Have a look here.

What do you think?

Labels: god, pray, Spiritual Thought Of The Day, stewardship

This weekend at church, I taught about how we are free to serve Jesus because we don't have to.


...yeah, just take a second and think about that. My texts were Galatians 5 and 1 Peter 2.


I got on a social justice soap-box for just a minute.

According to Compassion International, 19 billion dollars a year could provide for the basic needs of all the poorest children in the world. To put that figure in perspective, this is about half of what Americans spend on dieting programs every year.

I told folks at the church about various opportunities to invest eternally, and this morning I began a list on the website.

What do you think should be on the list?

Labels: missions, perspective, poll, Spiritual Thought Of The Day, stewardship, worship

Hey folks,

I just received this email from a leader in our church. Please don't get distracted by how long it looks. It took me 2 minutes to read it.

Please stop and take 5 minutes to lift this guy up in prayer:

Please pray that he will live long enough for me to see him in the hospital. Pray that he will live long enough to make that trip to our home. Pray that salvation will over take him when I share with him. Pray for Delores, too.

Labels: god, perspective, pray, stewardship, worship

*I usually don't have time to write anything very meaningful, and I want to force myself to, because I think it's a really healthy exercise, so this is part one of what I think will probably be a lengthy series of posts. The title is 'so far', because with every day I live, I see things just a little differently, and this is what I see, so far. I would LOVE to hear your feedback/thoughts! *end disclaimer

I’m not sure what my goal is writing this right now. It seems like I haven’t had time to even think insightfully in a long time, and I think that somehow, writing makes it easier.
...well, I suppose that’s not true. I’ve been thinking a lot lately. I think I just don’t have time to think all the way through anything. In fact, I’ve been wrestling with this suspicion that if I did think through this stuff to the logical end, my life would probably get turbulent... again

I’m happy to report that I feel very alive these days, also very human. I’m less happy to report the ‘human’ part. It’s a very bittersweet thing, being human. Lately I’ve been reading and hearing about this ‘Palagian heresy’. In short, there’s this dude from history who didn’t like Augustin’s prayer, “Lord, command what You will, but grant what You command.” He said that’s it’s an absurd prayer, because God puts in all of us the innate ability to accomplish anything that God commands from us. And he even goes a step further and says that that means that we all have some good in us. And that’s where the ‘heresy’ comes from. Many people today -even followers of Jesus - believe that humans, deep down, are good, or at least we have some good. I actually wrote an editorial in the NC State newspaper about this when I was in college. The Bible is clear that there is no good in us. None whatsoever.
But that’s all kind of a rabbit trail. My point in diverging is that as I get a little older, and hopefully just a little bit wiser, I’m learning that theology doesn’t meet reality as simply as we would like it to. I most truly believe that there is no good in any of us. And yet, to steal the imagery from Erwin McMannus, I have these cravings inside of me that honestly feel like there is some good in them. And I see them in other people too.
To be continued...

Labels: god, introspective, musings, perspective, Spiritual Thought Of The Day, stewardship, worship

That's a quote from Piper in his sermon "Where Is God", which is a response to catastrophic occurrences like 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina.

Piper is the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minnesota. They are so close to the bridge that collapsed that you can see the lights of rescue crews from the church.

They sent their video crews out to capture some of what's going on out there, with some audio from the 'Where Is God' sermon spliced in. Here's an excerpt:

Famines, pestilence, persecution -- these happen so that the world will see that followers of Jesus count Christ more precious than everything they've lost -- and discover that He can be that for them, because one day they're going to lose everything. Everybody loses everything on earth, some day.

Labels: god, introspective, news, perspective, piper, pray, stewardship

What do you think: http://itotd.com/articles/642/the-pb&j-campaign/

Labels: perspective, stewardship, worship

Desiring God has some info about how you can put good theology in the hands of those who teach the Church in Africa:

http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/732/

Labels: god, missions, piper, stewardship

Labels: god, introspective, perspective, piper, stewardship, worship

An awesome pastor and emerging church pioneer offers the following advice for people in ministry to deal with stress in part 9 of his series called 'Death By Ministry'.

Labels: perspective, stewardship

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

Has anyone ever used Kiva before?

I saw a special on 60 minutes that really intrigued me. In a nutshell, they provide a web interface that enables regular old folks like you and me to provide small loans to people in developing countries who want to start a business.

For example, you can provide a loan to a guy in Kenya who wants to advance his sheep farm. The web site connects you and enables you to negotiate the details, then you put up the money, and amazingly, people usually pay it back with interest. And you get the joy of helping someone fulfill a dream!

Most of these people are only looking for less than $2000. I'm really interested... but has anyone out there done this before?

Labels: missions, stewardship