Monday Musings: How God's Future Impacts our Present

How does our knowledge of the future affect or impact our lives in the present? One key way is hope. Our certain knowledge of the future fills us with hope in the midst of incredible difficult circumstances in the present: death, disease, natural disasters, and the pain inflicted by the sinful actions of others. This is the way the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 lived as people of the distance who “all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (Heb 11:13).

Revelation 21-22 provides us a visionary picture of the future. The symbolic details of the vision leave much to the imagination concerning what moment-by-moment life will be like but the general outline is quite clear. Here are some of the major contours of this vision.

New Creation: New Heaven and Earth (Rev 21:1; cf. Isa 65:17; 66:22) In fulfillment of the promises made through the prophet Isaiah John receives a vision of the New Creation: God recreation or creation of a new heaven and earth. The judgment visions in Revelation reveal a de-creation of the present order in anticipation of a new creation; the implicit logic being that the one who originally created has the power to de-create and re-create. The absence of the sea in God’s new creation should not discourage avid boaters since the sea is here symbolically representing chaos and disorder. This was a very common symbol in the ancient world.

Existence in God’s new creation is concrete and tangible; we will not exist as disembodied spirits floating around somewhere in space but rather in resurrected bodies in a new, concrete, tangible world.

God’s Direct Presence (Rev 21:3, 7; 22:3; cf. Jer 31:33; Ezek 43:7; 48:35; Hos 2:19-20; Zeph 3:15-17) This is perhaps the most powerful element of John’s vision of the future and comes as the fulfillment of many Old Testament promises and prophecies. Throughout Revelation there is a strong spatial dualism between earth and heaven. Earth is the dwelling place and abode of man while heaven is God’s dwelling place. God’s decrees and judgments from heaven affect the earth and the prayers of the saints on earth ascend to heaven but they are nevertheless two distinct areas. The descent of the New Jerusalem has been understood in various ways but Rev 21:3 clearly interprets it as representing God’s residence with humanity on earth. With the descent of New Jerusalem the barrier between earth and heaven is breached or removed and God directly lives among his people.

No Death (Rev 21:4; cf. Isa 25:8; 26:19); No Mourning or Crying (Rev 21:4; cf. Isa 25:8; 65:19; Jer 31:13); No Disease (Rev 21:4; 22:2; Isa 65:20; Ezek 47:12; Mal 4:2) The direct presence of God with humanity leads directly to these other realities: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes . . . .”

John’s vision of the future sharply contrasts with our present. We weep, and mourn, and hurt, and cry over senseless evil, cancer, heart attacks, violence, and death. We long for Christ to return to set everything right once and for all in his creation. We do not, however, wait in despair. We wait in confident hope and expectation that God will one day make good on his promises to his people!

September 2013 Stewart Family Chronicles

September Newsletter 2013

Introducing the new Seminary Chaplain at Tyndale (drum-roll) . . .

The Fall semester officially began today! In addition to my New Testament and Greek classes I have inherited the position of seminary chaplain. The chaplain is responsible for planning and scheduling the two weekly chapel services throughout the year and for leading a half-hour faculty and staff devotion/prayer meeting each Monday. The chapel scheduling will require a good deal of networking with pastors and Christian leaders in the Netherlands.

In my first time leading the faculty/staff meeting today I shared some of the following thoughts: John concludes his vision of the eschatological New Jerusalem by summing up the future of God’s people: “and they will reign forever and ever” (Rev 22:5c; ESV). This language of “reigning” is significant in light of God’s original creation purpose for humanity to reign and rule in his creation for his glory as his image bearers and representatives  (Gen 1:26-28). As a race we were/are rendered unable to fulfill this purpose by our rebellion, disobedience, and sin, but Rev 22:5 provides a glorious glimpse of our future—we will one day, as a redeemed race, fulfill God’s original creational purpose. We will reign with him as his image and representatives over a renewed and restored creation. Heaven/New Creation will certainly not be boring! Even better, “new creation” begins right now in the midst of this old creation for those who are in Christ (2 Cor 5 17). We engage in this activity of extending God’s reign and rule throughout his creation as we engage and participate in his mission to the world. I.e.: missions is a way for us to fulfill God’s original purpose for humanity while anticipating the future day when we will fulfill this purpose fully and completely in God’s new creation! 

Summer Summary :-)

Wow, this summer has flown by! I spent each weekday at the school teaching the eight week summer Greek class. Every new student starts their studies at Tyndale with summer Greek in order that all of their classes in the New Testament from that point forward can build upon this foundation. All of our evenings and weekends were spent getting things in order and adjusting to our new life and home here in the Netherlands. I want to briefly mention some of our summer highlights in terms of accomplishments and answered prayers.

--We received official government approval to homeschool for the 2013-2014 academic year! We need to re-apply each year but the approval we received this year with no hassles could almost be called a miracle. Many homeschooling families require professional legal aid to get through the red-tape and it is generally expected that there will be an initial refusal. We know that many of you have specifically been praying for us in this regard; thank you!

--We received five year residency cards and BSN (citizen service) numbers within our first month! The five-year residency card was an unexpected blessing since many missionaries and expats only receive one year residency cards and need to reapply each year (for a family of 6 like us that would be a 2,000 euro reapplication fee each year). Nobody we have spoken with knows why, but for whatever unknown reason we all received 5 year residency cards!

--Many of the other missionaries here were anticipating our arrival and set apart various second-hand items over this past year so that we were able to furnish our entire house (beds, mattresses, couches, dishes, tables, chairs, desks, book shelves, etc.) with very little out-of-pocket expenses.

--We have a great group of incoming students; they are hungry to learn, passionate in prayer, and excited about serving God with their lives! We will continue to highlight students in our newsletters and here on the blog as the semester progresses.

Thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and support that has made all this possible. We will be starting the Fall semester in one week and look forward to see what God has in plan. 

I live in Holland?

  I was in the living room alone (Legos and nap time are a beautiful thing!) when I decided to practice saying "it".  My voice echoed off our bare walls.  I think I surprised myself when I said it because it sounded strange to say such a thing, it didn't and doesn't feel real, but feelings of reality or not it is quite true!  I said it out-loud just to hear how it sounded.  "Hi, I'm Jenny and I live in Holland."

To God be the glory that we can say it!  We are praising Him for His provision in getting us here and for providing the "things" we need: beds, appliances, Legos.  We are praising Him for giving us the joy and hope in each new day with all of the new things we face.  We are praising Him as He gives us comfort in all the things, places, people (and can I just add in food!?!) that we miss.

So, I'm told a picture is worth a thousand words.  This is a random summary of our past almost 2 months of "Hi, we are the Stewarts and we live in Holland!?!"

A Welcome party on our first day hosted by fellow missionaries at Tyndale.  The boys enjoyed meeting up with some of the friends they made last year!

We stayed in the dorms at Tyndale for the first about two weeks while all the paperwork and construction work was finished on our rental home.  The boys were looking at a card Meme sent Benjamin for his birthday!

During our first week Benjamin turned SIX years old!  All the students joined us for an ice cream celebration and a sweet new friend, Katy, surprised us with fun decorations!

Ready to blow out the candle! 

Our new home pre-floor, lights, and paint!  We had so much help from the students with getting all of those things completed!  We feel so very blessed and are truly thankful for their time and hard work.  Many of them arrived when we did and were travel weary and adjusting to a new culture along with us! 

Paint!

Paul helping with the flooring...

The backyard...before.

Clean up round one...we now have planted some strawberries, raspberry bushes and Alex's long awaited Kiwi vine!  Elijah has planted a pumpkin patch and Mommy put in lettuce and broccoli.

Front yard...also round one we have some flowers now!

Picnic at the house before we moved in.

One of our first nights in our new home...this is 10:30 at night and yes, that's the sun you see not a reflection of the flash on the window!  Not easy to convince little people to go to bed with the sun still up!

Road construction!

More Road construction...

Walking....

Continuing the Stewart tradition of reinforcing the chairs, you will have to ask Alex and his brother Joel about those stories!  We are so thankful for all of the furniture that was donated for our home!

Thankful for the Kauffman Family!  They are here to study at Tyndale and are also homeschooling!  Our kids have really enjoyed playing together.  They have built a fort, made bows and arrows, gone on some fun field trips and discovered some really great parks together!

Independence Day Celebration with fellow Americans in Holland! 

Roasting marshmallows on the 4th of July!

Getting Mommy's bike ready to go.  Micah will ride in the front, Paul in the back and the groceries go on the rack over the front wheel!  Mommy muscle is being taken to a whole new level!

Dr. Alex in his office!  God is so good to guide us to places, people and life experiences we never expected to bring us to this time and place!  We are thankful for your love, prayers and encouragement as we follow HIS leading in being part of the ministry at Tyndale!  To God be the glory!

The Start of Summer Classes

We had safe and uneventful travel and a very busy first week in the Netherlands. Most of our time and energy has been focused on getting our house set up and livable, getting paperwork in order, and meeting the new students as they have arrived. God has blessed many of the transitional details and we are getting past most of the paperwork hurdles associated with an international move.

My first class starts tomorrow morning at 9:00! Please pray for all the new students as they are also transitioning to a new culture and new living arrangements as they begin studying Greek. The students taking summer classes at Tyndale come from Ghana, Belgium, Suriname, Ethiopia, Myanmar (Burma), Albania, Nigeria, Finland, Georgia, Rwanda, Germany, Netherlands, and China. We also have a few students from America who have come to study on the mission field in Tyndale’s rich multi-cultural environment. Please remember us in your prayers during this first week of classes as we also seek to move from the student dorms into our new house.   

And They're Off!

At different times during this past year it felt like this day would never come but here it is: we are driving up to NY today and will be flying out of JFK to the Netherlands tomorrow! Unlike last summer where we only taught the summer classes and then returned to the States to continue to raise financial support, this time we are moving to stay and to continue teaching at Tyndale. We are very excited to finally be joining God’s global mission in this capacity and are convinced that by training international Christian leaders at Tyndale we can make a powerful impact on the world! We will share more details of the trip in a later post but for now I just want to share a verse that has become very important to me this past year.

Within a larger section addressing their financial support of his ministry Paul makes this comment to the Philippian Christians: “Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account” (Phil 4:17). Paul is clearly not teaching that their giving and support somehow earns salvation, but rather that their financial partnership in his ministry means they will share the credit for the fruit and effects of the ministry. Paul does not desire their money but the fruit that will result from the ministry that would be attributed to their sacrificial generosity.

This has been our heart through this past year of support raising. We are not looking for money but for Christians to join us in this ministry in a way that will make the ministry possible and impact the world for Christ. We can’t do it alone! As Christians we are called by God to join him in his mission to the nations through carrying his presence as his representative everywhere we go. By partnering with us in prayer and/or financial support you are extending your influence and impact to the world through us. We function as a global extension of your ministry and, as Paul makes clear, the fruit of the ministry will be directly attributed to your support! As we finally make the move overseas we are so thankful for the prayer and financial support of God’s people that have made and continue to make this ministry possible. Thank you!