June 2006 Archives

The Greenville News (SC) carried this article about two former students of mine. They are taking off six months to hike the Appalachian Trail. I ate lunch with Joel's dad yesterday. He's going to help me connect with them once they make into Pennsylvania. The plan is to give them a couple night's rest in our home.

Radical steps: Appalachian Trail hike is trip of a lifetime for Greenville couple
Published: Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 6:00 am

By Mike Foley STAFF WRITER (mfoley@greenvillenews.com)

When is it a good time to quit your job? To move out of your apartment? Cancel phone service, leave friends and family behind, and not worry about anything except the simple task of daily living? Oh yeah, and travel 2,175 miles, step by step by step. Jessica and Joel Koontz decided the time is now. “If we’re going to do something radical,” said Joel, looking at his wife of 20 months for a nod of acquiescence two days before they left to through-hike the Appalachian Trail, “we have to do it now.”
It’s an awesome task the Greenville residents set for themselves. Jessica and Joel — 23 and 25, respectively — figure the trail will give them time to think, a chance to plan their young lives, to become closer to God, prepare them for whatever life may hold and offer a physical challenge.
“At first, I had no desire to do the Appalachian Trail,” Jessica said. “I wanted to take a trip to Europe.”

When they measured costs — and figured six months of hiking would cost about the same as one month overseas — Jessica warmed to the idea. Her fate was sealed when a good friend of the couple’s sat them down and told them about his own through-hike on the epic trail.

It helped a little when the two won an essay contest to field test new backpacks for outdoors gear company Mountain Hardware. That earned them $800 in gear. It also helped when they found someone to sublet their apartment.

“The way this has all fallen together has been remarkable,” Joel said. “From winning backpacks, to subletting our apartment and being able to leave our furniture there, it’s been pretty obvious to us that this is what we’re supposed to be doing.”

That just left quitting their jobs, getting in shape, buying about $2,000 more in gear, planning a six-month trek through the wilderness and oh yeah, gaining weight.

Since many people lose weight along the trail due to the number of calories burned every day and because you have to carry all the food you’ll eat on your back, trail veterans advised them to gain weight before they left.

Ice cream and super-sized meals became their best friends.

Probably most important, they began to mentally prepare.

“We thought this was going to be a very isolated trip,” Jessica said. “But when we started to learn more about the trail, we saw how social it is.”

They started the trip June 3, doing the southward route from the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail at Mount Katahdin in Maine toward the southern exit at Spring Mountain, Ga. Along the way they’ll pass through 14 states, taking about 5 million steps.

They’ll encounter both extreme wilderness and many small towns that cater to hikers along the nation’s longest marked footpath.

In these small cities and towns, they can pick up provisions they’ve arranged to be mailed to them, including goodies from Starbucks, Joel’s former employer, and Great Harvest Bread Company, where Jessica worked.

They’re taking few luxuries, measuring every ounce of what they’ll carry to make the lightest load possible and even cutting their toothbrushes in half. Joel’s filled pack weighs in at slightly more than 19 pounds; Jessica’s is three pounds lighter. But that doesn’t count food and water.

“It will get lighter as we go,” Joel explained, saying they need some warmer clothes for the first 200-plus miles in Maine where temperatures can dip below freezing, even during the summer. Still, they’ve taken a few luxuries.

Joel’s taking along a French press to help feed his coffee addiction and a thick copy of “A Confederacy of Dunces” to read, while Jessica insisted on bringing a large supply of gel hand sanitizer.

Another luxury is two scheduled breaks along the way, one for a wedding just two weeks into their hike and another for a family reunion in August.

In the end, though — which they expect will come just before Thanksgiving — they want a chance to live simply, to focus on just being.

“We’re both trusting God that it will be a good trip,” Joel said. “If it’s not, we’ll learn from that, and we’ll learn a lot about ourselves.”

While neither is an exceptionally experienced backpacker, they trust themselves.

“The only thing I’m afraid of is things not under our control like an injury,” Jessica said. “We have too much pride to quit.”

We fly out of Chicago for Shanghai on Monday with 13 college students (12 from BBC; 1 from Houghton College). Our purpose is to visit orphans in Fuzhou, Jiangxi, China. You can learn a little about Fuzhou here. Here's the orphanage where we will be serving. This link has more info about the orphanage. You'll find a number of pics by a couple that recently adopted a little girl from there.

Time to close the LOTR poll. The results were, for the most part, what I expected. There were only two that I did not expect, namely, the number of votes that Legolas and Gollum received respectively. Take a look:

#1 - Aragorn: 80 votes
#2 - Gandalf - 49 votes
#3 - Frodo & Sam - 39 votes each
#4 - Gollum - 37 votes
#5 - Legolas - 28 votes

What do you think accounts for Gollum receiving more votes than Legolas? (Obviously, not many teenage women read this blog...) How is it that Gollum was only 2 votes outside of 3rd place. Why do you think a number of people considered Gollum to be one of their favorite LOTR characters? It can't be due to his looks or personality. Thoughts?

All of the poll results are below:

“Christians who are no longer sure that God loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their present spiritual achievements, are subconsciously radically insecure persons-much less secure than non-Christians, because they have too much light to rest easily under the constant bulletins they receive from their Christian environment about the holiness of God and the righteousness they are supposed to have. Their insecurity shows itself in pride, a fierce defensive assertion of their own righteousness and defensive criticism of others. They come naturally to hate other cultural styles and other races in order to bolster their own security and discharge their suppressed anger. They cling desperately to legal, pharisaical righteousness, but envy, jealousy and other branches on the tree of sin grow out of their fundamental insecurity...it is often necessary to convince sinners (even sinful Christians) of the grace and love of God toward them, before we can get them to look at their problems. Then the vision of grace and the sense of God's forgiving acceptance may actually cure most of the problems. This may account for Paul's frequent fusing of justification and sanctification” (Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life).

It is diffucult to find people who are both characteristically bold and humble at the same time. Bold people are usually not humble and humble people are usually not bold. Boldness and humility seem to be mutually exclusive character qualities—unless, of course, the boldness or humility evident in an individual is the result of the gospel's activity. Only the gospel can produce people who are both bold and humble at the same time.

2 Timothy 1:6-12 is a text that is marked both by boldness and humility. In verse 7, Paul says to Timothy, "God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." He then exhorts Timothy not to "be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord...but to share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God" (2 Timothy 1:8). That's bold talk, really bold talk. God gives power, love and self-control so that we need not be ashamed but able to share in suffering. Then, in verse 9, Paul tells Timothy that God did not save them because of their works "but because of His own purpose and grace" (2 Timothy 1:9). That's humble talk, really humble talk. Paul says, "God did not save us because we are or have done anything special. No, He saved us because of His own grace." So, on the one hand, Paul's words to Timothy are bold words. On the other hand, those bold words are marked by deep humility. 2 Timothy 1:6-12 has much to teach us about Christian boldness—a boldness that is not lacking but excelling in humility. So, I want to answer three questions from 2 Timothy 1:6-12 regarding boldness.

1. What is the enemy of Christian boldness?
2. What does Christian boldness look like?
3. How do we grow it?

What is the enemy of Christian boldness?

2 Timothy 1:5 I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

Notice that Paul exhorts Timothy to kindle afresh the flame of God’s gift of grace to him, which seems to refer to his ministerial office. Timothy had been ordained by God through the laying on of hands (1 Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6b) to the pastoral ministry, and the pastoral ministry as we learn from Ephesians 6:19-20 calls for boldness.

Why did Timothy need to rekindle this flame? The answer is found in verse 7.

2 Timothy 1:7 For [because] God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

Timothy needed to rekindle this flame because he had a propensity towards timidity or fearfulness. Apparently, Timothy did not have a particularly strong personality. His natural bent was to be timid rather than confident. So, it seems that the enemy of Christian boldness is a natural propensity to fear or be timid.

So what is this fear or timidity that undoes boldness? Let me define it this way, it is inwardness. It is self-preoccupation. In other words, when we lose in our struggle with fear/timidity, our thoughts predominately orbit the words, I, me, and my. For example, fear/timidity in a witnessing context might evidence itself in thoughts like these:

“I know he is going to think I am boring.” “I’m going to look like an idiot.” “He/she is not going to want to talk to me.” “He/she is going to pick up on my social clumsiness.”

When our thoughts are predominately I-me-my thoughts, then we can be confident that we what we are primarily concerned with is what we are doing and saying and how other people are evaluating us. Our primary concern is not with God and His purpose in our conversation. What we need to realize is that we can be involved in making the Gospel known to another individual and yet be inward in our thinking. So though we may be doing the work of a witness, we are not exhibiting true Christian boldness. There is a blessed self-forgettfulness in Christian boldness. This leads us to our second question:

What does Christian boldness look like?

2 Timothy 1:6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

What is the God-given opposite of the problem of timidity? It is the power, love, and self-discipline to comes to us by the Spirit (note: I understand spirit to be referring to the Holy Spirit). Notice that Paul does not just say, “the spirit of power.” He adds love and self-discipline. Christian boldness is not just characterized by power. It has power, but it is a power that is mixed through and through with love and self-discipline. So lets briefly look at this triad of Christian boldness.

Power—Paul is referring to divine power here. It is power that is given by God (1:7a) and relates to the internal rather than the external. In other words, it doesn’t make you stronger physically. Being physically strong does tend to give one confidence, but it is a shallow confidence. What happens to THAT confidence when you are talking to someone who is much stronger than you are. No, Paul is referring to an inner strength, a strength of character. It is an inner strength that overpowers natural timidity. How can it do that? Well, it’s divine power.

Love—Paul is talking about 1 Corinthians 13 love. Listen to the description of love found here.

1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient [always patient], love is kind [always kind]. It does not envy [never envies], it does not boast [never boasts], it is not proud [never proud]. 5 It is not rude [never rude], it is not self-seeking [never self-seeking], it is not easily angered [never easily angered], it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

Let me illustrate 1 Corinthians 13 love in this way: It always thinks in terms of he/she or his/her. In other words, instead of thinking, “Boy, I know he thinks I’m a dork,” 1 Corinthians 13 love thinks, “What a thrill it is to talk to another image-bearer.” Instead of thinking, “I can’t believe I just said that,” love thinks, “He loves life and I can’t wait to tell him about the abundant life to be found in Christ.” You see Christian love seeks for the good of another without self-preoccupation.

Self-discipline—Paul is referring to sense and sensibility here. To be self-disciplined means that you have a mastery over your emotions, your passions, your thinking, your desires. In other words, to be self-disciplined is to be sensible. You are not overly this or overly that.

It means you don’t come on too strong or too weak. It doesn’t mean that you will have a great sense of humor, but that you are real with people. There is a balance to your life that is noticeable and attractive, a balance that is better than being “way cool.” It is a balance of substance.

How do we grow in this Christian boldness?

Now what we need to be careful that we do not do is separate the God-given “power, love and of self-discipline” from the Holy Spirit as if it is not the direct result of His ministry. You see the text here is very ambiguous as to whether Paul is using spirit to refer to the Holy Spirit who is characterized by power, love, and self-discipline or spirit in the way we would use it to say “she has a sweet spirit.”

For a few different reasons I am inclined to think that Paul is referring to the Holy Spirit who is characterized by these three things. But whether you agree with me or not, ultimately it is the Holy Spirit who is the author of this power, love, and self-discipline. It comes from the One who indwells us.

So let me begin to answer our question by rephrasing it: How does the Spirit fill us with power, love, and self-discipline? John 16:13 and 14 will help us answer that question.

John 16:13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.

The Spirit’s great passion is to glorify Christ, to make Christ known to us! So how does the Spirit fill us with power, love, and self-discipline? He does it by making Christ known to us. He does it by pointing us to Jesus. In Jesus we see divine power displayed in weakness (the cross), a power so great that it defeats through suffering. In Jesus we see a love for the unlovely, a love so great that while we were yet enemies, Christ died for us. In Jesus we see a self that was mastered, a self that . . .

Isaiah 53:7 [though] He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

The Spirit’s great passion is to show us that Christ did all of this for us! We are the weak, the unlovely, the undisciplined. We are the ones who need saving and Jesus has done it! When we see Jesus through the Spirit’s eyes, we see how God can use us in our weakness (we don’t have to be afraid to admit how weak we really are!), we see how loved by God we actually are (seeing the love by which we are loved frees us to take relational risks), we see one whose self was so mastered that through His suffering He offered no physical or verbal resistance. He went to His death with a calmness reflecting not an ignorant but a submitted mind. This He did for us!

What must we keep in mind if we are to grow in Christian boldness: We will grow in Christian boldness as we see that Jesus did all of this this, that he is this kind of Savior for us! We must see Him as being this for US personally. Martin Luther defined saving faith as “seeing that Jesus died FOR YOU”—PERSONALLY. You see this is where Christian boldness comes from. It comes from seeing the power of Jesus, the love of Jesus, and the self-discipline of Jesus for us!

If you don’t see Christian boldness in your life, don’t despair. Just look at Jesus! The Spirit works to change you into the image of Jesus as you look at Him.

There is an interesting discussion going on over at Kingdom Come regarding gospel-centered preaching. Some of those commenting on Pastor Rob's post are wrestling with what it really means to preach gospel-centered sermons and whether it is actually necessary. You can check it out here.