Monthly Archives: April 2009

over on JR’s blog, he posted some random links that at least a couple of you guys will find interesting, so go check out JR’s post on random links… click HERE

so as I sit here late working on all I have to get done today (what a whiner) I am struck with what Rob Bell said, in the DVD “Everything is Spiritual” about the Jews in Egypt… “the Jews in Egypt were known for how many bricks they could make, not who they were but what they did, what they accomplished” (my paraphrase – I think I’m really close)… I said to my students after watching this that we who live and work in a wealthy culture (USA – the ‘ville) are often caught up in “living in Egypt” when we see ourselves by what we do or earn instead of seeing ourselves as who or what or whose we are. Tomorrow is the Thursday before Good Friday and it was on that day that Jesus prayed with and for the disciples (click HERE to read part of that prayer). In that prayer he talks about our unity with God. We find our value by who we are, NOT by what we do. Bell says we need sabbath to remember this. We need sabbath to remember how to JUST BE. This is a good week to do that. To reflect on what Jesus experienced for us. To allow us to change what and who we are… not by what we do, but by what He makes us. Take a sabbath. So go home already instead of working late, right? Sabbath.

I was discussing the impact of the Bible with a friend the other day. The change that Scripture can and will (if we will really read it) have on our hearts, our reactions, etc.

I finished “A Year of Loving Biblically” on Sunday. Here is my conclusion: A.J.Jacobs’ journey is an excellent illustration that “God’s word will have a positive return” (my interpretative paraphrase).

I am impressed with the heart of this guy. I am encouraged that this secular person found, in God’s word, the meaningful truths that have made a lasting impact on his thinking and his living. I commend this book to you. But more importantly, I commend the Bible to you.

I wish to bring social justice into the health care debate in America…

Watch this from 60 minutes last night (it’s about 14 minuutes)  Click here…

What are the questions Jesus’ followers should be asking about this video?

Should we just be willing to ignore such a story? Should we be able? Shouldn’t a biblical heart for justice cry out at the stories we just saw?

are we being thankful? watch this video… (warning: this is from Late Night on NBC, and is, what some of you will find crude… but there is an important underlying message) click HERE… then read on…

Now, in light of what you have read in these posts the last two days, this video should really say something to us… we need to stop complaining so much… most of us (all of us?) reading this blog have so much to be thankful for, that if we were to really nourish a true sense of thankfulness, we would be talking to God literally ALL DAY LONG giving Him thanks… so, next time we want to complain, let’s stop and be thankful instead…

from Turkey (names and places replaced with initials to protect my friends):

H was so full of joy when he called me, “M, I’m a dad!”  We went to visit him in the hospital.  Sure enough, he was a new father and his daughter, only about 9 hours old, was so beautiful and perfectly healthy.  They named her Y.  His wife, L, was recovering from the ordeal just nicely as well.  This was a difficult place for her to give birth because it was where they had lost family members and where even she had spent much time.  Her mother told me with tears and a sigh of relief that L had had several operations in this hospital to reduce the pressure of water on her brain.  Because of her condition, L was always slow to speak, slow to react to others.  But now this hospital not only carried the air of death and difficulty, but new life for their entire family.

H & L had come here to x (a city in Turkey) where his wife’s family lives because he was experiencing heavy pressure from his own father and brothers to turn back to Islam.  “I’m ready to make a new start here and serve the Lord Jesus Christ in any way I can,” he explained to me when we met a month ago.

This morning, there was a knock at our office door.  “Gel,” I said.  “Come!”  H came in.  I smiled, “H how are you?”  I kissed him and my partner also rose to greet him.  Uncharacteristically ignoring my partner, he said simply, “Not good.  We’ve split up.”

L’s father has been putting pressure on her.  “Either you divorce that man or else you have no family.  You can choose—him or us.”  H has been trying to reason with them.  They keep putting it back on him.  “Why do you love Jesus so much that you would do this to your family?  Either reject Jesus or else you will have to divorce our daughter,” they say.

“I’m not doing this.  I’m not going anywhere—but I can’t reject Jesus!  How can you just change what you believe in?  You are the one’s putting pressure on your daughter not one week after she has given birth and when she is still weak and recovering,” he told them.

L, feeling the pressure said to H, “Give up Jesus for me.”

“L, I cannot do that.  I am not rejecting you.  I am not leaving, but I cannot reject Jesus.  Have I ever once asked you to change what you believe?” He said.

“Never,” she answered.

“Then why would you do this to me?” He asked.

“Then give up Jesus for our daughter,” she pushed.

“I cannot,” he said.

“Then we are through.”

He later told me, “What makes this so hard…I never thought she would say that.  I’ve lost my job, all my money, my property in P city and come here.  That was easy.  This is really difficult…”

H is planning to wait it out.  For him, there is no recourse.

When someone is beaten to death without cause by a hostile government it may end up in the newspapers.  The Christians in Turkey are suffering injustice like H is and it is not even news enough to be in the papers, much less to ask for help from government officials.  These believers experience injustice in so many different ways every single day and there is nothing they can do—except to cry out to their Father for justice.

We have much to pray for…