acrossky

I am headed to camp today. I will be at Camp Caroline for the next 2 weeks.

Looking forward to a good time with a bunch of junior highs.

I would appreciate your prayers that I would be an encouragement to the campers and staff.

I got the urge to do a little climbing on Sunday. It was one the clearest days I have ever seen in the mountains!

You can check out some video here

Now I know what kind of flack I’m going to get from my bros in Uglyville for this. All I can say to you guys is look at the last picture. : ) From the President.

I read something in James Bradley’s book, Flyboys, I thought was interesting. But first a little background. Bradley describes the Japanese invasion of China known as the Rape of Nanking. It was a terrible invasion and unspeakable things were done. Tominaga was a student at Tokyo Imperial University who planned for a life in a civilian career but was drafted as an officer in the Imperial army. He describes his first meeting with his platoon in China,

“I’ll never forget meeting them,” Tominaga recalled. “When I looked at the men of my platoon I was stunned – they had evil eyes. They weren’t human eyes, but the eyes of leopards or tigers… The longer the men had been at the front, the more evil their eyes appeared.”

One of the initiation rights for every new Japanese officer was that they were required to chop off the head of the enemy… not in battle but the head of a bound, weak, emaciated POW. Tominaga did this with much fear but after word he speaks of feeling a sense of power that he had never felt before.

At that moment, I felt something change inside me. I don’t know how to put it, but I gained strength somewhere in my gut. Until that day I had been overwhelmed by the sharp eyes of my men when I called the roll each night…. (now) I no longer noticed.”

Romeo Dallaire was a the Canadian commander in charge of UN forces in Rwanda. He describes a similar experience in negotiating with the commanders of the Hutu forces there,

But what I saw in those people, in their eyes, was not the eyes of human beings. It was the eyes of evil. And I call it the devil because then my religion sort of qualifies it as that. And they were the devil; they were the evil. They had blood on their shirts. I mean, they could negotiate with me with no passion whatsoever, simply saying, ‘Yeah, OK, we’ll stop massacring here, so that you can move, you know, people between the lines for about two hours, and then we’ll start up again…. In Rwanda, I shook hands with the devil, so I know there is a god. I know the devil exists, and therefore I know there is a god.”

Anyway, all of this gives new meaning to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount,

“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! NASB Matthew 6:22-23

Its easy to forget how dark this world is without the Light.

“Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan– 2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death {2 Or land of darkness} a light has dawned.” Isaiah 9:1-2

Canada voted alone against a UN resolution that singles out Israel for censure.

The large Muslim and African groups, which dominate the council, had lobbied hard to minimize the scope for naming and shaming countries over their human rights records, but make an exception for Israel, the only government explicitly criticized so far by the body.

In favour (34): Algeria, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Ecuador, Gabon, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Uruguay, and Zambia

Against (1): Canada.

Abstentions (12): Cameroon, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, Ukraine and United Kingdom.

Hey, maybe we do have a backbone after all!

Check out the full article here

Charles Colsen wrote of some of the challenges that we can increasingly expect to face in sharing the Gospel. Its worth reading.

Check out the article here

I am back at the office now and enjoying getting back into work.

I just came across this quote by Wilberforce and thought I would share it with the rest of you. It gives an insight into Wilberforce’s faith. A faith that motivated him to fight tenaciously for years to abolish Britain’s slave trade.

Thus we should not forget that the main distinction between real Christianity and the system of the bulk of nominal Christians chiefly consists in the differing place given to the Gospel. To the latter, the truths of the Gospel are like distant stars that twinkle with a vain and idle luster. But to the real Christian, these distinctive doctrines constitute the center in which he gravitates, like the sun of his system, and the source of his light, warmth and life.

Even the Old Testament itself, though a revelation from heaven, shines with but feeble and scanty rays. But the Gospel unveils to our eyes its truths and we are called upon to behold and to enjoy “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” – pg. 133 Real Christianity

In reading the book, I have been challenged by Wilberforce’s call to be authentic. If we really believe Jesus then how will that affect our actions, our thoughts, our attitudes?

Thats about it.

Sunday night we went to see Shane and Shane in concert at Princeton.

Not sure what this building was. Princeton is full of this kind of architecture.

Jon and Arial in front of the Princeton Publishing House.

Long gone is old Princeton and the likes of BB Warfield and John Hodge.

Somewhere in the Princeton graduate building.

The Princeton cafeteria. Not bad for cafeteria food!

Looking towards the graduate school of Princeton.

The Peking Room

I really enjoyed the concert. Shane and Shane were amazing muscians! It was a unique concert in that it was right in the middle of the Princeton campus. This was one concert where I was not ashamed by what was said or the way they presented themselves. I didn’t feel like I was there to see a show but to worship God and to think on what he has done and who he is.

Jon Kanz and I went fishing near Ephrata near Lancaster. It was a beautiful area although we didn’t catch any fish. Actually Jon caught one… almost forgot.

Mr Allen, our Greek teacher, showed us a place one morning before classes started. It wasn’t a good morning for fishing as the canal was nearly flooded. I managed to land one. I didn’t get a picture of it but it was a 16″ Dolly varden and weighed 6 lbs… I nearly lost my rod… hemm

Well, I haven’t done very well at posting these days. But now that exams are pretty much over, I might a get a few more up. I just have one more from New York that I kind of like. Missy has a bunch on her site and you probably already know where to find that.