Bed is Content

Try reading this...

2005-10-28T00:42:00.000-07:00

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt!

Simple enough

2005-10-27T01:52:00.000-07:00

"You give them something to eat"
-Jesus

Matt 14

Power of Words

2005-10-26T15:26:00.000-07:00

Earlier Bill talked about the power of words, I hate to say this. I still, today, have no idea what he means by it.

I wrote last week that Words are like evil spirits. By this I mean that words carry great power, and sometimes it is terrible power. They can truly "haunt forever".

We don't realize the power of our words. The other day Blake, my seven year old, told me about something mean some big kid said to him when he was three! He has remembered those words for four years.

I can remember hurtful things that were said to me twenty five years ago. How about you? Do you have a long memory for words? If so, welcome to the human race. Words can hurt, and they can even kill. How many suicides have words contributed to?

Words are a potent, precious gift that God has given uniquely to the human race. They carry great and terrible power.

As I considered these things the thought occurred to me that words can also be like ministering angels, pouring out healing on a wounded soul. The picture that comes to my mind is a picture of Jesus in the wilderness, famished and weary from his fasting and spiritually beset by the enemy. God sent his angels to minister to his Son.
(Taken from Bill's Web Blog)

Somebody said something to me today, and I do not even think they knew how encouraging it was to hear. Its amazing. It was like nourishment to my bones. I really, as I said, Have no idea what that means yet.

I do not value my words, like a painter values each individual texture and paint stroke. I do not chose my words carefully enough. especially when I get angry.

But things could be worse, right? I could fool myself into thinking I understand all of this(and mabye try to fool others into thinking I know what I'm talking about aswell). But thank God he has enough mercy to show me my own ignorance, and, at the same time provide an opportunity to change my ways and say "Go and Do Likewise".

Hundreds of Churches Unite in the Name of Porn

2005-10-24T18:08:00.000-07:00

"Los Angeles, CA–XXXchurch.com, the #1 Christian porn website, will bring hundreds of churches across the country together for National PornSunday, a one-day event designed to start the conversation about the issues surrounding pornography, America’s “dirty little secret.”

With hundreds of participating churches from all over the country, Pastors Craig Gross and Mike Foster, the founders of XXXchurch.com, will give pastors the tools necessary to address the issue of pornography during a Sunday morning church service and deal with this issue for weeks and months to come. One of the tools they will put in churches' hands to share with the public is the opportunity to premiere the award winning documentary film, “Missionary Positions”, a week before its nationwide release date. The film is the true story of Mike Foster and Craig Gross and their journey since beginning XXXchurch.com.

The film was produced and directed by filmmaker Bill Day, who spent three years documenting Mike and Craig’s story. The film has been screened at several national film festivals and won Best Documentary at the West Valley Independent Film Festival and runner up at the Nashville Film Festival for Best Feature Documentary. Bill Day says, “Hey, showing a movie in churches before theaters worked for Mel Gibson and The Passion of Christ. Lets cross our fingers for this one.”

Bill Hybels, President of the Willow Creek Association says, "Pastors are quite conflicted as to how to talk about pornography. These guys get it! They talk about pornography in a way people can relate to. A lot of what they do, I think is genius." Hybels who recently featured the XXXchurch guys on his monthly talk show, Defining Moments, which is sent out to over 10,000 churches, was introduced to the two after hearing the story of Mike and Craig’s visit to Mars Hill Bible Church in Michigan. An incredible 13,000 people showed up to hear the duo talk about the devastating effects of pornography.

Craig Gross says, “After taping the Defining Moments show for the Willow Creek Association, we knew we had to respond quickly to deal with this matter. That’s when the idea of National PornSunday became a reality.”

National PornSunday empowers a country and the Church to battle pornography.

More information is available at www.pornsunday.com."

#####

Don't miss an opportunity to join these churches in this monumental event. Sign up for National PornSunday today. PornSunday is not an annual event. It is available for your church when and where you want it. You pick the date that works best for you.

The reality of Porn:

Number of pornographic web sites: 4.2 Million
People who regularly visit Internet porn web sites daily: 40 million
Christians who said pornography is a major problem in the home: 47%
Breakdown of male/female visitors to pornography sites: 65% male - 35% female
30% of unsolicited e-mails contain pornographic materials
Women, far more than men, are likely to act out their behaviors in real life, such as having multiple partners, casual sex, or affairs.
Porn revenue is larger than the combined revenues of all professional football, baseball and basketball franchises.
US porn revenue exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC at $6.2 billion.

All information taken from pornsunday.com which is brought to you by www.xxxchurch.com

Feelings and how they Correspond

2005-10-24T00:16:00.000-07:00

I was reading a book tonight Real Sex: The Naked Truth About Chastity by Lauren F. Winner. She made a real interesting point about feeling. She is insisting that in many ways our hearts are so far off target that we hardly know we are sinning, the majority of the time.

"St. Augusitne riffs on Jesus's wisdom when he reminds his readers that we barely even know that we're fallen, let alone that we constantly sin. Dante sounds the same theme in his Inferno. None of the people in Dante's hell, including the great traitor Jdas Iscariot, think thy have done anything wrong"
- Real Sex: The Naked Truth About Chastity (Page 87)

I find this also as I deal with my own feelings, and how I view pride. I often, do not feel prideful, there isn't this ambient sense of a pride in my tongue that I can taste, and I think thats exactly the problem.

Thank God we have God's word. And another reason why church community is necessary to Christian walk, or another answer to the "Why should I go to church?" this information seems to indicate "because our hearts are misleading, and we often do not know what is actually going on".

"Our emotions and our hearts were distorted in the fall, which is one reason we need the community of the church and an articulated Christian ethics in the first place. If our feelings could be trusted--if we felt good everytime we did something good, and felt bad everytime we did something bad--we would need neither biblical guidelines of right behavior nor a communty to help hold us accountable to those biblical standards"
- Real Sex: The Naked Truth About Chastity (Page 89)

Chronicles of Narnia Trailer Released..

2005-10-22T15:03:00.000-07:00

On a lighter, and still crucial note. The new Chronicles of narnia has been released.

http://movies.aol.com/movie_exclusive_the_chronicles_of_narnia

What you can Do

2005-10-22T14:32:00.000-07:00

It is difficult to pin-point one, solidified solution. If we do X enough Y will happen, It doesn't seem to work like that. but there are some things that seem to be good to do, despite our need for one 12 step answer [how american we are, eh?].

1. I would suggest writing a letter using http://go.sojo.net/campaign/darfur

there is a faith action packet availible at http://savedarfur.org/faith/faithaction.pdf that might spur some ideas

send a message to your nationall media at http://www.beawitness.org/home

also check out the http://www.genocideinterventionfund.org/GIF_index.php for some community interaction

Ultimately, Power is wielded in discussion, in things being brought to light. The most powerful thing we can do is say "please look at this, this is happening", the most effective tool is the spread of information. Talk to your friends about it, Talk to the people you love about it. Thats ultimately how large changes happen. Ida tarbell published alot of investigations on a certain Robber Barron because he put her father out of business, Teddy roosevelt got a hold of it, and was inspired to make large and drastic changes when he came into power. The right information to the right people.

To be honest this issue leaves me frustrated and overwelmed, I fail to realize the intensity of the evil. This is so powerful, against me. How many of us [me included] see these things happening, and feel so overwelmed, it feels so intense and so unstoppable we simply say "there is nothing I can do about it". And millions of us, individually, say this, and nothing, truely, does happen.

So another thing we must do is help people to understand there is something we can do, or atleast given them the opportunity to understand how evil it is.
0. Wrestle with the issue in your own heart.
1. Stay informed, be socially aware.
2. Spread information, tell others.
3. Speak hope into hearts that are filled with disbelief.
4. Pray.

We must pray, Honestly. Its so overwelming, so difficult, we must find ourselves with tears in Habakkuk and david's place.

Habakkuk 1

2O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you "Violence!"
and you will not save?
3Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
4So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.

Psalm 10
Why Do You Hide Yourself?

1Why, O LORD, do you stand afar off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
...
8He sits in ambush in the villages;
in hiding places he murders the innocent.
His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;
9he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket;
he lurks that he may seize the poor;
he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.
10The helpless are crushed, sink down,
and fall by his might.
11He says in his heart, "God has forgotten,
he has hidden his face, he will never see it."

And after we are finished wrestling with it, We must ultimately arrive at david's summary.

17O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
18to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

Why should we care? Because God does. God's heart and ear is inclined to the afflicted, he cares for them... in some amazing way, more than we do. Therefor, we can press on, knowing God has a heart for the poor.

He has told us in Isaiah 1:16-17

16Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
17learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow's cause.

There lies a place outside of our minds, where we can wish these things are not actually occuring. We can shut our eyes, and only focus on what is in front of us ,but this cannot be any further from what we ought to be doing. Ultimately it is this apathy that is killing us, and them. Our love for truth shall press on, even when we rather wish things are not as they are. These staggering numbers, these gang-rapes, and babies getting sliced up by blades are not fictional stories in some far off distant place. These are people, human beings. Its the death of your mother, your best friend, your daughter, your baby, your lover. Its the death of Jesus.

Matthew 25:
35For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' 37Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' 40And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,[f] you did it to me.'

Would Jesus Care About Genocide?

2005-10-22T05:41:00.000-07:00

Probably not, Or atleast thats what it looks like.

I'm going to suggest that america cares more for tom cruises wedding,
michael jackson, and the runaway bride than the sudanese crisis. 400,000 people dead versus two celebrities getting married, What do you believe will get more coverage? Incase you say "steven we live in america, of course we are going to care more about celebrities" Remember that '86.5%' of americans are admittedly christian so you would expect atleast moderate coverage.

I know I know after Bosnia, Rwanda, and all of those "other" countries
Bush said "not on my watch" and many of us made a pledge
it would "never happen again" but I sometimes more important things come up.

lets look at how much news coverage the Sudanese genocide gets versus the other obviously more important things.

and last but not least, The good ole michael jackson case.

"Why does any of this matter?

Roughly three-quarters of
Americans state that they get their information from broadcast or cable
television. No other source of information—not newspapers, magazines,
or the Internet—comes close to the power of television to inform the
public:

"Put simply, if television does not cover the genocide in Sudan, it does
not exist in the minds of many Americans. If it does not exist in the
public’s mind, there is no sense of urgency and no public pressure on
world leaders to do anything to stop the killing." -

In other words. Nobody hears about it, nobody speaks about it, nobody does anything

In band of brothers, there is a scene where the 101st airborne discover
a concentration close to dachau. They are overwelmed, they
immediately respond rushing into the town to gather whatever food and
water that could be scrounged from the city. The towns peope
oppose saying "why are you stealing from us?" and one of the U.S
soldiers grabs a gun and says "are you telling me you didn't know?" and
they say "Know about What?" and he says "You couldn't smell the burning
flesh, you lying mother--" the point is. This town, knew, almost
for certain of the atrocities taking place. Whether or not they
knew of the severity of the crime in the jewish concentration camp they
knew something was up, but they chose to either ignore it, or keep
there noses clean of it. We often ask ourselves "how could they
just sit by, and do nothing?". Chances are they had more
important things to do. right?

I am hoping in some way I can drag you out to the scene in sudan before the "war
is over". There won't be any "I didn't know any better" from my
friends, You have it here, I've told you, I've been told by somebody
else now i'm telling you, no exuses. If you want to shut your
ears to the screams of people dying thats fine, but don't say you
didn't know, don't say you've never heard, you've been told. I
hope to do what these men did

"German citizens from
Dachau were brought to the camp and forced to view the rotting
corpses, even though a typhus epidemic was still raging in the
camp, and the Germans had not been vaccinated.

Young boys of the Hitler Youth were brought
to see the dead bodies on the train. Mutilated corpses of SS
guards, who had been killed by the Americans after discovering
the train, were lying nearby. Before the corpses in the camp
were finally given a decent burial, the stench could be smelled
up to a mile away. When the bodies were finally taken to the
cemetery on a hill called Leitenberg for burial by the citizens
of Dachau, the horse-drawn wagons had to be driven slowly though
the town, on the orders of the American military, so that the
town's people would be forced to confront the horror of what
the Nazis had done."

"I have no convincing argument; only a prayer that your heart will be
compelled to care." -

Facts taken from
http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html#religions
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life_article.php?id=7034
- http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapbook/overview.html
http://www.beawitness.org

So this is what it comes to.

2005-10-22T05:08:00.000-07:00

This whole "emergent movement" really has me convinced"blogging" is a way to change the world, eh?

so lets see how this goes.

I often think straying from the lj community evokes this sense of autonomous pride, like "gee, Its time I get my OWN blog, i'm sick of this thing" Oh well, I guess the only way to get around my pride if sarcasm. Or by bringing up the things I already think you are thinking of. Mabye I should avoid both and just stick to Bill's Theory of humility [and probably God's too]

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.
Mohandas Gandhi