I am reading Acts at the moment, and have just finished chapter 20. Paul is saying goodbye to the Ephesian elders; a touching story. What I really noticed was Paul’s statement in verse 34: “Yes, you yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities, and for those who were with me.” Other books I am reading claim that Paul only worked when absolutely necessary as an example to others, and was otherwise supported by the local church, allowing him to devote his time to teaching. This verse apparently refutes that, being seemingly general, not specific to one particular situation.
However, we see other situations in which the leaders of the church probably were ministering full-time, and supported by church members: in Acts 6:2, where the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables.” It is possible, of course, that they also worked, and simply said that it would make more sense for them to use what little remaining time they had on the word of God. However, we see no reference to their fishing boats in Acts, in contrast to the gospels, so it seems reasonable to assume that they were focused full-time on teaching the word of God, and supported by the church.
Finally, a sunny day!
So, we finally have a sunny day! After a rather foggy start, things cleared up quite quickly. We met Jon Dale and David for breakfast (Mike is strong on breakfast meetings!) and had a good talk, starting off with house church network structures (“Do we need paid leaders?”), but ending up where my thoughts yesterday took me: falling in love with God. It really hit a chord with the others, particularly when we started considering the comparison with falling in love with our then girlfriends, now wives. We’ll be following up on this in the coming days.
Chris noticed a bird sitting on the deck rail this morning. Mike took a great photo, and we’re trying to work out what it is. It’s now just after noon, and the bird has only moved from the deck rail to the wooden fence, and is still just sitting there. That’s about 4 hours! Any hints would be welcome. We think it’s young, which makes the identification rather difficult, because we don’t know if this is its final colouring.
Where are the visions?
I’ve been reading Acts in the past few days. I’ve just read chapters 8 to 11. Something which I noticed particularly was the number of very concrete visions: Ananias was told very specifically in a vision to go to Saul (Paul) to tell him about Christ; Cornelius saw an angel, who told him to send for Peter; Peter saw a vision of unclean animals, and could immediately apply it to the situation of going to Cornelius’ house. Why don’t we experience such clear and specific visions?
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Star Treck Voyager – Der Fürsorger
Steven und ich sind grosse Fans von Star Treck und anderen Science fiction Filmen. In den letzen 3 Jahren haben wir fast jeden zweiten oder dritten Abend ein Folge von Star Treck angeschaut. Nun, da er weit weg ist, fühle ich mich ihm verbunden, wenn ich mir die Serie nochmals von vorne anschaue.
Die Geschichte beginnt mit einem Auftrag, den Janeway für die Sternenflotte erfüllen muss:
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Is house church what we are looking for?
Is the ‘house’ in ‘house church’ the really relevant part? Or is it more about being changed by falling in love with God?
We are part of a house church, and glad of it. Speaking with Mike today, though, he asked whether house church is what we are really looking for. (Remember, he is a house church coordinator for North America.) He believes that the ‘house’ part is not that which is really relevant, and I think most people involved in house church would probably agree with him.
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Maria Himmelfahrt am 15. August
Millionen von Katholiken feiern dieses Fest der “Maria Himmelfahrt”. Ein riesen Rummel, dass sogar die Medien davon berichten. Worum handelt es sich eigentlich bei diesem Fest, das Millionen von Katholiken feiern?
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Einen Tag übersprungen
Der 4. Tag OS (Ohne Steve). Es ist schwieriger, als ich gedacht habe. Ich kann mich kaum aufraffen etwas zu tun oder zu unternehmen. Zwar hätte ich genug Aktivitäten auf meiner “to do liste”. Aber ich komme mir vor, wie in einem Gefängnis, wo man nur die Stunden zählt und hofft, dass die Zeit schnell vorbei geht. Mit der Technik war es heute wieder etwas schwierig. Immer am Nachmittag sind fast 2,5 Millionen Benutzer im Skype und dann wird die Kommunikation schwierig. Auch das Wetter machte nicht grosse Freude, so verbrachte ich den ganzen Tag zuhause – aber das ist nichts Besonderes. Ich war schon immer ein “Stubenhocker”.
Ein Bericht im Teletext am Sonntag liess mich aufhorchen:
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Ihr seid meine Zeugen, spricht der Herr. Jesaja 43.10
Losung vom Sonntag 14.8.2005 mehr dazu….
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A day of talking
The day started off wet 
, but brightened up a little later. Everyone was tired, and happy to have a day of rest. Mike and I spent time talking about a variety of topics, from our personalities and our wives to church, callings, spiritual gifts, passions…
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Another quiet day
I woke up early (5:15), but am now feeling much better. It was another quiet day today. Mike was off fishing with Josiah, Chris was at a sculpting course, and Sarah hid in her room until Chris came home. I spoke a long time with Mary-Anne on Skype.
The weather still isn’t what Mary-Anne thinks it should be!
It looked a bit better this afternoon, but this evening saw heavy rain (Mike didn’t even want to go out to the car on the drive to get his mobile phone!) and a short thunderstorm.