9910 Rosedale Milford Center Rd Irwin, OH | p: 740.857.1234 | e: office@cmcrosedale.org

VOL. 50 | NO. 9A CMC PUBLICATION

THE ILLUSION OF SAFETYBY TONYA SLAUBAUGH

December 2020

Tonya lives in Columbus, Ohio. She is currently working on her bachelor’s degree in linguistics while living in an immigrant community and involved with Olentangy Mennonite Church.

"There go our freedoms." The elections this year proved to be deeply concerning to me. Not the outcome, but the reaction to the outcome by professed Christians talking as if all our hope is either found or lost in our earthly leaders. Do we not have another King? Are we not citizens in another Kingdom? Did God not come down to earth as a baby, humbly die on a cross, and rise from the dead in order to break us free from our chains so that we may live in freedom forever?

It all started one night when Mary gave birth to Jesus. That was the night the King left his throne in heaven, gave up his right to be in charge, and became a helpless baby. He gave up the comfortable for the uncomfortable, the joyful for the painful, himself for you. His purpose: to take back his kingdom, his people. Not by force, but by love.

Back in the beginning, his people rejected their King. They chose their own way, their own knowledge of right and wrong over being with him and letting him rule. They built their own kingdom instead. Ruling themselves, they placed their hope in human wisdom. Wars and death have been a proven result.

However, the King could not let his people suffer under their own rule. So he came back, despite being rejected, to save them. He gave his life for theirs, taking their unbearable punishment on himself in order to offer them back the choice: his rule, or theirs.

Love, by its very nature, is not comfortable or safe.

Because of this love, we have the choice to live in another kingdom every day, or to stay with ours. "Too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth" and so it is with rulers. Faith in God comes at a price. Give up what you know and what you don't know and invite God to rule. Period. In order to live in God's kingdom, we have to renounce our claim on our kingdom.

True freedom is found when all is given. Dying to live, living to die. We often live with an illusion of safety from death.

Living is comfortable in a country where basic necessities are easy to come by and the threat of dying is not imminent. But love, by its very nature, is not comfortable or safe. Love looks outward, is relational, gets rejected. Love propels forward into unknown territory; love casts out fear. As subjects of the King, we are called to love. But we do not have to come up with love on our own. Love came down to us. The story is not about us, or our flaws. The story is about him—about the King who left his throne to sacrifice himself for us, who lives inside of us, who fills us with his love. We are not alone and we do not have to be afraid. The King has already come.

We are not alone and we do not have to be af raid. The King has already come.

I don't know the future, but I know we can look forward with the promised hope of the King coming back to make all things right. In fact, he has already started to make things right in each one of us that allows him to work in us. All of creation suffers with us and the more we suffer in this life the more we look forward to the coming of redemption. Jesus the King is coming back someday to finish setting up his kingdom on earth. "I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, ‘Look, God's home is now with his people! He will live with them and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever’ ” (Rev. 21:3-4 NLT).

If we look to the future, we find the present: Immanuel. God with us.

CMC

Brenda writes from Central PA where there is no bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. She’s grateful for God’s unfailing love in the midst of life’s messiness. Her writing goal is using words to point others toward that love.

BY BRENDA ZOOK

When You Can’t Look Up

For all the times we cannot look up, cannot reach up, cannot stand up, cannot cheer up, cannot keep up, cannot wake up from the nightmare that life has become.

God came down. (You know, Emmanuel.)It’s the whole point of everything.

God’s part? The Presence. The Present. In every sense of the word. Our part? The Pause. The Yes.

God with us. God’s spirit in us, beneath us, beside us, behind us, over us.

That’s the Christmas Spirit. For the rest of us. For all of us. For everyone. Every. One. For me. For you.

It’s okay if you can’t look up...if your path is steep and rocky,if your focus is your muddy, slipping feet.

It’s okay if you can’t look up...if your eyes are swollen shut from sobbing,if your memories blur your vision.

It’s okay if you can’t look up...If you’re terrified of what you’ll see,If you’re terrified of what you won’t see.

It’s okay if you can’t look up...If you’re ready to give up,If you think maybe you already have.

It’s okay if you can’t look up...Because –God. came. down.

Reprinted with permission from Connections, December 2018.

This post is for you. You know who you are. You’re lonely. You’re wounded. You’re grieving. You’re estranged from people you thought loved you. You’re bowed beneath the load of life. You’re sitting beside a hospital bed. You’re waiting for the phone to ring. You’ve just heard your doctor say the word malignant. You’ve said the long goodbye. You’re broke. And broken too.

This poem is for you. For all the ones who can’t seem to muster any Christmas Spirit.

If you’re singing “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” this post is probably not for you. These words are for the ones who are struggling because whatever made life hard in the previous eleven months didn’t evaporate when December rolled around. In fact, it got harder.

The seasonal hoopla feels so pointless, so painful. Sitting in church, listening to carols, you’re not sure you really belong. You don’t want to be a wet blanket on other people’s Christmas spirit, but you can’t quite get there from here.

Christmas Spirit, for the rest of us

ROSEDALE BIBLE COLLEGE

Jeremy lives in Rosedale, Ohio, with his wife Sarah and their four children. He is president of Rosedale Bible College and is committed to its mission to prepare Kingdom workers.

BY JEREMY MILLER

Recapturing Holiness as People of God

2020 Reflection

I was young, maybe 11. The world I had known was altered dramatically one day when I learned that a close friend’s parents were getting a divorce. I had never known anyone who had gotten a divorce and was immediately terrified at the prospect that such an event could even happen. “If it could happen to them, is my family at risk of the same fate?” I wondered.

It was difficult for my child’s heart and mind to process a reality so powerful it could tear a family apart. I felt frozen and unable to communicate with my friend whose family was living through this nightmare. With a great deal of concern, I sought assurance from my parents. As they gently confirmed their commitment to each other, my fears subsided and the shock and pain I felt about my friend’s crisis eased.

While COVID-19 has been traumatic for our world, and a contentious national election has set teeth on edge, it is the fracturing of Christ’s body that has surfaced the same perplexed and anxious feelings of my 11-year-old heart.

The expectation of God’s people is that we live in an evil world and that people outside the Kingdom will do and say the kinds of things that pagans do and say. This is life and should not surprise us. What has been disorienting is the clear sense that many Kingdom people have seemed to abandon our identity as a people who are “holy and set apart by God” (1 Pet. 2:9). How has this shown up among us?

The weapons of our warfare are not stockpiles of ammo or the right people in off ice.

Our lack of holiness has led to fighting in the manner of pagans. Perhaps we wear a different uniform, but the mud we sling in righteous indignation leaves the same stains. We have forgotten that for holy people, our battle is not against flesh and blood, and the weapons of our warfare are not stockpiles of ammo or the right people in office. Our armament is righteousness, truth, peace, faith, prayer, and life in God’s Spirit (Eph. 6:10-18). With these weapons, we stand dignified and courageous, living as holy people.

Our lack of holiness has laid bare a rebel spirit. From the authority of local church pastors to the leaders of our states

and nation, many in God’s family have rejected the directives of leaders, openly defying their instructions. It is not that there is never a time for civil disobedience. But the cavalier and impulsive nature of much contemporary disobedience reveals a ruinous arrogance. In our current climate, I have not yet witnessed holy men and women, with deep respect and reverence, prayerfully refusing to comply with a particular instruction based solely and explicitly on God’s holy Word. All too often, we have forgotten our identity as holy people and protested angrily with raised fists and defiant glares. This is not the way of Jesus.

Our lack of holiness has blinded us to truth. It has been painful to watch friends and loved ones spend significant time traveling down tunnels of conspiracy and alternate realities. Fundamentally, these descending pathways take us to dark places and display a lack of faith and trust in the risen Jesus. Conspiracies can exist, but the people of God are not to be consumed by them. Our calling is to walk with Jesus, embracing his Kingdom and his ways of righteousness. We seek to live with moral integrity and faithfulness, building up those around us. Undo attention on various conspiracies diverts our focus from Jesus, feeds fear and anxiety, and embraces suspicion as a normative way of life. None of this ought to mark God’s holy people! We are his people, the sheep of his pasture, and he will watch over us. Let Jesus be central, and he will reveal the truth that needs to be revealed.

I, too, have not always responded well to the pressures of 2020. But as I have taken my fear for the church to the Father, I have been reminded that the gates of hell will not prevail against God’s holy people, his church. In this way, I am comforted and grateful to be part of his family.

So, let us move forward in boldness, letting go of fights and rebellion, and embracing instead the truth of Christ as holy people, set apart for God’s glory.

ROSEDALE INTERNATIONAL

Walking Through an Open Door

Introducing Devin and New Opportunities in West Africa

From a small farm in Pennsylvania, Devin prays for a chance to return to West Africa and make it his home in 2021. In a recent conversation, Devin shared how unlikely this vocation would have seemed when he was a boy. “As a child, I had a reputation with babysitters for being an exceptionally picky eater, and I chose Latin as my foreign language requirement in high school because we did not have to speak it.”

Remarkably, God took hold of young, picky Devin and transformed his heart and mind. In 2010, after a variety of life experiences and education, God led him into a short-term assignment working as a mechanical engineer in West Africa. To his surprise, he adjusted to his temporary home better than he had anticipated. “I found the culture fun, the food good, and one day I realized I was translating a French church service for someone else!”

After this initial short-term assignment, Devin deliberated over whether to continue to work in West Africa or return to life in the United States. After a long discernment process, he concluded that “all the prayers and pro/con lists distilled into the thought that there are more people willing to live as an engineer for the Kingdom in the United States than there are in West Africa—and on top of that, I really enjoyed it.” Like many workers at Rosedale International (RI), Devin found that this is often how God works. As individuals and families follow his voice into international work, God provides the sustaining enjoyment of the culture and people.

When asked about any fears he has as he looks toward his upcoming assignment, Devin responded, “It is easy to fall into the trap of focusing on whether I am competent enough, spiritual enough, etc.” Fortunately, Devin’s competencies—or lack thereof—have never been his primary motivation, nor what holds him back. He is driven by the fact that “we are all called to live missional lives.” Furthermore, Isaiah 43—a favorite scripture of Devin’s—gives him and all followers of

Jesus a powerful image of a God who made us, commands us not to fear because he has saved us, summons us by name, promises to be with us, and protects us!

Devin is also driven by the immense need for Jesus-witnesses among the Muslims of West Africa. He plans to work among a people group that is 4 million strong and of which only 0.6 percent are followers of Christ.

While RI has in the past sent short-term REACH teams to West Africa, we have recently explored possibilities for longer-term work there, and in partnership with Buffalo Mennonite Church, we are very excited to send Devin to West Africa in 2021. Jerry, Associate Director of Global Missions, went on an exploratory trip to West Africa with other RI staff this past year. He says that besides the immense need, there is also a greater openness to receiving workers there; they are “not nearly as resistant to the gospel” as some other Muslim countries where we send workers. RI has connections to three countries in the region – all with large Muslim populations ranging from 43 to 95 percent, and all viable locations for long-term workers.

“There is an open door for RI in West Africa,” says Jerry. “Devin is the first guy to walk through the door.”

Might there be more churches and individuals in CMC who are willing to partner with RI and step through an open door into West African mission work? As we’ve seen with Devin and all of our workers on the field and preparing to go, God is ready to transcend all imagined and real weaknesses and use broken people for his glory in the world!

Please pray for Devin and his community as they strive to raise the necessary funds for him to go in the first months of 2021. And pray for more churches and individuals to partner with RI, courageously entering West Africa where the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few (Luke 10:2).