Tuesday, January 30, 2007

LIGHT AND SALT IN A DARK AND TASTELESS PLACE

Have you ever been to Lowe's or Home Depot and tried to buy a light fixture? It's not an easy task, because EVERY light in the lighting department is turned on and as a result it makes seeing the light very difficult.

Light was meant for darkness! It's really that simple. Turn on a light in a dark room and the darkness is overcome. You can't help but see the impact of light.

Salt was meant for seasoning and preserving. The very simple act of adding salt to something mysteriously accomplishes both of these things. Salt was never meant to stay inside the shaker.

Can it get more simple than for us to attempt to be salt and light in the world around us?

Thursday, January 25, 2007

FILMS MADE BY GOD

I am continually amazed at how the "pieces of the puzzle" often come together. Take this morning for instance...

When I awoke I checked my email to see if anything work-related developed overnight. A meeting was confirmed, but nothing more, so I took a moment to read my Wordsmith email. I admit that I don't often get the chance to enjoy the "word of the day" and that many times when I do I will skip the word and go straight to the quote at the bottom of the email that has absolutely nothing to do with the word of the day. That's exactly what I did today and here's the quote I found...

Imagine a world in which generations of human beings come to believe that certain films were made by God or that specific software was coded by him. Imagine a future in which millions of our descendants murder each other over rival interpretations of Star Wars or Windows 98. Could anything -- anything -- be more ridiculous? And yet, this would be no more ridiculous than the world we are living in. -Sam Harris, author (1967- )

Now obviously Sam Harris has never had to use Windows 98. I have!... and I can see how it's continual use would lead people to murder! It's not too far fetched (he says as he joyfully types away on his Mac keyboard!).

Seriously though, Mr. Harris' quote is a very interesting glimpse at what a non-believer might think about people of faith. He comments on this ridiculous world we live in... a world where a good number of people believe that a "story" was given to man by God. A simple story in many ways about a God that loves his wayward creation and desires to have communication with them. And a very complicated story about the punishment of sin being death and the shedding of blood being required to satisfy the debt. And a very mystical story about a man dying a physical death and being resurrected on the third day.

And that brings us to the next "piece of the puzzle", for you see, after I read the quote I went and sat in the early morning quiet of my living room (which is only quiet when my herd of kids are sleeping) and I finished my slow reading of a book written by a man named Mark. Of which the last couple of chapters contain the hard to believe, mystical part of the story.

In many ways the gospel story is much more far-fetched than Star Wars. A film like that is so much easier to understand and grasp. The foreshadowing it contains is paid off within 2 hours, whereas the foreshadowing within gospel hasn't been fulfilled in 2 millennia. A piece of fiction is so easy for our world to believe as just that... fiction. But to a culture raised on post-modernism that doesn't believe in Truth, how can a story over two thousand years old be seen as anything but fiction?

How do we cling to that which we believe? In one sense I'm glad modernism is on the way out, because the modern believers felt the need to convince non-believers that the gospel is truth. Whereas believers in the post-modern age are much more willing to leave that job of convincing others up to the Holy Spirit (where it belongs) and instead just live out the elements of gospel.

If we took truth out of the equation and we're left with just a story about a God reaching out to mankind in an effort to be known by them and compared that to a story about some primordial ooze that evolved into walking and talking blobs of goo, I have to tell you, I'd still choose the first story. Simply because its a far more beautiful story!

Factor Truth back in and it becomes all the more compelling. The foreshadowing of the old testament to the new, and the new to the next, and the crazy, hard to understand parables, and the simple sayings like "love your neighbor", and the mystic nature of a bodily resurrection and the hard to believe future of a second-coming... these are pieces of the puzzle and pieces of an amazingly beautiful story that's worth trying to believe in.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

CHILDREN AT RISK - CONFERENCE

A good friend of mine, Keith Giles, is busy promoting a new conference and asked that I help spread the word...

Here's what he says...

"I wanted to let you know about an important conference coming up that I'm a part of called "CHILDREN AT RISK" featuring author Os Guinness, pastor Tri Robinson, worship leader David Ruis, Bert Waggoner (National Director of Vineyard USA), Rick Muchow (Worship leader at Saddleback), and many others.

Please attend if you possibly can, and even if you can't, please help me to spread the word and let others know about this important event to help children who are at risk here in America and around the world.

Basic information-
Arms Of Love International Presents:
CHILDREN AT RISK-(Strategies for Global and Local Impact)
March 9 & 10, 2007 - Anaheim Vineyard

MORE DETAILS & REGISTRATION ONLINE AT
www.children-at-risk.com

FEATURING OS GUINNESS AND INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE UNITED NATIONS, WORLD VISION, VIVA NETWORK AND DOZENS MORE.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
*Os Guinness- (Author of more than 20 books including Unspeakable)
*Dr. Phyllis Kilbourn- (President of Crisis Care Training International)
*Olara Otunnu- (Former UN Special Representative for Children & Armed Conflict and former Chairman of the UN Commission on Human Rights)
*Bryant Myers- (Professor of International Development at Fuller Seminary and former VP of International Program Strategy at World Vision)
*Johan Lukasse- (Founder and Director of Rescue & Restore Urban Missions and YWAMs Children At Risk School in Brazil)
*Bert Waggoner- (National Director of Vineyard Churches)
*Tri Robinson- (Pastor and author of Revolutionary Leadership)

WORSHIP LEADERS:
*DAVID RUIS (Vineyard Music)
*RICK MUCHOW (Saddleback Church)
*JOHN THOMAS (Soul Survivor)

Join leaders from 12 nations and a variety of international ministries. Choose between 28 different breakout sessions and workshops.

FIND OUT MORE AND REGISTER ONLINE AT:
www.children-at-risk.com."

Monday, January 15, 2007

LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD

One of my favorite passages of late is in a book called Mark where Jesus responds to the religious scholars who asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

He tells us the top two... to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" and to "love your neighbor as yourself."

To me there is amazing beauty in these words, but recently I read them in a version by a different translator where they jumped off the page at me. Jesus replies "love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy" and to "love others as well as you love yourself."

Do the people you gather with help you accomplish this? Do you see it in their lives? Do you help bring it out in them and do they help bring it out in you? If not, why not?