Christmas Shopping for Thai Orphans

This Orphanage Website is Sweet. I loved spending a few bucks on some Christmas presents for orphans. This ministry is legit - I drove up to Seattle to meet the missionary - Tim Dunham. We talked at Denny's for about two hours, and I got the low-down on what Jesus is doing through him in Thailand. Print off the Christmas Catalog PDF and pass it around your church.

Samson and the Pirate Monks - Book Review

Depressing - Yes. This book confronts the reader with the fact that he is most vulnerable, weak, lonesome, and pathetic when he thinks that he is the strongest. In our humanity, we think we are invincible when we are forging ahead - alone, silent, strong. In reality, that is when we are the most vulnerable.

If you aren't a sexual addict, I give you permission to skip the first fifty-seven pages. I found the first fifty-seven pages a bit "shock-and-awe" and disturbing to my inner core. In fact, I skipped most of the first third of the book because reading it put me in a foul mood. TMI - came to mind.

After establishing the brutal details of his depravity, Nate Larkin chronicles his slow climb out of the hole. For anyone who has experienced any type of sinful addiction, this part of the book hits home. Sin, sin, sin - repent, repent, repent. Try to do it yourself in secret - fail, fail, fail.

As the title suggests, Samson did it alone and failed, but David did it surrounded by friends and died a success. If I could put the message of this book into one bullet point, it would be: Stop isolating yourself and build many solid relationships into your everyday life.

I give Samson and the Pirate Monks credit for readability and content. I have reservations regarding the amount of vivid confession - it is definitely NOT for anyone susceptible to the suggestive. I appreciate the main message: Stop being the strong, silent loser who pretends to have it all together.

For those who struggle with any type of sinful behavior, I'll leave you with something my brother once told me: Build walls around yourself through obedience. Every time you obey God, you build one more brick into a wall between yourself and possible temptation.

For those addicted to sexual immorality or pornography, you benefit from something Neil Anderson wrote in A Way of Escape: Freedom from Sexual Strongholds. Organize your life so you avoid all situations of vulnerability. I.e. Don't allow yourself to drive to get milk at the little market where the porn is sold. Rather, force yourself to purchase your groceries at a large grocery store where you won't "accidentally" run into sexual temptation.

Neil and Nate both agree: Life needs to be lived in community and sin's best friend is isolation and self-reliance. Rely on God through honest fellowship within His church body.

Decisional Regeneration - An American Journey?

Decisional Regeneration may have some correspondence to the emergence of American democracy. In early American history, the popular doctrinal belief was that men are totally unable to choose spiritual good or come to God. Therefore, it takes the specific mercy of God to send His Holy Spirit to change a dead or unregenerate heart. In short, God changes your dead heart and then you believe and repent. As American democracy emerged, pastors changed to a more democratic salvation message, which was that God gives everyone the ability to choose and responds to choosing by regenerating.

Great Awakening 1: As a dead sinner, you are seeking the mercy of God and have no spiritual ability to change your own heart or savingly choose Christ. So, seek God and He will change your heart in His timing.

Great Awakening 2: As a stubborn sinner, you can decide to accept Jesus as your savior when you want to.

You may have never heard of Decisional Regeneration until today. However, decisional regeneration probably plays a significant part in your methods of evangelism. Are you preaching a gospel message that depends on the timing of humans to be effective? Or, are you preaching a gospel message that depends on the timing and will of God to be effective?

Do you know which the Bible teaches? You believe and God regenerates OR God regenerates and you believe?

Missional: Go or Don't Go

"Why are so many Christians waiting on a warm and fuzzy sensation- for God to spell out 'Afghanistan' in their Cheerios - before they go? The call has been given. Go."

"I meet people who say, 'If God calls me to go, I'll go.' Perhaps the better posture is, 'If God tells me to stay, I'll stay. Otherwise, I'll go.'" From "The Confusing Language of 'Calling'" by J.D. Greear on http://www.theresurgence.com/

What is your reaction to those two quotes?

Reformed Christianity is facing a huge paradigm shift. Essentially, the move is towards instead of waiting around for God to hedge you and cattle prod you into a ministry, develop vision and go for it, now.

Most probably don't feel the internal conflict... the burning that can't be satiated and refuses to consume. In your congregation there are a few who writhe under the burden of the lost. They ride the bucking bronco of should I or should I not... am I called or am I not called. They yearn for common vision and teamwork and wilt in the waiting.

As a pastor, what paradigm are you operating under? You cannot be neutral on this issue. Either you are discipling your people to wait or you are discipling your people to aggressively take ground for the kingdom. Or, is there a middle position?

http://www.gomissional.com/

Christian Adoption Camp in Portland Oregon

Spread the word about Chosen International's adoption camp for teens. The kids attending do not need to be Christians or from Christian families and is tailored to provide an incredible camp experience for kids of all adoptive backgrounds.

100,000 Signatures Needed for Gao Zhisheng by July 9th, 2009

One hundred fifty-three days sounds ominous when you consider the torture that Gao Zhisheng is undergoing.

Gao Zhisheng, the Christian human rights lawyer was abducted last fall, tortured and released. Instead of being a good boy and keeping the torture under his hat, he did a short documentary to expose the abuse. Chinese secret police in turn kidnapped Gao Zhisheng.

Bob Fu from China Aid will be presenting Gao Zhisheng's case to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China roundtable on July 10. He would like to back up his plea for help with 100,000 signatures. Will you sign? www.FreeGao.com

Bomb shelters?

I once housesat for a man who had a bomb shelter buried just beyond his front yard. Bomb shelters are unique in that they are equipped for a family to survive a nuclear winter. The only drawback, aside from long term waste management, is that bomb shelters don't allow for community salvation.

Modern day church can become like that for some. A building where salvation is available but community integration is impossible.

We need to work from the top down in our churches to make sure that our churches are integrated into and visible in our communities. How many unchurched visitors darken the door of my church? Is my church known in the community as a group of Christians who care for the poor, undertake for the widows, assist with the community decisions, welcome the unemployed?

Are we a bomb shelter or the highly visible, community-integrated body of Christ?