Angry skeletons

"Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back–in many ways it is a feast fit for a king.

"The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you."

―Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), 2.

Proverbs 6:16-19 

These "seven deadly sins," as they were coined, are outlined by Solomon.

16 There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:

17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,

19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

These are six things our great and awesome God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, hates.  In the next phrase, The seventh, "one who sows discord among brothers," reaches the level of abomination.  God hates sin. That ought to make me fear His discipline and bow down to worship Him in holy humility.

The six, and seven, things are:

1. haughty eyes

2. a lying tongue

3. hands that shed innocent blood

4. a heart that devises wicked plans

5. feet that make haste to run to evil

6. a false witness who breathes out lies

7. one who sows discord among brothers

Memorizing this text through our church Awana program several years ago, we noted these things run from head to toe.  They run from our eyes to our tongue three times, to our hands and finally to our heart.   

Feast anger
The exact word "anger," doesn't appear.  Angry behaviors run right through virtually it all.  The haughty eyes are prideful and can lead to angry responses to others.  A lying tongue is angry.  Hands shedding innocent blood are angry.  Hearts devising wicked plans. Angry.  Feet running to evil. Angry. False witness lying mentioned twice in 17 and 19.  Initiating anger.  Sowing discord among family and friends is anger boiling over. 

Domestic violence and no contact orders are really common among the male inmates, their families, in relationships among themselves where I serve as a chaplain at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent through PFC.

Feast experiences
I watched anger in my schools growing up and right through my Masters level work.  I saw it in the middle schools where I worked as a special ed teacher among certain students, other teachers, and administrators. 

I experienced anger among youth teams I played on, later reported on as a newspaper sports reporter, and those I later I coached.  In one season in particular, I acted out. 

I experienced wrath and anger in the churches I have attended. Some are very angry in churches. I was angry especially in one of the churches where I was the pastor. People I thought were caring stirred up trouble to cause divisions among their friends.  

There was anger flashing in my home growing up and with our own home. I grew up in a great, caring family with loving parents and a brother and sister. 

When I think it is everybody else, sometimes the Lord wakes me up in the middle of the night. It was me.  He reminded me of events.  I experienced anger in other people who hurt me.  I was angry toward others so I hurt them.  That is the definition of dysfunction.  Hurting people hurt people.  God hates these things.  They are abominations, He said.    


Feast turned
Buechner said," In many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you."

Anger "licks it's wounds."  The angry person wants to feel sorry for himself.

Anger "smacks its lips over grievances past." The angry person keeps remembering and rolling over what happened.  The grievance was from a long time ago.

Anger revels in "rolling over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come."  The angry person rehearses with other people what might never happen.  The more the future confrontation is considered, bitterness grows.  The confrontation has not even happened. Anger may easily escalates into confrontation with listeners who are not involved.

"Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled..."  ~Hebrews 12:12-15

Anger "savors to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back."  This is a twisted pleasure.  Savoring something at a great holiday meal means we appreciate the smell, taste or feeling of a particular dish. The angry man or woman works over pain they are experiencing and what they are dishing out. 

Writing as an acute gift

"This is a gift I have, simple, simple; a foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures,

shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, revolutions...But the gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it."  ~William Shakespeare on writing

Seeking to rekindle my writing, I rechecked a book out of the library. Shakespeare's gift is the process of writing, whether anybody else reads it or not.  

The book is, "The writer's idea book--How to develop great ideas for fiction, nonfiction, poetry and screenplay," by Jack Heffron.

I dabbled with his writing prompts and it was very helpful to stimulate right activities to write.  I discovered blogs.  His book carried me a long way.  I need his friendship and mentoring in my writing, again.

I also appreciate Ralph Fletcher's, "A writer's notebook--unlocking the writer within you."  This is a very helpful text for youth and adults in small book, 137 pages.

Ralph encourages writers to maintain their own, customized notebook with seed thoughts, prompts, pictures and themes.  Creating a notebook is all about experimenting.  I tried to use it with special education middle school students.  It seems far more productive for me/


The gift I have, simple, simple
My path of writing started in junior high and high school.  My Mom had me write family Christmas letters. My parents were always so encouraging. I still have a set of magazine articles from my great aunt on writing. It looked so good but sitting still and concentrating that long was imposing.  I wanted to shoot my basketball or play catch. Always diversion and distractions from the gift.  Still, I was already on my lifelong path of writing.

Family and friends told me how much they appreciated my hand-written letters.  I hadn't started using my Smith Carona typewriter. Word processors and computers were in the next decade.  

I started sports writing in high school. Readers were very encouraging.  I focused on journalism at Green River Community College and graduated with a bachelors degree in communications journalism from Washington State University.  

While working at Boeing in Auburn, I was a procedures writer and published a "Good news at work" monthly newsletter circulated in several sites, even as far as Wichita.  

In the mid-1980s, I participated in writers critique groups and had a couple of articles published in smaller Christian magazines.  I attended several writing conferences in Washington and Oregon. Other published writers gave me loving pushes and some strong exhortations, to keep writing.  I journaled in three-ring notebooks for a long time.  I was hopeful and productive in my writing. As a pastor, I wrote many sermons and Bible studies.

Then, I was engulfed in painful experiences around my pastoral ministry and a succession of job losses.  I entered what John Bunyan described as a "slough of despond."  

I was hurt and very angry.  The writing changed alot. 

I was writing then but it wasn't the same.  Our great God was teaching me about pride and humility through His University of life.  I needed and finally received counseling for anger.

I am engaging where I feel acute pleasure in writing.  Often, I publish these blog posts. Other times, I write and edit emails. 

I may be able to get published other places but it doesn't matter where or if I am published anywhere else.  Writing is a gift from the Lord for others and me.  

When I living in a simple, focused gift,  I I move from I have to to I want to.  

The gift becomes acute.  Even after I publish, more editing cycles are needed. The long process of writing, editing several times, and publishing helps me to think about other ideas to keep writing.  

Do you need to rekindle gifting?

• loving your spouse...  
• caring for your children...  
• praying... 
• participating in or leading a small group...
• writing songs or lyrics...
• writing poetry...
• playing an instrument...

What are good, acute pleasure gifts in your life?

Extravagant spirit in finding Scanectady

A Scanectady rose garden

An extravagant spirit motivates the writer to keep at it.  Writing gets me into a place where I concentrate.  I write, stop, and write more.  I need to do other legitimate things so I put it aside.  When I am in the writing mode, I am thinking about my writing while I am doing those other things.  There is always more editing.

Sci-fi author Ray Bradbury was asked where he gets story ideas. He quipped his ideas come from "The Scanectady Center for Ideas."  Where is that?  It doesn't exist.  

An extravagant spirit finds great ideas to start writing. When I don't write regularly, my ideas have little more than jiggles.  Creativity seems non-existent.  Writing is lonely.  You just write.  Some say great writers sacrifice in blood.

Nott Memorial in Scanectady

There are no short-cuts to developing ideas for writing.  Ideas might come from something a friend says.  It didn't mean too much, at first.  Then, it grabs you.  Heffron gives me writing prompts.  There are websites available, as well.

Could the the Nott Memorial, built in 1815, on the campus of Union College in Scanectady be Bradbury's center for ideas?  It is truly stately but there is no "center for ideas." 

Writing requires tapping into memories, ideas, reflections, responses to what is happening all around.  Scanectady is where I locate subjects. Remarkable subjects come from the Holy Spirit.  Somebody you don't even know may need exactly what you are hearing. I learn to trust what I am hearing and write. 

a writer's notebook

Writers keep some kind of file for ideas.  I won't just magically remember.  I have a place now on my phone and Ipad to record ideas.  I also have a small spiral notepad. 

An extravagant spirit is filled with the Holy Spirit to to discover ways to enter into Scantectady places that seemed locked. Writers get back to writing.  As I write on one topic, other memories come to the surface.  

Full of forms, figures and shapes
Writing comes in multiple forms, figures, and shapes. In am listening to the flow and colors in the descriptive western writing of Zane Grey.  He paints word pictures with vivid colors in his settings.  We smell and feel life in 1916 western US. We are right there.

I don't see myself as creative. I fill up my life with other things which become diversions.  This isn't a guilt trip.  Sometimes, other things really need to be done. Writing requires getting buckled into a seat with a "keeping at it" spirit. There are more descriptive words and tightening the text to be attended to.  

Acute pleasure comes in many figures and shapes. Recently, a brother received an e-mail from a very gifted vocalist.  They participating in singing lessons together.  Their instructor encouraged her to participate in one of the national television singing contests. She could be very successful. 

My friend confirmed her amazing giftedness.  She takes pleasure in singing.  Using Shakespeare's analogy, the question is her sense of acute pleasure in using her singing gift.  She considers how and where will she use her gift. What or who motivates her to sing?  Why sing?

My friend pointed her to Paul, "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." 
~Colossians 3:17

She is fully engaged with her husband in their local church.  She is finding figures and shapes, all kinds of venues, to use the gift God gave her.  Many strongly encourage her to keep singing. Using God's gifts is dynamic. 

Our gifts come in many figures and shapes. We like things to be steady and sometimes they are.  Other times, we know all too well, are rocky with twisted turns.Some experiences getting a cars back on the road. There are places we don't expect and haven't planned for. The use of our gift helps us stay on His path for us.  


Apprehensions, motions and revolutions
Some writing digs deep into hard places. Apprehension is an anxiety or fear that something bad or unpleasant will happen. Some authors take readers to dysfunctional, hurting places. Apprehension believes there may be no exits of freeways of pain. 

The dock in life needs repair

Grief and sorrow are dark rooms. There are cycles of family strain, prodigal family members, painful job loss, conflict, and struggle. Sometimes, there are doesn't appear to be a happy ending.  Apprehensions are where many readers and writers live in daily experience. 

There are resolutions and reconciliations, new jobs, and relief.  Life is in motion.  Writers take us to those places, too. Kids grow up, start their journeys, and leave home.  Authors take us through the changes of life. 

The apprehensions, motions, and revolutions in best stories, like some of the parable of Jesus and chapters in our lives, have unfinished endings. We can write and live the endings.

Shakespeare's revolutions involved political and interpersonal conflict.  He writes about intrigue. Macbeth and Brutus are hard. He makes his characters real because we identify with their actions. We recognize his characters in people we see in our contemporary life experience.    

Thankful when pleasure is acute
We all have very important other things to do.  Obedient living requires balance.  We need to do needed and right things at home, in our churches, and wherever we are serving on a daily basis.  The pleasure is acute when we exercise right responsibility. Using our gift requires careful time management.  We are right to be passionate about loving God right through the roof.  We can rejoice to have many interests.  

Acute writing exercises here

Acute pleasure comes when we carefully work out scheduling time to write.  We could be doing so many other things.  If I want to be consistent with writing, I need to be acute.  When I am scheduled to write, I need to write at the appointed time.

Acute gifts whisper in our ears to invite us back.  The gift brings us to healing, good places for each of us.  We come back to the right pleasure. When it is this "good acute pleasure," we need and want to be there.  The gift brings us to peace and worth.  

Retreating doesn't resolve conflicts

"I get frustrated with all the talk around here, I've been spending most of my days by myself in my unit or watching TV," Jack admitted, recently.  Jack is an inmate at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent and we've met together regularly the ninth months he has been here.  

This retreating away from others is Jack's pattern.  He gets really hard on others all around him. We often discuss ways to get away from the stress with short time-outs racked back in his unit.  

As a Christian, he meets with several others for Bible reading and fellowship most days. In the process, he gets disrupted and stays away from the guys who really care about him for several days.  

Jack is writing out his testimony.  We talk about what the Lord has done and continues to do in his life.  Retreating from conflicts isn't solving his inner turmoil.

In balance, most of the men don't tell the chaplains everything that happens when they share about their conflicts in their units in the day rooms. The picture presented to us is most often warped. Once recently, the day officer who knows Jack well even confronted  Jack about staying away from the others. 

             Preparing for the Republic of the Congo in May

Before I share more about Jack, I am raising support, about 1/4 completed toward $3,500, and making plans for another PFC short-term missions trip to the Republic of the Congo beginning May 1 with Nate Bean and Greg and Rhonda Von Tobel.  I'll be overseeing finances with our Excel spreadsheet again and coordinating our airport travel details as part of my servant-leadership training.

We are planning three evangelistic prison services and two conferences to encourage those already serving in prisons and others wanting to get started.

This is the geographically smaller and more western on the two Congo nations in Africa, the other being the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  We will be flying into Brazzaville, on the southeast borde


                                                        
                               
                              Conflicts stir most days
It is common for conflicts to stir just below the surface most days--the reality of jail and prison life everywhere.  Often, it takes very little for these little things to erupt. The men stay in an open day room with circular tables and plastic chairs.  They can play cards and watch TV while they are out.  They can walk around and get exercise in the contained recreation area.  Guys talk about their lives outside the jail and often tell expanded stories about what is going on.  

The guys get frazzled around twisted attitudes and short tempers.  Some get frustrated enough to raise their voices, argue, and occasionally break into fights.  I remind the guys they are incarcerated.  Some purposefully look for ways to get under their fellow-inmates skin.  Others are manipulating controllers. If they can draw another man into their behaviors, they like it all the more--they think highly of getting others suckered in.

                                 Resolving conflicts
Jack and the other men know they struggle with conflicts.  It is a defeating cycle and for many of them, a pattern in their lives since boyhood. We read and carefully walk through key Bible passages with men about practical spiritual growth so their wives, children, and families recognize their transformation.  Some grow a great deal.  Others talk a good game.  Another group deeply cares and makes small but real incremental steps of growth.

Recently, I attended a Friday-Saturday regional seminar in Beaverton, Oregon about Biblical peacemaking--applying the gospel to conflicts of daily life through Peacemaker Ministries out of Billings, Montana with some new friends from the Maple Valley Presbyterian Church.

I read a book by Ken Sande around 20 years ago called, "The Peacemaker."  I've returned back several times as conflicts arose among my own family, our employment, and stir within our churches we attend.  While I served as a pastor in two small churches, we struggled very unsuccessfully with unresolved conflicts. Conflict is everywhere.

Over the years, I've gone to seminars that seemed so good while attending but when I returned the material didn't fit.  I thought it would all be so good.  While at this event, it was very clear I could start using the material, immediately. Starting this past week, I  actively tweak my presentations for the individuals I am sharing with.

                             Escape or attack modes    
Returning to Jack, in my inmate discussion, Peacemaker Ministries presentation notes we revert to escape or attack when we are confronted with a sticky conflict.  

I asked Jack and he didn't hesitate.  He retreats.  He runs away.  He hides within himself.  I asked what his wife would say.  He said, she would say I escape away from the family.  


The escaping person might go so far as to consider suicide.  Most often, they flee or live in a world of denial.  In some ways, this escape mode is every bit as aggressive.  The passive aggressive response is an assertive way to seek attention and manipulate others.  

The attacking person might consider murdering another person.  Yes, again, that is far out. They will verbal assault or accusation. Their legal action is litigation.  

The purpose is to move further inside the peacemaker responses.  the peaceful person overlooks an offense toward reconciliation.  Negotiation with compromise and win-win between the parties is the goal.  Mediation with a third party to facilitate compromise may be required.  We want to draw as close to win-win, as possible.  If needed, we agree to a mediated resolution so we can move ahead productively.

In order to resolve conflict, it seems so basic to note both parties need to be willing to participate.  We know, sometimes circumstances are so strained communication and participation becomes very hard. 

How do you respond to unresolved conflict or when you don't get your way?  Do you escape or attack? Where are you at on the diagram?  

Police follow-up in Chennai

We confronted yet one more unexpected event every day on the last leg in our short-term India missions trip to Chennai and back up to Dehli. Chennai is on the southeastern coast of India.

I am making plans for our next missions trip to the Congo beginning May 1 with Nate Bean, and Greg and Rhonda Von Tobel.

When we got to Chennai, we connected with Prem Raj, our PFC missionary for the southern part of India, and Charles Finney, who is working with Prem Raj.  We participated in two teaching conferences and visited the Basilica of St. Thomas and the St. Thomas Mount around Chennai.

We visited Chennai's beach, recognized as the largest in the world and the site of a chilling tsunami in 2004 and tremors from an 8.6 Indonesian earthquake in April of 2012.

We also visited an Christian orphanage with 46 children Charles Finney helps to oversee.  Looking out over the children on that sunny day, I actively prayed for several couples in our Faith Baptist Church family who adopted children over the past many years.  

Families take orphans one by one.  The remaining children stay where they are. There are teams of faithful workers who care for these precious youth until the kids are 18.  What a quiet ministry.  Some orphanages care for children of inmates.

Greg led prayer

Just before departing for Dehli, our team visited with Charles in his Chennai home.  In the adjacent picture, Greg Von Tobel and our team prayed with Scott Minter, Prem Raj, Charles Finney, and me.  Don Szolomayer rested on that day.

Police follow-up in Chennai
During the conferences, I taught sessions on working with prison officer staff members and the code of conduct, knowing and following the rules in the jails and prisons where we serve.  

We learned the police visited the host church where we presented the second conference after we departed--another chapter to take a deep breath and surrender the trip to the Lord.  It appears the police wanted to know what we, the foreign missionaries, were presenting or what we were doing there.

The exact reason for the police follow-up was never made clear.  After our initial experiences at the prayer conference the previous week, we asked among ourselves if there was some kind of connection between the two events. What kinds of spiritual warfare might have been active around us?  As we prayed, we asked Him for discernment concerning our time in India.  We still don't know the direct answers to our questions.

When we are sharing with people in the country and traveling, I now see why we identify ourselves as tourists and emphasize the places we visit.  I shared once about teaching conferences and described it as character development. 

I was cautioned about quietly singing hymns on a previous trip.


Dehli included the Red Fort

Red Fort in Old Dehli

Before returning home, we completed a shopping tour in Dehli and visited the outside of the Red Fort with Joshua Gawda, our PFC missionary in the northern part of India.  

Wikipedia notes the Red Fort was built in 1638:

The Red Fort covers a total area of about 254.67 acres enclosed within 2.4 kilometres of defence walls.^[1] The walls are punctuated by turrets and bastions. They vary in height from 18 m on the river side to 33 m on the city side. The fort is shaped like an octagon with the north-south axis longer than the east-west axis. The use of marble, floral decorations, double domes in the buildings inside the fort exemplifies the later phase of Mughal architecture.^[20]

It showcases a very high level of art form and ornamental work. It is believed that the Kohinoor diamond was a part of the furniture. The art work in the Fort is a synthesis of Persian, European and Indian art which resulted in the development of unique Shahjahani style which is very rich in form, expression and color. Red Fort is one of the important building complexes of India which encapsulates a long period of Indian history and its arts. Even before its notification as a monument of national importance in the year 1913, efforts were made to preserve and conserve the Red Fort, for posterity.

We also had lunches at KFC and McDonalds, both more expensive than other restaurants.  While in a foreign country, we don't drink fruit juices or unbottled water.  We don't eat lettuce, uncooked vegetables, or tomato slices.  We are careful what we order. 

I am especially cautious everywhere because I don't handle spicey foods nor curry-flavored items. Yes, that means I watch very carefully and commonly eat smaller meals.  That doesn't hurt anything.  

Apostle Thomas sites were deeply moving

Thomas touching Jesus

Visiting the sites surrounding the Apostle Thomas were more deeply moving for me than I ever anticipated.  He planted several churches in the southern region of India and made in-roads with the Brahman Hindus.  Several of these Brahman chased him to the mountain and speared him in his martyrdom death.

The very clear historical foundation for our Biblical text was clearly established for me.  The apostles all took the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations very seriously, as I wrote before.  We were on location where Thomas evangelized and planted churches.

Once in a lifetime...every day

After completing our prayer conference ministry and being locked down with police presence in Lakhimpur, we returned to conduct our single prison service on this PFC missions trip in Loxnou.

As Scott Minter shared, we continued to experience once in a lifetime event...every day.

We couldn't have anything as big as being locked down in the conference.  Yes, we did.  Greg would call this the most frustrating prison service in 30 international missions trips for him.

With the activity filled up to 1500, we enjoyed participating with PFC missionaries Joshua Gowda from the Dehli region, and Arthur Cocker from this region along with his wife Janice and their adopted daughter Hannah.  Arthur shared we were the first foreign missionaries to provide a service at this facility.

Small group of inmates settled in
A music group led in worship and experienced trouble with their sound equipment which caused some of the inmates to stir.  

One group of inmates came in at the very beginning and remained really attentive the entire service.  That was not the case for most of the rest. 

Preaching from Luke 15

The disruptions built up.  The church group of young adults provided a very powerful Jesus Skit choreographed to music and tried to add more worship only to have more sound equipment problems.

We could smell and noticed several men smoking marijuana without correction by attending officers. Some inmates began leaving the service and the noise level ramped up.  Scott shared a testimony. 



Before my part of the service, Janice took the micophone and tried to quiet the inmates with limited results.  The officers took no action.  I spoke from Christ's parable in Luke 15:1-7 about the Good Shepherd and the lost sheep.  Jesus seeks, saves, and rejoices over broken people.


Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

The Good Shepherd saves

So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 

And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. 
~Luke 15:1-7 ESV


The inmates were already almost out of control again halfway through my message.  I started praying in earnest and constantly while preaching. 

Inmates kept getting louder

Heaven rejoices

By the time Don entered his longer sermon on blind Bartimaeus, the entire power went out and stayed off for a solid 20 minutes.

The behaviors and noise built up to another level.  Don made several solid attempts to continue preaching and Janice intervened a second time both to no avail.  

More inmates continued to leave the room, the noise level remained dangerously high, and the officers took no action.  While still praying, it was clear something very harmful could have occurred.  


Now, we were praying together in small groups.  

We kept praying
Don finally gave up and joined us praying.  Greg calmly took a seat on the main floor.  There were still a flow of men drifting out of the service.  While Greg remained in his seat, we continued praying.  

Lost sheep saved
Finally, the men who came in at first, maybe 500, remained and quieted.  Greg gave an impassioned call for inmates to receive Jesus as Savior. Approximately 250 responded as Greg prayed and we laid hands on the heads of as many inmates as possible.  

Just another first time even every day on this global encounter--250 out of 1500 responded to the glory of God.  

As the men were praying with us, part of the team passed out Hindu language Gideon Bibles.  We participated in handing out 35 boxes of miscellaneous fruit.

The next day, we boarded a plane for Chennai.

Lakhimpur prayer encounters

Our first awesome leg of our PFC global encounter with Greg Von Tobel, Don Szolomayer, Scott Minter, and me was in Lakhimpur in the Khiri U.P.  We trekked three hours from Lucknow into the countryside of India for the North India Prayer Leadership Conference from February 18-23.

We met a broad spectrum of international missionaries who were invited by Roderick Gilbert, the host, who opened his 20-acre sugar cane and what farm for 3500 worshipers.

While Katharine delivered me to Sea-Tac Airport, I was incredibly blessed by Travis Allen as we shared prayer and encouragement around my trip.  Just before leaving Greg Von Tobel received an uplifting email from Howie Pollock from Steel Lake Presbyterian Church in Federal Way and now in Boise, Idaho on my behalf.  I was almost blessed to tears.

As many as received Him
Throughout the lengthy flights from Seattle to Amsterrdam, New Dehli, along with taxi rides to our ministry destinations, the Lord brought me back to a mind and spirit for Scripture memory review in the Gospel of John 1:11-18, 3:16-19 and 36; and  5:24.  I was struck by the stunning promise of John 1:12, "as many as received him..."

Wilson and Sheela George

Scott playing his mandolin

We met Pastor Wilson and Sheela George, from Chandigarh.  Wilson writes worship music and has recorded 26 albums.  Sheela preaches and teaches through Assembly of God and other churches. Scott Minter shared and played for Wilson and was privileged to play in a worship service at his invitation Friday morning.

Greg gave message to large tent on Thursday about 11.  Around 150 came forward for first time decisions and maybe three times that many came forward for healing prayer.  I participated in laying hands on and praying for those who came forward.



On several occasions throughout our time, Scott was blessed to play his mandolin.

Don, Scott, and I made a 30 minute presentation exhorting women to visit women and juvenile youth in India.  I spoke for ten minutes from Matt. 28:19-20 urging the women hearers to making disciples of all nations in the prisons and jails when they returned home..

Restricted to missions headquarters

Among the missions teams active at the prayer conference was a contingent from the Seattle area.  As two members of that team left for home Thursday, we learned their pictures were taken in a newspaper with an accompanying article accusing the conference of forced conversions by foreigners based on second and third hand quotes.  Nobody was quoted by name. 

A group of police interviewed or investigated Roderick about the multiple foreigners proselytizing around the conference on his private farm site.  As a result, the foreign missionaries were restricted to the conference headquarters house.  We could move around outside as long as we had no perceived contact with Indians nor their contact with us even to greet us.

It appeared our public ministry with still 3500 participants eager to have us touch them, take their pictures, and pray over them by touching their heads would be restricted heavily if not outright prohibited.

First conference presentation

We finally were allowed to carry out our two-hour PFC teaching conference session.  I spoke on working with staff, the code of conduct, and networking to build teams.  I seemed to relax and feel confident and free in speaking 

The drama with the outside photographers and police continued.  Roderick showed us a 16-inch knife in a bag was discovered on the grounds in the mid-afternoon. 

Police blue and red lights again

In the evening, four paparazzi-type photographers came back on the grounds and were detained by Roderick's team.  One photographer somehow jumped off a balcony and escaped.  The cameras were confiscated and the three accused were encircled by women until the police arrived.  The foreign missionaries again were restricted to the headquarters site.

We left on Saturday the 23rd encouraged and ready for our Lucknow phase which would call us to even deeper focused prayer as we watched the Lord do awesome things and the enemy work to tear down.

Revisiting the Gospel of Thomas

Our PFC global encounter team is sitting in layover at the Amsterdam Airport after our 10-hour flight from Sea-Tac Airport.  In about three hours, we'll board for an eight- hour flight to New Dehli.

In my previous blog, I introduced the missionary travel of the Apostle Thomas around Chennai, India.  One of the Gnostic Gospels uses his name.  Here is some background information about this writing.

The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of 114 sayings of Jesus that was discovered in 1945 at the village of Nag Hammadi in Egypt. Before the Nag Hammadi discovery, very little was known about the Gospel of Thomas other than three small fragments from Oxyrynchus that date to 200 A.D. and roughly a half dozen allusions from church fathers. The manuscripts discovered at Nag Hammadi date to around 340 A.D., though the original composition of the Gospel of Thomas was definitely before that time, probably sometime around 140 to 180 A.D.

The date of this writing

Even though the Gospel of Thomas is perhaps the earliest, most popular, and best "Gnostic" Gospel around, it does not belong in the New Testament since it was written in the second century at a time when all of the apostles of Christianity had already died. This second century date of composition is demonstrated by: 

(1) its dependence on more than half of the New Testament writings, 

(2) its likely mid to late second century Syrian influence, 

(3) its heretical nature with Gnostic overtones, 

(4) its lack of references from early church fathers or first century witnesses, 

(5) its disagreements and variations from the first century context of the New Testament gospels, and 

(6) its self-conscious promotion as an apostolic book which reflects a later time period. In fact, even many adherents to a first century origin for the Gospel of Thomas argue that, in its present form, Thomas reflects later editing.

The Gospel of Thomas and other "gnostic" or non-canonical proclamations of Jesus:

• do not narrate the story of Jesus.
• do not proclaim Jesus as the Messiah.
• do not recount the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Problem areas
Besides not recounting the core message of the ministry of Jesus we see in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, here are 21 highly problematic verses in this Gospel of Thomas

7 Jesus said, “Lucky is the lion that the human will eat, so that the lion becomes human. And foul is the human that the lion will eat, and the lion still will become human.”

11 Jesus said, “This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away. The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. During the days when you ate what is dead, you made it come alive. When you are in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?”

12 The disciples said to Jesus, "We know that you are going to leave us. Who will be our leader?" Jesus said to them, "No matter where you are you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being."

14 Jesus said to them, "If you fast, you will bring sin upon yourselves, and if you pray, you will be condemned, and if you give to charity, you will harm your spirits.

15 Jesus said, "When you see one who was not born of woman, fall on your faces and worship. That one is your Father."

19 Jesus said, "Congratulations to the one who came into being before coming into being. If you become my disciples and pay attention to my sayings, these stones will serve you. For there are five trees in Paradise for you; they do not change, summer or winter, and their leaves do not fall. Whoever knows them will not taste death."

22 Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, "These nursing babies are like those who enter the kingdom." They said to him, "Then shall we enter the kingdom as babies?" Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]."

27 "If you do not fast from the world, you will not find the kingdom. If you do not observe the sabbath as a sabbath you will not see the Father."—-I agree with this, because to not observe the Sabbath is breaking the fourth commandment. But, the vast majority of modern Christianity wouldn’t be “edified” by this; they would see it as bondage and legalism.

30 Jesus said, "Where there are three deities, they are divine. Where there are two or one, I am with that one."

37 His disciples said, "When will you appear to us, and when will we see you?" Jesus said, "When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample then, then [you] will see the son of the living one and you will not be afraid."

42 Jesus said, "Be passersby."

50 Jesus said, "If they say to you, ‘Where have you come from?’ say to them, ‘We have come from the light, from the place where the light came into being by itself, established [itself], and appeared in their image.’ If they say to you, ‘Is it you?’ say, ‘We are its children, and we are the chosen of the living Father.’ If they ask you, ‘What is the evidence of your Father in you?’ say to them, ‘It is motion and rest.’"

51 His disciples said to him, "When will the rest for the dead take place, and when will the new world come?" He said to them, "What you are looking forward to has come, but you don’t know it."

53 His disciples said to him, "is circumcision useful or not?" He said to them, "If it were useful, their father would produce children already circumcised from their mother. Rather, the true circumcision in spirit has become profitable in every respect."

77 Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."

84 Jesus said, "When you see your likeness, you are happy. But when you see your images that came into being before you and that neither die nor become visible, how much you will have to bear!"

98 Jesus said, The Father’s kingdom is like a person who wanted to kill someone powerful. While still at home he drew his sword and thrust it into the wall to find out whether his hand would go in. Then he killed the powerful one.

105 Jesus said, "Whoever knows the father and the mother will be called the child of a whore."

107 Jesus said, The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, the largest, went astray. He left the ninety- nine and looked for the one until he found it. After he had toiled, he said to the sheep, ‘I love you more than the ninety- nine.’

113 His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?" "It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, ‘Look, here!’ or ‘Look, there!’ Rather, the Father’s kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don’t see it."

114 Simon Peter said to them, "Make Mary leave us, for females don’t deserve life." Jesus said, "Look, I will guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of Heaven."