The Death of Love

by Art Marmorstein

The Most Important Thing
I promised I would talk about something more important than anything I talk about in class. I'm going to talk about the most important thing in the whole world.
And what's that?

If I had asked that question 30 years ago--or almost any other time in history--I'd have gotten a quick answer from almost everyone.

Almost everyone would have quickly said that love is the most important thing in the world.

"Love makes world go around." --Gilbert and Sullivan
"The light of the whole life dies when love is done." --Bourdillon
"Flower o' the broom, take away love and earth's a tomb." --Browning
"All thoughts, all passions, all delights, whatever stirs this mortal frame, are but the ministers of love, and feed his sacred flame." --Coleridge.
"All you need is love. All you need is love. All you need is love, love. Love is all you need."--The Beatles
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love I am become as sounding brass, as a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give up my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing." --St. Paul

Now I suspect that most people today would still say that love is the most important thing of all. But the answer would be slow in coming. And we certainly do not live our lives as if love was the most important thing of all.
As one looks around American society, it's apparent that love is dying, if it's not already dead.

Love is Dying
The best example of this is the break up of the family. Widespread divorce - and failure to form marriages in the first place - is destroying some of the most fundamental of loving relationships--not just the relationship of husband and wife, but relationships between fathers and children, between mothers and children, and between brothers and sisters.
Fewer and fewer people even have brothers and sisters.

...
We have a neighbor,a little boy of four. Every time he plays with my children, he tells the same story--his Dad is going to take him to the zoo. But Dad is more than 1000 miles away, and isn't likely to even see him any time in the near future.

A junior high friend of my daughter's is constantly waiting for a letter or a call from her dad. But the calls never come. The letters never come. It breaks your heart.

...
There's something wrong here, something dreadfully wrong. Suppose for some reason I didn't much like my lovely wife any more and thought I'd be happier with someone else. But I've got kids, kids whom I say I love. How much love would there be in me if I were to divorce their mom, to cause them the same kind of pain I see in so many other children? Not much, right? Not so very long ago, people stayed together "for the kids' sake"--and that really wasn't such a very bad reason.

And it seems like young people are having a dreadful time establishing the right kind of loving relationships in the first place. They don't marry and sometimes their marriages fail astonishingly quickly.

...
And as you look at our popular culture, you see that we really don't believe in love any more. Look at today's song lyrics, and contrast them with those of 30 years ago. Thirty years ago a typical pop song was "More."

The lyrics:
More than the greatest love the world has known
This is the love I'll give to you alone
More than the simple words I try to say
I only live to love you more each day

Another pop song:
My love is warmer than the warmest sunshine
Softer than a sigh,
My love is deeper than the deepest ocean
Wider than the sky
My love is brighter than the brightest star
That shines in the night above
And there is nothing in this world
that can ever change my love

Now can you imagine Snoop Doggy Dog singing songs like that? Madonna? It wouldn't happen.

Not that we don't sing about love. But our love songs have gotten bitter, like the T. Rex song "Life's a Gas":
I could have loved you, girl, like a planet
I could have placed your love in the stars
But it really doesn't matter at all
It really doesn't matter at all
Life's a gas

It does matter. It matters more than anything. I've had the good fortune of being loved as much as anyone is ever loved in this world. I've never had reason to doubt the love of my parents, my brothers, my sister, my wife, or my kids.

Even my students like me--a pretty incredible thing for a history teacher. But what makes me sad, what brings tears, is to see that fewer and fewer people seem to be able to find this kind of love. That love is dying, and that fewer and fewer of my students will have anything like what I have had in my own life.

Ideas are Killing Love

Why? What's killing love? To a certain extent, love has been killed by ideas--the ideas of men like Freud, Darwin and Nietzsche. For many modern thinkers, love is only an illusion, a product of evolutionary development. It is no wonder that love dies when we are constantly propagandized into believing that our only real desires are to survive and reproduce.

But the real problem is not one of ideas. The real problem is that we have deliberately kicked love out of our lives--or at least, out of many areas in our lives. We've kicked love out of the schools, for instance. In the 1960's and 70's, a series of Supreme Court decisions and bureaucratic rulings banned love from every classroom in America.
Yes. That's right. Now some of you might say, "I don't know of any Supreme Court decisions banning love in the classroom."

But you do.

The courts and the bureaucracies have eliminated prayer, Bible reading, the things like the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.

Essentially, we have tried to ban God himself from our classrooms, and from most aspects of public life. But do you see what that does, automatically? The Bible tells us that God is love. And we get rid of God, we get rid of love--quite literally.

John Dewey and public death of love
And what replaced God in the classrooms? To a large extent, we've replaced the old Christian philosophy of education with a "new"philosophy, the philosophy of John Dewey. Dewey was exceedingly influential, "the founder of modern American progressive education."

The way children are taught in public schools today owes more to Dewey than to any other individual--and no one is more to blame for what's wrong with American education - and even American society - than John Dewey.

Christians often point out that Dewey himself was an atheist, and certainly he was no friend of religion. Dewey was one of the original signers of "The Humanist Manifesto," a document basically saying that the traditional religious approach to life should be abandoned.

But Dewey has rejected far more than traditional religion. When one looks through Dewey's works, one discovers something exceedingly odd: there's never a mention of love.

Look through the index of Dewey's Reconstruction in Philosophy. There are references to law, learning, licentiousness, life, literary culture, Locke, logic, logical system, and Lotze--but not love. Look through Dewey's "My Pedagogic Creed." Not a single mention of love.

And look through the goals and objectives of our teacher education programs in America, look at the philosophy statements, the educational credos, the state and national standards for K-12 students. You won't find one mention of love.

There's something's wrong here--something dreadfully wrong. Jesus said the most important thing was to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.
How can we love God with all our minds if 90% of the time we don't even think about Him? Is it any wonder that love is dying, when we abandon the source of love altogether?

Nothing New
But all this isn't really as new a thing as I have made it sound. It isn't a new thing that love is dying. Love has died before.
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand; and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him saying, hail, King of the Jews. And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.

Love has been rejected before our day. Love has been mocked. Love has been spat upon. And love has died. But that death did not destroy love: instead, it showed us what love truly is--putting others first to the very last, sacrificing oneself for the beloved. I told you earlier that I have been as much loved as anyone ever in this world. But you know, each one of you has been loved with a love as great, and every one of you right now can enter into a love that truly is "more than the greatest love the world has known."

It is not some romantic lover, some girl or guy who has a love for us that is warmer than sunshine, softer than a sigh, deeper than the deepest ocean, wider than sky. That love, the love nothing can ever change, comes from God Himself. And that love will never die.

"Now abideth faith, hope, and love, these three things: but the greatest of these is love."


Dorm Presentation--February 1996

YES!

From Thought Collage, by Jeanie Rhodes

Last summer, [son in law] Dave and [daughter]Tara led a song Dave had written called, "Yes" (CD by the same title to be released in September) I had never heard it and I was in a really, really difficult time of my life and to tell you the truth, I couldn't sing it.

It seemed at the time I had nothing to say "yes" to (I've written about this previously here and here). I looked around the barn on this beautiful summer evening and saw all these sincere faces with pure hearts, steadfast in their commitment to follow Jesus no matter what and they sang, "Yes!" And I couldn't. I felt like God had taken everything from me there was to say "yes" to and that I alone had nothing to throw myself into.

With bittersweet tears shooting out, I said to a couple of my kids, "What? I am suppose to say 'yes' to rest? What is that?"

I'm telling you this by way of confession because I hope you know that it wasn't true that I had nothing to say "yes" to. I hope you know that I was placing myself in a pity-puddle of the refusal to accept pause and rest as gift. And I am confessing this in case you are reading and feeling the same. Make your list and come out of the fog. Wait until the house is empty and start yelling, "YES!" into the air and refuse to believe the enemy lie that there is nothing more.

Here's my list:
Yes to being Dave's wife, friend, lover, bride;
yes to grandparenting Gavin and Guini and Hunter and now Gemma;
yes to the friendship and "being there" and mothering, still, the grown kids God blessed me with;
yes to blessing the parents who raised me;
yes to hanging in there with friends and pursuing life-giving relationships;
yes to loving my neighbors and figuring out how that really works;
yes to consuming His Words, like honey to my lips;
yes to pressing in to really know God; and
yes to laying down my desires, wants amd wishes - He must increase, I must decrease.
Yes!

The days are coming: "Things are going to happen so fast your head will swim, one thing fast on the heels of the other. You won't be able to keep up. Everything will be happening at once - and everywhere you look, blessings! Blessings like wine pouring off the mountains and hills….God, your God says so." Amos 9.13-15 The Message
YES! What promise! Somewhere along the way, hope re-ignited. I came across this in my early 2007 journaling:

Yes to You, Lord
Yes to Your will
Yes to Your plan
Yes to the process, regardless of how long it will take (a lifetime, Lord?)
Yes to the pain of this purification
Yes to the price (because it costs everything)
Yes.
I love that "Yes" song now and sing my head off whenever Dave and Tara lead it. "Yes, yes, yes, yes…"

Yes is better. Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: This quote by Dag Hammarskjold seems appropriate here: "For all that has been, Thanks! To all that shall be, Yes!"

Driving the opposite way

by Sharon Jones

Thought I would share about my experience driving on the "wrong" side of the road. It was the first weekend we were here (South Africa)the director and his wife - Clint and Becky - let us borrow their car. Now of course here they drive
on the left side of the road and the driver sits on the right side of the
car. Their car is also a stick - but you shift with your left hand.

I was talking to Becky the night before we were leaving and she realized
that I had never driven on the left side of the road before, or driven
with the stick on the left side.

I told her. "If I can't get out of the driveway we won't go."

"Fair enough." she said.

That night I was a bit nervous and prayed quite a bit for a safe drive and
then as I went to bed I got a bit of a panic attack at the thought of driving. I prayed again. Then I got a very clear thought. I am sure it was from God! (SMILE)

The thought was - "IF I WAS ON THE AMAZING RACE THEY WOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM LETTING ME DRIVE A STICK ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD!" I held on to that thought and went to bed.

The next morning I got the keys and then when I drove it up near our home
- I didn't kill it once! We got safely to the mall and back again. Tony
did have to remind me once to get to the left side - but it was only
because I was turning around because we took a wrong turn.

Maybe I am ready for the Amazing Race. Hmmm.

Now Tony has his own story about his first experience driving on the left
side of the road.

He will have to share that sometime as well.

The Seasons

Some “Grace from the Garden,” things I learn about God while I am digging around in the dirt…



By Jeanie Rhoades

Grace Note: This season will come again (ready or not).

I was asking God, not with words, but from my heart (and I know He heard me loud and clear), Why do I find myself back here in this recurring place of pain, this particular area of brokenness for which I have forgiven the best I can and given it to You and prayed and studied and tried to follow Christ’s example? Why do I repeatedly respond and react to certain things from such an old place of injury? How come, after You last helped me and brought understanding and so much healing, do I find today that I still have further to go?

God immediately drew my attention to a flowering tree of some sort I planted a few years back (pear? dogwood? crab apple?). I don’t think I prepared the planting hole well when I got it. It was an end-of-season clearance, so I got it cheap with kind of a well-if-it-makes-it-good attitude and proceeded to plop it in the ground where it did not have much chance to establish itself before winter. It did not do well. It barely survived the winter and made a very poor showing in the spring. I had to coddle it with special watering and food all summer. The following year, the same. Very little growth and a very spindly and sickly-looking tree. I anticipated, though I allowed it to just keep plodding along, having to begin again in that corner with a different tree.

But this year, there has been a turn. Somewhere, in someway, it has finally established itself after almost 4 years in it’s place. It has doubled or tripled in size. It bloomed profusely this spring and then shot up in height some more. It is now radiant with health and I think it’s going to bring me much joy in the years to come.

God put that tree in my mind. And then I am pretty sure I heard Him tell me: That tree goes through the same four seasons each year. That is the same tree you planted 4 years ago. But that tree is not the same this spring as it was the spring before, or the spring before that. Every year after the time of dormancy (while I, Jeanie, btw, always feared it had finally and truly died), when you’d notice it again, it was the same tree, but the tree was different, not the same. There are seasons. You will go through the same season again and again, but each time, you’ll be different. Sometimes the difference will be below ground, where the roots reach out for what is needed. Sometimes it will be visible, branches waving in glory. It’s just a season. It’s a season.

Thank-You, God. I needed that!

So then I guess the answers to my heart’s questions might be:

Q: Why am going through this same thing again? What is wrong with me?

A: Nothing. You’re right on track. It’s a season. But you’re different this time than during the last season. It’s a growth-spurt opportunity!

Q: When will it finally be done, when will I get it?

A: When Christ is fully formed in you.

Q: When will that be?

A: When you see Him, you will be like Him.

And as I am writing, the strangest thing just came to my recollection. I named my daughter, Stormie, after Stormie Omartian (the wildly famous prayer author, singer, song-writer, speaker) because when I faced my first adult “storm” (try being a teenage preacher’s daughter, pregnant at a Bible College) I ran across her lyrics to a song I still have never heard, but which impacted me, nonetheless. Wow, even as I write (and I googled the lyrics and there they were!), God is reminding me that He has been telling me this all along, for 30 years almost:

“When summer dreams start to fade and lose their light
When the spring in your heart is so cold, it can’t be right
When you feel you’ve lost control and the valley seems so low
It’s not forever, it’s just a season of the soul
~
If you could step away and see just how far you’ve gone
If you would take the time to just see what you’ve become
You’d have the time to grow, you’d have a chance to know
That it’s not forever, it’s just a season of the soul.
~
Walking alone in the desert at night, searching for the rain
How can this happen to me, it’s not right
When Jesus is my friend and everything was going right
I was standing on the line, where did I go wrong?
~
A time to cry, a time to sing - there’s a time for everything
Nothing lasts for that long, so don’t look at what you see
Just keep your eyes on Me, I won’t let you go…
It’s not forever…
~
It’s just a season of the soul.”..Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: I am still me, but I am not the same as last time, by His grace and His undying faithfulness.
Seasons of the Soul” lyrics by Stormie Omartian

WESLEY'S ADVENTURES

More from the Joneses:

Wesley has settled in well. He is best friends with everyone. The food is still something he has to get used to. Pray that he starts to eat a little bit of it at least here pretty soon. Because our first outreach is called the rural outreach. No running water, no electricity, and campfire cooking. If he doesn't start eating some of the beans or pop, it's going to be hard for him. Because I don't think there well be enough room to bring along bread for about 60 people for two weeks. I think Sharon explained South African pop in a previous letter. If you are not sure what it is, then email me back. It's not a cola drink.

Also typical for a boy his age, I don't think there will be a tap that he has not turned. This morning he turn on a outside faucet ( they call it a tap down here) outside the womens' dorm and they lost all the water pressure inside. It good that he is curious but....
Irina is playing well with the three girls here.
Lucy is doing well and smiling at everyone. She is so cute.

This week at classes we did several things. We took personally tests (or inventories), spiritual gifts inventories, and did almost a 3 day overview of the Bible. Our instructor really emphasized his plan to reach the nations. It was very interesting how God had the Levites as the priests to the nation of Isreal. That part I knew. But the interesting part was that in the same way the entire nation of Isreal was called to be priests to the other nations around them. I have been munching on that one for the past two days.

We also are able to lead devotions if we wish. I signed up two weeks ago to do it this last Wednesday. I was kinda nervous but spoke about Psalm 62:5 - 8. I guess I did not do too bad since 2 or three people told me God used part of it to speak to them. God is gracious to give us the feedback that we need.

Tony and Sharon Jones OM South Africa TT Private Bag N03 Lynnwood Ridge 0040 South Africa.

You can also email them here: Tony OR

Sharon

What's it like to train as missionaries?

What our days are like...South Africa training team 2009

We are fine - but busy and very tired in the evenings so we generally just go to bed. Usually by 9:30. Tony is waking up at about 4:30 so that he has some time to do his devotions. I get up at 5:30 with the sounding of what is left of the wake up gong - I am thankful that it doesn't wake all the kids. Wesley once woke up enough to tell them to cut it out and went back to sleep. I wake up with enough time to just wake up - sometimes shower and make it to the lecture hall by 6 am for morning devotions time. I am not a morning person! But am learning to be.


Then we are suppose to have until breakfast at 8 am to spend time in devotions alone - but Lucy generally gets up sometime between 6:30 and 7am and the rest of the kids get up no later than 7:15. Wesley is usually next up and we sometimes have to wake Irina up. They are playing hard every day with the other kids that are here.

There is a kind of routine to our day -
On Mon, Tues, Wed - we eat breakfast at 8 am. Then about 8:45ish we have team devotions - where someone on the team shares a devotion time. Then there is a break then we spend the rest of the morning in about 45 blocks of time doing classes on something related to personal development or what it is to be a mission etc. There will be many different types of topics. Then at about 1 we are done for the day. We have lunch at about 1:30. (Lucy has been taking a morning nap at around 10:30 or 11 until lunch time. I've made this kind of a set time as it is easiest for us for her to nap in the mornings and since she is waking up so early it works for her as well. I had been waiting until after lunch but by then she was just so tired she sometimes fell asleep in the backpack then we woke her up for lunch and then trying to put her down again wasn't working. The rest of the day we rotate between
1- Rest and reflection time - you can do whatever you want really - do your own laundry, read, sleep etc.
2- Practical work
3 - Mall Day - because of the number of groups every few weeks you won't get to do this and there is only 3 days with 4 things to rotate
4 - Care time - where you talk with one of your Care Team Leaders about your concerns, prayer requests, struggles.

Every 8 days we are also on Kitchen Team where we are responsible to prep and prepare the food for the day. Breakfast, lunch and Dinner and clean up after dinner making sure that the kitchen and eating areas are kept clean.

We were on Kitchen Team this Monday so we will be on next Tuesday. It is kind of funny - because we have kids the other team members are always telling us we can leave if we want and both Tony and I are actually kind of enjoy the whole kitchen process. We also have more experience than most of these "kids" doing the kitchen prep kind of stuff. We end up telling them that no - we don't want to go we want to work. I remind them that until we came there not only did I do all the cooking I also had to clean the rest of the house as well. Some of our team members are right out of high school so they are finding some of this work very challenging.

Lets see after lunch if it is your mall day - you go do that. If it isn't your mall day than you do one of the other 3 things. Practical work - Tiny whose real name is Peter and who isn't really tiny at all - he is 6 feet 5 inches tall. He tells us we are his slaves - with this huge smile. He is kind of like the friendly giant. He gives out tasks to do and we go do them. Like pick up trash, clean and mop things, fix something, mow the lawn etc. I actually don't have to do Practical work because of the kids. This week I didn't because I went to the mall to get Wesley a birthday gift. His 6th birthday is this Sunday. Tony of course does practical work and Wesley is always very excited for Practical work and really likes to help out. Irina will help out a bit but then usually runs off to play with the girls when they get home from school.

Practical work is from 2:30 to about 3:30 - 4 depending on what you are doing. Then you have free time really until dinner. They encourage everyone from about 5 pm to dinner to do some kind of sport activity. Today I did a dance aroebic class. It was really a good workout. Leann (Tiny's wife) leads it. Since Tony ends up watching the baby if I do it and then he can't do anything so we will try to switch off who gets to play and who watches Lucy.

After that is dinner and then depending on the night - we have different things to do:
Mondays 7:30 we have a bible study with our Care Group
Tuesday - is a free night - the team staff coffee house is open from 7:30 to 9:30
Wednesday - Care Group night - a night where we can talk, play games etc
Thursday - is a free night - the coffee house is again open but not as late only 1 hour - Tony is there right now.
Friday - we will have whole team activites - that are to be anounced - we haven't actually done this yet this week will be the first time.

Thursdays and Friday's are a bit different.

Thursday we have the devos at 6 am still but breakfast is at 7:30 because at 8:30 the whole OM staff comes here for a Prayer meeting. We have worship and then we talk about the different activities that OM is involved in and pray about them. Like last week it was about AIDS HOPE and today was focused on their Teen ministry - can't think of it's name right now.

Then we have a class then it is lunch time then

Then after Lunch we have classes - again until Sport time. Then we have Sport time then dinner and then it is the free night I told you about before.

Friday's is pretty much just like Monday - Wednesday - only after Lunch we have free time for the rest of the day until after dinner when we will have some kind of team activity - it might be watch a movie, or have a game night or something but I guess we will try and do it all together. Probably not going off the base as there are so many of us. I will see how this revels itself over the next few weeks.

We do our first out reach March 19 - I guess it is the hardest as it is in tents and in a rural area - generally without modern bathrooms and no running water. I did see a photo of what they do for bathrooms. You dig a hole and then they have this contraption that is fitted with a toilet seat and there is a kind of curtain that goes around it so that you can sit there and do your business into the hole in the ground. I guess after awhile you fill in the hole and dig a new one. I am sure we get to take turns doing that job.

Pray that Irina won't have a problem using that toliet. I am sure Wesley will think it is cool.

They like to do the hardest retreat first. Everything will be made a little bit harder with the kids. My goal for the rural outreach is to stay at long as possible. I want to stay the full two weeks, if things are going really bad I can come back after a week, but pray that we are able to make it the whole time. I think that the kids will learn a lot from this and I really want them to get the full benefit of it. I don't have many details yet what we will be doing there - I will let you know more as I get more information.

Saturday is an off day - free day. As a family we have permission to leave and go out if we can arrange for a car or something. Last week we went to the mall. We don't have any plans to go anywhere this weekend, but we will see.

Sunday - we have church here at 10 am. They are going to take a few people out to another church - we will all get a chance to go to church off site. If we had a car we could go off on Sunday's too but Tony and I decided we wouldn't do that every weekend we want a chance to be able to bond with those that are here as well.

So that is our week - hope you found that interesting.

E-mail me back at this address if you have any questions.

Sharon

Jones Sharon
sharon.jones@tt.rsa.om.org

Total Rubbish

By Jeanie Rhoades

In the book of Philippians in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul gives his personal biography of a totally miserable, religious past (miserable because anytime getting close to God is dependant on what we do and how we do it, it is a cumbersome load). In the spirit of chapter 3, verses 4 - 6, I hereby submit my own biographical history outlining the stupidity I once clung to (that is me in the photo - a Pharisee in the making! )- that somehow I was worth something to God, valuable to His kingdom because of my own good works and where I came from.



The book of Jeanie's stupidity 3:4-6:

I had lots of confidence in my value to the kingdom of God because I was born into a Christian home to a ministry family. My first full sentence was "I'm gonna go to church" and I was a church girl among church girls. I was a Christian of the Pentecostal persuasion (others had some of the truth, but we had more, thus the term "full-gospel"). All of my siblings and their families are in the ministry. Many aunts and uncles and cousins are in full-time ministry. Concerning the law and attempting to get God's favor by my own self-suffiency, I could totally relate to Pharisees - working hard to keep it, and hoping for those heavenly brownie points because of it. Zealously striving for favor for my performance and being a "good girl," I was devasted when the less-holy were blessed. I grew up to attend Bible College and marry a pastor. And then I set out to raise my own bunch of good, Christian kids.
I am so grateful for my godly heritage, the roots I have. I love the stories of how God made Himself real to both my mother and father, each from Godless homes, how He changed everything in them and through them. Many, many people are walking in the redemptive grace of God today because of the choice Ross & Norma Moslander made to follow Christ.
But oh, my goodness, I have to work at not allowing these things to become a snare to me and to others. I have to keep dragging my pride to the cross.
I am in awe of the person who did not have the salvation message and cross of Jesus Christ served up on a silver platter, and yet they live in the full joy of knowing Christ without any of the doctrinal, or religious baggage that can so easily beset us. People with a "past," who come to Christ knowing how badly they needed a Savior and that they have no chance of impressing Him with their works or religious reputation just blow my mind. It reminds me of Christ's teaching that "The first shall be last and the last shall be first." We often judge a person's qualifications to lead in the kingdom by where they came from, how they were raised, who they are related to. God's criteria are different. It is all about the heart. God is looking at the heart!
But thank goodness, like Paul, I have been knocked off my religious high-horse (although I have the amazing ability to run it down and remount it at times, yikes!) and I can now see all that stuff for the rubbish it is. What I once thought were assets, I now see as liabilities. My passion is to know Christ and to somehow, finally - totally get over myself. What a relief.
Laying aside all human achievments in exchange for the free grace of God, Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: "Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ." Phil. 3.8 NKJV

The Stoning

She was an adultress, a cheater, a sinner. She was a disappointment, a law-breaker. She had let so many people down.
Now she was being exposed to the Light of the World.
The scribes and Pharisees brought her to Jesus as He was teaching in the temple. They'd caught her in "the very act of adultery," they told Him. They were testing Him, who claimed to be the light of life, the One who, "being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped." (Phil. 2.6)
"Moses, in the law, commanded us that such [a person] should be stoned to death. But what do You say?"
Would Jesus respect and follow the ancient law? Would He condone her sin?
Their purpose, those learned and religious men, was to trip Him up - to find a way to discount His teaching and refute His words.
Jesus says nothing, but stoops down, writing with His finger, ignoring their demand for a verdict.
The religious kept asking, pressing the matter like the playground tattle-talers they were.
His answer was short. "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." Then He leaned over and continued writing on the ground.
And none of them wanted to be the one to start the stoning. From the oldest to the last, one by one, they walked away until only Jesus and the woman were left. He looked at her and asked her, Where did your accusers go? Hasn't anyone condemned you?
"No one, Lord," she answered.
"Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more," the Embodiment of the light-glory of God said to her. Your sin is not unto death. I will not serve you a death-sentence, either. Go. Be well. Be whole. Be at peace. Find true love. Live in honor. Sin no more.
Jesus didn't condone her sin. God hates sin because it interrupts the beauty and wholeness of the life He planned for us. God didn't forbid adultry to mess up our good times, but He forbade it because it will hurt us and some one else and probably more than one other person. It will wreck lives and break trust and hearts and disrupt the peace of homes and rip families apart. It is violence towards the "one flesh."
People often wonder what Jesus wrote on the ground. Did He list the sins of the people standing there that were also punishable by death? I don't know. Did they leave because they were ashamed or did the encounter with Truth fill them with mercy?
I just know that I have always related to the woman. I have always been keenly aware of my sin, my inability to measure up to religious standards imposed upon me. In church life, my imperfections have been publicly touted, I've felt shunned by fellow Christians. I've read this account of the woman and felt what she must have felt. I have ranted and raged against the people who told me what a disppointment I was. I have pointed out the futility of religion and condemned the spirit of religious superiority that hurts people as being no different than the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus' time.
Then today, very quietly, Jesus wrote upon the ground of my heart. Suddenly I wasn't the woman, left with her head hanging - thinking I was about to die at the hands of the holier-than-thou religious. I was one of them - I was in the crowd - looking at her: the Church, the Bride of Christ, the one for whom, because of great love, Jesus died.
In my hand I have held stones. The church has sinned. She has been unfaithful and faithless, a disappointment, a cheater. She has hurt people and broken hearts and sinned against God. And I have stood in the crowd, ready to take my stand, taunting God, "Well - can you see this? What are You going to do about this?" I have been one of them.
I opened my hands toward the ground, symbolically dropping the stones I have wanted to hurl with great pain-infused force at churches and pastors and leaders in the Church who have let me down.
I am turning my hands upward with this prayer, "Replace the stones I have wanted to throw - with mercy for Your Church. She has failed. She has let me down, but show me how I can be an agent of Your mercy towards Her, as You have been towards me."
It is humbling to get a new perspective of yourself and see the enemy you have been flailing against is yourself. It is humbling….Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Repent for the stones that have already left my hands

Jeanie Rhoades (Pastor Joe's sister)

News from South Africa

Thought I would send you all a hello from South Africa! We are doing well and getting use to our little house. We hope that you are all doing well also! We are in the second day of our training here though we have been here a week. The official kick off was this past Sunday. Our days right now are spent in classes going over the basics of life here on base and getting to know the other people in the training. There are people here from all over South Africa as well as Europe and Australia also a lot of South Koreans and one girl from Hong Kong. The ages range from 17 to 44. With the main age being around 18 and 19. So we are one of the old ones. Wesley is really enjoying hanging out out with all the guys. The challenge of course is doing this with the kids as I need to keep them busy doing things while we are in class. They are able to be right next door playing and doing some "school" work while we are in the meetings. Lucy loves walking around the base and so she is already tired of the lecture hall. Pray that we are able to find things that keep her interest. One thing that has helped is that in the afternoons she has a little ride on toy that is brought out for her to ride and play on. Even Irina finds that interesting.
Pray that Irina would begin to like some of the food that is served. She really didn't eat enough last week to satisfy this mommy. She is doing better this week - eating more fruit. She really is hard to feed - she was in the states and here I have less control. The kids were a bit sick last week and Saturday - they just were not eating enough I think and then with jet lag and the new environment = Irina still looks too pale - but it might be because those that have been here for awhile have a nice healthy tan instead of this pale South Dakota winter skin. They are doing much better today. I can give a list to the kitchen guy what he should try to have occasionally and he will get it for me so they are very accommodating here. They are going to get us a ref so that we have a place to put snacks and can keep Lucy's milk cold without having to go to the kitchen which is locked in the evenings. They did get us a key to that as well. Though having a ref to get our water cold will be a real luxary! I never thought I would say that. Smile.
Really the people here are so great they are very welcoming and I know that we make things a bit of a challenge with three kids - this is the most they have ever had at one time.
Our first outreach will not be until March 19th - this will be to a rural village in northern South Africa. In an area with no running water and we will be camping. Pray that there is a Pastor that might have ref that we could put Lucy's milk. I am told I don't have to go the full time of two weeks - but I would really like to be able to be there for as long as possible. My plan right now is to plan to be there the full two weeks, but that I will give myself the ability to return after a week if the kids need it. The good thing is that we eat a lot of peanut butter on an outreach as it is very portable and is a good source of protein. They also eat something called - Pop = not the drink - but a porridge that reminds me of Malto Meal. Really just cream of wheat. It is a staple here in South Africa. We had it several times already - they have it for any meal thinner at breakfast and thicker for Lunch and dinner. You just top it with different things. It really is pretty good with some honey in it. I even put some peanut butter in it with the honey and Lucy really loved it.
A few non ministry goals I have - is to touch the Indian Ocean and to see some wild animals. They are not running wild everywhere. We will be near a big state park on our rural outreach so maybe at that time we can go on a Safari. I am told that for foreigners it is not too expensive. They charge more if you are from SA - which I thought was kind of strange. Liz will find out how much that might be. Anyway - the first thing Wesley said was that he wanted to see some animals.
I'll let you know when I see something interesting. A praying mantis did land on my arm and scare me half to death! Oh and dung beetles are huge and quite disgusting.
I hope this finds you all doing wonderful!
Much Love - time for bed for me!

Sharon