Adventures of JB

Learning to Love the Hello Kitty Room

Hello Kitty room

One of the greatest blessings of my Visa application process is it allows me to spend more time with my   parents.  Before my return to the States it was decided that I would live with them and save up money for large purchases in Australia like a car or down payment on a home.

One of my goals before moving in was to be a person who contributed instead of relying on his parents, and doing very little work.  The Lord helped by allowing me to give towards expenses, and keep myself very busy ministering to those in the community, spending very little time at home.

Initially I moved into our guest bedroom in the downstairs portion of our split-level home (allowing me to   jokingly tell people I lived in my parent’s basement) but as my father’s library grew it became apparent he would need to move his office downstairs.

At first this may not seem like a huge change, but believe me it was.  Downstairs gave me a sense of privacy and independence, the room that I would be moving into upstairs was directly across the hall from my parents bedroom.

Well technically that isn’t true…the first room I moved into temporarily was my nieces “Hello Kitty Room” complete with pink walls.  Thankfully I have since moved into a much “manlier room” that boasts tan        colored walls.

 

The good news is phase one of moving dads study downstairs is complete, bad news is that puts me in my nieces “hello kitty room”

A photo posted by australianmissionary (@australianmissionary) on Mar 31, 2015 at 8:59am PDT

//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js

 

The Hello Kitty Room and living across the hall from my parents was a little difficult for me the first couple of days.  Not because I don’t love them (I truly do) but my heart wanted to be in Australia.  And part of me was (wrongfully so) ashamed that I was living in my parents home instead of there.  So the downstairs area sort of became my comfort zone that allowed me to escape that truth, and act as if I was on my own.

 

And this is why God put me in the Hello Kitty Room.  Because the painful circumstances of life aren’t meant to be escaped, but embraced.  

Being across the hall from mom and dad leaves no doubt whatsoever I’m living with my parents…but that’s okay

  1. Because it draws us closer together
  2. Because I’m able to help them more
  3. Because they help me more
  4. Because it keeps me from becoming too independent
  5. And more than anything it reminds me that Australia is God’s Will

Sometimes we willingly leave our place of comfort when God calls us to do it, other times we are dragged kicking and screaming into the Hello Kitty room.  Take it from me when this happens thank God for it.  It’s only as we face the painful truth that it can be used for His Glory.

Who God Is

God Calls Me to A Relationship of Faith

Image courtesy of http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/close-up-of-daughter-hugging-mother-royalty-free-image/469851069

Gen. 12:1   Now the LORD said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (emphasis added)

Genesis twelve seems kind of random because it doesn’t fit with earlier chapters. We go from the Genesis flood (chapters 6–8), to Noah’s blessing (chapter 9), his descendants (chapter 10), and God’s judgment on those descendants at the tower of Babel (chapter 11).

Suddenly we see an abrupt change as God commands a man named Abram (who we have never read about before) to leave his family and friends. As if that wasn’t frightening enough God doesn’t even tell Abram where he is going! The land I will show you in 12:1 can be interpreted “when you get there I will tell you to stop.”

Though this new story is confusing, there is an important reason for it.  The sudden change is part of God’s plan because He’s emphasizing a change in the relationship between mankind and Him.

Up to this point man’s relationship with God has been based on our strength, or ability to live a Holy life.  If we obeyed the commands of God blessing would come, but if we didn’t a curse would come.  Of course there is a problem with this idea since we are broken-or unable to live for the Lord. This paired with the Holiness of God which cannot tolerate sin clearly proves that relationship wasn’t working [1].

Please understand that God knew this way of doing things wouldn’t work, but He allowed it to happen anyway. This wasn’t done in anger, or an attitude that enjoyed watching us suffer. Instead this was to show us we are poor God replacements [2].

Our failures or brokenness (Genesis 2–3) and God’s judgment of that brokenness (Genesis 4–11) prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that we cannot take the place of God. This is meant to develop an attitude of humility before Him.

Looking at Genesis 12:1 it’s quite easy to see how this new relationship is different.

  1. The old one was based on our obedience of God’s commands (Genesis 2:15–17)
  2. It was based on our willingness to confess our sins (Genesis 3:8–12)
  3. It was based on listening to God’s warnings (Genesis 4:3–7, 6:1–3)
  4. In other words it was man’s responsibility to do the work

This new relationship is different because Abram only has to do one thing (leave his family). But notice what God would do.

  1. I will show you where to go
  2. I will make you a Nation of people [3]
  3. I will make you famous (make your name great)
  4. I will bless you
  5. I will care for, and defend you

All Abram had to do was trust God.

Now of course this wouldn’t be easy. In fact in those days this step of faith would have been more difficult since without modern transportation and technology, there’s a strong possibility he would never see them again [4]. But God had promised to give the strength necessary to deal with that challenge. The strength, leadership, problem solving, all of it was God’s responsibility.

Though thousands of years have passed since that time our relationship with God is still based upon faith (relying on Him) instead of our own strength due to the fact that we are all broken in His eyes.

You want to know what’s really sad though?

I find myself returning to the old relationship

The one that hasn’t worked and never will work.

So many times when facing a challenge instead of asking the Lord for help I turn it into “the John show” and deal with it on my own. Your probably not surprised that this always ends in a spectacular failure.

But I still go back to it…Because it’s easier to rely on my own strength and feed my own pride than admit brokenness.

May God give us the strength to understand the old relationship is futility, and allow Him to do the work.

  1. More thoughts on these points can be found by visiting http://australianmissionary.org/category/who-god-is/  ↩
  2. Deep inside each of us is an idea that we can do a better of being God (deciding what’s right or wrong) than God.  ↩
  3. interesting since Abram had no children  ↩
  4. Leaving homeland and family was a much greater decision in a traditional society than in today’s mobile, individualistic culture. Abram risked everything he held most dear to obey God’s call.  ↩
Who God Is

Genesis 11:8 God Gives Us The Protection We Need

Image Courtesy of http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/little-boy-trying-to-reach-pan-on-stove-high-res-stock-photography/185921077

 

Genesis 11:6 And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.  7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”  8 So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

 

When I was a child we used to have a small stove in the bottom level of our house, the kind that had large metal eyes. One day after playing outside in the snow my mittens had gotten really wet so I (in my childish wisdom) decided to set them on top of one of the eyes and turn the stove on so it would dry faster. Thankfully my mother saw what I was doing, and went to great lengths making sure I NEVER played with the stove again.

Now her response to my using the stove was much harsher than when I stole a cookie, or didn’t clean up my room. Because there was a serious danger involved with that event

  1. The house could have burned down
  2. Someone could have been injured
  3. Or worst case scenario someone could have died

My mother took drastic action to protect me from the disaster that was approaching.

The same way in Genesis 11:8 God acts in a very drastic way because mankind was heading towards a terrible disaster.

 

Following the Genesis Flood (Genesis 6) God commanded Noah and his family to fill the earth with their descendants (Genesis 9:1, 9:7) like He had with Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:28). This wasn’t only about having children because God wanted His glory to be known throughout the whole world.

For the first generations Noah’s family did this faithfully, but in Genesis nine we see a dramatic change.

Gen. 11:1   Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” (emphasis added)

Notice that they were doing the right thing (migrating towards the east) but came to a place called Shinar and decided to stay there. This led to the creation of a tower that would “reach to Heaven” so they wouldn’t be forgotten.

Obviously this isn’t a literal tower to Heaven. Instead the descendants of Noah decided to stay in that one place instead of being scattered. Basically they didn’t want to obey the command of God

God’s response to this is changing their speech (9:7) so that it wouldn’t be possible to continue building that city (nobody would understand each other).

It’s interesting to see that the word for “dispersed” in Genesis 9:8 is the same as in Genesis 9:4, but has a very different definition. The people didn’t want to be “scattered to other nations” (9:4) so God scattered them in a violent way (9:11) with the idea of shattering something [1].

So we see because they refused to move into other areas on their own God forced them to move

But why?

Because this was only the beginning of their rebellion

 

See God knows that each one of us have rebellious hearts that desire to do things our own way. At first those rebellions are incredibly small and seemingly unimportant, but they grow very quickly. And the more of those rebellions we get away with, the more (and bigger) we will attempt.

The thing is even as a child I knew that I wasn’t supposed to be using the stove to dry out my wet gloves. But part of just wanted to see if it would work. If I was successful (and hadn’t burned the house down) my curiosity doubtless would have led me to try something bigger.

I personally believe Genesis 11:4 wasn’t the first rebellion of Noah’s children against God…they started with something much smaller [2]. It’s not as if they woke up one morning and said, “hey lets build a tower to Heaven!”

 

God knew it was just going get bigger…
And with each rebellion the consequences will get harsher
So He puts an end to it

Could God have allowed mankind to continue rebelling till something really bad happened? Yes, but the price to pay would have been much greater.

Just like my mother didn’t wait till I actually did start a massive fire before disciplining me, God doesn’t wait till our whole life is in shambles before convicting us of our sins.

And there is Grace in that because our Heavenly Father is actually PROTECTING US from the stronger consequences of our foolish choices.  And in those moments instead of confusion or anger, the correct response is thankfulness to the one who protected us from a greater evil.

    1. X…wÚp puwts, poots; a primitive root; to dash in pieces, literally or figuratively (especially to disperse):—break (dash, shake) in (to) pieces, cast (abroad), disperse (selves), drive, retire, scatter (abroad), spread abroad.
  2. God said this was the beginning since this was the first thing the first rebellion as a unified group  ↩