power conversation in Heaven’s workshop…

power conversation in Heaven’s workshop…

“…everything is looking great – beautiful greenery; love that color!  and the sky, blue! love that color also.  and the wildlife roaming around on the ground and swimming through the water – absolutely amazing!  the stars!  the … you have really inspired us, God.  Thanks for letting all of us watch.  What’s next?!”

“I will now create my crowning work, ‘man’.  In my own image I will make him, not like the animals I have made up until now.  They are only brute beasts with limited possibilities.  Man can be so much more!”

“What do you have in mind?  Will they be like us?!”

“No.  but, only a little lower, though.  They will be builders, thinkers, poets, musicians, lovers, … so many wonderful opportunities”

“Will they have something like we have with the ‘archangels’?  somebody in charge, organizing and facilitating?  Who will do that?”

“That will be a problem.  I can see that with their freedom will come oppressive irresponsibility.  Remember how your brothers fell.  They too will be plagued with pride and pettiness and positioning and … I am sure that I will have to work with them on that, at some point sending them a ‘suffering servant savior’ as an example of what true power is about.”

“You speak in riddles.  Your ‘crowning act’ of creation is going to unravel?  What will become of them?  What means this ‘savior’ thing?”

“They will grow in number, reproducing.  Then they will begin to position themselves for privilege overpowering the poor and the pitiful.  Some of the pious will protest, but largely to deaf ears.  The privileged and positioned will prey on the others, excusing their actions with one reason or another in their arrogance and ignorance.”

“This is all very confusing!  What means this ‘poor’ and ‘pitiful’?”

“The powerful will hoard the things needed by all, far more than they need for themselves, and the others will struggle just to survive.  They will selfishly …it will get ugly…”

“Then why not give the power to the pious to use for the poor and pitiful?  It is crucial who will have the power?!”

“Power corrupts.  It’s complicated who will really have the power; but, (with a wink) some will know the truth!”

another H - or, "visit with Ratnaraju Rapaka and John Tucker 130729"

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another H

or, "thoughts on visit with Ratnaraju Rapaka and John Tucker 130729"

When I got home from work on Monday, 07/29/13, John and Raj called me from town about five minutes out from my house.  I talked them in and began a three day visit with two fine men of God!  We talked late into the night, got up early and drove to a funeral together, talking all the while, and returned to relax.  Then we shared coffee early the third morning before I rushed off to work.  The following are my recollections of that visit, written down so as not to be lost, and also for further thought and consideration!

1.        “transformational” vs. “academic”  This may be starting in the middle, but, it was one of the highlights.  I eagerly questioned Raj about his work with “preaching students” and what I remembered about my time in ministry training.  I rued the lack of mentored time about prayer and personal character development.  “ahh, transformational…” Raj reflected back to me summarizing the point.  Both are needed, but the former of the two, heart matters, is too often neglected, to the detriment of the minister and his ministry.

2.       Preacher/school administrator/ministry instructor/overseer of 17 churches … I began to feel that I was sitting in the presence of the apostle Paul!  Raj is a focused, faithful, fearless, …  follower of Jesus!  I am sure that he has his armor chinks; but, they are not obvious.  I feel privileged to have hosted him and John for a couple of days, and to be considered some sort of partner in their ministry.

3.       From a profession, civil engineer, to a preacher!  Twenty years before, on a Saturday, Raj and Victoria were attending a wedding in Kaza, some 80 kms away from their home.  Not being able to travel home in time for church, they decided to have church alone in a Hindu village.  The neighbors listened with interest and asked them to return asap and tell them more about this Jesus!  They returned a few times, and then decided to sell out for Jesus.  Raj left his profession and they started a church in Kaza.  Twenty years later there are 17 churches scattered in different villages and towns, a preacher training school, and a private K-12 school started to provide a quality education for his sons and the neighbors.

4.       Months before, from John Tucker, I had heard the story of “Victoria” selling her jewelry to finance a church building for the church in her village.  Not until I looked through pictures in my living room with Raj, did I realize that this sacrificial servant of Jesus that I had heard about and admired, was his wife!  I looked up at John when Raj mentioned his wife’s name, and he nodded understandingly that she was that Victoria.

5.       Tuesday evening, after a long day, John suggested we do something “fun” and we decided to play a card game they play in Michigan.  After a few hands, I casually asked Raj, “do y’all play card to relax in the evening in India?”  “No,” Raj retorted, neither hatefully, nor demeaningly.  “well, what …?” I asked.  “we have cottage Bible studies,” he quietly replied.  My admiration grew, but I felt a little shallow personally.

6.       About that time, maybe attempting to divert the tension, I commented on Melanie’s card and the card with which Raj topped it – queen of diamonds and king of diamonds.  “a rantaraju and a rantarani…”  Raj cocked his head and looked at me in amazement questioning, “do you know what you just said?”  You see, his name, means “diamond king” and diamond-queen would be “rantarani”!!  It was a cute quip/pun that utilized at least some knowledge of Telegu, Raj’s native language.

7.       Whatever points I may have scored with that quip, I quickly lost when I won a hand and let out a war cry, much like we do at work when playing dominos at lunch.  We trash-talk and chest-thump like football players.  Raj just looked at me like he was watching a Capital One commercial! (like he was assessing a cave-man!)  I do have to wonder how I would be received in India, when visiting, if I acted like my [ab]normal self?! (“ugly American”?)

8.       Sometime during the visit we discussed the helpers, the preachers, that work with/for Raj.  With some 17 churches, there are several men filling pulpits and pastoring groups.  I asked if they were “bi-vocational” or full-timers.  Raj replied that they were full-timers and I then asked about pay, trying to understand how this machine was financed.  “major industry?” “farming.” “pay for field hand?” “4 dollars” “per hour?!” “no, per day.” “live on that?!” “wife can make $3.” “so, they can subsist on $7?” “have to.” “so, how much do your preachers get paid?” “$100” “per week?” “no, per month.”  (I quickly did the math in my head and that comes out to about what farm hands make) [just a footnote:  since the visit, I overheard of a co-worker who is trying to substitute a $2100 birthday check for the new Mercedes that his daughter expects for her 21^st birthday]

9.       My personal thoughts later turned to questions about the pay scale.  Preachers in USA are mostly not over-paid either!  But, how could local support be developed to finance these ministries, when families are bringing in $7/day on average??  I remember once reading of the ten-family-rule in synagogues being the rule of thumb of the minimum needed to support a rabbi (ten tithes).  And, I thought on “rice Christians” that disappear as soon as the foreign church aid for rice disappears.  Sacrifice and commitment and dedication are lessons that need to be learned, by Indian Christians and also American Christians!

10.   Related to this preacher pay is a story that John told me about some shortage of funds for several months.  John had raised the question of looking for a new job if he did not get paid for several months?!  The unpaid local ministers quietly replied, “… must spread the word of God…”  (is this convicting to anybody else?!)

11.   “flexible” was the word.  A funeral (another long story:  Melanie’s best friend’s dad had died) got jammed into our schedule, and John said we could visit and talk in the car just as easily as in my living room.  I quipped about the USMC motto, “improvise, adapt, overcome”.  (I am thinking about the need to be flexible with my personal life plans to move with God, wherever He leads?!)

12.   John drove four hours to the funeral and we talked of Indian culture, geography, history… etc.  We stopped for gasoline, and I insisted on paying.  We stopped for lunch at Melanie’s favorite German restaurant, “Ol’ Heidelburg” and I insisted on picking up the check.  As I paid the tab and tip, I winced thinking “half-month salary for an Indian preacher” and wondered if Raj thought the same?!

13.   During our drive we discussed many things Indian.  Melanie asked, “snakes?” Raj simply said, “cobras?!”  We discussed comparative US/India land mass and population and guessed at half the land mass and 4x the population – 1.2 billion souls!  I asked,  “Christian population percentage?” and Raj replied, “3%, officially; 10% likely really” (Christians in India lose certain government benefits by declaring Xn on government databases, including free college education tuition)

14.   Money is an issue.  It takes money to live.  In his most recent newsletter, Raj mentioned the need for three church buildings, at $7500 each!  They are 17x30 ft. (510 s.f.) and that computes to how much per square foot?! Less than $15/s.f.  And how much does an American house cost per square foot?!  Anywhere from $100 to $400!!!  (I told Melanie that $7500 is the price of one of our toys, the price of a four-wheeler.  I will think on this before I buy that “Polaris Ranger” I have been eyeing.)

15.   In one of Raj’s pictures there was an outdoor, night-time, open-air evangelistic-crusade scene.  (John and Raj bantered back and forth, often; and, it was difficult to distinguish jokes from seriousness)  John quipped that there were too many lights and we needed to cut back on expenses using fewer lights.  Raj casually replied, “…must see to read Bible…”  Honestly, the scene included dollar-store plastic chairs, poles with crude fluorescent lights, and feed sacks for the children to sit on.  Not exactly Schuller’s  “Crystal Cathedral”?!!

16.   Raj gave Melanie an unbelievably exquisite hand-crocheted table cloth as a hostess gift.  Melanie stood to thank Raj and gave him a hug.  John giggled at Raj’s discomfort, commenting, “… men do not hug women in India”  Raj added, “… not even their own wife, in public…”  Melanie smiled, adding, “I bet they would not like this either…” as she kissed me goodbye, on the mouth, as she departed for an appointment!  Raj just nervously laughed.

17.   There were many “firsts” in our visit.  Raj had his first serving of grits.  Raj had never had German food before.  I had never seen anybody drink hot water before their morning coffee?!  (I did not ask)  I wondered on the male/female interaction differences in our two cultures.  I learned that they drink buffalo milk in India.  (I think Raj said so!)  I jokingly suggested ways to deal with marauding packs of destructive monkeys that tore off their church roof tiles.  I mused, this work must go on!!!

18.   It is so easy to be distracted.  One of my web signatures at a forum I frequent includes this – “Humility and honesty; Hungry and homesick; Holiness and honor”   To this, after watching John and Raj, I think I will have to add, “Hard-core and halt-less”.  At one point, I asked Raj, "... what is your goal ..."  with very little hesitation, he seriously replied, "for India to be a Christian nation."

19.   Sometime in the visit, I commented that I am in the 4^th-quarter.  In American football we have a custom of claiming the 4^th-quarter with a lifted hand showing four fingers pointing to the sky!  John, with his musical bent, quoting John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” (different game?!), quipped, “put me back in the game…” 

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04KQydlJ-qc  

Oh, put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Look at me, I can be Centerfield.

20.   Friday, I asked HR if I could have unpaid leave-of-absence in January.  Praying.

A THORNY PROBLEM (or, the burning bush?!)

a thorny problem 

(or, the burning bush?!)

2Cor.12 - ⁷ And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. ⁸ Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; ⁹ but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ¹⁰ For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Does God use our weaknesses to better us?  Think on that!  It almost seems like a self-defeating solution!  as we get better, the agent of change is removed, the very thing that is improving one?!  The solution to this conundrum is likely the endless supply of said helps?

So, should we run aground, shipwrecked, violating Paul’s strong, stinging rebuttal of Rom.6.2, “God forbid!”  Do not miss the point and abuse His patience that is meant to lead to repentance.  But, neither, let the Accuser push you away from the Cross.

The Cross!  our deepest low – His greatest victory – and, for us!  “crucify him, crucify him…” we cried, with anger, and spite, and blindness.  But, in that blessed Cross, when all Hell rejoiced (three days too early) God pulled off the ultimate “Sting” cheating Death and Sin of their power over man.  God used our greatest sin to bring our greatest hope – “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2Cor.5.21)

In James 1, it is written, “² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”  Similarly, Tertullian in 197 A.D. , wrote that the "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church" (Apologeticus, Ch. 50).  Surely, God can use all things to bring about the good.  (Rom.8.28)  Whatever Hell has to offer  can be used by Heaven to hone, help, heighten, honor His own!

                But, what of our own weaknesses?!  Is it heresy to suggest that God allows our problems, our weaknesses, our sins, to help us?  I tread lightly here.  Sin is the enemy.  Death is its reward.  But, does He, can He, will He, somehow take my pitiful, pathetic, feeble failing of following, and turn it into something  glorious??  “God, have mercy on me, the sinner!”  To Him be all the glory and honor!

                Visualize the brightness of the full moon breaking through the clouds on a dark night!  The light will hurt your eyes.  All around is lit up like the light of noonday.  Even so, the ugliness and darkness of sin is seen clearly when the beauty of Heaven, of God, of holiness, of love, breaks through the darkness.  The danger is that one will fall into a pit stumbling in the darkness.  And, one may not like the brightness of the light, once accustomed to the damp darkness.  But, likely the prodigal never wanted a ham sandwich?  He could not get the smell out of his nostrils!  And, as bright as the moon is, it is nothing compared to a summer day in full sunlight!  The darkness of winter is most despised.  The warmth of summer is desired and appreciated.

                Somewhere between a foolish, solomonic “ecclesiastes experiment” in self-indulgence that ends, hopefully, in recognition of the wisdom of fearing God -- between that, and a pharisaical fence-building approach to the law, one must  remember the warning of the Proverbs 6, 

²⁷ Can a man carry fire in his bosom
    and his clothes not be burned?
²⁸ Or can one walk upon hot coals
    and his feet not be scorched?

Of course, the burns and scars will be painful and ugly.  At worst, the fires of Hell will be ignited; at best, God will use it to burn the sin out of one’s heart.  Surely fire prevention is best.  But, back-burning can be used to control wild fires?!  And, cauterization is a necessary medical procedure, at times.  But, that is no call to be playing with matches, though!

Simon Peter – the “D-sciple”

Simon Peter – the “D-sciple”

Declared undying allegiance.

Defended, nearly decapitating, in the garden.

Deserted, as all the others.

Denied, three times, with curses and oaths.

Disappointed with himself, deeply.

Dropped tears of grief and shame.

Desired to turn back the clock.

Dreamed “could it be?!”

Drawn back to His side!

Dispatched anew with a commission.

Destined to lead the flock.

Driven along, sustained by the hope He inspired.

Drew last breath, upside down, having turned the world upside down!