Business Makes a Difference

I am intrigued by the difference between the style of government and business. Everything that central government and city council officials do is accompanied by a media release or news conference, whereas businesses seem to just get on and do it. I suppose it is because business owners and managers are motivated by getting a task done, whereas politicians are motivated by public approval.

I do not know what it was like in the central city, but here in the suburbs most of the things that really made a difference were done provided by businesses:

• supermarkets selling water, torches, bread and milk;
• service stations providing petrol and LPG,
• road construction companies providing trucks and excavators to remove silt from the streets;
• telecommunication companies keeping the phones going;
• power companies restoring electricity supplies.
• trucking buineness keeping the supply chains linked.
• milk companies supplying bulk tanks and tankers of water.
• airlines carrying people in and out of Christchurch
• Kenny’s supplying and cleaning portaloos.

Business often gets a bad name in New Zealand, but I really appreciate the ability of these businesses to get things done

Temporary Kitchen

Here is our temporary kitchen in the garage with generator, microwave, toaster and electric kettle. This is easier than camping in a tent.

Earthquake Support

A helicopter flew in hot meals into a local park on Saturday and Sunday night. Volunteers took them round the streets on wheel barrows. This was organised by volunteers.

The portaloos arrived from the town of Ashburton 60kms away.

This is wonderful support.

Water in the Supermarket

This supermarket in the earthquake zone was open two days after the earthquake, with plenty of bottled water. They certainly know how to manage a supply chain.

Life After the Earthquake

Yesterday our street was a hive of activity. Two excavators, one loader and five trucks worked away all day. The street is now clear of silt. We still do not have electricity, water or sewerage, but it feels really good to have or tree-lined street back. We will not have any trouble with speeding cars, as we now have permanent judder bars.

The last photo is our restored street. Thanks Mr Taggart.

All we need is a shower of rain to wash it clean.

Christchurch

Last night we went for a walk through an area close by that was hit badly in the September quake. They have been hit much harder this time. There are huge piles of silt everywhere. Lots of carpet has been chucked outside, which is a sure sign that their foundations are cracked and the liquefaction has come up into the house. One man told me he has two cracks right through the centre of his house. The largest is two inches wide. These houses are only a couple of years old, with big mortgages. No doubt insurance will cover the cost of rebuilding or repairs, but it must be hugely distressing for the people who live there.

The house in the photo is only two years old. I never liked the colour of the bricks when it was being built, but it now looks horrifying. The photo is a bit deceiving, but the fence is vertical, so the house is tilted sadly to the right.

Living in a Mess

An earthquake in a developed country with well developed business networks is hugely different from the experiences in developing countries.

Two days after the earthquake a number of supermarkets were open for business. Service stations were selling petrol and gas.

Trucks and diggers operated by roading companies arrived two days after the quake to remove silt from the streets. Unfortunately, they are not making much progress, because there is thousands of tonnes to be moved.

Although the local port is closed, oil companies trucked fuel supplies from another port 100 miles away. There is plenty of petrol, so people can still get around in their cars, provided they avoid the streets and bridges that are closed.

Five days after the earthquake, a supermarket on the edge of the most damaged area has plenty of bread and milk. And stacks of bottled water. You could buy all you wanted without restriction. Torches and batteries were still available. I am puzzled where all the stock comes from, given the high volumes of sales. Their supply chains are amazing. This is the wonder of the free economy.

I have also been amazed at the human kindness. Neighbours who have probably hardly spoken are now helping each other and sharing what they have. Thousands of students are walking the streets with shovels and wheelbarrows carting the silt out of yards and putting it on the street.

Tonight, a helicopter flew in cooked meals to a park round the corner. Young women were walking around the street with wheel barrows giving them out to anyone who wanted one. They had been cooked in a small town 15 kilometres away. this was all organised by a few people who got together to do something to help.

We still have no electricity, water, or sewerage. The lines company is having to put in a new overhead line, because underground cables are to damaged too repair quickly. They are aiming to do this task, which would normally take four weeks in a week. So we might be without electricity for a week. Not sure how long water will be, because many of the pipes are damaged.

Life is still good. We used to take our family tenting when they were young, so we are used to doing without electricity. We have a small gas cooker for boiling water and a gas barbecue, so we can cook food. I managed to buy a Porta Potti on eBay (TradeMe) yesterday, so that deals with the most pressing problem. A friend of a friend has lent us a portable generator, so we can now boil water and charge cell phones, which is a bonus. Had coffee and toast for breakfast this moring which was lovely.

We have plenty of water. A local milk company has twenty milk tankers bringing in bulk water from outside the city for washing and other needs. It is available in big tanks spread around the city. Many people have put a tank on the back of their pickup truck or car trailer, gone and got water and parked it in the street where it is easy for people to get. Many streets seem to have one. I presume the people must have bought the tanks themselves. This water is not suitable for drinking, but there is plenty of bottled water available from the supermarkets for drinking.

Other people are much worse off than we are.

Christchurch Houses

The houses in Christchurch are all built with timber framing, so they do not collapse in an earthquake. When they have brick or block cladding, it is just a veneer that does not support the roof trusses. So even if the cladding cracks or fall off, the timber framing holds the roof up.

Many of the roofs are corrugated iron or metal tiles, so they stand up to shaking well. Some have concrete tiles, which tend to shake off in an earthquake. I visited one yesterday, on which the top half of the tiles had slipped off.

In the eastern suburbs of Christchurch, the most serious problem is liquefaction. This occurs when the pressure of the earthquake forces water out of the earth, sometimes from 10 to 15 feet below. It brings find particles of sand to the surface. When the water runs away, large heaps of silt are left behind.

Under asphalt streets the water pressures cause huge bubbles to occure, so what was a smooth street is now a bumpy obstacles cause. The storm water drains have pushed up, because the access vents to stick six inches up above street level (see the photos below).

In the last twenty years, most houses have been built on a solid concrete pad, called a floating foundation. When the liquefaction occurs under the house it can cause serious problems. In some cases the concrete pad crack in half when one end of the house drops and the other rises. When this happens, the water and silt push up through the cracks and fill the rooms with mess.

So although the houses look okay from the outside, they can have seriously damaged foundations. If the cracking is too serious and the foundation is too twisted, the house cannot be prepared and will have to be demolished.

Older houses were built on short wooden or concrete piles. They cope with the liquefaction better, but often the earthquake shifts them off their piles. The house my daughter is renting was built this way. The house appears to have moved forward about three inches. It is still standing fine, but until a builder can get underneath and look, it is not clear whether the foundation is holding up okay.

Last night we saw the house below that had dropped about a foot into the ground, when the liquefaction washed out the earth under its concrete foundation.

Round the corner, power poles have dropped down into the earth when liquefaction occurred, and are now only half their previous height.

My Work

I took the top photo at my work building. It is a three storey building. I think this panel may be just decorative, but it will be interesting to see if is safe to enter again. The second photo is the flats in front of my work building. It was previously two levels.

Our Suburb

The street is a real mess. All the houses are standing.  Some have serious internal damage. Other areas are worse.

Our Back Yard

After Water had dried up.

After the students had been at work

Earthquake

I have been silenced by the second Christchurch earthquake.

I was acutally in Wellington in meetings for my work, when the earthquake struck, but my wife was at home. I flew back to Christchurch 24 after the quake struck. All my family and friends are safe.

Our house only has minor damage. A couple of doors that will not shut.

We have no electricity, no water, no sewage, no internet and intermitent telephone, so life will be interesting for the next few weeks.

Our street looks like a four-wheel drive track with huge humps and big holes and silt everywhere.

We had half a tonne of silt in our back yard. Liquifaction that came up out of ground. An army of university students arrived this morning. Ten students armed with shovels and wheel barrows carted out the silt and put in a heap on the street. Contractors with trucks and loaders are carting it away.

Our fridge emptied onto the floor. And the walk-in pantry flowed out like Niagra falls. All crockery fell on the floor too.

Thank you all for your prayers.

Visions

God speaks into the context of our experience. He uses the images, words and places with which we are familiar when he does speak to us. When prophets communicate their words, they used words and images with which their listeners are familiar. All the prophets did this.

Sometimes God gives a seer a vision, so he can show things that go beyond familiar words and images. The seen has to translate what he saw using the words and images with which he was familiar. John’s Revelation is a good example of this. Here is a description of something he saw.

At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne (Rev 4:2-3).

I doubt that John saw jaspars, rubies and emeralds. These are physical things and John had been given a glimpse into the spiritual world. John saw something that was beyond is earthly experience, so he was trying to describe the indescribable. He used images of the most beautiful things he knew to describe the wonder of the spiritual world, but even this gives just a hint of its glory.

At other times, God uses images just to strengthen the power of communication. Audio-visual communication is often more effective that written communication. We remember things that we see better.

The biblical prophets used everyday language and context to describe what they saw, but they were also very clear about what was a revelation from God and what was a description of their response or their experience.

Seeing in Part

1 Cor 13:9-12 is often used as an excuse for mediocre prophecy.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears…..For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Paul is explaining our human situation, not providing an excuse for weak prophecy. We see in part, because God does not reveal everything to his people. He only gives each person the small part that he wants them to have.

The common saying that we always see through a “dark glass”. That is not Paul's message. He is actually explaining the difference between our situation now and that in the next life. Because we live in the physical world, we miss most of the important spiritual stuff that is going in. Human minds just cannot comprehend the glory of the new heaven and new earth.

The Lord speaks clearly. He only gives us each person a small part of the big picture, be he gives it to us very clearly. Because, we are human, we may not always receive it as clearly as he has given it, but often if our heart is right, we do. We can often get our small part of his total revelation very clearly.

The prophet’s role is to share their part clearly, not explain to explain all parts dimly. If all the prophets give their part clearly, God’s people will get what we need. If every prophet give the entire picture dimly, we will just get confusion.

Not Freedom

The news media are claiming that the people of Egypt want freedom and democracy. They have already had democracy. Unfortunately, it was the kind of democracy where the ruling powers gets 97% of the vote, billions of dollars in wealth, and the people get poverty, and harassment if they complain.

The Egyptians don’t want freedom, they want western democracy, and its spoils.

Western democracy works like this. The government provides cradle to grave security, guarantees jobs for everyone, and ensures that food is cheap. If political leaders do not deliver all this stuff, they are chucked out at the next election, and replaced by a group who promise to do a better job. Politicians get rich by getting a good deal on their memoirs. This is what the Egyptians want, and who can blame them.

It is not freedom, but the people of the west do not want freedom either. The responsibility that freedom brings is far too scary in a world without faith.

Best Place at the Banquet

Luke 14:7-10 is relevant to sharing prophecy and vison.

When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, Jesus told them this parable: When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests.

Prophetic people are often tempted to find a higher place at the banquet for their words and vision. They do this in various ways.

• Turning the text into the first person.
• Using King James English
• Adding proof texts
• Quoting big name prophets
• Getting them onto the best prophetic lists.
• Adding dramatic graphics
• Playing sombre music in the background.

Pushy prophets manipulating their words to the top table hurt the gospel.

The authority of the prophetic comes from the witness of the Spirit in the heart of the reader/hearer.

It is best to present our words and visions in a humble way near the bottom of the table. Then the Holy Spirit can move them up to the top of the table if he wishes.

Sharing Vision

This is a comment on a comment on a previous post, but it is an important topic, so I will post it separately.

Being shown images by the Holy Spirit is as important as hearing words. It is just another way of communicating.

God does not speak in images just to suit the learning style of the seer. He communicates this way for the benefit of all his people, so the images are not the property of the seer to be kept for himself.

If a Christian has been given words or shown images by the Holy Spirit, then the vision should be recorded as accurately as possible. This is what the biblical prophets did. Daniel and John described what they saw (sometimes not very well, because human language was not up to it).

The Christian should pray about whether and when to share the vision. Often the Lord does not give permission to share until some time after the vision is received. Receiving a vision does not constitute permission to share.

Once permission to share has been given, the vision should be described as accurately possible. In my view, it is best to describe what you saw “I saw…..” Any contextual information or interpretation should presented separately. “I believe this means…..” This approach has several benefits.

1. It allows other Christians to test your seeing (eg Maybe you ate too much curry with your fries last night).
2. It encourages readers to think about the nature of what you seen,
   
   • an exact description of what will happen (1 Kings 22:17),
   • symbolic of real entity like Daniel’s beast, or
   • a symbolic presentation of a spiritual truth like Amos’s lion hiding in the thicket (Amos 3:5). I note that seer’s often confuse these three different types of seeing when interpreting what they have seen.
   People can then apply what you have seen to their situation, which may be different from yours.
3. Readers are free to decide about the timing of the fulfilment, because that is not usually contained in the vision.
4. Readers can test the interpretation of the vision. Sometimes another people can provide a better interpretation of a dream and vision. Daniel understood the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar's dream better than he did. Some seers are not gifted at interpretations of visions.

I understand that in these experiences distinguishing what the Sprit is showing from what the person already know is difficult, but it is also really important. Just as it can be difficult to distinguish the voice of the Spirit from the words that pop out of your own mind. However, learning to distinguish the two is critical for sharpening the prophetic gifting. Unfortunately many prophetic people do not bother trying.

If in a particular situation, the Christian has struggled to distinguish the two, there is nothing wrong with saying that to the readers. It does not diminish a gifting to be humble. The Holy Spirit is capable of highlighting what he wants people to see or hear (that should not be taken as an excuse for prophetic laziness).

The safest way to keep the description accurate is to write it down as soon as it is received. If too much time passes by, the memory dims and extraneous stuff can creep into the description of the vision.

First Person Prophecy

A reader asked about giving prophecies in the first person. This happened quite frequently in the Old Testament, so it is still a legitimate way to speak. However, it demands a higher level of certainty. It should only be done, if the prophet is absolutely certain that they are saying the exact words of the Lord. That level of confidence will be relatively rare, so this method of speaking should not be common.

Humility is always better than presumption. If the person prophesying is not totally certain, it is probably better to be humble and speak in the third person.

Speaking in the first person, should never be used as a literary device to make a prophecy sound impressive. This is done far too often. I would not want to be accountable for using God’s name in vain in this way.

We should remember that the authority of a prophecy does not come from the eloquence of the words. Authority comes from the Holy Spirit quickening the word in the heart of the listener or reader. Therefore, it is best to be humble in the way we present our words and let the Holy Spirit lift them up, if the thinks the word is important. He can do that if he chooses.

Wisdom or Word

When I read many of the words on prophetic lists like the Elijah List and Open Heaven, I find it hard to distinguish between human wisdom and true words from God. Many of the words have good applications of the scriptures and others provide good insight into what is happening in the world, but none seem to be very different from what would be heard in many Sunday sermons, if the pastor seeks the Lord about what he should say to his flock. Calling these words prophetic, not only devalues the meaning of the word prophetic, it makes it hard to dig out the genuine word from the Lord.

Most prophetic people have studied the scriptures for most of their lives. They usually have a passion for God’s Kingdom and are keen observers of all that is going on in the world. This puts them in a good place to comment on what is happening in current events or to develop sound applications of the scriptures. Their wisdom is often be really insightful and worth sharing (often more relevant than the editorial writers who dominate the websites of news organisations), but it is not the word of the Lord, so it is misleading to label it prophetic.

A prophet must learn to distinguish between what they receive from the Lord and what comes from their own wisdom. If they are unable to do that, they are on a very slippery slope, which can easily lead to disaster. Prophets should be very clear about the source of their words. If a word comes from the Lord, the prophet can say so. If it a prophetic of their wisdom and experience, they should label it as wisdom. If they are not sure, it is better to be modest than to exalt their wisdom above its place.

When prophets do not distinguish between their human wisdom and a word from the Lord, the word prophetic is depreciated and confusion follows. The true word from the Lord, which his people need to hear, to easily gets lost in the “prophetic slush”.

Restoring Society

Restoring Society
Nothing is automatic.

The Church and Society flow in parallel to each other.

If society is going downhill, it is because the church is not doing its job. It has stopped being salt and light for the world.

Many Christians believe that God can change this situation by sending traumatic judgments against society. If God hits society hard enough with earthquakes, hurricanes, and economic collapse, society will repent and be turned around. However, unless the church is changed, shaking society achieves nothing. It will just carry on downhill, because it does not know anything better.

If the church has copied society, it will be shaken too, and may even collapse.

Whacking Society
Many Christians assume God is going to transform the world with storms, earthquakes and famines. We have had just had a bad earthquake. Some people are forecasting a stronger quake soon, unless people repent. Where there have been hurricanes, they are predicting worse hurricanes until people repent. These people do not understand how God works.

God does not transform society by whacking it with a stick. He does not change society by belting it harder and harder, over and over again. That just makes it sour.
To change society, God must begin by transforming his church. Then when he shakes society, his revitalised church can be salt and light and begin to impact society and shape it into a new direction.

Repentance comes from hearing the gospel of grace. Faith is a fruit of the Spirit. Only people can share the gospel. The Holy Spirit is carried in the hearts of believers. He can only get to the hearts of unbelievers, if his people are carrying him into their midst.

God can only transform society through a living body that carries the Holy Spirit, as he is works in society. Until he gets a body that is up to the task, he will not waste time shaking society.

Reaping What We Sow
That does not mean that world will not see more earthquakes and other disasters. When a society turns away from God, it eventually loses his blessing and protection. However, there is an interim period, where peace and prosperity continues, based on a backlog of faith from the faith of previous generations. Unfortnately, that legacy of blessing eventually runs out, and we begin to experience what our lack of faith deserves.

When God withdraws his protection, the enemy is free to do his stuff, and it is not nice. This is what we are seeing now in many parts of the Western world. Storms and earthquakes, wars and crashes are not God’s tools to change society. They are evidence that we have given evil a free hand in our society.