UPDATE FOR SEPTEMBER 2007
Did we have September this year? I saw a sign that said: ?The hurrier I go, the behinder I get!? We feel like the cranberry merchant who just saw his cranberry table overturned: he was berry, berry busy! Maybe we should send out this Update before it becomes ?ancient history!?
Stress relief? Some wise person said, ?To avoid burnout, allow time to recharge your batteries.? A Christian brother from the Florence church invited us to help him harvest his grapes in the Tuscan hills (Chianti region). We accepted to spend two days helping him. This activity provided us excellent therapy of some good, physical labor, working up and down the hilly vineyard, cutting clusters with scissors, pitching them into 40 kilogram cases and hauling them up (or down) the rows until each case was full. Around 30 young people from Harding University?s Florence branch worked the first day, as ?an Italian cultural experience.? Enid and Harold came back a second day because the owner needed help, and we were able to develop our friendship and sense of brotherhood further.
An incredible Bible study. During our stay in Scandicci (a Florence suburb), we attended a week-night Bible study. We were informed that a person converted two years ago would be leading it. Anyone who assumed that his lesson would be rudimentary and bland at best, would have been quite wrong. Instead, he was surprisingly well prepared, spoke clearly and raised thoughtful questions. Essentially, he read and explained the Sermon on the Mount in 35-40 minutes, an exceptional feat in itself.
But this ?lesson? was astonishing for one surprising feature: there in this small gathering of believers (even one Catholic was present), the teacher used this lesson to explain why he was leaving the church of Christ! This relatively new Christian expected to see more real Christianity from the church members. He correctly saw in the Lord?s Sermon a call to radical obedience, but he insisted on judging Jesus and decided that He made some unreasonable or incomprehensible demands on those who would be His disciples. The young teacher chastened the church for an inflated interest in observing the forms of Christianity, while denying the power of it and ignoring the very thing that God called us to do. Sadly, he could offer no remedy, because his own doubts were too strong and evident, undermining his faith in Jesus.
Here was a person pouring out his own doubt and unbelief publicly while presuming to teach the very Scriptures that could remove his doubts and lead him and his listeners to faith! But it should not have been surprising, because many Italians here have an ambivalent relationship to God and Christ: it is a deep-running skepticism about trusting any authority figure implicitly, even Jesus.
During the discussion time, Harold asked how this teacher understood Jesus? call for perfection (Mt. 5:48), and suggested that His inflexible demand might well be intended to challenge everyone to ask, ?Lord, how can I do this?? This would demonstrate his real discipleship to Jesus by going to Him for the answer to the question. To this Jesus could answer, ?You have come to the right person with your question. I can give you the power to do what you consider impossible.? Jesus did say, ?Without me you can do nothing; with me you can bear much fruit.? The young man remained calm and thoughtful. We pray that he returned home with the implications of the Lord?s words ringing in his ears: ?For men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.? Oddly, the young man?s name is Victor: may he find his true victory in whole-hearted belief in Jesus! This will take radical surgery to eliminate his disbelief.
So as we continue to work, you continue to pray.
Stress relief? Some wise person said, ?To avoid burnout, allow time to recharge your batteries.? A Christian brother from the Florence church invited us to help him harvest his grapes in the Tuscan hills (Chianti region). We accepted to spend two days helping him. This activity provided us excellent therapy of some good, physical labor, working up and down the hilly vineyard, cutting clusters with scissors, pitching them into 40 kilogram cases and hauling them up (or down) the rows until each case was full. Around 30 young people from Harding University?s Florence branch worked the first day, as ?an Italian cultural experience.? Enid and Harold came back a second day because the owner needed help, and we were able to develop our friendship and sense of brotherhood further.
An incredible Bible study. During our stay in Scandicci (a Florence suburb), we attended a week-night Bible study. We were informed that a person converted two years ago would be leading it. Anyone who assumed that his lesson would be rudimentary and bland at best, would have been quite wrong. Instead, he was surprisingly well prepared, spoke clearly and raised thoughtful questions. Essentially, he read and explained the Sermon on the Mount in 35-40 minutes, an exceptional feat in itself.
But this ?lesson? was astonishing for one surprising feature: there in this small gathering of believers (even one Catholic was present), the teacher used this lesson to explain why he was leaving the church of Christ! This relatively new Christian expected to see more real Christianity from the church members. He correctly saw in the Lord?s Sermon a call to radical obedience, but he insisted on judging Jesus and decided that He made some unreasonable or incomprehensible demands on those who would be His disciples. The young teacher chastened the church for an inflated interest in observing the forms of Christianity, while denying the power of it and ignoring the very thing that God called us to do. Sadly, he could offer no remedy, because his own doubts were too strong and evident, undermining his faith in Jesus.
Here was a person pouring out his own doubt and unbelief publicly while presuming to teach the very Scriptures that could remove his doubts and lead him and his listeners to faith! But it should not have been surprising, because many Italians here have an ambivalent relationship to God and Christ: it is a deep-running skepticism about trusting any authority figure implicitly, even Jesus.
During the discussion time, Harold asked how this teacher understood Jesus? call for perfection (Mt. 5:48), and suggested that His inflexible demand might well be intended to challenge everyone to ask, ?Lord, how can I do this?? This would demonstrate his real discipleship to Jesus by going to Him for the answer to the question. To this Jesus could answer, ?You have come to the right person with your question. I can give you the power to do what you consider impossible.? Jesus did say, ?Without me you can do nothing; with me you can bear much fruit.? The young man remained calm and thoughtful. We pray that he returned home with the implications of the Lord?s words ringing in his ears: ?For men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.? Oddly, the young man?s name is Victor: may he find his true victory in whole-hearted belief in Jesus! This will take radical surgery to eliminate his disbelief.
So as we continue to work, you continue to pray.
posted by Harold & Enid Fowler | 11:34 AM
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