Bonus Picture Post! #2 - Orchid Island Part 2

Some people enjoyed my first posting of pictures from my trip to Lan Yu (Orchid Island) in 2008, so here are some more. I didn't want to put lots of pictures of my friends and fellow camp volunteers who I went there with without their permission (Several were girls and we were all pretty 'campy' by this point; I don't want to get killed when I go back to Taiwan...), but there are some of the camp kids and even a couple of skinny me from being in Taiwan 9 months already. (One side benefit of working in Taiwan.. I lose weight without trying. Living in 90% humidity has benefits...)

I think I'll try to do at least one pic post a month from now on. Since pictures can communicate more than words, it's another way to help you all experience a taste of Taiwan. (Speaking of which.. maybe the next picture post will be about food!) Enjoy~

This formation is called Two Lions, if I remember correctly. See why?

They could call this Goat Island too..
Not as pretty sounding as Orchid Island, but I saw no orchids and hundreds of goats...

Looking East toward "The West"... it's all Pacific until Hawaii

This could have spiritual significance but to me it looked like
someone left behind their fly-fishing pole

There are a lot of churches on Orchid Island,though most of them are not what you'd call evangelical...

Some areas are getting more touristy...

Island kids, who came to our one-day VBS event with songs and games.

Some ring tossing...

I was a hit with the local kids, who had probably occasionally seen
but never gotten to interact with a foreigner before.

The kids were fascinated by my nose (it's pointy!) and stubble,
both of which are seemingly in short supply on Orchid Island.
Two of the kids, a brother and sister, especially befriended me.
There was a moving event as our team was leaving, when the little girl asked
tearfully in Mandarin if I was ever coming back to visit them again.
They're teenagers by now, I wonder if they remember our visit?

Cute and friendly pot-bellied pig who loved attention
as much as any dog I've met

Good times...

Stop Hating on the Church

I recently noticed a blog entry making the rounds on FB, "I Hate Church..."

I am not specifically condemning the article, as he explicitly admits later on that the title is simply a stunt to get views and that he actually loves church (A little too 'bait-and-switch' for my taste, but I suppose it does bring in the audience to discover his point), but he believes it is in error in various ways. Read his article if you wish, in my opinion among his various assertions/accusations there are a few valid ones. However, his writing is in a similar vein to many other articles and blogs I've noticed over the past few years, and the trend troubles me.

What I want to respond to is the idea that it's alright to take cheap shots at the Church in general based on your own ideas of what local church culture should look like, especially when some investigation reveals that the complaints are often grounded in either whatever secular take on virtue is currently in vogue and how the church isn't doing enough to meet the world's expectations on that front, or the complainer is suggesting all churches should parallel their own particular subculture/background.

In this post, I want to look at the claims that the local church is beset with unloving people who only care about appearance, based on a perceived unfriendliness or intolerance for people who are "different." "If the church started really being the church," the argument typically goes, "then no one, of any appearance or background, should feel uncomfortable or unwelcome there." Usually they proceed to claim that the church would then necessarily look much more diverse than our churches do today, filled with people of all walks of life.

1. Diversity: The church/Church Confusion

Notice one immediate problem with that line of attack. "The Church," the Body of Christ, is already incredibly diverse. Compared to the adherents of other religions, diversity could be said to be a notable trait of Christianity. It is indeed comprised of desperately poor and astonishingly rich, people of every walk of life and nearly every ethnicity on the planet (Check out the Joshua Project for info on those people groups not yet reached!). Where the intentions of men would fail due to sinful prejudice, the Spirit has succeeded, and the Church is truly being formed from every nation, tribe, language, and people.

Now this glorious, global Church is made up of a vast number of local churches. The church/Church difference is usually glossed over in these complaints, as they're transferring their problem with the practices of some local churches to 'the church' because it sounds more urgent. After making the distinction, we can easily see that the implied claim that each individual local church ought to reflect the same diversity we see in the global church is simply invalid; to be "local," it stands to reason that the members of a local church ought to more or less reflect the people of its locale, whether varied or homogenous.

But what is true in America (and pretty much any other place, I believe, but I prefer not to speak where I do not have experience), which is where most of this dialogue is taking place, is that the real divides are not just between different locations, but between socioeconomic levels and subcultures. Which leads to my next point...

2. A Christian Welcome?

Let me ask a very direct question here. Is it evidence that your local church is failing to love people as they should, if people from significantly different subcultures or economic classes feel uncomfortable or unwelcome there? Quite possibly, but not necessarily.

It turns out that churches are full of actual people, not demographic data points. And real people all spend their time and go through life within some kind of economic class and subculture. And people in the same class tend to live near each other, and go to the same churches (and schools, and shops, etc). Certain subcultures often frequent the same places as well. An ordinary church in America therefore has a high chance of its members being from the same or adjacent economic classes and subcultures. This may not be the ideal or most God-glorifying situation, but it needs to be recognized as the default. It's not a contrived situation created by unfaithful churches, it's the starting point from which we can do better.

In the article I mentioned, the example is used of a group of bikers, some of whom said they wouldn't be comfortable or welcomed in church. Let's turn the example around. If in a hypothetical area all the churches were biker churches, with the congregation looking more or less the same as they would at the biker bar, and you came in on Sunday with a 3-piece suit and Italian leather shoes, talking into your bluetooth earpiece, would you be surprised if you got a few "what are you doing here?" looks? I wouldn't be.

The young lady from the article was stared at for her tattoos, piercings, and the way she was dressed, not because churchgoers are bigots or intolerant or unloving, but because in the subculture/s to which those church members belonged, she presented an unusual spectacle. If they are not taught otherwise, people stare at things which are unusual or out of place. (If she had fit the subcultural appearance code but been nine feet tall, she would have been stared at even more.) But, if she had kept attending, regardless of the tattoos and piercings, she would become at least a familiar face, and most likely come to feel accepted. (Not exactly the same, but similar to my experience being one of the only white people in a Chinese church in Dallas.)


Consider this question. If a homeless person had attended church as a guest of a couple who'd been loving and witnessing to her over the course of a few weeks, and had been asking others in their church to pray for her, do you think the scenario would play out the same?

So the problem here is not necessarily that local churches are failing to love, but sometimes the inevitable frictions which result from the collision of subcultures. And I've argued against some of what the author of the linked article says, but on this point he's absolutely right; Christians in America can be hesitant to step outside the bounds of their own subculture to walk with and witness to those who are different, because they're never interacting with those people in the first place. If Christians were more actively reaching across subcultures with the gospel, our churches might be more used to the odd-looking guest now and again.

But although anyone randomly showing up on Sunday morning should be witnessed to by seeing Christ and the love we have in Him (otherwise that church really is failing), if we're relying on Sunday mornings to save people and therefore focusing on church being a building and event where the random guest of any subculture would not feel out of place, we're not obeying the Great Commission. Christ said to speak the truth in love, not that every church needs to tailor itself to the specific needs of inner city ministry (what the article writer seems to be alleging), or any other ministry.

3. The Answer: (As Always...) Do What Jesus Already Told Us to Do

So if we really love "those people," the ones who wouldn't feel comfortable in our church, and who maybe we're not 100% comfortable even having in our church, then while we're working on changing those attitudes inside our church, we should be GOING TO THEM.

The missional church movement takes this a step further; its proponents are convinced that by implicitly changing Christ's command from "make disciples of all nations" to "get as many people as possible to come to this building on Sunday morning," we have lost track. On this particular point, I totally agree with them. Once a local church is aware of the needs of a particular community or culture within their ministry reach, rather than focusing on trying to change things at that church to work for that subculture too (and yes, the practical side of "doing" church is affected by who the members are), they should be doing outreach and eventually planting new churches among them.

Therefore, rather than the focus being trying to prepare churches to be "ready for the day the prostitute walks into church after she just finished her night shift... or the back of the church smells like weed because broken people are coming in through the doors... or the day when they can’t leave their purse on their seat during worship because that visitor might just steal their wallet," (Honestly to me this sounds more like a desire to "shake up the system" and "scare some stuffy old people" than a plan to develop a more God-glorifying church...) it would be vastly more in accordance with the Great Commission to make church a place where some seats were empty because people were out doing church with those people, in their own communities.

Churches are already full of broken people. They're just mostly full of broken people who feel less broken around people who are similar to them. And just because some of them don't know they're broken, that doesn't make them any less in need of healing.

4. So Please...

Don't say you hate the Church because some local churches have issues. 
Don't say you hate local churches because they are full of sinful people (like you, like me).
Don't think that because your eyes are opened to love the have-nots, it's ok to despise the haves.
Go to the harvest where it's planted; a new field might need a new church focused on it, not for each church to change to accommodate every kind of grain.

Why I listen to Christian Metal (And... maybe... you should too)

First, a word:

(Skip if you aren't easily offended)
Musical tastes, for some reason, inspire great defensiveness in people. Suggesting someone's taste in music is "wrong" evokes a sort of gut-level response as if you've insulted their intelligence or character.

I was once, in an attempt to prove to me that music with drums was displeasing to God or at very least inappropriate in a church, given a pamphlet entitled "The Kind of Music that Honors God." That was indeed an unfortunate bit of Pharisaical propaganda, though I should mention it was given in good faith and I appreciated the gesture, if not the explicit promotion of generational preference to theological mandate.

In Romans 14, Paul is clear that we are not to despise/look down on those with a weaker conscience, which in this case, would be those who feel compelled to isolate themselves from various genres of music. (Note: I said genre, not lyrical content) I do not criticize anyone for this by any means; I think the intention to forgo what is perceived to be harmful to one's Christian walk is right, and vastly preferable to so many in the Church who listen to profane and sexually explicit lyrics without a second thought because actually they just listen to whatever is popular without filtering.

That being the case, I do not necessarily apologize for offending anyone (I think it's good for us to be offended now and again), but I do apologize if at any point I could be accurately accused of adopting a condescending attitude. I intend various things with this post, but that is not one of them.

Important Note: Anyone can run out and find examples of bands that call themselves Christian Metal bands who are not glorifying to God, and if anything glorify the darkness they would claim to be opposing. This problem is present in every genre, and I am obviously not speaking of those bands.

Also, for younger students: Read to the end. If you get in trouble with your parents for listening to Christian Metal, you have my sympathy, and feel free to point out some of the principles I have outlined here, but you also officially do not have my permission to tell them that you should be able to because a missionary said it was ok. (If it's any consolation, God said that He will reward you specifically for honoring your parents, and I wasn't allowed to listen to that kind of music growing up either!)

A Closer Look at Christian Metal: Content

In a Christian church? Shameful!

Few people today would think it odd to see an organ's pipes peeking out from somewhere in the walls of the sanctuary of an older or larger church. Yet for centuries the organ was banned on and off, a controversial instrument which to many of the Protestant reformers was a symbol of the pomp and unspirituality of the Roman Catholic Church. Too loud and showy, ruining the simple act of worshiping God.

Sound familiar? Yet, go listen to "A Mighty Fortress is our God" played by a master organist; this is high praise and the glorious magnification of God's name through a powerful and beautiful instrument.

I have experienced that Christian metal can accomplish the same thing. I'm not saying it should be played in church, but I am suggesting that for some of us it can be an important part of private worship. First, let's look at the lyrics of some selected Christian metal bands. And yes, as with anything else one chooses to put into one's mind, selection is highly necessary. I don't advocate Christian metal "in general" any more than I recommend reading fiction "in general."

The following is from the song Crown of Thorns (by For Today, who I would recommend).
A sampling of lyrics:

We crown Him... with a crown of thorns 
This is the end of our life that’s been burdened for all that comes
The suffering manifest glory has come with the fullness of God

(And later, more poignantly)

It should have been me
With the nails through my hands and feet
Facing the wrath of God

It should have been me
Left to pay for my sin forsaken
But in the blood I stand

Hard to argue with any of that, right? If I preached that more or less verbatim in a sermon, I could probably get a few Amens, depending on the church. But it's "the devil's music" to many, because it happens to be accompanied by shredding guitars. This insistence that forms take precedence over content is a persistent attitude in the church, which I would argue is not only intellectually lazy but weakens our witness as well.

I am aware that, in earlier generations, this music was identified with purely secular and often outright satanic references. I am also aware that A Mighty Fortress, used in my example above, is set to an old drinking tune. (For that matter, the music used for the Star Spangled Banner has even less reputable roots...)
Clearly, forms can be redeemed when their content and message is directed appropriately.

Another example, a band called 7 Horns 7 Eyes (referencing Revelation 5:6) has a song called Vindicator, which is a compilation of parts of various Psalms.

Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck
I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold
I have come into the deep waters, the floods engulf me
Fear and trembling have beset me, horror has overwhelmed me
I am worn out calling for help, my throat is parched
My heart is in anguish with me, the terrors of death assail me
Many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me
They sharpen their tongues like swords, and aim their words like deadly arrows
When they draw the bow let their arrows be blunted
O Lord, how many are my foes!
But You are a shield around me, O Lord, You bestow glory on me
I cry aloud, and He answers me
I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me 

Here's another example, from a band called Becoming the Archetype (a personal favorite), who did a whole album ("Dichotomy") inspired by a C.S.Lewis novel. These lyrics are from the title track:

Initially they rationalized with futile speculations
Which brought about their ultimately fatal calculations
They sewed their own eyes shut
To protect them from the light
Closed the doorway of their minds
Barred and sealed it tight
Their foolish hearts were darkened
Their vacant minds deceived
The lies that they exchanged for truth
Became all that they believed
They exchanged the incorruptible
For the image of fallen man
Worshiped creature rather than creator
The image rather than his hand

C.S.Lewis + Metal = win-win!

Not only are these lyrics communicating Scriptural truth, based on C.S.Lewis and Romans 1, but they are also intellectually valuable. I submit they compare very favorably to much of what ends up on "positive, uplifting" Christian radio stations.

And that leads me to another observation which is one of the roots of my appreciation of Christian metal.
I firmly believe that God as typically portrayed on Christian pop radio stations, is not the God of Scripture. A God who is accurately described in a song that needs but one or two words to be changed to be just as easily be speaking of a boyfriend or girlfriend is simply not the God of the Bible.

I submit that a large portion of the problems we all like to complain about regarding the church in America are simply based in the fact that in our haste to emphasize the nice and "positive" parts of the gospel we have forgotten what God is like.

Who is God, and what is He like, according to Scripture? Go back and read the description of God descending upon Mount Sinai in Exodus. Go read the description of Jesus in Revelation 1. In fact I will post that here (Rev 1:12-18):

"Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades."

"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild"? Jesus as a man "had no form or majesty that we should look at him"; Jesus as the Alpha and Omega, the Victorious Conqueror, is terrifying. As believers we see Him in the light of Grace, as citizens of His kingdom and sons of God. Yet John, Christ's own apostle and "the one whom Jesus loved" falls at His feet as if dead, at the sight of His glory and power. Proverbs states that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We can approach the throne of God boldly only because of the astonishing truth of the sacrifice of God Himself for us. When we forget the greatness of the God to whom we had not yet been reconciled, we find it more difficult to cry out in thankful relief that we are saved from His wrath and adopted through love into His own family.

The "Old Testament" style* lyrics of Christian Metal, with its focus on the power of God, His righteous judgment, the darkness of evil and sin and humanity's despair apart from Him, and the hope of His return, are a stark call to remember the nature of God as He has revealed Himself to us, Sovereign Lord of All by Might and by Right. Not as we would seek to revise Him, into a comfortable, friendly sort of inclusive God who mainly is concerned that we be happy.

(*-I regret that people pretend there is a difference. The New Testament God and the Old Testament God are one and the same, even the language used in the New Testament to describe Him is the same, when it's not simply quoted directly from the Old Testament)

A Closer Look at Christian Metal: Style

The God I worship, the God I serve, the God who died for me, is One at whose feet I would fall not only in devotion but out of necessity. There is none like Him. None greater, none higher, none to compare.
Those moments I find myself lacking in obedience or wandering from my walk with God are not those moments that I forget that He loves me. That, thankfully, is a lesson He has taught me and something the Church has not failed to communicate.

What brings me back into obedience and sends me joyfully and worshipfully into the world to proclaim the glory of His name are the unavoidable reminders of Who He Is. One tiny glimpse of His all-consuming majesty is all it takes for my soul to remember the One to whom it belongs. That is what propels me to ministry in Taiwan: that they might know and glorify God as He has revealed Himself to us, the God who is stronger than the spirits of the dead they fear, the great I Am who is worthy of our praise and devotion simply because of who He Is.

To be straightforward, a folksy bit of acoustic guitar soloing or even "light rock" contemporary worship style simply does not convey God's power and majesty to me. That sense of overwhelming awe at His presence is absent. It may speak of His love, of the intimacy of fellowship with Him, it may be profitable and edifying in various ways which justify the experience and even pursuit of it, but it does not send me to my knees in humility before the Lord of the Universe. It may do so for you; I can only speak from my own experience, and the experiences of those who have expressed similar feelings to me.

Glorifying, yes, but not Awe-inspiring

Rock as a musical style conveys power. There is a reason people listen to it to get "pumped up" before and during a workout, why mosh pits break out at rock concerts, etc. This is even more true of Metal as a subgenre of Rock. It delivers an explosive energy that registers on more than a merely surface level.
We are spiritual creatures, and music affects us on a deeper level even than merely mental or psychological. Indeed, one reason musical styles have so often been a controversial topic in the church is the acknowledgment that music touches us on a spiritual level as well as mental/physical.

In this power lies a danger which the Church has recognized in the past, and given the associations with secular or even satanic ideas, heavy metal type music had long been condemned as a purely evil coupling of that power with corrupting influence. That is a sensible reaction, perhaps the only correct one that could be made under the circumstances.
But when that influence is turned on its head, when the power of rock is used to drive home the glory and majesty of the Creator, the pain of sin and separation from Him, and the hope of His coming*, then we have the redemption of form. The powerful music which so greatly impacts the psyche of many has been repurposed to glorify God. We should appreciate it accordingly.

(*- The Second Coming and final judgment of evil is a very common theme in Christian Metal)

My Plea

I recognize Christian Metal is never going to appeal to more than a small minority of believers, stylistically. The album art can look disturbing, it is too hard-hitting for many, and some simply cannot understand the lyrics when sung/screamed/growled heavy metal style. I'm not suggesting that all Christians ought to start listening to it, but rather that what it's getting right ought to be incorporated into how we all worship.

And between rap, metal, reggae, or any other genre, I'm hoping that we can all stop saying "nothing that sounds like that could be glorifying to God" without first checking out what's actually being said. One beauty of the Church is that Christians exist across the spectrum of subcultures. Let them glorify God within their own musical environments to speak to others of similar backgrounds without condemning what is unfamiliar.

To summarize, what I ask is two things:

1. That we stop judging music only by its style, and start looking closely at content, with high standards.

I really am shocked by how many Christians listen to music with no filtering at all (regardless of the profanity of the lyrics or the sinfulness of the message conveyed... "I don't pay attention to the lyrics, I just like how it sounds," they say. Your mind is never not paying attention to the lyrics, and getting them subconsciously is more dangerous than memorizing them consciously.) On the other hand, many Christian "praise and worship" songs are mere fluff. I won't call out any songs specifically, but the "I, I, I, me, me, me" songs are rampant, and I think you all know what I mean when I say some songs are just pop romantic songs repurposed with God replacing the boyfriend or girlfriend. We can do better than this, and God deserves our utmost efforts.

2. That we start worshiping with regard to the majesty of God like we really believe He's listening

This is a tougher one. It might require a few new hymns, or that we go dig up some old ones that were lost to time. But I am convinced that as much as I enjoy Christian metal and find it edifying, I shouldn't be forced to listen to it in order to find appropriate reverence for our God who is an All-Consuming Fire (Hebrews 12, quoting Deut 4). My soul craves a worship time with other believers on Sunday morning when we truly exalt God as He has revealed Himself to us. We ought to always do this, but how we approach it matters, and how people are led to worship will affect how they worship. Maybe it's as simple as pushing away the chairs, leaving the coffee outside the sanctuary, and approaching God as if He really is the God we are singing about. That would be a great start.

When God says: No.

There is a popular proverbial bit of encouragement that gets passed around the internet:

If the request is wrong, God says, “No.”
If the timing is wrong, God says, “Slow.”
If you are wrong,  God says, “Grow.”
But if the request is right, the timing is right, and you are right, God says, “Go!”

I know it has encouraged a lot of people in difficult situations, probably including some of you reading this, so don't take what I have to say as a demeaning of the intent of whoever wrote this.

However, I think any Christian senses or has experienced that reality often more complicated than this. What about when God says No and the request was for someone to survive a dangerous medical procedure? What about when the request is for someone to become a believer?* What about when the request is a child praying for his parents to stay together? Are those wrong requests? Is the timing wrong? Is the person wrong to ask for these things?

Atheists or others antagonistic towards the Christian faith will sometimes bring up questions like this, and we may find it difficult to give them a satisfactory answer.

(*- This very difficult question suggests to me that the ongoing discussion within the Church over God's sovereignty and man's ability to make choices, while obviously sometimes allowed to dominate time that should be spent focusing on those things that we do understand and should be putting into practice, is not merely "a peripheral topic that we should just ignore because it causes arguments and focus on other things," but in fact a dialogue over the very nature of God and His salvation plan. So since I think the answer to this particular tough question is tied into God's plan for salvation for humanity, I won't address it directly in this post today. But keep it in mind, because ultimately every Christian must have an answer to this question, be it as simple as "We don't know but God knows and I trust Him," which is as correct as any answer can be)

I recently encountered another "God saying No for reasons we don't understand" moment, and although mine doesn't come close to being as difficult as the examples I listed above, I think they all have something in common which is crucial for us to understand as followers of Christ.

I'd like to approach the issue from both the rational perspective and the emotional perspective (though of course it's impossible to entirely separate them), since I think often both of them are in play when we don't understand God's "refusals."

A. Rationally

 

1. God Knows More Than Us.
 
This past week, I encountered the first serious roadblock to my journey towards missionary work in Taiwan, being denied a religious visa by somewhat antagonistic and unprofessional visa office personnel at the particular consulate office I am required to use in my Taiwan visa applications due to my permanent address being in the Southeast. After attempting to claim first that I was unqualified due to not meeting the visa requirements to the letter (something they'd never been so strict about before, but fair enough), then that I didn't meet their nonstandard definitions of the requirements (getting into sketchy territory here), they resorted to making up unlisted requirements to have grounds to claim that I was unqualified. This is new territory for Taiwanese visa applications, and TEAM in Taiwan will be looking at whether or not its feasible for future missionary candidates to use the religious visa to do ministry in Taiwan, even though it seems this office has a reputation for being particularly difficult.

I had a lot of people praying for me. At least dozens, if not over a hundred. And the more people who said they'd pray for me, the more the visa office made it clear they were going to refuse me the visa. It's as if the more people prayed for them to be willing to grant me the visa, the more God in response hardened their hearts instead.

And I believe that He did just that. I have seen God change my plans too many times to believe He puts much value in my plans. And rightfully so. I am eternally grateful (literally) that God sees fit to ignore my plans and substitute His own. He is omniscient; I am, at best, somewhat more rational than the average person. (and there are days when I'm not so sure about that either)

So although on an emotional level it's disappointing that my Taiwan departure has been delayed by antagonistic paper pushers, after 5 years of working to get back there, on a rational level I know there's a reason for the delay that I might even be able to see myself, in retrospect.

It is not irrational for God to say No when I was praying for Yes. It is irrational for me to not trust that He knows better than me. If He didn't, He wouldn't be God. Our perspective is limited, even when we're not being especially self-centered or short-sighted. We cannot possibly know what is best for ourselves more than God can. It is only reasonable to trust Him with the decision-making.

2. In a Fallen World, 'Bad things' happen by Default

I won't spend too much time on this, but anyone who believes the story of the fall in Genesis must recognize that God created a beautiful world and pronounced it good, and then the first two humans He made decided they knew better than Him, and fundamentally wrecked it for the rest of us. That fallen world continues to fall, and the consequences of human sin are part of life in that world. People make foolish decisions, or evil decisions, and it causes pain and suffering to others. For God to let humans suffer in a broken world which He made and they broke is fair and just; for God to show mercy and sometimes specially intervene to reverse the consequences to our benefit is grace. Obviously we like the second one more, but grace and justice are equally attributes of a perfect God, reflected perfectly in all His actions. (Not in opposition to each other, as they are so often wrongly portrayed. God is both infinitely just and infinitely gracious. If it seems that these two attributes are on a collision course with each other, that's because they are; and where they collide is a Cross. And right in the middle of this collision we find Christ crucified, the perfect resolution of grace and justice which brings unity to these attributes which are supposedly in conflict. Perhaps this is why the Scripture speaks of Christ being the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. But let us return to the topic at hand.)

B. Emotionally

Fair enough, you might say, but what about on an emotional level? Doesn't God know we have feelings? Doesn't He love us more than to just rigidly enforce His will over us with no thought to how crushed or disappointed we might be? (Ok, you may or may not say it, but I think we all feel this way at times)
There are once again two sides to the answer:

1. God is Strong Enough to Always do what is Best for You.

An earthly father (or mother), eventually tires. If a child begs over and over, especially getting into the teenage years, sometimes parents give in. If the parents are not 100% sure granting the request would be harmful, and the child wants it badly enough, at some point they may relent, especially if the child ups the ante by putting the child-parent relationship at stake. "Say yes or I'll hate you forever," this kind of thing. Humans are weak, this kind of strategy works on us.

But God is not weak, God is infinitely strong. Emotional blackmail has no effect on the Creator who knows you better than you know yourself. Parents cannot foresee every outcome, and may eventually tire and relent, hoping that a good, or at least not harmful, possible outcome will occur. God foresees every outcome* and can thus answer prayers based on 100% knowledge. And no matter how many times you ask Him for something which would ultimately be harmful to you and others connected to the situation and the future ramifications of that situation, He will say No. He does not tire of doing what is best for you, whether you see it that way it or not.

So we may not be able to think of a single way God's saying No could be a good thing, but it's not up to us to think until we figure it out. The question is whether we trust that He knows what He's doing, or accuse Him of either ignorance or maliciousness.

(*- Many Christians believe it goes farther than that, and that God has in fact already ordained the outcome. I am very careful about how I articulate my position with regards to sovereignty and election, because I believe the questions are often phrased in a nonsensical way that forgets God does not look at things from a human, time-bound perspective, but that's the subject of a planned future post.)

2. The Greatest Thing God can give us is a Deeper, Fuller experience of Himself.

Get that into your head and heart, if you can. I am trying to drive it into mine.
For any human, this would be untrue (and a blasphemous claim), but for God it is necessarily true.

Denying someone a lesser good to give them a greater good is right, and in fact knowingly refusing them the better good to give them a lesser good would generally be considered unloving if not outright wrong.
For example, if given a choice between the two statements "I love your new car!" and "Your house is on fire!" it's not hard to guess which one you'd pick. However, if I drive past you going the opposite direction in busy traffic and have only time to shout one brief sentence out the window as I pass, would it be evidence that I care about you more or less, if I chose to deprive you of hearing "I love your new car" in order to inform you that "your house is on fire"? It is my concern for your well-being that would prompt my saying no to your hearing the car compliment in order to say yes to your hearing the less pleasant message, and I can't imagine many people who would resent my decision. Yet so often when God gives us the unpleasant but more loving answer, we act as if we momentarily doubt He really wants the best for us.

Earthly blessings, happiness, comfort, self-actualization, meaningful experiences and memories, all these are what we naturally want and chase after. But our walk with God after regeneration is partly a process of learning that all these things we have lived for are merely derivative in comparison with the experience of God Himself, from whom all these blessings flow and who is greater than all of them put together, and in whom is the ultimate fulfillment of those desires anyway.

Some people get angry or uncomfortable this way of saying it, but it's an unavoidable fact that if God says No because He wants to reveal more of Himself to you through whatever difficult consequences result from His refusal to grant your request, it is right and loving of Him to do so, even from our human perspective.

If God said No to every attempt I made to get to Taiwan to do ministry, yet every time I drew closer to Him and understood Him better due to it, my only correct response could be to praise Him for His love and for giving me the greatest gift He could give. (I can't promise I would respond in such a glorifying way, but it would be the right response)

Thankfully if we have the Spirit, it will often be the case that God reveals Himself to us through the times He says Yes, because we will be asking for things that are in keeping with His will. But sometimes our wrong requests are simply based on ignorance. They are not bad or sinful requests, it's just that we can't see clearly enough or far enough to understand why God can't say Yes. This is when it comes back to the answer you already know: We just have to trust the Infinitely Trustworthy One.

I trust God will lead me to Taiwan as He has led me all the way up to this point, sometimes with amazing works on His part to open doors and make things happen. I also trust that, due to His leading and calling along the way, His plan for me to draw closer to Him involves me proclaiming His name in Taiwan, that He may be more greatly glorified in that dark place.

But whether He miraculously has me in Taiwan 3 weeks from today, or whether I somehow never go there again, He will in every action and outcome offer me the opportunity to draw closer to Himself, which is the greatest gift and blessing with which He could answer any prayer of mine. That sounds like a good "spiritual" answer to the question of God saying No because it is; we live in a spiritual world, and on this point they got it right in Sunday School: "Jesus" really is always the right answer.

Things you didn't know were happening in Alabama...

On Saturday the 27th I got to attend a welcome party for incoming Chinese students, hosted by all three Chinese churches in Madison County. (Huntsville Chinese Christian Church, Chinese Christian Church of Madison, and Chinese Bible Church in Huntsville)
All of the students I talked to were from mainland China, and most were going to UAH, although I met a high school student whose parents had moved to Huntsville from China as well. My guess would be that the Chinese population of the Greater Huntsville Area will continue to increase rapidly in the near future, providing more opportunities to reach Chinese students who might never have a chance for this kind of gospel exposure in China.

Not only do we go out to the mission field, but sometimes the mission field comes to us.

We started off with introductions of the three Chinese churches in the area

This lady sang very beautifully in Mandarin

I would estimate about 120 people in total were attending, including a few dozen Chinese students.

A team from an Atlanta Chinese church came to lead some worship songs.
The gospel was presented as well; hopefully some students were impacted by
their first chance to participate in Christian fellowship with Chinese believers.

Of course you can't have a Chinese gathering without Chinese food!
(This pic is borrowed from HCCC's photo album of the event)

Hey, who's this white guy handing out prayer cards?
(This pic is borrowed from HCCC's photo album of the event)

I didn't get to stay for the whole event, but was there until right before the topical speakers were supposed to start, speaking on things like practical advice for settling in, for the students, and a scriptural message for the attending church members.

It was a blessing to see the local Chinese churches coming together for this event. Just two years ago I had no idea any of these churches were here, even after going to school and working in Huntsville for several years. Now one of them is a support partner, and I preached at another earlier this month. Just more evidence that God's plans and work are bigger and more widespread than we ever know. I'm incredibly blessed to have had this unexpected chance to get involved in a Chinese Christian community right here in North Alabama.

Bonus Picture Post! #1 - Orchid Island

Dear readers, I have discovered that facebook uses strange methods for determining what thumbnail picture options it offers when I post links to articles here. Apparently it only likes the smaller ones. (If anyone has more technical info, feel free to leave me a comment)

What that means for you is, I include lots of pictures in this post, to test which ones FB lets me use, and some readers might notice me changing the sizes on them.

For starters, here are some from one of the most interesting side-trips I got to do during my year in Taiwan (that wasn't an unplanned visa run!). In August, some of my Taiwanese fellow gospel camp volunteers and I took a ferry over to Orchid Island (Lan Yu) off the coast of Taiwan for a couple days of camp staff retreat after the summer camping season was over. We also had a mini-camp for the kids on the island, I might post some pics of that later if people are interested. (Basically that means respond if you want to see pictures of cute kids, Taiwanese camp volunteers, and one white guy)

Leaving the harbor

Arriving at Orchid Island, with oddly-shaped mountains shrouded in mist...

The view from our "hotel." I believe the large building is a government-built school.
Years ago Orchid Island was selected as a location for a nuclear waste dumping site,
but the local people were told it was going to be a fish cannery and tricked into agreeing...
so they got lots of government-paid-for infrastructure by way of a belated sort-of apology.
(I don't know if this story is entirely accurate, but it's what I was told)

A concrete model of the local people's traditional seagoing canoes.
The native people of Orchid Island are not Chinese, but Pacific Islander.
Many anthropologists believe that Oceania was populated largely by ocean-going
peoples who island-hopped from Taiwan thousands of years ago.

A quiet moment by the sea, at sunset.

We quickly found the real rulers of the island were wise-looking goats.

We woke up very early one morning before dawn, to get to the top of a mountain and watch the sunrise.

The pre-dawn scooter ride was exciting

We assemble at the mountaintop observatory area

Dawn approaches over the Pacific, beyond the lights of a fishing village.

Roughly the same picture, a little later

The locals said the farthest rock peaks rising from the ocean used to be one long ridge,
but during WWII in the early morning dark the Americans thought it was a Japanese destroyer and bombed it.

Fun with perspective

I got some National Geographic quality shots on this trip, it's really a beautiful island.

Alright, I have four albums from this trip on facebook for the especially curious. (and for people who prefer to look at pictures with people in them) But I think this is a good enough set of pictures for one post.
We'll close with a picture of my most interesting meal of that trip:

Flying fish noodle soup!

Stay tuned for more random picture posts in the future... I have thousands of Taiwan photos and I'll post a few up now and then. If you are interested to see pics of any particular kind of stuff (People, Cities, Food, Nature, etc) feel free to leave a comment and let me know.

A Musical Interlude - Taipei 101 Flash Mob Chorus

We take a break from normal posting to bring you a little taste of Taiwan, 2013. This is a musical flash mob event which took place in the awesome foodcourt of the basement of the 101 building (until a few years ago, the tallest building in the world). I can and will say a lot about Taiwan on this blog, but sometimes I think music can express things more deeply and clearly than words can, even in a language you don't know.

Since this blog is in English most of my readers won't be able to understand the lyrics to the songs, but I encourage you to take a listen anyway, the beautiful of the songs and the passion with which they are sung don't need translation. (and there are English subtitles which communicate the basic meaning of the lyrics, though their beauty doesn't really come across in the word-for-word translation)

There are 4 songs in total: the first is Green Island Serenade (Referencing the island of Taiwan. There might be some political implications with the choice of this song as well, but I will mostly steer clear of Taiwanese politics on this blog!), the middle part is a medley of two nostalgic/romantic songs, Mo Li Hua (Jasmine Flower, a very famous song, its story and a better translation of the lyrics than in the video is available here on its wikipedia page) and Bāng Chhun-hong (Spring Breeze, which is not sung in Mandarin but in Taiwanese, the local language which I hope to study after Mandarin), and lastly a very lively ending with Gao Shan Qing (The Mountain is Green, only a Chinese wikipedia entry for this one), a song about Alishan mountain and the native peoples of Taiwan who live there. Part of the song (you'll know!) is in Ami/Amis, the language of Taiwan's largest remaining indigenous tribal group.

To me, holding a flashmob in the basement of a ultramodern skyscraper featuring beloved traditional songs in these languages is "very Taiwan." If you've never been there, I hope you can get a feel for the place through this brief performance: