Luke 23:40 But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."
For me this may be the hardest part of the Crusifixion, Christ received my punishment. I am unjust, I should be on the cross, but Christ took my place, and because of that I can live in freedom. I can write many things about this but I think Third Day says it best. (Images from Mel Gibson's Passion)
31 March 2010
30 March 2010
Lesson 3 - Submitting to God
Mathew 26:39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
Christ prays the this prayer 3 times in the garden. If I pray something three times in the same prayer, chances are it is really important. Jesus really wanted another way to solve the delimma of our sin. He understood better then anyone the pain and suffering he was fixing to endure - he knew what was coming, and yet he knew there was no other way. The Law was not sufficient, man had so skewed that and the sacrificial system that it would not work. Not only that, Christ makes several references in the trial and to his disciples about fulfilling prophecy. As much as he wanted another way, he knew his death and sacrifice was the only way. To put it plainly he was submitting to the will of the Father. In my life this is the hardest thing to do, I think for all believers it is the hardest thing to do. I like to pray for my will and see if God will be cool with that. And my favorite "will" trick is the no answer. I think if we don't get an answer from God, we assume that's a yes. (How crazy do we get when our kids do this with us?). Now look at Christ's example. We don't know everything of the conversation between Christ and his Dad, but in scripture there was no burning bush answer. Christ knew the answer, he knew what had to be done. He did not need God to tell him again. That's how I want to be, when God's will is clear, I want to except it and do it. I may ask again but I don't want to have to be told again, I just want to do it.
Here is another Easter song for my Easter Countdown. Old Hymn - Jazzed Up.
See you tomorrow!
Christ prays the this prayer 3 times in the garden. If I pray something three times in the same prayer, chances are it is really important. Jesus really wanted another way to solve the delimma of our sin. He understood better then anyone the pain and suffering he was fixing to endure - he knew what was coming, and yet he knew there was no other way. The Law was not sufficient, man had so skewed that and the sacrificial system that it would not work. Not only that, Christ makes several references in the trial and to his disciples about fulfilling prophecy. As much as he wanted another way, he knew his death and sacrifice was the only way. To put it plainly he was submitting to the will of the Father. In my life this is the hardest thing to do, I think for all believers it is the hardest thing to do. I like to pray for my will and see if God will be cool with that. And my favorite "will" trick is the no answer. I think if we don't get an answer from God, we assume that's a yes. (How crazy do we get when our kids do this with us?). Now look at Christ's example. We don't know everything of the conversation between Christ and his Dad, but in scripture there was no burning bush answer. Christ knew the answer, he knew what had to be done. He did not need God to tell him again. That's how I want to be, when God's will is clear, I want to except it and do it. I may ask again but I don't want to have to be told again, I just want to do it.
Here is another Easter song for my Easter Countdown. Old Hymn - Jazzed Up.
See you tomorrow!
29 March 2010
Lesson 2: The Veil is Torn
Mark 15: 38-39 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!"
Why is this important, why is this recorded in 3 of 4 Gospel, why am I even talking about this? Becsue it repersents the instant the paradigm shifted. Before Christ's death, we were slaves to the law. The veil represented the barrier to God. Only the high priest could enter and he only did it once a year. After Christ's death that veil was torn - at the instant Christ breathed his last (for a few days anyway) the veil was destroyed. Now you may be asking it was a curtain, what's the big deal? This was no ordinary curtain. Josephus, the Jewish Historian, described the veil as 60 feet High, 40 feet wide and the thickness of a mans hand. Mark states the veil was torn from "top to bottom". No man could do this. This was the work of God, It was his way of saying "Hey! Here I am, come in, get to know me. I Love you so much my Son just died for you."
I love the illustration of the veil. When I am running and hiding from God. I think about it. Why am I hiding, God loves me, he pursues me, He is accesible, and in Christ's blood I am free. That's power!
Lord, Thank you for loving us and drawing us to relationship. Thanks for tearing that veil, even at the cost of your Son.
We can't comprehend God's love - It's to big, the Cross, the veil, it to much. But Oh he loves us.
Have a great day and come back tomorrow as we look all week at different aspects of the Passion story.
Why is this important, why is this recorded in 3 of 4 Gospel, why am I even talking about this? Becsue it repersents the instant the paradigm shifted. Before Christ's death, we were slaves to the law. The veil represented the barrier to God. Only the high priest could enter and he only did it once a year. After Christ's death that veil was torn - at the instant Christ breathed his last (for a few days anyway) the veil was destroyed. Now you may be asking it was a curtain, what's the big deal? This was no ordinary curtain. Josephus, the Jewish Historian, described the veil as 60 feet High, 40 feet wide and the thickness of a mans hand. Mark states the veil was torn from "top to bottom". No man could do this. This was the work of God, It was his way of saying "Hey! Here I am, come in, get to know me. I Love you so much my Son just died for you."
I love the illustration of the veil. When I am running and hiding from God. I think about it. Why am I hiding, God loves me, he pursues me, He is accesible, and in Christ's blood I am free. That's power!
Lord, Thank you for loving us and drawing us to relationship. Thanks for tearing that veil, even at the cost of your Son.
We can't comprehend God's love - It's to big, the Cross, the veil, it to much. But Oh he loves us.
Have a great day and come back tomorrow as we look all week at different aspects of the Passion story.
27 March 2010
Lesson 1
OK. I feel like there are things I need to share on this blog. Mostly things God's is teaching me. Some of it may be profound (highly unlikely), some may be DUH! (very likely) and some may make you think (huh). If you think this is boring, only want stevens family updates, or arrived here by accident, I am going to Label them Lesson 1, 2, 3 etc. so you can skip them if you so please. But really, I want you to read them.
Lesson 1
Unity in the Body. I have been reading Paul's Letter's, trying to learn as much as I can about the NT church (i took 4 seminary classes so now i can abbreviate New Testament). One of the things that keeps occuring is the Unity of the Body. I have a sneaky suspicion that the NT church may have experienced some disunity. Unfortunatly we still face these issues. They look different but they are there. 2000 years ago the issues were circumcision, and the like. Today we talk about can you drink, etc. But Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:19
"Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God's commands is what counts." Paul doesn't say if it's right or wrong, but following God is what's important. Again he talks about it in Romans 2 - it's the circumcision of the heart.
Sorry kinda took a detour there, hope you enjoyed a brief discussion of Jewish customs, but my point is we still let rules, and law, and what we think people should be, get in our way of unity, just like the NT church. This negates the love of Christ. We are all sinner and we all screw up (I tend to do it a lot). Over here there is very little unity so I know it is something I have to constantly be in prayer about, but it's not about unity here, it's about all Followers of Christ being unified and a reflection of Christ's love. So let's stop arguing about circumcision and let the LOVE flow, so when the world looks at us the say - "what do you have? I want some of that" Let em know what you think - leave a comment, you probably have a better idea of this then me.
Lesson 1
Unity in the Body. I have been reading Paul's Letter's, trying to learn as much as I can about the NT church (i took 4 seminary classes so now i can abbreviate New Testament). One of the things that keeps occuring is the Unity of the Body. I have a sneaky suspicion that the NT church may have experienced some disunity. Unfortunatly we still face these issues. They look different but they are there. 2000 years ago the issues were circumcision, and the like. Today we talk about can you drink, etc. But Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:19
"Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God's commands is what counts." Paul doesn't say if it's right or wrong, but following God is what's important. Again he talks about it in Romans 2 - it's the circumcision of the heart.
Sorry kinda took a detour there, hope you enjoyed a brief discussion of Jewish customs, but my point is we still let rules, and law, and what we think people should be, get in our way of unity, just like the NT church. This negates the love of Christ. We are all sinner and we all screw up (I tend to do it a lot). Over here there is very little unity so I know it is something I have to constantly be in prayer about, but it's not about unity here, it's about all Followers of Christ being unified and a reflection of Christ's love. So let's stop arguing about circumcision and let the LOVE flow, so when the world looks at us the say - "what do you have? I want some of that" Let em know what you think - leave a comment, you probably have a better idea of this then me.
21 March 2010
A little buisness
Hey everyone, we are so glad you are reading our blog and keeping up with us on our crazy adventure. We hope you laugh alot, we hope you cry a little, but most of all we hope our desire to Glorify God, inspires you. If you are not a follower of Christ, we pray that in some way our blog will move you to a relationship with Him. If you are a follower of Christ, it's my prayer that in some way a snapshot of our lives will help you seek ways you can serve Him. We are trying to be dilligent about posting and will try to post at least once a week. There are a couple of things you can do for us. First on the right hand side you can become a "follower", if you are so inclined please do this, it lets us know who's reading and following us. It's also a way for us to follow and pray for you. Also feel free to comment on the posts. Knowing you are reading and following us is a great encouragement. If our updates are not frequent or exciting enough for you, also on the right hand side are the blogs of our friends throughout the world who are having some real adventures. Fell free to read about them, they are all great folks. Also if you want to receive our monthly News Letter "Stevenski Grad" send me an email address. Have a super week.
Kyle
Kyle
The Fortress
The weather finally got spring like and we decided for a day out (along with the rest of Belgrade). The first thing people ask when you move here is "Have you been to Kalemegdan?" so we decided to got there. Before we went we were able to have a great time of worship and share with the girls what a fortress was and how God is our fortress, it really changed how we looked at the rest of the day.
Kalemegdan is the oldest thing in Belgrade. The oldest parts date back to the first Century and were built by the Romans. The fortress sits at the point where the Danube and Sava river's meet, in Serbian this is called Usce. Needless to say this was a tremendous millitary advantage to control this spot and that's why the Romans chose it. Through the centuries it was the center piece to many conflicts in Belgrade up through Serbia's independence from the Ottoman's in the mid 19th century. I loved the history and Kyleigh even enjoyed the history. Around the fort there are many play grounds so the kids had a great time playing. There is also a military museum in the fort that we visited. It was very well done and cheap (4 bucks for all of us:)). They had artifacts dating from roman times through WWI. It was very different from American museums. About half the exhibits were just out and available to touch (although I'm sure it was understood not to touch, or for that matter there could have been a sign saying so but I couldn't read it). There were 1200 year old fresco's just there, no rope, no nothing. Guns, spears, swords, it was crazy. You went through a medal detector to leave - no to enter - strange.
All in all it was a great day, it was great to be outside without 4 layers on. We look forward to more adventures in Belgrade as the weather improves.
All in all it was a great day, it was great to be outside without 4 layers on. We look forward to more adventures in Belgrade as the weather improves.
15 March 2010
Suprise Visitors
If I was writing this from Africa, or South America, or another exotic location you may think this post was about critters, giant bugs or other such pests, but it not!
As we were cleaning up after lunch today our buzzer went off (If someone wants in the building and wants to see us they buzz us and we have a hand set we can talk into). Now we never have suprise guests, so I picked up the handset and in my best Srpski said "Zdravo"! (hello) figuring soeone pushed the wrong button. The response back was in English - suprising- "Kyle Stevens? It is the police and Office of Foreigners. May we come up?" Now are you going to say no to that, so I buzzed the up. A few minutes later I open the door to a very nice badge (and police men) and a nice young lady. I invited them in and we introduced ourselves. I said :pardon our mess we just finished lunch and were not expecting visitors" to which Jelena replied "That's the point". We all sat down and spent about 15 minutes answering questions. Why are here? What are you doing? Why did you pick Serbia? etc It was all pretty friendly but I was still pretty nervous - especially since I was the one getting asked all the questions. After they were done they got up and said we could pick up Visa's on Wednesday. So I guess we will get a visa - yippee.
All in all it was a neat experience but not what I expected on a Monday afternoon.
As we were cleaning up after lunch today our buzzer went off (If someone wants in the building and wants to see us they buzz us and we have a hand set we can talk into). Now we never have suprise guests, so I picked up the handset and in my best Srpski said "Zdravo"! (hello) figuring soeone pushed the wrong button. The response back was in English - suprising- "Kyle Stevens? It is the police and Office of Foreigners. May we come up?" Now are you going to say no to that, so I buzzed the up. A few minutes later I open the door to a very nice badge (and police men) and a nice young lady. I invited them in and we introduced ourselves. I said :pardon our mess we just finished lunch and were not expecting visitors" to which Jelena replied "That's the point". We all sat down and spent about 15 minutes answering questions. Why are here? What are you doing? Why did you pick Serbia? etc It was all pretty friendly but I was still pretty nervous - especially since I was the one getting asked all the questions. After they were done they got up and said we could pick up Visa's on Wednesday. So I guess we will get a visa - yippee.
All in all it was a neat experience but not what I expected on a Monday afternoon.
10 March 2010
Laundry in Europe
Lots of you have asked about laundry so I thought I would post a video with an exclusive inside look at
LAUNDRY IN EUROPE!!!
LAUNDRY IN EUROPE!!!
09 March 2010
The Language Blog
As many of you know Language is our number one job right now. In order to share the truth we have to be able to do it in the "heart language" this is never more evident to Jen and I then on Sundays as we worship in Serbian - does not move me like English. I would like to use this blog to share about our language experience. As we have learned more, we are getting better but it's gonna be a long while before we are competent.
First the alphabet - if you look at the bill I posted it looks totally crazy but actually the alphabet has been one of the easiest things to learn. We are constantly surrounded by it so we have most of it down. Kyleigh is very good with the Cyrillic and reads it very well. The above bill was our first and our second we actually deciphered on our own.
Second- language school. We go to a great school. We have three teachers so we here differntly. Some speak English and some don't so that keeps it interesting. Class is 1.5 hours a day everyday (not counting the two hour roundtrip bus commute). The tough part about the language is how many ways you say a word in different situations. They call it cases - I call it insane and unnecesary. It's hard to explain but I'll do my best.
Third - the cases- There are seven of them and they all deal with situations when you are talking. Some times it's easy to determine the case because certain question words only go with certain cases. Gde (where) deals with the lokative case. Ko (who) Sta (what) deal with nomative and so on. Now that you are confused I want to really blow your mind. I am going to show you how many times the word me -changes depending on the case.
Nomative - Ja (I)
Dative - Meni, Mi (me or I)
Insturmental - sa mnom
Genative - mene
locative - o meni
akuzativ - mene or me
all that just to say the word me - to make matters more complicated you can only use meni at the begining or end of a sentence and mi in the middle - I asked why and the short answer was because.
This does not take into account that for almost all words you change the ending based on the case and you also have to remember that like Spanish, Serbian has masculine and feminine endings. You also have to take into account past or present tense - are you tired yet! :))
Now if your still reading with all that background I want to give you my language learning philosophy.
I call this partial word whole concept learning. Basically its impossible for me to know all the words in a given sentence or question i am asked. So basically I pick out some words I do know and predict what was just said and how I should respond (Jen calls it guessing). Now sometimes the results of this can be a disaster if you don't know the key words but this only happens to me about 60% of the time. I just take myself to baseball and folks I'm hitting .400 and that would be considered great. Any way i keep things lively in class because you never know what I'm going to say.
02 March 2010
Random Stuff From My Brain
Based on the Title this could be dangerous - read at your own expense.
1. Music - I love Music!! Can't sing, can't dance, can't play an instrument but music moves me and touches my soul. I LOVE WORSHIP MUSIC!! Sundays are really hard with no LPC, but iTunes has been helping me there. Although its not worship music my new favorite album is Tonight by Toby Mac. The whole album is amazing but two songs really speak to me - The title track "Tonight" - it's about something starting now - not waiting, not looking at past failures but doing it now. That's what i want - such faith in God that it starts now, no doubt in myself because I am led by HIM!. Here is a video its not the official one - although you should got to You Tube and check it out.
The other song is "City On Our Knees". Everyday I ride a bus through a city of Two Million people and sometimes the lostness is overwhelming. I want to see this city come to it's knees in worship of our Father - I want to see a Great Awakening in Europe with my city as its Epicenter and 100's of years from now people talking about how God moved a whole continent and the world from Eastern Europe.
2. Ephisans - Great book, been studying it in my quiet time and how it has spoken to me. We are all one body - there is so much seperation here between the few believer's that are here - if we could all come together as One body in Christ - then we can see God moving.
3. He is working here - there are some tremendous things happening here. An amazing college ministry, working with the future. Please pray for those students - they will make a difference here.
4. My kids crack me up - they are doing so great here. They are brave and fearless. They hop on and off busses and just follow us whereever. They are making friends, K uses her gym bag as a witnessing tool - the words are English now but she is sharing her heart and I am so proud of her.
5. Skype call with LPC. Wow what encouragement!!! To see people we care about thinking of us and curious about our lives here. And to be prayed over - even from 1000's of miles away - if nourished a hungry and thirsty soul
6. I miss good friends - I've always had some and now there aren't any and some days that's hard. I know God will put somebody in my life. I pray for that friend to walk with me here (jogging would be nice) or God could move the Taylor's here :)
7. I should be remiss at this point I have not mentioned Jen. What an amazing wife!!!! God did give me that perfect partner for this adventure. She has been a complete encourager - not to mention unbelievable cook! She has gone above and beyond. I know when I have had a long tough day walking the streets of Belgrade to get things done - she will be here to give me the energy I need for the next day.
8. COMPLETE DEPENDENCE!!! - I have always blazed my trail on my own and most times that resulted in more heartache then was needed. Coming here and doing this has totlaly broken me of that. It can't be done without total dependence. It's to hard, there are way to many obstacles, and attacks from the evil one. What I'm doing now and what I was supposed to do here - totally different - way out of my comfort zone - but that's why i have to be totally dependent. The work here has to be His will, and if I was the least bit comfortable I'm afraid it might look like my will.
Well if you read this far you must have been really bored but I want to leave you with a picture that you can only see here. You know how in the old west you went to the Saloon and tied your horse out front - well in Serbia you go to the Grocery store and do this.
Thanks for letting me clear my head have a great day
1. Music - I love Music!! Can't sing, can't dance, can't play an instrument but music moves me and touches my soul. I LOVE WORSHIP MUSIC!! Sundays are really hard with no LPC, but iTunes has been helping me there. Although its not worship music my new favorite album is Tonight by Toby Mac. The whole album is amazing but two songs really speak to me - The title track "Tonight" - it's about something starting now - not waiting, not looking at past failures but doing it now. That's what i want - such faith in God that it starts now, no doubt in myself because I am led by HIM!. Here is a video its not the official one - although you should got to You Tube and check it out.
The other song is "City On Our Knees". Everyday I ride a bus through a city of Two Million people and sometimes the lostness is overwhelming. I want to see this city come to it's knees in worship of our Father - I want to see a Great Awakening in Europe with my city as its Epicenter and 100's of years from now people talking about how God moved a whole continent and the world from Eastern Europe.
2. Ephisans - Great book, been studying it in my quiet time and how it has spoken to me. We are all one body - there is so much seperation here between the few believer's that are here - if we could all come together as One body in Christ - then we can see God moving.
3. He is working here - there are some tremendous things happening here. An amazing college ministry, working with the future. Please pray for those students - they will make a difference here.
4. My kids crack me up - they are doing so great here. They are brave and fearless. They hop on and off busses and just follow us whereever. They are making friends, K uses her gym bag as a witnessing tool - the words are English now but she is sharing her heart and I am so proud of her.
5. Skype call with LPC. Wow what encouragement!!! To see people we care about thinking of us and curious about our lives here. And to be prayed over - even from 1000's of miles away - if nourished a hungry and thirsty soul
6. I miss good friends - I've always had some and now there aren't any and some days that's hard. I know God will put somebody in my life. I pray for that friend to walk with me here (jogging would be nice) or God could move the Taylor's here :)
7. I should be remiss at this point I have not mentioned Jen. What an amazing wife!!!! God did give me that perfect partner for this adventure. She has been a complete encourager - not to mention unbelievable cook! She has gone above and beyond. I know when I have had a long tough day walking the streets of Belgrade to get things done - she will be here to give me the energy I need for the next day.
8. COMPLETE DEPENDENCE!!! - I have always blazed my trail on my own and most times that resulted in more heartache then was needed. Coming here and doing this has totlaly broken me of that. It can't be done without total dependence. It's to hard, there are way to many obstacles, and attacks from the evil one. What I'm doing now and what I was supposed to do here - totally different - way out of my comfort zone - but that's why i have to be totally dependent. The work here has to be His will, and if I was the least bit comfortable I'm afraid it might look like my will.
Well if you read this far you must have been really bored but I want to leave you with a picture that you can only see here. You know how in the old west you went to the Saloon and tied your horse out front - well in Serbia you go to the Grocery store and do this.
Thanks for letting me clear my head have a great day
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