Yesterday I received word that Mickey Sampson, a friend and our main contact in Cambodia, died unexpectedly of a heart attack. He was one of my heroes of the faith, a brilliant scientist who used his abilities to bring holistic change to the poverty of Cambodia and who was then able to share the hope of Christ to the hungry hearts of those he served. The scope of his influence for the Kingdom is hard to overestimate.
In 2006, his organization produced over 25,000 ceramic water filters for use in Cambodia, saving the lives of thousands of Cambodians. (1 in 5 Cambodian children die before the age of 5 due to water impurity issues.) He also oversaw programs to improve health and hygene, education, agriculture, and farming. He began using Karaoke videos to educate the culture about various safety and life matters. He even developed an educational television program that became the top-rated children's show in Cambodia. Just over a week ago he was one of the key note speakers at a conference in Atlanta for the Center of Disease control on his work in Cambodia. And just last week he was working on the finishing touches for a portable, ceramic water filter factory with the intentions of sending it to Sudan to help the refugees of Darfur.
Please pray for his wife and their five children. Please also pray for God to use this to bring salvation to the hundreds of thousands of Cambodians who have been impacted by Mickey's work.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
25 things
I know this is a Facebook thing, but if I write it, it should count toward the blog.
25. I tend to be either a part of the "late majority" or a "laggard" when responding to current trends, fads, or fashions. This explains why everyone else has done this but me.
24. While I hold a fairly wide interest in a number of topics, I almost always have one particular thing that I'm really intrigued by at the moment. Some examples include: Baseball, The Dukes of Hazzard, Muscle cars, football, etc.
23. One of my positive addictions is weightlifting. Since I began lifting in seventh grade, the longest break I have taken is three months one summer.
22. I am most energized when I have a good balance of time with close friends and time alone.
21. I am extremely grateful and proud of my family, especially my Mom and Dad.
20. I used to get into quite a few fights when I was child. The only one I ever lost was with one of my best friends. Isn't that right, Andy?
19. I've been pulled over driving (for a variety of things) 9 times. At the moment, I've received only 2 tickets.
18. After being pulled over for the 8th time, you no longer get that nervous feeling in the pit of your stomach.
17. I was taken to the police station (in the backseat of a squad car) for "disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct." I had blown a musical horn I had installed in my truck.
16. I love deer and duck hunting with family and friends. One year I shot a 7 point buck on Saturday right-handed, and an 8 point on Sunday left-handed.
15. Despite going duck hunting more often, I killed more deer this year than ducks. Oh yeah, I killed one deer.
14. I love traveling with my wife, Rebekah. We've been to Israel and Cambodia together, and we hope to see more in the years ahead.
13. I can trace my ancestry back to Scotland on both my father's and my mother's side. If you're ever in Newtonmore, Scotland, be sure to check out the MacPherson clan museum.
12. I married the most beautiful, most brilliant, most fun girl in the world.
11. However, we are both first-borns in our family. Guess what that means.
10. While I can't seem to remember certain things I'm asked to do around the house, I can remember tons of useless junk. Ex. my high school football locker combination:10-12-17, my phone numbers from college: (870)245-4019 fresh, (870)245-4866so & jr, (870)230-8532 sr year.
9. I love my job and the men and women with whom I work.
8. I have been privileged to be mentored by several awesome men. Special recognition to Dick Bagwell, and the late Roy Buckelew.
7. Of all the different parts of the Bible, Paul and his letters are the parts that I have studied the most in-depth.
6. One day I would like to write a book about my friends, Nathan, Andy, Charlie, Matt, and Craig and the trouble we got into. I'm waiting until the statute of limitations runs out.
5. I am becoming a coffee snob. I got a coffee grinder for Christmas 2007, and I no longer drink instant coffee unless it is an emergency.
4. I split my brother's tongue down the middle on a family vacationone time, but they sowed it back up. It was the most quiet trip we ever took.
3. A few years later, my brother punched me and chipped my tooth.
2. As my brother and I have gotten older, we have become very good friends. We frequently talk over issues and challenges in our lives.
1. I love to read. If you have made it all the way down here, apparently so do you.
25. I tend to be either a part of the "late majority" or a "laggard" when responding to current trends, fads, or fashions. This explains why everyone else has done this but me.
24. While I hold a fairly wide interest in a number of topics, I almost always have one particular thing that I'm really intrigued by at the moment. Some examples include: Baseball, The Dukes of Hazzard, Muscle cars, football, etc.
23. One of my positive addictions is weightlifting. Since I began lifting in seventh grade, the longest break I have taken is three months one summer.
22. I am most energized when I have a good balance of time with close friends and time alone.
21. I am extremely grateful and proud of my family, especially my Mom and Dad.
20. I used to get into quite a few fights when I was child. The only one I ever lost was with one of my best friends. Isn't that right, Andy?
19. I've been pulled over driving (for a variety of things) 9 times. At the moment, I've received only 2 tickets.
18. After being pulled over for the 8th time, you no longer get that nervous feeling in the pit of your stomach.
17. I was taken to the police station (in the backseat of a squad car) for "disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct." I had blown a musical horn I had installed in my truck.
16. I love deer and duck hunting with family and friends. One year I shot a 7 point buck on Saturday right-handed, and an 8 point on Sunday left-handed.
15. Despite going duck hunting more often, I killed more deer this year than ducks. Oh yeah, I killed one deer.
14. I love traveling with my wife, Rebekah. We've been to Israel and Cambodia together, and we hope to see more in the years ahead.
13. I can trace my ancestry back to Scotland on both my father's and my mother's side. If you're ever in Newtonmore, Scotland, be sure to check out the MacPherson clan museum.
12. I married the most beautiful, most brilliant, most fun girl in the world.
11. However, we are both first-borns in our family. Guess what that means.
10. While I can't seem to remember certain things I'm asked to do around the house, I can remember tons of useless junk. Ex. my high school football locker combination:10-12-17, my phone numbers from college: (870)245-4019 fresh, (870)245-4866so & jr, (870)230-8532 sr year.
9. I love my job and the men and women with whom I work.
8. I have been privileged to be mentored by several awesome men. Special recognition to Dick Bagwell, and the late Roy Buckelew.
7. Of all the different parts of the Bible, Paul and his letters are the parts that I have studied the most in-depth.
6. One day I would like to write a book about my friends, Nathan, Andy, Charlie, Matt, and Craig and the trouble we got into. I'm waiting until the statute of limitations runs out.
5. I am becoming a coffee snob. I got a coffee grinder for Christmas 2007, and I no longer drink instant coffee unless it is an emergency.
4. I split my brother's tongue down the middle on a family vacationone time, but they sowed it back up. It was the most quiet trip we ever took.
3. A few years later, my brother punched me and chipped my tooth.
2. As my brother and I have gotten older, we have become very good friends. We frequently talk over issues and challenges in our lives.
1. I love to read. If you have made it all the way down here, apparently so do you.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Reviewing The Shack
Plot Summary: Mack's youngest daughter is abducted and killed. Though her body is not found, evidence of her death is found in an abandoned shack in the forest. Some time later, he receives a note from God to meet Him at the shack. What transpires is one man's struggle with life's heartaches and God's role in this. It is one of the most popular examples of narrative apologetics in recent days. (Spoiler warning!)
General Analysis: I found The Shack to be a captivating read, particularly once I had gotten through the first few chapters. It nobly attempts to address and often answer some of the most difficult questions of depravity, liberty and God's power over all. What I found particularly refreshing is that the author did not shy away from the tough questions, nor did he simply regurgitate overly-simplistic pat answers. This boldness has caused a number of readers to recoil with alarm, but I believe such courageous attempts should be thoughtfully considered and critiqued. Hence, this review.
Objections: I try to be generous to those who thoughtfully wrestle with understanding the faith, but I found two issues that ought to be called out. First, one of the more controversial features of the story is that God is personified as an African-American woman. This is explained as God's choice to reveal Himself in this way to Mack, to shatter his preconcieved ideas about God, formed by tradition and not by Scripture (in particular, that God is an old white guy). The author rightly notes that God is not simply male nor female, but that both together bear the image of God (Gen. 1:27). While this alone might could pass, it does cross the line of orthodoxy in the next frame. The book shows the full Trinity interacting with each other, talking together and so on. Here's the issue: the relationship between God and Jesus is revealed in the Bible exclusively as that of God the Father and God the Son. Jesus always refers to God as Father, and portraying their relationship to one another in any other way ventures into bad theological waters. It changes the way that we view the relationship between the first and second person of the Trinity, a relationship that the Gospels spend a decent amount of time discussing.
Second, the claim is made that their is no "boss" or authority among the Trinity. While it is true that no member of the Trinity is of less worth or power than the others, there is an authority structure or role for each member of the Trinity. "Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God" 1 Cor. 11:3. (See also John 16:12-15) God has established authority and order in His Creation, not as a demeaning thing, but as an opportunity for submission and love. The Shack shows a misunderstanding of the idea of authority, possibly even contempt toward it, missing the Bible's approach by a fair margin.
Commendations: Despite the issues above, I found quite a bit of the answers given in this book to be well-developed and acceptable. While the negative issues have received much of the attention, the good deserves more recognition. Solid, biblical truth is affirmed repeatedly, and often it is the extra-biblical traditions that are rightly attacked and corrected.
Most importantly, however, is the central idea of the story: God is love, and He desires to have a real, loving, and personal relationship with every person on the planet. He is not a distant redeemer, but One who is willing and available to be known by His people. This truth redeems all the short-comings of The Shack.
At least, that's my opinion.
General Analysis: I found The Shack to be a captivating read, particularly once I had gotten through the first few chapters. It nobly attempts to address and often answer some of the most difficult questions of depravity, liberty and God's power over all. What I found particularly refreshing is that the author did not shy away from the tough questions, nor did he simply regurgitate overly-simplistic pat answers. This boldness has caused a number of readers to recoil with alarm, but I believe such courageous attempts should be thoughtfully considered and critiqued. Hence, this review.
Objections: I try to be generous to those who thoughtfully wrestle with understanding the faith, but I found two issues that ought to be called out. First, one of the more controversial features of the story is that God is personified as an African-American woman. This is explained as God's choice to reveal Himself in this way to Mack, to shatter his preconcieved ideas about God, formed by tradition and not by Scripture (in particular, that God is an old white guy). The author rightly notes that God is not simply male nor female, but that both together bear the image of God (Gen. 1:27). While this alone might could pass, it does cross the line of orthodoxy in the next frame. The book shows the full Trinity interacting with each other, talking together and so on. Here's the issue: the relationship between God and Jesus is revealed in the Bible exclusively as that of God the Father and God the Son. Jesus always refers to God as Father, and portraying their relationship to one another in any other way ventures into bad theological waters. It changes the way that we view the relationship between the first and second person of the Trinity, a relationship that the Gospels spend a decent amount of time discussing.
Second, the claim is made that their is no "boss" or authority among the Trinity. While it is true that no member of the Trinity is of less worth or power than the others, there is an authority structure or role for each member of the Trinity. "Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God" 1 Cor. 11:3. (See also John 16:12-15) God has established authority and order in His Creation, not as a demeaning thing, but as an opportunity for submission and love. The Shack shows a misunderstanding of the idea of authority, possibly even contempt toward it, missing the Bible's approach by a fair margin.
Commendations: Despite the issues above, I found quite a bit of the answers given in this book to be well-developed and acceptable. While the negative issues have received much of the attention, the good deserves more recognition. Solid, biblical truth is affirmed repeatedly, and often it is the extra-biblical traditions that are rightly attacked and corrected.
Most importantly, however, is the central idea of the story: God is love, and He desires to have a real, loving, and personal relationship with every person on the planet. He is not a distant redeemer, but One who is willing and available to be known by His people. This truth redeems all the short-comings of The Shack.
At least, that's my opinion.
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