A Joke for You
It may be that I am just twisted but this joke has made me laugh for two days.
A young cowboy walks into a seedy cafe in Prescott, AZ. He sits at the counter and notices an old cowboy with his arms folded staring blankly at a full bowl of chili.
After fifteen minutes of just sitting there staring at it, the young cowboy bravely asks the old cowpoke, "If you ain't gonna eat that, mind if I do?"
The older cowboy slowly turns his head toward the young wrangler and in his best cowboy manner says, "Nah, go ahead."
Eagerly, the young cowboy reaches over and slides the bowl over to his place and starts spooning it in with delight. He gets nearly down to the bottom and notices a dead mouse in the chili. The sight was shocking and he immediately pukes up the chili into the bowl.
The old cowboy quietly says, "Yep, that's as far as I got, too."
Is this joke to over the top for a sermon to young adults?
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
How to Change Lives!
I was sent this article and I think it is awesome. This article isn't just for Pastors but all Christians should consider the way that they preach the Gospel. After all we are all called to be disciples and all called to lead people to Christ.
My comments on this article will be in bold.
Preaching tips that will change lives - by Rick Warren
I’ll say it over and over: The purpose of preaching is obedience. Every preacher in the New Testament – including Jesus – emphasized conduct, behavioral change, and obedience. You only really believe the parts of the Bible that you obey. People say, “I believe in tithing.” But do they tithe? No? Then they don’t believe in it.
That is why you should always preach for response, aiming for people to act on what is said. John did this: “The world and its desires pass away but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2:17, NIV) And in 1 John 2:3 (NIV), “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.”
After about 30 years of preaching, here are nine things I’ve learned about preaching for life change:
1. All behavior is based on a belief If you get divorced, it’s because you believe that disobeying God will cause you less pain than staying in your marriage. It’s a lie, but you believe it. When somebody comes to you and says, “I'm leaving my husband, and I'm going to marry this other man because I believe God wants me to be happy.” They just told you the belief behind their behavior. It’s wrong, but they believe it.
2. Behind every sin is a lie I believeAt the moment you sin, you’re doing what you think is the best thing for you. You say, “I know God says to do that, but I'm going to do this.” What are you doing? You believe a lie. Behind every sin is a lie. Start looking for the lies behind why people in your church act the way they do. When you start dealing with those, you’ll start seeing change.
Titus 3:3 (NIV) declares, “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.” When you live in sin, you’re living in deception and believing a lie.
When you look at your congregation, you don’t see the lies they believe, but you do see their behavior. You know they’re unfaithful; you know they’re uncommitted; you know all these things. The tough part is figuring out the lie behind the behavior. The wiser you get in ministry, the quicker you’ll start seeing the lies. You’ll grow and mature in ministry and become more discerning, because you’ll start seeing patterns over and over.
3. Change always starts in the mindYou’ve got to start with the belief – the lie – behind the behavior. Romans 12:2 (NIV) commands, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel determines the way you act. If you want to change the way you act, you must determine the way you think. You can’t start with the action. You’ve got to start with the thought.
4. To help people change, we must change their beliefs firstJesus said, “You will know the truth and it will set you free.” (John 8:32 NIV) Why? Because to help people change, you’ve got to help them see the lie they’re basing their behavior on. That’s why when you know the truth, it sets you free.
5. Trying to change people’s behavior without changing their belief is a waste of timeIf you ask a person to change before his mind is renewed, it won’t work. He’s got to internalize God’s Word first.
For example: Your belief patterns are in your mind. Every time you think about a belief, it creates an electrical impulse across your brain. Every time you have that thought again, it creates a deeper rut.
If you want to see change in your church, you must help people get out of their ruts and change their autopilot. For instance: Let’s say I go out and buy a speedboat with an autopilot feature on it. I set the speedboat to go north on autopilot, so the boat goes north automatically. I don’t even have my hands on the wheel. If I want to turn the boat around, I could manually grab the steering wheel and by sheer will power and force, turn it around. I can force it to go south, but the whole time I'm under tension because I'm going against the natural inclination of the boat. Pretty soon I get tired and let go of the steering wheel, and it automatically turns around and goes back to the way it’s programmed.
This is true in life. When people have learned something over and over, being taught by the world’s way of thinking, they’re programmed to go that way. What if a man is programmed to pick up a cigarette every time he’s under tension? But one day he thinks, “This is killing me! I'm going to get cancer.” So he grabs the steering wheel and turns it around forcibly, throws the pack away and says, “I am going to quit!”
He makes it a week without a cigarette, a week and a half, two weeks … , but the whole time he’s under tension because he hasn’t changed the programming in his mind. Eventually, he’s going to let go and pick up a cigarette again.
If you want to change people radically and permanently, you have to do it the New Testament way. You have to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Just telling people, “You need to stop smoking … You need to stop doing this … You need to stop doing that …” isn’t going to work. You’ve got to help them change their belief pattern.
6. The biblical term for “changing your mind” is “repentance”What do most people think of when I say the word “repent”? They think of a guy on the street corner with a sandwich sign saying, “Turn or burn. You’re going to die and fry while we go to the sky.” They think of some kook.
But the word “repentance” is a wonderful word – metanoia – which means in Greek “to change your mind.” Repentance is just changing the way we think about something by accepting the way God thinks about it. That’s all repentance is. The new words for repentance are "paradigm shift."
Pastors, we are in the paradigm-shifting business. We are in the repentance business. We are about changing peoples’ minds at the deepest level – the level of belief and values. But let me clarify this with the next point. Let me reiterate that not just Pastors but all Christians are in the repentance business.
7. You don’t change people’s minds, the applied Word of God does1 Corinthians 2:13 (NLT) helps us keep this in focus: “We speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.” In real preaching, God is at work in the speaker.
2 Samuel 23:2 (NIV) says, “The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me. His word was on my tongue.” Zechariah 4:6 (NIV) says, “‘Not by might nor by power but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.”
So keep in mind: You don’t change people’s minds, the applied Word of God does.
8. Changing the way I act is the fruit of repentanceTechnically, repentance is not behavioral change. Behavior change is the result of repentance. Repentance does not mean forsaking your sin. Repentance simply means to change your mind. John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:8 (NIV), “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” In other words, “OK, you’ve changed your mind about God, about life, about sin, about yourself — now let’s see some fruit as a result of it.”
9. The deepest kind of preaching is preaching for repentanceBecause life change happens only after you change somebody’s thinking, then preaching for repentance is preaching for life change. It is the deepest kind of preaching you can preach.
Every week I try to communicate God’s Word in such a way that it changes the way people think. The word “repentance” has taken on such a negative image, that I rarely use the word. But I preach it every single week.
Repentance is the central message of the New Testament. What did the New Testament preachers preach on?
John the Baptist: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” (Matt. 3:2 NIV)
Jesus: “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” (Mark 1:15 NIV)
What did Jesus tell his disciples to preach? “So they went off and preached repentance.” (Mark 6:12 NAB)
What did Peter preach at Pentecost? “Repent and be baptized everyone of you.” (Acts 2:38 NAB)
What did John preach in Revelation? Repent.
I believe that one of the great weaknesses of preaching today is that there are a lot of folks who are afraid to stand on the Word of God and humbly but forcefully challenge the will of people. It takes courage to do that, because they may reject you. They may reject your message; they may get mad at you and talk about you behind your back.
And because so many pastors have been unwilling to challenge people and cause a change in belief resulting in behavior change, our nation is falling apart. Proverbs 29:18 (NCV) warns, “Where there is no word from God, people are uncontrolled.”
P.T. Forsythe says, “What the world is looking for is an authoritative Gospel spoken through a humble personality.” An authoritative Gospel spoken not as a hammer, but with humility. To me this is my greatest challenge is to confidently preach God's word with the humility that Christ showed.
So now, I have a personal challenge for you – life application. Are you going to use the Bible the way it was intended or not? Will you repent of preaching in ways that were not focused on application that could change people’s character and conduct?
I was sent this article and I think it is awesome. This article isn't just for Pastors but all Christians should consider the way that they preach the Gospel. After all we are all called to be disciples and all called to lead people to Christ.
My comments on this article will be in bold.
Preaching tips that will change lives - by Rick Warren
I’ll say it over and over: The purpose of preaching is obedience. Every preacher in the New Testament – including Jesus – emphasized conduct, behavioral change, and obedience. You only really believe the parts of the Bible that you obey. People say, “I believe in tithing.” But do they tithe? No? Then they don’t believe in it.
That is why you should always preach for response, aiming for people to act on what is said. John did this: “The world and its desires pass away but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2:17, NIV) And in 1 John 2:3 (NIV), “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.”
After about 30 years of preaching, here are nine things I’ve learned about preaching for life change:
1. All behavior is based on a belief If you get divorced, it’s because you believe that disobeying God will cause you less pain than staying in your marriage. It’s a lie, but you believe it. When somebody comes to you and says, “I'm leaving my husband, and I'm going to marry this other man because I believe God wants me to be happy.” They just told you the belief behind their behavior. It’s wrong, but they believe it.
2. Behind every sin is a lie I believeAt the moment you sin, you’re doing what you think is the best thing for you. You say, “I know God says to do that, but I'm going to do this.” What are you doing? You believe a lie. Behind every sin is a lie. Start looking for the lies behind why people in your church act the way they do. When you start dealing with those, you’ll start seeing change.
Titus 3:3 (NIV) declares, “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.” When you live in sin, you’re living in deception and believing a lie.
When you look at your congregation, you don’t see the lies they believe, but you do see their behavior. You know they’re unfaithful; you know they’re uncommitted; you know all these things. The tough part is figuring out the lie behind the behavior. The wiser you get in ministry, the quicker you’ll start seeing the lies. You’ll grow and mature in ministry and become more discerning, because you’ll start seeing patterns over and over.
3. Change always starts in the mindYou’ve got to start with the belief – the lie – behind the behavior. Romans 12:2 (NIV) commands, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel determines the way you act. If you want to change the way you act, you must determine the way you think. You can’t start with the action. You’ve got to start with the thought.
4. To help people change, we must change their beliefs firstJesus said, “You will know the truth and it will set you free.” (John 8:32 NIV) Why? Because to help people change, you’ve got to help them see the lie they’re basing their behavior on. That’s why when you know the truth, it sets you free.
5. Trying to change people’s behavior without changing their belief is a waste of timeIf you ask a person to change before his mind is renewed, it won’t work. He’s got to internalize God’s Word first.
For example: Your belief patterns are in your mind. Every time you think about a belief, it creates an electrical impulse across your brain. Every time you have that thought again, it creates a deeper rut.
If you want to see change in your church, you must help people get out of their ruts and change their autopilot. For instance: Let’s say I go out and buy a speedboat with an autopilot feature on it. I set the speedboat to go north on autopilot, so the boat goes north automatically. I don’t even have my hands on the wheel. If I want to turn the boat around, I could manually grab the steering wheel and by sheer will power and force, turn it around. I can force it to go south, but the whole time I'm under tension because I'm going against the natural inclination of the boat. Pretty soon I get tired and let go of the steering wheel, and it automatically turns around and goes back to the way it’s programmed.
This is true in life. When people have learned something over and over, being taught by the world’s way of thinking, they’re programmed to go that way. What if a man is programmed to pick up a cigarette every time he’s under tension? But one day he thinks, “This is killing me! I'm going to get cancer.” So he grabs the steering wheel and turns it around forcibly, throws the pack away and says, “I am going to quit!”
He makes it a week without a cigarette, a week and a half, two weeks … , but the whole time he’s under tension because he hasn’t changed the programming in his mind. Eventually, he’s going to let go and pick up a cigarette again.
If you want to change people radically and permanently, you have to do it the New Testament way. You have to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Just telling people, “You need to stop smoking … You need to stop doing this … You need to stop doing that …” isn’t going to work. You’ve got to help them change their belief pattern.
6. The biblical term for “changing your mind” is “repentance”What do most people think of when I say the word “repent”? They think of a guy on the street corner with a sandwich sign saying, “Turn or burn. You’re going to die and fry while we go to the sky.” They think of some kook.
But the word “repentance” is a wonderful word – metanoia – which means in Greek “to change your mind.” Repentance is just changing the way we think about something by accepting the way God thinks about it. That’s all repentance is. The new words for repentance are "paradigm shift."
Pastors, we are in the paradigm-shifting business. We are in the repentance business. We are about changing peoples’ minds at the deepest level – the level of belief and values. But let me clarify this with the next point. Let me reiterate that not just Pastors but all Christians are in the repentance business.
7. You don’t change people’s minds, the applied Word of God does1 Corinthians 2:13 (NLT) helps us keep this in focus: “We speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.” In real preaching, God is at work in the speaker.
2 Samuel 23:2 (NIV) says, “The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me. His word was on my tongue.” Zechariah 4:6 (NIV) says, “‘Not by might nor by power but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.”
So keep in mind: You don’t change people’s minds, the applied Word of God does.
8. Changing the way I act is the fruit of repentanceTechnically, repentance is not behavioral change. Behavior change is the result of repentance. Repentance does not mean forsaking your sin. Repentance simply means to change your mind. John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:8 (NIV), “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” In other words, “OK, you’ve changed your mind about God, about life, about sin, about yourself — now let’s see some fruit as a result of it.”
9. The deepest kind of preaching is preaching for repentanceBecause life change happens only after you change somebody’s thinking, then preaching for repentance is preaching for life change. It is the deepest kind of preaching you can preach.
Every week I try to communicate God’s Word in such a way that it changes the way people think. The word “repentance” has taken on such a negative image, that I rarely use the word. But I preach it every single week.
Repentance is the central message of the New Testament. What did the New Testament preachers preach on?
John the Baptist: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” (Matt. 3:2 NIV)
Jesus: “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” (Mark 1:15 NIV)
What did Jesus tell his disciples to preach? “So they went off and preached repentance.” (Mark 6:12 NAB)
What did Peter preach at Pentecost? “Repent and be baptized everyone of you.” (Acts 2:38 NAB)
What did John preach in Revelation? Repent.
I believe that one of the great weaknesses of preaching today is that there are a lot of folks who are afraid to stand on the Word of God and humbly but forcefully challenge the will of people. It takes courage to do that, because they may reject you. They may reject your message; they may get mad at you and talk about you behind your back.
And because so many pastors have been unwilling to challenge people and cause a change in belief resulting in behavior change, our nation is falling apart. Proverbs 29:18 (NCV) warns, “Where there is no word from God, people are uncontrolled.”
P.T. Forsythe says, “What the world is looking for is an authoritative Gospel spoken through a humble personality.” An authoritative Gospel spoken not as a hammer, but with humility. To me this is my greatest challenge is to confidently preach God's word with the humility that Christ showed.
So now, I have a personal challenge for you – life application. Are you going to use the Bible the way it was intended or not? Will you repent of preaching in ways that were not focused on application that could change people’s character and conduct?
Monday, February 20, 2006
West Jet Church Part 2 – I posted a few weeks ago about the West Jet church I want to add to my thoughts.
“Why do West Jetters care so much? Because they are owners.”
Instead of taking what the company has to offer the idea is that they will make it better. West Jet changed the airline industry. I remember in 1998 when they began flying to Prince George. They reduced airfares by 40%.
I did some digging on West Jet. Checking out their website, and listening to an executive who spoke at a church.
Can I take you on journey with me on how you can use the values or spirit of West Jet to illustrate the principles of a missional church? I want to remind you the end goals of West Jet and the church are different.
West Jet Mission’s Statement
Our mission:
To enrich the lives of everyone in West Jet’s worldby providing safe, friendly, affordable air travel.
Our vision:
West Jet will be the leading low-fare airline that: People want to work with... Customers want to fly with... and Shareholders want to invest with.
The Missional church
Our mission - To preach the gospel, make disciples, teaching in all nations
Our Vision – To become all things to all people to make our mission happen
West Jet’s purpose is to make money for themselves and attract investors; the church exists to build the kingdom of God. The other difference West Jet is a low-cost airline vs. Discipleship which is a high cost life.
West Jetters are owners - 85% of employees are owners. They contribute 13% of their paychecks to buy shares. They tithe to the West Jet god. West Jet’s pay structure is 95% of the industry average.
Who are the owners of the church?
Jesus Christ we belong to him the same way a wife belongs to her husband, the image is we are the bride of Christ
The Pastor: As a pastor I used the adjective my church, my youth, my congregation. This is a term of ownership or belonging.
The people – The church I was at in Calgary. A retired German man named Joe said this after the popular Sr. Pastor left.
“Pastors come and go and change the church but it is the people who stay and make the church.” This doesn’t make the people in the church the owners and the pastor the hired hand. It is more of partnership idea. That all of us are striving to make the church better.
How would church change if we looked as each other as partners in a mission instead of relying on the pastor or a few committed people. What would happen if the people in church took ownership of the church to fulfill the mission statement of Jesus Christ - GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS!!!! Rich poor hungry well fed. That we led the charge to live justly, with mercy and humility. For justice and true moral living.
We could change the world as a church if each believer truly took ownership of it instead of shopping from it. Where did the PAOC start? As a missions organization. A way for us to pool our resources so that we could make disciples of all nations.
The West Jet church involves a mind set change. I have sat in meetings at churches talking about how we need to satisfy our customers, those paying the bills in the church. And this is what is wrong with church models. The people on the membership list think that they are the customers and that the customer is always right. The customer of church is someone who is not a member. The ideal definition of church is an organization that exists not for the benefit of its members. Think about it!
So how do we become owners?
A West Jet executive spoke at Crossroads Church in Alberta – “Great customer service comes from the heart not from the manual.” The next section actually comes from the West Jet website.
There is something special about West Jet’s culture.It's a company with a unique corporate spirit...a close knit family that's building something legendary...and in the process changing the world.
Are you looking for a mission statement for your church?
At West Jet we have legendary values:
We are positive and passionate about everything we do.
We take our jobs seriously, but not ourselves.
We embrace change and innovation.
We are friendly and caring toward our Peopleand our Customers, and we treat everyone with respect.
We provide our People with the trainingand tools they need to do their jobs.
We celebrate our successes.
We personify the hard-working "can-do" attitude.
We are honest, open, and keep our commitments.
We are team West Jet!
At West Jet we keep the spirit alive by:
Being successful in the air.
Being successful on the ground.
Celebrating new markets.
Providing legendary service.
Experiencing legendary growth.
Creating internal 'magic' and external 'wow'.
What defines Church Spirit?
Acts 1:8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Acts 2: Peter Addresses the Crowd
14Then Peter stood up with the Eleven raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! 16No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17" 'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'
Here are some ways that we in the church can learn from West Jet.
At West Jet we have legendary values:
We are positive and passionate about everything we do.
We take our jobs seriously, but not ourselves.
We embrace change and innovation.
We are friendly and caring toward our Peopleand our Customers, and we treat everyone with respect. –
We provide our People with the trainingand tools they need to do their jobs.
We celebrate our successes.
We personify the hard-working "can-do" attitude.
We are honest, open, and keep our commitments
We are team West Jet!
Legendary Christian Values
1) Philippians 4:4 - Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
2) Titus 2:7 - In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In our teaching show integrity, seriousness
3) My son loves the story of how Jesus healed the blind man.
4) They will know you are my disciples by your love.
5) All Scripture is God Breathed – useful for teaching,
6) Rejoice with those rejoice
7) I can do all things
8) Psalm 41:12 In my integrity you uphold me and set me in your presence forever
9) One God, one faith ...
At West Jet we keep the spirit alive by and ways to keep the Spirit alive for the church.
Being successful in the air. Outside the church
Being successful on the ground. Inside the church
Celebrating new markets. New opportunities to minister
Providing legendary service. Testimonies
Experiencing legendary growth. Growing churches and lives
Creating internal 'magic' and external 'wow'. Rediscovering the mystery of the HS
Here are some more of West Jet values that we could use in our churches
Smile - If the glory of God has touched your heart please inform your face.
Call people by name
Finding a way to say yes
Live the vision
How do we live the vision?
Let the Spirit guide us.
Employees of West Jet know the vision and mission not just the rules. They make decisions based on the vision and mission. How many of our church decisions are made on precedent, policy manuals or budget numbers instead of mission?
Work Together
All West Jetters including executives groom the plane, traveling business and pleasure. You know who lives out the policy without fail? The president of West Jet.
Own your faith
“When you own part of the company you usually make the right decisions.”
Presentation by Phyllis Cyr. Tailgate Party 2005
What if at the end of West Jet flight they invited those who want to part of the West Jet to stay behind and they can give their lives to West Jet. I think people who felt cared for and valued as customers would be much more likely to join West Jet than if they were made to feel unimportant.Would the same happen in a west jet church?
Bono said this
But in truth, I was wrong again. The church was slow but the church got busy on this the leprosy of our age.
Love was on the move.
Mercy was on the move.
God was on the move.
Moving people of all kinds to work with others they had never met, never would have cared to meet… Conservative church groups hanging out with spokesmen for the gay community, all singing off the same hymn sheet on AIDS… Soccer moms and quarterbacks… hip-hop stars and country stars… This is what happens when God gets on the move: crazy stuff happens!
Crazy stuff. Evidence of the spirit.
West jet is all about riding the wind. Our churches need to ride the wind of the Spirit our lives need some crazy stuff.
“Why do West Jetters care so much? Because they are owners.”
Instead of taking what the company has to offer the idea is that they will make it better. West Jet changed the airline industry. I remember in 1998 when they began flying to Prince George. They reduced airfares by 40%.
I did some digging on West Jet. Checking out their website, and listening to an executive who spoke at a church.
Can I take you on journey with me on how you can use the values or spirit of West Jet to illustrate the principles of a missional church? I want to remind you the end goals of West Jet and the church are different.
West Jet Mission’s Statement
Our mission:
To enrich the lives of everyone in West Jet’s worldby providing safe, friendly, affordable air travel.
Our vision:
West Jet will be the leading low-fare airline that: People want to work with... Customers want to fly with... and Shareholders want to invest with.
The Missional church
Our mission - To preach the gospel, make disciples, teaching in all nations
Our Vision – To become all things to all people to make our mission happen
West Jet’s purpose is to make money for themselves and attract investors; the church exists to build the kingdom of God. The other difference West Jet is a low-cost airline vs. Discipleship which is a high cost life.
West Jetters are owners - 85% of employees are owners. They contribute 13% of their paychecks to buy shares. They tithe to the West Jet god. West Jet’s pay structure is 95% of the industry average.
Who are the owners of the church?
Jesus Christ we belong to him the same way a wife belongs to her husband, the image is we are the bride of Christ
The Pastor: As a pastor I used the adjective my church, my youth, my congregation. This is a term of ownership or belonging.
The people – The church I was at in Calgary. A retired German man named Joe said this after the popular Sr. Pastor left.
“Pastors come and go and change the church but it is the people who stay and make the church.” This doesn’t make the people in the church the owners and the pastor the hired hand. It is more of partnership idea. That all of us are striving to make the church better.
How would church change if we looked as each other as partners in a mission instead of relying on the pastor or a few committed people. What would happen if the people in church took ownership of the church to fulfill the mission statement of Jesus Christ - GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS!!!! Rich poor hungry well fed. That we led the charge to live justly, with mercy and humility. For justice and true moral living.
We could change the world as a church if each believer truly took ownership of it instead of shopping from it. Where did the PAOC start? As a missions organization. A way for us to pool our resources so that we could make disciples of all nations.
The West Jet church involves a mind set change. I have sat in meetings at churches talking about how we need to satisfy our customers, those paying the bills in the church. And this is what is wrong with church models. The people on the membership list think that they are the customers and that the customer is always right. The customer of church is someone who is not a member. The ideal definition of church is an organization that exists not for the benefit of its members. Think about it!
So how do we become owners?
A West Jet executive spoke at Crossroads Church in Alberta – “Great customer service comes from the heart not from the manual.” The next section actually comes from the West Jet website.
There is something special about West Jet’s culture.It's a company with a unique corporate spirit...a close knit family that's building something legendary...and in the process changing the world.
Are you looking for a mission statement for your church?
At West Jet we have legendary values:
We are positive and passionate about everything we do.
We take our jobs seriously, but not ourselves.
We embrace change and innovation.
We are friendly and caring toward our Peopleand our Customers, and we treat everyone with respect.
We provide our People with the trainingand tools they need to do their jobs.
We celebrate our successes.
We personify the hard-working "can-do" attitude.
We are honest, open, and keep our commitments.
We are team West Jet!
At West Jet we keep the spirit alive by:
Being successful in the air.
Being successful on the ground.
Celebrating new markets.
Providing legendary service.
Experiencing legendary growth.
Creating internal 'magic' and external 'wow'.
What defines Church Spirit?
Acts 1:8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Acts 2: Peter Addresses the Crowd
14Then Peter stood up with the Eleven raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! 16No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17" 'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'
Here are some ways that we in the church can learn from West Jet.
At West Jet we have legendary values:
We are positive and passionate about everything we do.
We take our jobs seriously, but not ourselves.
We embrace change and innovation.
We are friendly and caring toward our Peopleand our Customers, and we treat everyone with respect. –
We provide our People with the trainingand tools they need to do their jobs.
We celebrate our successes.
We personify the hard-working "can-do" attitude.
We are honest, open, and keep our commitments
We are team West Jet!
Legendary Christian Values
1) Philippians 4:4 - Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
2) Titus 2:7 - In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In our teaching show integrity, seriousness
3) My son loves the story of how Jesus healed the blind man.
4) They will know you are my disciples by your love.
5) All Scripture is God Breathed – useful for teaching,
6) Rejoice with those rejoice
7) I can do all things
8) Psalm 41:12 In my integrity you uphold me and set me in your presence forever
9) One God, one faith ...
At West Jet we keep the spirit alive by and ways to keep the Spirit alive for the church.
Being successful in the air. Outside the church
Being successful on the ground. Inside the church
Celebrating new markets. New opportunities to minister
Providing legendary service. Testimonies
Experiencing legendary growth. Growing churches and lives
Creating internal 'magic' and external 'wow'. Rediscovering the mystery of the HS
Here are some more of West Jet values that we could use in our churches
Smile - If the glory of God has touched your heart please inform your face.
Call people by name
Finding a way to say yes
Live the vision
How do we live the vision?
Let the Spirit guide us.
Employees of West Jet know the vision and mission not just the rules. They make decisions based on the vision and mission. How many of our church decisions are made on precedent, policy manuals or budget numbers instead of mission?
Work Together
All West Jetters including executives groom the plane, traveling business and pleasure. You know who lives out the policy without fail? The president of West Jet.
Own your faith
“When you own part of the company you usually make the right decisions.”
Presentation by Phyllis Cyr. Tailgate Party 2005
What if at the end of West Jet flight they invited those who want to part of the West Jet to stay behind and they can give their lives to West Jet. I think people who felt cared for and valued as customers would be much more likely to join West Jet than if they were made to feel unimportant.Would the same happen in a west jet church?
Bono said this
But in truth, I was wrong again. The church was slow but the church got busy on this the leprosy of our age.
Love was on the move.
Mercy was on the move.
God was on the move.
Moving people of all kinds to work with others they had never met, never would have cared to meet… Conservative church groups hanging out with spokesmen for the gay community, all singing off the same hymn sheet on AIDS… Soccer moms and quarterbacks… hip-hop stars and country stars… This is what happens when God gets on the move: crazy stuff happens!
Crazy stuff. Evidence of the spirit.
West jet is all about riding the wind. Our churches need to ride the wind of the Spirit our lives need some crazy stuff.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
BONO'S REMARKS TO THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST
Here is something for you to chew on.
BONO'S REMARKS TO THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST
***CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY***
BONOREMARKS AT THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST
Thank you.
Mr. President, First Lady, King Abdullah, Other heads of State, Members of Congress, distinguished guests…
Please join me in praying that I don’t say something we’ll all regret.
That was for the FCC.
If you’re wondering what I’m doing here, at a prayer breakfast, well, so am I. I’m certainly not here as a man of the cloth, unless that cloth is leather. It’s certainly not because I’m a rock star. Which leaves one possible explanation: I’m here because I’ve got a messianic complex.
Yes, it’s true. And for anyone who knows me, it’s hardly a revelation.
Well, I’m the first to admit that there’s something unnatural… something unseemly… about rock stars mounting the pulpit and preaching at presidents, and then disappearing to their villas in the South of France. Talk about a fish out of water. It was weird enough when Jesse Helms showed up at a U2 concert… but this is really weird, isn’t it?
You know, one of the things I love about this country is its separation of church and state. Although I have to say: in inviting me here, both church and state have been separated from something else completely: their mind. .
Mr. President, are you sure about this?
It’s very humbling and I will try to keep my homily brief. But be warned—I’m Irish.
I’d like to talk about the laws of man, here in this city where those laws are written. And I’d like to talk about higher laws. It would be great to assume that the one serves the other; that the laws of man serve these higher laws… but of course, they don’t always. And I presume that, in a sense, is why you’re here.
I presume the reason for this gathering is that all of us here—Muslims, Jews, Christians—all are searching our souls for how to better serve our family, our community, our nation, our God.
I know I am. Searching, I mean. And that, I suppose, is what led me here, too.
Yes, it’s odd, having a rock star here—but maybe it’s odder for me than for you. You see, I avoided religious people most of my life. Maybe it had something to do with having a father who was Protestant and a mother who was Catholic in a country where the line between the two was, quite literally, a battle line. Where the line between church and state was… well, a little blurry, and hard to see.
I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays… and my father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God.
For me, at least, it got in the way. Seeing what religious people, in the name of God, did to my native land… and in this country, seeing God’s second-hand car salesmen on the cable TV channels, offering indulgences for cash… in fact, all over the world, seeing the self-righteousness roll down like a mighty stream from certain corners of the religious establishment…
I must confess, I changed the channel. I wanted my MTV.
Even though I was a believer.
Perhaps because I was a believer.
I was cynical… not about God, but about God’s politics. (There you are, Jim.)
Then, in 1997, a couple of eccentric, septuagenarian British Christians went and ruined my shtick—my reproachfulness. They did it by describing the Millennium, the year 2000, as a Jubilee year, as an opportunity to cancel the chronic debts of the world’s poorest people. They had the audacity to renew the Lord’s call—and were joined by Pope John Paul II, who, from an Irish half-Catholic’s point of view, may have had a more direct line to the Almighty.
‘Jubilee’—why ‘Jubilee’?
What was this year of Jubilee, this year of our Lords favor?
I’d always read the Scriptures, even the obscure stuff. There it was in Leviticus (25:35)…
‘If your brother becomes poor,’ the Scriptures say, ‘and cannot maintain himself… you shall maintain him… You shall not lend him your money at interest, not give him your food for profit.’
It is such an important idea, Jubilee, that Jesus begins his ministry with this. Jesus is a young man, he’s met with the rabbis, impressed everyone, people are talking. The elders say, he’s a clever guy, this Jesus, but he hasn’t done much… yet. He hasn’t spoken in public before…
When he does, is first words are from Isaiah: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,’ he says, ‘because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.’ And Jesus proclaims the year of the Lord’s favour, the year of Jubilee. (Luke 4:18)
What he was really talking about was an era of grace—and we’re still in it.
So fast-forward 2,000 years. That same thought, grace, was made incarnate—in a movement of all kinds of people. It wasn’t a bless-me club… it wasn’t a holy huddle. These religious guys were willing to get out in the streets, get their boots dirty, wave the placards, follow their convictions with actions… making it really hard for people like me to keep their distance. It was amazing. I almost started to like these church people.
But then my cynicism got another helping hand.
It was what Colin Powell, a five-star general, called the greatest W.M.D. of them all: a tiny little virus called A.I.D.S. And the religious community, in large part, missed it. The one’s that didn’t miss it could only see it as divine retribution for bad behaviour. Even on children… Even fastest growing group of HIV infections were married, faithful women.
Aha, there they go again! I thought to myself Judgmentalism is back!
But in truth, I was wrong again. The church was slow but the church got busy on this the leprosy of our age.
Love was on the move.
Mercy was on the move.
God was on the move.
Moving people of all kinds to work with others they had never met, never would have cared to meet… Conservative church groups hanging out with spokesmen for the gay community, all singing off the same hymn sheet on AIDS… Soccer moms and quarterbacks… hip-hop stars and country stars… This is what happens when God gets on the move: crazy stuff happens!
Popes were seen wearing sunglasses!
Jesse Helms was seen with a ghetto blaster!
Crazy stuff. Evidence of the spirit.
It was breathtaking. Literally. It stopped the world in its tracks.
When churches started demonstrating on debt, governments listened—and acted. When churches starting organising, petitioning, and even—that most unholy of acts today, God forbid, lobbying… on AIDS and global health, governments listened—and acted.
I’m here today in all humility to say: you changed minds; you changed policy; you changed the world.
Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who He is or if He exists, most will agree that if there is a God, He has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives.
Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone.
I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill… I hope so. He may well be with us as in all manner of controversial stuff… maybe, maybe not… But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor.
God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. “If you remove the yolk from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places”
It’s not a coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It’s not an accident. That’s a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions. [You know, the only time Christ is judgmental is on the subject of the poor.] ‘As you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.’ (Matthew 25:40). As I say, good news to the poor.
Here’s some good news for the President. After 9-11 we were told America would have no time for the World’s poor. America would be taken up with its own problems of safety. And it’s true these are dangerous times, but America has not drawn the blinds and double-locked the doors.
In fact, you have double aid to Africa. You have tripled funding for global health. Mr. President, your emergency plan for AIDS relief and support for the Global Fund—you and Congress—have put 700,000 people onto life-saving anti-retroviral drugs and provided 8 million bed nets to protect children from malaria.
Outstanding human achievements. Counterintuitive. Historic. Be very, very proud.
But here’s the bad news. From charity to justice, the good news is yet to come. There’s is much more to do. There’s a gigantic chasm between the scale of the emergency and the scale of the response.
And finally, it’s not about charity after all, is it? It’s about justice.
Let me repeat that: It’s not about charity, it’s about justice.
And that’s too bad.
Because you’re good at charity. Americans, like the Irish, are good at it. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can’t afford it.
But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment.
6,500 Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about Justice and Equality.
Because there's no way we can look at what’s happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude that deep down, we really accept that Africans are equal to us. Anywhere else in the world, we wouldn’t accept it. Look at what happened in South East Asia with the Tsunami. 150, 000 lives lost to that misnomer of all misnomers, “mother nature”. In Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. And it’s a completely avoidable catastrophe.
It’s annoying but justice and equality are mates. Aren’t they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain.
You know, think of those Jewish sheep-herders going to meet the Pharaoh, mud on their shoes, and the Pharaoh says, “Equal?” A preposterous idea: rich and poor are equal? And they say, “Yeah, ‘equal,’ that’s what it says here in this book. We’re all made in the image of God.”
And eventually the Pharaoh says, “OK, I can accept that. I can accept the Jews—but not the blacks.”
“Not the women. Not the gays. Not the Irish. No way, man.”
So on we go with our journey of equality.
On we go in the pursuit of justice.
We hear that call in the ONE Campaign, a growing movement of more than two million Americans… left and right together… united in the belief that where you live should no longer determine whether you live.
We hear that call even more powerfully today, as we mourn the loss of Coretta Scott King—mother of a movement for equality, one that changed the world but is only just getting started. These issues are as alive as they ever were; they just change shape and cross the seas.
Preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products while we sing the virtues of the free market… that’s a justice issue. Holding children to ransom for the debts of their grandparents… That’s a justice issue. Withholding life-saving medicines out of deference to the Office of Patents… that’s a justice issue.
And while the law is what we say it is, God is not silent on the subject.
That’s why I say there’s the law of the land… and then there is a higher standard. There’s the law of the land, and we can hire experts to write them so they benefit us, so the laws say it’s OK to protect our agriculture but it’s not OK for African farmers to do the same, to earn a living?
As the laws of man are written, that’s what they say.
God will not accept that.
Mine won’t, at least. Will yours?
[pause]
I close this morning on … very… thin… ice.
This is a dangerous idea I’ve put on the table: my God vs. your God, their God vs. our God… vs. no God. It is very easy, in these times, to see religion as a force for division rather than unity.
And this is a town—Washington—that knows something of division.
But the reason I am here, and the reason I keep coming back to Washington, is because this is a town that is proving it can come together on behalf of what the Scriptures call the least of these.
This is not a Republican idea. It is not a Democratic idea. It is not even, with all due respect, an American idea. Nor it is unique to any one faith.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.’ (Luke 6:30) Jesus says that.
‘Righteousness is this: that one should… give away wealth out of love for Him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for the emancipation of the captives.’ The Koran says that. (2.177)
Thus sayeth the Lord: ‘Bring the homeless poor into the house, when you see the naked, cover him, then your light will break out like the dawn and your recovery will speedily spring fourth, then your Lord will be your rear guard.’ The jewish scripture says that. Isaiah 58 again.
That is a powerful incentive: ‘The Lord will watch your back.’ Sounds like a good deal to me, right now.
A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord’s blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it… I have a family, please look after them… I have this crazy idea…
And this wise man said: stop.
He said, stop asking God to bless what you’re doing.
Get involved in what God is doing—because it’s already blessed.
Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing.
And that is what He’s calling us to do.
I was amazed when I first got to this country and I learned how much some churchgoers tithe. Up to ten percent of the family budget. Well, how does that compare the federal budget, the budget for the entire American family? How much of that goes to the poorest people in the world? Less than one percent.
Mr. President, Congress, people of faith, people of America:
I want to suggest to you today that you see the flow of effective foreign assistance as tithing…. Which, to be truly meaningful, will mean an additional one percent of the federal budget tithed to the poor.
What is one percent?
One percent is not merely a number on a balance sheet.
One percent is the girl in Africa who gets to go to school, thanks to you. One percent is the AIDS patient who gets her medicine, thanks to you. One percent is the African entrepreneur who can start a small family business thanks to you. One percent is not redecorating presidential palaces or money flowing down a rat hole. This one percent is digging waterholes to provide clean water.
One percent is a new partnership with Africa, not paternalism towards Africa, where increased assistance flows toward improved governance and initiatives with proven track records and away from boondoggles and white elephants of every description.
America gives less than one percent now. Were asking for an extra one percent to change the world. to transform millions of lives—but not just that and I say this to the military men now – to transform the way that they see us.
One percent is national security, enlightened economic self interest, and a better safer world rolled into one. Sounds to me that in this town of deals and compromises, one percent is the best bargain around.
These goals—clean water for all; school for every child; medicine for the afflicted, an end to extreme and senseless poverty—these are not just any goals; they are the Millennium Development goals, which this country supports. And they are more than that. They are the Beatitudes for a Globalised World.
Now, I’m very lucky. I don’t have to sit on any budget committees. And I certainly don’t have to sit where you do, Mr. President. I don’t have to make the tough choices.
But I can tell you this:
To give one percent more is right. It’s smart. And it’s blessed.
There is a continent—Africa—being consumed by flames.
I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did—or did not to—to put the fire out in Africa.
History, like God, is watching what we do.
Thank you. Thank you, America, and God bless you all.
BONO'S REMARKS TO THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST
***CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY***
BONOREMARKS AT THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST
Thank you.
Mr. President, First Lady, King Abdullah, Other heads of State, Members of Congress, distinguished guests…
Please join me in praying that I don’t say something we’ll all regret.
That was for the FCC.
If you’re wondering what I’m doing here, at a prayer breakfast, well, so am I. I’m certainly not here as a man of the cloth, unless that cloth is leather. It’s certainly not because I’m a rock star. Which leaves one possible explanation: I’m here because I’ve got a messianic complex.
Yes, it’s true. And for anyone who knows me, it’s hardly a revelation.
Well, I’m the first to admit that there’s something unnatural… something unseemly… about rock stars mounting the pulpit and preaching at presidents, and then disappearing to their villas in the South of France. Talk about a fish out of water. It was weird enough when Jesse Helms showed up at a U2 concert… but this is really weird, isn’t it?
You know, one of the things I love about this country is its separation of church and state. Although I have to say: in inviting me here, both church and state have been separated from something else completely: their mind. .
Mr. President, are you sure about this?
It’s very humbling and I will try to keep my homily brief. But be warned—I’m Irish.
I’d like to talk about the laws of man, here in this city where those laws are written. And I’d like to talk about higher laws. It would be great to assume that the one serves the other; that the laws of man serve these higher laws… but of course, they don’t always. And I presume that, in a sense, is why you’re here.
I presume the reason for this gathering is that all of us here—Muslims, Jews, Christians—all are searching our souls for how to better serve our family, our community, our nation, our God.
I know I am. Searching, I mean. And that, I suppose, is what led me here, too.
Yes, it’s odd, having a rock star here—but maybe it’s odder for me than for you. You see, I avoided religious people most of my life. Maybe it had something to do with having a father who was Protestant and a mother who was Catholic in a country where the line between the two was, quite literally, a battle line. Where the line between church and state was… well, a little blurry, and hard to see.
I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays… and my father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God.
For me, at least, it got in the way. Seeing what religious people, in the name of God, did to my native land… and in this country, seeing God’s second-hand car salesmen on the cable TV channels, offering indulgences for cash… in fact, all over the world, seeing the self-righteousness roll down like a mighty stream from certain corners of the religious establishment…
I must confess, I changed the channel. I wanted my MTV.
Even though I was a believer.
Perhaps because I was a believer.
I was cynical… not about God, but about God’s politics. (There you are, Jim.)
Then, in 1997, a couple of eccentric, septuagenarian British Christians went and ruined my shtick—my reproachfulness. They did it by describing the Millennium, the year 2000, as a Jubilee year, as an opportunity to cancel the chronic debts of the world’s poorest people. They had the audacity to renew the Lord’s call—and were joined by Pope John Paul II, who, from an Irish half-Catholic’s point of view, may have had a more direct line to the Almighty.
‘Jubilee’—why ‘Jubilee’?
What was this year of Jubilee, this year of our Lords favor?
I’d always read the Scriptures, even the obscure stuff. There it was in Leviticus (25:35)…
‘If your brother becomes poor,’ the Scriptures say, ‘and cannot maintain himself… you shall maintain him… You shall not lend him your money at interest, not give him your food for profit.’
It is such an important idea, Jubilee, that Jesus begins his ministry with this. Jesus is a young man, he’s met with the rabbis, impressed everyone, people are talking. The elders say, he’s a clever guy, this Jesus, but he hasn’t done much… yet. He hasn’t spoken in public before…
When he does, is first words are from Isaiah: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,’ he says, ‘because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.’ And Jesus proclaims the year of the Lord’s favour, the year of Jubilee. (Luke 4:18)
What he was really talking about was an era of grace—and we’re still in it.
So fast-forward 2,000 years. That same thought, grace, was made incarnate—in a movement of all kinds of people. It wasn’t a bless-me club… it wasn’t a holy huddle. These religious guys were willing to get out in the streets, get their boots dirty, wave the placards, follow their convictions with actions… making it really hard for people like me to keep their distance. It was amazing. I almost started to like these church people.
But then my cynicism got another helping hand.
It was what Colin Powell, a five-star general, called the greatest W.M.D. of them all: a tiny little virus called A.I.D.S. And the religious community, in large part, missed it. The one’s that didn’t miss it could only see it as divine retribution for bad behaviour. Even on children… Even fastest growing group of HIV infections were married, faithful women.
Aha, there they go again! I thought to myself Judgmentalism is back!
But in truth, I was wrong again. The church was slow but the church got busy on this the leprosy of our age.
Love was on the move.
Mercy was on the move.
God was on the move.
Moving people of all kinds to work with others they had never met, never would have cared to meet… Conservative church groups hanging out with spokesmen for the gay community, all singing off the same hymn sheet on AIDS… Soccer moms and quarterbacks… hip-hop stars and country stars… This is what happens when God gets on the move: crazy stuff happens!
Popes were seen wearing sunglasses!
Jesse Helms was seen with a ghetto blaster!
Crazy stuff. Evidence of the spirit.
It was breathtaking. Literally. It stopped the world in its tracks.
When churches started demonstrating on debt, governments listened—and acted. When churches starting organising, petitioning, and even—that most unholy of acts today, God forbid, lobbying… on AIDS and global health, governments listened—and acted.
I’m here today in all humility to say: you changed minds; you changed policy; you changed the world.
Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who He is or if He exists, most will agree that if there is a God, He has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives.
Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone.
I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill… I hope so. He may well be with us as in all manner of controversial stuff… maybe, maybe not… But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor.
God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. “If you remove the yolk from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places”
It’s not a coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It’s not an accident. That’s a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions. [You know, the only time Christ is judgmental is on the subject of the poor.] ‘As you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.’ (Matthew 25:40). As I say, good news to the poor.
Here’s some good news for the President. After 9-11 we were told America would have no time for the World’s poor. America would be taken up with its own problems of safety. And it’s true these are dangerous times, but America has not drawn the blinds and double-locked the doors.
In fact, you have double aid to Africa. You have tripled funding for global health. Mr. President, your emergency plan for AIDS relief and support for the Global Fund—you and Congress—have put 700,000 people onto life-saving anti-retroviral drugs and provided 8 million bed nets to protect children from malaria.
Outstanding human achievements. Counterintuitive. Historic. Be very, very proud.
But here’s the bad news. From charity to justice, the good news is yet to come. There’s is much more to do. There’s a gigantic chasm between the scale of the emergency and the scale of the response.
And finally, it’s not about charity after all, is it? It’s about justice.
Let me repeat that: It’s not about charity, it’s about justice.
And that’s too bad.
Because you’re good at charity. Americans, like the Irish, are good at it. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can’t afford it.
But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment.
6,500 Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about Justice and Equality.
Because there's no way we can look at what’s happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude that deep down, we really accept that Africans are equal to us. Anywhere else in the world, we wouldn’t accept it. Look at what happened in South East Asia with the Tsunami. 150, 000 lives lost to that misnomer of all misnomers, “mother nature”. In Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. And it’s a completely avoidable catastrophe.
It’s annoying but justice and equality are mates. Aren’t they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain.
You know, think of those Jewish sheep-herders going to meet the Pharaoh, mud on their shoes, and the Pharaoh says, “Equal?” A preposterous idea: rich and poor are equal? And they say, “Yeah, ‘equal,’ that’s what it says here in this book. We’re all made in the image of God.”
And eventually the Pharaoh says, “OK, I can accept that. I can accept the Jews—but not the blacks.”
“Not the women. Not the gays. Not the Irish. No way, man.”
So on we go with our journey of equality.
On we go in the pursuit of justice.
We hear that call in the ONE Campaign, a growing movement of more than two million Americans… left and right together… united in the belief that where you live should no longer determine whether you live.
We hear that call even more powerfully today, as we mourn the loss of Coretta Scott King—mother of a movement for equality, one that changed the world but is only just getting started. These issues are as alive as they ever were; they just change shape and cross the seas.
Preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products while we sing the virtues of the free market… that’s a justice issue. Holding children to ransom for the debts of their grandparents… That’s a justice issue. Withholding life-saving medicines out of deference to the Office of Patents… that’s a justice issue.
And while the law is what we say it is, God is not silent on the subject.
That’s why I say there’s the law of the land… and then there is a higher standard. There’s the law of the land, and we can hire experts to write them so they benefit us, so the laws say it’s OK to protect our agriculture but it’s not OK for African farmers to do the same, to earn a living?
As the laws of man are written, that’s what they say.
God will not accept that.
Mine won’t, at least. Will yours?
[pause]
I close this morning on … very… thin… ice.
This is a dangerous idea I’ve put on the table: my God vs. your God, their God vs. our God… vs. no God. It is very easy, in these times, to see religion as a force for division rather than unity.
And this is a town—Washington—that knows something of division.
But the reason I am here, and the reason I keep coming back to Washington, is because this is a town that is proving it can come together on behalf of what the Scriptures call the least of these.
This is not a Republican idea. It is not a Democratic idea. It is not even, with all due respect, an American idea. Nor it is unique to any one faith.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.’ (Luke 6:30) Jesus says that.
‘Righteousness is this: that one should… give away wealth out of love for Him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for the emancipation of the captives.’ The Koran says that. (2.177)
Thus sayeth the Lord: ‘Bring the homeless poor into the house, when you see the naked, cover him, then your light will break out like the dawn and your recovery will speedily spring fourth, then your Lord will be your rear guard.’ The jewish scripture says that. Isaiah 58 again.
That is a powerful incentive: ‘The Lord will watch your back.’ Sounds like a good deal to me, right now.
A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord’s blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it… I have a family, please look after them… I have this crazy idea…
And this wise man said: stop.
He said, stop asking God to bless what you’re doing.
Get involved in what God is doing—because it’s already blessed.
Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing.
And that is what He’s calling us to do.
I was amazed when I first got to this country and I learned how much some churchgoers tithe. Up to ten percent of the family budget. Well, how does that compare the federal budget, the budget for the entire American family? How much of that goes to the poorest people in the world? Less than one percent.
Mr. President, Congress, people of faith, people of America:
I want to suggest to you today that you see the flow of effective foreign assistance as tithing…. Which, to be truly meaningful, will mean an additional one percent of the federal budget tithed to the poor.
What is one percent?
One percent is not merely a number on a balance sheet.
One percent is the girl in Africa who gets to go to school, thanks to you. One percent is the AIDS patient who gets her medicine, thanks to you. One percent is the African entrepreneur who can start a small family business thanks to you. One percent is not redecorating presidential palaces or money flowing down a rat hole. This one percent is digging waterholes to provide clean water.
One percent is a new partnership with Africa, not paternalism towards Africa, where increased assistance flows toward improved governance and initiatives with proven track records and away from boondoggles and white elephants of every description.
America gives less than one percent now. Were asking for an extra one percent to change the world. to transform millions of lives—but not just that and I say this to the military men now – to transform the way that they see us.
One percent is national security, enlightened economic self interest, and a better safer world rolled into one. Sounds to me that in this town of deals and compromises, one percent is the best bargain around.
These goals—clean water for all; school for every child; medicine for the afflicted, an end to extreme and senseless poverty—these are not just any goals; they are the Millennium Development goals, which this country supports. And they are more than that. They are the Beatitudes for a Globalised World.
Now, I’m very lucky. I don’t have to sit on any budget committees. And I certainly don’t have to sit where you do, Mr. President. I don’t have to make the tough choices.
But I can tell you this:
To give one percent more is right. It’s smart. And it’s blessed.
There is a continent—Africa—being consumed by flames.
I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did—or did not to—to put the fire out in Africa.
History, like God, is watching what we do.
Thank you. Thank you, America, and God bless you all.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Romans 3 Trustees of the oracle
Hey we are back online with Romans 3. Sorry that it took so long. I hope that you are getting something out of these minor commentaries. I hope to hear from you on it. As usual I am starting with the Scripture from Romans 3.
God's Faithfulness
1What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.
3What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? 4Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: "So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge."[a]
5But if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) 6Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? 7Someone might argue, "If my falsehood enhances God's truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?" 8Why not say—as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say—"Let us do evil that good may result"? Their condemnation is deserved.
No One is Righteous
9What shall we conclude then? Are we any better[b]? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; 11there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."[c] 13"Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit."[d] "The poison of vipers is on their lips."[e] 14"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."[f] 15"Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16ruin and misery mark their ways, 17and the way of peace they do not know."[g] 18"There is no fear of God before their eyes."[h]
19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
Righteousness Through Faith
21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. 29Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.
Footnotes:
v. 2 “Entrusted with the very words of God”, Paul is talking about the Jews here. They not only received the words of God but were given them as trustees or stewards for all the nations. I think we as Christians have also been entrusted with the Word of God. We have received the very oracle or revelation of God and his Spirit lives inside of us. The role of being a trustee is two-fold. Faith, we must believe what we have been given and faithfulness we must live true to what we have been given. This goes back to that whole tension between belief and action, which is more important? In our journey they are impossible to separate. Paul in Galatians doesn’t try to separate the two. Galatians 5:16 – 26.
Life by the Spirit
16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Just like eating healthy and exercising regularly improves your overall health naturally, living in the Spirit naturally produces a godlier person. We should not strive to be good but to seek God.
I know that there is a ton more to this chapter, but I want to hear what you are wrestling through. Once again sorry it took so long to get out.
God's Faithfulness
1What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.
3What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? 4Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: "So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge."[a]
5But if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) 6Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? 7Someone might argue, "If my falsehood enhances God's truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?" 8Why not say—as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say—"Let us do evil that good may result"? Their condemnation is deserved.
No One is Righteous
9What shall we conclude then? Are we any better[b]? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; 11there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."[c] 13"Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit."[d] "The poison of vipers is on their lips."[e] 14"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."[f] 15"Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16ruin and misery mark their ways, 17and the way of peace they do not know."[g] 18"There is no fear of God before their eyes."[h]
19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
Righteousness Through Faith
21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. 29Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.
Footnotes:
- Romans 3:4 Psalm 51:4
- Romans 3:9 Or worse
- Romans 3:12 Psalms 14:1-3; 53:1-3; Eccles. 7:20
- Romans 3:13 Psalm 5:9
- Romans 3:13 Psalm 140:3
- Romans 3:14 Psalm 10:7
- Romans 3:17 Isaiah 59:7,8
- Romans 3:18 Psalm 36:1
- Romans 3:25 Or as the one who would turn aside his wrath, taking away sin
v. 2 “Entrusted with the very words of God”, Paul is talking about the Jews here. They not only received the words of God but were given them as trustees or stewards for all the nations. I think we as Christians have also been entrusted with the Word of God. We have received the very oracle or revelation of God and his Spirit lives inside of us. The role of being a trustee is two-fold. Faith, we must believe what we have been given and faithfulness we must live true to what we have been given. This goes back to that whole tension between belief and action, which is more important? In our journey they are impossible to separate. Paul in Galatians doesn’t try to separate the two. Galatians 5:16 – 26.
Life by the Spirit
16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Just like eating healthy and exercising regularly improves your overall health naturally, living in the Spirit naturally produces a godlier person. We should not strive to be good but to seek God.
I know that there is a ton more to this chapter, but I want to hear what you are wrestling through. Once again sorry it took so long to get out.
Monday, February 06, 2006
hey its a post
I’ve decided that I am horrible at writing a blog. When I have the most to say it seems like I am too busy to write anything. How do you other bloggers do it? I want to write and I love to write but it just doesn’t seem to happen on a regular basis. Anyways let me write my thoughts.
STEELERS WIN – Super Bowl XL was awesome because I am a Steelers fan. The game is way better when your favorite team is playing. I hate watching the game on Canadian TV because we miss the good commercials. But thanks to the internet that problem was solved. Fox Sports on their website updated the commercials after each break and made most of them available to watch. So after the first quarter I watched the good commercials on each commercial break. Take that Global TV. Here is the link to Fox’s Commercials http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/5309872
The best message in a commercial was this one - Careerbuilder.com, "Sales Aren't Up"
From fox
“Careerbuilder.com turned in some of the best commercials of last year's Super Bowl and, at least so far, this effort gets our nod for the funniest of this year's version. Once again, the poor, tortured employee is working for a bunch of monkeys. This time, they've got the sales graph turned upside down, so it appears as if business is booming, when in fact, the opposite is the case. For our money, the monkey lighting stogies with cash makes the ad.”
OK even Super Bowl ads are continuing narratives. For the people who watch football once a year at Super Bowl they still have a continuing story. Maybe we should take that approach for our Christmas and Easter services.
Back to the monkeys in the commercial when the guy points out that the chart is upside down and that sales are going down instead of up. He turns the chart up the right way. The partying monkeys confronted by the truth have a choice to make. One of the monkeys gets up and flips the chart back upside down and party on. The monkeys refused to acknowledge the truth and change.
Is there any parallel to Christianity here?
Jesus said – John 8:32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
If "know" in Bible terms means experience, not just know in our brain, then how to we help people “experience” the truth of Jesus Christ? The company of monkeys even if they do not acknowledge the truth will experience the truth in time, if they continue to act like sales are up. The company will collapse. How are we helping people experience Jesus before it is too late?
On the Jesus theme – check out these videos – disclaimer I do not endorse the historical accuracy of these videos and do not show these to people who think we should be only reading King James Version, they will be offended.
The link is this - http://www.vintage21.com/findex.html then click on media when the video options come up click on page 2. When you hit the Jesus videos click away and enjoy.
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