In my last two posts Calvinism & missions? Indeed! Ekballo # 1: TULIP & prayer to the Lord of the harvest and "We're not on Christian cruise ships. We are on battleships." David Sitton @ Ekballo # 2," I blogged on the first two plenary talks given at the Ekballo Midwest Conference, held April 19-20, 2013:

Scott Anderson's talk The Essential Nature of Prayer in the Gospel Mission found here:  http://youtu.be/fuA3p5X32sE

David Sitton's talk Propel the Church, Harvest the Nations found here:  http://youtu.be/6JBqc29qmkA

Today, I'd like to present the third and final plenary talk, "Martyrdom and the Eternal Purpose of the Church" given by Dalton Thomas.

First off, in case you might be tempted to skip over Dalton Thomas' opening prayer, please don't! As you listen, you'll hear the humble and fiery heart and soul of a young man who loves Jesus and is sober-minded and vigilant, single-eyed for Christ, zealous for God's name, and seeking to bring glory to God. Thomas is 27 years old, and given that I'm over 50, I am supremely blessed and encouraged whenever I see God raising up such men and women in the next generation in this era when so many are at ease and complacent in Zion, a day of cheap grace, lukewarmness, and small things here in the West.

Thomas' main text was Ephesians 3:7-13, but before he gets to the text, he prefaces it with the following words (boldface mine, throughout):

The call to martyrdom is not the exaltation of death over life. It is the exaltation of Christ over all things... It's not the call to seek death, it's the call to seek Jesus. And the more that we find Him, the more that we find He is more valuable than life, and more valuable than what we lose in death. And so, the more we love Him, the more we love our lives less, and the more the task of global missions becomes very easy to lay hold of. I don't think we have a missions problem in America. I don't think we have an evangelism problem in America. I think we have a knowledge of Jesus problem in America.

I can't express my delight at hearing these words; they are so very relevant. If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you've heard the steady drumbeat of our need to be rooted in right doctrine.

As Thomas introduces the main Scripture text, he says:

This is the text we're gonna look at tonight -- Ephesians chapter 3, which you're probably thinking, "This is not a martyrdom passage." It is.

. . . I do believe this is the most important statement in the Bible about the nature of the Church. Paul uses a phrase that we're gonna to look at tonight, that I think just needs to be contemplated for a couple decades, which is this phrase:  "the eternal purpose of God."

Now tonight, before we look at this, you know, it would be interesting, if we passed around a piece of paper to everybody, and a pen, and said, "Write down your definition of the eternal purpose of God. Fold the paper up and send it up here, and we're gonna go through them." Everyone would give good, Biblical answers, Bible verses that stuck. But I found a number of years ago, when the Lord laid hold of me with this passage, I realized is that what I would have written is not even close to what Paul defined as the eternal purpose of God. I think in order for us to rightly reckon and apprehend the call to frontier missions, I think we need to have a perspective on the eternal purpose of God, lest we be disconnected from the center of it all.

As you listen, see how your definition of the eternal purpose of God lines up with the Biblical definition, which the apostle Paul unfolds in Ephesians 3.

WARNING:  Be prepared to have your head blown up –– but by that I mean blown up in a good way –– more particularly, to have your theology blown up, to have your understanding of God refined and purified and renewed and expanded –– I only say that because I felt like my own head was blowing up (in a good sense) as I first heard Dalton Thomas in person, and once again as I reviewed my notes on his talk a couple months ago, and then once more as I've relistened to the whole talk again over the past few days...

Holy Spirit, You are the Spirit of truth. We confess we have a knowledge of Jesus problem in the Church in America, as well as in our own souls. How can we know God as we ought, how can we love God as we ought, how can we serve God as we ought, how can we live to God as we ought, how can we die for God as we ought, how can we glorify God as we ought –– unless we know the truth about God? Our adversary, the devil, is a deceiver. He is a liar and the father of lies. He transforms himself into an angel of light. He wants to keep us from knowing the truth and loving the truth. Holy God, be merciful and gracious to us, and pour out Your Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. Apart from Your opening our eyes, we have no genuine spiritual sight of You and of Your truth. Your Word is right and pure and true. As we read, listen to, meditate upon, and study Your Word, sanctify and cleanse us. Blow up any false, incorrect, impure, and faulty theological understandings we might be clinging to. Blow up any false, incorrect, impure, and faulty theological underpinnings we may be building upon. Lead us into all truth for the sake of Your blessed name, so we might be a delight and a joy to You, and bring praise, honor and glory to You throughout all the earth. Amen.

ecclesia reformata semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei

[the church reformed, always being reformed, according to the word of God]

Photo credits:

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:August_Müller_Tagebucheintrag.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-70}}

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PSM_V56_D0465_Hollow_dynamite_cartridge_elevation_view.png / PD

Regarding the upcoming July 15 31 deadline for the Xanga fundraiser, it does seem the clock is clicking a tad bit quicker these days, doesn't it, fellow Xangans?

Well, not one of us knows where he will be tomorrow, much less on July 16th ~ James 4:13-16 ...

But I DO know this:  the God who is sovereign over all thrones, dominions, rulers and authorities (e.g. - see Colossians 1:15-18; Daniel 2 & 4; Psalm 135) is sovereign over all the happenings here in this little corner of the universe we call Xanga!

I also know that @TheXangaTeam has graciously provided archives in both html and XML (read: Word Press compatible) formats for ALL bloggers here. (Thank you, Xanga Team!)

I'm no computer guru, but because The Xanga Team DID provide the archives in XML format, I WAS able to export my deerlife blog over to WordPress (http://deerlifexanga.wordpress.com). (To explain: that's my smallest blog here, and one I'm not planning to continue here on Xanga if Xanga relaunches.) Yeah, it's got some formatting issues, and the pictures still need to be linked to the posts there, and I would like to do more with the theme, widgets, etc. (makes me appreciate all that Xanga 2.0 is offering!), but the full archive IS there! Whew! I was also doing that as sort of a test run in case Xanga ends up shutting down, and I need to export my other blogs. (If you've not already done so, please arrange to download your archives ASAP!)

* * *

After The Xanga Team announced the changeover to a paid blogging platform and the possibility of shutdown (link), I had great concerns about my archives (link)... After being convicted of my sin of anxiety over the situation, and remembering that God Himself is the One who gives and takes away, and His name is to be blessed and praised no matter what –– I asked God for grace to joyfully entrust myself to Him, just as Jesus entrusted Himself to His Father (see I Peter 2:23c -- one of my favorite portions in all the Scripture!). (See also my post: "Are you keeping calm & carrying on: Do you react or respond?").

[Through God's Holy Spirit, Christians are given supernatural strength to keep calm and carry on, but we must ask Him for that strength ~ Luke 11:1-13, esp. v. 13. That's a constant battle. Will we who are Christians look to and trust and lean on Jesus Christ as the Solid Rock, or will we be blown about by the storms of life -- in which case we end up giving a very inconsistent and shoddy witness to the world, and look no different from the storm-tossed, wearied, scattered, harried, helpless, and harassed sheep who've not come to the Good Shepherd so they might have life and life abundantly, and find rest and peace and joy in Him. ~ See Psalm 4, esp. vv. 6-8.]

In addition, I did go and post a question on the WordPress forums about how to import my blogs to WordPress. This was prior to the WP compatible archives being made available (http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/importing-blog-from-xanga):

I'm wanting to import my blogs from Xanga. Any help you could provide would be appreciated. The archives they're providing aren't in the .xml format. Is there any way I can import an RSS feed?

Though I did get a speedy response, there was no answer to my dilemma –– though I'd heard there were ways to import the files there for a fee –– but in the meantime, as I said above, TheXangaTeam came through with the XML archives!

Earlier today, a fellow Xangan posted a similar concern on that same thread about getting her Xanga blog ported over to WordPress in the event of Xanga shutdown... Here was my response to her:

Since the time I wrote this request, Xanga has provided a WordPress compatible format you can use to import your blog to WordPress.

From your private homepage on Xanga, click on Settings, and then click on Weblog Archives. If you've never updated your archives, then click the button that says "Update your archives." If that's the case, then you'll have to wait until they're ready. Otherwise, if they're already up to date (i.e. - up to the date of your last post), then click on wordpressWXR.zip. The file will download to your computer. After it's on your computer, you'll need to click on it to open it (to get it to the XML format). At that point it's set to import to a blog here on WordPress.

I'm still waiting to see what happens with Xanga, but I have three blogs on Xanga. Regardless of what happens to Xanga, I wasn't planning to keep one of those active there, but I did want to preserve a public record of it. I just imported that one to deerlifexanga.wordpress.com from Xanga, and it worked beautifully. (FYI: the archive did include all the private posts (which remained private) as well as the pulses (which are also marked as private -- even if they were public on Xanga). All the tags carried over. The formatting is off in some places, and eventually I hope to check everything, but I was glad to have the blog copied over here.)

You can find the import instructions here: http://en.support.wordpress.com/import/-- Just follow the instructions for WordPress.

I've still not downloaded my photos, so that's my next step!

I hope this helps! If you have any questions, please ask.

~ Karen

[Correction to my comment above is that the photos were successfully imported, but I do need to go through manually and add them in to all my posts.]

* * *

Anyhow, I'm still hoping Xanga 2.0 will become a reality, and thanks to my husband, I have pledged $ 96 toward the fundraiser (link) to continue this blog and my tent_of_meeting blog here at Xanga. That said, I am taking measures in case Xanga doesn't relaunch. As of this point, just after noon on July 8, we're still needing over $ 20,000... #WeAreXanga

(In case of Xanga shut down, you can find me via my WordPress blog: http://naphtalideer.wordpress.com -- into which I'm hoping, Lord willing, to import this blog.)

Romans 8:28.

~ Karen

You Will Know the Truth and the Truth Will Set You Free from Desiring God on Vimeo.

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/you-will-know-the-truth-and-the-truth-will-set-you-free

(Excerpt taken from the printed sermon text found at the link above...)

My aim in this message is that you would experience Jesus, the sovereign, risen, living Lord of the universe, as the source and content of real freedom in your life.

For this to happen, we need two things: We need God's liberating truth and we need God's liberating grace. Which means I need to preach God's word, and pray for God's power.

So let's read the Bible passage that I will speak from, and then I will pray. John 8:30–36:

As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become free'?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Lord, open our eyes to your liberating truth—to yourself—and powerfully grant us to be set free from our bondage to sin. In Jesus' name, Amen.

. . .

We All Want to Be Free

I take it for a certainty that everyone in this room wants to be free in the deepest, fullest sense. If the opposite is bondage and slavery, no one here wants that. You may be enslaved to some habits that are very pleasurable, and in that sense love your slavery. But when you step back from the pleasures and consider happiness without that slavery, you would like to be done with bondage. You would like to be happy in freedom, not a slave to pleasant addictions. We all want to be free.

And in verse 36 of John 8, Jesus says, "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." That is what we are after. "Free indeed." Really free. Freedom in its deepest and fullest meaning. Jesus offers us that this morning. This is Easter. The celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He is alive. He is not mere memory. A mere historical figure like Caesar or Shakespeare or John Kennedy. He is back from the dead with a new glorious body. He is alive and reigning as the king of the universe, and he is making this offer of real freedom to all of us today.

. . .

What Full Freedom Is

There are at least four kinds of freedom. And each one adds a crucial dimension of freedom to the last until we get to the full freedom—"free indeed." Let me try to sum up these four kinds of freedom in one definition of full and complete freedom: You are fully free—completely free, free indeed—when you have the desire, the ability, and the opportunity to do what will make you happy in a thousand years. Or we could say, You are fully free when you have the desire, the ability, and the opportunity to do what will leave you no regrets forever.

• If you don't have the desire to do a thing, you are not fully free to do it. Oh, you may muster the will power to do what you don't want to do, but nobody calls that full freedom. It's not the way we want to live. There is a constraint and pressure on us that we don't want.

• And if you have the desire to do something, but no ability to do it, you are not free to do it.

• And if you have the desire and the ability to do something, but no opportunity to do it, you are not free to do it.

• And if you have the desire to do something, and the ability to do it, and the opportunity to do it, but it destroys you in the end, you are not fully free—not free indeed.

To be fully free, we must have the desire, the ability, and the opportunity to do what will make us happy forever. No regrets. And only Jesus, the Son of God who died and rose for us, can make that possible. If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. To be happy forever, our sins must be forgiven and God's wrath removed and Christ must become our supreme Treasure. Only Jesus can do that. In fact, he has already done it. He died for our sins. He absorbed God's wrath. And he rose from the dead and is today therefore supremely precious. And he offers us that now as a free gift.

By John Piper. ©2013 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org