Filed under: In Berlin
Well i finally made it. The flight actually went really quickly. It was 9 hours to London then only an hour and half to Berlin. Upon arrival I finally realized something…I’m no longer in North America. All the signs and billboards are loaded up with different companies, different words, and non-understandable quotes. Though English is known around quite a bit, there is really no one speaking it.
I’m actually quite excited, the challenge is now on! I must learn at much German words as I can. I was actually thinking that I should ask some team members if they want to have a competition, because as team Germany all of us are extremely competitive. It would be a great way to force me to continue learning. But wu’ll see…sounds as if me and Fred are going to be living in families house’s, while Kenton and Kedron have there own place a little ways away. It may be a little unfair for them.
Anyways! I’ll get to the interesting stuff. What God has been saying. I had my first devotions by myself this morning and they were great. Quick, yet great. I began with my usual Ephesians 6, putting on the armor of God for the rest of the day, and then looked over at Ephesians 5. I was reading alone and I can to verse 8, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Now I would normally pass by this verse and think nothing more of it except the usual, “God = light, Saten = darkness.” But this time some new thoughts came along to really emphasize the truth behind this verse. I thought about how light is so much more powerful then darkness. Take for example a flash light, you turn it on, and Bam…you have light. The darkness in fact has no chance against it. The only way the darkness could stop the light is if you shown it a far distance, though it could be seen by others from far away, it is not much use for lighting for you to see. Now as well thinking about a flashlight, think about the sun. Without light darkness is everywhere. It is always trying to get rid of light; it “soaks up light” in other words. Like wearing black and white; white reflects the light, black soaks up the light. Refering back to the verse, “For you were once darkness…” I think of how I used to be before I chose to follow God. I was bitter, disliked the world, disliked good qualities of others because it made me look worse. I was darkness; everything that was light / good I would soak up or take away from. I didn’t want anything to shine except for me. The next part of the verse, “…but now you are light in the Lord.” I am now light! I love that! I no longer try to soak up goodness. I in fact shine, and give of light / goodness. I don’t try to take others goodness, I add to it. I am wearing white, which reflects the sun. I love how you can say Sun and Son…same word…similar metaphoric qualities. I reflect the Son! He shines on me, and because I am wearing white, the light just shines right off of me onto others around me. Sure there still may be black colors around me soaking up my light, I don’t worry. I just make sure to continue replacing my batteries; clean my white clothes. There may be even times of complete darkness when i change my batteries, but I don’t worry because I know soon that the light will be back on again and continue overpowering the light soaking darkness.
That is what God has been teaching me today. Be the Light! No matter where I am…continue wearing and cleaning the white clothes that He provided for me.
I hope this can encourage all else who read it.
God Bless,
Jon
Filed under: TREK Learning Phase
October 16th 2007
This week has been an interesting week. The thought of being myself has become less and less priority in my life. Anything to do with myself is beginning to fade. After being baptized I have come to realize that I am actually no longer part of this body or this world. I look into the mirror; I look down at my hands…What do I see? I see something that does not matter anymore. I look in the mirror and I see potential for good. Such evil that surrounds me could be changed for good, with the use of this body. Why should I any longer think that my body is mine to control, I wish I could just let go and watch. Let God move my body to where he wants it; Let God speak using my mouth, without interruption from my attempting to be obedient spirit.
The more I dig into God and Christianity the simpler things become; simpler, yet harder. Christianity isn’t about waking up one day a week to refill, nor is it about even having to be filled by someone else. Letting God fill you is lasting. If I could explain Christianity in its simplest form it would be: help people. That’s it. When you get past the arguments, interpretations, expectations, and cultural differences, it becomes this one thing. If your main intentions in being a Christian are not to in the end to help this lost world then I suggest you get down on your knees and ask for God’s help. The point of the greatest commandment cannot be fulfilled without the second commandment. In order to love God, you have to love others. You may think to yourself, “As long as I love God I am fine. I have the greatest of all his commandments covered, therefore I’m covered. Loving others is just extra if I want gifts in heaven, but I can live without them. Pff, besides I don’t want to be materialistic in heaven.” This thinking is pure evil. If you choose to believe that lie you are listening to something either then God for the most important decision of your earthly and heavenly life.
God gives everyone gifts, some for learning, some for understanding, some for healing, some for prophesying, and many more. I encourage the thought of learning about God and taking the time to learn how to listen, but may it not be for any other reason besides helping others. Don’t let evil tell you that you are learning because that is how you are going to make money, or that is how you are going to be known; it will try. Don’t let evil tell you that your gifts are not useful unless perfected, or else they will never be. Let yourself be known as a love possessed. Let yourself be known as being Jesus Christ to others of this fallen world. The Jesus Christ who represents sacrifice, purity, compassion, God driven love, death, and eternal life, be the Jesus Christ you are said to reflect.
It may seem a hard to task to do such things, but I tell you it, all it takes it to love others without letting yourself get in the way. Love God through loving your neighbor who suffers, who is in need, who had done evil to you, who is dieing without knowing such a joy as Christ, who is believing the lies evil tells them. It is that simple. Help others with everything God has given you, your hands, your feet, your understanding, your time on earth, and you will understand Christianity’s true meaning.
Hebrews 6:10 “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.
1 John 4:16 “…God is Love”
2 John :6 “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have herd from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.
Filed under: TREK Learning Phase
We had a discussion today on God and money! Yes the age old question. How do we serve a God when there is no money. I was very excited to hear so many of the stories of God’s provision. It is perhaps the most encouraging thing to hear at a short term missionary. The truth always seems so simple when it is explained to me, but as i begin to think about it, the more question i have. Should i just give everything away i have to the poor? Should I just give up on trying to get money?
Knowing that money isn’t mine I don’t believe is enough. I have to hate money. I can’t serve both money and God. It is the easiest thing to do, to hate money, but to search and rip it out of every part of my life is a much greater task. A task that will never fully be ended.
I think back to how i used to be, only doing things like Quest and Trek because i knew i had the money in the bank to do it. I wouldn’t have done them if i didn’t have enough money to do so. And in doing so, i would be saying to God, “you know what, NO, i don’t trust your word.” How ridiculous is that? So much truth. God tells me to do something for him and I say “NO” because i don’t have enough money is diminishing God; it’s saying that the creator of plants, animals, earth, life, death, love, hope, fear, sadness, happiness, joy, light, darkness, and me, does not have the power to provide, just a few earthly bills. I want to say, “ITS BLASPHEMOUS!”, but i don’t truly understand that word, so perhaps you know a better one that describes true faithlessness.
In my saying “NO” to even attempting what God has told me to do because I don’t have enough money, is exactly what the Spirit of mammon wants to hear (see below for more on Spirit of mammon). He loves every second of it. My fear is that he has gone so deep into the lives of every person who has even just herd of the word money, that no one is willing to fight him. No one wants to confront this Spirit, because they have been imprinted into a culture where to be independent is the greatest achievement, and care for their needs first, then, whatever is left over, if any, can go to the poor. We all know what ends up happening, we end up thinking we NEED more, and “it’s ours in the first place. I earned it!” comes to mind. It isn’t ours. Who was the one who made your body able to move and make such things as money? Who is the one that made you see, hear, talk, taste, touch? God could simply so “NO” to being generous to you…and it’s all over. All that money made and kept because perhaps tomorrow will bring a storm…gone. Every earthly possession down to your wedding ring is gone. What will matter then? The fact that you made all this money, and now finally have earthly “security”? Or is it something bigger? Perhaps your relationship with the one who controls live and death!? It’s God’s begin with, and I’m sorry to say, but it aint coming with ya to heaven or hell.
No only is trusting God to provide one of the most freeing things Christianity has to offer, but it is essential to seeing his indescribable power in a fallen world.
“Two things i ask of you, oh Lord; do not refuse me before i die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal and so dishonor the name of my God.” Proverbs 30:7-9
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Below is something I found from just looking up stuff on “Spirit of Mammon”
(http://www.kaog.org.my/resources/sermons/pdf/2005/050213.pdf)
By: REV CHAN NAM CHEN 13th Feb 2004
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The Spirit of Mammon
Text: Matthew 6:24
Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the
other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and
mammon.” (NKJV)
Note – In the NIV the word translated here as mammon is given as Money. However, Money is an
inadequate translation because the original word means riches (not just money)
In dealing with wealth, there are two “spirits” or perspectives operating in the world today – the
Spirit of Mammon or the Word of God. The Spirit of Mammon is operative because Satan is the
prince of this age. When we accept Christ as Lord and Saviour and we look to the Bible as our
rule of faith and practice, we bring in God’s Spirit and perspective. Unfortunately most
Christians still live and operate under the Spirit of Mammon.
From the text (Matt 6:24) we see that it is an impossibility to serve both – it is one or the other,
never both. The word “despise” means to think against; see it the opposite way that God does. In
using the word “master” it means that one will have authority over your life. Which one?
Filed under: TREK Update Letters
October 6, 2007
Dear Friends and Family:
Well it has been another few great weeks in training. To sum up in one word what has been happening in my life the past three weeks I would have to use the word, changed-for-good. I know it’s not one word… But I have to say that I will never be the same after what has happened especially in the past week. I never knew God could really speak to me through the Holy Spirit, I always thought it was just a metaphor for feeling a certain way, but it for sure is not. The more I learn to listen and “Be still” (Psalms 46:10) and know God is God, the more I am able to hear what God has to say in my life. I am no longer having a one-way phone conversation, it is I talking then God responding or in the most recent case God talking and me responding or maybe I should say yelling.
The past week we had a silent retreat. On the silent retreat we were to be silent (fancy that…) and not even make eye contact with others, as to not disturb there time alone with God for three days. I absolutely loved it. I was able to really see and hear what God wants us to do as his creation – to love him and love what he has created. I slept, I ate, I wrote, and I listened. God spoke to me loudest through a series of three terrifying dreams that were so terrifying that I had to listen. The first dream was with me looking through the eyes of my body and being attacked by an invisible demon. I was sitting down then all the sudden a great power struck me down and I went black. The second time I fell asleep the dream was about a demon attacking others, but it was located in my idea of an African missions field. I was yelling at it not to go out and hurt anyone, but it did not listen. The third and most important dream was that my roommate from last year passed on to me a cell phone that he said was demon possessed. So I looked up the caller ID and it’s name was Jonah. I woke up and read the book of Jonah, but nothing came to mine besides that fact that Jonah ran from God and was stuck for three days in a whale. I prayed to God to reveal what this meant, and sure enough later that day (the silent retreat was now over) he spoke in a big way through one of my teachers.
Randy Friesen was speaking about authority under God. And he was explaining God wishes that you first be under the authority of your parents and your church before making the commitment to go out in his name. To be going over seas to spread The Gospel when there are still commitments back home that need to be made would be to run away from what God wants you to do. And the Holy Spirit hit me like a tone of bricks. These were things he wished me to do. I was being like Jonah. I realized that the phone from the dream was in fact my fathers phone and I needed to talk with him to get his blessing before I went. I had always kept him in my prayers but never talked much about what I was doing. As well as making things right with my father, I needed to commit to my church. I have always been frustrated with my home church because of its lake of ability to stay together as one. God knew that I need to make the commitment and declare that no matter how tough things are in the church, it is my church family and I have to be willing to stay through thick and thin. So I am now getting baptized this Sunday before I go and my Father is going to be in there with me. A statement that this is where God chose me to be and I thank him. I am to be made new with a heart of commitment and trust in my Father, my church, and my Heavenly Father.
May God bless you and keep you,
Jon Harris
Filed under: TREK Update Letters
September 16th, 2007
Dear Friends and Family:
God has again been working in me in ways I cannot begin to explain in a matter of a simple letter, but I hope this may provide an update. As some of you may know I have recently in the past two years re-dedicated my life to the lifestyle God has to offer. Things were looking somewhat grim and negative, but God swooped in and showed me things I had never seen before or heard before in human words. He has given me a passion for life and passion for his creation beyond my understanding. He has opened me eyes to a life where I no longer fill my heart with myself, but fill my heart with a love for others that reaches far deeper then I ever could have on my own. With such gift from God comes a great understanding of these two very important verses: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37, 39).
In following God’s nudges and guidance from close friends I came across a program called TREK. This program is based out of MBMSI (Mennonite Brethren Mission Support International) in Abbotsford BC. This organization supports over 200 full time and many short-term missionaries worldwide and has been active for over 100 years. The TREK program itself has been running since 1997 and has been a great testing ground for those who have deep interesting in serving God in mission. TREK begins with 2 months of intense training then sends its applicants in groups to many different parts of the world for either 3 or 7 months depending on the applicant’s choice.
I have chosen to begin this program doing the 7 months mission. God has guided me to such a program for many reasons, most unknown, but soon to be revealed as I have already began the first week of training, and am soon to find out where I am to be going. The four options this year consist of Guadalajara, Panama, Berlin, and Thailand. I have spend this first week getting to know the others I will be possibly living with for the next 7 months of my life and listening to many very inspiring speakers. The next few months will consist of a three day silence retreat, loads of Bible reading, new speakers every week, and prayer. So far God has given me such a peace about this decision and I absolutely love every minuet that I get to learn more about God and share what he has already done in my life.
I have included a sheet with ways that you may support me. It would mean a great deal to me for your consistent prayers as I am to be going through a very new and testing experience. God has convicted me already within the first week that I do not ask for enough prayer. I seem to get too caught up in my worries that I begin loosing trust in prayer and ultimately in God. Please pray for me. If anyone would like to talk more I have my e-mail on the top which is the best way to reach me as I am living in Abbotsford. I will continue to send letters with updates of how I am doing and what God has been doing in the area I am serving so don’t forget to fill out your address on that card.
May God bless you and keep you,
Jon Harris
Filed under: TREK Learning Phase
Well this past week has been absolutely incredible. Learning how to slow life down a little has made me realize there is a lot more to God then I ever knew. In stead of always rushing to get my assignments done, my book read, my bible reading done, my prayers sent out, I learnt to first at the beginning of each day just be quite. Go out in the wilderness and bring nothing (we have a little forest area i like to visit at the house). By bringing nothing it really limits you to just either praying or listening. In growing up i never herd of such things as listening to God I just thought he was a way to complain and ask for more. But as I continue to learn I begin to realize how much God is a living relationship. In relationships there is trust both ways, there is encouragement both ways, there is love both ways, and in my most recent case conversation both ways.
Now when I put the title of this as “The Father, The Son, and the Holy what…?” you may be thinking I am bashing the trinity in some way but the truth lies in my own beliefs. For me personally, when i was growing up, I knew of the Father, I knew of the Son, but the Holy Spirit was always a mystery. Maybe it was the baptist background, or maybe just my own ignorance I done blame anyone. The Holy Spirit was just the fact that God had to somehow know what was going on in the earth because Jesus no longer lived there. Mannn… I was so wrong. The Holy Spirit is far from it. As well as being God, he (lets keep it a he) is our best friend. We had this couple come in and speak about the Holy Spirit and they told us to think of a friend that we have had since as early as we can remember. And I mean, it was hard to think of many but theres usually one in your life. So i did that and then they said, “Now picture the Holy Spirit as the same, but 100 times more loving, and 100 times more encouraging.” And it hit me…all these things that i could remember in my life that were randomly encouraging came to me and I began to see the Holy Spirit.
All this time I was ignoring the voice of God and putting it off as just another dream, or just an odd coincedence, or just a weird feeling to call someone up. God had been speaking to me the whole time! I just never was able to be quite and listen. I would get to wound up in doing things for God that I would forget that no matter how much to do for God he is never going to love me more; I get to wound up in doing that i forget that God is there whispering in my ear encouragement, direction, and love; I get so wound up in doing that i begin doing the opposite of what God wants me to do. Sure he is happy with the fact that I have a desire to do for him, but when it comes down to it, he just wants to love me and I to love him.
