Appreciate the Holiday

This is the audio from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s speech against the war in Vietnam. If you can, it is well worth taking the time to listen to his words in their entirety.

Please Pray for Lance!

Please keep Lance and his family in your prayers as well as the families of the others in his unit.

Man's God given Nature and Task

I know its been a long time since I posted last, sorry about that. But like Josh said earlier I was stranded without the internet in a beautiful place known as Hume Lake. Anyway, I’ve just started a new semester at Biola and am looking forward to the courses I’m taking, specifically my Intro to Philosophy class.

Today was our first night and we discussed the Cultural Mandate stated in Genesis 1:26-28 and how it applies to our contemporary society. There were two points of my professor’s lecture in particular that captured my attention and started my mind on a contemplative avalanche of sorts. The points focused on our relationship with God and how we as Christians are to then transfer that relationship to the world/society we live in. These ideas struck me as simple at first but as I continued to consider them they became increasingly meaningful.

He proposed that for the world we are to:
1) Mend what is broken
2) Tend what is beautiful

Do we carry out this function as Christians in our society (local & global)? And what would it look like to complete such a function more effectively?

I feel that the Christian community could do much more with these two simple tasks!!! What these tasks focus on is culture; human cultures contain elements that are both broken and beautiful. Sadly, many Christians seem to see only the broken aspects and in an attempt to avoid the clearly sinful nature of society completely distance themselves from anything that is distinctly "non-christian" (music, movies, art, news...). In the pure motives behind such action we have effectively broken contact with and destroyed many possibilities to relate with the nations that God asks us to make disciples of. So how can we maintain purity of heart and mind but still reach out to the lost in a relational way?

By attempting to mend what is broken in worldly culture. We are here as God's workmen, to be unashamed, so let us face the ills of fallen nature (the same fallen nature that we ALL are victim to) with the mindset of workmen, desiring to influence our society for the purpose of the King! God commands us to "GO", not to adopt an Isolationist approach to life. We cannot do the lost a greater disservice than to recede into our Christian bubble, content to simply listen to the Newsboys and go to church twice a week.

How can such a lifestyle be justified?! Sure it might very well be considered "Godly" by any number of church-goers but consider Matthew 25... if we are limited to our bubble, when will we visit those sick or in prison, or feed the hungry or clothe the naked? With all of the Christian radio to listen to and Sunday School to attend, when will we have the time to carry out such messy, relational, "in-your-face" tasks?

I am so deeply convicted of my own inaction it is with an extremely heavy heart that I bring up these points. As a student at a private Christian school its all too easy to fall into a mindless state of Christianity, so please do not mistake my previous comments as an attack at any specific group or person, if anything its a sad self-realization. So lets end our placid bubble living and make an attempt to honestly mend what is broken in today's culture!!!

Secondly we are to tend what is beautiful in this world. Because of our fear of infection, we so often miss out on much of culture that is absolutely amazing!!! God created each individual with their own talents wheather they choose to accept that fact or not. Let us focus on such talents when interacting with the lost, let us bring out and cultivate relationships that can emphasize the theme of God's creativity in each of us. Through such relationships God will make Himself evident. We must NOT limit God to passing out tracts and once a week "street evangelism"!!! When considering both points it is imperative that we look to the best example we could ever have for life, the example of Christ.

He lived a messy, personal, in-your-face life of ministry. He focused on the importance of connecting with individuals on cultural levels that they understood and embraced. There was no bubble of separation in His life but rather He integrated Himself into the culture of those he ministered to, not shying away from those that were viewed as unclean or unworthy. My hope is that the body of Christ can in time continue to move closer toward the example of its King.

Fighting Materialism Mentality Continued: The Value Of Stuff

In continuing the conversation about fighting materialism (that seems to be my niche here), I just read an essay by Paul Graham that further emphasizes the limited value of stuff:

Stuff is an extremely illiquid asset. Unless you have some plan for selling that valuable thing you got so cheaply, what difference does it make what it's "worth?" The only way you're ever going to extract any value from it is to use it. And if you don't have any immediate use for it, you probably never will.

Companies that sell stuff have spent huge sums training us to think stuff is still valuable. But it would be closer to the truth to treat stuff as worthless.

In fact, worse than worthless, because once you've accumulated a certain amount of stuff, it starts to own you rather than the other way around. I know of one couple who couldn't retire to the town they preferred because they couldn't afford a place there big enough for all their stuff. Their house isn't theirs; it's their stuff's.

Summer Hiatus

Most of you may not be aware that this blog is a joint effort between Matt and myself, Josh Mock, because Matt does do most of the talking. That's probably because I've only really written one post so far. I've mostly been doing little behind-the-scenes things and helping Matt out. And, in return, he bugs me on a regular basis to write more thought-provoking stuff here than I have been.

As you can see, though, this blog has been inactive for a couple months. This is because Matt is working at Hume for the summer. He is without Internet access for the most part, which not only makes it hard for him to update here, but also makes it difficult for him to badger me to write.

That said, I may have things to say here at some point, but don't hold your breath!

The Mindless Menace of Violence

The following is an excerpt from a speech given by Senator Robert F. Kennedy, his words are powerful and sadly, still very applicable to our lives today. Historically this speech was focused specifically on domestic issues but the concepts presented are more than able to be considered with a global mindset! Please allow yourself to read on with such a mindset.

"When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered...

We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.

Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.

But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again."

Fill us up and Send us Out!

God of Justice (We Must Go)
by Tim Hughes

God of Justice, Saviour to all
Came to rescue the weak and the poor
Chose to serve and not be served

Jesus, You have called us
Freely we've received
Now freely we will give

We must go live to feed the hungry
Stand beside the broken
We must go
Stepping forward keep us from just singing
Move us into action
We must go

To act justly everyday
Loving mercy in everyway
Walking humbly before You God

You have shown us, what You require
Freely we've received
Now freely we will give


Fill us up and send us out
Fill us up and send us out
Fill us up and send us out Lord

The Difficult Truth

President George W. Bush has said a "last big push" is needed in order to "win" the war on terror. I completely disagree with him on this. How can I say such an un-American thing? you may ask. Well if you will turn with me to Genesis 16:10-12 we can get God's take on the situation.

"Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, 'I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.'

And the Angel of the Lord said to her:
'Behold, you are with child,
And you shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the Lord has heard your
affliction.

He shall be a wild man;
His hand shall be against every man,
And every man's hand against him.
And he shall dwell in the presence of
all his brethren."

Genesis 16:10-12 (NKJV)

Our executive leadership has entered us into an ancient struggle that will not simply end, or even decrease for that matter, when American military force is applied. I plead with God that He would grip that Texan's heart somehow and reveal the ultimate futility of this current situation. Only the Lord's return will bring about the cessation of this hell we find our world in today.

Imagine

"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent." -Mahatma Gandhi

“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God”

Is it ok to criticize the United States government? Often doing so will get mixed and intermingled with criticizing the military in the minds of those opposed to the expressed viewpoint. I have been asked in the past how I can have such “leftist” views with two of my best friends in the armed forces. It is horrible and unsupportive of me to not follow in blind submission the will of the powers at be. However I feel that such behavior is quite contrary to being unsupportive; in fact I would venture so far as to say it is even positively supportive of my military friends.

First off, we need to clarify the designed distinction between the men and women enlisted in the military and the executive powers that command them. Once we have established the military and executive power as two separate entities we may then move on to observe how criticism of the executive branch can actually be a supportive behavior toward enlisted men and women.

When our founding fathers began laying the groundwork for our nation, they strove to design a government in which power belonged to the people. In order to maintain this distribution of power it was not only encouraged but also expected that the citizens of this nation would stay informed and involved in matters regarding their government, and should a time come when the people did not agree with the actions of the acting government powers, our founding fathers saw it as the responsibility and obligation of the American people to speak out against their government and make their opinions heard. To sit by and disagree with the government in silence would be an offense most accurately regarded as treason!

(For clarification, nowhere does this concept of citizen rule mention the criticism of servicemen/women! Criticizing the military is a foolish and futile endeavor as it is an organization based solely on obeying a chain of command. Why pass judgment on workers when they are simply following the will of their manager?)

Some argue that to criticize the government is to devalue the blood shed by those on the battlefield; something only a “heartless leftist commy liberal freak” would be capable of doing. In reality questioning the actions and decisions of the government is actually fully embracing the freedom that those soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice for. What more could a person do to show their appreciation to these men and women but to live out their blessing of American freedom each day? Show our soldiers you are thankful for your freedom; let your voice be heard!