So, we just arrived at our contact’s residence in Stambalovo, Bulgaria
recently after taking a train from the capitol, Sophia. The train was an insane
amount of fun, squeezing six people with twelve backpacks into our one section
was quite entertaining, arriving at our destination 45 minutes early and having
5 minutes to get ready was even more humorous.
Needless to say, I am really enjoying the new team that I’ve been
assigned to. Team Committed is proving to be way more fun than I anticipated.
Thank you Lord. Jah-Jah, Marianne, and Molloy are a total blast. Savannah is passionate
about doing kid’s ministry and Kelly is a very discretionary leader.
We are
staying at this charming house in a little village of 600 people. We’re
currently renovating our contacts property into a functional home for future
missionary teams while also helping the church with her services each Sunday.
We will probably also do some evangelism before we leave. John and Jane
Goodwin, our contacts, are a sweet old couple from Canada and they have made us feel
very much at home. I won’t neglect to mention the enormous spaghetti dinner
with dessert we were served after our first day here. Oh yes, this month is off
to a great start.
When we
first came to Bulgaria,
I was a little concerned about the state of the country. Numerous towering
apartment structures, massive warehouses, and factories dotted the countryside
on our bus ride to Sophia with so many of them being completely abandoned and
falling apart, graffiti lining the walls where the original paint had long
fallen off. But over our three-hour
train ride from Sophia to Pavlikeni, I quickly deduced that Bulgaria is actually
a very beautiful country. Rolling hills, racing rivers, snow-capped mountains,
broad valleys, lush forests, and village after village of old-fashioned country
folk riding up the street in horse and buggy while others bring the cows home
from the fields in the evening all contribute to give Bulgaria a homey feel
that I haven’t had in any of the four countries prior to it.
Unfortunately,
there is a significant social divide in the Bulgarian population between her
more native people and “gypsies” as they are referred to. The gypsies are more
of an Indian people who migrated to Bulgaria some time ago and are
still quite looked down upon by many of the more native Bulgarians. They
usually have tanner skin with dark hair and gray eyes. From what I have seen, I
would say fifty percent of the population is gypsy.
The
primary religion of Bulgaria
is Greek Orthodox. This religion is much like the Catholicism we saw in Central America in its appearance and in respect to
certain activities like praying to the saints. It’s very liturgical, black and
white, and seems to have little effect on their day to day lives, as some
Bulgarians have told me, “Yes, it’s a beautiful country, but the people are not
so kind.”
The
Lord has been teaching me to spend less time in His Word and more time living
it out in relationships with others. Last month, I had the incredible
opportunity of spending hours in the Word each day with a Bible study in the
morning and a Bible study at night. But amidst all that studying, I didn’t
really take the time to cultivate relationships with other people on the squad.
And there is much growth that a Christian can only do in the context of
community. So, I’ve been focusing this month largely on growing in my relationships
with my new team members.
A
few of the other things the Lord has been teaching me I have included in the
sermon I gave at church this morning titled, What Does Christ’s Sacrifice
Mean to You?. I’ve pasted it below. I am convinced that if I truly
understood the gravity of the price Jesus paid for me, I would live my life
whole-heartedly and unyieldingly abandoned to Him.
I
also caught a hefty sized lizard the other day, the biggest one I’ve ever
caught. In fact, he could probably eat most of the lizards that I’ve caught
before. He also had a bright green head and body, very resplendent.
So
yeah, that’s mostly it. I’m enjoying this month tremendously. I’m very much
looking forward to the work we will be doing in the yard and the community. I
am excited about my great new team, and I am super-excited to be spending these
next three weeks in the beautiful Bulgarian countryside. The World Race is really
turning out to be the trip of a life-time.
Bulgarian Sermon
Good
morning. So, I was in town the other day and had the pleasure of meeting your
kind pastor Michael and his family, a sweet family as I’m sure you’re all
aware. We were having a good time talking in this café when I noticed a little
picture on the wall containing a simple English sentence. It said this,
“Happiness is expensive.” At first it made me laugh thinking, “Right, happiness
is expensive, and bless our Irish blood, you just happen to sell it in a
bottle.” But the more I thought about, the more I realized that there is some
real truth to statement.
Happiness
is expensive. It has come at a high price. How many of you here know that
happiness is found in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and Him alone?
No amount of beer, no number of girlfriends, no amount of wealth, or anything
the heart of man desires can bring true lasting happiness. It’s found in Jesus
Christ and Him alone. And the price He paid for us to enjoy that relationship
with Him and have true happiness was very expensive.
Today,
I want to ask you a simple question, and I want you to really take time to
think it through. What does Christ’s
sacrifice mean to you? This is a question I’ve been asking myself a lot
lately. What does Christ’s sacrifice mean to me? We’ve all heard it numerous
times, Christ died for my sins. But has the gravity of his sacrifice really
sunk into our hearts? When I asked
myself this question, there were several scenarios that came to my mind to help
me understand just what Christ has done for me.
What would it mean
to me if a close friend of mine saved my life? If someone like Jah-Jah saw me
walking down a trail and suddenly yells, “Seth, stop!” And the ground next to
the ledge I am walking by gives way. Jah-Jah catches me by the hand and leaning
over the edge of a sheer drop, he pulls me up. Jah-Jah just literally saved my
life.
What would that mean to me?
What
would it mean to me if my brother Luke saved my life at the cost of his own?
Let’s say I’m bound hand and foot in a chair about to be interrogated by the
KJB. These guys are going to kill me once they get what they want. All of the
sudden, Luke busts in and shoots the guys interrogating me. He cuts my bonds
and leads me out of the tunnels we were in. As we are running out, Luke is
mortally wounded. We get outside. We get to a safe place. And my brother is
bleeding all over the ground. I try and put pressure on the wound, but it’s
just not stopping. I’m looking into his eyes and seeing amidst the pain, a joy
that he got me out of there. “I love you bro.” He whispers and then he is no
more.
What would that mean to me?
What
would it mean to me if my dad saved my life at the cost of his own even while I
was living in rebellion towards him? Let’s say I didn’t choose Christ, but
decided that Christ was asking too much of me. So, I left the faith and a found
a girl. Let’s say one day she gets beaten by her x-boyfriend. After hearing
about it, I become so enraged, I go, buy a gun, and kill the man.
Now,
I am standing in court hand-cuffed. The court has tried me and found me guilty
of murder. They read me my sentence and the officers turn me round to lead me
to the electric chair. All I can think is, “That’s it. My life is over.”
The
door bursts open in the back of the room. I look up and see walking quickly to
the front of the room the last person I ever expected to see, my dad. “Wait!”
He yells, “Don’t take my son. Take me.”
At
this point my mind is exploding. I disowned my father. I left home vowing I
would never come back. I cursed my parents and told them I wanted nothing to do
with them. I lived a life that would make them shudder and now I am convicted
of a murder that I am very much guilty of. It doesn’t make sense.
These
questions are pouring through my mind and in my bewilderment I look at my dad.
He stands there being held by two guards, but his eyes are on mine. He holds my
gaze with a look so genuine, so sincere; it pierces straight to my soul. And
then He speaks to me, his gaze unwavering, “Seth, I love you.”
They take the
hand-cuffs off of me and bind my father. I watch as they lead him through the
door I was supposed to be led through. In bewilderment I watch every last step
he takes until the door closed behind him. I am released. My father dies.
What would that mean
to me?
What
would it mean to me if I truly understood Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross? He was
the friend who saved my life, not from momentary death, but eternal… eternal
destruction. He was the brother who died rescuing me from my captors, cutting
ropes not made by human hands, but bonds of sin that only He could sever. He
was that Father, the one I despised and rejected, who took my place and bore
the penalty of my sin, not because I was a faithful son, but because He still
loved me.
What
does His sacrifice mean to me? If I accept His Word as truth, do I understand
the gravity of what He has done for me? This isn’t some idle notion, some
imaginary thought. This was the true God entering into real time to die a
horrendous death in my place.
Do
I really understand it? Do I really get it? God loved Seth Rehmert so much that
even while he was an enemy of God by nature and by choice, He sent His only Son
to die in my place so that I would be saved from the eternal destruction that I
deserved.
What does His sacrifice mean to me?
Isaiah 53:
Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For he
grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He
was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he
was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.5 But he was pierced for our
transgressions; he was crushed for our
iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that
brought us peace, and with his wounds we are
healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one-to his
own way; and the Lord has laid on
him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was
afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he
opened not his mouth.
8 By
oppression and judgment he was taken away; and
as for his generation, who considered that he was
cut off out of the land of the living, stricken
for the transgression of my people?
9 And
they made his grave with the wicked and with a
rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence, and
there was no deceit in his mouth.10 Yet it was the
will of the Lord to crush
him; he has put him to grief; when his soul
makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand.
11 Out
of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be
satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous
one, my servant, make many to be accounted
righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore
I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with
the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Lord God, I don’t understand the
gravity of your sacrifice. I don’t understand the price you paid to save my
soul from eternal damnation. I don’t understand the love you poured out, your
blood you poured out, to buy us back from the grave. Lord, I don’t fully
understand it. But, I want to. Father, brother, friend… please help us to
better understand your sacrifice. Help us to know what is the height, the depth,
the width, and the breadth of your love for us. And let your love transform us,
so that we are forever changed. I ask this in Jesus Name. Amen.
L-R: Me, Savannah, Emily (Molloy), Kelly, Marianne, and my bro Jah-Jah.
