A Great Blog

Patterns and Practices of Disciple Making

2013-03-01T14:32:00.002-08:00

Verge13 Session 2

How then should we live? Founders and leaders of several organizations share how they make disciples who make disciples. Their practices are simple, transferable, and reproducible offering many voices and diverse tools and resources for those who want to be on God's mission.

The common thread is that discipleship and life transformation happen in the normal rhythms of life through authentic and natural relationships as we invest ourselves in the people already around us every day.

Consider how God has placed you in position to be intentional about reaching the lost. These are some ways to prepare to have Jesus conversations:

Care about the people in your work environment. Work yourself into the fiber of your community.
Don't get caught up with the people who don't want to hear the Gospel. God has placed "persons of peace" in you life who are hungry for the truth you have to offer. Find them and bring it!
The good news we proclaim is the Kingdom of God. Demonstrate that Christ reigns in you and you will be asked by pre-Christians around you to proclaim the gospel. What does this look like? Jesus was a friend of sinners, he healed on the Sabbath, honored the outcast, fed the hungry. Do what Jesus did.
Change from gathering for the sake of those who already know Christ to gathering for the sake of those who do not. Meet weekly with co-workers for Happy Hour, invite other moms for play dates, go where the lost go. When you do meet, don't meet to discuss books and ask questions ABOUT life. Meet for life transformation and DO life together.
Practice hospitality. Practice hospitality. Practice hospitality. And when you run out of ideas about how to be a blessing to those God has placed in your life, practice hospitality again!
Value fruitfulness over success. Better to plant one seed at a time and eventually grow a forest that remains than to sow to the wind and grow nothing that takes root.
Focus on building disciples rather than churches. Disciples on mission create communities.
Foster obedience.

No one's life is so jam packed that they can't be on mission. Mission happens naturally. We disciple effectively when we realize it is not an extra task. If you want to explore specific tools developed to help you transform your normal life to a missional life, check out vergenetwork.org and click on networks.

What is God saying to you?
What are you going to do about it?
Who are you going to share it with?

Disciple Making - There is No Plan B

2013-03-01T11:17:00.001-08:00

Verge 13, Session 1

In Matthew 4, we see Jesus calling his first disciples. The conference speaker, whose name is not listed in the program (how refreshing), sums up what disciples look like today. According to one recent poll:

Four out of every five Americans identify themselves as Christians
Less than half go to church regularly
Less than half believe the Bible is the Word of God
. . . The list goes on and on

Amongst Americans who consider themselves to be more enlightened Jesus followers, most believe:

Good people go to heaven
Muslims worship the same God as Christians
. . . And lots more shockingly, unbiblical worldviews

In the words of Martin Luther, "What does this mean?" It means that statistics demonstrate there are lots of folks out there identifying themselves as followers of Christ who are not disciples in a biblical sense. But that is the law. Where is the gospel? The gospel was the best part of his message. It is in Matthew 1-3.

In Matthew 1-3, our speaker highlights at least twenty pictures of who Jesus actually is, His majesty and glory, and it is nothing less than awesome:

Chapter 1: Messiah, King, Chosen One, Incarnation, Two Natures, Fully God, Fully Man, Savior of the World, Most Important Figure in All of History
Chapter 2: Object of Worship, Sought by the Wise, Feared by Kings, Protected by Angels, Leader of a Second Exodus out of Exile, Spoken of by the Prophets
Chapter 3: The Coming King, Righteous Judge, Loved and Sent by God the Father from the Foundation of the World

Roughly paraphrased, when Jesus calls his first disciples in Chapter 4, "He is not a poor, puny savior begging to be accepted. He is the promised Messiah. A Savior full of power and glory, worthy of total abandonment and complete submission." When Jesus says, "Follow me," everything in these men's lives would be changed because of their encounter with THIS Jesus.

In contrast, what does it look like to be a disciple of THIS Jesus?

To live with radical abandonment for His glory
To live with joyful dependence on His grace
To live with faithful adherence to His person
To live with urgent obedience to His mission

None of this makes sense unless one knows who Jesus really is. Because we don't know Him, a casual association with Jesus without embracing the cost of discipleship is popular in America today. It's too risky to abandon comfort, career, possessions, and position for our begging, puny Jesus, and we don't really see the need. So we don't. But, the casual, cultural Christian lifestyle is even more risky. With abandonment to Jesus Christ comes the adoption as sons. We have been invited to follow Him.

What is God saying to you?
What are you going to do about it?
Who are you going to share it with?

Verge13

2013-03-01T09:28:00.001-08:00

The first weekend in March 2013 marks the annual Verge Conference in Austin, Texas. Verge Conference was launched in 2010 as a gathering for people engaged in the mission of God with the gospel in their everyday context.

A quick survey of their web site sums up this network:

"Verge leaders and churches are engaged in the mission of God, centered around the gospel, in community, and understand the value of staying current on issues surrounding the mission of God. Verge Network has a passionate and engaged audience of leaders who want to see the Gospel change them, change their communities, change the neighbors and change the world." - See more at: http://www.vergenetwork.org/about/#sthash.0xGEp1FP.dpuf

The theme of the conference this year is "Disciple Making" and reflects a timely message for Christians seeking to live on God's mission. Follow this blog for a peek into what Verge leaders have to say about the process of disciple making, practices of missional people, bridging culture and removing barriers.

Update on LCMS in the News

2013-02-09T20:34:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share with you an apology from Matthew Harrison, the president of our church body, related to his asking an LCMS pastor to apologize for offering a benediction for those mourning the tragedy in Newton. I applaud him for acknowledging that there is another point of view held by many in our church body who desire to bear witness to Christ in the public sphere.
http://wmltblog.org/2013/02/pastoral-letters-on-the-newtown-tragedy/

Related Links:
Jerry Kieschnick's response

An outside perspective from Ed Stetzer

Bible Reading Plans

2012-12-29T22:05:00.001-08:00

The sites below offer some options for you to start a Bible reading plan...

http://www.youversion.com

http://bibleplan.org

Helpful Hints for Children in Times of Tragedy

2012-12-15T22:26:00.002-08:00

Do your best to keep the television off, or at least limit how much your child sees of any news event.

Try to keep yourself calm. Your presence can help your child feel more secure.

Give your child extra comfort and physical affection, like hugs or snuggling up together with a favorite book. Physical comfort goes a long way towards providing inner security. That closeness can nourish you, too.

Try to keep regular routines as normal as possible. Children and adults count on their familiar pattern of everyday life.

Even if children don't mention what they've seen or heard in the news, it can help to ask what they think has happened. If parents don't bring up the subject, children can be left with their misinterpretations. You may be really surprised at how much your child has heard from others.

Focus attention on the helpers, like the police, firemen, doctors, nurses, paramedics, and volunteers. It's reassuring to know there are many caring people who are doing all they can to help others in this world.

From Mister Rogers' Parenting Book: Helping To Understand Your Young Child by Fred Rogers

Our Savior Lutheran Children’s Ministry: www.oslc.com (253)-531-2112

Religion versus the Gospel

2012-11-19T07:40:00.002-08:00

Here is the chart referred to in the sermon on Beyond Stuck: Obedience.
Religion vs. the Gospel

10 Questions a Pro-Choice Candidate Is Never Asked by the Media

2012-10-29T22:34:00.000-07:00

TREVIN WAX|2:25 PM CT

10 Questions a Pro-Choice Candidate Is Never Asked by the Media

Debate moderators and reporters love to ask pro-life candidates hard questions about abortion. Curiously, they don’t do the same for pro-choice candidates.

Here are 10 questions you never hear a pro-choice candidate asked by the media:

1. You say you support a woman’s right to make her own reproductive choices in regards to abortion and contraception. Are there any restrictions you would approve of?

2. In 2010, The Economist featured a cover story on “the war on girls” and the growth of “gendercide” in the world – abortion based solely on the sex of the baby. Does this phenomenon pose a problem for you or do you believe in the absolute right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy because the unborn fetus is female?

3. In many states, a teenager can have an abortion without her parents’ consent or knowledge but cannot get an aspirin from the school nurse without parental authorization. Do you support any restrictions or parental notification regarding abortion access for minors?

4. If you do not believe that human life begins at conception, when do you believe it begins? At what stage of development should an unborn child have human rights?

5. Currently, when genetic testing reveals an unborn child has Down Syndrome, most women choose to abort. How do you answer the charge that this phenomenon resembles the “eugenics” movement a century ago – the slow, but deliberate “weeding out” of those our society would deem “unfit” to live?

6. Do you believe an employer should be forced to violate his or her religious conscience by providing access to abortifacient drugs and contraception to employees?

7. Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King, Jr. has said that “abortion is the white supremacist’s best friend,” pointing to the fact that Black and Latinos represent 25% of our population but account for 59% of all abortions. How do you respond to the charge that the majority of abortion clinics are found in inner-city areas with large numbers of minorities?

8. You describe abortion as a “tragic choice.” If abortion is not morally objectionable, then why is it tragic? Does this mean there is something about abortion that is different than other standard surgical procedures?

9. Do you believe abortion should be legal once the unborn fetus is viable – able to survive outside the womb?

10. If a pregnant woman and her unborn child are murdered, do you believe the criminal should face two counts of murder and serve a harsher sentence?

2012-09-29T11:57:00.002-07:00

This is a list from 25 Simple Ways to Be Missional in Your Neighborhood, by Josh Reeves. These are practical ways to engage the people around you with gospel intentionality. This means you do them:

In the normal rhythms of life pursuing to meet and engage new people.
Prayerfully watching and listening to the Holy Spirit to discern where God is working.
Looking to boldly, humbly, and contextually proclaim the gospel in word and deed.

Stay outside in the front yard longer while watering the yard.
Walk your dog regularly around the same time in your neighborhood.
Sit on the front porch while letting kids play in the front yard.
Pass out baked goods.
Invite neighbors over for dinner.
Attend and participate in HOA functions.
Attend the parties invited to by neighbors.
Do a food drive and coat drive in winter and get neighbors involved.
Have a game night (yard games outside or board games inside).
Art swap night — bring out what you’re tired of and trade with neighbors.
Grow a garden and give extra produce to neighbors.
Have an Easter egg hunt on your block and invite neighbors.
Start a weekly open meal night in your home.
Do a summer BBQ every Friday night and invite others contribute.
Create a block/street email and phone contact list for safety.
Host a sports game watching party.
Host a coffee and dessert night.
Organize and host a ladies artistic creation night.
Organize a tasting tour on your street.
Host a movie night and discussion afterwards.
Start a walking/running group in the neighborhood.
Start hosting a play date weekly for other stay at home parents.
Organize a carpool for your neighborhood to help save gas.
Volunteer to coach a local little league sports team.
Have a front yard ice cream party in the summer.

The Way of Wisdom: Work and Vocation

2012-09-02T08:04:00.002-07:00

Link to the Design booklet.

Resources related to Homosexuality

2012-08-12T05:54:00.002-07:00

Summary of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's stance on homosexuality

Paper by a member of Our Savior going into the relationship between relativism and homosexuality.

Exodus International: A Christian organization helping those who struggle with homosexuality

Book by the son of Pastor Brian's childhood pastor that talks about his journey toward overcoming homosexuality. Link

Tragedy in Aurora, Colorado

2012-07-26T10:56:00.003-07:00

A sermon introduction that was sent to me, that speaks to the tragic shooting in Aurora, Colorado.

Sermon Introduction

Rev. Paul D. Doellinger
Monmouth, Oregon
July 22, 2012

After what happened in Aurora, Colorado early Friday morning, I seriously considered throwing the sermon I had prepared for today in the wastebasket and starting all over. But then I decided that the best thing I could do as a visiting pastor in your congregation today is to help us all to return to normalcy as quickly as possible by preaching the sermon that I had prepared, which is based on today’s Epistle. And yet, I do feel that I must say something about that terrible tragedy.

As we have been trying to respond to such an unimaginable event, commentators on TV and on the radio have been trying to describe the shooter by calling him “sick.” Frankly, I think calling the man who committed that horrendous crime “sick” does an injustice to people with sicknesses like cancer, diabetes or heart disease. The word the Bible uses to describe that kind of behavior is the word “evil.” And the Bible is not afraid to call evil “evil.”

Before the Fall into sin, God saw everything that He had made, “and behold it was very good.” But then Genesis 3 tells us that the human beings whom God created “good” and who knew only good rebelled against God because they wanted to know “evil” as well as “good.” In their desire to know evil as well as good, they brought evil into God’s good creation. Before long Adam and Eve themselves felt the pain of that evil when one of their own sons, Cain, murdered his own brother, their other son, Abel.

Ever since the Fall, evil has been loose in our world. Just a few chapters into Genesis, we read that things had gotten so bad that as God looked at the human beings He had created, “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” Genesis 6:5 (NIV)

If our hearts were filled with pain when we heard about the shooting of those people in that movie theater, how much more must God’s heart have been filled with pain when He looked down from heaven and saw the shooting taking place…and saw hundreds, even thousands, of other murders also taking place that same day. Yes, God’s heart must be absolutely overflowing with pain every day, day after day after day.

But God’s heart is also filled with something else than pain. God’s divine heart is filled to overflowing with love for the people He created. At first glance, the easy solution to the problem of evil in this world might have been for God to simply send a huge comet crashing into planet earth and just destroying everyone. But God loves us too much to take that approach. And so He chose another way of dealing with the evil that is within us.

He sent His Son Jesus into our world to rescue us and save us from the consequences of that evil. Jesus describes His purpose in life as coming to seek and to save the lost. To accomplish that mission, Jesus willingly went to the cross, taking upon Himself the guilt of the sins of the world so that all who look to Him in faith as their Savior can receive His forgiveness. And along with that forgiveness of our sins comes the gift of peace with God…and in that peace with God we also receive from Christ His divine comfort.

St. Paul describes that comfort for us in 2 Corinthians 2:3-4:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

When all of this is over and the dust settles, two things will remain true: Evil is real…and we have seen ample evidence of that this past week. But more powerful than the reality of evil is the enduring reality of the love of God and the comfort that we receive from God through Jesus Christ so that we can bring to other people, through our words and deeds, the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Video from Thursday's VBS Staff devotion

2012-07-22T07:35:00.000-07:00

I was asked by several people to make the video from Thursday morning's VBS staff devotion on the GOSPEL available. Here it is.

Reason for God: Scripture

2012-07-01T19:28:00.000-07:00

Handout on the historical reliability of the New Testament

Why We Believe PDF Booklet

Reason For God: Doubt

2012-06-24T06:40:00.003-07:00

Links:
Indescribable by Louie Giglio
Anthony Flew, famous atheist, was led to believe in God through science.

Reason for God: Hell

2012-06-24T06:32:00.004-07:00

A couple of links to articles on Hell:
Brimstone for the Broad-minded by Tim Keller
The Importance of Hell by Tim Keller

Hell
by Peter Kreft

The hell with hell! says the modern mind. Of all Christianity's teachings, hell is certainly the least popular. Non-Christians ignore it, weak Christians excuse it, and anti-Christians attack it.

Some, like Bertrand Russell in his famous essay "Why I Am Not a Christian", argue that because Jesus clearly taught it, he was not a good moral teacher. (Russell's essay, by the way, makes fine devotional reading for a Christian. My college roommate was about to lose his faith until he read it; he said to me, "If those are the arguments against Christianity, I'd better be a Christian.")

Why do we believe there's a hell? Not because we're vindictive. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." Why, then? Simply because we've been told, by Christ himself. There's a popular fallacy that Jesus spoke only comforting words and that the fear of hell began with Saint Paul. The textual truth is the opposite: Jesus uttered many "hell fire and damnation" sermons, while nearly all the passages that offer any hope to the universalist (who believe all men will be saved in the end) are from Paul.

Fear of hell is not a base motive. As George MacDonald says, "As long as there are wild beasts about, it is better to be afraid than secure." God's graciousness accepts even the "low" motive of fear of hell for salvation if that's the best we can muster. His arms are open to all prodigals. He is not high-minded, like some of his detractors. All's fair in love and war. And life is both.

Hell follows from two other doctrines: heaven and free will. If there is a heaven, there can be a not-heaven. And if there is free will, we can act on it and abuse it. Those who deny hell must also deny either heaven (as does Western secularism) or free will (as does Eastern pantheism).

Hell and heaven make life serious. Heaven without hell removes the bite from life's drama. C. S. Lewis once said that he never met a single person who had a lively faith in heaven without a similar belief in hell. The height of the mountain is measured by the depth of the valley, the greatness of salvation by the awfulness of the thing we're saved from.

What is hell? The popular image of demons gleefully poking pitchforks into unrepentant posteriors misses the point of the biblical image of fire. Fire destroys. Gehenna, the word Jesus used for hell, was the valley outside Jerusalem that the Jews used for the perpetual burning of garbage because it had been desecrated by heathen tribes who used it for human sacrifice. In hell you make an eternal ash of yourself. Hell is not eternal life with torture but something far worse: eternal dying. What goes to hell, said C. S. Lewis, is "not a man, but remains".

The images for hell in Scripture are horrible, but they're only symbols. The thing symbolized is not less horrible than the symbols, but more. Spiritual fire is worse than material fire; spiritual death is worse than physical death. The pain of loss—the loss of God, who is the source of all joy—is infinitely more horrible than any torture could ever be. All who know God and his joy understand that. Saints do not need to be threatened with fire, only with loss. "All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness. The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it—or else that it was within your grasp and you have lost it forever" (C. S. Lewis).

Jesus does not tell us much detail about hell. He tells us that it exists, that it's horrible, that any man can go there. Judas seems to be one, for Jesus says of him, "It would have been good for that man if he had not been born." If no one goes to hell, it would seem to be inexcusable for Jesus to give us so many fearful warnings about it. But he does not give us population statistics. To his disciples' question "Are many saved?" he does not answer with estimates but with a forceful appeal to the will: "Strive to enter in."

Hell follows from two
other doctrines:
heaven and free will.

Jesus says the way to hell is broad and many find it and that the way to heaven is narrow and few find it. And he means it: you don't get to heaven simply by being born, by being nice, or by oozing into an eternal growth experience. But "few" here does not mean that less than half of mankind will be saved. For God speaks as our Father, not our statistician. Even one child lost is too many, and the rest saved are too few. The good shepherd who left his ninety-nine sheep safe at home to rescue his one lost sheep found even 99 percent salvation too "few". The most important question about hell, as about heaven, is the practical one: What roads lead there? They are interior, of course. In fact, heaven and hell may be the very same objective place—namely God's love, experienced oppositely by opposite souls, just as the same opera or rock concert can be heavenly for you and hellish for the reluctant guest at your side. The fires of hell may be made of the very love of God, experienced as torture by those who hate him: the very light of God's truth, hated and fled from in vain by those who love darkness. Imagine a man in hell—no, a ghost—endlessly chasing his own shadow, as the light of God shines endlessly behind him. If he would only turn and face the light, he would be saved. But he refuses to—forever. Just as we can attain heaven by implicit as well as explicit faith ("Saint Socrates, pray for us," says Erasmus), so hell too can be reached without explicit rebellion. This is the terrible—and terribly needed—truth taught by C. S. Lewis in The Great Divorce and Charles Williams in Descent into Hell. We can drift, slide, even snooze comfortably into hell. All God's messengers, the prophets, say so.

We desperately need to hear this truth about hell again, simply out of honesty, because it is there. And also out of compassion. For when an abyss looms ahead, the leastcompassionate thing to tell the traveler is "peace, peace, when there is no peace". Out of love for God and man, let us tell the truth about hell!

Sure, we'll be mocked as vindictive, manipulative, or fundamentalist. Let it be so. Sometimes it seems that we're more afraid of sharing our Lord's holy unrespectability than of hell itself. It's a small price to pay for the salvation of a single infinitely precious soul. And that is the business we're supposed to be in.

Suffering

2012-06-17T07:39:00.004-07:00

God's Answer to Suffering

The answer must be someone, not just something. For the problem (suffering) is about someone (God—why does he... why doesn't he ...?) rather than just something. To question God's goodness is not just an intellectual experiment. It is rebellion or tears. It is a little child with tears in its eyes looking up at Daddy and weeping, "Why?" This is not merely the philosophers' "why?" Not only does it add the emotion of tears but also it is asked in the context of relationship. It is a question put to the Father, not a question asked in a vacuum.

The hurt child needs not so much explanations as reassurances. And that is what we get: the reassurance of the Father in the person of Jesus, "he who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9).

The answer is not just a word but the Word; not an idea but a person. Clues are abstract, persons are concrete. Clues are signs; they signify something beyond themselves, something real. Our solution cannot be a mere idea, however true, profound, or useful, because that would be only another sign, another finger, another clue—like fingers pointing to other fingers, like having faith in faith, or hope in hope, or being in love with love. A hall of mirrors.

Besides being here, he is now. Besides being concretely real in our world, he, our answer, is also in our story, our history. Our story is also his-story. The answer is not a timeless truth but a once-for-all catastrophic event, as real as the stories in today's newspapers.

It is, of course, the most familiar, the most often-told story in the world. Yet it is also the strangest, and it has never lost its strangeness, its awe, and will not even in eternity, where angels tremble to gaze at things we yawn at. And however strange, it is the only key that fits the lock of our tortured lives and needs. We needed a surgeon, and he came and reached into our wounds with bloody hands. He didn't give us a placebo or a pill or good advice. He gave us himself.

The answer is not just a word
but the Word;
not an idea but a person.

He came. He entered space and time and suffering. He came, like a lover. Love seeks above all intimacy, presence, togetherness. Not happiness. "Better unhappy with her than happy without her"—that is the word of a lover. He came. That is the salient fact, the towering truth, that alone keeps us from putting a bullet through our heads. He came. Job is satisfied even though the God who came gave him absolutely no answers at all to his thousand tortured questions. He did the most important thing and he gave the most important gift: himself. It is a lover's gift. Out of our tears, our waiting, our darkness, our agonized aloneness, out of our weeping and wondering, out of our cry, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" he came, all the way, right into that cry.

In coming into our world he came also into our suffering. He sits beside us in the stalled car in the snowbank. Sometimes he starts the car for us, but even when he doesn't, he is there. That is the only thing that matters. Who cares about cars and success and miracles and long life when you have God sitting beside you? He sits beside us in the lowest places of our lives, like water. Are we broken? He is broken with us. Are we rejected? Do people despise us not for our evil but for our good, or attempted good? He was "despised and rejected of men." Do we weep? Is grief our familiar spirit, our horrifyingly familiar ghost? Do we ever say, "Oh, no, not again! I can't take any more!"? He was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." Do people misunderstand us, turn away from us? They hid their faces from him as from an outcast, a leper. Is our love betrayed? Are our tenderest relationships broken? He too loved and was betrayed by the ones he loved. "He came unto his own and his own received him not." Does it seem sometimes as if life has passed us by or cast us out, as if we are sinking into uselessness and oblivion? He sinks with us. He too is passed over by the world. His way of suffering love is rejected, his own followers often the most guilty of all; they have made his name a scandal, especially among his own chosen people. What Jew finds the road to him free from the broken weapons of bloody prejudice? We have made it nearly impossible for his own people to love him, to see him as he is, free from the smoke of battle and holocaust.

Withness—that is the
word of love.

How does he look upon us now? With continual sorrow, but never with scorn. We add to his wounds. There are nineteen hundred nails in his cross. We, his beloved and longed for and passionately desired, are constantly cold and correct and distant to him. And still he keeps brooding over the world like a hen over an egg, like a mother who has had all of her beloved children turn against her. "Could a mother desert her young? Even so I could not desert you." He sits beside us not only in our sufferings but even in our sins. He does not turn his face from us, however much we turn our face from him. He endures our spiritual scabs and scars, our sneers and screams, our hatreds and haughtiness, just to be with us. Withness—that is the word of love.

Does he descend into all our hells? Yes. In the unforgettable line of Corrie ten Boom from the depths of a Nazi death camp, "No matter how deep our darkness, he is deeper still." Does he descend into violence? Yes, by suffering it and leaving us the solution that to this day only a few brave souls have dared to try, the most notable in this century not even a Christian but a Hindu. Does he descend into insanity? Yes, into that darkness too. Even into the insanity of suicide? Can he be there too? Yes he can. "Even the darkness is not dark to him." He finds or makes light even there, in the darkness of the mind—perhaps not until the next world, until death's release.

For the darkest door of all has been shoved open and light from beyond it has streamed into our world to light our way, since he has changed the meaning of death. It is not merely that he rose from the dead, but that he changed the meaning of death, and therefore also of all the little deaths, all the sufferings that anticipate death and make up parts of it. Death, like a cancer, seeps back into life. We lose little bits of life daily—our health, our strength, our youth, our hopes, our dreams, our friends, our children, our lives—all these dribble away like water through our desperate, shaking fingers. Nothing we can do, not our best efforts, holds our lives together. The only lives that don't spring leaks are the ones that are already all watery. The only hearts that do not break are the ones that are busily constructing little hells of loveless control, cocoons of safe, respectable selfishness to insulate themselves from the tidal wave of tears that comes sooner or later.

But he came into life and death, and he still comes. He is still here. "As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" (Mt 2 5:40). He is here. He is in us and we are in him; we are his body. He is gassed in the ovens of Auschwitz. He is sneered at in Soweto. He is cut limb from limb in a thousand safe and legal death camps for the unborn strewn throughout our world, where he is too tiny for us to see or care about. He is the most forgotten soul in the world. He is the one we love to hate. He practices what he preaches: he turns his other cheek to our slaps. That is what love is, what love does, and what love receives.

Love is why he came. It's all love. The buzzing flies around the cross, the stroke of the Roman hammer as the nails tear into his screamingly soft flesh, the infinitely harder stroke of his own people's hammering hatred, hammering at his heart—why? For love. God is love, as the sun is fire and light, and he can no more stop loving than the sun can stop shining.

He may not yet wipe tears away, but he makes them his.

Henceforth, when we feel the hammers of life beating on our heads or on our hearts, we can know—we must know—that he is here with us, taking our blows. Every tear we shed becomes his tear. He may not yet wipe them away, but he makes them his. Would we rather have our own dry eyes, or his tear-filled ones? He came. He is here. That is the salient fact. If he does not heal all our broken bones and loves and lives now, he comes into them and is broken, like bread, and we are nourished. And he shows us that we can henceforth use our very brokenness as nourishment for those we love. Since we are his body, we too are the bread that is broken for others. Our very failures help heal other lives; our very tears help wipe away tears; our being hated helps those we love. When those we love hang up on us, he keeps the lines open. His withness with us enables us to be with those who refuse to be with us.

Perhaps he is even in the sufferings of animals, if, as Scripture seems to say, we are somehow responsible for them and they suffer with us. He not only sees but suffers the fall of each sparrow.

All our sufferings are transformable into his work, our passion into his action. That is why he instituted prayer, says Pascal: to bestow on creatures the dignity of causality. We are really his body; the Church is Christ as my body is me. That is why Paul says his sufferings are making up in his own body what Christ has yet to endure in his body (Col 1:24).

Thus God's answer to the problem of suffering not only really happened 2,000 years ago, but it is still happening in our own lives. The solution to our suffering is our suffering! All our suffering can become part of his work, the greatest work ever done, the work of salvation, of helping to win for those we love eternal joy.

How? This can be done on one condition: that we believe. For faith is not just a mental choice within us; it is a transaction with him. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone... opens the door, I will come in and eat with him" (Rev 3:20). To believe, according to John's Gospel, is to receive (Jn 1:12), to receive what God has already done. His part is finished ("It is finished," he said on the cross). Our part is to receive that work and let it work itself out in and through our lives, including our tears. We offer it up to him, and he really takes it and uses it in ways so powerful that we would be flattened with wonder if we knew them now.

You see, the Christian views suffering, as he views everything, in a totally different way, a totally different context, than the unbeliever. He sees it and everything else as a between, as existing between God and himself, as a gift from God, an invitation from God, a challenge from God, something between God and himself. Everything is relativized. I do not relate to an object and keep God in the background somewhere; God is the object that I relate to. Everything is between us and God. Nature is no longer just nature, but creation, God's creation. Having children is procreation. My very I is his image, not my own but on loan.

Our suffering now becomes the work of love.

What then is suffering to the Christian? It is Christ's invitation to us to follow him. Christ goes to the cross, and we are invited to follow to the same cross. Not because it is the cross, but because it is his. Suffering is blessed not because it is suffering but because it is his. Suffering is not the context that explains the cross; the cross is the context that explains suffering. The cross gives this new meaning to suffering; it is now not only between God and me but also between Father and Son. The first between is taken up into the Trinitarian exchanges of the second. Christ allows us to participate in his cross because that is his means of allowing us to participate in the exchanges of the Trinity, to share in the very inner life of God.

Freud says our two absolute needs are love and work. Both are now fulfilled by our greatest fear, suffering. Work, because our suffering now becomes opus dei, God's work, construction work on his kingdom. Love, because our suffering now becomes the work of love, the work of redemption, saving those we love.

True love, unlike popular sentimental substitutes, is willing to suffer. Love is not "luv." Love is the cross. Our problem at first, the sheer problem of suffering, was a cross without a Christ. We must never fall into the opposite and equal trap of a Christ without a cross. Look at a crucifix. St. Bernard of Clairvaux says that whenever he does, Christ's five wounds appear to him as lips, speaking the words, "I love you."

In summary, Jesus did three things to solve the problem of suffering. First, he came. He suffered with us. He wept. Second, in becoming man he transformed the meaning of our suffering: it is now part of his work of redemption. Our death pangs become birth pangs for heaven, not only for ourselves but also for those we love. Third, he died and rose. Dying, he paid the price for sin and opened heaven to us; rising, he transformed death from a hole into a door, from an end into a beginning.

Resurrection was so important to Christ's disciples that when Paul preached the good news in Athens, the inhabitants thought he was preaching two new gods, Jesus and resurrection.

That third thing, now—resurrection. It makes more than all the difference in the world. Many condolences begin by saying something like this: "I know nothing can bring back your dear one again, but.. ." No matter what words follow, no matter what comforting psychology follows that "but," Christianity says something to the bereaved that makes all the rest trivial, something the bereaved longs infinitely more to hear: God can and will bring back your dear one again to life. There is resurrection.

What difference does it make? Simply the difference between infinite and eternal joy and infinite and eternal joylessness. Resurrection was so important to Christ's disciples that when Paul preached the good news in Athens, the inhabitants thought he was preaching two new gods, Jesus and resurrection (anastasis) (Acts 17). The same Paul said, "If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. ... If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied" (1 Cor 15:14, 19).

Because of resurrection, when all our tears are over, we will, incredibly, look back at them and laugh, not in derision but in joy. We do a little of that even now, you know. After a great worry is lifted, a great problem solved, a great sickness healed, a great pain relieved, it all looks very different as past, to the eyes of retrospection, than it looked as future, as prospect, or as present, as experience. Remember St. Teresa's bold saying that from heaven the most miserable earthly life will look like one bad night in an inconvenient hotel!

If you find that hard to believe, too good to be true, know that even the atheist Ivan Karamazov understands that hope. He says,

I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world's finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they've shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.

Why then does Ivan remain an atheist? Because though he believes, he does not accept. He is not a doubter; he is a rebel. Like his own character the Grand Inquisitor, Ivan is angry at God for not being kinder. That is the deepest source of unbelief: not the intellect but the will.

The story I have retold in this chapter is the oldest and best known of stories. For it is the primal love story, the story we most love to tell. Tolkien says, "There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true." It is suggested in the fairy tales, and it is why we find the fairy tales so strangely compelling. Kierkegaard retells it beautifully and profoundly in chapter two of Philosophical Fragments, in the story of the king who loved and wooed the humble peasant maiden. It is told symbolically in the greatest of love poems, the Song of Songs, favorite book of the mystics. And the very loveliness of it is an argument for its truth. Indeed, how could this crazy idea, this crazy desire, ever have entered into the mind and heart of man? How could a creature without a digestive system learn to desire food? How could a creature without manhood desire a woman? How could a creature without a mind desire knowledge? And how could a creature with no capacity for God desire God?

Let's step back a bit. We began with the mystery, not just of suffering but of suffering in a world supposedly created by a loving God. How to get God off the hook? God's answer is Jesus. Jesus is not God off the hook but God on the hook. That's why the doctrine of the divinity of Christ is crucial: If that is not God there on the cross but only a good man, then God is not on the hook, on the cross, in our suffering. And if God is not on the hook, then God is not off the hook. How could he sit there in heaven and ignore our tears?

There is, as we saw, one good reason for not believing in God: evil. And God himself has answered this objection not in words but in deeds and in tears. Jesus is the tears of God.

From Making Sense Out of Suffering by Ignatius Press.

Reason For God: Can there be only one True religion?

2012-06-05T09:10:00.000-07:00

Tim Keller, Author of Reason For God, Speaking on this subject at University of California, Berkley. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9fmKSwuoDE

Link to several resources by Dr. Peter Kreeft, a noted Philosopher and follower of Jesus. http://www.peterkreeft.com/featured-writing.htm

All religions are not the same—Biblical Christianity is absolutely unique among all the religions and philosophies of mankind. Its claim to be necessary for salvation is based squarely on the uniquely powerful evidences for its truth and finality. Actually, true Christianity is not a religion, but a person, Jesus Christ.

“By Him, and for Him, were all things created” (note Colossians 1:16-17).

Thus, Christianity is unique in the following fundamental respects, among many others.

Only in the Bible is God revealed as the one eternal, personal Creator, who brought the entire universe into existence by His own Word.
All other religions start with the material universe as the only eternal reality, with their “gods” being essentially personifications of the natural forces which develop the universe into its present form.
On the other hand, the Creator-God of the Bible has all power and is Himself, therefore, not only the One who created the universe but also the One who establishes the basis for human salvation.
Christianity alone is centered in the historical events associated with a Person—the birth, death, resurrection, and imminent, glorious return of Jesus Christ.
Other religions are invariably based on the teachings, rather than the acts, of their founders.
Jesus Christ alone, of all men in history, has conquered man's greatest enemy—death.
The founders of other religions are all dead and their tombs venerated. The tomb of Christ is empty, and His bodily resurrection from the grave is the best proved fact of all history. The fact that He alone could overcome death demonstrates that He alone has all power. He Himself said,
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6).
All other religions of the world are fundamentally just one religion—one of salvation by works. Each religion sets up a particular set of religious rites, of commands and restrictions, and of ethical principles to follow, and then teaches that if a man does these things he will be saved. The human origin of each of these systems is indicated by the fact that each is humanly attainable.
The Bible, however, sets its moral and ethical standard as the very holiness and perfection of God Himself, and demands nothing less than this for salvation. Obviously, no man would invent a standard which was utterly impossible for any man to keep.
The man Christ Jesus, alone of all men who ever lived, maintained in every respect a life of perfect holiness and full obedience to the Father, thus demonstrating that He was the God-Man. He then died for the sins of all men and thus can offer full pardon and His own nature of perfect holiness to anyone who receives Him.
Christ alone offers salvation by grace alone, to be received only through faith in Him.
To the one who truly believes on Him, He then gives through the Holy Spirit a new nature, enabling that one to live a life pleasing to God.

There is no mere “religion” in all the world like this. Jesus Christ is the world's Creator, and its only true Redeemer.

“Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Authors: Henry Morris and Martin Clark, adapted from their book The Bible Has the Answer, published by Master Books.Supplied by Eden Communicationswith permission from Master BooksCopyright © 1995, Master Books, All Rights Reserved - except as noted on attached “Usage and Copyright” page that grants ChristianAnswers.Net users generous rights for putting this page to work in their homes, personal witnessing, churches and schools.

When God Created Mothers

2012-05-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

When God Created Mothers
by Erma Bombeck

When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into his sixth day of “overtime” when an angel appeared and said, “You’re doing a lot of fiddling around on this one.”

And the Lord said, “Have you read the specs on this order?

She has to be completely washable, but not plastic;
Have 180 movable parts... all replaceable;
Run on black coffee and leftovers;
Have a lap that disappears when she stands up;
A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair;
And six pairs of hands.”
The angel shook her head slowly and said, “Six pairs of hands... no way.”
“It’s not the hands that are causing me problems,” said the Lord. “It’s the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have.”

“That’s on the standard model?” asked the angel.

The Lord nodded. “One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, ’What are you kids doing in there?’ when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn’t but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say, ’I understand and I love you’ without so much as uttering a word.”

“Lord,” said the angel, touching His sleeve gently, “Go to bed. Tomorrow...”

“I can’t,” said the Lord, “I’m so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick... can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger... and can get a nine-year-old to stand under a shower.”

The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. “It’s too soft,” she sighed.

“But she’s tough!” said the Lord excitedly. “You cannot imagine what this mother can do or endure.”

“Can it think?”

“Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise,” said the Creator.

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek. “There’s a leak,” she pronounced. “I told You You were trying to push too much into this model.”

“It’s not a leak,” said the Lord. “It’s a tear.”

“What’s it for?”

“It’s for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and pride.”

“You are a genius,” said the angel.

The Lord looked somber. “I didn’t put it there,” He said.

C.S. Lewis: “Three Kinds of Men”

2012-04-28T16:23:00.000-07:00

C.S. Lewis’s short essay, “Three Kinds of Men,” from his collection of essays, Present Concerns (pp. 9-10):

There are three kinds of people in the world.

The first class is of those who live simply for their own sake and pleasure, regarding Man and Nature as so much raw material to be cut up into whatever shape may serve them.

In the second class are those who acknowledge some other claim upon them—the will of God, the categorical imperative, or the good of society—and honestly try to pursue their own interests no further than this claim will allow. They try to surrender to the higher claim as much as it demands, like men paying a tax, but hope, like other taxpayers, that what is left over will be enough for them to live on. Their life is divided, like a soldier’s or a schoolboy’s life, into time “on parade” and “off parade,” “in school” and “out of school.”

But the third class is of those who can say like St Paul that for them “to live is Christ.” These people have got rid of the tiresome business of adjusting the rival claims of Self and God by the simple expedient of rejecting the claims of Self altogether. The old egoistic will has been turned round, reconditioned, and made into a new thing. The will of Christ no longer limits theirs; it is theirs. All their time, in belonging to Him, belongs also to them, for they are His.

And because there are three classes, any merely twofold division of the world into good and bad is disastrous. It overlooks the fact that the members of the second class (to which most of us belong) are always and necessarily unhappy. The tax which moral conscience levies on our desires does not in fact leave us enough to live on. As long as we are in this class we must either feel guilt because we have not paid the tax or penury because we have. The Christian doctrine that there is no “salvation” by works done to the moral law is a fact of daily experience. Back or on we must go. But there is no going on simply by our own efforts. If the new Self, the new Will, does not come at His own good pleasure to be born in us, we cannot produce Him synthetically.

The price of Christ is something, in a way, much easier than moral effort—it is to want Him. It is true that the wanting itself would be beyond our power but for one fact. The world is so built that, to help us desert our own satisfactions, they desert us. War and trouble and finally old age take from us one by one all those things that the natural Self hoped for at its setting out. Begging is our only wisdom, and want in the end makes it easier for us to be beggars. Even on those terms the Mercy will receive us.

Thoughts from Tim Keller on the Resurrection

2012-04-05T13:16:00.002-07:00

Tim Keller on Why Christ's Resurrection is More than Just a Story

In the decades before and after Jesus’ life and death, there were dozens of messianic movements in Israel. In almost every case the messianic leader was killed, in many cases by execution, and after the leader’s death each of these movements invariably collapsed. Everybody went home, and that was it. Of all those dozens of movements, only one did not collapse after the death of the leader. Not only did it not collapse, it exploded: In the course of about 300 years it had spread through the entire Roman empire.

Out of all those messianic movements, what made the Christian faith different? Christians would say it is because of what happened after the leader of this movement was killed. So what did happen to cause explosive growth in Christianity after its founder’s death?

Jesus died in mid-afternoon and the Sabbath began at sunset. The Jewish law permitted no work on the Sabbath, which meant they could not bury the body of Jesus that night or the next day. So Joseph goes to Pilate, hoping to be able to bury the body in time. Joseph, though a Pharisee, shows enormous courage and independence of thought by asking for Jesus’ body. Mark reports:

Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid. (Mark 15:44–47)

The way Mark reports the burial is significant: He is “certifying” that Jesus was really dead. Joseph of Arimathea is named here as an identified witness who actually had Jesus’ body wrapped up and sealed it in a tomb. A Roman centurion (who would be an expert) bore witness of Jesus’ death to Pilate (who would be the legal authority on the matter). Finally, two women are cited as eyewitnesses to the burial. So multiple experts and witnesses prove He was really dead.

The resurrection was as inconceivable for the first disciples, as impossible for them to believe, as it is for many of us today. Granted, their reasons would have been different from ours. The Greeks did not believe in resurrection; in the Greek worldview, the afterlife was liberation of the soul from the body. For them, resurrection would never be part of life after death. As for the Jews, some of them believed in a future general resurrection when the entire world would be renewed, but they had no concept of an individual rising from the dead. The people of Jesus’ day were not predisposed to believe in resurrection any more than we are.

Celsus, a Greek philosopher who lived in the second century A.D., was highly antagonistic to Christianity and wrote a number of works listing arguments against it. One of the arguments he believed most telling went like this: Christianity can’t be true, because the written accounts of the resurrection are based on the testimony of women—and we all know women are hysterical. And many of Celsus’ readers agreed: For them, that was a major problem. In ancient societies, as you know, women were marginalized, and the testimony of women was never given much credence.

Do you see what that means? If Mark and the Christians were making up these stories to get their movement off the ground, they would never have written women into the story as the first eyewitnesses to Jesus’ empty tomb. The only possible reason for the presence of women in these accounts is that they really were present and reported what they saw. The stone has been rolled away, the tomb is empty and an angel declares that Jesus is risen.

What was the resurrected Jesus like? Well, Jesus’ resurrection body had “flesh and bones.” He was not a ghost. The disciples were able to recognize Him and to touch Him. He spoke with them. But could they all have been having a group hallucination?

No, because the disciples were not the only ones who saw and touched Jesus. Paul makes a long list of people who claimed to have seen the risen Christ personally, and notes that “most of them are still living” (1 Corinthians 15:6).

Moreover, there has to be some explanation for how the cowardly group of disciples was transformed into a group of leaders. Many of them went on to live sacrificial lives, and many of them were killed for teaching that Jesus had been resurrected.

Jesus had risen, just as He told them He would. After a criminal does his time in jail and fully satisfies the sentence, the law has no more claim on him and he walks out free. Jesus Christ came to pay the penalty for our sins. That was an infinite sentence, but He must have satisfied it fully, because on Easter Sunday He walked out free. The resurrection was God’s way of stamping PAID IN FULL right across history so that nobody could miss it.

On the Day of the Lord—the day that God makes everything right, the day that everything sad comes untrue—on that day the same thing will happen to your own hurts and sadness. You will find that the worst things that have ever happened to you will in the end only enhance your eternal delight. On that day, all of it will be turned inside out and you will know joy beyond the walls of the world. The joy of your glory will be that much greater for every scar you bear. So live in the light of the resurrection and renewal of this world, and of yourself, in a glorious, never-ending, joyful dance of grace.

Excerpt from King's Cross by Timothy Keller via Relevant.

Agnes' Birthday from Pastor Brian's Message Ancient Paths: Anyone

2012-03-29T15:14:00.001-07:00

Agnes’ Birthday

A few years ago Tony Campolo flew to Hawaii to speak at a conference. The way he tells it, he checks into his hotel and tries to get some sleep. Unfortunately, his internal clock wakes him at 3:00 a.m. The night is dark, the streets are silent, the world is asleep, but Tony is wide awake and his stomach is growling.

He gets up and prowls the streets looking for a place to get some bacon and eggs for an early breakfast. Everything is closed except for a grungy dive in an alley. He goes in and sits down at the counter. The fat guy behind the counter comes over and asks, "What d'ya want?"

Well, Tony isn't so hungry anymore so eying some donuts under a plastic cover he says, "I'll have a donut and black coffee."

As he sits there munching on his donut and sipping his coffee at 3:30, in walk eight or nine provocative, loud prostitutes just finished with their night's work. They plop down at the counter and Tony finds himself uncomfortably surrounded by this group of smoking, swearing hookers. He gulps his coffee, planning to make a quick getaway. Then the woman next to him says to her friend, "You know what? Tomorrow's my birthday. I'm gonna be 39." To which her friend nastily replies, "So what d'ya want from me? A birthday party? Huh? You want me to get a cake, and sing happy birthday to you?"

The first woman says, "Aw, come on, why do you have to be so mean? Why do you have to put me down? I'm just sayin' it's my birthday. I don't want anything from you. I mean, why should I have a birthday party? I've never had a birthday party in my whole life. Why should I have one now?"

Well, when Tony Campolo heard that, he said he made a decision. He sat and waited until the women left, and then he asked the fat guy at the counter, "Do they come in here every night?"

"Yeah," he answered.

"The one right next to me," he asked, "she comes in every night?"

"Yeah," he said, "that's Agnes. Yeah, she's here every night. She's been comin' here for years. Why do you want to know?"

"Because she just said that tomorrow is her birthday. What do you think? Do you think we could maybe throw a little birthday party for her right here in the diner?"

A cute kind of smile crept over the fat man's chubby cheeks. "That's great," he says, "yeah, that's great. I like it." He turns to the kitchen and shouts to his wife, "Hey, come on out here. This guy's got a great idea. Tomorrow is Agnes' birthday and he wants to throw a party for her right here."

His wife comes out. "That's terrific," she says. "You know, Agnes is really nice. She's always trying to help other people and nobody does anything nice for her."

So they make their plans. Tony says he'll be back at 2:30 the next morning with some decorations and the man, whose name turns out to be Harry, says he'll make a cake.

At 2:30 the next morning, Tony is back. He has crepe paper and other decorations and a sign made of big pieces of cardboard that says, "Happy Birthday, Agnes!" They decorate the place from one end to the other and get it looking great. Harry had gotten the word out on the streets about the party and by 3:15 it seemed that every prostitute in Honolulu was in the place. There were hookers wall to wall.

At 3:30 on the dot, the door swings open and in walks Agnes and her friend. Tony has everybody ready. They all shout and scream "Happy Birthday, Agnes!" Agnes is absolutely flabbergasted. She's stunned, her mouth falls open, her knees started to buckle, and she almost falls over.

And when the birthday cake with all the candles is carried out, that's when she totally loses it. Now she's sobbing and crying. Harry, who's not used to seeing a prostitute cry, gruffly mumbles, "Blow out the candles, Agnes. Cut the cake."

So she pulls herself together and blows them out. Everyone cheers and yells, "Cut the cake, Agnes, cut the cake!"

But Agnes looks down at the cake and, without taking her eyes off it, slowly and softly says, "Look, Harry, is it all right with you if...I mean, if I don't...I mean, what I want to ask, is it OK if I keep the cake a little while? Is it all right if we don't eat it right away?"

Harry doesn't know what to say so he shrugs and says, "Sure, if that's what you want to do. Keep the cake. Take it home if you want."

"Oh, could I?" she asks. Looking at Tony she says, "I live just down the street a couple of doors; I want to take the cake home, is that okay? I'll be right back, honest."

She gets off her stool, picks up the cake, and carries it high in front of her like it was the Holy Grail. Everybody watches in stunned silence and when the door closes behind her, nobody seems to know what to do. They look at each other. They look at Tony.

So Tony gets up on a chair and says, "What do you say that we pray together?"

And there they are in a hole-in-the-wall greasy spoon, half the prostitutes in Honolulu, at 3:30 a.m. listening to Tony Campolo as he prays for Agnes, for her life, her health, and her salvation. Tony recalls, "I prayed that her life would be changed, and that God would be good to her."

When he's finished, Harry leans over, and with a trace of hostility in his voice, he says, "Hey, you never told me you was a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to anyway?"

In one of those moments when just the right words came, Tony answers him quietly, "I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning."

Harry thinks for a moment, and in a mocking way says, "No you don't. There ain't no church like that. If there was, I'd join it. Yep, I'd join a church like that."

The Power of the Marshmallow

2012-03-19T16:01:00.002-07:00

While I don't want to undermine the overall message of self-denial, I would be remiss at the fuss actual marshmallows caused at yesterday's 11 o'clock service.

To sum up, we attempted to recreate the Stanford marshmallow experiment in church by putting one marshmallow each in front of one four year old child and a six year old child, who were told they could double their marshmallow take if they waited until the sermon was over. Naturally, it was not scientific, in that the kids were not alone in a room, but in front of an entire congregation of people watching them, but it was interesting that they were indeed tempted to eat one early...by each other.

But they held firm, and indeed received another M for their trouble, and also won for their sisters an M as well. Not even before the closing song started, I had another customer, who had to wait until the end of the first verse. Not to be rebuffed, he joined pastor and I as we processed out of the church, and I told him that if he showed it to me in five minutes, he'd get another one. Not a second over five minutes, and he was back, showing me the first, and accepting the second!

He came back a third time, for, what I thought, was a third M, and I was about to rebuff him when he said, "Thank you for the two marshmallows."

Hope lives.

By popular demand...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EjJsPylEOY

144 kids and counting!

2012-03-19T15:48:00.001-07:00

Thank you!
-122 hungry kids in Afghanistan
Thank you!
-22 more hungry kids in Afghanistan from Sunday's offering
Thank you!
- 175 kids total in Afghanistan!

We've closed our fund raising for the 30 Hour Famine! I wanted to thank those of you who generously donated even after the event was over - we were able to help an additional 53 kids! God is good, and you're not so bad yourself!

We had 27 participants from 7th to 12th grades who denied themselves food for 30 hours on March 16-17. Which is pretty cool. But they also worked for six hours around the church during Faith in Action Saturday. Seth and Bryce above help unload 10 yards of dirt from a semi that will be the beginning of a community garden.

Alex , Gary , Anders and Brandon help put some debris from our dead and dying trees into the wood chipper.

Concordia University Choral Ensemble

2012-03-02T11:32:00.001-08:00

OSLC is proud to present the Concordia University Choral Ensemble during their 2012 Spring Tour on Friday, March 23 at 7pm.

This is a free event and everyone is welcome to attend for a wonderful evening of beautiful music!

In addition, we are looking for hosts to house one or more of the Choir Students. If you are able to assist here, please contact Gerod Bass. If you're a member or regular attender... visit the 'Serve' app on The Table to sign up...

We hope to see you there!