The Nature of Time and Prayer.

So I was thinking about the nature of time. 


We experience time in two dimensions, it is linear, travelling from the past to the future. But God is outside of our time/space continuum. He sees the entirety of our history from start to finish in one glance. He knows all our choices, he knows when to send those little 'nudges' to help us choose to move onto a more upward path. We (or at least I) don't always choose well but at least when we look back we can't say that "God didn't try."


So then I was thinking about prayer. We ask God to bless us, to help us to guide us, protect us and to do all manner of things for us. And, we know that whenever we pray according to those things He has promised we can be assured that whatever we have prayed for will be granted.


Then I started wondering if we can pray retrospectively ... "God I made a bad choice there, can you change my past?" Ok, I know that the past is set, what has happened has happened and there is no going back, but maybe our current prayers can influence the size of the nudges God sent in the past to help us with our choices? 


Given that God can see all of time, maybe God can say something like, "I have permission to work more strongly in Cat's life now (when she is not walking with me) because I know in her future she will ask me to keep my hand over the earlier events of her life. I will work now on the knowledge that she will make this request. 


Scripture tells us;

And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.Isaiah 65:24

I'm not trying to build a theology here just recording some of my random musings. Would be interested to hear your musings on my musings ;-)

Cameron James

Today one of my friends passed into the arms of the Lord. To sleep for a little while until Jesus comes again.


Things I Will Miss About Cameron:

1. Discovering that after he stayed at my home in Palmerston North my herd of cats had grown from 2 to 4. He invited the next door neighbour kittens in when I wasn't looking. And they wouldn't leave just because he did.
2. Beating him at poker and taking all his chips! Only happened twice - but I shall miss having the opportunity to do it again.
3. Arguing over the exact meaning of any applicable rule in any game we happened to be playing.
4. The fact that he knew the location of every Burger King in Auckland and probably New Zealand.
5. That he actually thought about stuff and once he made up his mind on something he didn't let the opinions of other sway him.

And many more things.


I knew I would probably not see him again when I left New Zealand to come to Korea but somehow that does not make it any easier right now. 


However we have this promise;

"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 

1 Thessalonians 4:15-17

Ice Noodles aka Naengmyoen

I just had my first meal of ice noodles. And I liked it!!

Basically Ice Noodles is a bowl of crushed ice with buckwheat noodles and some radish and half an egg and other flavourings. The ice melts making a soup. Surprisingly tasty!

Went out for lunch with some students, and had a lovely time. Even though I was a little dubious about the food to begin with. One of my students wrote down the name of the dish for me in Korean and was very patient while I figured out how to write it in English for my accent. So that I can order it again on my own. :-D

Rahab

Hmmmmmm, so I started writing about Joshua for this weeks Vespers and it morphed into a two part something about Rahab and Faith.

Here is my offering for this week. I'm doing Vespers again next week and plan to do the second part of the Rahab story and link it up with Salvation. Will post it when I finish writing it.

(PS The strange formatting is to show where the breaks are to allow for translation.)

Rahab

Tonight I’m going to tell you half of a story next week I shall tell you the other half of the story.

This is the story of a woman with a great heart.

A woman who showed great faith in Gods promises and power – even though the promises were not given directly to her.

A woman who acted courageously according to her faith in God’s promises, in spite of personal risk and cultural priorities.

A woman named Rahab.

She lived in a huge impregnable city called Jericho. Like everyone in that city she had grown used to living in fear.

Over the years the people of the city have seen the working of the Israelite God.

It began almost precisely forty years ago, when traders and travellers started to arrive from the Empire of Egypt.

The tales the travellers brought were incredible, unbelievable and true.

They told how the God of a small land-less tribe of slaves had destroyed the mightiest nation in the world.

They said He gave every person in the country boils.

They said He sent plagues of frogs and lice, flies and locusts.

They said He turned the Nile River into blood.

They said He caused the sun to stop shinning for days on end.

They said He killed the cattle in the field – but only if it belonged to an Egyptian.

They said He destroyed the harvest and other animals with lightning and hail.

And eventually, they said He killed the first born son of every Egyptian family in the Empire – including the firstborn Son of the Pharaoh, the God King of the Egyptians.

And the stories told that in all this trouble the Israelites were not harmed.

With every story the people of Jericho trembled a little more, worried a little more, became a little more afraid.

Then came the news that the Pharaoh had finally given in to the demands of the Israelite leader, Moses, and had allowed this ragtag group of slaves to leave.

Then the two ultimate pieces of bad news came together.

First, Egypt was destroyed – Pharaoh had changed his mind and taken his army to recapture his slaves and this God had drowned them all, Pharaoh and his army, in the red sea.

Second, that God of fearful power had declared He was leading those slaves to a country that He was going to give them, and that country was Canaan, and Jericho was the first city inside the border of Canaan.

Exodus 23:20,31

“See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared ...  My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out ... I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you.”

For the next forty years the people of Jericho followed the fortunes of the Israelites, as they wandered in the desert, being lead and melded into a nation by their God.

There was news of mighty miracles, of an abundance of food, of victories over their enemies.

And with each new story the inhabitants of Jericho become more afraid.

Now the Israelites were camped on the banks of the Jordan river waiting for instructions from their God to cross to   Jericho’s side.

And the people in Jericho are terrified.

All except for Rahab.

Rahab was born during the time the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness.

She grew up listening to the stories of the Israelites exodus from Egypt.

She almost daily heard the news of their travels through the desert

and while the rest of the city became more and more afraid, Rahab became more and more intrigued.

Here was a God with power, a God she could respect, a God who obviously cared for His followers, a God she was attracted to and wanted to know.

At the time of this story Rahab had grown up, she was an adult, and she owned her own establishment.

An inn built into the walls of Jericho, where she supplied weary travellers with the necessities of life, food, rest, gossip and women.

On her roof top she also dyed flax and spun her own red cord for trade.

By the standards of her time she was a successful business woman.

By the standards of Israel she was an immoral woman, a prostitute, doomed to destruction like the rest of the pagan Canaanites.

One day she was going about business as usual when two travellers knocked on her door requesting lodging.

They took the offered food, the rest and the gossip but refused the women.

Rahab quickly realises that these men were different, they were Israelites.

And then there was another knock on her door.

It was the Kings Soldiers.

She was not the only one who had recognised the identity of these men.

And in that moment Rahab had to choose,

would she be a patriot and denounce these men to the soldiers, see that they were arrested and killed for spying?

or would she act on the attraction she had to the Israelite God?

Put her trust in the walls of Jericho to protect her from the Israelites?

Or in the God of the Israelites to protect her from the King and his Soldiers?

Rahab made her choice,

she called to the soldiers that she would be right with them and she hustled the men upstairs to her roof where she hid them under piles of flaxes dyed blood red that were drying on the roof.

Then she ran back down the stairs and tells the lies that turn her into a traitor to everything she has lived with her entire life.

The lies that aligned her future with the Israelites and with their God.

“The men were here,” she said, “but they have gone, and they went that way.” She pointed in the direction of the Jordan River where the rest of the Israelites are camping

The soldiers hurried in the direction she pointed and Rahab went back upstairs to bargain with the spies.

She knew she had just destroyed any future she had in Jericho, but she also believed that the God of the Israelites was going to destroy Jericho,

she believed his promises to the Israelite nation, she believed in His power to fulfil those promises and she believed in and His intention to fulfil those promises.

She did four specific things: (Joshua 2:9-11)

1.       “I know that the LORD has given you this land” - She made a statement of Faith,

to all appearances’ the Israelites are still a ragtag tribe without a home, while Jericho is a huge stone city with walls to protect them from all their enemies.

But, she knew the promises God had made to the Israelites

and she believed those promises in spite of appearances’

and she took those promises for herself.

2.       “We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.”

She based her faith on the way God had acted in the past to fulfil other promises He had made.

3.       “for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.”

She acknowledged that God is God, over all.

4.       Then she acted on that faith and she protected Gods Spies when they are sent to her establishment.

Did God honour her for following the tiny bit of truth she knew about Him? Even though most of her lifestyle was directly in opposition to his way of doing things?

Yes He did! He saved her and all her family from the destruction of Jericho – I shall tell you that story next week.

God has given us many great and precious promises in the Bible, we can take those promises and claim them for ourselves.

Like Rahab we follow the steps of faith:

1.       We can claim God’s promises and expect God to do what He has said He will do.  – Even though it does not look possible in our eyes.

2.       We can base this faith on how we have seen God work in the lives of others, people in the Bible and people in our own time.

3.       We can acknowledge that God is over all

4.       And we can act on our beliefs to the best of our ability.

When we do this God has promised to bless us beyond anything we can possibly imagine.

Ephesians 3:20
“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,”

Psalms 103:12

“As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.“

Deuteronomy 31:6
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Read God’s word, claim all the promises you find.

Claim them in faith based on the fact that God is the creator and has already displayed His power and care in the lives of others so we know He will do the same for us.

Then watch to see them fulfilled in your life.

Randomness, Daegu and Other Stuff

Did you know that the word 'were' rhymes with 'her', 'sir' and 'fur'? and none of them are spelled the same?? Seriously shouldn't they be 'wer', 'her', 'ser' and 'fer'?? That would make more sense ... But No!!

Did I mention the word ridiculous?? Because I'm thinking it very very loudly :-)

What to talk about?

Well in about half an hour I am going to teach my babies classes. I never thought I would say this but they are almost becoming my favourites - too cute. Specially Harry and Sally, the 5 year olds. When I ask Harry a question he will sit there silently figuring out the answer and then suddenly one hand flies up into the air, "aha" he announces. And I know he has determined the answer. However I must wait to hear it, as he insists on getting out of his chair and standing up before he will answer any question. - And, the chair is almost half as big as he is, so this is not the fastest of events :-) I'm never quite sure how he gets his answers, they are generally right but it seems like inspiration just slides into his head at the appropriate moment.

With Sally on the other hand I can see her mind working as she works out her answers, I put a word for hangman on the board, she'll count the letters - methodically but fast. Then you can see here eyes moving as she runs down a mental list of the words for the week - which ones have that number of letters? She suggests some experimental letters and quickly narrows down the options of words available - and she's only five. The mental processing is way above her age. It's quite delightful to watch.

But all the kids are great - I even enjoy the naughty ones - while I make them come and park their chairs right next to me with their backs to the rest of the class.

Came into class last Thursday and one of the teeny tiny girls gives me a sticky lolly that she has obviously been clutching in her hand for at least the last half hour, waiting for her chance to solemnly present it to me.

Last week I was in the supper market and I saw one of the girls - I don't even teach her - just say hello as I walk between classes. She waved excitedly and tugged on her Mum's arm to point me out - and then a couple of minutes later come running over to give me cookies.

The motivation for learning here is very much extrinsic  - these kids will do just about anything for stickers. And some stickers are better than others. I generally take a selection of stickers to class, and make sure I have a couple of different ones on the ends of my fingers for them to choose from. Girls like the sparkly shiny stickers, boys are more interested in  what the pictures are. But there are some exceptions. I had sparkly hearts and world flags the other day. Sally very deliberately chose the flags, each time she would examine them closely and say the name of the country that they came from a couple of times before placing it carefully on her sticker page. I got the distinct feeling that I was giving her precious jewels. Today I am taking smiley faces and dinosaurs. (My sticker collection is becoming quite extensive.)

Another student story - but this is from one of my adult classes. I was taking the roll one morning and inadvertently spoonerised one of the students names with that of another student. Hillary was the last student on the list so when I got to Sally (Sally is a very popular name) I call out 'Sillary' - the students look me blankly and I look at them just as blanky - 'What was that that just came out of my mouth?' I'm wondering - and then before any of us can correct the mistake Hillary says "I'm changing my name, from now on I'm going to be Hally" The funny, amazing thing is that Hillary who is the worst English speaker in the class worked out what I had done before I or anybody else did.

This last weekend I had my first 'Out Of Seoul' experience. Caught a bus and went to visit a couple of girlfriends in Daegu. Got off the bus at 7pm and there was no-one there to meet me. I looked around blankly - where was Luleka and Londie??? Oh no what if I got on the wrong bus and I've ended up in the wrong city? It will be dark soon - it's starting to rain and I have nowhere to stay. Panic was starting to put out feelers when my cell phone rang, "Where are you?" Turns out I was in the right city but there is more than one bus stop - at least three in fact, and each of us were at a different one. Londie and Luleka got together first and then with the help of some friendly Koreans who spoke 'semi-English' I was able to join them. This involved as each giving our phones to the 'semi-English' speakers who then talked in 100% Korean to each other and then 'my Korean' told me "taxi, taxi" and wrote the name of my destination in my diary. Eventually we were united safely and had a fantastic time. God is very good and His timing is perfect. We didn't do very much, mainly sat around the apartment and indulged in girl talk - And took lots of photos - will post the best of them to face book :-)

The Sabbath Sermon was all English, no translation - at the speakers request, a pastor from the division office, he preached twice, once in Korean and once in English. So nice. I'm finding I lose the thread of a sermon easily during the Korean translation portion of the sermon. It is important that I take notes during the sermon to help me stay focused. And websites like AudioVerse become more important.

One thing I noticed while travelling to Daegu is that Korea is very hilly - kind of like the Parapara's north of Wanganui. But while we make very windy roads that hug the curves of the hills, in Korea they just cut right through and make straight roads that are easy to drive on.  And then in every spare bit of land that is flat enough there is food growing, rice paddies, orchards, small greenhouses, even right up next to the motorway in land that we would consider to be part of the verge.

Another thing I saw - you know the people that hold the 'danger men at work' signs - well here they are not people they are maniquins - guess they don't have to pay them danger money.

And when we pulled into the rest area almost every car in the car park was white, grey or black. So then I had to do some quantitative studies - these results are very rough, but from my observations of random representative sample - the cars driving next to the bus on the motorway - it would appear that of 100 cars 94 are black, grey or white, 3 are red, 2 are blue and one is some other colour.

And on that scientific note I will leave you to contemplate the boringness of car colouration in Korea. But am planning to log on again in the next 24 hours and tell you my thoughts about Joshua and the Fall of Jericho.

Victory Conditions

I've stopped calling my daily 'must do' lists 'To Do ...' lists. Now I head them up with 'Victory Conditions!' This list is the list of things I want to accomplish in the day! Just love the sound of the words and concepts they inspire in my mind. Try saying them out loud - 'Victory Conditions,' makes you feel energised and successful just to say them. And crossing something off the list - is so much more fulfilling - turns a common task into a winning strategy.

Last Sunday I set out with a mission. A destination on my mind. This morning I set out with the same mission and destination beckoning me. Last week I got lost and had an adventure! This week I was successful and luxuriated in my favourite things!!

I've discovered that as long as I can find a subway station then Seoul is my oyster and I can go anywhere. Also if you go to a shop like Starbucks or Subway or another American franchise there is normally someone behind the counter with enough English to point you in the direction of the closest subway station - and seeing as I'm on foot I never get too far away from them anyway.

So for the last two Sundays Victory Conditions have been: Find Lush (my favourite bath supply shop in the entire world), and find that book store! On the middle Sunday of orientation we went to a book store and I saw a Lush - but saddly was not allowed to visit it. Was determined to find them again. Last week I looked at the map - tried to figure out approximately where I thought Lush was and aimed my steps in that direction from the nearest Subway stop. Took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in Insadong by accident. Insadong is a place that lots of people have told me I must visit - kind of a Tourist Market type place. Totally enjoyed my adventure - pictures and stories to be posted in my Facebook 'Korea' album/s.

Today I decide to take another approach - figured out how to get to the station closest to the giant shell and then retraced our steps from that Sunday. Only got distracted a few time. Just as I got to the point where I was realising that I actually had no idea where we had gone from there on that Sunday (probably because I was either talking or trying to take photo's while following everybody and not getting lost all at the same time, or something) I got distracted again and by happy serendipity my distraction ended right across the road from a Subway sandwich shop. The same Subway sandwich shop from which I had seen Lush on that Sunday. 'Ah ha' says I, and turning a full 360 degree circle I discovered Lush only a few metres from where I was standing.

Spent a wonderful 5 mins in the shop smelling everything I could lay my hands on. And didn't spend too much money. Would have stayed longer and possibly spent more money but the sales girl insisted on following me around and telling me about every product I touched or looked at. Even though I told her I was very familiar with Lush and it's products.

Then the boy at Starbucks pointed me in the direction of the Bookshop - 'turn right at the end of the lane go down to the underground shopping centre and walk the short distance to shop!' Following his very accurate directions resulted in me spending a wonderful hour and a half dipping into all sorts of books in the English language section while trying to decide which ones to buy. Was very controlled - only bought two. So many good books and so little room in my suitcase. And remember I can justify my reading as professional development!!!!! :-D And not a single sales assistant came anywhere near me - even though I was sitting on the ground luxuriating in the printed word.

Since I've gotten home I have been making an impressive use of gravity and read several chapters of the first book. "The Other Wes Moore" is a biography/autobiography of two Wes Moore's. Young men with the same name, who are only months different in ages, who grew up in very similar homes, only streets apart but did not know each other. One is now a highly successful scholar and author. The other is in prison for life for murder. What made the difference?

Am currently forcing myself to take a break from the book - don't want to use up all the words on the first day :-)

The other book I got is "Tuesdays with Morrie." Been wanting to read that for a while. Again an autobiography type book about a young man who visits an old man who knows he is dying every Tuesday for a number of weeks leading up to his death. The book is about the insights the young man receives as a result of these visits.

Not sure what I shall do with these when I've finished - would love to keep them but the suitcase problem is a very real issue - if I can't lift the suitcase then it's not going to get on the plane - darn that weight allowance!! Wonder if there is some kind of book club where people donate a book or two to a common pool and then get to swap reading material - if there is I wonder how I would find it? And if not then how to start one?? Something to think about - professional development remember :-D

Turns out that last week I was only one block away from my desired destination, lol, but I'm actually glad I got lost. Wouldn't have missed last weeks adventures for anything.

Now I'm going to go use up a few more of those words, before heading off to bed. Night all!!!! XOXOX

English Is A Ridiculous Language!!!!!

I have been learning so much about English since I have been teaching it. Today I learned that there are three different ways of pronouncing ‘ed’ when it is on the end of words.

1. As a ‘t’ like in stopped, where what we actually say is ‘stopt’.
2. As a ‘d’ like in joined, where we say ‘joind’.
3. As ‘id’ like in needed – these are the only ones that sound something like they are spelt.

 Ridiculous!!!!!

And a week or two back I discovered that there are at least 3 ways of spelling the ‘f’ sound. And only one of them involves the letter f!

Ridiculous!!!!!!!

No wonder I never figured out spelling. (Personally I am very thankful to the person who invented the zigzag red line in Word!)

Something else we were warned about during orientation is that your English degenerates if you do not purposely maintain it. Because you spend so much time ‘t a l k i n g    s l o w l y’ (which is very very hard for me) and using teeny tiny words of one syllable or less ;-) that you forget any extended vocabulary you might have had because of disuse. I have heard this with my own two ears from other teachers who have been here longer than I have. They speak to each other at times as if they were all ESOL students. Scary!!!!

The proposed solution for this problem is to read, a lot! :-D  Imagine my joy on discovering that I can consider reading to be professional development!!!!!!! Plus this is another justification towards buying that iphone I want. Portable library. Nothing beats a real book in the hand – except when you’re trying to sneak it past the people weighing your bags at the airport. There are only so many books you can squeeze in a suitcase before it becomes too heavy to lift off the ground. (Ask me how I know this...)

I suspect that writing also falls into this category, because when one is writing one is calling on that extended vocabulary while crafting sentences.  Therefore writing this blog can also be considered to be professional development.

And on that happy thought I am off to bed to dream about books and blogs. J