50th Anniversary of the first 'selfie' and its Christmas Message!

God walking on the earth is more important than man walking on the moon. 

Astronaut James Irwin 

- 8th man on the moon

WATCH THIS GREAT VIDEO 

TO FIND OUT WHAT ‘SELFIE' THAT IS!!!

50 years ago today, humans on board Apollo 8 saw earth ‘rise' for the first time from space!

That mission paved the way for the first landing on the moon a short while later.

It’s also 50 years since the broadcast of the first book read to earth from space by one of the astronauts on that Apollo 8 mission….and it was read from the Bible - Genesis 1!

But greater than man rocketing into space or walking on the moon, is the awesome and humbling fact that God became Man and came to dwell on this earth, in order to save his rebellious, wayward, shameful, sinful people from their sins and offer them reconciliation and eternity with God. 

He came, not with pomp and fanfare, but to a simple poor family, born to the sound of mooing cows, braying donkeys and baaing sheep. Instead of others making space for him as someone of importance, no room could even be found for him in the inn.  The world paid no attention to the immensity of what was happening, and God announced it not to kings but to lowly shepherds.  But lowly shepherds weren’t too proud to go into the animal ‘kraal’ area to visit this new baby, and welcome Immanuel.

Our world pays little attention to the true meaning of Christmas and doesn’t understand the importance of Immanuel.  But maybe you can use this 50 year anniversary of a momentous ’space’ event, to point people to the good news of how and why God entered ‘our space’ so that we could once more, go far beyond moon-space or even outerspace, all the way back into God’s ‘space’ for all eternity!

Extra Info from Wikipedia:

Apollo 8, the second manned spaceflight mission flown in the United States Apollo space program, was launched on December 21, 1968, and became the first manned spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit, reach the Moon, orbit it, and return. The three-astronaut crew—Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders—were the first humans to witness and photograph an Earthrise and to escape the gravity of a celestial body... 

Apollo 8 took 68 hours (almost three days) to travel the distance to the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times over the course of twenty hours, during which they made a Christmas Eve television broadcast in which they read the first ten verses from the Book of Genesis. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever. Apollo 8's successful mission paved the way for Apollo 11 to fulfill U.S. president John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s. The Apollo 8 astronauts returned to Earth on December 27, 1968, when their spacecraft splashed down in the northern Pacific Ocean. The crew members were named Time magazine's "Men of the Year" for 1968 upon their return.

What an African-American, and South Korean, and a Canadian can teach us about global honour-shame dynamics

'Louder with Crowder', is a program where Steven Crowder goes into the public space (often in a University context) and sets up a table to welcome a 'civil conversation' with passers-by on controversial topics.

One that I recently came across was outside a University in Texas (Posted on YouTube on March 6th 2018) on the topic of 'Male Privilege'. But after chatting with a couple of girls on the topic, two young men (one African-American and one South Korean) from the crowd that had gathered, made a couple of comments and Steven Crowder welcomed them to the table to sit down to chat further. (at about the 41 minute mark if you want to click on the link and watch it)

It led to a conversation about cultural differences that helped further in my quest to find an answer to a question I have asked myself in relation to our honour-shame research:

Why if Asia is 'honour-shame' oriented, and Africa, as we have now learnt is also so 'honour-shame' oriented, are the two cultures so vastly different in regards to societal development?

As these guys talked they mentioned some very interesting facts:

That for an Asian, the father is very 'present' in his family and the family unit is very strong. It is culturally expected that you will perform high in academic excellence, otherwise you are not showing your worth to your family and you'll be 'disowned', as the whole 'shaming your family' thing is strong. He mentioned that the suicide rate for Japanese and South Korean young people is extremely high - in fact the highest in the world, and it spikes in South Korea just after the results of a certain high school 'placement test'  comes out that basically determines what career path you will be able to take for the rest of your life. 

But for the African-American guy who came from a single-parent family, raised by his mum as is so common in African-American contexts,  the family unit is not so strong, but there is a very strong cultural community pressure to 'not be a nerd' (to use his words) or else you will get 'beat up'. Academic excellence is 'shunned upon' especially in the gangs. You 'can't like things that are not stereotypical for the culture'. It's not 'cool' to stay behind at school and do extra classes, but it is 'cool' to cut classes.

They spoke about how that the top ethnicities in highest income earners in the US are Asians - Japanese, Indian, Thai, but the bottom are African-American and Hispanics. But these guys were saying and affirming that they don't believe this has anything to do with 'systematic racism'…but that its all about culture.

Here we have a conversation in a multi-ethnic American setting that reveals something about my above question.

While both the Asian and the African-American are 'honour-shame' and directed by community/family pressures of what is expected and 'accepted' - ie honourable, what is considered honourable is entirely opposite. One honours those who strive hard to stand out above the crowd, the other honours those who stay within the crowd. One honours what the other shames.

Interestingly as the discussion drew to a close, Steven Crowder made the comment that in contrast to what these two guys were saying about their culture, in his 'white American culture', neither of those pressures are an issue for the white American male, but that the biggest thing was what he had experienced in the first part of the discussion with the other two girls - that the biggest "pressurised eco-system for white people is a pressure to feel guilty "… about having this or that opinion or belief.

(note that although the West is increasing in honour-shame dynamics is still highly guilt oriented and the shame to a great degree is in 'being guilty' of something (so shamed for being guilty), whereas for the Asian and African-American it is the opposite - the problem is bringing shame and if you do, you have done wrong - thus you are guilty ( - so its guilt for shame))

Without even realising it, this conversation so clearly identified the different emphases between guilt-innocence oriented Western culture, and honour-shame oriented African and Asian cultures but how the differences of what is considered as honourable and shameful sets a direction for those within that culture.

There is a lot we can learn just from civil polite conversations with people, that helps us understand our world, why we do what we do, and thus learn some pointers to help us think rightly about what the issues are that need to be addressed if we want to see change in our societies…..and a lot of it stems back to cultural dynamics of honour-shame and guilt-innocence!

Let's remember that ultimately, only God has the answers to all these cultural issues, but if we want to help people find God's answers, they have to first rightly understand the problems and we need to have good conversations with people.

If you are interested in reading more on some of these issues, the book 'Culture Matters' is a great place to start.

I have also just finished reading a book called 'Why Africa is Poor' by Choolwe Mbetwa (a Zambian), which also goes into some great 'reveals' about how culture is so instrumental in determining 'destiny'.

Honour, Identity, Business and the Gospel

The issue of 'identity' is so prominent in our modern world. But it isn't a 'new' issue just because we have named it and talk about it a lot.

Identity, as we have talked about before on this blog is enmeshed in the dynamic of honour.

These issues, far from being abstract, are reality in so many areas of life....including how we do business, and why we do business....and in fact our whole attitude to life and success.

Take a look at this excellent video by Pastor Tim Keller on the traditional view on identity, the modern view of identity and how to look at both biblically to find God's answer to identity issues:

Evolution Shames Africans

Photocredit: Wikemedia Commons

No doubt you have seen the above diagrams….well at least the last one, if not the first two adaptations!

That same story that was taught to me over 40 years ago in a Western schoolroom is also taught in the schoolrooms here.

Although almost all African's believe in God in some way and have various styles of 'creation stories' of one version or another, what is taught at school is put in the compartmentalised box of what one is supposed to believe in regard to 'Western Science'.

However, the teaching of evolution has tried to take on African roots as well.

Just a few hours drive from where I live, is a place that is supposed to be the boast of Africa - 'The Cradle of Humankind'.

It is supposed to be the site of the first humans in the process of evolution.

And Africa is meant to be 'proud' that it is the source of all humanity. It is supposed to be an honour to be the ones from whom all the rest of humanity evolved.

However, it is far from being a position of honour.  I find it so sad, to see Africans tricked into believing something is their honour  when it is actually their shame, and keeping them 'lower' than the rest of the world, in people's thinking.

You see, if one is to believe in evolution and the diagrams above, that man evolved from apes/monkeys/baboons, then African's are the 'type' of human that is the least advanced, the least intelligent and the least developed and the least capable of 'modern' life.  

If evolution is about progressing from the least developed and advanced creatures to ever advancing creatures and 'humanity' which started in South Africa, and continued to 'progress' to 'higher' levels of humanity across the globe, then evolution puts Africans in a 'least human/almost monkey' category.

We have even heard Westerners make comment here that Africans are just not 'capable' of certain things mentality speaking!  How, derogatory!

African are just as much humans as any other human being on the planet. They may not have had the same opportunities as others on the planet, the cultural worldviews may have placed certain boundaries that determined what was allowed and permitted to occur in life, but an African is no less intelligent or able.  If Ben Carson can become a world renowned Neurosurgeon, doesn't that tell us something about the fact that skin colour makes no difference to potential inherent ability?

Evolution is full of conundrums.

The latest is that supposedly a newly discovered type of dinosaur (Ingentia Prima, in Argentina) which is being debated whether it walked on two legs or four. Some are saying it started out walking on two legs (a biped), and the other two front 'legs' were more like hands….a bit like a kangaroo. However unlike the human evolution, the scientists are having trouble working out how it seems these dinosaurs 'evolved' from two-leg walkers to later become four-leg walkers. Why I ask, would dinosaurs want to 'evolve' in the opposite direction to other supposed evolution which was pressing toward the humans 'progressing' to be two leg walkers from four leg monkey walkers?

God's word tells us that he made each animal for it to reproduce according to its kind. He made the first human as fully human. There was no gradual process. He made humans as uniquely human - the only creature to have God's life breathed into him. Every human being - no matter the skin shade - is made in the image of God, and equal in value in the sight of God.

Africans are fully human, fully able to do what any other skin colour human can do, fully able to know God through Jesus Christ and serve God to the full capacity of a human being indwelt by Christ.

The gospel is the truth that sets Africa free from the place of shame - and being seen as 'less than' - in which the evolutionary tree has said they should be placed.

Hope for this September Day at the Edge of the Kalahari

Well today is the day when we have equal time of exactly day and night here on the edge of the Kalahari Desert - sunrise is 6.10am and sunset is 6.10 pm!

But it is also about the middle of September which, in Australia I was taught was the month that marked the beginning of Spring!  It is the season emerging from the cold of winter when all the plants start flowering and fresh green growth is sprouting everywhere!

It is supposed to be like an opposite of Autumn - known as 'Fall' in the USA, that comes before winter.

However, this year for us the weather seems a bit confused. 

We had a mild winter with unusual days of rain. And no days, as we usually would do, below zero degrees, and we only had one day that was almost zero degrees C.

So it wasn't until after the end of 'winter', and some warmer days were followed by a short but later 'colder snap' a couple weeks back at the beginning of September, that the leaves of the trees started to turn red and fall, carpeting the dirt and rocks beside our house in a carpet of beautiful colour.  

And it is only now that the tree outside our window and most other trees in the bush around us, have become basically leafless!

Spring is almost not a season at all here. We just skip it altogether!…especially this year it seems!

Instead, we go from 'winter' into 'windy', and 'windy' is 'hot windy'!  It is dust storms and super low humidity  (as you can see from the first photo above saying humidity as only 6% and since I took that screen capture on my phone it later dropped to 4%), and high temperatures! It's when you wash your hair and it is air-dry in just minutes and to get croutons you just leave bread on the counter for an hour!

Like today…

Maximum temperature 37 or 38 degrees C with single figures humidity in the afternoon. - same as yesterday - and predicted to continue for a few more days yet, before the Max temp. might drop a couple of degrees later in the week. Friends further north are already experiencing temperatures over the 41 degree celcius mark!  And even just the other side of the city from us registered 41 degrees!

And this is just the 'warm up' to summer itself!  October is usually the hottest month of the year! I think we are in for a scorcher!

But its good to be reminded that despite what we feel is topsy-turvy confusion with the seasons, and the world's fears of 'climate change', our hope and trust is not in what 'looks confusing', but we can press on in peace with our hope and trust in the Creator. We don't have to fret and worry about 'what will become of us'?  We can go into the day, the week, the year, the future, with confidence knowing that our times and the seasons are in His hand. Our hope is secured in eternity in Christ.

Whether the day is hot, cold, cold, windy, dry, wet, or whether leaves are falling at the expected time or not, we can trust in the Lord.

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD;

 I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 

Habakkuk 3:17-18

The Blues are gone!..part 2

Then there is the 'Zebra Blue',

which has stripes on the outside, like a zebra.

But like the others, as the wings open just a little, you get a hint of what is hidden behind the zebra 'stripes' and why he might have 'blue' as part of his name!

You might even know these in Australia, as 'Plumbago Blue', as I found them featured for Brisbane   

So there you go, a butterfly that has probably been around in the gardens where I grew up but I never stopped to look closely and enjoy these beautiful tiny creatures!

These photos below took several occasions of watching because this little butterfly rarely opens his wings when he is stationary…

first the female….

They range in size and sometimes come even smaller like this male below,

   

  

and here is my wedding ring on the leaf for a size comparison..and my ring is only 16mm inside diameter.

And finally, here is the male with the sun at a slightly different angle...

Just stunning!

The Blues are gone!

No I'm not talking about a style of music, feeling depressed or the New South Wales rugby team!

Yes, its butterflies I'm thinking about!…again!

…and therefore, our Awesome Creator!

'The Blues' is what a range of small butterflies is 'commonly' called because most of them have a distinct bit of blue-tone somewhere on them, to be seen when their wings are open, even though they are often a brown tone on the underside. 

Wikipedia says:

Lycaenidae is the second-largest family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide,[1] whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies. They constitute about 30% of the known butterfly species. The family is traditionally divided into the subfamilies of the blues (Polyommatinae), the coppers (Lycaeninae), the hairstreaks (Theclinae) and the harvesters (Miletinae).

And they are really tiny - in part 2 of this blog, you will see a size comparison with my wedding ring!

 It's only with zoom photography and the ability to enlarge a photo that you are able to see the extent of the beauty that is there.

Over the last few weeks I haven't really seen any of them in our garden. Maybe its to do with the season changes.  I don't really know.  

But it seems a good time to be reminded of these beautiful tiny butterflies and share them with you too!

First up - The African Grass Blue

The Grass Jewel

The Rayed Blue

Bush Bronze - female

And the Common Hairtail - female

Then there is the 'Zebra Blue',

…which I will reveal in Part 2 of this post…

Book Review: 'An Honor-Shame Paraphrase of 15 Psalms by Jayson Georges

We don't have too many guest blog posts, but today we have one by our African co-worker, Kenosi Molato. He does a review of another book in the series by Jayson Georges, of paraphrased books of the Bible drawing the reader to the honor-shame dynamics present in the biblical portion.  This one, paraphrasing 15 Psalms, follows on from two others in the series: 1 Peter, and Esther.

_______________________________________________________

I have been preaching through the book of Psalms for close to three years now. Jayson George's book covers those crucial issues which I have grappled with in my sermon preparation. Furthermore, as an African living and ministering in a cosmology which is predominantly honor-shame focused, the book has aided me in the struggle of liberating the biblical text which has been enmeshed in the guilt-oriented worldview in previous translations and interpretations. Moreover it provides a fresh look at the book of Psalms in a way which resonates with my honor-shame oriented heart and outlook on life.

Though Jayson's aim is to provide a paraphrase of the Psalms, I find his explanations of the socio-theological context and the theological motif (Honor of God, the shamefulness of people of God, honoring the faithful, honoring the king, shaming the enemies), as one of the main contributions he makes to the interpretation of the book of Psalms (pg. 13-28). These theological motifs provide a reader of the Psalms with tools to deal with the difficulties, which are associated with interpreting different and difficult liturgy, such as the imprecatory Psalms, in the context of honor and shame societies.  

One of the key concepts which Jayson highlights, is one that I have grappled with. It is the issue of the covenant. I have mentioned to my co-worker that it is the basis one has to use in the interpretation of the book of Psalms. But I lament that there has been a lack of emphasis and also literature in the honor and shame discussion concerning the topic. I wished that Jayson could have labored more on this concept but he just spent a page and half on the topic (pg. 13-14).

The paraphrase itself highlights the honor and shame cultural dynamics, which influences the Psalmist's writings style and also captures their rhetoric styles. With this in view, Jayson gets between the exegete and the reader by providing the reader with lenses to see the scripture from the social setting, which had been hidden or veiled by the translation. 

Moreover, Jayson does not only use the words 'honor-shame' but uses the synonyms such as humiliation, status and demotion. These synonyms give the paraphrase a touch, taste and vivid expression of honor-shame dynamics in the text, consequently making it to come alive. 

However, when reading this paraphrase of Psalms, I came to realize that Honor and Shame cultures differ with the usage of terms. E.g. Jayson uses the terms 'patron' and 'client' in most of his paraphrase depicting the relationship between Yahweh and his people (Pg. 37). While the concept may be present in my African context I don't feel the terms would carry the weight or the intended meaning in a helpful way. I wouldn't go so far as to replace "Shepherd" with "Patron" as Jayson does in Psalm 23:1. If there was a need to bring in the concept of patronage I would have preferred to see something like "Yahweh is my shepherd who is my perfect patron" rather than reduce and replace the concept of shepherd totally with only patron. 

Jayson Georges often goes beyond normal paraphrases and moves to the explanatory sense such as in Psalm 15 (pg. 35-36). Though this is helpful and Jayson desires to illuminate the text's honor-shame rhetoric, some might see this as an interpretation of Psalms rather than a paraphrase, consequently making the book to lose its main goal and purpose.

I was let down by the fact that I felt the author left out the most crucial aspects of honor and shame culture in relation to sin, forgiveness and repentance, which appear in Psalms, especially in Psalm 32 whereby the issue of covering is used. Consequently this could have led to the discussion of how shame is dealt with in relation to sin.

Most of all Jayson must be honored and appreciated for such a great work and I hope that the next paraphrase of the Psalms is on the way because the book has left me longing for more.   

By Kenosi Molato

Balanced or Biblical? 3 needs for missionaries from guilt-innocence contexts!

In the last few days 2 blog posts (one from honorshame.com and one from Jackson Wu) have emerged countering a recent TGC article titled '5 Dangers for Missionaries in Honor-Shame Contexts'.

I doubt the TGC article (which first appeared at IMB) is meant to just create trouble, but it has definitely caused a response.

Both honorshame.com and Jackson Wu responses raise valid concerns, just as Elliot Clark, author of the TGC article most probably felt he raised valid concerns.

I don't really want to just fuel an argument, but my concern is that there seems a desire for 'balance' in a context where honorshame.com point out there is currently little balance, but in the opposite way in which the TGC article is concerned about.

Clark, is worried that with the growing realisation and understanding of honour-shame dynamics in cultures around the world and in Scripture that we are in danger of losing a guilt-innocence-obedience context of the gospel.

I totally agree that with any 'new' understanding any of us are in danger of pushing so hard on that, in order to correct a previously wrong emphasis, that we 'keep pushing' beyond the point of 'balancing' the pendulum swing. When we do that we risk the possibility of dangerous overcorrecting. The refreshing  re-awakening to Scripture's honour-shame aspects cannot be expected to be exempt from this human tendancy. But like the honorshame.com cartoon illustrates, we are a long way from an honour-shame over-emphasis in biblical scholarship and Christian literature and preaching and missions, especially when we look at the last 50 years or so in the West.

The whole reason for my local African Theologian co-worker  and I writing our book 'Highest Honour' (just printed here in Africa and shortly to be available on-line) was to have a discipleship tool. In a world where there are hundreds if not thousands of discipleship programs from a guilt-innocence perspective there just weren't any discipleship programs available that we could find, which addressed honour-shame issues as part of Godly growth in grace, let alone ones appropriate for Africa.

Personally, in ministry I am almost constantly aware not only of making an effort to contextualise appropriately for an honour-shame African context, but to also ensure that guilt-law-innocence contexts are not overlooked and are explained in ways that will be understood.

I understand the fears of the TGC article author, and he is the voice of many others who share similar concerns that guilt-innocence truths of Scripture will be overlooked if the honour-shame focus is too strong.  And yes, we do have to be careful not to 'overcorrect' or just in our zeal, over-emphasise something to the unintentional neglect of other parts of Scripture. I recall very early on in my 'discovery' about honour-shame I was talking with a local theologian about ways to speak the gospel so that honour-shame ears would 'hear' it and I asked about using the word/concepts of guilt. I was in danger of initial overcorrecting, but he was emphatic that alongside honour-shame, to definitely refer to guilt as for the very reason it is not often spoken about, it is 'weighty' and severe when it is spoken about... and when joined with honour-shame concepts would have great impact…and it did.

So I do not deny the caution re pendulum swinging, but this is where we need to realise, that 

guilt-innocence and honour-shame are not two alternative opposites in a fight for greatest emphasis in missiology, 

but are two God-given partners in co-operation to give us gospel clarity.  

However, they are not, in fact, equal partners.

photo: wikimediacommons

1. Need for Re-instatement of the Bible's Supreme Theme

If I could be so bold as to say, the opposite to Clark's fears, is our real danger.

We in the West, have taken a guilt 'sub-theme' of Scripture and made it the supreme theme. The supreme theme of Scripture is not guilt-innocence. The supreme theme of Scripture is God's glory…His honour. As Jackson Wu pointed out, those such as John Piper have repetatively strongly preached this and written about it. 

Sin is 'coming short of God's glory' (Romans 3:23) We have failed to honour Him - bottom line. (Romans  1:21-23) 

We do well to remember that God first describes sinlessness in Scripture not as 'innocent' or not even as 'innocent and unashamed', but simply 'unashamed'. Scripture has a priority and overarching way to describe sin and it is in honour-shame language not guilt-innocence language. We don't need to make apology for that, it is simply unequivocal reality whether we like it or not.  It is not something to be worried about, but to rejoice in. We can fully embrace the Scriptural (rightly placed) honour-shame emphasis with freedom as we endeavour to bring the gospel to a world with a (mis-placed) honour-shame emphasis.  

If you want an Old Testament example just go to Nathan's confrontation of David's sin in 2 Samuel 12 - probably on of the most well used examples of personal sin in Scripture. As God's messenger, Nathan did not use 'obedience' language but 'honour' language, even in regard to God's word. He didn't tell David he 'disobeyed' God and God's law (though that was certainly true), but that he 'despised' God and God's word. 

The sin problem with our hearts is firstly not an obedience problem but an honour problem. Tedd Tripp even identifies this in regard to how we raise our children in his book 'Shepherding a Child's Heart'. 

We have a regal problem before we have a legal problem.

photo: publicdomain

2. Need to Pursue Biblical Realignment More Than 'Balance'

We don't need 'balance', so much as a major biblical re-alignment.

Scripture talks far more about shame than it does guilt. (see 'The Global Gospel' by Werner Mischke p47)   Scripture is not 'balanced' in that regard. 

Clark in his article mentions the Apostle Paul's reference to the 5th Commandment. Exodus 20 tells us that we are to 'honour our father and mother'.  It does not first tell us to 'obey' but to honour.  There are only two places in Scripture where a command to obey parents is given, as a 'sub-issue' of the main commandment. (both in Paul's letters - Eph 6:1, Col 3:20) So, yes these mentions by Paul do link obedience with honour but not as a couplet of equally weighted terms. Nor does Paul say to honour parents because there is an overarching command to obey parents, but he says for children to obey parents because there is an overarching command to honour father and mother. His basis for 'obeying' is in the foundation of 'honouring'. Obedience is 'within' the honour issue.  

Obeying is more the fruit than the root. 

Scripture isn't 'balanced' on this issue, as we might want to understand balance. 

God starts with an honour context (no shame) in the Garden of Eden, and that theme continues right the way through Scripture till its culmination in Revelation. It's true, within that is the reality of innocence and the need for obedience, but they are not the main issue.  Paul did not say in Romans 1 that God's rebuke and condemnation was because of 'disobedience' but because of 'dishonour'. The thanks we don't give Him, is not just because we are disobedient to a command to 'give thanks', but because our hearts are not inclined as they should be to 'want' to give thanks from a heart that 'wants' to honour Him. 

God looks beyond outward displays of 'obedience' to inward devotion (honour) of the heart.

  

3. Need to Awaken to How Honour Helps Us Understand and Teach Obedience

Clark also seems to fear that if we emphasise honour too much we will be in danger of losing emphasis on obedience. This maybe comes from a mis-understanding that honour-shame emphasis cultures don't have a concept of obedience or law, right and wrong or as he says 'lacks categories for transgression'.  This is not a correct understanding of such cultures. 

The 'law' categories of honour-shame cultures are that you must give honour and you must not bring shame. The thing to obey is the one category of 'always maintain honour and harmony in relationships'. Anything outside of that is seen as taboo, shameful, and wrong. Every culture is sin-infected and lacks the fulness of godly descriptions of God's objective and eternal definitions of right and wrong, and instead lives by its own (to one degree or another) mis-placed definitions. 

We all need our minds renewed with new godly definition of right and wrong. (Romans 12:2)

In fact, since ministering in an honour-shame emphasis culture I have actually come to a greater and wider and deeper understanding of 'obedience' - I have had to - because those around me come at 'obedience' from perspectives that I had not encountered so much in my Western setting. I have found myself more particular in how I deal with the concept of obedience in discipleship because understanding the mis-placed contexts of honour-shame around me, has highlighted the mis-placed understandings of obedience as well. 

When honour is sought before the eyes of people instead of God, then obedience becomes something that takes on a subjective 'near enough is good enough as long as no-one sees or objects', rather than a need to obey completely and exactly no matter who sees.  (I raised this in my article in the Orality Journal and in that article mentioned how even Nabeel Qureshi mentions the matter in his book 'Seeking Allah Finding Jesus'). Understanding honour-shame has increased, not decreased, my understanding of guilt-innocence-obedience.

photo: wikimediacommons

And if we neglect honour-shame perspectives in our guilt-innocence-obedience emphasis Western culture we quickly become legalistic in our attitudes and require 'laws' for everything. We then have a false view that if there isn't a law to tell us not to do something, we are free to do it, when in fact it might be totally disrespectful. So then a lack of honour-shame awareness distorts the place and purpose of obedience and law and a well functioning society…to say nothing of our relationship with God.

1 John 3:4

I used to think that 'lawlessness' (as a definition of sin mentioned by Elliot Clark) meant individual sinful actions of specific disobedience to the law. However, it is far more than that. Rather than a defence that sin is inherently disobedience, this definition of sin tells us that lawlessness is an attitude of total disregard for both the law and the lawgiver as both Charles Spurgeon and John Macarthur explain.  

As Spurgeon says: 'he who dares to break God's Law, seeing that he cannot do it except in the immediate Presence of God, for God is everywhere—he that acts contrary to God's Law before God's own face does, as it were, fling down the gauntlet to his God and defy His power! By such action as that, he either means to declare that God is not almighty, or that Jehovah will not exercise His Omnipotence to defend His honor, or that he, himself, does not care what God does, so he will leave Him to do His worst. Every sin has this venom within its bowels—it is a defiance of the mighty Majesty of God' [i]

– or we could say a 'defiance of Almighty God's place of Highest Kingly Honour'!

John MacArthur in his sermon "The Christian's Incompatability with Sin Part 1" on this passage says: "Everyone is doing sin, practicing sin is engaged in practicing lawlessness. And lawlessness is an attitude.  It is not so much the transgression of the Law, as the indifference to the Law.  Construction here makes sin and lawlessness identical. It's living as if there is no Law. It's living as if there is no law-giver."[ii]

This is about a heart that is 'indifferent' and has no regard or respect for the One who gave and instigated the law. Rather than 1 John 3:4 proving that individual actions of sins of disobedience to the law are transgressions of the law, it is saying that sin (singular) is an attitude of heart that is the very essence of disrespect (dishonour) of both the law and lawgiver…..just as pronounced by the prophet Nathan when he confronted David. 

It was my growing understanding of honour-shame that, rather than hindering, has enabled an enlarged understanding of the meaning of lawlessness and the contexts and concepts of obedience and the law. 

Proverbs 30:9

If we take a look at Proverbs 30:9 "lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God" 

or as the KJV puts it 'take the name of my God in vain',  

or as the New Living translates it 'insult God's holy name', 

and as some other translations including the NIV put it - 'and so dishonour the name of my God',

...Breaking God's law (stealing in this instance), is all about dishonouring Him and His name - who He is - His very being and position as our Creator, the Almighty. Obedience to the law is foundationally rooted in the requirement for us to honour Him.

A biblical emphasis does not detract from a right understanding and teaching of the law and obedience, but I find it more greatly enables it.

Let's not be afraid of encouraging people to come to understand more and more what it means to see Scripture's overarching theme of honour from beginning to end!

[i] defiance meaning bold resistance to authority, open disregard, contempt - dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/defiance 
[ii] http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/62-25 

A Thai cave rescue plan & a Whole World eternal sin rescue plan

photo credit: screenshot Evening Standard

The world is watching and waiting with baited breath along with the parents and families of 12 boys of a Thai soccer team and their coach, who went on a hike down some caves in a remote area of northern Thailand on the 23rd June, unaware that heavy rain was going to suddenly cause flash flooding and trap them inside the cave. 

For 10 days they were missing. Experts rallied from around the world to try to search for the boys. Two highly experienced volunteer British cave divers were the first to reach the boys and discover they were all still alive and in relatively good shape. 

A British television presenter made the following comment:

The world at the moment seems dominated at the moment by cruel and confusing and loud cycles of news. These stories speak to a hope that out of gloom, a quiet unassuming stranger will emerge, someone who actually knows what they are doing, someone who will rescue us from the darkness.

Now there is the issue of getting these young boys out. But those boys were so thankful for those two divers who made the first contact and brought them news, food and encouragement and hope.

We don't know what the end of this story for all the boys will be (although just as I am about to post this, it has been confirmed that four of the boys are now out!), but we do know that on a far greater level, another unassuming stranger emerged from the gloom of our world over 2000 years ago, who knew what he was doing, in order to rescue us from a much greater spiritual darkness.  

Just like these boys, humanity is in a hopeless and helpless situation unable to save ourselves. We need to totally rely on the direction and ability of another. These boys not only have no diving experience, some of them can't even swim. They have to totally put themselves in the hands of another if there is any chance of them getting out and being rescued.

As the rescue process began cave diving expert Dr Rogers spoke to ABC News 24 and gave some thoughts on the rescue process:

He said he doesn't think the boys will be expected to do anything during the operation — the expert divers will take care of everything.

"I don't believe the kids will be doing anything. They won't be swimming. They may not even have fins on. The expert diver [will] have a minimum of two independent air supplies on them, I suspect they will be carrying another bottle as well, but they will know the distances of all the sumps [underwater flooded sections] and there's spare bottles they can pick up."

Dr Rogers said the boys will hold on to the back of the expert diver and will be wearing masks. 

People in our world are looking for who can rescue them from the mess they can see, but the mess is far greater than that. They need Jesus Christ who can rescue them from the mess of our hearts not just the mess of our circumstances, and not just on a temporary scale, but on an eternal scale! We can do nothing to save ourselves, We need Jesus. Once we understand our dire predicament and have had the only answer explained to us,... we have to be willing, and trust his ability and plan, and give ourselves to him, by faith, despite our uncertainties and inability to comprehend it all,... but he does it all.

When the boys were initially found it was thought they might be able to wait out the wet season and walk out on their own. But while their own walking steps got them trapped, their own walking steps were not going to get them out. Time was limited. Waiting in hope was a false hope. An urgent rescue plan had to be completed.

Just like those boys, the rescuer has come, but if we want to be rescued we have to entrust and enjoin ourselves to the rescuer to bring us fully to the completion of the rescue. While the successful rescue of each boy is not something this human rescue operation can guarantee, our eternal rescue is guaranteed if we are willing to entrust ourselves to the eternal rescuer.

Maybe you can use this situation that has the eyes of the world, as an opportunity to draw a parallel and lift the eyes of friends and neighbours to their need for a much greater rescue!

Pray that hearts will come to see their true need and that Jesus is their true rescuer not just from the darkness of a cave, or the darkness of our world's news, but the darkness of our own hearts and the deepest darkness and horror of an eternity without the 'light of the world'...

….and then pray and go into this dark world, bringing light to people's darkness.

note added 20 July 2018 - all the boys and coach were safely rescued from the cave - you might like to watch this Australian Four Corners program about it broadcast last Monday the 16th, including interviews with some of the rescue divers and this YouTube video of the press conference with the boys the day they left hospital, and an extra interview with the boy who served as the translater for the group in the cave when the British Divers arrived - because he had been taught English by the Pastor of the church that has been his home for the past 10 years as a Myanmar refugee!