter defeat is now the secret of his power with his friendly Vanquisher. God can overthrow all the prowess of the self-reliant, but He cannot resist the earnest entreaty of the helpless." --Albert Barnes

i will not let You go: "Jacob's determination did not flow from his strength, it flowed from his weakness." --Charles Leiter