TILL HE COMES Blog

If Jesus came to be the savior of the world, why did he spend the first 30 years of his life doing nothing? There were people to heal! Scriptures to teach! Miracles to perform!

Imagine all the people who probably died, right there in the region of Galilee, during those 30 years, without ever hearing the Gospel! Without ever knowing that the Savior of the world was there, living just a few miles away! Why would Jesus “waste” 30 years of His life when so much ministry could have been done?

All of us who are called to preach, teach, and serve others feel the same way from time to time. “I can’t wait another five years! I have so much to teach! So many ideas! There are so many people all around me who need to hear the Gospel. I’ve got books to write, minds to change, people to serve! If I don’t do it now, I never will!”

For some people, that may be true. Maybe God does want you to get out there and get to work right away. But I think that for most of us, including Jesus (and Joseph, Moses, David, Paul, etc), there is something God does in our lives during the “back burner” years that cannot be accomplished any other way.

I love how William Barclay explains all this (Luke 1975:39f). The quote is long, but it’s worth reading (Let me tell you…it hit me HARD today).

This passage begins with the most suggestive statement. It tells us that when Jesus began his ministry he was not less than about thirty years of age. Why did he spend thirty years in Nazareth when he had come to be the savior of the world? It is commonly said that Joseph died fairly young and that Jesus had to take upon himself the support of Mary and of his younger brothers and sisters, and that not until they were old enough to take the business on their own shoulders, did he feel free to leave Nazareth and go into the wider world. Whether that be so or not, three things are true.

(1) It was essential that Jesus should carry out with the utmost fidelity the more limited tasks of family duty before he could take up the universal task of saving the world. It was by his conscientiousness in the performance of the narrow duties of home that Jesus fitted himself for the great task he had to do. …It was because Jesus faithfully performed the smallest duties that the greatest task in all the world was given him.

(2) It gave him the opportunity to live out his own teaching. Had he always been a homeless, wandering teacher with no human ties or obligations, men might have said to him, “What right have you to talk about human duties and human relationships, you, who never fulfilled them?” But Jesus was able to say, not, “Do as I say,” but, “Do as I have done.”

Tolstoi was a man who always talked about living the way of love; but his wife wrote poignantly of him, “There is so little genuine warmth about him; his kindness does not come from the heart, but merely from his principles. His biographies will tell of how he helped the laborers to carry buckets of water, but no one will ever know that he never gave his wife a rest and never—in all these thirty-two years—gave his child a drink of water or spent five minutes by his bedside to give me a chance to rest a little from all my labors.” No one could ever speak like that of Jesus. He lived at home what he preached abroad.

(3) If Jesus was to help men he had to know how men lived. And because he spent these thirty years in Nazareth, he knew the problems of making a living, the haunting insecurity of the life of the working man, the ill-natured customer, the man who would not pay his debts. It is the glory of the incarnation that we face no problem of life and living which Jesus did not also face.

This post is based on the Grace Commentary for Luke 3:23-38.

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Do you think that when angels are sent by God with a message, they understand the message they deliver?

The reason I ask is that for three weeks now, as I have tried to work on a post for this blog, I have been struggling to make sense of what an angel says in Luke 1:17. Though I wrote an explanation of Luke 1:17 in my commentary, I don’t fully understand it.

At first, the verse seems rather straight forward. But if you check the average commentary, and you will see that nobody really knows what to do with it, or what it means. Oh sure, everybody agrees that the general thrust of the verse is that John, when he comes, will help prepare Israel for the Messiah. That is clear from the last phrase of the verse, “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” But what does the rest of the verse mean?

First, the angel states that John will be a prophet like Elijah, one of the greatest Hebrew prophets. Then he quotes from Malachi 4:6, the last verse in the English Old Testament (but NOT the last verse in the Hebrew Scriptures, which is 2 Chronicles 36:23). But the angel doesn’t quote all of Malachi 4:6, but only part of it. Instead, he says something odd about wisdom and righteousness, and then moves on to the point everybody understands, that John will prepare the way for the Messiah.

1:17a
The more you dig, the more questions you uncover. In the first part of the verse, who goes before whom? Does John go before the Messiah, or does the Lord God go before John 9 (cf. 1:16)? Furthermore, why does the angel say that John will be a prophet like Elijah, but John never does any miracles like Elijah? At least, none that are recorded in Scripture. And why does John later deny that he is the Elijah that was to come (John 1:21), but then Jesus later says that John was this Elijah (Matt 11:14; 17:12)?

1:17b
And why does the angel quote from Malachi 4:6, but only part of the verse? Does he mean to recall the whole verse, or just the part he quotes? For example, Malachi 4:6 talks about a curse on the land. By leaving this out, was the angel implying that it was to come, or purposefully excluding it? Maybe he was saying that the curse depended on how the people responded.

1:17c
And how are we to understand the reference to children and fathers? Does this refer simply to families, such as something you might get from James Dobson at Focus on the Family, or it is figurative language for how John will call the children of Israel back into faithful obedience to God, in the same manner as their forefathers (cf. 1:16)? But this seems backwards, for the angel says that John will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. Furthermore, if this verse really is about how John is going to bring families back together, and reinforce family values, how does this fit with passages like Micah 7:5-6, Luke 12:51-53, 14:25-27, and 18:29 which reveal that Jesus, in some sense, came to tear apart families? Is John supposed to bring families together just to prepare them for Jesus who will tear them apart?

Maybe it not about families exactly, but the “family of Israel.” The children would be those Israelites alive at the time of John, while the fathers would be the forefathers. But if the angel is talking about the children of Israel and their forefathers, how can people who are dead turn their hearts back to their descendants? It doesn’t make sense.

1:17c
Does the statement in 1:17 about wisdom and righteousness shed any light on how the angel is using Malachi 4:6? If so, is it by parallellism or contrast? In other words, does fathers=disobedient and children=the just, or is it vice versa? Maybe the angel is explaining the second (unquoted) line of Malachi 4:6, in which case the children=disobedient, and the fathers=the just. Or maybe this comparison is completely off track, and it has nothing to do with families or ancestors, but simply about wise and foolish people. Or maybe God is the wise father, and the Israelites are the disobedient children, and they need to return to God? But if so, then again, how does this fit with the quote from Malachi 4:6? In what way is the heart of God turning back to His children?

And the questions go on and on. I have found commentators and pastors who have stated all of the above ideas in one way or another, and have attempted answers in their own fashion. But what really is the angel saying?

One possible solution, which I don’t remember reading anywhere, is that the angel is referring specifically to Zacharias. He is a man who is about to be a father. For years he has been praying for a child, and now he is about to receive one. Maybe this is specific instructions to Zacharias to raise his son in a way that will enable John to be the prophet who will prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah. Of course, both “fathers” and “children” are plural, so this is probably not the best option.

The Angelic Explanation
Ironically, as I write this, I can’t help wishing that the angel who said this would show up and, shaking his head at me, say, “Here is what I meant…” Or maybe he would just say, “Sheesh! Don’t read so much into it! Forget all your questions, and just read the dang story!”

Yeah, that’s probably good advice, but I just can’t let it go. So rather than depend on an angel to explain to me what he meant, I have to depend on something better – You! (cf. Ps 8:5; 1 Cor 6:3; 1 Pet 1:12). In fact, since angels are messengers, speaking the words God has given them to say, maybe this angel didn’t fully understand what he was saying either, and is waiting for someone like you to explain it to him! So mosey on over to the online commentary, register (it’s free), and post your own insights on 1:17.

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I have a job update for you. No, this is not another post about the book of Job, but instead about a place of employment. I know a lot of you have been following my job pilgrimage, so I wanted to let you know…

I got a job working for Obama!

Not really…it’s actually a job with the Federal Government…so it’s kind of for Obama (or Bush until Jan 20). I’m pretty excited about the job in a lot of ways, and interestingly enough, all that I’ve gone through during the past 3 years (and especially the last year) has actually prepared me pretty well for the requirements of this job. In some ways, it is only because of what I’ve gone through that I was able to get this job.

I can’t tell you what the job is, because if I did, I’d have to kill you. Ha ha! No, it’s nothing so serious as that, but it is somewhat sensitive, and so I can’t post it on a public blog. I can tell you that the job is in New York state, and I start on Monday! If any of you live in the New York area, please let me know, because I have never been there, and I have no idea what to expect. Also, I need some tips on how to survive the New York economy. (From what I can tell, things are EXPENSIVE up there).

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A few years ago, Wendy started a family tradition called “Daughter’s Day.” She figured, “We have mother’s day and father’s day, so why not daughter’s day?” So she began one.

So, happy Daughter’s day Taylor, Selah, and Kahlea! I love you!

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What is the gospel? The gospel is good news.

Do you want to know what good news is? Well here’s some:

I just got word five hours ago that I passed my Thesis! (I got a B).

Which means…I passed all my classes! 

In othe words, I just finished 20th grade! (Slow at math? 6 for grade school + 2 for Jr.High + 4 for high school + 4 for Bachelors + 4 for Masters = 20 years of school; i.e., 20th grade. … 21 if you count Kindergarten … 22 if you count pre-K. Yikes. No wonder I’m not up for a Doctorate.)

Anyway, the point is…I’m DONE!!!!!!

I’m so done, I won’t even be walking in the graduation ceremony on May 10. Instead, I’m going to spend that day with my family (they’ve barely seen me for three years!) at the Scarborough Renaissance Festival eating food, laughing, watching Dr. Kaboom, and talking more with Lance.

P.S. I’ll have more to say about my seminary experience after I officially graduate. Stay tuned.

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My wife and I finished watching all twelve hours of the Lonesome Dove series last night (just in time for the the Prequel Comanche Moon to premier on CBS next week!) and as we sat there, watching the credits roll, my wife looked at me and asked, “How much is vision worth?” I knew exactly what she was asking because I was thinking the same thing.

In the Lonesome Dove movies, there is a big emphasis on the vision of Capt. Woodrow Call, and how he turns his vision into reality. In Part 1, he starts a cattle ranch in Montana. In Part 2, he brings a herd of wild mustangs to Montana. But in the process, he loses almost all of his friends. At the end, when he finally tells Newt that he is his father, Newt basically says “Too late, Dad. I’m leaving.” As my wife and I sat there, I thought about my vision for church planting, and wondered, “What is it worth?”

I have read and heard some visionaries talk about how you can know what you are meant to do by asking yourself the question, “If money were no object, and failure was impossible, what would you do?” The problem with this is, how do you define failure? In my opinion, Capt. Call successfully accomplished his vision, but failed miserably. He said at the beginning of part 2, while commiserating about the death of his best friend Capt. McCrae, that “A man ought to leave something more behind than a sorry piece of dirt and a sign.” Well, Capt. Call left a lot more behind, and as it turned out, a lot less.

Here is where I am at right now: No vision is worth losing my family. I would rather be digging holes in the desert and have my family intact than plant a thousand churches and lose my wife and girls. Some would say I have made an idol of my wife and girls, and if I really want God to use me, I have to put them up there on the altar just like Abram did with Isaac. I have seen many pastors do this very thing, and almost without fail, they end up divorced and with a bunch of kids who hate them, hate church, and hate Christ. I do not call this success, and based on what I read in the New Testament, I don’t think God does either.

I feel that my wife and kids are my first church. If I cannot “plant” and “pastor” them, I have no business trying to plant or pastor churches elsewhere. So I don’t know if I will ever be going into formal “church planting” but one thing I do know…this year, I am going to continue planting a church in my own home. And that is a Christ-honoring, God-glorifying vision!  If I can leave behind a godly heritage in my family, I am a success. And if God allows me to leave behind more than that, all the more glory for Him!

The trick, of course, is how to bring this vision to reality in my family. Any of you husband and father experts have practical suggestions on pastoring your own family?

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Below is a support letter I sent out to people on our mailing list.  

Dear Friends and Family,

We are writing to let you know of our latest joy—we are expecting our fourth little girl! No, Wendy is not pregnant. We are adopting from Guatemala. Due to the current process of adopting from Guatemala, we are hoping to bring Arianna home in mid to late 2008. Since we will get her when she is between six to nine months old, she will probably be born this spring, which means her biological mother has only recently discovered that she is pregnant.

You may be wondering why we are adopting from Guatemala at this time with all the upheaval going on in their government and since we already have three girls. The simple answer is that we are following God’s leading in our lives. Wendy and I have always wanted to adopt, and about three years ago, we started looking around for options. Through a series of circumstances (“tiny miracles”), it became clear that we should adopt from Guatemala. Factors such as the duration of the required trips, our annual income, the desperate needs of the children there, and our love for Guatemalan culture were factors in our decision.

The children of Guatemala are living in desperate despair and a nightmare of devastating poverty. Many are simply surviving off of other people’s trash, while some turn to crime. Girls especially are vulnerable to the sex trade and abusive situations. As in many countries in the world, girls are considered by family members to be less worthy of life and respect than are boys.

To make matters worse, Guatemala’s economic and health care system leaves mothers with no option but to give up their babies. Many children are abandoned in the garbage dumps or jungles while others are simply left on the streets to die.

God has put it on our hearts to make a difference in the life of one of these Guatemalan children, and we are thrilled about this call. Our conviction is that adoption is one way we can live out our call as Christians to “look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). Jesus said that he who “receives a little child in my name receives me” (Matthew 18:5). This doesn’t mean all are called to adopt a child into their homes. There are so many ways to respond to these callings of God. But at this time, we feel God is calling us to respond in this tangible way. We all know that children are a gift from God (Psalm 127:3), and we cannot wait to receive our fourth gift from the Lord.

We began the process about four months ago by looking for an adoption agency. All God’s Children International stood out above the rest because they have an orphanage in Guatemala that is not your typical orphanage. They care for each child as it were their own (see www.hannahshopeguatemala.org)

Once we had an agency, we began the paperwork and have now completed our dossier and home study. As hard as this process has been, we still feel the hardest thing has been to realize that we can only bring home one child…for now. But great joy was found in the fact that $5000 of the cost goes to help all the children in the orphanage.

Because of the long paperwork process, and the way things can quickly go haywire, we ask you to pray with us and for us during these next few months. With your prayers, we can all be involved in bringing Arianna home. This is one way you can make a difference in a child’s life that might otherwise have been left in the jungle to die.

To help you pray for us, we have enclosed a prayer card to put on your fridge, in your Bible, or tape to your bathroom mirror so that you can remember us and join with us in this journey God has blessed us with. Once you’ve finished this letter and found the prayer card, we ask that you read and pray through the prayer card right away. We believe your prayers will be heard and honored by a loving God who is the strong defender of the fatherless and will take up their case (Proverbs 23:11).

As you have probably guessed, the process is not free. It will cost us somewhere in the vicinity of $35,000 to adopt from Guatemala. Yes, we cringed too. But then God allowed us to see it from His perspective. First, He owns everything, and makes what He owns available to us for our use when we do what He asks. Second, how can we put a price on the life of a child? Third, it is when we are weakest that God steps in to show His strength so that He might be glorified (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).

When we began the process, we did not know where the money would come from, for we definitely didn’t have it! What we were doing seemed foolish, especially on a Seminary budget. But in that first month after we stepped out in faith, God gave us peace about using all of the money we were saving to help pay for a move after Jeremy’s graduation. Then Jeremy got an unexpected bonus at work and we were also able to obtain an interest free loan. All of this added up to the $16,000 we needed to keep the adoption process going. Where God guides, He provides. He is so good! We now need $7,000 in the next two weeks to continue in the process.

God has also allowed us to be accepted into a tax-deductible program called Kingdom Kids Adoption Ministries which will allow our friends and family to join with us in this grand adventure of saving a life. See the instructions at the end of this letter to learn how you can help.

We ask you to prayerfully consider being part of bringing our sweet Arianna home. If God leads you to give in this direction, you can make a tax-deductible donation to Kingdom Kids Adoption Ministries. This money will be used toward Adoption expenses, and you will receive a tax receipt for your gift. The Kingdom Kids staff is available to you Mon-Fri, 9:30-4:00 (Pacific) at (509) 465-3520 to answer questions if you have them. You may also e-mail them at ministry@kingdomkidsadoption.org. Their website is www.kingdomkidsadoption.org

If you do feel led to help in this way, we wish to deeply thank you, and let you know that your reward is in heaven and your memory is in our hearts. Whether you can help financially, prayerfully, or both, we ask that you do so expectantly and expediently.

Please call or e-mail us with any questions you may have regarding our situation. We’d love to share more with you about this adventure we find ourselves in.

Perhaps upon reading this, you want to learn more about adopting a child yourself. Praise God! Let us know, because we have some DVD’s from our adoption Agency, All God’s Children International, we would love to send to you. This DVD shows the dire plight of children worldwide and introduces some of the various ways we can help these orphans. This video will challenge and change you forever.

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or imagine…” (Ephesians 3:20).

Eagerly Awaiting Arianna,

Jeremy and Wendy Myers
(972) 659-9302
jmyers@tillhecomes.org

TO GIVE:
If you decide to assist us in our fundraising and wish to make a credit card donation, call Kingdom Kids at 877-465-3520. Let them know that this is for the fundraising efforts of Jeremy and Wendy Myers.

To make a donation by check, please DO NOT include our names anywhere on the check. IRS regulations do not allow for a tax-deductible donation to have any name other than the tax-exempt organization written on the check. PLEASE ENCLOSE a note with your check indicating your desire that your donation be used toward the adoption expenses of Jeremy and Wendy Myers.

Send checks with notes to:

Kingdom Kids Adoption Ministry
1417 North Lincoln Street
Spokane, WA 99201

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I want to thank all of you who helped out with the adoption process in Guatemala and made calls to your State Senators and Representative.

As of Monday, 70 members of the House of Representatives, and 28 members of the Senate had signed the Guatemala 5000 Initiative, asking Guatemala to allow in process adoptions to continue. This is wonderful! Thank you and Praise the Lord!

Also, in response to all the calls and e-mails sent to govenment officials in Guatemala, President Berger announced his intention to allow all adoptions that are “in process” by December 31 to continue through to completion. While we are currently not sure what “in process” means, at least all the 4000+ Guatemalan children who have already been referred will be able to be adopted rather than be abandoned.

At this point, Wendy and I are going to continue forward with adopting from Guatemala, but will probably not have a referral by December 31 (unless there is a miracle, which we are praying for!). So we will probably have to adopt under the new procedures which will be enforced sometime in early 2008. We don’t yet know what these will be.

The exciting news is that Hannah’s Hope Guatemala, which is the orphanage of All God’s Children International (our Adoption Agency), is currently going through the process of becoming accredited by the social service division of Guatemala. This is a new regulation for all homes that wish to be involved in the adoption process once the new law is final. The staff in Guatemala is doing everything necessary to be compliant with Hague and the new adoption law. If and when we begin to see changes with the adoption laws, they will be ready.

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How do you define “busy”?

Here’s mine: You know you are busy when you catch yourself making a list for all the things you need to make lists for:

Make a list of things I need to do for the adoption process.
Make a list of things I need to do for my Thesis.
Make a list of homework projects that are coming due soon.
Make a list of high priority projects at work.
Make a list of things I need to do around the house and to the car to keep everything working.
Make a list of edits and changes that need to be done to the website.
Make a list of things to do to keep from going crazy.

How about you? How do you know when you’ve taken on too much? Weigh in on the comments below…

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Some days I think I’m going crazy. It’s 12:11am and I’m just now beginning my homework. It’s been this way all week. With a wife and three kids, working toward adopting a fourth child, full time school, full time work, speaking engagements, and writing, I just don’t have enough time. I need to be Hiro from Heroes.

Please pray for me, that we make it through this year!

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