Randy Wray’s Blog

Today we launch the second wave of our mission projects into Mexico. We have team members flying from Virginia and Oregon, today and tomorrow, headed for our rendevous points in Long Beach and San Diego.

We are planning to continue the work started a couple of weeks ago from a team based in Washington state.

Here are some specific prayer requests:

• God‚Äôs protection of our mission team
• Safety while traveling and working.
• Incident free border crossings.
• God‚Äôs blessing on our effort.

We undertake this work and make this effort simply to glorify the name of Jesus Christ. We want the families who live in the houses we build to use their homes (and their lives) to glorify God.

I’m going to try and post “the picture of the day” so stay tuned. Thank you for all your prayers.

Freely you have received, freely give!

Los ni?±os really enjoy watching The Crocodile Hunter and The Jeff Corwin Experience. Both of these are animal adventure shows on Animal Planet. We watched a couple of episodes last night and I‚Äôm telling you they are fun to watch.

I was watching and thinking what if Steve Irwin (aka the Crocodile Hunter) or Jeff Corwin came to church on Sunday morning and filmed in the auditorium, during our assembly time? What kind of creatures would they find and share with the world?

“Danger, danger, danger” or “Wow, check this out a . . . .” What do you think? What kind of “creatures” would they find?

Talk about not holding water. The infamous pool does not hold water!

Yes, those of you who have snickered through the details of our pool project will appreciate the latest episode of the pool chronicles. One of the seams has rent asunder. Reconciliation is impossible. Therapy has been refused. What once was two, which became one with glue, has now become two again boo hoo. I had, what I believed to be, realistic expectations as to the life span of the pool. Not even a month, as you might expect, fell quite short of our expectations.

I called the manufacturer and was hardly able to understand the customer service representative. I am not sure what language was being spoken. I’m on the phone thinking, “I speak two languages fluently but for some reason, at this very moment, they are the wrong two languages!” Oh to have the gift of tongues instead of compassion! I was, nevertheless, impressed with their courteousness. I couldn’t understand a word she said but she sure was friendly. I explained my dilemma in simple words “BAD SEAM, NO WATER.” See that’s what you do when can’t understand a foreign tongue you speak shorter sentences in a loud voice.

The rep kindly explained they would deliver a new pool to my house. Just like that! No arguing, no pleading, no crying. At least that’s what I think she said. Either that or I just purchased a time-share in Elbonia.

Now we wait.

You don’t know where the wind will blow, and you don’t know how a baby grows inside the mother. In the same way, you don’t know what God is doing, or how he created everything. (Ecclesiastes 11:5 NCV)

But that hasn’t stopped us from trying to figure it out!

I’m a big fan of NASA. I’m in favor of space research and exploration. The air and space museum is one of my favorite places to visit. The new air and space museum out in Dulles is spectacular. So, today, I’m not writing to criticize NASA just to express confusion.

Here’s a quote from an article in yesterday’s Washington Post:

NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft completed a flawless journey to oblivion early Monday, slamming into an onrushing comet to vaporize itself in an Independence Day blaze of glory.

That sounds like a pretty cool job. “So what do you do?” “Oh, I build multi-million dollar spacecraft and crash them into comets, and you?” “Me? I craft multi-word messages and crash them into crowds.”

The Deep Impact project must have been an interesting mission. I just saw such tremendous irony in the project. Here’s the stated purpose of the mission:

By assessing the shape and size of the crater and chemically analyzing the debris that belched from it, scientists hope to gain new insights into the composition of the solar system at the time of its formation 4.5 billion years ago.

Now here’s what I find ironic. Upon impact of the spacecraft with the crater one of the scientists was quoted as saying:

“Oh, my God, look at that!” JPL astronomer Donald Yeomans shouted as the first images were posted.

It just struck me that in a mission designed to give insights as to the birth of the solar system (via the big bang) one of the scientists is calling out to God.

Again, I’m not against NASA and space exploration. Without NASA we wouldn’t have pens that write everywhere and anywhere, we wouldn’t have freeze-dried ice-cream and other such technological marvels. I’m just saying that with faith in God we could have saved some money on this project.

I’m also thinking they are looking in the wrong place for answers.

But they do not want to remember what happened long ago. By the word of God heaven was made, and the earth was made from water and with water. (2 Peter 3:5 NCV)

The LORD created the heavens. He is the God who formed the earth and made it. He did not want it to be empty, but he wanted life on the earth. This is what the LORD says: “I am the LORD. There is no other God. (Isaiah 45:18 NCV)

In the beginning God created the sky and the earth. The earth was empty and had no form. Darkness covered the ocean, and God’s Spirit was moving over the water. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (Genesis 1:1-3 NCV)

God, the LORD, said these things. He created the skies and stretched them out. He spread out the earth and everything on it. He gives life to all people on earth, to everyone who walks on the earth. (Isaiah 42:5 NCV)

God, the Holy One, says, “Can you compare me to anyone? Is anyone equal to me?” Look up to the skies. Who created all these stars? He leads out the army of heaven one by one and calls all the stars by name. Because he is strong and powerful, not one of them is missing. (Isaiah 40:25-26 NCV)

Lord GOD, you have begun to show me, your servant, how great you are. You have great strength, and no other god in heaven or on earth can do the powerful things you do. There is no other god like you. (Deuteronomy 3:24 NCV)

Talk about your spectacular display, God decided yesterday not to be outdone.

I heard the 4th of July fireworks show was impressive. Heard, because you can hear it from our house and I heard about it from those who went. Reese and I stayed home and played in the pool and heard every single boom. Those who attended said each round of the fireworks display in Washington is like the finale of your local show.

Around 5pm last night we enjoyed a massive thunderstorm. To use a tired, well-worn phrase, it was quite awesome. You could feel the thunder. I joked with Beth that too many people must have been talking about how great the fireworks show was and God was giving them a taste of his spectacular power.

Now, we’ve had a thunderstorm or two here but yesterday we had two. Right around 11:30PM round two began. The night sky lit up with intense lightning. The rumbling echoes of thunder came not far behind. I was trying to sleep but kept feeling like someone was shining a very powerful halogen light in my face each time I closed my eyes.

So, I finally decided just to lie there and look out the windows of our bedroom. I’m not sure when I finally drifted off, but it was with appreciation of God’s creative power.

As you go throughout the day today, here are some verses for reflection which remind us of how great God really is.

Praise the LORD and worship him. Tell everyone what he has done and how great he is. Sing praise to the LORD, because he has done great things. Let all the world know what he has done. (Isaiah 12:4b-5 NCV)

Surely you know. Surely you have heard. The LORD is the God who lives forever, who created all the world. He does not become tired or need to rest. No one can understand how great his wisdom is. (Isaiah 40:28 NCV)

I praise your greatness, my God the King; I will praise you forever and ever. I will praise you every day; I will praise you forever and ever. The LORD is great and worthy of our praise; no one can understand how great he is. Parents will tell their children what you have done. They will retell your mighty acts, wonderful majesty, and glory. And I will think about your miracles. They will tell about the amazing things you do, and I will tell how great you are. They will remember your great goodness and will sing about your fairness. (Psalm 145:1-7 NCV)

I know Habakkuk might seem like a weird place to be for daily reading. If you‚Äôre anything like me and I sure hope not, sometimes it’s just the right fit.

Habakkuk was a complainer! He does not, however, complain about the stuff over which people normally complain. His complaints are not personal. They are collective. His complaints are not private. They are corporate. He is complaining to God regarding the way the Israelites are being treated at the hands of their own leaders.

The narrative opens with Habakkuk complaining followed by the Lord answering. What I find interesting is that the Lord’s first answer does not satisfy Habakkuk and so guess what he does? If you said “complain” give yourself 20 points. Yes, he complains again and man oh man does that man know how to complain. You’ve got to be a skilled complainer if someone can take your complaint and turn it into a sermon!

Perhaps Habakkuk was not satisfied with the length of God’s answer to his first complaint. It was barely seven sentences. To make up for this brevity, God answers the second complaint (even tells Habakkuk to write down his answer) with around nineteen carefully worded sentences. This response by God to the complaints of Habakkuk results in a prayer. It’s an interesting prayer for many reasons. You should read it.

I find it interesting that we get to the end of his prayer and it turns out all along the prayer was a psalm (a song) “for the director of music” intended to be presented on Habakkuk’s stringed instruments.

Habakkuk was a man distressed at the behavior of his people, distressed at the behavior of the ruling nations and distressed at the seemingly lack of response from God. When he mentioned his concerns to God, he was assured by God of a sure response. God’s response would be the final word. God’s response would even silence all complaints:

The Lord is in his Holy Temple; all the earth should be silent in his presence.

Hotdogs, hamburgers, potato salad, cole slaw, chips, and home made ice-cream; yes, it must be the fourth of July. Did I miss menu items?

Reese and I went to Costco yesterday afternoon for a few things and there was not a hamburger or hotdog bun to be found in the entire place. Shelves that are normally filled with bread were as bare as old mother hubbard’s cupboard. Good thing we were not there for bread!

No, this year we are exercising our liberties and freedoms and having a different menu. We will honor the Navy with our menu this year:

Grilled Fresh Alaska Coho Salmon (wild not farmed - the wild ones have mohawks and piercings)
Grilled Jumbo Gulf Shrimp
Beth’s infamous (more than famous) Shrimp Salad
Beth’s infamous Rice Pilaf
Potato Rolls
and of course, Home-Made Ice-Cream

We have friends driving up from Blacksburg, Virginia to spend the day with us. I’m hoping to convince everyone to watch fireworks on the big screen. Though I’m not much of a massive crowd person to begin with, tonight following the fireworks here in DC they are going to use the crowds to test the new emergency evacuation plan.

I hope the plan works, I plan not to be there.

Here’s another contribution from my friend Danny Mann. Quite appropriate for the upcoming 4th of July weekend.

You ever write one of those MAD letters? You know what I mean? They lost your reservation at a hotel - MAD letter. The service was bad at an expensive restaurant – MAD letter. Or, heaven forbid, the airline sent your golf clubs to Acapulco while taking you to Hawaii – VERY MAD letter. If you haven’t written one, you’ve probably thought about it – and you’d be in pretty good company.

Paul wrote a MAD letter. It’s in the New Testament. It’s called Galatians. It seems that, as Paul would go into a town and start a church – get things up and running and move on – there was this group of troublemakers who followed him around and messed up his message.

They would say things like, Paul’s doing the best he can but he never met Jesus in the flesh. His sermons are a little off.” “See,” they would explain, “ before you can become a Christian, you have to become a Jew. You have to observe all the written and oral laws, celebrate special days like Passover. And, sorry guys, but we need to talk about circumcision.”

They were adding things to the simple gospel of Jesus. And it ignited a fiery apostolic anger in Paul’s heart. So he wrote a MAD letter and shot it off to the churches he had started in the region of Galatia. He used phrases like, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” And, “Let them be eternally condemned.”

He was not a happy camper. Paul was giving his life in service to the gospel message and he wanted to make one thing perfectly clear – don’t mess with The Message! Toward the end of his letter, he uses a curious phrase – “It is for freedom Christ has set us free.” (5:1)

I remember reading that phrase when I was younger and wondering what in the world he meant – “It is for freedom we’ve been set free.” To me it was like saying, “It is for lunch we are having lunch.” – it - “It is for sleep we are going to sleep.” - sort of redundant. Wow, Paul, you have a great grasp on the obvious. But now, years later, I think I know what he meant.

Freedom - it’s in our songs. It’s in our most beloved speeches – “Let freedom ring!” It’s fused into the fiber of who we are as individuals, who we are as a nation. Our country is only 229 years old. Paul was talking about freedom 2000 years ago. Was Paul’s concept of freedom the same as ours?

I wonder. As I look around, I see a lot of people who are enslaved by freedom. You think I’m nuts? We’re free to smoke. We get hooked on nicotine. We’re enslaved. We’re free to consume alcohol. It takes over our lives. We’re enslaved. We’re free to access pornography on the Internet. It consumes our time and wrecks our relationships. We’re enslaved. See how it works?

But those are the easy targets – cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women. We are free to pursue happiness. Happiness, many believe, is wrapped up in stuff – big houses, expensive toys, the finest clothes. So we work like crazy, long hard hours, to make the money to buy the stuff that brings happiness. Our families suffer. We have depression, heart attacks and high blood pressure. We’re enslaved. And if you’re sitting there, nodding your head saying, “You tell ‘em, Danny!” - take care. More than likely, you’re enslaved too.

Think you’re a better person than most? Morally superior? To be enslaved by self-righteousness may be the most dangerous enslavement of all. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

Pure, perfect freedom doesn’t exist in this world. Different degrees of freedom do, but perfect freedom doesn’t. In two days, we’ll celebrate Independence Day. It’s something worth celebrating. My sense is, that Paul celebrated Independence Day everyday. Because the freedom he was talking about is forever freedom, perfect freedom. And it’s only available through the glorious grace of God.

Wouldn’t it be something – if we could let that kind of freedom ring – and more than ring, let it reign?

Have a safe and free holiday weekend!