October, 2016
Dearest Friends and family
WEATHER
We were told early last month by the weather service here to be aware of extended heavy rain. We did get a couple of wicked storms out of it with LIGHTENING and THUNDER. However we only got 106.5 mm (a little over 4 inches) of rain in a few days and the rest of the month was bone dry. People had started planting gardens in anticipation of the rains starting only to watch their crops dry out. Now that did not mean that the weeds did not grow well because they did. Hopefully this month we will see a better rain pattern set in. The humidity is rising and the temperatures are also climbing. Our cool 21 C (70 F) nights are - Gone!
MEMORIES
On October 13th it was 44 years since my final separation from the United States
Air Force. Really that long ago? wow!
SOME DAYS
The front tyre on the motorbike decided not to hold any air. So I took it off
and repaired the tube, because on of the patches came unglued. I did this three
times because the Chinese glue I had would not hold. I looked around for other
tubes I knewI had. I put another in, pumped it up and it blew out the rotten
seams. (Rubber does not do well in high humidity and high temperatures!) So
I took it to a tyre place and they SAID they were able to repair the tube. I
got it home and one run to the school and just as I pulled in back at the house
it blew out. It seems the stem separated from the tune. After I had dropped
the tyre off to be repaired we had gone to town and I was able to find 1 (one)
place that sold a new tube that would fit the tyre. I did this as a backup which
now was my primary. So I broke the tyre apart AGAIN and replaced the tube and
to date it is holding up well. The main reason I took it to the tyre place was
I got tired of braking down the tyre. Oh well! The next time we went to town
I went by and got a refund on my tyre repair.
This was the month of gates. I finally built one for the school and at the same
time I built one for the house. Prior to this we just pulled a barbed wire string
to close up the gaps and sometimes it was a hassle. When I tried to dig a hole
for the post at home I kept hitting stone. I tried for over an hour to break
off the edge to put a post but finally pried the mammoth out and figured out
why I couldn't break it. It was limestone not coral. It weighted over 200 lbs
and it took Goman and myself, together, to get it up into the truck to haul
it down to the school. As was said, two old men doing a young man's work! I
talked very sternly to the rock before I sent it away, in an old testament prophet
way!
school gate
House gate
200# + stone
at house
REPLACING FLUORESCENT LIGHTS
Because out generators do not produce sine wave electricity it wears out motors
and lights over time. So this past month I have had to replace some of the fluorescent
lights that do not want to come on due to the transformers getting weak. Of
course you really only notice that at night! This is also a reason the washing
machine is giving Kathy fits.
REMAKING FURNITURE
Because of termite and ants I am having to remake some of our furniture. I remade
an end table and my next projects are cabinets. I have to tape seal all the
edges of plywood and put Formica on the sides. The volume of flying termites
at night when we first turn on the lights is slowly diminishing as we find where
they are and eliminate their nests.
CHICKEN EXPANSION FOR THE
BIBLE SCHOOL
We had hoped for a quail project. That is a no go because we cannot import any
quail from Australia as they have Newcastle disease in the poultry industry
there or from the USA.
We want to expand the school poultry and that is requiring us to build a 4 x 6 meter new shed (cement, roofing iron, chicken wire, etc). We have picked up 50 layers from a commercial farm as they are no longer laying an egg a day. Even so we are getting over 25 eggs a day. It was cheaper to do this than raise the layers from day old like I did. We will be getting new layers early next year but until then Goman will be selling eggs as well as live chickens. In fact we are all starting to sell the day olds we received 8 weeks ago.
THE LORD PROVIDES
Last week when I went to look as chicken feed the company gave it all to us
since it was over 6 months old. They will not be bringing any more in for sale.
Australia requires medicine in the feed they send so the high humidity here
means it is starting to go off (spontaneous heat generation) so they gave us
148 bags which would have cost over $4000. The Lord provides. Some of it is
still good but most of it we will have to filter it and give the matted stuff
to the pigs. We do have a supplier for new starter feed which comes from New
Zealand without medicine so we will have fresh feed in the future for a continuous
supply.
Our current chicken feed (yes, those are weevils)
EVERYTHING NOT GOOD IN
PARADISE
When I mentioned last month the problems we were having with brethren I received
a number of letters in reply. Some of the remarks showed me why they were having
problems, because that is what they were taught. The number one thing that comes
through is so much that is taught is cultural and based on poor Biblical exegesis.
What I mean is so much is out of context and taught as gospel truth.
Paul says the gospel is, "Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures," (1 Cor 15:1-4) THAT IS THE GOOD NEWS! No ACTS of worship - no recipe to follow!
I had some write and say the five acts of worship are Biblical and part of the Gospel. The context of 1 Cor 15 (above) and Romans 12:1 says differently, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service." Just because certain versions say it is an "act" of worship does not negate the fact that this is not the meaning from the Greek or other translations. It is not acting out worship it is living out worship!
I have found that those who stress a certain version (esp KJ) do so because the language supports their belief system. Poor exegesis!
True Worship is not made up of a recipe of acts that we do to be right. We are taught that if this recipe is not followed religiously then one cannot hope to find salvation. It is very easy to teach such, and I admit that I did the same in our early missionary work but that is not the way to motivate and teach people to present their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God ON A DAILY BASIS and not just when the church building doors are open.
My studies in the past few months have been on the Greek meaning of words such as ekklesia (The Greek word "ekklesia," is used 115 times in the New Testament, and in most bibles, it is always translated as "church" (except in Acts 19:32,39,41, where it is properly translated as "assembly") and koinonia (It was a word used to describe a very close and intimate relationship between two or more people) which have been vandalized by religious groups to mean something totally different then the New Testament context from which they came. We have then looked at how almost everything the religious world holds dear and practices is not from New Testament practice when the ekklesia first came into existence but from many centuries of man made innovations. Many claim they are restoring New Testament Christianity but they never go further back than Constantine's remolding of Christianity after his desires and the desires of the religious leaders of that day. Just because a practice is picked up from culture does not make it right or wrong in and of itself but we need to sort out those cultural influences that contribute to the integrity of Christian worship from those that distract from it. Remember Christian worship is our life style not when and how we do church.
History shows us: (but do we care enough to challenge
this)
The Church Building — First constructed
under Constantine around AD 327. The earliest church buildings were patterned
after the Roman basilicas, which were modeled after Greek temples.
The Sacred Space— Christians borrowed this idea from the pagans
in the second and third centuries. The burial places of the martyrs were regarded
as "sacred." In the fourth century, church buildings were erected
on these burial places, thus creating "sacred" buildings.
Tax-Exempt Status for Churches and Christian Clergy— Emperor
Constantine gave churches tax-exempt status in AD 323. He made clergy exempt
from paying taxes in AD 313, a privilege that pagan priests enjoyed.
Stained-Glass Windows— First introduced by Gregory of Tours and
brought to perfection by Suger (1081-1151), abbot of St. Denis.
The Steeple — Rooted in ancient Babylonian and Egyptian architecture
and philosophy, the steeple was a medieval invention that was popularized and
modernized by Sir Christopher Wren in London around 1666.
The Pulpit— Used in the Christian church as early as AD 250.
It came from the Greek ambo, which was a pulpit used by both Greeks and Jews
for delivering monologues.
The Pew— Evolved from the thirteenth through the eighteenth centuries
in England.
The Sunday Morning Order of Worship— Evolved from Gregory's Mass
in the sixth century and the revisions made by Luther, Calvin, the Puritans,
the Free Church tradition, the Methodists, the Frontier-Revivalists, and the
Pentecostals.
The Centrality of the Pulpit in the Order of Worship— Martin
Luther in 1523.
Coming to Church with a Somber, Reverent Attitude— Based on the
medieval view of piety. Brought into the Protestant service by John Calvin and
Martin Bucer.
Condemnation and Guilt over Missing a Sunday Service— Seventeenth-century
New England Puritans.
The Contemporary Sermon— Borrowed from the Greek sophists, who
were masters at oratory and rhetoric. John Chrysostom and Augustine popularized
the Greco-Roman homily (sermon) and made it a central part of the Christian
faith.
The Single Bishop (predecessor of the contemporary pastor) —
Ignatius of Antioch in early second century. Ignatius's model of one-bishop
rule did not prevail in the churches until the third century.
Clergy and Laity — The word laity first appears in the writings
of Clement of Rome (d. 100). Clergy first appears in Tertullian. By the third
century, Christian leaders were universally called clergy.
Contemporary Ordination — Evolved from the second century to
the fourth. It was taken from the Roman custom of appointing men to civil office.
The idea of the ordained minister as the "holy man of God" can be
traced to Augustine, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Chrysostom.
The title "Pastor”— Catholic priests who became Protestant
ministers were not universally called pastors until the eighteenth century under
the influence of Lutheran Pietists.
Christians Wearing Their "Sunday Best" for Church —
Began in the late-eighteenth century with the Industrial Revolution and became
widespread in the mid-nineteenth century. The practice is rooted in the emerging
middle-class effort to be come like their wealthy aristocrat contemporaries.
The Worship Team— Calvary Chapel in 1965, patterned after the
secular rock concert.
Tithing— Did not become a widespread Christian practice until
the eighth century. The tithe was taken from the 10 percent rent charge used
in the Roman Empire and later justified using the Old Testament.
Clergy Salaries— Instituted by Constantine in the fourth century.
The Collection Plate— The alms dish appeared in the fourteenth
century. Passing a collection plate began in 1662.
The Lord's Supper Condensed from a Full "Agape" Meal to Only the
Cup and the Bread — The late second century as a result of pagan
ritual influences.
The Catholic Seminary— The first seminary began as a result of
the Council of Trent (1545-1563). The curriculum was based on the teachings
of Thomas Aquinas, which was a blending of Aristotle's philosophy, Neoplatonic
philosophy, and Christian doctrine.
The Protestant Seminary— Began in Andover, Massachusetts, in
1808. Its curriculum, too, was built on the teachings of Thomas Aquinas.
The Sunday School— Created by Robert Raikes from Britain in 1780.
Raikes did not found the Sunday school for the purpose of religious instruction.
He founded it to teach poor children the basics of education.
The Youth Pastor— Developed in urban churches in the late 1930s
and 1940s as a result of seeking to meet the needs of a new sociological class
called "teenagers."
It is our best interest to scour the words of God to determine the core principles and ethos of the early church and restore those elements to our lives. Acts 2:42ff - "They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,"
No where does this glimpse of the early ekklesia show they stuffed themselves into a "church" building, had a full time preacher, sang any songs from a book, had a contribution, etc. We read that through our lens! In fact the use of 1 Cor 16:1,2 to justify giving as an act of worship is totally out of context. Early ekklesia giving was for the poor and that was what Paul was writing about in 1 Cor 16:1,2. Nowhere does he say "put it in the treasury" but tells them to put it in their HOMES for when he came through. THAT IS THE CONTEXT! Does that make it wrong to seek contributions to pay for a building, staff salaries, etc? Not in itself but how does this keep us focused on Christ and his and our mission of "seeking and saving the lost" and encouraging one another.
We are all shaped by our experience. When we think about "church," we conceive it in ways that approximate our experience. When we think about "preaching," we conceive it in accordance with our experience of preaching. When we think about the Lord's supper, our minds are filled with images from our experience, We think about pews in a church building, multiple cup trays (perhaps even "one cup" for some), unleavened bread in the form of crackers. a man officiating from the pulpit, men standing behind a symbolic table with their arms formally crossed at the waist aligned in a meticulous order, silent meditation, and focused attention on the death of Christ.
But what was the practice of the Lord's supper like in the first century? Too easily we assume that our experience of the Lord's supper is equivalent to that of the primitive church. We lose a sense of historical perspective as we collapse our practice into theirs and assume their practice was functionally equivalent to ours. Actually, it appears that the practice of the supper in the early church was very different from ours. Their supper was home based, a full meal with food and drink, an interactive fellowship at a table and characterized by joyous celebration. Jesus gave the apostles the example by "as they were eating" he instituted His supper for our remembrance. I had someone say "Paul said that people were not to be eating in church. That was for home." My read of 1 Corinthians 11:20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, 21 for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. 22 Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? The problem was they were not waiting for the ekklesia to gather and this humiliated the poor who came late. THAT IS THE CONTEXT! He does NOT say they were not to eat in church. How can you eat in each other when we are the "church"? They were assembling in the homes of the more well-off because they did not have buildings they called "the church" like we do today. My mother use to tell me to use my words property and I think that is good advice for Christians today. And by the way the early Christians used wine for the Lord's Supper just as Jesus did and it was not a thimble full but a glass and a chunk of bread. Read the context of Luke 22:7-20 where Jesus v17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. THEN he took the bread and gave thanks and then AFTER the supper he took the cup (that he had divided the contents out to everyone at the beginning of the meal). So, so very different than our traditional thimble of grape juice and pinch of bread.
Are you aware that history shows that Christians within 100 years of their beginning dropped the meal because they wanted to keep the Lord's Supper from being profaned by the participation of unbelievers?
The premise of this thought is that our practice of the supper as a silent, solemn, individualistic eating of bread and drinking of grape juice is radically dissimilar from the joyous communal meal that united Christians in first century ekklesia assemblies.
This is where we are coming from here in Vanuatu as we looked at the assemblies where brethren were just coming and going through the acts of worship(as quick as possible) but never truly having fellowship with one another and especially the fact that there was no joy in being together. (No much different than most "churches" all over the world.)
As Christians, we are taught by our leaders to believe certain ideas and behave in certain ways. We are also encouraged to read our Bibles. But we are conditioned to read the Bible with the lens handed to us by the Christian tradition to which we belong. We are taught to obey our group (or movement) and never to challenge what it teaches.
If the truth be told, we Christians never seem to ask
why we do what we do. Instead, we blithely carry out our religious traditions
without asking where they came from. Most Christians who claim to uphold the
integrity of God's Word have never sought to see if what they do every Sunday
has any scriptural backing. How do we know this? Because if they did, it would
lead them to some very disturbing conclusions that would compel them by conscience
to forever abandon what they are doing.
Strikingly, contemporary church thought and practice have been influenced far
more by post-biblical historical events than by New Testament imperatives and
examples. Yet most Christians are not conscious of this influence. Nor are they
aware that it has created a slew of cherished, calcified, humanly devised traditions
- all of which are routinely passed off to us as "Christian".
I had someone equate their located preacher to an evangelist. My understanding of a Biblical evangelist was a person who went from place to place sharing the Gospel with persons who were not in a saved relationship with the Lord. They said, "Evangelists were the preachers, and some of their sermons were long, like when Paul spoke for so long that Eutychus fell out of the window. Set preachers are biblical. Evangelists went from place to place, preaching, returning to congregations if they could. I am saying this because it is important for a person to preach at a congregation if there is one that can do that." REALLY! My Greek word says, Paul discoursed with them which means - had conversations with them - back and forth. Perhaps Eutychus had a hard day of work and was tired. He was sitting in the window to get the cool evening air. Much can be read into the text but the context does not specify the reason he fell out the window (except gravity). I cannot find set (located) preachers as Biblical. One of the gifts (motivations) the ekklesia has been given through the Holy Spirit is "proclaiming" but that gift is no more important that the other six gifts (serving, teaching, encouragement, giving, leadership and mercy. See Romans 12:6-8). And so which motivation (gift) should require a salary?
Our assemblies have become traditionally more a invitation call for unbelievers than a fellowship of Christian hearts and minds like it was in the early ekklesia.
Ekklesia is not an organization you join; it is a family where you belong, a home where you are loved and a hospital where you find healing.
As for the Bible School:
Last month I wrote: "We finally got a reply from the Vanuatu Qualifications
Authority and they point out that we do not fit their frame work (which we knew
from the beginning). Steve Felix, Goman Mesa and I are going to draft our reply.
It will be along the lines of - we knew we were not in your framework therefore
we will go ahead and operate our school outside the framework of "providing
secular employment for our graduates and facilitating international recognition
of our qualifications for our graduates". We will probably do a four month
course program twice a year. We can get study visas for overseas students without
having to be under VQA as long as we are registered as an NGO, which we are
pursuing. More to come!!!!"
We are now registered with the government and the Vanuatu Qualifications Board had told us that we do not have to be under their oversight thus we are going ahead with getting classes started by next February. Praise God as we move forward!
Thank you for your prayers - God hears!
We are still looking for additional monthly support for the running of the Bible School. If you can help please do and especially remember us and the brethren here in your prayers - thank you!
God is good!!!!!!!!!
Onward and upward!
We especially want to thank all of you so much for praying for
us, supporting us and have contributed to our needs so we can do what we are
doing. God bless you! Thank you for your prayers and fellowship!
Thank you Lord for healing and providing what we need!
Grace & Peace
Tobey & Kathy Huff
Ph: +678 596-4821 (Vanuatu) We do texting.
Thank you for your prayers - God hears!
------------------------------------------------
Contributions for the Huffs, the
Bible school, the Scholarship fund and/or cyclone/drought relief can be sent
to:
Huffs/Bible School
c/ Mt Hope church of Christ
2830 Mt Hope Rd
Webb City MO 64870
or
Jason Huff
2730 E 24th St
Joplin MO 64804
(417) 396-9122
j13huff@yahoo.com