Bob Ekblad
Jun 10, 2009
This last year many of us at Tierra Nueva have felt a need to go deeper into God’s love and presence and into Jesus’ ministry of deliverance to people oppressed by personal and structural evil.
Jesus describes God as having sent him to proclaim release to the captives and to let the oppressed go free (Luke 4:18). In Acts 10:38 Peter summarizes Jesus’ ministry as he witnessed it “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power… he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”
We want to see people (ourselves included) freed from forces like shame, fear, control, anger, abandonment, rejection, addictions, lust, and greed, as well as from indebtedness, criminal behavior, legal oppression, racism, gang and national allegiances and other macro powers.
You are invited to join us for four days and five nights of worship, teaching, participatory Bible studies, discussion and fellowship focusing on Jesus’ teaching about deliverance and getting filled up with more of the Holy Spirit.
Topics include: revisiting cosmology; hands on teaching on deliverance, inner and physical healing; the importance of forgiveness; freedom from the stronghold of shame, fear and control; deliverance from micro and macro powers; hearing the voice of God; adoption and empowerment.
Bob Ekblad and the Tierra Nueva staff will provide the teaching, worship leading and personal ministry.
When and Where: Sunday night July 26, 4:30pm – Thursday night July 30 @ 10pm At Tierra Nueva, 102 N. Pine, Burlington, WA
Cost: $145 per person or $200 per couple.
Lodging at New Earth refuge $20 a night (single bunk beds in separate women and men’s dorms) or $75 for four nights.
To register or for more information contact Admin@tierra-nueva.org
and/or check our website www.tierra-nueva.org
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Miscellaneous healings
The last two Wednesday evenings Tierra Nueva pastoral colleague Emily Martin has taken me with her to visit Mixteco-speaking farm workers from Oaxaca, Mexico who have been attending our Sunday evening Spanish service. The new arrivals from Oaxaca are some of the poorest of Mexico’s poor. They come from remote, impoverished villages where they have had minimal access to education, running water, electricity and health care. They come desperate for work on local farms to sustain their families.
I make my way up rickety stairs and knock on a hollow door before entering into a run-down room full of people and minimal furnishings. Luisa, a Mixteco woman in her early 30s nurses her infant on a stained mattress that takes up 1/3 of the room. Teen girls have big banana leaves laid out on the kitchen counter that they’re busy dishing corn, chicken and sauce into to make tamales. Paulino and his uncle Raul greet me politely, pulling out a child-size plastic chair for me in the center of the room. Raul is tired for a hard day’s work near the Canadian border where he was planting blueberries.
This night Emily download and burned onto a disk a recorded message from globalrecordings.net in these people’s particular dialect of Mixteco that effectively summarizes Abraham and Sarah’s story in Genesis. The 10-12 people living in this one-room apartment all gather around a near broken down CD player and listen intently, smiling and nodding as they hear of Abram and Sarai’s journey as migrants from Ur to the foreign land of Canaan spoken in their own language.
A 16-year-old boy holds a flip chart of drawings of Abram and Sarai’s life that goes with the recordings. This boy was recently released from an immigration detention center for minors after spending four months in custody after U.S. Internal Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided his apartment. They had deported all the adults but kept him detained in a special house for minors in Seattle since he’s an orphan with no home to deport him back to-- until Emily negotiated his release to family and her own custody.
I summarize the story, emphasizing God’s call to leave all securities behind in order to be blessed and consequently become a blessing to every family on earth. These people had already left everything, embarked on a precarious journey and are here in what they thought might be a sort of Canaan. Will God meet them here as God had met Abram and Sarai when they came into new, foreign territory?
We ask if anyone needs prayer, and Paulino motions to his wife Luisa, who child now lays fast asleep in her arms.
Paulino interprets as she tells us how she hasn’t been able to lift anything heavy due to severe pain in her stomach just below her rib cage. She also has lots of pain when she tries to move her head from side to side. I invite people to put out their hands to receive the Holy Spirit. Then we lay hands on the Luisa and pray for relief. “What are you feeling I ask?” All she says is “ini” (heat). I ask her to move her head from side to side to see if there’s improvement and she says it’s lessening. We pray again and keep asking her. When it’s time to go she says the pain is all gone. Later in the week we learn that she is able to lift with no pain in her stomach. The following Wednesday we learn that many suffer from regular night mares. We invite them to place their hands on their own heads and we pray for God’s protection and relief: for dreams from heaven to replace night terrors. People are desperate for Jesus’ help and openly receive and seem to benefit almost immediately.
Last Sunday other farm workers showed up at our Spanish service. We saw five people we prayed for healed of different chronic aches and pains. It is beautiful to see people experience the reality of God—even though many still struggle to pay rent, find adequate work and help their children succeed in our complicated school system.
Signs of God’s Kingdom here but not yet are evident in the following testimony by a beloved Tierra Nueva community member Susannah Reyes.
“As I attended the past seminar at Tierra Nueva, one of the most incredible things happened to me on the last night.
I usually watch people receive prayer and have watched some overcome by the Spirit. They are sometimes not able to stand, because they are so overcome. I’ve sat back and watched this with some skepticism, yet wanting it so much to happen to me. I wanted it so much, I guess I wasn’t allowing it to happen. The more I wanted it, the further it got away from me. Or maybe the Lord knew I wasn't ready.
Anyway, the person giving me a ride was leaving early. I got up to leave, but Elizabeth asked me to wait and receive prayer. So I stayed to worship and pray once again. Another person offered to give me a ride, so again I got up to leave. Once again, Elizabeth intervened and asked me to stay and receive prayer. So I stayed and returned to prayer.
I am an addict in recovery. I have been in remission for two years. As I stood there deep in silent prayer, I was asking for forgiveness for having been an addict and all of the hurt and wrongs I had done to my family and others, and also the magnificent temple God had given me to care for. All of a sudden I felt Bob's hand on my forehead and he said, “You are not an addict.” At that moment I felt something deep from the pit of my stomach come up and out of my chest. It was so intense I couldn’t stand and felt myself falling. I had finally totally been overcome by the Holy Spirit. I lay there in total peace for some while.
That experience freed me. My identity was no longer an addict named Susannah. I am Susannah and I have a disease called addiction. God released me from this horrible bondage. God heard my heart. I am God's child!”
Susannah wrote this testimony just a few days before she was found dead in her apartment by TN staff member Elizabeth—our beloved Susannah had passed away of natural causes.
Please pray for Susannah’s family and join us in thanking God for her beautiful testimony and her life. Pray for God's continued presence and ongoing signs of Jesus' Kingdom here and now as we minister to Mixteco and Triqui farm workers here in our valley.
I make my way up rickety stairs and knock on a hollow door before entering into a run-down room full of people and minimal furnishings. Luisa, a Mixteco woman in her early 30s nurses her infant on a stained mattress that takes up 1/3 of the room. Teen girls have big banana leaves laid out on the kitchen counter that they’re busy dishing corn, chicken and sauce into to make tamales. Paulino and his uncle Raul greet me politely, pulling out a child-size plastic chair for me in the center of the room. Raul is tired for a hard day’s work near the Canadian border where he was planting blueberries.
This night Emily download and burned onto a disk a recorded message from globalrecordings.net in these people’s particular dialect of Mixteco that effectively summarizes Abraham and Sarah’s story in Genesis. The 10-12 people living in this one-room apartment all gather around a near broken down CD player and listen intently, smiling and nodding as they hear of Abram and Sarai’s journey as migrants from Ur to the foreign land of Canaan spoken in their own language.
A 16-year-old boy holds a flip chart of drawings of Abram and Sarai’s life that goes with the recordings. This boy was recently released from an immigration detention center for minors after spending four months in custody after U.S. Internal Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided his apartment. They had deported all the adults but kept him detained in a special house for minors in Seattle since he’s an orphan with no home to deport him back to-- until Emily negotiated his release to family and her own custody.
I summarize the story, emphasizing God’s call to leave all securities behind in order to be blessed and consequently become a blessing to every family on earth. These people had already left everything, embarked on a precarious journey and are here in what they thought might be a sort of Canaan. Will God meet them here as God had met Abram and Sarai when they came into new, foreign territory?
We ask if anyone needs prayer, and Paulino motions to his wife Luisa, who child now lays fast asleep in her arms.
Paulino interprets as she tells us how she hasn’t been able to lift anything heavy due to severe pain in her stomach just below her rib cage. She also has lots of pain when she tries to move her head from side to side. I invite people to put out their hands to receive the Holy Spirit. Then we lay hands on the Luisa and pray for relief. “What are you feeling I ask?” All she says is “ini” (heat). I ask her to move her head from side to side to see if there’s improvement and she says it’s lessening. We pray again and keep asking her. When it’s time to go she says the pain is all gone. Later in the week we learn that she is able to lift with no pain in her stomach. The following Wednesday we learn that many suffer from regular night mares. We invite them to place their hands on their own heads and we pray for God’s protection and relief: for dreams from heaven to replace night terrors. People are desperate for Jesus’ help and openly receive and seem to benefit almost immediately.
Last Sunday other farm workers showed up at our Spanish service. We saw five people we prayed for healed of different chronic aches and pains. It is beautiful to see people experience the reality of God—even though many still struggle to pay rent, find adequate work and help their children succeed in our complicated school system.
Signs of God’s Kingdom here but not yet are evident in the following testimony by a beloved Tierra Nueva community member Susannah Reyes.
“As I attended the past seminar at Tierra Nueva, one of the most incredible things happened to me on the last night.
I usually watch people receive prayer and have watched some overcome by the Spirit. They are sometimes not able to stand, because they are so overcome. I’ve sat back and watched this with some skepticism, yet wanting it so much to happen to me. I wanted it so much, I guess I wasn’t allowing it to happen. The more I wanted it, the further it got away from me. Or maybe the Lord knew I wasn't ready.
Anyway, the person giving me a ride was leaving early. I got up to leave, but Elizabeth asked me to wait and receive prayer. So I stayed to worship and pray once again. Another person offered to give me a ride, so again I got up to leave. Once again, Elizabeth intervened and asked me to stay and receive prayer. So I stayed and returned to prayer.
I am an addict in recovery. I have been in remission for two years. As I stood there deep in silent prayer, I was asking for forgiveness for having been an addict and all of the hurt and wrongs I had done to my family and others, and also the magnificent temple God had given me to care for. All of a sudden I felt Bob's hand on my forehead and he said, “You are not an addict.” At that moment I felt something deep from the pit of my stomach come up and out of my chest. It was so intense I couldn’t stand and felt myself falling. I had finally totally been overcome by the Holy Spirit. I lay there in total peace for some while.
That experience freed me. My identity was no longer an addict named Susannah. I am Susannah and I have a disease called addiction. God released me from this horrible bondage. God heard my heart. I am God's child!”
Susannah wrote this testimony just a few days before she was found dead in her apartment by TN staff member Elizabeth—our beloved Susannah had passed away of natural causes.
Please pray for Susannah’s family and join us in thanking God for her beautiful testimony and her life. Pray for God's continued presence and ongoing signs of Jesus' Kingdom here and now as we minister to Mixteco and Triqui farm workers here in our valley.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Believing and Receiving the Sign of Jonah
I am convinced that God is longing to take us deeper into Jesus' death and resurrection this Easter and beyond.
I have been meditating on Jesus’ words in Matthew 12:40 “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign shall be given it but the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
In the past I interpreted Jesus ’offer here to give his contemporaries the sign of Jonah as something less than the signs that people craved. But Jesus really wanted to do far more for people. He came to die at human hands to undo the power of sin and death forever. He carried the world’s sins and sicknesses, violence and oppression with him to death and burial into the heart of the earth. He did this in total submission to the Father’s will, yielding himself up to death. He showed us the way into the deepest place of baptismal death, demonstrating total trust in God.
Baptismal death is the way forward to life empowered by the Spirit-- who raised Jesus from the dead.
Think about Jonah. When the storm was raging, threatening to sink the boat, the pagan sailors are described as knowing that Jonah was fleeing God’s Presence. “What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?” they asked him (Jonah 1:11). Jonah responded: “Pick me up and throw me into the sea (1:12). Rather than take the whole ship down with him because of his rebellion, Jonah submits to God’s judgment-- or to the consequences of his rebellion. He cries out from inside a fish that God sends to swallow him:
“You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current engulfed me. All your breakers and billows passed over me… I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever. But you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. (John 2:3,6).
Jonah partially embodies baptismal death and new resurrection life that Paul describes in Romans 6. “Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
Resurrection power follows baptismal death in the life of Jonah and Jesus. Once vomited out by the whale Jonah heeds the original call to preach to his national enemies, the people of Ninevah. The anointing was apparently so strong on Jonah’s preaching that the whole city believed in God, repenting in sackcloth and ashes visible on everyone from the King to the animals.
After Jesus’ baptism and wilderness temptations we see amazing power and authority. Fishermen drop their nets and immediately follow him and everyone who is sick and demonized are healed and delivered (Matt 4:18-25).
Yet the sign of Jonah Jesus describes does not include the resurrection. The sign Jesus leaves his compatriots with and us too this Good Friday is simple and radical: submission to God to the point of death.
Today I feel called by the Spirit to once again lay down my life, my agendas, my theology, my everything in total submission to the Father. Jesus himself calls disciples to take up their crosses daily and follow him. Where he goes is to the cross. It is there that he saves us as we are crucified with him—the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18).
God can only resurrect the one who has died. This Good Friday and Easter weekend let us yield ourselves totally to God— not out of despair but in hope: ”But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who indwells you” (Romans 8:12). Blessed Easter death and resurrection.
I have been meditating on Jesus’ words in Matthew 12:40 “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign shall be given it but the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
In the past I interpreted Jesus ’offer here to give his contemporaries the sign of Jonah as something less than the signs that people craved. But Jesus really wanted to do far more for people. He came to die at human hands to undo the power of sin and death forever. He carried the world’s sins and sicknesses, violence and oppression with him to death and burial into the heart of the earth. He did this in total submission to the Father’s will, yielding himself up to death. He showed us the way into the deepest place of baptismal death, demonstrating total trust in God.
Baptismal death is the way forward to life empowered by the Spirit-- who raised Jesus from the dead.
Think about Jonah. When the storm was raging, threatening to sink the boat, the pagan sailors are described as knowing that Jonah was fleeing God’s Presence. “What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?” they asked him (Jonah 1:11). Jonah responded: “Pick me up and throw me into the sea (1:12). Rather than take the whole ship down with him because of his rebellion, Jonah submits to God’s judgment-- or to the consequences of his rebellion. He cries out from inside a fish that God sends to swallow him:
“You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current engulfed me. All your breakers and billows passed over me… I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever. But you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. (John 2:3,6).
Jonah partially embodies baptismal death and new resurrection life that Paul describes in Romans 6. “Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
Resurrection power follows baptismal death in the life of Jonah and Jesus. Once vomited out by the whale Jonah heeds the original call to preach to his national enemies, the people of Ninevah. The anointing was apparently so strong on Jonah’s preaching that the whole city believed in God, repenting in sackcloth and ashes visible on everyone from the King to the animals.
After Jesus’ baptism and wilderness temptations we see amazing power and authority. Fishermen drop their nets and immediately follow him and everyone who is sick and demonized are healed and delivered (Matt 4:18-25).
Yet the sign of Jonah Jesus describes does not include the resurrection. The sign Jesus leaves his compatriots with and us too this Good Friday is simple and radical: submission to God to the point of death.
Today I feel called by the Spirit to once again lay down my life, my agendas, my theology, my everything in total submission to the Father. Jesus himself calls disciples to take up their crosses daily and follow him. Where he goes is to the cross. It is there that he saves us as we are crucified with him—the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18).
God can only resurrect the one who has died. This Good Friday and Easter weekend let us yield ourselves totally to God— not out of despair but in hope: ”But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who indwells you” (Romans 8:12). Blessed Easter death and resurrection.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Apply for Tierra Nueva's May School of Transformational Ministry
Come to Tierra Nueva's School of Transformational Ministry: Going Deeper—Word, Spirit, and Street
Dates: Friday, May 1 at 6:00pm – Friday, May 22 at 10:00pm
Here at Tierra Nueva we are seeking the Gospel that has the power to save people on the margins and mainstream of society from powers that oppress. We have been ministering among poor peasants in Honduras since 1982 and working with immigrants, inmates, ex-offenders and gang members in Washington’s Skagit Valley since 1994. Learn about particular challenges and approaches to sharing the Good News of God’s transformational love in Jesus with marginalized people in North America. Join Tierra Nueva’s ministry workers and worshipping community for three weeks focused on experiencing God’s transforming love, following Jesus, and participating in the Kingdom of God here and now. Live together with others in a lush forest alongside the Skagit River at New Earth Refuge—a beautiful new retreat center on the Ekblad’s 35 acre property. Join us in a new move of the Holy Spirit to bring together orientations that are too often kept separate in the body of Christ: word, spirit and street.
Word
How do we read the Bible with all our questions, integrating both head and heart? What does it look like to read the Bible with people who consider themselves damned? Who is Jesus and how did he come to fulfill the Old Testament? What was his ministry in his context and what might that look like in today’s world? Explore Biblical perspectives on salvation, healing, and deliverance, as well as advocacy, peace-making/reconciliation, forgiveness and prophetic ministry.
Spirit
Enter into a deeper encounter with God through immersion in the Holy Spirit. Spend quality time in worship, contemplative prayer, and soaking prayer as the wellspring of daily activity. Receive God’s love and liberation for yourself and learn how to flow in the grace and power of the Spirit. What are the gifts of the Spirit? How do gifts awakened by the Spirit guide us in life and ministry, into hearing from God and entering the Kingdom? How does the Holy Spirit guide our theological reflection and Scripture reading? Special emphasis will be placed on learning how to hear the voice of God for personal direction, healing and deliverance, group discernment, and local, national and global social issues.
Street
Learn about the streets and the margins, with a special focus on Tierra Nueva’s context. What are some of the burning social issues of our time that affect people on the margins? Meet farm workers, ex-offenders, gang members, judges, prosecutors, public defenders and others who work with people on the margins of American society. Learn about social advocacy from Tierra Nueva ministry workers who work with ex-offenders, gang members and immigrants. Visit courts and migrant camps. Read and discuss books and watch provocative films.
Schedule and Themes
The journey begins on Friday, May 1 at 6:00 pm with introductions, worship, teaching and prayer. On Sunday morning we will join the 16th Annual Farm Worker Solidarity March, walking with farm laborers and advocates from Burlington to Mount Vernon. In the evening we will eat and worship together at Tierra Nueva’s bilingual service. Each day following will begin with worship, followed by morning sessions on key topics relating to our themes of Word, Spirit and Street. Afternoon sessions will vary between hearing from judges, gang members, farm workers and TN community members regarding aspects of advocacy and accompaniment of people on the margins. There will be many opportunities to receive prayer ministry. There will also be opportunities for quiet time, recreation and celebration. Topics covered throughout the course include:
History, Vision & Mission of Tierra Nueva
Knowing the God of love and experiencing God’s Spirit of adoption
The Ministry of Jesus and the Kingdom of God
Understanding Baptism and Christian identity & authority
The gifts of the Spirit & the five-fold ministries
Cosmology 101: The problem of evil and Jesus’ cross
Developing a real-world (contextual) theology appropriate to the margins
Poverty and social marginalization North and South
Sustainable development, relief and accompaniment
Developing a Biblical understanding of prophetic ministry in personal ministry and social engagement
Being Guided by the Spirit in Ministry
Developing and leading contextual Bible Studies
Faith Formation and leading not-yet-believing people into a living relationship with God
Faith formation for people on the margins
Healing Prayer
Facilitating deliverance from powers that oppress
Christian non-violence
Pastoral Ministry and spiritual accompaniment
Understanding the legal system, advocacy & accompaniment
Advocacy before other government institutions & the social welfare system
Prophetic Evangelism
Preventative health & self-care: hygiene, nutrition and exercise
Required Reading (ideally before arriving)
Bob Ekblad, Reading the Bible with the Damned, Westminster John Knox: Louisville, 2005.
Heidi Baker and Shara Pradhan, Compelled by Love: How to change the world through the simple power of love in action, (Mary Lake: Charisma House, 2008).
Brad Jersak, Can You Hear Me? Tuning in to the God who speaks, (Abbotsford: Fresh Wind, 2003).
Charles .H. Kraft, Deep Wounds, Deep Healing, (Tonbridge, Kent: Sovereign World, 1993).
Fees (partial scholarships may be available)
Tuition $600
Accommodation $340
Food $460
Total $1400
If you have questions or are interested in applying please contact us at tntransformation@gmail.com
Check for more information soon at www.bobekblad.com or www.tierra-nueva.org
Dates: Friday, May 1 at 6:00pm – Friday, May 22 at 10:00pm
Here at Tierra Nueva we are seeking the Gospel that has the power to save people on the margins and mainstream of society from powers that oppress. We have been ministering among poor peasants in Honduras since 1982 and working with immigrants, inmates, ex-offenders and gang members in Washington’s Skagit Valley since 1994. Learn about particular challenges and approaches to sharing the Good News of God’s transformational love in Jesus with marginalized people in North America. Join Tierra Nueva’s ministry workers and worshipping community for three weeks focused on experiencing God’s transforming love, following Jesus, and participating in the Kingdom of God here and now. Live together with others in a lush forest alongside the Skagit River at New Earth Refuge—a beautiful new retreat center on the Ekblad’s 35 acre property. Join us in a new move of the Holy Spirit to bring together orientations that are too often kept separate in the body of Christ: word, spirit and street.
Word
How do we read the Bible with all our questions, integrating both head and heart? What does it look like to read the Bible with people who consider themselves damned? Who is Jesus and how did he come to fulfill the Old Testament? What was his ministry in his context and what might that look like in today’s world? Explore Biblical perspectives on salvation, healing, and deliverance, as well as advocacy, peace-making/reconciliation, forgiveness and prophetic ministry.
Spirit
Enter into a deeper encounter with God through immersion in the Holy Spirit. Spend quality time in worship, contemplative prayer, and soaking prayer as the wellspring of daily activity. Receive God’s love and liberation for yourself and learn how to flow in the grace and power of the Spirit. What are the gifts of the Spirit? How do gifts awakened by the Spirit guide us in life and ministry, into hearing from God and entering the Kingdom? How does the Holy Spirit guide our theological reflection and Scripture reading? Special emphasis will be placed on learning how to hear the voice of God for personal direction, healing and deliverance, group discernment, and local, national and global social issues.
Street
Learn about the streets and the margins, with a special focus on Tierra Nueva’s context. What are some of the burning social issues of our time that affect people on the margins? Meet farm workers, ex-offenders, gang members, judges, prosecutors, public defenders and others who work with people on the margins of American society. Learn about social advocacy from Tierra Nueva ministry workers who work with ex-offenders, gang members and immigrants. Visit courts and migrant camps. Read and discuss books and watch provocative films.
Schedule and Themes
The journey begins on Friday, May 1 at 6:00 pm with introductions, worship, teaching and prayer. On Sunday morning we will join the 16th Annual Farm Worker Solidarity March, walking with farm laborers and advocates from Burlington to Mount Vernon. In the evening we will eat and worship together at Tierra Nueva’s bilingual service. Each day following will begin with worship, followed by morning sessions on key topics relating to our themes of Word, Spirit and Street. Afternoon sessions will vary between hearing from judges, gang members, farm workers and TN community members regarding aspects of advocacy and accompaniment of people on the margins. There will be many opportunities to receive prayer ministry. There will also be opportunities for quiet time, recreation and celebration. Topics covered throughout the course include:
History, Vision & Mission of Tierra Nueva
Knowing the God of love and experiencing God’s Spirit of adoption
The Ministry of Jesus and the Kingdom of God
Understanding Baptism and Christian identity & authority
The gifts of the Spirit & the five-fold ministries
Cosmology 101: The problem of evil and Jesus’ cross
Developing a real-world (contextual) theology appropriate to the margins
Poverty and social marginalization North and South
Sustainable development, relief and accompaniment
Developing a Biblical understanding of prophetic ministry in personal ministry and social engagement
Being Guided by the Spirit in Ministry
Developing and leading contextual Bible Studies
Faith Formation and leading not-yet-believing people into a living relationship with God
Faith formation for people on the margins
Healing Prayer
Facilitating deliverance from powers that oppress
Christian non-violence
Pastoral Ministry and spiritual accompaniment
Understanding the legal system, advocacy & accompaniment
Advocacy before other government institutions & the social welfare system
Prophetic Evangelism
Preventative health & self-care: hygiene, nutrition and exercise
Required Reading (ideally before arriving)
Bob Ekblad, Reading the Bible with the Damned, Westminster John Knox: Louisville, 2005.
Heidi Baker and Shara Pradhan, Compelled by Love: How to change the world through the simple power of love in action, (Mary Lake: Charisma House, 2008).
Brad Jersak, Can You Hear Me? Tuning in to the God who speaks, (Abbotsford: Fresh Wind, 2003).
Charles .H. Kraft, Deep Wounds, Deep Healing, (Tonbridge, Kent: Sovereign World, 1993).
Fees (partial scholarships may be available)
Tuition $600
Accommodation $340
Food $460
Total $1400
If you have questions or are interested in applying please contact us at tntransformation@gmail.com
Check for more information soon at www.bobekblad.com or www.tierra-nueva.org
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Words Confirmed by Signs
"And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed (Mark 16:20).
In early January Nick Bryant and I spent a week visiting our Honduran Tierra Nueva colleagues. We weren’t sure how we would find the ministry, since we hadn’t sent any money down to pay our original 15 village trainers (promotores) for over a year. We have been importing specialty coffee from them and had helped them set up a water purification and bottling plant as a micro-business to supplement their subsistence farming.
Our hope has been to see a new movement of the Spirit really get ignited that will engage new and younger leaders in Jesus’ ministry among impoverished Honduran peasants. We had been dreaming with TN coordinator Angel David about ordinary poor people being empowered by the Holy Spirit to announce Good News of God’s transforming love—with signs following to confirm the words.
We have always been about concrete signs of God’s love— which have included gravity flow water projects, contoured terraces of corn and beans,intensive gardens, composting latrines, preventive health education, and reconciliation between enemies and different streams of Christians. But we all need more of God’s love coming into our lives over and over again in both social and personal ways.
On this trip we took along John Arnott and his grandson James from Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship in Toronto. John is a veteran pastor and leader of a movement that began in Toronto 15 years ago when the Holy Spirit came more powerfully than anyone was used to, transforming people’s lives in amazing ways. He and his grandson are very humble and open people who long to see God’s Kingdom come. We all got to see the love of God poured out over and over everywhere we went—which included people’s homes, village churches, community centers, coffee farms and the airport.
We rented a Toyoto 4x4 pickup that was nearly always packed out with our Honduran colleagues and new, younger people who joined us as we traveled from village to village. John generously provided money so TN could throw two entire village feasts— the first ever that people could remember in both Mal Paso and Las Delicias. Over 200 people showed up for each feast—first to worship and then to hear teaching or participate in a dialogical Bible study. We then invited people in need of healing to come forward.
In Las Delicias it seemed that nearly everyone came forward for prayer—including the village Pentecostal pastor, Catholic lay leaders and many who do not normally participate in church. The first person we prayed for described feeling heat throughout their body and immediate and complete relief from their back and neck pain.
We had this man lay hands on the next person— who experienced the same sense of God’s burning presence and total healing. Immediately we would recruit anyone who was experiencing God’s Presence to help pray for others. It was delightful to watch people witness God’s power flowing through them— effecting change that was immediate and visible. After each healing in Las Delicias we would give a round of applause for Jesus after each testimony. People were so excited to see God moving like this that they didn’t even seem to want to eat.
In several houses where we met and prayed for people we saw person after person experience God’s Presence, which brought healing, peace, joy and new hope.
In one house John showed us how to pray for an older man who had a leg that was over an inch shorter than the other due to a lower back and hip problem. He had the man sit tight against a chair and gently held his legs out as we all prayed. A whole room full of people watched the leg actually adjust out so they matched.
When I returned home I remembered this during a jail Bible study as I was looking at Joe—a strapping young part Native American, Hispanic and Caucasian guy with a Mohawk who stood with shoulders sloping leftward complaining of bad back pain. I had him sit down with his back against the chair—and sure enough one leg was over an inch longer than the other. Seven or so inmates and I gathered around him as I held his legs out and we invited the Holy Spirit. His leg adjusted out to match the other one right there in front of everyone, with guys commenting “it’s efing growing dude, check it out.”
Joe was totally healed and looked shocked and really touched as he noticed his shoulders were level. His fellow inmates told me he talked about all the time until he left for three years in prison last Tuesday.
Last week when I attended a pastors conference in Toronto I got to see the love of God poured out once again in a generous offering taken for Tierra Nueva. $42,000 was given, allowing us to purchase a 16-acre specialty coffee farm that we had visited during our trip. This farm will help sustain Tierra Nueva’s growing house church movement in Honduras (Hogares en Tranformacion) and our Underground Coffee project to help ex-offender and gang members called into ministry here in Washington State. Last week we completed the purchase of this farm and even began our first coffee harvest. You might want to try some of this delicious coffee, which you can order online at www.tierra-nueva.org
Please pray for Angel David as he pastors a growing group of young and older leaders committed to announcing God’s Kingdom- on earth as in heaven from house to house and village to village in Honduras. We want to see a growing harvest of people so delighted by the reality of God’s love streaming into their lives that they can’t resist passing it on.
In early January Nick Bryant and I spent a week visiting our Honduran Tierra Nueva colleagues. We weren’t sure how we would find the ministry, since we hadn’t sent any money down to pay our original 15 village trainers (promotores) for over a year. We have been importing specialty coffee from them and had helped them set up a water purification and bottling plant as a micro-business to supplement their subsistence farming.
Our hope has been to see a new movement of the Spirit really get ignited that will engage new and younger leaders in Jesus’ ministry among impoverished Honduran peasants. We had been dreaming with TN coordinator Angel David about ordinary poor people being empowered by the Holy Spirit to announce Good News of God’s transforming love—with signs following to confirm the words.
We have always been about concrete signs of God’s love— which have included gravity flow water projects, contoured terraces of corn and beans,intensive gardens, composting latrines, preventive health education, and reconciliation between enemies and different streams of Christians. But we all need more of God’s love coming into our lives over and over again in both social and personal ways.
On this trip we took along John Arnott and his grandson James from Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship in Toronto. John is a veteran pastor and leader of a movement that began in Toronto 15 years ago when the Holy Spirit came more powerfully than anyone was used to, transforming people’s lives in amazing ways. He and his grandson are very humble and open people who long to see God’s Kingdom come. We all got to see the love of God poured out over and over everywhere we went—which included people’s homes, village churches, community centers, coffee farms and the airport.
We rented a Toyoto 4x4 pickup that was nearly always packed out with our Honduran colleagues and new, younger people who joined us as we traveled from village to village. John generously provided money so TN could throw two entire village feasts— the first ever that people could remember in both Mal Paso and Las Delicias. Over 200 people showed up for each feast—first to worship and then to hear teaching or participate in a dialogical Bible study. We then invited people in need of healing to come forward.
In Las Delicias it seemed that nearly everyone came forward for prayer—including the village Pentecostal pastor, Catholic lay leaders and many who do not normally participate in church. The first person we prayed for described feeling heat throughout their body and immediate and complete relief from their back and neck pain.
We had this man lay hands on the next person— who experienced the same sense of God’s burning presence and total healing. Immediately we would recruit anyone who was experiencing God’s Presence to help pray for others. It was delightful to watch people witness God’s power flowing through them— effecting change that was immediate and visible. After each healing in Las Delicias we would give a round of applause for Jesus after each testimony. People were so excited to see God moving like this that they didn’t even seem to want to eat.
In several houses where we met and prayed for people we saw person after person experience God’s Presence, which brought healing, peace, joy and new hope.
In one house John showed us how to pray for an older man who had a leg that was over an inch shorter than the other due to a lower back and hip problem. He had the man sit tight against a chair and gently held his legs out as we all prayed. A whole room full of people watched the leg actually adjust out so they matched.
When I returned home I remembered this during a jail Bible study as I was looking at Joe—a strapping young part Native American, Hispanic and Caucasian guy with a Mohawk who stood with shoulders sloping leftward complaining of bad back pain. I had him sit down with his back against the chair—and sure enough one leg was over an inch longer than the other. Seven or so inmates and I gathered around him as I held his legs out and we invited the Holy Spirit. His leg adjusted out to match the other one right there in front of everyone, with guys commenting “it’s efing growing dude, check it out.”
Joe was totally healed and looked shocked and really touched as he noticed his shoulders were level. His fellow inmates told me he talked about all the time until he left for three years in prison last Tuesday.
Last week when I attended a pastors conference in Toronto I got to see the love of God poured out once again in a generous offering taken for Tierra Nueva. $42,000 was given, allowing us to purchase a 16-acre specialty coffee farm that we had visited during our trip. This farm will help sustain Tierra Nueva’s growing house church movement in Honduras (Hogares en Tranformacion) and our Underground Coffee project to help ex-offender and gang members called into ministry here in Washington State. Last week we completed the purchase of this farm and even began our first coffee harvest. You might want to try some of this delicious coffee, which you can order online at www.tierra-nueva.org
Please pray for Angel David as he pastors a growing group of young and older leaders committed to announcing God’s Kingdom- on earth as in heaven from house to house and village to village in Honduras. We want to see a growing harvest of people so delighted by the reality of God’s love streaming into their lives that they can’t resist passing it on.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Finding Steve: A Testimony of Healing and Intercession
Recently an old childhood friend Steve Klippert wrote me an email, recounting to me an amazing story of healing of cancer and diabetes. Somehow I was involved in this healing—but certainly not through any prayers I am consciously aware of praying over him. I had long forgotten this friend from grade school, and hadn’t had any contact for some 40 years. I have been praying quite regularly in the spirit throughout the day and at night for the past year. I have felt compelled to do this as an act of pure faith. I have also been asking God for breakthroughs with diabetes, as many of our immigrant workers here suffer from this. I am very encouraged to see that God is at work and has linked me back together with a friend who is involved in similar work. Here is his amazing testimony of healing and renewal of friendship and a call to pray for Jose’s healing too.
Testimony
My name is Steve Klippert. Shortly after moving hundreds of miles from my home where we’d lived for decades, I became very ill. The original diagnosis was a terminal condition called retroperitoneal sarcoma, a very aggressive cancer, with a death rate within five years. This "mass" abutted my kidney and pancreas. After many tests and procedures, specialists surrendered that they had never seen such a thing and that surgery was necessary. The prognosis was not hopeful and my family and I were given five scenarios: 1. mass too involved with other organs and there was nothing they could do; 2, removal of the pancreas; 3. complete bowel resection; 4. removal of mass and hope for the best; and, 5. systemic metastasis (spreading of malignancy) with hospice to be considered. As the surgeons were mystified at this mass, my wife was on standby in case of complications or need to consent to life changing procedures once the operation began. This operation was scheduled for eight hours, but expected to go longer. As we just moved, we had developed only casual friendships and were still looking for a church that was Christ-driven. We were alone and I was mad. Mad at God for sending me away, scaring me and my family, and I told Him so.
On August 20, 2008, as I was being prepped for surgery, I prayed and I was told to "find Bob". This made little sense to me as I did not know any Bob's, not even any of the surgical team nor their support staff went by this name. My family and I were alone, as we had only made casual friendships in the area and were still looking for a church that was Christ-driven. After surgery I awoke to amazed faces, my wife in tears and my doctors proclaiming that not only did they not find any cancer, but the mass (the size of a lemon) was successfully removed. Furthermore, I was not confined to intensive care.
I immediately got out of bed, a remarkable feat when considering the surgery, the ng (nasal gastric) tube, carotid artery port, catheter, and various machines I was attached, to find "Bob." This was my mission, my quest that had to have an end, a meaning more than just a mere message. I only returned to my bed under the threat of physical restraint. It was that night that I felt the warmth, security and essence of God who told me softly, but firmly that I must find an old school pal that I had not seen or heard from in forty years named Bob Ekblad. This mystified me as I did not know where he was or even if he was alive. Once released, I would try to "find Bob".
On August 25, after several days in hospital I was given solid food and the nurse brought me a regular meal: pancakes with syrup, toast with jelly and a cinnamon roll. I was astonished to see this as I was a diabetic and these sugary delights were forbidden. I ate with the finesse of a toddler, scooping the sappy grape jelly from its plastic hold when a nurse came in screaming: "The doctor forgot to order a special diet. Stop eating, it could kill you!" My blood sugar was taken...normal. They again took my blood sugar...normal. An endocrinologist was summoned and stated my diabetes was cured; he called it a "medical anomaly", I call it God's grace.
Once home, I googled Bob Ekblad, half expecting to find nothing or discover him selling insurance in Omaha. I read about Bob, his work with convicts and how his ministry was similar to mine as I also work with felony offenders.
I currently work for the New York State Department of Corrections in Albany, New York. I am responsible for policy management, implementation of alcohol and substance abuse treatment programs for several State prisons, the most notable is Attica Correctional Facility. Before these administrative efforts, I supervised a staff of 16 counselors and previously was a 'front-line' counselor working with violent felony offenders, many with life terms. I have witnessed the grace of God in many of their lives and I am especially grateful for your [Tierra Nueva’s] community reintegration efforts with those society considers to be the least, last and lost.
I realize how God through his children intercedes in miracles. If you are troubled, "find your Bob" you will not have to look that far.
In response to my question: "why do you think God wanted you to find me?" Steve wrote:
"My thinking is that you provided the answer during our phone call when you stated that you have been praying intensely and anonymously. Perhaps God wants to remind us of the power of intercession and that His will comes to those we do not know or have forgotten; that as flawed and frail humans all of us need some encouragement with something tangible and concrete and that the power of healing is not a myth or parlor game.
My first feelings were denial in "finding Bob". I initially thought it was a result of medication or that I heard somebody looking for "Bob". However, this message was not an echo or aberration; it was set deep within and the more I tried to ignore it, the more life it had. I became frustrated at the lack of clarity... "find Bob". Bob who? How many Bobs did I know? Maybe I thought it was a coded message, but no matter what Bob spelled backwards was still "Bob". Discovering the essence of this meaning became somewhat of an adventure. Every time somebody came into my room I espied their name tags, listened for nicknames or maybe I would be referred to a specialist named "Bob".
For me in my work and continuing relationship with God, I see despair, humans who live life backwards, killing time; the keeper vs. the kept. I dwelt in this environment, adversarial without end, merit or rationale. Faith is not only tested, it is questioned. Christ knows this and He is a pretty funny guy. Here He knows I am lost, feeling abandoned and sets me off on an adventure. Not just an ordinary adventure, but an adventure to "find Bob". Darn slick. Through you which was through Him I am healed, WOW! Not only have I been restored, but my guess is so have you. Could ANYBODY think of a more incredible scenario.. who would have 'thunk'? Imagine me barely able to sit, plucking away at the computer and finding your ministry! It all makes sense.
Here's a challenge- call someone, maybe your parents or a friend, tell them this story. Not that credibility is an issue, but I have all the supporting documentation for those who ask. I feel your hand upon my scar and with that an image of a man sitting on a padded surface (bed or futon like contraption) bent over engulfed in prayer. This will not leave me. I do not debate this, analyze its existence or disguise it in hyperbole. It is a core construct, that which transcends and transmutes all I have known before. I am truly blessed in the spirit and so are you. God touched you to touch me...Bob Ekblad from Bellevue Christian School, the kid who used to keep his ten speed bike in his bedroom. Is NOT Christ the coolest or what!! You know Christ and His father are high fiving over this..what a perfect plan!
He told me: "Steve and Bob, my precious children, I am not done with you yet. You must carry this living gift to all you see, through your healing others will follow. This is my design and now your duty and obligation. I spin stars upon my fingers and cure disease. You are the proof of my everlasting love and mercy".
Praying for Jose
Three weeks ago, Stuart, a friend who owns the little grocery store by our house asked me to visit his Mexican friend Jose. Jose has stomach cancer and diabetes. The doctors have said he won’t live till Christmas. He wants to be sure his wife and children will have his social security benefits once he dies. I visited him and his family, prayed for his healing and anointed the hands of his wife and children with oil to continue praying. At that time Jose couldn’t eat but was fed through a feeding tube that went directly into his stomach. He could hardly get up from his hospice-provided hospital bed in their apartment. Gracie and I just visited them tonight and were startled by the change. Jose was up and eating at table with his family.
“I feel much better. The doctors think I’m eating just a little, but I’m eating a lot,” he said, smiling. His wife said that they have been praying together every night and feel God’s peace.
“Before we never prayed, but all of this is bringing us close to God,” she said. I told them the story of how God healed Steve of cancer in his stomach and diabetes and they were delighted. We were moved by Jose’s visible faith. We gathered around him and together with his wife Maria and three children we prayed for his complete healing.
Please pray for Jose with us—that God would completely heal him and bring others to faith through his testimony.
Testimony
My name is Steve Klippert. Shortly after moving hundreds of miles from my home where we’d lived for decades, I became very ill. The original diagnosis was a terminal condition called retroperitoneal sarcoma, a very aggressive cancer, with a death rate within five years. This "mass" abutted my kidney and pancreas. After many tests and procedures, specialists surrendered that they had never seen such a thing and that surgery was necessary. The prognosis was not hopeful and my family and I were given five scenarios: 1. mass too involved with other organs and there was nothing they could do; 2, removal of the pancreas; 3. complete bowel resection; 4. removal of mass and hope for the best; and, 5. systemic metastasis (spreading of malignancy) with hospice to be considered. As the surgeons were mystified at this mass, my wife was on standby in case of complications or need to consent to life changing procedures once the operation began. This operation was scheduled for eight hours, but expected to go longer. As we just moved, we had developed only casual friendships and were still looking for a church that was Christ-driven. We were alone and I was mad. Mad at God for sending me away, scaring me and my family, and I told Him so.
On August 20, 2008, as I was being prepped for surgery, I prayed and I was told to "find Bob". This made little sense to me as I did not know any Bob's, not even any of the surgical team nor their support staff went by this name. My family and I were alone, as we had only made casual friendships in the area and were still looking for a church that was Christ-driven. After surgery I awoke to amazed faces, my wife in tears and my doctors proclaiming that not only did they not find any cancer, but the mass (the size of a lemon) was successfully removed. Furthermore, I was not confined to intensive care.
I immediately got out of bed, a remarkable feat when considering the surgery, the ng (nasal gastric) tube, carotid artery port, catheter, and various machines I was attached, to find "Bob." This was my mission, my quest that had to have an end, a meaning more than just a mere message. I only returned to my bed under the threat of physical restraint. It was that night that I felt the warmth, security and essence of God who told me softly, but firmly that I must find an old school pal that I had not seen or heard from in forty years named Bob Ekblad. This mystified me as I did not know where he was or even if he was alive. Once released, I would try to "find Bob".
On August 25, after several days in hospital I was given solid food and the nurse brought me a regular meal: pancakes with syrup, toast with jelly and a cinnamon roll. I was astonished to see this as I was a diabetic and these sugary delights were forbidden. I ate with the finesse of a toddler, scooping the sappy grape jelly from its plastic hold when a nurse came in screaming: "The doctor forgot to order a special diet. Stop eating, it could kill you!" My blood sugar was taken...normal. They again took my blood sugar...normal. An endocrinologist was summoned and stated my diabetes was cured; he called it a "medical anomaly", I call it God's grace.
Once home, I googled Bob Ekblad, half expecting to find nothing or discover him selling insurance in Omaha. I read about Bob, his work with convicts and how his ministry was similar to mine as I also work with felony offenders.
I currently work for the New York State Department of Corrections in Albany, New York. I am responsible for policy management, implementation of alcohol and substance abuse treatment programs for several State prisons, the most notable is Attica Correctional Facility. Before these administrative efforts, I supervised a staff of 16 counselors and previously was a 'front-line' counselor working with violent felony offenders, many with life terms. I have witnessed the grace of God in many of their lives and I am especially grateful for your [Tierra Nueva’s] community reintegration efforts with those society considers to be the least, last and lost.
I realize how God through his children intercedes in miracles. If you are troubled, "find your Bob" you will not have to look that far.
In response to my question: "why do you think God wanted you to find me?" Steve wrote:
"My thinking is that you provided the answer during our phone call when you stated that you have been praying intensely and anonymously. Perhaps God wants to remind us of the power of intercession and that His will comes to those we do not know or have forgotten; that as flawed and frail humans all of us need some encouragement with something tangible and concrete and that the power of healing is not a myth or parlor game.
My first feelings were denial in "finding Bob". I initially thought it was a result of medication or that I heard somebody looking for "Bob". However, this message was not an echo or aberration; it was set deep within and the more I tried to ignore it, the more life it had. I became frustrated at the lack of clarity... "find Bob". Bob who? How many Bobs did I know? Maybe I thought it was a coded message, but no matter what Bob spelled backwards was still "Bob". Discovering the essence of this meaning became somewhat of an adventure. Every time somebody came into my room I espied their name tags, listened for nicknames or maybe I would be referred to a specialist named "Bob".
For me in my work and continuing relationship with God, I see despair, humans who live life backwards, killing time; the keeper vs. the kept. I dwelt in this environment, adversarial without end, merit or rationale. Faith is not only tested, it is questioned. Christ knows this and He is a pretty funny guy. Here He knows I am lost, feeling abandoned and sets me off on an adventure. Not just an ordinary adventure, but an adventure to "find Bob". Darn slick. Through you which was through Him I am healed, WOW! Not only have I been restored, but my guess is so have you. Could ANYBODY think of a more incredible scenario.. who would have 'thunk'? Imagine me barely able to sit, plucking away at the computer and finding your ministry! It all makes sense.
Here's a challenge- call someone, maybe your parents or a friend, tell them this story. Not that credibility is an issue, but I have all the supporting documentation for those who ask. I feel your hand upon my scar and with that an image of a man sitting on a padded surface (bed or futon like contraption) bent over engulfed in prayer. This will not leave me. I do not debate this, analyze its existence or disguise it in hyperbole. It is a core construct, that which transcends and transmutes all I have known before. I am truly blessed in the spirit and so are you. God touched you to touch me...Bob Ekblad from Bellevue Christian School, the kid who used to keep his ten speed bike in his bedroom. Is NOT Christ the coolest or what!! You know Christ and His father are high fiving over this..what a perfect plan!
He told me: "Steve and Bob, my precious children, I am not done with you yet. You must carry this living gift to all you see, through your healing others will follow. This is my design and now your duty and obligation. I spin stars upon my fingers and cure disease. You are the proof of my everlasting love and mercy".
Praying for Jose
Three weeks ago, Stuart, a friend who owns the little grocery store by our house asked me to visit his Mexican friend Jose. Jose has stomach cancer and diabetes. The doctors have said he won’t live till Christmas. He wants to be sure his wife and children will have his social security benefits once he dies. I visited him and his family, prayed for his healing and anointed the hands of his wife and children with oil to continue praying. At that time Jose couldn’t eat but was fed through a feeding tube that went directly into his stomach. He could hardly get up from his hospice-provided hospital bed in their apartment. Gracie and I just visited them tonight and were startled by the change. Jose was up and eating at table with his family.
“I feel much better. The doctors think I’m eating just a little, but I’m eating a lot,” he said, smiling. His wife said that they have been praying together every night and feel God’s peace.
“Before we never prayed, but all of this is bringing us close to God,” she said. I told them the story of how God healed Steve of cancer in his stomach and diabetes and they were delighted. We were moved by Jose’s visible faith. We gathered around him and together with his wife Maria and three children we prayed for his complete healing.
Please pray for Jose with us—that God would completely heal him and bring others to faith through his testimony.
Friday, November 14, 2008
The Jesus Pledge: Giving Allegiance to Jesus and the Kingdom of God
On November 4, election day here in the USA, I had the privilege of speaking before some 2,000 students and faculty at Messiah College in Pennsylvania. An orchestra played at the beginning while young women students processed in carrying flags of all the nations. The students lifted high their flags, and I kept thinking that these symbols of national identity were taking people’s focus off the human beings carrying them—made in God’s image and likeness. The girls placed all the flags into stands and I was surprised that the American flag was in the second row, somewhat hidden. After the opening prayer though I opened my eyes to find the flag had crept to the front left corner—the most prominent position. I thought of the first commandment:
“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything… you shall not bow down to them or serve them” (Exod 20:1-4).
The prohibition of images is because human beings are God’s image bearers, created and placed in the temple of God’s creation as those given authority to exercise dominion (Gen 1:27-28; Psalm 8) over all of creation—including the authorities and powers. Moses, the prototype human being in a prophetic role before the powers was to be “as God to Pharaoh” (Exod 7:1).
That morning I spoke on how God had elected each and every one of us, adopting us as beloved sons and daughters. Each of us are made in God’s image and likeness, and Jesus is the perfect embodiment of an empowered bearer of God’s image. He is God’s anointed one, the Messiah/Christ, and God has raised us with Christ and made us sit with him in the heavenly places now (Eph 2:6). Through his Holy Spirit we too receive the anointing, and become little anointed ones (christians or anointlings).
On election day and thereafter, when we may tend to put hope in candidates and even “a new spirit of patriotism” (Obama) I invite people to remember rather that God has chosen each one of us, and is recruiting us and empowering us with the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus to announce his Kingdom, on earth as in heaven.
This does not mean we do not vote or promote structural change. We are called to be advocates for the poor and oppressed, to pray for our leaders and even to submit to them— but never at the expense of our highest allegiance to Jesus and his kingdom. But now is the time to remember that deep change does not happen through elections or legislation but through the process of conversion and empowerment from the bottom up.
In subsequent chapel later last week I introduced the US version of the Jesus Pledge, which I am including below. I encourage you to prayerfully read it and consider joining a group we’ve just set up on my facebook—where we’ve posted an international version of the Jesus Pledge (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49000126270)
The Jesus Pledge
What is the Jesus Pledge? A movement of Christians from the United States who feel compelled at this time to reaffirm our allegiance to Jesus as Lord and Christ, and the cross as God’s way of overcoming evil. We, therefore, give our allegiance to Jesus and the pursuit of God’s kingdom above all else, and renounce allegiances to nation that in any way compromise our calling and identify us with war and the use of force instead of Jesus’ life-giving love displayed in his earthly ministry and in his death for the world on the cross.
Manifesto
We confess that Jesus is Lord, the full revelation of the God of the Old Testament and that before Him every knee will bow. We confess that Jesus is Christ, Israel’s Messiah, and Savior of the world who conquered the power of evil on the cross. We agree with Jesus’ call to undivided allegiance to God: "No one can serve two masters…” (Matt 6:24), and “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…and your neighbor as yourself.” We also reaffirm that: “God so loved the world…” and now sends us with that same love to our society’s outcasts and our country’s enemies. Like Jesus, we must say ‘yes’ to the kingdom of God, and ‘no’ to all allegiances that compromise the furthering of that kingdom.
As followers of Jesus Christ who are citizens of the United States, we are troubled when God’s name is overly identified with our country’s wars and laws through Christians remaining silent or actively promoting them as ordained by God. We believe any union between the name of Jesus and our government and its leaders is both idolatrous and a hindrance to the witness of the Church. Killing our enemies and enforcing dehumanizing laws in the name of God deny Jesus’ call to love our enemies and to join him as a “friend of sinners.” This is the time for genuine, widespread repentance and change.
Pledge
As a follower of Jesus Christ, and in keeping with my baptismal vows:
I renounce allegiances to the world and nation that would lead me to justify the use of violence, war or any type of force that are incompatible with Jesus’ teachings and his witness on the cross. I affirm God’s mission for the Church to serve as ambassadors of the kingdom of God, announcing forgiveness, promoting healing, peace and reconciliation – by loving and blessing those considered our enemies.
I renounce the flesh as it manifests in a spirit of national pride, superiority and self-interest that pursues our nation’s dominance for our own economic and material benefit and security. I affirm that my primary earthly place of belonging, identity and loyalty is in Jesus Christ and his body -- the borderless, worldwide family of God, and embrace his way of humility, service and love of God and neighbor.
I renounce Satan, the accuser and deceiver, and turn from his lie that America is God’s elect ambassador of freedom and Christian values whose mission justifies and requires the sacrifice of human lives. I affirm God’s kingdom as manifested through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and through his Church empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Action
I encourage you to join our group on facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49000126270 and watch for a website we're setting up jesuspledge.com where we want to provide resources to a growing movement of Christians seeking greater faithfulness and commitment.
“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything… you shall not bow down to them or serve them” (Exod 20:1-4).
The prohibition of images is because human beings are God’s image bearers, created and placed in the temple of God’s creation as those given authority to exercise dominion (Gen 1:27-28; Psalm 8) over all of creation—including the authorities and powers. Moses, the prototype human being in a prophetic role before the powers was to be “as God to Pharaoh” (Exod 7:1).
That morning I spoke on how God had elected each and every one of us, adopting us as beloved sons and daughters. Each of us are made in God’s image and likeness, and Jesus is the perfect embodiment of an empowered bearer of God’s image. He is God’s anointed one, the Messiah/Christ, and God has raised us with Christ and made us sit with him in the heavenly places now (Eph 2:6). Through his Holy Spirit we too receive the anointing, and become little anointed ones (christians or anointlings).
On election day and thereafter, when we may tend to put hope in candidates and even “a new spirit of patriotism” (Obama) I invite people to remember rather that God has chosen each one of us, and is recruiting us and empowering us with the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus to announce his Kingdom, on earth as in heaven.
This does not mean we do not vote or promote structural change. We are called to be advocates for the poor and oppressed, to pray for our leaders and even to submit to them— but never at the expense of our highest allegiance to Jesus and his kingdom. But now is the time to remember that deep change does not happen through elections or legislation but through the process of conversion and empowerment from the bottom up.
In subsequent chapel later last week I introduced the US version of the Jesus Pledge, which I am including below. I encourage you to prayerfully read it and consider joining a group we’ve just set up on my facebook—where we’ve posted an international version of the Jesus Pledge (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49000126270)
The Jesus Pledge
What is the Jesus Pledge? A movement of Christians from the United States who feel compelled at this time to reaffirm our allegiance to Jesus as Lord and Christ, and the cross as God’s way of overcoming evil. We, therefore, give our allegiance to Jesus and the pursuit of God’s kingdom above all else, and renounce allegiances to nation that in any way compromise our calling and identify us with war and the use of force instead of Jesus’ life-giving love displayed in his earthly ministry and in his death for the world on the cross.
Manifesto
We confess that Jesus is Lord, the full revelation of the God of the Old Testament and that before Him every knee will bow. We confess that Jesus is Christ, Israel’s Messiah, and Savior of the world who conquered the power of evil on the cross. We agree with Jesus’ call to undivided allegiance to God: "No one can serve two masters…” (Matt 6:24), and “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…and your neighbor as yourself.” We also reaffirm that: “God so loved the world…” and now sends us with that same love to our society’s outcasts and our country’s enemies. Like Jesus, we must say ‘yes’ to the kingdom of God, and ‘no’ to all allegiances that compromise the furthering of that kingdom.
As followers of Jesus Christ who are citizens of the United States, we are troubled when God’s name is overly identified with our country’s wars and laws through Christians remaining silent or actively promoting them as ordained by God. We believe any union between the name of Jesus and our government and its leaders is both idolatrous and a hindrance to the witness of the Church. Killing our enemies and enforcing dehumanizing laws in the name of God deny Jesus’ call to love our enemies and to join him as a “friend of sinners.” This is the time for genuine, widespread repentance and change.
Pledge
As a follower of Jesus Christ, and in keeping with my baptismal vows:
I renounce allegiances to the world and nation that would lead me to justify the use of violence, war or any type of force that are incompatible with Jesus’ teachings and his witness on the cross. I affirm God’s mission for the Church to serve as ambassadors of the kingdom of God, announcing forgiveness, promoting healing, peace and reconciliation – by loving and blessing those considered our enemies.
I renounce the flesh as it manifests in a spirit of national pride, superiority and self-interest that pursues our nation’s dominance for our own economic and material benefit and security. I affirm that my primary earthly place of belonging, identity and loyalty is in Jesus Christ and his body -- the borderless, worldwide family of God, and embrace his way of humility, service and love of God and neighbor.
I renounce Satan, the accuser and deceiver, and turn from his lie that America is God’s elect ambassador of freedom and Christian values whose mission justifies and requires the sacrifice of human lives. I affirm God’s kingdom as manifested through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and through his Church empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Action
I encourage you to join our group on facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49000126270 and watch for a website we're setting up jesuspledge.com where we want to provide resources to a growing movement of Christians seeking greater faithfulness and commitment.
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