"Taken" and the Gospel

I just watched "Taken" the story of a former spy who rescues his daughter who has been kidnapped into sex slavery. The movie itself is good, but nothing you haven't seen before. The theme of the father rescuing the daughter is nonetheless very powerful. I can't help but look to the Gospel as the source of this theme (if unknown or unadmitted by the movie's makers). The parallels are numerous: the father who warns his children or the consequences of rebellion but goes unheard, the father who spares nothing (even himself) to bring his child back, the sense of relief and safety knowing that the father has saved the day.

We all long for a father who makes everything right or, more generally, a force in our lives to come in a fix the disasters we create in our lives. Those who are in Christ, those who trust in Jesus as their Savior simply recognize and embrace the greatest rescue story ever. Despite our open rebellion against His ways God pursues us and fights to draw us near. He doesn't fail to bring to Himself His children, those who he has known since before the foundation of the world. We do nothing to help Him, we simply fall into His arms in the release of faith when we understand His patience and mercy - His grace - in rescuing us.

This is the greatest story ever and it's more than a myth. Even though the world rebells against it, this is the story the whole world ultimately wants to tell and the song every heart longs to sing. This is the cosmic drama that is real and can change our present and eternity. Are you written into the script?

Worship

I am reading through the chapter on worship from Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology. Systematic theology is supposed to be dry, but a couple of quotes have struck me as anything but:

"(T)he deepest joy of love is the joy of bringing delight to the heart of the one you love."

As I learn more about life and relationships, this sounds like great and true advice, but this quote is about worship. The thought of being able to bring delight to the God if the universe through my simple worship is amazing.

And,

"This is the reality of new covenant worship: it actually is worship in the presence of God, though we do not now see him with our physical eyes, nor do we see the angels gathered around his throne or the spirits of believers who have gone before and are now worshipping in God's presence. But it is all there, and it is all real, more real and more permanent than the physical creation that we see around us, which will someday be destroyed in the final judgement."

Pray for Iran

I have been closely following the events surrounding last week's presidential election in Iran. It seems clear now that the election was a fraud - results were reported within a few hours in an election with (reportedly) 80% turnout, extended polling hours, and exclusively hand-marked paper ballots. It is simply impossible to turn around actual results that quickly under those circumstances.

The whole situation makes me think a lot about my time in Turkey. The video and pictures (now limited by government restrictions) reminded me of the people and cityscapes of Turkey. The political divide reflected in the division between Ahmadinejad's and Mousavi's supporters is similar in Turkey as well. On the right are middle-class, conservative (but not radical) Muslims (just like the support base of the Turkish AK Party). On the left are the young, secular, sometimes upper class and wealthy. While it seems that Mousavi probably won the election, don't underestimate the support that middle class conservatives could put behind Ahmadinejad.

Seeing the video of the streets filled with people crying out for freedom makes something rise up in my heart. It is so right for these people to seek justice and truth. The repression and lies that they live under are so wrong. That people are shot in the street for exposing a lie is the basest kind of wickedness. Certainly, people don't have to be Muslims to engage in this kind of sin, but I think Islam equips the tyrants in Iran with a weapon that is hard to oppose in their culture.

Hearing about the events in Iran also makes me think of the Iranian friends I had in Turkey. Two students in particular, one a nominal Muslim trying to enter university in Turkey. His father, a doctor in Iran, supported him, his mother, and his sister and their relatively free lives in Turkey. A bit of a playboy, he told me stories of underground drinking parties in Iran and cursed the conservative government's restrictions of freedom. I was invited to an "iftar" (the daily feast at sundown during Ramadan that breaks the day's fast) at the apartment he and his mother lived in. We ate the meal according to Islamic tradition while across the room sat a liquor cabinet well stocked with Western alcohol. I think his family is representative of the Shah's Iran.

The other, a true refugee, was in Turkey trying to earn a spot in university in Belgium where his uncle lives. He had rejected Islam and was open-minded spiritually. He blamed Islam for destroying true Persian culture. Hateful towards the the government, he feared being forced to return to Iran where he would have to serve in the military of a government that he hated.

In Turkey I also met Iranian Christians living as refugees in Turkey, often on their way to Europe or the US. I pray for the thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of Christians underground in Iran. The Gospel has gone forth even under the Islamic Republic (Jesus did say His Church is unstoppable - Matt. 16:18) I've heard stories of what God is doing, from people who know, that give me goosebumps.

Pray that these events will lead to greater religious freedom. Pray that the government would be further exposed and hearts turned toward true hope in Jesus. Pray with me that God would sovereignly bring justice and freedom from the chaos.