The Tillinghasts Panama Update - December 2010

The Tillinghasts Panama Update - January - February 2010

Can the Divinity of Christ be proven Historically?

by Todd Tillinghast

Not only does the Bible claim that Jesus is the son of God but that He is God Himself.  He says this about Himself in scripture as do many others who make the same claim through out the New Testament.  Even His enemies verify that He is who He says He is.  Additionally extra biblical historical sources such as those written by Josephus cited that “the man Jesus of Nazareth performed miracles and must have been God.”     

            This would be and is more than enough proof for us to accept it as truth. Think about it.  How do we know that Abraham Lincoln was the president of the United States?  How doe we know that he grew up in a log cabin?  I have never met him have you?  In fact, I’ve never met anyone who knew him.  So how can I know for sure that he was all of these things?  I know these facts because they have been handed down to us via historical record from those who did know him.  We would never doubt what we read about a man like Abraham Lincoln yet we doubt the historical records, especially the Bible, which is historically much more accurate than any other historical document ever written when it comes to the divinity of Christ. 

    Furthermore, why would Jesus say this about Himself if He didn’t believe it?  If He was just a man then He put his own life on the line.  He also put the lives of His followers on the line. 

It has often been said that History is written by the winners.  While ultimately Christ and His kingdom have triumphed its history was not recorded by winners.  It was recorded by people who were running for their lives, fugitives, criminals and martyrs.  Yet this document has stood the test of time.  It was not preserved and guarded by kings and emperors representing the victors.  In fact, it was preserved by bands and groups of humble believers who were in constant danger of losing their lives for even having such documents in their possession.  Yet it still survived and has been passed down to us today.  The Bible is truly a book that has defied all the usual necessities for preservation.  One gets the feeling that something beyond man was involved here. 

There are those who say that Historical evidence is not as strong as scientific empirical evidence especially when it comes to determining the existence of God.  This idea however, does not gel with reality. The Bible Makes its case of the divinity of Christ based on historical record and eyewitness account.  These are the very things that we base our entire justice system upon today as well as our educational system.  Most of all the information that you know and act upon with the strong assumption that it is correct on a daily basis comes from these two elements.  Every news story that you read and believe is based primarily on Eyewitness accounts.  Everything we know about historical figures is based on the historical record.  Jesus was a real person who walked the earth.  We don’t need to put Him in a test tube to determine if he really existed or not. 

His life, death, miracles and resurrection not only attest that He existed but that He is God.  These facts were recorded in a historical document that has stood the test of time and historicity for thousands of years.  According to our standards of verifying truth as it pertains to all other historical figures this would be more than enough.  For me, I believe in Jesus because He changed my life.  I know He is real.  But for the skeptic He can also be proven to be who He says He is in every other way.      

The Tillinghasts Panama Update - December 2009

Enjoying an Imperfect Christmas

Christmas can be as frustrating as it is wonderful.  While it is usually the time of year when we reunite with family and friends that we don’t get to see very often and there seems to be holiday cheer  in the air it can also be a season in which the negatives are magnified as  much as the positives.  The problem seems to originate from the tendency we have to put too many expectations on Christmas.  We build it up to something that it can’t possibly be or fulfill in our lives.  The disappointments are that much more poignant at Christmas time.  The phone call that never came or the person who elected to not come to the Christmas party is more painful than usual.  There is the hope and the expectation that maybe, just on Christmas things will be different and sometimes they are, but sometimes they get worse because of unrealistic expectations. 


And, doesn’t it seem like there is much more pressure to get the Christmas dinner right than any other dinner?  Or the constant dissatisfaction with the gifts and the frustration of knowing that the person you are buying for is going to be dissatisfied.  It can seem that at Christmas the lack of relationships resulting in our inability to know what each other really want is highlighted.  And, how about those crowds?  Most of the people waiting in line at malls don’t look like they have much holiday cheer.   And last but not least is that sinking feeling on the evening of the twenty fifth that “it’s all over in a few hours.” Or the nagging question of “was it all really worth it?”


Although Christmas is certainly a season for putting on a plastic happy face it can also have the unique ability of revealing who we really are.  We can see our priorities in the gifts we buy, the kind of gifts we buy, who we buy them for and who we don’t buy them for.  Family gatherings also have a way of revealing to us how people really feel, especially at Christmas.  “Did they show up?”  “Why didn’t they show up?”   “Why aren’t they talking to anybody at the party?”


At the very least, I think that all of us have experienced the disappointment of having the day of Christmas that we have planned, hoped and saved for all year arrive and dissipate faster than tinsel melting on an open fire.   


Yes Christmas can be “the most wonderful time of the year” as the popular carol quips but it can also be the most frustrating time of the year.  Can you imagine that as a song?  “It’s the most frustrating time of the year!!!”  The point is that if Christmas is just about the eggnog and fudge and gifts under the tree or even family, then it surely runs the risk of not being fulfilling.  The true meaning of Christmas is much simpler but yet much more profound.  It is simply about God becoming man in order to reach His people because He loves them so much.  It’s about humility not hustle and bustle. 


The God of the universe was born in a manger.  It’s about simplicity not complexity.  The story of that First Christmas was very straightforward and powerful.  It was simply and majestically about Him the Kings of Kings and Lord of Lords.   Without Christ, Christmas is just another day.  Rejoice this year in the true reason why Christmas is so wonderful.  God became one of us to be near to us and to save us because He loves us. 

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” Matthew 1:23

Reflections on a Christmas Wedding

by Todd Tillinghast


Oh I love Christmas weddings. What a perfect time of the year to celebrate the union of two people becoming one. It was that first Christmas over two thousand years ago when Emmanuel (God with us) became flesh and demonstrated for the first time the ultimate union of man and God which would later be celebrated in Ephesians chapter five as a Spiritual union between Christ and His bride the church. And Paul uses the analogy of marriage to drive the point home.


As I prepare a wedding ceremony for this Saturday my heart rejoices once again at the beauty of relationships especially marriage and the significance of it in light of Christ and His church.


In April of next year my beautiful wife Marielena and I will celebrate ten years of our union. It hasn’t always been easy. In fact, there have been times when it has been down right difficult and painful, much more so for her I can guarantee you. But one of the principles that have personally strengthened me in my commitment to make things work over the years has been this idea of what marriage represents for the Christian.
Not only is it important in that it is foundational to our society and because out of it is generated the propagation of the Human race, but for the Christian, marriage is also about being a living example of Christ’s relationship with his bride the Church. So to love and cherish each other when we think of it in those terms takes on a whole new and glorious meaning. When people look at a married couple and they are able to witness the love, submission and commitment to one another they aren’t just experiencing a beautiful relationship but they are also catching a glimpse of Christ’s love and commitment to His people.
I want to take a quick look at a few verses in Ephesians chapter 5 that I believe are the most beautiful ever penned about marriage. Starting in (vs. 21):
“Submit yourselves one to another as the fear of God
The very reason why we mutually submit to one another, respect one another and love one another is because we first have submitted ourselves and our marriage to God.
Wives, show reverence for your own husbands, as unto the Lord ( vs. 22)
Wives, God have not called you to submit to every man on the planet but to submit to and to respect your own husband. God has called him to be responsible for you because he loves you. There is safety in that submission and respect. One of the greatest needs a man has is to be respected.
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church and He is the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own Husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wife, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it. (Vs. 24 and 25.)
Husbands, these are powerful words for us! We are to love our wives. The first, foremost and greatest need of a woman is to be loved. However, we are not to just casually love our wives but to give up our lives for them as Christ gave up His life for the church. We should be first to make sacrifices and lay our wants, needs and even our rights down for her when necessary.
It’s not a mistake that Paul describes our marriage relationship with Christ as an experience that is not individual but rather one which is experienced within the context of a community. I am not the bride of Christ; we are the bride of Christ. When I perform a marriage ceremony I like to take a moment to address the audience. I ask them as the witnesses of the union to also make a vow that they will not interfere with the marriage but support it and guide it. Marriages like churches exist within a larger context of community.
At any rate, I am looking forward to another opportunity to celebrate the glorious union of two people as they become one flesh in the Lord. And I am thinking about how wonderful it is during this Christmas season that God became flesh and initiated a love relationship with us as His people that culminated in us being joined to Him as His body and married to Him as His bride the Church.

Why Do We Need to Be Grateful?

By Todd Tillinghast

What do we usually think about when its thanksgiving and we are talking about being grateful and thankful? We usually think about all the events or things in our lives that have recently happened that we are thankful for.

Of course we have all been taught how important it is to be grateful even of those things that aren’t pleasant in our lives. We have memorized scriptures such as 1 thes 5:18 that tells us to “Give thanks in all things for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” And so we concentrate and focus on the importance of the “attitude of gratitude” or on being in that state of mind even if we don’t necessarily feel grateful or if there may seem to be nothing to be grateful for. In fact, it may even seem that complaining is the more appropriate response to our current set of circumstances.

Now, I certainly believe that being thankful is the correct attitude to have as Paul admonishes us throughout the New Testament (1 Thes 5:18, Col 4:2, Phil 4:6, Eph 5:20,). It is clear that gratitude and thankfulness should permeate our attitudes, conversations and prayer lives. And there is no doubt that for the child of God a continual, consistent and persistent lifestyle demonstrating this gratitude through our speech and our deeds is the only appropriate response to what God has done for us.

But as another Thanksgiving has passed and the Christmas season is upon us as a pastor I want to talk about gratitude and thankfulness in a different way. I have no desire, again this year to pontificate about all the reasons why we should be thankful because we are the most blessed nation and the most blessed generation that has ever existed. This may be true although I’m sure that all previous generations considered themselves to be the best and the most blessed as well. And I certainly do not wish to talk again about the behavior of thankfulness “The attitude of gratitude” which has almost become a Christian ritual and is most definitely a Christian cliché. It would at times seem that we talk about gratitude as something that we must do whether we understand it or not or whether we feel like it or not. In our zeal to act grateful I fear that we have missed the real reason why we should be grateful and it’s not that new car or that promotion. These are definitely things to be thankful for but they are just things. Things change, circumstances change, fortunes change and life changes. If our gratitude is based on events in our lives then it is going to be difficult to maintain the level of thankfulness that I believe Paul was talking about. There is a deeper level of gratitude that isn’t based solely on events or circumstances but is rooted in something stronger.

Maybe you feel genuinely grateful for some blessing in your life and that’s wonderful. You should feel grateful. I don’t want to take away from that at all. In fact, I rejoice with you that God has blessed you. Maybe you feel as if there is nothing in your life to be grateful for… forget the “things we are thankful for lists” just pass the mashed potatoes and gravy. But you know that gratitude and a positive attitude are expected of the Christian so you are grinning and bearing it through this thanksgiving season. I want you to know that life is sometimes difficult and sometimes the appropriate response is not gratitude but pain. We would do well as a church to weep with the wounded as much as we rejoice with the happy. I believe that what I am going to share about gratitude is for both groups of people and for those who may find themselves somewhere in between.

Why Aren’t We Grateful?

Webster defines Gratitude as: A feeling of thankful appreciation for favors received. This definition is very telling and may clue us in as to why we may struggle sometimes with genuine gratitude. I believe that there are three major reasons why we struggle with gratitude in our lives.

1. We don’t really believe that life is a gift.

We cannot be authentically grateful on a fundamental level if we don’t believe that we have received favors in life. Now we understand that when we receive a gift it us a blessing and it is usually given whether we deserve it or not. If it is a true gift then there is no expectation of reciprocation. And for this, a true gift, our natural response is gratitude and thankfulness. But on an everyday basis we don’t typically see our everyday lives as gifts. If you are like me you don’t naturally look at life or anything in it as a gift. My focus is usually on what I have to accomplish, achieving my dreams and getting what I think I am entitled to. Gratitude is difficult for us forward thinkers who are always looking to the future, preparing and planning ahead for tomorrow. Subsequently, gratitude involves looking back at the past at what has already happened and being thankful for it. My natural posture is not one of gratitude. I habitually operate under the flawed assumption that everything that I have came from my own hands. Nothing is free in this life. I can have anything I want as long as I work hard enough to get it. From the sweat of my brow I will form and fashion the life that I deserve. This kind of thinking does not take into account how many things we have and enjoy on a daily basis that we had nothing to do with. We didn’t supply ourselves with everything we have and to believe so is pure arrogance on our part. Think about all of the things that happen every day and in our lives in general that can be characterized as nothing less than free favors given to us by God:

• The rising sun in the morning
• The air you are currently breathing
• Biological life
• The fact that you woke up this morning
• The rotation of the earth
• The location of the earth in the galaxy in relation to the sun
• The day you were born
• The gravity that holds everything together

And of course the list could go on and on and on. If any of these things were changed or altered in the most minute fashion life as we know it would seize to exist. We spend so much energy and time looking for a reason to be grateful when there are so many reasons readily available every day, in fact every minute of every day.

2. We are afraid that being grateful is synonymous with settling for less.

We aren't often thankful in the moment because we may feel that when we are we are settling for less or surrendering. So often we withhold our gratitude until we achieve what we think we are capable of. The sentiment seems to be that if we are thankful for the present then we are selling ourselves short and that somehow the pursuit for excellence must end. But I would argue that being grateful for now, the present, for what we have today is not surrendering or selling yourself short. Quite to the contrary it empowers us to be more effective and more productive because it has a tendency to take away anxiety and release us into joy which is essential to our success in life. Gratitude also takes our focus off ourselves and being self focused is debilitating to personal success.

3. We are too proud to receive blessings.

To be grateful is to place ourselves voluntarily on the receiving end of a blessing. In order to do this it takes humility and a conscious release of control. The Bible admonishes us that it is better to give than to receive yet receiving connotes a weakness that most of us are uncomfortable with. We have no problem being the giver or the one doing the blessing but receiving can often agitate our pride.

Two levels of Gratitude

1. Contrived Gratitude

This is the kind of gratitude that we muster up within ourselves to make ourselves feel better. This is not genuine gratitude. All of us are trained from the time we are children to say please and thank you. We do this habitually. It is a socially accepted and expected response. But do we really understand why we are even saying thank you in most of these contexts?

When I was a child my mother would tell me to eat all of my vegetables and be grateful for them. It was also understood that I would not get any desert if I did not eat my vegetables with a smile on my face and say thank you because my mother worked hard to cook those vegetables and there were starving children in Africa who had nothing to eat. I always thought and wanted to reply, “Let’s send them this food then they won’t be starving.” So it dawned on me that if I wanted to get what I wanted…desert… then I could use gratitude to get it. So I would choke those disgusting greens down with a forced smile upon my face and looking at my Mother with puppy dog eyes say.. “Thank you Mom, may I have my desert now.”

Now I am sure that you had many similar experiences. What happens is we learn to fake gratitude in order to get what we want or to be socially acceptable. I’m sure that there isn’t one of us that has not said thank you for the gift we didn’t like or the dinner that tasted like tree bark. This is contrived gratitude.

Often times when we are feeling down we rev ourselves up in a personal pep rally in order to feel better. We inject gratitude into our lives as an antidote to the poison of negativity or depression. We say things like:

 Thank God I’m not like that guy
 Thank God that I didn’t loose my job like she did
 Thank God I still have my arms and legs
 Thank God I’m not in a hospital bed

There are a couple of problems with this approach to gratitude. Firstly, when we use gratitude in this way we are like the publican who in Luke 18:11 thanked God for not being like other “sinners.” He then went on in the following verse to outline all the wonderful things that he did. This was not pleasing to God then and it is not pleasing to Him now when it comes from our lips. It is competitive and arrogant on our part to hide behind the false guise of gratitude in order to lift ourselves above others.

The second problem with contrived gratitude is that it may work for today but what will happen when we are the one who lost their job or we are the one who is sick? Then we will most assuredly be singing a different song.
Contrived gratitude, though it is often where most of us are in terms of thankfulness, really isn’t gratitude at all.

2. Responsive Gratitude.

Responsive gratitude is the higher level of gratitude because it is generated by a genuine response to what God has given us today. It is the utter acceptance and thankfulness of what we have right now, and the ultimate realization that most of the time our blessings are a result of free favors given to us by our God for which we had nothing to do with. Responsive gratitude is the result of a heart that is consistently aware of and connected to its own blessedness. There is so much we have to be grateful for.

How do we cultivate responsive gratitude?


1. Don’t focus on gratitude, focus on your blessings.

Don’t use gratitude as a means to an end or a weapon to combat negativity in your life. Allow gratitude to be the natural response to an ever increasing awareness of the blessings that surround and permeate your life every day.

2. Be proactive.

Don’t wait until you are depressed to activate gratitude. Don’t wait until someone does something for you to decide to be grateful. Determine to be grateful now. When you wake up in the morning thank God for the day, life and all of the things that are given to us free of charge. Meditate on these things every day. The result will be true gratitude which will produce true joy.

The Tillinghasts Panama Update - October 2009

The Tillinghasts Panama Update - Summer 2009

Todd & Marielena Panama Update April 2009

Todd & Marielena Panama Update March 2009

Going deeper In Relationships part 2

Hello again, Hope all is well out there. Here are some more thoughts on developing deep relationships in our lives.

ARE WE REALLY CONNECTED?

Stats: 90% of all American Students have cell phones
85% on facebook
95% on internet.
150 Million people world wide are facebook users

These stats are from Steve Douglas The President of Campus Crusade For Christ International. These are mainly statistics that reflect the habits of university students but I think that this cross section is representative of our society as a whole. We are the most “connected” generation of all time but do we really have deep relationships? Are we really any closer on a genuine relational level? Maybe we are further apart then we ever have been because these technologies give us the sense or appearance of connectedness many times at the expense of genuine depth in relationship. In fact, if we pour ourselves into checking our emails, texting each other and updating face book then our energy may be diverted away from generating and maintaining real deep relationships.

Do we really think that our "Twitters" and our cryptic text languages equate real interaction and connection with each other? Not that these applications are necessarily bad but we really have to ask ourselves the question does it mean that I am truly more connected because I have conversations with people about what I ate for dinner or what I did today? These applications, in my opinion, just expand the breadth of our networks but do nothing to extend the depth of our individual relationships. Now I'm not saying that there aren't people out there on the net who start at this level and go deeper. But true depth in relationship now, as has been the case for thousands of years before the WWW, comes when people make the conscious decision to explore that depth. When true depth is sought out and explored people break away from the superficial sarcasm that floods the social utility world and meet together for coffee or pick up the phone and have a real conversation.

We all have relationships. That’s not the question I want to examine today. The question I want to probe is do we have deep relationships? We can know all the stats and figures and history of somebody but still not really know them. Men and women are historically known for not really getting each other.

So many books have been written about this subject maybe you recognize some of these titles. “Men are from Mars, women are from Venus.” Or the latest one that I still want to get “Men are boxes, women are spaghetti.” These titles and all kinds of other media demonstrations are pervasive with this sense and maybe even frustration we have with the reality that we don’t really understand each other all that well.

Do we really know each other? Not just men and women but all of us as people in general. Going deeper in our relationships is a quest and a commitment to really know each other. Do we really do that? Do we really want to? Do we really want others to really know us? These are difficult questions that must be asked.

DEFINING GOING DEEPER

What are your relationships based on?

Common interests or doing things together (men)
Secret keeping
Role playing
Loyalty
Having fun (laughing together)
Obligations, commitments

These things aren't bad ingredients to have in a relationship. The problem is that all too often these things are the relationship. In other words these characteristics take the place of true depth. Rather than being the fruit or the result of solid relationships they become the substance and overall purpose of our relationships.

We have so many platitudes and descriptions of what meaningful relationships should be. And expectations, I love it when I hear single people describe their idea of a perfect marriage in simple terms like “I want a husband who I can laugh with” or “I want a wife that looks like a supermodel.” Marriage and any significant relationship is much more complicated than just platitudes, expectations and descriptions.

What does it mean to go deeper in relationships? Notice I used the phrase "Going Deeper" as my title. Relationships are organic. They cannot be forced or rushed. They have to grow and develop and evolve organically. They are living.

Let’s consider Ephesians 4:16 “From whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does it’s share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” Paul refers to the Church of Christ as a living organic body made up of real people. A body is a living thing not a mechanical system. It has systems and it has organization in order to perform and function correctly but it is first and foremost living. In our relationships we can only go deeper together.

Going deep is an effort made by both parties in a relationship. It is a locking of arms and a commitment to discover, explore and experience life together. It only comes as a result of time and intentionality. It does not happen by quick clicks of the mouse or texting shallow little messages to each other constantly.

Now, I think that forwards are OK when they are useful but some people never send a real email they just send forwards. We try to force connection with gimmicks, “email this forward to ten people in the next ten minutes or the chain will be broken.” Genuine relationships can not be forced.

Real deep relationships are formed when two people lock arms and are heading in the same direction. This is a much better visual of true depth in relationships than the joining of hands. When you’re arms are locked your hearts are connected. let’s ponder Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 especially vs 12. “two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall one will lift up His companion, but woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again if two lie down together they will keep warm; but how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

These verses outline the obvious advantages of deep relationships. We are stronger together than alone. We all understand that. But let’s look at vs. 12… “A threefold cord cannot be broken.” The threefold cord is you the other person and God. A deep relationship is about connecting, interconnecting, locking arms and having a common battle to fight. And when God is the third cord the relationship is strong enough to withstand anything.

Going Deeper in relationships

Ah February, the month when we are thinking about love and relationships and all things gooey and smushy. There, now that I have made my mandatory joke (which is indicative of my discomfort with relationships) we can move beyond the disclaimer. In all seriousness, I do think that Valentines Day is a great time of year to reflect upon our relationships. But my goal this year and my challenge to you is to go deeper than just remembrance and really reflect and examine how healthy Our relationships are. Don’t allow another valentines day to arrive finding you rushing around at the last minute making dinner arrangements or that eleventh hour Wal-Mart run to pick up the fluffy toy that says “you’re cute” when you squeeze it. These are the Valentines Day obligations that we do just to make sure that we measure up to societies standards (and the expectations of our spouses.) But do these gestures really convey depth in our relationships or do they merely give us a facade of something that is not really there? This may make us feel better about “not forgetting valentines day” but how do these rituals really edify our relationships?

I want to attempt in my next several blogs to challenge us to go deeper in our relationships. Not just in our marriage relationships but in all of our relationships. I will suggest several ways that we can do this and challenge our thinking in areas where we may believe that we are already enjoying deep relationships. I hope you get something out of it.

RELATIONSHIPS: GOING DEEPER.

TAKING INVENTORY

I think that we all struggle with depth in our relationships. I know I do maybe more than anything else in my life. Everything in life that matters has its essence in relationships. The level of effectiveness in every area of your life can be measured by the level of effectiveness in your relationships. So what is our attitude toward our relationships? It’s time to take inventory of our relationships.

Think about your relationship with your spouse, children, parents and friends. Do you really have deep relationships or are they just pseudo relationships merely existing on the surface only?


DEFINING DEPTH IN RELATIONSHIPS (TRUTH TELLING)


Eph 4:15 says “But speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head Christ.” Speaking the truth in love is essential to deep relationships. As this verse says, when we speak the truth in love we mature and grow up and so do our relationships. The verse further indicates that when we speak the truth in love we are becoming more like Christ because He speaks the truth in love. Being able to tell each other the truth in a loving way is the hallmark of a deep relationship. But I bet if you really think about it there are precious few people in your life that you can be completely honest with. There aren’t many in mine. There is always something we are holding back.

So now that we have defined a deep relationship as one in which we can tell each other the truth in a free and gracious way how do we arrive at that place in our relationships? Well, let’s first discuss the importance of relationships.


WHY ARE RELATIONSHIPS SO IMPORTANT?


Why is depth in relationships so important? Not only is depth in relationship important for our own personal growth and health but relationship is at the core of everything. Society is built on relationships. It starts with the relationship of a man and a woman and then branches out to children and a family then to a community and then a nation. If relationships, which is the content and glue that keeps all of these Human institutions together, are not deep then it should be no surprise to us that society is falling apart in front of our eyes.

Jesus built His Church, the most powerful force on the Planet today, on the foundation of relationship. Let’s see what He tells His disciples near the end of His life after he spent three years developing a relationship with them. John 15:15. “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My father I have made known to you.”

I want to point out a couple of things about this verse. Jesus said this at the last supper. It was at the end of His time with His disciples. He told them after three years of living with them and experiencing life together that they were His friends. Relationships take time they cannot be rushed.

He entrusted these men (a band of friends) to build the church, to write the New Testament and to preach the Gospel to the known world at that time. What was the foundation? Did they have seminary degrees? Were they knighted in some formal ceremony? No, He said you are my friends. I have poured myself into you now go and change the world (Mathew 28:19,20 The great Commission) This was a simple statement to friends but the outcome changed History. The whole movement, the church, the beginning of it all was based on this friendship Jesus had with these 12 men.

Todd & Marielena Panama Update January 2009

Christmas Greetings from the Tillinghasts

Todd & Marielena Panama Update December 2008

Feliz Navidad from Marielena

Feliz Navidad from Todd

Thoughts on Thanksgiving

As I consider Thanksgiving once again this year, and as I ponder all of the things that I am grateful for in my life it struck me as interesting when I remembered when Thanksgiving actually became an official federal holiday in the Untied States. Most people would assume that first thanksgiving at Plymouth rock when the Indians and the colonists enjoyed a multi-day feast together was the beginning of this holiday but this is not true. Although it may have been celebrated in homes across the nation it was not recognized on a national level until 1863. Abraham Lincoln declared a day of thanksgiving to be celebrated on the last Thursday of the month of November. Now let’s not forget the time period here. This was at the height of the Civil War, the bloodiest war in U.S. history. When parents were mourning the loss of their sons and farmers the destruction of their fields Lincoln stressed the need to be grateful. In fact, he even wrote a long address highlighting all of the reasons for the nation to be thankful.

It is very easy for us to inventory all of our problems. In fact, if you are like me your problems occupy your mind most of the time. But Lincoln, on that very first official thanksgiving, in the midst of havoc and devastation all around exemplified what I believe thanksgiving to be all about. It’s not just about being thankful for all of the blessings and good things in our lives. It’s about understanding that gratitude and thanksgiving are strong medicine for our souls. It is not just a passive response to what has already happened but it is a proactive approach to life in times of plenty and in times of want.

So this thanksgiving, as an imperfect person with an imperfect life I am trying to be grateful for what I do have. I thank God for my wonderful wife whom I love dearly, My beautiful cat and the opportunity to do the kind of work and ministry that I am passionate about.

Maybe you can’t think of one good thing to be thankful for. Maybe your life is full of problems. Be grateful anyway. For the simple things, the breath in your lungs, the clothes on your back. I know it sounds counter intuitive but being grateful is like applying a healing ointment to your wounded soul. Try it. Remember 1 Thessalonians 5:18 and James 1:2. Be thankful in all things and count it all joy. Why? Because there is someone greater than you out there who has everything under control and who only wants the best for you.

Marielena and I are continuing to enjoy our time here in the states. We have been here for almost three weeks already. God has opened the doors fop us to speak in churches in Illinois and Oklahoma. We are very grateful for the opportunities we have been given to share our vision and passion for what He is using us to do in Panama. We are continuing to develop of a team of partners who are standing with us both in prayer and with financial support.

We are spending thanksgiving here with my mother, stepfather and brother in Florida. We are having a wonderful time. On Monday we’ll be off to Arizona for two and a half weeks and then on to Pennsylvania and New York states. We hope to see as many of you as we can!! Please keep us in your prayers as we travel. It is our sincere desire that you enjoy your thanksgiving feast of food, family and friends. And please remember, to tell the ones you love how thankful you are that they are in your life.

Mission's Experience Panama