An Eternal Perspective

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I recently finished the book, The Christian Mind, by Harry Blamires. One area I would like to probe a bit more is this idea that Mr. Blamires brings up the supernatural orientation that Christians should have in their thinking.

He writes, "a prime mark of the Christian mind is that it cultivates the eternal perspective. That is to say, it looks beyond this life to another one. It is supernaturally orientated, and brings to bear upon earthly considerations the fact of Heaven and the fact of Hell. . . . The Christian mind sees human life and human history held in the hands of God. It sees the whole universe sustained by his power and his love. It sees the natural order as dependent upon the supernatural order, time as contained within eternity. It sees this life as an inconclusive experience, preparing us for another; this world as a temporary place of refuge, not our true and final home."  Pg. 67

Too often we think and act like eternity is not real. We think like all we have is the here and now.

If we think like the non-believer, the concerns over our retirement account, type of car we have or where we live take on an importance well beyond what they should. The pleasures of this life and today's circumstances take precedence over the love of God and our neighbor.

Our life right now is full of all kinds of things that take our minds off what is important eternally. Selling our house, packing and getting organized, transitioning out of my firm, trying to find a home on the Reservation. It is easy to get caught up in the uncertainty; to be anxious and try to take things in our hands. Even to begin to doubt when things don't go as smooth as we would hope.

It is also easy to get caught in all the things that we have to do and not focus life here and now. Emily going to Homecoming, our Pastor's wife that had a miscarriage and showing them love and care, taking advantage of opportunities to share the Gospel as we tell people what we are doing, speaking the truth to friends that are having marriage troubles. Life is going on around us and it is so easy to lose sight of what is important and what the Lord has before us - specifically - to do for His glory.

But then we go to church on a day like today and hear the following passages of Scripture read. A true dose of reality that helps focus perspective on life.

Preparation of Confession:  For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in mercy to all who call upon you.  Psalm 86:5

Assurance of Pardon:  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4

The Law of Christ:  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  II Peter 2:9-10

The Risk of Serving Christ

What is a risk? 

risk 
a noun: exposure to the chance of injury or loss; a hazard or dangerous choice.

Though some might say that my family is taking a great risk, I don't agree. John Piper sums up my thoughts exactly in his book, Don't Waste Your Life. 

“The tragic hypocrisy is that the enchantment of security lets us take risks every day for ourselves but paralyzes us from taking risks for others on the Calvary road of love. We are deluded and think that it may jeopardize a security that in fact does not even exist." (81)

In other words: risk is not real. Your heart could stop beating before the end of this sentence, yet you didn't think anything of opening up the link to this post. But if you were asked to travel to Africa with the "risk" of getting ebola, would you think twice? 

In my PNW History this week, I'm studying the gospel brought to the Northwest. The Spalding and Whitman's stories have been very impacting. On the day that Eliza Spalding and her husband moved onto the mission field with the Nez Perce Native Americans, she wrote, "I trust it is the love of Christ which has made me, not only willing, but anxious to promote my Master's cause among the benighted Indians. O blessed privilege to labor in the vineyard of my Savior; and point the lost and perishing to Him, for He is the way, the truth, and the life."

I don't believe that my family is taking a risk. I'm not saying I don't get scared, but I try to keep my mind on the fact that whatever happens will be God's will. The Lord has given me so much comfort as we keep moving on this journey. Even though I'm going to miss my friends here, I feel so privileged to go and serve in a place that needs Jesus.

change in the little ones

That little one that used to walk around with a tear stained face and messed hair - it can't be the same girl! The one who could only be comforted by one person - can it be that she is really laughing? The Lord has His hand on her! Now she runs to the playground, she holds the words to the songs in her hands, she sits calmly! She responds eagerly to conversation. She hugs the members littler than herself. She responds to love and she loves.

He used to sit quietly, shyly looking at everything from his spot on the car mat. He grew cold in the winter months and wouldn't tell a soul, his little self nearly numb to the icy shivers. Now he laughs and laughs, trying to speak words and laugh at the same time! He laughs, watching his younger brother throw the basketball as hard as his tiny arms will let him. He laughs, stuffing blue cotton candy into his mouth, smearing his Cheeto covered hands on my face and getting the most precious kick out of himself. He grows in the light and hope of the Lord.

We never thought she'd run, we never expected her to laugh. She fought, tensed in anger, refusing to engage. That was the little two-year-old I knew: the one that toppled over and turned down attention from those she didn't know. Now, just a year later, the same little girl runs, so fast that I think she will land on the ground! She laughs, running to the see-saws and swings. She knows of Jesus.

Change is taking place in even the littlest ones, and what a beautiful blessing it is to see.

 

The Next Few Months....

The days seem to be flying now that school is back in session.  We wanted to give an update on where we are at in this process of joining the Sacred Road staff.  Here is a bit of a timeline:

September-October:   Start preparing house to sell.  Boxes are already being packed and the "to do" list of repairs/projects, before it goes on the market, continues to grow. 

November:  Put house up for sale. 

 

December:  Hopefully our house will sell around this time and we can close in late December or early January.  We are trusting the Lord about these details.  Darren's job will probably be winding down.  His firm has been very gracious and patient as he makes this transition out of the firm - we are so grateful. 

 

January:  Purchase or rent a home on the Reservation; Emily finishes up at Cedar Park first semester January 23rd.  Lots of transition and trips over Snoqualmie Pass this month! 

 

February 7-March 9:  Attend month long missionary training in Colorado.  We are all registered for this.  This is at MTI (Missionary Training International) -- we have heard rave reviews about it.  We will learn about cross-cultural stuff and how to handle challenges/stress while on the mission field.

 

March 2015:   Be full-time with Sacred Road -- living there and everything!  :)  We are very anxious to be there.  March will be a busy month for Sacred Road as the spring mission teams arrive.     

 

Summer 2015:  A quick note to say how exciting and encouraging it is when we hear from some of you who are planning to come to Sacred Road this summer on a missions trip with your church!  Mission team sign-ups are happening right now and we look forward to the summer and serving the Lord together with you! 

 

Through all of this we are continuing to fund raise.  Every staff member of Sacred Road raises their own salary.  We need to have our first year's salary in the bank by the time we head to the Reservation in January.  It's been humbling to walk this part of the process, but also amazing as we trust the Lord and see him steadily providing.  We are at 80% of our annual budget and hope the last 20% will come soon. 

 

Thank you to all who are praying regularly for us and/or supporting us financially.  It is such a testimony and encouragement to us.  The body of Christ is an incredible thing. 

 

And lastly, thank you for listening to us talk non-stop about Sacred Road. 

 

 

My Favorite Bus

One of my favorite things from the summer was spending time with the Yakama children.  Seeing them at Kid's Club (VBS) each afternoon or stepping off of the red Sacred Road bus as they came to church on Sundays filled my heart with happiness. 

A Beautiful Red Bus

Every Sunday morning, especially, I think about the children.  Wondering if they will get on the bus to come to church.  I picture the bus in my mind and it makes me smile.  I'm so thankful for Veronica who faithfully drives the bus around the reservation every Sunday morning and picks up the children.  Please pray that the children will wake up early on Sunday mornings and be able to get on the bus. 


There is one little girl that especially stands out in my mind.  I met her at Kid's Club.  I looked for her each afternoon - hoping she would come.  We drew pictures of Snoopy with the sidewalk chalk.  We jumped rope together.  We did crafts together.  We blew bubbles together and we sat together during the Bible story.  She was quiet but listening all the time - soaking everything up.  She said she was living with her grandpa for the summer and would be moving away in the fall. 

The last Sunday I was at Hope Fellowship (Sacred Road's church), she asked me why only the adults got to have the fry bread and pop (communion).  I chuckled at the word "pop".  I told her it was grape juice and that it was for people who believed in Jesus.  Of course right away, she told me she believed in Jesus.  Joshua (one of the full-time staff of Sacred Road) came over to talk with us and Joshua shared more with her -- about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, how He rose from the dead and lives in Heaven now.  I was so happy she heard this story and I think it was the first time she may have begun to have a deeper understanding of who this "Jesus" was that she had heard about during Kid's Club. 



I'm thankful to have this photo of her

I told her I was going back home but that I hoped she'd get on the bus every Sunday and come to church - at least until she had to move away.  I told her I hoped she might live with her grandpa again next summer so I could see her again at Kid's Club.  But deep down in my heart I was saying good-bye.  I knew she would probably move away.  I knew I might not see her again.  It was hard knowing this, but I felt like God had given me a precious gift to be able to spend time with her. 

Then a few weeks ago, I heard she was still coming to church!  She was in Morgan Granberry's Sunday School group and she was listening in her quiet way.  She was hearing God's truths proclaimed.  I can't tell you how happy I was.  I cried and felt all the more anxious to get to the reservation. 

This past Sunday we visited the reservation and I hoped I might see her.  The bus arrived and I learned that she had moved away.  My heart was sad but I am continuing to pray for this precious girl.  Even though her time was brief with Sacred Road, she heard about Jesus.  She heard that He loves her and I think she experienced His love through the staff of Sacred Road. 

We are so grateful for your faithful prayers and for helping to get us to the Yakama Reservation.  I'll try to include a bit of a timeline of where we are at in our next post.   

The Christian is losing his mind

[Editor's note:  While this post has some bearing on Sacred Road it is not directly related.]

I recently read again a great book by Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind: How should a Christian think? (ISBN: 1-56955-044-1) Several years ago Pastor Irwin at Covenant Presbyterian Church had the Elders and Deacons read this book.  My current Pastor Nease recently reminded me about it and so I thought I would read it again.  It is a great book and I recommend that everyone read it.

His basic premise is that the modern Christian has forgotten how to think Christianly. He argues that secularism has infiltrated the way we think about society, politics, and everything else so that now we don't even realize that we think about things with the mindset of the the secular world rather than based on Biblical truths and premises.

You might wonder about this statement.  But he wrote this book in 1963 and I believe his points are even more relevant today.

Mr. Blamires does a great job of reminding the reader that as a Christian we should have an eternal perspective about almost every decision that we make.  This eternal perspective is based on the objective truth that has been revealed to us in Scripture.  Too often we enter into discussions forgetting the fact that we actually have a firmer foundation to engage others.

Here are a few quotes to whet your appetite:

"An important contributory factor to the loss of mental morale by the Church has been a misguided conception of Christian charity.  It has been assumed that the charitable man suppresses his views in the same way that he subordinates personal interest. . . . [Christians] have come to imagine that just as the unselfish man restrains himself from snatching another piece of cake, so too he restrains himself from putting forward his point of view. And just as it is bad form to boast about your private possessions or loudly recapitulate your personal achievements, so too it is bad form to announce what your convictions are. By analogy with that charity of the spirit which never asks or claims but always gives and gives again, we have manufactured a false "charity" of the mind, which never takes a stand, but continually yields ground. . . . A man's religious convictions and understanding of the truth are not private possessions in the sense that his suit and the contents of his note-case are private possessions. . . . Your beliefs, as a Christian, are not yours in the sense that you have rights over them, either to tamper with them or to throw them away. . . . One of the crucial tasks in reconstituting the Christian mind will be to re-establish the status of objective truth as distinct from personal opinions, to rehabilitate knowledge and wisdom in contradistinction from predilection and whim." Pgs. 39-40

"The Christian mind looks at the propaganda of modern secularism and is astonished to learn that under man's management the world is supposed to be on the whole in a tolerable shape.  The normal course through life is pictured as a progress through an increasing number of acquisitions and comforts. You get a house, then you get a fridge, then you get a telly, then you get a car; and all the time you are peacefully maturing, with a pretty young wife at your side, from youth to early middle age.  For in the world of advertisements no man ever grows older than thirty-five and no woman grows older than twenty-seven. It is a cosy picture of life, full of color and ease. There is always plenty to eat and drink. The furniture never gets old or drab. The wallpaper never peels off the walls. The sun shines. The gardens appear to weed themselves. There is no pain, except for a fleeting hint of indigestion which can be magically whisked away by the right pills. . . . The Christian mind is shocked, bewildered, and, as it seems, rendered impotent to communicate meaningfully with a secular mind so cut off from its dearest and most illuminating presuppositions.  Therefore the Christian mind instinctively withdraws, turns its attention to other matters--say, the individual spiritual life, or the problem of Church disunity."  Pg. 74

"To believe that men will be called to account for each wrong committed and each good committed is itself enough to give an urgency to human deliberations and decisions which the secular mind cannot sense. . . . When one weighs the full momentousness of this particular distinction between the Christian mind and the secular mind, one is awestruck. . . . On the one hand is the assumption that all is over when you die; that after sixty or seventy years, sheltered and cushioned by the Welfare State, you can sign off for good; that eating, sleeping, growing, learning, breeding, and the rest, constitute the total sum of things; that in worldly prosperity and well-being lies the source of all meaning and value. On the other hand is the almost crushing awareness of a spiritual war tearing at the heart of the universe, pushing its ruthless way into the lives of men--stabbing at you now, now, now, in the impulses and choices of every waking moment; the belief that the thoughts and actions of every hour are molding a soul which is on its way to eternity; that we are choosing every moment of our lives in obedience or disobedience to the God who created and sustains all that is; that we are always responsible, always at war, always involved in what is spiritual and deathless; that we are committing ourselves with every breath to salvation or damnation." Pgs. 75-76

If you find the ideas raised here interesting, I would recommend reading this book.  He speaks to many interesting topics such as the Christian mind's: 1) supernatural orientation; 2) awareness of evil; 3) conception of truth; 4) acceptance of authority; 5) concern for the person; 6) sacramental cast.

Financial Update

After seven-plus months of fundraising it seemed appropriate to provide an update as to where we are at in this process and where we still have to go.

As it stands today, the Lord has provided pledges from many people that total 78% of our annual budget needed. Many have already started giving to the account that is set up at Sacred Road. When we add the amount of cash that is building up in this account plus the pledges, the total is almost 59% of the two year budget amount that the SRM Board requires for us to move out to the Reservation.

We think this is incredible and awesome!  We have been so encouraged by everyone that has heard our story and responded by committing to pray for us and support us financially.

I'm currently moving full speed ahead and transitioning clients at work. Engaging in many interesting and some strange conversations with clients and other professionals as I tell them what I am going to be doing. All for the glory of God, I pray.

What does this mean?  We need another 22% of our budget before we can start the process of selling our home and moving to the Reservation. It would be great to have these funds raised by the end of October so we can move to the Reservation in January 2015, go to cross-cultural training in February and come back to begin ministry in March.

If you are already supporting us financially, thank you so much.  We are very grateful.  We are really looking forward to seeing how the Lord uses this partnership in our lives, your lives and in the lives of people on the Reservation.

If you have thought about supporting us financially, we would humbly ask that you start now.  The Lord will guide you in this, we just ask that you pray about it and consider how you can be involved with us in this ministry.

If you know of someone that might be interested in this ministry, we would love to share our story with them.

We are looking for churches who would consider partnering with us as well.  If you think your church missions committee could be interested in Sacred Road Ministries we would love to be able to talk with them.

Darren, Susie, Emily and Rachel Maxfield
425-652-1910
dhmaxfield@gmail.com
maxfieldsintheshadow.blogspot.com
sacredroadministries.com