Personal stories from Ian’s life that are included in Gems and available to read and search as stand-alone stories here.
My Mother Treats Me Like a Five-Year-Old
Don't Do To Others As They Do To You
I will just give you an example that I am grappling with at the moment in a cross cultural way. And it was confirmed by an Indonesian Chinese couple a few days ago. I find it bugging me and getting under my skin. The problem is not a practice of mine but a cultural practice of the Chinese Indonesians around me. It is so prevalent that I encounter this practice almost every day. It concerns the lifts in the building where we live. When I come to the lift in the lobby to go up to the apartment I look behind me to see if there is someone following me and if there is I hold the lift door for them so they can enter as well an! d not have to wait for the next lift. But do you think they will do that for me. NO. In fact the very same people who I may have done it for yesterday will the next day enter the lift, see me coming a few paces behind and then actively shut the doors and go up on their own. Interesting. At first it annoyed me and made me angry. Then I thought, I am not going to let their bad habit affect my day. So I will keep doing what I think God would want me to do. So I keep holding the lift for people and keep having the door slammed in my face as well. Some times if I am there in time and can squeeze my fingers in the gap in the closing door I manage to get in. But no response from the people or person in the lift at all. At times it bugs me but am working on my attitude. I will keep doing good and being Christ to them even though "it may be thrown in my face literally". I notice it seems to be primarily the Chinese who do this. But I would never say that or single them out – until now.
Talking with a Chinese – Indonesian couple a few days ago I was shocked to find it is a frequent occurrence perpetrated by the Chinese. It is a cultural practice that needs changing. There must be something behind it all that is driving it. I haven't a clue what but have to grapple with it everyday. I was shocked when the couple (a Chinese couple) told me they encounter the same thing at the hands of the Chinese, and bear in mind they are Chinese. It is that fact that has made me bold enough to use this example. Other wise I could be accused of being racist or at best culturally inappropriate. No, sometimes our bad practices have to be exposed in order for us to live more Christ-like. What shocked me enough to be making these comments? Hearing that this couple experience the ex! act same thing in their apartment building. But for them it is worse. They have young children and a stroller. Frequently, they come to lift in the lobby with stuff and kids in the stroller and have to wait for the next lift. So they stand their by the lift as other people gather. When the lift comes the others all push past them, fill the lift and the close the doors on the face of the couple still standing there (first in line before) with the stroller and kids. You see it is much easier to squeeze past a couple with a stroller to secure a space in the lift for yourself and be totally oblivious to the injustice you are perpetrating. That is a bad cultural practice. That is a practice which needs changing. One I am grappling with at the moment and trying to control my feelings as I do.
I'm Not Going To Get Involved In Emotional Religion
When I was first challenged to become a Christian in 1973 I was determined I was not going to get involved in emotional religion. I understand people thinking like that. "Don't let the emotions get in the way of reason." There is benefit to that initially so you can check it out in a realistic way but at some stage you have to let go and let yourself enter into the emotion of it all. No New Zealander would think of going to a rugby game without letting your heart rule your head and getting excited about the game. [The world rugby cup proved that – a stadium of 4 million. The whole country celebrated the games.] Some are willing to do that for rugby but not for God. How foolish! He made you with a mind and a heart. Give it all to Him.
A hint as to how to go about this. Again from one who stood in the place some of you are now. In the mid seventies the charismatic movement was sweeping through NZ and our local Baptist church was open to charismatic teaching on a regular basis. I found myself resisting this "emotional stuff". The worship leader would encourage us to lift our hands and Ian would stand there with my hands in my pockets so I wouldn't comply. No one was going to suck me into "this charismatic thing". But then one day a speaker came who told us all that "lifting our hands to God is a part of our body language toward Him. Allow your mouth and your body to be in sync. Think of lifting your hands as being like a child who wants his father to pick him up." That comment gave my brain a hook to hang my emotions on. Somehow you have to find the balance between them – the heart and the mind; your thoughts and your emotions. When you can do that you can get excited about God in the way you would get excited about other exciting things. God is the most exciting "thing" of all. Stop trying to control things with your mind and get your feet off the bottom (Ezekiel 47 and whether you ankle deep, knee deep, waist deep or over your head in the things of God) and let the current of God carry you along. Don't try to rationalize everything – leave room for your heart too.
An Impressive Combination: A Primary Teacher & A Plumber
A Week Old Believer Shares Her Faith
When God Speaks By His Spirit, It All Lines-Up
At the moment I am working on writing the In-Class Handbook for Deeper Bible 701. As has happened many times before when I am working on something I feel the Lord has given me by His Spirit I will be given the resources by Him to complete the task. Just recently a brother I am training to teach Deeper Bible in Brazil has sent me a book in which I felt like I was reading my own thoughts in someone else’s book. It was uncanny. I find things like this very encouraging because what it tells me is that God is behind it all. Both the thoughts that I am thinking and the material I am working on. I was once told by my pastor in Matamata that when God brings out a Bible truth or restores truth to the church he does it worldwide. The concept will come forth through a number of different people because each is being inspired by the same Holy Spirit. Yes I can understand that I idea. I sense that God is giving me the insight at the same time he is causing others to think along the same lines. It makes perfect sense. But that is not what is going on here.
Why Did God Choose Israel?
I once gave an Iranian man, who challenged me in a God’s Awesome Book seminar in Hamilton NZ, this reason for why God chose the Jews. He told me that I had almost persuaded him about Christianity with what I had said about fulfilled prophecy. But then he said with venom, "But then you said that "God chose the Jews. Any God who chooses the Jews I choose to turn my back on." With that comment he pivoted and showed me the back of his neck. I knew I was talking with someone from the Middle East. I asked him, "Ah but why did God choose the Jews?"
He said angrily, "I don't know and I don't care.
To which I replied, "He could have chosen the Jews because they were the smartest."
To which he protested vehemently. I continued, "More Jews have won the Nobel Prize in various fields than any other race on earth. But He didn’t. He could have chosen the Jews because they were the best at business. But He didn’t. He could have chosen the Jews for a number of reasons but in Deuteronomy He tells us why he choose the Jews. Because they were the most stubborn." He agreed with that reason.
I figure God chose the most stubborn of people to show how He works with all mankind. We human beings all have a tendency to be stubborn, especially when it comes to relating to God. So God went for the most contrary and told the rest of mankind to watch how He would deal with the Jewish race so we would all understand. Am I any different? No, I can be one stubborn hombre if I am not careful. I figure He chose a hard bunch of stubborn people to show the world how He works with human kind.
Ian Stop Resisting Me!
I learned that when I was a young Christian and attempt to continue living according to my old ways. I was playing tournament tennis and representing my region as well. But all of those matches were played on a Sunday. I reasoned that I could play tennis in the mornings and go to church for the night service. I would constantly receive message or pricks or guidance to lead me to conclusion that I needed to give God the highest priority. Make my allegiance to God the first order of priority and all the other things would fall into place. If I chose to resist which I could do (and was doing) then I was not fitting with my new life in Christ. I resisted for a couple of years during which time I felt like I was swimming upstream. I know that is bad mixed metaphor for tennis, but I am sure you get my point. I was only giving myself aggravation. I resisted Tania’s prodding, my best friend’s advice and more importantly God’s leading in numerous ways. Finally, I concluded I needed to obey my creator. As soon as I did and withdrew from the Waikato rep team they changed their fixtures to Saturday’s so I could play. It was a major lesson to me to follow God’s will first and foremost and all the other things will align. (Matt 6:33)
Loudi's Story
I can't stop crying every time I tell our story. At the time of the earthquake (which happened at 6.02 pm) it was pitch black and stuff was falling all around us. (Budy was in the village). I tried to get the kids out of the house. But the earthquake jammed the door shut and I couldn't open it. When the shaking stopped I tried the door again with my little but of strength and was able to open it. When daylight came I checked the kids to see if they had injuries but they didn't have a scratch on them. I imagined all through the night during the earthquake that Budy would come back to Palu to find the kids and I all dead. We realize that God protected us big time during the EQ especially after we saw the scale of what happened in Palu. Everything is wrecked.
Many people have told us all the houses in the Petobo area were swallowed by mud [because of liquefaction]. That was the area where the first house we wanted to buy and the bank refused our loan was located. We had already paid a deposit but the bank refused the loan and gave us our deposit back. After not being able to get the next place we looked at because of the price [rise] n and our funds were not now enough, in the end those houses ended up being almost 3 times the price of the one we finally bought. We are feel God has had His hand on us and guiding us all through this process to get the house we bought. Ian and Tania, our house is largely undamaged. It just a few small cracks in the walls. The walls of the house next door have fallen but ours stays standing.
Here on the Next Corner would be Fine Thanks.
In fact long ago I had one very funny experience picking up two guys hitchhiking from Milford to Auckland city. I picked them up just out of Milford on the way to Takapuna. I asked them where they were going and they said, “To university in the city”. What an opportunity? For them and for me. On the dashboard of my car I had a sticker which read: “Warning! You ride in this car at your own risk. The driver could vanish at any instant.”
On seeing the sticker the one in the front started laughing. I asked him what he was laughing about and he indicated my sticker saying, “That’s funny.”
To which I replied, “Do you know the significance of that sticker?”
“Oh does it have a significance, does it?” he said.
So I proceeded to tell him about the Rapture and the fact that when Jesus comes back for His own, we will be snatched away in an instant. So there will be chaos at the time of the rapture when drivers and pilots etc disappear. Whereupon he looked at his mate in the back and then turned and said, “You can drop us on the next corner mate.”
I replied, “I thought you wanted to go over to uni.”
He said, “Nah, here on the next corner would be fine thanks.”
Either he was worried about the possibility of the Rapture happening during the course of our journey or he was unwilling to travel all the way to Auckland with a religious fanatic.
I freely admit it, I am fan of Jesus and I don't keep my enthusiasm in the attic.