I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.” So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.
Ezra 8:22-23

Have you promised something would happen and then felt that you had possibly just brought a disaster on yourself? Or, to put it spiritually, have you ever set yourself up for a miracle?

The summer of 2006 I led a Spanish missions team to Nepal. One of our activities was to organize and play in a soccer tournament for a series of small villages around Kathmandu. Despite being monsoon season, we hadn’t had any major rainfalls during the tournament. However, on the day of the final game, huge clouds gathered above us, turning darker every second, threatening a massive outpouring of water. Because major rain made playing on a dirt field absolutely impossible, our local partner, who was not a Christian, called me and the team leaders over for a meeting: “Look, we know it will rain in less than 1 hour, so we cannot play the final game. We’re going to have to cancel.” Although it was sad to cancel because the tournament had gained momentum (literally the whole village) had come to watch with great expectation, and our other commitments wouldn’t allow us to play it another day, I trusted his knowledge of the weather and decided to agree with him. However, when I spoke up to say “Ok,” out of my mouth came these words: “Don’t worry, Jesus won’t allow it to rain until the tournament is over.” Aghast, I practically covered my mouth with my hands. What had I just said!? This was not a little summer rain, this is a monsoon that is clearly about to explode! He looked at me straight in the eye and, convinced, quickly replied: “Ok. I believe you, let’s play. Your Jesus will keep the rain away.”

We exited the clubhouse and he announced to the crowd (that is, to the whole village): “Kenny’s Jesus would keep the rain away for the rest of the tournament.” As the crowd cheered, my teammates looked at me as saying: “When it starts raining, what?” I took them aside and said “Guys, I have no idea why I said what I did, but we better get praying.”

To make a long story short, although the clouds never left, it didn’t rain for the remainder of the game. What’s more, after the trophy ceremony (we didn’t win), we were asked to give a speech in which we shared our reason for being there, Jesus. Literally the moment we finished the ceremony with a prayer,  sheets and sheets of water suddenly started pounding down. In less than 20 minutes there was at least a foot of water covering the field.

Needless to say, the villagers (and us) was impressed and interested in this Jesus who could stop rain. The next Sunday at least 30 new people, mostly youth, showed up in the small home that a local missionary was using for church services. He reports that most of them have continued going until now.

I believe that this was a miracle from God.

Like Ezra we often find ourselves in situations where we feel we need to proclaim that a miracle will happen. It’s not that we must find random things to proclaim and put God to the test, but sometimes the Holy Spirit does urge us to set ourselves up in situations where we depend absolutely on God. In his mercy he allows us to be his mouthpieces at times, to proclaim what he will do and see it happen! Other times his grace also withholds the miracle we had foolishly proclaimed without first hearing from him. We should respond to both situations with thankfulness, and yearn to grow in our ability to hear God clearly and immediately obey in the same way Ezra does throughout the book with his name. Not only will we grow in joy for being closer to our Father, we will also be a light to the nations, a testimony of who God is and what he does for those who seek him.

A few days ago I went to chapel (a daily worship service that is held on campus) in which one of the professors here spoke from the Bible. During the sermon I looked around the room and saw a large number of professors sitting in the crowd, carefully listening to and receiving the word from their colleague. It surprised me, because so often I have been around people who will only receive instruction or pay attention to people that are above them in knowledge, position, titles before their name, etc. Rarely would you see people like that taking time out of their busy schedule to listen to someone who is at their “level,” or lower.

But leadership, or a great part of it, includes learning from everyone you can and supporting people as often as you can in what they do. Humility is essential for the task.

One of my great mentors was Toñi, the worship leader at Amistad Cristiana for many years. The first time she asked me to lead worship I expected that it was because she would be gone and needed someone to fill in and figured that I couldn’t mess it up too much. But I was blown away when she appeared to play and sing as part of the band. She let me lead, but made a point to come and support me, submitting to my leadership. It boosted my confidence not only in myself but also in her as a leader. I learned that I was trusted and that made me trust her more and want to learn more from her.

I want to be that kind of a leader, who is secure enough to be humble and to support those around me whether they know more or less than I do. That, I believe, is what makes good leaders.

Recently I started reading a bit of the New Testament in the original Greek during my personal devotional. I read Romans 6:11 and used a Gramatical Analysis (a book that analyzes what grammatical particularities each word has) to help me with the parts I wasn’t sure about. I was surprised that despite my very low level of Greek, and with the help of dictionaries and grammars, I was already seeing some of the subtleties in the original that are lost in translation. Here’s what I discovered:

The ESV version of Romans 6:11 reads: “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Although this is a very correct translation, there are a few things that appear in the Greek that make Paul’s point even more interesting and down to earth.

1) μὲν…δὲ – this combination of words basically means “on the one hand” and “on the other”. In this case it is before “dead” and before “alive”.

2) νεκροὺς vs. ζῶντας – the first word [nekrous] means dead and it is a noun in the accusative case (direct object). This attributes it a static, and in this case a past meaning. You are dead already, no need to revisit that. The second word [zōntas] is a present participle (a verbal form). It is well translated as “alive” but includes the subtlety of an action, of something still going on (living). In other words, the dead part is done, already dealt with, but now we are living continuously to God, not just “made alive” to him or something of the sort.

If we add the meaning that the connectors “to” and “in” have, we could conclude that the original readers probably understood it something like this:

“So you also must consider yourselves, on the one hand, already dead to sin (you no longer exist in relation to it), but on the other hand, you are now living to God (for him, with him, by him) in (through) Christ Jesus.”

Our salvation from sin isn’t a static thing. It affects us every day as we live out this salvation. It is only possible to live, once rescued from sin, in or through Christ. It isn’t because of good works, but because the ultimate good work has already been done which frees us from a life under sin and self-enslavement. Instead, we are to live to God and only through the strength and life of Christ, who beat death on the cross.

I think the original readers had the privilege of enjoying the vitality and sense of the immediate of the text when they heard it for the first time. We also can see it as such, but perhaps it takes a bit more time and effort. This is why it is useful to study the original Greek and learn how to explain its subtleties to readers hungry for the Word of God.

New Orleans

As you already know, the first week of January we travelled to New Orleans with a mission trip organized by the university. It’s been three weeks already since we’ve been back, but we’re still impacted by the people there. We received a very warm welcome (the weather too) and we’ll keep Louisiana in our hearts forever. More pictures here.

New Term
Last semester seems like a distant dream, a good one. I managed to get good grades in all my courses, I hope to keep up with the new ones. Besides Greek and Hebrew, I’m deeply enjoying the Origins of Church History. The preaching classes are also a challenge.

New Life
God keeps moving in New Life Portage Park. Last week, two more people got saved, glory be to God. Our six months commitment in serving the Spanish-speaking congregation is now coming to an end, and we are contemplating what God has for us in the upcoming months. We’ll keep you informed.

New Jobs
Most of you already know that Marta was hired as a freelance to work on some videos for the university website alonside the Marketing Department. It was truly a gift of God and it could be a launchpad into other opportunities. God also surprised me recently when the US Ashoka Director (the company I used to work for in Spain) called me and asked if I could help with a new project they are working on. The idea is to map out and create a network of Catholic schools that are innovating in the area of practical empathy. It was such a bizarre idea that I decided to give it a try.

New Landscape

To my great delight, the campus has been covered by snow since the year begun, and we were able to enjoy the cold (yes, enjoy the cold), and even to make our first snowman (which is no longer with us). More pictures here.

Please, don’t stop praying for us, we need your prayers. You can pray for:

• Marta’s heath: she enjoyed the cold too much
• adjustment to new classes and strength to study hard
• wisdom in our quest for a new church
• that God may lead my new Catholic adventure

We love you and miss you.

Finally during the holidays I found some time to record my voice for the KAB tracks that are being put together in Spain. Steve Misora and New Life Community Church at Midway graciously allowed me to use the studio there. Over the next months we’re hoping to raise the final funds to mix and master the project and get it released. For more info or to purchase the CD (when it comes out): https://www.facebook.com/pages/KAB/209481062404558

Love is a many splendored thing,
love lifts us up where we belong,
all you need is love!

Moulin Rouge

Reading the Bible story, I often wonder why God wants to forgive us. What’s more, why would he spend so much time and effort to reach out to us to bring us into a right relationship with him, to the point of sending his son, knowing he would be killed. Why the effort? Why doesn’t he just wipe us out and create a new, more grateful, race?

One of the similes the Bible uses to explain God’s relationship with us is marriage. A few weeks ago my own marriage helped me understand this aspect of God a bit more.

I was angry at my wife. I don’t remember now exactly what happened, but it had hurt and made me distance myself from her. Perhaps an hour or so into my episode, as I was alone, I missed her. I wanted to be with her and return to the loving, fun relationship we were in before this conflict. I found myself thinking about how I could quickly solve it – without losing face, of course :) – so that it could be like before. In short: I wanted to fix it because I loved her and I wanted to be with her.

God probably doesn’t get angry in the same way I do, but the Bible does say that sin offends him and provokes his wrath. It also says that he loves us. The idea is that because he loves us, he wants to be with us. He wants to return to the lovely relationship he had with his creation in Eden. To achieve that, he pursues us with his love, seeking creative ways to get us to turn and go back to him, so he might forgive us. So deep is his love that he forgets about losing face and sends his son who, “though being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!” (Philipians 2:6-8)

The reason he doesn’t erase his creation and start over again is because he loves us. This love longs to lift us up where we belong: in his arms.

Raymond A. Foss

It’s been three days since we returned from New Orleans and we’re just about rested up. It was an intense trip. Instead of coming as innovative missionaries, during this trip we were able to work alongside local people who live in the midst of suffering and are still working hard to make life better for those around them. We met people who had recently lost a two-year old cousin from a stray bullet, or who had yet to move into their house 7 years after the storm. And these are the people who have put their trust in Jesus and, through him, continue to smile and work to bring hope to their neighbors, to their community. The privilege of giving time and effort to them and their work was well worth the while.

A verse that always confused me was Matthew 5:17:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

So, did Jesus come to free us from the law, as Paul claims (Romans 5:14), or did he come to teach us how to obey the law? This seems to be a major question underlying a lot of questions as to what is acceptable or not for Christians. Should we be able to sport tattoos when the Old Testament law forbids marking your body? What about divorce, is it acceptable or not? Shouldn’t the ten commandments be the basis of our moral systems? What about the other laws in the Old Testament, aren’t they still valid?

This post will not answer these difficult questions. Instead, I want to suggest that Jesus is talking about something quite different than what we often take this to mean. He doesn’t say he is going to obey each law, or keep them. He says he is going to “fulfill” them. The word in Greek comes from πληρόω, which is normally associated to completing, finishing, adding up to the final number, etc. Jesus is saying that he himself is, in fact, the fulfillment of everything that the law had announced.

Jesus came not to build morality, nor to teach us how to function properly or to create an ethical system that brings humanity together. Sure, some of his sayings can be useful to these aims, but they weren’t his final purpose. He came as a fulfillment of prophecies that announced a king, a priest and a sacrifice. The law was given to prepare Israel for this: the moral law to show that we are not intrinsically good, the sacrificial system to understand the need for redemption, and the temple-related ceremonies that explained the need of a mediator in order to be in God’s presence. But the law did not give life in itself (Gal 3:19-22). By sending Jesus to rule, mediate and receive the punishment for our sins, God absolutely fulfilled all he had announced, and he changed the rules of the game so that everyone could be saved through his living son (Rom 10:9-10).

The fulfillment of the law came with his death. With his resurrection, a new covenant of grace was given, making the old one, and the law that went with it, obsolete (Heb 8:13). No wonder Paul can say in Galatians 4:4-5:

But when the set time had fully come (from πληρόω), God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

Jesus did what he promised, he fulfilled the law. Therefore nothing passed away, every “small letter” and “stroke of the pen” remains in him, now fulfilled, now completed. He is the covenant, the temple where God inhabits in all fullness, the priest that intermediates so we can have peace and relationship with God.