Haha, I know that’s the question that a lot of you might be asking latley. Yes, I’ve been busy and to be honest I haven’t really felt like writing much. But I’m through with that little part of my stay here in Egypt and I’m back to being opinionated and ready to tell everyone everything I think…
So in preparation to traveling to Egypt a lot of information was thrown at me. How to live, how to speak the language, what the currency is, stuff like that. Also shown to me at least a few times was the “normal” stages of cultural immersion one goes through. It goes something like this: The Honeymoon Stage, the Hostility Stage, the Humor Stage, and the Home Stage. Briefly, they sound much like they are: in the “Honeymoon Stage” everything is wonderful and nothing seems to be upsetting; the “Hostility Stage” where everything is not so wonderful and everything seems to be upsetting; the “Humor Stage” where the minor things that were upsetting in the previous “Hostility Stage” are now easily laughed off and the larger issues managable; and finally the “Home Stage” where one succesfully feels at home in their current culture as well as their native culture. Well leave it to me to break the mold because I definitley did not follow this little pattern (thus far.)
Most likley I went through the “Honeymoon Stage” pretty quickily, I’m an idealist but not so much that the realities of the world don’t seem that far removed from everyday living. I’ll call my first few days here a “Realistic Honeymoon” =) And yeah, it was only a few days that this stage lasted in my opinion. Because in many ways this led if not straight, than almost straight to the “Home Stage”. For a good portion of the last month and a half I have felt relativley at home, having difficulties communicating sometimes but in my opinion handling them as any well-adjusted foriegner might. And then last week came. This is the part that some of you might understand and some may not; it doesn’t make you a better or worse person if you can or cannot relate, I’m just noting that this is probably going to seem different to some of you. On Monday I pretty much entered into the: “so-confused-that-it-doesn’t-really-matter-where-I-live -I’ll-be-frustrated-anyway-stage-but-living-in-Egypt-makes-it-worse” stage. And for me that really only means a couple of things could have happened. This time it was a question of faith. My attitudes and beliefs were challenged to the core and it was painful. At one of the churches I’ve been attending I had some serious questions raised in my walk of faith. Thankfully, its all stuff that at the end of the day I can fall asleep knowing where I stand with my Lord, but still the question of how I live my life daily became a crucial one: was I living with the Holy Spirit baptized into me? The pastor here, as well as most of the congregation, (there’s only about 12 of us =) seemingly believe that while I am saved and know our Lord personally, that does not mean I have been “baptized in the Holy Spirit” as evidenced by my lacking in the ability to speak in tongues. This was something that when I was first approached with upon attending one of the church’s bible studies didn’t shock me all that much to hear. You see, I had heard about this belief through my best friend Brian (although it wasn’t exactly the same). He had been having a similiar disscussion with one of his friends and we had studied and talked about it, although looking back, I definatley had only made a cursory exploration of matter. I need to apologize to Brian about that, although I didn’t even realize it at the time. And here’s why: I think I have allowed myself to become comfortable in my faith. You may read that and say, what’s wrong with that? Isn’t comfort good? Sure, to an extent, but what I mean when I say I’ve become comfortable is that I’ve become complacent. I’ve said, “Okay God, I know I am yours, I know why I am living, I know what you want me to do”. But I made a big jump in that last part, that “I know what He wants me to do” is only a half-truth. I know God wants me to serve Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love my neighbors as myself, but does He also want other specific things of me? This was the part I had chopped off in my thinking, that the greatest commandment and its compliment were enough, period. And here’s why I think I thought this way: it is “enough”. But our gracious God wants more for us, Jesus says: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:10b)”
So what else is there? There is the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Now I don’t claim to have any sort of grasp on just how much or to who or what God wants to give the gifts of the Holy Spirit to other than whatever He gives is out of grace and is more than we deserve. My brothers and sisters at the church I’m going to, believe that God wants everyone to have the gift of tongues (which is difficult to pin down just exactly what the means). I am not certain to how far of an extent this is true. However I am now certain (and wish I would have always been) that God wants us to partake in the gifts of the Spirit more than I had given Him credit for. And that I need to re-evaluate how I am looking at the good things God can give. I’ve definitley been living in a “post-modern Christianity”: that the Spirit is more or less dead in phyiscal manifestation. Certainly I gave God the credit that the Holy Spirit has reign over my mind and can intercede in the words that come of out my mouth and the actions I perform, but not much more. Scripture like “the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues (1 Cor 12:8-10)” I somehow managed to make not apply to me, rather only to “other people “, the people of “Biblical Times” or people that I would never meet but maybe they exist somewhere out there in the world. But how narrow of a viewpoint is that! I think its for this very reason that Paul wrote to the Corinthians. “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. (1 Cor 12:1)”!
So what does this all mean? I’m not entirely sure. But I do know this. It’s time I stop being ashamed of the Word of God. I quote Paul enough to know that what was written through him needs to be measured and analyzed and not taken at first glance without any inspection, prayer, or checking of alignment against what the rest of the Bible says, but why shouldn’t I ask God for more? I’m pretty sure I haven’t taken all He has to offer, so it only naturally makes sense that I start asking for the things I know He can give me for “the common good (1 Cor 12:7)”. The caveat here is this: it cannot seem crazy or impossible that God could give me one or more of these gifts to various degrees. As soon as I shut the door and say that only the “wierd” Christians speak in tongues or only the “gifted” Christians can lay hands and heal or speak with the “word of wisdom through the Spirit” I have put God in a box, saying “Not me Lord, nuh uh.” Today I am writing because I know God has already worked many “miracles” in my life, miracles of the “spritiual kind” (redemption, freedom from sin, salvation, etc.) Today I am writing because I know God can work miracles of the “miraculous kind” in me and in you.
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Another thought that is related but not completley: has it ever occurred to anyone else reading this that the Holy Spirit does not come upon those in the Bible the moment they repent and turn towards Christ, nor when they are baptized in water? Check in the Bible, according to Drawing Near by John Bevere (which the Pastor here gave me a copy of the 11th chapter, I want to read the whole thing now to get a bigger picture) anyway, according to this: There are 5 accounts of people recieving the Holy Spirit in the NT and in all except one it was seperate from recieving Jesus Christ as Lord; as well in each of those cases bystanders could “see and hear” some phyiscal or outward manifestation of the people recieving the infiling of the Holy Spirit. While this is probably not as conclusive as Bevere seems to make it out to be, it sure does bring me pause on the matter! I believe the Holy Spirit lives within me, but when did He enter? Did anyone else notice it? I’m not sure there is a definite answer of when or a definite yes or no, but there is in the Bible (at least 80% of the time). Is this problematic? How does one reconcile this in one’s life?
Please respond! =)
So for the first 5 weekends I was here, I traveled someplace new. The past 2 weekends I have more or less stayed in Cairo. To the left is a map of the places I’ve been. First, was Alexandria, then Dahab, then Hurgada, Bahariyya, and finally Siwa. Click on the map to see it sketched out: 
