Resurrection: “Pass” it on “Over”

Resurrection: “Pass” it on “Over”

So in the old times in the Old Testament the Passover was coming onto God’s people in Exodus 12. He listed out strict rules in order to follow rituals which would allow God’s people to spare the first born child.  The details listed I’m sure happened to be PETA’s worse nightmare if they existed back then.

Take A Lamb

1.)    Take a 1 year old lamb

2.)    Take good care of it for 2 weeks

3.)    Slaughter the lamb during the twilight of the 14^th day

4.)    Share the lamb amongst you

5.)    Smear the lambs blood on the door frames of those who eat the lamb

6.)    That same night roast the lamb (don not eat it raw)

7.)    Do not leave anything of the lamb by morning (burn the rest by dawn)

8.)    Eat it in haste with cloak tucked and sandals on

Here God announced that if these actions were followed the first born of each family will be spared from the last plague of the plagues unfolding in Egypt. God had told Moses and Aaron that at midnight of the fourteenth day He would go throughout Egypt and every firstborn son will die, from the first born to Pharaoh who sits on the throne to the slave girl who is at the hand mill and all the first born cattle as well. The Lord hardened Pharaohs heart so he would not let the Israelites go.

After reading the Passover in Exodus it reminded me of a few things about Jesus and his relationship to the Passover. I find it rather interesting that the theme of the first born arises in many areas of the New Testament and the Old Testament. I am not sure how far the Passover was from the death and resurrection of Christ but the theme in the Bible is everywhere.  God struck down the first born in Egypt to save the Israelites and he did so again to His own first son to continue to save his people from sin and destruction. I find it interesting that Jesus is always compared to a lamb and it was a lamb that was used to protect those the plague was coming over. I also find it interesting that God hardened the Pharaohs heart just as the people were hardened by Jesus before his death.

This weekend I celebrate not only the Passover and Exodus of God’s chosen people in the Old Testament but also the Passover of Christ’s crucifixion! Similar to the  Old Testament God sacrificed his first born not to allow sin to enslave us. His resurrection (exodus) and accession up to the father is the one last true lamb ultimately sacrificed for His people.

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

John 1:29

 

Inadequately Equal (Part 1 of 3)

Inadequately Equal (Part 1 of 3)

I believe within the last 40 years of our culture there has been a little bit of confusion as to where the line is between gender roles of a male and a female. Theres this stereotype that women are kitchen dwellers and men are Lazy Boy recliner lovers. That a man should work while the woman stays home to raise the kids. These are the symboled images we as the American people and probably the western culture have burned into our minds to define gender roles but they are just stereotypes through in through.

God defines us differently, and he uses the story of creation to begin to tell us how. Genesis 2 describes how God created woman in the likeness of not only Himself but of man and how man loved woman so much he named her after him. Adam literally says in Genesis 2:23

“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’

for she was taken out of man.”

The point I am trying to get a crossed is that man has a romantic heart for woman, he loved her so much that he considered her his flesh and his bones. Adam was being compassionate to Eve and loved her because she was part of him, like we are all part of God. I know that a lot of people do not like hearing that women are from men but they are. This is not me trying to be cruel or suggest that men are better then woman because that is not the case. Honestly, both sexes are better at different things. However, what I am trying to say is God created man to love Him,  so He created woman to love man, and both to love each other as one. From one they came to be again reunited solely whole to love Him.

Disclaimer: I am not saying a womans only purpose is to love man, only that woman were originally created to help man in the garden.

There are many ways that gender roles play out in the Bible but before I turn back to scripture I want to add something real quick. This subject might make people a little uneasy but I feel like it has been something on my heart to write about. Men and women compliment each other and are equal to each other in a lot of ways but we are not equal in design. I know this sounds redundant but there is a reason. Men were designed to be leaders, they were created to love God and take care of this planet. Women were designed to be nurturers, they were created to help man take care of this planet and love God all the same. Men and women have different but very equally important jobs on this planet for God. Folks, we are just designed differently, is it so hard to believe that we are different. Theres a reason people say men are from Mars and women are from Venus. We have different but complementing ways of looking at the world but it doesn’t mean one sex is greater than the other just different.

Turning back to scripture I think one of the most beautiful things in the Bible is the description of man and wife. This is what Ephesians 5:22-33 says

22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. 

We have taken a word like “submissive” and “slave” and associated it with our darkpast and our own irresponsible growing pains as a country. I will say this I am both submissive and a slave to my God, but that does not mean I am choosing a life of intense labor and abusive punishment or a belittlement in rights or status to evolve me into a second rate citizen. However, we all seem to believe that these words mean we have to give up our rights as a free people. Submissive is not a bad word and the relating passage does not mean woman are slaves to man.

I will write more about the above passage in part 2…. I will also outline what both men and woman are attracted to in one another from my understanding.

please feel free to contribute or add your opinion …….all points are valid and respected.

 

Tebow Time

God doesn’t care if you score a touchdown

Lately I have been watching the 24/7 circus on ESPN which is now the Tebow Channel and I have come to this conclusion

1.) I love Tim Tebow as a role model and a man and brother of God
2.) I strongly dislike when people point to the heavens when they score a touchdown

How selfish is that! Maybe I am belittling Gods interest in prime time football but something tells me that it is not God who helps Tebow win…. but maybe I am wrong what do you think?

 

Codename: Pink Elephant

Pink Elephants

First I wanted to start out by saying that this is not my opinion or my idea but have felt that through the sermon today I wanted to share a mans message to a congregation at Kampala International Church about adultery.

*Some statistics that were given to us today at service from various sources.

12% of pastors surveyed admit to cheating
18% of pastors surveyed admit to others acts besides sex
30% of Male protestant pastors surveyed cheated
38% of pastors surveyed fantasize about cheating
50% of men admit to committing adultery
41% of women admit to committing adultery

In 1 Corinthians 6

Paul states to flee from adultery…. This is an interesting take on Paul’s part, because this same man who paints a picture about fighting the devil in Ephesians with Gods armor and faiths shield with the spirits sword as our protection. In curious fashion does not draw from passion to fight lust like the devil himself but to flee from it.

Jesus also states in Matthew 5 that it is better to gauge out our eye if it lusts then for our whole bodies to fall to the ways of sin and cast into hell when we commit adultery.

So why does Paul and Christ feel running from sin is better then fighting it?
I’m not to sure but the theory is this

Adultery is the one and only sin that attacks our sense of pleasure and its the devils way of making the bad feel good. Adultery is a sin that builds off our imagination and fixates on our deepest desires. Face it God made sex to be enjoyable and not just make babies…. read Song of Songs and tell me they had babies on there mind. The devil uses this deviation of enjoyment to detract us from having pure hearts. This impure enjoyment is formed from our inner desires so it is a hard one to get rid of.

If someones says don’t think about pink elephants ……..what are you thinking about?

I hope your not thinking about those pink elephants that your thinking hard not to think about.

Its the same way about adultery we cant fight it because by fighting it we have to think about it so, Christ and Paul are simply saying run, run as far as we can ….or in other words we need to run run away from those pink elephants run as fast as we can!!

*pink elephants is code for sex(lust)

 

Freewill Factor

So I have discovered something here in the jungles of Uganda, outside of the awesome chimps who live in the forest here. I have noticed God alot and have had a many of revelation since I have been here and heres what I was thinking.

Freewill isn’t free at all just like the freedom we uphold in the great country of the USA. That idea although not really that revolutionary is the cornerstone of my point in this blog installment

See God gave us freewill but it was with a heavy burden that He did. He wanted his people to love Him but He needed to let them choose for themselves. In this universe there lay a foundation of beginning and of end and all things created were by design and that designer is God.

Coming to the point now…..

By giving us freewill He allowed us to have love because without the will to choose God we would not have the capacity of love and would be a collective group of God followers without a choice in the matter….

Heres where my revelation came!

Without freewill we are all equal in that we all would have the same goal and purpose to follow God. With free will He has given us love but not equality as some of us choose to believe and others do not. It is true God loves us all equally but he sets His people aside.

life isn’t a fight for equality but for the opportunity to be equal and using the love He gave us through freewill helps us to determine the value and equality of life from person to person.

Will You Click This Picture or Not?

So in conclusion

Freewill promotes love and only gives the opportunity of equality
No Freewill promotes equality and no opportunity to experience love
heres some verses I have found helpful

If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.”

James 4:7-8
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

2 Cor. 9:7
“Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

thank you for trying to follow this crazy point
oh and predestination is a funny joke to me

Chris McCurdy

 

Deliver Them

I don’t know what breaks my heart more either to know that most Ugandans believe in You and don’t have Bibles to read about your wonderful life, or that a lot of these fine American people who joined the PC don’t hardly know who You are!

I think about it constantly God, as I struggle to fall asleep it breaks my heart that You died so we could live but yet people still turn their back on the most graceful, merciful, and unselfish act in human history. Lord why don’t they see you like I do, Lord why can’t they see the pure love that I see? Is the devil really that good at being deceitful?

On the other hand Lord there’s so many people who feel your presents in the country of Uganda and can’t afford to read the word you paid for through your sacrifice. Jesus why is it that these people don’t have your message? Please tell me what to do! Give me the wisdom and courage to stand up for your name and deliver on your word!

Lord use me as a tool to help give people the love you have given to me, take my heart and lay it down, take my body and work it to the bone, take my soul until it finally meets up in heaven, take my breathe and let it expire if it helps people find You! Give me the will to bow down and submit myself under your blood thorn crown. Pray that I carry my cross so others will see the dedication of GRACE you have left for us in the wake of your death.

Grant me the power to die and be reborn and save this world one name at a time using Your name as a treaty of peace and everlasting unconditional love.

HELP ME LOVE THESE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!

Let me be a light in this crazy land you have allowed us to call Africa

Be A Light

 

Im officially official and stuff

I AM NOW A PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER!!!!

Current News

I am now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) I had my swear in last Thursday October 13 2011. Since then I have moved to Hoima, Uganda which is 3 hours drive from Kampala the main city in Uganda. The town is decent enough and my projects are pretty fantastic. Today I met with the mayor of Hoima to try to organization a community based organization (CBO) called Hoima Opposing Pollution in the Environment (HOPE) more on this later…..
I also opened up a mail box here in town and that is listed here and is where all my mail can be sent.

Christopher McCurdy PCV
P.O Box 439 Hoima, Uganda

Community Development

Currently I am involved on a lot of different projects which I will just try to explain here in this short email so follow along if you can or have enough time to read.

KWEC (Kyammaleera Wildlife Education Center)

website outlining goals: http://ngambaisland.com/html_pages/KWEC.html

KWEC is my primary office and it is where my supervisor Godfrey works and is the chair, the main purpose of this organization is simple but needed in the community. We have outlined plans to educate and organize communities on wildlife education for the Chimpanzee who live in and around the forest here in Hoima. This is important because it attracts tourist in the area who want to do chimpanzee tracking and this allows sustainable income in the community. The reason why we educate on wildlife conservation is the problem of deforestation here in Hoima District. Because of oil being found and lumber being sold without replanting the chimpanzee is losing the battle for its habitat. I am assisting Godfrey to educate and implement programs to allow this center and the surrounding area to be protected by the Ugandan Government.

CSWCT (Chimpanzee Sanctuary Wildlife Conservation Trust)
(Ngamba Island website here: http://www.ngambaisland.com)

CSWCT is KWEC primary partner and revenue contributor, this organization which I am currently typing in because of the awesome free WI-FI is fully funded by the Ugandan Government, The Jane Goodall Foundation, Disney, and the WWF just to name a few resources. The have a branch here in Hoima that helps us track and protect the chimpanzee living in the area. They also run Ngamba Island which is a sanctuary on Lake Victoria in Enteebe about 4 hours away. CSWCT is committed to protecting and preserving the chimpanzee population here in central and eastern Africa and have been fairly successful, my job is to assist them on day to day operations in business planning and micro finance.

KRIDA (Kyabigambire Rural Integrated Development Association)

Kyabigambire is the town I live in and is a suburb of Hoima, the goal for KRIDA is to development individual vocational programs for the citizens in the community in order for them to have sustainable income for them to live and raise there families (i.e. farmers, blacksmith, bankers, shoe repairer). We have designed a census packet for each individual to fill out and through that determine the right vocational skill to focus in on. Some of these young adults are heavily burdened with children as many as 15 and cant find a generous means of income, so we help organize work for them.

HOPE (Hoima Opposing Pollution in the Environment)

HOPE is a program I actually started today! Hope is and will be designed to use community resources in order to clean up Hoima to protect the community from filthy living conditions that lead to illness and loss of business and growth amongst the town. I am still working on a proposal to present to the town mayor three weeks from now but I have already got a lead on the project and a couple of consultants. (more on this to come!!!!)

Little League Baseball Uganda
This one I am sure you have heard me talk about and I have even communicated with Richard Stanely who is the father of LLBU that this is interest back home to help. This program is simple Ugandan kids want to play baseball but there is not enough equipment to play. I know some of you have asked how they can donate to this cause well with Jay Shapiro’s help and Richard Stanely’s the have directed me to a website. (http://www.pitchinforbaseball.org/html/media.html) These guys are based out of Philly and twice a year donate baseball equipment to Uganda. Now if you want to donate their website has two options physical donation of the equipment itself or money donation. Whatever method this would be a great resource for people who want to make a difference and not go to far. I have have talked to Peace Corps and they want me to head up Baseball for Uganda in our organization so I am pumped.

Also check out Jay Shapiro’s documentary on LLBU: http://www.opposite-field.com/
(HE WAS ON ESPN RECENTLY)

 

anyway thats it!!! If you want to be on the email list email me at mccurdyca@gmail.com

 

 

If This Blog Ends Up On Peace Corps Journals Then….

You have wasted your time!!!! Muhahahaha

 

Where Were Going We Don’t Need Roads!

Murchison-Falls The Nile River

Only because there are hardly any roads here in Uganda, a trip that would take an hour in America takes three hours to travel the same distance. Life is so different here the most important differenence is that its not America and I am not visiting this place, this is not a summer mission trip. I am here for the next 25 months of my life from 24 to 26 ¾. The next time I touch the east coast of America again I will be two years older and trying to figure out how I survived in such a fast paced country.

Uganda….. So what is this country really like, let me paint you a picture. Uganda is full of beautiful scenery as diverse as any country I have ever seen or read about. They have mountains as tall as the Rookies and a lake that rivals some of the best lakes in America. They have wild savannahs with wild lions, giraffes, elephants, and any other African animal you can think of. The Nile river snakes its way across the country and there are waterfalls everywhere! The Nile actually starts here in Lake Victoria and works its way up to the Mediterranean Sea. As much wild landscape they have they also have a western feel to their culture.

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Kampala, Uganda

Their infrastructure is lacking yes but they use to be a British Colony so the majority of urban residents speak English and their capital city Kampala is not a typical third world city its pretty commercialized and even has a shopping mall with two movie theaters. ( Dark Knight Rises WOOT WOOT!) If you could imagine Kampala as the heart of the country and the few paved roads as the veins to the heart then that is the simplistic diagram of Uganda’s infrastructure. I am serious when I say to get anywhere you have to go through Kampala. Every city in this country has a road going to Kampala and is the major hub of all traffic. I am talking intense traffic boda boda’s zooming by you, taxis staying stationary for an hour because the traffic is so intense. Side note I have been hit by two cars! The cops don’t carry those standard issue 9mm pistols we see our police have no!!!!!! They have fully loaded machine guns and they will point them at you……hahaha learned that one the hard way.

Uganda is a mixture of rural beauty and third world poverty. The country is just turning 50 next year but there is a lot of good going on here. I am talking woman’s right, anti corruption lobbyist, community rights groups, all the good stuff that allow people to retain power from their governments. Remember it took America 230 something years to get as far as we did after we separated from the British and we went through a Civil War and 2 World Wars, the Korean War, The Great Depression, Vietnam, The Cold War, Dessert Storm, and The War on Terror. So for some who say that Uganda needs to come a long way its true they do but they are improving Joseph Kony and his LRA regime have been pushed out of the country and they are stabilizing corruption slowly but surely.

I am optimistic about Uganda and the people here they have the right hearts to build not only their country up but also their Continent of Africa.

 

Uganda Update #?

Hey Guys
Uganda Update #?

Life is moving pretty fast here I just got back from Hoima and I am now in Wakiso again! Im doing well, eating well and drinking well.

Yesterday was really fun I got to go to the US Embassy to celebrate 50 years of Peace Corps and even though I am still young in this organization, I feel like their history is amazing. We had a speech from the ambassador of Uganda and an open bar with really good red wine. Did I mention Africa is a rough place! The only downside is that I lost my Droid phone on the bus which is unfortunate because it really helped out on the avg 6 hour long bus rides to get anywhere in this country.

Side Note: Yesterday I heard the National Anthem for the first time out of country and it was the only time I have ever cried hearing it. I love my country and just something about hearing that song made me feel so proud to be an American. No longer does that song mean 3 more minutes until the baseball game starts.

I wanted to tell you a little bit about my project first. I will be in Hoima Uganda for the next 23 months , working for Kyamaleera Wildlife Education Center (Check it:http://ngambaisland.com/html_pages/KWEC.html ) Here I will be doing three things

1.) Constructing a government for a nearby village of Kaisgambire
2.) Empowering youth in women in vocational skills
3.) teach the community about chimp and wildlife preservation.

Secondary projects
1.) Chimp tracking and locating (wild chimps)
2.) Teaching baseball
3.) Networking through faith based communities

So things are going good….. I feel this might be the most convenient way to tell everyone but I am currently in a really awesome relationship with Erin Wilson. I know it might be tacky to email this and I will probably get laughed at later but she has really helped me make it this far. As a person who has never been out of the country before she has guided me and helped me adjust at every corner. So pray that we see Gods vision for not only ourselves but each other.

Well thats pretty much it I am 3 weeks away from ending training and I will start my service. Pray that God keeps me safe and allows me to do some amazing things more updates coming soon.

 Love Chris’topher’ (for you Brandi and Molly)

Oh and I have been reading Mark in the Bible recently its some good stuff! Then again any Gospel is good stuff

 Also if you want to donate please contact me so I can give you donation information for my cause!