Labels: music, worship

It’s 7:37 at Starbucks. The music isn’t very nice, and it’s freezing cold in here, but the coffee’s good, and I need to hear what You have to say about some things...

Father, I have never been more certain that I have no idea what I’m doing -- at anything. I don’t know how to be a good husband, son, friend, brother... My spirit’s drying up. You’ve been trying to point that out to me. I know, I’m stubborn. By the way, is that a sinful side-effect of something good You wove into me? I’d sure like to know what’s up with my pride.

Anyways, I need some advice, Daddy. This life You’ve given me -- this whole concept of life that You’ve written -- it’s so fragile... and beautiful. But really fragile. I’m 24 Lord. A good third of my life is probably passed. And, as is usually the case when my focus gets off You and on me, I feel so torn.

I drive past dozens of hopeless people on the way to work every day. I read suicidal posts from almost hopelessly insecure teenagers. I see people spending a year’s income on a car they don’t want, just because they can’t see outside of their culture. The 20th century was the bloodiest ever. There’s war on every side. The American Church is bleeding.

The cost of the coffee I’m drinking could feed three starving Sudanees brothers in Christ for a day or more....

And I’m so afraid of being ashamed in heaven. I don’t want to have tears for Jesus to wipe away from my eyes. (Is that wrong?)
And here’s what I just don’t understand: I think You’ve been trying to show me that that’s stubborn and prideful. It’s impatient. It’s a good impatience though, isn’t it? I want You to make all things new right now! Today! I want Your purposes in my life accomplished to their climax right now!

God! How can I feel good about spending 50 hours a week writing a property tax database system? How can I be fully alive without a circle of brothers? How can my wife be fully alive without a circle of sisters? Is it healthy to be so poured out with nothing pouring in? Is this fire in my bones a call to full-time ministry? Isn’t it more manly and soldier-like to be all things to all men? Doesn’t Your Holy Spirit in me make me a superman? Would You could you call us to a place in life where we are anything less than thriving? I think the answer is no. But if that’s true, then why does it feel so uncomfortable to wrestle with this stuff? And why is the thought of letting someone down so painful to me?


You made clear to me last year that You don’t need me for anything. You don’t need me for the purposes You have planned in my wife, my church fellowship, or my family. So why do I feel so burdened? What’s the balance? Is it possible that I’m trying so hard to help that I’m in the way?
If that’s the case, then what’s next? Isn’t it selfish to want to go spend 4 more years learning when there’s already so much waiting to explode out of me? Is it prideful to try to avoid it?
My vision hasn’t been clear in so long Lord.
What are the steps to go from here to fully alive?

Labels: god, introspective, musings, perspective, pray

Labels: photography

A couple weeks ago I pointed you to an upcoming debate between Ray Comfort and the 'Rational Response Team'.

It happened. It wasn't pretty...

Here's a good post from a pastor about his take on it:

http://www.sbcoutpost.com/2007/05/10/knowin-when-to-foldem/

Labels: god, news

At least, that's what one woman did at a Golden Corral in Ohio. She attacked a 56-year-old woman for yelling at her baby.

When all was said and done, 15 people were involved, several were hospitalized, and 5 went to jail.

Ah, memories...

I have just two thoughts:

1 - The only hope for our culture is Jesus

2 - I hope my wife throws down to stand up for my baby one day :0)

Labels: musings, news, pray

Check out this blog post from pastor Steven Furtick. It lights me up!

Key quotes:

Because of the perception of Pastoral ministry we’ve perpetuated, the sharpest and highest potential young leaders in our country go on to do other things with their lives.
After all, who wants to give the best years of their lives to keeping a committee of angry white deacons happy about the carpet color and the type of flowers in the vestibule?

Nevertheless, I’m encouraged.
Currently in the body of Christ there is a new generation of Joshua pastors rising up.
They often look more like youth pastors than pastors.
They say words like sucks and crap, and they probably shouldn’t.
They are rough around the edges, they don’t always get it right, but they’d rather fail aggressively than simply exist passively.
They might not have the best bedside manner, but they have a fire in their bones to preach God’s Word with no apologies.

Labels: god, missions, musings, perspective

Alright people, I still haven't heard anything about the video I pointed you to in the last post. I know it takes a whole 3 minutes to watch it, but I'm excited to hear what you think!

Also, there are lots of new pictures. Eventually, I'll change the template on this blog and get some photos up for ya, but for now, you can see some new church photos here:
http://www.acts242church.com/photos.html

and new Riesland pictures here:
http://www.therieslands.com

Labels: news, photography

So, I seriously thought about whether it would be beneficial to post this video. I just saw it on a website where you download 'visual liturgy' clips to incorporate into sermons and such...

I think I'd really like to see what kind of discussion we can have from it, on the condition that everyone understands:

I LOVE -- love, love, love the Church -- and I am the chief among sinners and hypocrites. Every fellowship among the Body of Christ has its issues, and we're all transitioning 'from one degree of glory to another'.

That said, how do you respond to this?

Labels: god, musings, perspective

This made me tear up...

Labels: god, perspective, piper, worship

Here's a story that gives a little bit of clarity to why the U.N. calls Uzbekistan's government the 5th most corrupt in the world.

Abstract:

Farmers and officials in eastern Uzbekistan are likely to face criminal charges for growing crops that they can sell, instead of the cotton and wheat demanded by the state.

The case highlights the problems facing farmers in Uzbekistan, who in theory belong to the private sector but in practice are tied into Soviet-style rules under which they are bound to grow cotton and grain and sell it to the state at artificially low prices.

This is reality. In fact, all college and university students are FORCED to live out in the cotton fields for 5-10 weeks and pick a required yield of cotton every day in order to remain enrolled in school!

This is the type of persecution that believers there face. They are not always physically hurt (although it certainly happens... and WAY to often), but bullied by manipulation of the rules. For example:

“Last year, I was prevented from transferring money from my account to pay the institute where my son is studying,” he said. “Even though I had enough money in the account, I was forced to take out a loan at a high rate of interest.”

Take 10 minutes. Read the story. Pray for Central Asia. Thank God you were born in America...

Labels: missions, news, perspective, pray, stewardship

Labels: music

A couple months ago, there was some controversy over a group of atheists who challenged people to film themselves denying the Holy Spirit and post it on YouTube in order to prove that they do not believe the teachings of the Bible.
In response, Ray Comfort called ABC and on May 5th, he and Kirk Cameron will debate with the people behind the 'Blasphemy Challenge' on national television about the existence of God.
Further, he promises not to speak use faith or the Bible in his argument .

You can read more about it here.

If you don't know who Ray Comfort is, he is pretty sharp and a great apologeticist (what word would I use there?). He hosts a cable show with Kirk Cameron called 'The Way of the Master', which is intended to educate and encourage believers to share their faith.
He does seem to fall into the trap of being fairly haughty about his experience. Sometimes I feel like his evangelism is prideful and misrepresents the love of Christ. He also is outspoken against 'The 4 Spiritual Laws' Gospel tracts that Bill Bright (founder of Campus Crusade For Christ) made famous, because he says that it is confusing, if not wrong, to tell someone that God has a wonderful plan for their life when there is so much pain and suffering in the world. I think this does more harm than good, and is probably not the best use of his time or skills... but overall he is doing awesome things for the kingdom. I have a good book he wrote called 'God Doesn't Believe in Atheists'.

So let's pray that he represents Christ well and that this debate is something that God will use to gain glory -- through the actual debate as well as all the water cooler conversations that will likely follow...

Oh, and here he explains some of the reasons why bananas are my favorite food :0)

Labels: creation, god, news, pray