June 17th, 2009
I may not have many readers left due to my complete inactivity on this blog for the past month, but I have a good reason. For those of you who do not know I am in India. For certain reasons I have had to create another blog for journaling my adventures in India.
But while I’m here I thought I’d give you all a quick thought.
God is moving in India, just as He is in America. One thing I’ve learned from being here is that God’s work of reconciling people to Himself is both a complete and perfect process that He has initiated, and a tedious and difficult task that he has charged to us.
As I am here doing mission work in India, I am more consistently praying for the mission work that God’s people are doing in the States. Seeing actual, physical idols such as Kali praised and glorified on TV right before a commercial interruption telling Indian teens they can be sexy and Western-like by additionally adorning and worshiping the God of Levi Jeans has made me realize the incredible giants of oppression we face in America. I pray that the Saints in the States will be sensitive to the culture and, rather than seeking to conform to it or plan strategies to use it in ministry, that they would actively seek to crash the culture by visibly loving others and being set apart as a Holy Priesthood worthy of the calling God has placed on all who belong to Him.
We are in the world, but not of the world, for freedom Christ has set us free, live and minister in that freedom. Do not turn back and worship other Gods. Set your sights on eternity. Live in the Kingdom. Have faith and work it out through caring for others. Suffer gracefully. Never compromise. Proclaim boldly. Love well.
Grace and Peace in the One who has set us apart as His adopted children,
Micah
May 19th, 2009
I met with my mentors, some of the teachers in my life, today and one of them brought a few things to light in my life that I thought should be addressed in a public forum… since much of the road I’ve taken to get where I am was in public forum this just seemed right.
He said something like this: Micah, you lead people. But is your main concern leading them towards Christ or away from other things?
Let me break that down. As you well know, if you’re a faithful reader of this blog (hi mom), I’ve run numerous posts on what I would call impurities in the church, heresies, etc. The very self reflective question I have to ask myself is “am I so concerned with showing people how wrong this pastor or this author is that I forget that the much bigger goal is to show them how great Jesus is?”
I fear the answer… for the most part in the past few months has been… yes.
Does this mean that I’m not going to call people out or attempt to purify the DNA of the Body? No. But it does mean that I do believe relaying Christ’s love is much more important than relaying His disapproval. Blogs are especially not the ideal place to discuss the impurities in the Church. If that is my means of communicating the speck I find in my brother’s eye, then I am doing exactly what I criticize him for doing: publicly generalizing and criticizing the body of Christ and using Him as the excuse to do so.
Yes, there are problems that need to be addressed. Yes, churches and pastors need to be held accountable for the way they present Christ. But so do I. And until I make leading people towards Jesus central, rather than leading them away from the flaws of man, I am but an infant in my understanding of the gifts of prophesy and teaching.
May 17th, 2009
So as some of you know, and many of you don’t, I’m leaving at the end of this week to go to India for the summer. I will be in the country for about two months. In that time I will be staying in the Chamba area (Northern India), living with shepherds. and spreading the Gospel. I leave May the 23rd and I will be back on July 13th (just in time to see Transformers II).
Since I will be in a very rural area, I’m not sure how much communication I will have internationally. However, the Mission Board has actually made it a requirement that we blog about our trip as ofter as possible.
Unfortunately, due to the mentality of the area we will be staying and so not to endanger the ministry of the long-term missionaries we will be working with, we cannot blog blatantly about Christ. Since this site is already flooded with intensely interesting and valuable Christian thoughts, I will be unable to use this particular blog. Yes, the Micah Taylor blog will not be getting much attention for two months. I know, sad.
I have, however, set up another blog where I will be journaling my journies in India. I will post later this week about the particular “code-language” of sorts that I will be using there (ie. “my father”=”God”).
I’m hoping to finish up transcribing my last few days from the Luke 10 Project before I leave, so I’ll be flooding this blog this week. Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon enough with the sickening cynicism (realism) and dashing intelligence you all crave soon enough. In the mean time, keep me in your prayers as well as the rest of my team. Thank you.
Grace and Peace to all,
Micah Taylor
February 20th, 2009
Of the many questions I wrestled with this summer one was is did God really forgive sinners? Since forgiveness implies pardoning a wrong, even if it is undeserved. Yet God required a payment for our sins. So is it forgiveness or acceptance of atonement?
John Piper addresses and answers yet another of my questions in this amazing piece on God’s “unconditional” Love.
Thoughts?