‘Jesus was almost to the tomb of Lazarus and about to demonstrate his Divinity by raising His friend from the dead. But He was deeply moved in sympathetic sorrow by the distraught and weeping Mary and all those weeping around her. Here on the part of the Son of Man were tears of love, of sympathy, of compassion, and of deep emotion. The Bible says He was deeply moved. Jesus is not only perfectly divine, but perfectly human!
The verse from John 11:35, which is famously the shortest verse in the King James Bible, highlights the fact that tears demonstrate humanity – not only Christ’s identification with our humanity but humanity itself. In fact, they are an important part of our body, soul, and spirit!
Researchers say that human beings are distinct from animals because we can cry emotional tears. They also say that it can be a healthy thing to shed such tears. Tears can release hormones and other body chemistry which cleanse and renew us.
I remember I cried at the birth of each of our six children. I cried as I danced the father-daughter dance at her wedding reception. I’ve cried in worship experiences and other times in communion with the Lord, and at the passing of loved ones and other losses. I’ve also cried in repentance.
The human body is amazing and has many special distinctions from the animal kingdom. And we human beings are not only physical bodies, but are also made up of soul and spirit per the Bible (e.g., 1 Thessalonians 5:23). This means that the interactions between physicality, biochemistry, emotions, intellect, personality and things like repentance, forgiveness, and other interactions of a spiritual nature all overlap. Emotions can trigger release of biochemical hormones, and vice versa. Biochemical hormone release in the body can trigger emotions, as can drugs ingested into the body. And things like faith, fear, joy, and love can trigger biochemical hormones in the body. So it goes both ways across a continuum – the immaterial to the physical, and vice versa.
The human body is an amazing thing, interacting marvelously with mental and emotional focus. Baseball players can actually watch a baseball thrown toward them at 90 miles an hour by someone who doesn’t want them to succeed, and swing a bat around with their legs, hips, arms, and wrists all working together to hit the fast-moving spheroid into the field of play, and then run to first base. That the eyes, brain, and other body parts can work so well together – adjusting to fast balls, curve balls, sliders and other pitches over different parts of home plate – is really quite amazing. There is still no machine that can replace a baseball batter – yet, the human body is said to have evolved by chance and natural selection?!
The human eye can detect the faintest light possible – a single photon of light – and can also work with 10 billion photons of light. In the language of Optics, its “dynamic range”, that is the ability to capture “contrast”, is 10 billion to one! The best digital cameras can only reach half that. The human eye also has an enormous number of “pixels” (a very small area of illumination on a screen) especially compared to even the best HD TV screens – 130 million pixels versus 8.3 million for a 3840 x 2160, horizontal x vertical pixel HD TV. And those human eyes can also shed emotional tears.
Clearly, there is a God, the Biblical God, who designed and created all this! And clearly, human beings are unique in our intellectual, emotional and spiritual connection to Him and His marvelous creation! Once again, we are comprised of body, soul, and spirit – simultaneously!
Christians have understood this. Humanity is God’s special creation. And Christian movements over the years have declared, decreed, and organized their vision and mission around the Great Commission to redeem us to our Maker. Listen to the famous words of Pastor Robert Hunt on April 29, 1607 at the first landing on Cape Henry in the mouth of Chesapeake Bay during the founding of the Jamestown Colony. It was a special declaration that has been honored and proven true for over 400 years! – about the United States, and the gospel outreach that has flowed within and from “these shores”.
“We do hereby dedicate this Land, and ourselves, to reach the People within these shores with the Gospel of Jesus Christ,and to raise up Godly generations after us, and with these generations take the Kingdom of God to all the earth. … May those who come here to inhabit join us in this Covenant and this most noble work, that the Holy Scriptures may be fulfilled. From these very shores the gospel shall go forth, not only to this new world, but the entire world.” Then he read from Psalm 22:27, “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord. And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee.”
For many years, America has been organizing, spending and sending a bulk of the missions effort for worldwide gospel outreach. That continues to this day – in spite of all the evil influence of modern culture! It’s a wonderful legacy. Yet, we could do so much more. How is it that so many Christians can tip the server 15% at the restaurant but have a hard time giving 10% to gospel outreach?
For several years, Creation Moments has been responding to the Lord’s leading from Revelation 14:6-7 – to grow our efforts to expand the languages and worldwide broadcast reach for our pre-evangelism creation science and creation-evangelism programming. We have “heard the word” and “received the illumination” of God’s call to us about “the angel having the everlasting gospel” to “preach… to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” a message that hinges on the truth of creation! “Worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea and the fountains of waters” (Revelation 14:7b).Here is the last use of the word “gospel” in the whole Bible. And it contains the most essential creationist messaging!’https://creationmoments.com/newsletter/august-2023-from-these-very-shores-the-gospel-shall-go-forth-not-only-to-this-new-world-but-the-entire-world/?mc_cid=d108c81508&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
1Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Is this a good use of #AnnieArmstorng mission dollars? An NAMB conference, paid for by NAMB, at the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans (including 4 night stay for attendees)? The “Old NAMB” was criticized heavily for it’s lavish spending. Will the same people hold NAMB accountable now? https://t.co/mRgrp3IZZcpic.twitter.com/A5k0TSSO8j
The following was written by Inglis Fleming (1859-1955) (One of his grandsons was Pete Fleming, one of the five missionaries killed by the Auca Indians in 1956.)
‘”Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds.” Psa. 149:5. “Any bird can sing in the daytime; God gives songs in the night,” it has been remarked.
Above all the power of trial and weariness and pain, the Holy Spirit of God can lift the suffering Christian, so that “in the night” of testing and “upon their beds” of affliction, they may sing aloud with joy.
Happy is the believer who, confident in his God, can thus rise above his present circumstances and rejoice in the Lord. Such an one, in the spirit of Habakkuk of old, may exultingly say,
“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places.” Hab. 3:17-19.
To the Jew, the fig tree, the vine, the olive, the fields, the flocks and the herds spoke of prosperity. Without these and their produce, famine would stare them in the face. Habakkuk’s confidence is of a marked character therefore. Is not such faith to be followed? May we not say that it honors God and is delighted in by Him?
“How great is Thy goodness,” exclaims David, “which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee; which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men!” Psa. 31:19.
Paul could write from the Roman imprisonment which he was enduring, “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.” Phil. 4:4.
“Songs in the night” are these. And perhaps the night seasons are allowed to come upon us in order that such songs may rise from our hearts.
Amid the changing circumstances of life we may not be able to rejoice in them, but the Lord in His all-sufficiency is above all circumstances. In Him let us rejoice, as we journey on to our everlasting portion.
“And there in mine inheritance, My kingly palace home: The leaf may fall and wither, Not less the spring will come. Like winds and rains of winter, These earthly sighs and tears, Till the golden summer dawneth Of the endless year of years.”‘https://www.wholesomewords.org/etexts/fleming/songs1.html
‘MACON, Ga. — A Georgia man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in February to sexually assaulting a girl while a missionary in Uganda.
U.S. District Judge Marc. T. Treadwell sentenced Eric Tuininga, 45, of Milledgeville last week. He was ordered to pay $20,000 in restitution and spend a lifetime on supervised release as a registered sex offender after getting out of prison.
Tuininga previously working as a minister at Immanuel’s Reformed Church in Salem.
Prosecutors have said that an American citizen had contacted the U.S. embassy in Kampala, Uganda, in June 2019 to tell officials that Tuininga was having sex with Ugandan girls as young as 14 who were under the care of the U.S.-based Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Mbale, Uganda.
Tuininga was one of the church’s ministers. Authorities said they found Tuininga had already returned to the United States, but federal agents identified the minor and kept investigating. Tuininga admitted to the conduct, with prosecutors saying he told them that the victim would often visit the church property in Mbale.
The recommended sentence for Tuininga was seven to nine years, The Telegraph of Macon reported. But Treadwell sentenced him to a decade in federal prison after hearing testimony from the victim’s caretaker and some of Tuininga’s family members. Tuininga’s defense attorney had objected to some of the evidence at sentencing and requested a sentence of five years.
“I want to recognize the true bravery displayed by the Ugandan girl for speaking out when she was assaulted by a trusted person of power from another country, courageously seeking justice across continents,” U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary said in a statement. “Law enforcement — both abroad and here at home — took on a challenging international case.”
Mark Bube, general secretary of the denomination’s committee of foreign missions, has said Tuininga’s misconduct was reported by other Orthodox Presbyterian missionaries in Uganda and that he was removed from missionary work in 2019. Bube said Tuininga was later removed entirely from ministry and excommunicated from the church based in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.
Tuininga joined the church from a separate but affiliated denomination in Oregon. A website chronicling Tuininga’s work in Uganda said he began working there in 2012 after working at Immanuel’s Reformed Church in Salem.’https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-salem-minister-gets-10-173910997.html
The following should be the exception BUT sadly it is NOT! A Baptist mission hid a child molester for years https://sadsaga.wordpress.com/.
‘A former Orthodox Presbyterian missionary pleaded guilty Wednesday to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl while he was working overseas in Uganda, authorities say.
Eric Tuininga pleaded guilty to engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia. The 44-year-old now faces up to 30 years in prison, followed by supervised release for potentially the rest of his life. (Parole isn’t an option in the federal system.) He could also be fined up to $250,000.
“Eric Tuininga used his trusted position as a pastor to sexually assault a young Ugandan girl in his care,” U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary said in the release. “This was a challenging case, but law enforcement worked diligently to ensure that Tuininga did not escape justice for his crime overseas.”
Tuininga went to Uganda in July 2012 as a missionary with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) Presbytery of the Northwest.
Presbytery Clerk Jeff Scott said the presbytery learned Tuininga was accused of misconduct in May 2019, after he had returned to the U.S.
Then in June, an American affiliated with the OPC called the U.S. Embassy in Uganda to report Tuininga, according to the federal press release. The American reportedly alleged Tuininga was having sex with Ugandan girls as young as 14 who were in the OPC’s care.
The State Department opened an investigation in cooperation with other agencies. That investigation was turned over to the Department of Homeland Security when the State Department found out Tuininga was back in the U.S.
Federal authorities identified one Ugandan girl who was 14 when Tuininga had sex with her in March 2019, the release states. It goes on to state that Tuininga admitted he met the girl while carrying out his missionary work. She would often visit the OPC church Tuininga oversaw in Uganda, according to the release.
“Tuininga was supposed to be someone that could be trusted, but instead he abused that trust and victimized a child,” Special Agent in Charge Katrina W. Berger said in the press release. Berger oversees Homeland Security Investigations operations in Georgia and Alabama.
Shortly after Tuininga returned to the U.S., he was kicked out of the OPC. The Presbytery of the Northwest deposed him from ministry in July 2019 and excommunicated him that September.
“By the time we became aware that Mr. Tuininga’s sexual immorality included the sexual abuse of a child, he was already under criminal investigation, and he had been excommunicated and was no longer under our jurisdiction,” Scott, the presbytery clerk, wrote in an email.
“We are profoundly grieved by Mr. Tuininga’s actions and the devastating impact they have had on many people and the stumbling block they place before those we call to put their trust in our Lord Jesus Christ,” Scott wrote. “. . . We pray for justice to be served on behalf of his victims. And we continue to pray for Mr. Tuininga’s family, those who have been harmed, and for Mr. Tuininga’s repentance.”
Tuininga and his former wife, Dianna Dise, had nine children. The OPC continued supporting Dise and the children after Tuininga was recalled from the mission field in 2019. Visits between Tuininga and the children were supervised while the investigation and divorce proceedings were underway, Dise recently wrote on her blog.
She also wrote Tuininga had groomed her as a gatekeeper to the girls he was abusing so she was kept “in the dark.” And because Tuininga could provide food or money to pay for schooling, he had the power to demand sex from the girls, she added.
“The entire community benefited from the money that he poured in,” she wrote. “This happened to the extent that victim’s lives were threatened if they dared to speak up.”
‘Ryan Farran, 39, is a pilot from the United States, and filmed this video in December 2020 in Papua New Guinea!
“The video is just a routine day of flying in Papua New Guinea during the rainy season. It rains a lot here, so the mountain airstrips can get pretty muddy and slippery at times” said Ryan.
“I’ve been flying here in PNG for 5 years. I fly the Kodiak 100 airplane. I started flying when I was 19 years old. I fly missionaries, do medical flights, and community development here in PNG” said Ryan.’
If the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism had handled this properly and Biblically this man would have been in jail many years ago. However, due to ABWE’s neglect, he will never go to jail for his crimes.
The link will take you to an interview with Boz Tchividjian who heads the investigative organization, G.R.A.C.E.. GRACE deals with abuse within churches and Christian organizations. Interestingly GRACE was just weeks away from submitting their final report on the pedophile missionary Donn Ketcham when the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism (ABWE) dismissed G.R.A.C.E. Was ABWE frightened of what the report might reveal? Sadly, we will probably never know what G.R.A.C.E. discovered in their investigation.
Boz says in this interview that “In 1994, I became a prosecutor in central Florida, and eventually became the chief of the sexual crimes division. During that time, God opened my eyes to the physical, emotional and spiritual harm resulting from child sexual abuse. After leaving the prosecutor’s office in 2001, I was burdened to apply what I had learned on the front lines as a child sexual abuse prosecutor in helping to train and equip the faith community to address the many issues associated with abuse. In response to this burden, I formed GRACE in 2004.”
Boz continues “It was not until I became a prosecutor that I saw for the very first time the utter devastation that is caused by the horrors of sexual abuse. I will never forget sitting across my desk from weeping parents who had only recently learned that their 9 year old daughter had been sexually victimized by one of their best friends. I will also never forget meeting that beautiful 9 year old little girl. A girl whose life had just begun, but who never had the opportunity to enjoy childhood because of the evils perpetrated upon her. Though the abuse had forever changed the life of this precious child, I came to realize that the abuse had not destroyed her soul and that underneath it all she was still a 9 year old who had childhood interests, aspirations for what she wanted to do when she “grew up”, and even dreamed of going to Disney World. It was during those moments when I realized that God had given me an incredible privilege to be placed in such a position for the purpose of expending myself to those who were struggling through these very dark and painful valleys of life.”
This interview is a must to read. Sexual, mental and physical abuse is happening right now within many churches and Christian organizations. If you do not believe this do a little search on the internet and you will soon read not only of the abuse but the all too often cover-up that occurs to either protect the offender, the organization or both!
One could almost (and I stress almost) understand the cover-up when it is in the world but churches and mission organizations?! Whatyareckon?
whatyareckon 