The Reality of Suffering

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I 

am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake 

of his body, that is, the church. -Paul (Colossians 1:24)

This can be an extremely confusing verse. Was the atonement of Jesus not enough? The scriptures show us that the death of Jesus was sufficient. Paul's own word make this clear. So what is Paul talking about? 
     Paul is making reference to his own sufferings for the sake of Christ and the unreached being the beneficiaries of this suffering. When you go to the unreached and stand before them having endured trials and hardships just to make Jesus known among them, you can say, "In me behold the love of God, as I sacrifice to come to you and preach to you, and risk my life."  -Piper
     What is lacking in the sufferings of Christ is that millions of people don't know Jesus suffered for them. In 2014 the person of Jesus cannot suffer for the Dinka. That piece of history has passed. And the very suffering of Christ has been passed to us, the church.       When you go to that unreached people group and risk everything, including the lives of your children. You are making the sufferings of Christ complete. You show people the incarnational Christ in you and through you they will see Jesus suffer for them... (I have to stop here as tears fill my eyes. This has been our greatest honor in life. To have the opportunity to suffer together as a family is an unimaginable joy.) This does not mean the suffering will be easy. The pain still burns and the wounds still bleed, but we suffer for Christ with His own strength. When my two month old baby was vomiting blood, I was scared out of my mind. I thought I might loose my son. But, I found strength in my wife as we both found strength in Jesus. When gunfire erupted all around our home we fell upon the will of God as we dropped to the floor. For LOVE we endure and show others the sufferings of Christ made evident in our lives and in the lives of our families. What a great blessings to be given anything by Christ. Even hardship if it comes from Jesus is a blessed and wonderful gift.        

a Linguistic take on Discipleship

The world of our experience must be enormously simplified and generalized before it is possible to make a symbolic inventory of all our experiences of things and relations, and this inventory is imperative before we can convey ideas. -Edward Sapir

To put simply the words of Sapir, words are poor communicators. In the context of discipling and mentoring we have to remember that there is no substitute for bringing someone along side you as you live your life. I am all for meetings and conversations, but lets not make this a substitute for real life shared. To teach someone to obey Christ we much use our lives as the medium. We have to know that true discipleship true Christlike discipleship is about time and experience. This is why Jesus came. The prophets had been teaching about Jesus for hundreds of years but man did not truly know Jesus until he came to live with us.  

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. -John 1:14

The people we disciple/mentor need to see us about the work of God. We need to give them something to see. Something that they can model their lives after. This cannot be done over Skype or email. These are great ways to communicate but not the best. So, make yourself available to those who need you and your words. Yes, this takes time but it seems like this is how God planned it! Our example has to be complete. Our words explain our lives and our lives expound our words. May we never say, "do as I say, not as I do." My generation has had enough of that. We see through the lie. We have to say with Paul:

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. -I Cor 11:1

only then will our words have strength. Only then can we move the church out of the mire of hypocrisy. We know the words of Christ were true because his life proved their worth. Now, we are not Christ and we will fall, but we must get back up as we follow the example of Christ and show others how to return to the truths we teach.
  

The Birth of a Church

Dhel is strong even for a Dinka. He is broad through the shoulders and sets upon a set of powerful legs. The traditional marks on his forehead tell an untold story of cattle keeping, raids, and skirmishes fought with other tribes that inhabit the swamps of Warrap. His early youth as a cattle keeper came to an end and the season to take a wife had come. 

Dhel choose a young woman as strong as him. She told him he would make a good husband but he was lacking one thing. He had no training in the Word of God. She made this a requisite to her entering his home. With his new inspiration, Dhel came to our training. Bob and Nancy Calvert had traveled to Kuajok to teach our young leaders how to communicate the stories from the word of God and plant a church. After a week’s training Dhel returned home to Oun-Abyei. There he began to tell the stories he had just learned. The people liked the stories and many came to hear. The Dinka Rek do not yet have the Old Testament translated into their language; for most, this was the first time to here the story of creation, Abraham, and Noah. Upon hearing these stories more than thirty believed for the first time the truths of Gods Word. 

The next Friday Moses came the my house and said, “Robert, there is now a church in Oun-Abyei.” The following Sunday Moses and I went to see this young church. We appointed leaders and saw the baptism of 35 Dinka Rek who are now identified as followers of Christ. 

Pray for the new church in Oun-Abyei. 

Now starts the persecution.   

Update On The Current Meandering of the Lanes

These past few months have been a challenge. Our lives are lived in the pendulum of extremes. Our difficult times are brutal and our good times are elating. This is part of who we are. I will go back and unpack a few of these events in subsequent posts but for now I am wanting to catch you up on where we are in reverse order. So make a cup of coffee and enjoy the next four minutes. 
We are currently in Johannesburg, South Africa for meetings with our organizations. Jo'burg is cold and we have been loving the chill. Shep on the other hand is concerned with the temperatures. We attempted to condition this equatorial child to the cooler weather by placing him in our freezer three times a day (this last fact is completely untrue). 
Shep has enjoyed the interaction with the other kids. He loves to stand in the midst of the playground and watch the others play. I find this interesting because in Sudan the roles are reversed and the local children generally watch him play. The children here all speak english and my son speaks an odd form of pidgin gibberish, but he has encountered little trouble in the making of friends. 

Our travel to South Africa was nothing short of an adventure. We had planed to make the drive to Wau and catch a flight, but the plane had a mechanical issues and our tickets were canceled. Maridith went into overdrive finding an alternate means of travel. The most efficient option would be to charter a small plane. The least would be to travel by foot, but we estimated this would take six years and we would need to travel with a small militia, which was available for a price. After some discussion we opted to give the boys a raincheck and travel by air, which makes for a less interesting story, it was a good flight nonetheless. I found Juba calm and after tasting the pizza–the best in the country–I understood the abundance of soldiers on the streets. The next day we traveled on to Nairobi and then to Entebbe. Entebbe is a happy place where Mrs. Renee had prepared the most delicious of meals centered around a tender pig. Still after all these years pork takes me home. Being southerner we love pork and I guess if I had to be cast out of the body of a man, I too would choose the body of a swine (please don't think on that for too long). 
Ok, where was I? Yes, Sudan. We labored in Kuajok for only a short time before we saw many lives changed. We had the privilege of hosting Bob and Nancy Calvert last month. Bob led a training for local church leaders and planters. Nancy led the teaching for the women. It was an excited time for us all and a landmark in the work with the Dinka. I will introduce you to one young man named Dhel and the young church he planted in his home...Shoot I got to go. Stay t(y)uned and I will get his story up asap. 
-Much Love                       

Be Bold

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea andSamaria, and to the end of the earth.” -Acts 1:8

            My prayer for you, if you are a Christian, is that you would know your own strength and not be weighed down by sin. Life can be scary. I have seen my share of scary days. You have to remember that you were given power to live without fear. This does not mean that scary things won't happen but that you will not fear them when they do. Why? The creator of the world has put his spirit in you. This does not mean that you will always act like Jesus. We also have sin in our lives. Bad things will happen. Bad things happened to Paul and bad things will happen to you sometimes. 

          When we moved to South Sudan life became difficult. Even the simplest things, like buying bread, became hard work. I have to take a police officer with me (it's ok because he's my friend) so I'll be safe. If I need money it might take many trips to the bank before I can find my money. Then I have to get someone to exchange my dollars into Sudanese pounds, then we walk through the market with my police friend and buy delicious bread from a lady with a very nice smile. 

          There are a lot of people with guns in our town. Sometimes they fight with each other and people get hurt. This makes us sad because many people in our town don't know Jesus and the peace he brings. If we gave into fear, we would not be able to tell the story of Jesus to those how need him the most. We have to be BOLD.

Be Last

First read John 13:3-17

The Story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples is as shocking today as when it happened. What kind of a leader chooses to wash the ones he leads. What would people say if the President of the United States was caught secretly washing the feet of his cabinet? Most people would not understand. Some of you have seen people wash the feet of others. What did you think? When Jesus washed his friends' feet there were no cameras there, he was not even on a stage. Anyone who has worn sandals all day knows that the disciples' feet needed washing. Jesus was doing what needed to be done. Normally, servants did this type of thing. What was Jesus doing? Was he a servant? Yes, he was. He served and was treated like a servant. He taught others to serve. I am reminded of this every time I give my one year old son a bath. I wash his little feet and he laughs. I have to wash my son's feet. He can chew on his feet and play with his feet but he can't wash his feet. This is what Peter finally understood. There are places only Jesus can reach. We can't wash the sin off our hearts. We need Jesus to wash us so we can be apart of him. It takes a lot of humility to say I can't do it, I need to be like a child and have the father bathe me.

Be His

    

   

He is the head of his body, the church; he is the source of the body's life... Colossians 1:18-22

           Our generation likes to talk a lot about the relationship between Christ and the Church. This is like talking about the relationship between my head and my body. If the two ever become separated I would cease to exist. I would be dead. Any "church" that removes itself from the authority of Christ, has removed its own life source. It will be a quick death, but this is not what we are talking about. The Church and the Body of Christ are the same thing. You can't join one and not the other. Christ is not something you put on once a week. He is something that you become eternally. When you are saved, your salvation becomes a bound identity. You are moved under Christ. You are now part of his body, the church. You do not earn this through membership or classes in any building. It is the amazing incomprehensible will of God. Through the blood of Jesus, God brought salvation to you when he brought all things back to himself through Jesus. 

          Through Christ's sacrifice we have been made friends with God. As you read this, it is not likely that you are my friend. I live far away in South Sudan. You could message me on FB or respond to this post. You could even "friend" me, but we really would not be friends, so to speak, no offense. But what if, I responded to your friend request and said, "I really, really have to meet you. I'll send my son to your house and bring you to visit me in Africa. My son will pay for everything. It will not be cheep but you are worth the cost. My son will go to you and bring you to me. If you come to me, you will be my friend." Now, I can't pay for everyone to come to visit me in Africa but God did pay for everyone to come to him. 

           There are many groups claiming a way to salvation, a way to God. But man cannot find God with rules or acts. Only Jesus can bring you to God.