I'm really excited to spend 3 weeks teaching and learning and engaging the issues of poverty and justice with the college and career crew at ADA BIBLE CHURCH...here's the topic for week 1:
A Look into the Scriptures: How God Feels about Poverty and Justice, and His heart those who are suffering...and His belief in those who can bring healing
Each week, I'll be linking a few documents for folks who want to read some good stuff that dives deeper into the topic for the week...
READING #1: God's Special Concern for the Poor by Ron Sider
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B2fjQcNaJgcdZjBiMjU0NDctMTNlYS00MjdhLWFlOTMtYjRkMTVmZTJkMzUy&hl=en
READING #2: Reading the Scriptures with New Eyes by Chip Huber
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AWfjQcNaJgcdZDNobWQ4Ml8xZ3I2emNwZ3A&hl=en
Would love to dialogue about these readings or the material presented at Union on Tuesday nights...may we grow in our biblical concern for the people and things that break the heart of God in our world today...
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
LENT and Our Sponsored Kids
I never grew up celebrating or even really knowing about Lent...well, I guess when we lived in Milwaukee you couldn't miss the fish frys that emerged on every restaurant sign in late Winter on Fridays...
However, in the last several years after attending my first Ash Wednesday service at my church and even writing a piece last year for a World Vision student-focused lent curriculum it has become something I think about just like I start thinking about Spring...
I love the notion of seeking to identify with Jesus and the road He traveled leading to the cross and ultimately our celebration of the Resurrection...and as God has broken and rebuilt my heart through my identification and involvement with my friends in Zambia over the last eight years Lent has become something more spiritual and something I feel compelled to try and participate in a tangible way...
I'm going to be re-reading Rich Stearns' fantastic book The Hole in the Gospel during Lent as part of the ACTS group I help lead at Cornerstone with some students concerned deeply about issues of poverty and justice in our world...I long for the Gospel in all its fullness and richness to penetrate my mind, heart, and soul...
And as an activity of remembrance of those who have been thru suffering as Jesus did as the Least I decided to try and not eat anything after dinner for the next 40 days...now that isn't really that big a deal, I know...but for a late night sports junkie (especially in this blasted Eastern time zone!) it will be a bit of a struggle to not nibble on something from the cupboard...
But I felt led to do this because those desserts and snacks represent extra...and as I almost daily think about and pray for Monica and Peter and Gracious and Andrew, our sponsored kids in the village I've traveled to several different years, I know that their meals and their lives don't include extras...extras often consume my life, my family's life, and my culture's lives...and the support we send them monthly may sometimes just provide the basics that are often missing...and as I contemplate sneaking over to grab a snack after 10 pm over the next several weeks, I'm planning to stop and pray for these amazing kids I've gotten to meet and fallen in love with on the other side of the world...praying that they will have breakfast as the sun rises in Zambia on that day and that God will pour out His love and provision in their lives well beyond Easter 2010...
May God give me the strength to enter into their world without extras just in the smallest of ways as I learn to be content and healthy and disciplined and changed in these days leading to Holy Week...
With Hopes Lent Will Be Meaningful for Many of You...
However, in the last several years after attending my first Ash Wednesday service at my church and even writing a piece last year for a World Vision student-focused lent curriculum it has become something I think about just like I start thinking about Spring...
I love the notion of seeking to identify with Jesus and the road He traveled leading to the cross and ultimately our celebration of the Resurrection...and as God has broken and rebuilt my heart through my identification and involvement with my friends in Zambia over the last eight years Lent has become something more spiritual and something I feel compelled to try and participate in a tangible way...
I'm going to be re-reading Rich Stearns' fantastic book The Hole in the Gospel during Lent as part of the ACTS group I help lead at Cornerstone with some students concerned deeply about issues of poverty and justice in our world...I long for the Gospel in all its fullness and richness to penetrate my mind, heart, and soul...
And as an activity of remembrance of those who have been thru suffering as Jesus did as the Least I decided to try and not eat anything after dinner for the next 40 days...now that isn't really that big a deal, I know...but for a late night sports junkie (especially in this blasted Eastern time zone!) it will be a bit of a struggle to not nibble on something from the cupboard...
But I felt led to do this because those desserts and snacks represent extra...and as I almost daily think about and pray for Monica and Peter and Gracious and Andrew, our sponsored kids in the village I've traveled to several different years, I know that their meals and their lives don't include extras...extras often consume my life, my family's life, and my culture's lives...and the support we send them monthly may sometimes just provide the basics that are often missing...and as I contemplate sneaking over to grab a snack after 10 pm over the next several weeks, I'm planning to stop and pray for these amazing kids I've gotten to meet and fallen in love with on the other side of the world...praying that they will have breakfast as the sun rises in Zambia on that day and that God will pour out His love and provision in their lives well beyond Easter 2010...
May God give me the strength to enter into their world without extras just in the smallest of ways as I learn to be content and healthy and disciplined and changed in these days leading to Holy Week...
With Hopes Lent Will Be Meaningful for Many of You...
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Where is God in Haiti? by Rich Stearns
A piece from the president of World Vision USA who is wrestling with the question many are asking inside and outside the church...
Since the devastating earthquake in Haiti, who of us has not asked the question, “Where was God?” The sudden deaths of so many innocent people and the staggering human suffering that persists seem to mock the very notion of a loving God. Where is God in Haiti?
There was another time that God was mocked in the face of suffering and evil. It happened on Calvary as Jesus Christ, God’s own son, was spat upon, beaten, and hanged on a cross. And people asked, where was God then? If he was God, why didn’t he save himself?
God had another way. On that cross, Jesus faced all the evil that ever was or ever would be. He took upon himself the sins of mankind, the evils of injustice, the pain of suffering and loss, the brokenness of the world. He felt every pain and took every punishment for every person who would ever live.
Where is God in Haiti? Christ is not distant from us in our times of suffering. He lies crushed under the weight of concrete walls. He lies wounded in the street with his legs broken. He walks homeless and hungry through the camps. He weeps uncontrollably over the child he has lost.
Where is God in Haiti? He hangs bloody on the cross: “A man of sorrows, and familiar with our suffering” (Isaiah 53:3).
“But where is hope?” we might ask. Here, alas, we need to see something not easily seen from human perspective. We, not God, are trapped in time. We, not God, see only in part and cannot yet see the whole. We, not God, must wait for that day when “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
What then must we do? Unlike God, we live in the time between the already and not yet, and we must wait until then. Until then, we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves. Until then, we are called to comfort the afflicted; give food to the hungry and water to the thirsty. Until then, we are to shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, and grieve with the grieving. Until then, we are to care for the widow, the orphan, the alien, and the stranger.
We are to let our light so shine before others that they might see our good deeds and give glory to our Father in heaven. Until then, as the apostle Paul wrote, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors … as though God were making his appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20). Until then, we must show forth God’s deep love for Haiti.
Since the devastating earthquake in Haiti, who of us has not asked the question, “Where was God?” The sudden deaths of so many innocent people and the staggering human suffering that persists seem to mock the very notion of a loving God. Where is God in Haiti?
There was another time that God was mocked in the face of suffering and evil. It happened on Calvary as Jesus Christ, God’s own son, was spat upon, beaten, and hanged on a cross. And people asked, where was God then? If he was God, why didn’t he save himself?
God had another way. On that cross, Jesus faced all the evil that ever was or ever would be. He took upon himself the sins of mankind, the evils of injustice, the pain of suffering and loss, the brokenness of the world. He felt every pain and took every punishment for every person who would ever live.
Where is God in Haiti? Christ is not distant from us in our times of suffering. He lies crushed under the weight of concrete walls. He lies wounded in the street with his legs broken. He walks homeless and hungry through the camps. He weeps uncontrollably over the child he has lost.
Where is God in Haiti? He hangs bloody on the cross: “A man of sorrows, and familiar with our suffering” (Isaiah 53:3).
“But where is hope?” we might ask. Here, alas, we need to see something not easily seen from human perspective. We, not God, are trapped in time. We, not God, see only in part and cannot yet see the whole. We, not God, must wait for that day when “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
What then must we do? Unlike God, we live in the time between the already and not yet, and we must wait until then. Until then, we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves. Until then, we are called to comfort the afflicted; give food to the hungry and water to the thirsty. Until then, we are to shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, and grieve with the grieving. Until then, we are to care for the widow, the orphan, the alien, and the stranger.
We are to let our light so shine before others that they might see our good deeds and give glory to our Father in heaven. Until then, as the apostle Paul wrote, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors … as though God were making his appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20). Until then, we must show forth God’s deep love for Haiti.
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