Woe is me!!!

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are" (Mat 23:15).

How easily could we change that to "pastors and missionaries"?

Woe to you pastors and missionaries because you travel around on sea and land to make one convert.

Oh, we mean well, but then so did the Pharisees. How adept are we at distinguishing the gospel from our culture?

When the "savages" convert to the living God, they should live pretty much like us, shouldn't they?

But consider the Toba:

"The Toba take life as it comes, focusing on the present rather than the future. For example, when collecting food from the woods, they will take just enough for that day only. "If today they eat, fine. If not, that is fine too", observes Ramiro Schejtman, one of the Discovery Channel crew who filmed them. Ramiro continues: "No matter what the situation is, or the life they live, the Toba are never stressed or frustrated. They have no idea what stress is, they just don't know about that. They're happy people in their own way."

No stress, no hoarding, living in the present...for today..., "for tomorrow has enough troubles of it's own."

Now I ask you, Who has the better life?

Woe unto them if they convert...

Snake Summit

Should we be bothered by the fact that George W. is meeting with the leaders of Mexico and Canada in a place called "Nest of Serpents" (a.k.a. Cancun) to discuss issues of international concern?

Starting a BLOG is probably the singularly biggest mistake of my life. I mean, if I write what I really think, somebody might not like me! But I enjoy reading other people's blogs and commenting (albeit occasionally).

So, you ask, "Why Gary McDuda"? I'm glad you asked.

I love to teach, and especially teaching the Bible, but not just to give facts. I want people to think and learn for themselves. I try to teach for life change. I try never to tell someone something that they can learn or figure out for themselves. So I ask a lot of questions. Actually, that's about all I do. I usually answer a question with another question. Drives people nuts. I don't care. If I just give them the answer, they don't really learn anything. And they don't think. See The Role of Questions .

John Milton Gregory in his book The Seven Laws of Teaching says:

The true function of the teacher is to create the most favorable conditions for self-learning...True teaching, then, is not that which GIVES knowledge, but that which stimulates pupils to GAIN it. One might say that he teaches BEST who teaches LEAST (chapt 6)

The above quote is also found in a great little book on teaching by Howard Hendricks Teaching to Change Lives.

In Spanish, when someone has a question, they often say "Quiero que me saques una duda". Which means literally means "I want you to remove a doubt from me." Or, for you dynamic equivalence fans, "I have a question." Ha! If they only knew!! (You think have questions now, wait till I get done with you!)

I usually tell them "I don't answer questions, I just ask them" and they give me this quizzical look, because, after all, aren't teachers supposed to teach?

¡Yo no saco dudas, las siembro! Which means "I don't remove dudas, I sow them!"

Anyhow, that's how I became known as Gary McDuda.

Aren't you glad you asked?