Is The World A Sinking Ship?

I have lately been thinking much about this picture above. As we are going through Revelation in Church and hearing Pastor Kevin talk about the new earth, I have been reminded about the common misconception that as Christians our end goal is to get to heaven. Now there are many problems with this idea such as the goal is heaven which is actually a secondary blessing of our saving faith whereas our main focus is God, we get to walk with God like Adam and Eve did, we will worship God without the negative effects of sin, all that we do in eternity will be God glorifying. As great as living forever in paradise may be I'm looking forward to being as near to God as I can. 

The next problem is that we have the "Greek/platonic idea" of eternity that just isn't correct. We will not be wearing diapers, floating in the clouds, playing harps. We think of our lives on earth as the waiting room before we get to eternity, but really heaven is going to be the waiting room until God redeems the earth. 

This is what we are looking forward too, a new earth without the corruption of sin. so the next question is, is this new earth brand new like a cosmic mulligan? Thankfully PK helpfully talked about this word "new" as really meaning "newness of quality" not of kind, so really we are looking forward to a RENEWED heaven and earth. 

Why is this important? because I believe that many of our ideas of the earth and Jesus are just like the cartoon at the top. We see the world as this great ship that is sinking due to Satan's evil and Jesus was able to come and save many off of this sinking ship. But this is a poor view of God's redemptive plan. 

Satan has some measure of victory in this picture, he was able to sink the good ship God created and only by luck was Jesus able to save some of Satan's victims. Satan may be destroyed in the end but he sank the ship. 

If we were to believe that this world is too far gone and we just need to believe in Jesus to get onto safety then we believe that Satan is victorious in this world in a way. But this is not true. The world is not a sinking ship, God's redemptive plan is not only for humanity but for all of the universe. He is redeeming a people for himself to place on a renewed earth that sin in not only not present but not even longed after.

I cannot wait for the day when sin will lose all appeal, that I will have no attraction to sin whatsoever.

That is the glorious vision of God's work not the cartoon above. He is so utterly victorious that it only looked as though Satan would have a small victory but in the end "one little word shall fell him!" 

A Time In Africa

Getting back in the groove of school and life has been crazy for me so please forgive the lateness of this post. I was so blessed to have been able to go to Africa over spring break, specifically Ethiopia. I currently am having a little Africa withdraw, I want to be back there with the Ethiopian people so much. But I am back in the states now and will be using my experience from this trip to hopefully further my ministry.

First: Thank you everyone who prayed and supported me financially on this trip, none of this happens without you!

Cultural Context: They spoke the language Amharic. The people are very poor or very rich I didn't see a middle class. Traffic is crazy. I could not get over that they made there scaffolding from sticks. People are very friendly and easy to talk to, though a lot of them hoped to get something from you. People's day's started early in the morning because it got dark around 7:30pm.

What did we do?

Day 1: Flying into Ethiopia was crazy. Our travels and time zone changes meant that we skipped a day getting there. We arrived Tuesday (3am) went to bed then woke up on Tuesday (7am). Once that happened there was no hope for me knowing what day it was. The first thing I noticed about Ethiopia is that the sun is very bright at 6 in the morning. That first day was really cool because I was able to walk in the city a little bit, we were driven around the city a little bit and we got to speak to the whole nation. i.e. we had a news conference to talk about the tournament we were playing in and got to explain a bit of why we were really there in Addis Ababa the capitol of Ethiopia. In summary, culture shock and spoke to a nation.

Days 2-5: From Wednesday through Saturday we got this awesome opportunity to play Ethiopian professional basketball teams at the YMCA in Addis Ababa each day. Before we played these games we had awesome opportunities to go to local schools and play there teams and talk with the students at each of these schools. It was neat to see all the people that we were able to reach an talk to through the language of basketball. I feel like there are some that do not believe in using sports as a ministry but our team was able to go places and have immediate common ground with people that we maybe would not have been able to talk with or go to without using the sport of Basketball as our common language. The last day of the tournament we had a cool opportunity to go out to eat with the some of the players from the Ethiopian "dream team" and just get to know them and speak with them.

Day 6: Sunday morning we traveled from the Capitol, Addis Ababa, to Axum a very religious city. We were able to tour around Axum a bit before leaving to Shire (pronounced Shee-reh) an hour or so away. Axum is the city that has a temple which claims to contain the Arc of the Covenant. Also we visited the ruins of the Queen of Sheba's palace and some tombs. When we arrived in Shire we immediately went over to their outdoor court to play the local team there in Shire and were able to very quickly make relationships with kids and the people there in Shire. I was blown away by God's creation on this day.

Days 7-8: This day we went out to see a school that was run by two women who help orphans, abandoned, refugee children, and lone women. Our team fell in love with the kids of this school that we decided to help them out by splitting our group into a small build group to build a basketball court for them. While the rest of the group was able to put on a basketball clinic for the people in Shire. Another thing we did on these days was to visit a local church where our chaplain for the trip did some pastor training, some of the team did Sunday school teacher training, and we were able to worship with the church in one of their services.

Day 9: We took about 10 hours of our day to travel to and from a refugee camp for the Eritrean people. I wish we could have spent more time actually in the camp but due to the nature of the roads we had to leave rather soon after we got there. We were able to eat a meal there with a local missionary pastor in the refugee camps and then we were able to worship with the Christian refugees there and some from our team were able to share some encouraging words to the church there.

Day 10: Thursday we finished up the basketball court for Abraham's Oasis on this day. We ran into a lot of snags and setbacks in the process of building these hoops but God was in it and we finally were able to have a court for the kids.

Day 11-12: Friday we flew back to  Addis Ababa and we visited some more schools in the area. On Saturday we were able to visit a marketplace and rest up most of the day. We went to the airport around 11pm to fly back to Istanbul, Turkey and then home to Chicago.

Day 13: All Sunday we spent flying back to Chicago. We had a long layover in Istanbul so a group went on a mini tour of the city before our flight back to Chicago. We finally arrived back around 8pm Chicago time.

Phew, With all that said I don't even know how to explain everything we did because there is so much more that this but I now want to talk about the impact this trip has had on me.

I am so blessed by all those who prayed and supported me financially on this trip. So I want to say thank you a thousand times over. You made it possible for me to go to Ethiopia this spring break and therefore it is because of you that I have been able to be so blessed encouraged and grow so much by this trip.

First thing that happened from this trip was a great growth between myself and my team in relation to one another. The closeness and experiences shared between us will never be the same, we were sick together, talked together, laughed together, and reached out to the Ethiopian people together. I am so thankful to have been able to know my team members better due to this trip.

Next, it was amazing to see our national missionaries Bekalu and Jordan work along side us, and how patient they were with us. I was blessed by the Christians already in Ethiopia who served us without asking for anything  in return. And I was blessed by the people of Ethiopia even those who tried to get us relentlessly to by their sunglasses, or belts, or maps. They are beautiful images of God and my heart goes out to them.

Bekalu, our missionary who helped us all two weeks, told us that we had been a great encouragement to the Christians and churches where we were ministering. Our goal was to to come serve the people of Ethiopia by the name of Jesus Christ, we were able to do that but I feel like so much more that the people, Christians, and churches of Ethiopia served me so much more than I ever could repay. It was amazing just to see the mountains and the rest of God's creation in Ethiopia that this trip would have been impacted

I have learned so much and am still taking in and processing sights, sounds and other such things from this trip. I praise God for the opportunity I had in Ethiopia, I am finding hard to just write out the impacts it has had on my life.

Thank you all again for your prayer and support feel free to contact me if you would like to know more about what we did in, what I saw and felt, etc.

We Made It

We have arrived to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We made it to our hotel last night at 4am. It was a long journey, we missed all of Monday due to travel and time zone changes. But all the travels went very smoothly and we are blessed. Thank you to all of you who prayed that my long legs would get an aisle seat, it worked.

Today we had an amazing opportunity to share to all of Ethiopia. We had a nationally televised news conference in order to talk about our upcoming tournament with the national teams. Our coaches and a couple players were able to convey that we are here to serve Ethiopia as Christ washed the feet of his disciples. It was an incredible opportunity to get the name of Christ spread to the whole nation.

Tomorrow we begin playing against national teams and hope to spread the gospel to both players and the crowds.

Ethiopia is incredible, please continue to pray for our team and our impact we may have for Christ. 

The Chase

It has been quite a while since I last really posted, I have had many ideas and topics which have been floating about but just haven't had much time to sit down and write it out. I however am writing now because I can't get an image out of my head and I just want to share it.

I'm not sure where it came from or why, but what I can't seem to get away from and just keep thinking and overwhelming myself with, is this image of chasing after God.

Now everyone has heard all the Bible references about the Christian walk being like a race that we run but for some reason  this image has just become real to me. I am running there is pain and exhaustion when I run it's not easy but the goal at the end of this race is God and that is worth all the side aches and shortness of breathe.

More specifically though I have just had this image of a child chasing his father. A child will do anything to reach his father but sometimes that child falls along the way. A child is not as stable on their feet as an adult it doesn't take much for them to trip. But what happens next is the greatest part. The child is met by his father and picked up and comforted before the chase again resumes.

This is the image I have been seeing in my own life and walk. I am striving so hard to get to the Father, but I trip and fall, I am not yet sure of foot. I still have a long way to grow. But I am not left in my pain and disgrace from having fallen God meets me where I am in the form of Jesus Christ who picks me up and offers comfort and direction. He points me to the Father so I can resume my chase after Him. The joy and prize of my faith.

I can do nothing but marvel at the grace of God.

Hebrews 12:1-2

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

1 Corinthians 9:24

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.

Ethiopia Trip

Scott Green

Moody Bible Institute

820 N. LaSalle Blvd.

Chicago, IL  60610

Dear Friends and Family,

The Moody Bible Institute men’s basketball team is on the verge of seeing God’s faithfulness at work in ways we could never imagine for ourselves.  He has opened a door for cross-cultural ministry through the use of basketball.

I am committed to making Jesus Christ known to the world.  As a member of the Moody Bible Institute men’s basketball team I make that commitment to the team and humbly before God.  Through our team, we desire to encourage believers and communicate our love for Jesus Christ.

We are looking forward to seeing God work this spring.  In mid-March, Innovative Missions Opportunities (IMO) has invited us to come to Ethiopia to minister to local national families and individuals.  The goal of IMO is to bring the gospel to parts of the world where the gospel has never been before.  We will be working alongside the missionaries to encourage and train the Ethiopian people in the Word of God, using sports as a ministry, and basketball.  We will be running clinics and encouraging them through Bible studies and worshipping with them.  In the times we are not running clinics, we will have opportunities to participate in various ministries throughout Ethiopia.  These might include sharing in churches, house churches, ministering with children, encouraging and supporting the local missionaries, and playing basketball games against Ethiopian teams.

We are looking for individuals to be involved with us as we prepare for this trip. If I can ask only one thing from you, I would ask that you shower our team and this trip with prayer. Specifically pray that God will do a mighty work in our lives and equip us for His service.  Also, ask God whether He would have you partner with us financially. Please pray that the Lord unites us as a group and prepares us for the task ahead.

I look forward to sharing the fruits of God’s ministry with you upon our return.  May God richly bless you.

Sincerely in Christ,

Scott Green

Please complete the Minisrty Trip Response Card and mail it directly to:

DRM Department- Moody Basketball Team/Ethiopia

Moody Bible Institute
820 N. La Salle
Chicago, IL 60610

                If you are participating financially, you may do so by check, payable to the Moody Bible Institute, or by credit card.  Tax-deductible receipts will be issued to all donors including the student.  The cost of the trip is $2500 per person.  This includes training, travel, and ministry expenses.  **In the event I do not go on the trip or I raise money over what is required, the money will be used to support similar missions’ projects and administrative expenses, and will be under the complete discretion and control of the Moody Bible Institute. Therefore your contribution is nonrefundable.