Archive for November, 2008

Why I Work in the Fields of the Fatherless

November 23rd, 2008

Hardly a week goes by that I do not get asked “what is Compassion International?” I get exited to share the answer to that question, because in doing so I can share God’s heart. Compassion works with children and orphans in poverty, and we know from reading the Bible that orphans and poor people are where God does his best.

Compassion by no means is the only place, but there is also Childrens Hope Chest, World Vision, Christian Childrens Fund and so forth. All are doing great work for the kingdom, but we need so much more.

Compassion recently supported it’s 1,ooo,ooo child. I was speaking with a sponsor and her heart felt response was “that is just about everybody now isn’t it?” My response was not by a long shot. There are 300,000,000 more of them out there, and their numbers are growing every day. Poverty is a pernicious condition that can not be overcome without major resource utilization and lots of education. We can break the cycle of poverty, but it is going to take a world wide mobilization of the church to do it. I invite you to join in this fight and sponsor a child. You will be so blessed as you see your child grow physically, emotionally, and most of all in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

The one response that I know some of you are thinking, and sometimes I fall into myself is “there are so many, how do you know you are making a difference?” My response is to look at the fruits of what is being done. It is encouraging. Compassion has graduated children who have gone to be teachers, doctors, attorneys, and more then a few of them are working in the community they began in to make it a safer, healthier place. We even have a child in one of our leadership development programs who has his eyes on being a neurosurgeon.

All of us working on the micro level, one child or maybe two at a time, consistently loving these families, consistently advocating for them will change our perception of poverty. Then and only then will we truly change the problems inveterate to poverty. All of us working on a micro level, ending up affecting change on the macro level.

Russell E. Saltzman

November 20th, 2008

“But if God—as Jews, Christians, and Muslims say—does act for the whole cosmos, that leaves open an interesting possibility. Maybe, if the aliens ever do land on Earth, their first words won’t be “Take us to your leader,” but “Where can we worship?””

Russell E. Saltzman quoted from On The Square  in his essay Reel Aliens.

 

And you shall be known by…

November 18th, 2008

I had a little fun yesterday. It was at the expense of Al Hsu author of The Suburban Christian.

As most of my readers know I work in Call Center operations for Compassion International. Al called yesterday to update some of his information and I happened to catch his address and his e-mail. They all pointed to him being the Al Hsu I know. I dove in. “Are you the Author of The Suburban Christian?” As he was recovering I said “I read your blog” He hurriedly completed the conversation and it was evident I threw him for a bit of a loop. Here he was expecting to talk to someone in perfect anonymity and instead he got me. It was pretty funny.

This experience got me to start thinking that my written words can truly hang me, or can inspire others. I can not expect, even on this blog, that my words do not speak into others at some time. When I go on a diatribe or provide an indictment of something I better be ready to defend that statement. It should be as if I am giving a sermon, or I am in a position of persuasion in a conversation. I need to be clear and concise in all my writing.

Eugene Peterson has a new book out called Tell It Slant that I have started reading. His imagination of the parables leads me to where I actually feel like I am standing in front of Jesus listening to a parable. He makes a remarkable observation in the start of his book about language.

“Language-Given to us to glorify God , to recieve revelation from God,

to witness to the truth of God, to offer praise to God-is constantly at risk.

To often the living word is desicated into into propositional cadavers…”

The whole book serves as a reminder that the written word is great, but when we first heard the Gospel it was in oral form, it was in narrative, and it is far superior to the written form we have now. We learn from and love the narrative of stories. We love to be taught in metaphor and in parable. We can only get the full communication of that in oral form. We need eachother, we need the church, we need stories and inspiration.

I hope that you know my blog as a mish mash of thoughts and ideas, some good, others bad, from a wandering theologian who has been neck deep in life lately. I look to draw thoughts and experiences from what I have been going through and communicate them here. But I want it to be effective and challenging.

Maybe one day I will be on the other end of the phone and someone will say “Are you that gyro dude?” To which I will undoubtedly not reply because I will be laying on the floor, laughing, or passed out from the unexpectedness of it all.

 

~Selah~

Parental Jaw Dropping

November 14th, 2008

How do you know when you are on the right track as a parent? Do you ever really know? No, but then once in awhile you overhear your child, and all is well with the world. Tonight I heard my son tell my wife the following:

“Mom, God and I were talking. I think God is telling me to

fast. (insert wife dropped jaw here) I think I am going to fast

Pizza.”

O.K., what 7 year old even thinks about fasting? What 7 year old knows what fasting is? I am so blessed. If I were 7, I would fast broccoli or carrots or my aunts cheese suflee.

All of a sudden, all is well with the world tonight. God bless my son. May he forever talk to God, and never forget to stop listening.

Wendell Berry

November 10th, 2008

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry

Fear of the Unknown, or fear of the Well known?

November 4th, 2008

28“Don’t be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There’s nothing they can do to your soul,

your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands.

Matthew 10:28 (The Message)

So many people are talking in the christo political blogsphere (yes, I made the term up) about what if Obama comes to office, what if he institutes socialistic policies, what if what if what if….. I can tell you something from my personal life lately, dwelling on what if makes for a hell of a mind job, and fear becomes the ultimate motivation.

Christians, brothers, sisters, all who are in Christ please relax. Do you duty, participate in this God given gift of Democracy. Vote for whom you will, let God take the lead the rest of the way. Proverbs 21:1 says “Good leadership is a channel of water controlled by God; he directs it to whatever ends he chooses.” (The Message) Have we forgotten that God is in control of all this? Have we forgotten that if Obama does come to office, and at worst he persecutes Christians and presses in on us that we are more blessed when we are persecuted then when we sit around and get lazy and fat? We might go through some lean times as the Church of Christ, as His bride. Bring on the struggle, God is in it.

I do not fear the unknown, I fear that which I already know. I fear the way that I “do” church now, I fear the complacency that comes from sitting at church, in the 3rd pew just to the right of the pastor and two rows back. I fear the loss of the biblical mandate to go unto all people… ALL PEOPLE… and share the good news. I fear the well known, well worn path to mediocrity. I fear that I cause hundreds to go to hell because I did not live biblically. I fear that the well worn path to the cross has become to familliar, to much like home. I fear the well known walk that leads to talking, and no action.

I want to walk the path to the cross. The torn, tattered, blood covered, marred cross that bore the life of an innocent man. I want to get closer, I want to share the same air space, I want to walk away with the taste of the blood of Jesus in my mouth because I was so close, I want to be at the feet of Jesus and I will accept no less.

I am called to partake in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We say that when we take communion, but do we mean it? Will we abandon all for the cause of Christ? Jesus reminds us that we are unworthy of the kingdom if we were to give a second thought to not following him because of love of family, friends, whatever you will. Could you withstand the pressure of leaving all behind to follow the call of Christ to the ultimate end, to partaking in his death?

Christians wake up! Answer the call of your saviour to abandon all in pursuit of him. Be ready, be willing, and be able. Sharpen your spiritual sword, the two edged sword of the word and of God. Hold all things captive to Him. Hold nothing back, he knows anyway.

Christians rise up! Speak to your neighbors, live biblically, live your life in servitude to the master and creator of all. Yes, he created you, he created me, he created your circumstances.. follow him.

Christians power up! Pray, Read the Bible, seek to insitute it in your daily life. I guarantee no day will be like the last, each will hold it’s own unique power and glory. Each day can and will be better then the last when you are following God.

Today I am ready for what God has in store. Fear is not what is in store for me, blessings are. Pain may be in my future, but it leads to Grace and Grace leads me home.

~Selah~

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