We decided to record one of our staff meetings for the three people that read our blog and who might wonder what a day in the iGo office is like. None of this is planned, staged, scripted or any other synonym you can think of. We tried to filter through the boring stuff. Hope you enjoy the ridiculousness that is our staff:
The day Allison edited this video was the SAME day we found our new office! Praise the Lord! Be praying for us as we transition to the new location in Wylie.
I’ve been reading a lot of Tim Keller lately. So, admittedly, most of these thoughts are his, not mine. He made some amazing observations about the story of Namaan (2 Kings 5:1-14).
Namaan is a commander of the army of Syria (an enemy of Israel). He is portrayed as a man of honor and power, but he also had leprosy. He hears of a great prophet in Samaria (Elisha). So he goes to this other country (Israel) and brings a great treasure to offer in exchange for his healing.
When Elisha tells Namaan to go wash in the Jordan river, he is enraged. He brought a small fortune and came prepared to do “some great thing” in order to purchase the healing of his leprosy, but was told to “just wash” and it was too simple. He walked away from Elisha with bitterness and anger.
Like Naaman, we understand that there is usually some cost associated with healing. And the greater the disease (typically) the greater the cost of healing. Now think about that in terms of our sin. We profess to believe in justification by faith alone. We all know that we cannot buy our healing and forgiveness from God. We know that our only hope is that God has “caused us to be born again” (1 Pet. 1:3).
But I think deep down, like Namaan, we have a hard time really embracing this. The command he received, “just wash”, seemed to be too simple. Our command to “just believe” seems too easy as well. We hesitate to approach God in prayer after we have fallen into sin. Rather than embracing, enjoying, and loving God for His forgiveness, we often spend our time making resolution to do things “For Christ” in hopes to make it up to Him or pay Him back.
Naaman’s healing was free. It cost him nothing. However, it did cost somebody something. We learn in the beginning of chapter 5 that Namaan and his army raided a city in Israel, and that he carried off a “little girl” as a slave. It is likely that this raid resulted in the death of the little girl’s parents.
We would expect this servant girl to harbor hatred and bitterness toward Namaan. We would expect her to react to his leprosy by saying in her heart: “You’re dang right you have leprosy. You deserve nothing less for warring against God’s chosen people and dragging me off as your slave.” But she doesn’t. In fact, she is the reason he makes the trip to Israel and finds Elisha. We see her in verse 3 wishing and hoping that he will be healed. She longs for healing for the one who plundered her hometown and drug her away as a slave. That’s crazy!
Namaan’s healing didn’t cost him everything. But it costs this servant everything. Her suffering and willingness to forgive him led to his healing. Sound familiar? The innocent one suffers, and the guilty party is healed and forgiven. The innocent absorbs a high cost and the guilty one is cleansed (at no cost to himself).
It’s easy to read that story and overlook the servant girl’s suffering. Naaman DID NOT have to do “some great thing” in order to be healed. But the servant girl DID have to do “some great thing” and suffered some great costs in order for Namaan to be saved from his decaying flesh.
Likewise, the reason we often find it difficult to accept forgiveness that is made available to us, is that we forget that it was not completely free. We can truly embrace and accept forgiveness that costs us nothing only when we gaze upon the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 who paid the full ransom price for our sins.
We have to remind ourselves and preach to ourselves that “when Christ offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” Keeping this truth in front of our eyes will keep us from falling into what John Piper calls the “debtors ethic” where we try to “make up” for our sins by working for Christ, as if the cross were insufficient.
At iGosia we celebrate the 12 days of Christmas. Check out this sweet video!
In case you can’t understand us due to all the laughter, here’s the list:
1. Suitcase full of T-shirts and Jeans
2. Fake Bus Passes
3. iGo Dollars
4. Flying Footballs
5. Cucumbers
6. Payment Deadlines
7. Different Accents
8. Busy Jimmys
9. iGosian apples
10. Awesome T-shirts
11. Mustard Bottles
12. Octopuses
From iGosia to you - “We hope you have top of sweet celebration with families this season of holiday!”
Video update from Shu and Ky about the happenings in iGosia! Check it out:
All of our 2009 Alumni should be receiving the packet Shu mentioned in the video. For those of you who didn’t receive a packet, here’s a little more about the iSend Project:
As you may know, iGo Global is a 100% support-based ministry. Outside of the cost to travel overseas (which is raised by each student), it costs iGo Global $336 per year to send one student. This cost includes recruiting, promotion, website, office expenses, and interns. All of this money comes from supporters who believe in the ministry of iGo and who want to see more students trained to live missionally.
This means that you could help us send one student overseas by agreeing to invest $28 per month in our ministry. You could even send multiple students or an entire team! Here’s the breakdown:
Think about it. We had over 500 students serve with us last year. If more alumni and families decided to stay involved by becoming a sending partner with us, we would be free to pursue more partnerships and continue growing the scope and vision of iGo. The impact would be amazing and it starts with a simple, but very significant commitment.
Plus, if you join by December 31, 2009 you will receive a free copy of Mark Batterson’s book Wild Goose Chase.
If you’re interested in joining the iSend Project and did not receive a packet, please email us at info@igoglobal.org. Be a part of the impact.
At iGo there are a lot of things we’re thankful for….here are just a few highlights:
Shu:
friends and family that support our ministry
Zoom Bait Company (Bass love ‘em)
camouflage
Apple
Madeley Ranch (where I hunt deers)
The Republic of Texas
Elizabeth:
An office that laughs together
Masking tape—it holds the thermostat on the wall
A son who just learned about butterfly and eskimo kisses
Friends who sit on the floor of my office to do their work
Chassidy:
sweet tea.
garden salsa sunchips.
grace.
the minute maid freezer pops AC has in the freezer here. i owe him about 3.
Aaron:
Chassidy owing me like 18 frozen pops plus interest.
frisbees because they curve…into offices.
iGosians who are cool with kissing the fish.
SO many t-shirts.
a brand new son..
Jami:
I’m thankful for…working in a community of people who are passionately pursuing sanctification and are not perfect, but are willing to share with each other their struggles, weaknesses, and shortcomings.
I’m thankful for…the random phrases that are yelled out down the hall, which are ultimately meaningless to the point that no one even recalls where they originated.
Crystal:
Kitchen Aid Mixer
Centerpoint church
Getting to see JSIs grow
High Fives
Ky:
Working with a staff who are great friends
The chance to help students get the bottom line
Dr Pepper…Dr Pepper
Emily:
The Word
A desk to work from at iGo
Being a part of something way bigger than me
Leftover snacks from base camp
What are you thankful for?
As many of you know, iGosia brings with it many interesting features - most notably, its people. Below we’ve highlighted four of our favorites (check out the bios underneath the pictures) and we want you to vote for YOUR favorite iGosian! You may very well have encountered this very iGosian at Base Camp this summer. If so, be sure to leave a comment about your experience.
1. The Fake Bus Pass Salesperson If you’re looking for the “bus to iGosia” you’ve come to the wrong place. Despite any promises she may make, her ticket will only grant you access to a “bus tour iGosia” As if selling you a worthless bus pass was not enough, she refuses to negotiate pricing with anyone. Offering anything less than 5 iGo will result in a verbal reprimanding with such intensity that it may bring you to tears.
2. Almost a Security Guard After being rejected as a real security guard and being denied the official black shirt, she has made it her ambition to prove herself by enforcing food laws during the culture meal. Note the baggy clothes and intense facial expression as she tries to look bigger and tougher than she actually is. She doesn’t necessarily enjoy inflicting pain on American thieves and stooges, but she is willing to do whatever it takes to prove herself in order to become a real iGosian security guard.
3. The Non-Salesman Most iGosians at the market will go to great lengths to get you to buy their products, but not him. He has made it his sole priority to remind foreign customers at the market that certain products are “No for Sale.” Regardless of whether or not you try to purchase an item from him, you will certainly know before the closing of the market that his items cannot be purchased.
4. Silent Salesperson This mysterious woman is known for the unexplainable swings in her pricing of certain items and the fact that she never talks…ever. Several theories have arisen as to why nobody as ever heard her speak. It could be: 1. The result of a physical condition. 2 Insecurity due to her inadequate English. 3. An attempt to make herself seem even more mysterious. 4. An extra means of evasiveness to prevent people from trying to negotiate pricing.
Loading ...I, along with other iGo staff members, have been learning a lot lately about finding Jesus in the Old Testament. Special thanks to author Tim Keller for pointing us in the right direction. I taught this lesson a few weeks ago at church using Noah.
The 6th chapter of Genesis tells the story of God resolving to destroy the Earth with a flood because the earth was “corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence” (Gen. 6:11). However, God chooses by His mercy to save Noah and his family from the destruction.
The flood is obviously an act of judgement and a demonstration of holy wrath from a righteous God who “will by no means clear the guilty” (Numbers 14:18b). Noah was spared from God’s wrath why? Because he “was a Righteous man, blameless in his generation” (Gen. 6:9).
Noah of course was not free from sin, since “all have sinned…” (Rom. 3:23). However, there seemed to have been a very real, very practical holiness in which Noah walked. And because of that, he found favor in God’s eyes, and was spared. So in this story, the righteous one (Noah) is saved while the unrighteous (everyone else) were destroyed by the flood of God’s wrath for their sin.
Peter found a connection between the waters of the flood and the waters of baptism. “God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. Baptism which corresponds to this, now saves you not as removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 3:20-21).
So what is the connection between the flood and baptism? I think we find it a few verses up in 1 Pet. 3:18, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” When the flood came upon Noah, the unrighteous were destroyed and the righteous one was saved. However, when Jesus came, the unrighteous (us) were saved and the Righteous One (Jesus) suffered under the flood of God’s wrath.
This is Amazing! Jesus is the new and better Noah who, though Righteous, suffered under the flood of God’s wrath and spared the unrighteous.
Not only that, but after suffering under God’s wrath, Jesus rose. That is why we get baptized. Jesus, through suffering under the flood of God’s wrath and being resurrected, made a way for us to be cleansed and have a new life. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:3-4).
The flood waters served two purposes: Wrath (The flood was God’s wrath carried out against the unrighteous) and Cleansing (The flood was God’s way of cleansing the earth). Similarly, the baptismal waters represent the wrath of God (which Jesus suffered under on our behalf) and cleansing (our old life was washed clean because of Jesus’ death, and through His resurrection, we have new life.)