Thom Wolf

My friend Andrew Jones at Tallskinnykiwi wrote a tribute to Thom Wolf today, my professor when I was in seminary in San Francisco. If you've known me for long you've probably heard me talk about this man. He was really influential in my life as he downloaded a passion within me for people and the nations. God used him to link together things that were in me with incredible truth from the world and the Bible. I might start posting some of his teachings here to get them out in print so that others can see them and use them.

One story about Bro. Thom: He taught this class when I was at Golden Gate called Into to Mission. Bro. Thom was coming up from L.A. every week and it was pretty hard for him to be organized. The first hour of class, all of the students kept asking him questions about things like assignments, papers, tests, etc. They kept asking question after question, and with great patience, he kept answering. This paper is do this day, the test is this day. You know how it goes. Well, after he was not able to teach at all for the first hour, he decided to take a break. After we got back from the break, he had only about 30 minutes to teach and it was the most amazing lecture on the gospel and it's worldwide impact. The only sad part was that we have wasted 2/3 of the class NOT hearing him teach because everyone was focused on the assignments instead of the content. He is a great teacher. Anyway, just a few thoughts about Bro. Thom.

Thinking About Jesus

It is amazing how much complaining I do. No kidding, you would think lots of times that I have it worse than anyone. Something is wrong with this. Something is wrong with that. I really get tired of hearing myself sometimes focus on the negative. Now, I'm even complaining about complaining! This is why any reflection on Jesus is so refreshing, startling, and convicting. I really am so blessed and have nothing to complain about. I read today something really interesting about Jesus in Mark 15:16-21 as he is getting ready to be crucified. It goes like this:

And the soldiers took Him away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium), and they called together the whole Roman cohort. And they dressed Him up in purple, and after weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on Him; and they began to acclaim Him, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and they kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting at Him, and kneeling and bowing before HIm. And after they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, and put His garments on Him. And they led Him out to crucify Him.

That kind of puts it into perspective. Jesus had done nothing but bless people and show them true, eternal life. But, they mocked him, persecuted him, and humiliated him. He never complained. He never cursed them. He just looked to the Father's will. What an example, and not only that, but He lives His life through me. I can be that way because of the power that Jesus gives me. This is why I can rejoice in Him at all times, no matter what I am going through. I praise you Jesus, because you took my punishment, bore my pain, and suffered for me so that I could be free and find hope, life, and meaning in you. When I have that perspective, I have nothing to complain about!

What Bush Got Right

O.K. This is getting really interesting. Newsweek has a really interesting article about how Bush might have had it right all along in the Middle East. This is what I was talking about last week. We truly live in interesting times.

Knowing God Through Affliction

I read this the other day at a real opportune time. I thought it would be good to post it here to remind us that even when things seem like they are really hard, God is leading us and revealing Himself. This is by Charles Spurgeon, a great preacher in London in the 1800's.

"I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction."
— Isa 48:10
Comfort thyself, tried believer, with this thought: God saith, "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." Does not the word come like a soft shower, assuaging the fury of the flame? Yea, is it not an asbestos armour, against which the heat hath no power? Let affliction come—God has chosen me. Poverty, thou mayst stride in at my door, but God is in the house already, and He has chosen me. Sickness, thou mayst intrude, but I have a balsam ready—God has chosen me. Whatever befalls me in this vale of tears, I know that He has "chosen" me. If, believer, thou requirest still greater comfort, remember that you have the Son of Man with you in the furnace. In that silent chamber of yours, there sitteth by your side One whom thou hast not seen, but whom thou lovest; and ofttimes when thou knowest it not, He makes all thy bed in thy affliction, and smooths thy pillow for thee. Thou art in poverty; but in that lovely house of thine the Lord of life and glory is a frequent visitor. He loves to come into these desolate places, that He may visit thee. Thy friend sticks closely to thee. Thou canst not see Him, but thou mayst feel the pressure of His hands. Dost thou not hear His voice? Even in the valley of the shadow of death He says, "Fear not, I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God." Remember that noble speech of Caesar: "Fear not, thou carriest Caesar and all his fortune." Fear not, Christian; Jesus is with thee. In all thy fiery trials, His presence is both thy comfort and safety. He will never leave one whom He has chosen for His own. "Fear not, for I am with thee," is His sure word of promise to His chosen ones in the "furnace of affliction." Wilt thou not, then, take fast hold of Christ, and say—
"Through floods and flames, if Jesus lead,
I'll follow where He goes."

NY Times Coming Around on Middle East?

In an historic editorial on March 1, the New York Times actually, somewhat, kinda praised the Bush foreign policy in the Middle East by saying that it seemed to be working as the winds of democracy were blowing all across the region. They cite the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, the democratic elections in Iraq, and possible moves to democratic elections in Egypt as signs that the times are a changin'. I am reprinting the whole article here because I think that it is really interesting, especially when you consider that the Times has spewed hatred and vitriol toward the Iraq war and the Bush Administration in unbelievable ways over the past 4 years. Could it be that Bush has been right all along? Could it be that the best way to go after terrorism is to create change and spread democracy in the Middle East? Could God be answering the prayers of so many who have prayed that the Middle East and the 10/40 Window open up like the rest of the world has? We live in amazing times. This is a long one, but the purpose of this site is to chronicle how God may be working outside of churchy ways. Normally I would just create a link to the article, but NY Times links go dead after a couple of days and I wanted to save this for posterity. Read for yourself:

Mideast Climate Change Published: March 1, 2005

It's not even spring yet, but a long-frozen political order seems to be cracking all over the Middle East. Cautious hopes for something new and better are stirring along the Tigris and the Nile, the elegant boulevards of Beirut, and the impoverished towns of the Gaza Strip. It is far too soon for any certainties about ultimate outcomes. In Iraq, a brutal insurgency still competes for headlines with post-election democratic maneuvering. Yesterday a suicide bomber plowed into a crowd of Iraqi police and Army recruits, killing at least 122 people - the largest death toll in a single such bombing since the American invasion nearly two years ago. And the Palestinian terrorists who blew up a Tel Aviv nightclub last Friday underscored the continuing fragility of what has now been almost two months of steady political and diplomatic progress between Israelis and Palestinians.

Still, this has so far been a year of heartening surprises - each one remarkable in itself, and taken together truly astonishing. The Bush administration is entitled to claim a healthy share of the credit for many of these advances. It boldly proclaimed the cause of Middle East democracy at a time when few in the West thought it had any realistic chance. And for all the negative consequences that flowed from the American invasion of Iraq, there could have been no democratic elections there this January if Saddam Hussein had still been in power. Washington's challenge now lies in finding ways to nurture and encourage these still fragile trends without smothering them in a triumphalist embrace.

Lebanon's political reawakening took a significant new turn yesterday when popular protests brought down the pro-Syrian government of Prime Minister Omar Karami. Syria's occupation of Lebanon, nearly three decades long, started tottering after the Feb. 14 assassination of the country's leading independent politician, the former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

If Damascus had a hand in this murder, as many Lebanese suspect, it had a boomerang effect on Lebanon's politics. Instead of intimidating critics of Syria's dominant role, it inflamed them. To stem the growing backlash over the Hariri murder, last week Syria announced its intentions to pull back its occupation forces to a region near the border - although without offering any firm timetable. Yesterday, with protests continuing, the pro-Syrian cabinet resigned. Washington, in an unusual alliance with France, continues to press for full compliance with the Security Council's demand for an early and complete Syrian withdrawal. That needs to happen promptly. Once Syria is gone, Hezbollah, which has engaged in international terrorism under Syrian protection, must either confine itself to peaceful political activity or be shut down.

Last weekend's surprise announcement of plans to hold at least nominally competitive presidential elections in Egypt could prove even more historic, although many of the specific details seem likely to be disappointing. Egypt is the Arab world's most populous country and one of its most politically influential. In more than five millenniums of recorded history, it has never seen a truly free and competitive election.

To be realistic, Egypt isn't likely to see one this year either. For all his talk of opening up the process, President Hosni Mubarak, 76, is likely to make sure that no threatening candidates emerge to deny him a fifth six-year term. But after seeing more than eight million Iraqis choose their leaders in January, Egypt's voters, and its increasingly courageous opposition movement, will no longer retreat into sullen hopelessness so readily. The Bush administration has helped foster that feeling of hope for a democratic future by keeping the pressure on Mr. Mubarak. But the real heroes are on-the-ground patriots like Ayman Nour, who founded a new party aptly named Tomorrow last October and is now in jail. If Mr. Mubarak truly wants more open politics, he should free Mr. Nour promptly.

It is similarly encouraging that the terrorists who attacked a Tel Aviv nightclub on Friday, killing five Israelis, have not yet managed to completely scuttle the new peace dynamic between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Israel contends that those terrorists were sponsored by Syria, but its soldiers reported discovering an explosives-filled car in the West Bank yesterday. The good news is that the leaders on both sides did not instantly retreat to familiar corners in angry rejectionism. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the new Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, have proved they can work together to thwart terrorism and deny terrorists an instant veto over progress toward a negotiated peace.

Over the past two decades, as democracies replaced police states across Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America, and a new economic dynamism lifted hundreds of millions of eastern and southern Asia out of poverty and into the middle class, the Middle East stagnated in a perverse time warp that reduced its brightest people to hopelessness or barely contained rage. The wonder is less that a new political restlessness is finally visible, but that it took so long to break through the ice.