{Below is a recent email sent out requesting prayer for Omar Nuwayhid and his family}

Dear friends and family,

I am writing to bring you an urgent need within our seminary community. I can't even begin to imagine what God is doing in the Nuwayhid family but they need your prayers more than ever.

I have written to many of you in the past concerning the struggles of Joseph, the youngest Nuwayhid son. Joseph is 4 years old and has been fighting cancer as long as we have been in Orlando. He continues to suffer as he goes through his latest round of extremely aggressive chemo treatments. It is hard to imagine how one so young can stand up to the intensity of what he has to go through but God has been good and Joseph continues to troop along.

What we have recently found out is that it is very likely that Joseph's father and my classmate, Omar, has ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. While this is not certain yet, it appears that all signs are all pointing to this.



There is much to pray for here as you can imagine. In addition to the list of prayer requests at the bottom of this email I ask you to pray for God's comfort and assurance for this family that they would rest in the arms of their Savior and His sovereignty in all this.

This is also a reminder that we all need the Gospel. The gospel not only gives us assurance that our sins are forgiven but also that we have hope for this life as well as the life to come. The Apostle Peter calls this a "living hope" that is secured through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul makes it clear that this hope will not disappoint.

1 Peter 1:3-7 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, that is, into an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. It is reserved in heaven for you, who by God's power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. This brings you great joy, although you may have to suffer for a short time in various trials. Such trials show the proven character of your faith, which is much more valuable than gold — gold that is tested by fire, even though it is passing away — and will bring praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Romans 5:3-5 Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Please join me as I lift them up in prayer to our loving Father - the Author of this hope.

Thank you,
Rob


----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Omar Nuwayhid
Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 5:05:59 PM
Subject: plea for miracle for Omar

Dear Family:

Greetings in Christ.

I wanted to update you on my own personal heath.

This is a very difficult e-mail to write at a time where my son, Joseph, is undergoing a trial of his own with the aggressive chemotherapy treatments.

But, at the same time I need prayer now more than ever.

I have completed all the tests that the orthopaedic surgeon had ordered. Today, the surgeon reviewed all the findings with me. The atrophy and nerve damage in my right leg, and the spread to my left leg and arms is NOT being caused by my herniated discs according to the data from the diagnostic tests (MRI, EMG, nerve conduction).

Therefore, the orthopaedic surgeon asked me to immediately seek a neurologist, because the data coming from the diagnostic tests is showing indication that a motor neuron disease (also called ALS or commonly called Lou Gehrig's disease) is likely to be causing all of this. My father died in 2004 with Lou Gehrig's disease.

This is not an official diagnosis since I have yet to see a neurologist to confirm these findings, but the seriousness of the data is alarming enough to cry out for prayer and to plead for a miracle.

Please pray:

1) that God would send me to the right neurologist for me to see that is skilled in this area
2) that there would be a correct diagnosis with the ability to be treated.
3) that the diagnosis would be something simple and treatable.
4) that God would be merciful and bring healing and restore that which is damaged.

It seems unreal to us right now. Our hearts are heavy enough with Joseph, and this added thing just seems to be overwhelming for all of us.

I know your prayers are effective and God is glorified through them. I humbly ask you to walk with me in prayer through this. I need you and I covet your prayers.

With my loving gratitude to you,

Omar
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The Irony of Grace

Recently, my eyes have been opened to the grace-full story involving Jonah. This semester, while working through what may potentially be my last Hebrew course at seminary, we have translated through the entire book of Jonah. I have to say it is pretty exhilarating to be reading even a small portion of the original language of the Bible. But I digress.

I can’t remember when I first heard about Jonah. I’m sure it was at my grandparent’s church when I was growing up. The point of the story was always pretty straightforward to me: God told Jonah to do something, Jonah disobeyed, God got his attention and Jonah had a change of heart. Yay Jonah! We should all be like Jonah and own up to our sin, repent and get back on the straight and narrow… right? Wrong.

What has been amazing as we have delved deeper at the text is that it is apparent that through and through, Jonah was a… a… Jonah was a poopy-head. It is highly questionable whether Jonah ever really repented. He was insolent towards God. He was more interested in sparing his own life than others’ (except when he was begging to die) and he had more compassion for a shrub than the thousands of people that God was going to destroy. By the end of the story we see him sitting in the sun having a temper-tantrum. But I get ahead of myself.

One of the prevailing themes in the book of Jonah is irony. We see it from the very beginning. Jonah disobeys, he gets on a boat, a storm hits and Jonah heads to the bottom of the boat to take a nap! Sleeping on the job, Jonah? Following this, Jonah has to be called to prayer by a pagan sailor. When the sailors discover that their calamity is his fault, he stands up and proudly identifies himself as a Hebrew who “fears” the God of the heavens who made the sea and dry land. What’s not readily understood is that to the ancient mind, these two extremes – sea and dry land – would have been understood to represent the entire world. Jonah confesses that he is running from the One who is ultimately inescapable.

So Jonah gives the sailors clear direction as to how to stop the raging sea. Do they follow it? No. At least not at first. This is where the irony really gets thick because these pagan boat drivers start acting in ways that should be contrary to their nature – they act righteously! The men begin to work hard to return to dry land. In the Hebrew, it can be argued that they actually worked hard to return Jonah to dry land. The amazing thing is that the pagan sailors were more interested in saving life than Jonah was and when they finally followed his advice, threw him overboard and the seas calmed, the Bible says they not only feared the Lord but they greatly feared. This stands in stark contrast to Jonah who was all talk but no action.

So God sends a fish. And while in the fish Jonah prays. Two things stand out about this prayer. First, Jonah never repents for his actions. Oh, Jonah is very thankful to the Lord for saving his life but he doesn’t acknowledge the sin that got him there in the first place. His thankfulness sets up a further irony later, for when God finally delivers Nineveh from their destruction, he doesn’t rejoice. He gets angry… very angry. The second problem with this prayer is his speaking out against “those who abandon their covenant loyalty.” It’s not clear to whom he is referring. It is possible he is referring to the sailors. If so, it is ironic that he’s calling out the only pious people in the story so far. And how ironic is it for Jonah to say this considering he has abandoned his ‘covenant loyalty’ by not obeying God and going to preach to the Ninevites?

When Jonah finally makes it to Nineveh, the people repent as Jonah should have done at the very beginning. They respond in humility as Jonah has not and will not. And the Ninevites, like the sailors, showed by their actions that they feared God in contrast to Jonah’s own actions. What is interesting in these few verses is the usage of the Hebrew words for “anger” and “calamity.” God had threatened calamity because of his hot anger towards their sin. When the Ninevites repented, God no longer had anger towards them and he relented from his promised calamity. Jonah’s immediate response at this news was to be greatly troubled (same word for “calamity”) and very angry. Jonah responds with an insolent prayer, prays for his death, and when God responds with a question, Jonah turns his back and walks away.

What more can be said? God gives Jonah shade in the form of a plant but after it lasts only a day and then dies, again Jonah is upset. Here God points out that Jonah for the first time shows compassion… for a weed. Jonah had nothing to do with this weed. He didn’t water it. He didn’t nurture it. In light of this, God asks the simple question, “If you can have compassion for a weed, may I not have compassion for thousands of people?”

I titled this essay The Irony of Grace because in spite of all of the failures of God’s man, God was still acting to save the people of Nineveh… and God was still acting to save Jonah. God even moved in the hearts of the pagan sailors to acknowledge him. Jonah’s actions are almost comical but what of ours? How often do we turn our back and fight against our God who is graciously wooing us to himself and saving our hides, and at the same time using us in the lives of others in spite of ourselves?

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Ok... I've finally done the blogging thing. Well... I guess I haven't officially done it 'cause I don't have anything really to say right now. Ok, that's not true. The problem is... I'm procrastinating. I ought to start off my blog with something profound but instead... I'm procrastinating. I should be writing a paper about John Dewey.

BTW, he's NOT the same Dewey who configured the Dewey decimal system. That was Melvile Dewey. It is partly confusing because they were contemporaries... sort of. I just thought I'd clear that up. It seems there is some confusion there. Did you know that Melvil was only 25 yrs old when he introduced his decimal system? I did not know that.

Anyhow... I'm still procrastinating.

The other thing I have to do today is write a Sunday School lesson. I've at least got that started. Hey, and it's not even noon yet.

Ok. I better stop this and get back to work. I hope to post some thoughts soon the Good Samaritan story. I recently had my eyes cranked wide open to something I had never seen before in that text. Pretty cool stuff but I need to make sure my words make sense before I post it.

Anyhow. God bless. Stay tuned. Maybe I'll get the hang of this blogging thing soon. It's at least a way to kill some time if needed...... :-)

Thanks for listening.
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